A while ago I wrote about Fage Greek Yogurt being a good thing... well, Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt is even better! The Fage had a little grainy thing going on that I didn't mind...but the Oikos doesn't have that and tastes much creamier.
Guiltless Gourmet Blue Corn Tortilla Chips - baked not fried! These taste great but are a tiny bit on the salty side.
Old Navy is having a clearance sale. I had three hours to burn the other night while my daughter was in an "on-camera" workshop. After shopping at the Mustard Seed Market, I went to Old Navy to browse. Walked out with a $34.50 teal green zip-up sweater for only $9.99, a shirt to match marked down to $4.99, and a nice pair of wide-leg black dress slacks more than half off at $14.99. I'd say it was a pretty successful unplanned shopping spree.
The latest issue of the new Clean Eating Magazine made it to the Giant Eagle shelves several days before it was due to be released. The magazine is including many gluten-free recipes this time around, which I find very nice. There is a spinach fritatta recipe that I plan on trying this week. Some others that I marked to make in the next several days: Pasta Roll-ups with Turkey & Spinach (I am very "into" spinach these days. Also, I can use brown rice lasagna noodles to make these), Spicy Chicken with Brown Rice Pilaf and Quinoa Porridge. If you go to the website, there are plenty of recipes to download.
On The Biggest Loser tonight, Bob had Dan doing step ups with a pretty heavy barbell onto a 16" step...and Dan did it. I was impressed! Dan has lost 99 lbs while on the ranch. In the beginning he was totally fried from working out, now he's fully loaded doing step ups. WOW.
A cute thing: It was pajama night at AWANA on Sunday. The kids got extra points for coming in pajamas. I went around to each class with a bag of Hershey's Kisses and said I was giving out goodnight kisses. One little girl in Sparks (K - 2nd grade) looked up at me after I handed her the chocolate kiss and said, "But I thought you were going to REALLY kiss me. Will you please?" Awwww, such a sweet little cutie. The funny part was seeing the leaders and what pj's they chose to wear. Me, I played it safe with navy blue/dark green flannel pajama pants & a matching T-shirt. Our TNT director wore VERY BRIGHT American flag pajama pants with his shirt tucked in. He is very long and lanky. He looked like Uncle Sam. Drew, who works with Cubbies, had on a fuzzy bathrobe and slippers with his flannels. His hair is always all tousled so he looked like he was ready for bed. So many of the littler kids were running up to me telling me "Now we don't have to get ready for bed when we get home, we can just brush our teeth!"
A not-so-good thing: I've been trying to fight off a cold for a couple of weeks now. Everyone around here is getting sick with something or staying sick with lingering bugs that won't go away. So it's the runny nose, scratchy throat, tired thing going on with me right now.
~o~
Even though we had freezing rain all day, I can't help but think that spring is coming soon. I've been getting emails about the Ohio Challenge Series of 5K races. I picked up an Ohio Sports & Fitness mini-mag the other day and many spring races were already listed. My old race T-shirts are beginning to look ratty...I think this year I might need to run a few 5Ks to replenish my supply. My hope is that my friend, Julie, will feel the urge to run with me. My daughter, being pregnant, is obviously not available.
I've started working on speed. I think that'll have to be my focus. Oh, I have no hope of ever winning anything other than door prizes...just an occasional age group category.Scary thing though, I've moved up in age groups since my last 5k and the women were FASTER as they got older in this new group. I do, however, want to make some new Personal Bests, also called Personal Records, PR for short. I love runner abbreviations and will probably be using them again as the roads clear and I log mileage again. PORN means "Planned On Running." LSD means "Long Slow Distance." The one you never want to have to write is DNF "Did Not Finish."
I have another goal that I didn't make last year because I got sidetracked. I want to be able to do more than 3 lousily-executed pullups.
So with that in mind, I think I'm going to do a P90X recovery week. That will involve two days of yoga, a day of core synergistics and just cardio & stretching. After that, I'm going to kind of mix up P90X with going to the gym and work more on things like plyometrics to improve my speed. Tony's plan in P90X is supposed to really improve anyone's pull-up abilities, so that would take care of that goal, too.
I know that I hold back when I run. If I'm in a 5K, I generally find someone running my speed, pick a comfortable pace and chat the whole way. (And then fight it out at the finish line to see who will go through first). I've been making myself do some insanely crazy sprints on treadmill and I hope as I get faster, I'll be less prone to slow down and talk too much.
~o~
Today's workout: 15 minutes HIIT on the treadmill. 32 minutes of circuit training, focus back & abs. Stopped and went to the Cybex + because people were starting to come in and I was afraid of not getting one. 20 minutes HIIT on the Cybex. Started watching Star Trek Voyager and it was one of the first episodes when Seven of Nine first came on board, so I couldn't give up watching (I am a totally out-of-the-closet Trekkie) ...moved to the treadmill for 10 more minutes of HIIT. After that, back on the floor for 8 minutes of Ab work.
lat pulldown 15/70, 12/80, 10/85
assisted close-grip pull ups 3, 4, 4
seated row 10/80, 12/80, 12/70
-- 2:00 Insanity sprint on treadmill. Incline at 3%, started out comfy at 10 minute miles, after 30 seconds bumped it up to 9 minute miles, 30 seconds to 8 minute miles, then 7 minute miles, then for a brief 10 seconds at 6 minute miles
1-arm dumbbell row 30/30, 20/35, 16/40
---2:00 of crazy sprinting as above
back extension 15/90, 15/95, 15/100
ab machine 20/80, 15/90, 12/100
(this is where I got on the Cybex)
double crunches 20X3
side to side crunches 20X3
medicine ball transfer 12/4/3
 | Hope the lingering bugs go away soon. I think you're right. Spring is on it's way. It's gotten cold here again too but I just keep reminding myself it's days are numbered. |
 | Hey, enjoy your day off from teaching school today. Hopefully the day off means you can get a little rest to take care of your body so it wont get sick on you.
I clicked on the link for the magazine. It looks interesting. I'll have to see if I can find it in Giant Eagle this week and flip through it. I like the magazines message but often times my family wont eat the type of recipes I found at the website, in fact there wasn't one thing that I could find that they wouldn't turn their noses up at. :-( Picky, picky. |
| clearance sales rock ... pajama party sounded fun ... booo on the cold ... get better! ... |
 | Old Navy is the best for kids cloths on clearance!!
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 | I'm not sure I can get on board with grainy yogurt.....I've gotten to be very picky about my yogurt. I will only eat Dannon Fruit on the Bottom. Everything else is to smooth or to aspertame-y (if that makes sense) but I was encouraged by my doctor to eat yogurt daily because I'm frequently on antibiotics (for respiratory infections and stuff) and antibiotics kill all the bacteria, even the good bacteria so I'm supposed to eat it to replace the bacteria. But I don't like any other yogurt other than Dannon Fruit on the Bottom. I guess I like the chunks. |
| I cant eat yougart as the basis for the bacteria is SUGAR and that is a major no no for me. I used to love plain yougart with wheat germ |
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I cant eat yougart as the basis for the bacteria is SUGAR and that is a major no no for me. I used to love plain yougart with wheat germ 