La Piattini

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2010-08-12T23:16:00.001-04:00

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Blueberry Crisp

2010-08-12T07:14:00.002-04:00

One of the blogs I frequent is called Eat, Live, Run. Jenna recently posted a recipe for a blueberry crisp and it looked delicious. I bought the blueberries over the weekend at the farmer's market and already had the other ingredients on hand- I love simple recipes!

I've been teaching a class this week to my colleagues and have been bringing in some sort of treat each day. I needed something for the last day and when I saw this recipe I knew it was the one. I left out one ingredient from the original recipe and would make some changes if I ever made it again...I'll get to that later!

Start out by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and pour 2 cups of blueberries into the dish.

In a large bowl, combine the following to make the streusel:

3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup of old fashioned oats
1/2 stick of butter

Mix with your hands until the butter is broken up and incorporated.

Spread the streusel on top of the blueberries.

Put your baking dish in the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes.

This recipe tasted pretty decent but, as I mentioned, I would make a few changes in the future. I felt the streusel was minimal and perhaps would have doubled it. I also would've used a smaller dish because the end product was very thin.

Overall the blueberry crisp was tasty (along with some cookies and cream ice cream!). Hopefully my colleagues will enjoy this recipe, too!

Homemade Salsa

2010-08-10T07:32:00.001-04:00

One of the times I went to the Dvoor Farmer’s Market I bought a cayenne pepper plant. At the time I really had no idea how hot cayenne peppers are but oh my goodness! If I lick my finger after chopping them my lips burn for the longest time! I first found out how hot they were when I chopped up one tiny pepper and put it in a salad. It was so hot it ruined the whole salad for me! I had to think of someway to use them where the heat could be turned down a notch. Enter salsa.

This was actually my younger brother’s idea and it sounded perfect. I looked up salsa recipes online and found one that sounded perfect on The Pioneer Woman’s blog. Her original recipe can be found here. I adapted it a bit by using different peppers and leaving out the cumin.

Start off by pouring a can of Hunts whole canned tomatoes and two cans of Rotel diced tomatoes and chilies into a blender (you can also use a food processor).

Chop up 1/4 cup of onion and one clove of garlic and add to the blender.

Next grab three cayenne peppers. I picked them right off my pepper plant – how fun! They’re so cute and little. You can also use one jalapeno. Remove the seeds and mince. Add to blender. (If using a jalapeno, cut into thin slivers).

Add 1/4 teaspoon of sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Squeeze in the juice of half a lime.

Finally, add in about 1 cup of chopped cilantro.

Pulse about six or seven times, checking to make sure it is the consistency you want.

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips. I went with jalapeño flavored chips- apparently I’m all about the heat because this salsa was hot with those cayenne peppers- yummy!

Dvoor Farmer’s Market

2010-08-09T08:29:00.003-04:00

The boy and I discovered the Dvoor Farmer’s Market while walking out of the library and seeing an advertisement. Had to be one of the best advertisements I’ve ever seen because now I’m obsessed! We’ve gone every Sunday since (three weeks in a row) and get something different every time.

There are several vendors that attend the farmer’s market each week as well as a band that plays live music. There is a tent with picnic benches underneath to relax and have a snack. It’s open on Sundays from 9-1 and is always packed! Typically we go early because some of the smaller vendors start selling out of their goods as the afternoon progresses.

The first time we went I was immediately drawn to a vendor that sold… pepper plants! They had sweet peppers, cayenne, and jalapeño plants. When I found out the plants can be grown indoors, I was sold. I really like the idea of growing my own vegetables and since I do not have access to a garden right now, this was a happy medium. I bought a cayenne pepper plant and have since found out (when I chopped one up to put in a salad) that they are super HOT! My next plan with the peppers is to make salsa. Check out how cute and colorful they are!

Since then we’ve been two other times and are always drawn to the biggest stand, Philip’s Farms. They have the largest variety of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. We picked up some peaches, potatoes, blueberries, and onions.

They also had a beautiful assortment of flowers, and guess who found my favorite?!

Sunflowers make one happy girlfriend!

Here’s a rundown of all the vendors and what they sell:

Philips Farms – Assorted seasonal fruits and vegetables, flowers, spices, herbs, sauce
Village Bakery – Breads and pastries
Villa Milagro – Red and white wines made from organic grapes
Tassot Apiaries – Honey, candles, and soap
Stony Brook Gardens – Flowers, fruits, and vegetables
Blue Mist Hollow Farm – Trees and shrubs
Griggstown – Turkey burgers, pot pies, fruit pies, fresh mozzarella, mushrooms
Purely Farms – Pastured meats, eggs
Spring Run Farms – Vegetables
Milford Farms – Beef, Pork, all natural eggs
Comeback Farms – Organic produce, flowers, fruits, vegetables
Bobolink Dairy and Bakeyard – Rustic wood fired bread, grass fed raw milk cheese, pasture raised meats
Readington River Buffalo Farm – Buffalo meat
Homestead Coffee Roasters - Coffee

Our favorites out of the vendors include Philip’s Farms, Village Bakery, and Griggstown. At the Village Bakery stand they have such a unique assortment of breads. We’ve tried a cinnamon loaf, ciabatta rolls, and parmesan-provolone loaf all of which have been out of this world. We used the cinnamon bread to make french toast and WOW! We also picked up a ball of fresh mozzarella from Griggstown that was delicious. We were very tempted by their pies, but passed for the day.

I look forward to going to this farmer’s market every Sunday. Their prices aren’t as good as the farmer’s market we’ve been going to, but there’s just something about supporting various local farmers that makes me feel good.

Do you go to farmer’s markets often? If so, what do you buy?

Off and On Track

2010-08-08T10:03:00.004-04:00

I’ve been following the Couch-to-5K Running Plan in preparation for City Chase. So far it’s been going great and each week I’ve been gradually increasing running time. Typically I do the three runs a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This week I am unable to run Monday so I switched for Sunday (today).

Last night I was looking at the schedule of the plan to know what the increases were. This week starts Week 4 and I was shocked when I saw the jumps in time. It was then I realized I did Week 3 wrong- ooops! I didn’t increase enough last week and was off track by a minute. May not seem long but for me as a beginner runner it really is! I was pretty bummed when I realized my mistake, but then noticed that I had an extra week to play with until City Chase. Therefore I made up my own increases this because Week 4 would have been way too much of a jump from what I was doing last week in my mock Week 3. So I’ll just call this Week 3.5.

This morning I was happy to get back on track, literally and figuratively! The boy and I did our run today at a nearby track. I thought it would be boring to run around in a circle and see the same scenery, but I enjoyed it. It was easier on the knees and feet and the track was pretty much flat (no hills- woo hoo!).

I finally got my new Nike Air Max Trainer 1’s in the mail the other day and LOVE love LOVE them. How sweet are these?

They’re really comfy to run in, so I’d say they were a successful purchase! I’ve also worn them to Zumba and they provided great support for my feet with all the dance moves.

Running gets more tough each week with the time increases, but I also enjoy it more each time. It’s probably because I never thought I’d be a runner and it just feels great to accomplish something you never thought you’d be able to do.

This morning I also did Workout B from the City Chase Workouts I developed. After all that I’m starving. Going to head over to the Dvoor Famer’s Market to get some goodies, and some breakfast! Look for a post soon about the vendors and their selection.

Are you a runner? What was it like for you as a beginner just starting out?

City Chase – Rock Climbing

2010-08-07T07:16:00.009-04:00

The boy and I have no idea what to expect at City Chase. We’ve been looking at some online pictures and videos from past years’ competitions just to get a better idea of the challenges. While we realize the challenges will not be identical to the past, one thing that always seems to come up in the pictures is rock climbing.

I’ve tried rock climbing twice before. At the school where I work they always have a rock climbing wall at Field Day. The two years I tried the wall were epic fails- I didn’t even get halfway up before falling.

I knew I had to give this another shot and began looking up rock climbing facilities in the area. In my search I found several gyms and YMCA’s that had a rock climbing wall that you could pay to use, but I really wanted a place that was solely rock climbing. I was looking for a facility with knowledgeable employees who could give me some training, direction, and help. Enter The Gravity Vault.

The Gravity Vault is an indoor facility devoted entirely to rock climbing. They have yearly memberships, just like a gym, but also other options for those who are just learning and starting out. We went with a Staff Belayed Climbing Session. With this option, an instructor works with you for one hour. The time is spent learning about the equipment and receiving one-on-one instruction of how to top-rope climb.

We called and schedules a session for the very next day. I was so nervous! I honestly thought I’d never be able to get up even one wall. My stomach had butterflies the whole drive there and I was truly fearful I’d just embarrass myself. Oh well, I knew I had to give it a shot.

Well, my stomach butterflies did not go away when I walked in and saw this:

Walls, walls, everywhere!

We were introduced to Alex who would be our instructor for the next hour. He got us into a pair of climbing shoes and a harness.

Yes, I’m a dork and took a picture of my shoes. They were very tight and flat on the bottom, but so flexible. It’s almost like a wrap for your feet- it felt like you weren’t wearing anything.

I wanted the boy to go first because I’m still having a panic attack at this point, and figured I’d watch his moves and try to imitate them. Alex took us over to a beginner wall and hooked the boy in by attaching their harnesses together. Alex was the belayer (I might have made up that word), which means he manages the ropes while the other person climbs.

The boy literally ran up that first wall. I’m pretty sure as soon as he came down I called him a monkey.

Now I was even more intimidated, if that’s possible. I told Alex I didn’t think I’d be able to make it halfway up. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me I could do it! So I got strapped in.

The sensation was so much different then when I tried climbing at Field Day. Alex controlled the ropes so that there was no slack. It was always so tight that I could actually let go if I ever wanted to (and I did on the harder walls) and just kind of hang there until I was ready to go again. The people at Field Day did NOT do this. The ropes were loose and they kept telling me to stay close to the wall, which Alex told me is BS advice!

I climbed up the first wall with no problems at all. It was so fun and felt great to make it to the top. It was the easiest wall in the whole place, but I was still proud!

Talk about upper body workout!

After the first wall, Alex took us to progressively harder walls each time. Each wall we went to got harder for a variety of reasons: they either had less holds, smaller holds, or the holds were farther apart. The walls were also ridiculously more challenging if they had lips, which is kind of like a slight overhang. While the lip didn’t look like much, the degree of difficulty increased tremendously! Here’s an example of what I mean:

That little ridge in the middle made a lot of difference!

Notice the tape on the walls? The colors indicates the different routes that you can climb for various levels of difficulty. For example, one route might have tape farther distances apart or only on small holds, etc, just to give climbers a few options. The degree of difficulty is shown on this chart:

Below you can see us climbing one of the walls with tape. The boy actually followed a path, I just focused on making it up!

After the first climb, we each did several more. The boy ended up doing 7 climbs and I accomplished 5 1/2. There was one that I just could not start. I couldn’t find a good grasp and tried about four times- it just wasn’t happening. The one that I completed half of had a “tunnel” in the middle. You have to use both sides to climb up and then be able to get out of the tunnel and up the rest of the wall. See below:

This was our last climb and by the end of the hour my hands were blistered and torn up- I was just DONE! It was exhausting but an amazing experience. Alex let us know that they offer a Belay Certification Class which is a two-hour class that would enable the boy and I to climb together without needing an instructor (one of us would be the belayer, the other the climber and vice versa). We’re definitely thinking about doing that because we loved climbing and are looking forward to trying it again.

The day after my body was SO sore but I’m weird and loved it! We definitely feel more prepared if rock climbing comes up in City Chase.

Thanks Gravity Vault for an awesome experience!

Italian Home Cooking – Baked Ziti

2010-08-05T09:19:00.002-04:00

I’ve mentioned before that I used to be a very picky eater. When eating out at a restaurant I would scan the menu for Baked Ziti and most likely not eat there if it wasn’t an option. Seriously- what a weird child. Well, it is still one of my all-time favorites. I’m just a sucker for anything baked!
I went to visit my parents last week and decided to make them Baked Ziti for dinner. It was between that and chicken parmesan, but the ziti won. Maybe next time, chicken parm!
Start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and boiling a pot of water to cook your ziti in. Once boiling, cook according to package instructions.

While the pasta is cooking, grab a knife and a ball of mozzarella. Cut the mozzarella into small cubes.

Drain the water from the pot of pasta. Put the pasta back into the pot. Add in an 8 oz. container of ricotta cheese, sauce, and about 3/4 of the mozzarella. Mix well.

Now that you have mixed all of the ingredients, pour your pasta into a baking dish. Be sure to have poured some sauce at the bottom of the baking dish first. Use the remaining cubes of mozzarella to sprinkle on top.

Put the baking dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until your mozzarella is oozy and melted. Take it out and enjoy with a nice glass of vino- we sure did!

*Make this recipe healthier by using reduced fat mozzarella and ricotta and whole wheat ziti.

Weekend of Festivals

2010-08-04T06:48:00.000-04:00

For weeks now my mom has been ranting about a wine festival at the Tuckerton Seaport in New Jersey called the “Red, Wine, and Blues Festival.” She was so excited about it that she even had my dad request off of work for the day. Mom discovered the festival while reading in the newspaper and clipped out the article for me to see. In the picture, there were plenty of outdoor vendors and many people walking around tasting wine. Sounded like a plan to me!

It just so happened that the day of the festival was one of the hottest this summer- triple digit degrees! We got dressed in light clothes and grabbed some water bottles and were ready to go. My dad entered the address for the festival in his GPS and it calculated that our trip would take about 45 minutes. Once we got on the Garden State Parkway it was dead stop traffic. If you’ve ever headed south on the GSP on a Saturday down the shore, you’ve felt my pain. It took us over two hours to get there! During that horrific two hours we were having air conditioner issues in the car during the heat wave. This is really irrelevant but I had to vent!

I was really excited about this festival! I figured I would taste various wines, talk to the vendors about healthy options, take some pictures, and be able to share the experience with my readers. Umm vendors…what vendors?! There were three. The “festival” was inside of one small building where the three vendors were set up. You had to pay $20 per person to get inside of this building. Of course when we paid we had no idea there were only 3 vendors. What a waste!

Each vendor had about 10-12 bottles available to taste. Even though the vendors were different, they each had pretty much identical bottles.

