‘ZZA

I felt off for the rest of the day.  My body really missed its lunch time gym session.  In all honesty, I think my body just missed having a break at one point from work.  I never felt at ease with my focusing, my energy or my hunger during the day.  I really wanted to keep snacking but I just wouldn’t let myself. 

Workout
Per my previous post, I was getting worried about my workouts for the rest of the week because of a happy hour tomorrow and leaving early on Friday.  This made me decide to suck it up and do both weight lifting and cardio today at the gym.  This is on top of an 1.5 hour physical therapy session this morning.  I think probably a bit much for my body today.  I really had to dig deep to get through my workout.  It was one of those days where you really want to quit but you know in the back of your head how accomplished you will feel if you just push through.  All the lower body exercises are only my left leg.  My right knee was still very sore after PT this morning and I knew I had already worked the muscles enough for one day.

Weight Lifting

Exercise	Weight	Reps/Sets
Bench Press	2 20lb weights	8/3
Shoulder Press	2 17.5lb weights	8/3
Bicep Curls	2 17.5lb weights	8/3
Tricep kickbacks	2 17.5lb weights	8/3
Seated rows	2 15lb weights	8/3
Pushups on Bosu		10/3
Leg Press on machine (L only)	110lbs	8/3
Squats (L only)	2 10lb weights	8/3
Calf Raises (L Only)	NA	10/3

This took about 30 minutes.  I was exhausted.  My muscles were still quite sore from Monday’s lifting session.  I wanted to do a little more upper body (the pull up/dip assist machine specifically) but the gym was crowded and I just couldn’t wait any longer

Then I did my cardio

Equipment	Time	Intensity
Elliptical	20 minutes	Level 6
Treadmill	10 minutes	4.1 mph at 3.8 incline
Stationary Bike	10 minutes	Level 6

I was just felt weak when I was leaving the gym and knew that I hadn’t packed anything for the ride home (I wasn’t planning on working out after work tonight) so I grabbed something out of the gym’s vending machine.  You would think a gym would sell better things than the crap that is in there….I mean, poptarts, snickers, etc.  That is absurd.  I went for what I thought was the best choice (they did have trail mix but I didn’t want anymore)

I ate about 2/3rds of this sugar bag of crap on the way home.  And it tasted wonderful.

While I was getting things ready for dinner, I snacked on two of these:

Unfortunately that isn’t icing….because, well that would have tasted amazing.  Instead it is fat free cream cheese on a little piece of graham cracker.

Dinner
I decided to have pizza tonight for dinner.  We love making pizza at home because neither of us are huge cheese or sauce fans.  I got a bag of whole wheat pizza dough at Trader Joe’s on Saturday, which is just AMAZING.  I ended up forming the 12″ crust into 4 separate mini pizzas so we could top each one differently.  I went through the fridge and just pulled out everything that was in there that I thought would taste good on pizza.

On that plate there is spinach, tomato, red bell pepper, zucchini, edamame, 2 garlic cloves, more tomatoes, broccoli and bean sprouts.  In the middle is a blue cheese and then 2 cheese that we had in the freezer—caraway feta and cheddar.  We ordered some insane amount of cheese for our wedding and the waiters failed to replenish all the cheese plates, so we ended up with about 10 lbs of cheese to take home.  We may work through this cheese for the rest of our lives.  At least each block is a different kind and it is amazing Wisconsin homemade cheese.  From this dairy.  Anyway, thank god for vacuum sealers! 

I also cooked 1 chicken breast:

and here are the condiment/sauces I broke out:

(yes, I know that BBQ is loaded with corn syrup–but at least it is not HFCS!)

So we made four different pies.   I cooked these 2 at a time on a large pizza stone in a 425degree oven on the upper rack.  I cooked the first ones for 8 minutes and the second ones for 10 minutes.  I feel like the crust could have been crispier, so I think I would increase the temperature in the oven next time.  The bag of dough is meant to make a 12″ crust pizza, which means that by my making 4 smaller portions of dough and then cutting each pie into 7 or 8 pieces, that about every 3 pieces equals a slice of normal size pizza.

First pie–Italian.

This one had pesto, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, bean sprouts and the caraway cheese

Second pie–BBQ Chicken

This one had BBQ, chicken, tomatoes, garlic, shallots and cheddar cheese

Third Pie–Veggie

This one had simply garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, bean sprouts, basil, zucchini, crushed red pepper and Blue cheese

Fourth Pie–Asian

(Yes, trying to use those remaining ingredients from last night!)

This one had garlic wasabi sauce, chicken, bamboo shoots, edamame, red bell peppers, bean sprouts, soy sauce and pine nuts

Neither of us could decide which was our favorites.  I really liked the Asian one and the veggie one because of the incredible blue cheese!

Here are my (multitude) plates.  These are on a small appetizer plate. 

First pieces were of the BBQ and the Italian. 

Then while we were waiting on the second two pizza’s to finish cooking, I had another piece of BBQ

I also had a side salad to give me something else to munch on instead of just more pizza.  My salad was about 1 cup of spinach with a handful of blueberries thrown on top.  There is about 2tsp of pine nuts and 1T of Newman’s Light Honey Mustard Dressing on there.  In all honesty, these flavors didn’t really blend well with the pizza, but at least it looked pretty!

Then out came the second pies.

One piece of the veggie and a piece of the Asian.

I was stuck trying to decide which I liked best, the Asian on the veggie, so I had to have another taste test.

The veggie.

Another piece of the Asian.

