Zippy Elliptical Workout

Good day! I'm having a good, but cold day so far. To start my day, I had my favorite breakfast: whole grain toast with peanut butter, banana, honey, and wheat germ. And of course some Starbucks to warm me & wake me up.

In leui of my January fitness plan, some cardio was on the books for today. As much as I desperately wanted to run, it was about 4 degrees this morning. Yikes! Outdoor run = out the window. Thankfully I have access to small gym in my apartment complex, but I wasn't keen on an indoor run today. Ugh, how I loathe the dreadmill! I really just feel my best running outside. Running on the treadmill takes more coordination for me, something I don't have a lot of.Instead, I opted for a quick but tough elliptical workout.

What always keeps me motivated when working out indoors is music. A lot of my favorite songs came on today, helping me keep up the pace. 

Soundtrack for Today

• "Toxic" - Britney Spears
• "Where the Streets have No Name" - U2
• "Dancing in the Dark" - DEV
• "Give It Up to Me" - Shakira
• "Vertigo" - U2
• "I'll Meet You There" - Owl City 
• "Part of Me" - Katy Perry 

And done! 

Also, I've decided to keep a workout log on the blog from now on to track my progress for 2013. And  after that workout, I'm starved! On the menu for lunch today is a chicken, avacado, and cheese melt along with some Trader Joe's Organic Lentil soup. Healthy, delicious, and very filling!

Now I'm home the rest of day hopefully to get some to-do list items done and stay toasty! 

• Question for you: How do you stay productive when it's cold and gloomy out? 

New Year: New Workout!

Good morning! Okay, so it's not quite the New Year, but I'm starting a new workout routine today since it's the start of a new week. Since I just finished Insanity and I took the holiday's off for working out for the most part, I did some digging to find my next workout challenge. I actually didn't have to do much digging at all, as the answer arrived in my mail box. I'm going to try Fitness magazine's Lose 10 Pounds workout that is published in the most recent issue (January 2013).

But first off: breakfast. Let's just say my holiday's left me *cough* four pounds heavier *cough* Not a huge gain, but this does not make me a happy camper! Eating healthy again starts today! Today's spread includes two of Van's whole grain blueberry waffles, half a cup of nonfat Fage Greek yogurt, half a cup of fresh blueberries, a dash of cinnamon, and a little drizzle of raw honey. Delish! Also, note the adorable dishware I used today. The "Mrs." mug and plate were a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. You can't see it, but the plate has the Eiffel Tower on it along with little French owls wearing berets. Love them! I'll probably be eating breakfast exclusively off these plates from now on!

But back to my new workout routine... 

The Plan 

The plan is laid out in black and white and is very time-friendly. The workouts include separate strength sessions and pick-your-own cardio sessions. For strength, you do 8 different moves as a circuit and repeat it once for a full circuit, doing it three times a week on non-consecutive days. For cardio, you can pick any cardio you want - running, biking, elliptical, etc. - as long as you do the minutes of cardio required for each week. You also have the option of adding an abs routine as an extra each week as well. Each week ramps up cardio and strength reps from the week before. The plan looks like this: 

• Week 1: 60 minutes cardio (at 30 min. each), 12 reps of each strength move 
• Week 2: 90 minutes of cardio (at 30 min. each), 14 reps of each move 
• Week 3: 135 minutes of cardio (at 45 min. each), 16 reps of each move
• Week 4: 150-180 minutes of cardio, 18-20 reps of each move 

Besides an intense looking workout, the diet plan includes eating healthy fats, whole grains, a lot of fruits and veggies, at around 1,500 calories a day. The best part? It's all laid out easy-as-pie (or, not eating pie, I should probably say) with this super-organized calendar to mark it all off! This baby is going on my pinboard, asap! 

There's a checkbox for strength workouts, cardio workouts, the abs routine, and eating healthy. There's a place where you sign your name and write the date you start the program as a kind of contract with yourself and the routine (in the yellow box). It lays out all the instructions for each week on either side. It's so easy! I absolutely love when workout plans include a calendar. It makes my little organized heart burst with happiness! 

Why I Chose this Plan 

There a ton of workout plans I could have tried, but I chose this one and for good reason. While this is called the "Lose 10 Pounds" workout, I am not doing this with the intention of actually losing 10 pounds because I don't need to. I'd like to lose five pounds because that's all I really see that I "need" to lose. This plan is much less about losing weight, though, than it is about a challenge and sculpting an awesome body. I chose this plan because... 

• I haven't done a plan that has separate strength and cardio sessions for a while now. Insanity has strength and cardio combined. When I trained for the half-marathon, I was doing only cardio for the most part. And some other workout DVD's I've done have been all combined HIIT training. Time for something I haven't been doing for a while now!

