Wrap It Up

I think one of my favorite random little jobs that I do at work has to be wrapping gifts. I work for a religious non-for-profit organization and we give away a lot of gifts. No one else in the office likes to wrap so it usually winds up in my to-do pile. It brightens my day every time!

I switched yesterday's #elf4health challenge with today's challenge. I was supposed to try a new workout today and write a note to someone yesterday. Since today is my rest day I decided to switch them.

I feel like I do new workouts all the time but they do all seem very similar. Since I have just now started working out in a gym, I thought I would take advantage of some of the cardio equipment. I usually focus on strength training so even though an eliptical is far from 'something new', I still say it counts!

It was a great workout but I learned the hard way that 0.25 miles is not equal on every elliptical. My workout buddy was finishing her sprint half as fast as I was! I was a little embarrassed until the last round when we decided to switch. It was most definitely the fault of the elliptical!

So today I will be writing someone a lovely note and I will share it with you all tomorrow.

The Food

I grabbed an apple on my way out the door and threw some greek yogurt in my lunch bag to have for a mid morning snack. Apple for breakfast = hungry Amanda by 9am.

Lunch was a beautiful repeat of last night's Spinach and Pepper Jack Stuffed Chicken! Yum.

Before I left I put some beef stew pieces and teriyaki sauce in the crock pot. I meant to call Nathan after 5 hours and have him turn it off but I forgot. So by the time I got home it was way over cooked. I threw in some fresh pineapple, stir fried some veggies and made a side of brown rice. We ate it, but the beef was very tough. I'm sure if we had turned it off in time it would have been wonderful! So now we know better for next time.

Still looks pretty good though don't it?

Your Turn!!

Do you enjoy wrapping presents? Have you messed up a meal lately?

Tri, Tri Again

Yesterday's workout was so much fun! I have been reading some of my favorite blogger's recaps about their workout at Cross Fit One and I have been loving the idea of rotating through different exercises as a team and reaching a collective goal!

So I got a couple friends together to give it a try for myself. We are not CrossFit beasts by any means! And everyone is at different fitness levels, so I wanted to write a workout that would be challenging for everybody, but that everyone could participate in.


This is what I came up with!

Oh man it was killer! We also added the rule that if anyone dropped their weight/wall sit/lateral raise, then everyone had to do 10 burpees at the end. Fortunately, no one did and there were no burpees!!

It was easy to customize this to each fitness level. One friend only held 40 lbs, some of us held weights on the squats, some didn't, some did push ups on their knees, some didn't do a full wall sit, etc.

But I promise, everyone was pushing themselves and sweating up a storm! I bet I am not the only one feeling it this morning!

When we finished, Nathan and I had dinner and then headed out to GNC. I usually stop in when I go to the mall but I very rarely go to the mall. Then, last night I realized that there is one in the shopping center just down the street from our house! Score!

I wanted to get some multivitamins and Nathan wanted some new Protein Powder. The sales associate actually goes to school with Nathan and he was very helpful.

He found what Nathan wanted and it was even on sale!

I am still not too used to spending so much on protein powder. I usually just get the very basic kind that is $20 at most. But he is a bit more serious about muscle building so I think it is worth the investment.

My vitamins were on sale too, kind of!

I had to laugh when the sales associate pointed them out to me. Do I look like I am over fifty?  But then he explained that they were not very different from the Women's active formula that I was wanting (which was not on sale). They have a little less calcium but then come with a supplementary calcium pill.

Save $40 and get more calcium? Sign me up!

And the more I thought about it the more I was happy with this decision. My family has a history of getting osteoporosis very early in life and most of the ladies in my family have a hump on their backs. I would love to avoid that.

We also decided to become card carrying members!

With this card, we will save 20% on every purchase made in the first week of every month, and we saved 15% on our current purchase. We had a great salesman who pointed out that with our 15% savings we would only be paying about $4 to sign up for a year. Savings, savings, savings!!

They also had some samples of vitamin chews that we tried while he rang up our purchases.

Nathan didn't like them at all! I thought they tasted like a dry Star-burst candy. I liked them though! It would be such a fun way to get your vitamins in everyday.

While we were busy critiquing the samples and getting distracted by more friends who happened to come in the store (Nathan knows everybody), our wonderful salesmen was busy loading us up with other free samples!

Check out all we got!!

They were almost all for muscle building so basically for Nathan. But I will be trying a couple of them if I can beat him to them! I will let you know what we think of them.

Well it's almost Thanksgiving! I hope you are busy with your loved ones and all the food you are preparing! So much fun to be had! I have mentioned before, but we have already had our Thanksgiving so this will just be a nice, long, relaxing weekend. Kind of like a vacation that you stay home for. It's a stay-cation!!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving! Indulge a little and stay active!


I was in no way compensated for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Frosty Morning

It's that time of year again. The time of year when I have to wake up early, look out the window, and decide how much time it will take to thaw out my car enough to drive it to work.

It's not too bad so far. But I need a new ice scrapper in a big way! This poor little guy could barley handle the windshield this morning. And it's only November!

I had an awesome one for years! But I let a friend 'borrow' it. You know how it goes ;). (Yay for jean Friday at work!)

The Food

Yesterday morning, since I was so prepared and organized, I grabbed an apple as I flew out the door. Another signature breakfast on the go! What can I say? I have got my life together!

Lunch was my Chinese Surprise leftovers. Not as great the second time. I threw most of it out. Sad day.

But all was well at dinner! Before I made my mad dash out the door, complete with the impressive breakfast in the photo above, I put some chicken in the crock pot! I covered it with chili powder and cumin.....

And then a can of Rotel, undrained.

I set it on low to cook all day while I was at work.

