Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Where Have I Been?

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It is the busiest time of year for us youth performing arts folks. This week I am gearing up for 2 shows, while being at all of my Bravo! performances. Busy busy bee. In the time I haven’t been at work I’ve been enjoying the number of calories burned in an 11 mile run by eating delicious food, including celebrating Yogurtland’s 12 days of holiday flavors!

Nicole has been helping me enjoy the festivities.

And of course I convinced my family to take part as well

"Grandma, don't leave me for the fro yo!"

"Do I get to go for a ride to Yogurtland? I think they should have a bacon flavor for dogs. But I also like peanut butter."

And I’ve also been enjoying the change in weather.

How often does one really get to wear rain boots in Phoenix? I put them on at the slightest drizzle, because I have horrible fashion and consider a cute winter outfit anything including rain boots or leg warmers.

And then there was also a good amount of time spent on cookie baking…

Dear cookies, please stay fresh for your recipients! Please please please do not go stale because you tasted amazing right out of the oven!

 Yesterday I was so busy I didn’t even get a work out in and I had to cancel my physical therapy appt. But today started out on the right foot pedal!

I know I always say spin class is hard, and today was the same ride as Thursday, but is felt sooooo hard. And the room felt like it was about a million degrees. I was very happy to be spinning, but even happier to be done!

Now, I've just gotta work my way up to running that far...

Today I have a run of the show at school, the final performance for one of my acting classes, a Bravo! performance and tech. Whew. I need to shower and eat before I never have time to ever again.

 

Just Keep Spinning

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HOORAY!!!!! After a ridiculous month long hiatus (how did it get to be a month?!) I finally made it back to spin this morning! I don’t know why I was being such a lame-o about it. I love spin. Minus the sprints. I do not like sprints. I do not like them Sam I Am. But I love spin especially Linda’s spin. Kara and I arrived super early and were the first on the list.

"Ummm, how do we work this bike again?"

I started the class with my flat road back at 9 (one lower than before) just in case I had totally lost some of my ability, but about half way through I told myself to stop being a wimp decided to step up my game and put it back at 10. Just in time for the steepest hill and sprints. Awesome. After some good sweat dripping action and singing along to Love the Way You Lie at gear 19, I was pretty happy with my ride 🙂

It feels so good to be back! No more time off from spinning for this girl!

Yesterday, I started the day with a way too early and cold run with Kara. We planned to do 3, but wimped out from the dark and cold after 2. Looks like now that it’s officially winter, we will be starting a little later and sleeping in–yay!! After our run, I headed to physical therapy where I got scraped again, but it wasn’t NEARLY as bad this time around! Pre-scraping, I hung out with my favorite football players at physical therapy. Those guys crack me up. The therapists always have them doing these crazy hard looking athletic things and I wanted to play too. I’m not at all competitive 😉 They were doing ladder work and making it seem really hard, then I skipped my little legs right through. They asked me if I used to play sports and I laughed and almost responded by saying “No, I’m Jewish.” but I think that’s only funny to me, so I just laughed and said no. I really like that in addition to making me feel better, my physical therapy sessions are giving me a little extra exercise time. I’m always surprised by how sweaty I am when I leave. But then again, we all know I have a sweating problem.

Tuesday night I went to Zoo Lights with my dad, Janie and Hermano. I was super excited because I figured Steve would be able to take all sorts of amazing photos, but he wasn’t feeling well that night, so I will just have to go back with him on a date night to get some pictures 😉 I did try to take a couple with my phone.

I ♥ lights!!!

And I also rode a camel with Hermano. His name was Isaac.

Hey Isaac, thanks for the ride! Look, no hands!

Today I am so excited to go to work. I love days like that. We start tech for Fiddler on Sunday, so I wanted to shake things up tonight and we are doing Fiddler on the Roof soap opera style for our run tonight. As ridiculous as it sounds, there is a method to my madness 😉 For those of you in the Phoenix area, I would love for you to come out and see the show! The kiddos have been working super hard and I feel hopeful that it will be good! Click here to order tickets!

Have a great day everyone!

