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