Mother of the Year?

Exercise: 40 mins elliptical and 15 mins strength

It was a perfect day and so far a perfect evening. Little Man and I did some finger painting, made a hand print sculpture and then took a bike ride to the park. Pretty awesome. Then...Little Man put himself to bed. He was cranky during dinner, I couldn't even get him to eat an oven fry, which is his favorite. As soon as he got down from the high chair he ran to his bed and tried to climb in. So we just put him to bed, dirty clothes and all. No bath. And he's been sleeping ever since. Mother of the year? It was pretty amazing though ;)

Artistic genius!!!! ;)

Today's pic: Music man was a bit worried about my pregnancy mold in the upper right corner because it just looks like boobs. So FYI, it's not just a sculpture of boobs. 

Short and sweet for tonight because tomorrow is our last day together before Music Man leaves for New York. Thinking about a longish run tomorrow but haven't quite decided. We'll see. But now we are relaxing with a bottle of awesome cabernet and waiting for some pb brownies to finish baking. Have a fabulous weekend. I know I will ;)

Either/Or

Exercise: 7 mi run/ no idea what pace. Around 9:30 or 9:45 avg?

Little Man and I went out for our longish run today. I had planned to just do my easy 4 mile loop because Music Man is home but he suggested I run as long as I want (makes it easier for him to work without us as distractions.) So I upped my mileage to 6 and Music man was like "Might as well make it 9." I guess he really wanted us out of the house. ;)

I am still super sore from my Tuesday double and didn't think I had 9 in me but thought I could make it to 7. So we ran 5 miles to a nice playground and Little Man played for half an hour and we ran 2 miles home. It was a perfect distance in nearly perfect weather. A great start to the day.

So here's my dilemma: Urban Running Blogger Summit and Las Vegas 1/2 or Xterra Crystal Cove Trail Run?
I think it would be so fun to go to a blogger conference just to see what it's all about and to hear a ton of bloggers I follow speak. This seems like a good one because my in-laws are in Vegas so I'd have free room and board as well as a babysitter. (If you're reading this, Cathy, don't worry, it's not set in stone ;) And the Rock n' Roll is the following day so it would make sense to make it a package deal. But the Rock n' Roll is kinda spendy and I also don't know what Music Man's schedule is and would hate to make the trip without him.

I already had the Xterra in mind as training for the 2012 Bulldog and it's super close to my parents. The trail head is actually walkable from my parents house, in fact, I've probably done it close to 100 times. But only run the trails maybe 5 times. And although this is the the obvious choice I now have the darn blogger conference in my head and am willing to give up this training run/race in order to go.

So now my running and conference attending fate is in the hands of Music Man. Let's hope he has time off so I can get to Vegas! But truthfully, I guess I'm happy either way. Either/Or.

And here's today's pic:

Please remind me to stay away from stripes next time ;)

Have a happy Friday!

Moms, Kids, Fitness

Exercise: 4 mile walk

Music Man is working at home the next few days which means my free time is being spent with the family instead of blogging. It's seriously so nice to see him, especially since he'll be out of town next week finishing up Regina's album. He also had 2 albums he worked on this year released yesterday, Mastodon and Switchfoot, so he's in pretty good spirits.

Yesterday was an exercise crazy day. I did a 4 mile tempo run in the morning with an average pace of 9:02 with the stroller, it felt really good too. Then in the afternoon I kinda taught a group fitness class for the moms club I belong to. I say kinda because I'm not a fitness instructor, not certified, but I'm very interested in it and have some knowledge. I'm actually thinking of getting NASM certified because I enjoyed teaching so much.

There were 4 of us moms and 4 kids including a 6 week old. We were lucky to have a sports court at one of the mom's house to utilize and I brought all my weights and we did a hardcore 40 minute class. I incorporated lots of squats, lunges, sprints and skips with upper body as well, tons of compound movements; I killed them.