 

Cardio, Cardio, But Not a Dumbell in Sight

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Hi friends! Well, Winston had a pretty great 2nd birthday I think. He started his morning with a treat and ended it with a walk around the block. Walks are his favorite. All I do is say “Go for a walk?” and he starts actin a fool! I started off yesterday with an abs/upper body work out and Spin with my fav teacher Linda! Class was awesome as usual except for one thing! She got off her bike about half way through and started checking everyone to make sure they were at the gear she thought they should be at. She walked around and checked every single bike in the room except for mine! I’m in the corner and I just got skipped. Of course me being a total teacher’s pet wanted to raise my hand and say “Wait wait wait!! Check on me check on me!!! Validate me, my spinning, and my gear!!” But luckily I have some social grace and just kept spinning haha. I was always that kid in school raising my hand super annoyingly so I could get called on and show off how smart I thought I was 🙂 Anyway, I ended spin feeling really good and getting in some decent mileage.

Came home to some delicious oats in a pumpkin butter jar! Sooooo yummy

This morning I went on a 3 mile run all alone since Kara has a lame schedule today, but I maintained a pretty good pace!

Came home, dip 50 dips and called it a tricep work out. I really suck at the strength training lately. Someone please say something motivating so that I can get my butt back to the weight room! I was also surprised with a skinny peppermint mocha from my fabulous husband! I love surprises and coffee surprises are often the best ones! Off to drink more coffee because I’m addicted. Have a fabulous day everyone!

Free Always Tastes Better

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Hi friends. It’s funny, today was not a crazy work day, but it’s 8:30 pm and I feel totally wiped. I started this morning by doing some upper body weights with Kara before heading into spin class. I did 2 supersets

Bicep concentration curl (15 lbs, 3 sets of 12)

3 point shoulder lift–I don’t remember the exact name, just that it was for shoulders and my trainer at the time said something about 3 point. I remember that because I smartly remakrd “Oh then I should just use 3 lb weights!” (5 lb each hand, 3 sets of 10)

and

Pushups (3 sets of 15)

Dips (3 sets of 15)

It looks like so little all typed out, but I have sucked big time at my strength training lately and I was feeling it! Then of course spin almost killed me. It seems like every single time I am a good little spin student and push myself to up my flat road, the next class she is telling us whatever we did last time, we need to push it up one higher. The forever student in me wants to raise my hand and ask “But excuse me, what if I raised my flat road last week? Do I raise it again already? Please hold my hand every step of the way and give me all of the answers.” Instead I gave myself a little pep talk that went something like this

“Look, quit b****ing out, and raise your flat road whether you just raised it or not! You want to look good naked!”

So apparently my new flat road is gear 11. That simultaneously sucks and is awesome. I mean I feel awesome that my flat road was 7 and now supposedly it’s 11, but let’s be honest–11 might as well be a hill!!!! It is freaking hard!! And when we go up from there?!?! At the top of the steepest hill today, the last time Linda told us to add a gear, I just looked at Kara and said “Are you Fing kidding me?!” But I love it. Every second. When sweat drips into my eyes and I feel like my legs can pedal no more, I am so happy to be there in the class and not completely suck.

After class I got an other delicious pepperminty iced coffee from The Bux. Grande iced coffee, 3 pumps SF vanilla, 1 pump SF peppermint, soy milk, light ice. Perfection. Then I came home and made some cinnamon apple oats. Steve mentioned the other day about eating one of those oatmeal packets (gross) in the cinnamon apple flavor and ever since I have had it on the brain! I used

  • 1/3 cup slow cooking oats
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • gaala apple, cored and diced
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • lots of cinnamon
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 1 tsp chia seeds
  • 1 tbs raisins
  • 1 tbs ish PB & Co cinnamon raisin swirl

I cooked it all together on the stove over medium heat, except the raisins (which I added in almost at the end) and the PB which went right on top. It was so yummmmmy,

Tonight, we had plans to go to the state fair. We were supposed to go Saturday, but things came up and our plans changed to today. Well, we drove all the way there in rush hour only to discover the fair is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Fail. Booooooo. We figured we were all together (my dad, Hermano, Steve and me) so we might as well do something and headed for dinner at True Foods. I love love love True Foods. Steve took more pictures of the crazy fam

Then asked me to pose for a picture, but I was not looking cute so I definitely was not in the mood. He made a puppy dog face so I acted like a 5 year old, stood where he told me and scowled at him. Karma. I ended up looking crazy evil in the photo!

