Y-Triple Threat and Tempeh

I tried a new group exercise class after work tonight. It’s called Y-Triple Threat. The teacher said that the class was setup like the Tabata one in the last session, so I was kind of excited as I had been wanting to try Tabata for a while now.

Here is the class description from the YMCA’s website:

Knock your socks off with this three-tier total body workout! Participants will work through a combination of exercises encompassing Cardio, Strength and Core. This class offers variety and modifications for all fitness levels.

It was a fun, but tough class. I did find myself really sweaty and red at one point and had to run for an extra sip of water. It felt good to get my butt kicked though!

I feel like my exercise routine has been too boring lately, so it was nice to switch things up tonight.

I came home and knew exactly what I would have for dinner–tempeh. I love this Lightlife flax kind I got at Whole Foods. It’s definitely been the best tempeh I have tried so far. (Sorry for the yellow photo).

I cooked it in soy sauce and had it with a side of asparagus and a berry protein smoothie.

I really like this protein powder. It doesn’t taste chalky or thick like some others do.

I had better luck with curling my hair yesterday. We went to my in-laws’ house for dinner, so I thought I would change things up with my hairdo. They all liked my hair a lot.

I can even report that I slept on my curls last night and they still looked good this morning, so I didn’t wash my hair. I just dry shampooed it and refreshed some of the front curls. A co-worker also commented on my curls and wondered how I got them to look like they did. Love having a new style to experiment with!

On the bus ride into work this morning, I decided that I’m giving up on The Tiger’s Wife. Just can’t get into the book and I am about 35% through it. I have plenty of other things to read! Life’s too short to read bad books.

Any book suggestions for me? I have a bunch of stuff to read, but has anything grabbed your attention lately?

I’m only two episodes into the series, but I am loving Downton Abbey so far! I am off to catch another episode now before bedtime.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday evening!

Body Fat Test

Did you watch the Grammys last night? I don’t usually get so into them, but I was this year. Maybe it’s my love for Adele and her beautiful voice? I am so happy she won six awards!

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I also loved Katy Perry’s performance because her new song, Part of Me, is fantastic. This is coming from someone who is totally not a Katy Perry fan at all.

My other favorite part of the night was this Chipotle commercial that aired during the show. Did you see it!?

I had a pretty good Monday. I went to a co-worker’s office to pick something up and I forgot that he had a body fat tester that he brought in for us to try out.

It was an Omron brand tester like this one.

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How did I do? Not sure I want to share my specific body fat reading and BMI, but let’s just say I fall in the normal range. I am not far away from the fitness range, so I have a goal to work towards!

Supposedly, this test is better than the caliber one. Have you had your body fat tested recently? Were you surprised at your results?

For dinner tonight, I had some yummy tempeh that I got at Whole Foods yesterday. I cooked it with soy sauce as instructed and it was great! I put it in half of a tortilla with some shredded cheese. I also had a little of this Odwalla drink.

My dessert was a cup full of strawberries with some nutella. Totally decadent tasting! Eek, maybe my body fat test should have motivated me to stay away from nutella.

I went to the gym tonight for a quick workout–walking on the treadmill/track, a great rowing session and some weights and abs.

Time to go because it’s nearly bedtime!

All checked up

Between yesterday and today, I went to two different doctors for checkups. I am glad I got the appointments over with and I’m all checked up for now. I am going to see a new Gastroenterologist in September and I am looking forward to that appointment, because I heard the new doc I am seeing spends a lot of time with his patients. After being sick a lot with colitis, despite all of the medicine I am on, I want someone to look into my condition a bit further than my current doc has. I even went so far as to request my medical records from my old doctor so I can do my research and read through my history so I can be a better informed patient.

Right now, I am taking a break from packing. I am headed to my parents’ house tonight to stay overnight. Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to Madison for the Farmer’s Market, then to New Glarus, and hopefully to the outlets at the end of the day. I am looking forward to a little day trip and to spending time with my mom!

I tried a new cereal for breakfast. I went to Whole Foods after my doc appt. last night and picked up lots of goodies! I had a coupon for the Yogi brand of granola or cereal, so I tried this one.

I loved the flavor–natural, yet delicious tasting! The cherry flavor was subtle, but blended together beautifully with the almond.

