Taxes are done!

We had a storm come through last night, just as our bedtime rolled around, and it made for a very sleepy day! Glad to have the warmer temps, but not the thunderstorms that keep me awake!

Breakfast was plain non-fat Chobani with almonds and honey.

Snack at work was a peppermint tea and a Pecan Pie larabar.

Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on an Arnold’s Thin, a pomegranate Chobani, an apple, and a clementine.

On my break, I read Crazy Sexy Diet and as I found when I was reading it before bed last night, I am really enjoying Kris Carr’s writing and am learning a lot from her! I knew nothing about pH levels before reading the last couple of pages.

I left work somewhat early to make it to a 4:30 class at the Y. Ultimate Intervals class was good. It used to be called Boot Camp, but they changed the name and we have a new teacher. You see, I didn’t attend Boot Camp for the last couple of months because I really hadn’t cared for the last teacher. The one we had today was enthusiastic and had good stations set up. It’s tough to make the class time though. I wish it was at 5:30 instead. We’ll see how often I attend because Mondays are busy for me at work.

I was so happy to get the giveaway items from Laura at Food Snob STL in the mail today! Thanks Laura–love the goodies!

Dinner was red quinoa, feta, tomatoes, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, sea salt, and some spices.

After dinner, we meditated and then Craig and I finished our taxes and submitted them! Phew. One thing that we learned from doing them was that we aren’t so savvy with finances. We are good savers, but we don’t know how to invest our money. So, this prompted a new goal for 2011: take a financial class together so we are more financially savvy!

From finances, back to food–my sister-in-law is starting a new full-time job on Monday and she’s not used to bringing a meal to a workplace. I gave her some advice in an e-mail and told her to check out my blog.

Question for you readers: any tips for my sister-in-law on making healthy brown bag lunches?

My tips were to prepare veggies, etc. on Sundays and to cook extra of a meal and save some for work leftovers. I also said that fruit often fulfills my sweet tooth (like it did today) and that way I guarantee I get my fruit in for the day too.

Shopping on my day off

I was off today due to working on Saturday and dedicated my free day to shopping.

On a side note, two years ago today, my wonderful husband asked me to be his wife. 🙂 Best thing I have ever said an ecstatic YES to!

Breakfast was two Eggo waffles (whole wheat) and coffee.

I watched the Today show and wanted to get up to get moving, but this cute kitty laid on the blue blanket on my lap and stayed there for a good 40 minutes. I can’t resist Karma’s charms, so I let him sit there and relish in the warmth of my lap.

I got ready and organized myself for my two shopping trips–one to the mall and the other to the grocery store.

I had some coupons to use up at Banana Republic and Gap and found things at both. Two cute new tops, yay! I also went to Boston Store for their Goodwill sale and handed in some jeans and a top. In turn, I got four 20% off coupons. Since the bras I buy (Wacoal) are never on sale and Macy’s doesn’t let you use their coupons on Wacoal, I bought two bras and a cool new Jockey tank top that included free underwear. The Jockey tank top has some kind of NASA designed cooling technology to keep moisture away from your body. It isn’t necessarily wicking material like is used in fitness clothes. I asked the Jockey rep that when she was telling me more about the material. I get really hot from silk tops underneath shirts and I just get hot all day at work in general, so I hope this works! I’ll let you know how it is.

After two hours at the mall, I was thirsty for something cold and nutritious and a little bite to eat. Off to Starbucks because I had a gift card to use..

I ordered a Strawberry Vivanno smoothie with a boost of green tea matcha and had an orange cranberry scone. Both hit the spot and were delicious!

I didn’t eat lunch, as that snack filled me up.

Then I was off to Menomonee Falls to their Woodman’s. We needed groceries badly again and all of the selection and awesome prices at Woodman’s caused me to spend a little over $100 there.

Here’s what I bought!

Clearly these pictures indicate I have a serious Chobani addiction. I also added a few of the Stonyfield greek flavored yogurts to my cart to mix things up.

