Yeah, I know…a day late. I intended to post about this yesterday, but we had a high-drama afternoon/evening, so I ate dinner and crawled into bed…didn’t even get online at all. I’d been thinking all through January that I really needed to do something to get my butt in gear. I seem to be hitting my stride as far as meal planning, cooking from scratch, and getting to the gym regularly, but I really wanted to set up a fitness challenge that would last for four weeks so that I could really *see* any tangible results.
I weighed myself yesterday, and I’m not weighing again until 3/1. I want to notice the changes in the way I feel rather than being tied to the scale.
Here are my February Fitness Goals:
- 60 minutes of cardio 3x per week (did this yesterday!)
- Yoga 2x per week
- A.M. plank poses (I will probably seek to do this 2 or 3 x per week)
Here are my food goals:
- No refined sugar
- No white carbs
- Limit cheese (*tear*)
- Track everything I eat (I’m using Daily Plate for this…I started a few days ago to get in the groove)
I’d LOVE for you out there to join me! There’s strength in numbers! Just leave me a comment if you want to keep each other on track this month:).
How did I shape up yesterday? Well, I did a *really* sweaty hour on the elliptical that flew by because I was so pissed about the life-drama (which looks to be okay now in case you were wondering, but I’m pretty dramatic). However, I had lunch out at a Mexican place and had a veggie quesadilla, so I had both a white carb (in the tortilla) and some cheese. I did put it on my food journal, though. I also had about 3/4 cup vanilla ice cream with about 2 tbsp chocolate syrup. Today will be muchmuch better!
Anyway, there you have it; my February food/fitness goals. Today, we’ll hit the gym again, and I’ll probably do an hour on the recumbent bike to give my glutes a break. Now, if I can just scramble through the workday!
Over the past 24 hours, we’ve gotten about 1 inch of snow and maybe another inch of ice. It looks pretty, but it’s not so much…we did a six hour babysitting stint today, and ended up driving back after dark, so it was pretty scary. And, in true Union County, NC form, they didn’t even brine the road the AIRPORT is on. Anyway, on to better (meaning food-related) things..
I’ve had some turnips in the fridge since…well, Christmas. I squeezed them a couple of days ago and they were still firm, so I decided that we should do some simple roasted Root Vegetables for easy meals.
First, I know Brussels Sprouts aren’t root vegetables, but it needed something green.
Ingredients:
- 4 turnips
- 5 carrots
- 5 red potatoes
- 2 onions
- 2 bags of frozen brussels sprouts
Instructions:
- A couple of hours before cooking, thaw the brussels sprouts in a colander in the sink. The colander will allow excess moisture from freezing to drain.
- When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425*
- Cut vegetables into medium-sized chunks (probably around the size of your thumb). Leave the onion chunks together (rather than separating the layers)
- spray a baking sheet (you may need two or three depending on the size)
- lightly salt the veggies and spread out onto one layer on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but have some dark “roasted” spots.
- Serve warm with whatever seasonings you’d like!
The first time I had them this week, I added ketchup. For lunch today, I added a little garlic powder, onion powder, basil and oregano, salt and pepper, and some parmesan cheese. Yum!
Enjoy, peeps! We’re not going anywhere tomorrow; church is cancelled, so we’re spending the day in pjs:).
I hit the gym on Monday and today! On Monday, I did about 50 minutes on the Crossramp doing interval training. Today, I only had time to do 33 minutes, which sucked. They are working on the railroad tracks in Monroe in three places (at least), all places that intersect the most direct route for us to get to the gym, so we had to drive around our elbow to get to our arsehole, but we finally made it. Even though it wasn’t as long of a workout, but I still left feeling drained, but good. I love that feeling!
I’ve also discovered that Eminem’s stuff is great workout music. And I’ve discovered that I prefer the radio edited versions. Unfortunately, I don’t have them
Here are a couple of pics from the last couple of days:
The last of my charred sweet potatoes. I did a little cinnamon and Splenda on these…not too bad!
And yesterday’s snack:
We had some big corporate people in and we got to eat their leftovers. Yay.
Otherwise, it hasn’t been a great week. I went out with a friend and had Mexican on Tuesday. I got the veggie fajitas and just put the toppings (no cheese) directly into the fajita pan. That was good. But there was also flan.
And last night, I had a total meltdown and ended up getting some General Tso’s tofu from the Chinese place. I was totally pissed at myself. I’ve been much better today.
I’m working on a challenge for February for myself, so stay tuned for that and maybe you can join in if you want? Good night!!
I had a great workout tonight….about fifty minutes on the CrossRamp. The first 33 were an interval program and the rest was a manual program. I think that it said that I’d burned somewhere around 350 calories based on my weight/age. I forgot how fantastic it was to finish a workout and feel totally spent.
Breakfast was more protein pancakes! This is a pic from Saturay night b/c I didn’t take one this morning. The recipe was the same except that I didn’t add a tbsp of flaxseed. The 2 tbsp wheat germ made them pretty chewy. I can’t wait until my brown rice protein gets here!