There were a lot of people squeezed into this tiny building and really no opportunity to discuss the wines with the vendors without the person in line behind you getting impatient.

I ended up buying one bottle of Sangria and one bottle of Pinelands Blush. The Pinelands Blush is very light, refreshing, and sweet. Both of the wines that I bought are made on a vineyard right in New Jersey. They are both quite sweet, which is how I like wine. I’m not a big fan of red at all.

Well, needless to say we were disappointed with this whole experience. It was just not at all what we expected or what it was cracked up to be in the newspaper. Plus we blew $60 just to taste a couple of wines. At least we got a nice family shot out of it.

Now the very next day, the boy and I had tickets to go to the Readington Hot Air Balloon Festival. This is an annual three-day festival that takes place at Solberg Airport in Readington, which is about 5 minutes away from where I live (2 miles exactly, we clocked it!) This is a huge event that attracts hundreds of thousands of people, vendors, musicians, and of course, hot air balloons. The traffic getting into the festival is a nightmare- in fact last year we waited in traffic for three hours and finally quit! This year we had a better plan- get their super early and spend the day seeing the concerts, visiting vendors, and just hanging till the balloons went up.

Great plan! We got in no problem and had a great parking spot up front. We headed up to the gates to hand in our tickets (which cost $50 BTW) and walked in. We started walking down the runway where the vendors are and the boy decided he wanted some food so we got on a line for chicken tenders. At this point we’ve been there for a total of ten minutes. All of a sudden a cop rolls by on a quad announcing into a loudspeaker that they are evacuating due to a thundestorm rolling in. The sky looked perfectly fine to us! Well, by the time the boy got his food and we were walking out, it was pouring!

We thought the storm may pass so we sat in the car for an hour. Still pouring. The field where you have to park is just grass and dirt. We knew if we stayed too long we’d never get out. We had no choice but to leave. Best part? No refunds. Out $50. Luckily I only live a few minutes away so it really wasn’t a huge issue but we were disappointed.

It was just a disappointing festival weekend! At least I was able to dig up these pics from two years ago to show you a bit what the balloons are like:

Workout B

2010-08-03T09:17:00.001-04:00

In my weekly City Chase update post, I mentioned that I developed two alternating workouts to be completed daily in preparation for City Chase. If you missed Workout A, check it out here.

Just like Workout A, Workout B is a ten minute workout. I will be alternating Workouts A and B daily so as to switch up my exercise routine. In addition to both workouts I will be keeping up with my normal gym routine as well as running according to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan.

For Workouts A and B all you need is ten minutes daily. Specifically for Workout B you will need a mat if working out on a hard surface, 5-to-8 pound weights, and a 15 pound Body Bar (or a set of 8 pound weights). As for the amount of weight, this is just what I use. Feel free to adjust as necessary to suit your needs.

The first two exercises of Workout B, sit ups and crunches, are identical to Workout A. Every other exercise is different. Each exercise in Workout B is done for either one or two minutes.

Sit ups: Lie down on your back and put my feet under the coffee table, if necessary. Crunch all the way up. Lower and repeat for two minutes.

Crunches: There really is no set pattern here, I just make sure that I keep going for 2 minutes. I did bicycle crunches, crunches with legs raised, one leg lift double crunches, and double leg lifts.

Squats: Rest a 15 pound Body Bar Hold on your shoulders (if using free weights, hold one in each hand and then rest on your shoulders). Squat and repeat for two minutes.

Biceps: Hold a 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand with palms facing away from you. Curl arms up. Lower and repeat for one minute total.

Lower Back: Begin on your hands and knees. Simultaneously raise and straighten your right arm and left leg until they are parallel to the ground. Hold for 2 seconds and come back slowly to a starting position. Repeat with left arm and right leg, alternating for one minute total.

Hamstrings: Bench Hip Raises- Lie down on your back with your feet up on a surface (I use the couch). Your legs should be bent 90 degrees. Lift your hips off of the floor slowly. Squeeze your butt and hamstrings. Hold for two seconds. Lower to the ground. Repeat for one minute total.

For the second minute: Deadlifts- Hold a 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand (or a Body Bar). Slowly bend forward 90 degrees while keeping the weights or bar close to your body. Slowly stand up. Repeat for one minute total.

I plan on sticking to this new workout plan up until City Chase NYC, which is September 25th. I’ll be alternating Workout A and B on a daily basis.

Workout A

2010-08-02T08:27:00.003-04:00

As mentioned yesterday, in preparation for City Chase I developed two alternating workouts. I introduced both workouts in yesterday’s post, but will explain them in more detail in their own posts. This is the post for Workout A.

For Workouts A and B all you need is ten minutes daily. Specifically for Workout A you will need a mat if working out on a hard surface, an 8 pound weight, a book to stand on for calve raises, and a 15 pound Body Bar (or a set of 8 pound weights). As for the amount of weight, this is just what I use. Feel free to adjust as necessary to suit your needs.

Each exercise in Workout A is done for either one or two minutes.

Sit ups: Lie down on your back and put my feet under the coffee table, if necessary. Crunch all the way up. Lower and repeat for two minutes.

Lunges: Place a 15 pound Body Bar on your shoulders (or hold an 8 pound weight in each hand and rest on your shoulders). Lunge forward with one leg. Continue lunging with the same leg for one minute. Repeat with other leg for an additional minute for a total of two minutes lunging.

Triceps: Hold an 8 pound weight with both hands above your head. Bend at your elbows and drop the weight down slow and controlled behind your head. Keep your elbows close to your head when lowering and raising. Repeat for one minute total.

Calves: Stand on a sturdy book (a stair would work also) with one foot about halfway on the book and the other foot off the book. Raise up on your toes and then lower back to starting position. Repeat for 30 seconds and then switch feet. Repeat on the other foot for 30 seconds, for a total of 1 minute.

Please ignore my weird face in this picture!

Clean and Press: Stand holding a 15 pound Body Bar with palms facing your body. Use your legs to lift the bar with your arms straight up to shoulder height. You should bend your knees to support the catch. Then press the bar over your head. Lower the bar back to midpoint position, once again using your knees to support you. Reverse the cleaning motion so your bar is back to the original starting position. Now lower into a deadlift and then pull the bar towards your body. Stand up straight. Repeat this whole series for two minutes total.

That’s it for Workout A. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post on Workout B.

City Chase Workout Plan

2010-08-01T07:03:00.000-04:00

For the past month I've been completing the Take It Off Challenge on a daily basis. That challenge ended on July 25th, which ironically was the two month mark until City Chase. I decided to develop a new workout plan to follow for the next 8 weeks until the chase. After doing some research into exercises and reading a great article on The Fitnessista blog on developing your own workout, I came up with a two day alternating workout schedule.

The schedule I developed is the same format as the Take It Off Challenge and the Shape Up or Shut Up Challenge in the sense that it is ten minutes daily. The difference is there are some new exercises and I have come up with two workout routines so that I am not doing the same routine each day, but rather alternating between Workout A and Workout B. This is something that I read about on the Fitnessista's blog and realized it was a smart idea.

The City Chase Workout Plan will be done in addition to my regular workouts outdoors and at the gym. I mentioned in earlier City Chase posts that I have been doing the Couch-to-5K Running Plan and I will continue that as well. I'm heading into Week 3 of the plan and feeling great about it! I also attend Zumba, Spinning, and Group Power classes almost daily. All of this will stay in place in addition to the ten minute alternating City Chase Workout Plan.

Here come the workouts:

Workout A

Situps - 2 Minutes

Crunches - 2 Minutes

Lunges - 2 Minutes *Note* One minute each leg with a 15 pound Body Bar resting on shoulders.

Triceps - 1 Minute *Done with one 8 pound weight

Calves - 1 Minute

Catch and Press - 2 Minutes *Done with a 15 pound Body Bar

Workout B

Situps - 2 Minutes

Crunches - 2 Minutes

Squats - 2 Minutes *Done with a 15 pound Body Bar resting on shoulders

Biceps - 1 minute *Done with a 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand

Lower Back - 1 Minute

Hamstrings - 2 Minutes

Some of these exercises require more of a description. Due to this, I will do a separate blog entry for both Workout A and Workout B with details and pictures in the next two days.

I'm also happy to report that I ordered a new pair of Nike sneakers for City Chase- the Nike Air Trainer 1's. I am beyond excited and can't wait for them to arrive! I was reading my Women's Health Magazine and there was an ad showing the sneakers- I immediately fell in love. I swear, I'm such a sucker for good advertising!

See you tomorrow with more info about Workout A.

Letting Go of Image and Embracing Yourself

2010-07-31T08:16:00.004-04:00

With the Operation Beautiful book being released this week, Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point has asked fellow bloggers to share their take on body image issues. If that isn't right up my alley then I don't know what is!

Have you ever been on a diet? Tried out the latest dieting trend? Most likely your answer is “yes.” If you go into a bookstore, you will find a wealth of books on the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, South Beach Diet, and many others, some more radical than the next. Why is it that we’re always attracted to the latest and greatest cleansing, liquid only, cut out carbs, sugar free, skip meals WHATEVER diets?!

We are living in a country where portion sizes are huge in comparison to other countries, yet the models that we strive to look like are starving. We’ve gotten away from natural foods and eat a ton of processed food without even knowing where it comes from. Why can’t we just be happy with ourselves and the way we look? It all stems back to body image.

In our culture, there is a lot of pressure on women to be skinny and have perfect bodies. We spend hours at the gym striving for this when we should be embracing what we have and the way we look. It’s hard to believe how many women base their happiness on how they look and how much they weigh, and I am one of them. I’ve tried several diets, and stuck with Weight Watchers for quite some time, yet I was never happy and never felt like myself. The eating patterns of diets can be disorderly behaviors if you are neglecting something that should be a part of your life. I’ve realized that in order to find happiness and to be on ok terms with food, I have to accept myself.

I grew up with incredible parents who instilled many positive morals in their children. One lesson that I’ve learned from them is that nobody is perfect. The perfect person does not exist. What does exist is what is perfect for you. Now, I’ve always had body image issues, in particular with my thighs. It frustrates me that there will always be someone with skinnier thighs, longer and slimmer legs. I’ve looked at women with legs like this and thought they were “perfect.” But sadly I can almost guarantee you that if I could get into those women’s heads there would be a part of themselves that they wish they could change, whether inside or out.

Today, if not everyday, celebrate Y-O-U. Take a look at yourself. You are so beautiful. Inside and out. Let go of the diets. Be yourself. Listen to your intuition and you will find happiness. Let go of the idea of perfection and find what is perfect for you. You’ll be surprised to find that everything you want, you may already have!

Italian Home Cooking - Eggplant Rollatini

2010-07-30T07:18:00.001-04:00

I never used to experiment with food. Up until a few years ago I was a bagel, pasta, and pizza kinda gal. I had stopped eating meat in high school and basically only ate carbs. Well, luckily I snapped out of that and explored out of my carb overload comfort zone!

Eggplant rollatini is a meal I would have never eaten a few years ago. Why? I wasn't a huge vegetable fan and rarely tried something new. Boy, I didn't know what I was missing!

My parents and I made eggplant rollatini that same day that we made Mom's Homemade Sunday Sauce. In fact, you will need the sauce recipe for the eggplant rollatini, or your own sauce of choice.

Before you start with the eggplant, be sure to have a pot of Mom's Homemade Sunday Sauce going! Once that's cooking, grab one eggplant. Cut off the ends and peel the eggplant.

Cut your eggplant horizontally into thin slices. We had my dad do this part, as its challenging to get them all the same thickness. You want to shoot for a dozen slices.

He's good, right?!

Now- we decided to cook our eggplant in two different ways. There is the traditional Italian way, which involves frying the eggplant in oil. There is also the more healthy approach in which you bake the eggplant. Of course, the healthy way takes MUCH longer but if you're looking to slash calories this is the way to go. (BTW- we sampled both in the end and the taste is very similar).

If you are opting for the healthier way, you need to preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet. If you're going the traditional way, heat up some vegetable oil in a pan.

This next step is required for either cooking method. Pour some flour in a dish. In a bowl, crack three eggs. Pour in a tad of milk to the egg mixture. With one slice of eggplant at a time, dip into the flour, then the egg.

For the healthy method, simply put your coated eggplant slices on the baking sheet. Bake until one side is golden brown and then flip. Repeat with other side.

For the traditional frying method: Once your oil is heated, place your coated slices in the oil. Flip when one side is golden brown. When both sides are golden brown, remove from oil.

The next step is to make the filling for the rollatini. Take a ball of fresh mozzarella and cut it into small cubes. Put the cubes in a bowl and combine with one egg, a dash of pepper, and 2 tbsp. of parmesan cheese. Also mix in 3/4 of a container of ricotta (an 8 oz. container). That completes your filling.

Now it's the fun part- rolling! Make sure you have a baking dish ready and coat the bottom with some of your sauce. Lay out your eggplant slices. Put a heaping tbsp. of your filling mixture in the center of each eggplant slice. Starting from the small end and roll the eggplant slice. Place rolled eggplant slice into the baking dish.

Pour some of your sauce on top. Mom says not to "smother" the eggplant with the sauce, just enough to coat them. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top.

Put your baking dish in a 375 degree preheated oven for a half hour. Check often throughout the half hour though- once you see the mozzarella oozing out of the side (yum!) they're done.

Princeton, Farmer's Market, and Trader Joe's

2010-07-28T07:26:00.000-04:00

Whatever happened to the perception that teachers get the entire summer off? I've been working like a maniac! I only have two weeks off this whole summer, last week and this week, so I've really trying to pack in everything that I wanted to do. With good planning I've been able to combine a few things into one day.

The boy and I wanted to refill the fruit basket because it was getting dangerously low. I also wanted to make another trip to Trader Joe's. I've been going there about once a month and love their selection, but it's just too far to go every weekend. We decided to spend some time walking around in Princeton, then head over to the Princeton Trader Joe's, and hit the Farmer's Market on the way home.

Princeton was our first stop. Every time I go there I want to live there. The old houses and the architecture create such a unique ambiance that draws me in. Pete and I walked around the streets, stopping in a few stores on the way. The walk built up our appetites and we stopped for a bite to eat at a cafe called Massimo's. I had a veggie pizza slice, shown here:

Looks good, right? It was a little on the cold side, but oh well!

