So nom

Recipe for the most delicioso healthy sweet potato and quinoa burrito ever:

Power Burritos

2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
8-10 mini sweet peppers, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder

Mix diced veggies together and toss with oil and spices. Spread flat on baking sheet & roast at 425 degrees for 20 mins.


While that is cooking, combine the following in a large mixing bowl:
1 large can black beans, drained and rinsed
1.5-2 cups cooked quinoa
1 small jar of jalapenos or 1 small can green chilies
½ cup chopped cilantro (or a tad less)


When sweet potato mixture is done roasting, toss with the black bean and quinoa mix. This is the filling for your burritos! Pack it into your tortilla of choice and top with a mixture of plain greek yogurt and salsa and enjoy.

This recipe makes a large lot which freezes well. You can also add cheese to the burritos, wrap them up, and bake them in a 9x13 pan for a few minutes.

- From my Mom's coworker :)

Food food food

“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.”




Doggy sat this weekend:)  We are the best buds, and his poops are teeny tiny so I don't mind being in charge of him for 2 days. 

Here we go, again.  I watched the documentary "Hungry for Change" and now I'm buying a juicer.  Going to plan on doing the 3 day detox after the St. Paddy's day run in Chicago in 2 weeks. 

Ugh, and mom has to buy magazines with delicious mac and cheese recipes: 

Trying to be best buds with my best bud, not gonna happen, boyface. 

Story of my life:

Thank GOD February is over.  It was just cold.  Now that we are having our very last snow storm of the season (I'm positive), I'm just about to get really motivated to run outside again.  2 Weeks until the 8k Chicago St. Paddy's day run. 

Last week:

Monday: Body Pump, instructor was sick, and they couldnt find a replacement in time so I had to lift weights by myself in the gym.  I saw another girl that usually goes to class and we just looked at each other confused like "what do we do?".  I did a few arm machines, ran 3 mi on treadmill then went home and cried. 
Tuesday: Bum
Wednesday: Body Pump, instructor was still sick (flu I heard) but there was a sub instructor so we had class.
Thursday: Bum
Friday:  Was SUPPOSED to go to CYC (spin) class, thought it was at 6:30, it was at 5:30.  Idiot. Went to the Y and ran 3 sad miles.
Saturday: I got up early and made it to body pump at 8:30, the class was the most full it's ever been for me.  They ran out of the normal weights so some of us had to use the 'old' weights.  1st world problems. 
All day Sunday I recovered on the couch from the night before.  Saturday night involved a lot of beer, bowling, and getting boo'd off the Kareoke stage.  Hilarious.  Even if you reeeeeallly like Nelly's "Country Grammer" and think you can rap, you can't. 


Zeus enjoying some sun and a poo at my condo:

New awesome app alert:  "Fooducate", you scan the barcode from the poptart box you're consuming poptarts from and it tells you how disgusting you are, and gives you better, healthier, non gmo, organic (if available) alternatives:

Here I scanned the yummy blackbean burgers I bought from Costco, D MINUS!?

So it recommended I try these alternatives:

But I have to eat the rest of them first :)  :(

Spaz?

I write notes all the time, little reminders to pick up bananas, don't forget to bring home my soup from work, my debit card pin number after I forgot it for 2 days, weight, body measurements, websites, upcoming races that I want to research...  I usually lose them or forget to bring them with me and end up remembering what I needed to do anyways.  I make fun of myself for sticking post it notes to my phone when I have an actual app for notes.  Last night my pin number randomly got declined at Costco.  Not my debit card; my pin number.  Couldn't even use the ATM. I've been using the same pin number for years and all of the sudden I forgot it about a week ago. And it seems the more you try to remember something you should know, the less chance you have of actually remembering. I had since remembered and had been using it with no problem.  I wonder if these cashiers think I'm trying to use a stolen card haha. So I had to call Allan, and he came to my rescue and bought the $87 worth of food. 

For a while I wouldnt throw away my calender/planners because I liked looking back to see what I had planned on a specific day, and all my little scribbles and notes throughout the year.  I'm nostalgic I guess. Or a horder.


Currently listening to: "I feel it all" by Feist on my Amy Winehouse  I Heart Radio station.  Good stuff.  I love when Janis Joplin comes on. 

Currently Eating: Salad, with tomatoes, (I've become a tomato person in the last month. Came out of nowhere) chick peas, red peppers, croutons, avacado and ranch dressing.  Cauliflower with sundried tomato and basil hummus.  Applesauce/oatmeal/banana/dried cranberry cookies thanks to pinterest.