But I loved it for so many more reasons than just because I got to teach. I loved having this workout with other moms because there are so many reasons that make it hard for a mom to get a work out in but we did it. We had our kids playing and running across the court. It was chaos. We got to take care of ourselves while  our kids had a blast. We didn't have to pay sitters or for an expensive class or membership. Just a few motivated moms. What could be better?

Here's yesterday's very fuzzy self portrait:

In Little Man's very messy room. And speaking of Little Man. We just got his Halloween costume. Very cute I think he is, yes?

I'll try to get Music Man to take better photos while he's around.

Have a great rest of your week.

It Could Happen to You

Exercise: 45 mins elliptical intervals, speed and resistance. 20 mins strength

5k recap: Not much to say. It was the inaugural Peace Walk and Run so it was a little disorganized. It was fairly small so I was hoping to get a medal but a girl passed me at the very end, and just my luck, she got the 3rd place medal. Oh well, 4th isn't too bad. Especially since my 5k time was relatively slow at 25:40/ 8:16 avg pace. I also think the course was a little short but my gps didn't work so I think my pace might have been closer to 8:20. But it's still a win in my mind since it's only been in the last year that I've run sub 10 min/miles. Color me happy.

The last few days have been a bit annoying. Starting Friday my car decided not to start because the battery came unplugged. I suspect foul play ;) It's just so weird. Then Saturday I was up all night with Little Man before the 5k which probably isn't the reason for my slow time but a good excuse none the less. And then this morning I woke up to Little Man giggling, then making knocking sounds, then crying. I went into his room and he was standing in his crib totally naked and the bed was covered with pee and... I've heard of this type of thing occurring but honestly, never thought it could happen to me. So beware moms and moms-to be, your kid might do this. In general, around 15 months, your child is up to no good and I think this lasts for a good year and a half. Yay. ;)

Now on to less disgusting things. Lots of yummy food has been eaten since Music Man was home for a few meals this weekend.

I promise the steak wasn't that grey, oh well. tasted great with the beet salad and twice baked potatoes.

Sunday spinach cheese omelet with toast and orange slices

Leftover steak and massaged kale and all the veggies I could find, topped with goat cheese

Getting ready to dig into my pulled pork sandwiches 

Yes sandwichES!!!

Carolina bbq pulled pork topped with coleslaw and corn on the side

Best. BBQ. Ever

And because 2 sandwiches is never enough, dinner 2

Our Vietnamese neighbors brought over shrimp and scallion crepes. So Awesome!

Unfortunately we had no belly room left for them but so rad anyways

Breakfast for the little monkey

Pulled pork salad, I love you

BBQ tofu quesadilla w/ spinach and beet salad. 

Wasn't sure about this meal but it was a huge win for just under 500 cals

So I finished my 21 days and photographed a huge amount of my food, but didn't lose much weight. I've been exercising and eating a pretty well rounded diet so I'm thinking I may be at my happy weight? In a perfect world I'd be skinnier but I'm healthy and this weight seems maintainable, but we'll see. So I'm going to finish my 21+ days, til my vacation starts, October 27th with a photo of myself a day. The pic of me eating will be today's photo but I'll try to do standing ones from here on out to see if we notice any progress. I'm doing great with my exercise routine so I just need to focus on my eating, which is the hard part for me. Hello 2 sandwiches!

Have a great week!

Pass

Oh man, I've seriously been up all night with a very angry Little Man. Molars are no joke. I can tell he feels awful and there's not much that can be done to ease his pain. He's sleeping somewhat peacefully now and I am desperately trying to wake up and muster some semblance of energy so I can try to run this race. I am soooo glad I invested in some Red Bull yesterday, otherwise I don't think I could do it.

I've decided to allow myself a pass for this race. As long as I run sub 27 I'll consider it a good effort, although I'm still hoping for 25:21 or below. Cross your fingers and toes for me!

I'm off to make some peanut butter toast for breakfast. Have a great Sunday and I'll be back later with a race recap.

Ya Got Trouble

Here's a little video of the last band Music Man worked with. You get to see a few shots of Music Man (nerd glasses and black sweatshirt hovering over knobs and buttons.)

