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March Showers?

The last few days have been so rainy, I hope we are getting April showers out of the way and warm weather will stick around. Most people complain about the hot & humid DC summers, but I love ‘em.

Last night didn’t go exactly as planned. Neil and I own a three-level rowhouse in Columbia Heights. We live on the top two floors and rent out the basement apartment. It has a completely separate front and back entrance, its own kitchen, washer/dryer, etc. The rent also covers over a third of our mortgage.

So last night our tenant emails us that he wants to get out of his lease early because he got a job offer in Chicago. He has been a great tenant so we are putting the apartment “on the market” this weekend. It can be a lot of work getting a new tenant in so this week and weekend will be much busier than anticipated.

After cooking/eating dinner, I made kugel for the sedar tonight. It ended up being a late night and I didn’t get a chance to lift weights. Hopefully I will squeeze that in today. My training plan calls for a swim today but since I have to be in Bethesda around 7 pm that will probably get pushed back till tomorrow. I did bring my swim stuff though, just in case.

This morning I was all dressed in my work clothes, when I looked outside and saw it wasn’t raining yet. I quickly changed and headed out on my bike. I didn’t put on my heart rate monitor but I did manage to get my Garmin. My ride to work looks like this:

Time: 12:01 minutes
Distance: 2.73 miles (a little shorter than I thought)
Average speed: 13.6
Calories: 230 (I’m even more skeptical of this # without the heart rate monitor)

You can see why I prefer this to taking the bus. It’s so fast and on the way to work it’s mostly downhill.

Today’s eats/points are:

• Spinach/red onion/muenster cheese/egg white omelet (I realized yesterday I had NO dairy.  For someone recovering from a stress fracture you would think I would make calcium more of a priority…so trying to do that from here on out)  – 3 points
• Cut-up apple – 1 point
• Cut-up carrots – 0 points
• Leftover chickpea + quinoa salad - 7 points
• Small banana – 1.5 points

Total points for the day = 12.5

Chickpea & Quinoa Salad

This recipe turned out very tasty and was easy to make.

Ingredients:

• Quinoa
• Olive oil
• Vegetable broth
• Veggies of your choice cut into bite-sized pieces (I used broccoli, peppers, portobello mushrooms)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• White cooking wine
• Chickpeas, rinsed
• Spices of choice (red pepper flakes, salt, pepper)

Steps:

1. Cook quinoa according to directions on box.  I cook it in veggie broth to make it more flavorful and moist.
2. Pre-heat oven (or convection oven) to 400*.  Toss broccoli with 1 tsp of olive oil and some garlic salt.  Roast for 10-12 minutes.



3. Meanwhile, heat another tsp of olive in a large pan.  Add garlic and heat for 30 seconds.  Add remaining veggies and cook for 5 minutes or so.  Then add a splash of white cooking wine and veggie broth.  Cook for a few more minutes, until tender but not soggy.  Add spices of choice.



4. Stir together 1 cup of cooked quinoa + 1/2 cup of chickpeas + as many veggies as you like.
5. Enjoy!

On the points front, my total for the day was 23. I was starving when I got home and ended up eating some pretzels and a slice of bread. I don’t regret the bread because I can’t have a bread for a week because of Passover!

Menu Planning

Workout and Eats

After the conference call this morning I headed down to the office gym and did a quick 30 minutes on the stationary bike. The stationary bike is probably my least favorite machine, but with the stress fracture it’s my only option. I can’t complain though – I read my book and worked up a good sweat.  I plan on lifting during TV time tonight.

Does anyone else watch Nurse Jackie or United States of Tara?

