Friday Five

It was a balmy 52 degrees here today, and tomorrow it's going to be 55, so maybe I'll lay out and tan. Just kidding. Honestly though, with the temperature creeping up past frigid, I’m getting itchy for spring. Also,  I’ve decided to introduce a new, monthly segment: Friday Five. Without further ado, here are my first Friday Five...

1.       Recharge. It’s basically a healthier alternative to Gatorade. During my Power class last night I apparently went ghost-white, and even though I felt okay, I decided to take it easy on weights the rest of the class. Reflecting back on it, I think I didn’t eat enough/drink enough before class, and a friend suggested I bring Gatorade with me to the gym to help stay hydrated. I've been really tired today too, so I figured it would be a good idea to get in some extra electrolytes. Recharge tastes like watered down Gatorade, and I actually really like it. It is significantly more expensive than a Gatorade of comparable size though, so I'll probably rotate the two. 

2.       Punxatawney Phil. He’s a creepy little thing and I’m hoping he doesn’t see his shadow. 

3.       The 90s station on Pandora.  Pushed me through my mountain of paperwork today. The first song to play was TLC’s “No Scrubs”, followed up by some Destiny’s Child. Perfect.

4.       Soba noodles. These noodles are made out of buckwheat and are very versatile; I highly recommend trying these if you haven’t already. Fabulous recipe over at Alexandra Cooks, which you can find here. The sauce complements the noodles perfectly. I added more than a few extra squirts of Sriracha because I love the heat, and if you like heat then you might consider doing the same. 

5.       This quote: “Don’t try to win over the haters…you are not a jackass whisperer.” – Brene Brown, seriously I love her.

Have a fierce and fabulous weekend!

That Time I Poached Chicken

Sometimes I'm weird. Some of y'all are probably like, #duh, we know, but bear with me. One thing that I’m weird about is meat. I don’t like to touch raw meat. I especially don’t like to touch raw chicken. In fact, I don’ t really like chicken that much in general, cooked or not. I am very, very picky about the type of texture it must (or must not!) have, and about how it must look. Usually, I just have my husband cook chicken when we do have it, or I dump it into the crockpot and let it cook until it’s extremely dry, thereby, in my mind, killing all bacteria and creating the perfect texture.

The other night I needed chicken for a recipe and had forgotten to put it in the crockpot to cook while I was at work. In an effort to stick to one of my resolutions, I decided to get outside of my comfort zone and try something new. Enter: Poaching!

OMG Y’ALL! How am I so late to the poaching party? I had heard of poaching but I just could not bring myself to believe that poaching chicken was really as simple as boiling it, so I had always avoided it. Plus it just seemed gross. I was so wrong. I literally just plopped the chicken into a large pot of boiling water, and fifteen minutes later had perfectly cooked chicken breasts. It was easy to slice, didn’t gross me out, and was actually not as dry as cardboard!

I used some of that chicken in a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie Soup from Skinnytaste, and let me tell you, it was on point! Archer ate three helpings and Troy cleaned his bowl too, plus it made enough for two nights of dinner and one day of lunch. I paired it with some biscuits made with Bisquick heart healthy mix that I topped with a sprinkle of garlic powder and grated parmesan. The biscuits aren’t required, but you should just go ahead and get something to lap up every last bit with, because you will want to. I promise.

Anyone else weird about meat or other foods? Tell me it’s not just me!

 

 

New Gym and Beastie Balls

We changed gyms on Saturday and I am so glad. We re-joined the YMCA, after leaving to become members of Gold’s for about the past 15 months. We joined Gold’s when they were running a special and because they were closer to our old apartment, and decided to switch back because the Y is closer to our apartment and work, and because they have a pool. I’m excited because they have a wider variety of group exercise classes to choose from, which will be perfect for helping me keep fitness fun and giving me options when I don’t feel like lifting.

