Egg in a Bag and BodyAttack

February 3, 2012 / foodsweatandbeers / 10 Comments

Ah, that old adage… A failure to plan (for breakfast) is a plan for (breakfast) failure.

While my standard fitbook breakfast entry says “Cereal + Almond Milk” with a smiley face next to it, I came to a crossroads in the middle of the week. I tilted my cereal box as far as it would go, then, panic on my face, yanked the plastic bag out of the box.

It was as empty as my heart was the moment I realized I was cereal-less in ~~Seattle~~ Durham.

Silly me, I’d forgotten to pick up my usual box of cereal on my last Trader Joe’s trip so, while my almond milk flowed like water, a girl can’t live on milk, alone. Thus was born my Open Faced Egg Sammy.

I knew I had a few eggs at home, but I like to eat my breakfast at 8:30 am, despite my arrival at work around 8 am (something about a pre-8:30 breakfast doesn’t work in my tummy). And since we don’t have a stove-top in my tiny office, I had to improvise.

Doggie Bag? No, Eggy Bag.

Since all of my tupperware was in use holding goodies like beans, carnitas pork, avocado, etc, this Fresh Market bag was the mode of transportation for a single fried egg.

That’s right, the only thing in that bag is an egg.

My coworkers sort of rolled their eyes, and were probably just glad that I wasn’t wearing a feather boa.

Luckily, my office DOES have a toaster. And I also brought some spinach, and VOILA!

Topless breakfast!

I used a toasted everything Bagel Thin, some Laughing Cow spread, and spinach, topped the party with my totable egg, and didn’t miss the cereal a single bit. In fact, it felt a little bit like a special treat on a weekday. I gotta find more ways to enjoy eggs at work.

Can you microwave cook an egg without any special holder?

Bueller?

In other news, BodyAttack #75 was even MORE intense than last week (I think because I now have an understanding of the moves).

Boom, baby.

56 minutes, 843 calories, and an average HR of 165!! As you can tell, the end is the ab track and the cooldown track, I don’t just get super lazy around 53 minutes. I do, however, start to get insanely sweaty at about 16 minutes.

It’s for this reason that I always bring my own, full-sized towel to the gym. Whether or not I shower at the gym, I normally leave looking like someone just poured the post-game Gatorade all over me. This translates to my signature post-gym outfit.

Always fierce, Always wins spring fling queen

You might be wondering “Is that a fashionable scarf?”

The answer is “No, friend, you need to have your eyes checked out.” Because I rock the towel scarf every.single.day.

Despite the fact that it’s not a pashmina, I still get noticed by all the major fashionistas in the Triangle area. Especially the little girl in the grocery store who (not-so-quietly) asks her mom “Why’s that lady wearing a towel in the store?” and points her bony finger at me.

Don’t worry, I didn’t get mad, point back and say “HEY, lady, who’s the tiny curious critter clinging to your pant-legs? WHY’S SHE SO SMALL?” though I may have wanted to… I simply smiled and said “Well, it gets pretty cold in grocery stores, and I didn’t have a blanket.” She giggled, and walked away with mommy dearest.

I just hope that, due to my powerful influence on her life, someday she’s toting fried eggs to work and towel-scarves to the store.

I’m basically a role model.

Any sweet in-office egg cooking methods for me to try?

Fit with Fitbook: Week 2

January 31, 2012January 30, 2012 / foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

Another week, another dollar. Only it’s been a week and a day, and I’ve only spent dollars (you know, on important stuff like wine tastings and half-pints of beer). So, in truth, that phrase doesn’t apply, whatsoever.

Another 8 days, no dollars. BUT I can chalk another week off in my fitbook endeavors. I’ll be honest, this one wasn’t quite as successful as the first. Then again, when you have two days where entire daily food entries read “Didn’t eat much other than brie… but there was a lot of brie”, a one pound gain isn’t really worrisome. In fact it’s somewhat impressive.

