How's your water?

I am looking back over the last couple of days, and trying to do some positive self talk. Trying not to fall victim to more of what has been going on yesterday & the day before. I see too that I haven't been drinking nearly enough water. Nowhere even close to 8, 8oz glasses of water. More like 1 or 2, for the whole day. So dehydration may be exaggerating the mood swings.

So needless to say, lots of augwa for yours truly today.

I woke up and wanted to get something in me that was going to keep me full for a long time. I had a big morning a head of myself. This called for a protein green monster. This one was so good, it might even be worth submitting to The Green Monster Movement site. Note the spill, not because it's over-flowing, rather I got distracted while pouring and made a mess lol.

Peanut Butter Vanilla Green Monster

• 1 scoop of vanilla Whey protein powder
• 1 whole banana
• 3 cups of spinach
• 1 tbsp Kraft smooth PB - running low on the cashew butter otherwise that would have been used.
• 1 cup of UVAB
• Blend & Serve

After breakfast was over, it was off to get a quick run in before hitting the gym. Cardio Bosu class today. Honestly this class keeps me going all week long. I luuurve it! Here are a few sample pics I found online of what Cardio Bosu is like. We run circuits in the class, it's great!

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I even managed to fit in an hour spin class with my fav instructor Sheena this morning. Ok, ok it's a lot yes, but I was excited and had banked on doing all of this before work this morning.

After class, I went and had a swim in the pool. However not the best of swim, I ended up getting chatty with 2 other swimmers, who also run. So there was much to talk about. I did however manage to get 5 laps, maaaaybe 6 before I had to take off and start working.

Needless to say burning all those calories I needed to refuel before I would have time to get a typical morning snack in. I planned for this and had half my lara-apple-bar.

Once I got back to the office (as I had some out of office work to complete) I was ravenously hungry. I ate my apple so fast, I'm not even sure I saw it. Tupperware lid open, mouth open, apple gonzo! Two of my coworkers have recently asked me what I do to my apples to keep them from getting all brown (as I cut and pack my apple the night before). I haven't been doing anything special, and I've been more aware of this trying to figure out what my secret is. When I cut my apples, it's packing varies from Tupperware to glassware, and it's storage varies from refrigerated to left out on the counter top. Then coworker Kelly and I figured out it might be the type of apples I eat. I eat Royal Gala Apples, which I love because they are almost always firm and crunchy, unlike a soft McIntosh. Could this be the secret to not having uber brown apples?

Remember when I talked about my love for breakfast foods here? Well being in a mopey mood last night I had no grand inspiration for today's lunch. So I went with something comforting and oh-so loveable! Oatmeal! That's right, breakfast for lunch (I swear dinner isn't going to be breakfast food).

I packed my dry ingredients, and tossed some fresh fruit in another Tupperware.
Lunch Time Oats

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup of quick oats
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1tbsp chia seeds
• 1tbsp dried goji berries
• 1/2tbsp cinnamon
• 1/4tbsp nutmeg
• 1/3 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup blackberries
• 1 banana
• 3 walnut halves

Directions

• See here for standard banana mash
• Add water
• Add all dry ingredients to your banana mash mix (oats, dried fruit, seeds & spices)
• Mix well with a fork to get that banana mash goodness all over
• Cook in the nuker for 2 mins
• Top with fresh fruit and nuts
• Using your fork, mash that fresh fruit to release it's juices into your oatmeal

Manga manga!Just for an update, I have already had 6, 8oz glasses of water today (by 1:00), and I am feeling much better today. Fingers crossed that it stays this way for the rest of the day.

Question: Do you ever do uber long workout sessions? Do you feel like you need to make up for missing one?

Answer: Me? Why did I workout so much today? Because I felt like I had to? No! Did I feel like I had to make up for missing yesterday? In a way, kind of. However I didn't do all that I did this morning because I felt like I had to. I did it because this was something I was looking forwards to. I had fun doing it and seeing if I could push myself and make it through it all. I never feel like I must workout. I do get the feeling of having to, but let me explain that more. Being that I work so much and have such a busy schedule because of work, the times that I am not working, I feel like I have to workout, because I know that I won't get the chance to later, so it's a now or not today. So I have to grab the opportunities that I have otherwise it would be way too easy for me to say, I work 2 regular jobs and 1 casual, I don't have time to workout. So If I want to,I have to!