Scarrrrrrryyyy!!! But perfect for Halloween! PS: My shirt says “Coffee makes me happy.” So fitting.

After dinner, we went to Yogurtology for some fro yo. Seriously, if you live in Phoenix, you must go there. They have the best yogurt, hands down. Get the oatmeal cookie flavor and you will not be disappointed. I got 6 oz of oatmeal cookie with about 1/2 tbs of nutella on top. Best combo ever. Except…..

They were out of spoons. I had to use a big metal topping spoon haha. But I got my yogurt for free, so I don’t mind! Free always tastes better! I would eat it with a spatula as long as I don’t have to pay! Wow–is it politically incorrect to make fun of my Jewishness on the internet? In person it always seems so harmless because every just knows I’m Jewish so I’m allowed to make fun of myself. Here it feels so taboo, like someone will get the wrong idea and think I’m an anti Semite! I love my people, and all of our quirks and stereotypes!

Now I’m watching some Biggest Loser and gonna head to bed early because I have an early training run with Kara tomorrow am! Goodnight all!

Impatient Salad Making

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You know what I hate most about making salads? Putting away ingredients! I always complain to Steve about how I hate putting everything away at the end and he looks at me like I’m lazy and ridiculous, but seriously! When I start taking everything out, it’s exciting–Oooohhh I could add this and this and THIS! Then the chopping is semi therapeutic–that or I’m a freak, well I am a freak, but not sure that is the main reason 😉 Anyway, by the end when my salad is looking delicious and my stomach is growling in anticipation, I always get so annoyed that I have put a million and one ingredients away before I can eat. Boo. Today I was especially sad to put away the ingredients from this salad

 

Romain, tomato, cucumber, low fat cottage cheese, reduced fat feta cheese, red bell pepper, carrots, cilantro, black bean burger, and salsa. So many things to put back in the fridge after! But totally delicious and worth it. This may sound like the silliest thing ever, but I am a messy person who hates mess and loves salads. This is my life.

I started my day with Linda’s spin class! Linda is prob my favorite of all the gym teachers. This woman just ran a freaking marathon on Sunday and was here today kicking ass on the bike with us. She pushes me, she inspires me, and I want to be like her. Today was challenging, as always, buuuuuuut—I upped my flat road to gear 10!!! Whoot! I was so excited about it–double digits! She said there is one man who’s flat road is gear 14! Well, not that I’m competitive or anything, but obviously, I have to get to 15.


In other news, I am determined to recreate my own sugary kids cereals the healthy way. Any ideas where I can find some base recipes? Especially Lucky Charms! I spent a while looking today with no luck, but when I added a few marshmallow (yes, dad–the Kosher kind!) to my left over Koala Crispies, I knew I had to conquer one of my favorite bad for me foods in the world–cereal! Hopefully coming soon!

I’m off to watch some Biggest Loser and then get some rest! I have an early run with Kara in the am!

Early Start

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Hi friends! Today started off absolutely fantastic. I thought I was crazy last night when I set my alarm for 5am to get up for spin class, and when that mf anxiety kept me up most of the night again, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my booty out of bed at that hour. Luckily, it only felt slightly awful and I got myself on the road only to realize it wasn’t just a little bit dark. It was like middle of the night dark. Wtf? It totally messed with my brain. Somehow it has become Fall even though it doesn’t feel like it here and during Fall 5am looks like 1am. Yikes!

