11/23 Fitness for the Week & Green Morning Smoothie

Guten morning friends! 

I hope you all had a fibbity fab weekend :) 

Mine was a tad boring - it's coming up on the end of term when alllllllll of my final papers are due...so I locked myself inside with my laptop (and the Mindy Project, obvi) to try and get a head-start! 

I did manage to get out for a cloudy run. 

A bit of brunch - veggie omelette, hashbrowns and toast! 

And a nice walk through Strathcona park. 

Fitness for the Week

Here's my fitness plans for the week - HIIT-heavy since I have a busy week ahead of me! I'll have to save my running for the weekend *sniff*

Monday - HIIT 

Tuesday - Bodyweight Circuit

Wednesday - HIIT

Thursday - Bodyweight Circuit

Friday - Yoga

Saturday - RUN! 

Sunday - Active Restday :) 

Green Morning Smoothie 

Ermagerd. 

You guys - this was THE most delicious smoothie I've had in a while.

Actually, come to think of it, the ONLY smoothie I've had in a while, but never mind that. 

It's packed full of vitamins and was the perfect start to the day!

I did a bit of an intense HIIT this morning (I'm testing some routines out for a workout surprise I'm planning for you guys to follow over the holidays!!) so I also made a wrap with some peanut butter and honey as a side :) 

Green Morning Smoothie

Ingredients

1 kiwi

1 banana

1 stalk celery

1 handful greens (lettuce, kale, spinach)

1 cup almond milk 

1 tbsp chia seeds

1/2 tsp coconut flakes (optional) 

Instructions 

1. Put all ingredients (except the coconut flakes) in a blender. 

2. Mix until fully blended. 

3. Garnish with coconut flakes. 

4. Enjoy!

• What is YOUR go-to smoothie recipe to start the morning right?? 

12/18 What I Ate Wednesday: Pre-Travel Edition

Happy Hump Day!

I had a great night hanging out with my little brosef for the last time before I take off. Le sad face!

But, on the bright side, I was able to steal a bunch of his music (he is a budding dj and spends a lot more time finding new music than I do...) so I feel like its kind of like he will be going with me everywhere that I go, in the form of house beats.

He also showed me this high-larious video, its too good not to share:

Workout

My HIIT workout this morning, three rounds:

50 jumping jacks
20 tricep dips
20 reverse sit-ups (leg lifts)
30 crunches
30 squats
10 squat jumps
20 push-ups
60 sec wall chair
10 side plank oblique dips (each side)

My days are pretty packed these days, so if I don't sneak my workout in the morning, the day always seems to get away with me!

What I Ate Wednesday: Pre-Travel Edition

I thought I would show you what a full day of eats consists of when I have managed to avoid going grocery shopping for about two weeks to try and use up as much of the food in my cupboards and freezer as possible.

Breakfast

Oatmeal. All week.

Snack

Half a pomegranate. [Popster - watch this video! I swear it is the fastest way to de-seed a pomegranate!!]

Lunch

Leftovers from dins with my little brosef - a random medley of pasta and homemade tomato sauce:

Quick Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

2 tbsp avocado oil

1/2 onion

2 cloves garlic

3-4 whole tomatoes, cubed

1 can chickpeas

Sriracha, to taste 

Instructions

Sauté onions in avocado oil in a pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add garlic and let heat up another 2 minutes, or until garlic flavour is released.

Add cubed tomatoes to the pan and cover for about 10 minutes or until tomatoes have become mushy (yum).

Remove lid and add chickpeas. Let cook for another 5 minutes until liquid from tomatoes has reduced and chickpeas are cooked.

Add Sriracha, salt’n’pepper to taste.

Serve over whole wheat pasta and enjoy!

Snack

Freshly-made fruit & nut bread for the win.

The one up-side of the constant barrage of home-made pastries and chocolate at my office is that I don't need to bring an afternoon snack. Although I am trying to get in veggies, where I can, so I also brought a half a cucumber to munch on to try and avoid the post-pastry sugar crash.

Dinner

I'm having dinner at on of my Momster's bff's place tonight - all part of the 'avoid the grocery store' plan. I might even get some leftovers if I'm lucky ;)

The countdown continues: 4 days 'til take-off!!

I Just Want to Bang on My Drum All Day....

Hi friends!

Hope everything is going swimmingly :)

I still have quite a lot of things to wrap-up at work, but all I want to do is be FREE

[Source]

No, I don't mean that I have brought my Christmas presents to work with me so that I can wrap them. It hasn't quite come to that point yet...

 [Source]

*Sigh* Only 3 more days until...FREEDOM!!!