Today’s planned eats and points values (everything but dinner):

Monday, March 29, 2010

Morning
3  item(s) egg white(s)	1
1/2 cup(s) red onion(s)	0
1  cup(s) spinach	0
1  item(s) Light Multi-Grain English Muffin	1
1  small apple(s)	1
Subtotal	3
Midday
1/2 cup(s) summer squash	0
1  cup(s) spinach	0
1  large portobello mushroom(s)	0
soy vey – Quick-added food	1
2  slice(s) All natural 12 grain specialty bread	3
1/2 cup(s) zucchini	0
annie’s dressing – Quick-added food	1
1  large orange(s)	1
1  package(s) 100-Calorie Packs Whole Almonds	2
Subtotal	8
Evening
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Anytime
No entries for this meal time.
Subtotal	0
Food POINTS values total used	11
Food POINTS values remaining	10
Activity
30 min stationary bike, moderate	1
Activity POINTS values earned	1
Check off these important items daily:
Liquids Milk & Milk Products Fruit & Vegetables Multivitamin/Mineral Healthy Oil Activity Lean Protein Whole Grains

To break it down:

Breakfast: spinach, red onion, egg white omelet + english muffin
Snacks: 100 calorie almond, apple, orange
Lunch: grilled portobello sandwich (enjoying bread while I can!) + spinach/squash salad

Meal Planning

I think the one of the main ways to maintain a healthy diet is to plan, plan, plan. Generally when I go to the grocery store I have meal plans and recipes in mind. However, the last few weeks I haven’t driven to the grocery store for a proper stock up. Instead I’ve been making “pit-stops” at Whole Foods and Giant on my way home from the pool or work.  I usually find that I can make do with what I have as long as I have vegetables and beans though.

Tonight I’m going to make a big batch of quinoa (passover friendly) and top it with beans and veggies. I’ll make enough to have leftovers for (hopefully) most of the lunches this week.

The rest of my dinners look like this:

• Tuesday – Passover sedar at mom’s (I will make a kugel for this tonight)
• Wednesday – African Sweet Potato and Peanut Soup (I saw this on Ryan’s and Lindsey’s blogs and it looks amazing)
• Thursday – Baked tofu & brussel sprouts
• Friday – dinner date?

Hopefully with all this planning ahead counting points won’t be too hard!  I’ll post the dinner recipe later tonight.

Weight Watching

I’m in work early for a conference call, so I’m hoping to take a gym break later for some lifting + stationary bike. It’s going to be raining all day so I won’t be able to do my regular bike commute and want to get some extra cardio.

In my “who is liz” page, I talk about losing 10 pounds on Weight Watchers. I also talk about how being on Weight Watchers made me obsessive. I was on Weight Watchers and at my lowest weight for about 2 years (Summer ’06 to December ’08).

I left out some of the issues I’ve had since going off Weight Watchers. Last winter, I struggled with a mild depression. Neil was traveling for work at the time, being on client sites for months at a time. I was much less active than usual last winter and I gained about 10 pounds, very suddenly.

Since then I’ve been focusing on eating as healthy as possible and I’ve been working out more than ever. I actually have kept track of my workouts since 2007 in a google excel sheet (that might sound obsessive, but my job is a data analyst so I really love tracking things like this) so I know that my workouts have increased in time and intensity. I’m confused why I haven’t lost any weight…even when I was training for the marathon I only lost 1-2 pounds!

While I’ve been mindful of my portion sizes (sometimes tracking calories or points to make sure I’m not overeating) I’ve decided now is the time to take real action. Our wedding party is less than 12 weeks away and I want to feel my best when I see all my friends and family members. I’ve decided to start tracking points again. This really isn’t the way I wanted to do it, but mindful eating hasn’t been working for me.

I also have a doctor’s appointment this Friday. I’m going to talk to the doctor and see if I need any tests (a few med school/doctor friends have mentioned I could have a thyroid problem).

It’s hard to say on here that I need help, that I can’t be like other healthy living bloggers and lose weight by mindful, intuitive eating. I’m hoping to lose 5 pounds. When I was my thinnest (10 pounds lighter) I really couldn’t indulge at all to maintain that weight, and I don’t think that is the way to live!

I’ll be posting my point counts at the end of the day and weight losses/gains (but hopefully just losses!) every Monday.

Off to the conference call. Back for the food post later!

Dress Shopping

Last night for dinner we went to a restaurant in our ‘hood called The Heights. We’ve been for brunch plenty of times, but wanted to try out the dinner menu. I couldn’t help myself from ordering a Bloody Mary, even though that’s typical brunch time fare. They have a whole menu page devoted to customized Bloody Mary’s! Love it.

