Bikram Spinning class??

Wednesday's posting:

Hi guys! It's nice to get caught up on here - it's hard work posting from being on vacation because there are always way more pix than usual and more fun stuff going on - I don't know how Meghann did it when she was on vacation last week!!

The last four days were chock-full of delicious, indulgent food, which was fabulous. But while I enjoyed every sip and bite, eating food that is less "clean" eating that I am used to makes my stomach hurt after a while and I woke up feeling a bit nauseous this morning. I was sooo ready to get back to my normal eating plan, starting of course with a Green Monster!! I had one of these bad boys before going to the gym.

At the gym I took a spinning class, which was a bit tough but it felt great. However, it was sooooo much hotter than normal, hence the title of this post. I don't know if it was hot because we were all working harder than usual or because it is a freaking sauna in Chicago today?!? I also did some weights and some crunches.

(I didn't mention this yesterday, but yesterday was my "off" day. Even when training for a marathon, it's important to have at least one day of complete rest so that your body can recover!)


When I got back from the gym I was starved (my body is used to having already taken in like 3000 calories by this time of day thanks to Vegas!), so I heated this soup up that I had had in the freezer. I made it a couple weeks ago so I don't remember the exact proportions of the ingredients, but it is mostly carrots, chickpeas, and spices, blended with my immersion blender. I threw some whole wheat croutons on top, and it was really good! Goodies from Amazing Grass!!! I love everything they make!!! Today I attended a workshop by Dr. Bruce Perry, who is a nationally recognized neurologist who specializes in child trauma. It was a very informative lecture, but the whole time I was half thinking about what he was saying, and half planning dinner....

I had some Gimme Lean sausage that I wanted to use up, and I wanted to be creative with it. I don't like the texture by itself, so I wanted to do something different with it this time, so I made it into a type of sloppy joe with sauteed onion, tomato paste, spices (oregano, S and P), and a bit of Truvia to make it a bit sweet a la sloppy joe style. Then I wraped up dollops of this mixture into some crescent rolls, and baked them for 10 minutes. The result: A+!!!! Even though these were total vegetarian food, even Mike devoured them.

On the side, I made a zucchini gazpacho - basically a cold soup made with zuccini, tofu, some veggie broth, and spices. It too was really good, and I purposefully didn't eat the whole bowl so that I could save it for lunch tomorrow. It will be SO good on a hot day!

Snack: Another snack, which was not as good as the chocolate Superfood, but was still VERY good by both Mike and my standards

Last snack of the night: I threw this into the blender with some ice and a cup of soy milk, and it was VERY good. It had a great, fruity flavor. But because the texture was too icy, I decided to throw a banana in too, which made it even better. I can't wait to try the rest of my Amazing Grass products! Talk to you all soon! :)

** I also had a late night snack of 100 calorie chocolate-baked almonds!

Lots of snacking

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the double postings yesterday. This blogging business is going to teach me to have more patience! :) This morning I snacked on some blueberries before leaving for the gym. At the time I wasn't hungry enough for a Green Monster, but once I was in the car headed to work out my stomach started to rumble and I realize that maybe I should have eaten something a bit more substantial!

I made sure to leave with enough time so that I could do a bit of cardio at the gym before the hour-long sculpting class. However, I got to the gym, parked, and realized I had left my purse at home. UGH!! This was an annoyance because I needed my wallet to get a couple last minute items at the store on the way home from the gym, and I knew it was going to be a very busy day with few minutes to spare, so I forwent the idea of the extra cardio, ran home, grabbed the purse and headed back to the gym. Fortunately I got there right on time for the beginning of class.

This was my first time attending the morning sculpting class, and it was really good! It was a lot of plyometrics and weight sculpting with a bit of cardio thrown in, too. Lots of ab work, too, which I liked!

After the class (I skipped out on stretching at the end to save time - bad Val, I know) - I picked up a couple things at the store that I needed for dinner tonight.

Right now it's 2pm and I've had an ENORMOUS amount of food since my blueberry breakfast, but nothing worth taking pictures of. Basically I snacked my entire way through making the food for dinner, so you will get caught up, picture-wise, once I post those later tonight! Get excited! ;)