Archive for the ‘Yoga’ Category

Turn Your Year Around

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Do you write out New Year’s Resolutions?  If you look back on your list for 2009, did you accomplish what you set out to?

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t.  I didn’t.  I’m guessing 95% of people didn’t and the 5% who did are part alien.

But, there’s still time!  If you set lofty goals to accomplish then it might be harder to reach them with a month left in the year, but…

you can still do something to get close, right? 

I wanted to run a half-marathon in 2009.  I didn’t.  The beginning of the year started out great and then BOOM, my tummy adventure began and feeling sick all the time doesn’t help a girl trying to run.  I’m feeling somewhat better now, but my goals have shifted and I don’t have the same drive to run that distance.

Still, I’m determined not to let 2009 end as a race-less year.  And that is why, my friends, I am running a 5 K Santa Shuffle Fun Run this weekend.

I hope “shuffle” is an indication of the speed at which people run this.  I am petrified, but darn it, I’m going to run a race!  It’s about time I try.

I Eat

To the food front.

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A classic bowl of delish.  Just an easy 1/2 c. oat bran + 1 c. water + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 nan + cinnamon + cranberry sauce + t-mix + bluebs + peanut butter.

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This morning called for an unconventional Tuesday brekkie.  I still wanted some oatage, so I mushed them into pancake form.

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I mixed 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 mush ripe nan + 1 whole egg + maybe 1/4 tsp. baking powder + cinnamon.  Once the pan heated up, I plopped the mush into circle shapes, let them bubble on top, flipped them, threw them on the plate, and then topped them with plain yogurt + cranberry sauce + almonds + pumpkin seeds and decided it was going to be an excellent day.

My boss asked me what time I have to get up to make breakfasts like this before work when I leave my house at 7:30am.  It’s all down to a minute-by-minute routine… but I get up at 6am.  It’s worth it to me to be able to eat a yummy warm breakfast and not feel rushed.  Any other morning savourers out there?

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Work lunches have been all about the sandwiches so far this week.  I made GF bread on the weekend, and although the mix I used wasn’t great (okay, it was also expired), it still makes an edible sandwich.

And now, suppers.  My least favourite meal of the day – unless it’s made of breakfast foods or sushi.

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This was a left over combo.  I took frighteningly old basmati rice + broccs + tofu + mushrooms and added roasted butternut squash and decided that was good enough for me.  Then I conquered the kitchen for snacks all night, so I guess that dinner wasn’t good enough after all.  Dinners that aren’t very tasty lead me to serious snacking later.

Tonight I munched on chilli left overs from the freezer + bread.  The chilli pictures actually look like… well, just really unedible.  I don’t want anyone reading to lose their appetite.  But it sure tasted good!   

I Move

Monday – a big, fat day off.  As soon as I got home from work, the track pants and hoodie were on and that was that.

Tuesday – hot yoga tonight.  I have a new habit of falling asleep in class before it starts.  This is not good.  At this rate, next week I’ll wake up in a pile of drool.   Aside from the spontaneous slumber, the class was fantastic.  I am loving yoga.

I love my bed too, which is where I’m headed ASAP.

Goodnight!

Adi

Less Than 24 Hours To Go

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

It’s birthday eve!

That really doesn’t mean anything… except it’s the last blog post I’ll be doing as a 23 year old.  Sigh.  Goodbye, sweet youth.  You’ve treated me well.

I Eat

Oh yes, time for breakfast pictures galore.  Saturday morning was Bob’s Red Mill GF pancake mix with some side fruit + yogurt + tea.  So good!  I’m dying right now thinking of how good  this was.  And, pancake leftovers are on the very near horizon.

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Enjoyed on the couch after sleeping in, with Property Ladder for company.

Sunday, I ate this messy bowl of overnight oats at the tech booth.