FYI: Video is a little NSFW

Massaged Kale, My New Love

Exercise: 25 mins easy elliptical

Today is my rest day for this week due to my race tomorrow. I decided to make it an active rest day because I haven't gotten a bunch of miles in this week so I don't have to worry about over-stressing myself. Also, I am one of those people that has to work out. Not so much because I think I'll get fat if I don't but because my head needs it.

When I was younger I had quite a bit of energy that I didn't know how to harness. I actually had a doctor suggest to me that I practice Sufism to become a whirling dervish so I would have a positive way to direct my energy. Crazy! I wish I had found running then, but that took a few more years. The point is that now I have to exercise daily to direct my energy in a positive way. Otherwise I can get very worked up over unimportant things. Working out is just as good for me mentally as physically.

Now I'm off to run some errands I wasn't able to get to yesterday afternoon because my car wouldn't start. This is the second time in a few months and I was so worried we'd have to think about buying a new car or ways we could be a 1 car family. But Music Man took a look at the engine and the battery had come disconnected. Weird, right? He said it probably happened last time it was in the shop. I guess we won't be going to that mechanic anymore.

I'll leave with with some delicious photos.

I had apples, pears and strawberry Fage Greek yogurt but I made ww french toast for the boys with sliced fruit on the side

Veggies from the garden for my lunch massaged kale salad 

Kale massaged with my favorite Trader Joe's balsamic vinaigrette mixed with all my sliced veggies and topped with a big dollop of hummus. Grissini on the side. 

(This was my first massaged kale salad and it will definitely not be my last. I have never been a huge fan of kale which is weird because cabbage is one of my favorite foods, second only to peanut butter. Kale chips are not my favorite, but this salad was amazing.)

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Five for Friday

1. Grey's Anatomy> Sitting at the computer. Phone blogging is awesome.

2. My lap top is not only really dead, it's really, really, really dead.

3. Exercise today was not as planned, naturally. I had wanted to do a timed mile but had a super busy morning. So instead of a race pace run I did some crazy intervals on the elliptical with one 7:30 min interval at what felt like 100 percent. I figure it was good training at least.

4. Instead of my run Little Man and I played with friends at the park for 2 hours and later went to Whole foods for a little shopping and a yummy lunch of garlic broccoli, saag paneer and mac n' cheese. Heaven.

5. So because I'm still losing weight I have thrown away all my large sizes and have a very limited wardrobe. Last week, at some point, I ripped the crotch out of one of my only pairs of jeans and had no idea until WAAAYYY later that night. Yeah, I walked around oblivious to my crotchless pants for a good 3 hours. Awesome.

Have an awesome weekend!

Adjustments and Healthy Spinach Quiche Recipe

Exercise: 45 mins elliptical intervals (nothing crazy, just a bit faster and slower so I didn't get bored out of my mind) and 20 mins strength

My whole schedule has been crazy this week, I missed a few runs and made some adjustments with plans to run Wednesday and Thursday and then Saturday and Sunday. Looks like I'll be making some more adjustments because I totally forgot I have a race Sunday. Oops. It's only a 5k which is fine and totally workable but I feel unprepared because I was hoping to PR and I'm not sure if that's realistic now. So I took off running today and will take off Saturday as well. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get in a timed mile so I can estimate my 5k goal. For now I'm hoping for 24:59 but I'll be pleased with 25:21 and fine as long as it's below 27 in the below 9 min mile range.

In more exciting news, I LOVED my meals today. Little Man actually took a decent nap which left me time for my workout and time to prep lunch and dinner.