• It's not a workout DVD. For most of 2012, I was reliant on workout DVD's. This is definitely not a bad thing, but I'd like to be able to workout on my own too and step outside the box, literally. 

• The idea of ramping up cardio and reps each week seems challenging to me. Anything that's a challenge inspires me!

• The workout calendar was too good to pass up. I mean, it's just screaming for me to check all these awesome workouts off my list! 

For me specifically, I think I am going to try and have M/W/F be my strength days and T/TH/S be my cardio days. For cardio, I am going to try and run as much as I can, but considering that New England just dumped a foot of snow - we'll see about that. I have access to a treadmill, though, so hopefully I can still eek out the mileage. I'm also going to track my food on the My Fitness Pal app to keep things in perspective. Overall, if I can eat generally healthy (or at least better than I did over the holidays!), complete all the workouts, and have fun while doing it, it will be a month well spent. Off to try my first strength session! 

• Question for you: What are your fitness goals for 2013? What workout plan are you following now? 

My Christmas Tradition: Aebleskiver

Merry Christmas! 

Quick post for today, but an important one in my book. Every year growing up with my family, ever since I can remember, we make aebleskiver. Aebleskiver is, simply put, Danish pancakes. They taste similar to pancakes only fluffier, and they are made into little balls. Sometimes I describe them as a cross between pancakes and donut holes. 

It's truly not Christmas to me until we make aebleskiver. Every year, after stockings and presents are opened, off to the kitchen we go to whip up a grand breakfast of aebleskiver, eggs, and maple sausage. Aebleskiver is traditionally served with powdered sugar on top with raspberry jam or other jams. Raspberry is definitely my favorite. 

Here's the recipe I use: 

Although I usually half this if it's just for my husband and I. And what really makes it great is the butter milk. To make butter milk, you can put 1 tablespoon of vinegar into 1 cup of milk and let sit for 5 minutes. This year, my hubby did the honor of making all the aebleskiver for our own mini-Christmas and our family's. So thankful to just sit back and enjoy the delicious dish! 

Our traditional breakfast: 

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! 

• What do you eat for Christmas breakfast? What's your favorite holiday food/meal? 

Peanut Butter Blossom Bliss

Good afternoon! 

I'm about to run to work, but I thought I'd make time for a quick update. Last night after my peanut butter disappointment, I ended up making my favorite holiday cookie ever: peanut butter blossoms. Every year at Christmas, my mom and I usually made these together. I love them - chocolate kisses + peanut buttery cookie. What's not to like? 

Two most important ingredients ever: chocolate & peanut butter!

Last night, I just used the Hershey's recipe that's on the back of the back. All the other recipes I found were for cookie exchanges, aka made a ton of cookies, which I did not need. Last year, I definitely used a different recipe and it was a little more moist. These cookies were quite dry and not quite as peanut buttery as I wanted them to be, but still - amazing nonetheless. 

Today for my workout, I decided to go on a run instead of Insanity. Insanity's schedule called for a really easy video that I was just not feeling. But my run was terrible! It was 38 degrees, even at 10 am. My toes were frozen before I even started running. I had that burning feeling in the back fo my throat the whole time and I felt like I was running like a slug! Either way, when I finished, I felt great as usual - and much warmer. Talk about motivation to finish a run! I was seriously freezing! 

Welp, off to work I go. Toodles! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy (almost late) Halloween!

I had such a hard time getting with it today since this was my first "normal" day this week with hurricane Sandy throwing everyone off. I am definitely not a big Halloween person, but I did "celebrate" with Skinny Taste's Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes! I absolutely love these cupcakes (pictured above). They are now my Halloween staple, if you will. They're light, easy to make, and always a crowd pleaser.

I also made a "cookie cemetery" for my church group last night. It was a huge hit! It was really easy to make and was totally delicious. I will admit, the picture for it is pretty awful, but that's all I had time to snap before it was devoured. While I'm definitely not into Halloween, I absolutely love making holiday-themed desserts and food. Well, that's all for now!

What do you think about holiday-themed desserts/food? Does it appeal to you or make your eyes roll? 

Pumpkin Butter Oatmeal

Good morning!

Today I got up frightfully early at about 5 AM. This isn't a normal occurrence in my household, so my body was a little shocked. Normally when I get up earlier than usual, I'm not hungry until my normal breakfast time. Food just doesn't sound good to me, and sometimes I neglect eating for an hour or so. However, I actually woke up starving. But knowing it was so early, I wanted a breakfast that was satisfying and that would stick with me until lunch time. Thankfully, I just pinned a recipe from Skinny Taste last night for Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal that was perfect for all my breakfast needs and my appetite for all things pumpkin! I also just got Trader Joe's seasonal Pumpkin Butter, so it was perfect. And if you've never had pumpkin butter - now is the time to start enjoying it! It's amazing if you love pumpkin.

