Detox Day

I had a not-so-stellar weekend in the food department. There was a cookout with friends Friday night, a wedding reception on Saturday evening and the doughnut box at church Sunday morning.

foods I don’t normally eat + a couple too many beers + not enough fruits & veggies = an icky tummy

Monday morning I was still feeling a little sluggish, mentally and physically. I was a little disgusted with myself for falling off the wagon. Why did I eat what I did? I’m all for indulging on occasion so I don’t feel deprived, but some of the things I ate didn’t even taste good while I was eating it. The more I Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda’d on myself, the worse I felt and the harder it was to get my mind around a way to get back on track.

A trip to the gym for strength training was on my agenda, but I struggled to find any motivation. I drug my feet, stalled and tried to think of a good excuse. I couldn’t come up with one. The words of a friend kept running through my brain:

No one has ever regretted working out.

Those words have saved me many times and this was one of those days. I got dressed, put Peanut in the stroller and we headed out.  The fresh air started to rejuvenate me a little bit and the 1-mile walk to the gym got my head in the right place. I still felt pretty ‘blah’ during my first set of deadlifts, but once the endorphins kicked in, I was unstoppable! I increased my weights on almost every exercise and really kicked it into high gear on my treadmill intervals afterward. My friend was right (again). I definitely didn’t regret my workout. It was the perfect way to get back-on-track for the week. I could practically feel my bad weekend choices being sweated out.

The sun was shining when we left the gym and headed for home. I really wanted to take Peanut for a longer stroll, but I had agreed to watch a friend’s daughter for the afternoon and didn’t have enough time.

For lunch, I made a batch of Kath‘s Chickpea Parmesan aka Chickpea Pizza Scramble. It was so quick and easy to make. And it really does taste like pizza. So yummy! I subbed leftover zucchini for the eggplant and parmesan cheese for the mozzarella. We only had cheddar in the fridge and that just didn’t sound appealing. The recipe says it makes 2-3 servings, but I divided mine into 4 (to get more meals out of it) and served it with a little whole wheat couscous.

When I spotted the recipe, I tweeted @KathEats to see if it would reheat well. She tweeted back that it probably would, just to leave the cheese off and add before serving.  I portioned out the leftovers and, Voila! Quick, healthy grab-and-go lunches. (Note: I had another portion yesterday for lunch and Kath was absolutely right. It reheats extremely well.) It’s amazing how eating something really healthy can make you actually crave more healthy food. 

My afternoon was spent playing outside with two very energetic one-year-olds. It felt like a bonus workout. Once Peanut’s play buddy left, it was time to start dinner, Pork Lo Mein.

I found the recipe in my Weight Watchers Ready, Set, Go! cookbook. One thing I really love about the new PointsPlus program is that it “rewards” you for eating more whole foods rather than processed junk. Most of the recipes in the new materials reflect this so I feel like I’m making something healthy rather than something that’s just low in calories. (Disclaimer: I do work for Weight Watchers so I’m a little biased.)

This one was a hit in our house! My husband really doesn’t care for soy sauce so it’s hard for me to find any Asian foods that he’ll like. This one definitely made the cut. He ate two portions, Peanut plowed through some “noo noos” (noodles) and I enjoyed mine, too. A side salad was the perfect accompaniment. I’ll be making it again for sure. and I both enjoyed it and Peanut was loving the noodles. I’ll definitely be making it again!

I got a serious sweet tooth right before bed, but I grabbed a handful of blackberries instead of chocolate. I wasn’t confident that it would kick the craving, but it does. I went to sleep feeling much better, inside and out.

PLANKS Challenge Week 1 Recap

For my first week of the PLANK challenge, I tackled plank on my forearms. My goal was to do this 4x per week and I did it!

Here’s what I accomplished:

Day 1: 1 minute, 2 sets
Day 2: 75 seconds, 2 sets
Day 3: 93 seconds, 2 sets
Day 4: 2 minutes, 2 sets

Horay! The 2 minutes was tough, but I was proud of myself for holding on and getting there. This week I’m moving on to high plank. I’ll report back next Wednesday with my results.