We headed over to a book store as well as the Princeton Record Exchange. The boy and I have very similar tastes and both enjoy books and music. In the book store, I found a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that sounded interesting. I decided not to buy it but to get it from the library. At the record store, the boy bought the Frightened Rabbit record. I just love the smell of record stores and feeling like I'm in the movie Empire Records! After buying, we headed back to the car for Trader Joe's.

Like the curly hair?

We drove to Trader Joe's next and stocked up on some of our favorites since we don't get there too often. Pics of the groceries coming at the end of the post.

Finally, we stopped at the Farmer's Market on the way home. We went to the same Farmer's Market from a few weeks ago when we were filling the fruit basket. I still can't get over their prices!

We didn't get too much from the Farmer's Market this time, just a few things:

The boy cut up the half-watermelon and I combined the pieces with the grapes and strawberries to make a fruit salad. We also picked up some peaches and a pear for the fruit basket. I've never had a pear before and have vowed to pick out one fruit or veggie that I've never had every time I go there. Last, a cucumber for a salad I'm going to make this week.

The cucumber will blend wonderfully with the following, from Trader Joe's:

Sesame Honey Cashews (holy yum!), Baby Spring Mix, and Croutons.

Trader Joe's always has free drink and food samples. The sample this day was the Mediterranean Pasta Salad Kit. It was delicious and the kit includes everything necessary to make the salad, so we picked up a box. We're suckers for the free samples! I also bought pesto tortellini and pizzas, both of which I've had before and buy everytime I go there. The Egg White Salad is new and I think it'd be good spread on a sandwich thin.

Clementines (of course!) and dried strawberries. The last time I was there I bought dried mangoes and enjoyed them, but wanted to try a different dried fruit this time. Last but not least Multigrain Baking & Pancake Mix along with Blueberry Flaxseed. I've been wanting to experiement with flaxseed and thought mixing it into pancake batter would be a good match. I made pancakes with the flaxseed the other day and they were outstanding. They are thick and fulfilling. I'm really glad I bought this mix and the flaxseed to go with it.

I love getting grocery ideas from other people- it enables me to think outside the box and get more healthy ideas. I hope that this post does the same for you and inspires you to get something a little different.

Italian Home Cooking - Mom's Homemade Sunday Sauce

2010-07-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

Growing up in my family meant pasta every Sunday for family dinner. It is one of those things I didn't really appreciate as a kid, but now long for it. My mom would probably be extremely insulted if someone told her to use Ragu or another type of jarred sauce. She makes her own sauce, though a bit time consuming, and wouldn't have it any other way.

I visited my parents a few days ago and we did our usual cooking together. We typically alternate who cooks and who introduces the other to a new recipe. This time around my mom was showing me how to make her Sunday Sauce.

Start off by peeling 6 cloves of garlic and then cut them in half. Throw your garlic into a pot with some olive oil. Warm up the garlic and olive oil on the stove. Listen for the "crackle" noise of the garlic and oil. Once you hear this and smell the aroma, turn off the stove and let cool for a few minutes.

Grab a can of Red Pack Tomato Puree. Mom says, "Red Pack, Red Pack, it's gotta be Red Pack." Pour the can of Red Pack into the pot with a dash of salt, pepper, and parsley. Fill up the can halfway with water. This gets the extra puree off the sides of the can. Pour it into the pot. This water/sauce mixture thins the sauce a bit. Throw in a handful of fresh basil leaves.

Take a look at my mom's wooden spoon. Ahh just think about how much this spoon has gone through. My wooden spoon is lame!

Let your sauce cook on medium heat until boiling, then lower heat. Continue cooking on low heat for about an hour and a half.

That's all folks! Feel free to add in some meat if that's your thang. Serve over pasta or chicken parmesan or eggplant rollatini...really the possibilities are endless. Mmm speaking of eggplant rollatini, look for an Italian Home Cooking post on that coming soon!

What are some dishes you would use this recipe with? Got a good sauce recipe of your own? Let me know!

City Chase - 2 Months To Go

2010-07-25T07:13:00.001-04:00

Welp it's July 25th which gives us exactly two months until City Chase. I promised I'd give updates of our progress along the way and this is the first.

As mentioned in the original City Chase post, I began a 9 week running plan called Couch-to-5K. Pete joined me with attempting this and together we have completed Week One of the plan. It feels great! It's definitely tough but I feel better about it with every day that passes. By workout three I was pumped to get outside and run. It's such an incredible and motivational feeling to be trying something that I never thought I'd be able to do.

Thinking back, I have tried to run two times in the past. Both times were with an experienced runner. I just tried to tag along with them with no plan in mind. I'd get a block or two and literally be stopped and panting with my hands on my knees. I always just gave up, claiming, "I'll just never be a runner," but really I was taking on too much at once. As the plan states, you can't just go from the couch to being a long distance outdoor runner! I guess what was hard for me to understand is that I am athletic and hardly ever sit down on the coach. I'm always go, go, go and work out pretty much every single day. I'm open to trying new classes at the gym and pick up on them quickly. I thought running would be the same way but it's really in a class of its own.

I know I've only done three workouts and that those three workouts were alternating jogging and running, but I feel incredible. I'm truly looking forward to Week 2 of the plan and pushing myself just a little further. And knowing that we're doing this to prepare for City Chase is another huge motivator.

After supportive feedback from readers on the blog and on Facebook, we decided to start looking into buying a city map and a subway map. We headed over to Borders to check out their stock. We grabbed every single NYC map they had and found a quiet spot on the floor. We laid out and examined each one and discussed the pros and cons of each. Our favorite map was by the brand MapEasy. The map was very user friendly and not overwhelming with landmarks and roads squeezed in tiny fonts.

With MapEasy, there were three separate maps: Upper Manhattan, Midtown Manhattan, and Lower Manhattan. At first we were turned off by this, but it truly was the most convenient brand out of all the maps just by the way it was laid out. Each map shows you exactly what is on/in every single block. Not only does it have the name of the landmark, but a little hand drawn sketch of it. The maps are waterproof and tear resistant, so if we're going crazy running around in who knows what kind of weather, we'll still have our map!

Looking back on past City Chase photos, we've planned out some activities we would like to do in preparation. We definitely feel we need some experience with rock climbing and with kayaking. Those are on our agenda in the next two months. We also need to get over to the city and become as familiar with it as possible. Ironically, we already had two concerts booked in NYC on separate days. The concerts are at night so we figured we'd spend the entire day in the city scoping the scene and then go to our concerts at night.

Stay tuned to our continued preparations!

Salsa Night

2010-07-23T07:15:00.001-04:00

I love summer! It amazes me that there is always something to do, even when you least expect it. Going out for dinner the other night is a perfect example.

The boy and I wanted to have a nice evening out and were craving Thai food. We have been to a few Thai restaurants around where I live, but wanted to try something new. We found a restaurant in Flemington, which is about 15 minutes away, called Fusion. Fusion features French Asian Cuisine and several of my friends at work have recommended it to me. We called to make reservations and were all set.

Pete and I decided to head over a little bit early to roam the streets of historic Flemington. Well, what do you know, it was Salsa Night! We came to find out that Salsa Night is an annual event in Flemington where the streets are packed with vendors serving Latin food and Salsa dancers enticing you to join them. There was live music and dance teachers available to teach you their sultry moves. It was awesome! I literally stood there for a while just entranced by the way the dancers' bodies move! Check out the sites:

Many of the vendors had wheels where you win whatever the wheel lands on. Shop Rite was one of the vendors and there was quite a line for their wheel. We scoped out the prizes. They included several types of Latin foods and a Shop Rite gift card. Well, we were hoping to win a Shop Rite gift card or Maria Cookies (they are so delicious and have my name!). We waited on the line and soon it was our turn. I went first and won...

...the Maria Cookies! Yay! It was Pete's turn next and he won the Shop Rite gift card. We were like, "Sweeeet!"

It was getting close to our reservation so we headed over to Fusion. Trust me, we were really tempted to get some enchiladas, empanadas, nachos, and more but stuck to our original Thai food craving.

As soon as we walked into Fusion, I loved the atmophere. The lights were very dim and the decor included Buddha everywhere- paintings, statues, wall art- you name it, it was there with Buddha.

I ordered my go-to at Thai restaurants, Pad Thai. Now if you remember from the Red Bank Fireworks post, I wasn't crazy about the Pad Thai that I had at the Asian fusion restaurant Teak. I was a little worried considering Fusion is also an Asian flair restaurant but I went for it anyway. Pete ordered the Mango Chicken. He LOVES anything mango and also has been wanting to try risotto lately and this dish had a side of Sun Dried Tomato Risotto. It's like it was made for him!

While we were waiting for our food, the waitress brought out these:

She described them as "Shrimp Chips" but they did not taste like shrimp at all. They tasted more like veggie crisps. The Shrimp Chips were incredible when dipped in the orange sauce. They were light an airy and had a nice crunch to them. Mmm I wish these were sold in stores!

Soon after, our food came out and the presentation was beautiful. Everything looked so delicious- we just wanted to dive right in. We held off for a second to take some pictures though! The Pad Thai is on the left. Oh I would love to be eating that again right now! Pete's Mango Chicken is on the right with the side of risotto in the top right corner.

My fears were proven wrong- this Pad Thai was amazing. It had the vegetables, which I love, but also with an added bonus- carrots! I've never had carrots in Pad Thai before but it was a nice bonus. The other difference was there was no tofu. However since tofu doesn't have a taste of its own, I wasn't missing it.

We would go back to Fusion in a second. The food truly was incredible. The restaurant is also Zagat rated, which we thought was a pretty neat bonus. The service, however, was not that great. We believe it has a lot to do with Salsa Night though because Fusion had its own table out on the street where several of their waitors and waitresses were serving food.

Once we were done with dinner, we headed back out to Salsa Night to find some dessert. We thought we would try something new and different and expected to find a tasty Latin treat. However, the only dessert option was ice cream. Fine with me! We ordered and split a "Waffle Sandwich" with cookie dough ice cream. Holy moly this was huge!

We danced, we ate great food, and experienced a different culture. All in all a great night- one that we didn't even expect!

Healthy Food Reviews – Breakfast Foods

2010-07-22T07:17:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I posted an introduction to my Healthy Food Reviews. The idea was an inspiration from Fitness Magazine, who hosts annual healthy food awards. Similarly, I will be choosing my own categories and reviewing healthy foods in those categories. When selecting the foods for review, I try to focus on those that are high in protein and fiber, but low in fat, sugar, and calories. Today’s post focuses on breakfast foods, both frozen and pantry foods that I have bought, eaten, and reviewed.

Vita Muffins Banana Nut Vita Tops

Oh wow. When you first taste the muffin top you sense a bit of nutmeg. I’m not usually a fan of nutmeg at all- not in the slightest- but it is not overwhelming. The muffin top is soft and moist when you bite. It has the same consistency as banana nut bread. They are only 100 calories per muffin top. They’re packed with 5 grams of both fiber and protein so this definitely left me feeling full for a while! The nuts on top are an added bonus and I loved that crunch whenever I took a bite. They are so quick and easy to warm up from their frozen state with only 18 seconds in the microwave (however, I recommend 30 seconds). If you’re not a banana nut fan, you can find these muffin tops in apple berry bran, Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip, and a variety of chocolate flavors.

Barbara’s Multigrain Puffins

I’m a huge fan of multigrain cheerios, and when I saw these Multigrain Puffins I was intrigued. I’ve had Puffins before, but never the multigrain ones. I noticed they were less fat than the Cheerios, which was more incentive to try them. At first glance, it appeared that the Puffins and the Cheerios had the same amount of fiber and calories. However, with a closer look I noticed the Puffins have a larger serving size. The Multigrain Puffins consist of whole oats, brown rice, and corn. You can definitely taste the oats, but they’re still sweet and delicious. They are puffier and bigger than the cheerios, which I liked. One serving of Multigrain Puffins provides you with 8 grams of whole grains. They are completely fat and gluten free. A serving contains 3 grams of prebiotic fiber. Perhaps the only downfall is that they are a bit high in sugar at 6 grams per serving. I also liked how you can read the ingredient list and understand every word…there are no long and hard-to-understand ingredients.

Van’s Natural Foods Organic Blueberry Waffles

I’ve had a thing for organics lately. I saw these waffles just in passing while in the frozen food aisle and decided to pick them up. Ironically about a week later I saw them on the Fitness Magazines Healthy Food Awards under the Frozen Foods award, but in a different flavor. These waffles are made with whole grains and have little specks of blueberry throughout them. The blueberry taste is very subtle. I’m a big fan of blueberries and actually expected the flavor to be a bit more pronounced, but it’s still present. These waffles are 210 calories for 2 waffles. That serving size also includes 5 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber- woo hoo! Fill me up! However, on the not so exciting side, there’s 7 grams of fat. Van’s does make a “lite” version of their waffles, which is actually what won the Fitness Magazine Award, which only have 2 grams of fat and less calories as well. I’ll most likely try those next. These were good, I’d definitely buy them again, but I’m a little disappointed with the blueberry subtly and the fat grams.

Cascadian Farm Organic Almond Butter Crunchy Granola Bars

Whoa- that name is a handful. There’s a bit of a back story to these bars. Nearby to where I live there is an amazing homemade fudge store. One of the items they also make is called Almond Butter Crunch. It's this wonderful chocolate creation that is crunchy and buttery…I’m drooling thinking about it. Back when I was binge eating and not doing well with my health and weight my friend and I used to go there and buy this by the BOX. Yea, um I live alone. So that box was consumed entirely by me. Well, eventually I realized I couldn’t live with those eating habits. My cousin Jackie posted on Facebook about these granola bars and once I saw the words “Almond Butter Crunch” I was sold.

