What I Ate Wednesday +Asylum Diary

This week has been productive to say the least...lots of blogging, lots of projects, housekeeping duties attended to, and looking forward to more fun at the end of the week. Lately I have been watching Mad Men on Netflix...I didn't watch it when it first came out but I am really enjoying it. I find it so scandalous how they treated people back then!

But, today we are talking food and workouts. I am showcasing my eats from Monday.  I have been doing a decent job following my meal plan for this week though, which that seems to be a problem for me as I lose motivation about Tuesday night usually ;) haha

As soon as I get up, I eat. I have to. Eight hours is just too long for me to go without food. So I have a glass of water and a banana straight away (great for your digestive system if you get my drift...)

Then coffee 'cause duh!

Then breakfast/preworkout:

Oats. So yum. I do 6 tablespoons of oats to 9 tablespoons of water add in some fruit or sweet potato puree or pumpkin puree (I was boring and left those out), coconut oil, peanut butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Post workout snack. A nice heaping glob of Peanut butter with apple slices and raisins.

Lunch: Leftover triple lentil soup with leftover sweet potato and mushrooms.

Since this was Monday and the kiddo had a particularly rough day (and we all know mental health is very important and chocolate is the best RX there is!) so,  I ran up to the bakery and grabbed these for us: 

These brownies were amazing. Seriously, the best, I have to keep myself away from this place as it is only 2 blocks away and very accessible. Thank goodness they close at like 5pm.

Dinner was fab. The whole concoction sounds weird I know, but the kiddo had two servings of the cauliflower and mushrooms...and she even said the leeks were "ok". She ate the inside which was harder, she isn't one much for wilted greens.

Dinner: BBQ mushrooms and cauliflower with some onion thrown in at the end for crunch served with garlic toast, braised leeks, and homemade applesauce.

Asylum Diary

This is my 3rd week of Insanity Asylum. I have not been perfect, but I am making up for it. I am seeing results though. I can do 1.5 pull ups now, I am seeing more ab definition, and I just feel so much more amazing. 

The end of last week I don't have much to talk about after Thursday every day was a rest day...ha!

Monday: Game day. 

I did not want to do this one. I hate sports, especially organized sports, and I hate them even more so if they involve a ball of some sort. So, needless to say, doing sports training is not really my "thing". However, this one was a blast! It covered all sorts of sports starting with running/track, then to football, soccer, tennis, skating, swimming/surfing, rock climbing, and baseball. There may have been more but I was busy trying to keep up ;) The hardest thing for me were the mountain climber agility jacks...those things were bonkers! The exercise I just can't do yet were the two types of pull ups. You had to pull up and hold then move your hands to different grips and I can pull up and hold but the minute I take a hand off to switch my grip I lose control and come down. I will get there eventually though!

Tuesday: Vertical Plyo. I think this is my favorite workout.. It goes by fast, is under 45 minutes and is just fun. I was really sore today, but I worked as hard as I could and I feel like I got an amazing sweat on. 

Workouts on schedule:

Today: Back to core and relief. 

Thursday: Strength and relief

Friday: Speed and agility

Saturday: Strength

Sunday: Overtime

Monday: Vertical Plyo

Tuesday: Back to core

Wednesday: Vertical Plyo and relief

Next week is my last week with Insanity Asylum Vol. 1, I can't wait to see my results and move on to Vol. 2 next month!

How are you taking care of yourself this week?

Also, check out the rest of the party with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons.

New Years Eve/Day Recap!

New Year's Eve was definitely one of the highlights of 2014. Some friends from our home town were visiting so we all bought tickets to a local club that serves a full menu and then they have dancing after dinner. 

Escape is normally one of my favorite places during the day, on a nice day to sit outside and have a drink and enjoy Amsterdam. I had never actually had anything to eat there, I was pleasantly surprised though! 

The table was adorable. The night's menu and some winter confetti. So fun!

Dislaimer: I didn't take a photo of everything we ate. I honestly forgot some of the time because we were having so much fun!