At work, I treated myself to an iced coffee and I snacked on a banana.

Lunch was the rest of the quinoa, chickpeas, and Mmmm sauce. I also had a Strawberry Banana Chobani.

I left work early for the doc. The doctor and I had a funny conversation about my last name. Turns out that she had been saying my name for the last two days. I can’t say why for privacy reasons, but the stories she told me had me cracking up. She always eases my nervousness and makes me laugh. We also had a nice discussion about greek yogurt. She lit up when I said I eat a lot of that and I don’t think I have to worry about my calcium intake because of the amount of dairy I eat.

When my doc appt. was over, I headed to Target. I didn’t grab a basket on purpose. I found too many items, per usual, and I was almost dropping things on my way to the cash register. That was better than throwing things into a cart and spending over $50 like I normally do there. I finally purchased some stainless steel canisters for my flour, sugar, etc. I have been going back and forth for months about the OXO ones and this type. I like how these look and maybe someday when we have a bigger kitchen, they can sit on the counter too.

Dinner was a whole wheat bun with temeph, red onions, provolone cheese, goddess dressing, and some mayo.

I also had some tomatoes on the side from our garden.

Here’s the big bowl of goodies we picked tonight.

Time to get off of here, take a walk with Craig, and then hit the road for my parents’ house!

Have a great start to your weekend!

Can’t get enough tempeh!

I actually had a pretty good Monday! I wasn’t too tired either.

Susan of The Great Balancing Act had an even better Monday.

I am sure most of you have heard about the awesome fundraiser Janetha at meals & moves put together for Susan. I did bid on a few things, but didn’t win anything and couldn’t keep up with the bids while at work. I was just following the twitter stream on the Great Fundraising Act and saw that they are nearly up to $25,000 raised! That is so wonderful! I am so happy to be a part of this supportive and giving community. Now Susan can hopefully cover the cost of her meds down the road so she can bravely battle cancer.

I just started reading Susan’s blog about a month ago and I have teared up a couple of times reading her posts. She writes so beautifully and honestly.

The rest of this post seems boring compared to the excitement that the Great Fundraising Act created among the blog community today.

Breakfast was Mom’s Best Naturals cereal.

The ingredients aren’t too bad. I found it at our local grocery store, Pick N’ Save, and had never seen the brand before.

I didn’t take a picture of my lunch, but I had a big spinach salad with warmed up tofu, grape tomatoes, green peppers and feta. Yeah, basically what I had yesterday without the mushrooms. I was so full, that all I could eat after that was two Back to Nature peanut butter creme cookies.

My after work snack was Chobani non-fat greek yogurt, berries, and homemade double coconut granola. This tasted divine together. I know what I am having for breakfast tomorrow!

I also dug into some Food Should Taste Good Toasted Sesame chips (I am picking the giveaway winner tomorrow evening, so get your entries in)!

And dinner will look familiar because it’s what I had last night (except for the cooked green beans).

That’s right, the tempeh spinach tomato sandwich will probably be one that keeps appearing on my blog because it’s so good that I can’t get enough of it.

I cooked up some green beans from our garden and made them the way my cooking teacher did in class last week. I boiled the water, threw them in for about three minutes, put some olive oil and sea salt on top and they were perfect! Craig tried one and didn’t even mind that they weren’t as cooked as he likes his.

I took my usual pictures of the cats being funny tonight.

Right before I snapped this picture of Tanzi, he was making an Elvis face that had Craig and I cracking up.

He looked like he said “thannk you verrrry much” with his lip curled up. Too bad I couldn’t snap a pic fast enough to capture it!

Karma was up to his weird antics sitting on the top of the recliner. It drives Craig nuts (and makes him slouch), but we still think it’s cute. I have seen pictures of other cats doing this, but this is a recent thing for Karma.

I’ve been keeping up with reading blogs by using this iPod/phone app called Feeddler.

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It’s like Google Reader but better. When I am on a computer, I still enjoy using Google Reader. Reading blogs on my iPod through the Google app just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

And to end this lengthy post–my workout today included a 25 minute walk on the treadmill while watching HGTV. I lifted some weights and used the Freemotion machines tonight in addition to the normal machines I usually use. I could really feel the Freemotion working my arm muscles!