Breakfast was peanut butter puffins in coconut milk...seriously my fave

Spinach Slaw

BBQ Tofu

Complete lunch with bbq tofu sandwich topped with slaw and carrots and hummus on the side

Healthy Spinach Quiche

Spinach quiche with baby green salad

Healthy Spinach Quiche Recipe

Filling:

1/2 onion

1 T olive oil

4 C fresh spinach- chopped

4 eggs or 1C egg substitute

1 C milk or non dairy milk (I used coconut)

1/2 C and 1/4 C shredded cheese of your choice ( I used light mozzarella) separated

1/2 t garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Crust:

1 1/4 C flour ( I used 3/4 C ww, 1/4 C oat bran, 1/2 C brown rice flour)

1/4 C + 1 T butter or spread

1/2 t slat and sugar

2-3 T ice water

Directions:

preheat oven to 350

put flour, butter, salt and sugar in food processor and pulse until it resembles sand. Add water 1 t at a time until you get a crumbly dough. Super crumbly is fine as long as it can be pressed into the pan

press dough into un-greased cake or pie pan and put in freezer while you prepare the filling

saute onion in olive oil until translucent and add chopped spinach until completely wilted, remove from heat

mix the remaining ingredients reserving the 1/4 C of cheese in a large bowl

add the spinach mixture to the egg mixture by T at first to temper (otherwise you get scrambled eggs)

remove crust from freezer and pour filling in until level

top with remaining cheese

bake 35-45 minutes until golden brown on top

Enjoy!

* This can be adapted to whatever is in your fridge: asparagus, broccoli, ham, bacon, fakon, soy cheese or daiya, etc.

Just a Little Feature

I am super excited to be featured on Workout Mommy today! Take a look.

Fit mommy Lauren | Workout Mommy

What a Difference a Day Makes

Exercise: 8 miles- around 9:50 pace

So yeah, the last few days haven't been awesome. Sick baby= no bueno. Luckily, today feclt so much better and I got an 8 mile run in with Little Man and he was, pretty much, an angel for the bulk of the miles. Around mile 7 he got antsy so I let him out when we got back to the neighborhood so he could walk a bit. I actually ran 7.75 miles and walked the rest with him, but close enough.

I made his morning stroller confinement up to him with an afternoon trip to My Gym, a stop at Music Man's studio and a trip to the park. I think I made my first park mommy friend as well, I think we really hit it off. I hope she calls ;) Ha.

Here are a few pics from the last few days

Breakfast Sammy: A weird one but it's what sounded good when I woke up Tuesday. Spinach, avocado and mozzarella on ww bread. Little man was sick and wouldn't eat anything I prepared but he ate the heck out of this. In fact, he has totally been into spinach the last few days, which is full of vitamins so it makes me happy.

Dinner last night was red bean stew. Similar recipe to beef stew but red beans and veggie broth sub for beef. I added in a teeny tiny amount of smoke flavor to give it a meaty taste and my chef friend gave me a great tip on stews to give it a deeper taste. 1/4 cup brewed coffee to 4 cups liquid. You can't recognize the flavor, but it works.

I ate the stew for every meal today. I just added in some spinach, which I do for most dishes when I can get away with it. 

Now it's marathon TV time, I'm loving Up All Night (could be because I'm a new parent) Free Agents (my husband's doppelganger is the grocery clerk) and the music is super fun and ANTM!!!! I'm a tween. Modern Family in the morning woot woot!

Have a great Wednesday!

What 8 Miles Looks Like

When it's Noon and 80+*. Pretty, no? :)

Change-up

Exercise: 45 mins strength and elliptical intervals

I took my own advice for once and just fit in what exercise I could. It ended up being pretty decent. Last night was super rough and I got a grand total of 4 hours of sleep (it reminded me of those early days of motherhood except I seemed much more chipper 5 weeks postpartum) so I knew today could be equally as rough.

Luckily the Little Man is napping peacefully and his fever is way down which is good for him as well as me. That means I actually got more time to work out than expected. And I changed things up from my normal routine to make sure I could get in some strength training. I normally start with 40+ mins elliptical and then 20-25 mins strength but I mixed it up today.

