Spinning and Balls!

Spinning and Balls.  They go together like peas and carrots.   If you know me I not only love a good spinning class but I love my protein balls.  I love to eat them, I love to create new and fun flavors, I like to talk about them.  I just love them, love them, love them.  So whats better than to have a pre-spin ball?  It would be a crime not to.

Tonight was my first night back at spinning in a long time.  I ran into a good friend at the Y last night after swimming who twisted my arm to come spin tonight.  Since the old shoulder injury a bit over a year ago, I've shied away from anything that may remotely irritate my shoulder.  But...remember a little thing called the 24 day challenge and my super progress?? Yea!  I went for it, I spinned, I spun, I rocked it and no pain. NONE!  whaaaa??  That is huge, I still can't believe how wonderful I am feeling lately.  It was great to see friends I haven't seen in awhile, sweat up a storm and torch some calories.  After my ritual morning workout and a lunchtime walk, I'm expecting to be sore tomorrow.  Thank goodness I have some nighttime recovery to help ease my muscles tonight, these poor gams will need it!

Oh..right.  The Balls.  Gotta talk about the Balls.  Balls are a great pre-workout snack.  I knew I would be torching some calories and needed a little snack, so I made sure to pack some leftover balls I had made for a mixer....oooh baby they powered me on through.   Lucky you, 2 Bonus Ball Recipes!  

BALLS!

Vanilla Pistachio Balls

• 1 packet Vanilla Meal Replacement Shake
• 1/2 cup pistachio/walnut butter*
• 2 Tbsp raw local honey
• 6 Dates
• Dash cinnamon

Chocolate Almond Balls

• 1 packet Dark Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake
• 1/2 cup almond butter*
• 1/4 raw local honey

1. Combine all ingredients in Blendtec or Food processor til combined
2. Form Balls about 1 Tbsp.  
3. Enjoy!

*use store bought, natural no sugar added nut butters or place nuts in Blendtec and pulse on speed 1 til combined, then pulse on speed 6 several times to reach consistency desired, you may need to add a bit of oil to reach desired consistency, consider using coconut or hemp oil for an added boost!  

Thundersnow and the no Soup Sunday

Woke up to rain, rain, rain.  Where was that foot of snow I was promised??  eh?  It was a  late night jamming out to a great band, Brown Bottle Fever, one super delicious  local  IPA ( my fah-vo-rite) and lots of water shots, heh. side note: a little spark before you go out rocking at concert is a wonderful thing! Needless to say It was a bit of a lazy morning.  I decided to cook a yummy breakfast this morning, lounge around the house and partake in a dear old vice.  Oh, coffee how I love and missed you!  I ground some beans, boiled some water and made a delicious batch of french press sumatra.  Heaven and made a veggie omelet and got busy lounging!

It was a busy morning of booking the annual Memorial Day camping trip, Ozark Outdoors this year and I am super excited...then it started. The Thundersnow.  I have never in my life heard thunder while it snowed and it was freaky I tell you, I felt like I was straight out of a scene in The Day After Tomorrow.  It was really quite beautiful, but spring in St. Louis and snow? Clearly someone forgot to clue dear old mother nature in that spring arrived 4 days ago...

Spring Thundersnowstorm!

A short while later I had a beautiful sight from my window:  I don't care that its March, snow is beautiful and awesome and I love it!  I love it even more when I get to stay inside and watch it fall and fall and fall.  While all the snow haters were going crazy cursing it I enjoyed some quiet time just watching and enjoying.  It wouldn't be a productive day with out a workout so I popped my trust Can You 24 Workout and worked it with some melt 1 and my pal Jenny, then for good measure on a Sunday and cause I felt the need to work off that beer from last night, threw in Core stretch for good measure.  

So as you can imagine this snow fell hard and fast, typically Sunday is Soup for the week day, but I was not about to venture out to the store on these roads if I didn't have to...so what is a girl to do but improvise?  I threw together what left over veggies I had and made a wonderfully delicious tofu veggie side dish.  I paired this with a nice salad.  Bonus...to cap off the evening, no School and Late reporting for work!  Yay for Spring Snowstorms!! 