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I made these differently than normal and it was too soupy for my taste – everything on top?  Yeah, it all sunk through the oats like quicksand.  I added 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 c. almond milk overnight, and then added in 1/2 c. yogurt in the morning.  Normally I do oats + yogurt overnight, then add just a splash of milk.  Next time, back to the old way!  But, if you like more liquidy oats, that’s a good way to do it.

Check out the high quality peanut butter I’ve splurged on:

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Only the best, friends.

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This might be the lumpiest, bumpiest butter I’ve seen.  Pumpkin seed butter still gets my neutral vote.

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Oats, pretty in pink.  This was 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 c. water + 1/2 nan + pomegranate seeds + raspberries + cinnamon + pumpkin seed butter. 

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More oat yum.  This was the usual oat base, but with 1/2 c. oat bran + 1 and a 1/2 c. liquid.  Topped with blueberries + pom seeds + almonds + peanut butter and raisins mixed in made for one awesome breakfast.

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Onto lunches… presenting another Saturday Sandwich.

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Straight up stomach ache after this one.  Must have been the high amount of fat in it?  This was GF bread + avocado + laughing cow cheese + cukes + toms + sprouts, all with a side of baby carrots.  Great tasting though!

On Sunday, I was starving once I got home from church so I made a bigger lunch.  Presenting a quinoa + tofu + colourful peppers + brocc stir fry.

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The quinoa is buried. 

Work lunches?  Blahhhh.

Now for suppers.  Friday night I had the best sushi of life with a friend at Wasabi in the market downtown.  So good.  I’ve been dreaming of it ever since.

A friend brought over beef + eggplant chilli when I was fighting the pig flu and it’s been in my freezer.  It was great, even the eggplant tasted good!

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I ate with a ton of GF crackers.  Yum.

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Yes, another sandwich but this featured egg as the star attraction.  I had to scarf this down – along with some carrots + cukes – before jumping on the bus to meet friends downtown. 

I think I live on stir frys and sandwiches.  And oats.  Is that sad?

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Some basmati rice + tofu + broccs + mushrooms all seasoned with soy sauce + ginger + garlic powder + sea salt + red pepper flakes.  Annnnnd, cue the leftovers.

I Move

I’ve been in a weird workout funk lately.  I track my exercise on a Google calendar and I’ve been averaging either 5 or 6 days a week.  Maybe I’ve just been tired and needed a break.  Can anyone else relate to this?  Or maybe I can blame it on fewer daylight hours and a drop in temperature?  I’m just not that enthusiastic about it these days.

Saturday – after a failed attempt at hot yoga (OcTranspo, you’re the worst), and a failed attempt to get to the gym (again, OcTranspo, you’re the worst), I went for a 5k run.  Had to get the bus rage out of my system.

Sunday – no exercise.  Too tired after an early morning at church and errands in the afternoon.

Monday – back to see Jim.  I did a good treadie run.  My relationship with the rodent track has its ups and downs – for a few weeks, I like running on it, and other weeks, I avoid it as much as possible.  I’m in an “I like you” phase.

Tuesdayhot yoga time.  I had an instructor I’ve only had once before and she really pushed us.  It was an intense but some much needed stretching. 

Tomorrow, no exercise!  Because it’s my birthday!  Woo woo!

Have an awesome evening guys, hope all is well! :)

Adi 

Oats To Go

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

So much food to show, so little time before I do a face plant into my keyboard and fall asleep.  I’m entering a sushi coma.

In the spirit of me going to bed early (another wild Friday night!), I’ll do a speedy photo montage of my favourite thing on planet Earth: oats.

I Eat

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Is it obvious I went berry + t-mix shopping recently?  Berries are addictive (especially those little Swedish ones…) and they make tasty oat toppers and frankly, I like pretending it’s summer all year round.  Bring on the out-of-season fruit!

Other eats hardly deserve an honourable mention.  Actually, this leftover round up has won itself a picture.

