Good Eats!!

I've been lying to you all.  I've been saying I'm getting my life/diet together but I was not!  In the past 2 weeks I've had both the Cool Ranch and regular taco bell Doritos locos taco. Peanut butter chocolate chip bars, and muffins from the cafeteria at work, Chocolate chip and sugar cookies, Pizza, Ham, Mac and Cheese, french fries, ice cream sandwiches, and lots of alcohol.  Its been bad, and it took a friend asking why I hadn't been posting recently to really make me take a look at what I was doing and correct my behavior.

Thankfully that conversation led to me officially getting firmly back on the wagon! I know, I know, I've said it before, but this time I'm really here, up front and holding the reigns, and I have PROOF!!!  I've been continuing my workouts and FINALLY actually eating healthier.  I've been utilizing a blog my sister in law recommended to me.

So far I've tried about 3 of her recipes and 2 of the 3 were total wins!  The first recipe was the Cajun Chicken recipe I mentioned here.  Then I ate like crap for the next week, but started fresh this past Sunday, when I made this.

She calls it Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana, but for me, in my house we call it "The Chicken Spinach Thingee".   I chose this recipe because it reminds me of the veggie lasagna RR's mom makes that is THE BOMB!! Thankfully this recipe was a win. While I'd definitely add a little more spice to the spinach filling next go round, these were a big hit and earned me a high five from RR.  Unfortunately, the only pictures I took are very un-glamourous shots of the piece I brought in for lunch, after I microwaved it a juuuuust a little to long.

 I made more of the Cajun chicken pasta, Thursday night, which is still a personal favorite of mine!!  Last night I was having a cookie craving and decided to give these healthy 3 ingredient cookies a whirl and was underwhelmed. In fairness, I omitted the walnuts and subbed in peanut butter because, peanut butter and banana is NEVER wrong! 

Except when it is, as it was here. :(

healthy cookies.. no such thing

The flavors didn't blend well.  All i tasted was warm banana, and hints of burnt oatmeal and a top note of peanutbutter.  I tried ot salvage one by adding a few semi sweet chocolate chips in it while it was still warm.. it was better but the flavors still didn't blend.  These are officially a no-go for me!

On the upside, I had another crazy idea that I don't know the source of.  I thought I got the idea from skinny taste but it turns out I did not, so I'm starting to wonder if I dreamed it up.  Overnight oats (no i'm not taking credit for overnight oats), I'm taking credit thinking to add half a bottle of Bolthouse Vanilla Chai tea, (and Chia seeds) to my oats.  I love the Bolthouse Chai tea, but I do not love oatmeal.  The texture is such a turn off to me.  The combo is good enough that it allows me to overlook the texture... mostly.  I am wondering if it might work with Cream of Wheat.  I'll be getting back to you on that one.

chai tea overnight oats

Chicken Rollatini with Spinach alla Parmigiana (BKA Chicken Spinach thingees)

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/04/chicken-rollatini-with-spinach-alla.html

Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes 
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 1 stuffed breast • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 5 pts
Calories: 194.7 • Fat: 7 g • Protein: 24.2 g • Carb: 7.2 g • Fiber: 1.5 g

• 8 thin chicken cutlets, 3 oz each
• 1/2 cup whole wheat Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, divided
• 6 tablespoons egg whites or egg beaters
• 5 oz frozen spinach, squeezed dry of any liquid
• 6 tbsp part skim ricotta cheese
• 6 oz part skim mozzarella (I used Polly-O)
• olive oil non-stick spray (I use my Misto)
• 1 cup pomodoro sauce or your favorite marinara sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Wash and dry cutlets, season with salt and pepper.  Preheat oven to 450°. Lightlyspray a baking dish with non-stick spray.

Combine breadcrumbs and 2 tbsp grated cheese in one bowl and 1/4 cup egg beaters or egg whites in another.

Shred or finely chop 1.5 oz of mozzarella cheese and combine with remaining grated cheese, spinach (make sure you squeeze it dry), 2 tbsp egg beaters, and ricotta cheese.

Lay chicken cutlets down on a working surface and spread 2 tbsp of spinach-cheese mixture on each cutlet. Loosely roll each one and keep seam side down.

Dip chicken in egg mixture, then in breadcrumbs and place seam side down in a baking dish (no toothpicks needed). Repeat with the remaining chicken. When finished, lightly spray with olive oil.

Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven, top with sauce then cheese.Bake until cheese is melted and bubbling, about 3 more minutes. Serve with additional sauce on the side and grated cheese.