When I got back from the gym, Craig and I went on a walk around the neighborhood.

Buonasera tutti!

I <3 Frozen Yogurt!

Can’t believe the weekend is almost over! Where did it go?

Breakfast was non-fat plain Chobani with raspberries and blueberries. It was a little too bland for me, so I added some Bonne Maman jam too. Is it just me or does Chobani seem thicker than it used to be? I was so full after this big bowl!

Lunch was a spinach salad with mushrooms, grape tomatoes, herbed tofu, and feta cheese.

Then it was time for us to head out of the house. We took a drive by the house that my sister-in-law bought last week! It was cute and in a nice area. I’m excited to see the inside now.

After that, we went to Mayfair Mall to check out the laptops.

I’ll definitely be getting one of these very soon. The reason that I didn’t buy it today was because I want to clean some items off of my current iBook a bit more before having the Apple store transfer items to the new computer.

I played with Photobooth for a while.

Then it was ice cream/frozen yogurt time in Wauwatosa!

Craig and I are signed up to get a free scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins for our birthdays. He picked out cherry and it was tasty!

Right near Baskin Robbins, there is a new frozen yogurt place! It just opened in June of this year. After becoming a bit obsessed with frozen yogurt in Florida, we longed to have a place like Menchie’s or Pinkberry in Wisconsin. We finally have it with Yo Mama!

Here’s how it works:

Craig always goes for the fruity combinations and I go for chocolate, caramel, etc. Today, I chose Dulce de Leche and Cake Batter swirl. I topped it with heath bar crumble, brownie bites, & cookie dough. Fantastic combination!

Our total for two came to $8.31, which this numbers freak got excited about because my birthday is 8/31 and I love when it pops up unexpectedly at a cash register like that. I know, I am a dork. The yogurts were 45 cents per ounce.

The interior is cute and reminded us of Menchie’s in Orlando, Florida.

Love the wood on the exterior.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I could open up my own frozen yogurt place and just eat it all the time that way.

We walked down the street and I was reminded that I still need to check out the French Cafe Le Reve and the olive oil place next door sometime.

What a great afternoon with Craig!

I needed to burn off some of the frozen yogurt, so after a little cat nap with Karma sprawled out on my lap, I hit the gym. I biked for 25 minutes (my ankle is not in tip top shape again, so biking is mainly what I have been doing lately) and lifted weights. I even went to the “men’s weight” area and used the barbells in there to do some Body Pump moves. I was so proud that I broke through my fear of going in that area. Now I’ll never be scared again (I hope).

This is so wrong, but while I meditated, I started craving a BLT. Well, we didn’t have any bacon, so I was imagining a tempeh BLT sandwich and that’s what I made!

Like frozen yogurt, tempeh reminds me of Florida because the first and only other time I tried it was while we were there in February. I had it in my Whole Foods salad bar creation and I liked it then.

I cooked it up on the stove and topped it with spinach, mayo, and roma tomatoes.

Time to go watch a movie, since I have been half ignoring it and half paying attention.

How was your weekend?

Lunch at Cafe Vino and a trip to Woodman’s

Hello and happy Saturday!

I started my morning off by reading The Snowman and eating Erin Baker’s Peanut Butter mini breakfast cookie. The book is really good so far. It reminds me of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Kind of eerie that it’s set in Oslo after yesterday’s horrific bombing and shootings there.

The breakfast cookie was tasty. Not too sweet and it was all I wanted to eat this morning with my coffee because I knew I would be having an early lunch with my friend.

I headed to Menomonee Falls to have lunch with my friend Danielle at Cafe Vino. I’ve known Danielle since 8th grade and we were best friends in high school. Now that we are busy adults, we try to get together at least once a month. It was nice to catch up with her!

I was able to pick what I wanted on my sandwich, so I got a spinach tortilla filled with grilled portabella mushrooms, provolone cheese, hummus, avocado, and various veggies.

YUMMY! I need to make something like this for lunch more often.

We took a walk after lunch and then headed back to her house to visit with her adorable daughter.

I loved up Danielle’s cat because she said that her kitties don’t get as much attention as their daughter does. I wish I could take her cats home with me, but four would be too many. With another child on the way, Danielle and her husband really won’t have time to love their cats. Makes me sad.

