Fitness – Page 5 – Fervent Foodie

Beef Cake Mary

May 17, 2011 6 Comments

I’ve NEVER been into weightlifting. I’ve tried. I’ve researched. I’ve made spreadsheets. I even made a fancy pants powerpoint slideshow. To date, each of these tactics has failed. I just can’t get into it. I admit (somewhat shamefully) to the list of reasons why I thought I hated the idea of weightlifting:

1.) I (thought) I’d burn more calories doing cardio

2.) I didn’t want to get big and beefy cakey or she-manish

3.) It’s boring

4.) I don’t understand it

5.) If I don’t see results or some sort of numerical indicator of my success (i.e., miles ran, lbs lost), then it’s clearly not worth my time.

On and on.

Despite this apparent disdain for weightlifting, I HATE how weak my body is. I have internal anguish every time I have to ask for help carrying, lifting, opening, hauling etc. I’m a strong independent women, so why can’t I carry a 75 pound entertainment center by myself? Why can’t I open this friggin jar of banana peppers? Who says I can’t rotate a queen size mattress by myself? My baby muscles, that’s who.

For months I’ve been hearing about Body Pump. Body Pump is an full-body strength training class that utilizes a bar bell and “rockin music” … It sounded interesting, but my gut told me it wouldn’t hold my interest. When I finally got my YMCA membership lined up, I felt like the pass was burning a hole in my pocket. I HAD to try Body Pump. STAT.

This past Saturday was my very first class. I was pretty apprehensive, but I went in there and gave it my all (as shockingly little as that was). As I left class, I felt pretty excited. It went by crazy fast and it was definitely challenging. Two steps into my exit I realized my legs were not quite so excited. I was literally week in the knees. I had to physically concentrate on stabilizing myself so that they didn’t give out from under me!

When I got home, I jumped in the shower and quickly realized washing my hair was extremely difficult. It took everything I had to lift my arms high enough to touch the top of my head… And all I had, whelp, it wasn’t enough. I actually had to scrunch my head down to meet my hands half way. Later, I realized sitting was difficult. As in sitting in a chair, sitting on the toilet… actually anything that involved any sort of movement was difficult… borderline impossible actually.

The next morning I went shopping, and actually went home EARLY because my arms were too tired to carry bags. WHAT?!?!?

Holy hell I was sore.

This much SORE must mean I did something right. Maybe there is something to this weightlifting thing after all…

to be continued….

Fitness, Recipes

Strength Training & a Breakfast Sandwich

January 15, 2011 8 Comments

Last spring, I found a new love in running, and shortly thereafter I found out I have crappy knees that can’t handle too much impact.

Sadness… Sad smile

Then, a few months back, I joined a gym.. That’s right, a gym. And since then I’ve pretty much become BFF’s with the elliptical. Feeling like a hamster is better than feeling like a sloth. Am I right?

While it feels good to get some cardio in during the week, I noticed I’ve been feeling kind of weak lately. Slightly feeble. (could be the cold weather?) Plus my posture has definitely declined in the past couple of years, and that is not a trend I’d like to continue on.

With all this weighing on my mind, in my down time over the past few weeks I’ve been working on putting together my first-ever strength training routine. I’ve NEVER EVER been into weightlifting or any of the machines at the gym. It’s just, well, too complicated. Plus, I’m a numbers gal. If I can’t see the numbers adding away right in front of my face, I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything.

So one morning, I tried out a few different exercises I found in the pile of fitness magazines I’ve been hoarding in my office and was immediately discouraged. I just really didn’t know what I was doing, I had no plan of attack, and it felt like a big fat waste of time.

Well that is until I woke up the next morning and literally had to lift my legs out of the bed because they were so sore. Perhaps it is possible that doing these silly strength training moves DOES actually impact your body…

Perhaps.

The next day, I went through ALL of the fitness magazines I’ve been accumulating over the past year and snipped out the strength-training exercises that looked promising. Using this data, I pieced together the exercises I actually understood and/or those that appeared somewhat feasible and that could be done in the comfort of my own home…

Thennnnn I found images and instructions for each exercise and then decided to take things to a whole new level of crazy by organizing all the data into a PowerPoint presentation.