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Upperbody Strength: My Circus Obession

Hola fit friends,

I think I've said it before but I am obsessed with all things Circus related. I had planned to re-enroll in circus aerials by now, however I'm waiting until April for my friend, Mary, to catch up to my level. So I'm in a little bit of circus withdrawal.  Fortunately, April is JUST around the corner and I'm gearing up to get in shape for Aerials.  Which means, that I need to stop slacking on upper body days.  Last time I talked about upper body strength, I focused primarily on biceps.  But obviously, you need more than strong arms to balance yourself on someone's forehead. You know... if you're into that sort of thing! ;)

Admittedly this is hand balancing and not aerials, but its still requires a level of strength, balance and grace that I don't have... YET!  Not to mention, I would love to one day take a photo like this.  Although, I know for a fact, that RR will not let me even attempt to balance myself on his forehead, ever.  Yes, I know this because I asked him, LOL.  Fortunately, balancing on one of his shoulders isn't currently out of the question! So in preparation, I'm working on my handstands.  A few months back RR found the picture on the left, and sent it to me as a challenge. His exact words may or may not have been betcha can't do this! After a quick test to see whether or not I could do it, I dragged RR into one of the empty rooms at the gym and made him snap the picture on the right.

I then posted this photo on my facebook page with the caption, "The Challenge and The Victory" (or something cheesy like that).  The very next day the Alvin Ailey facebook page posted the picture below, which I've decided to take as a personal challenge from Alvin Ailey to me. LOL.

I'm clearly not ready yet, but I'm working on it.  If I can do this, I can probably strike this same pose on RR's shoulder, provided he stays VERY still.  So in preparation, I'm working on my splits and flexibility, but more importantly working on my core, shoulders, lats and back muscles in addition to the standard bicep and tricep work. But first things first, I can't hold a handstand (without a wall for support) for more than 3-4 seconds.  I need more control! To help me get ready to accept my Alvin Ailey Challenge, I'm currently working on these.

Yep, I can do these! :)

 I did about 3 of these yesterday.  One to make sure I could do it without falling on my face, the one RR recorded for me (above), and then one at the end of ballet class, because my ballet, circus and boot camp buddy, Mary, simply couldn't envision my verbal explanation.  I'm rather proud of myself for being able to do 3 of them, after a full shoulder and laterals workout last night.  I think I'm going to try my hardest to do 10 of these a day.  I think it'll also help with my pull up goal. I want to be able to do 5 pull ups in a row by the end of April, I can currently do 3.5.  (feel free to hold me accountable fit friends!)

 I stumbled across this video, its occasionally a little awkward, but overall I think its got a lot of good pointers for learning how to do a handstand.




Also as a bonus, and to further emphasize my love of all things circus, here's the video I forgot to post about my flying trapeze experience!  I think this was my 1st run, I don't know if my SIL or Brother have video of my 2nd run which I think/hope was a little better. (hint, hint Ms. Jackson! You should share all of your videos and photos from this trip!)  I don't really like the way I flop around when I bring my legs back down.  Dah well. Enjoy!

Keeping life challenging,
Candydiva04

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My Crossfit Experience

The crossfit gym, or the sanctuary as they call it

Thanks to groupon, I have 10 crossfit classes at the "local" crossfit gym. I use the word local, very loosely because its about 30 min from my house, assuming there's no traffic on 95.  But I live in Delaware, so that's actually relatively close. (sigh!)  Anywho, I did my first class on Saturday morning, it was a Crossfit bootcamp they call RivFit.

My initial impression is that I love it, and will probably be sad when my 10 classes are up!!  As a gym rat, one of my weaknesses is my lack of stamina.  I do maybe 20 min of cardio every time I'm in the gym and generally take longer breaks than I need to between reps. So the cool part about Crossfit  was I got all the strength training, my workouts usually include, with a VERY healthy dose of cardio from the fact that we never stopped moving. Okay there was a 3 min break between the AMRAP's (can some crossfitter explain what that stands for, I forgot to ask).

So I got the class, (late.. shh! I got lost!) And joined the group on the green astro-turf you see in the background of the photo above.  We started off with a warm-up which consisted of a 400m run. Then some squats, burpees (the first of MANY), lunges, scorpions, and some other things I've forgotten.  We then partnered off and did a 15 min AMRAP of more burpees, and some exercises with a medicine balls. We had a 3 minute break (which I spent cursing myself for forgetting my water and stretching out my sore shoulders) before launching into a 10 min AMRAP with 25lb plates and more burpees.  At the end of this workout my shoulders and lats were BURNING!  I was positive I was going to want to cut my arms off by now, especially since I didn't have time to stretch!!  Crossfit ended at 11:15, and I was supposed to be showered, dressed and in DC for a baby shower by 1:00pm... Did I mention the Cross-fit gym is 30 min from my house? Okay, needless to say I was late, but I had a really cool gift (or so I like to think!).  I found this website earlier in the week and gifted the happy couple one of my own.

