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Working Girl
Before we even get into things, I have to address several comments I got in my last post that deeply concerned me.
Some of you do not know what marshmallow fluff is!!
Marshmallow fluff my friends, is made up of sugary pillows sent straight from the heavens.
In all reality, it’s a lot like spreadable marshmallows. Fabulous with anything peanut butter or chocolate related.
I typically only ever use a tablespoon at a time, which only sets me back 24 calories.
So there you have it! I typically don’t allow sweets like cookies or pastries in my pantry, but dark chocolate and marshmallow fluff are the two exceptions that must always be made :)
You may have noticed that I was MIA again yesterday – and with good reason! I’ve been working! After 2.5 months of being unemployed “between opportunities,” it’s nice to get up and have a job to go to. My days have a sense of purpose again. Plus, I was starting run out of things to complain about ;)
Monday had a late start, so I took my time preparing my new protein waffle/pancake recipe.
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- several shakes cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1/3 cup skim milk (it seems skim milk produces a different consistency than almond, before I used 1/2 cup almond milk)
These weren’t any ordinary pancakes, ohno.
I also added a tablespoon each of flaked coconut, walnut pieces and chopped dates.
Made better only by the presence of iced coffee.
In these troubling humid times, iced coffee is a must.
Now, y’all know I am not about fancy or complicated recipes. To me, the idea of simple food pairings is tasty enough. On Monday, I got to put together a pairing I’ve been dyyyying to try.
Watermelon + feta cheese. It was delightful!! I love pairing berries with cottage cheese, or apples with cheddar cheese, and this combo was just as tasty. Watermelon is very sweet and juicy, which paired wonderfully with the saltiness of the feta. Thumbs up!!
I then proceeded to spend the rest of the day training clients at the gym! My very first client that I trained last week was back in and said she already felt a giant increase in energy and gained a ton of confidence at work. After a week! I was brimming with pride for her :D
T’was close to my bedtime by the time I made it home, so I opted for a light and simple dinner.
A small chunky salad tossed in cottage cheese, feta & hummus. Looks gross, but I assure you, it was awesome.
Before I knew it, my alarm was blaring at 4:30am to get up and ready to hit the gym once again. It was eerily familiar to the days when I worked the morning shift as a radio newscaster.
My years of getting up at 4am have turned me into a pro for these early mornings. I had these overnight oats and iced coffee waiting for me in the fridge. For the oats, I just mixed up some yogurt with a dash of milk, scoop of oats, raisins, fresh apricot, cinnamon, maple syrup and a dollop of almond butter. The measurements here don’t seem to matter, as I’ve noticed the outcome is always different for everyone. Experiment! :)
Today, I was shadowing one of our best trainers at the gym. He specializes in functional training, something I’m not overly familiar with, so it was really fun and interesting to watch! It’s not something I can see myself specializing in, but I really appreciate aspects of it, and would love to start incorporating more of it into my programs.
Even though I kinda wanted to go back home and pass out, I stuck around the gym for a workout of my own. Full-body:
Straight set x1:
One arm dumbbell snatch 12 x 20 lbsAlternating sets x3:
One arm dumbbell row 12 x 25 lbs
Plie squat 12 x 25 lbsStraight set x1:
Alternating Step-up w/ forward knee lift for 1 min
Alternating Step-up w/ back leg lift for 1 minAlternating sets x3:
Standing one arm cable chest press 12 x 25 lbs
Bulgarian split squat 12 x 10 lbsStraight set x1:
Mountain climber for 1 minAlternating sets x3:
Barbell upright row 12 x 30 lbs
Good morning 12 x 45 lbsStraight set x1:
Reverse lunge w/ forward kick 20 each legAlternating sets x2:
Skull crusher 12 x 30 lbs
Barbell curl 12 x 30 lbsStraight sets x 2:
Plank 60 sec
Whole thing with 15 minutes warm-up on the treadmill and 5 minutes cool-down stretching took me 65 minutes and burned 450 calories. It also left me unable to run up and down the stairs in the subway station without my legs wobbling ;)
After the workout, I was ready to come home and nap. I closed my eyes and fell asleep for what felt like an hour, only to find 10 minutes had passed. I claimed defeat and made lunch.
Giant kale salad topped with shrimp, egg whites, and a dressing made of pesto/laughing cow/lemon juice. The egg whites were an afterthought, and a delicious one at that! I just zapped half a cup in the microwave and added the bits to the salad. Such an easy and delicious way to add protein.
I also polished off this Chakra Bar that I hate half of on Monday.
I purposely left the price tag on because $2.99 is pretty frickin’ steep for a granola bar. But if you look closely, there are two servings, which sort of justifies it. And in all honesty, the full bar is kinda huge (110g).
Not gonna lie, I was attracted to this bar because of the ingredients:
See that?? The first ingredient is love!! Not any kind of love, but organic love!! I’m such a sucker.
