Spin Instructor Down! Repeat, Spin Instructor Down!

I'm really enjoying spin class these days. So much, that I'm contemplating purchasing some spin shoes to make it, a la official. 

Yesterday's early morning spin class was interesting though. I usually go on Tuesdays because I love the instructor. He plays really good music to spin to. Music that I know, which helps me immensely to keep the motivation going. I've been to spin classes where I can't even relate to the music and I've noticed that I  clock watch throughout the class because I'm disinterested. 
 


Anyways, going back to yesterday's spin class. The last 20 minutes of class, our instructor all of a sudden says, " he'll be right back." Kinda strange. We see him outside with another gym employee and he looks like he's in some kind of pain or discomfort. 


Turns out that he was going to nearly pass out from the class he was teaching. Ain't that kinda crazy??? A instructor about to pass out from his own class. That's just crazy!

Last night's dinner was semi-homemade pizza. I bought a couple of whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joe's. One pizza was topped with sweet chicken italian sausage, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. The other one was topped with bbq sauce, chicken, mozzarella cheese, and cilantro (love me some cilantro-yum!)


They turned out pretty good! I opted for the Chicken Italian Sausage because it was only 190 calories as opposed to the Pork Italian Sausage at 300 calories. No bueno!

One of the answers to happiness is being surrounded by good friends.

Just returned from a trip filled with lots of eating, dancing, social drinking, and laughing with my college besties. Back in October, Southwest was having an awesome sale to fly to San Diego for $30 each way. It was a total spontaneous trip planned in a matter of minutes and we all managed to swoop in on it and get a flight arriving around the same time with each other. I should add that many of us came in from all parts of Sacramento, the Bay Area, and one even came from Arizona! Now, that's love, yes?

 There was tons of eating. Ugh. You can say my diet was thrown out the window. Heck, when I arrived, I drank a cold beer and shared some yummy appetizers such as tater tots, buffalo wings, nacho's, sweet potato fries, pork sliders. Oh, I did order a salad just to balance it out. It's like ordering a diet coke with an In N' Out hamburger meal. Oh yeah! It was delish!!!

We got prettied up and did some dancing in the Gaslamp district, which is party central in San Diego.

Ate some awesome Japanese Ramen and noshed on the absolute best place for desserts in the whole wide world at a place called Extraordinary Desserts! It was featured in the Food Network show, " The Best Thing I Ever Ate." 

If you are in San Diego, this is the place to go. It's very Zen like with a modern twist. You will be swooning!!!

 Now, it's back to reality of exercising, eating healthy, and going back to work. Waaaah!!!

Something Smells Fishy.

After feeling at my " not my personal best" last week, I proclaimed profusely to the hubby that we need to eat more chicken, vegetables, and fish. He needs to stop buying a bunch of red meat just because it's on sale. Gah, men sometimes. (hehe) I'm fine with an occasional steak, but not more than twice a week. Heck no. Not having it. 

So, my lovely husband brought home these babies. All were on sale for $2 each. Could-not-believe-it! I know they aren't exactly " fresh," but they are pretty convenient when you are fiending for a fish taco. Plus one serving is 2 points in WW world. Hell to the Yeah! 

 I decided to bake the Garlic Butter flavored fish since I was making fish taco's. When I removed them from the box, I have to admit, I was a bit perplexed with the shape of the fish. So square! So compact looking. I began to imagine a big ole factory that pounds out these fish by the second. Le Sigh. That's what you get when you buy things like this, right?

 

But, boy! Did these produce a fabulous meal that was a 9 pts!!!! Check out the entree. As you can see, I am in love with cilantro. I served my fish taco's with some leftover cilantro-lime rice from yesterday's meal. Still tasted yummy!

p.s.  Found a trail mix granola bar recipe that I"m dying to try at Eat, Live, Run.

 

Beautiful Day to be Out n' About!

Spent the day with my lovely, BFF.  

Weather has been quite confusing this week. Yesterday, it was cold and windy Today, absolutely beautiful!

Breakfast was just a multi grain english muffin with a smear of light cream cheese, a banana, and coffee. Gah, I need to learn how to drink my coffee black. I envy people that can because the creamers are messing my diet up! 

Lunch was a big ole' salad at Pluto's. 