I had a busy weekend filled with lots of St. Patty's fun and foolishness courtesy of a friend's 30th birthday party. But good lord and am paying for it!!! 36 hours later and I'm still not 100%.  My quest for health and fitness means I don't drink like I used to, so my tolerance has gone WAAAAY down.... The sacrifices you make for your health, eh?  Ah well, work hard, play hard!! Right?

So, all in all, I really like crossfit, and might even join when my Groupon deal is over. I am a little sad, that I'm not sore, but that means 2 things.
1. that I'm more fit than I thought,
and
2. I have to push myself even harder this Sunday!

 So have you tried Cross-fit?  If so, how did you like it?

Signing up for more Cross-fit classes,
Candydiva04

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We found a gym!!

After hitting what seemed like every gym in the area (which it probably was!) we FINALLY settled on Gym number 2. The body builder gym!!  Its not 24 hours and I hate the locker room, but its really the best gym for us. Are you surprised? 'Cause you shouldn't be!

In other news, RR has decide this will be a cardio week for both of us. (WOOHOO!!) I was actually really sick of lifting.  I'm pretty sure that means my workout needs some changes, or else I need to get back into aerials ASAP, but it JUST.KEEPS.SNOWING!!!! UGH!!  So no aerials just yet for me.   :(  But I intend to make the most of this cardio week, so that hopefully when its over, I'll be sick of cardio! (yea right!)

So in other news, I've finally decided, after pigging out yesterday because it was Superbowl Sunday, that I'm going to buckle down and get back on track with my diet.  I've started logging my food on Myfitnesspal.com, if you're on there feel free to add me, I'm (obviously) Candydiva04!  My meals are open so you can see what I'm eating, good or bad.  But hopefully all good from now on.  I'm also going to start wearing my fitbit again.

What the Fitbit Ultra should look like

What my Fitbit looks like

I've thoroughly beaten mine up, as you can see... (and clearly need to cut my nails, YIKES!)  I had previously said I was going to get another tracker for the winter, but since I didn't and Fitbit released a new device that I can sync to my phone,  I might upgrade to the new Fitbit One or Flex.  We'll see.

Fitbit Flex

   

Fitbit One

In other news, I made a pizza for Superbowl Sunday. We typically, use whole wheat tortillas or those flat sandwich bread thingees (who's name has clearly escaped me, as evidenced by the fact that I called it a thingee), to make pizza.  However, I've been CRAVING real doughy pizza.  So I dusted off my bread machine, used the following dough recipe, and made a whole wheat crust. We topped it with tomato paste, some leftover baked chicken, turkey pepperoni and fat free cheese. It was delicious!

Bread Machine Pizza Dough With Whole Wheat Flour
http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-machine-pizza-dough-with-whole-wheat-flour-137143

1 1/3 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons yeast
Directions:

1.  Add ingredients in the order given into the bread machine pan. (my bread machine recommends that, I add the dry ingredients first, so I did that, however I did reserve the yeast for last)
2.  Start dough cycle. (On my machine this took 1.5 hours).
3.  Once the dough is done remove it from the pan onto a floured work surface.
4. Roll dough to fit the shape of your pan. This recipe makes two 14 inch round pizzas.
5. Brush lightly with olive oil and add toppings. You can hold this dough, with just the olive oil, for a couple of hours in the fridge covered in plastic wrap.
6. Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes.


Until next time, 

Candydiva04

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How to "Go Green"

My BFF, Tiff, and I have been swapping recipes and cooking tips, really, I'm just stealing her recipes, but it sounds much nicer when I say we're swapping, so I'm going to run with that.

Anyway, last time we talked about our diets and meal plans for the week, I mentioned that because RR has better eating habits than I do, I've been letting him rule the kitchen.  Otherwise we'd be eating junk, or junk disguised as healthy food.  So while I love having a man who cooks, (remind me to post his Ground turkey buffalo meatball recipe later, YUM!) it occasionally has its downsides.

The downside to him cooking is that more often than not, we aren't eating balanced meals.  Typically, its all protein, and little or no veggies.  In response, Tiff tells me to stop being lazy and cook more.  (Thanks Tiff!)  She was at least kind enough to follow that up, with this article on how to get more greens in your diet. The article suggests...

