Insanity recovery workout

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I just came back from seeing my esthetician, ahhhh, this week I have been so secluded from the outside world because my face is literally inflamed and infected it's a shame because it's beautiful outside, and it sure puts a damper on my mood and makes me so sad. Which is why Insanity comes in handy when I DO NOT want to go the gym. sigh and I do miss the gym!

Anyway, I feel better but I have another schedule set for next Monday with my esthetician, which I am so excited for. I cannot wait! I took before pictures, but am so hesitant to post it here, though I don't feel the pressure that I NEED to post it here or anything. But maybe I do a little? because I don't want ya'll to think I am being over-dramatic with how BAD my face is! because it IS bad! Once it gets better, I probably would just post it here. But for now, I am too vulnerable and full of emotions. Ok, I was a bit melodramatic there.


I did the Recovery series on Insanity, and my initial thoughts were "cooool! today isn't going to be painful " Um, wrong. The series focused on stretching the muscles to increase flexibility and prevent injury for the next coming grueling insanity workouts. gulp. It felt good, the stretch that is. BUT when the isometric lunges and squats came around, it hurt like a mother. It involved slowly doing squats and lunges, then holding the movement to isolate the muscles working, then pulsing. I was crying out loud and my sister laughed at me. I asked her to join but she declined.


Not bad

The recovery phase was only 30 minutes. I have yet to do an insanity workout today, maybe tonight in my small room. I love looking at the stats! it turns boring cardio to fun and painful.


Insanity pushes you to your limit. I say try it! if you are willing to stick to it though, rather than be afraid like me who hid her dvd for a couple months ;o) I finally decided to try it out last week. No regrets

After the recovery it was lunch time!

Rubbed EVOO and dry ranch dressing mix the chicken breasts. I made several pieces and they are running fast already. This time I did not use my usual method for grilling on the foreman, so I spent so long cleaning out that darn thing. I learned my lesson, always use parchment paper.


Made ranch "dressing" by mixing the dry packet with fat-free yogurt. Deliciousssss! and way healthier

Brussel Sprouts w/ Braggs Amino Acids + Cayenne pepper, chicken breast, two yellow corn tortillas
and "ranch"

It hit the spot. mmmmm

I like to break my food, and in this case...eat it like tacos. Because I think it makes the process of eating much slow. I think. I hope. It's fun. Food should be fun. I like fun food.

Did you hear about the study where scientists linked that junk food is supposively addictive like cocaine? possibly worst? you can find an article here, here, or here.

Interesting! Any thoughts? Can you relate in terms that junk food are in fact addicting? (you can't control it) When you shop, what do you tend to stray from? because you know you'd get out of hand.
- For me, it's ice cream, boxed snacks(think cookies, pretzels, chips), and cereal. Because I know I'd finish that thing from walking out the store to getting in my car. I tell myself to stop eating it, but it's hard! Hey, I struggle.

.

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Insanity-dvd & granola bars

Monday, March 29, 2010

It's Monday and I am slightly sore, and it's from Friday! That's diabolical! On what do I blame this non-sense on?

Shaun T from the Insanity dvd workouts "What I can get you in 60 days, takes people a year" um what?! that is quite a bold statement Shaun T, but we'll see...

And 7 minutes later.... I literally cried. I wanted to quit. I wanted to throw the dvd out the door. oh the pain!
It's crazy! I will have to explain more on the concept about this DVD later.


On Saturday I made Mae's granola bar recipe for my co-workers. They loved it, and it's such a genius recipe for a non-baker like me. The process was so easy that I made it again today :o)

This is the wet mixture getting ready to transfer to the 9x12 pan

I added some extra dry ingredients such as semi-sweet chocolate chips, whole flax seeds, coconut shreds, and raw almond...was amazing. You can come up with many varieties.

waited 20 minutes which is no big deal. The aroma of the house was just pleasant I tell you.


My co-worker loved it and so did Kevin who works in the gym located next to our pool (and has kicked my butt many times making me do lunges). I left a couple bars for my other co-worker Jeff since he was working the next day and he said it was the most amazing granola bar ever! that made my day. All of the credit goes to Mae of course. He even said it made him swim faster! hoorah!


Lately I have been incorpating green monsters upon rising. I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Making a green monster is what I look forward to the night before! and when I wake up in the morning, all I want to do is lay in bed. But then I think about the G.M... I rush out of bed.

egg white pancake with a la green monster
egg white pancake has 4 egg whites whisked with cinnamon and stevia. My favorite way to eat eggs for breakfast now. Topped with SF smuckers strawberry preserves.

Green Monster:
1 cup of original almond breeze
1/3 frozen banana
1 scoop of Alive!
maca
1 cup of frozen spinach

Then 1/3 way through I forgot about bee pollen, so I rushed and added that baby in.


Today I did another Insanity workout because I didn't feel like hitting the gym. This workout was 45 minutes in the living room. It was hot because I had just turned off the oven, hence it smelled like granola bars. Not bad, but holy cow intense.