I only eat carbs when they're paired with wheels of brie. #healthy

Luckily, the half-pound of soft cow’s cheese that I inhaled over the weekend and the massive quantities of beer and chocolate from Wednesday at Big Boss did not actually translate to the gain that I feared when approaching the scale. And I’m gonna give a lot of credit to this little guy:

I haven't come up with an official name, but it feels like a fellow

Looking back at my weekly wrap up, here’s a little summary:

The Good: Worked out before my glass night on Thursday, avoided my standard fare of pickle chips with my beer buddies, burned 4,140 calories during the week (over a quarter of that was just from Monday’s INSANE workout), and despite a few minor/major bumps on the road, I never fully “gave up” on a day by succumbing to fully eating awful from start to finish
The Bad: 2 days where “Brie” was a major food group, skipped dinner on Saturday, missed my workout on Sunday due to kind of feeling sorry for myself (I know rest days are great, but this was just laziness).
Notes: Unless I’m like… on an epic vacation, there’s really no need for an entire day of indulgence, it’s nice to treat treats like what they are: special. Meal skipping makes me cranky and hungry and lame. My weekend eats need more structure.

Other updates:

This “no soda” thing is really easy now that I’ve stopped, you know, buying soda. I think it’s one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things.
Grapes are nature’s candy. Seriously. They’ve totally owned my sweet tooth. Gotta stop at Target to pick up more.
Grapes should always be eaten out of wine glasses. New life rule.
I did my first official “Meatless Monday” last night and it was a SMASHING success!! More on that later.
I love the calm post-sweat session where I just sit down in the gym and write up my workout and my daily eats in the fitbook (if you’re interested in getting one, and don’t wanna click through to the last post, here’s a link to the fitbook store!)
I forget how amazing wearing a HRM during a workout is. Remind me to never forget that again, thanks.

So yes, abbreviated update: Weekend spent eating brie by the chunks + overindulgence on Wednesday – two rest days = 1 lb gain

However, I felt so much stronger in BodyCombat and CX30 on Monday, and the moves are getting easier, so I’ll say progress is progress.

UNRELATED: Anyone have a favorite method of cooking 4 lbs of country style ribs/pork butt? Because when I see it on sale for $6, I can’t resist. And now I have 4 lbs of meat. And I live alone. And ate vegetarian last night.

Smooth, Jordan.

Don’t Skimp on the Shrimp (Omelet)

January 24, 2012December 27, 2012 / foodsweatandbeers / 15 Comments

Ooooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth?

OOooh, Heaven is a place on EARTH!

And that place is in my kitchen. Or, I guess, now, my belly. But first…

CX30 + BodyCombat = WHOAH!

Les Mills, you’ve done it again. O2 Fitness Clubs launched the newest releases of their infamous Body____ classes and, since Saturday, I’ve tried BodyJam, BodyCombat, and CX30. Each one was more hardcore than the last.

Yesterday, it was a double whammy. CX30 was up first, followed by BodyCombat. And I kept the HRM on the whole time. An hour and a half later, 1,227 calories blasted, and approximately a hand towel’s worth of sweat drenching my body, I felt like a superwoman. I also felt like I needed to eat a house. I didn’t, I enjoyed a homemade whole wheat, eggplant, spinach, Parmesan, mozzarella, and Sockarooni pizza (I should’ve shaped it like a house). And then, with the help of my new favorite app, I slept like a rock.

But today is a new day. A day that I was craving seafood. The pickin’s at home were slim, but there was something beautiful in the fridge. Well, a few somethings beautiful.

Shrimp, avocado, tomato

Come to MAMA!!

Inspired by this Shrimp and Avocado Omelet recipe from Whole Foods, I scrambled the heck out of two eggs, chopped my ingredients, and hoped for the best as the eggs fried in some EVOO.

Sizzling

I have to use up my never-ending supply of spinach, so I added that to the innards of this omelet, along with the (pre-cooked) shrimp (from Target… not exactly the local fishmarket, but it’ll do in a pinch.)