Gina's recipe calls for regular oats, but all I had were steel cut oats. I find that the steel cut oats serving size is too small, so I usually up it to two servings, which changes the calories. Here's my take on the oatmeal:

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Donuts!

Yesterday, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and saw donut pans. I've always wanted to try to make my own donuts, but wasn't up for yet another specialty pan (I have quite a few already). But let me tell you, this pan is going to get a lot of use! Yesterday was overcast and very rainy all day, so my morning run was out. I decided that it would be the perfect day for some donut experiementation :) 

I've secretly been waiting for the perfect time to go get a nice hot coffee and a pumpkin spice donut from Dunkin Donuts. I know some people hate DD, but I love it! But you know what I don't love? That their pumpkin spice donut is 360 calories and has 21 grams of fat! That's why I opted to make my own. Granted, they aren't going to taste like a Dunkin Donuts donut, but these "healthy" donuts taste so much better in my opinion. They don't leave that yucky fatty and sugary residue that never seems to come off your teeth.


I also just got a brand new range, and I hadn't used the oven yet. I was really curious to see if this oven was better than my last one. It's definitely better, especially for baked goods. The donuts cooked evenly and turned out really spongy and cake-like. My old oven would have left them doughy or overcooked for sure. Read on for the recipe!

Healthy Pumpkin Spice Donuts

Ingredients: 

Dry:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 

1 /12 tsp. baking soda 

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 

a dash of nutmeg 

1 tsp. cinnamon 

Wet: 

1 egg 

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract 

3/4 cup pumpkin puree 

1/2 cup almond milk (I use Almond Breeze Vanilla Unsweetened) 

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1 individual size (4 oz.) cinnamon apple sauce 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350. Grease donut pan by spraying Pam onto a paper towel and rub the inside of each section. Set aside. 

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. 

Combine all the wet ingredients in a mixer or a large bowl. After the wet ingredients are mixed well, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet. Do not overmix. The batter should look similar to cake batter. 

Carefully spoon the batter mixture into the greased donut pan, filling just about to the top of each section. Be careful not to let the batter fill each section higher than where the pan ends. They poof up plenty, so you don't want to overfill them. 

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The donuts should feel spongy and spring back to your touch. You can also use a toothpick to test for doneness. 

When donuts are done, remove from pan after a few minutes. I waited about five minutes just so they wouldn't fall apart from being so hot. Place donuts on a cooling rack or plate until cooled. 

After cooled, they can be stored in a plastic baggie or Tupperware to keep fresh. 

My batch actually only made me 10 muffins. I was hoping for a dozen, though. I was happy with the size of the donuts, but it's kind of random to have 10 donuts instead of 12. Oh well!

What makes these "healthy?" 

 No dessert food is necessarily healthy, unless of course consumed in moderation. I am in no way claiming these are really good for you, especially if you plan to eat a bunch! However, this is a much healthier alternative to donuts than anything you can get in a store. Using apple sauce instead of vegetable oil saves about 550 calories a batch, or 55 calories per donut! Furthermore, using almond milk instead of cows milk saves a little bit on calories too (almond milk is 40 calories per cup, whereas 2% milk is 122 calories per cup). If you decide to use oil instead of apple sauce and regular milk instead of almond or another low-calorie milk, these donuts will definitely not be as healthy. 

Nutritional Information 

Per one donut (with a batch yielding 10 donuts total). If your batch yields 12 donuts, the calories will be even less. 

145 calories 

1g fat 

3g protein 

1g fiber 

Topping Instructions 

On a side note, these donuts have no glaze or anything. But to make it truly like a donut, I of course had to experiment with some kind of topping. They are pretty cake-like and simple with a topping, but a topping really makes these a hit. For a topping, I dipped the donuts in melted butter and then dipped them in cinnamon sugar. It was devine! I used whipped butter that's half the calories of regular butter to make a little better for you. I estimated that the topping adds about 66 calories a donut if you only coat the top and bottom (not the sides). 

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup melted butter (whipped preferred) 

3 tbsp. sugar 

1 tbsp. cinnamon (or however cinnamony you like cinnamon sugar to be) 

This mixture only coats about 4 donuts. I wasn't planning on coating them all though, so that's why I didn't make this enough to coat them all. I would recommend coating them only right before you're about to eat it as the butter will make it all soggy. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe! Let me know what you think if you try it! 

