Ruben on The Biggest Loser

I'm so in love with Ruben being on this season.  I loved him (and Clay) on American Idol.  I think it's awesome that we see someone who's obviously *not* lazy battling with obesity.

So often we look at overweight people and assume they aren't trying hard enough.  That they just don't have willpower.  Clearly Ruben has a huge amount of willpower (he took it  all the way!) and still he has these problems.

Certainly the Biggest Loser has its own set of issues, but I'm glad we get to see overweight people in such a positive way.  It doesn't glorify being overweight, but it also doesn't demonize it.  It's just a battle some of us have to fight, and often it's one of many for us.

Also, I'm in love with all things Jillian Michaels.  She's my girl crush and my hero.  I want to look that pretty when I'm crying!

Ghostly Gecko 5k

Tonight I ran the Ghostly Gecko 5k!  It was a Halloween themed 5k with tons of great costumes.  I, of course, was lame and didn't wear a costume.  Maybe next year.  It had a one mile stretch of river front running, which was super nice.  I walked about one mile of the 5k, but the rest I ran.

My time: 41:20.6
First Mile: 12.22.8
Second Mile: 25.29.2

I ended with a 13:21 minute mile, which I was pleased with.  I'm just now jumping back on the running train, and this was better than any of my treadmill runs.  I'm also pleased that I survived the heat and humidity.  It was over 80 degrees but it didn't feel quite so nasty.  The humidity was definitely there, which is really what kills me when I'm running, but I wasn't constantly worried about it.

My calves did start tightening up along the outside which I imagine means I need new shoes.  I'll ask the internet what it thinks before making any big purchases.  Especially since I just bought this beauty:

Two weeks

So some of you may know that I finished my PhD a few weeks ago, and then of course I moved over 14 hours away.  During this time I basically let myself eat whatever I wanted and hardly ever exercised except for back/arms/shoulders/abs so all that sitting and then the move wouldn't hurt quite so much.  This was a conscious decision, I said that I wanted 100% of my focus on my work and moving house.  However, now I am paying the piper.

Tomorrow marks two weeks of me jumping back on the wagon.  I've dropped nearly 7lbs by kicking sodium out of my diet.  Today is day 4 of running, and I'm just doing intervals of 12 min/mile and 18 min/miles.  I don't want to hurt myself and then lose motivation.

I hope my pants start to fit soon.

Eating while moving

So, if you've ever talked to me about cooking you know I LOVE my new George Foreman Grill.  I love it so much when we packed up a POD to move to Florida I decided to keep it and bring it when we drive down.

I've used the heck out of it in the last week and a half since I didn't bring pots or baking pans separately.  One of my favorite things to make on it are omelettes with the special omelette plates, so I thought I'd blog that.

First I start with the fixin's.  We like omelettes with lost of stuff, so I included onions a baby portabella (these were big for babies and some Johnsonville smoked cheddar and jalapeno sausage. I used a little bit of evoo and laid everything in the pan.  Yes, the grill top was not the cleanest when I started.  We aren't the most hygienic of couples.  Don't judge me. 

 I only used half a white onion, I kept the other half unchopped in case I wanted to use chunks later.  The mushroom and sausage I chopped completely.  We had enough fixin's left for another batch of omelettes tomorrow, or something else, who knows.

 I closed the grill and let it cook for about 5 minutes at 350.  I never wait for the grill to preheat.  I turn it on, start chopping and when I'm done I toss things in.  I was a bit ambitious when I put stuff in the pans and they didn't manage to cook down as much as they did in my head.

 

 It's worth noting that my Foreman can be put flat (for baking) or tilted for grilling.  For omelettes I always keep it flat.  There's no way for grease to drip out anyway.

My omelette is on the left side and it has 2 egg whites.  His is on the right and it's one egg and one of my discarded yolks.  Note how full the depressions are even before they cook.

 I said these were omelettes but I'm putting these guys into burritos.  While I'm waiting for the eggs to cook (Which doesn't take long)  I get the tortillas ready.  I add some salsa.  Usually about this time I'll open up the Foreman and add some cheese to the semi-done eggs.

 My artistry took too long, so the eggs were done by the time I got the cheese ready.

 There's a simple solution, though.

 And these are super easy to serve! I don't fold the burritos, I just pass them out like this, and with only one exception no one has minded wrapping the burrito himself.

Foremans are 'nonstick' but not quite perfect.  This is what the grill looked like after I lifted the omelettes out.  Not bad, and they came out mostly in one piece.  You can see a little bit of the top of mine got stuck to the top plate as well.  I don't know if that's because they started not-quite-clean or the plates have seen a lot of love.

