Reunited

Oh weekends.  How I love and look forward to you and how sad you make me when you go away.  Such a tease.

This weekend I was reunited with a few of my loves- frozen yogurt, shopping, and yoga.  It's funny how something so silly like a cold can kick me out of my routine and how much I crave movement when I'm away.  It proves how breaks are great for the body and a much needed attitude adjustment for the mind.

Now time for show and tell:
1. Yogurt- I love it and I think it loves me.  I got regular tart, honey tart, and red velvet topped with fruit.  Bonus health tip: the fruit makes the yogurt calorie free.

2. Shopping.  My lovely in-laws got me a gift card to lululemon and it was burning a hole in my pocket. I got the astro pant, stride jacket, and a really cute tank that I can't find on their site.  I'm in love and can't wait to wear my clothes as soon as my post-war mentality allows me to wear them.  My current workout clothes are pretty awful so I'm looking forward to wearing some nice pieces and officially joining the cult.  The pants in particular do wonders for the bootay in case you are wondering.

3. Yoga. I finally took a class after 2 weeks and it was so nice to have a thorough practice.  My favorite part was all of the twists and back bends.  The twists are detoxifying and much easier than the detox I finished last month and the back bends are to counteract all the slouching I do in my chair at work while I'm slowly taking over the world.  Now that I can breathe, I'm looking forward to more yoga classes.

What is one thing/activity/food you have reunited with lately?

It's Getting Steamy Up in Hurrr

This evening I went to a sculpting class at my cult gathering yoga studio yogaworks.  The class is called Sculptworks and incorporates strength, resistance bands, yoga, pilates, and dance style stretching and exercises in a cardio and strength style circuit.  And I love it when I'm not busy being lazy.

This evening I took the class with one of my regular hatha yoga teachers and he made sure to kick my booty.  The soccer moms in the class agreed.  The instructors usually ask us if we want the AC on since we are the ones moving and they are usually walking around and correcting form.  Although I'm usually cold, it was unreasonably warm when the instructor turned on the AC.  I kept going and thought that I was getting a monumental workout until about 15 minutes later when he realized he had turned on the heater instead of the air conditioner. I'm just glad that nobody passed out like I almost did in my first hot yoga class.  That would have been messy. 

I decided to keep up the hot trend with my soup tonight.  I have to admit that I've been eating the same soup almost every day for the last 3 weeks.  It's a bit of a problem and I'm OK with it.

I also have to admit that I don't 'make' any of it.  Please meet my dream team:

Trader Joe's Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup- delicous.  Add your frozen or fresh veggies and bring to a simmer.  Add some Slap Ya Mama seasoning and your soup is cooked and spicy.

Sometimes I add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese if I really want to steam up my own glasses.

Questions for you:
Have you ever done hot yoga? Yes- and I like it now that I got past the initial trauma
What's your favorite soup? This soup and miso soup

Taking the Hard Way Out

First- I wanted to thank you all again for voting for me to make it round 2 of Project Food Blog.  I was not going to enter at all (you'll see why later) and I really appreciate the effort you take to vote for me.  For real.

Taking the Hard Way Out
Yesterday I woke up, finally in my own bedroom after being away from home for a work trip for three days.  I was tired, I was cranky, but I knew I wanted to get a yoga class in and planned to go to the intermediate class this afternoon.  I did a few errands around the house, grocery shopped, made my blog entry, (which took longer than anyone would imagine) and of course was running late.  Well, being perpetually late doesn't work for me since my studio locks the doors exactly when the class starts.  Fashionably late is not an option here.  And guess what?! I got locked out of the intermediate class. 

I panicked and started walking to my car, but remembered the advanced vinyasa class that started just ten minutes later.  I took this class once before and it was hard, like really hard.  I sucked it up and went to the class.

Did I excel?  Heck no.  I used all of the tools- blocks, straps, extra padding with the blanket, and even had to come down to child's pose to rest.  I lost my balance a lot and I sweated like a chubby kid in front of a chocolate cake.  The teacher, a man who looks like Genie from Aladdin (if he were a real person, of course), came over and corrected me- stretching my screaming tight hamstrings.  Have I mentioned I'm the least flexible person, like ever?  It's true.  In the end, it was one of the best classes I ever took and I appreciated the experience more than my comfort zone classes. 

If left to my own devices, I take the easy way out when it comes to physical activity.  Every hard hike I ever took with my husband began with many excuses, bargaining, and exit strategies.  I even started making future excuses for our upcoming trip- a trip we have been planning for over a year. 

