Saturday Morning Workout, Herb Salad From The Garden

I think my early morning spin class yesterday gave me my mojo back so today I decided I'd put in a good two hours at the gym, first tackling yet another cycle session and then Pilates.  It feels pretty amazing to get back into the swing of things, and just in time for my girl's trip to Vegas!

Before hitting the gym, I ate two pieces of Ezekiel sesame toast with one tablespoon peanut butter and honey.

This is usually a good combo for me to start with but after two hours of intense activity I was starving.  We have absolutely nothing in our house to eat right now since we are actually house sitting for friends but, and this is exciting for me at least, my garden is starting to grow!  I cut fresh herbs, micro greens, and lettuce for a salad and opened a can of Oregon's Choice Hardwood Smoke Albacore.

Most of you know by now that a green thumb, I do not have.  Thankfully, herbs and lettuce are a breeze which made my salad both tasty and rewarding.

From the garden:

• Dill
• Fennel
• Chives
• Micro greens
• Lettuce
• Cucumber from Stephanie's garden

I also had a handful of Doctor Cracker Hummus Maximus Culinary Crisps.  This is my new favorite cracker which comes in a range of flavor combinations.

In addition to Hummus Maximus, the Culinary Crisps come in flavors such as:

• Apple Crisps
• Cherry Semolina
• Fire Roasted Crisps
• Hummus Maximus
• Klassic 3 Seed
• Pumpkin Cheddar
• Seeded Spelt
• Seedlander

I'm a pretty on the go girl and travel is on of my deep, great loves.  Packing however is something I can do without.  It always seems to take me way longer than it should complicated I'm sure by the fact that I have to preview each potential outfit before it gets folded into my suitcase.  I also have a tendency to take more than I'll need, which means more outfits to approve than are necessary.

All that work packing, and contemplating what to bring with me to Las Vegas, worked my appetite back up again.  So, I took a tiny break to munch on more Doctor Cracker Culinary Crisps, Almonds (super food!!), Baby Bell Light, and an Orange.

Michael treated me tonight to dinner at my favorite San Diego sushi hot spot Tabu, where he and our friend Todd went straight for both the Afterburner and Rancho Roll.  My camera took a nose dive on me before I could snap a photo of my roll, which if you remember, is always the selection of the chef.  I always ask them to make me a roll without rice.  Other than that, I let them pick the ingredients and am never unhappy with that choice.

Tabu Sushi
2986 Jamacha Road
El Cajon, CA 92019-4337
(619) 670-8228


I'm off to finish packing and get ready for a fun remainder of the weekend in Las Vegas.  I can't wait for:

• Weekend with the Girls
• Mani / Pedi's
• Performance of LOVE
• Dinner at Bartolottas
• Sun, sun, sun!

Yesterday

Sometimes I feel like I blink and the week is gone.  This is certainly one of those weeks.  Between all of our new projects at Fast Forward Events and exciting new opportunities for Fitness & The Foodie, time is literally flying by.  I've always been one of those people who thrives on pressure, deadlines and a full schedule so I love this time in my life but I also know that the hectic days and nights are also potential food traps.  Lack of time = Lack of planning = Poor food choices.

Since I'm aware of this, AND since we are now entering our third and final week of this Game On round, planning and preparation is key to staying focused on what I eat and budgeting time for workouts.

Yesterday started with my standby breakfast of Fage, Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Cereal, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, Agave Syrup and Almonds.

This breakfast was packed full of super foods!  I knew I loved this breakfast and that the ingredients were all good for me but I did not know I was covering so many of the super food bases.

About mid day, I had a major snack attack and reached for my stash of Doctor Kracker Cherry Semolina Culinary Crisps.

Snacking is not something we do often on the Game On program since we are eating five solid meals a day.  The clever writers of Game On built in 100 calories free each day.  Kind of like mad money that you stash in safe spot for a splurge later on.  The Cherry Semolina crisps are 110 calories for 8 crackers, so I had 7 to munch on while I finished up some work.  The Crisps are a little bit sweet and a little bit savory which makes them a perfect afternoon snack.  And they contain organic flaxseed, whole wheat flour, and sesame seeds - super foods!

I've been trying to master the advanced step class with Paco which is every Tuesday night but feel so lost!  Standing at the front of the class he always yells, "Watch me, watch me," then spins, steps, leaps, repeats, does it backwards, and glancing at us says, "Got it?"  To which I always yell, "Uhhh, no!"  Which never seems to matter as he, and the rest of the class, plunge in to the manic movements. 

