New Routine

Hello there.  It's been awhile.

I'm still adjusting to the transition from school to work.  I really like routines, and when I have to change my routine, I kind of get thrown for a loop.  So right now I'm trying to establish a new routine for myself, and I think it's finally starting to come together.  At least I hope so.

This morning I had a delicious and extremely filling breakfast, which was perfect because I didn't get to eat lunch until a little later than I'm used to.

My breakfast bowl contained 1/2 cup 1-minute oats, 1 cup boiling water, lots of cinnamon, a sliced banana, fresh blueberries, a spoonful of peanut butter, and - here's the kicker - a huge spoonful of cottage cheese.  Yup, cottage cheese in oatmeal.  I thought it sounded strange at first, but both Kath and Julie mix cottage cheese into their oatmeal on occasion, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

The verdict:  I like it!  As long as I don't put too much in.  I don't like plain cottage cheese, but if I get the ratio right, I don't mind it in my oatmeal at all.  (One time I added too much and it was a little gaggy.)  The great thing is that the cottage cheese adds a nice burst of protein and helps to create a really filling meal.

I've been pretty good about eating healthy breakfasts, but I need to get better at packing food to take to work with me.

So far I've been packing raw fruits and veggies (apples, grapes, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, carrots), raw nuts, and a granola/ protein bar.  These are all good options and tasty, but not too exciting.  I need to put more thought and effort into my lunches instead of just grabbing things to quickly slice up as I'm getting ready to head out the door.

I got a great treat while I was working today:

A freshly made chocolate cookie!  (Thank you, Terri and Kaylynn! <-- the talented bakers.)  It was so delicious, and a great afternoon-pick-me-up.

Last night, my mom, sister and I went to our church for Girls Night Out, which is always held near Mother's Day.  I was SO excited when I found out that one of my favorite local restaurants, Aladdin's Eatery, was catering the dinner.

Normally these kinds of all-women functions have food which I don't really like, such as chicken salad, so I was especially thrilled to find out that we'd be having Mediterranean food.  I have had an ongoing craving for stuffed grape leaves lately, so I was extremely happy to see them on the buffet!  I also had a delicious salad with pita pieces in it, and a stuffed pita.  I asked for the vegetarian pita stuffed with tabbouleh, but was actually given a pita stuffed with chicken - I was looking forward to the tabbouleh, but went ahead and ate the chicken since I had already unwrapped it, and it was very good.  Small chocolate peanut butter cake for dessert.  Such a great meal!

In addition to improving my lunches, I also need to work harder to incorporate more exercise into my daily routine.  I really like to work out in the morning, but lately I haven't been getting up in time to exercise before work.  I got a great workout in at the gym tonight after dinner (elliptical, stair climber, treadmill, and some assisted pull-ups), but I find that it's much easier to come up with excuses not to work out at night than if I exercise first thing in the morning.

While I'll still go to the gym in the evenings or go on a jog, I decided to go ahead and finally buy some Physique 57 DVDs after lusting after them for awhile.

My plan is to do a workout DVD before work a few days a week, and then cardio after work a few days a week.  We'll see how that actually works out, but right now I'm excited to try these DVDs - I've heard really great things about Physique 57.  And I need all the excitement I can get to motivate myself to get out of bed and exercise before work.  I'm planning to do one tomorrow morning - I'll let you know how it goes!

I mentioned in my last post that I worked on laying down straw (which I erroneously called hay) over some newly-seeded patches in my parents' yard, and I was also given the task of watering these areas every day.  This actually takes quite awhile, about an hour, so I decided to listen to a podcast to help pass the time.

Well I guess I was engrossed in a podcast because I didn't hear my visitor until I caught him staring at me.

I was actually really startled and jumped a little when I finally realized that I had a watering buddy.  It might not seem like it from this picture, but he was pretty close to me!  He would look right at me, then eat a little, walk a little, and look at me again.  I went back to watering, and he made his way across the yard.

I was fascinated to watch him eat because sometimes he would crouch down a little...

and then rise up on his hind legs to eat some leaves!  Pretty cool, right?  At least I thought so!  I don't remember ever seeing a deer do this before.

