A Slow Down

I am not a hypochondriac.

Nor am I a big doctor person in general.

Mostly because I think I’m much like Super Woman. Or maybe Catwoman. Her outfit is way hotter.

Either way, I often refuse to think there’s every anything wrong with me. I’ve had nasty sinus issues take me down once or twice in the last few years, but other than that? Healthy. The epitome of it.

But there’s one thing I’ll be an overprotective mother about ALL DAY. And that would be my legs.

Ever since my incident with crutches and an overuse injury a few years back, I’m horribly paranoid.

So any weird ache feeling that can’t be pinpointed? Time off. Throw in my incident on Saturday?

This girl has no desire to get back on the treadmill before she has to.

So I lied yesterday.

Still went to the elliptical for 25 minutes last night. But I didn’t run this morning and opted for more elliptical and cross training in the form of Jillian Michaels dvds. For a girl who enjoys her title of “cardio queen”, you know there’s a little bit of resentment there.

But there’s a slight ache. And there’s no need to push myself right now. Less stress on the legs now means better results in the long run. No pun intended.

A few days of ”low key” won’t kill me. I’m just bitter. And overly dramatic. I realize this. Thanks for not minding too much.

Because really… the last thing I want is to almost possibly fly off the treadmill again. Whether it be from passing out or my leg falling off.

Either/or.

Happy Hump Day, friends!

Hoarding Tendencies

This is a subject I’ve brought up a few times before over the lifetime of this here little bloggity blog, but I feel it needs to be addressed again.

It’s very serious, you know.

Hello. My name is Amy. And I hoard cereal.

It’s true. I try to make myself feel better by justifying it.

“What a great sale! And I only have to buy a minimum of 5 boxes!”

Doesn’t matter if I’ve already got 5 or 6 in the pantry.Or seven. Or that my allotted shelf space in the pantry is full and that I actually have to store cereal elsewhere. That’s right- if you stay with me and get hungry in the middle of the night, food is only steps away from where your head hits the pillow.

Who wants to guess if I’m kidding or not?

Point of the story is, I’m full up. And this will most certainly be the case through the holiday season.

Again- am I kidding?  It’s hard to tell.

But when I was contacted by Love Grown Foods about trying out some of their granola, did I politely decline and say, “oh no thank you, I’ve got plenty of dry cereal and granola laying around”?

Of course not. Use your head.

I said OF COURSE I would LOVE to try some! Send it my way!So she did. And I was excited. Because so many other bloggers have raved about this stuff.

And yes, this picture was taken a week after the fact. And yes, that is an empty bag and another half empty bag. Ummm…

However, there was one WEE little thing I forgot to mention to her.

I don’t like fruit. And yes, that includes dried fruit.Aw man…

My views on fruit and how much I dislike it puts me in the minority, so I’ve learned to adapt the best I know how. By picking it out when the situation calls for it.

Which worked well. Plus, it’s clearly all about the actual granola anyway…

This stuff is addicting. It’s not overbearingly sweet, but still takes care of a craving if you’ve got a sweet tooth like me. Also, if you just eat a handful out of the bag, it’s not hard enough to break teeth. An issue that I feel is often overlooked.

I ate it once on its own with milk, which is great, but like my other cereals, my preference is to use it as an “extra”.

There was a small pack of the “Cocoa Goodness” flavor. It was chocolatey. Clearly my favorite.

I also tore through the bag of Raisin Almond Crunch. The first appearance was on some pancakes a few weeks ago.One of my favorites things about all the granola they sent is the coconut flakes. They don’t skimp at all!

The one bag I was a little weary of was the Apple Walnut Delight. The dried apple chips were a little too much for me, so I sent it home with my friend Laura after she visited for the weekend. The next day, she messaged me about how obsessed she had become.

Sounds about right. So clearly, if you’re not weird like me, you’ll like that one, too.

With most granola, the calorie count is a little high. Just to be expected with such things, so I really don’t consider that a negative. Instead of sugar, they use agave and honey to sweeten, which is nice because you get the same sweetness with less (in my opinion).

Would I buy it on a regular basis? Sure. It’s delicious. But as a girl on a budget, I think I’d still be inclined to first check out sales on other cereals before coming back to it.

I’m a recessionista, yo.

Your turn!  What is something you tend to hoard?

I have a thing about cereal and gum. When it’s on sale, I buy it. I mean, it’s gonna be used eventually, right?

The Search Is Over

Whaddup, kids?

I love that the majority of you say you can relate to yesterday’s post. It seems to be a bit of a workout rut that I’ve found myself in.