*Here's the interval workout I did that got my heart pumping and sweat pouring:

5 mins-warm up on elliptical
4 mins- Elliptical Tabata
4 mins- 2 sets, 1 min each walking sumo squats with lateral raises and alternating lunges
4 mins-Tabata
4 mins- 2 sets, 1 min each uneven squat with leg raise and bent over bicep curls and a step back with toe tap
4 mins-Tabata
4 mins- 2 sets, 1 min each alternating static lunges with tricep kick back and static sumo squats with hammer curls
4 mins-Tabata
7- mins **Fitnessista Ab Burner, oblique crunches and 15 push-ups
5 mins- cool down on elliptical

*I feel like I need to say that I'm not a physician or personal trainer I just like finding new workouts and sharing them. I like to push myself but never to extreme discomfort. Work it out, but chill out if you feel any discomfort.

** I get a ton of workouts from Fitnessista, Carrots N' Cake and One Fit Foodie. I highly recommend visiting these sites for new ideas.

What's your favorite workout?

A Note

I just wanted to let you all know that I will now be writing in this blog only. It makes more sense to me to have a blog that incorporates all my interests: running, babies, food, design, etc.  I went ahead and imported all my old blogs and posts into this one so you can see what I've been up to since early 2009.

I've Got a Feeling... and a Fit Mommy Tip

Exercise: 20 mins HIIT on elliptical with 5 mins each cool down and warm up.

Tonight's not going to be a good night. Oooh man today has been rough. After being up multiple times in the night Little man woke up pretty grumpy with a low grade fever we attributed to teething. It kept rising throughout the day and spiked to 104 this evening. I was on my way to take him to Urgent Care but he fell asleep in the car. I turned around and transferred him to his crib and I've decided to let him sleep and check on him every hour with the temporal thermometer. It makes me a little nervous, especially since Music Man isn't here to calm my nerves. I've only been a little out of my mind ;) And I fear sleep may be shoddy at best again tonight.

We have a fairly regular schedule around here and today has been totally off so it feels really weird. I even forgot to eat lunch. I never do that. I knew I wasn't going to be able to get in a normal workout so I just decided to do what I could. Today I decided to just focus on some HIIT to get the most bang for my buck. And it was a fantastic work out. I was pouring with sweat. It made me think of how hard it is for busy moms to get in a workout so...

Fit Mommy Tip #1

Do what you can when you can and make it count. So often we find ourselves strapped with time constraints and we blow off doing a workout because we can only fit in 20 minutes. 20 minutes is enough time to burn 200-300 calories depending on your size. That's like a glass or 2 of wine or a small dessert or a big yummy salad. And a 200-300 calorie deficit a day results in about a 2 pound monthly weight loss, which is awesome.

Some things you can do:

*Elliptical: 2 min warm up. 5- 3 min intervals of 1 min low intensity, 1 med, 1 high and 3 min cool down.

*Treadmill: 2 min warm up. I would do 1 min at 5mph, 1 at 7mph then 1 at 8mph or something like that then 3 min cool down. You could also heighten the intensity with incline and go a bit slower.

*Street: Do a walk/ jog warm up then jog 1 min, run 1 min, sprint 1 min then cool down.

*You can also just do 1 min high, 1 low or 30 sec high and 1 min low. These can be altered with a shorter warm up and cool down to be effective even if you only have 10-15 minutes. You can even try some Tabata. Do what works for your body. But WORK IT OUT. It's not worth it to mess around.

*I am a huge fan of Jillian Michaels' DVDs, she is no nonsense and if you follow her instruction you can get a good workout in a short amount of time.

*If you want to get a bit more advanced look here for some good workouts

Never again do you have to blow off a workout because you only have a short period of time.

Have a great evening and a great start to your week.

Piecemeal Run

Exercise: 4 mile run 9:22 pace, 2 mile jog 11:30 pace, 1 mile walk 17:25 pace

I knew I wanted to get at least 6 miles in but because I had grumpy Little Man in the jogger I had to break up the run a bit. The first 4 miles I ran a comfortably hard pace around our lake to a play ground and we stopped for about 30 minutes so Little Man could burn some energy. Then I got him back in the stroller and we jogged another mile and a half to the farmers market on a slightly flat wheel. But Little Man got tons of samples of strawberries, orange slices, plums and even fresh peach juice. I decided to walk/jog home since my wheel was getting flatter by the second. Then we swapped strollers and took the pups for a quick walk. Overall I was pretty happy with my run as it was a beautiful day and I got a ton accomplished. Sweet morning.

