A Fine Saturday

So far it’s a great Saturday!

I woke up far too early (6:00 am!) – but that’s ok. It was a quiet house because poor BF was working all through the night.  Around 8:30 I became inspired to attack our fridge.

Lately our fridge has been a little out of control – I get groceries on the weekend and have had trouble finding a place to put them all! So I dragged over the garbage can and finally got around to purging all of the dressings, sauces, etc that we never use and never will, and also the many that were expired (gross!).

I took out all of the shelves and drawers and washed them, and then reorganized the remaining items. Perfect! It definitely looks awesome now. It’s silly I know, but I’m pretty proud of it! Haha.

Then I made my was to Combat and it was great! Except of course for another episode of poor gym etiquette.

So, the class is about to start – and everyone is getting into their spaces, politely leaving enough space around them for everyone to move. It wasn’t really full at all! And this woman came up and stood, literally, 2 feet behind me. ??? Why ??? I had little patience this morning, so I turned around and said to her “Do you want me to move?”. She looked shocked! Really? I don’t know if she was just unaware of her surroundings, or just shocked that I actually said something. I then said “because right now, you’re in danger of me kicking you when class gets started… ” I then proceeded to move up to the front where there was an open space, and heard her call after me “I just don’t like standing in the front!”.  Huh. So that gives her the right to force me to move? Fine. Whatever.

The rest of the class was great – and now I feel all full of energy!

Off to do some shopping so that BF can sleep in a quiet house.

Happy Saturday!

Better, Stronger, Faster…

Ok maybe not the last one… I’m pretty slow moving in general…

Last night I went to Body Pump. In February, I’ll be making this my new go-to strength training workout.

In January, I just wasn’t ready for it. So, I stuck to short yoga sessions and Jillian Michaels SHRED videos until I felt strong enough for the 1 hour pump torture.

The first pump class I went to this year was last Thursday, and yes – it was torture.

I went to the second this Tuesday, and…  it was so-so. Upper body wasn’t too bad – but squats and lunges made me want to barf a little.

Then yesterday, the magic began.  It wasn’t pure torture. I wasn’t just praying for it to end in the last half of the lunge track. I wasn’t scared I was going to topple over because I couldn’t feel my thighs anymore. Just three short classes in, and I was already fighting the pain and pushing myself to finish all of those tracks. I’ve even made a decision to increase my weights on some of the tracks.

Sometimes I’m amazed at how easily and quickly our bodies can adapt if we just push a little harder. Sure, I can’t see a difference yet – but after only a week of incorporating more intense strength training – I can really feel a difference! Amazing.

Aside: I just need to say this. I hate lunges. So much. They hurt like crazy!! What is up with that? And how does a person stop hating lunges? My thighs are my trouble spots, and I know that lunges will help me target this – but why, why, why do they have to be so awful!? (stomps feet!)

And that, is why I go to Body Pump. If I were calling the shots in my strength routine, I would be doing back, abs and shoulders all day long. My poor arms and legs would be completely neglected.  But in Pump, you don’t have a choice.

Happy Friday!

Mmmmm. Soup.

I’ve posted this soup before, but what that should really tell you is how absolutely awesome it it.

I was trying to extract meal ideas from BF last week, and he suggested some creamy/chowder soup.  He suggested I try a new recipe, and my response was quickly “Why would I do that?! The recipe I’ve been using is too good!”.

He quickly agreed and I proceeded to pick up the ingredients.

I made the soup again last night, and as usual it did not fail.

Here is the recipe for Chunky Potato Crab Chowder.

My Alterations:

1. I never use celery. I hate celery. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true. I love, love, love 95% of all vegetables, but I hate celery.
2. I usually use 2% milk, but last night I wanted to use up some skim in the fridge. I couldn’t tell the difference, and as an added bonus, the soup was a little less in fat and calories.
3. I use a low sodium boullion powder mixed with boiling water instead of canned broth.
4. I use 1 tsp of dry thyme instead of 2 tsp of fresh.
5. I use crab-flavoured pollock instead of real crab. Yeah, I’m cheap!
6. I omit the parsley, because I never have any, and it adds minimal taste difference anyways.
7. Last night, I also added a chopped-up zucchini and some mushrooms because I wanted to be rid of them.

Oh, and when I serve myself a bowl, I dump hot sauce into it. Yum!

You should make this soup ASAP. It tastes like a decadent, creamy soup that must be full of fat. But it’s not! It’s healthy!!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

It’s a busy day, so no time to write a long, interesting post. I’ve got a bunch of stuff I want to write about, but it will have to wait.

On the workout front, the update is that I went to Body Pump last night! That’s 2 workouts in for February, and 1 strength training session.

