Arms & abs

Despite my injury, we went to the gym yesterday and I was determined to get my heart rate up by doing weights and abs. I was successful with my goal and happy to get moving, even if it wasn’t by doing any cardio. I focused on my arms and abs since anything with my legs was pretty much not possible (except leg press with my good leg and one hip exercise).

I ate steel cut oats with berries while reading Whole Living before we went to the gym.

I snacked on some greek yogurt when we got home from the gym and then I had a big salad for lunch. I added broccoli, red peppers, tomatoes, cottage cheese and mozarella cheese to a bed of spinach. I mentioned my renewed love for cottage cheese in Friday’s post. The other thing I’ve been doing lately is adding it to salads since it’s something I discovered from our salad bar at work.

Topped it all with Green Goddess Annie’s dressing. Not quite as good as just the “Goddess dressing” but it was still tasty.

Dessert was a Reese’s egg. I hadn’t had one this year, so I was tempted by the 70% off sale on them at Target this week.

Yesterday’s photo a day challenge included capturing “how I was feeling.” Instead of a semi-sad face portrait, Craig suggested I take a picture of my foot since I was feeling defeated with my injury. It was a nice day out and I couldn’t be active.

While making dinner, I drank some Titanic Lakefront Brewery beer. It’s been in our fridge since 2009, so it was about time to drink it. I tend to drink beer more when the temps get warm, but otherwise I am more of a wine girl.

Anyway, I figured it was also time to drink it since this weekend is the 100th anniversary of the sinking.

I cooked up some quinoa for us for dinner. I added tofu topped with soy sauce to my dish with roma tomatoes. Craig added chicken pieces to his.

I’ve missed taking pictures with my Canon DSLR, so I got it out this weekend and will try to get back into using it more often instead of just for special occasions like vacations. Inevitability, I shot some cute pictures of the cats, so I’ll share those. If you hate cats, I’m sorry.

Here’s Karma, who is usually the one I take the most pictures of because he is usually the silly one.

The rest are of Tanzi, who was the comedian this weekend. He was biting his comb after Craig cut the cats’ nails.

I didn’t go anywhere yesterday and felt pretty sleepy all day. We’re going to get out of the house after lunch to head to Penzey’s (free spice redemption, yay), Starbucks to get a free drink by handing in an empty bag and to Barnes and Noble to look around. I hope the storms that are supposed to come through this afternoon aren’t too bad! They were really loud last night.

Icing is paradise with Paradice packs

When you have an injury of any kind, icing can be paradise if you have the right ice pack (a bag of frozen veggies or fruit is the opposite of this, by the way, as that is all I have used in the last couple of weeks).

Ever since I sprained my ankle at work three weeks ago, pain keeps cropping up and I need ice to help subside the pain and inflammation.

Thanks to the nice people at Paradice, I tried out their awesome ice packs over the last couple of days. They sent me one for my ankle/foot (model #p150) and knee (model #p300). According to their website, they have packs for every area of your body and even different sizes for children and adults.

Haribo Frogs, ich liebe dich

I happen to be a healthy living blogger who loves German candy. Chocolate and gummies are weaknesses. I went to a grocery story after my physical therapy appointment this afternoon and I know they have Haribo Frogs there. I have not purchased this since maybe spring of this year. I couldn’t resist the temptation today.

Haribo Frogs

Heaven on Earth is Starbucks’s Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

I woke up this morning to lots of pain in my right ankle and could not even sleep in certain positions because it hurt so bad. I also was very happy when I woke up, as the program I coordinated last night went wonderfully. Over 300 people was the most we have had attend this program and it truthfully made me a little nervous, as we had to change some things to adapt for that many people. I got many comments about how great it went (including from the biggest boss of all-our President, my own boss and a couple of customers). Phew!

So, I got up, ate a breakfast of blueberries and cream instant oats and coffee (wanted to cook stovetop oats, but could not even stand on my foot at that point)…

And then iced for a while.

I have a fractured left ankle that was treated with physical therapy this past spring. I sprained my right ankle yesterday while getting out of my car at work. I was parked on this slope in a spot I normally don’t park in and as I stepped out, my ankle twisted, I fell onto the pavement and hit my left knee and left elbow into the ground. Luckily, I fell in sort of a smart way, because I could have actually done more damage to my arms otherwise. I fell yet again in the office in front of my co-workers. At that point, my one co-worker said that I had to stop moving and just relax. I had been on my feet for a solid three hours, just walking everywhere, plus my hour and a half workout, so I think my body was tired and reacted with the sprained ankle. I am really bummed. Gym time will now consist of biking and weights, mostly arms. I guess I am also disappointed that now I have two bad ankles that are in so much pain when I hurt them.