The spirulina is what makes it green. According to the Chakra Bar website, spirulina is “a blue-green algae and is known as a green "superfood". It has over 60% digestible vegetable protein, is jam-packed with vitamins and minerals and is a great source of chlorophyll (antioxidant).”
Taste-wise it had that “grassy green” taste to it, but I don’t mind it. It was a little sticky from the syrup, but I liked the additions of the seeds. I probably won’t buy it again because it’s $$$. But it was fun to try!
It is approximately here where I dropped off the face of the planet for three hours.
I read the final Harry Potter book when it first came out, and forgot completely what happened!! It was like reading a new book all over again. But now I’m depressed it’s all over. Anyone else ever suffer from post-book depression? I think I may stick with this theme and re-read the final books in the Twilight and Golden Compass series. I love children’s fantasy novels, I cannot deny it. Plus, it is summertime and I want something that won’t make me think too hard ;)
I did eventually stumble out of my room, disoriented, to make a quick dinner.
That would be grilled pork in a mesquite flavouring with a microwaved sweet potato slathered in Heinz BBQ beans. Classy :)
Now it is time to get my things ready for another 4am wake-up call. But I’m excited for my morning client. He wants to bulk up, which means some old-school heavy weightlifting, my favourite!!
Question of the Day: What’s on your summer reading list? Any recommendations for the class? As Holly would say, sharing is caring!!
A Worthy Gain
What’s up.
That would be me in my new personal training uniform. So unreal to be able to wear it now!! My client roster is slowly starting to fill and I can’t believe how lucky I am that I get to go to the gym, help people get in shape, and call that “work” :)
Mucho gracias for indulging me in my last post about Jagerbombs. Despite being an employed trainer now, my behaviour has been decidedly “un-trainer-like.”
We’ve had people visiting these past few days, which should always be met with celebrations. When they said they were going to Smoke’s Poutinerie I had to go. I knew it was going to be bad. Real bad. But I seem to have this insatiable food curiosity that sometimes takes away from my better judgement.
I know a few people would be horrified by their treatment of the classic poutine – a dish of fries, beef gravy and cheese curds. Smoke’s has a large menu filled with various toppings and varieties. We’ll agree to call it a “fry and gravy” place ;)
I went for the Country Style: slow roasted chicken breast, double smoked bacon, sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions.
Not gonna lie, I was a little horrified upon seeing what I’d ordered.
LOOK AT ALL THAT BACON!!!
I had to dig deep to find the actual poutine part…
Omg, I can feel my arteries clogging all over again just looking at this. I think I finally have my This Is Why You’re Fat submission.
I arrived to the Poutinerie after a heavy weight-lifting workout, which in retrospect was perhaps not the best idea. My stomach was loudly growling and I polished off the whole thing. The whole thing! In terms of how poutines go, it was just alright. I think I liked the Elgin Street Diner in Ottawa better. I prefer shoestring fries and mushroom gravy :)
We walked down to Trinity Bellwoods park to enjoy our greasy boxes. The same place as the blogger picnic, and my favourite park in Toronto!! Okay, the only park I’ve been to in Toronto…
Chris got the triple pork poutine with pulled pork, smoked bacon and Italian sausage. A little something he coined “poutirnalism.” Eating mass quantities poutine for the sake of mankind.
I of course immediately regretted stuffing myself with such food as I had to go directly to a job interview (part-time job at a coffee shop – fingers crossed!), and then to a fitness assessment!
I offered to be the victim of a fitness assessment at my new gym to get an idea of how they go about doing them. Keep in mind, mine was much harder than what they do to the average person. The trainer I was working with obviously wanted to see what I’m made of ;)
I tried to explain to him that I’d just eaten a pound of poutine, and that I’ve been feeding on hamburgers and cake since travelling to Banff in June. I can’t say I was surprised when I stepped on the scale and discovered I’ve gained 6 lbs in the last three months. Every ounce of that gain is the result of good food and good times I wouldn’t trade in for the world. But there’s always something about that numerical value that seems to sneak out of the scale and slap you across the face.
You mean I can’t eat a pound of poutine on the daily?? :P
Yeahyeahyeah, I guess now that I’m settled in my new home, it’s time to settle back into my usual eating routine as well. Noted Mr. Scale. Noted.
Weight gain aside, I did pretty well on the fitness assessment. There were a lot of lateral raises, ab moves and lunges among other things. My core strength needs work, but my legs and back are waaaay stronger than I was expecting. My shoulders are still struggling a little, but I’m workin’ on it :)
Lunch was eaten at 1:30pm and I didn’t start to feel snacky until 9pm!!
I reached for this Daryl’s All Natural Regular Elite Granola Bar. A Canadian-made protein bar that I spotted in the fridge section of a local natural foods store.
Ingredients and stats are okay…
But the taste? Meeehhh. Notsomuch. The texture was lovely and reminded me a lot of my own homemade bars. But I thought there was too much honey and the dried fruit was a little tart.
I awoke this morning with the determination to get back on the straight and narrow. This of course meant celebrating Waffle Wednesday!!