I'm still trying to figure out where these actions and excuses come from.  I'm at a healthy weight, fit, and have been exercising pretty regularly for about 14 years.  I'm no longer the fat kid faced with the dreaded mile in middle school, I'm no longer the slowest kid in class, and I can probably do a lot of stuff if I just took the hard way out.  I am making a goal to push myself out of my comfort zone- in my workouts and in other aspects.

Question for you: What have you done lately to take the hard way out?
For me, it was this yoga class, and going to grad school while working full time and planning a wedding

Reasons Why My Yoga Studio is Better Than the Regular Gym

I have decided that I wanted to run and potentially run a 5K in the near future.  Nothing in particular brought this on, except for the fact that I'm impulsive and saw a sign for some random race while on a bike ride this weekend.  Dare to step inside my brain- you will get lost!

I did go to the gym today to get in some dreadmill time to see if my foot could handle it and to get started.  It was fine but I realized why the regular gym is a kick in the pants.  Here is my list of why the gym sucks.

• They are now fingerprinting in my gym.  Seriously WTF?!?- while some people may require it on a normal basis to like stay out of jail and stuff, I don't want to feel like a criminal while going to get my elliptical on with a little Gaga on my iPod
• Waiting for a treadmill takes forever, especially while the runner guy needs to finish stretching ON the treadmill
• There were women putting on makeup in the locker room BEFORE going to workout.  What is that?  I won't even talk about the blatant plastic surgery on display because that would make me a hater
• Grunting, snorting, and panic attacks over a lack of the type of supplements available in the gym's store.  Really?
• Abundance of d*bags.  Waxed eyebrows, tribal band tattoos, spiked hair, obvious use of 'roids.  No thanks.  And please don't look all tough or try to talk to me. I don't make eye contact with people at the gym and I know how to use the weights.
• The place smells. Nuff said

I finished my jog/walk and skidaddled over to my happy place to take my class. It was clean and I didn't feel like I'd catch something.  I felt like a human again but looks like I'll be back to the zoo soon enough.

Tell me your gym stories.

Hit the Jackpot

First...an update-I got the green flag to proceed with any physical activities that I wanted to do as long as my foot felt fine and what do I do? YOGA!  I'm hooked guys. I'll be doing some posts on my favorite classes at YogaWorks and am excited to share with you.

My weekend started with a bang when I made a pit stop at Whole Foods right after my yoga class on Saturday morning.  I knew I had to get my hands on the new trendy trend with ya'll.  Look what I got: Jackpot!

They do exhist!  So far I have tried a half of the carrot cake...and it does not taste like carrot cake to me, but still good!  I also got some coconut water to keep myself hydrated like when I'm sitting on my bum at the office and stuff.

We continued our adventure to the beach.  Again, this is a Northern California beach, so I wore sweats and walked along the ocean while my partner in crime surfed.

Today was spent running errands, doing homework, and hanging out with a few of my select posse.  I found this picture on my phone as evidence of two of my favorite boys. Love.

I'm feeling rested and ready to conquer my week!  And since I've kept my face off of here long enough and I got a new summer dress, here is one that hubby snapped of me. 

See you later this week!


Tell me the last new food product you got that you just HAD to try because of the blog peeps?

Where is the Scale?

Hi guys!  I hope your Monday and went swimmingly.  Mine was aight and I'm glad we can move on from that nuisance. 

A clarification on my last post: Ceviche is usually made with raw fish and the acid in the marinades and other ingredients usually break it down and 'cook' it but I skipped this step by using cooked shrimp.  I didn't want any food poisoning on my hands and I was impatient. So now you know all my secrets.

Are you sick of my yoga talk yet?  Hope not.  I have been attending my yoga studio for almost two weeks and really enjoying it.  The classes are challenging and while I have been working up to a higher level, I have been getting a nice stretch and experiencing some muscle endurance (I think that's what it's called since there are mixed opinions on whether yoga is strength training or not). 

You see, I come to the fancy pants studio with the rest of the housewives living in my suburban city outside of San Francisco.  There is a fountain in the lobby.  As I was walking into their bathroom (they call it the Ladies Oasis or Lounge, or something else that tells me I don't belong there) I looked around at all of the ammenities provided- hair dryers, lotions, shampoo, lockers, plenty of clean towels, and noticed something was missing from the typical gym potty.  Where was the scale?  Did they forget it (I am paying full price, ya know)!?  I walked back and forth a couple of times and it was not there.  How could they not have a scale in the Women's Retreat? 