I started searching for these bars and I’ll be honest, they are HARD to find! Stop and Shop seems to be a good place to find them or, and I’m serious here, Amazon.com. They’re that good that I’ve ordered them online! I love the crunchy consistency when you take your first bite. I’ve had other crunchy granola bars that honestly have hurt my teeth because they’re too hard. These are perfect. The almond butter is not overpowering, just drizzled on top. It gives the bars a touch of sweetness. The granola bars are high in fiber with 5 grams per serving (which is the 2 bars in the package). They are 180 calories per serving. However (yikes!) they have 8 grams of fat and 10 grams of sugar. Personally, I overlook this because they’re just that good and if they’re keeping me from going back to the fudge store then that works for me. Plus, they are certified organic and you can understand every ingredient listed on the box.

Kashi Heart to Heart Golden Brown Maple Oatmeal

Let me preface this review by saying I’ve only had oatmeal a handful of times in my life, therefore I’m relying on Pete’s opinion heavily here. When I tasted the oatmeal for the first time I noticed a hint a maple syrup but was more able to taste the brown sugar. I have this weird picture in my head of oatmeal being more watery, which sounds weird to me, but this was not like that. It was creamy and I kept going back for more spoonfuls. However, Pete had a different opinion. He eats oatmeal often and feels that the Kashi oatmeal is less flavorful than other brands he has had. He says, and I quote, “What you gain in healthiness you definitely lose in flavor.” Pete feels the best of both worlds would be healthy for you but without compromising the taste, and this does not accomplish that for him. Well, I did enjoy it but will not be running out to the grocery store anytime soon to refill.

Anyway, here’s the stats. Each packet is 160 calories and 2 grams of fat. Not bad, not bad. Continuing on the positive, each packet has 5 grams of fiber and 4 grams of protein- nice! When it comes to sugar, however, it is 12 grams just for one packet. The list of ingredients includes several antioxidants, but does have some words that I wasn’t sure about.

Have you had any of these breakfast foods? If so, what did you think of them? What healthy breakfast foods can you add to the list?

Healthy Food Reviews – An Introduction

2010-07-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I was on the Fitness Magazine website just looking around. In my wandering, I stumbled across the Fitness Magazine 2010 Healthy Food Awards. The awards are broken down into categories, including The Best Frozen Foods, The Best Foods for the Pantry, The Best Snacks, and a few others. Flipping through the awards I was happy (and proud!) to see that I’ve already eaten and own many of the foods. I decided to pick a category from their awards and offer my own take of the foods for the La Piattini readers.

At first I decided on The Best Frozen Foods Award. Pete and I set out to buy the eight food items in the category. Well…we searched. And searched some more. We went to several grocery stores and all we could find was 3 out of the 8 items. We did find the brands, but were almost always unable to find the exact flavor or exact food mentioned on the Healthy Food Awards.

I decided maybe we should try another category. We moved onto the Best Foods for the Pantry award. I thought this would be easier, as I recognized a lot of the brand names. However, we ran into the same issue. This time, we were only able to locate one of the items exactly as stated by Fitness Magazine. Again, we found the same brands, but different flavors or items.

At this point it was very frustrating. Then the boy had an ingenious idea. I already eat healthy and have many healthy foods at the house. Why not just do my own review of healthy foods? Gosh, isn’t he just brilliant sometimes? Well, I loved the idea.

I wanted to come up with some criteria for the reviews. First off, I will only be selecting foods that are high in fiber. Personally, I just find that these foods keep me feeling full and satisfied. The foods also need to be low in fat, sodium, and sugar. I’d also like to foods to be on the high side when it comes to protein. This is important to me since I do not eat meat.

My plan is to select about 5 foods per category. The first category that I will be featuring and reviewing will be breakfast foods. This will include both frozen and pantry food items. Stay tuned for this review coming tomorrow!

Let the Chase Begin

2010-07-20T07:00:00.017-04:00

The boy and I are obsessed with the show The Amazing Race. Whenever a new season begins we watch it every week and dream about being on the show. We're not trying to toot our own horns or anything but we think we'd be pretty darn good! Pete is very intelligent and athletic, and he says the same about me. I'm good with directions, he's good with staying calm. We think we'd have a fair shot. Our obsession has gotten to the point where we've even viewed the application and have considered filling it out.

Say we decide to fill it out. Who knows if we'd even get on the show. But hey- there's a chance. And we want to be prepared for that chance.

A few days ago I was at the gym doing some cardio and catching up on my Women's Health Magazine reading. I came across a blurb about "City Chase" which is a smaller version of the Amazing Race that takes place in nearby cities. I'm pretty sure I yelled out "OH!" and then realized verbal outbursts in the gym are a little weird. I folded down the page to show Pete asap. Luckily, he was meeting me there that day and showed up about 5 minutes later. I literally shoved the article in his face and told him he needed to read it immediately. His response was that he would read it later because he's not going to be seen reading Women's Health Magazine. OH GEEZ! Anyway, I convinced him to read it and his immediate response was "This is us. We could definitely win."

When we got home, we looked into it a bit more online. City Chase takes place in different cities every year. This year, 8 cities are participating, including New York City and Philadelphia which are close by to where we live. We were really hoping for Boston, but oh well! City Chase is a 6 hour event where you participate in challenges hidden throughout the city. You can only run, walk, or use public transportation to travel the city. No cabs or hitching a ride. If you win in your city, you then compete against the other city winners in the National Championship. Win the National Championship and you drive home a 2011 Outlander Sport. Oh hell yes. We are going for the win.

Pete felt more comfortable signing up for City Chase in Philadelphia. It's not as intense as NYC. The problem? It's only two weeks away. The major issue here is I'm not a runner. It's hard to explain because I work out constantly but I just cannot run. I've tried to run outdoors and failed. I can MAYBE run a block but them I'm so exhausted and wiped out. If we're going to have any shot at winning this, I need to build up some endurance to running and I do not think two weeks is enough time for that.

One of the blogs I follow is called Healthy Tipping Point. Caitlin blogged about a running plan called the Couch-to-5K Running Plan. I looked up more information online and found that this runner's schedule is for beginning runners- totally beginning runners! Now, I am not training to run a 5K. I'm just looking for some guidance so that Pete and I can actually have a chance at winning City Chase. I don't want to be the one holding us back because I can't run. It’s a nine week plan with three workouts per week, I think I can handle that.

I'm really going to give this a shot! I did the first workout yesterday with Pete and was able to get through it. I felt really accomplished and motivated to keep going with this. After all, now that we’ve registered I really have no choice! We decided to sign up for City Chase New York City which is on September 25th. That gives me about two months to get running, which is a perfect amount of time according to this schedule. Wish me luck (with running) and us luck with City Chase. We will certainly let you know about our progress while we are preparing and keep you updated as the chase gets closer.

Oh-one last thing. If anyone knows NYC pretty well and wants to help familiarize us more with the city one weekend, we’d really appreciate it!

Judicious Eating – Week Three

2010-07-18T08:42:00.001-04:00

*If you missed the two original posts, check them out here: Judicious Eating and Judicious Eating – Two Weeks In*

During the third week of Judicious Eating my eating practices remained similar to the past two weeks. However, it continues to be a learning process. I am committed to becoming more comfortable with listening to my body and responding to its needs, yet I feel that I still am not always making the best choices.

As I mentioned in Judicious Eating – Two Weeks In, I have lost a total of ten pounds since my journey on this blog started. This past week I lost an additional pound. I have mentioned that I’d still like to lose more, for example at this point I’d be happy with another four pounds. Yet, I’m starting to realize that maybe where I am with my weight is just what’s realistic for me at this point in my life. And I think I’m ok with that.

What I have also realized is that Judicious Eating needs to be a lifestyle change. This is what works for me and what keeps me at my maintenance weight. Looking back on the past week, losing another pound is definitely a success. However, there are some parts of the week that, when reflecting on, can lead to failure. Out of seven nights in the week, I ate out or ordered food four times. When I think back to the months where I was gaining and gaining (September-January) I ate out almost every single night. I hardly ever ate at home. When I did, it was ridiculous. I never cooked for myself- I considered it a waste. I truly LOVE cooking, but mainly for large groups of people. I would literally come home from work (on the nights I wasn’t eating out) and have Chex Mix. For dinner. Or a soft pretzel. True story. Embarrassing- yet I have to be honest if I’m going to get anywhere with this lifestyle change. I cannot let myself get back into this cycle of eating out all the time or eating unhealthy because I’m sure it was a huge contributing factor to the weight gain. Even though I somehow lost a pound, I need to realize a dangerous path before it becomes a downward spiral. I’m no longer counting points or calories but that change was to free my mind and try this healthy lifestyle on my own, not to be able to eat unhealthy restaurant food every night.

Being healthy and working out make me feel balanced, successful, and happy. I need to embrace how great I’ve felt the past three weeks and how free my mind has been. Yet on the other hand I cannot lose sight of how I got here in the first place and strive to never let it happen again. I’m in this happy mindset after months of work. Those months of work do not stop now that I’ve lost some weight. In fact, I don’t think they stop ever! But I’m cool with that because I love working out and the feeling of eating healthy. This is my life and these changes are for me. I only get one body and I got to treat it right!

On that note, I'm off to Group Power!

Spinning

2010-07-17T16:40:00.001-04:00

It amazes me that even after 8 years of taking Spinning classes, I still learn something new almost every time I go!

This morning began with the Take it Off Challenge. I recently increased my weight during the squats, so it's been even more challenging! When I was done, I headed over to the YMCA for the Saturday morning Spin class that I go to every week. The instructor (Deirdre- I've mentioned her several times before) informed us that she is going to mainly be doing an endurance ride but will coach us to do otherwise.

In the past, Deirdre has told us that cadence + resistance = heart rate. She started talking a bit more about heart rate today. I learned that when you are on an endurance ride, you are maintaining a heart rate of about 70%. Basically, this means that you could do it all day- you're not having breathing issues and you're on a long-term ride. When you get up to 80%, your breathing is a bit labored, but you can still have a conversation. However, at 85% your breathing is labored. Once you get between 92% and 94% you should only be able to do your activity for about 20 seconds.

Knowing all of this really helped me! In a spin class, it's hard to know where the instructor wants you to be. Sure, there is a resistance knob and they'll tell you to crank it up or lower it throughout the class, but it's hard to know if you are around the same level as them. I've had some instructors call out resistance on a 1-10 basis, and this has been helpful also. Others just say to give a half turn- but what if I was at a lower or higher starting point? So it's tough to know.

Having this information about heart rate though gives me a better idea of where an instructor wants me to be. I've had instructors yell out, "You should be at about 85% right now," and I really had no idea what that meant. Now I know 85% is a tough ride with more resistance that will lead my breathing to become labored.

Let's head back to this morning. When I got home from Spinning, I played tennis with the boy. Afterward, I was starving. I'd done Challenge, Spinning, and Tennis and still hadn't eaten yet. I popped a couple of Van's Natural Foods Organic Blueberry Waffles into the toaster. I saw these at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd try them. I found out about a week later that they are on Fitness Magazines Healthy Food Awards this year (FYI- I will be reviewing some of these foods in a post later this week!).

These were scrumptious and kept me full with 5 gram of protein and 6 grams of fiber per serving.

After breakfast, the boy and I headed out to a local sporting goods store. We really had no set purpose- just were looking around. I steered over to the cycling section and started checking out cycling shoes. Now I have been wanting Spinning shoes for years but they've just been too expensive and I never splurged on them...until today!

They had an awesome deal on Shimano cycling sneakers that I just could not pass up. The man in the cycling department was so helpful. He hooked me up with the right cleats to clip onto my Spinning bike. He even set them up for me and waived the charge. I was in heaven. I may have jumped up and clapped my hands. Maybe.

Take a look! I cannot wait to wear them!

The black part sticking out to the side is the cleat attachment. The piece in the middle is what actually clips onto your bike (and what keeps the cleat attachment on your shoe). I asked if I'd be able to use these shoes on an outdoor bike. He said yes, that all I'd have to do is buy the pedals that my shoes are compatible with and put them on my bike. Pretty nifty!

I am beside myself excited about these shoes. I put them on to take some photos to post. And to get a feel for them. And maybe just because I wanted to.

Looking forward to my first ride with them!

Using Up Those Veggies

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-04:00

Ahhh waking up after two night in a row of Zumba feels wonderful. I’ve gotta say- it still remains my ultimate favorite class. At this point, it even tops spinning, which I never thought would happen. All the moving, jumping, and hip shaking works muscles that I didn’t even know were there! On Tuesday night, I attended the class at the YMCA where I am a member. My instructor, Deirdre offered me a free class at her studio (for a night she had to unexpectedly cancel) so I got to go Wednesday night as well. Lucky me!

When I got home from Zumba, I decided to whip up some veggie pizza. I’ve been working as a director at a summer camp this week and I wanted to make something for my counselors, assistant, and teachers. I had some veggies still from when I went to the Farmer’s Market last weekend and this was the perfect opportunity to use them.

My friend Becky introduced me to this recipe last summer when we had a lamination party at my house. Yes, us teachers are corny like that. When you have miles and miles worth of lamination, there’s no better way to cut it out then with some friends, food, and wine! She made this for our party and I loved it. Unfortunately, she moved to Washington state and I miss her dearly. The next annual lamination party is coming up in about a month and I’d like to make the veggie pizza for that day as well. I only made one change to her original recipe and that was to use rosemary instead of dill. Why? Because I’m allergic to dill. I discovered that the night Becky made this recipe. Yikes!

Before I share the recipe, it is not a traditional pizza with sauce. It is more of an appetizer and uses cream cheese, pizza dough, and vegetables.

Veggie Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza Dough

Cream Cheese

Red Pepper

Can of Sliced Olives

Broccoli

Rosemary (Or chives or dill)

Start off by preheating your oven to 425 degrees. Grease a baking sheet using cooking spray. Spread out your pizza dough onto the baking sheet. Once oven is heated, put the pizza dough in for about fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, grab a knife and cutting board. Start with the pepper and cut it in half. Grab a half and remove the seeds so your pepper looks like the half shown on the left. Repeat with other half.

Now that the seeds are removed, cut your pepper into thin slices. Then cut your slices into bite sized pieces. Add pepper pieces to a bowl.

Take your broccoli and cut off the stems. Discard. Chop your broccoli into bite sized pieces. Add to the same bowl as the peppers. Using a can opener, open your can of sliced olives. Drain. Add to the bowl with the pepper and broccoli.

When your crust is finished in the oven, take it out and let it cool.