So, that's my omelette plan nearly every day.  The fixin's change but the basic recipe (2 egg whites, tortilla, salsa and cheese) comes out to around 200 calories and has TONS of fiber (from the tortillas) and protein (cheese and egg whites.)

It goes really quick now that I've made hundreds, about 12-15 min.  Typically I make them while Steve makes coffee and they're done around the same time.  Since we moved we haven't had a coffee maker but today that all changes!  Enjoy!

Traveling

So, I've been in Utah for almost a week now for work.  The views are amazing, but I'm sensitive to altitude and dry air, so I've been taking it really easy.  I'm not getting as many steps in as I should, and that makes me sad, because everyone else is hiking and doing all sorts of active things.

I've also had tons of work to do, and I find that exhausting as well.  It's been stressful and I'm just now starting to feel human again.

I'm here for a conference, and all meals are provided, so I brought no food with me.  I also eat with tons of people (there are as many chairs in the place we eat as there are participants, so you never need to worry about sitting alone.) and that makes me self conscious about what I'm eating.  I avoid eating lots of carbs in general, but they don't have tons of protein, so it's usually just some veggies and a protein that's probably fried.  A lot of the veggies seem to be cooked in tons of oil, so I avoid them, and everything's pretty salty so I try to load up on the fresh veggies instead.

I also haven't weight myself since I got here.  I'm a weigh-myself-every-10-minutes kind of person.  I've been writing down what I'm eating, but not having a scale (like weighing my food in front of colleagues is a better option) and not knowing what's in my food means everything is up in the air really.  When I left I weighed 156 and my 10 day average was 157. I go back and forth between "I feel like I'm not eating anything, I better have lost weight!" and "I'm only eating crap and I'm barely moving, I hope I didn't gain anything!"  Which leads to my question to start asking people:

HOW DO YOU ONLY WEIGH YOURSELF ONCE A WEEK?!?!

Doesn't this drive you crazy? Goodness.

Also, check out my AMAZING sculpture.

Negatives

So, this summer I got a personal trainer so I can get huge.  She's been amazing and I'm so pleased with my decision. I told her I wanted to work on upper body and abs.  My goal is to give the impression of being capable.  I'd also like to work on my posture.  I stick my booty out too much.

One of the reasons I like having a trainer is that I get great new workouts that I wouldn't do without her encouragement.  I'm the kind of person who will pin 10,000 workouts then head to the gym and do the same set I've been doing for years.  So, today I had a session and she spotted me in exercises I've never done... negatives!

I knew a little bit about these exercises, but not how to implement them.  So here's the rundown:

Start in a bench cage with weight on the bar just above your one rep max. Begin the motion at the top of a standing curl (as usual) and sloooooowly let it down.  Then have your spotter assist/lift the bar back to start.  We actually did tricep presses, not bicep curls, and my triceps were tight for 20 minutes afterward.  It was amazing.  These are typically used to break through plateaus, but can be used to rehab muscles post injury as well.

When I lift I usually will do a slow rep at the end of each set (when I wouldn't be able to do another full rep without rest,) but just because a friend of mine told me it was a good idea when we lifted together and I don't change my workouts without prodding (see above.)  A whole set of these sorts of exercises is crazy.  I dig it.

Body Pump

So I signed up for a YEAR of cardio classes at a strictly cardio studio:

Because they offer a ton of Zumba, which is where my heart is.  But I dropped in to a class called Body Pump that started the hour before Zumba.  It uses weights and a mat and it's set to music.

You work your back, arms, tush and quads.  My inner thighs were really feeling it after, just from the squats.  My biceps are killing me, and my traps are letting me know they're there.  I do wish they had more abs, but the rest of me is getting a great workout.  There's a lot of "Bring it down in 3 counts" for slow reps that really require control and focus along with "Down 1 Up 1" for your cardio.

I've only ever had one Zumba instructor that I disliked.  I hated everything about her class.  Her routines didn't go to the music, there wasn't a lot of arm choreography, and she even kept screwing up the routines.  Her class just felt very half assed.  I actually signed up at this studio to get away from this girl, but now she's teaching one of the Zumba classes here!  Why me??

Even with that, though, I'm really liking the studio.  Kari is my favorite instructor, and there's an Alli who was great, too.  Check out this pic of my from their open house:

Check out that shoulder!  And my "Booty tooch!"  I feel like I'm starting to get my body together.  Seeing that picture made me feel really good.