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Leftover baked tofu + chickpeas + zucchini + onion + basmati rice made for a good supper.  I’m a leftover lover – especially when you throw a bunch of things together and it actually morphs into something edible. 

The rest of my food pictures are pretty sad.  Instead, here’s Snail!  Can’t you tell he loves getting his picture taken?  I’m sure that if he could, he would grab one of his purple pebbles and wail it at me.

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Leave me alone – I hate when you take my picture.  And stop talking to me like I’m a person. Snail (I imagine he would speak like Antonio Banderas)

I Move

Monday – back to visit Jim.  I did a great treadmill run after work and sweated off some Mondayness.

Tuesday – some real sweating.  Hot yoga time.  The class I attend is around when I normally eat supper so my stomach growls through most of it.  It didn’t help when the instructor kept making food references - “curl up like a cinnamon bun” or “think of yourself as a long string bean” doesn’t help me forget that I’m starving.

Wednesday – lots of walking, to and from work and then for a quick errand.  So maybe not lots but I had zero time for anything else.

Thursday – just wanted to do zip.  No exercise for this girl, except for commute one way.

Friday – back in business.  I hammered out another good treadmill run and then ran off for birthday sushi with a friend which was to die for.   Ever had banana in a maki roll?  Surprisingly delicious!  (Nope, not my birthday yet, I have a few more days of being young and naive before I have to get old.)

I’m so pumped to sleep in.  No alarming setting!  Who’s with me?!  Let’s reclaim the Saturdays Of Our Youth where we slept in until at least 10 o’clock and still had a nap in the afternoon.

… I know I’m not the only one who could do that… right?

Adi

Bitter ‘bout Twitter

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

I go to a somewhat unconventional church.  We’re in the midst of a series on narcissism (which happens to be the hardest word to type) and this morning, the focus was on technology.  And yes, it’s in church that I watched this awesome video clip on why Twitter is, well, a little bit messed up:

But rather than point my finger at Twitterers, I can’t ignore the finger pointing back at myself for blogging.  I mean, come on, I have a website where I post pictures about what I eat and my exercise habits and whatever else I feel like writing.  Isn’t that a bit ego-centric?  Do I really think people care about my bowl of oatmeal?

Well, not really.

Blogs are fascinating.  I took an entertainment studies course during my graduate degree and at that point, I didn’t know much about blogs.  I thought people who wrote them either, a) had really intriguing lives, or b) were incredibly self-centred… okay, or c) a combination of both.

So where am I on the spectrum?  Hard to say.  It’s quite obvious my life is far from intriguing (but believe me, I wouldn’t change it!  Being content is a beautiful thing!) and I like to hope that I’m not just that into me.  Does blogging fill some sort of void?  Sure – it fills the writing gap in my life. 

Anyway, I don’t have answers to questions and don’t really know why I blog, and I can’t assume I know why others do either, but one thing I did walk away with this morning was this paragraph from the teaching notes:

A realistic view of self allows our ego to relax.  When we see how valuable and yet how broken we are, we are freed from two destructive habits: a) the habitual pursuit of value through constant self-promotion and self-affirmation and, b) the habitual hiding of our failure from others as though brokenness and failure would be a shameful shock.

Just some food for thought.

Food for my mouth is another thing altogether.

I Eat

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Talk about a Thursday shake up.  That was an egg + bacon sammy and some orange hunks.  The sandwich hat was a bit shrunken thanks to using the bread bum.  I missed the extra inch of carbs.

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Back to basics on Friday morning with an oatmeal breakie.  The standard 1/2 c. oats + 1/2 c. almond milk + 1/2 c. water + 1/2 nan + cinnamon + flax seeds + pumpkin seeds + almonds + pumpkin seed butter knocked my socks off.

Okay, my slippers.  I wasn’t wearing socks.

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I have no pictures of Saturday’s breakfast – but I do have pictures of my table.  Oh hooray!

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These are some good looking buns.