• 3 oz extra firm tofu, cubed and pat dry
• 5 asparagus spears
• 1/2 cup carrot, cut in large chunks
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped in large chunks
• 2 oz grape tomatoes (about 6)
• 1tsp chile infused olive oil
• dash of garlic powder
• fresh ground black pepper

preheat oven to 400, toss all ingredients in olive oil to coat, add spices and bake for about 20 minutes or until tofu is firm and browned.  Enjoy!!

Nutrition: Calories 182 | Fat 9g | Carb 18g | Fiber 5g | Protein 11g

Cucumbers and Cilantro oh my. Day 9

Day 9!! I survived the birthday party, no wine, no pizza, no soda, no cheetos, no cake passed these lips.  I had a nice little snacked all packed and ready to go, but left it at home.  Darnit I was in for a challenge.  Luckily I had a nice bowl of  asapragus and quinoa minestrone before leaving the house.  I sipped on water all night and although all the goodies looked amazingly good, I passed on them all.  A big shout out to my friends for not over tempting me.  yay.

I'm super excited 3 people have expressed interest in the 10 day cleanse.  My friend, Kara and my parents.  My mom asked me to order her a kit for herself and my Dad...however, I'm not quite sure he has been let in on this little secret yet.  I'm so proud of them.  I feel amazing approaching Day 10 and I hope they feel the same soon, too!

Got up, sparked did the shred 1 workout, put some steel cut oats on to cook and did the core stretch...fun fact steel cut oat cooking time is the same as core stretch video.  fun!  Picked M up from her sleepover and got to creating in the kitchen!

I recalled seeing a recipe somewhere for cilantro cucumber hummus.  I had almost all the ingredients I needed at home and decided to give it a whirl.  I had dried cilantro in the cupboard...I imagine this would be waaaay better with fresh herbs.  Everything is better with fresh herbs!  (new goal: grow some fresh herbs.)

I gathered all the ingredients and got to work.  I had some garbanzos on hand from earlier in the week, chopped up a cucumber, reconstituted some dried cilantro in lime juice and threw it all together with some a lot of garlic.

Now, friends if you have a heavy duty blender such as the Blendec, try this at home.  Otherwise use a food processor to pulse the mixture until just blended (level one on blendtec) Or if you are in a pinch use a potato masher to mash all the ingredients and hand mix together, I'm way too inpatient for this method, so I use the good old Blendtec.  If you use your grandma's old oster you will surely blow the motor and that's just no fun for anyone.

Cucumber Cilantro Hummus

• 15oz garbanzo beans  
• 1Tbsp dried cilantro 
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1Tbsp olive oil
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cucumber, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic

Combine all ingredients in Blender, blend to desired texture and enjoy.  Its that easy!  Garnish with crushed red pepper and serve with cut veggies.  Would work great as a sandwich or cabbage roll spread.  Makes 4 cups 16 0.25cup servings.

Nutrition:  0.25cup (4Tbsp)  Calories 66  Fat 3.2g  Carb 8g Fiber 1.5g Protein 2g

Feeling fine, oh so fine: Day 6

Day 6!  Almost a full week on the new morning routine, yea!  up, spark, workout.  Off  to work I go.  I didn't get an afternoon walk in today.  It was allergy shot day, which took up my lunch hour and  means I feel pretty punky the rest of the day.

Picked up M from grandma's and she had made a delicious soup that was completely 24 day challenge friendly.  Thank goodness because it was dance night and I packed nothing for dinner.  Usually a friend and I go out for drinks/apps while the girls are at dance.  Clearly that is so not 24 day challenge friendly and I was prepared to cope with that, I had will power on my side.  Turns out, it was watch week at Dance for M.  Sneak peak of their recital dance, these girls are just so darn cute!

I'm a little exhausted today, but that's pretty typical for shot day.  Kid off to bed, now its time for a little relax and book time, then up and at 'em again tomorrow.  Feeling fine, doing great.  I can do this!