Once the crust is cooled, grab some cream cheese. I used Philadelphia light. Spread the cream cheese onto the crust. I pretty much used the entire package- there was just a bit leftover.

Sprinkle some rosemary onto the crust. Or feel free to keep Becky’s original recipe and use dill. We’ve also made it using chives.

Finally, add the veggies on top.

I cut my veggie pizza into small slices to bring to the girls at work. They loved it! I hope you do too =)

Italian Home Cooking - Caprese

2010-07-14T07:09:00.001-04:00

Growing up, one of the foods that my family was never without was fresh mozzarella. We would often go down the road to the Italian deli and pick up a fresh ball of mozzarella to make various meals with. Rarely did we buy the mozzarella at a supermarket- it just wasn't as fresh and delicious as the Italian deli.

My family uses fresh mozzarella most often for the Pizza Patate recipe that I featured on the blog last week. However, it is also perfect for Caprese. You may often see the word "caprese" next to other words as in: caprese salad, shrimp caprese, chicken caprese, etc. Basically, caprese is anything that involves mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes. We just made a regular caprese which involves stacking those ingredients.

To start, grab three tomatoes and slice them. You don't want your slices to be too thin, try to get about 5 slices per tomato. Spread them out on a platter.

Apparently I like black tank tops- I feel I'm wearing them in every picture I post!

Next, grab your fresh mozzarella. You want to do the same as with the tomatoes- cut into slices. We happened to get a small ball of mozzarella, so our slices were rather thin. Either way, you want the same amount of slices for both the tomatoes and mozzarella. Place the mozzarella slices under the tomato slices on your platter.

Next, mince two cloves of garlic. While you have your knife and cutting board out, chop up a handful of fresh basil leaves. Sprinkle your minced garlic and basil on top of the mozzarella and tomato slices.

Once both the garlic and basil are on, top with some parmesan cheese. Finally, drizzle olive oil over the top of the platter.

Refrigerate your caprese until ready to serve.

Look how gorgeous! This would be the perfect appetizer for your next outdoor barbecue, or truly for any event. Enjoy!

Top 10 Things That Make You a Creeper at the Gym

2010-07-13T07:00:00.001-04:00

I'll start by saying sorry fellas if this offends you, but can a gal just get a workout in?!

I've been a member of a gym since I was 18 years old. Now I don't know about you, but I enjoy solitude when I'm working out. I don't want to talk to anyone while I'm lifting- I'm in the zone! Yet, over the years I've definitely noticed and experienced some interesting things!

The following list details something that has either happened to me, a close friend, or something I observed. Hope you get a good laugh!

Let's count it down:

The Top 10 Things That Make You a Creeper at the Gym

10. Wearing the same shirt and tight biker shorts every time you're at the gym and openly declaring you live for this facility.

9. Walking back and forth past the window of the room I'm taking a class in.

8. Following her out to the car and asking her on a date. When you're 30 years older than her.

7. Staring for way too long. Uncomfortably long. She's not making eye-contact man, give it up.

6. Asking a girl what class she's heading to and then following her there. Stalker.

5. If you're at the gym for an hour, but actually only working out for seven minutes. What are you doing there?!

4. Grunting when you're lifting weights. Really? Let's decrease buddy.

3. Saying, "Hey, I haven't seen you here in a while, what time do you usually come?" just to find out her gym schedule.

2. Getting on the elliptical right next to her when the whole gym is empty. Personal space.

1. Asking if you can spot me. I'm holding free weights dude, what do you want?

True stories, my friends. Number one is my all-time favorite- I actually had a guy ask me if I wanted to be his gym partner so that we could work out together and spot each other. I'm holding a five pound weight in each hand. You trust me spotting you?

Has anything like this ever happened to you? Share your creepy gym experiences!

Italian Home Cooking - Baked Mac and Cheese with Proscuitto

2010-07-12T06:00:00.002-04:00

Macaroni and Cheese has always been a classic American comfort food. I'll be honest, even as an adult I am still a sucker for that blue Kraft macaroni and cheese box- it's just so good!

The idea of making homemade mac and cheese came from my sister Vickie who really wanted to recreate the breadcrumb crust on the top used often by restaurants. She put me up to the challenge and I accepted, but had to add in my own Italian flair. Enter Baked Mac and Cheese with Proscuitto.

If you've never cooked with proscuitto before, it is very easy to work with and so delicious when it is crispy.

Start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees. Then, boil some water to cook your pasta. I went with whole grain rotini. Elbows or shells would also work well.

While waiting for the water to boil, get your proscuitto ready to go. I ordered some domestic proscuitto at the deli counter in the supermarket. The helpful employee explained that if you are putting the proscuitto on a deli platter and are concerned about appearance, go with imported. However, if you are just cooking with it, domestic is fine.

I took about four slices of the proscuitto and stacked them on top of each other. Then I rolled the stack. Once it was rolled, I cut the roll into slices.

Now that your proscuitto is cut into small slices, heat up a pan. Cook the proscuitto in a pan for a couple of minutes, until crispy.

Remove from pan. Melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter in the same pan. Mix in 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of milk (I used skim milk, but do what you gotta go).

Continue to mix all ingredients until boiling. Once at a boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. Add your proscuitto back into the pan.

Add about two cups of cheese into the pan. I went with an Italian blend which included Asiago, Provolone, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano, and Fontina. Throw in a dash of salt and pepper. If you’re feeling daring and really leaning towards the Italian side, add in a dash of parsley, basil, and red pepper flakes (or some Italian Seasonings.) Your cheesy mix should look something like this:

While your pasta is finishing up, grab a bowl. Pour in a handful of breadcrumbs. Add in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Mix together. Save this mixture for later.

By now your pasta should be cooked and ready to be drained. Add drained pasta into a greased baking dish. On top of the pasta, pour on your cheese mixture and mix together with pasta. Then add on your breadcrumb mixture and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top.

Bake uncovered in the oven for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Some notes: I kept this more on the healthy side with skim milk, whole grain pasta, and low fat cheese. However, use what works for you. Also, if you want more of a traditional mac and cheese, use cheddar cheese and eliminate the Italian seasonings and proscuitto.

Judicious Eating - Two Weeks In

2010-07-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

After months of counting points, watching what I eat, and basically losing my mind with obsessive food thoughts, I decided to try to letting go of the diet mentality. A couple of weeks ago I started what I'm calling "Judicious Eating." If you read that post, you gained some insight into my mind and why it was driving me nuts, literally, to count points. I vowed to give it two weeks...and then reconvene to see if my choices were working. Well, here's my chance to reflect back.

My main focus throughout was listening to my body and only eating when I was actually hungry. This was huge. I used to eat because it was "time to eat." For example, I would wake up and it would be "breakfast time" so I would eat, even if I was not necessarily hungry. Being a teacher makes it hard to overcome this. Teachers have scheduled lunch times. Mine happened to be at 11:30, which in my opinion can still be breakfast time! I did not have the luxury of listening to my body and eating lunch when I'm hungry- I had to eat lunch at 11:30. Now that it is summer, it is much more feasible to accomplish eating only when my body is signaling that it's hungry. This will be a challenge once school starts again, but I'm always looking forward to a new challenge.

Over the last two weeks, I have made some good choices and some not so great choices when it comes to eating when hungry. One day I went shopping with a friend. She was hungry so we stopped at a pizza place. She got some lunch, but I did not order anything because I simply was not hungry- can you imagine this?! In the past, two things may have happened here. One- I would've ordered something just because she was eating and it was around lunch time. Two- I wouldn't have ordered anything but my mind would be miserable with thoughts of how I can never eat pizza again, it's just too many points and how depressing is this blablabla. Then I probably would've went home starving and ate way too much.

I have much more control now by simply listening to my body. However, the choices were not always that great. Yes, I would listen to my body, but that doesn't mean I should eat a brownie when I realize I'm hungry. Yea, not really what I should be going for. My goal is when I am hungry to eat whole grains, fruits, veggies, no processed food, no high fructose corn syrup, etc. I did this for the most part, but not always. So I still have some things to work on.

Another part of Judicious Eating is listening to your body signaling when it is full. It may sound odd, but something that works for me is eating slowly. Every time I take a bite, I chew slowly. It's also a good idea to put your food or fork down after every bite. I've found that by eating slower, it enables me to really listen to my instincts and determine if I am full or not. If you devour the meal in front of you, you are not giving your body time to tell you it's full! This is still a work in progress for me. Sometimes I'll be so famished that I start eating super fast. But I'm hoping that if I keep this up, it will be something that becomes natural.

After two weeks, I am at the lowest weight since my whole journey started. I have lost a total of ten pounds and am now five away from my goal weight. However, I feel much better about myself and my mind is blissfully clear. I am not obsessing or having scary thoughts about food and weight. I feel happy, free, and in control of my life.

Ok so I'm going to post a "before" and "after" pic. Honestly, I thought I had deleted all of the pics from the "before" time period because I was so embarrassed looking at them and the way I looked. Yet, I found one after some searching. The "before" pic, shown on the left, was taken back in January after I had gained close to 20 pounds. The "after" pic, shown on the right, is now. The boy thinks I'm crazy, but I definitely notice a difference. Let me know what you think. Notice I'm still covering my legs in the now pic. Still working on it!

Filling the Fruit Bowl

2010-07-09T18:54:00.001-04:00

Well, I guess we have to get a fruit bowl first. Back to that in a jif!

I've been eating a lot of fruit lately and decided a fruit bowl would be a) a nice centerpiece for my table and b) a good place to store the fruit until its eaten. I started doing some online browsing to find one and came across this beauty at the Pier 1 Imports site. I decided to get it as soon as possible.

I woke up this morning and did the Take if Off Challenge before heading over to a Group Power. God I love that class. Kicks my butt and leaves me sore every time! I upped my weight during the squats song today- yippee!

After Group Power, I came home and played some tennis with the boy. We've challenged another couple to a doubles match so we're actually trying to get decent haha. Before playing, we fueled up on some healthy bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches. Look for a Food Debate post about that coming soon.

Once the workouts were done, we set out to Pier 1 Imports to get the fruit bowl. The lady that helped us at the store was amazing- she was on a mission to find this fruit bowl and she did- yay! It's actually a lot bigger than it seems on the website, in my opinion at least.

Well, we couldn't just leave it empty now could we?!

I heard from a friend at work about a huge farmer's market nearby where I live, about fifteen minutes away. We enjoyed the small farmer's stand we went to last weekend, and were still bummed we couldn't buy much since we were going right out, so we were thrilled about going today- and filling the fruit bowl.

As soon as we got there, literally the second we walked in, I saw some of the prices and was amazed! $0.79 per pound for grapes. Huge container of blueberries for $1.50. $0.29 per pound for watermelon. I can go on and on- and this was just right when we walked in!

I was in heaven. All of the colors, the prices, and thoughts of meals to make were floating through my head. The place was huge and was stocked with unique and different types of fruits and vegetables. We started in the fruit aisles.

The boy headed right for the peaches. I was just overwhelmed and wanted one of everything. Like a kid in a candy shop. We picked up some bananas (to slice in some cereal- yum!), peaches, apples, watermelon, and nectarines.

We headed over to the veggie aisle next. I just love how colorful everything is. I started planning out a veggie pizza appetizer, which I'll post about once I make it, and picked up some necessities.

The Farmer's Market had a deli, so we ordered some sandwiches for dinner. There was also a small Italian section in the back where I picked up black olives. We headed over to the checkout...and I literally CANNOT believe how much we paid for everything we got. Before I tell you, take a look at our purchases:

Fruit: Watermelon, apples, bananas, nectarine, peaches.

Veggies: Olives, broccoli, pepper, carrots.

All for...are you ready for this...$8.97!

At first we thought the lady said "18.00" and we were like ok, thinking that was good. When we realized she said $8.97 we were beside ourselves! We started thinking we should've bought more, especially since the prices on berries were amazing. But we decided that it is only fifteen minutes away and we'll come back for berries next time.

And now, the fruit bowl is filled!

Yum, yum, yum.

Italian Home Cooking - Zucchini and Potato Scramble

2010-07-08T17:27:00.000-04:00

One of the meals we made for our Italian style Fourth of July was a Zucchini and Potato Scramble. My family just calls it Zucchini and Potatoes, but I added the "Scramble" because it is also made with eggs.

Mom says that you can serve it either hot or cold- cold is more along the lines of a potato salad or macaroni salad, which is the approach we were going for.

We started by cutting the ends off of the three zucchini, or Italian squash. We pealed them and then I sliced each zucchini into thin slices, like slicing a cucumber. Next, I stacked about four of the slices and then cut them into smaller pieces. I did this easily but cutting them like a pizza pie, into eight smaller pieces.

Once the zucchini was ready, we peeled three potatoes. We then cut the potatoes into small pieces, exactly like in the Potato Patate recipe. (See Potato Patate recipe for pictures on this step).

Thinking back, we should've cut the potatoes first because they need longer to cook. This way you could be cutting the zucchini while the potatoes are cooking. Oh well, mom was on the phone at this part and I was just going for it- my mistake!

Grab a frying pan and fill with vegetable oil. Your level of vegetable oil should be enough to just sit right on top of the veggies. Put your potatoes in first. Be sure to turn frequently to ensure all sides are getting golden brown.

A few minutes later, add in your zucchini. Mix up the potatoes and zucchini and turn frequently.

Meanwhile, crack four eggs into a bowl with a dash of pepper. Whisk them up and add in a handful of Romano cheese.

*Side note- if the terms "handful" and "a few minutes later" (etc.) are aggravating, trust me, they aggravate me too! But that's what you get growing up in an Italian household. My parents do not even own dry measuring cups or spoons! Everything is just memorized.

Once your veggies are cooked, pour the egg and cheese mixture into the frying pan. Start scrambling. You want to be constantly mixing- this is not supposed to be an omelet. Continue scrambling until the eggs are cooked.

Once your eggs are cooked, you can serve warm as a side dish, if you so desire. We put the scramble into a tupperware container and put it in the fridge for a few hours. Later in the afternoon, we served it cold. I tasted the recipe both ways, hot and cold, and both were delicious. It is up to you how to serve!

Enjoy the recipe!

