Brrrrrr!

Check out the wintery scene that I woke up to in our backyard this morning:

Ick.

Snow.

I’m just not a fan.

And I like snow even less when it comes to motivating myself to leave the house to exercise.

The last thing I wanted to do this morning was venture out into the snow and freezing cold. I mean, bundling up, cleaning the snow off of my car, scraping the windows, and dealing with the messy roads requires a lot of effort just to get myself to CrossFit! I honestly thought about skipping it and staying in my nice, warm bed, but, instead, I psyched myself up by doing these three things:

• I immediately put on my workout clothes. I knew if I thought about going to CrossFit too much, I’d change my mind and stay home. So, I counted to three and then forced myself out of bed and immediately walked to my closet to put on my workout gear. Sometimes, simply getting dressed for a workout is half the battle for me.
• I reminded myself how I feel after a workout. Then, I reminded myself how I feel when I skip a workout. I’m not going to lie, it’s usually the later that ultimately motivates me. I hate the “I’m a lazy bum” feeling that I get when I blow off a workout for no good reason.
• I put the hooded sweatshirt that I planned to wear to CrossFit in the dryer for 5 minutes. When I was about to leave the house, I put on my toasty, right-out-the-dryer sweatshirt to keep me warm as I walked from the house to the car and waited for it to warm up. I swear, it makes things so much more bearable!

Breakfast

Before I went to CrossFit, I ate breakfast, which was “Oatmeal” Minus the Oats with a big scoop of peanut butter. I also drank an iced coffee with soy milk.

Workout

Today’s CrossFit workout left my quads screaming for mercy! Holy moly! The combination of Dead Lifts + Burpees was so challenging. My legs got a killer workout today, so I’m definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

WOD:

60 Medicine Ball Slams

Then,

3-6-9-12-15-12-9-6-3

Dead Lifts (185, 105)

Burpees

Then,

60 Medicine Ball Slams

After CrossFit, Mal and I cleaned the house from top to bottom and then I did a few organization projects, which included making use of a few goodies that my friends at Real Simple sent me. 

One of the items that I received was a 3-Piece Trunk Organizer, which is intended to store supplies, groceries, and other goods in the trunk or back seat of your car, but, as soon as I opened it, I discovered a new purpose for it.

Purse storage!

The organizer is fairly large with four compartments to separate and hold up my purses so I can clearly see and access them. My purses have been stored on the floor of my closet in a big, messy pile for as long as I can remember, so this organizer is the perfect solution. Real Simple rules. Thanks for the goodies, Kristen!

Snacks

While I cleaned and organized, I snacked on a hard-boiled egg and a handful of almonds. I also drank a Peanut Butter Wonderful iced coffee from Marylou’s.

Lunch

A little while later, I threw together a quick lunch: canned tuna mixed with avocado, chopped celery, shredded carrot, and truffle salt on a slice of Paleo Bread. Holy yum! It tasted wicked good!

I’m spending the afternoon catching up with work and then Mal and I are going on a date! Yay! I love date night!

Good morning!

The other day, I stumbled upon a short piece in Real Simple about saying like and um in conversation… like, um, a lot.

Apparently, these words are verbal fillers, which we use when we feel nervous or need a second to get our thoughts together– and we’ve probably been using them for about 100,000 years now! Even the first recordings by Thomas Edison include them: “We’ll get into Paris and make for the, uh, Grand Hotel… Uh, good-bye.” Interesting, right?

The piece goes on to say it’s fine to use um and uh, which are the equivalent of taking a pause for effect, but the word like, especially in formal situations, can weaken the impression that you make. In a Penn State study, participants perceived job applicants as less desirable if they overused like, as opposed to using uh instead. Good to know!

When it comes to using like and um in conversation, I’m pretty bad. I don’t say um or uh a ton, but I’m guilty of using like way too much, which I don’t like at all. I’m trying to break myself of the habit, so I’ve become much more conscious of saying like, but it still slips into conversation quite a bit. I guess I just need to keep working at it!

Breakfast

Yummy breakfast this morning: oats + egg whites with blackberries, ground flax, and peanut butter—and, of course, iced coffee with soy milk.

I ran out of egg whites this morning, so I couldn’t make my new favorite breakfast, so I tossed in some rolled oats for some extra substance.

