What a beautiful day today! I was in awe this morning at the glowing rays of sunshine filling our house, as just last night we were hit with a HUGE rain storm (which I LOVED btw!) I am much more of a winter gal myself, but I do enjoy the occasional boost of warmth too. I miss California weather; just the right amount of rain, never too hot or too cold (in my opinion anyways). Just my style ;)
To my deep dismay, I hurt my knee AGAIN this morning! I am blaming it on Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred; too much jumping (ie jumping jacks, butt kicks, jump "rope", etc) and far too many squats and lunges. Not to mention that I always do this particular work out FIRST THING in the morning (my butt is out of bed and sweating before 7 am). That is not to say I will never partake in "the shred" again...just need to be more mindful of HOW I am performing the moves so as not to hurt myself any further. Good form is SO important, I really can not stress that enough. I do plan to take it easy tomorrow by incorporating modified moves and if it TRULY still hurts, then I will muster up the inner strength to STOP. That last part might be a bit tough though; I'm sort of, kind of, maybe just a little bit of an addict.
Speaking of exercise addicts...REST IS CRUCIAL. Keep in mind that your body NEEDS rest just as much, if not more, than it needs exercise! Your body does all of it's repairing while you rest(ie muscle repair/growth). In other words, your muscles do NOT grow or bulk up while you are lifting; that phenomenon doesn't happen until AFTER your workout and while you are giving your body a break. I am sure there is a science behind it and I intend on researching a bit more on the subject at a later date when I am not famished from homework overload. As for myself, I often have one, sometimes two, rest days a week. Saturdays are always my rest days, but when I feel fatigued, a symptom of over-training, or have injured myself, like I did this morning, then I pencil in a extra day. Since I hurt my knee I will decided on my next rest day based upon how tomorrow's work out goes.
I think it's time to talk about food now; what do think? :)
I embraced my post-work out morning with a warm bowl of "nutty" oats. I say nutty because the flax meal and wheatgerm that I add to my oats every morning add a sort of nutty flavor to them.
I also had two hard-boiled egg whites along with my oats.
I've been a little tired of eating salad everyday for lunch, so today, while watching my hubby whip up a tuna sandwich (on whole wheat bread I might add!) I decided that I really wanted one too.
I am all out of Ezekiel bread, as you can probably already tell, but regardless of that this sandwich totally hit the spot!
I tried something new today that I read about on another bloggie friend's blog: roasted broccoli! My bloggie friend used thawed frozen broccoli, but I deliberately bought fresh broccoli at the grocery store over the weekend to see if it made any difference. I think that it may. I did like it, but I felt that it was a bit too dry and bland for me. I obviously LOVE roasted veggies and honestly never put anything on them. I just chop 'em up and throw in the oven. I think the broccoli needed just a hint of olive oil and a dash of sea salt. I do intend on trying to roast thawed frozen broccoli soon too though...I'm betting they will taste MUCH better!
There's the fresh bouquet of broccoli. And yes, I totally ate the WHOLE thing...about two cups worth of greens right there (I know, I measured).
And here's the finished product paired with a grilled chicken breast. Although I'm not raving about roasted broccoli, they did end up making a nice crunchy snack to munch on while I was studying ;) I also had some of this x2:
I had honestly planned on sitting down to baked tilapia and roasted veggies (what else?) for a pre-cardio, ab work out meal, but then I remembered that I still have a few Chipotle Blackbean Gardenburgers left! So I changed my mind and had a Gardenburger with roasted veggies instead (nothing in this world could replace the roasted veggies...except maybe peanut butter).
After 30 minutes on the elliptical and some ab work, I had planned on having the usual, but then I decided that that isn't what I really wanted. What I really wanted was another Gardenburger and an apple. So that is what I had:
My very last Gardenburger. So YUM!
I spent a great deal of my morning, while devouring my oats, reading other foodie blogs for yummy and tempting ideas (yes, I read about food while I am eating it) so as not to bore you all too much. Boy did I discover some good eats! I have never imagined that sweet potatoes and peanut butter could be an appetizing pair, but
oh my gosh...need I say more? April, you are a GENIUS! I am so trying that one next week. I say next week because I intentionally left the peanut butter at the grocery store so as to delude my ravishing cravings for the stuff. I would go a second week, but I have a cupboard stocked with sweet potatoes but no peanut butter and that just doesn't seem right.