Fireworks and Farmer's Markets

2010-07-05T16:27:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday, I woke up anxious to start the day. That night was the annual fireworks show in Red Bank that my friend Stephanie and I go to every summer on the 3rd of July. As soon as I hopped out of bed, I did the Take It Off Challenge. I'll tell ya, I was really missing the gym being down at my parent's house for four days, but I kept up with the challenge and exercised in the pool daily.

After completing challenge, I had a small breakfast of some grapes. I wasn't really that hungry, but enjoyed these while strolling through my dad's garden.

After breakfast, I went to get my haircut. I do this just about every time I visit my parents because my hairdresser is down near them. I would follow her anywhere!

I spent most of the day with my family out by the pool. Around lunch time, I was famished from having such a small breakfast. I was really craving a delicious deli sandwich, so I went out to get some for the the fam, Pete, and I. It really hit the spot and kept me full for hours. I ordered a peppermill turkey and provolone sandwich on a roll with lettuce, onions, and oil and vinegar. However, the provolone was mysteriously left off of everyone's sandwich...everyone except Pete!

After a few more hours at the pool, the boy and I got ready to meet up with Stephanie (my friend from Stephanie Cooks and Stephanie Inspired) and her husband, John. We had some time to kill and wanted a little snack to hold us over until dinner. We decided to stop at a small farmer's market that was on our way.

This farmer's market is literally about 7 minutes from my parent's house. I passed it all the time growing up, but never went there!

When we walked up, I immediately started taking pictures. I could tell the owner was a little confused by this- I guess it's not everyday people take pictures at a farmer's market! I asked if I could take a picture of him and...I'm not even sure of his reaction but I never got that pic!

Woolley Farms had an assortment of fruits, vegetable, and flowers. The prices were very reasonable.

As I strolled through, I was really wanting to stock up on some fruits! But I came to the realization that we were on our way to a fireworks show and couldn't just leave fruit in the car all night- bummer!

At this point on Saturday, I knew that my family was having a small BBQ for the Fourth of July the next day, but we hadn't officially decided what we were going to make yet. That knowledge would have been helpful, because the very next day I ended up having to go out to buy some tomatoes and zucchini (for Caprese and Zucchini & Potatoes - stay tuned for those Italian Home Cooking Posts) when I could've just bought them here!

We ended up deciding to go with some peaches. Believe it or not, I had never had a peach before this! I've also never had a pear or a plum- I need to get on that!

Pete bought two white peaches for a dollar. I took my first bite and thought it was quite yummy- even though the boy says they were not ripe yet. Anywho, we walked across the street to a random field and ate them outside before heading on our way.

Once we met up with Stephanie and John, we took the train into Red Bank for the fireworks show . We had dinner reservations at Teak which is an Asiar Flair restaurant. I ordered the Pad Thai, which is my usual order at a Thai or Asian Fusion restaurant. I just love the mix of flavors with the peanuts, bean sprouts, noodles, and tofu. The Pad Thai here was good, but I feel I've had better at Thai restaurants. I wonder if it had something to do with the restaurant being Asian Flair and not strictly Thai, but either way, it was good, it just didn't blow me away though.

After dinner, we walked down to the Navesink River in Red Bank where the fireworks show is held every year. It was PACKED! More packed then any other year, and we've been going since we were sophomores in college. The crowd also seemed much younger this year, whereas in the past it was very family-oriented. They also had a fair set up right across the street with rides, which may be a reason why the place was jammed.

We walked over and were happy to find that our bush still had some room. True story- we stand/sit in the same bush every year! There is nowhere to sit by the time we get there- people stake out spots hours before- but this one bush usually has some room. The view is a bit obstructed by a tree, but you still get to see the show.

We took some pictures to pass the time- like the new haircut? :)

Finally the show started, and it was well worth the wait! The fireworks were awesome, even though the show wasn't as long as it has been in the past. I suppose fireworks aren't on the top of anyone's list during a recession! But we still had a great time, had some yummy food, and celebrated Independence Day!

Italian Home Cooking - Pizza Patate

2010-07-05T07:00:00.002-04:00

Growing up, Italian food was a must in my family- it was all we ate. My mom says that when she was a kid she would trade sandwiches with her friends at lunch because she would get a broccoli rabe sandwich or a eggplant parmesan and all she really wanted was some tuna or peanut butter and jelly! Her friends thought she was crazy for trading her Italian food, but she had it ALL THE TIME!

Both of my parents were born in Italy, as well as my grandparents and most of my aunts and uncles. I always thought of the dinners we ate as just that, dinner. It wasn't until I was older and started eating out or having dinner at a friend's house that I realized the meals I grew up eating are authentic Italian meals, most of them created by my grandmother in Italy.

One of these meals, Pizza Patate, stands out to me as a personal favorite. When I went away to college, I always wanted Pizza Patate when I came home. Now that I live on my own, every time I visit, I hope that is what my mom is making!

My family also does not pronounce Pizza Patate the way that it looks. When you say it in Italian, the word patate sounds more like pa-taan. I also looked it up online when thinking about posting this entry. All of my findings were very different then the recipe I will post for you here today, but again, it is authentic and created by my Grandma Nonna.

I arrived down at my parent's house last Thursday and my mom said we would have Pizza Patate for dinner, except this time, I would be the one making it. Yikes! I was terrified I would mess up a traditional Italian meal. Well, I documented the journey to share with you here, and hope to share more Italian Home Cooking with you in the future.

Pizza Patate - this recipe serves 4 people.

Start off with four potatoes.

Peel them and then cut into small pieces.

Using a large frying pan, fill with vegetable oil. Use enough vegetable oil so that it will cover the potatoes, but not drown them. The oil level should sit right on top of the potatoes. Heat up the oil for about one minute and then put the potato pieces in.

Fry the potatoes, being sure to keep turning them so they can get golden brown on all sides. Meanwhile, crack 8 eggs into a bowl. Whisk them and add in a dash of pepper.

*Side note- here's a good rule of thumb that my mom shared with me for making this recipe. Use one potato and two eggs per person eating.*

Mix in some Romano Cheese. Mom says, and I quote, "The more cheese you put, the better it tastes." You do not want to pour the whole container in, but don't skimp on the cheese! AND she says it must be Romano. She tried making it once with Parmesan and it was terrible!

When the potatoes are cooked and are a nice golden brown on all sides, use a slotted spoon to transfer the potatoes from the oil to the egg and cheese mixture. This process eliminates the oil.

Once all of the potatoes are out, dump the oil. Leave just enough to coat the bottom of the pan. Note from mom- do not pour hot oil down the drain! Let it cool off in a glass, then dispose of it.

Mix all of the potatoes in with the eggs and cheese. Pour the mixture back into the frying pan. It may look low, but mom says "The cheese is going to make this rise." Let it cook on low-medium heat.

Check the bottom every so often. Do this by carefully sliding a fork down the side of the pan and gently lifting up. When the bottom is cooked, flip it over to the other side. This part is tricky, and my dad usually does it by flipping it into a whole other frying pan. Or sometimes he puts a plate (if you have a big enough plate on hand) on top of the frying pan, flips it onto the plate, then slides it back into the frying pan.

Let the other side cook. Mom usually pokes a hole with a fork into the middle, then presses down to see if any egg comes up. She also feels around with her utensils to see if it feels "eggy."

When your Pizza Patate is done, cut it like a pizza. Serve with slices of fresh mozzarella.

I was really proud of how this came out! Both my sister and I have tried unsuccessfully to make this on our own haha. This time, I did all of the steps myself, but still did have my mom guiding me. I'm anxious to really try it in my own kitchen with no one there!

MmmMm please make this immediately and let me know your thoughts!

Group Power

2010-07-03T08:41:00.007-04:00

Ever since last August when I joined the YMCA, I've been hearing about the Group Power class. I've taken the "Group" classes before, including Group Groove and Group Kick at the Y, as well as Group Ride at my old gym. Yet, Group Power always freaked me out...for a few reasons. First of all, I was worried about the cyst in my wrist. I thought that the constant weight lifting would irritate it. Second, an hour long of non-stop weight training alone frightens me.

First, some background. The Group classes were developed by Body Training Systems. Every season, or every few months, they release a new set of songs that the workout is done to. This enables you to get used to the songs and exercises, but not get bored or stuck in a rut because before you know it, the songs change.

Welp, it took some convincing, about 11 months worth of convincing, but I tried the Group Power class for the first time last Sunday. I wouldn't say that I am obsessed with it the way I am with Zumba or spin, but I definitely enjoyed the class and have taken it again since Sunday.

It is quite the intense workout! Before you start, you setup with a barbell, plates, clips, and a bench. The workout is done to music and each song focuses on a different major muscle group. For example, one whole song is squats, another triceps, another lunges, etc. In the hour long class, you work biceps, triceps, glutes, calves, abs...and other muscles which I am sure I'm missing! After each song, the instructor lets you know what's coming up next and whether you should increase or decrease weight.

By the end of the class, my arms were literally trembling. The next day, I was sore in so many different areas- what a great feeling! I truly love working out, but tend to lean towards cardio classes. I've incorporated more weight training with the Take It Off Challenge, but still felt I could use more. Group Power is the perfect solution and I plan to attend a class once, if not twice, a week.

Some other gyms have a very similar, actually almost identical, class called Body Pump. Keep an eye out for that also!

If you go to the Body Training Systems website, it enables you to search the nearest location to you that has the Group classes. I highly recommend checking one out. If you've taken Group Power, or any Group class, let me know what you thought of it!

*On another note...I am down at the shore for a looong weekend and I realized that I forgot my camera cord! I have lots to post and pics to share.

I can't wait to fill you in on my family's famous pizza patate recipe, delicious shore food, farmer's markets, and of course the Fourth of July festivities. Happy Independence Day!

Skinny Bitch – A Book Review

2010-06-30T07:30:00.000-04:00

Back when we were in Boston, I picked this book up in Barnes and Noble. I was immediately attracted to the title Skinny Bitch and since we were killing some time before meeting up with friends, I sat in one of the comfy chairs and started reading. I was immediately hooked and knew I had to buy it.

The authors, Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, are both models with dirty mouths and lots of controversial opinions to share about food, fitness, and healthy living. With chapter titles like “Pooping” and “Don’t be a Pussy” I was like, "Hell yes this is my type of book!" The language is just so me.

I honestly got sucked in early on due to their brash, in-your-face language and approach to eating. Yet, they never let you know early on that they’re basically vegan drill sergeants.

The approach of the book is they talk about a food item, and believe me it is always something you love and enjoy, and then basically bash it and eliminate it from your life…forever. They go into descriptive, horrifying detail about animal cruelty and slaughterhouses and then literally say, ok- now you’re a vegetarian. Then they continue their vivid explanation of animal treatment and POOF you’re a vegan.

Now, I did learn a bit from this book, and it did open my eyes up to a lot about the meat industry. I already do not eat meat (except for the occasional chicken- we all know how weird I am about that though) but now can’t even stomach the idea of ever looking at it again. However, that is not much of a change for me.

For one, I learned a lot about the difference between simple and comlex carbs. Simple carbs are made up of sugar and cause sugar highs and crashes, leading most people to eat more. I can definitely relate to that! This intrigued me and I wanted to learn more. Complex carbs are made of starch and fiber. These carbs are the way to go because they leave you full and energized. The books lists several foods with complex carbs and encourages you to eat only whole grains.

I also learned a lot more about aspartame. I had heard of it before and knew it is as the artificial sweetener found in diet drinks such as Diet Coke. I am a HUGE Diet Coke drinker. I do not drink coffee so Diet Coke has always been my source of caffeine. I literally have one every morning. Some people think that’s gross, but how is it any different than you having your morning coffee?! Anyway, I digress. Basically, the authors explain that when you drink a produce containing aspartame, it turns into formaldehyde upon entering your body. Formaldehyde is “toxic and carcinogenic” and it’s not rocket science that you’d want to avoid it. They suggest drinking water only. Has that stopped me from drinking Diet Coke though? Nope! I’m a bit addicted (if only Rory and Kim were reading this- they would tear me apart!)

What really got to me was all of sudden there was a section in the book on fasting. Now, I had been enjoying the book up to now and actually weighing the pros and cons of going vegan. When I came across this section, I thought it was a joke. Fasting, really? I seriously thought they’d be discussing how fasting should not be a diet option and how it is unhealthy, never do it, etc. UMMM exactly the opposite. They encourage readers to fast and refer to it as “a healthy method of weight loss.” They claim that you should fast about once a month for anywhere from one-to-ten days. WHAT?!!? That was when I was ready to throw the book out the window. I’m sorry, but I just think that is absurd. Food is fuel that we need to live. It is vital. There are people reading this book who are looking for answers and for inspiration and I just couldn’t believe that’s the message they were sending out. I did finish the book after that, but resented it.

In the end, it seemed to me that the book’s main purpose was to convert the world to vegans and make everyone join some sort of animal activist group. Yes, I learned a lot, but the book is not identified in the proper way. Nowhere on the front or back cover does is mention the word “vegan.” I just think that some people, like myself, pick up this book expecting it to be an inspiring fitness book. In some ways, it is, but I feel it should be labeled as a vegan book to avoid the type of confusion that I ended up with.

Take It Off

2010-06-27T12:08:00.000-04:00

I’ve decided to name my new challenge the “Take It Off” challenge. Now, what I really mean is take off those pounds, but there is certainly a double entendre there (*wink*). There are some similarities to the Shape Up or Shut Up Challenge, mainly because I never got to finish it due to my sprained ankle. I still felt the need to keep some of the original exercises, while modifying others.

Take It Off is a ten minute routine to be completed daily. All you need are 5-to-8 pound weights and a mat if you are working out on a hard surface. You can also use a Body Bar for completing many of these exercises. I just ordered a 15 lb Body Bar and am highly anticipating its arrival!

When designing this challenge, I thought about my personal problem spots that I wanted to work on. Feel free to modify to suit your needs. There are five parts which are two minutes each.

Part One (identical from Shape Up or Shut Up):

Sit ups – Lie down on your back and put my feet under the coffee table, if necessary (I am still not strong enough to do them without holding my feet down yet!). Crunch all the way up. Lower and repeat for two minutes.

