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!!

10/24 What I Ate Wednesday

Guten morning!

I don't know about you guys, but whoever is living in the Ottawa area - is it just me, or has it gotten increasingly more freezing outside in the past couple of days? I was bundled for my bike ride this morning, but it still felt chilly. Too early for a balaclava?

After my physio appointment yesterday, my calf/foot is feeling a bit tender today, but definitely feeling much more loosey goosey and stretched out, in a good way :)

What I Ate Wednesday

Here's a little looksy at a full day of eats for me. This is from yesterday since, well, I've only had breakfast and coffee so far today, so yeah.

Breakfast

I had another egg, lettuce and spicy salsa wrap for breakfast. I skyped my friend in Japan early in the morning, and our conversation ran a little bit longer (as per usual - I can never get enough! Miss her face SO MUCH, can't wait to see her in person again) and this was the fastest option...and delicious :)

Snack

 My morning snack was cottage cheese and raspberries. Strange? Maybe. Delicious? ABSOLUTELY!

I was super weirded out by cottage cheese for a loooong time, something about the texture...I can't even think about it now. Anyway, I was reintroduced to it with fruit - I started eating it with cut-up grapes and loved it! I find that when its mixed with something else - fruit or veggies - you don't really notice the weird texture as much. Which is good, because thinking about it gives me the shivers.

Also, it is super high in protein and gets me through the mid-morning snacking urge.

Lunch

I've continued my regular salad beast ways. This was a mixture of lettuce and kale, with brown rice, feta, and chickpeas with a drizzle of olive oil and pepper. So simple, but so satisfying!

...not going to lie, I also had a piece of dark chocolate. Or three. Sometimes you just need a little bit of sweetness after a meal, amiright?

Snack

I knew that I was going to be getting home a bit late from my physio appointment, so I had a larger afternoon snack than usual. Apple, dried dates and almonds. Can you tell I need to go grocery shopping again? Would have loved to have some veggies and hummus.

Dinner

I had a hearty bowl of butternut squash soup that I made the other day - I love when I can come home and not have to worry about cooking anything and just heat something up quickly. Especially when I have been undergoing torture, I mean ART, for about an hour(!!)

Snack(s)

So, I managed to stay quite close to what I would ideally eat in a day, except I kind of slipped into snack attack mode when I got home from my physio appointment and caught up on New Girl episodes. Oops?

I dug into the snacks that I received from my foodie penpal - we aren't supposed to show them off until the end of the month, but my penpal sent me some amazingly delicious snacks!! Aaand I almost ate them all already haha self control, who needs it?

Hope you all have a great day, I'll be back again tonight with a wee little HIIT workout :)

10/18 Friday Faves

Good afternoon lovelies, hope you are all enjoying your Friday :)

I honestly can't believe how fast this week zoomed by - I'm not sure if it was because work has been crazy busy, or if I've been doing lots of activities at night, but I guess having one less day in the work week definitely makes a HUGE difference!

I like it.

Workout

I’ve been biking in to work almost every day this week (okay, so 3 days) and have been doing a LOT of lower body workouts this week so far, so I’m going to try and do an abs workout tonight.

Also, I’m going dancing later tonight with some girlfriends...that counts as cardio, right??

I’m actually wondering what I’m going to wear on my feet tonight. I’ve been wearing my grandma running shoes everywhere lately to support my gimpy foot, so it will be a bit strange to wear actual shoes for once...how has this become an issue in my life??

Anyway, here’s an awesome plank workout that targets your abs like no other. Enjoy ;)

Plank Abs Workout

Inspired by fitnessista’s plank workout

Classic High Plank (30 sec to 1min) – you can also modify this to be on your forearms or on your knees

High Plank See-Saw (30 sec to 1 min) – start in high plank position and push with your feet to move your body forward and back, like a see-saw

Side Plank Right (30 sec to 1 min)

Forearm Plank with Hip Drops (30 sec to 1 min) – start in a forearm plan position and alternate dropping first your right hip down to the ground to hover above the floor, and then your left

Drunken Chicken (30 sec to 1 min) – start in a high plank position and drop your right arm to a forearm position and then your left, and then push right arm back into high plank position and your left, continue to alternate down and up

Side Plank Left (30 sec to 1 min)

Friday Faves

Lululemon Tank

As some of you know, I used to work at lululemon. For the record, it is a wonderful place to work – they are incredibly supportive of their staff, provide a lot of opportunities for personal growth, including goal coaching, and also have high expectations for their staff to be proactive and be involved in the business.

