Tag Archives: group power

Trade Em Up Tuesday

Alex is a big fan of Trade Em Up Tuesday (her post today is living proof) and I have always wanted to participate, but the timing never worked out. Well today it has and I have plenty of little shares, so this post is perfect for just that!

I would trade…the serious Monday doldrums I was in yesterday. I know I said that I allowed myself to enjoy my weekend without too much regret and I did…until Sunday night. I went over to Kat‘s to have dinner and watch the Golden Globes with our friend Carolyn, and ended up drinking way more Cupcake Prosecco and St. Germaine than I’d originally planned. I also ate a TON of baby cabbages (roasted in olive oil and curry powder, a new-to-me roasting ingredient that I’ll surely be using again) which just made me feel so full. Even if I’m full of veggies, that full feeling is hard to deal with and messes with my head. I woke up on Monday feeling dehydrated and bloated, so my clothes felt tight on me. I checked the tag on my shirt and it read XS, so I attempted to comfort myself with the fact that such a small size purchased earlier in my recovery surely may feel smaller on me now, but then my ED started beating me up for trying to make myself feel OK with not fitting into the smallest sizes out there. AGH.

I would not trade…the excellent time I had at Kat’s! Carolyn is hilarious so having her around to watch the awards with us was great. Kat made an amazing dinner (she roasted a lemon and rosemary chicken and gave me a mini tutorial on how to do so; it turned out delicious) and damn, Prosecco and St. Germaine is fantastic. Of course I also got quality time with Kat’s daughter Penelope, and even was able to babysit her for about thirty minutes while Kat and her hubby went on an errand. It meant a lot to me that they trusted me with their little girl and I hope it was the first of many babysitting sessions to come!

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Three Things Thursday: Working and Playing Hard

Another Three Things Thursday, another day-before-Friday (though tomorrow’s post will not be a Friday Five). As a co-worker said this morning, “we’re on the downward slope”. Speaking of which…

1. I have been having some kick-butt workouts this week.

Two spin classes down and while they mostly did NOT involve downward slopes, they did involve amazing music and heart-pumping intervals. I left each class feeling satisfied and accomplished. Last week my workouts were so-so and I honestly think it was because I was not fueling myself well enough. This week I made a conscious effort to not think twice about that Sunbutter, not question myself if my body told me I needed an extra snack, and not let my mind trick me into thinking seconds of dinner are something that shouldn’t be allowed. Talk about immediate gratification…I killed it in Group Power on Monday, and didn’t miss any single-count curls during the bicep track, something that usually happens by the end of the song. I rarely ever get sore from core workouts, but the one I did on Tuesday STILL has me sore on this Thursday morning! Trying to get through a workout without being properly fueled sucks, and I’m glad I’ve been reaping instant rewards for my efforts to make sure I eat enough food (and enough of the right food) for my gym sessions.

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Fitness Fashion Friday: Albion Giveaway!

My dear blend (and in-person friend!) Rachel of Healthy Chicks featured me as the 7th Healthy Chick in the Community on her blog’s series. I just adore the title she picked for the post too..be sure to check it out! Thanks for featuring me Rachel! This girl is a beautiful friend both inside and out 🙂

First I want to give myself a high five on High Five Friday for having a guest post published today on the second healthy living blog I EVER found several years ago…MizFit Online! Carla wrote a cool post yesterday about why she DOESN’T consider herself a foodie, and I am following up with a “rebuttal” of sorts – though not really because I love all my friends, foodie or not! If you’d told me when I first found Carla’s blog that I’d one day have a post published on it (and meet her, which I did at the Fitness Meet & Tweet), I’d have laughed at you. But here I am, published on her amazing blog, and already getting some great feedback on the post! Thanks to my #fishfriend Meg for inspiring me to give myself props every day – not just Friday!

Now, on to the main event. Happy Fashion Friday everyone! We’re getting Fitfluential again this week with another review and giveaway that I know many of you are going to be VERY interested in.

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Wednesday Funk

Oh my goodness. The dreary weather has got me in such a funk. Someone help me! I am in the home stretch of my semester and of the time before my first week-long vacation from work (to FLORIDA). I need to just get through these next couple weeks, and try to enjoy them for the holiday time that they are. Is anyone else feeling winter blues?

A daily lunchtime salad beast.

At least I can say I have no qualms about the food I’ve been eating lately – it’s all been delicious!

Giovanni's veggie pizza, crisped up under the broiler and served on my favorite childhood plate.

Is there anything better than burnt crust pizza loaded with chunky veggies?

Giovanni's marinated chicken salad, and a festive little fork.

How about more veggies, combined with feta and some of the most delicious chicken in the world, to pair with that pizza? Or some good old-fashioned carbs?