It took me a grand total of three minutes, but when I got home, dinner was ready!

I couldn't believe how easily it shredded with just a fork!

We threw it on some tortillas with guacamole, lettuce, cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Be jealous.

 

(Sorry again for the terrible pics, 

I have hinted enough that I think a camera may be in my Christmas presents!)

I am in love with my slow cooker. 

The Workout

Yesterday's workout was great! It was fast paced and had a great mix of moves which made the time fly by! But make no mistake, my arms were killing me! 

Wooo! I loved the combination of a 'low' move right after a full range move. So challenging!

We spent the rest of the night hanging out with some friends. We hadn't seen them in a while so it was nice to just relax and hang out. 

Your turn!

Do you use a slow cooker very much? (feel free to leave your favorite recipe!)

Have you had to scrape off your windshield yet this year?

Nature Center Workout

Well I have been postponing writing a new post for the past few days. I have been waiting to get the pictures of Nathan's final gifts and of Friday's big surprise. We had a photographer friend take pictures and I can't wait to see how they turn out! I promise I will write all about it when I have the pictures but until then here is what I have been up to.

The Nature Center

For my fun workout on Saturday, a friend and I went to the nature center. I love being out there! It is so beautiful and well taken care of.

There is so much wildlife out there and they are so used to seeing people around that they don't run away and actually let you get pretty close.

There is a snapping turtle in this photo but you can't see him very well.....

Can you spot him??

We had a great time but we decided to make it very challenging. Introducing The Nature Center Workout!!

 

Walking lunges across every bridge may not sound hard but the bottom part of the trail floods terribly and so that entire portion of the trail is a 'bridge.' I'm not gunna lie, it was rough. I would say, we lunged for a total of a little less than half a mile. Whoo!! Good stuff!! There are also a lot of benches and by the final one, my pushups were pretty pathetic. But we got after it and it was worth it!!

Birthday Breakfast

For Nathan's actual birthday, we went to breakfast before he had to go to work. Isn't he cuter at 25 than at 24? I think so!

We went to a great little cafe downtown. They serve farm fresh, free range eggs and sweet browns!!

I got the Executive Breakfast which was three scrambled eggs with cilantro and asiago cheese (my FAAAAvorite!) sweet browns and sausage patties. I got extra sweet browns instead of toast and that was a great decision!!

And I have to say, they had great coffee! I am a bit of a coffee snob, but this stuff was great! The said it was Hero's Coffee. Ever heard of it??

Today

Well I've been a bit sicky today. I called in sick to work and have slept most of the day. That combined with Pepto and a bit of chicken soup and I think I will be back to 100% by morning. At least 80%.... I could make it back to work at 80%.
My wonderful husband takes such good care of me. He brought me the good stuff!!

Mmmm....

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Grocery Bingo and An Egg Experiment

The Workout

Well let me just say that I can't believe I haven't posted this yet. This weekend kicked off my "7 Days of Nathan's Birthday" celebrations so I was running around like a crazy person!! So it's a little late but it's still a great workout!

I named this workout 'Double Duty' because every move (except the cardio moves) works more than one muscle group. My workout buddy had been out of town for a week and unable to workout so I wanted to make sure she was getting a great total body workout while sticking with my schedule of a leg intensive workout. I think this was a great combination of the two!!

The Grocery Bingo

Nathan and I are on the student council for Cord, the married student community at his school. We had our annual Grocery Bingo event this weekend!! It was a blast!

Everyone got to fill out a blank BINGO card and if you won you got to pick out one grocery item.

What a great idea! Who couldn't use a few free groceries??

I had my eye on the watermelon but it was the very first thing to go!

Then I though, laundry soap! That stuff is expensive! And we are almost out!!

They were the very next two things to go!! Great minds... or something like that....

Three guys did all the shopping. So you know the majority of the items were on what I like to call, "The Sin Table."

Just walk away Amanda! It doesn't exist!! Hear no evil, see no evil, EAT no evil!!!


Hahah! In the end I won more than a few times, but all the good stuff was gone so I only picked up a bag of trail mix and passed on my other wins.

So fun!!

The Egg Experiment 

Last Friday, as I was rushing around getting ready for work, I noticed that my planned lunch had already been eaten. I wonder who could have done that?? Well, time to improvise! I had heard that you could make eggs in the microwave, and although that sounded pretty gross to me, I though it was worth a shot.

So I took a bowl and covered it with butter.

Then packed two eggs in a paper towel.

 

And threw all of my normal toppings in a ziplock bag.

Mmmm..... Crushed red pepper.....

So when I got to work, I pulled it all out of the fridge, cracked my eggs into the buttered bowl, covered with a paper towel and stuck it in the microwave.

Since I had never done this before, I checked it all the time. But I think it was about a minute to a minute and a half before they were done.

They were pretty good too! I like my yolk runny which they weren't but they weren't really dry like I thought they would be.

 

I added my cheese and a bit of salsa and I was a happy camper.

I of course prefer them made on the stove, but this is good to know for those times when I have nothing to take for lunch! Easy, fast, cheap, and healthy! All I ever want in a lunch!! 

What is your favorite on-the-go healthy meal? 

Also, I'm still gathering tips for a frugal fitness post! If you have an idea you would like to share I will link to your blog. Comment below or email!! 

11 to 7

Tonight's workout seemed to last forever! It was a challenging circuit workout that kept my heart pumping and my muscles working.

I started out doing each strength training move for 11 reps, and each cardio move for 30 seconds. The second round was only 10 reps, but still 30 second intervals for the cardio moves. Each round was one less rep until I made it through a round with only 7 reps per strength training move, and still 30 seconds for cardio moves.

 Well that's all for tonight! Ta!!