Overall, I just love the selection of different varieties of food at Woodman’s and their unbeatable prices. I may be going grocery shopping there more often, even though it’s not very close to our house and it’s so huge to navigate through. I found so many fake meat products there especially–score! That is why I bought three tubs of tofu (one herbed, yum) and a Gardein product again because I really liked the tuscan chicken breasts when I reviewed them a couple of months ago.

A late lunch/dinner was a french baguette with ham, provolone, tomatoes, spinach and Frank’s Red Hot.

Of course, dessert was a few Haribo frogs.

I meditated, changed and went to the gym for the 4:30 Boot Camp class at the Y. I ran into my friend Angie in the parking lot and I was hoping she’d say the new teacher had started, but alas, it was still the same old one that I don’t care for. I honestly feel like I get a better workout on my own instead of in this particular teacher’s class. I am looking forward to when the new teacher starts in April. Until then, I won’t be attending boot camp and will do my own workout on Mondays instead.

Before my grocery shopping trip, I tried to find some recipes to make for Craig and I to meal plan with. I only found a granola bar recipe that sounded delicious in the recent issue of Fitness magazine. They are called “Oh-So-Good Granola Bars.” Check out the link to make them yourself.

After the gym, we went to the library and then I got to work on making the granola bars.

While they baked, I snacked on plain non-fat Chobani with strawberry rhubarb jam and fresh strawberries.

I tried the bars fresh out of the oven and they are yummy! They didn’t stick together as well as I had hoped they would, but maybe I should have added more honey. I’ll try that next time. It was my first time making granola bars, so I figure I can experiment a little more with ingredients and bake times. I’ll take a picture of a bar tomorrow when I have it for a snack at work mid-morning.

Well, Craig and I are trying to adhere to an earlier bedtime from now on, so I better go get ready for some zzzz’s. It’s back to work for this girl tomorrow.

Secret Santa and last Boot Camp

I didn’t take any photos of my meals today–breakfast was apple cinnamon cheerios and coffee. Lunch was a peach Chobani, a NuttZo and strawberry jelly sandwich, and two Newman’s Own Organics chocolate creme cookies.

Dinner was with my co-workers at a restaurant/bar for our Secret Santa exchange. I had a yummy grilled vegetable sandwich and a side salad (hate that you have to pay more to have a side salad instead of fries, but that’s what I did. Things like that make me think our country is so backwards about healthy eating). I also had a nice glass of Merlot. I promised myself a nice drink after working hard over the weekend. I ate half of my sandwich and saved the rest for lunch or dinner tomorrow.

Back to my routine

You have the whole week to enter my Stonyfield yogurt giveaway, but come on readers, enter now!

https://fitinthemidwest.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/my-first-giveaway-stonyfield-yogurt-coupons/

After I post this, I am going to search the internet for some Cyber Monday deals. I am not looking for anything in particular for Christmas presents or myself, except prescription swim goggles and there aren’t any deals with those. I just hoped that there were a few excellent deals that would be too good to pass up. Anyone find anything exciting online?

Back to work this morning. In a way, it feels good to be back to a routine. I loved my days off, but a routine is also good too.

I had Total Cranberry cereal with pomegranate arils for breakfast and a big glass of coffee.

Tweet tweet

I finally joined Twitter.

I am not sure I quite “understand” it yet, but I joined last night. It was the hash tag thing that confused me!

FitintheMidwest

Find me here: @FitintheMidwest

Hope to see you on Twitter! If you want to wait to follow me, I promise I will have a giveaway soon and following me then will earn you an extra entry. 😉

After work, I ate and went to Boot Camp. It was a good, tough class.

Now, I am headed to the couch to read the last 100 pages of The Girl Who Played with Fire. I need to finish that book and move onto something more cheery next. Any book recommendations?

Ok, that’s all folks for today. I was in a Monday funk today and didn’t take pictures of my food. I figured I would be doing that enough on Thanksgiving anyway!