Pumpkin Spice Latte at Home

My attempt at an at-home Pumpkin Spice Latte! 

It's feeling like fall, and you know what that means! Pumpkin is back! I love all things pumpkin. I currently have some pumpkin soap, pumpkin cupcake scented candles, I just made some pumpkin bread, I had a pumpkin smoothie, and I even had some pumpkin cider. Last fall I fell in love with pumpkin, and this fall is only going to be more hardcore pumpkin action going on, especially in my kitchen.

One of my favorite things about fall is the comeback of the pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. I will admit, I just bought a living social coupon for Sbux, but I was feeling too lazy to go out. Today I ventured to make a pumpkin spice latte at home. I made one last fall that was literally to die for, but I was unable to find the same recipe. If you look on Pinterest or just Google pumpkin spice latte, a ton of results come up. I didn't really know where to start, but I thought this one sounded good. I altered the original recipe. My recipe is below.

Pumpkin Spice Latte

1 1/4 cup milk (I use vanilla almond milk)
1 1/2 tbsp pumpkin puree (I use canned)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 shots of strong coffee (I used Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice coffee!)

1. Mix all the ingredients but the coffee together in a sauce pan. Bring to hot but not boiling, mixing often.
2. Brew coffee stronger than normal to create an espresso shot (of if you have an espresso machine, use it).
3. Put pumpkin milk mixture into blender (This idea is from the original recipe: worked amazingly!). Froth the milk mixture well.
4. Put the coffee shots in a large cup and pour the milk mixture over it.
5. Enjoy!

As you can see if you looked at the original recipe, my recipe uses all the same ingredients, just different measurements. The original says it makes "1-2 servings." This was confusing to me. Does it make one or two?! I was worried I would make too much if I followed the original measurements, so that's why I altered them. What I came up with was a mug full to the top of latte. Just one serving, just the way I like it.

I'm also not nuts about vanilla in things, so I chose to use less than the original recipe. Overall, it was really good - better than I was expecting, but it still wasn't the one I found last fall! I'll have to keep searching for that recipe. I put some pumpkin pie spice on the top for a nice "latte look" but I would strongly recommend not doing that. It made my latte gritty and I felt like the spices were getting stuck in my throat, whereas it was not like that at all before I put the spices on top.

Frothing the milk mixture in the blender is such a good idea! I had foamy goodness on the top just like you get at Starbucks. I will definitely be using that technique with future lattes. I'll probably try a few more pumpkin spice latte recipes before I decide on the perfect one, but for now, this one will do for my afternoon read :)

Meal Planning Time!

Food/diet issues used to be one my biggest struggles. But now just a few hours a week of planning helps me work toward healthy eating without obsessing because I do the planning a head of time instead of in front of the fridge when I'm hungry. Now, one of my favorite times of the week is when I hunker down and plan my meals. I don't really need to reiterate that I am perfectionist in many respects, but meal planning is one of the things that I've tried to perfect. Food, diet, and how one chooses to view food are all, as I've learned, very different from person to person. For me, I've struggled with having too much food around ("bad" foods) that ruin my dieting goals and not knowing what to eat. The biggest problem in my diet before I made an effective meal planning system was not knowing what I was eating. If I just assumed there would be something for me to eat for lunch and I only planned dinners, I would open my fridge and start sampling things. Hmm, should I have this for lunch? *takes a few bites* Nah. Oh, how about this... *takes a few bites* And this would continue until I realized I had basically eaten a whole meal of snacks but was not even satisfied. As the old saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I truly believe in those words. Planning is everything!

However, even planning wasn't always a picnic. I feel that I have just recently found a system that works for me, and I'm so thankful. It makes my life a lot easier, less stressful, my diet is better, and my grocery trips are lighter (not necessarily cheaper, though!). My basic plan is to plot out each meal I will eat for the day - breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack - for an entire week (or 7 day period as my schedule spans two different weeks). I made a simple Word document template that I fill in each week the night before my shopping day. As I fill it in, I make my grocery list and try to include new meals. I also save all my old menus so that I can see what I have been eating or what hasn't worked well in the past.

