Spring Cleaning, Body edition

So not only is my plan to clean the house from North to South to East to West before Easter (which this year is March 31st!  I know right!!!)  But I am also re-re-committing myself to healthy living.  *I probably should add a couple more re-re’s on there since I’ve committed many times already.  Like I’ve said before I’m not completely unhealthy – but I do like to snack and my snacks are usually in triangular salty form…  Hee hee.

My nemesis…

I mean I can’t help myself…I say they are for HunBun but do you think that HunBun actually eats those Hint of Lime Tostitos?  Heck no…that’s all me!

Anyway.  I’ve renewed my quest for a balance of living healthy and healthy living.  I am really motivated this year to get my 2:00 goal time at my next half marathon (Disneyland in September).  I’ve been working on speed intervals on the treadmill combined with weighted & body weight exercises.  This morning I did 8 sprints at 7.0mph with 5.0mph rests between with a 7.7mph on that last one.  I did each sprint/rest at 1 min each.  My plan is to do that for a week then increase those sprint/rest times to 1.5 min and up and up until I’m running at 7.0mph for long stretches of time.  I think that gradual approach will get me used to turning my feet over faster and keeping that speed consistent.

To support my running/toning plan I’ve returned to my blended approach to eating.  I use the Tone It Up plan for both eating and exercise.  I also refer to a great book I read, S.A.S.S. Yourself Slim by Cynthia Sass, which helps with balancing each meal with healthy elements.  Both are super easy plans and don’t ask you to give up anything – which I like a lot.  Here’s what I’ve been eating the last 2 days (Oh, I didn’t take photos of the 2 handfuls of peanut M&Ms I shoved in my piehole after dinner, HA!).

Protein pancake and fresh fruit

Yesterday’s snack – blueberries & coffee

Bought something new for quick lunches…and Gluten Free to boot!

Rice & Bean Veggie bowl for Lunch

Tuesday’s breakfast. Oh yeah, that is a green pancake.

So I’m doing pretty good and feeling pretty good too.

Later today after work I’ll be doing a crafty project to get all my race bibs out of the drawer and on display.  I’ll post the finished product when it’s all done(hopefully this week  🙂  ).

Crafty project for later

See ya later!

Cathy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m back…. I hope

For real….

It’s been a while hasn’t it?  I could give you a whole bunch of blah blah blah about why I haven’t posted anything and it may be interesting to some – but would require me to actually stop & think about why I haven’t been posting.  To sum it up – I had a lot going on at work…We were getting ready for a family vacation to Florida so I could run at the Disney World Princess Half Marathon… Life was busy.

I have a whole bunch of photos I am going to post up from the trip we took.  It was a great time spent with the kids in Disney World.  Their first trip, my 3rd, HunBun’s 2nd.  The weather held out for us until the last day we were in the park – when it started raining in the afternoon while we were in the Magic Kingdom.  The rain didn’t last long nor was it very heavy but people sure whipped out their ponchos like they were going to melt.  Of course everyone in the family had hats on their heads except for me…so I just trudged through the drizzle.  Good think I wasn’t wearing a white shirt that day – HA!

Although I didn’t get my PR at this race I didn’t do too badly – and I still had fun.  It was nice to run in a different place this time and I will say I did have to adjust a bit to the heat & humidity.  The one thing nice about running in Florida was that I was not cold during the long wait for the start.  I did decide that I am going to get more serious about my training plans for these runs.  I have renewed my commitment to speed drills, tempo drills, fartleks and what ever else I read up on in the running magazines and blogs.  I’m also doing more about my approach to eating.  Although it is relatively healthy, I am going to expend more control over my snacking.  I love me some salty chips….so am going to explore the variety of flavors of homemade Kale chips and store bought crunchy nori sheets.

Anyhoo.  Got a lot of work emails to get through – only did about 1/2 yesterday and I got a lot of planning to get through for some organizational changes I’m instituting in my team (doesn’t that sound exciting? 🙂  )

One nice by product of our family trip to Florida?  12yo has been getting up at 6am – instead of his normal 640am…so he’s been on time to leave for school and I’ve not had to pester him to get a move on.  Sweet!

