daily eats

Our weeknight date was perfect. :) Of course, it is now past 11pm and I’m still awake. We are big kids this week, staying up late on school work nights being so excited for Christmas.



Sherlock Holmes was such a great movie! It was funny and the characters were pretty great. I am not the best judge, as I usually enjoy most movies…like, every single one I see.



There was a fight scene at the end that was very high up, and you literally felt like you were right there. My belly was doing somersaults because I am super scared of heights. It was a really fun movie and I am so glad we went to see it. :)



We decided on PF Chang’s before the movie.


I had the most amazing martini – a jade martini.

martini



Gorgeous color, huh? It was Malibu + Midori with a little scoop of honeydew. It was fabulous.



We had not been at PF Chang’s for a loooong time – basically because we are 85 years old, don’t like to leave the house and would rather eat my cooking. Hey – I’m just sayin’!


They have a ‘meals for 2′ special that was very extensive. Soup, appetizer, entree and dessert for 2 for $39.95! Can’t beat that deal. Now only if they would include the drinks…


We started with soup – I had egg drop.

soup



And then I got some veggies in with the lettuce wraps.

lettucewrap


Ugh, nothing like counting a piece of iceberg lettuce as veggies, right? I’ve really been slacking in that department.



I got the kung pao scallops for my entree – this is my favorite meal – and hubby got the spicy chicken.

scallops


chicken



After dinner, we got to pick 2 of 6 mini desserts. We chose tiramisu and cheesecake.

tiramisu


chsck


They were just so-so. The cake was a little stale and the strawberry on top just tasted like jelly. But they were so tiny that we gobbled them up in 2 bites!



And dinner ended with a perfect fortune…

fortune


So true.



My grandma fell on Friday night and is a little banged up. She is doing alright, but she could use your thoughts and prayers! She encompasses everything I want to be in a woman, so I need her to stick around a little while longer since I’m still growing up. Send some love her way please! :)



25 Days of Workouts

WORKOUT #18 – MEDICINE BALL WORKOUT


I am a firm believer in the basics when it comes to exercising. I don’t use a lot of goofy equipment, the bosu is not my favorite, and I think looking great comes down to some hard work. Occasionally, I love throwing in some fun workouts with a medicine ball. I usually use an 8lb or 10lb ball. Hope you enjoy!


Squat while holding ball overhead: 4 sets of 15

Side lunge tapping ball to the floor, and raising in the air when feet come together: 4 sets of 20

Medicine ball pushups: 4 sets of 16 (8 each side, one hand on ball)

Mountain climbers with hands on ball: 30 seconds

Seated russian twists for abs, tapping the ball to each side: 45 seconds

Throw n’ catch sit ups with ball + wall/partner: 4 sets of 15


Any questions – just ask. :)

{ 21 comments }

More Treadmill HIIT.

December 17, 2009 · 18 comments

Good evening. :)

I’ve been cleaning and relaxing this evening, with one of my most favorite candles burning:

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And the trees lit:

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With some Christmas music playing. My favorite way to relax!



I have been craving Thai food for weeks. My hubby and I used to eat it all the time – in fact we ate it on our first New Year’s Eve together. Unfortunately, someone has a habit of eating something 6 times a day everyday until they are sick of it. Hint: it’s not me.


I made my own peanut sauce w/ some whole wheat noodles and shrimp.

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The year is winding down and exercise is probably one of the last things on your list, right? Just think – in 2 more weeks it is a new year, and time to start over! Wrong.


Have many other times have we made ‘resolutions’? They obviously haven’t stuck, and it’s time to change somethin’! Think of some small changes you can make in the next 2 weeks that will make you feel better and more confident.


Everyone falls off the wagon sometimes, but the key is being able to get right back on. So start eating healthier today, right now, at your next meal. I’m not saying skip the cookies- but make some smarter choices this week! And by all means, rev up that exercise.


And remember – next week I’ll be posting the first workouts for the No More Resolutions January challenge!