I was soooo glad that Kara is back from LA and I have my spin buddy back! As soon as we got going, I felt excited to be there. Today was “Cycle Zone” which is supposed to be harder and shorter. It was only slightly shorter and honestly, it all feels hard haha. Definitely not noticeably harder than any of our other spin classes, but it starts at 5:45 instead of the normal early class time of 5:30 and I am a big fan of those extra 15 minutes of sleep 😉

The room was extra chilly this morning and for the first time I experienced dripping sweat while feeling cold at the same time. Regardless of the cold, it was definitely the perfect way to start the day and I left feeling PUMPED!

It was still a little chilly outside at 6:45 and I was still feeling cold from the room so I got my first hot coffee of the season! It was so delicious. Steamed soy is one of my absolute favorite things on Earth!

This morning really made me think–what if my work out was finished by 7am every morning? How much more could I get done? Would it give me that extra time I need for myself, or would I just go crazy from lack of sleep? I definitely liked the way it made me feel and had a pretty great day because of it.

Sunday I got a text from my amazing friend Jodie (she is directing Aladdin. I love her so very much.) that said that they were doing scene work in rehearsal tonight and that I could take the night off–Hallelujah!!!!! That meant I got done with work at 3pm!!!! I ran straight from work to meet Kara at the Roadrunner store where we got our running analyzed and I drooled over expensive work out clothes. Turns out my shoes aren’t so bad for what I need, but they would be better with $80 insoles. That’s not happening today, but it was interesting none the less.

After we left, I met John for coffee and we walked around downtown Tempe for a little bit before spontaneously deciding we both deserved manis and pedis! YES!!!!! We went to a place I’ve never been called Bella Salon and Spa in Tempe. As soon as we walked in, they were so friendly and once we sat down, we were brought bottled water. Also, they did not skimp on the massage part. It was so amazing to sit there and be pampered! And it was way less expensive than the place I usually go. I ended up with very October themed nails and toe nails 🙂

Aside from some work things that are bugging me more than I would like to admit, today was an absolutely fantastic day. I always feel so much prettier with my nails done and there is something so nice about just feeling pretty. It’s worth a little extra money sometimes!

Motivation

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Good morning friends! Today I slept until 8:00 which is so unusual for me! I’ve been feeling really tired and a little worn down and I guess my body just really needed a good 9 hours of sleep. I totally could have laid there longer, but I knew I wanted to get my run done and over with. Yesterday I woke up super sore. I hadn’t really felt any pain from my long (for me) run on Sunday, but then I think yesterday the combination of left over tiredness from the run and soreness from jumping lunges and one legged squats in bodyworks finally caught up to me and in spin class, my legs felt like lead. I had to drop my flat road gear down to an 8 and even still I just could not get my cadence up to where we were supposed to the entire class. It’s not that I wasn’t trying, I was dripping sweat all over my bike (cute, right?) and my legs were on fire!

About 2/3 the way through class I started to feel really frustrated that I wasn’t able to give the kind of power and energy I expected of myself and I kind of wanted to quit. I had this whole battle in my mind about how I was failing and I should just give up, and I knew it was counter productive, so I tried playing the devil’s advocate with myself–reminding myself that I did just start training for a half marathon after what? a month of running? And not only that, I added it on top of my gym schedule, not instead of. Then I remembered some things I’ve read on other blogs about how I don’t HAVE to be there exercising, I get to. Then I thought of Ashley’s bike accident and how she is now struggling to even walk and I am acting like a bad class is the end of the world and worth quitting over.

So then I started thinking about all the people who don’t get to do what I do. People who can’t afford a gym membership, or want/need desperately to make a change in their healthy, but haven’t found that spark in them to be ready to conquer their fears and make a change. I stopped thinking about all the people in better shape than me and how I have so far to go and I realized that somewhere in the world there is probably someone who wishes they can do what I can do. That is something that’s really hard to imagine for me, but I’m hoping that it does exist and that maybe I am an inspiration for someone out there the way so many are for me.

I ended class not super fast, but knowing that I tried my hardest and focusing my energy on being okay with that.

