Life is like riding a bicycle…

- in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.  ~Albert Einstein

Well the weather this afternoon ended up being beautiful so Mike and I loaded the bikes up and headed to the trail.  And the verdict…

We biked 10 miles in a little over an hour.  We probably could of made better time but my bike BLOWS and I’m not the biggest fan of biking so I complained alot:)  But I need to do more than just run so this was a nice change.  After we got done with our bike ride we stopped by Mike’s brothers and decided to head to Applebee’s for dinner.  The boys were starving and I didn’t feel like cooking!

I got a cup of french onion soup and a half of a grilled Asian Sesame Chicken Salad.  Once we got home I quickly watered my veggies and flowers.  TGIF tomorrow:)!

Mindful Eating…

Late last night I read a really interesting piece on Mindful Eating:

Mindful Eating

So I decided to really take time not only preparing my meals today but to really slow down while eating them to enjoy them more! Since I made Mike french toast for dinner last night of course thats what I was craving this morning when I woke up:

I got a little creative at 7:30am and made french toast using one whole wheat sandwich thin.  After the slices of french toast were cooked I topped the plate with vanilla greek yogurt and a puree I made last night of blueberries/strawberries/and cherries.  This was SO good and hit the spot with a hot cup of coffee.

After breakfast this morning I had an eye doctor apt. and after my trial run of contacts this past week I took the plunge and actually ordered contacts!  Its so weird to not wear my glasses, they have been apart of my identity for SO long but I am really getting used to my contacts and I actually LOVE them, especially when I am working out! After the doctors I was back home to dig into work! Before I knew it lunch time was here and I was craving Mexican food. So welcome to my quesadilla creation!

Spicy Chicken Quesadilla

Ingredients:

1 sm. can of shredded chicken

1/2 pack of mild taco seasoning

1/4 cup of canned black beans

Handful each of chopped onion and green pepper

1/2 cup of low fat mozzarella cheese

2 low fat tortillas

Instructions:

In a small sauce pan combine, shredded chicken, drained black beans, onions, peppers, taco seasoning and 2 tsp. of water.  Cook until all ingredients are warmed and onions and peppers are tender.

In a griddle spray a tad bit of Pam and lay down first tortilla and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella :

On top of the cheese and tortilla add your chicken mixture:

Then place the rest of the mozzarella cheese and add the other tortilla:

On medium heat carefully flip your quesadilla until both sides are nice and brown and you can see the cheese has melted inside! Once cooked cut the quesadilla into 4′s (if you wish) and ENJOY!

I had a small green salad on the side with salsa as my “dressing”.  This recipe was great and for sure a new “easy to make” favorite of mine!

Back to work now for me!  I’m keeping a close eye on the weather because Mike and I want to go a for a bike ride tonight after work and of course it looks as though its going to rain any moment:(!  Is it really too much to ask for a couple days in a row of beautiful sunshine!

Jumping for joy is good exercise. ~Author Unknown

Todays blog is going to be picture-less because I left my camera at home:(!  Today has been a BUSY day.  This morning I woke up bright and early and grabbed a:

Banana

And a banana Odawala bar!

I worked all day and got home and dragged Mike on a 5 mile trail walk/run.  We did awesome and finished in a hour:)!  When we got home Mike was starving so I made him french toast for dinner and I had an oatmeal/berry/greek yogurt bowl.  YUMO!   My life today doesn’t make for an interesting blog read tonight so since I daily look for interesting articles on health and wellness I thought I would share my favs today:)

9 Ways To Set Up Your Day To Be An Amazing One

Lemon Chicken Stirfry (Pictures of this to come I am making this for dinner tomorrow night)

Have a great night everyone:)

Thousand of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods.

Cats have never forgotten this. -Anonymous

For lunch today I had a delicious concoction of Carba Nada pasta, cauliflower, and some marina sauce.

This finished product:

This was a VERY filling due to the pound of cauliflower!  For dessert I was craving more berries so I had a

Gingersnap Greek Yogurt Bowl:

1/4 cup of vanilla greek yogurt

5 gingersnaps

1 cup of mixed berries

I wrapped up work around 4:30pm.  Did 20 minutes of pilates and headed outdoors to conquer my 4 mile run.  My run today went OK I ran 3 miles no problem but as I was heading into my 4th mile my ankle was throbbing… the verdict- I need to break down and get a new pair of running shoes.  My are beat!