What? You don’t put your strength training workouts into PowerPoint?

Open-mouthed smile

After ALL of this research and organization, I had about 30 exercises but still no plan of attack. I knew what the moves looked like, how to do them, and… well, that was about it. So I sent my PowerPoint to the BF, who has a heck of a lot more experience in this area than I do, and asked him to please help me because I’m to the point of extreme frustration even though I had found pictures for each exercise, detailed descriptions, and picked out a really pretty color scheme!!!!

Hehe…

Pretty, right?

Luckily, he obliged and did help and also did agree that it was a pretty color scheme…. (your darn tootin it’s pretty) all while I got to work on breakfast!

FINALLY!!

Cue the turkey pepperoni breakfast sandwich please!

Easy peasy, I tell ya. This is 1 egg seasoned with S&P topped with 4 slices turkey pepperoni and 1 tbsp reduced fat Mexican cheese:

My cheese was being stubborn and would not melt, so I popped a lid on for a bit to coerce it.

Mellllltttttt I say!

Then I slid the egg onto a toasted whole grain English muffin and added some Ketchup and some Franks Red Hot:

How ridiculously good does this look?

Mmmmmmmm….

Get in my belly.

Smash em together:

Annnnddd the sandwich was gone 13 seconds later.

Stats on the sandwich: 221 calories, 31g carbs, 9g fat, 15g protein, 8g fiber

Fitness, My Favs, Ramblings

Big Fat Lie.

November 16, 2010 10 Comments

The first time I did it, I told my self never again. Life lesson had been learned.

…

…..

But then there was that second time. I slipped. It happens. I swore to myself it was the last time. If I hadn’t learned my lesson the first time around, the second time surely was the final straw.

…

…….

Or so I thought.

……

Today, I went against my word. I broke that promise to myself.

…

……………………..

Today, for the third time in my life, I did the unthinkable.

………

Today, I signed up for a gym membership.

Oh dear.

Fitness

The best laid plans

October 26, 2010 7 Comments

Coming off of ANOTHER big tax deadline followed by ANOTHER vacation, my body is craving some normalcy and home-cooked meals. I’ll admit, eating out is probably my favorite activity, but enough is enough already!

When I sat down Sunday afternoon to plan out my groceries for the week I was sad to see that I had 1 networking breakfast, 3 networking lunches, and 2 networking dinners this week! Argh!

Making healthy choices at restaurants is really difficult for me. Typically, I just order whatever I want when I am out to eat and then make sure to eat a normal size portion rather than the entire trough of food they bring to the table. When I am looking for a healthy meal at a restaurant, I have the hardest time making a decision. Even if I go with the “safe” salad option, it’s practically impossible to know what sort of calories/fats/carbs they’ve crammed into every nook and cranny of my leafy greens. I guess part of the problem is that I’m an anal accountant by nature. I need to see the numbers!

Despite being over-networked this week, I was super excited to attend my first CLE Blogger meet up Monday night! I made the trek from Akron to Cleveland to meet up with a group of lovely ladies at L’Albatros.

The group consisted of: Michelle of All Lacquered Up, Feeding Maybelle, Kali of Finishing Firsts, Suzanne of life on Mars, Alicia of Poise in Parma, Shannon of The Daily Balance, ME!, and Katie of Healthy Heddleston.

A special thank you to Alicia for organizing the meet up (and for sharing the lovely photo).

L’Albatros was FABULOUS. The wait staff was SUPER attentive and the ambiance was pure swank:

(photo from http://www.albatrosbrasserie.com/)

The best part of the meetup was not the food (gasp!) but getting to meet such great women. I’ve said over and over again on the blog that there is something uniquely energizing about entering a room full of chatting women. At one moment during dinner I paused and looked around the table—each of us were actively engaged in the conversation and the noise in the room reminded me of the loud rumble you hear and feel as a jumbo jet flies over head.

There were a TON of great options on the menu, but I ended up going with the Chicken Breast with Goat Cheese and mashed potatoes. Yes, goat cheese AND mashed potatoes. Insert drooling here. Oh and there were sundried tomatoes…..

