Return of the Mack.

It's been several days since my last post, but I've returned. And since I was singing this song the other night and Doug had no idea what/who I was talking about, here ya go:



Still a pretty smooth jam after all these years, no? Anywho. I'll start with some quick food re-caps:

This morning's breakfast:



Breakfast Banana Split, adapted from the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. I didn't actually "split" the banana, I just diced it up. Added diced strawberries, Oikos plain yogurt (sweetened with just a tad of Splenda), about 1/3 cup Grape Nuts cereal, drizzle of light Hershey's chocolate syrup and a dab of almond butter.



This was ridiculously good. It really was like having a banana split for breakfast (der!). And of course, filling. The original recipe didn't call for Greek yogurt or almond butter, but they're obviously better sources of protein and healthy fat, both of which I needed after my workout this morning. Picking up more strawberries from the store soon so I can repeat this again later in the week.

Another great breakfast discovery (not pictured): Lemon Oatmeal! Also an idea I picked up from the BL Family Cookbook. It's pretty simple, really... Just add lemon juice and/or lemon zest to taste. I sweetened mine a bit and also added some egg whites and a scoop of vanilla protein powder for extra bulk. The lemon flavor makes the oats taste so clean and light- I love it!

Last night's dinner:



I threw together a chicken-veggie stir fry with peanut butter sauce and served it over spaghetti. In a pan, I cooked up:

• diced chicken
• onions
• minced ginger
• minced garlic
• broccoli
• carrots
• salt
• pepper

For the sauce:

• 2 TB creamy peanut butter (you could use crunchy instead)
• 2 TB Hoisin sauce
• about 2 or 3 TB of fresh lime juice
• Sriracha to taste (I probably used almost a tablespoon)
• about 2 TB fresh chopped cilantro

Whisk ingredients together in a separate bowl. Whisk in water until desired consistency is reached. Once the sauce thinned out, I added it to the stir fry after the meat and veggies were all cooked through.

I was really pleased with this dish! I really am becoming more and more confident in the kitchen with each meal I make. It's a good feeling. I have a much stronger sense of which spices and herbs to use and find myself experimenting more and more, instead of relying on recipes all of the time. I still have a lot to learn, but I've noticed these past few months that something has clicked and I'm a much better cook than I was several years ago.

Last pic I want to share is actually from a while ago (last week? the week before?):



This was an alfredo dish that Doug made. Chicken, broccoli and mushrooms over penne. For the sauce, he used a can of fat-free cream condensed soup; can't remember if it was cream of chicken or cream of mushroom, but either way, it turned out really nice. I can't remember what else he added to the sauce, but if he recalls, perhaps he'll be nice and share in the comments. *Wuh-ink*

Aside from lots of great food, I also finished reading a great book, The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl. Seriously, read this book now if you haven't already. I've read my share of autobiographies of women who have struggled being overweight and either lost the weight or didn't, but this book far surpasses all of them. I saw so much of myself in Shauna, it was almost hard to read at times. But she's incredibly funny, witty and driven. Whether or not you're trying to lose weight, this will still prove to be an excellent read.

And lastly, I've re-kindled my affair with Jari Love, specifically her first Get Ripped 1000 DVD. I hadn't used it since I first tried it back in March (!!!), but I've been addicted to it for the past 2 weeks, up through this morning. Crazy good workout. The cardio bursts jack my heart rate up and the strength moves make my muscles work hard. I always feel like crapping out at about 40 minutes in, but I keep pushing and finish out the last 20 minutes anyway. When I remind myself how I'm knocking out both high-intensity cardio and high-rep resistance training in one workout, I manage to push through, even though I just want to lay on the floor and die. I think deep down, it's the hot guy in the back row that keeps me going. Man. Super hot.

Seriously though, Jari Love has become my favorite trainer (sorry, Jillian!). Anyone who can get me to actually like strength training is nothing short of a miracle worker. Her workouts always leave me feeling strong and capable. (The physical results aren't too shabby either!) She has a great teaching style and she just seems so darn nice! I know I've talked about her on here before, but I just had to gush once more because I'm really happy I gave her DVDs a try. Totally changed my attitude about fitness.