First course I didn't get a photo of was a duck breast salad...it was delicious!

Next course you could get either beef or fish..I opted for the Cod.

....and I stole the sweet potato puree from hubby's beef plate haha

Next we got some sort of bubbly something or other....I'm guessing this was a bit of cava. Whatever it was made me extremely bloated! Ugh.

Last came dessert...it was "sparkling"

Sorry, I know it is blurry, but how cool are all those desserts on "fire"! It was pretty hard to breathe in the room though after these went out haha

The full dessert was a chocolate moose with a white chocolate ice cream rolled in white chocolate shavings and some sort of fudge cake with nuts. It was very delicious.

After this we went upstairs to the club part for dancing. It was packed and hot but we had a great time!

Our one friend is ridiculously tall, I stole this picture from him. haha

Such a fun night. I won't post the picture we had someone take of the four of us just before we left at 2am...we were so sweaty it looked like we'd just done a full workout! ha! But, felt great and was such a fun way to bring in the new year.

New Year's Day we decided to make use of our unlimited movie passes and went to see Interstellar, which was fantastic! ...and since I was feeling lazy we went out to eat too.

These were the spiciest meatballs I have ever eaten. It said they came in a spicy tomato sauce but failed to mention there were also giant red pepper flakes in the meatballs as well. ha!

Somewhere under all that cheesy goodness is a vegetable lasagna ;)

Then, on the way home hubby stopped and picked us all up some mini Ben and Jerry's to nosh on while we cuddled in bed. 

Such a great way to start off the new year...now though we are back to reality...

....which isn't so bad.

Now, since it is the new year, lets talk workouts!

January 1st I was supposed to start Insanity Asylum, but I was tired so I took a "rest day" haha but, here is what Jan 2nd on has looked like:

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: Speed and Agility

Saturday: Back to Core

Sunday: Vertical Plyo

Monday: Speed and Agility

Tuesday Back to core

Today: Vertical Plyo

*there is a Strength DVD I am supposed to be doing but I don't have a proper band so I need to pick one of those up. asap. Here is a break down of all the DVD's I've done so far and what I think of them. It is important to note I have completed all of the P90X series multiple times and I have done Insanity 5 times, so some of my opinion(s) may need to be taken with caution:

Rest Day: was awesome haha

Speed and Agility: It was tough, but seemed just like a tiny bit more advanced version of insanity. The moves were a bit more advanced, loved the progression moves like in and outs where you'd start on the first rung of the ladder then move to the second and then the third. I thought that was a great way to measure your movement and go from easy to advanced.

Back to core: This one may have been my favorite. I still didn't think this one was super difficult. It starts off with three different types of jumping jacks, all of them working the back. After the jumping jacks you moved on to monkey squats...I LOVE these things. I could do them all day every day (ok, probably not but they are my favorite exercise haha). The reverse planks at the end I found the most difficult move of the workout. There are some one legged bridge moves, no matter how in shape I am these kill my hips so I modify them. I do a few and then just do regular glute bridges. I figure no reason to injure myself over one move. I will say though the more I practice doing the one legged glute bridges the stronger my hip gets! I used to only be able to do one then I'd throw my hip out of whack and couldn't do any thing for weeks, but now I can do four before I feel a "pull" and know I should stop..so YAY!

Vertical Plyo: I am pretty sure this is the DVD where Shaun-T lost his freaking MIND! I found it EXTREMELY difficult..could be too I was just exhausted from the other days and was surprised by how much more advanced the moves could get. I cannot express how insane this workout is. So you know power jumps where your legs are wide you squat down and jump up both knees coming up and feet off the floor? Well, here you do one legged ones of those. Yeah, those are insane, you have to be really, really, really careful. At the end as I am flinging myself all over the mat during one move I was totally regretting saying any of these workouts seemed "easier" than I imagined. 

So, that is what my week has looked like...what have you been eating, and how have you been moving?

