Welcome! This was originally a totally personal and boring food and exercise log that morphed into a prettier, more public-friendly blog about healthy living in general. Be warned: I have been known to curse and use bad grammar, and sometimes even both in the same sentence. Other than that, enjoy!
-Nelly
Coffee with whole milk, Fage with fresh nutmeg, a baby apple (so tiny and cute!) and the puzzle section. Today's sudoku is killing me.
Question for the lurkers: sudoku or crossword?
I'm off to find out what the "Bea"hive is...wish me luck!
-N
*probably because I stumbled home from a very long day at work and decided that dinner was going to be a tin of sardines and a big spoonful of Nutella. yes i know don't judge me!
So Miss Running-To-Slow-Things-Down (couldn't find her actual first name - anyone know it??) is doing a fun little challenge this coming week. From her blog:
We all know that breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day.
We also all know how delicious breakfast can be. It’s hands down my favorite meal, which is why it’s a shame that I’ve been so repetitive with it.
Which is also the reason why I’ve decided to start a week long Breakfast Bonanza…
If you’re starting to freak out a little right now (breakfast ba-who?), don’t. I did this last year, and the results were amazing. Bloggers upon bloggers, all joining in with the idea of trying a new breakfast for each day of an entire week. You can go wild and crazy or you can stick with 7 different oatmeal toppings, if that suits your fancy a little more. Whatever you feel like doing.
The most important thing? Mix. Things. Up. Break the routine of your breakfast.
Really, this is kind of a selfish thing for me to do. I’m mostly looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Because you’re all invited. Who: Anyone and everyone, whether you’re a blogger or not. What: Breakfast Bonanza! Make a new breakfast for each day of an entire week starting tomorrow (Saturday.) When: Saturday (October 30) to the following Saturday (November 6) Where: Post your breakfasts creations on your blog, and let me know via comment if you would like it to be displayed in my Breakfast Bonanza post next week. Why: Give yourself (and me) some new breakfast options. And, HAVE FUN while doing it.
It's pretty straightforward. Basically, have fun while eating! Always something I'm down for :D
It's unofficial, but here's my first entry:
Leftover carrots from last night, an ounce of smelly mystery cheese, two poached eggs (look at the bowl! isn't it cute? it's a little clay egg on the side!), three Triscuits and COFFEE. Shouldn't really have had the Triscuits but they are my favorite crackers ever and amam got them without realising that I can't really do wheat anymore and they looked SO good and were calling my name. So.
-N
...which I'm kind of sorry to say, considering all the recent hoopla about it in the food blog world ! It gets 10 gold stars for presentation, though. Look how cute it is! All clean lines and friendly lowercase letters and the adorable little drawing of a milk can - I love it! It's THICK, too - this spoon would have stayed in the upright position indefinitely had I not removed it. The taste is nice, too - tart without being too mouth-puckeringly sour, and nice and fresh-tasting. But it's the texture that makes all the difference to me. I like yoghurt to be perfectly smooth, to the point that when I was making my own on a regular basis I'd strain it a couple times before pouring it out to set. This stuff is just the slightest bit grainy, and has this weird quality that I can only describe as gluey - it stuck instantly to all surfaces inside my mouth and left me feeling like I had to rinse my mouth out.
I really really wished I liked this stuff, if for no other reason that the container is so damn cute! But I don't. Sorry, Siggi's!
I still love Fage more than my firstborn child, though.*
Dinner tonight: salmonburger, roasted carrots with mustard and some other stuff that amam threw together, mashed cauliflower with a big ol' blorp of butter, glass of milk and some Fage Total with nutmeg and way too much cinnamon sprinkled on it. It needed more green but I was lazy and relied on leftovers.
Crossfit today was again a monsterbitch, this time designed by Colin. Colin has gorgeous blue eyes and looks just a little bit like a shorter Jensen Ackles but this workout proves the fact that he has no soul and delights in the misery of others.**
Run 800 meters
Do as many burpee pullups as possible to finish up 8 minutes
For those who wish to be enlightened, this is a burpee pullup. Ladies, his shirt comes off at about 2:05:
I got in about 12 of those at the end of the run (not moving nearly as fast as this fellow), which took me a pretty pathetic 5:15. We also worked on clean and jerks, working up from a 45lb barbell to 80lbs, doing split jerks, which I officially suck at but I was doing a lot better by the end, thanks to Rich's coaching.
Question for the lurkers: do you all like Siggi's? Did I maybe just get a bad batch? Are the flavored versions any better than the plain one?
-N
*I have no children. **Just kidding, as usual. He's still awesome, just mean. Kidding!!
Two eggs with half a tomato, roasted red pepper, bleu cheese, 1/4 avocado and some fresh basil. Yes, you read that right. Garden-fresh basil (as in I walked outside to get it) at the end of October. NC is CRAZY, yo. But it's ok because it is also DELICIOUS.