Max heart rate 94% average was 77%

I told you it was intense...the idea of doing the dvd workouts for a month scares me .The cool thing is that my heart rate was around 60-68% (fat burning zone) after 5 minutes of being done! This dvd is a fat burning furnace, that's for sure.

Doing the cool down stretches and relieved that I am done! at least for today...




What are your favorite exercises/moves/machines/dvd etc?

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Techniques for grilling & the best mustard ever!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Today I made myself car-sick...my own driving caused me to become nauseous. Too many sharp and fast turns I tell ya, but eating lunch after made me feel better.

Last night I had no choice but to cook chicken, I've been thawing my chicken breasts for a couple days and it was time to get grilling. I added a dry salad dressing mix to the chicken.


shook and made sure that the mix was evenly distributed then tenderized it.



This is my favorite technique when using a foreman grill, to use parchment paper to line between the chicken and the grill.

Spray the parchment paper with cooking spray


Add your meat and line another oil-coated parchment paper on top.
Then PRESS! and continue on with your business.


If you worry whether the remaining fat would drip, well, it works!

I grilled twice, the first three breasts were grilling for 15 minutes but unfortunately the chicken got a little burnt. So for my second batch, I made sure to limit the time and go for 12 minutes instead, it came out better! Just make sure you check every 5 minutes.


Yup, not getting salmonella poisoning tonight. Hallejiullah

delightful.

This may not be a delightful picture, but I was so delighted after I dumped this in the sink, knowing that it wasn't going to be in my body.

After my chicken cooked I decided to prepare all of my eats for the next couple of days.
Just to make it easier on myself, it's so easy to stay on track with eating right when its already prepared and in your cooler.

Favorite time saver tips:
* I like to pack 3 days worth snacks so I can grab-n-go. Cook batches of rice, chicken, and veggies so that it spans out for a few days. So simple, I would only have to cook two/three times a week.

* I used to cook oatmeal in a slow cooker, cooking it enough to last three days. It's a time saver!

Let me share with you a new mustard that I am in love with!
When it comes to mustard, it's either you love it, or you hate it. I used to hate mustard because it smelled funny. When I used to work at a movie theatre, I remember I was so hungry that I wanted to add any extra calories to my meal possible, so I ate my food with mustard. Funny, because mustard doesn't tip top on the high calorie scale, but I just wanted more quantity to what I ate. After realizing that I can tolerate mustard, I wasn't afraid to try it anymore.

D.L Jardines is bombbbb! Jalapeno n' Mesquite flavored.

I discovered it at Whole Foods, but it's a little pricey, scaling around $5. If you LOVE mustard, go for it. If you are curious...think about it. If you hate mustard, don't buy it.

I love how there is a slight tang from the jalapenos, it's salty and vinegary, and then there's a slight hint mesquite that hits you out of NO WHERE! and you're left wondering where the BBQ beef chunks in your mouth disappeared to, but you realize you're just eating mustard and imagining things...then your mouth waterssss. My mouth is watering right now.

++ I made the mistake of packing 2 tbsn worth with me today. So tomorrow at work, I will fill my container with triple that!


This morning!
Called for Green Monsters again. I am really hoping I can incorpate this every morning. I just love it.

Empty inside...don't worry I will fill you up baby.

Come to mama...

What's in it:
* 1 cup of almond milk
* 1 cup of frozen spinach
* 1/3 slice of frozen banana
* 1 tbsn of wheatgrass powder
* 3g of Raw Maca Powder
* 15g of Bee Pollen

It was very tangy and malty. The maca made it seem like I was drinking something slightly fermented. But I enjoyed it after a few swigs after I thought about the nutrients I was feeding my body.


Are you a mustard person? Any favorite kinds of mustards? there are so many out there in the world!
If not, then what condiments do you prefer?

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Grocery shopping, um, what else?

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I have been irritated with myself! I have an exam tomorrow and for the past two days I've been blowing off studying. Last night I told myself that I would go home and write down questions on my flashcard, that did not happen.

I am such a bad bad bad ...bad procrastinator. What did I do? well, I went grocery shopping, at um...11pm. Don't feel sorry for me if I bomb this exam, because I deserved that one. BUT I promise I will study after this post, or after my dentist appointment, or after my review session, OR after the gym...


I went shopping with the original intent of buying almond milk and frozen spinach because I knew I wanted a Green Monster in the morning. I also got carried away and got other loot.


While I was looking for frozen spinach, I spotted myself some frozen okra. I have been wanting to try okra for some time now. Although fresh okra would've been far better in my opinion, frozen was available. hell yah.
If I had the option of going fresh, I would've loooved to have roasted them. But microwave it is.

It came out gooey and sappy...very mucous-like (perfect way to describe food no?) After watching too much episodes of Emeril Lagasse cook so many lousinana and southern style dishes...Gumbo was the dish that mainly called for okra, to thicken the stew.