But luckily, I can count on you guys to call me out on it and say JUST JOIN A GYM ALREADY!

Really. I need people in my life to do that.

As some of you have known, there has been an ongoing hunt to find a decently priced gym where I can get my cardio in as the winter months approach and as Chicago weather continues to surprise (and often disappoint).

Well.

I found one.

Sort of.

It’s the Chicagoland chain near me. My first visit there was NOT impressive by any means. I greatly disliked it. It was out of my comfort zone and there is nothing I dislike more than getting bothered mid-workout. But I had a whole week with a free pass and they chilled out. So I chilled out.

Besides, this is going to be a great spot for people watching. There’s a very strong feeling I have about this.

And the guy we dealt with clearly needed to hit a quota or something. Because he bent over backwards for the last 2 weeks until he had a price for a month-to-month membership that the roomie and I were willing to accept.

We hustled that poor kid.

So yeah. I have a gym! It may be a bit of a meat market, but it has all the things I need to be content. As long as they just keep away from me with that pitch for all the protein they’re selling, I’ll be just fine.

No seriously, I really don’t want to buy protein, sir. I’m doing just fine. Yes, positive- I’m getting enough. Why don’t you go ask that guy without a neck and benchpressing 500 lbs over there? He may be interested…

The funny thing is we went in to sign last night and immediately left. Bailey was too tired to work out and I wanted to take advantage of the nice(ish) weather.

Glad we’re getting our money’s worth out of our shiny new gym pass already! 

Either way, running had already sort of happened earlier during lunch. My friend and I got in a slow 2.6. He was sore from hitting up weights the day before. I was ok with that. Because last night I also threw in an extra 1.4ish to get in just shy of 4 miles for the day.

Not bad.

So there you have it. I have the mix-up in routine set in place. Now I just need to find a race. As to start really kicking ass. Word.

Now excuse me. I must go browse the fitness class schedule for my new digs. Because I’m intrigued by a few of them. And can’t wait to make a fool of myself. (And then tell you about it. Obviously)

You Learn the Darndest Things…

… when running in an urban area.

For instance, just this week I learned not to run too close to the buildings. Especially in blinding sun.

Because not all doors are clearly marked with an awning.

And people sometimes exit these unmarked doors quickly.

By flinging the door open. As you’re passing by in a speedy manner (or so you like to think  you are).

Thank goodness I have ninja-like reflexes and was able to throw my hands out as to soften the blow and keep from breaking my nose/face/everything on the glass.

It was a close call, folks. But we all walked away unharmed. Sort of. After bouncing back in shock, I picked up my run again with a bruised ego. He, of course, probably went home with a new story of how he almost killed a runner.

I’ll let you take a moment and fully develop the visual.

That wouldn’t have been the first time I ran into a door.

ALWAYS make sure to look the direction you’re heading. Because sometimes, just sometimes, the door that was propped open earlier will not continue to be that way throughout the entire night. And you’d hate to be THAT bridesmaid that people are going to remember for shattering the door.

Trust me on this.

Words of wisdom on a Tuesday morning.

You’re welcome.

Cooking With Friends

From time to time, I find myself living in excess.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Usually it’s in the form of credit card receipts. Shoes. Chocolate. Wine…

However, this week it’s more of the garden fresh variety.

Thanks to the generosity of my parents, along with my roomie’s mom, we’re accidentally running a farmer’s market out of our kitchen.

So before business zoning becomes an issue, along with the overabundance of food all going bad, B and I decided to do something about it.

Have Megan cook for us!Just kidding. Sort of.

The roomie doesn’t cook often, and I’m a much better baker than cook (let’s be honest), so I told Megan about our hoarding of fresh food and asked if she could help out.

Plus, I offered to bring wine. I think that could be why she agreed.

And that’s how we had a little dinner party on our hands!

Megan showed us a few tricks in the kitchen when it comes to breaded eggplant.For the record, I’ve attempted eggplant on two different occasions. Neither of them were overly spectacular. It must be because I didn’t have the 8-lb weights at the time…

As Megan slaved away in the kitchen, Bailey and I took to the outdoors to shuck some corn.When I was a wee little lass, we used to shuck corn from the family garden on my grandma’s front porch steps. It overlooked the pasture (remember that whole thing where I told you I grew up on a cattle farm?).

Things have clearly changed. I now shuck corn on a balcony overlooking downtown Chicago. With a delicious cabernet sauvignon sitting beside me. Weird.

And for the record, I totally made my wine selection on what would be paired well with eggplant. This made me feel very adult-like.

Because usually I just ask the question, “white or red?”