When I woke up this morning, I just didn’t want to. I felt totally unmotivated, and contemplated laying around and then just going to yoga at 11. This is where having something to train for comes in really handy. I am not a great runner. Yet. The longest I have ever run is 4 miles, and January 15th, I have to run 13.1 and that scares the crap out of me. I definitely do not have time to be lazy and skimp out on my run days especially considering I am only planning on running 3-4 times a week. So I thought about it and decided I would go out and try the Galloway Method. I’ve heard other bloggers talk about using it, and that is actually where I found what I’m using as the base for my training plan. So I ran for 3 min, walked for 1, repeat. I was really surprised that it didn’t totally kill my time! I actually found knowing I had a walk break coming, I was way speedier during the run sections. I saw my pace down in the 8’s a few times and at the end when I went to finish strong even dip into the high 7’s (for like 2 seconds haha, but still exciting!) I ended up finishing in about the same amount of time as if I were to have run the entire time, and I felt better. This guy knows what he’s talking about! I think it’s a really good tool for me to use to help with speed, and with motivation when I’m not feeling it, but I definitely still want to have runs where I just run the whole time.

Now I’m going to make some breakfast, and head to yoga! Have a great day everyone!

PS: What helps you get on the wagon when you’re just not feeling it? I feel like this has been a pretty popular topic lately, and I’m curious to see how others deal with the motivational dips we all experience!

Is it just me?

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Today my mom asked how I was doing and I answered “You know how when you’re really sleep deprived and it makes you overly emotionally responsive? Like, the smallest thing can make me laugh or cry or be overwhelmed by joy/sadness/anything. Except, I’m not really sleep deprived.” I actually *most of the time* don’t mind being super in tune with my emotions because it leads to things like the discovery I made today.

This morning I met Kara for Spin like every Thursday. Our fav teacher was back. We ended up starting almost 10 minutes late, but she promised to make up for it. By the time we reached the top of our big hill and I discovered gear 23 (Hello gear 23. Nice to meet you. This is the first time we’ve been acquainted. To be honest, you kind of suck. But, somehow I think I may see you again sometime anyway), I knew she wasn’t lying. Then it was time for sprints. She mentioned something about the first minute and the second minute, so silly me, I thought they sprint section would only last 2 minutes. Lies. All lies. And to be honest, I kind of thought I was going to die. I felt so certain that I couldn’t keep up and that I had burnt out too quickly again, but something sparked inside of me and I knew that I had two options.

1) Give up.

2) Push harder than I’ve ever pushed and leave everything I had in that room.

When you’re that tired there is no option 3. No middle ground. At least not for me. All or nothing. So I peddled and peddled and pushed harder and faster than I knew I had in me and all of the sudden all of the emotions I haven’t really had time to acknowledge or mentally digest just came up like emotional vomit and I felt like I was going to start crying, but I wasn’t sad. The only thing I could possibly relate it to is when I’ve been on stage and fully released over into what I was doing. I completely let go in that moment and found a lot of reality inside of myself.

Sorry to sound like a nut. The truth is I am a super emotionally driven person and I 100% believe in all this crap. No one can convince me otherwise. I should come with a warning “I’m emotional. Love me anyway.”

I left class, completely beat physically, but feeling amazing mentally.

Not amazing mileage wise, but not bad considering the lost time and killer hills.

After Spin, I finalllllyyy got my hurrrrr did! One of my besties is basically the most fantastic hair dresser on earth. Her name is Kara, but she is not the same Kara from spin. Hair Kara and I have been friends for something ridiculous like 12 or 13 years, and we have had some crazy times together. Ask me one day, and I will tell you all about our shenanigans! While my color sat, I definitely went over to Great Harvest for some lunch lookin like this

Classy, right? I’ll post pictures of the new color once I actually have time to style and make myself pretty.

After my hair appt, I worked and had a super productive/challenging/amazing rehearsal. I am having such a blast working on this show and it is totally challenging my brain to think, focus, and teach in new ways. I’m so happy, and I wouldn’t turn down a single thing I’m doing right now for all the days off in the world! But I have to admit, I miss Steve and I miss these cutie patooties!

This morning, I went to grab something from my car and Winston followed me and jumped in the back seat. I guess he’s sick of me leaving all the time and he wanted to come. So cute.