Comforting yet swanky:

This was an absolutely delicious dinner. The mashed potatoes literally melted away in my mouth and the chicken was moist and super flavorful. I’ll definitely be coming back to L’Albatros!

Another great aspect of the restaurant was the cheese show. When you ask for a plate of cheese, they give you a PLATE. OF. CHEESE.

Notice that two of the cheeses must be eaten with a spoon. Mind = blown 🙂

QUESTION: For those of you out there who have a lot of work meetings that involve food, how do go about making healthy choices?

Fitness

I’m doing this for ME.

August 18, 2010 16 Comments

Last night, I set my morning alarm for 6am to give myself ample time to get an interval training session in. This morning, after hitting the snooze several times, I rolled out of bed at 6:40. All the while, I was mentally debating with myself. I’m too tired to run… I’ll do the elliptical after work… I’ve got sooo much work to do, I should just head into work early.. on and on.

I walked into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Why was I trying to prevent myself from exercising? I stood in the bathroom for a good 5 minutes, and finally said (out loud) I am doing this for ME. Not for my job, not as my duty, not for any of you lovely readers out there or any of my friends and family. I am doing this for ME. That was the swift kick in the butt I needed. Out the door I went!

Stats on the 3 x 3 interval:

As you can see, I wasn’t able to do the last interval of running. I was feeling some stiffness/tension in my knee so I decided to walk it. Honestly, I’d be happy with myself even if I walked for the whole 30 minute straight. At least I got my toosh out the door!

Breakfast #1

During last night’s cooking bonanza, I cooked up 3 servings of scrambled eggs & roasted broccoli for B#1 Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

This batch consisted of 9 egg whites, 3 whole eggs, a splash of water, S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, and Frank’s Red Hot.

I divided the scrambled eggs and broccoli evenly into three containers, one of which I enjoyed at my desk this morning:

Stats on B#1: 163 Calories, 12g carbs, 5g fat, 19g protein, 2g fiber

Breakfast #2

At the Healthy Living Summit this past weekend, the conversation inevitably turned to overnight oats. Many of the ladies I talked to said they prefer to use whole oats over quick oats. When I told them I preferred quick oats because of the awesome creamy consistency, Andrea @ Can you stay for dinner asked if it was like Muesli. Whelp, I’ve never had muesli before so last night I picked some up at the grocery store!

The back of the package has a recipe for “Swiss Oats” which consisted of 1/4 cup muesli + 1/2 cup liquid (milk, water, etc). So I went with:

1/4 cup Muesli
1/2 cup Almond Breeze Unsweetened Almond Milk
1 tsp brown sugar
Sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I added 3 large strawberries + 1/3 cup blueberries to the mix:

This was pretty tasty! I do prefer my quick oats though.. but I definitely want to give the Muesli a shot warm instead of cold. Mmmm I can picture myself eating warm museli on a cold morning… speaking of which, who’s ready for Fall? I am!

Stats on B#2: 189 Calories, 37g carbs, 5g fat, 5g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Also during the Tuesday-Night-Cookfest, I cooked up a burger for lunch today. The burger consisted of:

1/2 lb 95% lean ground beef
1/4 cup chopped red onion (I usually use white onion, but didn’t have any on hand)
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

I put the burger on a pepperdige farm 7 grain deli flat, then topped it with ketchup, mustard, tomato, onion, banana pepper rings, and a big handful of alfafa sprouts. On the side, I had some cucumber salad (half a sliced cucumber + dried dill + white vinegar + water):

I don’t think I’ve ever put sprouts on a burger before… But you can’t deny that this looks AWESOME:

Stats on Lunch: 340 Calories, 35g carbs, 6g fat, 33g protein, 8g fiber

Snack Time!

Today, I tried out the Chai Spice Kardea all natural cholestorol management bar:

For some reason, chai always reminds me of pumpkins! I LOVE pumpkins, and I loved this bar. I just wish the flavors were a little STRONGER.

Speaking of things I’m doing for ME, I bought my ticket to FitBloggin today 🙂

QUESTION: Do you guys ever “mentally” debate with yourself over whether or not to work out? How do you get past it?

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