So I’ve been a bad blogger…but I made cookies!

Wow did I really slack off the past 2 weeks on blogging?  Why yes I did!  And I’m sorry!  There have been many random things to do since moving & I underestimate how much time those little things take.  My mom also visited last week for 5 days so that was lovely!  Here are some pics:

Saw crazy monkeys at the San Antonio zoo…

Went to the Spanish Governor’s Palace downtown

Do you think this building only has one side…?

And of course enjoyed dinner & drinks on the River Walk!

I also have some exciting news!  1) I will be doing my first full marathon in the fall.  I joined a marathon training group & it starts tomorrow!  I’m excited mostly for people to run with!  That never happened in Columbus so now I’m excited to be around runners & not get bored on my long runs!  I can’t wait to see what the training will hold.  and 2) I am going to Body Pump Instructor training!  The training is in 2 weeks!  I will have to prepare 2 tracks to teach at the training.  The training sounds pretty intense but I’m so excited for it.  After the training, I have 3 months to submit a video of me teaching a full, live class.  If they think I’m good, then I pass & will officially be a Certified Body Pump instructor!  Then after that, I would have to audition at my gym if I wanted to teach there.  I am so pumped for this, I have wanted to teach group exercise for a while but never really knew where to start/what I would want to teach.  I was so excited when I ended up talking to one of my Body Pump instructors & she suggested that I go to the training & gave me the info on it.  YAY!  I get my own equipment set, which should be arriving in the next few days & hopefully my choreography will be with it so I can start learning my tracks!

Now to food.  I’ve been eating mostly a Paleo Diet and have been feeling great.  If you want a list of foods to avoid on the Paleo Diet, you can check out this site.  Yup, I have had no grains nor legumes (including peanuts, they are a legume, not a nut!) and my belly has been very happy.  I ended up having a little bit a grains & soy with my mom over the weekend and felt awful the rest of the day, with frequent trips to the bathroom.  Who would’ve thought the diet I have been following for the past several years was the answer to my stomach discomfort, even though I thought I was doing the right thing?!  This is why it’s so important to listen to your body & do what’s best for yourself!  I’m currently finishing up reading this book on the Paleo diet & have enjoyed it so far:

Dairy is controversial on the Paleo diet.  Some people say completely skip it, & others say that raw dairy & whey protein are fine.  There is a farm about a half hour away that I could get raw dairy from if I wanted.  And occasionally I still enjoy my goat yogurt but not too often, along with my whey protein after hard workouts.

Have I noticed body changes?  Slowly but surely!  I know in the last post I said I was going to keep up with my stats but I honestly forgot to check them yesterday at the gym so I will do it today or sometime this weekend.  I have lost 1 lb. though ( and I know that could just be body weight fluctuating but supposedly on Paleo your body weight doesn’t fluctuate) and feel like I have more stomach definition!  I think the combination of doing Body Pump & cutting out ALL grains (yes, even “healthy” ones) & legumes have helped this.

So am I going to eat meat again?  This is the topic I’m struggling with.  I was vegetarian/vegan for a long time then probably about 5-6 months ago I wanted to eat fish again.  I feel bad ethically for eating meat & if I do decide to start regularly incorporating meat into my diet, I will be getting it from the farmer’s market.  But lately, I have really been enjoying fresh, local farm eggs, fish, & whey protein for my protein sources.  I have tried a few bites of chicken lately thanks to my boyfriend and it was a little weird.  But we were at a Mexican restaurant where I had veggies & shrimp & just a few bites of chicken.  I completely avoided the free chips until mid way through the meal I decided to have one….and instantly I swear my stomach bloated up.  I was feeling fine & comfortably satisfied until I had that chip…isn’t that crazy?!

My standard breakfast lately has been my farm fresh eggs with local steamed greens!  Last week they were beat greens, this week I have been enjoying mustard greens.  I tried to make soft boiled eggs this morning…

Attempt at soft boiling eggs & steaming my morning greens

But sadly I boiled the eggs slightly too long & they weren’t soft boiled…maybe this could be medium-boiled?

My mom forgot this local pesto she bought at the farmer’s market when she headed back home so I have been enjoying it mixed with a little bit of my steamed greens.  Yum!

oh and I promised cookies!!  Here we go:

Grain Free Carob Chip Cookies

recipe slightly changed from Pure to Raw

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup almond flour
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar (I’m not sure if this is considered a Paleo sweetener or not…oh well)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 whole egg
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/3 cup carob chips, unsweetened

My favorite flours

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.  In another, whisk together the egg then add the coconut oil & vanilla extract.  Add wet mixture to dry & mix until incorporated. Add 1-2 TBS of milk if dough is too dry. Form into 1-2 in. balls & press flat onto a cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden.

yum!

 

What’s your favorite cookie?

What foods make you feel best?