After rehearsal, I stopped by my mom’s where I was poured wine and treated like a queen for an hour. My family has been super sensitive to my crazy schedule and made me feel like a million bucks the small amount of time I got to spend with them!

Tomorrow I work from 7:30am-8:30pm and it’s midnight and I can’t sleep. Yikes. Buuuutttt, I have the Phoenix blogger meet up on Saturday to look forward to! Sooo excited (and I have to admit, a little nervous)! If you live in Phoenix and you’re not already on the list, you should come tooooo! I can’t wait to meet everyone 🙂

Ok. Must. Try. To. Sleep.

Goodnight friends.

PS: Question of the day: Have you ever had an emotional response during a work out? Does what I expressed make sense, or do you kind of think I’m a freak? 🙂

Not getting “What I always got”

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Hello everyone! I am definitely starting to feel exhaustion setting in. Today it took me a good 10 minutes to figure out what day it was. But it ended on a good note with a great rehearsal. I’m feeling really good about the work I’ve been doing on Aladdin. I love my team and I love my kiddos.

The day also started out on an awesome note in Spin class. I don’t know what got into the instructor, but she was out for blood today in the best way possible! At the beginning of class she started coming around to check out our cadence and gears. She always says our flat road should be between gear 6-10. The last 2 weeks or so I’ve been keeping mine at 9. She looked at a few people’s and made them bump it up, but then looked at mine and just said “Yup.” I guess that means I’m where I should be? Haha. Then at the end of class she made us all bump up our flat road one gear–oy! Class was intense and definitely kicked my butt, and at the end she was talking about pushing yourself. She said “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” So true. I am the only one who can push myself. The only one who knows how much I have to give.

I feel like I am usually pretty good about pushing and giving my best, especially in a class situation or when I enjoy what I’m doing, but I know there are definitely times when I let myself off the hook. I let myself feel uncomfortable–to a point. It’s nice to be reminded that it’s all up to me, and I am in control over what I get out of my work outs, and really my life in general. I was pretty proud of what I accomplished in class today 🙂

After class, Kara and I were both super sweaty and totally beat but in the best way possible!

Notice the hot sweat stain on my under boob. Talk about not being cute after a work out 🙂

The rest of the day was pretty much a blur, but I did want to share that I added almond extract to a smoothie I made and it made a HUGE difference. So freaking delicious. I love extracts! Alright, I just have to keep my eyes open for 20 more minutes so I can work more, then I can go to bed! Good night, all!

I ♥ Oats in a Jar!

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Good morning! Happy Super Hero Thursday! As soon as I get ready for work, I will be putting on my super man t shirt 🙂 This morning was spin, as usual (almost every Tuesday and Thursday unless something crazy happens!). When Kara and I got there, we were surprised to see a man we’d never seen before setting up the instructor station. I was immediately super bummed because 1) I absolutely love our Thursday teacher. Not only is her class good, but she is hilarious! She was the one that used “I want to look good naked!” as a motivational quote. I love laughing through a hard sweaty work out. And 2) Do you remember when we took from a different bodyworks teacher?!?! I immediately wanted to be lame and not take the class, but I told myself I was going to at least go in with a good attitude. Honestly, I need to get over myself because new doesn’t mean bad, but this girl likes stability (yet somehow chose a career in theatre? I’m an oxy moron) and does not do well with change.

Well within 5 minutes, this man–who must have been about 60!–was cracking me up! I changed my tune and had one of the most fun classes ever. The music selection totally made me laugh. It would go from good pop, to teenage pop (a la Katy Perry) to country, to oldies. I even spent part of the ride quietly singing along to myself and wishing that my amazing friend Heather was there to sing along with me because she totally would have! This teacher was totally different than anyone I’ve taken from before and it was nice to shake things up a little. The ride was super speedy, and it was the first time I felt like I not only kept up, but at times pushed a little farther than was asked. I love feeling like I have the motivation to push myself, and feeling strong enough to go above what a teacher asks for! I ended up making 20 miles in 48 minutes and finishing with just under 25.