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

Pomegranate Package

Look what arrived in the mail today (I love free things and getting packages, so don’t get too excited)!

Thanks to a tip from Peanut Butter Fingers, Craig was shipped a beautiful pomegranate in the mail, for free.

Oh Baby!

My friend and her husband had their baby yesterday! A Halloween baby!

After work, I went to visit them at the hospital. I cruised home, ate white mac and cheese and then raced to the hospital. Here are some pictures.

Breakfast today was stove top oats made with water and a banana. They were kind of soupy, but that was OK. I bulked them up with chocolate chips, ground flax seeds, brown sugar and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

I had some of the baked oatmeal for a snack, but breakfast kept me full for most of the morning, so I didn’t snack on too much.

Lunch was a slice of leftover pepperoni pizza, strawberry Chobani and cucumbers with red peppers.

Boot camp tonight was good, per usual. We ran the basketball court, did mountain climbers and busters, lateral raises, upright rows, squats and twists on the Bosu, jumped rope, running the ladder in various ways, sat against the wall, bicep curls, rows with partners, and push ups. I have never done push ups correctly, so when our teacher corrected me, it hurt so bad!!

Rewind back to dinner last night. We went to the Organ Piper Pizza, which is near our house. I have never been there before and the pizza was really good. My in-laws met us there, so that was a nice surprise I didn’t expect. Craig wanted to go there for Halloween to listen to the Halloween music being played on the organ, which was really neat.

Here are some images from the inside and outside of the restaurant.

Night!

No pain, no gain

The perfect title for today is “no pain, no gain.” It isn’t creative, but describes exactly how I am feeling due to Body Pump yesterday! I think the squats and lunges made my thighs and quads hurt the most. I hurt all day long. Thinking about it, I don’t believe we stretched our legs after class. I will have to do that on my own from now on, because the abs and tiny bit of arm stretching won’t cut it.

Our Indian dinner was yummy yesterday. My pictures are horrible, but I will share anyway. The lighting in the restaurant was not conducive to no flash photography!

 

I had two pieces of naan and two helpings of rice and paneer tikka masala. Craig got chicken tikka masala. We also had a Mango Lassi and a Mango milkshake. We had never tried the milkshake before and it was a little lighter than the lassi. I think we both concluded that we like the lassi more. I was so full at the end and bloated. It was well worth it for yummy food that I am not sure I could duplicate in my own kitchen. Plus, I had leftovers for lunch today!

I snacked on some Halloween candy while I watched The Amazing Race.

Mmm...candy!

I made overnight oats for breakfast this morning. I mixed canned pumpkin, non-fat organic TJ’s yogurt, skim milk, chia seeds, flax seeds (for the overnight portion). This morning, I added dried currants, almonds, topped with a bit of greek yogurt and honey. I warmed it up in the microwave, since I seem to like that better than cold oats, especially as the temperatures outside drop and I am seeking warmer, comforting breakfasts.

Overnight oats and coffee

Lunch was Indian leftovers with red grapes and a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

I also snacked on some almonds, candy corn and had a green earl grey tea to wake me up a little in the afternoon. Monday afternoon sleepiness hit me at about 3 p.m. and I remember that happening last Monday too. I need more sleep on Sunday night!

I napped after work and then forced myself to eat early, even though I wasn’t that hungry. I had to get some food in me well before heading to boot camp.

Pinto beans with whole wheat tortilla, shredded cheese and Frank's Red Hot

Boot camp tonight was tough at first with my painful legs. Luckily, we didn’t do many leg exercises. We did chest presses on the swiss ball, jumped rope, ran the basketball court, scooters (for abs), balancing on the bosu and passing the weighted medicine ball to each other, scoops with resistance bands and things in between and at the end. The end was lots of arms with resistance bands. I bet I will be walking like a freak tomorrow with sore arms and legs!

It’s 8:40 and I need to get off of this computer and do something else. I also want to get to bed a little earlier tonight so I don’t feel so sleepy tomorrow.