I whipped up quite possibly my best protein waffle recipe yet:
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup unflavoured soy protein powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- several shakes cinnamon
- 1 packet stevia
- 1/4 cup egg whites
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Made two medium-sized waffles. While they were cooking, I also cooked peach slices with cinnamon in a frying pan.
Thrown on top with flaked coconut and sugar-free syrup.
They tasted like real waffles!!
The recipe has 270 calories, 3g fat, 25g carbs, 4g fibre, 0g sugar, 37g protein.
It’s love!!
Even though I woke up incredibly sore from weightlifting and the fitness assessment the day before, I was still pumped for a noon-hour spin class.
Pre-spin fuel was a few figs topped with my Easy Peasy Cream Cheese Icing.
All I did was mix together a wedge of laughing cow cheese and a tbsp of marshmallow fluff. SO good!!
Unfortunately, I got my days all messed up and there was no spin class happening once I got to the gym. Instead I just hopped on various cardio machines while watching Sex and the City. Just as well!
For lunch, I stir-fried every fresh veggie I had in the fridge and added tofu balls.
I tossed the whole thing in Averie’s peanut sauce and it was divine. Stir-fries are becoming one of my favourite summer meals!
I’ve been trying to avoid the chocolate cake my roommie brought home, so I snacked on my own version later in the day.
Deep Chocolate Vitatop with Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter.
That right there, really is the stuff dreams are made of ;)
I will leave you with the above image to drool over. My dad, big sis and little step-sis are arriving in less than an hour and I’ve got things to do! I’m superduper excited to see them and show them my new city :)
The Saturday Chill
Happy weekend all! My cheeks are permanently red from all the nice comments on my new ‘do. If only I had a hair dresser to style it for me everyday ;) And might I add, taking emo face shots is a lot harder to do with a DSLR!
So I totally fell asleep watching the Real World last night. I was wiped! Was still up at the usual time today (6am) but at least it gave me some lazy time before step class. Pre-step breakfast: candy oats.
I am an adult, just with the tastebuds of a child.
- 1/2 cup oat bran
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- 1/2 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
- 1 tbsp peanut butter
- 1 tbsp marshmallow fluff
- M&Ms
Step was fab!! First time there since before Christmas!! I felt a little more lost than I normally do, but it was still a fun way to work up a sweat. Maybe a Saturday morning ritual in the making?
Yoga class was immediately after in the same studio and I wanted to stay sooo badly!! But my tummy was having none of it – it wanted food! Next time I will bring a snack to eat in between ;)
Instead I came home and had a homemade protein bar.
I opted for a fancy lunch since I was actually home to make one…
Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Mini turkey meatloaf with reduced sugar ketchup.
Mashed cauliflower (with laughing cow cheese, pepper, and garlic powder)
Roasted brussel sprouts. They were the frozen variety though, nothing beats the fresh stuff.
The stellar eats continued with probably one of the best new bars I’ve had in a long time: Honeybar Sweet & Salty flavour.
Honeybar is a Canadian company that makes natural bars with minimal ingredients. Check these out:
Not bad, right? Even the stats are good – 8g protein, 3g fibre and only 17g carbs. High fat – 16g – but that’s actually preferred for me!
The taste? Amazing. The bar had a light “candy-like” coating over it that gave it a wonderful chewy texture. The addition of the of the crisp brown rice was nice with the peanuts. It tasted like I was eating a candy bar, but without the yucky ingredients. Just the good stuff, straight up :)
This afternoon I got to visit a good friend who just had a baby!! It was so weird to hear her talk about how mommyhood has already changed her. While I declined to hold the little one, I can’t help but turn to mush around babies. It’s their little fists. They get me every time.
I came home to yet another giant salad. I had a lot of greens in the house this week. Eaten out of a giant casserole dish, right Bekah? ;)
- spinach
- romaine
- zucchini
- onions
- green pepper
- pickles
- olives
- roasted soy nuts
- grilled turkey breast
- balsamic vinaigrette
- parmesan cheese
N-O-M. Another killer combo. I guess there are worse kicks to be on ;) I just gotta balance out all the M&Ms and marshmallow fluff!!
Dessert/evening snack was another notable one.
1/2 cup cottage cheese, 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tbsp almond butter, stevia to taste, all blended up. It was so decadent. Well, as decadent and chocolate cottage cheese can get anyways.
I wish I had more fun things to report, but it was a pretty chill day! It’s actually 9:30pm and I’m headed to bed. Sometimes, sleep is more important than a gal’s reputation, ya know? ;) How bout some fun questions!
1. What was the best thing you ate today? Mine was tied between the turkey meatloaf and Honeybar.
2 Do you have kids? Do you want them? Tell me about it! I’m still iffy about having babies at this point. I’ve always had my heart set on getting foster children when I get older. I feel like I’ve been through enough hardships that I could really help some kid out there get on the right path again…
Sunday is kitchen day ‘round these parts. See ya tomorrow with some recipes! :D