I’ll post those pictures up as a wordless montage…

See ya later

Cathy

 

Janathon Day 9…starting off on a new foot for Day 10

Yesterday I was lame on the exercise and eating front.  Boo!  😦

 Wednesday, January 9th: Firm Your Butt workout.

Push up challenge: 8 FU Push ups.  I totally forgot to do the knee ones, since I procrastinated on those and said I was doing them “later”.  Boo, #2!

I went into the office yesterday because I needed to switch out my work Blackberry.  Yes, I am still on a Blackberry for work.  It works for me – in fact works very well – when I don’t have one that sucks battery juice like it’s the sweet sweet nectar of the gods.  Well the first replacement BB could not be registered…the second replacement BB was an extremely old model that sucked battery juice like it was that sort of sweet & sour drink that you want to chug but can’t.  So yesterday’s visit to the office was to work with the super awesome ladies who always get it right.  Now I’m just waiting for the Helpdesk to call me back to set up my corporate email account so I can be productive when I’m away from my desk.

All that busyness went on past the time I wanted to leave – so I missed my Vinyasa Flex class.  Boo, #3!

I need to just face the simple fact that I am a morning exerciser.

Yesterday morning, or Janathon Day 9 – I did this Firm Your Butt workout from Self magazine.  I would love to have this workout give me this butt.  Seriously.

**This is also why I’m starting off the day with a green smoothie – because no matter how much you exercise it is really what you eat that matters.  Anyhoo…

So yesterday morning I grabbed my exercise ball and told my butt to get lost.  Let me tell you something, it is not easy to get your balance on those exercise balls.

The first exercise was not too difficult because you had really 3 touchpoints with the ground, your knee, your foot and the ball you were leaning on.  But the rest all have just 2 touchpoints – which means you have got to go slow and focus.  Your core is essential to maintaining your balance on these balls.  The “easiest” one?  Booty pop for sure.  I can booty pop my brains out – but good gravy the others required much more concentration.

Janathon Day 10 started off with 9 FU push ups.  I’m planning on going to my Muscle & Flow class tonight – then going to do the Tone Your Gut workout from the same Self magazine if you’ve got the physical copy – or just clickety-click on that link up there for free.

Breakfast started with a green smoothie…and a hot cup of cinnamon & honey.

I’ve been reading about the benefits of cinnamon & honey so started to drink a “hot toddy” with those two delights in the morning.  Looks like you’re drinking reddish brown water – but tastes pretty nice.

Now I’m ready to start the day.  Only 3 conference calls on the docket today – but I’ve got a lot of thinking and writing to do so I can finish up my strategy document.  I expect some staring into space will occur.

See ya later

Cathy

Freedom Friday!

Whoohoo!  It’s Friday, the most fantastic day of the week…unless you’re on vacation then every day is fantastic.

Yesterday was a pretty good day.  Even though I didn’t get to Vinyasa class last night because of some late running conference calls (darn that work).  I did great on the eating side of this new commitment.

EATS

I need super fast lunches when I work from home and super packable ones when I go into the office.  I usually do a stir fry at home since I really don’t like to eat cold greens anymore – UNLESS it is a full-on “salad“.  I don’t consider a pile of veggies on a plate to be a salad.  Somehow my brain has to agree that what is on my plate is to be called a salad…then it tells my taste buds it’s a salad…then I’m ok to eat – the salad.  Weird I know.

At least not all the time right?  🙂

So here’s a couple shots of my Eats from yesterday…

Lunch

I didn’t have a mid-morning snack since the protein pancake and green smoothie really filled me up (that and I had conference calls that started at 8am and took me to 11:45am).  I warmed up a zuchinni and sweet baby bell peppers in a pan with Bragg’s Aminos then threw in some spinach to wilt down.  While that was warming up I microwaved a teeny sweet potato.  Trader Joe’s sells a bag of sweet potatos that are the perfect individual size.  On top of the warm veggies I put about a tablespoon of olive tapenade and a slice of goat cheese.