So that's your wildlife lesson of the day.  Come back next time to learn all about the Mallard ducks who frequent our creek.  Just kidding.  This is not going to turn into a wildlife blog.

Well, I've got to go to bed so I can get up early and try out my new workout DVD.  G'night!

Song of the day:

"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men.  I can't get enough of this song right now - it's so good, and really catchy.  And I can never resist a song with female and male vocals.

Playing Doctor

Hey guys, how's your day going?  The wind has been cuh-razy here lately.  My apartment has been chilly these past couple of days, but I need to stop dressing for the weather based on the temperature of my apartment.  In the winter it would be so hot (because I live on the 3rd floor and can't control my heat) that I would accidentally leave with just a t-shirt on, and then today I was so cold that I put my winter coat on... only to realize it was around 60 out.  Oops.

I hit up the gym and did my circuit workout followed by some incline and speed intervals on the treadmill, plus stretching.  Since classes are over, I don't have much structure to my days.  For me, it's helpful to plan out a schedule for myself ahead of time (via my extensive to-do lists), and getting up and going to the gym really helps me to get moving and be productive, rather than just wasting time.

Post workout smoothie:  1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1/2 cup water, 1 T ground flax seeds, 1 T natural peanut butter, 1 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, lots of spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 2 ice cubes.

Delish.

Since I haven't done a big grocery shopping trip for awhile, I've been looking through my cupboards to see what I have on hand for meals.  I was in the mood for pasta the other night, but I wanted to doctor it up a little to make it more exciting.

While I cooked some whole wheat penne pasta, I heated up some jarred pasta sauce and mixed in a few veggies I had on hand - grated carrots, grape tomatoes, and frozen broccoli.  I also added in some fresh basil.

It was a great way to pack in some extra veggies and to add more flavors to the pasta sauce (which already contained mushrooms).  I wanted to add some spinach, too, and tried out a trick I saw on Peanut Butter Fingers recently:

In order to wilt the spinach, you just put it in a colander,

and then go ahead and drain your pasta over the spinach.

And you get perfectly wilted spinach!

I added about 1/3 of the cooked pasta and all of the wilted spinach to my plate and saved the rest of the pasta for future meals.

Then I topped the pasta and spinach with 1/2 of the doctored pasta sauce, some nutritional yeast, and some more fresh basil ('cause I'm fancy like that).

For dessert, I tried a new spin on banana "ice cream":

I added 1.5 bananas and 2/3 cup frozen mixed berries to my food processor to make berry "sorbet."

I think I should have stuck to 1 banana and 1/2 cup berries, because it made a TON!!  But it was very delicious :)

Random sidenote - has anyone seen the movie In Time?  I don't remember hearing much about it when it came out, but I recently got it from the library and watched it this past weekend.  I thought the premise was really interesting - basically, commerce is in the form of time (instead of money), so everything you need to buy (food, transportation, etc.), you pay for in time.  And if your "watch" ever goes down to 0, you die.  Everyone's watch starts counting down at the age of 25, and you also never look any older than 25, which means that grandparents/ parents/ children, etc. can all look the same age.  It had a lot of social policy undertones (i.e. there were very expensive tolls to cross into wealthy zones, which kept the poor people who lived day-to-day in the slums).  I'm still kind of undecided as to what I thought of the movie, though - I don't think it had a very satisfying ending.  I'm curious if anyone saw it, and if so, what you thought.

That's all for now, folks - back to studying.  Have a good night!

I thought the clouds kind of looked like a curtain lifting up as the sun went down.

Interesting Articles:

How to Prevent Iliotibial Band Syndrome When Running (I'm still having some issues with my IT band)
25 Amazing Yoga Poses (um WHOA, these are so crazy and impressive!)
How To Do the Splits (I think I have a better chance of working towards doing the splits than those intense yoga poses!)

Song of the Day:

"Shadowboxer" by Fiona Apple.  One of her songs popped up when I had my iTunes on random today, and  I remembered how much I loved her first album, Tidal.  It's incredible.