This totally screams “throw me inside some eggs!”

And, after a flip and a fill, followed by a fold, this omelet was ready to be topped with the always-decadent combination of tomato and avocado.

You should want this in and around your mouth

This protein-packed omelet will certainly get me through the rest of the day and, though it was jam-packed with shrimp, I can’t help but feel like I have a seafood itch that needs scratching. And I know just the shellfish to scratch that itch.

Yummmmm

Oh, Aqua Grill, take me home…

Do you eat seafood? If so, what’s your favorite? ANYTHING I CAN MAKE?!

I don’t think I even tried fish (other than canned tuna) until the past year or so…. Now it’s become one of my favorite ways to eat flavorful AND healthy meals.

Freebies, Flights, and Frites

January 18, 2012December 27, 2012 / foodsweatandbeers / 5 Comments

It’s been a long time, but nothing TOO eventful happened this weekend other than a romantic lovenest weekend with Ryan. Lots of football was watched, zero soda was consumed (yay!!), and snuggling was had. It was top notch.

However, as of 8:25 a.m. Tuesday morning, I was back in the RDU airport, and back to reality. It’s okay though, because I had amazing goodies waiting for me in my mailbox. It may have been the best mail haul I’ve ever had, at least in this apartment.

The good stuff

Free Wings, Free Pizza, AND my new Garmin FR60 HRM!! I know I mentioned before that I changed the batteries on my oldy and was ready to get back into action but, as I was making the change, I realized that the back of the watch was pulling apart from the plate that holds it all together. It was time to get a new one, and since I already had a ANT stick, I got a great deal on a watch and heart band. And, though it took me a bit to get the new one set up and figured out (that “bit” was about 10 minutes in the middle of my Zumba class yesterday) it paid off. Check it out!

Killing it!

Average Heart Rate, 173 bpm and 627 calories burned, and that wasn’t even counting the first few minutes that I couldn’t get the dang thing working…

Also in the mailbox? 6 free wings from Buffalo Wild Wings when they open the new location right down the street, and a free Brixx pizza “just because.” Seriously, if you like free foods, sign up for EVERYTHING!

On a less free note (but just as delicious), I headed back to Bull City Burger and Brewery (after a successful first visit) with a number of my brothers and sisters from my fraternity to celebrate the 165th anniversary of the founding of St. Anthony Hall. The menu was just as delicious as I remembered….

Mouthwatering…

Since I’d already had an egg and Morningstar sausage before I left, I just stuck with fries and a beer (if it’s four tiny beers but served on one paddle, it’s still just one beer, right?)

The duck frites were glorious: Skinny, French cut, finished in duck fat with fresh rosemary and Fleur de Sel

For $3 I got a whopping serving and the rosemary totally made them worthy of me gobbling them in a reckless manner *wipes fleur de sel from her face…*

And, for $4, I received a flight of four of BCBB’s own beers! On my paddle included: Littlen Horny, Clay St. British Style Ale, Snow Hill Winter Warmer, and Youngen Horny Barley Wine (hee hee Youngen Horny… I get it.)

The first three, while tasty, were sort of what I expected. Good, quality beers that were clearly made well and tasted wonderful.

It was the Youngen Horny that really excited me. It’s their Barley Wine, but it’s not made with any grapes, just grain (sorry, gluten free drinkers!) At 9.5% ABV beer with “fruity fig and caramel aromas”, this beer had by far the best and longest lasting mouthfeel of the bunch. It was smooth and delicious, good to the last drop. What I really liked about the beer, though, relative to the rest of the BCBB brews, was that it tasted like they’d gone out on a limb and done something a little riskier. Like they fully committed to a flavor, and just went balls deep (I’m certain that was their exact thought process when brewing…) They owned the fact that it was a “different” flavored beer, and they took barleywine, to me, to a different level with big and bold taste without being too cloying or overly sweet. Admittedly, I haven’t enjoyed (or even tried) many barleywines in the past, but I think I’ll approach them with a more open mind in the future.