Tag: Exercise

Pure Pleasure

16 Comments

Happy Saturday!!!  How’s your morning been?

I slept in til 8:00am today!  I haven’t slept that late in a long time!

Last night, when I went to the Wegster, I saw a 4-pack of Oikos Caramel Pure Pleasure.  I still had one of the coupons that Stonyfield sent me so I decided to give it a whirl.

This morning, I had a piece of toast with almond butter and a banana, which was delicious.  After I was done, I remembered the caramel oikos…

A little extra protein won’t hurt, right?

When I first opened it, it looked like regular yogurt but in a smaller cup.  I thought hmm… what’s the big deal?

Then I stirred it up to find caramel on the bottom!!

Oooooh goodness!  There’s a reason they call this pure pleasure.  It tasted like I was eating Dulce de Leche!  (Argentina style)

Check out the caramel swirl.  SOOOOO Good!

A bunch of yogurts sell themselves as replacing dessert, but honestly this could most definitely be dessert.  I’m surprised at how much it ACTUALLY tasted like caramel.  Absolutely delicious! Packed full of protein and pretty low cal!

Have you tried Caramel Oikos?

They also have a chocolate flavor that I feel like I need to try now that this caramel one was so good!

My mission for today is to find new running shoes (WOO! No more knee pain… maybe) then go to the gym!  Not too bad if you ask me 🙂

What are your Saturday plans??

Ithaca is Gorges

13 Comments

This morning I woke up to find this little guy hanging out in the kitchen.

I actually took this picture yesterday, because he kept coming back.  It was -6F when I woke up and yes the window was open.  My apartment is an oven!

With the sunshine, it felt like a summer day.  Then I checked the weather… Oh dear.  However, that didn’t stop me from having a fabulous morning!

With a cup of coffee and the best green monster I’ve had in a long time, I started my next creation to bribe my class into liking me.

Apparently, I’ve got bananas on the brain.  I made Banana Chip Cookies from 101 Cookbooks. The only changes I made were omitting the walnuts and using brown sugar instead of natural cane sugar.

Think of your favorite chocolate chip cookies… now add banana chips and make them *slightly* healthier.

Okay who am I kidding, they’re pretty fatty 🙂  I got 37 cookies from this recipe (even though the recipe says it yields 24).
Here’s the estimated nutrition info:

Pretty darn good!  The banana chips add a nice crunch that makes them way more exciting than regular chocolate chip cookies.  Plus since it’s a class on Modern Latin America… bananas are very fitting…Do you know what the “Banana Republic” is? And I’m not talking about the store!

I hope my class likes them!

While my cookie dough chilled in the fridge (I actually baked them in the afternoon), I chilled outside with Rhoda.  Remember last time? This time it was colder so I wore an extra long sleeve shirt.  10F when I left and 15F when I got home!  Burr!  We did the same route.  For some reason it felt a lot tougher this time, but just as lovely!

Arctic Tundra?  No, just Upstate NY…

This is my favorite stretch of the run:

Sadly my camera died halfway through the run!  Rhoda‘s camera was there to save the day!

Frozen falls!

Ithaca really is gorgeous!

Great pics, Rhoda!

Now I’m off to read since I’ve slacked off all weekend!  Hope you all have had a great weekend! Have a great night!

First Run in the Cold + The Giving Tree

18 Comments

I’m not a runner, but I am occasionally known to go on a jog.  I usually prefer to do so with someone else, a running buddy if you will.  This morning, Rhoda told me she was going for a run, so I tagged along!

I was a little concerned because the last time I ran outside it was 65 degrees (few weeks ago in California).  This morning when I went for a run, it was 17 degrees… kind of cold.  Rhoda is a pro.  She trained for a marathon in Michigan in the winter so she gave me some pointers.

1.  Dress in layers.  I wore a shirt and a jacket with slightly below the knee running pants (I really should invest in full length pants for this weather!).

2. Wear gloves and something to cover your ears.  Forever I had no idea what those big headbands were for.  Guess what?? They cover your ears!

Do you have any tips for running in the cold?

So I headed out and met up with Rhoda.  Honestly, it wasn’t bad at all.  I didn’t feel cold throughout the entire run.  At one point I even pushed my ear warmers back to let my ears breathe a bit and removed my gloves (though only for a few minutes because the back of my hand started to get REALLY cold).

I didn’t really get cold until I was walking home after having cooled down.  Then I was sweaty/wet and in below freezing temperatures.  See the problem?

It was great though!  We did 4 miles and chatted the whole time!  It was also beautiful!  I forget how picturesque it is here, especially in the winter.  I wish I had brought my camera to take pictures!  Oh well, next time!  Thanks for letting me slow you down, Rhoda!

After lunch, I came home and showered then met up with some people for lunch at a new cafe in Ithaca called The Giving Tree.  The cafe is a local, vegetarian place.  Very cozy and cute with mismatched chairs and such!

At this point (around 1:30pm), I hadn’t eaten since breakfast at about 7:30am; I was ready to chew my arm off.   I had a really hard time choosing what to order, because the entire menu was vegetarian so there were a ton of options to choose from!  I got some coffee and a plate of eggs, home fries and toast, which is probably my favorite food on the planet! A bit boring, I know, but I had to go with an old favorite.

Coffee was served in local Syracuse China.