My seat cover is making a big difference, although I still find it slipping around on there. What’s a girl gotta do to get her seat cover tight enough? Maybe I just shake my butt around too much and it can’t handle it 🙂

After the gym, I came home for probably my very favorite breakfast ever. I totally look forward to it–I can’t wait to finish a peanut butter jar so that I can have OATS IN A JAR!!! My favorite discovery from entering the healthy living blog world! Whoever started this trend, you are a genius! And not just any jar, a special, amazing, delicious jar of White Chocolate Wonderful!

In the mix: oats, almond milk, chia seeds, blueberries, mushy banana, raisins, sugar free maple syrup, and the 2nd star ingredient (obviously the PB remains are the star!) coconut extract! It makes such an unbelievable difference! My fav thing about oats in a jar? You get a delicious taste of perfectly warm and gooey peanut butter (or whatever nut butter) in every bite!

Enjoyed with iced coffee

 

But you know what? Ever since I started getting pumpkin spice in my iced coffee, my regular old sf caramel just isn’t as exciting anymore, and I don’t need all those extra sugars in the pumpkin flavor every day! I’m going to have to really cut out the pumpkin until I enjoy my regular coffee as much as I used to and use the pumpkin as a special treat.

So, as I was peddling my little heart out, I was thinking “Why can’t eating healthy be as easy as exercising?” I mean I think I eat pretty healthy most of the time, and exercise is by no means easy, but I definitely have a MUCH easier time with the fitness portion of healthy living than the food. I just really like to eat. I don’t enjoy eating things that are horrible for me, but I like to eat things like nut butter and bread and cheese and I like to eat a lot. I also HATE feeling deprived or unsatisfied with my meals. Which leads me to my question of the day…
If you had your choice and one option would give you your absolute perfect body you’ve always dreamed of, would you choose

A) Eating super healthy and never having to work out?

or

B) Eating whatever you wanted and working your booty off at the gym/outside/however you like to?

 

My answer is without a doubt B! B B B B B!!!! If only life were that simple 🙂

PB&J Oatmeal & Garmin Talk

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Hello, friends! After a weekend of, for whatever reason, feeling like my eating was all out of whack, I have been putting a lot of thought into my meals yesterday and today. One of my favorite things in life is when I feel like I consistently eat food that is great for my body and great for my soul-healthy, satisfying, and delicious. Yesterday, and today so far have been just that! In fact, my oatmeal this morning may have been the best oatmeal I’ve ever made. I usually don’t take pictures of meals unless I’m making a full on recipe (somehow I feel like simple things like oatmeal would bore people?), and Steve is here to take amazing pictures with his fancy camera. But today was so yummy, that I made an exception. You know, no matter how delicious oatmeal is, it never looks appetizing to me in photos.

See what I mean? Somehow Kath’s oatmeal always looks like it was painted to be that pretty. Oh well, this oatmeal tasted fantastic.

PB & J Oatmeal

yield one hungry person!

  • 1/3 cup slow cooking oats
  • 2/3 cup almond milk
  • 1 ripe banana, sliced
  • 1 tsp chia seeds
  • cinnamon to taste
  • drizzle sugar free maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp coconut extract–the winning ingredient!
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 3/4 tbs any nut butter (I used PB & Co White Chocolate Wonderful–YUM!)
  • 1/2 tbs fig butter
  • 1/2 tbs 100% fruit blackberry spread (or spread of your choice)

Directions:

1) Heat all ingredients, except nut butter and fruit spreads, on stove top until oatmeal is cooked. **IMO, cooking the banana in with the oatmeal the entire time makes the oatmeal taste like banana bread–YUM!**

2) Put fruit spreads at the bottom of the bowl.

3)  Top with oatmeal.

4) Top with nut butter.

The fruit on the bottom gives you a treat waiting for you as you get towards the bottom!

This was the perfect post spin breakfast! Speaking of spin, guess who totally rocked it out in class today?!