Snow and Smoothies: Day 5

Day 5!  I think I'm getting the hang of this whole up and early, spark, workout thing!  I did it again. Melt 2 my good old bff Jodi was back for the adventure. I just can't say enough about the Can you 24 workout, I just love it.  Who would have thought that 24 minutes could make me feel like I'm getting a real workout. Although its still a bit rough actually crawling out of bed, once I'm awake and working out, I feel great.  Such a kickstart to my day.  I did get my distributor kit yesterday and decided to try a sample of Slam instead of spark this morning.  I liked it, lots of kick to it,  but to be honest I like the spark better, it makes me feel a peppiness that lasts all day long.  Maybe there really is some magic sparkle in my spark??

work work work, It was actually a pretty good day, just enough crazy to make the day go by quickly. I got super excited when it started snowing again around lunch, I ate my food and took a walk in the snow.  I only did about 25 minutes...after I set out in the beautiful white fluffy stuff, it quickly became very wet snow...me without a hat, I looked the part of a drowned rat when I got back.  I could have gone down to the basement and hit the gym like a good little girl, instead I socialized for the remainder of my time.  A girls gotta get her social on, yo.

M has been begging me for Smoothie King for a solid 2 weeks. every.single.night. I caved. I just didn't feel like cooking tonight so we swung by and had smoothies for dinner, they actually have some really healthy options if you delve deep enough into the menu, opting for the 'light' version of any smoothie (no added turbinado aka sugar)  and avoiding things like the Hulk...holy cats that has a lot of calories and fat!  I choose the high protein almond mocha, 266 calories, 9g fat and 30g protein,  oh YUM!

M has been on a workout kick lately, mind you a 7 year old's version.  I believe she is 'modeling' behaviors, yes that is psych 101 rearing its ugly head.  Anyway, she wanted to do one of my 24 videos so we did the core stretch and damn, girlfriend rocked it....she was up there most of the time with HER new bff, Sarah on level 3.  Who knows, maybe little miss will soon be my new workout buddy?

Bed, book, relax.  I did a little cooking tonight for lunch tomorrow.  no pics, sorry.  Roasted Asparagus with onion, grape tomato and herbs de provence over green lentils and garbanzos. It smelled amazing!!   mmm cannot wait for lunch tomorrow!

Surprise Guest, Willpower: Day 4

The alarm put up quite the fight this morning, but in the end I was victorious.  After a middle of the night awakening with a wheezy kiddo, I didn't get the greatest nights sleep, eh , parenting what're ya gonna do?  It was a little rough getting up today, but I did it! Up, spark and core stretch workout...this was a nice little change on my still sore, but improving, muscles.

The dreary, rainy start to the day seemed to put everyone in quite the  mood.  Crabby, argumentative people loomed everywhere.  Cranky pants weren't gonna get me down, I just trucked on.  Today was also a total test of will power.  

1. A coworker stopped by and offered to buy me a coffee. So hard to resist.  I really do miss coffee.  like, A LOT! Apparently its very acidic and should be avoided, I keep telling myself, this will not be forever.  My vice is a grande americano, black..with a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon...excuse me while I pull myself together over here...
2. A few coworkers later decided to order Thai food, ugh.  I LOVE Thai food, however after drooling over the menu, I stuck to my grounds and declined.  I did however accept an orphan summer roll, passing on the sauce later that day.  
3. M just HAD to have mac n cheese for dinner.  It was everything I could do to not lick that spoon.  Its so delicious and ooey gooey cheesy.
4. Made M's lunch for tomorrow while she was working hard on her AR book for the week (she got a 100% this week and is now super motivated, woohoo!)  while most of her lunch would be acceptable to nibble on, I did include half a nutella sandwich and welll....its just really really difficulty to not lick the knife. but haha nutella, you lose, I win.
5. Ok, so probably not so much actual willpower involved in this one, but I was catching up on all my shows; Bones, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory.  And I'll be damned if they were all decided to enjoy a nice glass of red wine in each episode.  argh.  It looked so good...but, all in good time...

While they seem like little accomplishment these are the baby steps that keep chugging me along.  I can say no to things I really want for a short time.  I can do this!  I also was able to get to the Y for about 30 minutes tonight  due to super cooperative little girl and kicked the arc trainers butt.  All and all Day 4 was a success.  20 more to go!