Room for Error 

My meal planner template

Okay, so you might be reading this thinking, great - you're a perfectionist with your diet. It may seem a little crazy-organized, but this organization actually frees me of being perfectionistic. Before I meal planned like this, in my head, I was thinking I would be successful. At the end of the day when I ate much differently than I wanted, I wondered why things went the way they did and beat myself up for it. The next day, I would follow suit, and continue to be frustrated with my lack of good eating habits and self control. Now, I have a perfectly planned meal menu on the top of my fridge where I can always see what meal is next. There's no guessing involved. There's no room for error - if I follow my plan. But this is just that, merely a plan. I do have to accept that my plan, although on paper, is not set in stone. I have to make changes according to the fact that life is not static. Some days, I go out for dinner improptu, so my meal plan changes. Some days I realize that I'm not the mood for veggies and hummus (again! I need to find some new snacks) so I opt for something else, but just as healthy. And yes, sometimes I just stray from it altogether because I am human and I make mistakes. But most of the time, this menu system is very effective for me. I print my menu in nice fonts and bright colors so I enjoy looking at it. I have it posted on my fridge hanging from a little clip, so I always see it. And after I eat a meal, I check off the box that the meal is typed in. If I ate all my meals accordingly that day, I put a check mark on the day's box to know that I stayed on track. Overall, my planning makes for a much more successful week and successful grocery shopping.

Some Changes 

As with every plan, changes are needed as new obstacles are approaching. Some things I'm finding that need to change are:

Variety: I need more variety. I've relied on the same few snacks for the past few weeks and I am so bored!

Dessert: I need to plan for what days I eat dessert. If I don't, it turns into eating dessert every day!

Special Treats: Along with that, I want to plan for at least one really good dessert every other week (hello, Pinterest dessert board!)

Proof reading: I need to thoroughly read through my plan before printing it. Too often I have found that one day, I will plan to have peanut butter twice in a row or Greek yogurt for every meal. Whoops!

Tips for Using this System

• Plan meals you will actually eat. If you don't eat raw fish for breakfast or eat salad seven days a week, why put it on your menu planner? Obviously, incorporating new foods into your menu gradually is a good thing, but if you plans are unrealistic, you're more likely to fail. 
• Give yourself room for error. Something will come up in your schedule or some day you just won't feel like having what you planned. No big deal. Switch out a meal with something else, and then get back on track for the next meal or next day. Don't beat yourself up about the ways that life may be different from your plan. 
• I personally think that not listing calories on the menu is more effective. I usually know the calorie counts of all the meals I plan, but I don't list them so my mind is not focused on calories, but real food. 
• Post the menu on your fridge. It will force you to recognize your plan every time you open your fridge or go in the kitchen. It will also make your plan known to anyone else who you may live with. 
• As I mentioned before, save your old menus to look back on for that long lost meal that you loved. 
• Don't over-plan or over-scrutinize your plan. Having a general guideline for what you are eating is good, but planning things down to the tablespoon of creamer you're having in your coffee may be a little overkill. 

Food is a topic that differs for everyone. What works for me may be horribly wrong for you. This is the way that my diet makes sense to me. It's not perfect all the time, or ever for that matter. 

What do you do to plan your meals? What works for you? 

Berry Protein Smoothie Perfection

Hi all! If there's one thing I sometimes wish could be perfect, it's my diet. There's many ways that I've obsessed about my diet, trying to perfect it. Sorry, but this post isn't about how I perfected my diet, 'cause that'll never happen! But I do experiment with smoothies a lot as I have found that smoothies are the closest thing to the perfect breakfast that I can find.

My whole fascination with smoothies began with this recipe for a pumpkin pie smoothie. Last fall I was in love with anything pumpkin flavored (who wasn't?!), and I had a variation of that smoothie many, many times.

Pinterest only fueled my recipe box with more and more smoothie recipes. I'm so thankful to have Pinterest at my fingertips whenever I need inspiration for a new smoothie. Today I experimented with some protein powder I picked up at Trader Joe's last week. The brand I bought is called Designer Whey French Vanilla protein powder, but I'm sure any protein powder will do. Here's the recipe.

Berry Protein Perfection

Approximately 250 calories :) 

My favorite protein powder & smoothie

- half a scoop of protein powder (my scoop is huge, so I don't usually use a whole scoop)
- 1 frozen banana, sliced ahead of time
- 3/4 cup frozen mixed berries (I use Trader Joe's Organic berry mix)
- handful of spinach (about a cup and a half, loosely packed)
- water

1. Put all the ingredients in the blender, adding only little water initially. I usually try to put the frozen ingredients in first so they're on the bottom and blend easier.

2. Blend for only 30 seconds at a time, adding water to make it smoother as needed. My blender is not the best! If you have a better blender, you probably don't need to do this. I find I only have to blend things slowly if I use multiple frozen ingredients versus just one.

3. Pour & Enjoy!

Sometimes I also add wheat germ just because I like the texture. This smoothie was really creamy, despite there being no milk or yogurt in it. It was just sweet enough with adding any sweetener. I'll definitely make it again.

If you try this recipe, I'd love to hear what you think of it!

Happy eating!