Here's some eats:

MMMMM Bacon! with some eggs and toast

BACON part II. BLT on marbled rye with heirloom tomatoes and baby greens. The most delectable strawberries ever! 

Plum cake prior to baking: gluten free cake mix with apple sauce instead of butter with a pinwheel of super ripe sliced plums

And after: topped with cinnamon and sugar 10 minutes before removing from the oven

Sunday burger with fry duo

Yum

Five for Friday

I finally remembered to post a Five for Friday!

I've finally gotten around to finishing a few projects in the house

1. Dining room arrangement with new rug and mural. Still needs a low and wide plant near the window, or something, but it's coming together

2. Refinished dining room buffet in antiqued green and added new hardware

3. Bought a new entry cabinet and refinished it in antiqued green. Still need to change out the lamps

4. New rug and pillows help to coordinate living room with dining room

5. Still to do: re-cover dining room chair seats, paint entry shoe cabinet and living room side table yellow, change out entry lamps. Then I will feel like our home is somewhat put together. I would still like to replace our organ with a piano or something not so 70's, but things look civilized for now. 

Catch up

Exercise: Nada so far. Planned 6 mile out and back with a stop at Music man's studio for a lunch drop off and a stop at the park for Little Man.

I finally feel like I have a second to breathe. This week has been a little busier than I enjoy. I get overwhelmed really quick so when I have to plan multiple events around nap times and all our other activities I tend to get worked up. But all is well thus far.

I've had 2 nights out this week with the help from babysitters for Little Man. It was stressful to get the outings planned and actually get there (that's how life is with a toddler) but once out, both evenings were really fun. I attended my first Moms Night Out which was a blast. It is so nice to get out once in a while and have an adult conversation with people who need it as much as you do. I definitely used to take going out at night for granted.

Last night we had a business dinner sorta thingy. There wasn't much business discussed for once; usually there is always gear talk and all the girls just sigh and roll their eyes. It was actually more of a relaxing meal. We went out with the singer Music Man is working with, Regina Spektor. She was so sweet and sent us home with her leftover steak for our pups. Well, actually, I stole it from the waiter's hands as he was taking it away. But the point is that my dogs got the dregs of a celebrity's NY strip ;) Ha!

This weekend is pretty mellow too. Music Man has to work a bit tomorrow, but then we're gonna bbq. And Sunday Music Man would normally take a long ride in preparation for his century on October 2nd but he had to cancel it to go to NY for work. I'm just glad we get to hang out with him.

Here are some photos of food and things.

Monday:

My current fave: oats with berries, pb and brown sugar

Greens with black beans, corn, mixed veggies, crumbled sweet potato chips and TJ's Greek feta dressing

Spinach and sausage pizza

Tuesday:

3 pints of strawberries from the farmers' market means I put that sh!t on everything ;)

See what I mean? strawberry wrap with triple cream brie, fig jam, walnuts, baby greens and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. Just a note, Little Man went crazy over this wrap

Sorry about the unappetizing photo. This is my toddler meal. oat bran encrusted chicken tenders and zucchini "fries" and mashed sweet potatoes. This meal was a total hit.

Thursday

Look at that grin. You know he got me up before 6 on purpose

Overcast morning= hearty breakfast of potato, spinach, mozzarella scramble and ww toast

Playing fetch. What happens when you have dogs before children

Friday

Oats with banana and pb

WW rotini with coconut alfredo and broccoli

Afternoon tea and graham crackers and pb

Whew! All caught up. Let's hope for a more mellow September because October signals the beginning of the holiday season and 3 months of me going nuts. woo

I'll send you off with Little Man and his food love, not a pb lover like his mom.