I got something so awesome yesterday:
Now, I don’t really like Paula Deen. I think that she does an excellent job of perpetuating the negative stereotypes of Southerners as being relatively brainless. But her pastry board is great! Because of the amount of doughs I’ve been making lately and my lack of space for kneading said dough, Joey and I picked this up at the Wally World. I already used it last night for my Sweet Potato Gnocchi!
We made tofu-veggie stir-fry tonight:
I just stir-fried some bell pepper strips, onions, leftover cabbage, peas, and edamame with a little soy, garlic powder, parsley, and ginger. In a separate pan, I sauteed some TJ’s extra-firm tofu with garlic powder and parsley. I ate mine atop one serving of TJ’s rice sticks, which were pretty lackluster. And high-carb, high-calorie, so I won’t be buying them again. Oh, and I accidentally inhaled a pea and spent half of my meal hacking.
I just had one scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with a little chocolate syrup. Not an everyday treat, but yummy!!
Yeah, I’m kind of bummed about the tummy thing, seriously. Anyway, let’s have some eats!
I started out yesterday morning with Heather’s Protein Pancakes!
I had to make a few adjustments because of my lack of ingredients, so these were four egg whites, 1/4 cup pancake mix, a little vanilla and some sweetener…and 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder. Totally tasty! In fact, I’m thinking that I’m going to make these for dinner…that’s the only thing that sounds good to my stomach. I can’t wait for my protein powder, Xanthan and Guar gums to arrive!
Yesterday’s snack was 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup soymilk, and 1 tbsp tahini:
I’m definitely feeling the tahini love these days; it’s definitely good on more than just falafel!
Lunch yesterday was an unintentional masterpiece!
A huge Mamma-Jamma salad! This had:
- spring mix salad
- crumbled tempeh
- two artichoke hearts
- green and red bell pepper strips
- a dusting of parm
- a little light Italian dressing
It was so good…I felt so proud to have come up with it on the fly!
I’m hopeful that last night’s Szechuan Tofu was the culprit for my upset stomach today. Part of me is really nervous because some of the pain mimics the pain I had before my kidney stone in September, but only time will tell.
Today’s eats have been unpictured, mostly because there haven’t been many. We had breakfast at the Tryon House (a little Greek-owned hole-in-the-wall up on Tryon Street in East Charlotte that has AWESOME breakfasts…and probably everything else too, but I’ve never had lunch or dinner there). I had a plain omelette made with egg substitute, hash browns, and dry wheat toast. Lunch was the only thing that sounded good to my pitiful tummy: oatmeal with 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup soymilk, 1 tbsp tahini, sweetener, and 1 tsp cocoa.
OK, off to watch some MST3K and make Protein Pancakes!
Yum! Sorry for the crappy photo…this involved me with a camera and Joey standing behind me with a flashlight. We have dark countertops and when it’s dark outside, we’re kind of screwed. Monday’s Corn Chowder was a TOTAL success. I used cornstarch instead of the flour as the thickening agent, and it turned out really good, very thick and chowder-y! I probably tripled the recipe so that there would be enough for leftovers. This has always been one of my frugal “lunchbox” tricks; any time I make a big stew, soup, or chili, I make a TON extra and then ladle them into repurposed egg-drop soup containers from Chinese takeout. They’re perfect for freezing single-serving soup portions (and they fare very well on the top rack of the dishwasher). This made enough for me and Joey to have a bowl and a half and then have six extra servings for freezing. AWESOME!
Tonight was much more of a disaster…I was going to make Mexican pizzas, but we were low on cheese, and it just didn’t sound good, so I settled on sweet potatoes. Suffice it to say that I told Joey the wrong temp for the size he planned to dice them into and we ended up with two pans of mostly-charred sweet potato coals:(. I salvaged what I could and tossed them in the fridge and didn’t want to eat them b/c of the horrible burnt-sweet-potato smell. I ended up sending Joey to Taco Bell (gasp) for a fajita salad with no meat and a little extra guac. I was a little pissed about doing takeout, but happy that we’re doing well with our budget.
I broke down and ordered brown rice protein powder! After reading HEAB for such a long time and seeing how versatile the powder is and how she uses it in everything from jarred squash to oats-in-a-jar to protein pancakes and ice cream, I thought that I needed to get in on this! I’ll let you know what I think once it gets here!
Tomorrow is sanctioned-takeout-Chinese, but I’m determined to put half of it away! And we did hit the gym Tuesday…we didn’t go today because it was monsooning here, raining much too hard to see well to drive, so we’ll hit it up tomorrow:).