I'm determined to get it!  So last night, I made sure I had enough fuel in me to get through the torture and to also take a 30 minute ab class that followed.  I grabbed a banana and one of the many varieties of KIND bars the company sent me to try.

I tried the Fruit & Nut Delight KIND Bar and talk about super foods!  I feel like I really hit a home run yesterday.  The KIND Fruit & Nut Delight Bar is packed full of nut super foods:  Almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts and walnuts and also includes, magnesium, copper, folic acid, vegetable protein, potassium, and vitamin E, dates, raisins and apricots.  I love the texture of these bars, they are chewy with a ton of crunch from the nuts and with my banana made me feel fueled up for my hour and a half workout.

Having just completed an Angel Flight with Michael, whose company donates his time and cost to fly critical care patients to and from treatment, I am inspired by companies that adopt a corporate mission give back to others.

"Being KIND to the World" is part of KIND's mission and the company is dedicated to giving back 5% of its profits in what they call The KIND Movement.  How can you not love that?

Thanks to a lot of energy and good luck I made it through the step class, and the ab class, and headed home to make dinner.

Up, Up and Away!

I'm still completely annoyed over the fact that I got a ticket BUT I must say that online traffic school by Erase My Ticket Quicker was in fact true to its name.  It was fast and within an hour of taking my test yesterday morning at the UPS store down the street from my house, I got this notice in my email.

I passed with a 90% and knowing this before leaving for the weekend really helped me relax!  Michael is a recreational private pilot and volunteer for an organization called Angel Flight.  This weekend, he signed up for a mission to fly a critical care patient from Modesto to Riverside.  So, we thought it was a perfect excuse to leave a bit early to visit friends in Discovery Bay for a little wake boarding and R&R.

I'm still trying to learn what all the controls mean.  One of these days, I'll get it! 

The wind was really strong on our landing but Michael was completely in control and touched us down perfectly. It was a three hour flight so I made sure to bring a few snacks for the "road."   We ate the snacks before I realized that my camera was not packed away or I would have been snapping those too!  On the way, we munched on:

• Fuji apples
• Doctor Kracker Pumpkin Seed Cheddar Flatbreads
• Bora Bora bars
• Figs

I wanted to have healthy snacks so that when we landed we were not crazy hungry.  I also wanted to try to get in a workout and needed to make sure I had enough fuel in me to get through it.

After we landed and got to Discovery Bay, Derek and I took his two German Shepards for a four mile run which I needed.  I was looking forward to a good dinner and craving a dirty martini and the run let me enjoy them guilt free!

Doctor Kracker & Funky Monkey

Even though I totally ate the Game On way yesterday, I felt like I had a major snack attack.  It started with my usual Breakfast Bowl of berries, Fage, Flax, Ezekiel and Agave.

Then on to apples with peanut butter, Ezekiel sprouted grain cereal and 1/2 a piece of low fat string cheese.

Followed by a ham, low fat swiss and Orowheat sandwich round for lunch (really tasty!).  Even Hunter could not resist.

And a salad.

Topped off with a bag of Funky Monkey Jivealime with freezedried organic pineapple and lime juice. Funkey Monkey sent me a big box full of all their flavors to try and this was my first.  It is just freezedried fruit and spices, this bag just only 45 calories.  You have to go to their site just to enjoy the music! If you are a label reader like I am you'll really like these snacks.  In fact, Joey in our office tested it out too.  Here's what he had to say:

Thanks for coming through in a jam Michelle. That was timely. I was hungry for a sweet snack and the Funky Monkey Carnival Mix was perfect.

The first thing I pulled out of the bag was a pineapple and it exploded with flavor. Wow. There were pieces of banana, papaya, and apple as well. All very bright and easy to munch on. The package says it contained 1 serving of fruit. No glutens either, whatever those are. I can imagine my 4-year-old liking these things and not wanting to share with me.

When I got home, I was still hungry so I reached for this container of Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crips.  Again, when the team at Doctor Kracker asked me if I wanted to try the product I could not resist saying yes!  I'm really happy to find out about these whole grain crisps.  They are oh, so gourmet and feel very decedent but hit the right mark with organic ingredients and low fat content.  Also, high up on my priority list, all the ingredients are whole foods with no chemicles mixed in to preserve the food. I have several more flavors to try but the Fire Roasted Crisp is going to be hard to beat.  If you would like to test them out, their website has a 75 cent off coupon you can download and a link to where you can find the product!

I started thinking, would the yumminess of the Doctor Kracker Fire Roasted Crisp with cheese, sundried tomato, sweet potato, flax seed and jalapeno taste good, say, dipped in peanut butter?  Answer is YES.   This was such a satisfying combo of sweet, salty and spicey!