DailyBuzz Healthy Living

DailyBuzz Healthy Living has arrived! The new site is where you can get the most authentic, unique, and relevant content related to leading a healthy life. It’s also great support for the healthy living blogging community! I’ve been helping out with the site, so I’m really excited to see it live today! Please check it out! http://healthyliving.dailybuzz.com/

Upper Crust Pizzeria Giveaway

Hey, local readers, ready for a giveaway?!

My friends at Eversave Boston offered to giveaway Today’s Save to Upper Crust to one lucky Carrots ‘N’ Cake winner. The deal is $10 for $20, so the winner gets $20 to spend at any of the 14 Upper Crust locations. Sweet, right?

If you’d like to enter, just CLICK OVER TO THIS POST and leave a comment!

Question of the Day

How often do you use like and um in conversation? Do you notice when other people use them? If you use these words in conversation, have you ever tried breaking yourself of the habit?

After doing Fran on Monday night, last night’s “Double Trouble” WOD  kicked my bee-hind!! (I am most definitely taking a rest day today.)

Our workout started with a quick warm-up before moving onto the Strength part. (FYI: Almost every CrossFit workout has this same format: Warm-up, Strength, WOD, Cool-down. The entire workout is typically done in about an hour—sometimes less.) We did six rounds of weighted sled drags for 150 feet. The gals used one sled while the guys used another, so we didn’t have to keep switching the weight. I’m not sure what the ladies started with for weight, but after each round, we added a 5-pound plate. That bitch was sooo heavy by the end! My legs felt like Jello on the last two pulls!

And then there was the WOD!

WOD: “Double Trouble”

30-20-10

Abmat Sit-Ups

Wallballs(20#)

Then,

10-14-18

Pistols

Burpees

Just typing that workout makes me tired!

Here’s how “Double Trouble” worked: We did 30 Sit-Ups and then 30 Wallballs (I used a 10-pounder – Level 1). Then, we did 20 reps of the same exercises and then 10 reps. After that, we moved onto 10 Pistols (similar to single-leg squats) and 10 Burpees. Then, we worked our way up to 14 and 18 reps of each. It was so challenging, but I absolutely love these kinds of workouts.

When I was leaving CrossFit last night, I noticed that someone changed my Level 1 Fran goal to “as Rx’ed,” which, of course, scares the crap out of me, but I’m not going to change it back. It’s a HUGE goal (65 pounds!!! I only did 35 yesterday), but it’s something to work toward. I gave myself the whole year to do it, so, who knows, maybe I’ll surprise myself?

Dinner

After CrossFit, Mal and I came home to an already-cooked dinner! Woohoo! I love you, Crockpot!

On the menu: Classic Pot Roast.

The recipe was another one from Real Simple, so I just cut up the veggies, seasoned the roast, put everything in the crockpot, and then I just needed to set it and forget it.

After dinner, I enjoyed two servings of Apple Crisp Light for dessert. I love this stuff.

Question of the Day

What’s your favorite crockpot recipe?

Please share! I love finding new (and easy) recipes for the crockpot, and I know you guys do, too!

It’s hard to tell who’s winning between Murphy and the couch. At first look, it seems like the pug is dominating his competition.

Without much (if any) effort at all.

But, when you look closer, it doesn’t seem like Murphy is very comfortable, so maybe the couch is winning after all?

I dunno. It’s anyone’s call!

Lunch

Phenomenal lunch today! I had Creamy Broccoli Soup, but it didn’t come from a can for once. I actually made it from scratch!

The recipe was from Real Simple, so, not surprisingly, it was really easy to throw together. Basically, you just add all of the ingredients to a large sauce pan, let it simmer for 20 minutes, and then throw everything in a food processor/blender. And just like that, you have homemade soup! Who knew making soup was so simple?

On the side, I had a toasted whole wheat Sandwich Thin with melted cheddar, which I dipped into my soup. Mmm!

Workout

Remember that run I tried to do yesterday afternoon? Well, I did it today! Hooray! My first run of 2012! Only 731 more miles to go!

I ran a little over 4 miles in 35 minutes using the treadmill workout below. This one was really challenging. You start out with a quick 1-minute interval and then work your way up to longer and faster intervals. I was dying by the final 4-minute interval, but I was almost done with the workout, so I just pushed it. It was a great run!