The pods can be sliced thinly and cooked for a long time, so that the mucilage dissolves (as in gumbo). The cooked leaves can also be used as a powerful soup thickener. Soup anyone? The mucus is also a form of soluble fiber.

stir-fried with soy sauce, ground pepper, and cayenne.
For lunch today.


I loooove tea, I think I've come up with quite a collection, and I need to stop. But I can't help it okay? I need variety in my life, especially when it comes to tea.

Another alternative to coffee? Roastaroma.A good fake.
My thoughts: I think if you are an extreme coffee-holic, then this flavor may take some adjustments when it comes to going cold-turkey or limiting down on the caffeine intake. The flavor was earthy, and tasted like mildly burnt beans (not in a bad way). Personally I like it myself, I like to add sugar-free creamer and stevia (treat it as any other coffee). Last night I drank this for dinner and felt no guilt whatsoever, because I knew that I would be able to get my beauty sleep with no problem.


Millet bread with SF strawberry smuckers and AB.
Along with my fake-coffee, catching up on 90210.

On the tangent: Do you watch 90210? I remember when it first came out, I HATED it so much. The acting and story line was horrific (I just hated the sarcasm used, ohhh really?) but I gave it a chance each week. I yelled at the television copious amount of times, yelled because I was frustrated, if your gonna remake 90210, you better make it right okay? 2 years later, I can now say I enjoy it, and I think it's better because they got rid of whatshisface, but it got better.

okay, my little tangent is over.

This morning:
Green monster was made. I haven't indulged in a G.M  for a while. I forgot how refreshing and how good drinking one made me felt. I will make it an effort to include G.M everyday, or at least every other morning.


transferring it via funnel, for my morning commute to school.
It contained (almond milk, frozen spinach, 1/3 frozen banana)


Last night while preparing my banana to freeze over night, I couldn't help how large my banana (on steriods) was. I thought it was my imagination and that it was normal. But holy cow... is this normal?

This banana was the same length as my forearm. It was the first time I noticed it, I am 5'1 by the way.

So sad, because I thought I was 5'2 the whole time.





Do you have any favorite shows or shows that you cannot stand???
- Because of my love for Conan O'Brien, my heart is longing for him back on television. I can't watch Jay Leno on television anymore, unless he is interviewing Robert Pattinson.


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Tupperware Tuesdays

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Tuesdays consist of me eating out of tupperwares for the duration of the day...and night. Due to the fact that I have school layed out from 8am-10pm. Bogus bogus, lame! and shame on me for making that schedule...so don't feel sorry for me. I deserved THAT one.

Today in Biology, I couldn't stop yawning. My tear production was working over-time today.

This may not look pretty.



Last night, I thought it'd be the best idea to prepare breakfast ahead of time, and boy was I glad I did.
I woke up slightly late than I wanted to.
I wanted to wake up at 630 but ended up hopping out of bed at 7am.

My excuse for the extra 30 minutes was that I needed my beauty sleep...because sleep makes you beautiful right? well, at least that's what they say, kay?

Let me just say, extra sleep does not make you beautiful. At least in my case.



I love to purchase the big bag of cooked shrimp from costco. It eliminates cooking chicken on lazy days.



With Rojos Mango-Peach Salsa and Happy Cow Cheese Wedges.



Refreshing orange.

Time to head to class! I'm late!

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The greatest babysitter.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A cool baby-sitter will make you lava cake, steak n' eggs, and have you stay up as long as you want. Extra points for a babysitter who allow you to eat ice cream past bed time and then wake up and have ice cream for breakfast, with no repurcussion.

If that is so, then I am the coolest babysitter ever. Though I don't think any parent would allow me near their kids for doing that sort of thing, I wouldn't!

My mom has been gone for three days, hoorah! BUT I've made a huge mess and have a sink load of dishes to do...wah :o(

There is cheese that burnt all over the oven. long story.



I was babysitting this punk of a 10 year old.
She is so mature...no fun whatsoever.
Everytime she looks at me, I feel judged, what a punk.

Delicious lava cake with Breyers Mint n' Chip.
failed at the bikini challenge, but enjoyed every morsel.
I will pick myself back up again on Monday, ha.
I need to recover...


Mountain-eous! love Breyers, au naturale.

Then my friend came over and we made steak, it was lovely steak. My goodness...with the limit on condiments for marinading, it was delcious.



Had to take quick pictures since my camera was dying...noooo!
At least I had evidence of great dinner, yesssss!


White rice, fried egg, veggies, and tri tip loin with cayenne pepper.


With late notice I had to pop a russet potato in the oven at 450 for 45 minutes.
I slathered the potato with EVOO and salt n' pepper.
This was probably one the most tastiest potato I ever baked, the skin was so crispy and crack'ly.
And the inside was so fluffy and delicious...
I was jealous, for it didn't belong to me, but I was content because I was FULL.

Buttah, amen


mmm medium rare? delicious anyway...


The best babysitter ever.


Have you ever baby-sat any kids? Care to share any bad horror or good stories?

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