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Couldn’t tell you how tasty they were because the sugar + wheat would have put my brunch with friends to an abrupt end.  It was great to get together with some friends I don’t see too often.  Brunch also trumps dinner any day because it’s so much more casual – and breakfast food is the best food of all! 

I made an egg casserole and have some left over so it will make a blog appearance soon.  The rest of the eats were yogurt + grapefruits + Montreal bagels and lots of beverages.  It was delicious – and a good time.

Today’s breakfast was Nature’s Path GF waffles + plain yogurt + 1/2 nan + sugar free strawberry jam + cinnamon + alien brains.  So good, eaten so fast.  Sad.

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Work lunches continue to remain unphotographed because they continue to remain boring.  … and I just can’t be bothered to take pictures of copious amounts of Tupperware. 

Saturday’s lunch was pretty much brunch, but today’s lunch sent me straight to sandwich heaven.

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Homemade GF bread + smoked ham + romaine + red onion + toms + mustard + 1/2 avocado + S n’ P = ?

It equals a party in my mouth.

It also equals food all over my pants.  This was a drippy sandwich and I was uncivilized and ate on the couch. 

Suppers have been uninspired – even with the arrival of Martha at my house.  I love you Everyday Food.

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When I don’t know what to make, I just think protein + starchy yum + veggies.

That translated into tuna + rice pasta + broccs and mushrooms.

I added extra virgin olive oil + balsamic vinegar + sea salt as a dressing and pleasantly surprised myself with something edible and tasty.  Ahh, love a good surprise.

Other suppers were fast and furious – both cooking and eating wise.

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This was the leftover cauliflower + chickpea curry with brown rice.

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Some basmati rice with frozen asian veggies + shrimpers + soy sauce + chilli flakes.  Sadly, I was pulling the tails off these guys and found one shrimp still had his last supper inside him.  Um, ick.

Normally, dessert is fruit or a strange gluten free and sugar free `treat“.  I decided to be creative the other day and made a mini apple crisp.

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I sliced up an apple, added a small handful of quick oats + cinnamon + pecans and a touch of water + Splenda and put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  The result?  A dessert that didn’t end in tummy trauma and tasted good.  Winner!

Not sure what tonight’s supper will be, but I’m thinking it will take no more than ten minutes to make because I’m lazy.

I Move

Thursday – just walking to and from the office.  My evening was full from the time I got off work until the time I went to bed.  Walking is good for you though, yes? :)

Friday – hit the treadie.  I realized the office gym is a bit, hmm, cult-like.  There’s some weird stuff that goes on there.  The fact that it’s a basement dungeon doesn’t help its cause, either.  It was a great run though!

Saturday – back to my favourite Jim that is not underground.  I did the elliptical and then about half an hour of upper back +  lower back weights.  I walked out of there feeling awesome.  If you’re ever stuck for motivation to get yourself to work out, ask yourself the million dollar question: Have I ever finished working out and wished I never did that?

Sunday – I’m soon going to roll out my yoga mat and stretch for a bit.  Starting out the week like Gumby can only bring good things.

Did you have a good weekend?  Sure hope you did – but enjoy what little bit is left!

Au revoir, friends.

Adi

PS – I put up a new page on Oatonomy lingo so you don’t think I’m dating a guy named Jim.

Banished From The Kitchen

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The only things certain in life are death and taxes… – Ben Franklin

… and that I can’t control my greedy appetite around delicious food. - Adi

Sunday’s sushi gorging is a perfect example – put me in a situation where I can eat a lot of something delicious, and I will.  I don’t have the off switch… or it’s permanently jammed in the “on” position.

This is the same as having treats in the house.  If I have a bag of dates in the cupboard, I will eat them.  Right away.  At once.  So, I stopped buying them. 

My general rule of thumb now is if I can’t stop eating it, I can’t buy it.  It’s a pretty harsh commandment, but one day, I’m sure I’ll be able to control my date-ing and won’t consider AYCE sushi a physical personal challenge.

