Greetings from the Sky... Again! 1/19/12

Hello all! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday,it was a busy one! I woke up yesterday with back pain again so I decided to try yoga (didn't get to the night before). I had a 'Healing Yoga for Aches and Pains' on Netflix... And it helped a ton! I am very happy to report that I have no back pain today! That was my first time doing yoga and it was actually kind of difficult! Who knew, right? I think I'm going to start doing it more often!
Food yesterday:
breakfast granola with blueberries and soy milk
snack blackberries
lunch leftover roasted veggies
snack peanut butter filled pretzels (weakness!) and chips and salsa my crack!)
dinner veggie tacos (yum!)

I did most of my packing last night so I had time to work out this morning! I did part of the lower body circuit today, didn't have time for a full workout...
Here's what I did:
Leg Press 225 12x2, 250 10x2
Leg Extension 100 12x2, 120 10x2
Leg Curl 55 12x2, 65 10x2
Deadlift 95 12x2, 115 10x2
Calf Raise 50 12x2, 70 10x2
I did the round of 12 reps first, then 5 minutes fast on the elliptical then the round of 10 reps. Good workout, I definitely felt the burn! And someone PLEASE remind me to wear my lifting gloves next time! I keep forgetting them and my hands were killing!

Food today - who knows? I had a protein shake after my workout, granola w/ blueberries and soymilk for breakfast and 1/2 a small bottle of Naked Green Machine on the way to the airport. Then a venti unsweetened green tea at the airport.
Speaking of green tea, Branden's been drinking it a lot lately and I think I'm going to jump on the bandwagon. I was just reading an article in Fitness magazine about green tea and how great it is! I'll go into more detail later after I do further research. :-)

Well we should be landing soon so I need to jump off of here! (The internet, not the plane... Although I am in an Exit row...)

Until next time!

Enough of the Back-Talk... 1/17/12

Hola mi amigos/amigas! It’s been a weather-crazy day starting with frightening clouds welcoming me as I walked out the door this morning to a torrential downpour to sun and now it looks a little chilllly.

I guess the world’s ending or something, whatevs. Anyway, I didn’t have a great start to my day… I mentioned that my lower back was hurting yesterday and unfortunately it hadn’t subsided when I woke this morning. Normally I would push through pain but back pain scares me because a. I don’t know anything about back muscles and b. The back is a PRETTY important part of the body and if it was seriously injured that would royally F things up… and I’m not down with that. I was talking to Branden and he said that sometimes when his back hurts working out will actually help it… but that I should definitely stretch. Another friend mentioned that I should stretch my hamstrings. That all sounds good to me.. so I’m going to go home and do some yoga tonight! I’ve never done yoga in fear of twisting my knee in a fashion that cannot be untwisted but I’m willing to try nearly anything at this point, I’ll just have to be very conscious of what my knee is doing. (not that I’m not already!)

Beyond this silly back situation, the rest of the day has gone kind of normal… just working and whatnot. Food has been a little different as far as timing.. I ate pretty much everything before 2:30 and haven’t had anything since. I normally try to space it out throughout the day but that wasn’t the case on this Tuesday.

Food Today

Breakfast:

½ c granola w/ soymilk and blueberries

Fresh fruit and veggie juice (I’ve been adding strawberries to my juice and honestly… I don’t love it.)

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, cinnamon and blackberries

Lunch:

Asian green beans (I made last night – DELISH! I didn’t pay much attention to the amounts as I was cooking but I’ll work on it and get back with you J)

Snack:

Flatbread w/ hummus, black beans and tomatoes

Dinner:

Roasted Veggies w/ Rice

This dreary weather is making me crave dreary food but I’m fighting it pretty hard… I’m also stressing a bit b/c I have a lot to do but I have to go out of town again on Thurs! Oh well, this traveling season is short lived so I guess I should enjoy it while it’s here?