During lunch I had some entertainment. Oh yeah, obliviate that fool Hermione!

I could watch this on repeat!

Dinner

Like my mid-morning snack, my afternoon snack time was wooshed right over by conference calls and actually trying to do some work.  Who doesn’t have those days, huh?  For dinner I made HunBun and 12yo gluten free cheese pizzas.  Schar’s has the best pre-made gluten free pizza crust – that we’ve found – and we’ve tried A LOT of pre-made GF pizza crusts.  I used to make my own, but they are a pain in the patootie to mix up all the different flours and other stuff to make a good crust.  So now I just shell out $7 for 2 crusts and HunBun is happy.

My dinner was a super pretty and filling stir fry, again.  I made some quinoa in the rice cooker earlier in the day and also baked a butternut squash during lunch.  So to put my dinner together all I had to do was wilt up some spinach, toss that onto a bed of organic arugula then topped with butternut squash chunks, quinoa, olive tapenade and goat cheese.  So FULL!

After folding some laundry I decided to make some “balls” for a snack.

Balls of delight!

Date Balls

• 1 cup of chopped up dates
• 1/4 cup of dried cherries
• 1/8 cup of cashews (or whatever nuts you like)

Put the cashews in your food processor and pulse until they are pulverized.  Add in your dried cherries and pulse again until they start to get chopped up.  Pour the cashew/cherry mix into a bowl.  Chop up your dates before putting in the processor.  They are easier to chop up that way and won’t just clump while you still have fully intact dates swirling around.  Once the dates are fully chopped up pour them into the bowl with the cashew/cherry mix.  Now use your fingers to mix up all 3 ingredients and form bite sized balls.  Put them in the fridge for storage or you can eat them all up right after you make them!

**I went a little overboard on the cashew pulverizing on this one.  It was almost to a fine powder stage and I prefer a little more teeny nuts.  Next time I’ll slow my pulse finger down.

At about 745 or so I got a little hungry again so I ate a chocolatey but healthy treat!  Honeycrips and JIF chocolate PB cup!

Chocolatey

That was a pretty good eating day!

I gotta go run the 12yo to school so I’ll post another update today with my morning workout and my breakfast eats.

See ya later!

Cathy

 

 

 

 

 

Eats!

Prep station

So today for lunch I decided to get back on the wagon, after last night’s kiddie pizza party, and eat a healthy stir fry that is super easy.  I have a ton of cookbooks (more like tens, but you know what I mean) but have not yet mastered the art of cooking.

Like the other day I tried a recipe I got from a bloggedy blog for baked tofu.  So I followed the directions and half way through the baking time I decided to add in some Bragg’s Liquid Amino for flavor.  Thinking nothing of it, I pulled open the oven door and squirted some of that amino right on top of the tofu block.  Super-Der!  Wouldn’t you know that taking room temperature liquid and adding that to a hot glass dish would cause some kind of reaction?  Like a big old cracking sound followed by sizzling as said liquid oozed out of the cracked glass dish and onto the bottom of the hot oven?  Geez!

 So this recipe is super easy!  Just grab whatever veggies you have and stir fry them in a pan.  I use Nutiva Coconut Oil in the pan before dropping all the veggies in. I added some brussel sprouts, organic kale, broccoli slaw, organic grape tomatoes and some squished tofu.   I squirt some liquid amino and Sriracha for taste.  Once the veggies are as wilty as you like, slide it all out of the pan and onto a plate.  Super yum!

So to those of you who haven’t tried brussel sprouts – go ahead and grab 1-2 loose ones.  Those who haven’t tried kale – it’s just greenery.  Those who walk past that bag of broccoli slaw in the refrigerated produce section – think of them as thin green fries.  I won’t say anything about tomatoes since mostly everyone eats those.

Easy Eats!  It’s the only way to balance everything!

Cathy

Eats!