For a slower paced running workout, just subtract 1.0 from all of the speeds. For a walking workout, subtract 3.0 from all of the speeds.

Snack

After the gym, I ran a bunch of errands and then came home for an afternoon snack. I made a whole wheat Sandwich Thin with peanut butter and banana slices on top and then added more peanut butter to the rest of the banana… and then I ate a spoonful of peanut butter right from the jar. Ok, it was technically three spoonfuls of peanut butter right from the jar, but who’s counting?

I’m off to rescue the pug from the couch (or the couch from the pug?) and take him for a walk. CrossFit and Pot Roast are on the agenda for this evening!

Enjoy the night, guys!

Thanks for all of your supportive comments on my morning post! To me, cleaning up my diet means eating less of the unhealthy stuff and eating more of the nutritious stuff. I find that if I eat well-balanced snacks and meals, I actually don’t crave sweets (and other junk food) as much.

With that said, I’m going to try to incorporate more healthy snacks into my diet. At the Dole Healthy Lifestyle Blogger Summit, we learned that Dole provides free fruit and veggie snacks to their employees every day of the work week. They have fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon. I think this is a really neat idea and a fantastic way to add more nutrients to my diet, so I’m going to eat a couple of fruit- and veggie-based snacks each day.

Here’s the list of snack ideas that I made for myself:

• Hummus + veggies
• Fruit + cheese
• Greek yogurt + berries
• Hardboiled egg + veggies
• Banana + nut butter
• Fruit + handful of nuts
• Celery + peanut butter
• Soy milk latte
• Greek yogurt mixed with pumpkin + cinnamon
• Banana Bread Smoothie
• Gingerbread Smoothie
• Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
• Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie
• Roasted chickpeas + veggies
• Canned tuna with relish, mustard + veggies
• Apple Pear Salad
• Feta-Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers
• Honey-Roasted Root Vegetables
• Lemon-Glazed Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Bananas
• Sweet Potato Fries

I don’t really have a specific portion size in mind for my snacks—I’ll probably just base their size on my level of hunger and my activities for the day—but if you’re looking for more concrete nutritional targets, Real Simple offered these guidelines for snacking in their September issue, which I thought look helpful:

About 200 calories: This is enough to keep your metabolism humming, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian in Detroit.

At least 3 grams of fiber: Fiber is digested slowly and helps sustain your energy. It also absorbs water and expands in your stomach to keep you full.

At least 5 grams of protein: “Protein releases a hormone in the body that increases satiety,” says Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian in New York City.

No more than 12 grams of fat: This will help ensure that you don’t get more than 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories from fat, which is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendation.

What are your favorite healthy snacks? I’d love some more ideas!

Snack

Speaking of snacks, here’s the one that I ate mid-morning: arugula with grape tomatoes, crumbled feta, and leftover balsamic-mustard dressing. Hooray for veggies!

Lunch

A couple of hours later, I made lunch: Spicy Rice Quinoa Soup.

With a side of roasted broccoli and some Kashi TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable crackers.

After lunch, I whipped up a homemade mocha with Starbucks French Roast coffee, hot chocolate, and soy milk.

Mmm… the perfect sweet treat in just seconds!

Snack

CrossFit is on the agenda for this evening, so I’m fueling up with peanut butter and banana slices on a whole wheat Sandwich Thin right now.

mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine Giveaway

Hopefully, you guys aren’t sick of the giveaways on CNC because here’s another one!

Tomorrow, OpenSky is offering a deal on the mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine, so they want to drum-up excitement by giving away one on my blog this afternoon! If you’d like to enter, just click over to this post and leave a comment!

—

Off to walk the pug! See ya!

Good morning! Happy November 1st!

When I think about the month of November, I usually associate it with being thankful. After all, it’s the month when we celebrate Thanksgiving and remember what we are thankful for.

With this in mind, I’ve decided to challenge myself to a month of thankfulness. For every day of November, I will mention something on CNC that I am thankful for.

If you want to participate in my Be Thankful Challenge yourself, all you need to do is ask yourself the question, “What am I thankful for today?” and write it down (or blog about it) for each day of November. It doesn’t need to be life-changing or require a lot of thought. The idea is just to be thankful for something, even if that means being thankful for soft fleece blankets or dark chocolate being on sale at the grocery store.

