Tag Archives: goals

Award Winning Breakfast

I wanted something different for breakfast this morning.  Something warm and cozy.

I reached deep into the kitchen cupboard and what did I find?

“World Champion Oatmeal”!

Well, if that doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will!

The directions instructed me to boil 1.5 cups of water then add 1/2 cup oats (for 2 servings).  After a few near catastrophes involving lots of foamy oat water boiling over onto the stovetop (I am still getting the hang of cooking on electric!), we settled in for 10 minutes of gentle simmering.

As the champion oats worked their magic I broke out the plum and munched on some…crumbs.  It was much better today!  I think the wine and dinner and bourbon whipped cream all contributed to dulling the overall flavor last night.  Today is was tasty and nicely textured.

I also dipped into my kitchen experiment from yesterday afternoon, homemade almond butter!  At the bulk bins yesterday Kath mentioned that she was going to make Ashley’s recipe for Pumpkin Spiced Almond Butter and I thought that sounded like an excellent idea.

Except I didn’t have time to roast the almonds and I am awful at following recipes.

My food processor whirled away for at least 15 minutes as it creamed raw almonds, molasses, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.

But it just wasn’t happening.

Every two minutes Kath and I would get all excited that the butter stage was finally upon us but no such luck.  The mixture remained cookie-doughlike.  So I added a bitty bit of light olive oil (the only oil I had on hand).  Nope.  A little bit more olive oil.  Still resembles cookie-dough, a greasy cookie dough!

Maybe I needed to push past that point but I was bored and gave up.  It’s kind of tasty…for greasy cookie dough.  I should have trusted Ashley and followed directions!

Back to breakfast.

Steel Cut Oats topped with nutmeg, cinnamon, a few globs of the almond dough, and almond milk.

Loved the texture of the oats but it got a little watery with the almond milk.  Next time I am thinking of going savory, like grits, and topping it with a fried egg.  Maybe next Sunday!

We woke up to a dusting of snow and a blue sky! Unfortunately, the snow is nearly melted and the sky is clouding over. 😦

The plan for today is a workout, some housework, and studying.

My first week of MISSION: Balance (or Work.It.Out, as I have started referring to it) went fantastically!  It was a great week of exercise, just the right amount and variety!  To finish off the week I will do 10 minutes of Pilates, 20 minutes of strength training, and a run (4 miles probably) today.

I am still a little sore from BodyPump on Friday!   My pecs were SO SORE yesterday from all those chest presses and pushups!  I guess I need to do more of these exercises in my regular workouts.  The thighs and glutes were just a little tender but yesterdays walks and yoga helped loosen them up.  Today I am ready to run!

Do you get sore from your regular strength training?  Do you like being sore (as a reminder of the work you did)?

8 Comments

Filed under cooking, food, goals, recipes, running, workouts, yoga

Perfect Timing

Happy December and Happy Hanukkah!

Oh man, I may have overdone it on the squats yesterday!  My thighs are talking this morning.  And I like it! 😉

Yesterday’s workouts (the first of my new MISSION!) were courtesy of exercisetv.  Let me take a moment to say, I love exercisetv!  Sure, it’s hard to navigate, the quality of the video is poor, and the music is atrocious but like a teen in lust I plow on past it’s faults and choose to focus on the good.  Like that it’s free!  And that it has workouts from 2 minutes to an hour!  And that I don’t have to leave my house (or even change out of my pj’s sometimes)!  And it makes it easy to add variety and constantly challenge yourself because it has so many options!

There are some very bad workouts and instructors on exercisetv but there are also some very good ones, like Amy Dixon and her 22 minute “Bootcamp Body Makeover” .  I did this workout for the second time yesterday and loved it.  It is exactly what an interval style workout should be; fast paced, challenging, easy to follow, and well-cued.  This workout was so much fun, and even though it is hard it flew by because she is so not-obnoxious. When it ended I wanted more.

So next up was 6 Round Slim Down with Stephanie Vitorino.  I only made it through about 20 minutes of this 45 minute workout because it was boring!  Way too much time wasted on explaining what’s next and too much shoulder work.  The shoulder muscles may seem big but they really aren’t and it is easy to have overuse injuries, especially from group classes that encourage high repetitions and/or high weight.

I finished off with this yoga routine by Tom Morley.  This 20 minute yoga sesh is a nice change of pace because he is a super plain talker, not all esoteric and chakra-this, chakra-that.  (I can dig the chakra talk every once in a while, don’t get me wrong.) This workout is yoga asana, pure and simple.

Blue is my favorite color today!

It was SO gray and SO dark all day yesterday!  The blue sky is giving me a huge burst of energy and motivation,  I want to run, I want to clean, I want to dance!

I better harness that energy and put it to good use.  Now that my job at the orchard is over it’s time to really get to work.

Core Integrated Health and Chiropractic will open it’s doors in January!

This clinic is Tate and I’s dream come true.  We began talking about “our wellness center” in 2006 or so but at that time we had no idea when or where it would happen.  Now we know!  We came across an opportunity here in Charlottesville that is amazingly perfect for us.  Tate will have his fully stocked chiropractic clinic and I will have a studio space from which to teach classes and hold personal training sessions.

I will also be the “administrative assistant” and I have my work cut out for me learning about insurance billing alone!

The clinic is a humongous undertaking and the last few months have been some of the hardest in our lives but we are also SO EXCITED to get started on our dream.

We have this quote hanging on our fridge to help us remember that it is the perfect time in our lives to take on this project because the perfect time for us is NOW.

 

“Don’t wait until everything is just right.

It will never be perfect.

There will always be challenges, obstacles, and less than perfect conditions.

So what.

Get started now.

With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful.”

-Mark Victor Hansen

7 Comments

Filed under goals, workouts, yoga