My first bikram class! & decreasing bodyfat

I have really liked the way my workouts have been going since moving to San Antonio.  First off, I LOVE my new gym!  So much better than Urban Active that I went to in Columbus (minus the fact they don’t have a cardio movie theater (:  )  They offer classes galore, have a really nice indoor lap pool AND an outdoor pool (even equipped with slides & fun stuff for kids).  The class offerings were one of my main motivations to join plus all the workers at the gym are super nice.  That’s one thing I hated about Urban Active…everyone that worked there seemed really “beefy” and were really pushy.  No I’m NOT going to buy training from you because you make people feel like shit & are extremely pushy.  Whatever the “sales” philosophy at Urban Active was definitely didn’t do them good.  When I signed up at my new gym, I did NOT feel pressured whatsoever to join and they gave me a free week, no problem, to see how I liked it before I signed up.  Yes, I’m going to be MUCH more likely to join somewhere and give them my money every month if I don’t feel pressured & the workers don’t make me feel like crap!  I remember when I joined Urban Active, they gave me SO much crap for wanting to try the gym out first before I joined…definitely bull!

Ok so enough of my rant!  I’m so excited to do BODYPUMP a couple times of week.  It is SO MUCH FUN and so effective for building strength and decreasing body fat!  Did you know you do over 800 reps in Body Pump class?!  800 reps is definitely something I would NOT do all by myself…so the class is great motivation & the choreography is so fun.

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I went to a class last night & of course had a blast.  I came home & had such a delicious dinner comprising of a salmon burger with sauteed pearled onions & asparagus.  I received this sample of Kumquat jam from iHerb the other day & decided to put it on my salmon burger with sliced avocado.

It was pretty good!  Lightly citrusy & it paired well with my salmon burger.

(I use iHerb to order a lot of superfoods, supplements, & all natural body care products but they have everything you can imagine.  If you’ve never ordered from there before, you can use coupon code: DAX100 to get $5 off your first purchase.)

Afterwards, I whipped up a protein shake for “dessert” using MRM Chocolate whey protein powder.

I swear it is a chocolate shake! I really need a nice camera….

YOGA

I haven’t been to yoga in a couple weeks & have missed it so.  I went to a class the other day at my gym but was definitely not a fan of the instructor (I’ll definitely have to try a different one there).  I have been planning on going to the bikram studio here in San Antonio & went to a class this morning!  O.M.G. I LOVED IT!!

First, I wasn’t sure what to wear.  I looked up pictures of standard bikram classes & saw a lot of this:

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I haven’t worn such little clothing to any type of class before…I only do that at the beach!  But I said screw it, it’s going to be over 105 degrees & super humid, who cares!!  Sports bra & spandex shorts it was:

 

The cats wanted to come, completely nude.  I told them they were inappropriate & to stay home.

I invited Maya but she said she had some napping & guard dog duty to do:

So how did it go?!

I got to the studio, stripped down, & went into the “torture chamber.”  First thoughts: haha you’ve got to be kidding me, it’s like a million degrees in here!  Second thought: (I got there about 20 min. early so I had some time to meditate before class & laid down on my mat & towel)  HHmmm…this is nice….am I on a beach in the Carribean?  Third thought:  There are people of all shapes, sizes, & ages here….awesome!  No one’s judging, who cares that I’m almost nakie.

Then the class started.  Let me just say the teacher was the frickin’ best instructor in ANYTHING I’ve ever hard.  It made sense she was the owner.  She was so charismatic, encouraging, and yelled out the poses in almost a drill sergeant sort of way but she was super nice   You could tell she loves her job & truly cares about every single one of her students.  Since it was my first bikram class & there was one other newbie there, she emphasized our goal for the first class is to simply stay in the room for the full 90 minutes, even if we just laid down on our mat.  Of course if you’re not used to working out in this extreme heat & humidity (& not properly hydrated!), you can experience dizziness & light-headed-ness so it was nice to know if I ever felt like that, I could just savasana (relaxing on my back) & it would be totally fine.

I probably got about 30 oz. of water in me before the class this morning so that was good.  Everyone sweats from every pore in their body.  You know those crazy sweat Gatorade commercials?

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Um yea I actually experienced that today, out of every pore in my body.  I have sweat a lot before (hello hard workouts & running) but never like this!!  I mean my shins were even sweating like this!  I didn’t know my shins could sweat.

The pranayama breathing that started off the class was also amazing.  I love that there is a “noise” to most yoga breathing.  It literally gives me chills.

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The poses were probably more like Hatha than Ashtanga yoga.  I do miss Ashtanga yoga because I love all that movement.  But I feel like the sweating made up for it!  The heat made everything so much harder!  But it felt awesome.  Overall, I felt really good during the class.  Probably the last 30 minutes (for the 90 minute class) I started to feel a little light-headed so I just made sure to continue to listen to my body & grab water & take poses easy as needed.

After the class was over, I never thought 80 degrees outside would feel SO GOOD! Haha bikram will definitely help me get used to the San Antonio heat!

Oh and I lost 2 lbs of sweat during the class…!!  I’ve been making sure to drink lots of water & coconut water today to replenish all the lost fluids!   I weighed 122 after class (& weighed 124 last night at the gym!)

I can’t wait to do more Bikram.  I’m going back again tomorrow!

