Happy Fat Tuesday!

So unfortunately I didn't get to eat too fat on fat Tuesday.  (Or maybe fortunately, right?)  I was up and off to the hospital this morning.  Before I left I had some cream of wheat, banana and agave.  An english muffin with my new TJ's pb too.  The verdict is still out on Krema's competition. 

I alllllways forget to snap a pic of my lunch while I'm interning however today I just brought my leftover orzo recipe from last night, a fiber bar, celery sticks and a kiwi.  

The day started of rather slow while interning so I decided to pick a fellow intern's brain.  He has a previous degree in exercise physiology and is a personal trainer with a lot of experience, so he knows a lot more than I do about working out.  I told him about my recent challenge.  We talked for a long time and he went into a lot of detail but here's the summary:

• Every single time I go to the gym I do some type of cardio (usually running) and my body is getting "used" to it, therefore it is not as effective.
• Solution: 30 minutes of really pushing myself for cardio 2 days/week.  Eventually I can build up my speed and work up to 45 minutes perhaps even making it to five days a week if I have time.  However, that should be the absolute most cardio I would do and it would be very hard to find time in my schedule to do that in addition to my strength training.  These additions should take place slowly; approximately 2-3 weeks each time I want to add on.  (This isn't saying that cardio/running is not good, just that I need to switch it up a bit more.)  This is also not what I would do if I were to train for a race.
• I am not doing enough strength training during my workouts.  
• Solution:  I received a detailed work out regimen to focus on my strength training.  Each week I should increase by the number of reps or the amount of weight I'm lifting.  I do not want to get "bulky" but he assured me that this would result in fat burning and toning.  I don't think I'll be turning into a body builder any time soon.
• Stop eating carbs 3-4 hours before I go to bed.  (Note:  I did NOT say stop eating carbs all together.)
• Solution:  Stop eating carbs 3-4 hours before I go to bed!  There isn't much of a plan to this. I am always hungry when I get home from class and I am usually in the mood for cereals, bread, bagels or fruit.  ALL CARBS!  Ahhh!  I love carb containing foods and they are SO important in your body but because of how they are digested it really does make sense not to eat them before going to bed.  Tonight I tried to snack on almonds, cottage cheese and hummus with broccoli.  (Pics to follow.)  It was hard but I think I can do it.

I also would love to improve my balance.  I have TERRIBLE balance and the older I get it seems to get worse.  (I can only imagine what it will be like when I'm eighty years old!)  I can do some yoga and balance exercises on my two off days to help improve this!

Because my schedule is always changing and usually pretty busy I don't know if I can stick to this 100% but I am going to try my best and see what works for me and my lifestyle so I can feel the best about myself!

Because I didn't get home from my internship until later, I didn't have time to go work out so I caught up on a few things and made some dinner.  I had a done a Warfarin teaching today at the hospital so I was talking about leafy greens all day.  It got me craving a spinach salad.  I topped mine with onion, tomato, colby jack, dill, and my dressing was a mixture of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, dill and italian dressing.  It was tasty!  I also had a plop of cottage cheese with pepper and TJ's pesto tortellini topped with tomato sauce.  I hadn't tried TJ's tortellini before and I was very pleasantly surprised.  I will definitely try the other flavors.

After class I knew I was going to make an effort not to eat carbs, hoping my bedtime was in the near future.  Instead I snacked on these!

(and a little bit of cottage cheese too.)

I'm off to bed.  Nighty night!

Tara (:

Time to Get Serious

After a wonderful but gluttonous weekend with Keefer, I woke up feeling not so great about myself and my recent eating and exercising habits.  I have been slacking not only at the gym but I've also been eating pretty much whatever my heart desires, however much it desires and whenever it desires.  I've never been one to take the number on the scale too seriously but lately it seems to be staying a little higher than normal.  I'm not saying that I'd like to lose a ton of weight but I would love to tone up, get back in shape and FEEL better about myself.  (Wouldn't everybody?)  I'm currently 145 lbs. and 5'8.5.  (Yes, I need that extra half inch.)  I'd really like to lose 4-5 lbs.  I need to think of a plan that I can stick to.  Every time I go to the gym it needs to be an A+ effort workout.  I also need to force myself to think if I'm actually hungry or if I just am going to eat because it looks/sounds good or I'm bored.  Finally I need to make my splurges few and far between.  I do NOT believe in diets so eliminating anything I love from my diet would be out of the question however cutting back on certain items wouldn't be the worst idea.  I'm going to think of a plan for me for the next few days that is attainable and sustainable.  (I'm open to suggestions!)  I will keep you updated.