P.S. I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for WIAW, come on over and check out the party ;)

What I Ate Wednesday # I need to figure that out ;)

Happy Hump Day Y'all! So, today is bound to be a BUSY one! We have so many appointments and things to get done. So this will be a quick one!

I had a very healthy week last week and this coupled with my workouts I am really starting to see some abs coming back ;) Can't wait to take some 30 day pictures!

Shakeology has been had each and everyday post workout. Apples, cinnamon, pb my favorite tastes like an apple pie snack. A treat from this organic place down the road. Bananas, pb, and dark chocolate because sometimes you just need that. Banana, string cheese, two dates, and pistachios. 

In the top left, frozen watermelon is amazeballs try it if you haven't, egg scramble, and raisin toast, blueberry coffee cake, and vegan coffee, sweet potato leftover breakfast bowl. Tuna salad, eggs and salad. Chicken and cheese crescents with fruit and veggies, steak bites with twice baked potatoes and zucchini, and some lo-mein after a movie on Sunday ;)

Workouts

I've been really good about following my workout schedule this month. I've really stuck to it and added in some things and I am sore in the most amazing way!

Last Tuesday I did a 30 minute run and saw this project called Cartas al Cielo read my post to learn more about it...it is awesome.

Last Wednesday: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Thursday: 50 minute run and Insanity Cardio Abs

Friday: Insanity Cardio Recovery

Saturday: Cardio Power & Resistance...it was awesome:

Sunday: X-Stretch & a 20km bike ride...some in the rain ;)

Monday: 10km bike ride and Cardio Power and Resistance plus this:

Tuesday: 200 burpee's and a 20 minute run to calibrate my heart rate monitor (not easy) and stretching

Today: Will be a half hour run and Insanity cardio recovery and 200 burpees....on top of tons of walking due to meetings we have today and doing the last of the cleaning of our old apartment. It looks to be a very strenuous day so we shall see how all that goes.

I hope everyone has a healthy and fabulous Wednesday!

Glorious Summer What I Ate Wednesday +week in review of workouts!

I really have to get a better title for my What I Ate Wednesday posts...these are hard though because well, they are what they are! But, I had a *spam* commenter say the titles were "boring" and if a spammer thinks its boring...in my mind there is no doubt it is...so I need to get my creative brain flowing.....so this week I added "Glorious Summer" to the title since we kicked off summer vacation this past week finally....but, I still need to figure out what else to title these...for now though, I will continue to call a spade a spade ;)




I feel like I wasn't a very good journal-er for this week my food photos are really sort of random! ha!

Breakfast one morning: Oatmeal with almond milk, coconut oil, blueberries, chia seeds, blueberries, banana slices, cinnamon, and a tiny bit of vanilla sugar (I made, recipe coming soon it is amazing)

This was a quinoa scramble minus the eggs. We've been using up food because I am too lazy to transport it from one house to the other lol So this has a little bit of everything in it: peppers, onions, mushrooms, quinoa patties I made and had frozen topped with a bit of cheese. It was perfect after a nice 40 minute run & some insanity cardio recovery.

I confess: this is canned pineapple lol It was still delicious & I used the pineapple juice it was packed in to make a delicious drink with pineapple juice, pear juice, and some lemon...it was very yellow. :P

This is probably my most favorite salad ever! I will be posting the recipe soon...but it is so delish!

Hubby worked late one night and the kiddo and I didn't have to be creative so veggie nuggets and sweet potato pieces and onions it was. Easy, fast, and we had leftovers ;)

Finally...we had a great little treat day this past week on Friday. School let out Thursday so we partied hearty on Friday with a day at the beach & some delicious treats!

For me: Mojito...so tasty! For teenager: Coke

We split this tasty little concoction....nachos with salsa and guac and some chicken satay. Satay was a bit much for me I only had one skewer...the teenager devoured them though! 

Finally...some ice cream! No better way to kick off summer than some awesome ice cream and a walk on a bright sunny day along the canals of Amsterdam!