Shedding fat

Speaking of stats, I want to decrease my body fat percentage & I can’t wait to see what a combination of Body Pump & Bikram Yoga will do for me (I’m still running too but I know yoga & body pump will be more effective for body fat percentage reduction) .  I decided to measure my stats yesterday when I was at the gym for body pump.  Here they are:

Weight: 124 lbs (I’m slightly over 5’4″)

BMI:21.5

Body fat percentage: 21 %

I think I would like to keep track of this on the blog to keep me accountable & motivated…so will you help me?!  I obviously know I am healthy & not overweight….I don’t think I’m fat or anything but there are some parts on my body where I would like to shed a little bit of body fat to be more lean.  I think everyone should work on improvements on themselves constantly, whether that is physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.  This will just be another improvement for me to work on

Have you done bikram yoga?

Are you doing any self-improvement projects?

Pancakes & espresso!

I tossed & turned all night last night, waking up very groggy & tired.  It was like a Sunday morning, when you just want to sleep in & roll out of bed to go to brunch!  Well today’s not Sunday & I have a lot of things to get accomplished today…but that didn’t mean I couldn’t eat brunch-type food!

I picked up an espresso maker the other day!  I’m not much of a coffee drinker, getting a soy latte at Starbucks 1-2x/month but I really enjoy them when I do get them.  The past couple times I’ve gotten my lattes, I have always thought I should just make them at home and have my latte more than 1-2x/month.  When I went to California in March, my friend Kasey made me a latte with her espresso maker and I was immediately in love.  She used one of these super cool Bialetti Espresso Machines with a little hand-held milk frother.

I stopped at World Market the other day with a $10 coupon.  I thought it would be perfect to use it for an espresso maker.  Luckily they had them and I picked up the Bodum Chambord Stovetop Espresso Maker!  I didn’t use it until today, when I was craving some comforting Sunday brunch food to pull me out of my grogginess!

I wanted some pancakes & a latte!  I decided to use Tina’s recipe for OMG Panckes!

Paleo-Friendly Pancakes

Recipe from Carrots n’ Cake

Makes 8-10 pancakes

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup almond flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder, aluminum free
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

My almond ingredients

Directions: Mix all ingredients until fully incorporated.  I used my food processor to get everything blended together nicely.  Then on a preheated greased skillet, use a 1/4 cup to scoop out the batter to form pancakes.  Cook until bubbles form & each side is lightly browned.

Espresso & Pancake makin’

I finished up my latte makin…

Some milk frothin’

Breakfast is served!

Yum

This hit the spot & definitely pulled me out of my grogginess!  I also watched the Biggest Loser finale that I DVRed last night while having my breakfast.  I didn’t watch too many of the episodes this season due to lack of cable in Columbus but I was still Miss Waterworks while watching it.  That show is just so inspirational!  I hope I can transform lives like that

Running

Last night I went to my first group run.  A run group is definitely something I wanted to get involved in when I moved to San Antonio, so I joined Fleet Feet for their run last night.  I guess the first Tuesday of every month they will be running at a specific place (like bar or restaurant) and have giveaways, drinks, & dinner after.  Last night the run was at a brewery with some amazing giveaways afterward.  There was a 2 miler & a 4 miler – I did the 4 miler and it was really nice along the river downtown.

Uuummm but…I really need to re-adjust to running in such heat & humidity!  It was about 85 degrees & really humid…and that’s not even bad for San Antonio!  I was actually feeling really good for the first 3 miles, holding around an 8:30 pace…then I felt like I hit a wall!  All of a sudden the heat totally hit me & I felt crazy dehydrated!!  The last mile felt so long and had to take a little walk break but I ended finishing in 35:30 / 8:52 average pace.  I haven’t had to take a walk break in a while so at first I felt a little defeated but also had to remind myself that my body is just simply not adjusted to running in these conditions yet (at the paces I’m used to running at)!  I need to get like the others in the group…they’re used to 100 + degrees & high humidity training so an 85 degree run feels like nothin…hopefully soon!

I also tried out my new running shoes…Yes I did this post not too long ago about the new Brooks I got.  I ended up having to return both pairs.  I loved the Pure Connect minus the fact that despite going up a half size, the heel rubbed the crap out of my achilles on my right foot & would cause bleeding.  It didn’t do it to my other foot which was annoying.  I decided I couldn’t keep running in them & needed to try something else.  I also ended up returning the Ghost’s because they ended up feeling a little too bulky & since I’m a mid-forefoot striker, I didn’t feel much difference in them compared to the Pure Connects…

SO I finally got a good match (hopefully!) the Saucony Kinvara 2.  They are as light as the Pure Connects but I definitely felt more cushioning in the forefoot & they do not rub my achilles!  Thank God.  I think these will be the shoes I stick with…*crosses fingers.*

I stuck around for a beer & yummy salad but when I got home, I still felt like I needed something so I whipped up a super thick strawberry & banana shake with chia seeds & maca powder…

Definitely hit the spot, while I watched The Voice eliminations on the DVR!  AAHHH I love that show…Everyone is soo good!

Do you watch the voice?  Who is your favorite?

Would you rather run in conditions that are too cold or too hot?