Because of the blue cheese—i think the veggie one won.  And now it looks like Justin has plenty of left over pizza to take to work tomorrow.  I had a total of 7 pieces, which is a little more than 2 slices of pie (2 1/3 slices to be exact) of what I think is fairly ‘healthy’ pizza.  I think this made for a very successful Wednesday evening. I was going to do abs tonight but my body is simply exhausted.  Now I am having a little night time snack/ crunch before I go to bed.  It is soy chocolate milk with a little bit of kashi go lean crunch and mixed nuts.   The milk is in a little mason jar glass.  Probably holds 3/4 cup of milk.

Jicama failed me

I just feel off today.  And by off, I mean, under-motivated.  I just want to read blogs instead of work today.  Oh yes, and my body wants to keep eating.  It is demanding for sweet things and things with a crunch.  Hopefully I am stronger than my cravings.  A nap would help fix all these things but I think someone may notice me with my head down in my cube.  At my previous job I had a nice office with an amazing view.  I loved closing the door and taking a quick cat nap under my desk.  I even knew of co-workers that had a pillow hidden in their office.

Do any of you other food bloggers feel like you are eating all the time?  I don’t know if it is because I actually do eat all the time or if I just think about food all the time, but it seems to be this ever present topic in my mind.  By the time I go to bed some nights I just feel exhausted by food and because of that, I feel like I must have overeaten.

Lunch
Yesterday at the grocery store I bought a jicama.  I have never bought one before and was feel adventurous and excited (except when the damn thing rung up for $5.07).  I got home and chopped up about 1/4 of it and put it into a container with some cucs, a little soybean oil, a bit of shallot, some balsamic vinegar, red bell peppers, fresh cilantro and some crushed red pepper.  I was thrilled that this would get to sit overnight and all day and really absorb all the flavors.

And then I tasted it.

It tasted like wood.  Ugh.  But I still finished it.

Luckily my sandwich was fresh and tasty (albeit a bit soggy)

Just 2 slices of whole wheat bread with some cucs, red bell pepper, hummus, sliced tomato, sprouts and salt/pepper.

I like a hearty, yet light sandwich.

I stole one of Justin’s yogurt’s–not as exciting as the green tea matcha from yesterday, but this will do.  I liked that the raspberry was at the bottom.  I froze it like normal and when I dug into it, the tip of my spoon would have some of that really really sweet raspberry puree on it. 

 

I need some caffeine to get myself moving but I am not allowing myself a diet coke.  I have a cup of lipton black tea, straight up, in front of me now.  Hopefully this will get me going. 

PM Snack
For my afternoon snack, I am planning on having this

Just a trail mix concoction that I made up this morning. Kashi go Lean crunch, some lightly salted edamame, some mixed nuts, some dried fruit and a few chocolate chip crumbles.  That container holds about 1/3 cup.

I also bought these yesterday at Whole Foods because I have seen them on so many other blogs.  Yes, this all explains why my groceries were so expensive this week!!

I must stay motivated and get to the gym tonight.  If I had known that I was waiting until tonight to do my cardio, then I would have brought my swim suit and workout outside.  But I do not trust myself at all to go all the way home for the suit and still manage to make it back out. 

My week is getting more and more hectic.  Tomorrow I need to lift and do cardio.  And my friend Gavin is heading back to San Diego on Monday and I want to see him before he goes, so he asked if I want to do happy hour tomorrow night.  Then Friday at 7AM I have physical therapy again and then I am supposed to leave for the beach (Bethany) at noon on Friday through Sunday.  I really would like to get some cardio in on Friday before I leave but I am riding with someone else (my boss’ boss, who is also Justin’s cousin’s husband.  nepotism is how I got my job.  But I wasn’t married into the family when I was hired.)  Anyway, I don’t know if he will wait for me to go work out.

It Takes Time

That was the banner hanging up at the physical therapy office I went to today.  It couldn’t be more true.  I guess that statement holds true to just about everything in life that you have to work towards.  It Takes Time.

PT was interesting today.  I really liked the place, which was excellent.  I was hoping for an experience like this one: “Chad” but alas, I was kind of let down.  But I do think they can at least help me with my running abilities.  My quads and calves apparently are still very weak.  So they had me ride the bike for 10 minutes to warm up, then did a TON of different single leg exercises and then iced and stemmed me. I must say, I am glad I went.  Tom made me do a lot of exercises that hurt and that I know I wouldn’t have done on my own because I would have been worried they were detrimental to my knee.  I will be spending time with Tom and the other lovely PT 2 days a week for the next 5 weeks.

PT was at 8:30 this morning, which threw my whole schedule off (and means I probably shouldn’t take a lunch break/gym break today seeing I didn’t get into the office until 10:30.) 

On the way to the PT office, I ate this:

Sorry–I forgot to take a photo until I had already had a few bites.  It is just a slice of whole wheat bread toast with a thin smear of natural PB.  And yes, that is my gas light the you see on, because well, GAS IS TOO EXPENSIVE!

Breakfast
After PT I got into the office and finally had my breakfast.  I took 1/2 cup of regular oats mixed with 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of liquid oats.  Added about 1T (packed) of raisins, 1/2 a banana, 1T of flax seed and 1T of fage.  I put all this into my lovely Pampered Chef Chillzanne Mini-Bowl so that it would stay nice and cold while it sat in my car.  (Yes, I know I should work for Pampered Chef seeing I push their products so much, but well, that would require a 30 hour day not a 24 hour day.)  When I got to work, my oats were nice and cold and tasted basically like overnight oats.

I had brought a morning snack but seeing PT lasted forever (and my knee hurts like hell), I probably won’t be eating it.  When I am in pain, I really lose my appetite.  And I also feel like I have eaten plenty.

And for reasons of full disclosure…I had a little snack last night.