Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Long Weekends...

Wow this weekend was amazing, despite the horrible weather Friday, Saturday and somewhat Sunday.  The weekend started off for me on Friday- which was good. I went to my favorite place Legacy Place.  This is my favorite thing to do on day off alone... The shops there are amazing and have all my favorite stores. Urban Outfitters, H&M, Loft, Gap, Roster, Anthropologie, BR... and the list goes on and on and on... my main goal was to actually shop at H&M! I feel like people always find the cutest stuff there BUT I never do, but I feel like its always my last stop and I feel burned out/spent all my $$. So this time it was the first store I went into and snagged a few cute dresses for this weekend...


The back to this is super cute but I was wearing the wrong bra so I will spare you that... 

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I purchased this dress as well... I was unsure about it but for an entire 9.95 decided it was worth it! ;)

Also purchased some much needed Jewelry... I love how these bracelets look with my Jawbone up band... 

Saturday was really crappy out... so Jon and I went to the Gym to work out! 

Workout Log: 

I have started to set my runs by distance and not buy time! I feel like I am always adjusting the time anyway to get to the distance I want... Its been working out really well for me. 

Then I went to Trader Joe's...for food for Saturday and Sunday.


Saturday was unfortunately a perfect day for Rain-boots, but I bought some flowers to match my rain boots to brighten up the weekend!


The weather continued to be shitty so this happened... 

DON'T WORRY! Ha-ha this may have been one of the funniest parts of my long weekend. I have an George Forman inside/outside Grill. So its just like a regular George Forman but it can be used outside and looks like a Grill! My friend Theresa posted this picture... 


We had people going so bad... they really thought we were grilling inside. Partly because you can not see the plug. We definitely had best friend giggles! :) Oh yeah.. 

and Saturday the Bruins Won! EASTERN FINALS HERE WE COME! I am preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. The Penguins are a really good team... but in Hockey you never know... and yes after the Bruins won that Game 7 I am still wearing my Boston Strong shirt under my Bruins Jersey... and yes... neither have been washed... but its only crazy if it doesn't work right?

Sunday was an awesome day as well...

Workout Log
Sunday I ran again...  
Distance:  3.27 Miles
Duration: 39.34 minute
Average Pace: 12:06 minutes per mile.

Split Pace: 
Mile 1: 12.29 *including warm up
Mile 2: 11:33 
Mile 3: 11:21
Mile 4: 15.31 *including cool down. 

After running and before some cookout festivities at my Friends Ann's I went to target to pick up some stuff .... I have been slowly collecting so we have a little place to chill outside (and grill outside ;))


On my way home....


Then we had some cookout fun... Adrian could only stop by for about and hour and half... and lets just say did some damage to this wine bottle... :)




Then Monday was awesome as well. Woah! So many awesome days in a row!

Workout Log: 
We Ran/Walked in the morning... Seriously these numbers are almost embarrassing! I blame them on Jon because he came with me during this run... but in all reality my legs were just NOT with me on Monday!

Distance: 3.30
Duration: 47:07
Pace Per Mile: 14:15
Calories: 251

Splits:
Mile 1: 13.48 *including warm up
Mile 2: 14:01
Mile 3: 14:03
Mile 4: 17:11

Then after some errands and lunch out... we BBQ for dinner and hung out at our new outside hang out. I got sun burned!



How was your memorial day weekend?

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Breakfast and Lunch Lately

For the first few years of having a desk job full time I would buy the frozen meals such as Smart Ones, which are very good! BUT the years went on I found myself gaining weight and this was one of the first things I cut from my diet... the hard part then is... okay what do I eat now?  Preparing breakfast and lunch for the office can be hard. BUT here are some of my favorite breakfast office meals...

Greek Yogurt. I thought I hated Yogurt and especially Greek Yogurt but then I started to buy plain Greek Yogurt and make my own mix.



In this picture is raspberries, I have only included raspberries once, but it was pretty good! Pending where I shop I do plain Greek Yogurt Chabani or Trader Joe's (I like Trader Joe's better). Then I add blueberries and Granola Cereal. If I shop not a trader Joe's I pick up whatever is the healthiest one here, if I shop at Trader Joes I buy Hemp Plus Granola which is SO good.  I use what I estimate 1/4 cup of Cereal and 15 blueberries....

If I am feeling a warm breakfast I do Vans Waffles . These are expensive though, so I only can treat myself these every once and awhile.



I add Almond butter and blueberries on top. So good!


After a couple of weeks of my veggie wrap I needed something new for lunch... so I made myself a Salad. I must say I have never really been a "Salad" person, but put some strawberries in the Salad and yum!!