Ok fine, it’s usually “well let’s see what I’ve got in the cabinet.”

Anyway, earlier in the day while chatting about a second side (yes, this is interesting conversation to us), I told Megan we also had a ridiculous amount of green beans and potatoes.

But she stopped me right there and said maybe we should consider a non-veggie side.

Oh yeah… balanced eating… that’s smart.She may not admit it, but I’m pretty sure Megan just wanted to make a cheese sauce.

Cheeeeeessseeeee…..

All in all, everything turned out amazing. And Bailey and I made our way home with full tummies and leftovers. Success!

And now our attentions turn to the massive bag of green beans and overflowing grocery bags of potatoes….

Fresh From The Ground

Hey there!

Glad to hear I got a few laughs over my hellish adventures of gym shopping.

Not being one to judge solely on first impressions, I do plan to stick out a week of working out there to try it out. But I promise you, there are a few more places on my list (thanks in part to some of the awesome Chicago kids!) to check out before deciding what my next move will be.

Fine, I actually do judge heavily on first impressions and I’m only giving it a second go around because they’re one of the cheaper options out there.

The honest truth. It hurts.

So back I went last night. And the roomie joined. I was truly looking forward to her opinion. Because she just wants a little activity in her life. No specific goals (that they badgered me for). Just a little more energy.

The second time back? They loosened up. A lot. I still avoid eye contact. And the weights area is still a bit overwhelming- I’m not a huge fan of doing weights anyway (why do you think I insist on using dvds to do them at all?). I’m rather self-conscious about it when it’s crowded and people are hanging out waiting for you to get done.

Not ideal. Strike 2.

I got home and comforted myself with food from the ‘rents.Mutant zucchini! I often question if their garden is on top of a nuclear reactor site that I’m unaware of. It may also explain the above average heights of some of my family… .(i.e. my brother being 6’7). And possibly the reason that I’m a little spazztastic every once in a while?

I’ll keep researching…

Anyway, when they offered to bring up some stuff during their visit, I said YES. This saved me from a trip to Trader Joe’s for the week. Holla’.

My favorite seems to be the zucchini and potatoes. I’ve been inhaling them this week on the regular.I like plain sweet potatoes, but white potatoes should never be consumed naked.

The potato… not you. You can wear or not wear whatever you like when dining in. No judgement.

Just remember, if it’s a hot meal, guard yourself. This has been your public safety announcement for the day. You’re welcome.

There happened to be a little cheddar and sour cream laying around, and it was used and topped with some paprika. This made it tasty, because I’m just awful at preparing regular potatoes. Even in the microwave. Like this one was. I ALWAYS screw it up. At least a little.

This one just had a teeny tiny section that didn’t seem cooked the whole way through. Yeah. I know. How hard is it to screw up a potato? I suck.

At least there’s one thing I don’t screw up. Usually.

That would be baking. And I’m just going to take advantage of that awesome transition to let you know there’s still time to sign up for the Blogger Bake Swap!  Jessica and I are still taking emails (if you want to do it, we NEED you to contact us!) until FRIDAY if you want to participate. So if you’re interested, you can read more HERE and shoot one of us an email!

Have a good one, kids!

A Good Eye Roll

Everyone loves a good eye roll. Especially me. It’s possibly become an involuntary “tick” of some sort. Because some things (ok- a lot of things) deserve it.

Like the weather being predictably unpredictable. From 95 to 65 degrees in one day,  huh? Guess I’ll roll with the punches, Mother Nature. Even though you’re playing dirty again and I don’t like it.

Like how I’ll own 3 or 4 umbrellas and cannot find even one before heading out into the rain for work.

Like how I’ll have no AC on 2 of the hottest days of the week. But it’s working fabulously by the time the temperature actually reaches that 65 degrees… Really helpful…

Like how I’ll spend a good majority of my time complaining about weather-related things… (my bad)

Like when Taylor Swift plays over the speakers in my office. Without me even acknowledging it, my boss will say “oh here’s your friend”. He knows I hate Taylor Swift. She’s got probably 5 songs on this current playlist. He says it every time. Every day. Is this a form of tourettes?

(in all seriousness- I heart my boss)

Like when I wear a skirt to work, and being as how my office is 90% guys, no matter what, I always get “oh… hot date tonight?”  No. It’s hot. Skirts feel better. And I have good legs. That’s all.

Or how I’ll crave something sweet everyday. No matter what- gimme my sugar!