Only made better with Rhoda there to pour the cream in the coffee

As you can see, I hated it.

My friend Celia got a delicious tofu scramble with vegetables!  I had a bite.  I would definitely get that next time!

Delish!  I can’t wait to go back!

Today has been a great day!  Thanks friends for making me smile today!

The rest of the day, normal eating will resume, and I will enjoy my time watching movies (I have two from Netflix that I’ve been putting off).

Hope you all have had a fantastic Saturday so far!

Barney Butter

11 Comments

Do you ever see things on blogs then really want to try them?

I’m a huge fan of nut butters, okay I’m slightly obsessed even though I’ve only tried Peanut Butter, Almond Butter and Soy Nut Butter.  They’re delicious and keep you full for a long time!

Seeing nut butters of all sorts on random blogs got me perusing websites one day to see what products I could buy around here.  I wandered to the Barney Butter website to find they are giving free samples!  Check it out!

Barney Butter is Almond Butter.  Recently I’ve been enjoying consuming Trader Joe’s Raw Almond Butter, which while good is not nearly as good as the roasted almond kind.  But mostly I’ve been avoiding almond butter and sticking to PB.  I’m a firm believer in the idea that if you don’t love it, don’t eat it, especially when it comes to calorie dense foods.

This morning, I decided to put my PB to rest and squeeze my Barney Butter sample onto my oatmeal.

They came in convenient little 90 calorie packages, which would be perfect for travel.  Apparently it also comes in large jars, but I’ve yet to see it in stores.

This stuff is nothing short of fantastic.  Of course, this makes sense as almond butter is delicious, and this one has added sugar (evaporated cane juice), which makes everything even more tasty.  I would choose it over the raw Almond Butter any day.

But don’t take my word for it!  Order your free sample on their website!

In other news, while thrifting with the roommate yesterday she came across a fabulous vintage coat that sadly didn’t fit her but fit me perfect!  These are the perks of being short I guess!

Locally made too!

I found a salad spinner!  Only $2!

And a cheap copy of The Poisonwood Bible which I’ve heard is really good.

Now I’m off to the gym for what I hope will be a great workout!  Have a great day!  Don’t forget to smile!

Green Beans!

2 Comments

This morning I went to the lovely fella’s apartment gym again.  I did 3 miles in 28:40!  I’m a slow poke so that was kind of fast for me.

Then we headed to Costco, for the purpose of eating samples and frozen yogurt.  After Costco, we headed to Trader Joe’s to get ingredients for dinner tonight.  We’ve been eating out a lot lately so we decided to stay in tonight.  We’re making a recipe from another continent for the January Recipe Challenge!

While at Trader Joe’s, I came across this interesting thing: Green Beans.

Not just any green beans.  These are crunchy and lightly salted.  However, interestingly enough they’re really sweet too!  Who knew green beans were sweet!  They look like green beans too!

The ingredients were green beans, canola oil, tapioca starch and salt.  Not too bad right?  The first one wasn’t that great but the next few or maybe 50 were delicious!  I wonder if they lose all the nutrients that fresh green beans have?  Any thoughts?


Tonight we’re making a new recipe and going to the movies!  Have a great evening!

Catching Up

4 Comments

Hey all!  I hope you’re all doing well!  I’m home and it’s 73 degrees out!  Yesterday when I got home I was so tired!  So I was in bed by 9:30pm!  But before I jumped into bed, I managed to consumer this:

Guatemalan sweet bread.  My house generally has two things: some sort of Guatemalan bread and a ton of bananas.

Case in point… Yes, we are half monkey…

This morning I was up by 6:00am (time change and early to bed did it I guess).  I lounged around (aka watched trash TV like The Sex and the City E! True Hollywood Story) and by the time everyone left for work, I took over the living room and did Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred!  It was intense!  I’m going to try to do it 4-5 times a week the whole time I’m home.  Anyone else want to try this with me?

Then I took a shower and made a tasty lunch! Sandwich and Salad:

1 Boca Burger, half on the sandwich and half on the salad.  The sandwich has about a tablespoon of hummus as my condiment, a bunch of spinach and few tomato slices.

My salad had romaine, tomato, half a boca burger and a bit of BBQ sauce as dressing.

Yum!

Now I’m off to get ready for my super secret event/post that is taking place tomorrow night!  Here’s a hint:

Have a great day!

Frustrating Work Out

2 Comments

Warning:  Rant Ahead!

Spinning this morning was really frustrating.  The class was a 2×20 today, meaning you did a warm up for 10 minutes, two intense intervals of 20 minutes each with a 5 minute breather in between those two intervals.

Sounds great, right?

Well, my problem is the instructor.  Her music is NOT upbeat and the whole time she tells us to concentrate on the road and our mental strength without any direction whatsoever.  I understand that people need to be centered mentally, but why is she getting paid to tell me to essentially ride for 60 minutes on my own?

I can go in a room, get on a spin bike on my own whenever I please, the purpose of a class is to motivate you to work harder!

Maybe I’m mistaken but shouldn’t spin instructors be motivating us to maintain a certain intensity by telling us when to switch up the resistance and cadence?

Frustrating classes like this (and I should say really great ones too) make me want to become a spin instructor.  I wish certification didn’t cost so much money!

End Rant.

Today will be a great day despite the frustrating start!