Now I’m off to figure out what I should eat for dinner… for some reason oatmeal sounds really good!

Turn it around Tuesday!

Well I must say my day is starting a bit better!  First I woke up on the right side of the bed:)  Secondly our air conditioner is being fixed as I type this!  We had a back up where the air conditioner drains so everything is being cleaned out and fixed, I even got a tutorial on how to clean our air filters… woo hoo (yea right)!  I just keep reminding myself stuff like this happens… its not the end of the world and this is part of the joy of being a homeowner ( I think?)

I had a late breakfast today so its was more of a brunch between work and dealing with the air conditioner.  Brunch today consisted of:

Sandwich Thins French Toast

1 egg

1 egg white

1 Tsp. of cinnamon

Splash of vanilla

1/4 cup of soy vanilla milk

1 whole wheat sandwich thin

Instructions:

In a bowl combine eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, milk.  Dip each half of the sandwich thin into the mixture and place on griddle.  Leave each piece on the griddle for 2 minutes then flip.

I completed this delicious brunch with some blueberries, blackberries and strawberries on top I topped it with a small amount of SF Maple Syrup.  YUM!

Well I’m back to work!  I will be onsite tomorrow visiting my amazing nurses so I need to get some things done!

Topic of Interest:

Top 10 Ways to Keep Your Running—and Your Motivation—Strong

Eat Healthier. Lose Weight. Save Money.

Manic Monday

I usually like to post something early on Monday but today has been a s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-lllll day!

Work was very busy throughout the morning but on my lunch I managed to sneak away to Giant Eagle and pick up some groceries for the week.  I love the summer because they have such good deals on there berries… my favorite!

After work I finished making all of my bridesmaids jewelry for the wedding.  I also started working on the table numbers.  Mike and I came up with this idea together:)!

Once Mike got home we dealt with our air conditioner that has been acting funny, it is outputting a lot of water so we have to have someone come look at it tomorrow which is where the stress of my day comes into play.  If its not one things its another!  Luckily Mike got me calmed down like he always does and we went for a 45 min. walk/run.

Once we got home Mike grilled some bbq skinless chicken breast I had marinated for dinner tonight.  I made mine into a huge salad and Mike had his chicken with some pasta.  Dinner was great!  All in all the night has gotten better.  So I am going to keep my head up, get some sleep and start tomorrow with more of a positive attitude… wish me luck!

We can’t plan life. All we can do is be available for it.

Lauryn Hill

All Fired Up!

Last night was a late night so I didn’t get a chance to post pics from my painting/wine adventure last night!

My beautiful friend Sondra:

And the woman with this wonderful idea, my great friend Amanda!

It was so relaxing, we chatted drank some tasty white wine and listened to music.  The piece I chose was only $25.00 dollars and that included everything… paint, stamps, designs and firing it.  I painted a plate that I am giving to my niece for her first birthday, I thought it would be something neat she could keep 4-ever:)

Kinda Finished Product:

My piece will look much different after it gets fired, the colors will be much more vibrant:)!

Dog days…

“You may have a dog that won’t sit up, roll over or even cook breakfast, not because he’s too stupid to learn how but because he’s too smart to bother.” – Rick Horowitz, Chicago Tribune

Our “son” Scooby had quite the eventful morning!  Scooby had a doctors apt. this morning to get updated on all his shots and get the next 5 mths. of his heart worm and flea meds.  I love this little guy but dogs are NOT cheap so if you are thinking of buying one or adopting a rescue its not something to be taken lightly but SO worth it.  We wouldn’t trade our little man for anything. 

Since I was busy with Scoobs ALL morning I just grabbed a coffee from Starbucks, a Tall Rasberry Soy Latte (YUM) . It wasn’t the most nutritious breakfast but I never indugle in Starbucks so it was worth it:)

Once I got home I had a repeat of last nights dinner for lunch:

A delicious turkey burger on a sandwich thin with all the fixings and then on the side I prepared a great cold pasta salad combining carba nada noodles mixed with carrots, green peppers, onions, and cherry tomatoes and 2 Tbsp. of Italian dressing. 