Or like how I can eat and crave soup/chili all year round. It seems everyone else has switched over to their summer meal plans. Whereas I’m looking into the freezer and going, “oh yeah, the soup I made when I went home sick from work earlier this year… that actually sounds sort of good right now!”Clearly, eating seasonally is not my thing.

And my taste buds must have been close to dead during my little illness, because this stuff was still very much ON FIRE with seasoning… whew!

But those things are ok. As long as the air conditioning holds up as I reheat and eat my wintery comfort food, there are no issues here.

Because really, food just makes me happy. Go ahead- say “duh, we know this” and gimme a good eye roll. I deserve it.

Semi-Normal

Well I don’t know about you, but I’m in a much better mood today than I was 24 hours ago.

My AC is fixed (for now- let’s not hold our breath) and my makeup didn’t sweat off before I walked out the door. Instead, I made it all the way to my car before that happened.  Holla’!

Sorry that I’m super perky today because of that and also maybe a lil’ of this:Yesterday, because the idea of brewing coffee at home in my sauna apartment made me cry, I stopped by Panera on the way to work because showing up to work uncaffeinaited would have been a horrifying experience for everyone involved.

Panera had alerted me of a “free coffee” on my Panera Rewards card (which surprised me- I rarely ever go) literally the day before. It was fate. Then, the lovely girl informed me I also had a free espresso drink on my card from God knows how long ago that would expire TODAY of all days. So heck yes I went back for it.

Because I believe in fate. And I hate letting free things like a skinny caramel latte go to waste. Especially when they havve a little whipped cream on top.

Plus, a sugar rush at 7:30 in the morning is kind of fun. A crash at around noon is expected. You’ve been warned.

Anyway.

It’s no secret that I’m MOVING this weekend, but with all the packing and moving random stuff (the furniture is all going on Saturday) from one place to the other, it was nice to have last night as a semi-normal night. I even made it to the gym- something I wasn’t sure would happen this week!

Nothing crazy- 21 minutes on the elliptical (I like odd numbers) and 10 on the stairmill (I shall miss you when I move). Then I did a little walkity walk on the treadmill while complaining to other crazies in the gym about the heat and moving and yada yada yada.

The actual gym time was short because I am scheduled to move carload #2 today after work and needed to finish packing boxes and making the 15ish trips up and down three flights of stairs to pack my car like it was tetris.

Randoms kept asking me if I needed help and I said “NO! This is my strength workout for the day! I’ve got it!”

By the end of this move, I’ll be kicking myself for saying that.

Another semi-normal thing I did while home was cook…

This week has been “Operation Slim Down the Freezer”. My new roomie is a big fan of frozen pizza and the sorts, so I’m trying to make sure we won’t have issues combining the two households. Defrosted chicken it is!Also, Kraft Foods First Taste sent a coupon to try this cooking creme from Kraft brands. And the container of Santa Fe blend was just sort of staring at me every time the refrigerator door was opened.

Because rarely do I make a huge performance for dinner during the week, I skimmed the recipes that came with the container and just did my own thing by throwing a couple spoonfuls on top of the chicken I had cooked on the stovetop. And added cheese. Only because the recipes all said to… It all combined together nicely. I didn’t really want to drown it in the cooking creme, so I used much less than what the label suggested. Plus, it still is “cream”, so the calories are a little higher than how I normally prepare chicken. Checkin’ myself before I wreck myself…

At the end I threw in some jalapenos. Then put it all on a little bed of spinach.Gotta get the greens in. At second glance, I notice how many jalapenos were consumed during my dinner. Daaaaang girl…

Pretty sure I’m in love with this stuff. It coats the chicken in a ridiculously good sauce that has flavor but isn’t overpowering. And as of this morning, I’m happy to report you can also whisk it into your scrambled eggs and get a fab outcome. An ex-boyfriend’s mom was the first to introduce me to cream cheese in your eggs to get a more fluffy outcome. Her wisdom is spot on- because I surely gained 10 pounds while in that relationship. After we parted ways, I dropped the excess baggage (referring specifically to the extra inches in the middle, not the boy) and switched to fat-free milk on most occasions.

Either way, I’m wondering how good this cooking creme would be in pasta? Actually I know how good it would be. Pasta needs to be put back on the grocery list.

Stay cool, kids!

Running Lies

It’s no secret to anyone that I’ve got a little crazy up in me.

I’m goofy. I have weird obsessions. I’m a product of my mother (just kidding mom, I love you).

Anyway, a lot of my friends find the whole obsession with running a weird one. Understandable. The enjoyment and feeling of accomplishment I get out of a solid 4 or 5-mile run comes from a strange place.