Anywhoooo, this morning, at 4:30am I made Keefer some eggs over easy with toast and sent him on his way, back to The Mitten.  I went back to bed but when I woke up I was craving some of those eggs.

I hit the gym and had a pretty good work out.  I did a run/walk for 40 minutes and made it 3.47 miles.  Hopefully I can run longer and faster if I get more serious about my workouts.  I also did some strength training so I was ready for lunch when I got home.  I didn't want to eat a huge meal because I wanted to eat dinner before class so I went with a big smoothie and a PBJ on an english muffin.  I also used the last of my Krema so now I'm going to try the TJ's brand of pb.

Last week I found a recipe I wanted to try on a food blog and for the life of me I cannot remember which one.  I made it for dinner and it was pretty good but if I had to do again I would add chicken instead of beans (clearly I'm a big meat fan.) and mushrooms.  Probably more tomatoes too.  Marie suggested olives which I think would be yummy as well!

I actually had to bring this to class because I ran out of time.  Marie and I decided to leave early for class to go to Starbucks and try their new TAZO vanilla rooibos tea.  No pic but it was DELISH.  Can't wait to get another.  (I used all my self control not to order an oatmeal cookie, my favvvv.)

Anyways, here's the recipe.  I would definitely recommend it with those changes.  I'm sorry that I can't remember where I got this wonderful recipe!

• 2 cups orzo, uncooked
• 2 cups frozen spinach
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, havled
• 1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 1 Tbsp. dry dill
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• pepper to taste

Cook orzo and spinach in a pot, bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Add chickpeas, dill, grape tomatoes and goat cheese. In a seperate small bowl, whisk together olive oil, salt, lemon juice and garlic. Add oil mixture to orzo, stirring until pasta is completely coated. Serve in a bowl and enjoy!

When I got home I was actually hungry but not starving so I stayed with light snacking.  I had a kiwi and a grapefruit.  Both delicious.

I'm off to start some homework.  I'm off to the hospital again tomorrow!

Tara (:

House Hunters

Busy bodies mean not much time to blog!

My breakfast yesterday and today were exactly the same.  Cream of wheat with agave.  Although today I did add an english muffin to try and hold me over a bit longer.

Today was just the same packed lunch as last week minus the turkey sandwich, plus beef vegetable soup.  Nothing too exciting when I'm trying to cram lunch into a busy day.

I love pasta but sometimes I get bored with it so I just add whatever my heart desires.  This sometimes means great new meals or total disasters.  Yesterday was a success!  I sauteed mushroom, onion and garlic in olive oil and added it to whole wheat rotini.  I also threw in a bit of Italian Trio Cheese and a couple tomatoes.  It was so good and easy!

All day I've been struggling with a bad back so I was just not in the mood to cook.  I headed up to Trader Joe's to pick up some goodies including this spinch pesto pizza.  It was good but I'm not sure I would get it again.

I think we found a house to live in next year so I'm super pumped.  YAY!

I'm exhausted and I still have some other homework to take care of so goodnight!

Tara (:

Good Til the Last Drop

And another week begins...

Last night I had....yep you guessed it, more stir fry!  It's nice making large portions especially if they heat up well because they are easy to zap but I don't like eating the same thing over and over.

After dinner I snacked on a handful of chocolate chips and some homemade granola from Marie while watching the Grammy's.  (I love Pink and Lady Gaga!)  I have to try her granola recipe because it was so good!

This morning I made an omelette with spinach, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and cheese.  I also had a whole wheat english muffin.  I planned on eating a grapefruit with it but got too full.

For a pre-gym snack I had two small apples with peanut butter.  Such a good, classic snack.

And finallllly, I finished off the last bit of my stir fry for dinner.

I also made some roasted potatoes.  I just chopped up red skin potatoes and topped with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and dill, stuck them in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour.  So easy.

Now it's time to pack my lunch for the hospital tomorrow.  See ya later!

Tara (: