What makes me smile…

Today has been SUCH a better day than yesterday!  So I will now list several things that have made me smile today:

My wonderful husband brought me home these beautiful flowers last night because he knew my day had been crummy.  I have been admiring them all day:)

Speaking of my Hubby…

Mike finds a way to make me smile everyday but today was due to a ridiculous picture he texted messaged me (can you say, naked man holding a guitar)!

What is that below you may ask…. my treadmill screen!  I had a great 5 mile run on the “dreadmill” today and that made me SMILE! 

Now I need to figure out whats for dinner… I’m thinking something with eggplant!  Stay tuned:)

I’m going to try to make this post as positive as possible because no one wants to hear a negative nelly!   So to sum up how my work day has been going… please see below —–>

My day started bright and early!  I woke up at 5:30a to get in an early morning workout.  Usually I am not a fan of working out in the morning but as I sit here now knowing that its already done… it feels GREAT!   Since my workout Saturday left me so sore I decided to do another round of it except increase my mileage.

Angela’s at home cardio + strength routine

 

Run 1.5 miles

Upper Body Routine

    Chest Press 2×20

    Lying forward punches with weights 2×20

    Tree Huggers 2×20 (the video explains it all)

    Run 1.5 miles

Lower Body Routine

    Squats with feet on weights 2×20

    Walking Lunges 2×20

    Squat with a kettle bell throw 2×20

Run 1/2 mile

Abs Routine

This whole routine took me about an hour but your constantly moving and getting in 4 miles of running so the time flies by!  After my workout I quickly signed on to Weight Watchers because today was the day they announced there new plan! 

Weight Watchers New Plan

I really REALLY like the new plan!  My daily points went from being 24 to now 33.  With that being said a lot of the common foods I have been eating also increased in points.  But alot also lowered…. now almost all fruits are 0 points:)!  The old program focused on calories/fat/fiber and the new program focuses on fat/fiber/carbs/protein.  This program works!  It promotes wholesome natural foods and exercise, and I like both!  I’m already down 15 pounds and they say the new program if done correctly can produce a 8-10 pound weight loss within the first month!  My focus is not to lose as much weight as I possibly can but to feel good about myself and be in the best shape of my life and 2011 is my year!

I have a busy week ahead of me so its time to dive back into work and think about what’s on the menu for dinner today!  Hope you all are having a fabulous day:)!

Sunday fun day….

I can’t believe how fast this four day break has flown by:(!!!  Mike and I had a great weekend full of good eats and treats!  Here is a quick weekend recap…

After grocery shopping yesterday I did a quick a killer workout yesterday that contained a lot of this:

And some of this:

I did a 3-mile speed run and a arms/legs/abs strength routine I created and I am SOOOOO sore today!  Mike and I got into alittle bit of everything last night.  We started our night at one of my favorite restaurants because Mike’s dads bluegrass band was playing

We got an appetizer of hummus and pita bread, and I got a salad with avocado, tomato, feta cheese and chickpeas.  It was served with a citrus vinaigrette and was delicious!

Mike got alfredo pasta (surprise, surprise) but it did have a ton of broccoli and cauliflower in it.  After dinner we headed over to our friends and had some drinks and then headed out to have a drink with one of Mike’s friends for his birthday!

Today has been a great relaxing day!  After sleeping in I headed back to the grocery store to pick up the beef broth I forgot yesterday for the roast I was planning on making today.  Once I got back home I quickly prepared my roast so it could cook in the crockpot today for 5+ hours.  My roast was quite simple I didn’t use a recipe I just combined what I thought would taste delicious.

Angela’s Crock-pot Roast

Ingredients:

2.5 pds of choice beef cut

Small bag of baby carrots

5 small Red Skin Potatoes

1.5 small yellow onion

10 oz. of beef broth

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Trim all fat off of beef and place in crock-pot.  Peel and cube red skin potatoes and place in crock-pot.  Chop and add yellow onion to crock-pot.  Add entire bag of baby carrots to crock-pot.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Pour beef broth until your meat and veggies are covered and cook on high for 4 hours.  Reduce heat to low and cook an additional 1.5 hours.

I didn’t manage to snap a picture but our roast turned out amazing and Mike and I are stuffed!  Tomorrow it’s back to the grind so I need to get some rest!!!

What is your favorite crock-pot recipe?  I need more ideas for winter!

Pre & Post Turkey Update

Well Thanksgiving is officially over and I am back home and back to blogging!  This post will be a quick recap of the past couple days!

On Wednesday Mike and I arrived at my parents around 8pm and I made my Splenda’s Cranberry Apple Relish.  It turned out REALLY good.  I did make a few changes on the recipe but it was tasty.

I turned in early Wednesday night because I needed enough sleep to run my Turkey Trot Thursday morning:)  I woke up at 5:30am on Thanksgiving and took Scooby out and it was POURING rain!  By the time I got to the race at 7:30am to register, the rain had turned to a drizzle and my step-dad came with me for support so I was ready to roll!

I was the first one there so I was really worried that the rain may of scared everyone off!  However the closer it got to 8am (race start time) more people arrived

There were between 30-40 people total and the rain had stopped!  The race started at around 8:15am and I ran the 5k in 31.00 minutes!  It was nice to be back in my cozy car by 8:45am heading back to my parents with the feeling of accomplishment!

After showering and getting all of our goodies together we headed to my grandma’s for Turkey day!  I didn’t happen to snap any photos because I was busy visiting family but everything was delicious.

We headed back home yesterday morning and relaxed ALL day.  Since I ran on turkey day yesterday was a exercise rest day as well:)  We made the plan to order chinese food takeout last night and put up our Christmas tree, so the rest of our day looked alittle like this:

So now its Saturday and back to reality:)  I have a fun filled day of grocery shopping and getting a workout in ahead of me! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I can almost see the finish line…

After tomorrow and Mike and I officially start our 4-day weekend:)  We are spending Thanksgiving with my family so I am very excited to head back home and eat… drink… and be merry!

Today was an extremely productive day!  I got a ton of work done this morning and planned to take a run on my lunch break.  It has been a really long time since I’ve listened to music while running outside, but after being introduced to Girl Talk (by my wonderful Hubby), I knew today music was a must!  Even though it was WINDY as hell out today I managed to get a pretty good run in:

The picture quality could of been better but it was taken from my I-Phone so it is, what it is:)!  With much help from GirlTalk I got a 4 mile windy run in just over 45:00 minutes.

After a great lunch I got back to work and made a do list to try to knock out all of my household duties before tomorrow came. Since I knew I would be tying up loose ends at work and packing for Turkey Day I had a lot set out to accomplish.  My to do list started at 4:30pm and consisted of the following:

• Clean the entire house (sweep, dust, scrub bathrooms, start laundry)
• Pay a couple pending bills
• Cut the grass in the front yard (LONG story)
• Decorate outside of our house for Christmas
• Clean out my car
• Take a hot bath
• Blog

And as I sit here grateful that I am now crossing the last want-to-do (blog) off my checklist at 10:15pm, I can rest easy that tomorrow all I have to do is work, workout and pack:)  I love being productive!  Tommorow is also my weigh in day for Weight Watchers so I much need of a good nights sleep, wish me luck!

Do any of you make daily “to do” lists?  If so how have they helped you?

 

 

Thank you baby Jesus…

I woke up this morning thinking… “thank you baby Jesus this is a 3-day work week”!  I am very excited for Thanksgiving and to see my family!  This year I am making and bringing a recipe I saw on Splenda’s website:

Cranberry Apple Relish

I’m really excited to make it and I hope it turns out good!  Today was like any other Monday, work was busy so I split my workout up.  On my lunch break I did a DVD I purchased over the weekend it is- Jillian michaels kettlebell workout dvd.  OMG this kicked my butt!  I was dripping sweat and am very confident I got an awesome full-body workout.  Lunch was a simple grilled chicken, feta, and crasin salad.

Around 4pm I decided to jump on the “dreadmill” and get a HITT run in while watching Oprah’s 2nd favorite things show.  She gave everyone on the show a plethora of AMAZING things and then ended the show by giving everyone a 2011 Volkswagon Bug. Yea Oprah pretty much ROCKS:)!

After my run/Oprah I started to prepare dinner, I had a pasta bowl inspired from PB Fingers blog and I made Mike (my hubby) a pizza on whole-wheat crust, he was less than pleased:( Will I ever get this man of mine eating well?

After we ate dinner I begged Mike to get me out of the house:) We took a trip to Barnes and Noble and I got two things that brought a smile to my face:

A hot cup of green tea &:

I read a LOT of great reviews on What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and I am SO glad I got to pick it up.  I will keep ya’ll posted on what I think!  For now its time to read a chapter and then hit the hay!

Don’t worry… I’ll be back!

And I am after a LONG hiatus!  Many many things have happened over the past couple months one being I am now Mrs. Socrates!

Our wedding was beautiful and everything I could possibly ask for!  Since I work in the health field and we administer flu shots… and its flu season my schedule has been CRAZY!  However things have finally began to slow down so I am all about making time to do more things I enjoy like BLOG!

Another thing that has changed since I last blogged is that I joined Weight Watchers back on October 3rd, 2010.  I have been really successful and am down 13 pds. !!!  I am doing the program online (because its ALOT cheaper) but I am really happy with it.  WW is not a diet, I still get to eat pretty much everything I did before but in much smaller portion sizes.  I have also been working out like a mad-women and FEEL great!  Wednesday’s are my weigh in days so I will now report my weight loss & my daily workouts on here to hold myself more accountable:)

So thats all for now folks!  Its been a great weekend and I am off to bed!

Have you ever fallen the “blog” wagon?  What made you pick it back up?