Stronger Every Second

Today was my first official strength training day of 2011. Yay!

I did 15 minutes (5.35 miles – Level 6/12) on the stationary bike for a warm-up and then 20 minutes on the rowing machine.

According to my Mom (and then confirmed by this article) working out on a rowing machine is the most effective calorie burner because it combines strength training and cardio in one.  Rowing works the arm, back, shoulder, and ab muscles!  Sounds like a winner to me!

I’m so sore right now from all that rowing, but at least I know it’s because I’m getting stronger every second!

I can’t wait until I muster up enough courage to start the weights and kettlebells!

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In addition to frequent strength training, one must consume a lot of protein in order to build muscle.  Let’s have a look at the protein-packed meals and snacks I’ve eaten today…

Breakfast:

2 whole wheat waffles, 1/2 cup 1% no salt added cottage cheese, and sliced strawberries

Lunch:

Turkey and roasted red pepper hummus on a Sandwich Thin, Laughing Cow and cucumbers, and an orange

Snack 1: (eaten after school/before my workout)

White Chocolate Macadamia Luna bar

Dinner:

A bowl of Pork and Hominy Stew with a side of toasted ciabatta bread and steamed broccoli

Snack 2:  (eaten a few hours after dinner)

Yoplait Light Thick & Creamy Cinnamon Roll yogurt and 1/2 a grapefruit

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It was a pretty good day of eats if I do say so myself!  The only not pictured item was the last slice of Coconut Banana Bread enjoyed for an impromptu dessert. I need to remember to make more soon!  So yummy! 

Question of the Day:

1. What is your favorite strength training tool/machine/move?   I can’t wait to hear what you have to say. That way I can steal them and add them to my routine. 

Mwahahaha! 

“Banana Bread” Oatmeal

You all know how much I love Baked Oatmeal In An Instant, right?

Right?!

Okay, so maybe you don’t.

But I really do like Tina’s Baked Oatmeal In An Instant. ↓

This past weekend, while eating my baked oatmeal, I thought “I wonder how this would taste with banana instead of pumpkin?”

As you all know (I mentioned it in this post) I am not a big fan of pumpkin. Yes, I ate it in this recipe and I will eat it again, but I wouldn’t choose to have pumpkin everyday.

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Bananas…now that’s a different story.

You can enjoy bananas in a variety of ways: banana bread, banana sandwiches, banana soft serve, the list goes on…and on…and on…

…but now there is a new way to enjoy bananas.

It’s a hybrid of banana bread and oatmeal.

I present to you: “Banana Bread” Oatmeal!

(Creative name, no? )

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“Banana Bread” Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup oats
• ½ banana, mashed
• ¼ cup EggBeaters (or 2 egg whites or 1 whole egg)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon honey
• ~ ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Toppings: (optional)

• granola
• sliced banana
• yogurt
• crushed graham crackers
• chopped walnuts
• coconut butter
• cream cheese frosting

Directions:

• Combine oats, mashed banana, EggBeaters, and baking powder in a medium microwavable bowl.
• Add spices, honey, and brown sugar
• Stir well
• Microwave for 2 minutes on high
• Add toppings
• Enjoy!

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As the last 30 seconds of cooking time ticked away the banana bread aroma filled the air. I needed to have it!

It tasted exactly like banana bread, but it’s easier to make and there is no clean up!

I ate it right up…but not before snapping a picture to show you the fluffiness of the bread. ↓

**You could also use a packet of instant oatmeal (Maple Brown Sugar and Banana Bread flavors work best!) in place of the oats, spices, and brown sugar.**

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It’s no secret that the “star of the show” was my breakfast, but here are some of my other eats for today. ↓

A Turkey and Tabasco Sandwich with grapes, celery, and Laughing Cow

A handful of unsalted peanuts

Chobani 2% Pineapple Greek Yogurt

Chicken cooked in Cream of Mushroom Soup, pesto, butter, and spices, served over No Yolks Egg Noodles with steamed asparagus mixed in

My Mom actually found the recipe for our dinner in an email from Campbells! I was pretty doubtful at first but it was actually really good!