With that said, I am thankful for my space heater. My office is located in the back of the house, where the heat just doesn’t flow. Instead of cranking up the heat in the house, I just use my space heater to keep warm.

Dinner

Last night’s dinner ruled on all fronts. I honestly can’t say enough good things about this recipe for Simple Roast Chicken. Mal was still talking about it this morning. 

Whole chicken = multiple meals = cost-effective.

This recipe was so easy to make. It required just four ingredients (+ salt and pepper), and I was able to throw the whole thing together in about 15 minutes, which included chopping up an onion and four red potatoes.

The chicken took about an hour to cook in the oven, but Trick-or-Treating was in full swing in our neighborhood, so Mal and I were plenty busy!

We must live in the most popular neighborhood in the town because I’ve never seen so many Trick-or-Treaters in my entire life. The roads were packed with kids and parents.

Obviously, Murphy needed to see all of the action outside of our house. He spent most of the night at his pug post.

Growing up, I lived on a main road, so we never got Trick-or-Treaters at our house (unless you count my cousins). Even living in various parts of Boston, I rarely ever had a kid knock on my door looking for candy on Halloween, so last night was a lot of fun for me. I loved seeing all of the costumes (we had lots of Transformers and princesses come to our door) and meeting new people in our neighborhood.

Even though I bought three huge bags of candy, we still ran out before the night was over. Oops! Next year, we’ll buy twice as much!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Our chicken turned out wonderfully— moist and tender on the inside, and flavorful and crispy on the outside.

I added the sliced roast chicken, potatoes, and onions to a big salad with balsamic vinegar. So delicious.

After dinner, I enjoyed a couple of sugar cookies. Obviously.

Breakfast

This morning’s breakfast was pumpkin oatmeal with shredded coconut, almond extract, cinnamon, and a big scoop of Chia Charger nut butter. It was a random mix of ingredients, but they came together well.

I also drank an iced coffee with soy milk and splash of coffee creamer. I’m learning that a little splash of creamer is key to seriously delicious iced coffee (and some of my friendships).

Question of the Day

What are you thankful for this year?

P.S. Check out my Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies on Shape.com!

Next week is going to be crazy for me. I’m attending a blog summit in California, and then I go immediately to New York City to run the marathon.

Needless to say, it’s going to be an exciting few days, but also a hectic few days, so today I tried to get a head start on my work for next week. I put my nose to the grindstone, and wrote almost a week’s worth of blog posts for NuVal, finished a freelance piece for the Pretzel Crisps blog, and started my Feel Great Weight post for next week. I also replied to a ton of emails and got my inbox down to 57 messages. I still can’t believe how much I got accomplished today. I think I blacked out.

Lunch

Lunch was broken up into a few different parts today. I started with reheated spaghetti squash with meat sauce and grated Parmesan on top.

A little while later, I snacked on a couple of Sweet Potato Spice Muffins. (The recipe will be on Health.com next week!)

And, finally, I enjoyed an Apple Crisp Smoothie, which tasted like cold apple crisp with vanilla ice cream on top. Holy yum. I want another one! (This recipe will also be on the Health.com site next week.)

Workout

I planned to attend a yoga class this morning, but I was making some serious progress on the work front, so I decided to skip it and go to the gym later in the day.

At the gym, I did a 30-minute treadmill workout, followed by 30 minutes on the elliptical. While I was on the elliptical, I read this month’s issue of Real Simple, which included a one-page piece called 13 Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas. I don’t like to spend a lot of money on Halloween costumes, so I loved these creative and affordable ideas.

A few of my favorites: Fork in the Road, Iron Chef, and Ceiling Fan.

Fun, right?

My college roommate once pinned Smarties all over her pants for Smarty Pants, and I went to a party a few years ago where I saw a girl wearing a plastic pig nose with a blanket draped around her for Pig in a Blanket. So clever. So fun.

What’s the most creative Halloween costume you’ve ever seen?

Most random post title ever? I think so.

Dinner

One of the best parts about meal planning as a couple is trying recipes that I would never have picked otherwise. For example, yesterday, Mal found a recipe for Roast Beef Cocktail Sandwiches with Parsley Butter, which, initially, didn’t sound that appetizing to me, but ended up turning into a fabulous and easy meal. Good eye, Mal!

Last night, Mal was in charge of making the sandwiches.