Jotting it Down, Rocking it Out

One thing that is absolutely crucial for me in trying to balance a busy schedule with eating well and exercising regularly is planning.  I'm a Type A kind of person, and I love organization.  (Nerd alert.)  As a kid, I used to spend entire days organizing my sister's room, just because I couldn't stand her clutter (she grew out of that and is very organized now, though).  My love of to-do lists goes hand-in-hand with my love of organization.

Classic picture of my sister dressing up in a crazy outfit (an old dance costume of mine, actually), probably around the age when I would organize her room.  Really, I just wanted an excuse to post this.  

I have a "master" to-do list on my computer, but I also keep pads of paper everywhere (in my kitchen, living room, bathroom, bedroom, purse) so that I can jot something down right when I think of it.  I've found that incorporating healthy to-do list items into my master to-do list really keeps me on track.  This includes planning ahead for a lot of things like what recipes I want to make, when I can go to the grocery store, what I need to buy at the store, a general idea of my meals during the week (depending on how much time I'll have for prep), when I can exercise, and what kinds of workouts I want to do.

This is me, around 10 years old maybe?  Already an organizing fiend.  When I was really young I wanted to be a maid when I grew up.

I realize all that planning might seem a little extreme, but it's what works for me and it really helps me to balance my stress level while keeping me on track.  I'm sure everyone has their own system - you just have to figure out what's best for you.  I personally find that writing things down and/or having them on my computer keeps me sane because once they're out of my head and written down, I don't constantly obsess over all of the things that I need to do and remember.  And it feels good to cross things off, too!

When I have to wake up early, I like to have a lot of food prepped the night before.  This usually includes breakfast, lunch, and snacks.  As I've mentioned before, breakfast cookies are a great way to have breakfast ready and waiting first thing in the morning.

I recently made a breakfast cookie with 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/2 scoop Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder, a spoonful of natural peanut butter, a splash of almond milk, a glob (technical term) of unsweetened applesauce, some slivered almonds, some dried blueberries and dried cranberries, and cinnamon.

I mixed all of those ingredients together, flattened out the mixture, and put it in the fridge overnight.

And in the morning it was ready to be eaten - super quick breakfast, and very filling.

This morning I enjoyed the breakfast cookie above, which contained 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats, 1/2 scoop Sun Warrior vanilla protein powder, a spoonful of natural peanut butter, a glob of unsweetened applesauce, a splash of almond milk, 1 T ground flax seed, some raisins, some slivered almonds, and cinnamon, topped with sliced strawberries.  Corny flower design optional :)

After class I did a repeat of Tuesday's workout - 7 minute warm-up on the elliptical, a strength-training plan and an incline interval treadmill workout, followed by stretching.  During my workout, a nice lady came up to me and said that she had seen me "rocking out those push-ups" and asked how many I could do - totally made my day :)  I was struggling with those push-ups, too, but that comment made them all worth it.

Tuesday was my first time trying the assisted pull-up machine, and it was a beast!  I've been intimidated by pull-ups ever since 4th or 5th grade when we had to do those Presidential fitness tests (remember them?) and there was no way I could even do one pull-up.  Although I'm heavily dependent on the machine to get me to the top, it felt good to go through the motion of a pull-up, and boy could I feel it yesterday in my chest, shoulders, upper back, and arms - although I was sore, it's a great feeling to know that I've challenged my muscles in a new way.

I'm off to dominate some more of my to-do list.  Have a great night everyone!

Reader question:  Are you a to-do list fan?  Do you plan out any of your meals and workouts, or just go with the flow?


Song of the day:

"Oh No" by Girl Talk.  One of my fellow interns last summer (hi Morgan!) told me that Girl Talk is the best music to work out to, and she wasn't kidding - it seriously gives me way more energy than I would have otherwise.  I still like to listen to my customized workout playlist, too, but now I always put Girl Talk on when I get on the treadmill.  It gives me the motivation I need to push through and is especially great for sprints.  Case in point - today I really wanted to decrease the speed on the treadmill and then I heard the lyrics "don't stop get it get it" repeating over and over - how perfect is that?  It pushed me to go just a little further than I thought I could, which was awesome.