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“What Smells So Good?”

These were the first words my husband uttered to me at 3:00AM as he was rolling out of bed.

First of all, is it really necessary to say anything at such an hour of the morning when the person you’re talking to has another good hour and a half of sleep ahead of her? I don’t think so, but I let it slide because at least it was something nice.

What he was smelling was Monday night’s supper that I popped in the crock pot Sunday night before I went to bed. When I got up, I spooned everything into a big Pyrex mixing bowl, covered it and popped it in the fridge. More details on that dish later.

Breakfast was a new-to-me breakfast treat. I spotted these Nature’s Path Organic Frosted Blueberry Toaster Pastries in the clearance bin during our grocery trip on Sunday and decided to give them a try.

I really like the taste of these. They are extremely sweet. Overall pretty similar in texture and flavor to a regular Pop Tart. They are vegetarian, contain whole grains, are low sodium and contain no trans fat. That said, the calorie content is a little on the high side (200 per pastry; 400 per pouch) and the total fat/saturated fat content isn’t significantly lower than the mainstream counterpart. Overall, I’d say these are a better alternative to many non-organic breakfast options, but by no means should it be considered “healthy.”

Lunch was again mooched from my parents. They had leftover chicken stir fry and rice from their Sunday night dinner. No picture, but it was loaded with veggies including zucchini from our garden that I’d taken to them last week.

I hit my daily sugar slump around 4:00 and decided to break out my last packed snack. I was FINALLY able to get my hands on this Luna bar flavor over the weekend after hearing so many bloggies rave about it’s goodness.

It was everything I’d hoped for and more. It tasted kind of like cookie dough. I can’t quite put my finger on which kind, though. Not chocolate chip or peanut butter. The bar refueled me and I was wide awake and alert for my drive home.

The same cannot be said for my navigator.

With the pork main dish waiting in the fridge, dinner was a cinch. I popped it in the microwave to reheat while I got to work on long grain rice and cornbread. Hello carbohydrate heaven!

I also sliced up two medium-sized zucchini, dipped them in egg whites, coated them with a mixture of breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan cheese, paprika and parsley flakes and then baked them on a greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.

The meal wasn’t very colorful, but it was tasty. I ended up passing on my cornbread because I was just too full from the pork, rice and zukes to eat another bite.

Do you ever do prep work ahead of time for your meals?

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Outta Gas

Sorry to be a bad bloggie lately. The weather this weekend was gorgeous and I spent much more time outside with my husband than I did in the kitchen. Here’s a quick recount to catch you up to speed:

Friday: work, home, crash on couch, wake up to watch Friday Night Lights, crash in bed

Saturday: a little shopping (bought nothing), lawn & garden center with my husband to buy landscaping materials, lunch with my husband, grocery, home, work in yard all day, have grill mishap, recover, eat, chat with sister-in-law, sleep

So, about the grill mishap and the post title. My husband loves to play Grill Master and he’s really good at it. He wanted to make pork and veggie kabobs so I bought zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, tomatoes and pork loin at the grocery. He started the grill while sister-in-law and I did the cutting and skewering in the kitchen. As soon as we got everything on the grill, the burners started going out one by one and wouldn’t relight. Our grill did flip over during a windstorm this winter so we were worried that maybe it had done some damage that we didn’t originally notice. The good thing was that there was no damage to the grill. The bad news was that we were out of propane and the grocery in our town isn’t refilling them yet because it’s “too early in the season.” Pshaw! It was either a 30 minute drive to the nearest city or getting creative and cooking in the kitchen instead.

We chose the latter, broiled our kabobs and cooked the sliced eggplant in a grill pan on the stove. I also made some whole wheat thin spaghetti. My serving was a piece of sliced eggplant, two pieces of pork and lots of veggies.

Sunday: lots of house cleaning, read a little for Nutrition & Wellness, admired my husband’s finished landscaping projects, laundry, took recycles to bins and prepped for the week

Monday = dead camera battery, but I’m all charged up and back on track today.

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My First Giveaway!

All the technical gods are smiling upon me today. My camera and laptop are communicating effectively so we’re all systems go.