Well obviously not a whole heck of a lot to report today. Thank you to everyone who left kind words and ‘liked’ my pictures/blog link yesterday! FYI if you’re a reader and not a ‘Fan’ of my Facebook page, you should totes ‘Like’ my page!

Until tomorrow, fair readers…

Picture Day! 1/15/12

Hello! Back home for a brief stay in the KY then headed to Dallas on Thursday! And then Manhattan the following weekend! Shoo! This month is definitely out of whack but I’m still pretty happy with the outcome of the first trip…

Things didn’t go quite as planned, my traveling partner forgot to pack her gym shoes so we didn’t do any classes while down there but the hotel gym was VERY well-equipped so I got a full workout in on Thursday! I didn’t get a chance to workout Friday or Saturday, there just wasn’t enough time in the day… and I may have had a couple of cocktails in there which inhibited my normal 4:30am wakeup call lol. J

Brief recap – Thursday – flew out of Cincinnati at 7:10am and arrived in ATL around 8:30am… went to the hotel and dropped our bags then headed over to the merchandise mart to set up our booth. Set-up took about 3 hours (involving lifting boxes/hanging garments/throw blankets/moving tables, etc). After set-up, I went and worked out, I did my upper body circuit and it was GREAT! Then I took a shower and got dressed then we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant then to a bar.

Thurs Food: Granola w/ soy milk for breakfast, 1 ½ airplane cookies on the flight (only option?!) a banana before booth set-up, dry granola in the hotel room and some chips and guac and veggie tacos at the restaurant. I drank a lot of water throughout the night so I didn’t over-do it on the booze.

Friday – show time! We worked the show then went back to the hotel, changed and headed to dinner then to a bar.

Fri Food: Fruit cup and banana for breakfast, veggie sandwich on WW bread and apple for lunch and sushi/garlic snap peas/edamame/kimchee cucumber salad for dinner…we went to this great Asian restaurant and shared a bunch of food! It was really delicious and all seemed pretty healthy! I did have a little too much to drink this night but I didn’t completely over-do it!

Saturday – woke up and packed my stuff, headed to the shows for a few hours then headed to the airport to fly home! Arrived home and then went to dinner with my little family.

Sat Food: ½ fruit cup and tall vanilla soy latte for breakfast, banana for lunch, snacked on fruit & nut trail mix and hummus & pretzels at the airport then ginger salad/sushi/rice and a few veggies for dinner (we went to a Hibachi restaurant)

Sunday – Lazy day! I spent a lot of time just hanging out with miss Nora, went to the grocery store then cooked a big dinner! Branden requested Manicotti so I made spinach manicotti, cesar salad and had some yummy garlic bread… obviously I couldn’t eat the manicotti or cesar salad but the others seemed to enjoy. J

Sun food: Granola w/ soy milk for breakfast, a few chips and salsa, grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, veggie sandwich from Subway then some garlic bread and ½ stuffed grape leaves flatbread wrap. The food timing was all over the place yesterday lol.

I didn’t go to the gym this morning.. my lower back has been hurting a lot the last couple of days and I didn’t get much sleep last night. I do intend to go to bellydance tonight though so I should certainly burn a few calories!

Food Today:

Breakfast:

½ c granola w/ soy milk and blueberries

Fresh fruit and veggie juice

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, blackberries and cinnamon

Lunch:

Veggie chili (my mom’s version this time!)

Snack:

Leftover ½ of the stuffed grape leaves flatbread from last night and an apple

Dinner:

TBD – Some ginger/garlic green beans and some other veggies probably…

Well, yesterday was picture day but our home computer is currently on the fritz so I had to wait until today to post! I am really surprised and happy with the picture this month! After the holidays and the crazy schedule that I’ve had since, I honestly wasn’t expecting much! Anyway, I’m pretty stoked – what do you think?

4/15/11

12/15/11



1/15/12



That’s about all I have for today! Thanks for reading and keeping up with me, I really appreciate it! I hope you all had a great weekend and Happy MLKjr Day!!

