First Morning

Good morning! Sorry I've been MIA the past two days. It's been a bit crazy but I'm back!

This morning we woke up for the first time in our new place. It feels a bit like we're in a hotel. Very different than our old place.

Last night after work I had to stop by our old place to pick up a few things from the fridge and by the time I got home I was quite tired and craving a smoothie! Woody had a late lunch/early dinner because he had spent the majority of the day with the movers and didn't have time for lunch. I had no idea what to have for dinner, but I happened upon a health food restaurant right around the corner from our new building and found the smoothie I was craving!

It was a bit on the expensive side, but it really hit the spot. Organic strawberries, banana, brown rice puff cereal, almonds and green tea booster. Delicious. I didn't really have time to sit down and eat dinner anyway and we definitely did not have a place to sit down yet either!

Woody had made great progress during the afternoon and we got a lot unpacked last night. We were going to stop and relax since we were up till 1am Monday morning and then woke at 6am (5 hours is definitely not enough sleep), but that didn't happen. We worked on boxes until about 10:30 and then called it quits.

We unpacked most of the kitchen (very important) so I was able to put together a bowl for overnight oats. We don't have much in our fridge yet, but there was enough for this!

After skipping our workout Monday morning we wanted to do something today but knew we also didn't want to wake up at our normal 4:50am so we decided to try the gym downstairs. Much better than what our old building had but I'm not convinced yet that I can give up my gym membership (especially since my new company has a discount with my gym that I have to check out). I spent a half hour on the elliptical, did a very brief strength training session and stretched a good amount (no foam roller here though). Still, I got a decent workout in this morning and it was just downstairs!

Okay, breakfast time.

First Morning Overnight Oats
ingredients:
1/2cup whole rolled oats
3/4cup water
1tsp ground flaxseed
1tsp chia seeds
1/4tsp cinnamon
2tsp Trader Joe's salt free smooth peanut butter
1tsp organic cinnamon apple sauce
10 raisins

1. combine oats, water, flaxseed, cinnamon and raisins night before.
2. morning of mix in the rest of the ingredients prior to eating so they can soak a little bit
3. enjoy!

It was delicious and a great way to start my day. Tomorrow I may start it with a run around the new neighborhood! Ok, I'm off to work!

the view from our bedroom.

What is your favorite type of smoothie?
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workout stats -
30minute elliptical
3x10 lateral row
3x10 hammer curls
stretching

Tough One

Whew! I had a tough workout this morning. So tough, I was hungry walking home from the gym.

Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are my walk/jog interval days. Saturday, because of bad timing with the bike, I had planned to do 2.75miles on the treadmill but ended up doing 3. So, today I was going to do the same and I did. Started at about 5:23am with a 3.7mph 1minute walk then bumped it up to 5.0mph for 3 minutes. (I told you, I'm taking it slow!). I did a few more intervals like that then moved on to 1minute walk/4 minute jog, adding the last minute at 5.2mph. After that I added another minute at 5.2 for the remaining intervals with the last minute at 5.4mph. My goal for today wasn't speed so much as distance and pushing my jog intervals a little longer. I definitely had to pay a little more attention to my breath but my foot (or sneaker) strike was feeling more comfortable and easy. I've been limping for so long, trying to keep pressure off my right heel that it's taken a bit of time to get an even gait back and recognizing how it should feel.

After the 37 minutes on the treadmill (yes, that's how long it took me to run 3 miles plus a little cool down) I got on the bike for another 13.5miles. I find my legs move quicker on the bike after I've been on the treadmill. I still needed to get in a little strength training, so I spent about twenty minutes on that before heading to the mat to stretch it out.

I got a great stretch yesterday during yoga at Lululemon. It was the third time I went there for class and loved it. To help support and promote local studios, they have a different teacher from around the city each week. I like that because it's never the same, you get to try different teachers (in case you want to take more classes during the week) and if you're not 100% sold on one teacher, you might love the one the next week. So far though, I've loved all three. Yesterday's class seemed to really stretch my muscles a lot more though, which felt really good as I was walking home from class. I still felt as though my muscles were lengthening! Next Saturday is Salutation Nation in Bryant Park and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'll take advantage of Summer Streets on my walk there.

Back to today.... I was hungry after that workout so I made my traditional Yogurt Mess with Shredded Wheat! Totally satisfying and filling.

As I made my breakfast I enjoyed a little POM Wonderful Pomegranate Blueberry juice that the awesome people at POM sent me! Woody and I have been enjoying the tart drink this weekend. I rarely drink juice because it is often very sugary and actually contains very little juice, plus, as a rule, I rather eat my calories than drink them, but POM isn't the typical juice. The taste is great, almost too great. This little bottle contains 150 calories, too much for me in one sitting, although I could easily down this very quickly. I've been enjoying it after my workouts.

Then it was time for breakfast:
Ingredients
6oz Greek yogurt
1 banana
1/4cup blueberries
1tsp maca powder
1tsp chia seeds
1/2tsp ground flax seeds
1tsp cinnamon
2tsp sunflower seeds
1/2cup Trader Joe's plain shredded wheat

I combine the cinnamon, maca powder, chia seeds, and flax seeds with the yogurt before dumping it on the banana and blueberries. Then top with the shredded wheat and sunflower seeds before mixing all together. It looks like a mess but it's delicious.