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Hope you had a delicious day!

I Run Cross Country…On A Track?!

Yesterday I had a Cross Country Meet! (as usual) But I wasn’t able to post about it until now because I had a lot of this… ↓

and this…

and this…

Yup, Homework has to come before blogging. Got to keep those straight A’s up!

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Anyways…

On Saturday I decided to keep my eats similar to the ones before my first meet in order to have enough carb-y energy for the race.

Like the last time, I had banana soft-serve the night before.

Chocolate Banana Soft-Serve to be exact…with some frozen Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter on top! ♥

And in the morning I had a toasted Sandwich Thin with(retired! ) Justin’s Cinnamon Peanut Butter and topped with even more cinnamon.

Pre-Run Breakfast

 Absolutely delicious.

After eating my breakfast we were off to the meet. We had to leave the house by 9AM in order to get to the park an hour before my race time (10:55AM). The ride seemed to take forever!

When we finally got to the park it also seemed to take forever to find where my team was meeting before the race. I pretty much had to walk the whole park looking for them because I forgot my phone and couldn’t call to ask.

Eventually I did find my team and we pinned on our numbers, jogged to the bathroom for a warm-up, and then went to the starting line. There was only three of us (Sam, Nanci, and I) today because one of the girls was out with shin splints (Ouch!) and the other was on a trip for choir.

As we were getting race directions I was really nervous: Sam and Nanci usually finished in front of me and I didn’t want to be last out of my school! I was also worried because we had to finish the last quarter-mile of the race on the track. It was about 90 degrees outside so the last thing I wanted to do was run on a hot track!

It was too late though, the official shot the gun and we were off. Sam, Nanci, and I sprinted off the starting line and stayed together for the first ½ mile (Saturday meets are 2.2 miles long) but gradually Nanci fell behind. Sam was in the front for the entire race with me close behind. Once we got to the track, however, I told myself to speed up to Sam and keep with her and I did. We stayed together while running around the track. She finished first and I finished less than a second behind her! (Literally!) I finished at 18:29:84 and Sam finished at 18:29:28.

No, it wasn’t my fastest race but I still felt pretty good knowing that I gave it my all and did the best I could in the circumstances. (I can not run well in hot weather.)

Plus I got a medal!

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When I got home from the meet it was around 1:30PM and I was starving! I refueled with a nice protein/whole grain combo.

First a Turkey, Laughing Cow, and Dijon mustard Sandwich on a Sandwich Thin… ↓

…followed by a Chobani Blueberry Greek Yogurt. ↓

Post-Run Lunch

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Alrighty, I hope you enjoyed reading this post! Check back later for my Manna Bread Review.

Bottomless Pit

Today for breakfast I decided to try something that I have seen all over Blog World. This something is known as a banana sandwich. (It is also called a stuffed banana but I like the term “banana sandwich” better.)

My Banana Sandwich

A banana sandwich is usually stuffed with your choice of nut/seed butter and a couple toppings. These toppings can range from chocolate chips to flax and chia seeds. Today I went the peanut butter/chia seed route. ↓

Up Close

 Delicious it was, but unfortunately it left my stomach rumbling for the entire 4 hours before I get to go to lunch. Don’t you hate when that happens? The worst part is that what I packed for lunch is all I had to eat, I couldn’t just reach into the fridge or pantry like I would’ve if I was home.

Despite the bottomless pit that was my stomach, my lunch was pretty yummy! I had a turkey sandwich with italian dressing on an Arnold‘s Sandwich Thin with a side of raw zucchini and Laughing Cow. ↓

Lunch

 Italian dressing is not a normal sandwich condiment but it is really good – almost like oil and vinegar on a hoagie.

Lunch didn’t hold me over for long but I tried to ignore the hunger for the rest of the school day and Cross Country Practice. Notice the key word is tried. It didn’t work too well…

Anyways…

Today in Cross Country Practice we went a different route than usual and ran to the nearby college and back totaling 4 miles. Talk about overtraining for our 2.2 mile meets, but it doesn’t hurt I guess…

After practice I came home and immediately grabbed some VitaCoco coconut water to rehydrate.