I suppose that's all for today. Hope everyone has been doing well! Have a great week.

Silver Bullet scared the crap outta me when I was four.

First, let me just say that I'm quite bummed to hear about Corey Haim. Doug told me this morning, right as I was diving into my awesome breakfast and it totally killed my mood. Sigh...

But, on with the show, eh?

Breakfast:



I'm not really into flowers, but my mom got me some daffodils for my birthday and I must admit, they're puuurty.



Baked Instant Oatmeal in my new "oats bowl" that I snagged from Goodwill the other day. Also, cold coffee with almond milk on the side.

Not sure why I don't make baked instant oatmeal more often... I still get my oats fix, plus some extra protein and fiber from the egg whites and pumpkin. And did I mention the taste and fluffy texture are amazing? Because they are. Mmm.

Morning snack:



Half a cup of fat-free cottage cheese with cinnamon and ground flax.

Lunch:



Leftover concoction that Doug made last night. He threw together some diced chicken with onions, mushrooms, butter and white wine and served it over polenta. In my continuing attempt to clear out our freezer, I mixed together some remaining green beans, broccoli and brussel sprouts and seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, butter and grated parmesan. Throw it all together and them's good eats! I think Doug was disappointed that I didn't take pictures of it last night when it was fresh and served on actual dinnerware. Sorry! I was lazy and in a crap mood at the time. Ah well.

Afternoon snack:



The last of the Pumped-up Pumpkin Cookies.

And? I tried the last of my new fitness DVDs this morning:



Another keeper. Even more so because it has the hottie from her Slim & Lean video. He totally winked at the camera at one point. And I let him get away with it because he's that hot. My goodness.

Aside from Craig's hotness, this was another good strength/cardio workout. The pace is different though because Jari makes you cooldown and do stretches at the end of every single interval, including the cardio intervals.

The cardio intervals are much shorter too (barely a minute or so?), but that's because they're super-intense, assuming you're using the aerobic step. I didn't think it was possible to do jumping jacks with that thing, but it is and it kinda sucks. But, I always feel I'm getting my money's worth when there's a good challenge, so thank you, Jari. I was worried that I would already be familiar with most of the cardio moves since it was an older release, but there was quite a bit of stuff I hadn't tried before. Jari really does try to keep people on their toes with each DVD and I love her for that.

As for the strength and resistance moves, pretty standard mix, but I would definitely recommend that you have a good variety of weights. She frequently switches between deadlifts (heavier), bicep curls (medium to heavy) and tricep extensions (light), so weight variety is pretty much required (the same can be said for all of her other DVDs, more or less).

My only complaint came when she mixed chest presses with chest flies. Other trainers on other DVDs do the same thing and it pisses me off every time. Why? Because I can use much heavier weights for chest presses, but hardly any weight for chest flies. So when you mix the two, I don't feel like I'm getting the full benefit because there's not enough time to swap out my weights. Ah well. That's probably just something me and my wussy arms will have to deal with.

There's also what Jari calls a "push-up party." Ugh. Seventy reps. She breaks them down into intervals of course, but that didn't make them any easier. I'm notorious for my history with push-ups (or lack thereof), so it's probably a good thing that she incorporates them into this workout. Yes, I've heard of the 100 push-up program. I've started, quit and re-started it a few times. I just hate push-ups, yo.

She closes with an ab routine before leading you into a good cooldown. And y'know what? The ENTIRE workout (including the warm-up and cooldown) comes in right at an hour. Usually her workouts stretch into 75 or even 80 minutes, so I was definitely glad to see that it did indeed stop at 60. On the weekends it's not a big deal, but on weekdays, I really do try to keep my morning workouts between 40 and 60 minutes, tops.

I'm done buying DVDs for the moment, haha. I'm really pleased with the new variety. Plenty of options to keep me motivated, especially in the strength/resistance department. Hooray for trying (and enjoying) new things!