While they say women aren't good at math, we measure, weigh, calculate, divide, and estimate numbers in our heads all the time- calories, pounds, fats, carbs.  You get the picture.  I know I've done it before and looking for the scale proves that I still do it to an extent.  Of course I subconsciously measure myself to other people in the studio (great people watching) and I measure my progress to the way I used to look or to how fit I was a year ago, or even 2 months ago prior to this setback. 

Not to get all hippie on you, but in yoga, nobody cares.  There are old, young, women, men, bald, thin, overweight, and people like me- breathing, clearing their minds, and doing something good for their bodies.  Some instructors are built like ballerinas and others like linebackers and it doesn't particularly matter.  I've gone in for my classes and temporarily put away my mental scale and it's pretty awesome.  Plus, I have an awesome scale in my bathroom that tells me my weight within 7 pounds, which is cool anyways.

How often do you find yourself weighing or measuring yourself?

What Sound do Goats Make?

I'm anticipating a pretty quiet time around the blog-o-nets as people are out and about enjoying summer and the holiday. I hope you are doing something fabulous this weekend!
Food
I haven't done a food post in quite a while with my traveling, school, and injury nonsense, so I am back to share some things I have been loving.  Clearly I have been eating- just look at my empty fridge.

Overnight oats in a jar with the remainder of THE best almond butter on the market. 
I also used the goat milk yogurt I bought at Trader Joe's earlier this week and loved it!  It's tart like Greek yogurt and extra creamy.  Since I embarrass myself on the daily, I was going around my kitchen saying 'baaaa' but then realized goats don't make that sound- I even googled it. Dork.

I have also been loving salmon of all kinds- here is my version of a lox breakfast sandwich:

Smoked salmon with arugula, slide of jarlsberg cheese, organic whipped cream cheese, and sweet chili sauce.  This made for quite the filling breakfast and I loved it!

I also enjoyed some baked salmon in my lunch yesterday in the form of an arugula and roasted beet salad:

I added laughing cow cheese, sunflower seeds, and wasabi peas for fun toppings and really enjoyed the combo.
I was pretty excited because I got these beets locally- in our backyard.  Meet my favorite farmer, who will be doing a guest post soon to tell you all about our vegetable garden.

Yoga, Yoga!
I have been loving my yoga studio.  It's much too nice for a goofball like me and I felt like I would get kicked out any second as I was sitting in the lounge waiting for my class enjoying my herbal tea.  You can read about my yoga month here.  I can't wait to go to my next class!

I hope you enjoy your weekend!  See you soon!

Rollin, Workouts, and Bows

Hey guys!  Hope you are all getting over your Hump Day!  We are getting really close to the weekend and that makes me one happy girl!  Of course I have plenty of stuff to do before then, so let's get down to business!

Rollin'
I've been puttering around my kitchen with my new sushi supplies and made this ugly little guy:

Sometimes my iPhone lets me down with photo quality, but this is a brown rice, salmon, sesame and avocado roll, made by yours truly and devoured almost immediately! 
I have cooked up some more brown rice for some more rolling this week!  I'm thinking of doing a kabocha squash roll tonight since I still have some in my fridge.  I'll report back on my roll adventures soon!

Workouts
In exercise news, I have discovered the joy that is Netflix instant videos.  Namaste Mari, this is for you!  I did a Self Bikini Ready something video that nearly killed me because of my weights situation.  Let's examine:

I had 10 pound weights or roughly 2 pound coconut juice cans to choose from for my lifting needs.  I think outside of the box, peeps! 
Unfortunately, the 10s were too heavy at times, and the cans were too light.  I may get a couple of 5 pounders, but since I get bored quickly, I'm not sure it's worth the investment. 
After my sweaty portion, I decided to wind down with some yoga.  Because I no longer have any shame, I'll post the picture hubby snapped of me doing my downward dog thang:

You're welcome.  It's flattering any way you look at it.
I really enjoyed doing yoga and I haven't done a proper class in well over a year.  I may get back into it but I love the instant sweat gratification of a cardio or heavy weights workout much more!  Since it's so easy to get to, I would love to incorporate more yoga through these instant downloads.

I'm wrapping up at work and my plan is to hit the gym tonight- so far it's been a 'Perfect Week' getting my workout on.  I haven't mentioned it, but we leave for a mini vacay in three days to visit a friend in New Orleans!  I'll sacrifice my schedule for lots of fun instead!

Bows
Finally, I realized that although I'm not quite as fashionable these days, I still wear bows in my hair:
Exhibit A: A black bow on the side of my head

Exhibit B: A white bow on the side of my head

See?  Bows are cool. 
Questions for you: What's your favorite hair accessory?  Do you do the yoga thang?