Oh my, where has the week gone?! I have been totally overbooked this week. And last night, a glass of red wine, comfy pants, and dirty [gossip] magazines took over my productivity to take part in WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday). So, instead I am going to share with you What I Ate [and Did] on Tuesday, because that has been the most interesting day of my week thus far.
I rolled out of bed to hit the pavement and get some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) with the sunrise. I am trying to improve my running pace, and intervals seems to be the way to do it. After a 10 minute warm up, I did 6 x 30 seconds fast followed by 60 seconds of recovery, then a 10 minute cool down. Quick and Dirty. Normally, I eat before I exercise in the morning, but I didn’t this morning, because I just rolled out of bed and sometimes eating just before running does not sit well with my stomach, plus I was only planning on running for about 30 minutes. Afterwards I came home, did some stretching and whipped up an egg scramble.
In the mix: carrot, onion, green pepper sauteed in 1 teaspoon coconut oil. 2 large pasture raised eggs, chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, 1/4 avocado, and 1/2 cup re-fried pinto beans sprinkled with sesame seeds. I am seriously in love with the texture of re-fried pinto beans.
Mid-morning I snacked on some cucumbers and homemade hummus with the Food Of The Day–Orange (a-la-iTouch)! I am now getting in to foods that were on the “yellow” level of reactivity from my food sensitivity test, but so far I have not had any problems with any of the foods I have added. An update on how that is going will be coming soon!
Lunch was a re-formatted version of Sunday’s pizza dinner.
I cooked up some Tinkyada brown rice fettuccine noodles, tossed them with about 1/4 cup of the tomato pesto from Sunday, and served them with some spinach, leftover chicken, kalamata olives, fresh basil, and a few dollops of cashew cheese. Delic-i-ous-o!
I worked my way through the afternoon seriously looking forward to my afternoon smoothie, and it sure lived up to its expectations.
In the Mix:
- 4 ounces homemade cashew milk + 4 ounces water
- 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 serving brown rice protein powder
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened dried coconut flakes (added an awesome texture)
- 2 teaspoons of chia seeds, stirred in after blending to maintain their “wholeness”
On the way home from work I swung by the gym to do a little quickie leg workout that has been in the queue since She Rocks Fitness sent it to me! I warmed up for 5 minutes on the elliptical and then did 3 sets of 15 repetitions (on each leg) with 1 minute rest between each of the following super sets.
- Lunge using the Smith Machine
- Single leg kettle bell dead lift
- Leg press
- Curtsey squat with dumbbells
- Walking lunges with dumbbells
- Step ups with dumbbells
In total, it took me 40 minutes and my legs were shaking walking back to the car! And I am still feeling it today! Almost worse than the day afterwards–that is some serious DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Good thing I had a protein packed dinner waiting for me at home.
1/2# ground lean turkey, 1/2# ground Colorado lamb burgers with 1/2 diced green pepper, 2 tablespoons diced red onion, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 1 large clove of garlic, sea salt and pepper. Cooked at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Served with a lettuce bun, tomato, dijon mustard (Monday’s Food Of The Day), and no-mayo coleslaw (without the hot pepper and green onions). Adding the dijon mustard to my diet was a bit of a stretch, because the brand I used contains a mystery ingredient of “spices”. There very well could be a spice in there that I haven’t tested or was high on my reactivity list, but I combed the shelves at Whole Foods and Natural Grocers looking for a mustard without unknown ingredients and this was the best I could come up with. I felt okay afterwards, so I am not too worried about it. I really should learn how to make my own mustard–that would be fun!
Today is turning out to be an accidental rest day, and it was well deserved.
Something to think about…Do you have things, activities, or people in your life that you identify as “energy robbers” where they just suck all the living energy out of you? How do you deal with them?
Good question…I think if people are that exhausting, it is sometimes healthier to quietly walk away. Usually the “energy robbers” are too involved with themselves and may not even notice you’re gone. Sheesh that sounds horrible! With activities or things, I try to approach it the same way. Take a little break from it both mentally and physically and maybe come back to it, when I’m ready again or even craving it!
I am with you! Stepping away from things definitely helps. Sometimes you don’t have that option though :-/.
I think identifying alternative “energy enhancers” that you can do before or after the “energy robbers” is helpful.
It is never fun when something or someone just sucks the life out of you!