Where's the Beach?

Paella Follow Up As I mentioned yesterday, we had a birthday party to attend. The theme was being a paella party, so I volunteered to bring a vegetarian version. However, I've never had paella before and had no idea if I'd even like it. I'm really not much of a rice eater either, so anyone who really knows me would think it an odd choice. But, I'm always up for trying a new recipe, so why not. Vegetarian Paella Notes, I believe that I added in the peas too soon so they turned brown. So if you aren't using quick-cooking brown rice, then don't pay attention to the cooking times shown in the original recipe. You'll also need more liquid as well. As for the flavor, I thought it was a little bland. Again, no idea what to expect. It wasn't bad by any means, but maybe my feeling towards rice skews my judgment a bit. Jason said it was really good, as did anyone who tried it. I do think that I could try adding flavors used in chorizo, like paprika, to give it m

Awesome Workout This morning I woke to sunshine. Ah, how could it not be a good day??? It was my last day for the Total-Body Training rotation. My how time flies. I've really enjoyed this rotation and will definitely do it again. I started with the warm up from S hock Cardio Athletic Step , did the weights, then finished Athletic Step. It was a super good workout day for me. I just had fun with it today. Weights were supersets of sets of 12 reps increasing weights 1.25-2% over the previous week: SS #1 Biceps - Zottoman Curls Triceps - Lying DB Triceps Extensions SS #2 Chest - Decline DB Press Back - Double Arm DB Rows (this was supposed to have been underhand rows, oops) SS #3 Step Ups Upright Rows Sunny Saturday After the workout, Jason and I had grocery errands to run. Well, we made it as far as Whole Foods. The day was soooo gorgeous, sunshine, 60 degrees, that we decided on a late lunch at a restaurant with a patio. So the other groceries will just have to wait. Some things

Rest Day Friday So today was a rest day from exercise. It was definitely needed too. I know that I'll feel so much better for tomorrow's workout. It'll be the final workout for my 8-week Total-Body Training rotation. It's going to be very hard, but I need to take a week off from weights before diving into a new rotation, which I still need to find by the way. How often do you take a break from weights or cardio even? Fab Friday Friday is always one of my favorite days of the week. I guess it's because I know I don't have to get up early tomorrow. I can meet up with friends and hang out if I want to without feeling guilty about staying up to late. It's also typically my rest day from exercise. The atmosphere at work even tends to be a little more relaxed - it is jeans day after all. Today was a fun day at work for me. We have just made our way into the world of social media, and it's my division that's running this little project.The world of s

Thursday Morning Step I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up this morning and get my cardio in, or get it in at all today. I was so sore yesterday, that I assumed today would end up a rest day. I think the Epsom salt bath did me some good though (or at least temporarily). I was up in time to do my workout and wasn't hobbling around, so I opted for Step Blast and abs from Step, Jump and Pump . It didn't hit me until about halfway into the 50-minute step workout that my legs were indeed still sore. Heavy is an understatement. But, I made it through and started the day full of energy. Tomorrow I will take my rest day though. Today marked 6 straight days of workouts so a break is in order. I'll be finishing my 8-week Total-Body Training rotation on Saturday. I can't believe it's already over. I am determined to allow myself a week off from weights next week, then I need to find a new rotation. For quite some time, my weight rotations have been mo

Wowzers Workout This morning I woke up before the alarm went off. I seriously think I am traumatized from the alarm incident yesterday! I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull of my morning workout because my legs are incredibly sore from Monday's weights. I decided to at least do the warm up and see how they felt afterward. I figured that if nothing else, I would just do cardio. I did the warm up from Low Impact Circuit (LIC), weights, then the Cardio Premix from LIC. Once I got moving, my quads loosened up, and I was able to crank out the workout. Today was supersets of 3 sets of 8 reps: SS#1 Quads - Static Lunges Hamstrings - Stiff Leg Dead Lifts SS#2 Shoulders - Arnold Press Biceps - Alternating Bicep Curls SS#3 Back - DB Pullover Chest - Incline DB Flyes I did reward my hard work with an Epsom salt bath after work. I used to do that frequently when I was dancing, especially near performance time. I should bring this back into my routine. I have decided that of all th