Tonights workout: Body pump at the YMCA, but not before actually running more than 5 minues on the treadmill.  I need to do a good 7 miles or something.  Purge some toxins.  I should go to hot yoga soon.  I feel bad because I've missed one 5 mile and one 7 mile run on my Runkeeper training program. 

Since the last time I blogged- I ran outside last friday in 20 degree temps and my phone froze with 1 mile left of my 5 mile run.  Still felt great, but was freezing the rest of the night and my hands even went numb after my shower.  Must be my old age that's affecting my circulation. 

Didn't do much else as far as workouts over the weekend- just a yoga podcast at home on sunday afternoon after I realized the YMCA closes at 6 (or was it 7?) sundays.  Monday I went to my Body pump class and used a little less weight for the back track.  My back has actually never been so sore from a workout.  Odd how that worked. I think I was using too heavy of weight before and couldn't properly do the moves. 

Current weight for Body Pump classes:
Large plate =5KG = 11 lbs
Medium plate =2.5KG = 5.5 lbs
Small plate =1KG = 2.2 lbs

Warm up:  2 L = 22 lbs
Squats: 2 L, 2 M, 2 S= 37.4 lbs (THAT'S IT?)
Chest: 2 L, 2 S= 26.4 lbs
Triceps: 2 M, 2 S= 15.4 lbs
Back: 2 L, 4 S= 30.8 lbs
Lunges: Depends on how beat my legs are from squats, usually 2 L = 22 lbs, still burrrns
Shoulders: Body weight for pushups, 2 M for side raises
Abs: nada

Speaking of backs, Found this on FB, might be useful:



Made these last night after seeing it on a friends' instagram:


Banana + PB dipped in melted dark chocolate, then frozen.  Healthy or naughty?

I wonder when I'm going to break down and buy this suit?  The top itself is over $100.  In my defense I've never spent more than $40 on a suit though, I think.



For whatever reason I thought this was relevant when I saved it to my phone:



How sweet are my mom's valentines?:

Bye for now

I get it from my ... Daddy?

How cute is this new cup?

I found this plastic tumblr at Target on clearance for 9 dollars something.  I use disposable plastic cups every day at work and started to feel bad for the earth.  I drink WAY more water because of the straw, and have even started putting lemons in there.  Big things poppin.  BPA free.

 

 

 

 

Here's my sunday morning breakfast, almond milk, strawberries, and a banana.  I was out of spinach. 

 

My spin class monday was at a new-ish place downtown madison called CYC Fitness.  They have grueling 45 min classes, and what's awesome is that you're basically in the dark.  They turn the lights off in the room, blast the music, and have a spotlight on the instructor in the front.  I absolutley love that they spin to the beat.  Makes you really push yourself to keep up.  Mondays class was a special class because it was Beyonce themed.  'Like omg'.  The creator of CYC fitness even came all the way from New York (or Texas IDK) to teach the class.  His name is Keoni Hudoba and he's amazeballs.  This guy went from 300 and some pounds in 2009 to looking basically like a runway model now. 

 

 

Oh, and he's also an Under Armour model... nbd

I got all motivated after my spin class monday night and made an omlet to take to work the next day. With turkey bacon of course.

Am I a model yet?

 

I was so incredibly full after I ate this, I didnt even snack before my lunchbreak at 1.  I'll have to eat this more often..

 

 

So of course I stalked Keoni on instagram and thought this was a cool photo because it's absolutley true for most of my workouts:

 

Sorry, the GroupMe app notification was an unintentional part of this pic lol

I've always been the athletic type, but I can attribute my bizarre love of running to my Dad (and Mom).  Here's my Dad's latest Runkeeper activities, he is a boss:

 

 

 

My RunKeeper training for the half marathon in San Diego started last night, I was supposed to run 5 miles, but wasn't able to fit it in the schedule.  Shame on me.  But I will say that my two 5 mile treadmill runs in the past week make up for that.  I am however doing the 3 mile + tempo run tonight so I'll let you know how that goes.  It will be outside (finally), since it's a balmy 30 degrees outside.  Then I have my Wednesday Body Pump class afterwards.  Yeek.  Good thing I have a brand new Lululemon tank (found on saleeee) to make it all worth while ;)

 

 

 

Motivation
 

 

 

Runs to Beyonce

This weeks workouts:
Monday: Body Pump (YMCA)- hurt my back squatting too much weight :/
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Body Pump, felt much better
Thursday: 5 miles on treadmill
Friday: tonight I'll run or rest
Tomorrow I'm hoping to make it to the 8:35 am body pump

Last night's walk to the gym:


After the gym, it had been snowing so hard that my footprints were gone:




TGiF!
Just in time for spring training motivation: King Beyonce comes out and kills the superbowl halftime show last Sunday. My YMCA recently got treadmills with fancy personal tv screens on each one, and that are compatible with iPhones so last night I scanned the Internet for ways to download videos to my iPhone to watch while I run. I absolutely love watching Beyonces live performances and what better way to find motivation during a boring treadmill run than to watch bey bey own the stage...