25 Days of Workouts
WORKOUT #15 – More TREADMILL HITT


10 minute warm up

For 15-20 minutes follow:

15 seconds at 9.0 mph

45 seconds at 4.5 mph

10 minute cool down



Take it at your own pace – stop if anything feels off. This should be your only cardio for the day. Don’t overdo it!

{ 18 comments }

 

How was your Monday?

 

I never remember it being this difficult to get back in the grind after a holiday. It must be my old age.

 

Have you started to make this a December to Remember? With tomorrow being December 1st, you still have 31 whole days to start living your healthiest life NOW – long before January 1st. Get that head start!

 

I highly encourage you to write your goals down and place them somewhere you can see them. Even if you are not participating in the December challenge, it is always exhilarating to have a goal to work towards. It doesn’t even have to be a fitness goal – it can be any goal. Believe it and it will happen.

 

Since tomorrow is the real beginning of December, I decided to post my meals today to kick off my own challenge. This also gives you an idea of what I eat everyday, and more specifically Monday through Friday, when I’m on more of a schedule.

 

I had a huge green monster for breakfast, but didn’t take a pic since I was sooo out of it a bit rushed this morning. It was giant, and took me an entire hour to drink. I can never eat or drink cold things quickly – ice cream takes me forever to finish.

 

 

Around 10, I had some greek yogurt, Trader Joe’s Twigs, Flakes and Clusters cereal, dried strawberries and bananas, and 1/2 of Angela’s Renew bar. This was the first time I had a Glo-Bar in something, like yogurt.

snack1130

 

It was incredible, and I thought it was my favorite way to eat it.

 

 

But then I had some oatmeal for lunch, and crumbled the remaining half of my Renew bar into it.

lunch1130

 

Now, THAT was incredible.

 

 

In the afternoon I had a protein shake,

shake

 

an egg in some terribly burnt whole wheat Tuscany bread,

latesnack1130

 

and then I sucked every last bit of juice and ate every aril out of this pomagranate half.

pom1130

 

 

It definitely looked like a murder scene afterwards.

 

 

For dinner, I had a sweet potato, some spring greens, chickpeas roasted with smoked paprika, and a boatload of asiago cheese.

dinner1130

 

I covered my salad in my most favorite dressing ever.

vinegar

 

 

I have never been a fan of salad dressings, most likely because I’ve never been a fan of salads, unless they are covered in fries and cheese. I usually just use vinegars because I love the tart taste, and this vinegar takes the cake. It is so good – especially in a salad with greens, walnuts, chopped pear, and goat cheese. 

 

I am craving something sweet (huge surprise), so I’m not sure what is going to come next.

 

My workout today consisted of about 20 minutes of yoga, because I am meeting Kema 3 days this week for some butt kicking workouts. Can’t wait!

 

As for some of my goals?

3 veggies: 2 cups spinach in my green monster, 1 cup greens with dinner + sweet potato

3 fruits: 1 banana, 1/4 cup pom seeds, 1/4 cup dried strawberries and bananas

water: 100 oz

 

Pretty good! How did you guys do today? Did you follow you goals? Remember, baby steps . . .

 

25 Days of Workouts


Workout #1 – UPPER BODY BLAST!

Combo 1: Complete one set of each exercise, then repeat for a total of 2 sets.  12 repetitions of each.

Lat Pulldowns

Dumbbell Chest Flyes

Side Lateral Shoulder Raises

25 pushups

 

Combo 2: Complete one set of each exercise, then repeat for a total of 2 sets. 12 repetitions of each.

Seated Row

Dumbbell Chest Press

Triceps Overhead Extension

25 pushups

 

Combo 3: Complete one set of each exercise, then repeat for a total of 2 sets. 12 repetitions of each.

Overhead Shoulder Dumbbell Press

Triceps Dips

Biceps Curls

25 pushups

 

Remember to ask yourself:

Am I challenging myself?

Is the weight challenging enough?

If I can easily do 15 repetitions, I need to increase my weight.