This recipe was inspired by Fit Foodie Finds  Strawberry Spinach Salad but I made a few adjustments. In my salad I did Spinach, Cucumbers, Dried Cranberries (Trader Joe's), Toasted Honey Almond Slices (Trader Joe's), Fat Free Cottage Cheese (Trader Joe's), and Fat Free Balsamic Vinaigrette (Trader Joe's). One day I took out the dried cranberries because its a lot of sugar and I added a half of avocado instead that was very good! 


So what about those days I wake up and I just don't feel like packing a lunch, forgot my lunch at home ect? Well we have a Subway in the town I work where I can walk too. Not ideal, some of there ingredients have a lot of hidden crap in them but its better then some other fast food choices.... 



So how do I Subway? Veggie Delight with Avocado (if they have it), Swiss Cheese (put on after they toast it) with Spinach, Tomato, Cucumbers, Onion, Green Pepper, with light mayo (I know bad), and sprinkled with  black pepper... you see a pickle there but I don't normally do pickles! :) 

What do you bring to the office for Breakfast and Lunch?

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Kayaking on the Charles

Hope your weekend treated you well. This weekend was amazing, expect some epic fails.which I will get to in a bit...first I want to share my Kayaking experience at Charles River Kayaking and Canoe. 

Jon and I had a very active weekend, which was so much fun! We rented a double Kayak for 1 hour and Kayaked around the Charles River in Newton on Saturday. I was expecting for my arms to be really really sore today, but I actually feel fine...

Here are some pictures from our little adventure...










So as you can see Saturday was such a nice night here in Boston MA and I was so excited to get home grill some pizza and sit outside and eat! So I had two tasks to do this.

1. Buy a table for outside
2. Buy a Grill.

Friday on my way home from work I bought the "table" from the local hardware store in the town in which I work. Saturday I went to go put to it together and the hardware store gave me the wrong box... I got a bunch of flower beds instead. Fail.

So I was like- okay...at least we have the grill. We bought an outside/indoor George Forman grill which, yes its a faux grill, but its "perfect for apartments/condos". Our houses are so close together & we currently rent so I figured it was a good purchase for us right now. Welp turns out we bought the wrong one and we just bought a regular  George Forman Grill. Fail again... we sill had a good time though. We had some BBQ Butternut Squash Pizza from HTP (I used Trader Joes Whole Wheat Pizza Dough), Corn on the Cob, and I had some Sweet Potato Fries! It was a very filling dinner!


Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Fitness Plan

12 Weeks to 13.1 Mile Race.... Yikes!

I work best when I have a set schedule in front of me. I am someone who likes order and processes better then not. When I first started working out I wanted a fitness plan but really wasnt sure to what. After the Boston Marathon Bombings it motivated me to run and find a fitness schedule based around that...

So I picked a half Marathon. I am not sure if I am actually going to do it yet but its a plan, and then we will see how I do following it.  Its from Hal Higdon training program and I felt it was the best one for me. I love that it had Fridays rest because that's normally when I do rest! I am going to try to complete the Novice 1 program.



I am about a week and half in and I am doing okay.  I pretty much picked the worst time to do this because of Bruins playoffs & working a part time job...


In reality I am only going to miss one "run" this week and that is Wednesday  Monday's are suppose to be a rest day from running, I want to start Yoga on Monday mornings before work and if I don't have to Gap in Mondays then Yoga at my Gym.  Saturday Cross fit is for swimming. I am really excited about trying to complete this to the best of my ability!

Tuesdays run went okay... We ran 3.1 miles. The runs around my apartment are always a lot worse. I also live on a hill, which makes life difficult when it comes to running and snow storms.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

A Miracle on Ice- Game 7


Wow- THAT game last night!? Woah. If you know me, you know that I a Bruins fan. Monday I was down in the dumps all day, the lost game 6 Sunday night, they looked terrible, and I thought they were just done.

On the drive home.. I was listening to Felger and Mazz, which I love the sports hub, but I hate listening to Felger and Mazz... they are always so negative and trying to find something wrong... but when I can listen to them is when there is stuff to complain about, like how I believed the Bruins were about to get defeated by the Maple Leafs and we were going to be out of the playoffs oh so soon. I got to Waltham and I was like I need to snap out of this for the Bruins. So I put on The Boys are Back by the Dropkick Murphy's and went home to put on my Bruins jersey....


....I put my Boston Strong T shirt under my Bruins jersey. I thought, if this isn't good luck then what will be?