I have no clue how many points this salad was. It was a pretty big salad that I think had 3 cups of mixed dark greens, beets, corn, cucumber, carrots, croutons (i couldn't resist), mushrooms, all mixed up in a gorgonzola vinaigrette. Oh, and a fabulous small slice of focaccia bread. 

To get an idea of how big the salads are at Pluto's, here's a picture taken from here.

 Whatever it is, it's all in my belly now. Heh. To not let me think about it, I did some shopping and came out with these pretties. 

Trenta, Really?

It was all over the news yesterday. Starbucks released a new size above the Venti size, called Trenta.

.photo from starbucksmelody.com.

Greeeeaat. Just freakin' fabulous. Another contribution to obese America. Does it ever end? It baffles me already with the amount of empty high calories there are in the Starbucks drinks. It baffles me even more that I see people order Venti sized empty high calorie Starbucks drink. So, to just imagine people actually ordering Trenta sized drinks, just makes me sick to the stomach. Why? Why? Why?

 

 

 

Difficult Day 2.

Man, trying to keep within 29 daily points is a pain in the bootay. Today was very difficult.  The problem. Dinner was so good, I wanted seconds and I had seconds. (ohmygodican'tbelieveisaidthat!)

But, let's start off from the beginning, shall we?

I started off with a good ole hearty bowl of oatmeal mixed with 1 tbsp of brown sugar, 1/4C of Horizon Organic Lowfat Milk, and some slices of banana. Oh, and a cup of coffee mixed with 2 tbsp of hazelnut creamer. It's the creamer that got me up in points dammit. All of this was 8 points. 

For lunch, I had a whole wheat wrap with honey ham, cheddar cheese, a little bit of mayo, and lettuce with a tangelo for fruit. It was really yummy, but I seriously need to find some whole wheat wraps with lesser points. This meal was 8 points, too! 



And then, I got curious after seeing this interesting snack found on Meals and Moves. Loved it! Maybe my favorite snack so far and I might even make this my breakfast tomorrow! It is Wasa multigrain crackers with lowfat cottage cheese sprinkled with some cracked pepper. It is deeeelish! Oh, and it's 4 points.

So, yeah if you haven't already tallied it up. I already used up 20 points, leaving me with 9 points for dinner which isn't much....again! Doh!!!


Oh, but it was all worth the seconds. 

By the time I had my seconds, I just naturally assumed that I went way beyond my daily points. So, another day, another adventure. At least, I ate pretty healthy for the most part, right? haha

I Found the Secret Way to Eat Chipotle!

I gotta say, eating healthy is somewhat tiresome. I mean, you really gotta plan out your meals if you are determined to lead a healthy lifestyle. Well, with my lifestyle. No planning, no meals which means, eating out. Maybe I'm making it much more complicated than it really should be, yes? I tend to look for healthy recipes to keep me "interested".  Otherwise, I'm dunzo. 

Tonight's dinner I'm quite excited about. I absolutely love the Chipotle burrito bowls. I swoon over them. But, after finding out how many calories is contained in one bowl, I wanted to literally puke my brains out. So, when I discovered this recipe at Gina's Skinny Recipe's blog,  I was jumping up for joy!! Yes! Yes! Yes! 

 .Photo From Gina's Recipes.

Instead of making the Sweet Barbacoa Pork, I'm making the Puerto Rican Pork, aka, Perril, meat. Right now, the meat is slow cooking in my lovely crockpot. My mouth is going to be watering for 8 long hours. Shall I leave the house for a few? Hehe.

 

I Survived Day One!

Phew! What a day it was to begin Day One of WW. All I have to say is that, " I Survived!" I was a little bit stressed worried that I wasn't going to meet my daily point of 29 points. After eating my morning breakfast, snack, and lunch, I had a mere 6 points left. In WW world, that pretty much equates to pinto beans, figurative speaking. But, I was determined. Oh, yes I was....

I made Baked Panko Crusted Chicken Strips using a simple recipe found on Moves and Meals. Although the recipe stated it was only going to take 25 minutes, it didn't. More like, 1 hour. I kept flipping the chicken a couple of times hoping that the panko crumbs would get browner. But, sadly, they didn't and I just said screw the look. If it taste good, it is good and that's a winner in my book, right?