I had the Portobello & Eggplant sandwich with fries. As you can see I was starving by the time we got there and had started eating before I remembered to take a picture.

It was good, but I think I like their brunch better. Then we headed to VA to play beirut (beer pong). We rarely venture to the ‘burbs because it takes a while, but it was fun to hang out with friends and play games. I stopped myself at 3 beers. We got home after 1 am and passed out.

I slept in till 9:45 this morning, which is super late for me. I’m a very light sleeper. I made myself the typical breakfast fare: english muffin and spinach/red onion/provolone/egg white omelet.

I’ll definitely do a post on omelet-making one day. I’ve become quite the pro.

I had to rush to get ready and head out the door because I was meeting my mom in Friendship Heights to go dress shopping! As I mentioned before, my husband and I eloped in January, but we are still having a party in June. I wasn’t planning on buying a white dress because the party really won’t have a wedding-feel, but I found the cutest white BCBG cocktail dress at Bloomingdales. They didn’t have many sizes so I tried on a bigger size and then ordered two sizes to try online. I’m so excited! I’ll have to put up some pics when it gets delivered.

Afterwards I metro-ed to the pool and swam 18 lengths/900 meters/.56 miles in 30 minutes. I’m getting close to hitting the sprint triathlon distance. Of course, this is with some breaks between laps. I’ve also been mainly working on form and getting my endurance up, so soon I will begin working on speed. And I want to be able to go the whole .62 miles in the pool without stopping, since I won’t be able to stop in the lake on race day! I’m glad I have so long to prepare.

I managed a mini-trip to Whole Foods before the bus from the pool came. By the time I got home it was after 3:30 and I was starving. I had a banana (unpictured). I wanted to keep it light to save room for dinner, so I had a runny egg on spinach…

And some almond butter on toast (plus some unpictured pretzels and carrots + hummus).

The rest of the day/night was boring, but that’s the way Sundays should be! I went to the dog park, cleaned up and did some laundry. Dinner tonight was an attempt to re-create my dinner from the Heights…sauteed kale and a portobello sandwich with sprouts and a slice of provolone. I marinated the mushroom in soy vay, grilled it in a fry pan, then grilled the whole sandwich. Not bad if I do say so myself.

This post is kind of boring, but I do have some more interesting topics to post about this week. I’ve been thinking a lot about weight and food issues and I plan to get it out on this blog.

Rock Creek Park

Last night I drank a bit too much. I had a super mug at Chef Geoff, and a martini and a corona light at Rosa Mexicano. I also got delicious guacamole at Rosa Mexicano. I had fun but I did not get a good night’s sleep (which usually happens when I drink).

Today I woke up early and made a breakfast of a runny egg, an english muffin with provolone and sauteed spinach.

I relaxed/napped on the couch, watching re-runs of crappy TV on soap net (such as One Tree Hill and 90210). I snacked on puffins and edamame.

Once Neil was up and moving we headed to the dog park. Leela enjoyed the sunny weather and a giant stick.

After the dog park I got going on my bike ride. I wore the Garmin and heart rate monitor. Here are my stats:

Distance: 12.46 miles
Time: 55:58
Average speed: 13.3 mph
Average heart rate: 137 bpm
Max heart rate: 183 bpm
Total calories: 872 (not sure if I believe this)

The ride through Rock Creek park was lovely. Tons of people were out biking, running, walking, playing with dogs and having picnics. I was surprised because it was actually chilly out. The beauty of having Rock Creek Park in a city like DC is that you go from this busy atmosphere…

…to feeling like you are in the middle of the wilderness.

It cleared my mind and I felt completely refreshed after.

Now we are heading out to dinner and to a beirut tournament in VA. I’m going to try to keep the drinking to a minimum (and trick Neil into drinking more…muahaha)

Working for the weekend

I’m so ready for this day and week to be done. I’m working on a project that gives me a LOT of anxiety. I worked on the first wave of the research last summer…there were a ton of moving pieces and little details to keep track of. I messed up on something and my boss ended up yelling at me, I ended up crying (not in front of him) and it was not a good time. He did end up apologizing but ever since this project started up again I’m freaked out I will make a mistake. Any tips on controlling anxiety in the workplace?