I think Heather posted about this ages ago, specifically about having sugar around the house.  If it wasn’t your blog, my bad!  Some witty blogger posted about it and I remembering agreeing whole heartedly.  Some of us lack control, that’s all. ;)

I Eat

As a direct result of the sushi chaos on Sunday, breakfast on Monday was packed up and brought to the office so I could eat it when I actually felt like there was room in my stomach again.

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I had (1/3 c.) overnight oats soaked in some pomegranate applesauce and topped with half a nan + + peanut butter + trail mix.

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The oats are buried under the topping bonanza.

Bananza?

Tuesday’s oat bran was topped with alien brains + snow (read: pecans + unsweetened coconut).

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I also had some pumpkin seed butter for the first time.  It’s alright.  Didn’t rock my world but I’ve had worse butters.

Today’s oats did make my day off (happy Remembrance Day!) even better.  Yep, another old peanut butter jar saved for this one.

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Smelly gym shoes make for great scene setting.

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New oats addition today – the great cacao nib.  Why I thought they would melt, I’m not sure.  They stayed kind of crunchy, and with the almonds, there was a lot of chew going on.  And yet, I was loving this 1/2 c. oats + almond milk + cinnamon + 1/2 nan + peanut butter galore.

If anyone wants to send me their used nut butter jars that have just a bit of the good stuff in them, I will gladly take them off your hands.

Work lunches have been boring salads + chicken + chickpeas and various snacky stuff.  One of these days, my work lunches will be brilliant, it just won’t be any day soon.

Today’s lunch was good though, because I got to eat at home and not at my cubicle!  Wooo!

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Shaking things up with an open-faced avocado + bacon (!) + toms sammy and a side of carrots.

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So scrumptious.  Then I made a big apple crisp for my church peeps for tomorrow, but decided that every apple needed to be sampled.  I taste-tested each apple core for quality control.

Quality was controlled.  I got a tummy ache.  Too much apple.

Monday’s supper was awesome.  Yes!  Curried cauliflower + chickpeas.

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Here’s what I did:

  • sautee a diced onion in extra virgin olive oil
  • add half a cauliflower head, broken into small pieces
  • add 1 tbsp. curry powder (my curry powder is old, so it’s not very strong – this may be too much for some!)
  • after about five minutes, add 1/2 c. chickpeas and a handful of raisins
  • squirt in a couple squirts of lemon juice and add a sprinkle of sea salt
  • let everything warm through, then serve on brown rice

Mmmm.  And I have leftovers!  This was tasty.

Last night`s supper was thrown together fast because I was starving after yoga.  It was a basic baked chicken + stir fried veggie + basmati rice meal.

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Yes, I was really hungry.

Tonight’s supper starts with an S.  It ends with an I.  It’s an addiction that’s costing me my life savings. 

Yes, you guessed it, so let’s move right along!  (Ohh but it was fabulous.  I love Sushi 88, really.)

I Move

Monday – Jim did not call me, so I did a home workout instead.  Sometimes the thought of being in the gym just won’t cut it.  I did an upper body workout with some free weights.  It was a good half hour of hurting my muscles.

Tuesday – sweat fest.  I missed hot yoga.  Last week, the fevers were all the heat I could handle, so I was excited to get back to the studio.  It was a new teacher and her style was a bit different, but in a good way.  Good stretching all around.

Wednesday – with the day off work, I started the morning with the gym – okay, oats, then gym.  I just did the elliptical and about five minutes of weights before I had to chase down the bus.

Back to work tomorrow for two days and then the weekend!  A mid-week holiday is really, really weird.  I keep think it’s Saturday but it’s only the worst day of the week.  But now it’s over!  And tomorrow I donèt have time to squeeze in any exercise, so it’s a rest day, too.

Be back soon…

Adi

PS – thanks for all the congratulations on the Zesty makeover!  I’m pumped to see how it will turn out…