This afternoon will be busy filled with work, turbo scuplt and picking up a rental car for tmr.  This evening I am heading to All Fired Up to meet a couple a my besties to have a glass of wine and paint:)

Life is good…

Today I had a lot of “to do’s” on my list!  I woke up at 6am this morning ate a great hardy breakfast of steel oats and pumpkin!

*Steel oat can take up to 30-35 minutes to cook in the morning so if you run short on time you can soak the oats in water overnight when you wake up you just cook the oats on high for ten minutes on the stove top.

Steel Oats and Pumpkin

1/4 cup steel oats

1/2 can of organic pumpkin

1 small box of organic raisins

Sprinkle  of brown sugar

Splash of vanilla soy milk

Enjoy:)

After breakfast this morning I finally went back to the eye doctor and picked up my “better fitting” pair of contacts.  I have had them in all day and they feel much better!  For those of you that don’t know I have wore glasses pretty much my entire life and have never had a desire to wear contacts.  However since I am getting married in Sept. I would like to look different in my pictures and not worry about glares from the camera flashes showing up in every shot.

After my eye doctor apt. I headed back to sand run trail that Mike and I ran last night… I guess I just didn’t get enough!

I did interval training.  I ran for 3 min then walked for 1 min, then ran for 4 min and walked for 1 min.  I did that for 4 miles and finished in 45 min.  It was BEAUTIFUL out and my workout was finished before 9:30am:)

When I got home I got quite a bit of work done and then it was time for lunch! I picked up some turkey breast at the deli on Sunday so a wrap sounded great.  I made my turkey wrap on a flatout and included romaine lettuce, tomato, pickles, and a squirt of mustard.  I also had 1/4 cup of cottage cheese with sliced cherry tomatoes on top and a handful of baked tortilla chips.

I worked until 4pm then headed to out cut the grass before we get MORE rain tomorrow… boooo!  After I got all the yard work done I prepared dinner for Mike and I and then jumped in the shower before he got home.

I bought some ground turkey and sweet corn while at the store on Sunday, so tonights dinner is none other than turkey burgers on the grill and sweet corn on the cob YUM!

I used a great recipe off of allrecipes.com call Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers.  We ate our turkey burgers on the new sandwich thins that are out and they were AWESOME!  I didn’t get a chance to snap a picture of the finished product but imagine a delicious burger and you get the hint:).  Our sweet corn turned out perfect as well and Mike had two pieces (very good for the boy who doesn’t like veggies of ANY kind)!

Now that dinner is over I am relaxing!  And getting geared up for the season finale of GLEE tonight!

Question of the evening:

What tv show can you currently not get enough of?

Grey Anatomy and Glee are about the only must see TV show for me, and if I can’t watch them live I always make sure I DVR them:

Bumming blogger….

Sorry I have been MIA all weekend!  But it’s Monday and I’m back to the grind and that includes keeping up with “constantlyunwinding”!

Most of today has been pretty uneventful, I worked from home today and got alot done as usual.  Mike and I agreed that once he got home from work we were going to Sand Run which is a 6 mile running trail threw the metro-parks.  For dinner tonight I decided to keep it light since we would be running shortly

Light Taco Salad

Ingredients:

1 lowfat torilla

1 teaspoon lowfat plain greek yogurt

2 cups of romaine lettuce

1 carrot stalk cut up

1/2 chopped green pepper

1/4 cup of onion chopped

Sm. can of shredded chicken

1/2 packet of taco seasoning

Instructions: Heat up chicken on stove top add taco seasoning.  Toast tortilla, spread greek yogurt on tortilla.  Add lettuce, carrots, onion, green pepper.  Place chicken on top and enjoy!

Mike got home and quickly changed and we headed to the trail:

Mike is not a runner so we did a combination of walking and running, we did 4 miles in 50 miles.  We both felt great when we were done!

Now I’m off to relax and catch up on The Real Housewives…. another guilty pleasure!