Happy Wednesday!

February’s Plan

Before I get into my February plan, I wanted to show off this:

I wandered into my kitchen yesterday to find it waiting for me!

I don’t like cut flowers (they die a week after you get them… how romantic is that?! That’s just my opinion), so when BF wanted to get me some yesterday, he realized that a plant that I can (try my very hardest to at least) keep alive was a much better option.

It’s called an Amaryllis, and you can read about it here, here, here or Google it yourself.

The basic idea is that it blooms, then the flower dies and the plant goes dormant. While it’s dormant you store the bulb, and then you pot it again after a couple of months and it will grow and bloom again. Rinse, repeat, forever! Fun!

And very, very sweet of BF to do something so thoughtful for me

Now! On to February!

The plan is pretty simple.

1. Keep working out: I’m setting my goal for 13 workouts in February. It’s the same amount as January, but since there’s 3 less days in February, the frequency increases just slightly.
2. Keep up with the strength training: I’m increasing my goal from January in this area. I’m aiming for 5 strength sessions in February.
3. Weighing In: I will continue to weigh in at least once a week.
4. Intuitive Eating: I want to try to keep this up. I would love to continue losing this weight without food journalling.

That’s it! Simple, achievable goals.

And the great thing is I’ve already started! I did a cardio workout at home last night after work – so I’m already 1 workout down – 12 to go.

Take That January!

That’s right – I beat January! I met all of my goals!

Goal 1:  Work out at least 3 times a week.

My strategy to do this was to workout at least 13 times in January – although I cut it really close to the wire – my 13th January workout was on January 31st – I did it!

Goal 2: Get back on the scale!

This one was really scary. But well worth it. I hadn’t gotten on the scale since July 2009, and I knew I had gained weight. Some people do better when they throw away their scale, because for them – weighing in causes anxiety; for me, not knowing causes anxiety. I’m two weeks into weighing myself weekly and I already feel a great sense of control that I was missing all those months.

Goal 3: Lose weight without going too crazy.

This meant not counting calories or points or food journaling. My long term goal is to have the ability to eat intuitively. Although strict tracking is a great tool, and it helped me lose 75 lbs, I do not want to be reliant on it my whole life. Food journaling taught me a lot about nutrition and I think I’m ready to just use the knowledge I’ve gained without the journaling. The outcome in January -  so far a success! I showed a loss between my first two weigh-ins, and any calorie counting that may have been done was all in my head (I’ll never be able to turn that off!).

Goal 4:  More Strength Training

I’m a cardio junkie, so I have to force myself to do strength training of any kind. This month my goal was to strength train at least once a week – which worked out to a goal of 4 sessions. Goal accomplished – I did it!

Real Progress Report

So that’s all find and dandy. Mathematically I did great; all the numbers worked out. The real question is: How do I feel?

The answer: I feel awesome.

Mentally, I feel in control and confident.

Emotionally, I feel content and hopeful.

Physically, I feel like I”m getting stronger and healthier.

Conceitedly, I feel like I”m getting hotter and more attractive every day!

The biggest thing about my attempts this time is that it really feels possible.

I feel like I”m attacking this last 10 lbs in a way that is going to make it really possible to not only get rid of it, but keep it off.  I’ve been there, done that – and I think I know where I failed in keeping it off. I think my expectations are reasonable and realistic, and I think I’ve got the will power and strength to stick to my plans.

February’s plan of attack is in the works – I’ll post it soon!

Um… Ow?

So… it looks like my muscle soreness held off until the second day after my Thursday Body Pump class (as usual really… why am I surprised?).

In spite of this pain – I went to Body Combat this morning and powered through… I will say – the Jingas really sucked. No fun when your thighs are screaming in pain!!

1 more workout to complete my January goal – wish me luck that it all goes to plan!

Progress!

One fitness goal down – 1 to go for the month of January!

Last night I went to Body Pump after work. That makes 4/4 strength training workouts this month.

I know it might not seem like a lot so some people – but as I’ve said before, I’m a cardio junky, so substituting a good cardio session for a strength session never seems really appealing. This avoidance of strength training  is in spite of the fact that I’m well aware how helpful strength training is to getting me to my goals. It’s all psychological, which is why I’m making a point of counting my strength training sessions as well as my cardio sessions.

Surprisingly, I’m not dying of muscle pain this morning! I haven’t been to Pump in probably… a month? more? So I was expecting excruciating pain this morning.. maybe it’s holding off until tomorrow? We will see.

Second piece of wonderful news – I weighed in yesterday morning – the verdict: 142.0 lbs That’s a 1.4 lb loss from last week!!