Wide awake and sore, oh so sore. Day 2

Day 2!!  I went to bed around 11 last night, I wasn't exhausted but, I figured it was time.  So after reading a couple of chapters of Water For Elephants (so good! I have it in epub if anyone wants it) I went to bed...then I woke up and it was still dark, I looked at the clock at it was 0600.  WTH??  I shut my eyes vowing not to be up before the sun on the weekend.  Its just not right, I argued with myself. I'm a sleeper. I don't get up early.  No way, no day.  I love sleeping in, its not unusual for me to sleep til 9 or later on a weekend, I refused to be awake at 6am!  I woke up again and there was the sunlight....it was barely 7am.  FINE.  I'll get up. I was wide awake and I was SORE.  Jeanette was not kidding, that 24 day workout is really effective.  Yes, yes, I did go to the Y yesterday and bike but I do that every Saturday and I am never sore from that. ever

I got my spark on, mandarin today, yum and did Shred 1 workout on the 24 day workout. It would have been so easy to just skip it being so sore, but I put on my big girl pants and powered through.  I even felt a little less sore afterwards, whats up with that??   I made a new friend, Level 2 Jodi...although due to my soreness (and inability to do big girl  push ups) I hung out a bit with Shawna on level 1 and we did our girly push ups, but hey...we still did it!

Additional goal:  Do big girl push ups.

Side note for Day 1, I wasn't hungry all the time...I figured I'd be starving constantly.  But I'm satisfied, I tracked my intake yesterday on sparkpeople and I ate about 1300 calories.  I don't know if the spark is helping to suppress my appetite or I'm just eating more protein and staying full, either way, I'm not complaining and I'll take it!

If you Give a Girl a Spark. aka Day 1

Last night I tagged along with Jeanette and Tracey to learn more about this whole challenge thing and try some new things.  I sampled the watermelon spark and ohhh yum! Jeanette's husband won a 24 day challenge workout video, since they already had one she let me have it.  Score!   So I decided this morning since I had my box, a new work out video and woke up at 0700 on my own (no fake out alarm this morning) I'd bite the bullet and go for it.  So I sparked up and tried the video.  Its only 24 minutes and even gave; she who doesn't like much more than cardio' a good workout.  Loved that it has 3 fitness levels at one time you could follow.  I stayed most with the level 2 gal, we bonded a bit in our 24 minutes. Although some exercises (push ups!) I did level one and others (plank, et. al) I rocked out on level 3. Very happy with it.  Thanks, Jeanette!!

I figured if I can get in habit this weekend of wake up, spark, 24 minute workout I can carry it through the week.  I can handle an extra half hour in the morning, right?  (This is were you post encouraging comments, people)

I took the obligatory before and after pics after taking the spark, working out and eating. ( no meal replacement on the weekend, homemade all the way: scrambled eggs in coconut oil, green onions an orange and hibiscus tea oh...and the fiber drink not so yum but its fiber, it is what it is...)  It was a little like a scene out of if you give a mouse a cookie, you know those books right?  Where the kid gives the total ADD spaz mouse a cookie, then it sets off a whole chain of events?  Well if you give a girl a spark, she may decide to start a 24 day challenge and work out.  If she works out she might as well take before pictures.  If she takes before pictures, she has to clean her mirror (its rather dusty) if she cleans her mirror she should clean her floor too.  If  she cleans her floor she should shine it too (so it looks good in pictures) If she shines the floor she should clean up all the excess shoes so they aren't in the picture, and she should clean off the dresser too...you see where this is going...

I  took 2 sets of before pictures, which I am not ready to post yet, sorry folks. Set one was in an old (i.e. 30+ lbs ago workout outfit) and the second in current clothes.  I also measured waist, hips, thighs, arms and all that junk. heh da junk in da trunk.

I also added another measurement.  Calves.  I have huge calves.  I'm adding another goal...lose inches in my calves.  I have always wanted a pair of knee high boots or super cute cow boy girl boots,  but my calves are too big for them.  I promise you I will get a pair soon, maybe some skinny jeans and dress to go with them too.  Don't make me eat my words.