If I can’t get 6 repetitions, I need to decrease my weight.

Am I using proper form?

Am I performing the exercise at the proper speed? A good rule of thumb for beginners is 2 seconds up, 2 seconds down.

 

Note: It is always best to work your largest muscles first, and do compound movements first. For example, you want to work your back and chest before your triceps. If you work your triceps out first, they are too fatigued to help with your chest and back exercises.

 

If you have any questions or concerns about some of the exercises, or are not sure how to do them, please contact me at merchant.jessica@gmail.com. :)

 

About push-ups: Feeling down and frustrated because you have no idea how you will do 25 pushups? I received the best piece of advice when I was 15 years old: do pushups everyday. Even if you can only do 1, do it every single day until you can do 2. Then 3. I set out to do 50 push-ups everyday. I did it in sets of 5, or sets of 10. But I wanted to get 50.

Set a push-up goal for yourself. Do some everyday. You will feel strong and your strength will increase. I suggest starting with 10 push-ups every day. And if you can’t even do 1, start with push-ups on your knees until you can do 1.

Before you know it, you will have those 25 push-ups! :)

 

How are you feeling? Are you motivated? What motivates you the most?

{ 17 comments }

Black Saturday.

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  Last night, we all went out to eat at a little Italian restaurant, because we apparently didn’t stuff ourselves enough on Thursday. I had an incredible meal.   Cheese ravioli in a gorgonzola cream sauce with walnuts and artichokes.   Are you drooling yet?   The meal was incredible, but as you can see it was drenched in sauce. It was a bit heavy so I only had a few bites and brought the rest home. So delicious, though.     Remember that cheese bread I wrote about on Thanksgiving morning? We’ll it’s obviously gone, since I ate it all in about 5 minutes. But do you know what made that cheese bread better?   More cheese.       Today, I was so excited to go shopping with my mom and our friend, Barb. I grabbed some Starbuck’s before since they were late, as usual to make my spirits bright.     I am pretty sure that the peppermint white chocolate mocha is my fave. You really wouldn’t know that I didn’t care for coffee, would you?   Oh wait. Peppermint white chocolate mocha’s aren’t coffee.   They are crack.   I only had a few sips because I [...]

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I Love Sparkles.

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Good evening!   Today was pretty uneventful, and now we are one week closer to Thanksgiving!   For dinner, I threw the Firecracker shrimp into some pasta. It was delicious – it is so much more versatile than your plain old cocktail shrimp. I didn’t snap a picture since I have a hungry, angry husband, but it was tasty.     When I arrived home tonight, I saw a package at my front door. I was pretty suprised being that I haven’t online shopped recently, something I dislike, but my bank account likes.   I opened it to find this incredibly cute cupcake garland from my Aunt Ann, who lives in San Diego.         Isn’t this just so adorable?! Of course, I love it because I love all things that sparkle. Thank you so much, Aunt Ann!!   I snuck in an awesome workout that consisted of: *30 minutes on the elliptical *30 minutes of full body alternating lunges 3 x 20 x 25lb dumbbells + incline chest presses 3 x 12 x 30lb dumbbells squats 3 x 15 x 35lb dumbbells + seated row 3 x 10 x 90lbs stiff-legged deadlifts 3 x 12 x 110lbs [...]

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My Favorite Green Monster.

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When we woke up this morning, my husband made some of his fabulous pancakes.     They were tasty.      Over the weekend we hung these nifty shelves on one of our kitchen walls.     I think they are so neat.   Notice the picture of Mother Lovett in the upper right corner. I set it up there so she could ‘look over’ me while I cook and bake.   My husband quickly noted that this was the first time she had looked over me since I was about 8 years old, considering she was 4 feet tall.       We also hung some other funky shelves in our family room. As I was cleaning up, I noticed something new had been set on the shelf.     Oh, no.   This is not happening.     There is no way that is staying there. I had enough of that before we moved in.       I threatened my husband’s life lovingly let my husband know I was moving that piece of garbage thing, while he was outside fighting with a tree.     After watching an excruciating Steeler’s loss, we decided to eat our emotions.   Luckily, [...]