That’d be ME! I love the feeling after I give my all to a great work out! Which leads me to my next topic…

Yesterday morning, I went for a run, but my usual run tracker on my phone couldn’t find a gps signal so I had to use a different one. I had been using the Run Keeper ap, but this time used the Sports Tracker. Well the numbers were totally off. I mean I know about how fast I run on a treadmill and have NEVER considered anything below 5 mph even a light job. It’s a hard sweaty power walk, but I can’t run at that pace, and if you recall from last weekend, my device told me I ran 3.1 in 29:59, although who knows how accurate that one was at this point 🙁 Anyway, today after 37 minutes, it told me I went 2.7 miles. Ugghhhh. I don’t feel like it’s right, but the inaccuracy is really frustrating. So I have a decision to make. Do I spend a good chunk of change (remember, this girl works in theatre where the money is scarce) on this baby?

Right now it’s on sale on amazon.com for about $140. The Garmin 305 was my spin teacher’s recommendation that will keep track of my heart rate in classes, during any work out and will track my mileage on runs. I really want to improve my running, so I feel like it would be a good investment, not to mention I’ve wanted a HR monitor for a long time. Just hard to spend the money. I as also thinking of buying the ease into 10k ap on my phone by the same guy as C25K. I would really love for my next race after this 5K to be a half marathon, but I know before that happens I need to get comfortable with the 10k distance.

I would love any thoughts/recommendations/opinions on the Garmin, and/or improving running distance in general. It is NOT my forte, but it’s something I enjoy that I want to improve on.

Alright, off to job #2 for the day, then my house becomes the Disney Channel as I work on Aladdin choreography! Have a great day everyone!

Pizza and wine

· by ·

 

Helllllooo, friends! Long time, no blog. I have had the craziest week. Basically, the month of August was pretty dead work wise,which is a big part of what inspired me to really put a lot of energy into the blog. I wasn’t doing much of anything productive and was pleasantly surprised by the feeling of productivity and channeling of my creativity that came from cooking and posting a lot. Then all of then sudden September hit, and I started something like 6 new classes and rehearsals for a show all in one week! It feels great to be busy again, but it does mean I don’t have the time to cook as much as I’d like. Luckily, it isn’t affecting my work out/gym class time!

Thursday, I tried out my new bike seat again in hopes that it wouldn’t fall off this time.

 

Luckily, it stayed on this time and definitely made a difference! I can’t say that sitting on the bike is comfortable or anything now, but it is definitely less painful than before! Unfortunately, while my bike seat stayed on, when I took my left foot out for unilaterals, I apparently placed it in the exact wrong spot, spilling the half unused contents of my venti Starbucks water cup. Embarrassing and hard to clean up. Oy!

Yesterday I got done with work at 4–Hallelujah! It’s my one off night probably for a while, so Steve, Jason and I went over to my mom’s for dinner. Of course, there was wine.

 

Hank picked out one of the most delicious bottles of wine I’ve ever tasted! The guy at Trader Joe’s recommended it. It was a sparkling pinot grigio and tasted like champagne! This girl loves champagne and now I can get the same taste from a >$10  bottle of wine–yes please!

For dinner, we picked out pizzas from the new Papa Murphy’s that opened right down the street. I’ve always loved Papa Murphy’s–I only wish that they had a whole wheat crust. Instead, I settle on the thin crust. If you’ve never had it before, essentially you go, pick out your pizza (they have a million different kinds) and they give it to you put together, but uncooked, then you take it home, pop it in the oven and feel like you’re having a home cooked meal without any of the work! Genius. I got to choose the flavors and I went with the Mediterranean DeLite and the Thai chicken DeLite both on the thin crust.

 

I had a small slice of each and they were both delicious. It was really hard to pick a favorite, but I think if I had to, I would say the Thai chicken! The whole night was exactly what I needed. I’ve been so busy, it was nice to just relax with the fam!

This morning, Steve brought out the new toy he got for Clementine (for some reason Winston almost never plays with toys), and started playing around with the shutter speed on his camera to catch her in full cuteness.

My favorite picture of her ever.

Tonight Steve and I are celebrating (a day early) our 6 month wedding anniversary! The last 6 months have flown by and I am excited to celebrate with him–we look for any and all excused for celebration 😉 Have a good weekend everyone!

 

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