Until tomorrow…

Greetings from the Sky! 1/12/12

Hello all! So sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days, things have been crazy! I'm actually posting from up in the air right now, in flight to Atlanta! I'm excited to get there, I made some granola and brought my protein powder along with 2 workout outfits! My traveling buddy and I are going to try to get some sweat sessions in while we're there!
My workouts have been going really great, I am SO loving this new program!! I love weight training so much, it just makes me feel like a badass and really great! I'll have to post my workouts later, I don't have time right now, we're landing soon.
Yesterday was cardio day, I skipped my run because it was cold and raining and I just didn't feel like freezing my body off so instead I went to Zumba last night! It was great! Definitely a great workout and fun! It was nice to do something different.
Food yesterday was a little off, I was running around getting things ready for this trip..
Breakfast
1/2 c granola w/ 1/4 c soy milk
Fresh juice of orange, apples and blueberries

Snack
Flat bread w/ hummus

Snack
Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon and blackberries
blackberries

Snack
Almond and apricot granola bar
Cranberry trail mix

Protein shake after Zumba
2 tacos - corn tortillas, sliced portobello mushrooms, onion, cherry tomatoes all sauteed in EVOO garlic and cumin and black beans w/ a little chopped romaine lettuce, chipotle salsa and avacado

Today's food has gotten off to an 'off' start... I had granola w/ soy milk and blueberries for breakfast and I just had water and a cjnnamon cookie on the flight.... Not the best choice of course but they didn't even offer peanuts! And I was starving... Well, I still am lol.

Anyway, we're going to try to catch a fitness class tonight so I'll update!
Well, we're landing! Adios!

Finally, a New Year! 1/9/12

Hello there! Sorry about the lack of post Friday.. it was a crazy day then I ended up going home early and didn’t have a chance to post once I got home.

This weekend was great! Relaxing and nice… Friday after work I went shopping and bought 2 pairs of pants and a shirt.. the pants are both size 18! I haven’t worn this size in quite a while J I bought a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of dress pants… I’m wearing the jeans today and a girl at work said they make my butt look good so I guess they’re good lol.. they’re tighter on my legs than anything I would normally wear but it feels pretty nice to have clothes that fit me! That evening, I took down all of the Christmas decorations in my house and got things back in normal order a bit. I must say, my living room feels a lot bigger without my giant tree! It’s nice to be back to our regular.. although now my house also looks bare and I want to go buy art for my walls! And I want new curtains and toss pillows and… some other things lol. Oh well, these things can wait.

Saturday was nice, I started the day off with some cleaning then walked Nora up to the park and we played for 3 hours! It was fun to let her run around and play… with my schedule, I rarely ever get to spend that much time with her just playing and it was really great. J We got home and I made dinner (Enchilada Casserole, as posted before but I added sautéed peppers and onions and a minced chipotle pepper – yum!) then my friend Andi came over and we just hung out and watched a movie.

Sunday was a lot of cleaning and laundry.. I did a little bit of sewing as well. Nora was REALLY tired all day b/c I made the mistake of letting her stay up late with us Saturday night so she was testing my patience a bit, resulting in me not accomplishing quite as much as I would have liked. I made yummy spaghetti for dinner last night (recipe below) then just gave Nora a bath and hit the hay!

Aaaand today! I started new workouts today! I finally feel like my 'new year' is starting! I actually found the workouts in the latest edition of ‘Muscle & Fitness Hers’. I really like this magazine because it’s fitness-focused and doesn’t have much of the filler crap that the magazines like ‘Shape’ and ‘Health’ have. It’s a 4-week circuit workout program and it’s listed with a nutrition program as well, but I’m not going to be doing that. It’s not a vegan nutrition plan so I’m just going to stick with my foods.