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My Kind of Tree.

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Happy Saturday!   This morning, I repeated my dinner from last night, but in a double dose.     The orange juice made this meal. I haven’t had orange juice in ages – I never have drank much more than water, because I love it. But my husband has been having a glass of OJ in the morning, and I joined in the fun today. It was so refreshing.   After a fun filled day of decorating (love it), cooking (love it more), cleaning (ugh…I didn’t clean the toilet though), and organizing, I ran out to return some lights that we didn’t need.    I got an eggnog latte:     Not too sure how I feel about this. I enjoy a sip of eggnog during the holidays, but not much (again, I don’t like many drinks other than water. Or wine. Or margaritas. You get the jist.). This was not quite sweet enough for me since I do not love coffee, and it had way too much nutmeg – which I normally love.   So I did this instead.     Much better.   We have 2 family rooms in our house, which means 2 Christmas trees. Actually, we [...]

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A Fab Friday.

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Update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp   With all of the hype surrounding the movie theater popcorn, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when I heard Good Morning America say ‘coconut oil is the absolute worst oil you could ever eat.’   Of course, I do not condone eating movie popcorn made with 1-2 cups of oil. However, ingested in small quantities, coconut oil does have some benefits. I know some are controversial, but I have heard it helps with hypothyroidism (which I have), among other things. That is not why I love it – I love it because it tastes amazing. But like everything else: in moderation people!   I’ve wondered for awhile what the difference is between coconut butter and coconut oil. I have used coconut oil for years, and I have never seen coconut butter anywhere. I know it exists, but I also have heard people calling coconut oil at it’s solid temperature ‘butter.’ I researched it a bit tonight and this is what I learned:   Coconut oil is the pure oil from the coconut. Coconut butter is oil mixed with some of the meat of the coconut.   Both have benefits, albeit [...]

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It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas.

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Update your google readers! http://feeds.feedburner.com/howsweeteats/smSp   Looking for my HIIT workout? You can also find some extra bootcamp workouts as well.     I’ve been listening to Christmas music for well over 2 weeks now. It makes me so joyful. I love listening to the music that my parents always listened to as we were growing up. It would play in the house a few days before Christmas, and especially the morning of Christmas day. Ones we frequently listened to (and that I also listen to, since I am an old fart), would be Barry Manilow, Amy Grant, Jim Brickman, Kenny G, and the likes.   Of course to my list I’ve added a bunch more, like my sexay luva Michael Buble and Sarah MaLachlin. Also – my first true love, James Taylor. And come on, I know some of you love the N’SYNC Christmas CD like I do. I never even liked N’SYNC, but that CD is unbeatable.   My new favorite Christmas CD that I got last year? Kristen Chenoweth. It is GREAT! Please go out and get it, because even my husband loves it.   This morning began with some protein pancakes, pumpkin-chocolate chip style.     [...]

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A Day In the Life.

Mac

I’m so glad you guys had a blast playing Friday Trivia! Can’t wait for next week.   The correct answers: 1. Adventures of Pluto Nash 2. Three 3. Oreos   Those that got all 3 correct that are entered for the prize:  Y Molly P VeggieBooty Rosemary and the Goat Kristie Lynn Julie @ SavvyEats   Thanks to all for playin.’   If you didn’t make it this time, check back next Friday. You’ll still have 5 chances to win.          Some of you have inquired about my daily eats and routine. Take a look below, and you will see that it is not anything to write home about. This may or may not appear more often. I cannot decide. I am not a fan of taking pictures without natural light. So this probably leans toward the ‘may not’ side.         Yesterday, my morning began like this. It usually does.                       To say I am a HUGE fan of makeup is an understatement. I love it. My secret dream job is to be a MAC makeup artist. I love wild colors, dramatic eyes – you name it. And [...]

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