Also, they have amazing clothes.

When I worked at the store in Montreal, my coworkers and I used to joke about how we were kind of like volunteers in fancy spandex – it was so easy to just spend your whole paycheck on the amazing things that were always coming in!

‘I mean, I already have this style of tank, but I luuuurve this new pop pink colour!’

That happened.

Anyway, in a moment of weakness the other day, as I was daydreaming about my upcoming trip to warmer climate countries, I found myself perusing through the

And then...BAM! I saw my fav tank top back in stock, in my size, in the functional colour black.

[Source]

Which, to be fair, I have been on the look-out for about 3 years. Every time I see someone else wearing it at a yoga class or in the gym, I am always SO JEALOUS. So, I took initiative, and I bought it without even thinking twice. Because, I’m going to use it, like, every day for the next couple months...amiright?!

Needless to say, I am SO EXCITED to get it in the mail, just in time for my return to the yoga studio in November :)

[Mom and Dad – don’t bother looking at the price tag. Consider it a discount therapy session]

Can you tell I don’t go shopping that much anymore?? I don’t even know how its possible to get this excited for a tank top. I mean, not just any tank top, but one that I’ve been wanting for about a million years...yep, its scary.

Fruit Spray Nozzle

[Source]

This is seriously a thing. I saw one in a store near my grandparents place on thanksgiving weekend, and almost freaked out. It’s such a great idea!

It would be awesome to spray on salads, on fish, or to jazz up a glass of water. I usually juice my lemons first and then pour it onto my fish before baking it, but this would be a much better way of getting a more evenly coated

Freshly-Baked Work Treats

Here is the subject line of an email I got yesterday: Who needs memos, when you can have BREAD?!

I mean, really. How am I supposed to resist freshly-made bread, croissants, chocolate chip cookies, or cinnamon rolls that are left by the printer? Because I can’t.

As a backgrounder, a co-worker’s wife has been taking a baking course at le Cordon Bleu (which he just informed us will last for another 3 months...going to have to purchase some new pants at this rate) and since it is just the two of them at home, she has been promptly dropping off all of the delicious goodies that she makes pretty much right after they come out of the oven.

And, let me tell you, we are all very eager taste-testers. It is a bit of a stampede to the printer every time that the email goes out about what we get to taste every day. My tactic is just to have a small taste so that the extra calories don’t add up too much.

Although, I have to admit, I went back for seconds on croissant day ;)

Question of the Day:

• What are your tactics for dealing with free treats at work?

Mine is to have a little taste, otherwise I feel like I am denying myself and usually end up eating more in compensation...so its better just to try a little bite ;)

Linking up with: Simply Lulu Style & Style Elixir

 

10/16 What I Ate Wednesday

Hello friends!

How are things going?? I had a great bike ride last night and decided to load up on groceries on my way home.

My new fav way of carrying groceries.

In the spirit of trying to get back on schedule in terms of clean eating, and giving my body a bit of a break from all the the rich food that happened over the long weekend, I am posting all my eats from yesterday.

World Food Day

Its also perfect timing, since it is World Food Day!!

As you may know, I work for the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) on the humanitarian food assistance team, so World Food Day is kind of a big deal for me ;)

The World Food Programme (WFP) has lots of info about the day here, and I really encourage you all to spread a little attitude of gratitude today about the fact that we are able to access fresh and nutritious food on a daily basis.

If you feel like spreading a bit of love for those who have been displaced and rely on organization's such as WFP for their daily meals, follow this link to donate.

Day's Worth of Eats

Usually my daily meals get a bit repetitive, especially for my breakfast, lunch and snacks, but yesterday was a perfect example of a busy evening where I attended a potluck volunteer meeting after work and then met up with friends for drinks to catch up.

So, in terms of detoxing, it wasn't the best, but I tried to make some smarter choices to balance it out a bit ;)

Breakfast

I threw together a bowl of oats-to-go this morning - 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of almond milk, 1/4 cup of frozen strawberries and a dash of cinnamon. I heated it up at work - the perfect way to give me a boost back after a long weekend!