Like I said earlier, I was hungry a lot of the day yesterday so I bulked up my snacks. I packed a cut-up apple,

grapes,

and a 100-calorie pack of almonds.

Lunch was the same salad from yesterday, and another Gardenburger on an English muffin.

It cleared up this afternoon for a little so I managed to bike home and walk the dog. Luckily I had some extra bike pants in my office, because the pants I wore this morning were still soaked! My shoes were definitely still wet and now my feet are cold. I took the bus back to the office because there is a high probability happy hour is happening after work. Don’t drink and bike, kids.

The plans for the weekend include:

-Happy hour with my co-worker
-Long-ish bike ride Saturday, with a stop at Eastern Market
-Dress shopping for our wedding party
-Planning our honeymoon in Spain (we have the plane tickets but nothing else worked out)
-Putting together a registry
-A trip to home depot
-House clean-up
-Swim on Sunday
-Quality time with Neil and the pup

I will also have to do some serious meal planning for next week because it’s Passover so I can’t eat regular bread, pasta, etc. I’m actually not a religious person at all (I have a tattoo in Hebrew, which is completely against the rules!), but for me being Jewish is more like being Irish or Italian. These traditions are important to me to carry on the culture since there are (relatively) so few of us out there.

Rain rain go away

FRIDAY! Hope everyone’s last work day goes by quickly.

So far today has been interesting. I took the dog on a walk, but no dog park because it would be muddy from the rain last night. It wasn’t raining on our walk though.

I had egg white omelet with spinach, red onions and provolone and a Thomas mutli-grain english muffin. Since I was so hungry yesterday I decided my breakfast and snacks need more bulk today.

Then I got ready to head out on a bike ride. Taking my own advice, since it looked drizzly out I wore a bright jacket so drivers could see me.

A few minutes into the bike ride that smile would be wiped off my face because it wasn’t just drizzling, it was really raining and cold! Usually I feel “hard core” when I work out in the rain, but when I’m going to work I don’t really want to get soaking wet.

By the time I got here I was drenched and mascara was running down my face! Thank god my clothes in my backpack weren’t too wet, that I had an extra pair of underwear in there and that I had the office gym locker room to dry off in.

I hope it stops raining by lunch so I can go home and walk the dog!

Sightseeing

The rest of the day was pretty standard. I lifted around lunch time. My strength routine was a quick 25 minutes – I go right from one exercise to another without any rest. Moves included:

-bicep curls
-assisted tricep dips
-overhead presses
-front raises
-lateral raises
-lat pulldowns
-side-lying leg lifts and leg circles
-hip lifts on the ball
-glute extensions
-hip lifts
-ab machine
-sit-ups and obliques on an exercise ball

Let me know if you have any questions about these moves. I do 3 sets of 10 for most of them.

By 4 pm I was starving and knew I would need some fuel for the bike ride. Luckily the office was having a little party so I got a plate of snacks: pineapple, a slice of cheese, a couple pita chips and veggies.

After work it was time to get a bike ride in. I had forgotten my Garmin (again!) but luckily was able to download a GPS app for my phone to track my workout. I just bought my phone, a Google Nexus One, a few weeks ago and I cannot recommend it enough!

Working downtown is nice because I get to pass some beautiful sights that I often take for granted. I stopped to snap some pics on my phone (almost all the pics I took today were on my phone, so sorry for the low quality!)

I headed down toward the waterfront and then up Rock Creek Park Trail. It took me by the zoo and out near my neighborhood. I finished up at 7 miles in less than 45 minutes. Not bad considering I had to deal with traffic. I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some essentials. Neil cooked while I rested my leg. Dinner tonight was a defrosted black bean burger on an english muffin with sprouts & provolone…

Half a sweet potato topped with salsa

And sauteed kale and spinach.

I took Quinn’s post on sitting at the table to heart and we ate dinner at the table tonight.

It turns out my friend who was flying in from Maine tomorrow had to cancel because her fiance’s mother is very sick Instead, I’ll probably go out with my co-worker and get errands done at least.

Have a great night! I’ll leave you with a cute picture of Leela.