 My side dishes were zuchinni and mock garlic mashed potatoes using.... get this... cauliflower!!! Holy! I was in pure heaven and didn't miss "real" potatoes whatsoever! I remember making this side dish when I was following the South Beach Diet. I enjoyed it, but I think this recipe is much, much better than the SBD recipe. It only called for 1/2 tsp of minced garlic and that small amount of garlic really rounded out the cauliflower well.

So, thankful that the new point plus in WW calls for all vegetables and fruits to be zero points. The fruits are my saving grace right now when I'm starving! 

Right now, I am itching to get back in the gym for some spinning classes as well as head to the yoga studio for some hot yoga. Unfortunately, I had a procedure done last week that is not allowing me to exercise just yet.... so frustrated!!!!

Weight Watcher Addict.

I think I've joined Weight Watchers about a handful of times within the last 20 years. I've done countless diets ranging from the South Beach Diet, Jenny Craig, to Nutrisystem. Classification: Yo-Yo Dieter. 

Being at home during the day doesn't help me neither after watching countless commercials of Jennifer Hudson's new svelte body. So, I took the plunge once again and re-joined Weight Watchers, but only this time, online. My schedule is kinda erratic, especially working night shifts. So, I'm hoping that I won't be swayed too easily. I know in the past, attending the weekly meetings helped me stay on track. Maybe if I post up my day by day meals, it will help me become more accountable and stay on track, yes? 

Right now, I'm given a daily allowance of 29 points. Seems pretty generous, but wow, after adding up the points of what I've eaten in the morning, morning snack, and lunch, I've pretty much expensed majority of my points away. For example, today's lunch consisted of the following:

2 Slices of Whole Wheat Toast (Orowheat)
1/2 Cup of Egg Salad
1/2 Serving of Trader Joe's Baked Cheeto's
1 Medium Sized Apple

 This meal was a whopping 16 points. Thankfully, fruits are zero points. So, I can fully load up on those, but man, 16 points? That's insane! This calls for a re-evaluation of what I am going to eat these upcoming weeks-months. Seriously. No freakin' joke. 

Happy 2011.

Hey Folks! Happy New Year!!!!! 2011, I welcome you with open arms and hoping for the best year ever! 

This year, I made a pledge to live a healthy lifestyle. I know, this is typical cliche. But, since 2008, I've gained about 30lbs. I can list a long list of excuses, but I'm not. I'm going to take ownership and get back on track. Fortunately, I began this journey before the new year. I began taking up spinning classes at the local gym, choosing healthier choices when it comes to eating, and basically trying to feel good about myself overall. 

Running has taken a sideline, unfortunately due to personal reasons that I'm not yet ready to fully divulge. But, it hasn't stopped me from being active. I do plan on getting back into running as it's one of my favorite things to do. But, for now, I just have to put it aside sadly. 

Recently, I ran into a great deal at LivingSocial.com for a month long unlimited Bikram Hot Yoga Classes. All for $25. It was just too good to pass up, yes?

Two weeks ago, I went to my first first Bikram Hot Yoga. On Facebook, I wrote:  Ready or not, here I come Bikram yoga. Trying it out for the first time. 90 minutes of 105 degree heat. Let's hope I don't get nauseated and pull over to the side to throw up like the last time I did semi hot yoga.

Unfortunately, I did end up throwing up right after class and fortunately, outside of class. But thereafter, I was able to attend classes with no problemo's. I think I got the science down for my body on how to handle Bikram Yoga. 

My formula is to not eat 3 hours before class. Drinks plenty of water all day and a container of coconut water an hour before class. Also, have an apple right after class to help level out my blood sugar since I tend to get low blood sugar'd when I do eat for periods of time.  

I love the way Bikram Hot Yoga makes me feel. It challenges me, balances me, makes me feel good, and most of all, allows me to sweat out all the toxins away. Right now, the biggest pose that is a challenge for me is the Camel Pose. 


To bend backwards feels so unnatural to me and at the same time, creates alot of fear in me. But eventually, I know that I will be able to do this pose and when that day comes, I will be celebrating! 


Here's to hoping for a fantastic 2011. I wish nothing but positive healthy vibes to all of you!