Here’s what I did today:

	CIRCUIT 1		CIRCUIT 2		CIRCUIT 3		CIRCUIT 4
EXERCISE	REPS	WEIGHT	REPS	WEIGHT	REPS	WEIGHT	REPS	WEIGHT
BARBELL BENT OVER ROW	12	30	10	40	8	50	8	60
SEATED CABLE ROW	12	70	10	80	8	90	8	100
BENCH PRESS	12	65	10	75	8	85	8	95
SEATED OVERHEAD BARBELL PRESS	12	30	10	40	8	50	8	60
DUMBBELL LATERAL RAISE	12	7.5	10	10	8	12.5	8	15
CABLE TRICEP PRESS DOWN	12	30	10	40	8	50	8	60
BARBELL CURL	12	30	10	40	8	50	8	60
CRUNCHES	20	N/A	20	N/A	20	N/A	20	N/A
BICYCLES	20 EA SIDE	N/A	20 EA SIDE	N/A	20 EA SIDE	N/A	20 EA SIDE	N/A
SHOT GUNS	10	N/A	10	N/A	10	N/A	10	N/A
6" KILLERS	10	N/A	10	N/A	10	N/A	10	N/A
BIKE	-	-	5 MIN	-	-	-	5 MIN	-
ELLIPTICAL	5 MIN	-	-	-	5 MIN	-	-	-

I wasn’t sure on all of this weights so this week will kind of be my trial week so I can adjust as needed… for instance, I’m going to increase the weight on the Barbell Bent Over Row, Bench Press and Tricep Press Down, but decrease on the Barbell Curl. It was a great workout and I really enjoyed it! At the end of each circuit I did 5 minutes of cardio at a fast pace.. so it was nice to get 20m of elevated heart rate in there too!

Tomorrow is the Lower Body circuit… we’ll see how that goes. J

Food Today

Breakfast:

Protein Shake immediately following workout (chocolate vegan protein powder + organic soy milk)

½ g homemade granola w/ ¼ c skim milk and fresh blueberries

Fresh juice of spinach, carrots, apples (green & red), orange, cranberries and raspberries

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ cinnamon, raisins and blueberries

Lunch:

Leftover enchilada casserole from the weekend

Snack:

Flat bread w/ hummus

Small green apple

Dinner:

TBD... tacos, maybe?

I have developed a slight obsession with blackberries… they’re just so delicious!! I snack on them all the time! I’ve started eating a lot more berries actually… I love the blueberries in my granola too. J

I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming traveling I’m going to be doing and I think, if planned well, I’ll be okay! The girl I’ll be traveling with likes to workout and eats healthy as well so we’re planning on doing a fitness class in each of the cities and I made sure to book hotels with complimentary fitness centers. Also, I’m thinking that I’m going to make some granola to pack for breakfasts and I’ll take my protein powder w/ a blender bottle and I’m sure I can find a little market to get some soy milk and berries for my hotel room to keep in the mini fridge. There is always some pretty good catered food at the shows when we’re working so lunches should be okay…

I just really want to stay on track! I’m re-motivated and want to keep it that way!! J

Mushroom Spaghetti

1 lg portobella mushroom cap, stem and gills removed, sliced thin

½ red onion, halved and sliced thin

1tsp EVOO

Pinch sea salt

Pinch Red Pepper Flake

1 jar Emeril’s ‘Roasted Gaaahlic’ Spaghetti Sauce (normally I don’t support canned foods but this stuff is my favorite!)

½ box whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles

¼ to 1/3 c dry white wine

-          Bring water to boil and add noodles, cook until al dente

-          Sautee onion in EVOO for about 3 minutes, add mushrooms and a pinch of salt and red pepper flake and continue to sautee until veggies are tender

-          Add spaghetti sauce to veggies, pour wine into sauce jar and shake it up to get remaining sauce and pour into pan w/ sauce; simmer on med heat

-          Drain noodles and add to veggies and sauce. Toss to combine then continue to cook noodles in sauce for about 7-10 minutes

Serve! YUM! It was garlicy with a little kick and delicious!

Well, I suppose that’s about all I have for the day!

Until tomorrow… J