Workout

I have been going strong with my daily workouts that I planned on Sunday - have you guys tried any HIIT workouts this week? I gav'er with three rounds of this one this morning:

50 jumping jacks
50 bicycles
20 squats
15 tricep dips
10 front lunges (per side)
15 leg lifts
30 crunches
10 push-ups
40 Russian twists

It has been too insanely freezing in Ottawa these days [-31C with the windchill today?!] so I haven't done any runs at lunch. Instead, I ate a sprinkle-covered doughnut from the box that was left in the kitchen.

[Source]

I'm okay with it, though, because I'ma be running in warmer(ish) weather soon enough!

[Sorry for all of the e-card...I couldn't help myself, they were all too perfect!]

Have a great night!

Lentil Medley with Kale

Hi all, 

Hope your Tuesday is going swimmingly :)

Workout

I just busted through a Bodyrock workout tonight (see workout breakdown here):

Bodyrock Rep Workout

Do each workout set for a total of 10 reps (what counts as one repetition is written below) before moving on to the next exercise

1. 2 Push-ups and 10 mountain climbers

2. Jump squat and 2 forward lunges – alternate legs

3. Elevated bridge – I used a stability ball under my feet

4. Plank rows – alternate arms

5. Crunch and v-abs

I did 5 rounds for a total of 32 minutes - the push-up and mountain climbers were a deadly combo, and those v-abs...brutal, but effective ;)

I was informed that my coworker - who was gone on mission in the Middle East for a few weeks - has resumed the almost daily delivery of freshly-baked bread and baked goods by the printer area for my unit. The email was titled: Bread is BACK!

Oh dear. 

Will def have to try to fit in a few runs at work this week now that a) the ice has disappeared; b) I have been slacking on my after-work workouts since I've been staying late at the office; and, c) the homemade pastries from my coworkers wife, who is taking a Cordon Bleu baking course, have returned on a daily basis. Gotta get myself prepped for bikini weather soon enough ;)

Lentil Medley with Kale

I seriously have no other way of describing the deliciousness that is this recipe other than 'lentil medley' with kale :)

This is the first recipe that I can say is completely my own - I don't have to give credit to nobody. That's right. Han-Solo. Yep, that's a Zoolander reference. No big deal.

I used to make this ALL THE TIME in university - my ex-roomies can definitely vouch for this. It is quick, easy, satisfying and good for you. What more could you ever want in life?!

I used to just cut up peppers and tomatoes and toss it in with the lentils, but I recently tried it with kale - steamed in with the lentils with a pot lid over the pan - and it is by far my fav. Add a little bit of Sriracha and you're good to go :)

Let me know if you try it out! The perfect 'I have no idea what to make and want to eat in about 15 minutes' kind of meal :)

[Bonus points to whoever is able to give me a better name for this]

Lentil Medley with Kale

Makes 3 servings

Ingredients

2 tbsp avocado oil

½ large onion

2 cloves garlic

½ - 1 cup cut veggies (Optional)

1 can lentils

2 cups cut kale

Salt’n’pepper

Sriracha to taste

Directions

Fry onions in a pan with avocado oil (can use your oil of choice) until translucent. Add garlic for a few minutes until flavourful.

Option: can also add in ½ - 1 cup of cut veggies of your choice. I have used a mixture of the following:  red, yellow or green pepper; tomatoes; zucchini; spinach; mushrooms, etc. The possibilities are endless :)

Once garlic is flavourful and any extra veggies are warm, add strained and washed lentils (Note: you can also use dried lentils that have been soaked overnight if you are feeling extra adventurous – I never have very good luck with this technique so I just rinse canned lentils to minimize the sodium). Let cook for about 5 minutes.

Add kale and cover pan and let steam for another 5 minutes or until kale is wilted (sounds gross, but is extra delicious – it also minimizes the taste of the kale for all of those who are hesitant about using kale).

Can eat as it is or over a bowl of rice. Add salt, pepper and Sriracha or Mike’s Red Hot Sauce as desired.

Enjoy!

Rasmusson Visit

Hi all!

Hope you all had wonderful Thursday :)

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Elisabeth Rasmusson today, who is the Assistant Executive Director of  the UN World Food Programme (WFP). I was coordinating her schedule with her assistant, so it was super amazing to finally meet with her and hear updates about WFP's response to the Philippines, the crisis in Syria and the region, as well as recent private-sector partnerships that WFP has initiated.

I let my inner international relations dorkiness shine ;)

Here is a picture of her [in the middle with the yellow scarf] at an event yesterday with representatives from the Micronutrient Initiative, EarthGroup, Tilda, DSM, McCann Global Health and BSAF, along with some colleagues of mine, including the Assistant Deputy Minister for my branch, Diane Jacovella [lady with the awesome power skirt suit, curly hair and pearl necklace].

So, after a rare moment of relief that I had finally conquered something on my to-do list, it was back to business for me ;)

Workout

I did another HIIT workout tonight. Woot. Check it out here.

Also, my roomie and I now have a challenge going where we do 100 sit-ups when we get up and 100 sit-ups before bed. Because...why not?!