Part Two

Hamstring Exercises- split up into one minute per exercise.

For the first minute: Bench Hip Raises- Lie down on your back with your feet up on a surface (I use the couch). Your legs should be bent 90 degrees. Lift your hips off of the floor slowly. Squeeze your butt and hamstrings. Hold for two seconds. Lower to the ground. Repeat for one minute total.

Part Three (identical from Shape Up or Shut Up):

Crunches- There really is no set pattern here, I just make sure that I keep going for 2 minutes. I did bicycle crunches, crunches with legs raised, one leg lift double crunches, and double leg lifts.

Part Four

Shoulder exercises- split up into one minute per exercise.

For the first minute: Upright Rows- Hold and 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand or use a Body Bar. You should be holding the weights or bar with your palms faced toward you. Lift the bar or weights straight up to your collarbone. Lower weights. Repeat for one minute.

For the second minute: Military Press with Leg Extensions – Hold and 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand. Balance on one foot. While raising the weights up and over your head, simultaneously kick the other leg forward. Do this for thirty seconds, then switch legs.

Part Five (identical from Shape Up or Shut Up):

Squats- split up into one minute per exercise.

For the first minute: Hold a 5-to-8 pound weight in each hand and rest them on your shoulders (if using a Body Bar, rest the bar on your shoulders). Squat and repeat for one minute.

For the second minute: Using a 5-to-8 pound weight complete one minute of squat and press. Squat down and when coming up raise your weights straight up over your head.

Today was the third day of completing Take It Off. Despite having some similarities to Shape Up or Shut Up, this challenge is HARD! I am panting and out of breath after the exercises and I love it! This challenge started for me on June 25^th and will end on July 25^th, pending any future injuries (I hope not!!). If any modifications are made, I will let you know.

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Judicious Eating

2010-06-26T18:50:00.001-04:00

Oh boy- I have a LOT to get off my chest. Brace yourselves, this is going to be a long one….

To start, I’m happy to report that my ankle is officially healed! I played tennis last night and took a spin class this morning, both with no problems. No more icing, elevating, crutches, leg braces, or wheel chairs. And no more pictures like this:

Umm I look scary here with my foot all wrapped up in ice- no more of that!

So for the past week or so, I’ve been going back in forth in my head about whether to continue counting points or not. It’s been a constant battle where literally one minute I’ll think- yes, I am going to continue. And about an hour later, I will have reasons why I should not. There are arguments to both sides and I just couldn’t figure out which side was winning. I knew I needed to talk it out with someone because I was having such a hard time with it. So I brought it up to the boy last night at dinner- I know- such exciting dinner conversation! But I really needed another opinion.

I’m going to lay it all out for you here. And I have to admit ahead of time, some of it is really hard to verbalize and put out there for everyone else to know. But I guess here is some insight into my head for the last few months.

As mentioned when I first started this blog, I gained about 20 pounds in a 7 month time span. I knew I needed to get control of my weight so I started counting points using the Weight Watchers system. I actually never joined Weight Watchers, I just used their books, various websites, and points system as a guide to get myself back on track. It was a slow process and since then I have lost 8 pounds (I’d like to lose 7 more). So clearly, the system works.

Here are my issues with counting points: I started having these compulsive thoughts. Seriously, it was like food became an addiction for me, like a drug. It was all I thought about: what I would eat the next day, how many points it would be, what I can never eat again, etc. I would eat food just because I had specifically measured it out and counted it in my points total for the day. Even if I got full, I still kept eating because I had already counted the points! Everything was regimented and planned out.

When I would be at the grocery store, the mall, or a restaurant I would literally drool over some of the foods I saw and think about how I’d never be able to eat that again or buy that again. I would go to the mall and stare at Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Haagen Daz, and become miserable because I couldn't have it (but did I even want it? I’ll come back to that later).

Here’s a perfect example. During the last week of school, some of the teachers bought a ton of ice cream and many different toppings for a faculty ice cream party. There I was, staring at all of the teachers loading up their bowls with different ice cream flavors, toppings, whipped cream, sprinkles. I just stood there and stared and hated life. And I started thinking- my life is just not normal like this. Why can everyone else enjoy themselves and I can’t? It was depressing and it was playing a lot of games with my mind.

Finally, I had an idea. I started thinking back to what I used to eat when I was at my goal weight- what my mindset was, what life was like. I focused on last summer. I was still living at home waiting for my apartment to be ready. I woke up every morning and went to a 9 am spinning class. I came home and ate a bagel with cream cheese. In a few hours when I got a bit hungry I usually ate a granola bar. Later on, I ate dinner. Typically it would be something my mom made or I would go out and grab something. This was literally every single day. I’m not saying this is healthy, especially the bagel everyday, BUT….I never thought about food or had compulsions about food. If a friend wanted to go out for ice cream, I went without even thinking about. Did I do this everyday, no. But because I never denied myself, I was never obsessing over it.

You may be thinking that this sounds perfect and I should obviously just go back to the way I was last summer. But there is a flip side.

While I was counting points, every once in a blue moon I would give myself a “day off.” For example, the other night when my dad came up for pizza night, I decided I wasn’t going to count points. Knowing this in the morning, my mindset was like “PARTY!!! NO COUNTING! EAT EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!!!” And, I did. I had many treats at school and I really didn’t turn down any food that I saw. This is NOT healthy at all. My fear was that if I stop counting points, I would be like that everyday.

After pouring all of this out to Pete, he gave me some really good advice and ideas. Here is what I have decided. Weight Watchers will always be there- it’s not going away. I am going to try what I’m calling “Judicious Eating” for a couple of weeks. If I end up gaining weight, then maybe I will consider going back to counting points.

But, I have to tell you. I’ve been doing “Judicious Eating” for two days now and my thoughts have already done a 180. This morning when I was coming home from the gym, I started thinking about what to eat. I decided I would stop and get a bagel (surprise surprise). Yet, I started thinking about it and I wasn’t even hungry! So I just continued on home without a second thought. I ended up having a bagel thin a few hours later when I was hungry. Afterwards I went to the mall. Believe me, Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, and Haagen Daz were all still there. But I didn’t even look in their direction. I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t think of it. And if I was hungry, I would’ve figured out something to eat. So it wasn’t an obsession of, "Wow, look at that huge cinnamon bun dripping with icing- I’ll never be able to have that again." It just never even entered my mind.

I realize its only been two days. I realize I’m not perfect. But I do think that this Judicious Eating approach is going to better for not only my fitness goals, but for my mental health and mind as well. I was driving my self crazy and the thoughts I just admitted are embarrassing and scary- I do not want to go through that anymore. I should be able to participate in the faculty ice cream party. No, I cannot eat ice cream all day, but if I stop denying it to myself, I won’t want to!

I hope this continues to work for me and I will keep you updated along the way.

On another note, now that I can work out again, I started a new challenge. It is similar in some ways to Shape Up or Shut Up, but with some changes. Look for a post on that soon.

Make Your Own Pizza Night!

2010-06-24T18:51:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, I went to visit my parents for Father's Day. While there, I made my dad Chicken Pesto Pasta for dinner, which he just raved about! I decided to invite my parents over on Wednesday to make them dinner again. I LOVE cooking for other people, but rarely do it for myself. Maybe it's just that I enjoy entertaining. Anywho, I knew I was going to have the rents and the boy over for dinner. I started thinking about what to make. I feel like I always make them some sort of chicken or pasta dish, so I decided on pizza night- and I don't mean let's order Domino's- I mean Make Your Own Pizza Night!

While at my parent's house, we brainstormed some pizza toppings. We came up with mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni. The night before, I went to the food store. If you know me, I tend to go overboard. Well, I bought three pizza doughs, three bags of shredded cheese, two types of marinara sauce, three boxes of garlic knots, dessert and the necessities for a Caesar salad (which we never ended up eating, BTW!). Who do I think I'm feeding, an army?! Funny enough, my mom couldn't make it, so all of that food was just for three people in the long run!

I started off by setting up my toppings...

...and decided to make two pizzas. I spread out the pizza dough onto two baking sheets and started loading on the sauce and cheese.

I used shredded mozzarella cheese on one and a four cheese pizza blend on the second. At first my plan was to let everyone add their own toppings, but then I figured I'd just load them up by halves and did 1/2 mushroom, 1/2 pepperoni, 1/2 plain, 1/2 peppers.

I put the pizzas in the oven for about 15 minutes. Mmm it smelt so good in my apartment! As soon as they were out the three of us were literally about to pounce on them. We sliced them up and served ourselves. My dad sampled all three. I went with a pepper slice. Pete started off with a pepper slice and a pepperoni slice. Needless to say, my dad was a happy man.

Oh- and don't forget these bad boys- cheesy garlic knots with marinara sauce.

Now- you may be thinking- whoa! Carb overload! Not healthy at all! Well, I used low fat shredded cheese, included veggies, and I only ate one slice. It's all about moderation. I really love entertaining and am not going to push my eating and dietary habits on those who come over my house to visit. You HAVE to keep living even if you're staying on a healthy track and/or dieting. Well, hopefully you really won't give it to me when I show you what we had for dessert....

Enough said!

Bittersweet

2010-06-19T16:15:00.000-04:00

The end of a school year is always one of those bittersweet moments. You will miss your students and seeing your colleagues everyday, but you're excited for the summer...at least I know I am! This past week I found out I am switching from fourth grade to fifth grade. I'm thrilled to be partnering with my best friend Colleen, but sad at the same time to leave the friends I have made on the fourth grade team.

Anywho, in celebrating of the end-of-the-year, our secretary Nancy hosted her annual party. Nancy is an AMAZING cook- we are always telling her she should start her own catering business.

Upon our arrival, there were lots of small appetizers awating us. Some of the foods I did not picture included clams oreganata, pepperoni, cheeses, olives, roasted red peppers, and sun dried tomatoes. I did not eat any of this, but held out for the baked brie with raspberry filling. I took a few pictures of this, but none of them came out too great- awkward lighting. But here is some that I spread on a cracker:

I've tried brie in the past and recall not liking it. I was hesitant to try this, but something about that raspberry sauce was calling my name...well, what can I say, it was delectable! The brie and raspberry filling were baked inside of puff pastry dough. I had ummm maybe four crackers like this hehe.

Everyone who attends typically brings their favorite drink of choice. One of my colleagues, Donna, makes a mean sangria. As soon as I saw her walking in with that pitcher, I abandoned my Diet Coke and ended up having two glasses of this sangria throughout the night. I have GOT to get the recipe for this!

Soon after, dinner was ready...I took a ton of pictures because I am just so envious of her meals and presentation! Here she is, the chef herself, putting the finishing touches on the veggies:

Which closer up looked like this...I grabbed some of the asparagus right away!

There was also this salad:

And for dinner our options included balsamic and panko crusted chicken and pasta salad.

How beautiful does everything look!? Can you believe Nancy does all of this herself?

I took a small piece of the chicken- you know how weird I am with chicken. I ended up eating about 1/4 of the piece. I also filled up my plate with a bit of the salad, pasta salad, and a roll, all shown here:

After dinner- as if it couldn't get any better- we had dessert. Dessert was a simple Breyer's vanilla ice cream- but what Nancy drizzled on top made it out of this world- a brandy and caramel sauce. Mmmm. We all were craving seconds!

How lucky are we!?

I had a great time at the party conversing with my friends and colleagues about school, our summer plans, funny stories, and just our lives. I didn't stress about the points or what I was eating, but just made conscious decisions about portion size and control. Yes, I ate 4 crackers with brie, but did not have any of the other appetizers, and really- big deal! I'm making it out like I ate the whole puff pastry!

I'll tell ya, I was one happy girl at this party, crutches and all!

Grrrr crutches. If you missed what happened to my ankle, check it out here. At least I'm able to stand and hold my wine glass simulateanueously- that's really all that matters! I'm hanging in there, but REALLY miss working out- and it's only been 4 days. I hoping the ankle heals soon and I can get back to zumba, spin, and challenge. Until then, I'm continuing to make healthy choices and fantasize about the classes I am going to take once I'm healed. Boy, how lame are my fantasies!

Down, but Not Out

2010-06-16T20:36:00.000-04:00

I have officially experienced my first work-out related injury...although I have no idea how it happened!

Let's recall yesterday. After school, I did challenge as soon as I got home. About fifteen minutes later, I went to an hour Zumba class. It was intense and I went all out, enjoying every second of it. My Zumba friends even commented on my enthusiasm- what can I say, I'm easily excitable! Yet during challenge and Zumba I do not recall feeling any pain.

After the class, I went to a little league game that two of my students were playing in. I ran around a little outside, was jumping around a bit, but again, no pain.

Also, the night before, I had played tennis. Do I need to say it? No pain.

I went to bed last night feeling great....yet I woke up around 1 am because my foot was throbbing. I couldn't move it from side to side and it was just aching. I tried to stand up but couldn't put any pressure on it, therefore I couldn't walk. The boy immediately wanted to go to the hospital, but I'm so stubborn. I laid back down and he went to get some ice. As soon as he put the ice on it, I burst into tears- it felt like it was burning! I literally could not move it or walk, so the emergency room was the only option.

Luckily when we got there around 2 am it was pretty much empty. We got right in for some x-rays. They rolled me around in a wheel chair, which I hated! Although, I look pretty excited about it here...

Maybe excited isn't the right word...more like exhausted. Glad I was able to throw a fist pump in there.

Turns out I have a bad lower ankle sprain. It hurts the most on the back, left side of my foot. The doc made it sound like it was fairly normal that you injure your ankle but do not realize it until later. I have to wear an air cast for 7-10 days and use crutches- ugh crutches are horrible! I'm just ridiculously terrible when it comes to using them. But honestly, I am thanking God that it is not broken. I couldn't imagine having to wear a cast for a long time and not being able to work out.

I am disappointed that the Shape Up or Shut Up Challenge will be put on hold for now. And I was SO close- only ten days left. I suppose I could still do the ab work and anything upper body, but I just want to focus on getting better and being able to work out again without injuring myself further.

The other weird thing about being in pain is that I seem to have lost my appetite. I haven't felt hungry all day. I knew I needed to eat, so at lunch time I started thinking about all of my favorite foods or restaurants in the world...nothing sounded appetizing. It was such a weird/scary feeling. I ended up eating a Clif Mojo bar just to eat something, but didn't even want it. I'm hoping that tomorrow will be better.