Anything tastes better if you work out directly before consuming it. I went to the 615 Crossfit WOD today, and it was a pretty awesome one. They're doing a thing now where the coaches design the WODs for a week or two, and this one was Ashley's. Check her out, you guys. She's seriously amazing. But anyways, it was 8 rounds for time of:
3 overhead squats
3 back squats
3 push presses
3 front squats
200m row
I used a 45lb barbell all the way through. I think I could have gone higher (last time we did push presses I was doing something like 63lb for multiple reps) but I'm still fairly shaky on overhead squats, so that was the deciding factor there. I got this done in 15:49, which was ok fine but honestly I didn't push myself very hard on this one. The reason? Yesterday's WOD.
21-15-9 for time of:
push presses? something overhead. I will check
body blasters. INTENSE. A full burpee (chest to the deck) under the pull-up bar, followed by a jumping pull-up (I used the shortest box because I was nervous of just going for it but I think I will totally do that next time!) followed by a knees-to-elbows (or knees-to-chest, in my case) before you let go of the bar.
SWEET BABY JAYSUS this one was a MONSTER. And I loved every second of it :D That one was designed by Rich, I think (Bea's husband). Thanks Rich!
Lunch! Tomato, sardines, roasted red peppers and balsamic drizzle (no, not chocolate sauce). Background music was incessant, plaintive, feed-me-now-or-I-shall-perish yowling.
Method #2: Be another cat
The interloper appears. Gracie is unamused.
Other Cat decides to take a closer look. Gracie decides the proper course of action is to go apeshit crazy.
Ignoring him won't make him go away...
...so we break out the Kitty Glare of Death!
And Gracie is reinstated in her role as benevolent queen of all she surveys from her throne...er, bag.
Coffee with whole milk and an apple pie mini Lara bar. And Sudoku which I finished in about 5 minutes flat. And also a crossword that you can't see.
So I'm going to start posting pictures of my food again. I've really fallen out of the habit for a while, mostly because my "normal" meals these days are invariably sardines or eggs, a big plate of veg that while delicious is still pretty ugly, and lots of almonds. And also more than a few pinches of cookie dough while I'm at work, which is not exactly something I want to show off by providing photographic evidence. But I know I still should.
And I do really kind of miss the whole...ritual, I guess you might call it, that was setting up my meals for the photo. Getting out the nice plates and silver, cooking a good balance of colors and textures for visual interest, making everything look just so. I found that, at least for me, it was often the effort that I put into getting a good shot for this blog that made the difference between running around mindlessly munching (and then snacking on more later) and actually literally sitting down to eat and paying attention to the fruits of my labor (and thus being more satisfied with just that).
So yeah. I'm well aware of the danger that is becoming over-obsessive about food, but it seems like this is one minor obsession that's good for me. Keep posted for more pictures from here on out!
-N
Question for the lurkers: I want to start posting more frequently in general, and a way I've seen a lot of bloggers manage this is to create daily categories, like the money check-ups every Monday from Grace, Alyson et al, or Sylvan's Ten Things I Love posts (which aren't scheduled but still a category), or JPC's Spirit Sundays and Wordless Wednesdays (the latter I especially love: she just posts one particularly beautiful photo that she's taken recently and invites all the readers to simply revel in it with her). I've joined in on the Money Mondays idea, but what are some other ones you'd like to see me do? They should tie in with healthy living in some way, shape or form, but that's pretty broad :)
The most I've spent this last week was on my student loan, $150/mo right now. It's still deferred until at least next summer (if I'm not back in school for real by then) but that just means it's the best time to get it down as much as possible. Besides that, the biggest transaction was new exercise shoes...for $65.24. Kind of steep, I know. But my last ones (professionally-fitted super-built-up "real" running shoes) were $130, and those lasted me a good couple years. These are a good brand and I like them, so hopefully they'll serve me just as well, and not lead to so many sprained ankles.
Today I feel kind of nervous towards money. My hours at work just got cut to 25/wk. As I had been getting nearly 40/wk, that's the equivalent of almost an entire week and a half of full-time hours over the month, and over a quarter of my paycheck gone. More on this whole fiasco in another post, perhaps. But for the moment I'm concerned enough to be seriously looking for another position.
Money can't buy happiness. One free thing I did last week that made me happy was Family Chinese & Movie Night! :D Well...it's free for me! And cheap for amam&co. And fun.
I will consider this week a success if I have at least two good leads for jobs. That's callbacks or interviews.
This year for Halloween I am dressing up as a witch, natch! Anything else would just be silly.
Coffee with whole milk, Fage with fresh nutmeg, a baby apple (so tiny and cute!) and the puzzle section. Today's sudoku is killing me.