First, you have to suffer through my eats and ramblings of the day.

I woke up STARVING which is becoming a daily thing lately. I had (another) bowl of Cascadian Farms Multigrain Squares with organic skim milk and a POM (“pregnant lady”) spritzer. No picture today. If you really want to see, check out breakfast yesterday.

Morning snacks were a Yoplait Light yogurt (Raspberry Yogurt flavor) and a Cookies ‘n’ Cream Luna Bar.

We’re starting month 2 of the workouts at work and I’m really glad. We lost 2 members, but gained 2 new ladies so that cost stayed the same. Our trainer forgot to bring the hand weights so there were more core stations than normal in our circuit. Loved it!

After my workout I had the leftover egg noodles from last night. I packed chicken breast and Italian dressing to put on top, but icky tummy syndrome has been hitting me in the afternoon and the only things that sound appealing are bland & carby eats. I just tossed them with a little EVOO and parmesan cheese. Forgot to snap a picture, but it would have been a really boring one anyway. I wasn’t hungry the rest of the afternoon so I guess my body got whatever it needed from that.

I was, however, hungry again at dinner time. I rubbed some pork chops with garlic, baked them and served baked potatoes on the side. The potatoes were HUGE. I only had half of one, but it was plenty.

See that delicious looking sauce served on the side? That’s Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce and it is DEEEE-licious! The very generous Al from Country Bob’s sent me some of their yummy sauce to sample. My husband and I were instant fans. The flavor is really unique without overpowering the food it’s accompanying.

*****CONTEST ALERT******

The generous folks at Country Bob’s have offered to send a not one, but TWO lucky readers their very own bottle of All Purpose Sauce to try and enjoy. All you have to do is this:

1) Comment on this post. Be sure to include your name and blog URL (if you have one) so that I can check out what you’re blogging.
2) Post a link back to this contest on your blog.

If you don’t have a blog, e-mail me at upfitcreek@gmail.com with just a quick blurb including your name and where you’re from. No need to be super specific unless you want to be. Just your state (or country if it’s outside of the US) will be fine.

You have until midnight EST on Sunday, March 8th to comment and link back or e-mail. I’ll randomly select two people to receive this fabulous prize. Winners will be posted on Monday after I’ve had a chance to review all of the entries and draw names. (Yes. The deadline has been extended!)

GOOD LUCK to everyone who enters!

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Time Flies

It seems like my days off are super short. I feel like I just woke up and now it’s almost time for bed. I did have a productive day which makes me feel good.

One of the productive things I did was make this Quick Quiona & Turkey Stew from GreenLiteBites. Holy yumminess! It was really easy to make and tastes amazing. The only modifications I made were that I left out the onion (because I hate it) and used chickpeas instead of pinto beans because it’s what I had. After a couple of bites I divided the whole batch out into individual servings and popped them in the fridge. Ta-da! Lunches for the week are now taken care of.

After that I worked around the house (laundry, dishes, prep for the work week) and watched an episode of Jon & Kate + 8. Love that show! Those kids are just so stinkin’ cute. I know a lot of people say Kate is out of control and I agree that she has her over-the-top moments. All in all though I really admire her because of her planning and scheduling skills.

I wasn’t hungry right after my workout. It just hit me all of a sudden that I was starving! My late afternoon snack was a small glass of organic skim milk and a chocolate VitaTop. My grocery FINALLY started carrying these and I’m ridiculously excited.

My husband called as he was leaving work and I popped the pork chops and baked potatoes in the oven. The timer went off at almost the exact moment he walked in the door. How’s THAT for timing?

I wasn’t really in a meat and potatoes mood so I fixed myself an alternative. I had a salad of romaine lettuce, black olives, whole wheat croutons and a little drizzle of Annie’s Goddess dressing.

I also sliced up a tomato and topped it with cottage cheese and freshly ground black pepper.

After dinner I just relaxed and read my book for a while, dreading going back to work tomorrow. Oh well. Just gotta do it. I am excited to try new oat concoctions starting tomorrow. Stay tuned for the results!

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