Snack

A couple of hours later, I had just under a 1/2 cup of natural greek yogurt with a 1/2 cup of frozen berries in it - the natural sugar from the berries made up for the tartness of the flavourless yogurt :)

Lunch 

This is probs the lamest 'salad' I have ever made - lettuce, goat cheese, olive oil and pepper. For serious. I reeeeally needed groceries after being gone for the long weekend(!!!)

I had an apple and a couple of pieces of my roomie's homemade focaccia bread. Because I am spoiled and she left some on the counter with an 'EAT ME' sign. And because, really, who says no to homemade focaccia?

No one.

Snack 

I'm a dried date FIEND these days - I got a jumbo sized bag of them and have been making my through it embarrassingly fast. I didn't have my regular veggies an hummus combo since I was seriously lacking veggies. And hummus.

So dates and almonds it was ;)

Dinner

I had a volunteer meeting tonight, and what with grocery shopping and doing a quick workout, I kind of threw this together - steamed cauliflower (with dijon mustard not pictured here) and tofu with tamari sauce.

Easy peasy.

Snack

Here are two ridiculously blurry pics that I tried to sneak of our gigantic bowl of 'lightly salted' potato chips from our CMETrust meeting.

I had a handful. Or five.

I can't help it when it is looking right at me and at arms reach!!

Dranks

My lovely NYC travel buddy was in town from Montreal, so I met up with some of ma ladies for some dranks. I indulged a bit with a lychee martini at the Standard on Elgin street

So delicious

And then switched to my go-to, the gin and soda with lime

Loaf my ladies

Two limes are better than one

...and then we ended the night with the most delicious nachos of life!

So, overall, a bit of a fail in terms of trying to stay on track, but YOLO! You only live once, my friends, so you might as well enjoy the life you have every once in a while ;)

My detox starts...now!

Keep up to date on all things Fitness à la Anna by following me on Twitter and Facebook! 

[Disclaimer: I am in no way supported by WFP, and all opinions above are my own]

Chocolate Millet Crisp Bark with Peanut Butter Drizzle

Hello friends!

Hope you are all having an awesome afternoon :)

I am stopping by again today to deliver an amazingly awesome and quick recipe, inspired by Oh She Glows.

Chocolate Millet Crisp Bark with Peanut Butter Drizzle

A long name for a delicious and quick treat!

But, before sharing the recipe, I have to admit the real reason why I made these delicious chocolate and peanut butter bars. I kind of destroyed one of our chairs. 

I had a bag full of onions and potatoes hanging out in the cupboard, and while cooking a couple of days ago, I placed it on the chair in our kitchen and didn't notice the gross wet spot that was left behind on it. My poor roommate sat down on the chair and sat up almost instantly and was like 'What is that SMELL?!'

Turns out rotten potatoes is the worst smell. Of all time. 

So, in return for making our chair smell like the bottom of a forgotten dumpster, I doused the chair in baking soda (it worked!!!) and made these treats :)

All fixed now!!

This recipe was honestly so quick and easy that I forgot to take pictures along the way until I had already added the puffed millet cereal to the mix

Melty goodness 

Frozen and ready for pb drizzle

The one to the top right was kind of like the first pancake. I had to try it for quality control ;)

Not too sweet, and a perfect little snack!

Chocolate Millet Crisp Bark with Peanut Butter Drizzle

Inspired by Oh She Glows recipe

Ingredients

½ cup coconut oil

½ cup cocoa powder

6 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups puffed millet cereal

2 tbsp peanut butter

Directions

Warm up coconut oil in a pot on medium heat until liquefied.

Add cocoa powder, maple syrup (can also use agave syrup), and vanilla extract. Remove from heat.

Add puffed millet cereal (or puffed rice cereal) and mix until fully coated.

Cover the bottom of a pan with parchment paper. (Note: I used a bit of a bigger pan for thin pieces, but can use a smaller one for thicker bark pieces)

Pour mixture into pan and smooth out.

Place in freezer for 15 minutes, or until frozen.

Warm up peanut butter.

When bark is frozen, remove from freezer and drizzle/spread peanut butter onto the top.

Keep these in the freezer or in the fridge (the coconut oil will melt very quickly otherwise) and enjoy!!

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