It was a great week and I really stuck to eating clean and healthy a majority of the time! This is good for me because I have been caught in a "cheating rut" for a while now...(btw, a "cheating rut" is where every meal is a cheat meal lol)

Now for my week in workouts! This has been a fantastic week for me. My legs are super sore, but I am more energized and feeling accomplished after my workouts even on days when I wasn't particularly looking forward to the workouts...

Last Wednesday: Ran 30 minutes and stretched...I did my C25K...it truly was an awful run. I was still lethargic after our Paris trip but, I got out there and did it and had a great time! 

Thursday: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Friday: we were at the beach all day and our train coming home was late! We at dinner and I ALMOST didn't work out....but, I started getting mad at myself for not working out so I got up & did it! This is the end result of Insanity Pure Cardio! 

Sweaty & gross but feeling amazing!

Saturday: P90X Stretch and date night since it was raining all day I wasn't up for a run in the freezing rain ;)

Sunday: Got up at 7am and went for a run before everyone got up...did a 40 minute run then came home and did Insanity Cardio Recovery. 

Monday: 20 minute run with the teenager that included two sets of 20 second sprints, then some Insanity Cardio Abs...my abs still ache ;)

Tuesday: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Starting today I may have to change my schedule around since it looks like it is supposed to be really rainy the rest of this week and I am not a fan of running in the rain in this colder European climate....but, hopefully it will be nice enough for me to get up and do my 40 minute scheduled run with my cardio recovery...but we will see...may wind up being pure cardio ;)

How about you...if you run do you run in the rain? If you don't run what is your favorite thing to do for exercise?

Menu Plan Monday +Workouts: Moving Edition

Wow, wow, wow! Easter Monday here folks.

We had a wonderful weekend full of games with friends, dinners with friends, and egg hunts! There was a poor decision of a donut and one of those Lindt Cream eggs for breakfast on Easter Morning but it was totally worth it ;)

Org Junkie Link Up

As you know from my last post that we are undergoing a huge move to Amsterdam, Netherlands. This means very busy days of selling and tossing stuff. So, the menu is full of easy, quick stuff that doesn't require any more than a pan, a pot, and/or a baking sheet.

Breakfast Choices:

Oatmeal cups, cereal cups, eggs & veggies, shakeology, paleo pancakes with pb, 

Lunch:

Monday: Leftover's from Easter Dinner Out

Tuesday: me: eatout, teenager: spaghetti leftovers & salad 

Wednesday: me: tuna salad, teenager: lunch out with her friends

Thursday: Driving to Washington to take care of US needs, eat out

Friday: munchies plate: any fruit and veggies that need to use up, cheese, nuts OR Chicken Salad

Saturday: Grilled cheese with salad

Sunday: Omelettes or Cream of Wheat

Dinner:

Monday: Baked potatoes/baked sweet potatoes with zucchini and sugar snap peas

Tuesday: Tacos with salad

Wednesday: Chicken breasts topped with cheese & veggies/salad

Thursday: Spending the day in Washington taking care of US stuff, eat out

Friday: Hamburgers with veggies & potato skins

Saturday: Homemade Hamburger Helper with salad

Sunday:  BBQ pulled pork sandwiches with cheese, corn, and zucchini

Snack Choices: Shakeology bites, apples with peanut butter, paleo pancakes with pb

**Update** Paleo Pancakes
This recipe is adapted from the Big Ass Pancake...

2 tablespoon coconut flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (I use almond but you could use full fat coconut, coconut almond, or-gasp, even regular milk haha although then it is not quite so paleo anymore, I think that is "primal" then)

Put the coconut flour in a mug & break up any big lumps, add milk & eggs. Mix together with a fork until not lumpy. Cook in a small skillet, mine is about a 6-8" skillet and it takes up the whole bottom of the skillet. I top it with sunbutter, peanut butter, or almond butter. Many times I will mix my nut or seed butter with some coconut oil to make it a little runnier & more like a "syrup"-ish thing.

Workout Schedule

Not only are we moving, but I am having a crazy week with starting a new work project that will need a good amount of my attention. This means workouts will need to be quick, yet effective. 