Her Sweet Dreams perfromance from the 2009 Ema's

At first I tried downloading her performances from whatever google search came up first (shady, I know, and not very safe) but the files were not compatible with iTunes and it was difficult to convert them (as in the "converter software" literally shut off my laptop and deleted my iTunes) So I searched for ways to download videos directly from YouTube and found this: if you download the "Opera" web browser and install the YouTube add-on it adds a download button to every YouTube video... So voila- in no time at all I was sprinting (ok jogging) on the treadmill to Bey's 14 min halftime performance , Run the World Billboard performance, Freakum dress, Upgrade You, and Ring the Alarm MTV performances. Take THAT HGTV. 


How mean! Haha 

Poor Bey :( 

  

I ended up running 5 miles in just over 53 minutes and my average pace was 5.9 mph which comes out to about 10 min miles but that included my 3 min warm up and cool down. Not bad. I wish the workout summary would break up the workout by miles..pff. At my 3rd mile in I get a text on my phone from a friend that lives in Chicago, reading "Beyonce, July 17th, concert tickets, $85, you in?". My heart exploded! I saw her in concert a few years ago in Chicago with the same friend so I know it will be a blast.. If I don't get sick and have to hang my head out the limo window the whole way home...

In other news, my other friend and I just decided to run the Rock'n'Roll half marathon in San Diego on June 2nd, so it's actually time to start training for real. I prefer running outside and actually prefer cold temp runs here in the chilly Midwest but it's been snowing nonstop and the sidewalks are too slippery. I usually run with the ismoothrun app on my iPhone to track time/distance but it doesn't work that well on the treadmill. I usually just manually input my treadmill runs. I also have the runkeeper app and noticed that they now have training plans built into the app which is awesome. My 1st half marathon was last year in Madison, and my time was 2 hours 5 min, BUT it was sooo hot out (high of 93 degrees and they even cancelled the full marathon) so I like to think I would have been faster had it not been close to 100 degrees out haha. So for the half in San Diego I think I want to aim for under 2 hours. Whats the weather like in SD in June?! ah... So, here's my training plan via runkeeper:

Maxed out the Treadmill

On Monday I pounded the treadmill at the Y across the street from my condo 1. Because it's cold outside 2.  Donald Driver was performing on Dancing with the Stars and I had to watch/drool on the tv's there (I voted a total of 48 times for him between my phone and Allans later that night, love you DD!). It's the first time I've used my iSmoothRun app to track a run indoors.  It uses an 'accelerometer' and magic versus its GPS. According to my  'my coach' schedule (picture below), I was only supposed to run 4 miles easy that day. But running on a treadmill feels like 30% outdoor running effort, so really I was dragging.  The first pics are the treadmill stats (including warmup and cooldown). 

 

I've NEVER maxed out the time on a treadmill!  Woo, little victories.  Sounds boring, but I felt really good and got to watch tv, so whatevs. 

The next 2 pics are from the iSmoothRun app record of that same run. I stopped the app workout at 44 min, for some dumb reason. Miles four and five look a little off to me, but i was flying, so maybe I was really going that fast, I donno. That would be awesome, and I don't think I'm that awesome, yet. 

Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with workout statistics?  If I didn't have ways to track my workouts (runkeeper, ismoothrun) I don't think I'd be half as motivated to actually complete them. 

Here's my half marathon training schedule courtesy of runnersworld.  D day is 5 days before my 28^th birthday!  And here I go setting crazy goals:  I hope to run a FULL marathon before the big DIRTY THIRTY. Or maybe by my golden birthday: 5/31/2015

After my treadmill workout, I went home and posted on my facebook that I was looking for some new workout songs, and one of my friends recommended I download the Fit Radio app, and my life changed at that very moment.  LOL.