On my way home, I stopped by Woodman’s to load up on groceries. I got mostly Chobani (three big containers; $10 worth of individual cups), tofu, fruit, tempeh, fish oil, and some portabella veggie burgers.

I called Craig to ask a question and that’s when I heard the news about Amy Winehouse’s death. I could and couldn’t believe it at the same time. While I was writing this post, Craig told me that his cousin, who is studying in England right now, is living a couple of blocks down from where Amy was found. Strange.

Time to meditate, then watch Love and Other Drugs. Hope it’s a good movie! Looking forward to a low key Saturday night.

Super busy Saturday

I’ll recap what we did yesterday and then summarize today in a separate post, but the post about today may have to wait until tomorrow. We were constantly off to somewhere new yesterday, so I had no time to blog.

On Saturday, we had breakfast at the hotel and they had a pretty good spread. I had eggs, potatoes, a yoplait yogurt, coffee, and a chocolate muffin. I think I accidentally deleted the photo, oh well.

We didn’t have formal plans for the day, but decided to head to Mead Gardens in Winter Park, just north of downtown Orlando.

It was a pretty park to walk around in and had completely free entrance and parking. I think this park would be beautiful in the summer, especially with the flowers all blooming.

We saw a bunch of beautiful bushes of flowers, so I snapped some photos.

After walking for a while, we headed to downtown Winter Park. It’s a cute area with lots of shops.

Both Craig and I are/were shopped out, but we hit the Farmer’s Market for a bit. Apparently, kettle corn was all the rage because almost everyone we walked by had it in their hands and the line was super long.

Making Kettle Corn

All of the fresh fruit and veggies looked so yummy. I cannot wait for spring and summer!

It was sort of cool out, so I warmed up with an Awake Tea Latte at Starbucks.

We hit the road again and weren’t sure what to do, except that I knew I wanted to hit the Ugg outlet on the way back because we had spotted it on our way north. I need Ugg boots so badly for the Wisconsin winters. Back to that in a bit.

Driving in Orlando, I remembered that Dandelion Communitea Cafe was in the area we were around. Luckily, we had GPS on Craig’s phone and found it really easily.

It was really cute and cozy inside.

I had a Buffalo 66 wrap with fruit on the side. It was really yummy and exactly what I was craving for lunch.

It was my second day in a row eating tempeh. I like it, even though I think I prefer tofu more. Tofu seems softer and tempeh is harder and chewier. Anyone else agree?

Then it was time to endure getting off the freeway to get to the Prime outlets. I have never had such a crazy experience as we had trying to find a parking spot at these outlets! We parked along the side of a lot after about a half hour of trying to find a spot. Craig stayed in the car and I quickly ran to the Ugg outlet.

I found the boots I wanted, noted they were $20 cheaper than online or in the stores, tried them on (it was my first time trying them on), loved them instantly and bought them right away. It was the fastest $120 I have ever spent in my life. I have been wanting them all winter. How odd that I ended up buying them in Florida though!

I quickly ran to Victoria’s Secret outlet, which had some amazing deals too. If I really needed anything, I would have spent more time in there. I wish we would get one in the outlets in WI.

I was just happy with my Ugg purchase! I know some people don’t like the looks of them and I simply don’t care because warm feet in brutal Midwestern winters is key. My current boots just aren’t cutting it. They leak and my feet are cold constantly

Once we got back to the hotel, we rested a bit, took a little nap and went to mini golf! I did pretty good this time, but Craig definitely won!

After mini golf, we went to Pinkberry for frozen yogurt! I think I have a problem. I am addicted to frozen yogurt.

This lovely cup of blood orange fro yo piled with fruit was my dinner.

The interior was so sleek and modern. I wish we could incorporate some of these design elements into our house.

The last event of the night was Downtown Disney. It’s totally free to enter and park there. It’s full of restaurants, shops and other attractions.

I liked this shirt.

And this one too.

Well, it’s late and we need to get up earlier tomorrow for our day at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. We’re going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter first thing in the morning. We have to get to the parking lot by 8:30 so we can get in the park right at 9.

Be back tomorrow with our adventures from Cocoa Beach and Merrit Island National Wildlife Refuge today. We saw a HUGE alligator, two armadillos, dolphins swimming, and some beautiful birds.

Night!