Post-dinner snack of satisfying local kalamata olive bread.

My workouts have been going well too. I still need to re-cap the Santa’s Run and tell you guys about my PR (along with about a thousand other posts I’ve been drafting in my mind…), but I’ve been lazy with uploading photos from my iPhone, which is where the race photos are. But I’ve been doing a lot of stepping and a lot of lifting. It feels good to get back into lifting, actually. I did two Group Power classes in one week, for the first time in awhile, and am already excited about trying to continue to keep up with attending those classes. I just love the way I feel when I can lift a heavier weight, or lift the same weight for longer.

I’m outta here…sorry for such a short post, but I’ve got some (real life) work to do – bummer, ha.

Real life work lunch and snack packing.

If you strength train, do you feel more accomplished when you can lift a heavier weight for the first time or when you can lift a weight you’ve done before for a new longer length of time?

Sakimura Sushi on a Saturday Morning

Yay, it’s the weekend! Last night I got out of work early and hit up Group Power. While it was great to finally get some strength training in (I’ve been slacking on it recently), I didn’t have the best class because I skipped my pre-workout snack. I was working out an hour earlier than usual so thought I wouldn’t need it – wrong! The class would have been so much better if I’d been well-fueled. Lesson learned, folks.

So this morning I was sure to have a banana with PB&Co Mighty Maple before my 7:15am trip to the gym. Last night my mom and I went to Bertucci’s (and ordered a meal that was an exact replay of last time) to use another $5 off $25 coupon, and when I got home I read my book and passed out before 10. PARTY.

So I woke up quite naturally this morning at 6:30am, before the gym even opened. There aren’t any group fitness classes that start that early on Saturdays so I did my own thing once I arrived. I hadn’t done any cardio since Wednesday so I went with 30 minutes of HIIT on the Stair Master, 20 minutes on the elliptical, and some quick abs and stretching. Great sweat session! The Stair Master kills me every single time. SO nice to be done so early too! I’m at Daybreak now, blogging while I take a break between chapters of reading I’m doing for school. Today’s coffee of choice is Amaretti di Sicilia – YUM.

I’ve also got a restaurant report to share with you all!

I love using daily deals from sites like SaveNowCT to visit new restaurants and broaden my foodie-horizons. Case in point: I recently forgo-ed my daily packed salad beast for a lunch out with my co-worker at Sakimura, a sushi and hibachi place right near our office that I had a soon-to-expire deal to. Unfortunately I goofed and bought the dinner deal, but the restaurant still let us use it as long as we ordered off the dinner menu. So no awesome lunchbox special deals – but we still had a tasty meal! Daily deal crisis, averted.

Steamed edamame with sea salt.

Believe it or not, I’d never had edamame out of its pod before! I’ve been spoiled by the Whole Foods and Ruby Tuesday’s salad bars. This made for a very embarrassing situation. First, I ate two pods themselves before realizing that you’re not supposed to eat those – no wonder they were so hard to chew. Side note, I also made this mistake with shrimp tails the first time I ate shrimp. I was wondering why they were so crunchy!

When I finally caught on to the fact that you dispose of the pods, I kept popping the edamame out instead of sucking it right out of the pod. This resulted in edamame pieces flying all over the table.  Steve had plenty of laughs over that one – glad I could provide some klutzy lunchtime entertainment.

Nice hand pose, Steve!

We decided to split the Sushi Dinner, so we also received a salad and miso soup to share. Not the biggest fan of miso so I gave that one to Steve, but I did have some of the salad. The salads and soup at Japanese restaurants have always been so meh to me, but I know that a lot of people really like miso. Maybe I just haven’t had a really flavorful variety?

Tuna, striped bass, salmon, shrimp, and a couple of others I don't remember.

This was my first round of what I’d call your “fishy”, typical sushi. I usually go safer routes like California, veggie, or cooked seafood rolls. I’m pleased to report that I LOVED every single component of this plate! Except the wasabi…I don’t touch that stuff. I am officially an all-things-sushi lover!

Not sure if I’ll be back to Sakimura simply because I tend to only eat dinner out, not lunch, and it’s a bit far from my house since I’m only in that area during my workday, but if it were closer to me I’d definitely be coming back. For now, there are lots of Japanese places in Glastonbury that can fulfill any sushi cravings I may get. Still, the service was polite and the food was tasty!

I’m off to do more reading…after I check out Facebook and Twitter of course. And I’m off to the CT Food and Wine Fest tonight thanks to another SaveNowCT deal – can’t wait to take tons of photos so I can share the experience with you all!

Are you a sushi person? If you like “fishy” sushi, have you always liked it or did you have to slowly acclimate like me?