Speaking of tomorrow, I am returning to work (I took off today) and my class is going on a field trip to Ellis Island. I cannot even imagine walking around Ellis Island all day with this air cast and crutches but we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

When In Rome

2010-06-13T21:21:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we spent down at the shore house. We arrived Friday night, but didn't do much because I was exhausted. Friday had been Field Day at school, aka Maria trying to rock climb- WAY harder than I thought! I got about halfway up the wall with the screaming chants of my students in the background before I fell off. But now I am super determined to conquer rock climbing!

Anyway, our plan was to soak up some sun, do some outdoor activities, and enjoy all that the Jersey shore has to offer. We woke up Saturday morning and talked about finding a place that rents kayaks. Only one problem...I was SO sore from rock climbing! I couldn't believe how much my arms and legs were aching. Thinking about it, I was holding on to that wall for dear life supporting all of my body weight AND trying to pull up all of my body weight- gotta work on that upper body strength! Well, I felt I would be useless on a kayak so we decided to skip that. I started off with challenge and then we headed out for some breakfast.

Down the shore, people ride their bikes everywhere. We had these two old-fashioned type bikes- perfect style for the beach- so we went for a bike ride to take in the sights, heading over to the bay first.

On the way back from the bike ride we passed a playground that had shuffleboard. We parked the bikes and decided to play. This was my first time, and I really wasn't that great, but somehow I ended up beating Pete. He was not happy about this hehe! Check out my moves!

Afterward, we threw on our bathing suits to catch some rays. Even though the house was a block away from the beach, it was really windy right on the shore and hardly anyone was out there. So we just laid out on the deck...for a bit too long I guess because I got a little burnt!

For lunch, we both really wanted deli sandwiches. I ordered a half sub of peppermill turkey and provolone, and only ate half of the half. This really hit the spot!

A bit after lunch we took another bike ride before coming home to relax a bit. We decided to go to Seaside Boardwalk that night for dinner, games, arcade, and ZEPPOLES!

Since it is still early June, the boardwalk was crowded, but not horribly packed. There was a nice breeze that kept us cool while walking around. We stopped to play some skee ball, basketball, and crane machines. We tried the ring toss game twice, in hopes of winning a bike since I was now obsessed with these shore bikes, but failed epically.

When we got hungry, huge slices of pizza were staring us in the face. And I mean HUGE! If you've ever been to the Jersey Shore, you have definitely seen a slice like this.

I could not eat all of this, so I managed what I could and gave the rest to Pete. I didn't want to overdo it, especially since I knew I would not leave the boardwalk without some zeppoles!

For a minute there, I was not sure I could even settle on zeppoles, even though they are probably my all-time favorite dessert and hard to come across. It's just when you're at the boardwalk, you are faced with fried oreos, ice cream, waffles and ice cream, funnel cake, candy apples...I can go on and on, but I think you get it. In the end, my heart stayed true and I had a couple of these bad boys.

When we got home Sunday afternoon, I started thinking about writing this blog entry. I uploaded the pictures and was looking over them. I started thinking, wow, look at my food choices. A sub, pizza, zeppoles. Umm...what kind of blog is this? How is this inspirational at all for people who are trying to lose weight, let alone, myself? I elected to not post at all- what was I thinking making those choices?

In the end, I decided "When in Rome." How often do I go to the boardwalk? Maybe once a year. I feel that part of staying balanced is enjoying life and taking advantage of being in certain situations. Thus, the zeppoles. With lunch, I only ate a 1/4 of a sub and then later for dinner, only part of that pizza slice. I do NOT eat like this everyday, and realize that would be an atrocious lifestyle. However, I was at the beach and was going to enjoy myself and take advantage of being on a mini vacation.

Believe me, tomorrow it will be back to veggie burgers and hummus, but for one day I escaped!

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk

2010-06-10T19:19:00.000-04:00

Lately I have really been in the mood for a soft pretzel. In particular, one of those amazingly delicious cinnamon pretzels from Auntie Anne's. I even looked up how many points they are because it got in my head and now I just want one- 9 points. I though it'd be worse.

*Side note- if you ever want to look up the point value of foods at chain restaurants, check out this website. The restaurants are listed alphabetically. Click on one and it will list the food served there and its point value. It's an amazing site that I frequent if I'm going out to eat. Even if the exact restaurant you are going to isn't on there, you can use a similar one for comparison purposes.*

The other night after dinner the boy was going over to Wawa. I asked him to get me one of their soft pretzels. I figured it's not the cinnamon deliciousness that I'm dreaming about, but it might hit the spot. Well, they didn't have any. Enter Peanut Butter M&M's.

The bane of my existence. My all time favorite candy. 10 points for the entire bag. How can anyone not eat the entire bag? Well, I had 8 points remaining for the day and had already eaten all of my meals. I measured out the 8 points and gave the rest to Pete. I sat back and savored every last M&M. And I thoroughly enjoyed it...at the time.

All of the fitness magazines and books that I read stress the importance of reflecting on how you feel minutes, hours, even a day after you eat- I've mentioned this before. Well, almost immediately after finishing the M&M's I did NOT feel good. My stomach was aching, yet I did not feel full at all. Additionally, I was a wreck emotionally- over M&M's!

Honestly, I just felt really upset with myself. Why did I have to eat all of those M&M's? Believe me, I understand that every once in a while we all need to splurge, but I feel it goes against everything I've been learning. I could have eaten a dessert that would be less points and much more filling. But I didn't think about it. I was blinded by the orange bag and the devlish little candies inside. Why is it that we always think about these things AFTERwords?!

To paint a better picture for you, I even cried! Just a little, no sobbing involved, but there were tears- what's my problem!? I couldn't get it off my mind and started to wonder why it was bothering me so much. Here is what I came up with: the following day at school there was a breakfast. If you've read my past entries, you know how much I love breakfast foods and how not loading up my plate at these events has been challenging. I could have gone to the breakfast and eaten a bagel, my favorite, for about the same amount of points as that ridiculous bag of M&M's. But no, I didn't think about it like that. At the time I was too busy licking the bag clean (not really, but I would've liked to!)

This bummed me out, but I realized that I can't cry over spilled milk. I need to move on and make sure that in the future I think about what I am going to eat and make decisions that are sensible for my body and for living healthy. I did not like the way I felt after eating those M&M's and I've learned a lesson from this experience.

On another note, school is coming to an end- just two more weeks- and everything is starting to wind down. Field Day is tomorrow, which equivocates to lots of snacks. I've already packed my lunch and plan on eating my fruits and salad instead of giving into treats that will leave me unsatisfied.

This weekend, the boy and I are going down to the shore. Our plan is to cross some more outdoor fitness activities off of our list. We are aiming for kayaking and bike riding. I'll keep you updated!

Separation and Flexibility

2010-06-07T18:13:00.003-04:00

I’m close to a month into the Shape Up or Shut Up Challenge and I feel GREAT! I’ve definitely noticed some changes in my abs, arms, AND legs- woo hoo! My legs, well thighs to be more specific, have always been my problem spot. Slowly but surely I am seeing some definition there. It is more apparent to me in my abs and thighs. The other day, the boy and I were walking and he grabbed onto my upper arm. He was literally like, “Whoa, where did these muscles come from?!” I had to laugh, because I was kind of embarrassed, but proud at the same time. Proud that I came up with this challenge, proud that I’m sticking to it, and proud to say it’s working!

Yesterday was Sunday, aka my weigh in day. I’m excited to report that I am down 8 pounds since I started this blog! Now, I’m not sure if it’s all due to the challenge, or cardio classes, eating right, or a combination of all three, but I feel much more comfortable about my appearance and my clothes actually fit right again haha. My goal is to lose another 7. Whether I make it or not, my life goal is to always maintain this healthy lifestyle that I have been living for the past few months. I just feel so much better about myself and my life when I am eating right and exercising regularly. It keeps me balanced.

When I was developing the Shape Up or Shut Up Challenge and getting started with it, a devilish little thought crept into my mind. It said, “Well, if you go to a Spinning class, that takes care of the leg portion of your challenge because you’re working your legs with the bike’s resistance,” or, “Zumba really covers the crunches because you’re working your abs the whole time.” NO, NO, NO! I realized that if I was going to do this, it has to be COMPLETELY separate from all of my other workouts. Yes, I still do go to Zumba and Spinning several times a week. But everyday, whether I had an additional workout or not, I do the challenge.

I’ve maintained a sense of flexibility when it comes to the challenge and have only altered it a tad since the last time I listed the series of exercises here. The main component that I altered is the lunges.

It used to be: One minute doing pendulum lunges (30 seconds each leg). The second minute was spent doing alternating leg lunges while holding a five-pound weight in each hand.

I still do the minute of pendulum lunges, alternating legs after 30 seconds. The other minute is spent with 30 seconds of alternating leg lunges and 30 seconds of lateral lunges with anterior hand raises (hold weights down with palms facing your body; raise arms straight up to about chin level while lunging to the side).

I also changed the 2 minutes of military press with leg extensions. I now do one minute of this exercise, alternating legs after thirty seconds. The other minute was replaced with bicep curls. For a while I was doing bicep curls the typical way of palms facing forward and curling the weights up towards your shoulders. I read about a small change in Women’s Health Magazine. The exercise is called the “Dumbbell Zottman Curl.” The beginning stance is the same. However, once you curl up, rotate your wrists so that your palms face forward. Lower them in this position. Once lowered, rotate your wrists once again so that you are in your original starting position. Repeat. I was excited to try this and definitely noticed a change. It is harder and I felt it the first time trying it.

The only other change I made was to eliminate the eleventh minute of plank. Honestly, it was too hard for me and I feel it is something I want to work on outside of this challenge. I wasn’t able to hold it for the whole minute and kept feeling like I was failing at the challenge- a bit absurd, I know, considering I do the other ten minutes full force. But it was just a decision that I made and I’m happy I did.

The challenge continues on for ten minutes daily until June 25^th. Personally, I don’t think it will end there. I’ve already started toying with ideas in my head for a new challenge because I just love the way it makes me feel. Any thoughts on a new challenge, shoot them my way!

Compromise

2010-06-06T20:08:00.001-04:00

The weather has been excellent here in Jersey for the past week or so- it's really starting to look like June! One of the great things about the beautiful weather is being able to get active outdoors. The boy and I decided to alternate choosing an outdoor workout. We have a pretty lengthy list of ideas! Before the weekend started, this was our list:

-Kayaking

-Tennis

-Hiking

-Wiffle Ball

-Mountain Climbing
-Bike Riding

We started on Saturday with one of my ideas, hiking. Pete had never been hiking before and I am all about it. About 15 minutes away there is a gorgeous reservoir called Round Valley which overlooks the Cushetunk Mountain- just a breathtaking view.

There are four different hiking trails that you take at the park with varying levels of difficulty. After looking over the options in the pamphlet, we decided to go with the easiest to start. We really didn't know what to expect so we wanted to play it safe. The path we chose was called the Pine Tree Trail which was described as a beginner trail.

Off we went- excited for some hiking terrain. Well, that is NOT what we got on the Pine Tree Trail! It was pretty much flat, like walking across a field of grass in a straight path. We looped around once and knew we needed something much more challenging.

There were only two trails close to where we parked- Pine Tree, which wasn't for us, and Cushetunk Trail. Looking through the pamphlet, Cushetunk Trail was much more of what we had imagined. There were directions in the pamphlet and stopping points, which we loved. The directions had information like which way to bear when coming to a fork, etc. We had a good time imagining what would happen if we went the other way!

This trail had many rolling hills and was even quite steep at parts. It overlooked the water most of the time and had several areas with a great view where you could stop and take pictures. This was much different than the Pine Tree Trail, which as I said before was just a straight path through the woods.

Overall, we felt that the Cushetunk Trail was challenging! We went close to halfway around before stopping for some fuel. I had a Clif Mojo bar and Pete had a couple of granola bars. We drank some Propel Fitness Water and then decided to double back. We were exhausted! We're looking forward to going back and trying one of the other trails, which takes you right alongside the water.

Compromise is something that is very important to us. Pete agreed to go hiking Saturday and I agreed to play tennis on Sunday. We went out and bought me a racket and some tennis balls. I've never played tennis before so I was a little nervous. Luckily there is a court right in my apartment complex, so out we went Sunday night.

Pete explained the rules to me and we started off just by hitting the ball back and forth trying to get me used to swinging and making contact- just learning the basics. It took me a while to realize that it isn't baseball and that I don't need to swing so hard!

Pete's really good and was a patient teacher. He let me get the "hitting it really hard" out of my system.

I had a great time- it was a good workout and let me tell you, my arm is aching! But how do tennis players workout their other arm?!

I'm looking forward to crossing other activities off of our list, and adding to it as well. It's all about compromise and doing things that we both enjoy to keep us healthy and happy!

Summer is Coming!

2010-06-05T10:54:00.002-04:00

This morning started bright and early with a spin class at the YMCA. I had a groaner next to me so it was a bit awkward at times! Aside from that, great workout. The instructor kept us on hills for most of the time and gave us this formula: cadence + resistance = heart rate. Anyone can fake it in spin class- the instructor’s point this out all the time. But why would anyone want to?! You’re there for a reason- push it and get your heart rate up!

School will be out in a couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to my summer workout schedule. I love waking up early and getting a spin workout in. Then, you have the rest of the day ahead of you. In my fitness magazines and books, the authors always recommend you to reflect on how you feel after you eat or after you take a class and I can honestly say that I feel ready to take on the world while I’m walking out of a spin class. I’m such a dork but I literally said in my head while walking out today – I’m so glad I came, I feel great!

Last night I was debating whether or not I should go…I knew that Pete and I were going on a hike today, and I’d be doing challenge, so I wasn’t sure if I should push it with another workout. Well, we’re about to leave for the hike so we’ll see if I regret it or not! *Side note- I made some changes to the Shape Up or Shut Up challenge so look for a post on that soon.*

I just ate a bagel thin and am packing some Cliff Mojo bars for us to take on our hike. Hopefully my legs will make it through!