On Saturday I tried a slight variation of my original version, adding 1tsp of cocoa powder! It was a nice little twist but next time I do this I'll use a little more powder since the cocoa flavor was very light.

I added a few features to the blog over the weekend. I hope you'll check them out and let me know what you think!

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workout stats -

3mile walk/jog intervals

13.5mile bike

3x10 cable pull twists

3x10 lateral bent arm raises

3x10 weighted side bends

3x10 hammer curls

3x10 hamstring deadlift, bicep curl, shoulder press combo

stretching

Hot or Cold: How Do You Like Your Oats?

I love breakfast. Always have and always will. I can eat breakfast foods for any meal of the day, no problem. When I was young, my Dad would sometimes be tasked with the job to make dinner on Sunday evening so my Mom would have the night off. My Dad is great at making breakfast - pancakes, waffles, eggs, yum. (To this day when we go home for a visit, we always try to find one morning for him to make his pancakes.) So he'd often make breakfast for dinner, so the concept is not unusual for me. Lately I've been having eggs for lunch one day a week. I mean, really. Why not?

If you typically eat breakfast on the run during the week, weekends are a great time to try out a full, sit down, stomach filling meal. Here are two of my recent oats combinations that fit that would work perfectly!

Chocolate Cherry Oats

Ingredients:
1/2 rolled oats
1 cup water
1 banana
1/4 dried cherries
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground flax seeds
1/2 tsp cocoa powder

1. Cook oats to degree of done that you like, if you like thicker oats, use less water, thinner oats, use more!
2. Stir in all the powders and seeds and mix well
3. Add in banana slices and dried cherries
4. Enjoy!

I usually add 2tsp of peanut butter or almond butter to my oats, but I wanted to try something a little different, so this week I added a little cocoa powder instead! Next time I'll use a little more, closer to 1tsp to get a more chocolatey taste since it was a little weak this time, for my preference. Still, it was very tasty!

Nutty Overnight Oats

Ingredients:
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup oats
2tbs organic rye flakes
1tbs wheat bran
1tsp ground flax seeds
1tsp chia seeds
2tsp peanut butter
2tsp sunflower seeds
1 banana
1/4 cup blueberries

1. Mix the first 5 ingredients at night, cover and store in the fridge.
2. The next morning, add the remaining 4 ingredients and mix all together.
3. Enjoy!

This is really simple. I'm really enjoying the cold oats. I didn't think I would at first, and some people commented on my first post about overnight oats that they didn't think they'd like cold, soggy oats, and you may not, but I suggest giving it a try. If you like hot oatmeal, you never know! Some people put everything together the night before, but I think in this case, you'll at least want to leave the sunflower seeds for the morning because they give it a little crunch!

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workout stats -
3mile walk/jog intervals
30minutes elliptical
25minutes bike
3x10 cable pull twists
3x10 cable pull push down
foam roller and stretching

My First Attempt at Overnight Oats

A while ago I began a love affair with oatmeal. I never ate it growing up and had a bad experience with it in college (don't worry, I'll leave it at that!), but Woody has it often so I gave in and gave it a try. And then I fell in love. It was an instant addition to my breakfast rotation. I love the texture, and while I'll eat it plain at restaurants, my favorite way is with banana slices, cinnamon, ground flax seeds, chia and a bit of peanut butter. Sometimes I'll add another fruit like blueberries or strawberries. Delicious! It's always completely satisfying and I know it will keep me full for hours!

In the summer though, it's so tough to eat oatmeal when it's 90 degrees outside. Eating a hot meal after my workout doesn't usually sound too appealing. Nevertheless, I keep oats in rotation (although less frequently) so I eat something other than a yogurt mess every day. I've been reading for months now on other blogs about overnight oats. I'm sure many of you have read about this too, and most likely have tried them, but for those who are asking "what are overnight oats?" it is basically un-cooked oatmeal that you put together and then store in the fridge overnight so the oats can soak up the liquid.

I decided to give it a try and prepared my oats Sunday night, covered the bowl and stuck in the fridge. I kept it pretty simple and was definitely happy with it Monday morning! There are a few things I would change (it was a bit too liquidy for me) but I'm definitely adding this version of oats into the rotation! I'm also going to try a few different variations along the way, so I'll keep you updated.

(You may have noticed I've joined the FoodBuzz world, so from now on I will try to include 'recipes' for my meals, even though most of my cooking is by sight and feel. Recipe writing is something I'm going to work on.)

With the changes I'll make next time, here is my recipe for
Overnight Oats for Beginners:
The night before, combine the following ingredients in a bowl, then cover and place in the fridge:
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup water
1/2 tbs raisins
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground flax seeds

The next morning, add and mix in:
1 small banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 tsp chia seeds
1 tsp peanut butter
more cinnamon to taste

Apparently all ingredients can be mixed in the night prior, but personally I think the fruit would get too mushy.

I'm not certain where this trend started, but Kath over at Kath Eats Real Food, has a long list of recipes to try. Some seem like they'd be quite high in calories and fat (depending on the additions) but it all depends on your activity level and what you have planned for the rest of the day.

Have you tried overnight oats? What is your favorite summer time breakfast?

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workout stats -

13 miles bike

25 minutes StairMaster

3x10 cable pull push down

3x10 arm extension

3x10 tricep overhead extension

3x10 tricep kickback

75 crunches

stretching