While I was off

This weekend my boyfriend and I had planned to stay in the city and take the weekend off since we were off parent duty. Because we worked out 4 days in a row we decided to chill all weekend and worry about working out on Monday.

Our weekend was filled with down time and yummy food that was not the healthiest, but I guess you can do that once in a while, specially when your eating healthy and working out.

On Friday we went to Kumas Corner, which is known for having the best burgers in Chicago. This is a metal/tattoo bar that is everything but conventional. Because I am more of a hot dog person my favorite burger so far is the "Goblin Cock", a 10 oz. burger topped with Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, ¼lb. Vienna Hot Dog, Tomatoes, Onion, Neon Green Relish, Sport Peppers, Pickles and Celery Salt Mustard served on a pretzel roll.

While on our way back we drove by Bleeding Heart, a cupcake bakery that had the most amazing red velvet cupcake I've ever tasted. Let me just say, in my defense, I only ate half my burger and maybe half of my cupcakes with probably less than half of the frosting (not a frosting person).

 We also went to Quartino and had the most amazing duck prosciutto with awesome Italian food and of course some great wine. Saturday night was perfect, we headed to the "it" place in the city... Sunda, new Asian cuisine restaurant with contemporary interpretation of traditional Asian dishes. The food was amazing, hot dishes were a lot more impressive than the sushi and the presentation was just amazing. My advice, if you want to hit this hot spot make sure to make your reservation well in advance. I was able to get in Saturday at 10:30 p.m. and that because I knew the manager.

Needless to say, after a weekend of down time and great food I am back to my workout routine and healthy eating. I just can't wait to hit the gym and do some serious cardio to burn all the calories that I put in my body during the weekend.

XOXO!

CM

Back on track!

So I am very excited to say that I feel I am getting back on track, I have joined the gym with my awesome boyfriend and we are loving it. Last week I worked out 3 days, not all running but I did exercise. Tuesday and Thursday I did Hot Vinyasa which I used to do very often a few years ago and let me tell you, boy I was sore! I lost track of the amount of Downward Dogs and Chaturanga Dandasanas that I did and all this at 105 degrees, oh the cleansing! And Saturday I just ran in the treadmill on my new gym. Can I tell you how much I enjoy going to the gym? I don't know at what point I forgot how awesome I feel after I run or finish a workout and head to the lockers to get in the steam room, 10 min of peace and quiet, breathing hot steam and getting rid of toxins can do wonders!

And as far as this week goes, I have gone to the gym every day so far, but I guess its only Wednesday. Yesterday I actually hit the pool which was interesting, after a 30 minute run I jumped in the pool for a 30 minute swim and let me say it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was so afraid of looking like a fool next to all those experienced swimmers, but I guess once you get into it you really don't care and its you, the water and your lonely self.

Now I am going to start working more on the food so the pounds can start shedding away, I can't wait to get on the scale in a few weeks and see the difference. I just feel an instant relief after working out, it completely switches my mindset and some how cuts my cravings and makes me want to eat healthier and care more about what I put into my body. I am so happy I am craving the gym and craving a healthier lifestyle, all of the sudden all this work just feels easy and instead of "work" it just feels like the highlight of my day.

Can't wait to tell you more tomorrow =)

CM!

Is it not meant to be or what?

So I was bad today and procrastinated my run until almost 5 p.m. The result? When I went to grab my jogger the left tire needed air, which of course resulted in me going to the park with my munchkin instead of going for a run. The good thing is that I did keep the diet going, I just can't wait for her to go back to school next Monday, as running is so much easier when its just me.

I wonder if things like this happen to test your determination, and the problem is that mine is pretty low. When I think back, I could have put the jogger in my car and gone to the gas station and filled the tires, but honestly I didn't feel like it after my "very determined" 4 y.o. would keep asking for mommy to take her to the park. She is definitely way more determined than mommy and many many times she gets what she wants because of that.

I did keep my healthy eating going, for breakfast I had a cheese stick and an apple and for lunch a turkey and mozzarella cheese sandwich on whole wheat toasted.

Dinner was my motivation, I tried to replicate one of my favorite salads, the 7-pepper sirloin salad from longhorn. It was a total hit with my boyfriend, he was totally impressed by my cooking skills which really cracks me up but I love it. I love cooking for him because comments are always positive and he loves eating what I cook, even when I burn the pancakes.