2 halves

I feel semi strange posting the second half of my day from yesterday and this morning together. But that is what I have got for you. Together they aren't too long, kind of seem to be just the right length, however on their own they seem too short. And really, I don't want to make two posts today one right after the other.

I will recap starting with breakfast today and going back to yesterdays snack and dinner.

This mornings breakfast was really good. This I believe is mainly due to the over ripe nectarine I threw in. Green Monster!

2heaping cups in baby spinach, 1cup almond milk, 1/2 royal gala apple, 1whole nectarine, 5 strawberries, 1/2 banana & 2 tsp ground flax.

Just looking at the picture makes me want to have another. For more ideas as to making your own Green Monster, check out Angela's recipes here and for even more recipes check out the Green Monster's readers recipes here.

After my morning breakfast, I was zooming off to the gym for spin class. Now you may remember me talking about my struggles with the new/old instructor Joe (if not check out Tuesday's post). Joe has been teaching Thursday classes since I have started my early morning work outs, however just recently took over Tuesday morning spin from Allison. I didn't burn nearly as many calories in Tuesday's class, and generally never burnt all that many in Thursday's classes (compared to Allison's). Today I was determined to work hard and feel the burn!

Throughout the class I kept looking at my HRM, and not seeing the calories being burnt as quickly as I would have liked. I pushed myself hard, harder than I would have had I not set a goal for myself. I reached my goal of 400 calories burnt in spin class and was happy.

After spin class, I grabbed my Ipod and headed out to the gym floor. I did some leg work and worked my abs through some crunches and lots of planks! I am happy to report that I am starting to see some (though minor) definition in my abs that I am looking to achieve.

My stomach was telling me very loudly in the car ride to work that it needed food. I was determined however to hold out until 9am before eating my morning snack. This was simply because I didn't want to eat it at 8:30 and then be hungry before lunch hour at work. I didn't pack as many snacks with me today to work, as (HAPPY DANCE) I get to eat dinner at home tonight, no additional work after work! Luckily my coworker came into my office and we chatted for a good 15 minutes, which really helped the time pass.

9:10am came and I made a bee line for the work mini fridge. Grabbed my mini breakfast cookie for snack. To make this I made a whole breakfast cookie and just split it into two small Tupperware containers, hence the mini.

1/3cup of oats, 2 tbsp nut butter (I used almond), 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds 1tbsp sunflower seeds, 1/2 tbsp chia seeds & sesame seeds, 1/8 cup raisins, 2 tbsp goji berries & 1/2 banana.

My coworker came back into my office and chatted with me about an orientation session we plan on holding for next years university internship students, so I didn't just plough through this snack I was able to savour it and feel full after having it.

Yesterday, well I left off with my lunch and a cheese string snack. I left the rest of my snack to be eaten at my second job so that I wouldn't be tempted by all the chcocolately treats.

6 baby carrots, 3 stalks of celery and 1/3 red peppers with garlic hummus.

Last night, for dinner I had the last of my Chickpea, Tomato, Edamame and Couscous meal I had made several days ago.Not the prettiest picture, simply because it was the last of the batch and all the liquidy goodness was at the bottom. Still tasted just fine!

Because I had entered all my meals that I had planned for Wednesday on my food diary, I ended up seeing that I didn't have enough calories to get me through the day. This is another addition I had made to my packed lunch/dinner. I then got thinking. One of my very best friends is down in Florida on a family vaca right now. I have asked her already to bring me back some Chobani yogurt, but I have recently seen lots of Kashi cereals and other goodies on blogs I follow. Lots of these are not sold here in Canada. So I compiled some Kashi items I am going to add to my American Grocery Shopping List.

At work I was weak and had 6 chocolate Easter mini eggs. That's ok though I stayed within my calorie allowance.

WEDNESDAY'S Goals:

1. Swim for 30 mins after muscle moves. - No, swam only for 20 minutes then was exhausted.
2. Stay at or below calories for the day. - Yes
3. Be present, enjoy the moment & slow down. - Yes, did better than Tuesday
4. Go to be between 10 & 10:30pm. - Yes

Total water drank, 12, 8oz glasses.

Total calories burnt, 498.

Total calories eaten, 1,504.

THURSDAY'S Goals

1. Burn 400 calories in spin class.
2. Weight train and ab work after spin class.
3. No late night snacking.
4. Stay below calories.