Saturday was actually my first day back in the gym in a few weeks. Between moving and Christmas, I didn’t make it to the gym, and I was starting to get a little antsy. I definitely could have made it, but it honestly did not make it to the top of my priority list, and I’m okay with that. I focused primarily on legs on Saturday, and let me tell you, yesterday I was feeling it. I was actually having trouble walking up and down the stairs on Saturday after my workout, which is not a fun problem when you live on the 3^rd floor. On Sunday though, I felt like someone had beat my legs with pillowcases full of bars of soap, so I decided to take some action.

Beastie Balls!

I got these little bad boys for Chad as one of his birthday gifts. I highly recommend buying your spouse presents that you can use too. Just Kidding. Sort of. They are made by the same company who manufactures the Rumble Roller foam roller. The little knobs really work those sore and tight muscle fibers, and they are handheld, giving you more direct control over pressure and the area worked. They make fun attachments for the Beastie Balls, allowing you to use them in a wider variety of ways, but I have yet to purchase those (I’m Balling on a Budget, ya’ll! Get it Balling?! ). The clear is the original, and the green is the extra firm, or as I like to call them, Hurts So Good and This Just Freaking Hurts.

I spent some time using the green one on my IT bands and trying not to vomit, and overall I would say that my DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) was much less than it normally would be had I not worked the muscles with a little myofascial self- release ( the technical term for what I was doing).  My in-laws gave me a foam roller for my birthday a few years back, and I do use that when I’m sore, but I find it to be too much/too intense for my IT band; it actually feels like I imagine getting kicked in the groin feels, so I can say that I prefer the Beastie Balls for areas that are extremely tender.

What do you do for sore muscles?

Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Happy first full week of January!

It has been freezing cold here, but I really can’t complain, because there are plenty of other places all around the country that have been hit much, much harder with cold weather. I will just suck it up and be grateful to have warm food and a warm bed to sustain me.

So, the talk all around the web (and in real life) has been all about New Year’s Resolutions. Are you someone who makes them? I usually make a list and then it gets lost somewhere, but I wanted this year to be different. I’ve come up with a number of goals for 2014, some fitness related, some more personal, and I have decided to be intentional about working on them. In order to help me complete this, I’ve signed up for Chalene Johnson’s FREE 30 Day Push program!

I’m really excited about this program because Chalene is someone whom I aspire to be like. She is a very successful entrepreneuress with a background in fitness. She has really branched out into the world of personal development, and I’m excited to see what I can do using the tools she provides through this program. I’ll let you know what I think of it and where I am after the 30 days.

In the meantime, here are a few of my health and fitness goals for 2014.

1.       Do not engage in negative body talk about other women.

This means not commenting on other women’s weights, hairstyles, clothing choices, make up choices or lack thereof, etc. In general I am really good about this, especially not commenting on other women’s bodies, but I have room for improvement where the other things are concerned. I rarely initiate these types of comments, but not initiating them isn’t good enough for me. I want to make it clear to my friends and loved ones that I will absolutely not participate in this type of talk about other women.

2.       Squat my bodyweight on the bar.  This one’s self explanatory.

3.       Run a 10k. So is this one.

4.       Become less rigid about my workout schedule.

At times in 2013 I was pretty strict with my dedication to weight lifting, even if there were moments when I wasn’t really enjoying it. I think that there is a time and place for this, for example, if you are training for a competition, but for the purpose of training just to train, this really will not work for me. I do hope to one day compete, but 2014 will not be the year for that. Instead, I’d rather focus on trying new things and having fun with fitness.

5.       Stop micromanaging my diet.

 There were times during 2013 where I would feel like, OMG I can’t eat that, it’s not clean. There were other times when I would just eat whatever, justifying it with the fact that I work out. In 2014 I want to work towards nutritional balance. I actually started working on this the latter part of 2013, in large part to Lean Bodies Consulting.

6.       Prepare my meals weekly.

I would go through periods of time in 2013 where I was really good about meal prepping for the week, but then at other times I would just completely fall off.  For 2014, I plan to make it happen on a weekly basis.

 

So, what goals do you have for 2014? How are you going to reach them?