1. Stirring them into soup. I  don't eat much soup and when I do, its not homemade. So this won't work for me.

2. Slip greens into your chicken breast.  This one I LOVE since RR is VERY partial to chicken, this might be a great way to mix things up.

3. Blend leaves into your smoothie.  I was doing this for a while, and it was great, not really sure why I stopped.  CO at Fitness, Fashion Frank, posted this great smoothie recipe that her nephew brought home from school.  If its kid friendly, I'm sure adults will love it too!!  Its on my "To try" list.

4. Beat them into eggs.  Another great and practical idea.

5. Wrap your burger or sandwich with lettuce.  I think this one is slightly impractical for my lifestyle at the moment.  If I take a lettuce rapped sandwich to work, it'll be all soggy and gross by lunchtime. Since I generally buy bagged salads, this would require buying whole lettuce, strictly for weekend sandwiches.. not worth it. To me, but if it works for you, I'm all for it. 

Let me know if you're doing one or trying of these suggestions (especially the ones, I might have ruled out), I'm open to being persuaded! ;)

Hoping to "Go Green" soon, 

Candydiva04

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The Struggle

Today, is a "Struggle day", you the type of day where fitness is the FARTHEST thing from your mind, and even if you fight through and make it into the gym, you don't feel better even after you start working out. You literally have to just struggle through it until you've satisfied yourself (or your trainer) enough to go home... Well that's what today is for me, I'm seriously channeling Bruno Mars, his Lazy song is my anthem today. Its my day off and I slept in until RR literally dragged me out of bed, made me put on work out clothes and hit the gym. We've switched up my workouts so that they're more cardio based than strength based. But being groggy and being put the ringer of Robsanity workouts was NOT fun. I got through it, although not without a lot of whining and complaining, and some cursing after I hit myself in the tooth/newly tightened braces with a 5lb weight. OUUUUCH!

Anywho, thank goodness for RR, because even though I hated EVERY second of today's workout, I'm glad I got it in, Without him I'd probably still be in bed, eating a slice of rum cake I brought back from JA. Speaking of which, life is really messing up my fitness goals. I went on vacation last week, I think i was 140lbs when I left, and I was 148 when I got back. Miekspeak says its water weight from the plane ride. Which sounds funky but might be true since I hit the gym all week, ate reasonably well (spiked my post gym protein shake with Coconut Rum cream a few days this week) and was 142.6 yesterday morning. Not sure what I am today since i was too tired to even think about the scale when I was fighting RR to get back in bed this morning.

So when I have a struggle day, I have RR to motivate/force me to work out, but how do you deal with struggle days?

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Balancing Act

I recently did a “strange” thing, which isn’t really that strange if you know me, but if you’re a stranger reading this blog it is. I started a bakery. Almost a decade ago, someone asked me in an interview what my passion is? It took me several more years before I figured out that I was passionate about baking. Nothing brings me more peace or happiness than the art of creating something by hand that other people eat and enjoy. Even more so when, my baked goods are able to enhance someone’s special occasion, I would love to enhance my skillset to the point where I can do Wedding Cakes. Anyways, after years of people telling me I could and should sell my confections and me balking at it because I didn’t want the necessity of it to suck the fun out of it. However, I recently realized that as long as I don’t quit my day job, I really don’t have much to lose because if it starts sucking the fun out of baking for me, I can stop and go back to baking for leisure.

However, I would love, Love, LOVE for this business to be successful enough for me to open a storefront. Ideally, I’d open a bakery/coffee shop, maybe next to my RR and his brother’s auto boutique so that people waiting on their cars can eat, drink and hang out. But either way, it works out, it’s a dream I’d love to see come to fruition.

Why am I babbling about my bakery and love of baking on a fitness blog? Because eating test cakes and spoonful of batter to make sure the ingredients I occasionally add all willy nilly, actually make the batter taste the way I want it to, are KILLING my weight loss goals. I made some serious progress the week before I officially launched my bakery, now that it’s up & running, and I have a few orders and requests. I bake almost every day, and in the past week I’ve gained 3-4lbs. I also took 5 days off from the gym to hang out with a friend who was in town, but I’m wondering how I’m going to align my work out goals with the career goals associated with my 9-5, and the career goals associated with my new bakery. It might require me to start doing 2 a days, maybe some morning yoga while RR showers, and then my standard evening workout… and a few weekend work outs… I don’t know. But I’m going to have to find a way to make it work!

Today’s weigh in – 142.2

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