Elf For Health 2013 – Day 1

Holiday season is starting and right in step with it comes this year’s Elf For Health Challenge. 

Lindsay and Elle are our head elves, and they have put together 4 weeks of challenges to help keep us on track over the holiday season.  There are over 800 elves participating this year!  Each one of us has been paired with another Elf to cheer on during the challenge.  I look forward to getting to know my first Elf, Suzanne, over the next couple of weeks, and cheering her on as she is in the final stages of training for a full marathon that she will run in 3 weeks!  Go Suzanne! 

Over the 4 weeks that Elf for Health runs, there are small daily challenges to help us eat healthy, stay active, and not forget about ourselves during this busy time.  Here’s what we have in store for the next 4 weeks:

Today’s challenge is to go meatless.  Meatless Monday has become a regular part of many people’s food regime.  I haven’t converted completely to it, but every once in a while will do a meatless meal.  It’s purely accidental if it falls on a Monday. 

I planned out my meals, snacks, workouts, and home life schedule yesterday.  Then I remembered today was supposed to be meatless for the challenge.  I had to shift a few things around, and we will now be having a meatless meal tonight, instead of Wednesday night.  We will be having one of my favourites from Clean Eating magazine: African Peanut Stew. 

I’ve made this a few times before and hubs and the kids like it.  I love it!  The spicy peanut flavour is just so good.  I usually skip the rice as the stew is quite filling all on its own.  At this point I use the recipe as a guide, so it’s always just a bit different, but always delicious.  I can’t wait to see how it turns out tonight!

Breakfast wasn’t meatless, as I had sausage alongside my eggs and sweet potato hash.  Lunch became meatless as I picked out the chicken from my leftover chicken and veggie stir-fry, adding it to tomorrow’s lunch.  Today’s was still delicious and still very filling. 

I’m back to CrossFit tonight at 8:30.  I can’t wait!  We are doing a benchmark WOD that we did back in March, when I was still very new to CrossFit.  We are doing Annie for the MetCon:
The first time we did this it took me 15 minutes.  I can’t wait to see how long it takes me tonight.  I’m hoping I can take a couple of minutes off my time, at least!  Fingers crossed!

I’m looking forward to the Clean & Jerk’s as well.  Last time we did C&J, I got up to 90lbs.  I’m dying to get 100lbs over my head.  Maybe tonight is the night??!!??

Well, lunch is over and I should get back to work.  I will update you later on dinner, my C&J’s, and Annie!

Are you going meatless today?
What’s on the menu?

The Friday Five

Happy Friday, everyone! Wohoo…another week in the books!  And you know what that means…time for another edition of:

 
1.  Today was my first official CrossFit class.  It was awesome!  See here for my full re-cap of my first WOD.  

2.  The Healthy sELF campaign kicks off on Monday.  You may remember that I participated in the Elf4Health challenge run by Elle and Lindsay.  Well, lots of Elves said they wished it could continue all year, so Elle and Lindsay created Healthy sELF to keep the spirit going all year.  Monday is the first challenge, and it is to go meatless.  I’m trying to do Meatless Monday on a regular basis, so this one won’t be too bad.  I’ll just be sure to build a meatless dinner into my meal plan for the week.

3.  I am going to have to be very organized to fit everything in for the next month.  My life was already pretty hectic, juggling work, the house and kids, and squeezing in my at home workouts.  Now I’ve added CrossFit to the mix.  I’ve signed up to go to 3 classes next week – Monday 8:30pm, Wednesday 8:30pm, and Friday 5:30.  I need to get all 3 classes in during the week, since I’m at a hockey tournament with my older son next weekend, and not able to get to a class on Saturday.  Normally on the weekend I plan my meals for the week.  I’ll need to be sure that on Monday and Wednesday I have fairly easy meal prep so I can get dinner ready and eat with enough time to digest a bit before I go to the gym. 

4.  I’m tired.

5.  I’m going to bed!

Sorry those last 2 were so lame, but it’s already past midnight and I’m exhausted.  I need to be up at 7am to get my son to his 8am hockey game.  He actually had a double header tomorrow, with games at 8 and 10…so that’s about 4 hours at a rink for him and us tomorrow.  I’ll need to leave right after the second game so I can be sure to get to the gym in time. I don’t want any penalty burpees!  I’m sure the workout will be tough enough without adding any burpees to the mix!

So, with that, I’m off to bed! 

How was your Friday?

Happy weekend!

Monday…

Happy Monday, everyone!  After a rough start to my day, things turned out pretty well for a Monday.

The rough start was a 2 hour drive into the office.  It sucked!  There was a bit of snow and traffic just crawled.  It is so frustrating, but I’m learning to not stress about it.  I get to work when I get to work, and there isn’t much I can do about it.  Since I’ve accepted that, my road rage has gone down significantly!