Ingredients:
- 1 egg + 2 whites, beaten together
- fresh peppers and onions (I used green and red peppers)
- leftover fajita vegetables (super-easy…sautee peppers and onions with taco seasoning until charred to a crisp..hehe)
- diced or sliced fresh tomatoes
- 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsp fat free sour cream
- hot sauce
- taco sauce
Instructions:
- toss fresh peppers and onions in a pan with leftover fajita veggies on medium heat. Add fresh tomatoes after a minute or so. They don’t need as long.
- when fresh veggies are still crunchy but have lost a little color, add eggs and scramble. When almost firm, add hot sauce to taste and 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
- serve topped with taco sauce and sour cream
Enjoy! It was so good that I licked the plate clean!
It’s been such an awesome weekend! Despite a mini-meltdown Saturday where I managed to get myself in a horrible mood and ended up sleeping for most of the afternoon and evening, the rest of the weekend has been absolutely incredible! Of course, having today off didn’t hurt any either;).
Last night was Homemade Pizza night on the menu plan. After I had such a botched attempt last week when I tried a recipe for dough without yeast, I decided that I was going to do it right this time, even if I went through the endless kneading and rising time. And boy, am I glad I did!
I used this recipe for the dough. Rather than doing 5 1/2 cups white flour and only 1/2 cup whole wheat, I did 3 cups white and 2 cups wheat to increase the health-factor. It only called for eight minutes of kneading followed by one hour of rising time. We had to run an errand, so we popped the dough in the oven and let it do its thing while we were out! It makes enough for three crusts, so I took the third crust and divided it into four small balls for calzones at a later date and froze them.
We made two pizzas; on the first, we put:
- spaghetti sauce
- onions
- red and green peppers
- mozz
- parm
- crushed red pepper flake, garlic, oregano, basil
The other was sauce-free and had the following toppings:
- onions
- artichoke hearts
- thinly sliced tomatoes
- feta cheese
- parm
- garlic powder, parsley, basil, oregano
Hell yeah! I was glad that we had a friend coming over because it kept us from hoovering both pizzas. This will definitely be added into the recipe rotation!
This morning, we were really industrious; rather than sleeping in and lazing around all morning like we usually do on days off, we got up at 7, hit the gym, finished our grocery shopping for the week and then had the rest of the day to do fun things (like going to the shooting range!)
I hit the CrossRamp (elliptical/hill thingy) for a very sweaty and intense 45 minute interval workout. I had to drop the resistance a little for the last ten minutes or so, but I still felt like I got a really good workout. I wish we could workout in the morning every day, but during the workweek, I’d have to get there at 5 am and then just leave from the gym to go to work, and I don’t know if I want to do that.
Tonight’s dinner is Corn Chowder…a new recipe that I hope turns out okay!
Oh yeah:). That’s been my breakfast this morning. I love omelets…they are probably my favorite egg food. Whenever I want a savory breakfast, you can bet that I’m doing something egg or omelet related. An omelet is an easy way to incorporate vegetables into your breakfast, and they are protein-packed and relatively low-calorie (as long as you don’t overdo it with the fillings).
This one contains the following ingredients:
- 1 egg + 2 egg whites and a splash of soymilk
- 1/2 cup sliced peppers (green, red, yellow)
- 1/2 cup onion
- 2 tbsp cheddar cheese
- hot sauce (used liberally)
- about 2 tbsp fat free sour cream on top
It was GOOD!!
On the dockett today? A leisurely morning, then eating lunch at home, hitting the Wally World to check out the Dr. Scholl’s orthotics center, hitting the gym, and then coming home and making Sweet Potato Gnocchi!
Enjoy your Saturday!
Yep, it looks kind of gross. But, I promise you, if you’re looking for a healthy, filling, fiber-filled breakfast, this will definitely hit the spot!
Mel’s Easy Pumpkin Pancakes:
- 1/2 cup pancake mix (I used Wal-Mart generic light and fluffy…low fat and calorie)
- 1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin
- 1 packet of splenda
- cinnamon
- a splash of water
Mix together. It will be thicker than a normal pancake. Heat up your griddle and drop pancake-sized spoonfuls on it. You’ll need to mash it down so it’s thin enough. Cook like a normal pancake.
I topped mine with sugar-free syrup and it was heavenly! This morning, I added two egg whites to the mix and ended up with a GIGANTIC pancake…even more gigantic than the one above.
We made falafel again last night; this time, I used cornmeal instead of flour and just used cooking spray rather than pan-frying it in olive oil. It definitely wasn’t as authentic, but it was still pretty good. The leftovers were my lunch today, together with a simple salad with fat free Caeser Italian dressing.
I’m totally falling in love with tahini; we bought some at the Teeter several months back and I’d been having trouble figuring out what to put it on. I had some serious failures turning it into a salad dressing, so it sat in the fridge unloved for a while. Since we’ve been doing falafel, I’ve discovered my love for the flavor nuances. There will definitely be more tahini in my future!
My friend Katie is coming over tonight so we’re having veggie fajitas tonight. Yumm!
And I made it to the gym yesterday. Slowly, but surely, I’m getting back on the right track:)