Craig and I ran errands today and I wore my lovely ankle brace out. It did help a lot and I experienced little pain, since I could not move my foot to the left or right. I just took very careful steps!

We went to two pet stores to check out gates. We have a major problem with our cats waking us up at 3 a.m. and such lately. We currently use a big piece of cardboard to block the hallway, but they get through that with no problem. None of the pet stores had what we wanted, so we’ll be getting a tall baby gate to try out.

At Petco, I had fun taking pictures of random things:

Cute birds (I grew up with pet birds-cockatiels and I visited with some of those too)

Dewey! Cutest cat story ever! I highly recommend this book for any cat lovers out there.

After Petco, it was time to sit and have a late lunch. There isn’t much food in the house and since my bum foot didn’t allow for a grocery shopping trip, we ate out. Craig loves Qdoba (well and so do I) but I wasn’t feeling it today. I had a yummy Veggie sub at Jimmy John’s.

Then it was time for what I called heaven on earth. We went to Barnes and Noble to look through magazines and around the store. I wanted a nice warm drink from Starbucks and was going to go with a Pumpkin Spice Latte, but opted to try something new, the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. Oh my deliciousness! To keep it a little healthier, I requested skim milk because I wanted the whip cream on top, which ended up being a nice “pillow” for the yummy caramel and salt.

This is Starbucks’s description on the web:
Hot chocolate with mocha sauce and toffee nut syrup, topped with sweetened whipped cream, a caramel drizzle and sprinkled with our sea salt and Hawaiian Turbinado sugar topping.

Craig told me he would just take a few sips. Of course, once the yummy flavors hit his mouth, he wanted more and more. We both agreed it was probably one of our favorite drinks ever from there. When Craig took the last sip and didn’t warn me he was going to do that, I literally pouted. I’ll have to order this again over the winter. I highly recommend it if you are looking to try something new at Starbucks. I also want to try to recreate it at home sometime.

I looked through Natural Health and Women’s Health magazines. I had read the November issue of Natural Health at the gym yesterday, but had to leave it there for someone else to read as I didn’t own the copy. I found so many great things mentioned in there and loved the magazine overall. Reading through it again at Barnes and Noble, I copied down about twenty various items from the magazine into my notes section of my iPod touch.  I also looked through some cookbooks. Then I saw this and it made me smile. David Sedaris is one of my favorite authors. I have read all of his books except the newest one, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. My favorite is Me Talk Pretty One Day.

I have been blogging for over an hour now, so it’s time to get off of here and enjoy my Saturday evening. Have a good night!

I’m back!

After two really busy days, I am back in blogging action! Here’s a recap of my food over the last few days:

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Breakfast-Strawberry Chobani with protein granola and pumpkin bread with best life spread and of course, coffee

Lunch-black bean burger with chipolte mayo and a fruit cup (bought at work)

Dinner–don’t remember what I ate.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Breakfast–Strawberry Chobani (which I just learned scores very well on the Nuval scoring scale) with granola

After getting back from a sweaty workout at the gym, I was hungry for some protein before taking a shower (I did almost a half hour on the Elliptical, 15 on the bike and a full circuit of weights). So, I grabbed a Larabar. Yum! I ate it while checking my work e-mail and responding to a bunch of people.

Then I saw my hair and thought to myself, I need new workout headbands that don’t move while I workout so my hair does not look awful like this by the time I get home. Anyone want to send me some samples (that I could review) and I could do a giveaway too? Or any recommendations out there? I was thinking about trying Lululemon’s version, but I also have seen some other versions on blogs.

Not a pretty sight, huh?

After showering my messy hair, I quickly ate lunch and got ready to hit Sam’s Club for the biggest shopping trip I probably will ever do there in my life (I hope).

Lunch

After an hour and 15 minutes at Sam’s Club, my poor Fit was full and I had to have help out to the car. You see, my boss hurt himself on Thursday and I had to go shopping for my program at work on Friday. He usually does the shopping for this program. I had to buy food for over 300 people, including snack and breakfast, plus food for the staff to eat before working the night. I literally had a full flat bed at Sam’s that I had to put on hold at the front of the store and went back to get another cart full of food. Stuff was falling off of the flatbed. Insane, huh? I got the weirdest looks at the store. I just wanted to get out of there so badly.

What my car looked like after a $660 trip to Sam’s Club (and to think, I still had to go to another store after this exhausting trip and buy $75 worth of more food).

It was as full as when I had to move all of my stuff back from California.

Let’s just say that I never want to do that again. To think, after that insane trip all by myself, then I had to work and be on my feet for the next 8 hours straight, or really 10 hours straight if you don’t count sitting for two minutes as a break. Oh and I had to walk on a freshly sprained ankle.

Next, I’ll post separately about today.