Today was a good food day…until just now, but I will get to that.  Since I didn’t get to make my Sausage & Egg Muffins, I went with my go to breakfast of ham & cheese scrambled egg bake and my usual Tassimo Chai Latte (only 80 calories versus the 210 of the Starbucks version). 

Lunch was a trio of leftovers:  stuffed chicken, roasted cauliflower and broccoli, and some peas and corn.  A complete leftover meal from the special request my son had the other day.  It was not quite as good as the first time around, but it was still pretty good.

Dinner was the Lean Green Bean’s Cheesy Mexican Quinoa. I didn’t really realize this when I planned my menu for the day, but the dish was perfect for Meatless Monday!  I have made this dish once before and it was awesome – a little on the spicy side since I went a little overboard with the spices.  Today’s dish was much more tame, but still delicious!  
and there were 3 leftover meals….so I am a happy girl. 

While the dish was baking in the oven I had just enough time to get my workout in.  I had originally planned to do a Bob Harper circuit, but when it came time to actually workout, I was more in the mood for another kettlebell workout.  I choose this workout from the Women’s Health Magazine website:

I did the circuit twice and this is how it looked calorie wise:

It was a pretty good workout, not too hard or challenging, which is probably okay, since I’m starting to feel all those swings that I did yesterday.  I’m feeling it in my hamstrings, glutes, shoulders, upper back, lats (??)…just about everywhere…and I love it!  That’s how I know it’s working! 

You may remember that on Saturday I called CrossFit Newmarket Central to get some information.  Well, today Michelle – the club’s owner – gave me a call back.  I got a bit of info about pricing and where the gym is located and booked a trial visit for Wednesday.  I’m terrified!  I can’t believe I am doing this.  I can’t do a pull up.  I can only do about 3 “boy” pushups. I can’t hold a plank for a minute yet.  BUT…I want to do all of those things.  Maybe CrossFit is what I need to get me there.  I guess I will find out on Wednesday! 

These videos are so motivating!  “We’re the machines!”

Hope your Monday was a good one!

Are you a machine?

Monday…No One Likes You!

Ugh…Monday.  Seriuosly…Monday’s BLOW!

There, now that I have that out of my system, let’s get on with this post.

Today is the start of the second phase of the Elf for Health Challenge.  I’ve been assigned a new Elf and as soon as I’m done this post, I need to send her an email.  This week’s Challenges are as follows:

Monday:  Drink you body weight in ounces of water.  I drink water all day at work, so this one wasn’t too hard for me.  I’ve slowed down a bit since I’ve gotten home from work, but I hope to drink another Litre or so before I go to bed, and that should put me over my goal.  Yay!

Tuesday:  Clean out your fridge and pantry.  I cleaned out the fridge yesterday when I was putting the groceries away, but I definitely need to do my cupboards.  They are a disaster and there is no room for anything.  I’m afraid of what I will find when I get in there tomorrow!

Wednesday:  Eat veggies at breakfast and lunch. Don’t save them just for dinner, veggies are good to eat any time of the day.

Thursday:  By coffee for the person behind you in line.  I’m not a big coffee drinker, but I do love my Starbucks Chai Latte.  I guess Thursday I will hit the drive through and pick up the tab for the person in the car behind me.

Friday:  Workout with a buddy.  Normally I workout alone.  Hopefully I will find someone to workout with me.  Maybe I can convince my sister to do my Bob Harper Workout of the Day with me, before we celebrate making it to the end of the week with Pizza and Beer!

Saturday:  Donate to a holiday charity in your area.  This will be a great activity that we will do as a family.  My kids take a lot of things for granted, so it will do them good to realize there are many people who struggle for even the most basic things. 

With these daily challenges, and my meal and workout plan already set for the whole week, this is going to be a very organized week.  I think that’s great, since work is so friggin’ hectic, it’s nice to not have to think about the rest of this stuff.  The plan is all set…all I have to do is do it!

Speaking of workouts…today was my first day back at the BobHarper.com workouts.  Man…I LOVE these workouts.  I’m psyched to get back into them and start seeing results again.  After a quick warm-up, the main workout was an AMRAP for 9 different exercises for a total body workout.  There were push ups, bicep curls with shoulder presses, skaters, mountain climbers, and a few other exercises that totally challenged my balance…which could really use some work.  I almost fell over a couple of times!  Thank God I do these workouts alone and no one sees how ridiculous I look!

Dinner tonight was a Meatless Monday Frittata.  This is a favourite with my little guy.  Tonight’s version had red and yellow peppers, zucchini, asparagus, low fat cheddar and some low fat feta.  It was delicious…and there are 2 nice big pieces left for breakfast and lunch tomorrow!
 