Monday: 100 Burpee Burnout +insanity cardio abs

Tuesday: 1 mile run and X3 Yoga

Wednesday: Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance

Thursday: Doing some traveling and stuff so will try and do some foam rolling

Friday: P90X Cardio X

Saturday: 3 mile run, foam rolling

Sunday: Yoga at Lulu Lemon

What I Ate Wednesday/WODs #4

Happy Wednesday!!!

Over here we've been battling a cold. So a good majority of our meals consist of having a cup of lemon water with honey, cinnamon, and cayenne to try and get rid of this horrible cold. It wouldn't be so bad, but I go to bed thinking I'll feel better the next morning and usually I feel absolutely horrible! I'm hoping with the sun that is supposed to come in tomorrow it will bring some good feeling vibe with it or something. 

Anyway, enough whining! On to the workout's first today. Last week I was bound & determined to do every workout, in the order I am supposed to without whining. I DID IT! Personal goal of mine so that was pretty exciting. Here's what the workouts consisted of:

Wednesday: Max Cardio Conditioning and Cardio Abs. I also took a nice long walk around the neighborhood my daughter's gym is in. Saw a train on the tracks that I thought were just abandoned, it lost it's cargo & had to back up! I had no idea trains could back up?! Anyway, the workout was killer I woke up Thursday with sore ribs from the hard work during the abs. 

Thursday: Max Recovery. I was so glad too, I was very sore. But, this was a great workout. My hip even cooperated so I was able to do all the hip openers all the way through.

Friday: Max Interval Circuit. Legs. Were. Dying. I also did a ton of walking this day between getting the kid to school, then home, then taking her belongings for her weekend trip to her friends house, then home. It was a lot of walking.

Saturday: Core Cardio & Balance. This is a nice easy 35 minute workout. I got up early before the husband & knocked it out. It was fab!

Sunday: Rest Day. I woke up & was starting to get sick. :( So, I took it easy, took a hot detox bath, did a little stretching & walking and that was about it.

Monday: Max Interval Plyo. Even though I was sick I worked  as hard as I could without stressing my body too much so it could still heal. 

Tuesday: I decided to take today as my rest day. I am still feeling pretty awful and by 11 am had taken two naps so I decided just to work on the blog, drink my lemon water, and let myself heal. I also took a hot detox bath. 

Today: I'm moving everything down a day so today I'll do Max Cardio Conditioning & Cardio Abs. This is my last week of Insanity so I am super excited to finish up strong & move on to another round of P90X.

So, as you can see I am super excited to get back to lifting weights. I have a couple of goals for this summer round of P90X which I will address when I show off my June workout calendar. Anyway, on to the FOOD!  You can read here about our experience at Eat! Vancouver this past weekend, but that's obviously not all I ate....

French Toast!! I don't make this often but my daughter was leaving for a long weekend so I made her nutella/banana/cinnamon french toast & decided to have a piece with her. I didn't want anything so decadent & I have issues with eating chocolate in the morning lol so I opted for this! It was amazing!

Saturday morning breakfast for the Mr. & I. Homemade dough, ricotta, mozzarella, eggs, bacon, and a bit more mozzarella just for good measure. ;)

I don't want soda often but lately I've been craving all things ginger so I decided to grab a gingerale after Eat! Vancouver to enjoy the evening.

This was dinner last night since I wasn't feeling well. I'd been wanting to try a Thai place up the street called Pink Elephant. The kiddo & I split the leftovers for lunch & there's still a little in there for breakfast or lunch tomorrow!

Lunch one day. Egg salad sandwich with baby greens, cashews, oranges, and pickle.

Mmmmm cereal with raisins & bananas!

Post-workout snack one day. Almond butter sandwich with greek yogurt with a drizzle of maple syrup, blueberries, and flaxmeal. 

After the kiddo's band concert last Thursday we went to a local pizza place she loves. They got pizza & I got a massive Caesar Salad. It was amazing.

So, that sums up my week in food & fitness! Making better food choices all the time!!! 

