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.

Short but Sweet

Exercise: 40 mins elliptical 25 mins strength

Somehow it's already 10pm which means it's bedtime. I feel so behind on everything, especially this blog. I promise I'll catch up one of these days but the next 3 days are jam packed with kid stuff, appt's, business dinners. The usual.

Well, if I don't get to bed now that opens up the possibility of getting very little sleep depending on Little Man's schedule. Enjoy the rest of you week and I'll try to check in.

Little Man says hi!

Hello New Hotness

Exercise: 4 mile run-9:30 avg pace

I gots me a new jogger... Hello New Hotness

Goodbye old and busted

I loved my old jogger but apparently plastic wheels MELT. It wasn't like an oozing melt but the wheels warped so the tires no longer fit and made all the wheels wobble. No bueno. Also, the front wheel unlocks so it has a slight wobble as well. But all in all, this jogger probably ran and walked close to 1500 miles. That's like 5 pairs of shoes. And you know good running shoes can cost you a $100 a pair, so 1500 miles on $119 stroller is pretty awesome. Also this stroller has all the bells and whistles intact like a movable canopy, 2 cup holders, an ipod jack, huge under carriage basket and child drink and snack tray. Even with the wheel issue I highly recommend this stroller.

I am already loving my new jogger though. It has no wheel resistance which makes pushing 40 pounds easy peasy. It didn't come with cup holders but Music Man installed a bike bottle cage and I will probably install another. The only thing I really missed was the child snack tray but I'll figure out how to hack that eventually.

I took the new jogger out for the first time Sunday. I'm used to having the top cup holders and I use one for my water and one for my phone. Since this jogger only has one bottle holder I used it for my water and stowed my phone in the storage basket. The only problem with this is that I use my phone instead of a Garmin, so I couldn't check my pace. I knew this beforehand and decided that I would just do my 6 mile run at a comfortably hard pace. I was getting a great cardio workout, feeling my heart pound, but could talk and enjoy the run. I loved not paying attention to my pace. I did worry that I wasn't going fast enough but I relied completely on the way I felt. And guess what? My average pace was 9:15!!! 9:15 with a jogger, not tracking my pace, running comfortably! What a difference a stroller makes.

I have been photographing my meals but have had a crazy last few days. So here are a few pics and I'll start fresh tomorrow.

Oatmeal with chia seeds, peanut butter, strawberries and brown sugar. Tasted like a pb&j. yum!

Baby Greens with brown rice, madras lentils and home grown tomatoes

Steak, broccoli and penne inspired by Gourmet Runner

I have many more weekend photos I'll post tomorrow but Music Man needs to borrow the lap top and I don't want to switch to another computer soooo...

Night Night