I’m not just excited about this because it’s a loss (great alone in itself), but I’m excited because I’m losing pounds and I’m NOT counting calories/points or food journaling. So far, I’m making this happen simply using intuitive eating. I LOVE that!! Hopefully I can keep it up.

In order to complete January’s goals (the 31st is Sunday!) I will be going to Body Combat on Saturday morning and Zumba on Sunday morning.

Happy Friday!

Super Salads

The next cookbook I took out the the library was Super Salads.

So far, I’ve found a lot of great features to this cookbook.

Selection: There are (as the headline of the book advertises) over 250 recipes! For salad!

Pictures: Every recipe has a great picture attached to it. Sure, it doesn’t mean that the recipe is any better or worse jut because it has a picture, but it definitely appeals to my visual nature and “sells” the salads to me.

Nutritional Information: Every recipe includes the nutritional information – good and bad. This is key for me, I almost only use cookbooks that include nutritional information for the recipes. The only exceptions to this rule would be when I’m baking treats (cookies, cakes, brownies, etc) where you are generally pretty aware that they’re bad for you, and kind of don’t want to see the nutritional information.

Options: Another thing I found appealing was the fact that even though there are a lot of recipes which have seasonal or hard to find ingredients, they usually have a “Tip” on the page giving you substitution options. This is another great selling point in my mind.

So now, on to the recipe quality! They key to a good cookbook!

I’ve only tried one recipe so far, the Turkey, Fruit & Nut Salad. Here’s the basics of the recipe, which include my noted alterations – enough for you to recreate this yourself:

Salad Ingredients:

1/4 c thin sliced onions (actual recipe called for shallots)

1 container of white mushrooms, thinly sliced (actual recipe called for a bit less than this, but I really like mushrooms!)

300g pre-cooked sliced turkey (I used the Lilydale brand in the deli section, kinda price but really good!)

1 tbsp lemon juice

3 plums, ripe and thinly sliced.

salt & pepper to taste.

Sassy Baby Blend lettuce (actual recipe called for radicchio)

Dressing Ingredients:

100 g goat’s milk cheese

3-4 tbsp milk

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

fresh ground pepper to taste

Assembly:

Cook up the onions & mushrooms over medium heat until the onions are cooked and the mushrooms are how you like them. (Here the recipe called for you to cook them in 2 tbsp of oil – I omitted this frome the recipe and just used a non-stick pan with a bit of cooking spray).

Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice, turkey, salt & pepper. (Here the recipe also called for some fresh parsley – I didn’t have any, so it didn’t go in)

To make the dressing, whip the goat cheese, pepper, milk & vinegar together. If you want it runnier, add more milk.

(At this point, the recipe called for the cook to assemble the salad all pretty-like on a platter. I was just cooking for me and wanted leftovers to be good for the next day – so I’m writing what I did).

Toss the turkey & mushroom mixture with the plums & dressing until everything is smothered in goat cheese dressing. Drool.

Fill a bowl with the lettuce blend, top with one serving of turkey mixture. Put rest of turkey mixture & lettuce blend in fridge separately. No-one likes soggy, wilted lettuce!!

Eat your salad!

Serves 4 at ~ 270 calories per serving. (this is the calories after my substitutions, so don’t go thinking if you lose the oil like I did you get to take off a another 50 cals per serving… I already did that!)

Final Note: The recipe called for walnuts to be added also. Personally, I don’t like walnuts enough for the calorie hit you take with them. So I left them out. Adjust the calories as necessary if you want to add them!

Verdict: OMG yum. This was awesome. I’m a goat-cheese junky though – so keep that in mind. If you don’t like goat cheese, you won’t like this.

I’m having the other half for dinner tonight! Yay!

Countdown to Month’s End

Yesterday was a pretty standard, uninteresting day. Not in a bad way, it was just a calm, drama free day! Which is why I didn’t post. I thought about posting, and then thought “Geez, what do I write about?” and so – voila! – no post.

What has been on my mind the past couple days is the approaching end of January, and the completion of my committed goals for the month.

I need to get in 1 more strength training workout and 3 more workouts in general. I’ve got 5 days (including today) left to get this done. No problem. My strategy is to go to Body Pump tomorrow after work (strength + 1 workout) and then my normal (or at least what I hope is becoming a very good habit) routine of  Body Combat on Saturday morning and Zumba on Sunday morning. Yes, it’s cutting it close to the wire, but a goal reached is a goal reached no matter how you look at it, right?

Regardless of what happens over the next few days, if I reach my goal or not, I’ll be planning a similar strategy for February, and I’ll definitely be looking at this month’s successes and failures.

Happy Wednesday!