But some of my friends actually do get it. Some of them even like to run with me. Like Annie- who’s also joining in on the Run For the Zoo 10k with me this weekend. Or Mon- she won’t run with me, but she’s always excited to text me when momentous running occasions occur (she did 6 miles for the first time ever last night- woot woot).

So when a guy friend from college, who randomly works a few buildings down from me, asked if I want to start running a little during lunch a few times a week, I was totally down.

I’ve always wanted to do lunch hour workouts. There’s a nice park by our buildings. But there are a million trails that shoot off in a million directions (exaggerate much?). And I, being poor with the whole “sense of direction” thing, have been terrified of getting lost on them.

And even with crowds of people around, I’m never a fan of running across multiple vehicles with heavily tinted windows in the parking lot in the middle of the day. What ARE you doing in there?

I have my suspicions, but none of them are legal.

But anyway, our first run was last Friday. When I texted him to confirm this was indeed going down, he warned me of how hungover he was from the night before (happy hour strikes again!).

He also had knee surgery last year. And said he’s been slow getting back into running- something he really only did during team sports.

Oh great, I thought. He’s hungover and has barely ran at all. This is going to be interesting.

That little booger.

He totally understated his abilities. Granted that I’m still getting acclimated to outdoor running again, but damn he was speedy for recovering from knee surgery.

I feel fooled by his trickery.

But we’ll never let him know that. And shall continue to pace alongside of him. As best as we can.

Seriously… what a butthead.

That’s what I get for being a running snob.

Yesterday, even though it was warmer, went much better than last Friday. My tolerance of the great outdoors is much better. As was my night of sleep the night before.

I’m yet to recalibrate my Nike+ (seriously, I suck), but we estimate it to be a little over 2.5 miles after everything is said and done. Not bad because it still gives me plenty of time to “fix” myself and eat a quick bite before retreating back to my prison cell desk.

Combine this with my 25 minutes on the elliptical and 12 on the stairmill from an early morning wakeup call, and it’s a pretty solid and random workout of sorts.

The only thing I need to work on now?

The random burst of exercise suddenly thrown into the middle of my day has me gnawing my arm off by 3 pm.

The pizza getting delivered for late afternoon meetings in the office was a godsend.

Bacon is a seriously underrated pizza topping, by the way.

We started with the plan to run 2 or 3 days a week. So far only once a week has been managed.

But that’s better than nothin’. 

What did I forget this time?

Whoopsies on the details of my workout yesterday- thanks to the kids that caught it! 2.8 hours and 2.8 miles are quite different things (to be clear, I meant miles). Just checkin’ to make sure ya’ll are readin’. 

I am 95% sure that I will never run 2.8 hours straight. Ever.

You know what? Let’s just go ahead and say I am 100% sure. I enjoy my occasional half marathon. I really do. But training for or running anything beyond that? I’d just be hateful. The entire time. So uh… no. You’re welcome. Trust me.

Besides, my body tends to break itself in protest whenever I start nearing 18-20ish miles per week. Fact.

Anyhoo….

Sometimes I frustrate myself. The main reason why I went grocery shopping on Monday was to buy salad mix. At the beginning of the week is when I usually buy it to get through my lunch salads for the week. It’s just sort of habit at this point. Don’t even have to think twice about it. I like it this way.

So I went like I normally do. Picking up the normal things. Including stuff to put in my salad. And wouldn’t you know it? I forgot the stupid spinach.Hence the reason why today my salad most likely has more cauliflower involved than anything else.

This happens often- I’m really good at having one main thing I need to get and then come home with everything but the thing I made the trip for in the first place. That or I’ll forget to pack something essential when going somewhere. Like salad dressing to go with my salad. I’ll pack 3 bras and no panties. Or toothpaste after making a point of leaving a note to pack my toothbrush (wouldn’t you think they’d go hand in hand?). Annoying.

Some of that bleach I used to dye my hair blonde with back in the day must have seeped into my brain. Sigh…

*Not making fun of blondes. Rather, discussing the harmful chemicals I would have dumped into my hair every 3 or 4 months for years. Who’s the dumb one now?

But back to my food (off topic again? oops). I’ve also got a growing and unnatural obsession with black olives as of late. They’re pretty much amazing. And sort of like mushrooms, they can be put into pretty much anything. Who knew?

At least we know this chick is not having issues getting adequate amounts of good fats and vitamin E this way. 

I had to google black olives to know that. And justify the way I’m plowing through them.

Gotta go- I’m doing another lunch time run (supposedly) and if I’m not careful, I’ll most likely forget to pack something needed for that, too.

Because I’m good at that.