There were other recipes I found too and I can not wait to give them all a try! Just thinking of them all makes me kind of hungry LOL
OK, well, it's time for me to bid you all a restful night! I still have some studying to do and some sleeping to do myself ;)
To my deep dismay, I hurt my knee AGAIN this morning! I am blaming it on Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred; too much jumping (ie jumping jacks, butt kicks, jump "rope", etc) and far too many squats and lunges. Not to mention that I always do this particular work out FIRST THING in the morning (my butt is out of bed and sweating before 7 am). That is not to say I will never partake in "the shred" again...just need to be more mindful of HOW I am performing the moves so as not to hurt myself any further. Good form is SO important, I really can not stress that enough. I do plan to take it easy tomorrow by incorporating modified moves and if it TRULY still hurts, then I will muster up the inner strength to STOP. That last part might be a bit tough though; I'm sort of, kind of, maybe just a little bit of an addict.
Speaking of exercise addicts...REST IS CRUCIAL. Keep in mind that your body NEEDS rest just as much, if not more, than it needs exercise! Your body does all of it's repairing while you rest(ie muscle repair/growth). In other words, your muscles do NOT grow or bulk up while you are lifting; that phenomenon doesn't happen until AFTER your workout and while you are giving your body a break. I am sure there is a science behind it and I intend on researching a bit more on the subject at a later date when I am not famished from homework overload. As for myself, I often have one, sometimes two, rest days a week. Saturdays are always my rest days, but when I feel fatigued, a symptom of over-training, or have injured myself, like I did this morning, then I pencil in a extra day. Since I hurt my knee I will decided on my next rest day based upon how tomorrow's work out goes.
I think it's time to talk about food now; what do think? :)
I embraced my post-work out morning with a warm bowl of "nutty" oats. I say nutty because the flax meal and wheatgerm that I add to my oats every morning add a sort of nutty flavor to them.
I've been a little tired of eating salad everyday for lunch, so today, while watching my hubby whip up a tuna sandwich (on whole wheat bread I might add!) I decided that I really wanted one too.
I tried something new today that I read about on another bloggie friend's blog: roasted broccoli! My bloggie friend used thawed frozen broccoli, but I deliberately bought fresh broccoli at the grocery store over the weekend to see if it made any difference. I think that it may. I did like it, but I felt that it was a bit too dry and bland for me. I obviously LOVE roasted veggies and honestly never put anything on them. I just chop 'em up and throw in the oven. I think the broccoli needed just a hint of olive oil and a dash of sea salt. I do intend on trying to roast thawed frozen broccoli soon too though...I'm betting they will taste MUCH better!
I had honestly planned on sitting down to baked tilapia and roasted veggies (what else?) for a pre-cardio, ab work out meal, but then I remembered that I still have a few Chipotle Blackbean Gardenburgers left! So I changed my mind and had a Gardenburger with roasted veggies instead (nothing in this world could replace the roasted veggies...except maybe peanut butter).
After 30 minutes on the elliptical and some ab work, I had planned on having the usual, but then I decided that that isn't what I really wanted. What I really wanted was another Gardenburger and an apple. So that is what I had:
I spent a great deal of my morning, while devouring my oats, reading other foodie blogs for yummy and tempting ideas (yes, I read about food while I am eating it) so as not to bore you all too much. Boy did I discover some good eats! I have never imagined that sweet potatoes and peanut butter could be an appetizing pair, but oh my gosh...need I say more? April, you are a GENIUS! I am so trying that one next week. I say next week because I intentionally left the peanut butter at the grocery store so as to delude my ravishing cravings for the stuff. I would go a second week, but I have a cupboard stocked with sweet potatoes but no peanut butter and that just doesn't seem right.
There were other recipes I found too and I can not wait to give them all a try! Just thinking of them all makes me kind of hungry LOL
OK, well, it's time for me to bid you all a restful night! I still have some studying to do and some sleeping to do myself ;)