What I'm eating...

RR is one of those people who can eat the same thing day in and day out, I am not.  So last Sunday in a fit of "rebellion", I cooked.

I broke out the Crockpot and tried out this Cuban Braised Beef & Peppers  recipe from yumsugar.com

SLOW COOKER CUBAN BRAISED BEEF AND PEPPERS

Ingredients

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 red bell peppers, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 onion, cut into 8 wedges
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 1/2 pounds flank steak, cut crosswise into thirds
1 cup long-grain white rice
1 avocado, sliced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

Directions

1. In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, oregano, cumin, 1½ teaspoons salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Nestle the steak among the vegetables. Cook, covered, until the meat is tender and pulls apart easily, on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 7 to 8 hours.
2. Twenty-five minutes before serving, cook the rice according to the package directions.
3. Using two forks, shred the beef and mix it into the cooking liquid. Serve with the rice and top with the avocado and cilantro.

Serves 4.

Being a Crock Pot recipe, its was VERY easy to make, but hard to resist once it started cooking, and the aroma filled my house!  8 hours later I had a delicious plate of this! You'll notice that I used brown rice instead of the long grain white rice, the recipe called for.

It made a lot for 2 people, later in the week, we re-purposed it with 100% whole wheat flour tortillas into tacos, fajitas and burritos.  It was delicious, the RR has taken to calling it "Chipotle" Which is a HIGH compliment.

I also plan to mix up my lunch later this week with this

5-Minute Turkey, Avocado, and Hummus Wrap

Ingredients

1 whole wheat tortilla
2-3 tablespoons red pepper hummus
3 slices low-sodium deli turkey
1/4 avocado, sliced
Pickle slices

Directions

Spread tortilla with hummus, then layer on turkey, avocado, and pickle slices. Roll, then slice. Makes 1 wrap.

I'll probably use the Primo Taglio Oven Roasted Chicken from our local deli, in lieu of the turkey, purely out of taste preference, but this seems like a awesome alternative to my standard boring sandwich.

Until next time,

Candydiva04

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Goldilocks and the 3 (more) Gyms

So the gym search is still on going... Who knew picking a gym would be this hard!! We hit Gym #3 earlier this week, this gym is probably the newest one around so I had high hopes for it.  We walked in and it was... small.  Very nice and clean, but..teeny tiny, so tiny, it didn't even have a dedicated locker room.  Small wouldn't be this big of a problem except in this case small meant limited options for working out muscle groups.  The pros, it wasn't crowded, even right after work, is open 24 hours, and has state of the art equipment (treadmills with built in TV's!).  The cons,it was small,  it had no pull up/dip assist machine, and did I mention that this gym was small?!?!?  RR and I quickly realized this gym, is NOT going to work for us.

We tried to hit Gyms 4 and 5 this week, but they're also 24 hour gyms that only have staff during certain times, which unfortunately were not the times we tried to visit.  I'm pretty sure gym#4 is off the list since it seems both locations are pretty inconvenient for us.  I have high hopes for gym #5,  since  it seems a good chunk of the people from our gym are either joining Gym #5 or Gym #2...  But we'll have to hold off on making a decision for another week or so.  :(

I attended  a Fit Body Boot Camp Class this morning, had a great experience with it, but I'll have to tell you about it another day.  Its time to stretch!!

Hoping to make a Gym decision soon,
Candydiva04

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The Gym Search

So I am such a slacker. It took RR asking about the blog to make me remember that I haven't posted in ages. Basically, I fell off the wagon and stopped posting, and it took me such a long time to catch up with the wagon and get back on that I forgot I even had a blog! SMH

So I'm back, as is some of my weight. I buckled down on my diet before my birthday and dropped down to 135lbs then went on vacation to an all inclusive resort and lost my mind. I was 148 when I got back on my scale. I've been yo-yo-ing ever since, but I haven't had the will power to get my diet in order, either.

The fact that my gym is closing and RR and I have been shopping for a new gym doesn't help. Finding the right gym feels a little like being Goldie locks from Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears.  There are no franchise gyms like Golds or Bally's near by, not that I have any interest, but RR likes the idea. The Y(MCA) is popular here but overpriced and chock full of people in there for social reasons so that's out. We've narrowed down the search to about 5 gyms, RR made a spreadsheet, lol.

Gym#1 - we both hated. Its past our neighborhood so we'd have to fight the urge to just go home after work. But it was small and had a weird layout. Not mention the creepy guy who oogled me, and the crappy treadmills.  RR liked some of the equipment they had that our gym didn't, like the laying down ham curl machine, which left my hams SUPER sore for 4 days. I literally couldn't straighten my legs! RR liked the power squat machine. But one day of working out there was enough to rule it out.

Gym#2- My fave. The clientele is nothing but serious fitness folk, no annoying resolutioners. There are several competitive bodybuilders/fitness/figure athletes who train there, plus some of my fave ppl from my old gym are also transitioning there. Its semi close to the house and I like the vibe/atmosphere. RR's biggest complaint was a lack water fountain, and he had a bad dumb bell experience. And it had "less equipment" than our old gym. I disagree.. I think it just had different equipment but that's his opinion.

That's all we've checked out thus far, we have 2, maybe 3 more to go. The 3rd one might get skipped because they haven't returned a single call, email or fb message RR has sent...

We'll keep you posted!!!

Candydiva04

P.S- that last post about spiking my protein shakes made me literally laugh out loud and shake my head.  Oh the mistakes we make!

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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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Kicking and Screaming

The security guard at work who sees RR and I entering and leaving the building together everyday, made a comment to me about how I'm losing weight and looking good. True to form, I jokingly responded along the lines of "Well you know... I do what I can..." He laughed at me and almost immediate turned to RR and said "Its clear you're taking good care of her, keep it up". After some ribbing about why he attributed my weight loss success to RR and not my own hard work, we parted ways.

Later in the car, I realized that I really can't take too much credit for my fitness success/progress. I mean I can but... to do so would downplay AAAALLLLL of the the hard work and effort RR puts into helping me achieve my fitness goals. And that wouldn't be fair to the man who drags me (occasionally) kicking and screaming to the gym everyday, and (usually) refrains from rolling his eyes at me when I say things like "Man, I feel soo much better now that we've worked out, aren't you glad I made you come?" as we leave the gym. It goes without saying that, I'm a horrible workout partner, I complain about everything from his weight choices and constantly pushing me to do a seemingly infinite number of "just one more rep", to trying to get me to making healthier food choices (more protein, less cupcakes). He really does take great care of me, and I'm lucky to have him as a work out buddy/personal trainer/boyfriend.

So loyal readers do you have an RR in your life? Someone who will push you to reach your goals even when all you want to do is go home and pour yourself a glass of wine. If not, I sincerely urge you to go find one!! Because you won't make any progress at home on your couch, regardless of what those diet pills tell you!! Trust me, I've tried almost all of them! ;)

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