Food for Thought:

Surprising foods that have more sugar than a Krispy Kreme doughnut

Dinner at Saigon

Just in case you were wondering, the video that I posted under the recipe for chocolate pomegranate clusters really does work [see post here]

I tried the technique last night and it was AMAZING. I was able to de-seed a pomegranate in about 2 minutes. Whereas it would usually take me about...half an hour. Now I want to eat them all the time!

I had some as a snack today. So delish.

Dinner at Saigon

A friend of mine called me just as she was finishing work at 5pm and asked me if I wanted to meet at Saigon in the Byward market for dinner.

Um, is that even a question..?

I took this as a sign that I should leave work at a somewhat reasonable hour and have a delicious shrimp vermicelli bowl and have some good girly chat time. A wonderful taste explosion.

Workout

So, call me crazy, but I decided to do another workout today. I signed up for the latest Bodyrock 5 day challenge and the first workout [find it here] looked so awesome that I couldn't resist.

I only did 3 rounds, but here are my times - try to beat me ;)

Round 1 - 3:51

Round 2 - 3:27

Round 3 - 3:15

I really gave'r at the end...a quick little sweat session :)

Day of the Child

If you didn't already know, today is the Day of the Child: check out UNICEF Canada's webpage for more info, if you're interested!

Have a great night!

11/11 Fitness for the Week

Hi friends,

Hope you all had a wonderful Remembrance Day. I did not make it out to see the ceremony in Ottawa, but I still held a personal moment of silence to give thanks to all of those who have fought for our country.

[Source]

I have a lot of family from the East Coast who are in the army and the navy, and I am so thankful that they have stayed safe from harm while they are on the line of duty. I hope you all took some time to send a bit of gratitude to our troops who are currently fighting for our country, and send some love and appreciation to the families of those that we have lost.

Fitness for the Week

As I mentioned, I went for a run yesterday to a friend's place. It was the perfect mixture of physical activity and functional since I am no longer biking and walking takes so much longer...it was a win-win solution to get in a bit of exercise - other than walking around Toronto, I more or less took the weekend off - and minimize the amount of time that I was outside in the blistering-cold wind :)

Here's what is in the plans for this week's workouts:

Monday - HIIT workout

Tuesday - Run @ work

Wednesday - Power yoga date

Thursday - HIIT workout

Friday - Run @ work

Saturday - Yoga

Sunday - Runday

I'll be back tomorrow morning with my routine from today, haven't quite decided what to do yet :)

Have a great night!

HIIT It Up

Morning friends!

It was -5 degrees this morning for my bike ride in to work. I am starting to feel borderline crazy pants for biking, but I feel major solidarity with the rest of the crazy bikers out there. 

But, hey, at least its still sunny, amiright?

I bundled up with extra layers this morning and wore my neck warmer so that it covered the bottom half of my face. For reals. It worked, though, and I arrived to work without any frostbite ;)

Dinner

Dinner last night was a bit lame, but one of my go-to quick dinners - pan-fried cod and mixed veggies with a (huge) dollop of dijon mustard. Oh yes. 

Workout

I did a pretty sweet HIIT workout last night - I was supposed to go for yoga with a friend of mine, but we have postponed it to Wednesday night. I was feeling a bit energized when I got home from work, so it was probably for the best - I just wanted to jump around a little bit. So I did ;)

HIIT It Up

Do each exercise for 50 seconds on, with a 10 second break before moving to the next

Switch Lunge and Front Kick – start in a lunge position, left leg back, and hands down by your right foot in front to stabilize yourself as you jump and switch your left leg in front and right leg back, stand up on your left leg (that is forward) and kick right leg up in front, go back down to lunge position and switch legs, continue to alternate lunge and kick

Half Burpee and Row – start in standing position and do a half burpee, reach down to the ground, jump back into a high plank, and then jump feet back up to hands, stand up with body bent forward and lift weight while pinching shoulder blades together in an upright row

Ax Choppers – start with weight down by left foot in your hand, in a squat position, and raise it across your torso up to the right, lower it down to your right foot into a squat position and then raise it up to the left, continue to alternate

Tricep Dip to Leg Raise – start on a solid chair or box with feet out in front and hands on surface with hands pointing forward as you dip down into a tricep dip, then put bum on chair and lift legs to horizontal in front of you (be careful that you are back enough on the chair so you don’t fall over ;)

Post-workout selfie

 I'm planning on going for a run at lunch today, probs just by myself so that I don't slow my work ladies running group down too much - I never know these days how my calf/foot is going to feel, so I've been taking it pretty easy and allow myself to walk if ever it starts hurting. Don't want to push through the pain - that's when injuries happen ;)

I have a physio date tonight where I have the joy of having another ART session. The joy of recovering from an injury! Take it from me, stretch and train properly, my friends, its worth it!!!

Have a great day!!