I've always loved the 5 o'clock workout mixes on the radio but never knew where I could download them. I get really tired of the same music in my itunes playlist and it feels like a second job to find the latest greatest workout music. And when I'm working out I hate the pause between songs. Fit Radio streams AWESOME music, and they mix one song into another, so there are never gaps of silence between songs like regular radio stations/playlists. So, like a good social media freak I posted my love for them on their facebook wall:

SCORE!  I'm geeked for that tank to arrive!  New workout gear GIVES ME LIFE.  When I emailed Cari my address I also suggested a Michael Jackson only radio station, she said she's working on it.  LOVE MJ. 

Tuesday I went to "hot" yoga at a new local gym, Badger Fitness 24/7.  Nice place, but the rooms aren't at full 'hotness' yet.  They're working on getting them up to 105 degress, because they're only at 84ish right now.  And I prefer to sweat uncontrollably!

On Wednesday, Lyndsay (my coworker) and I went on a walk during lunch. Wind was gusty at 11mph, and temp was 55 degrees. So not the best walking weather, but at least the sun was out.

We came across this while walking past a corn field:

At first we thought it was some type of water pump, but taking a second look at the fancy fence, I decided it must be some type of graveyard.

So we took a closer look:

Yep, some type of animal final resting place. RIP nanimals.

We got honked at by a passing car when we were walking back to the road, I hope it wasn't the land owner. Here's our spooky graveyard walk stats:

That night, my Mom came over to meet with my coworkers friend who was looking for someone to adopt her Yorkie puppy, Zeus, because she can't bring him to her new condo.  My mom fell in love.  She's been looking for a new puppy for a year now and hasn't been able to take the plunge.  It was perfect timing, and Zeus was a great deal.  I think she paid $150 for him, and he is a purebread that usually goes for $600-$1000.  He will be 1 on April 15^th.  I'll have to make him a doggy birthday cake.  Zeus took a big dump right on my floor after 15 minutes of getting there.  Hope it was just nervous jitters and not a habit! 

 

Last night (thursday)s workout consisted of a 3.5 mile run, then Hot (warm) yoga. 

Here's the beginning of my Fit Radio selection from that run: The first song CRACKS ME UP.  "I'm ridin around and I'm gettin it".  I need a better explanation, Sir 2 Chainz.  What are you gettin? .......... All I know is 'it's his, he spent it'. Well ok then...

 

Beast song of the run definatley had to be TI, "Beat Down Low".  Perfect tempo for my running pace.

Closing note:

I giggled at today's Living Social Deal in my email inbox:: "Lasik Surgery Package - 2 Locations".  Really!?  First of all, since when are surgeries advertised on a discount website, and second, how is surgery a 'social deal'?  haha.  You mean I can get my eyes sliced opened at EITHER LOCATION?  I wonder if I could get my left eye sliced at location A, then my right eye sliced at location 2?  Can I split this deal, sir?  NO?

I'm off to Chicago to see my bff's new house!  She's got a bun in the oven, so I'm going to photograph their 'announcement' photos.  Shhhhhhhh...

X

Weee! I'm a runnnnnner! +Shamrock Shuffle Deets

So I started running outside consistently January 2nd, 2012 (burr).  And doing hot yoga (ahhh).  I'll probably start blogging now too since almost ALL of my motivation comes from reading blogs.  I'll do another post (or twelve) on the specifics, but for now I'll start with this:

Jan: (30 Miles Total)

 Feb: (31.7 miles total)

March: (60.5 miles total)

BAM

I ran my first "race" on St Patty's Day.  It was the Shamrock Shuffle 10k

 Shamrock shuffle route, downtown Madison, WI March 17th, 2012

And we had VERY unusual weather in March for Wisconsin, guess which day was one of the HOTTEST?  You got it, Shamrock Shuffle Day:

There was one tough hill in the beginning:

Booked it the last mile, the only split I'm proud of ha

Here's Monir and I after the run in front of the Capital!
We unknowingly bought the SAME nike shirt for the big day hehe

Guns after the race. "we're Ethnic" (inside joke)

Picture my Mom took after I crossed the finish line

sorry these are out of order, this is the start of the Shuffle, State Street

LOL

After the race we talked to my parents for a bit, guzzled the free water, ate our nanners, then went to Jamba Juice where Monir got her delicious on, then to American Apparel where we just stared at expensive clothing, then.... TO BRATS for a green beer! 

 I'm going to hot yoga tonight at a new place on my side of town (ALL HOT YOGA IN MADISON IS ON THE WEST SIDE OR DOWNTOWN GRR).  Then I need to run my 4 mile tempo from yesterday.  I was a bit distracted by last night's new puppy visit... Details to follow in next blog post :)

XO