summer solstice

(this post is all over the place - i'm clearly antsy for the weekend)

happy first day of summer!!!

i love picmonkey.

so how did i spend my first day of summer?

i woke up at 5:45 and kicked it on the elliptical!

 

30 minutes of hard hills and then 20 minutes of weights - shoulders and chest since i've really been concentrating on arms and legs and butt recently.

 

nothing too difficult - just sets of overhead presses and butterflies using 2 10 lb free weights

 

i think next week i'm going to try and do 1 set with the 20 lb weights

 

oh and we were watching an old season of the amazing race the whole while

 

oh oh- and while i finished up on the weights

 

bill was werkin it.

i've been trying to come home and do at least 20 more minutes on the elliptical everyday (and succeeding) and bill has been running 2-3 miles in the afternoon - i can't wait to be back out on the pavement with him!  it's so weird how sometimes i hate running so much in the act of doing it and after an extended break i really miss it.

moving on to last night's eats

no pictures, but bill already prepared some jasmine rice so i had a cup of rice + 1/2 cup of canned black beans topped with red chili sauce and 1/4 of an avocado - delish!

i also mustered up the energy to prep dinner for tonight!

i threw the ingredients into my stand mixer for pizza dough, let it rise, and then covered it and put it in the fridge for tonight

i always use this recipe from king arthur - and it's a sure fire - i substitute 3 cups of all purpose flour for their ap flour + semolina mixture (i've never even tried semolina but am tempted to pick some up) and i also omit the pizza dough flavor 

 

so all i will have to do when i get home is shape, top, and bake!

 

speaking of eats, i've been wrestling with the idea of going back to a vegetarian or vegan diet.  

 

i hate labeling my eating habits in such a way, because i seriously don't always care if there's fish sauce in my pad thai

 

but one thing i really liked about going vegan (for a year) is it made me pay attention to every single thing i bought (food wise - i still had leather products) and ate

i think vegans get a bad rap for being judgey, and it's less about animal rights (i do love me some animal rights) for me, and more about mass produced food and practices - and weird ingredients.

and also the perk of being more conscious of adding veggies to every meal

so while many of my meals will probably be vegan or vegetarian i'm going to slowly ease myself away from turkey sammies

changing gears again

i need some help with some laptop recommendations

i was kind of looking at the chromebooks - that are cloud based?

anyone use a chromebook?

 

and i don't think i'll spend my money on a macbook...even though i'm kind of lusting after one.

 

i would like to keep the price under $500

 

primary uses are blogging and photo editing

 

help?

 

just dance

good morning ya'll

a couple of days ago i mentioned my new love affair with stevia

and i had mentioned getting a slight headache after my first cup of coffee with it

i wanted to say that after a few days of adding it to my coffee (and even using it to sweeten my broccoli slaw) i have not experienced another headache

sweet tooths rejoice!

i still need to try it in my sweet tea; i've just been too lazy to boil water.

but not too lazy to get my workout on!

whoop!

this morning i got my tired butt up and turned on the wii to dance for a solid 45 minutes.



bill and i killed it

and i got to play with this new gadget

my new timex sports watch and heart rate monitor!

i really wanted a sports watch for timing my lifting and interval training that wasn't as gigantic as my garmin

i really didn't need anything fancy, but then i started looking at heart rate monitors, and i thought it might be fun to use

this one was one of the cheaper options out there at $50 on amazon

and i had a gift card - so no money out of my pocket!

after using it last night and this morning it's really easy to use and set up

i couldn't even feel the chest strap while i worked out

my only complaint/issue is it really over estimates my calorie expenditure.

it bases it on heart rate and weight - but this morning's dance workout supposedly burned 800+ calories?

no.  i know what burning 800 calories feels like - running 1 mile is equivalent to 100 calories - i know i wasn't working at that same level

i know i did not burn 800 calories in 45 minutes. 

my fitness pal said i burned 360 (the wii said 180)  so i'm guessing i burned closer to 200-250 calories

but the novelty of tracking my heart rate along with timing of my exercises is what i wanted - and it works.

and as long as i'm up moving and doing SOMETHING - i'm not worried about splitting hairs on calories.

this morning i fueled up with COFFEE (seriously, i know i've had this love affair with trader joes recently - but their coffee is priced the same as any grocery store brand, AND i think you get more AND it's organic/fair trade (at least the one i bought was))

and then i had my vanilla bean greek yogurt with trail mix.  i really want to switch it up with some smoothies

but i feel ridiculous walking out the door with my coffee cup, water bottle, and smoothie container.

i need a drink caddy. 

my motto today is "every bit counts!"  - from parking further away from the building, walking on lunch, choosing my popcorn snack over candy, and refilling my water bottler (i strive to refill it 3-4 times while at work)

it all adds up at the end of the day - i promise!

are you on my fitness pal?

i would love to be friends runrunrachel

 

monday evening

i said this earlier

but i'm totally feeling awesome 

but i'm also totally thinking this...

only i'm in a dress today...but still...

i mentioned before that i'm tracking my meals on my fitness pal

and from tracking i've learned i'm totally kicking ass in the drinking water department (this was sunday's entry)

check out that water consumption!  24 glasses!  = 192 ounces.

whoa!

i think that's helping me feel be full

the only downside is that i'm making 50 trips to the bathroom a day

extra walking! right?

right.

so on to my eats for the day

more trader joe's greek vanilla bean yogurt - which is my favorite flavor thus far

along with trail mix added in

and lunch:

 packed by my loving husband - turkey and cheddar sammie and cottage cheese.

and for a snack, partially because i'm cheap (boom-chica-pop bagged popcorn is $$$), and partially because i hate microwavable popcorn and butter on my popcorn

bill popped me some corn last night and i bagged it up to keep at work for snacks.  it's popped with oil (not the air kind of maker) and only lightly salted.  yum!

dinner was courtesy of lovely trader joes - 

heated up in under 10 minutes

i served myself 1 cup of the mixture - (2 servings of rice 240 calories and 1 sausage @ 280 calories)

the rice was quite spicy but delicious!

and the ingredients check out pretty well too - nothing weird here

i'm proud to say that before dinner i managed 20 minutes on the elliptical - feeling re-energized!

now bill and i are settling in watching an old season of amazing race and i'm sipping on my water

soon to be in bed to do it all over again!