So this salad was sirloin steak covered in a mix of 7 pepper spices grilled on the George Forman Grill laid on mix greens with diced roma tomatoes and pepperoncini with a blue cheese dressing and gorgonzola crumbles. It is super tasty and very filing, good dinner dish to keep the healthy eating going.

So I have mastered the eating by the 3rd day, now I need to master the running. I hope it gets better when my little one goes back to school, the whole weight loss is not going to happen nearly as fast unless I incorporate some cardio.

Now my next challenge is the romantic weekend getaway, Dave and I LOVE eating and wine so calories will go up. Thankfully, the hotel has a little gym with treadmills and I am planning to take my running gear with me =) There is no excuses when you have a gym available, no weather or jogger problems, only your will to get your workout done., should be a good thing!

On another note I tried calibrating my Nike + wristband AGAIN. Guess what, it didn't work! Because the freaking thing wont record the walks... very frustrating! Let me tell you, I've gone through 2 iPod  Nano running sensors and now a wristband and nothing works. Gone to the Nike store and they can't even figure it out. I think next step is a return and going next door to Garmin and getting a cool wrist GPS to track my runs, maybe then I could log them.

More to come tomorrow, hopefully I will get a run in and burn some calories!

XOXO

Implementing changes is not that easy, hopefully it will get better

So yesterday, my first day of changes didn't go that well. Its a little challenging to put my 4 y.o. daughter on the jogger with this weather. Even though yesterday the temperature was not bad I had an interview that took most of my day, so the running went down the drain. I did manage to keep my calories under control, but didn't get to cook because I need to go grocery shopping.

Today I am trying to do better, the ab ripper is down! I am proud to say that, you can always squeeze 16 minutes into your day ;). Now the challenge is what to eat, still haven't gone grocery shopping but I think I have enough on the house to make this yummy recipe from cooking light, check it out.

Three-Chile_Dusted Shrimp

This is an awesome website to keep it healthy, all recipes have their nutritional information which helps to keep the calories under control.

My next challenge is to manage to get the run in, the weather is not bad so I might be able to get my little munchkin on the jogger and get going. For breakfast I had a Soy Chai and a multi-grain bagel with light cream cheese. I still haven't grabbed lunch but I am thinking of a yummy salad with italian dressing.

I will report on the running next, I still have to calibrate my Nike + wrist band which I finally figured out how to do. Hopefully, I can find a way to add my runs to the post. Nike has a cool little graphic that shows distance and pace =) Not that will be anything good, I haven't been running so its like starting from scratch.

It will be cool to document my training and follow my progress, I can't wait to see my pace drop down!

Bye for now!

See ya ;)

P.S. This is how my version of the recipe looked like. I used baby shrimp because that's what I had on the fridge and green peppers instead of red.

Enjoy!

And the changes gotta start NOW!

This week I came to the realization that I have to start changing my lifestyle. After less than a week of finishing my first marathon I came to realize that even though I had the determination to complete the race I did not have the determination to train for it, let alone to lead the healthy lifestyle that I should have been leading throughout the training process.

I love food too much and lately can't seem to make the right choices when it comes to portions or what I choose to put into my body. As a result, I learned when getting dressed for some interviews (been unemployed for about 6 months) that non of my work clothes fit... SURPRISE!

Why would I be surprised? Should I rely on good genetics at 34? Well, the truth is that somehow I expected that my body would remain the same even though I went from running 4 - 5 times a week to running MAYBE once a week, if not less. To that I need to add that not only I became a couch potato, but due to not working and my wonderful new boyfriend my social life changed, we went out to eat very often and also had drinks several times a week. Wine became a ritual in our dinner table, and you know how many calories that can add to your meal.

So that's it! Changes have to start and they have to start NOW! Since this weekend is too hectic and we have a party coming that is just not going to help I will start the plan by putting together next week's menu, wish me luck on finding yummy healthy food.

For now the exercise plan of next week will consist of 6 Miles 4 times between Monday and Friday, adding a long run on the weekend, the day of my choice. I am also doing the Ab Ripper (what a scary name), sounds fun? This consists of 16 minutes of crunches non-stop. It might sound easy but you are dying after 4 minutes, lol! It is part of the P90X set of DVDs and kicks your butt, hopefully it will help me have a flat toned stomach.

Well, I think that's it for now. I will include next weeks menu on my next post but for now I will be online looking for yummy healthy recipes with colorful pics.

Until the next post!

XOXO

Chi-Runner!