And here's the best thing - you can download Girl Talk's latest album, All Day, in its entirety, for FREE on Girl Talk's website.  How cool is that?  And if you go to the home page, he has more free music and "pay what you want" music.  Also, Gregg Gillis (the artist's real name) went to Case - where I go to school now - so that's pretty sweet.

Hopping into March

I learned something interesting from Kath this morning:  saying "rabbit rabbit" on the 1st day of each month as soon as you wake up is supposed to be good luck.  There are lots of variations of the saying, too.  I had never heard that before!  I am kind of superstitious and like quirky traditions, so I think I'm going to try to remember to do this.  Do you think it still counts if I set a reminder on my phone??  Haha. 

One of my "tricks" of balancing a healthy lifestyle with a busy and stressful school schedule is having ready-made meals on hand that are nutritious and quick to throw together.  This semester, I have one class that goes until 7:30PM and another class that goes until 8:00PM, so those nights I don't have time to cook a meal from scratch when I get home.  Plus, I'm hungry and want to eat right away!

I generally like to cook on the weekend and then either refrigerate leftovers to have throughout the week or, even better, freeze leftovers so they'll last a long time.

One of my go-to recipes for stockpiling frozen meals is sweet potato and black bean burritos.   I use black beans instead of kidney beans, add 1 cup of water instead of 2 cups, omit the mustard, use 8-inch whole wheat tortillas, and omit the cheese.  I also gently combine the mashed sweet potatoes with the black bean mixture rather than adding them to the tortillas separately; I think the flavors taste better that way. 

I'll have one fresh out of the oven, and then freeze the rest for later.  The recipe says it makes 12 burritos, but last time I made a batch I actually got 23!  This was because I used smaller tortillas (8-inch instead of 10-inch) and I used more sweet potatoes than the recipe called for.  

They're so easy to freeze and they reheat extremely well.   Just wrap each burrito individually in foil, then put them in a plastic bag (or multiple bags, depending on how many burritos you made) and store in the freezer.  when you want to re-heat one, place a frozen burrito in the oven at 350* (still wrapped in foil) for 30 minutes, then unwrap and put it back in the oven for 15 more minutes. (I just put it back in the oven sitting on top of the unwrapped foil - no need to dirty a pan!)  Add a side salad, veggies, and/or some fruit and you've got a great meal.  And I think waiting for the burrito to re-heat is the perfect time to get my lunch ready for the next day/ wash some dishes/ pick up around my apartment, etc.  It's a good excuse for me to be productive before plopping down on the couch and relaxing and/or studying for the night.

I also love to use my crock pot for making meals (including breakfasts).  It's so great to come home to an apartment that smells wonderful and to have a hot meal ready and waiting for me!  In the fall I made a big batch of veggie soup in the crock pot, and when I was tired of eating the leftovers, I froze a couple of containers for later.  This past Sunday when I was planning out my meals for the week, soup sounded good (go figure it was actually 60* yesterday when I ate it!) so I put it in the fridge to thaw at the beginning of the week and then heated it up in the microwave yesterday.  I topped it with some nutritional yeast (great source of protein and vitamin B12 with a slightly cheesy flavor) and had an orange on the side, which made a very delicious and satisfying meal.

I can't remember the last time I peeled an orange - it's been years.  And I know why: they are such a pain!  It tasted delicious (my grandparents sent a box of grapefruit and oranges from Florida), but I'll stick to my clementines; the orange was so juicy and had millions (seriously, millions) of seeds in it.

Today I did week 3 of the Fitnessista's winter shape-up plan again.  I can tell that my running is slowly improving, which is exciting!  My hair tie broke while I was on the treadmill today, though - luckily I was able to tie it together for a temporary fix and avert a disaster!  True story - one time I got to the gym, changed into my workout clothes, then realized I didn't have a hair tie with me, so I left.  It's a necessity. 

On the schedule for tonight: shower, eat dinner, watch 30 Rock, and bake cookies.  See ya later!

What's your favorite meal to make (or heat up) on busy days?  Any great crock pot recipes?

Song of the day:

"L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N." by Noah and the Whale.  A good song for a new month and a fresh start!