Shocked into Tuesday Well, I figured out how to get myself up in the morning for a workout! Just scare the pants off of yourself. Yep, that'll do it. I tentatively set the alarm for 5:15 am. When I looked at the clock at 2:45, I figured I'd be changing the alarm time in an hour or so. I apparently feel asleep, and fell hard. At some point, Jason must have turned up the volume on the alarm (which is set to the radio), because when it came on it was blaring! I nearly fell out of the bed I was so startled. Needless to say, my heart was racing and I was WIDE awake. Let me just say that this was not my ideal way to wake up! So, this morning I did Cathe's Kick, Punch, and Crunch kickboxing workout (it also includes an ab-kicking stability ball workout). My legs were super sore and heavy feeling from  yesterday's workout. The kickboxing was good for getting my legs loosened up. I did wear 1 lb. weighted gloves to up the intensity and really felt it in my back and shoulders. I

The Monday Blues I'm having some serious Monday Blues today. I think part of it is the lack of sleep from last weekend and then the lack of sunshine. I keep beating myself up for not being as productive as I envision myself to be. However, I still managed to get a lot of pre-made dinners completed. I guess it's just a matter of defining productive. Productive as in chores (dusting, mopping, laundry), productive as in completing kick-butt workouts, or productive as in getting 2 types of veggie burgers made, ciabatta bread, and then dinner. How do you define being productive? Making (HI)it Happen While I was awake this morning in plenty of time to get my workout done, I didn't. I had everything set up, but it just wasn't going to happen. I slept fitfully in the early morning hours. Just not able to get comfortable. I think I need to go pillow shopping. Also, I was dreading the weights today to be honest. You'll see why when you read the sets/reps pattern. I was feel

Sleeping in on Sunday Today I allowed myself to sleep in until 9:15! I usually feel really guilty when I sleep in past 8 am, but this past week was a long, sleepless one for me. I really needed the extra zzzz's. I opted for Cathe's Cardio Fusion today then a stability ball abs workout.  Sunday in the Kitchen Today we had to run a few errands, the ones we put off yesterday. I knew we should have finished them yesterday as it rained today. I guess we got what we deserved! After the errands, I spent much of the afternoon in the kitchen making a huge culinary mess. I baked Ciabatta bread, made some Eggplant Patties (with a few tweaks), and tried a new recipe for Black Bean Beet Burgers . This recipe is apparently based on some apparently amazing veggie burgers found at Northstar Cafe in Columbus, Ohio. I had originally read about them from The Healthy Hostess who also tried out the recipe recently. I actually made quite a few adjustments to the recipe. For the original, please

Friday Follow Up Last night was a ton of fun. I always enjoy getting to hang out with my sister. We started the evening off with a happy hour at Big Whiskey's then back to the house for homemade pizza and wine. I had pre-made my usual Wheat Pizza Dough Thursday evening, but we did end up having a friend of Jason's stop by. So, I dug out an old recipe I had on hand for a super quick Whole-Wheat and Honey Dough . This one does not really rise, it's a much flatter, crispier type of crust. But it really works in a pinch. Tim was super nice and brought over some wine to share. It went perfect with the pizza, which no one complained about! One was made up Greek style with sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, spinach, artichokes, banana pepper rings, roasted red bell peppers, and feta. For the other pizza, half was made with vegetarian pepperoni, sauteed green bell peppers, onions, and garlic. The other half had sauteed squash, green and red bell peppers, and onions. There was no