And I was in charge of making the salads.

(That random photo of Mal and me on the refrigerator is from our friends’ wedding this past June. We tried to reenact our prom photos from 1998. I know, we’re so cool.)

Mal added a bunch of minced garlic to the parley butter for some added flavor. He said it was kind of bland without it.

The salads included arugula, tomato, carrot, cucumber, blue cheese crumbles, and balsamic vinegar. I think these are the first vegetables I’ve eaten in days.

After dinner, I spent the rest of the evening foam rolling the crap out of my tight muscles. Apparently, that twenty-miler really kicked my butt! My legs actually feel quite a bit better this morning. They’re still sore, but not nearly as tight.

I always used to think my Bosu was the best piece of exercise equipment I’ve ever bought because it’s so versatile, but I use my foam roller so much more. And I have a feeling I’m going to use it even more in the next few weeks.

Question of the Day

What’s the best piece of exercise equipment you’ve ever bought?

My pug calendar says it’s October 10th, but Mother Nature seems to think otherwise. For the past several days, it’s felt like legit summer here with temperatures in the 80s and plenty of sunshine. I love it so much. No complaints here.

Once the sun started to set this evening, it made for some fabulous running weather. I left my Garmin at home, threw on some tunes on my iPhone, and set out for 5 miles. It was glorious.

Midway through my run, I bumped into my favorite two guys on a walk.

They’re so cute.

After my run for some reason, I still had plenty of energy to burn, so I acted like a freak on our back porch. I guess running outside in the beautiful October weather just really psyched me up. (Or maybe I was still drunk from Saturday night?)

While I stretched and showered, Mal fired up the grill and started to make dinner. Tonight’s meal was a very ‘manly’ salad made with steak, bacon, potatoes, and a homemade blue cheese dressing.

The recipe for Steak Salad with Bacon, Crispy Potatoes, and Blue Cheese Dressing is from Real Simple, and it tasted awesome. (FYI: The potatoes are cooked in bacon fat. Mmm, yes.) Mal cooked one hell of a meal tonight!

Dessert is cooking in the oven right now: apple crisp made from the apples that Mal and I picked this weekend. Yum!

Have a nice night, friends! I’m off to catch up with my DVR. It’s 94% full!

Good morning, friends!

Thankfully, after yesterday’s hurricane, things are pretty quiet here this morning.

I’m so grateful that Hurricane Irene didn’t cause any major damage to our area. I’m praying for those who are dealing with the tragic aftermath, especially the folks in Vermont. I heard much of the state is in a lot of trouble right now.

Breakfast

I started my morning with a tasty batch of Protein Pancakes with fresh blueberries and maple syrup drizzled on top.

Two servings of fruit + 28g of protein in one meal. Love it.

I also enjoyed a glass of iced coffee with vanilla soy milk.

Last Night’s Dinner

Last night’s lasagna dinner tasted delicious, but it sure wasn’t pretty!

I used a recipe for Broccoli and Three-Cheese Lasagna from Real Simple, which was really easy to make, but I sort of messed up the layering. It still turned out pretty well– I mean, Mal ended up eating three huge pieces, so it couldn’t have been that bad!

Success Plan

According to a study by the American Journal of Public Health, people are more active when they focus on how they’ll fit in exercise—like packing their workout gear the night before—rather than why they should do it.

Scheduling my workouts every Sunday for the upcoming week is key to my success with regard to my fitness goals. Carving out time for all of my workouts helps keep me on track and motivated. (I schedule my workouts on my Google Calendar just like I would any other appointment.) Plus, having a plan of attack gets my mind in the “just do it” mentality, which gets my butt in gear and prevents me from skipping a scheduled workout.

With that said, here’s this week’s workout schedule:

• Sunday: Off
• Monday: Body Pump + 2-mile run
• Tuesday: 75-minute Vinyasa yoga class
• Wednesday: 3-mile run + CNW
• Thursday: 2-mile run + elliptical
• Friday: Cardio Combo
• Saturday: Long run

Question of the Day

What ultimately motivates you to exercise— the how or the why?

P.S. If you haven’t heard, Carrots ‘N’ Cake was named as a finalist for this year’s CBS Boston Most Valuable Blogger award in the Health & Fitness category. I would love for you to vote for CNC. It takes just seconds. No sign up required. Thanks, friends!