Okay…my post is done.  Now I need to email my new elf.

How was your Monday?  
Have you ever drank your body weight in ounces of water? 

I’m Meatless for Elf4Health

Today was Day 1 of the Elf for Health Challenge.  Our first challenge was to go meatless.  I don’t think I have ever purposefully gone a full day without meat.  I’ve had meals that didn’t have meat, but never on purpose for a full day.  Despite not really being to organized today, I managed to have 3 meatless – and quite tasty – meals.

Breakfast:  Home made Bagelwich:  toasted bagel, 2 eggs microwave scrambled, and a slice of low-fat sharp cheddar. 

Lunch:  I was not really sure what I was going to do for lunch.  I didn’t have any meatless leftovers so would either have to go out (which I didn’t want to do, since I only let myself go out for lunch once a week now…didn’t want to use it up on Monday), or find something meatless at the office.  I was just about to have a chicken noodle soup, when I noticed I had a couple of Indian meals in my office.  So, in the end, I had a delicious bowl of Matter Paneer, which is Indian curried peas and cheese. 

Dinner:  Last night when I was emailing my Elf4Health partner I wanted to include a meatless recipe for her.  I was flipping through my Clean Eating recipes looking for meatless recipes and came across a pasta dish that I had made earlier this year.  Once I saw it again, I knew this was going to be the recipe I shared, and that I was going to make it tonight for dinner.  The recipe was Mediterranean Veg & White Bean Pasta, and it was just as good as I remember it.  Maybe even better since hubs prepared it while I did my Bob Harper workout. 

And check that out…3 awesome leftover meals!  I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow!!!

I got back on track with my workouts tonight.  When I got home from work, I REALLY didn’t much feel like doing a workout, but I changed into my workout gear and picked my workout.  I haven’t signed up with BobHaper.com yet, so I just did one of the workouts that I had printed out from last week’s circuits.  It was a cardio workout, and once again, after a quick 20 minute workout, I was dripping.  Doing the workout just reinforced that I should sign up for at least another month of BobHarper.com.  These workouts are quick and they really work.  I’m noticing changes in my shape, I feel stronger, and I can always find 20-30 minutes to do these workouts.  Hopefully I will get a chance to sigh up tomorrow. 

Tomorrow’s Elf for Health challenge is to send a friend a handwritten note.  I do not remember the last time I wrote a letter or note.  I do always try to write a little message to each of our friends when we send out our Christmas Letter, but that’s probably the extent of my note writing these days.  I’ll have to put a little thought into who I’ll write to. 

All in all, today was a pretty good day.  Hopefully the rest of the week goes just as well.

How was your Monday?  Did you eat clean?  Did you go meatless?

Feel free to share any of your Meatless Monday favourites.

Accidental Meatless Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!  As usual, today is a rest day in my half marathon training schedule.  Thank god…I think I might have just about recovered from my long run this weekend.  There is still an odd ache high in my hamstring, but I’m much better than I was after the long run Saturday.  Tomorrow I get to get back at it with 4 miles.  I may switch up my schedule a bit and only run 3 miles, since I have 9 holes of golf and a ball hockey game also on the schedule for tomorrow.  I will see how quickly I can drag my sorry butt out of bed when the alarm goes off at 5:45am.  I’ve already got my 4 mile route mapped out, so hopefully I can do it!

I mentioned the other day that my sister has now decided that instead of running her own race, she is now going to run with me and keep me moving towards my goal of a sub 2:30 half.  This just makes me so excited to run this race now.  I know that I have done the work and put in all the training and will be physically ready to run this race in 13 shorts days.  It’s the mental side of this run that still provides a challenge for me.  She knows this too and is bound and determined to get me all the way to the end.  I’m sure with her help, I will do it.  Check out this awesome post she wrote on her blog today:  Happier Healthier More Fit Me…Motivational Monday  I really do have the world’s best sister!

Along with my training, I have been making a real effort to eat clean.  I’ve had a few challenges with this the last few weeks as life seemed to get busy with many things going on in the evenings making it difficult.  I have made a commitment to get back on the clean train as I am in the home stretch of my training.  I have another busy week, but have planned around this and when I do cook, it will be clean.  Tonight, quite by accident, I also followed another Clean Eating concept of Meatless Monday.  I had already planned on making a repeat clean recipe, and it just so happened to also be meatless.  Tonight’s delicious dinner was Mediterranean Vegetable, White Bean & Feta Penne.

It was just as tasty as I remember it.  For the recipe, click Mediterranean Vegetable, White Bean & Feta Penne

As always seems to happen, it is now quite late and I really should get to bed so I’ve got the energy I need to get up and go for my run tomorrow morning.

Hope your week has gotten off to a good start.  Only 4 more days and it’s the weekend…and a long weekend to boot!