What was your favorite food this last week? Mine was probably the lobster & raclette my hubby made after Eat Vancouver last Saturday!

What I Ate Wednesday #2 & WODs!!!

So, as I get more and more blogging done I feel like I am getting the hang of this stuff! I even learned how to create a collage for my post today! I'm super, super proud of it! I'm beaming!

Anywho, let's move on to What I ate Wednesday! Like I said last week I love connecting up to this link party because it's so fun to see what deliciouness everyone is eating!!! So....here goes....

The shrimp & steak Surf & Turf dinner we just cooked on Saturday night. It was quite a treat for us! The steak was cooked perfectly, as well as the shrimp! We enjoyed it as a family and watched Extremely Loud & Incredibly close! #tearjerker! 

A few weeks back we went to a video game themed restaurant here & had some amazing popcorn! I kept wanting to recreate it so I did! It was quite easy and is now a favorite snack of ours! 

Last is just one of my lunches and a breakfast this past week & a dinner I left for my hubby last Wednesday on my carpool day...it was just Pillsbury crescent rolls with ham & cheese in the center and a pear. The crescents are so easy and quite filling!

I've also had quite the week with workouts. I'm in week two of Insanity, month two! My back is incredibly sore, my abs are sore, my derriere is sore, my calves are sore, my hamstrings are sore. So, basically everything on me is sore! Every single workout is exhausting! But, it is so worth it! I was down 1.6 lbs, and all my measurements that should have gone down were down at least a quarter to half an inch! 

So, here's a breakdown of my workouts from the last week:

Last Wednesday:  Max Cardio...this is a warm up and stretch then half an hour of non-stop cardio! I have quite a high calorie burn, although less so than I would actually expect from non-stop cardio.

Thursday: Max Recovery. This is the day I live for during my weekly workouts! This is not an easy workout by any stretch of the imagination as I still burn a solid 500 calories during it, but it's all deep muscle work and I love it!!!

Friday: Max Interval Circuit. This one gives me a super high calorie burn in the hour long session. It's totally HIIT based and gives the perfect amount of work vs. rest.

Saturday: Max Interval Plyo. My phone wasn't charged so I couldn't use my heart rate monitor, but I will say Saturday's are probably my most favorite workout because hubby and the kiddo are home to talk to me. The kiddo likes to try and hop around me and try not to get hit as I bounce around lol It's really quite hysterical and frightening at the same time. But, it passes quickly because I have them to talk to & cheer me on!

Sunday: Active rest day. Normally I just do a walk and the P90X X-Stretch DVD. However, it was mother's day and I was really wanting to get out. So, being the dutiful daughter my 13 year old got up and we went to Lulu Lemon for their free Sunday Community Yoga Class. It was a fantastic day. You can read about it here.

Monday: Max Cardio. I didn't have quite as high a calorie burn as last Wednesday, but my body was totally exhausted after the yoga class and we didn't eat so well Sunday and I just felt horribly sick to my stomach. Oh well, at least I did it! ;)

Tuesday: Max Interval Circuit. Again super high calorie burn and I was sweating like crazy! I couldn't even believe it! I also did really good on some moves that last week I couldn't make it all the way through! My mantra for today was if your tired do 10 more then rest...of course 10 more became 5 more, then ten more so I was really pushing myself as hard as possible!

Plan for today: Max Interval Plyo. I hate this one because you do those wide knee oblique jumps (I forget what they call them in the video but they are like tuck jumps but with wide knees). I actually love the jumps themselves, but they work me so, so hard that I'm exhausted at the end!!! :-/ But, it's well worth it. Today I am also going to do a second workout in the afternoon because Tony Horton is going to be doing a live stream workout on UStream...which I love him and have never been able to go to a live event where he or ShaunT are doing a live workout so this is my chance I feel!!! Maybe I'll get the courage to try beachbody coaching again someday so I can get cool invites to live workouts...maybe...we'll see lol

So, this my week in review. What sort of food/workouts have you being eating/doing this week??