Rehydration

The verdict on the passion fruit flavor? Sweet, very sweet – I think I’ll stick to unflavored.

After downing my coconut water I kicked off my sneakers and hopped into the shower to cool off and de-stink  sweat myself. After cleaning up and changing into clean, comfortable clothes I was ready to combat my hunger.

Regardless of the fact that dinner was in half an hour I had some Emerald Walnuts & Almonds and a Mott’s NSA applesauce.

Snack, actually this could be considered an appetizer

While I ate I did some of my homework and then had dinner.

Din-Din

Tonight my plate consisted of:

• Leftover casserole from yesterday (not mentioned on blog because it was very bland and boring without the addition of loads of sodium soy sauce)
• Annie’s Shells & Real Aged Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese (topped with more cheese)
• Steamed broccoli

After dinner I was nice and full…for a while. The Annie’s Macaroni & Cheese was absolutely delicious! Plus, it had 100 fewer calories and 9 grams less fat than Kraft Thick n’ Creamy Macaroni & Cheese. (I know this because I may or may not have a box of Kraft sitting in my pantry.)

The evening was a jumble of cleaning up, doing homework, and helping my Dad. By the time I finally got to sit down and have (another) snack it was 9PM.

Cottage Cheese & Cantaloupe

Shortly after sitting down and watching TV I realized that I still had to make a Cross Country Spirit Shirt for the Pep Rally tomorrow! Oops!

Right now the shirt is drying so no pictures but I will tell you what is says. On the front it says Notre Dame XC (Cross Country) with some stars on each end of Notre Dame. On the back it says my last name on the top and “We’re bringing XC back!” on the bottom. (Get it? Like Sexy Back but XC Back instead. Ok. Don’t blame me, I didn’t come up with it…)

Ta-Ta For Now! I have to go finish watching TV and then get to bed so I can be extra-peppy for the Pep Rally tomorrow!

Salsa Bar

Today was another productive day of good eats!

After breakfast, I read 30 pages of The Lightning Thief and then went to get my eyebrows threaded with my mom. When we got back home, I cleaned my room (didn’t get very far) and then had a random lunch.

Lunch:

• 2 turkey meatballs
• carrots and sugar snap peas
• 1 wedge Laughing Cow
• dijon mustard
• 1 peach (Not Pictured)

Once lunch was finished I cleaned my room some more, did chores, etc. (Boring stuff…) Then I had some snacks before we went to Lambertville and New Hope to walk around and have dinner.

Snacks:

• 1 Kashi TLC Peanut Peanut Butter Bar

• 1 Muffin That Tastes Like A Donut (the second-to-last one!)

• and a frozen blob of Dark Chocolate Dreams (oh so dreamy ♥)

Our Lambertville/New Hope excursion was so much fun! When we first arrived in Lambertville we walked by the Delaware River for a while and watched people canoeing and fishing on the river.

Me & Phil

Dad & Phil

Me

Then, we walked over the bridge to the New Hope, PA side of the river. I took a bunch of professional-looking pictures! Haha!

The view from the bridge

Once we got to New Hope my mom and I window shopped and my dad and Phil looked at statues.

Dad, Phil, & A DINOSAUR!

It’s a good thing I had a bunch of filling snacks before I left because we didn’t get to eat dinner until 8PM! We stopped at a Mexican restaurant called El Taco Loco. They had a SALSA BAR! The salsa was so good – they had spicy, mild, and salsa verde and I must have gotten 3 bowls full that I ate only with a spoon and some tortilla chips. Yum! All that salsa was before dinner – my actual entrée was chicken tacos with mexican rice (Yuck – too heavy on the cumin - I didn’t eat much of it) and pinto beans.

It’s too bad I didn’t snap any pictures of the salsa. I ate it all too fast!

Question of the Day:

1. What is your favorite type of cuisine?          I ♥ Mexican food!