What happened after that is a miracle... We were down 3 goals in the 3rd period. Leafs were up 4 to 1. With about 10 minutes left we scored, but still I was sold on the idea that we were not winning this game. THEN with legit a minute of the game left Bruins scored two goals to tie it then won in over time.  CRAZY. Game 1 against the Rangers is Thursday. AH!

Despite the Bruins in the playoffs I got in some workout this weekends. I am training to run a 1/2 marathon, I am not sure if I will do it, but I just wanted a fitness plan. Saturday is cross fit day, which I like that a lot. Saturday I swam for 2500 feet (762 Meters almost a 1/2 mile) in 30 minutes. I did 3 sets of each stroke and then I did free and back the rest of the way. I saw that to swim a mile you have to swim one lap (to one end of the pool then back) 53 times! I wanted to do half that, which I did. 

Sunday I wanted to do a 4 mile run but ended up only doing 3.28. I didn't start my run till like 3:15 and I sill needed to go to the grocery store and get back for the Bruins game. We ran my favorite track around the Charles River! 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Keeping Track

The past two days Jon and I ran outside. Monday's run was horrible with a capital H and Tuesdays run was MUCH better....

Here is the Recap. 

This is how Monday nights run went.... 



Blah! Right? We tried a new route that ended up not having sidewalks. I drive on this road every day and never noticed that.  Plus the Bruins were on and we were focused on getting home to watch that (They Won! YA!)... luckily the next day run was MUCH better. 



I love this route. Its actually part of the Healthy Heart Trails, we just modify it and run it twice so we get to 3 miles.  You spend most of the run on the Charles River... and its filled with other runners and bikers to leave you motivated. 

Here are some pictures we took after! Ignore my bright red face from running! 




How do you keep track of your runs? I use the Jawbone Up band as well as Run Keeper or Map My Run. I enjoy both apps but My Run Keeper now sinks with my Jawbone Up app.

So here is my problem. I like to recorded what Jawbone tells me and what the app tells me separately so I always recorded with my phone and my app and with the app I can tell how I am doing during the run. BUT I always recorded warm up and cool down and I would like to get a better picture how I do when I am actually running. SO I am thinking about having one app sync with Jawbone and then Map my Run just recorded when I start running, to see how I would do in a 5K for example. Am I nuts? Anyone else do this?

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Monday Jon and I went for a run on a new path. Sometimes trying to find new paths really mess up with your runs. The Bruins were on (AND WON!)

Monday, May 6, 2013

S'mores and Hills

I took this weekend off from Gap because I needed my space away from Gap and it was a great weekend!

Saturday was a day full of fitness. Jon and I were set to go for a run at this park that I saw that was located right next to us. Well turns out when a park has "hill" in its name... its because its on a hill. We are not ace runners yet so our "run" turned into a hike of some sorts, but it was beautiful.

Where do you keep your keys when you run? A friend told me shoe laces, but this didn't work so well for me....

Yes.That is the color green on these trees!







We hiked up to this view and back down again in 59 minutes and 27 seconds for a good 219 calories burned.

After our hike I was disappointed we didn't get a "run" in. Jon had some things to get taken care of. Like a haircut if you couldn't tell! So I hit the gym for a run on the treadmill.

The calories burned are wrong because I did a "quick workout" and didnt add my age and weight. Jawbone up recorded 342 calories burned and 3.74 miles ran.

Then we visited our friends Adrian and Matt's for the night and made some pizzas on the grill and had S'Mores. And played with her puppy Minni...

.. not so Minni, but very cute.





Friday, May 3, 2013

The Paper Bag Lunch

I struggle of what to bring to work for lunch for breakfast and lunch... more so Lunch. One of the reasons I started to get motivated to eat healthier and start to work out more is because I gained weight and I think my work lunch was a big factor. Everyday I hate those "smart ones" or some version of a frozen lunch meal. They are tasty but so over processed and so so so munch sodium.

So once I kicked that habit I just started to do left overs for lunch. Which is so so. BUT I wanted a lunch that's a bit more on the lighter side... and then I stumbled on the blog fANNEtasticfood.com and she spoke to me. She has snacks and lunches for people on the go. (AKA... ME and you!)

Anyway I made her Feta Hummus Wrap. 


Its a little extra time in the morning to make but so worth it! Also to try to save some Avocado I cut up half of it in the morning then left the other half in a bag with lemon juice on it to preserve it! Ya making Avocados go further... 


Oh and Yesterday I received my first Boston Strong apparel. I may or may not have gone over board with buying this bracelet and 3 Boston Strong T shirts, but it all goes to the one fund so its totally worth it. 

Get Boston Strong Here and Here  or donate directly here