Rewarding Myself For some reason, I feel like Fridays are a huge reward. I've worked hard all week and feel like I deserve just one day of indulgence. As in no stressing over workouts, enjoying drinks with friends, not carrying about eating pizza, and not "having" to be in bed by 9:30.  So, today was a rest day for me. Tomorrow will be weights and cardio, but today I'm resting up.  My sister came up for the evening just to hang out.She wanted to go to happy hour then homemade pizza with my Wheat Pizza Dough . I certainly wasn't going to argue with her on that! I made the dough last night and tried adding 1/2 whole-wheat pastry flour and 1/2 all-purpose flour this time. It seemed really flat unfortunately. I think next time I'll go back to using the 1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, 1 cup all-purpose and 1/2 cup spelt. I got a little cocky trying to make pizza dough healthier.  Anyway, tonight's a short post, but I wanted to try to add something fun. So, how

No Morning Workout Well, I didn't really think I'd be getting up early to workout this morning. I made a half-hearted attempt by setting my alarm for 5:05 am though. At 4:20 I changed the time to 6:15 instead. I had to be totally realistic with myself. It would not have been a good (or safe) workout. I needed the sleep much more than the trip and fall over the step. I am really rather sore from my weights yesterday. Sort of surprised. Not sure if it was because I really did push myself or because I lifted while mostly asleep! Today was cardio only. I almost opted out entirely, but decided that I really would prefer Friday to be my rest day. I doubt I'll get up early (and don't want that pressure). My sister is coming up after work so I would have to get the workout done in the morning. So, today was Step Blast with abs from Step, Jump and Pump and then a stretch. Nothing over the top. Just a good, old fashioned step routine. So do you think it's OK to push yours

Working Out on No Sleep After several restless nights, I had really hoped to just crash last night. I went up to read around 8:30 and had the lights off by 9:20. I dozed for an hour, then I was wide awake when Jason and the dogs came up. I fitfully dozed another hour as Jason fidgeted and kept getting up. I thought that he was just having a restless night too. However, he kept going downstairs, then back up, had the bathroom light on. Usually he would attempt some sort of discretion about waking me up. He finally came over to me and realized that I was indeed wide awake, he was about to wake me to tell me that he thought he was experiencing anaphylactic shock symptoms from this allergy shot that morning (well, the previous morning by this point). He did admit that he had been reading about it online and that he may just be working himself up over it. He does have an EpiPen at least. I kept asking what he wanted to do (911, ER). Long story short, we did not get any sleep. I did manage t

Tired on Tuesday Well, today I had every intention of getting up and working out first thing. I had my step out, DVD chosen, even clothes set out. However, I slept terribly. I tossed and turned from about 2 am on. I just couldn't get my mind to slow down. So by the time 4:30 am rolled around, I knew that there was no way I was going to get up at 5 and exercise. I reset the alarm for 6:15 and dozed on and off. Needless to say, today felt very long and tiring. I really began to contemplate the option of taking today as a rest day. I just felt completely run down with zero motivation. However, I decided that the cardio may do me some good. It usually does, even if only temporarily. So I chose to do Cathe's Low Max today. It's been so long since I've done that workout. I like it, but it's not a super high calorie burner for me. You also have to be ready for a solid hour workout. It's still fun and time does go quickly. It alternates between a short step combinat

I feel like I am so far behind with my blog. My Valentine's present to Jason was to make dinner and stay off the computer. And today I've been super busy trying to run errands that I'm just now even getting to sit down and start my blog about last night's dinner and catch up on reading everyone's posts. This morning I did the warm up from Shock Cardio Athletic Step then hit the weights, and finished with Athletic Step. Today was the first workout for week 7 of the Total-Body Training rotation. I can't believe it's been 7 weeks! This one was a toughie, 3 sets of 18 reps. Yikes. Chest - Dumbbell bench press Back - Double arm rows Quads - Squats Shoulders - Lateral raises Biceps - Dumbbell Curls Triceps - Double arm kickbacks This was very tiring with the high number of reps. Ouch. Once I started going with Athletic Step, I quickly realized that I should have opted for a slightly easier cardio. My quads were screaming at me. I also did one of my favorite ab