Exciting! Exciting! Exciting!

Lara Bar is about to release three new secret flavors! I cannot wait. I only hope that I will love one of them as much as I love the PB, cashew cookie, and lemon bar flavors.

I have gained weight in the past 6 months. It is difficult to deal with–I think longingly about liposuction, detox diets and personal trainers these days–but I believe in my ability to lose the weight. I know I can do it, and I know that it takes time and perseverance.  The state of the economy, my friends’ lack of jobs, my lack of a job…it all makes focusing on health and fitness more difficult.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is an idiot

And I’m ALIVE!!  I just don’t have time to really update right now.

Weather outside is frightful

And it’s affecting my desire to work out indoors. Isn’t that bizarre?  I made the mistake of wearing my gym shoes today, thinking, “Hey, one less thing to carry!” Thanks to the downpour earlier, my gym shoes are a bit damp. It would be so easy to just go home instead of the gym tonight.  I’m still not sure where I stand right now…

I had leftover veggie stew for lunch today, and I’m trying yet another new bar: Balance PURE fruit and nut bar.  I have the chocolate-cashew flavor. The ingredients are much better than the peanut butter & chocolate Kashi bar I had a few weeks ago.  There are only 16g of sugar compared to Kashi’s 33g!  Obviously, the less sugars the better!  The flavor isn’t bad, and it doesn’t taste nearly as sugary.  We’ll see how satiated it keeps me.

And I’m still debating going to my group class tonight.  Damn my lack of commitment!

CookingLight.com recipe of the week: Moroccan chickpea stew with brown rice and nonfat yogurt

I’m too lazy to put up the link–but just type “Moroccan chickpea” in CookingLight’s search engine and you’ll see the recipe pop up.  Review: all in all, pretty tasty, but I expected it to be a lot less soupy than it was.  Maybe I didn’t put in enough veggies (highly doubtful) or maybe I should use less broth or drain the tomatoes a little… It’s not a spectacular dish, but you could up the interest by taking out fewer of the jalapeno seeds than I did. Then you’d have a firey hot party in your mouth!

I am on track to work out four days in a row this week; Friday is looking a bit uncertain because of my evening plans.  Tonight’s workout came about because I started reading Fit Bottomed Girls (I’ll edit this later to add the link) and read that Jillian Michaels has new DVDs coming out!  The really great news was that both the DVDs are available FREE on demand from ExerciseTV for Comcast subscribers!

Can you guess what I immediately did after class today?

If you guessed that I did the workout, you’re wrong!  (I made dinner first. My stomach always comes first when it is making such big demands!) But after my food settled, I tried it and was reminded that Jillian Michaels is an ass-kicker.  I did not finish the whole thing because I have a quad-killing cardio workout in store tomorrow, but man, did it feel good to be doing lots of strength work again!  I think that I am going to replace the Self Challenge Month 1 strength workout to visits to my OnDemand menu.

I’ll try and remember to talk a bit more about the workout tomorrow. For now, I am TIRED. Zzzz.

Time for a Challenge!

I <3 the Self Challenge.  Every year, there are 3 months of prizes, workouts, and food tips.  Every year I give it a shot.  This year, I see it as an opportunity to erase some of the hard living I’ve done since grad school started. 

I signed up the other day, and I really like the new web layout.  None of my friends seem interested in doing it with me, but that’s alright.  I’m fired up!  I haven’t tried the strength workout yet, but, from the look of it, I will be underwhelmed.  Points in its favor for the general Self audience: this month’s workout requires no equipment. That’s right, it’s body weight only!  Points against for me: no equipment.  Not a very challenging challenge for moi…

I’m really trying to follow the calorie guidelines better than I usually do.  Cataloging my food intake has, as usual, shocked me.  (I’m still using CalorieKing.com because the Self food log is a bit clunky.  It’s better than in the past, but I really wish a lot of these food-logging sites would get together and make it better. When I tried Self’s this last time, I couldn’t enter 1/3 of a cup of canned pumpkin; 1/4, yes; 1/2, yes; but no 1/3. Why, Self?)  Today, I will be burning about 500 to 600 calories at the gym. <3 classes! 

Breakfast: pumpkin oatmeal with 1 tsp almond butter and some pecans (approx 400 calories)

Lunch: GreenLiteBite’s taco turkey quinoa stew (I only had a little left, probably less than a cup), a TJ’s string cheese

Afternoon snack: Cashew cookie Larabar

I might have a tangerine or an apple before I hit the gym tonight; it depends on how hungry I am in an hour or so.

Spiral of doom and gloom

I hate winter.  The PNW had a light dusting of snow this morning. The winter/spring semester is always the toughest because of the lack of sunshine and the endless grind of school.  Exercise helps; so does chocolate.  Obviously balancing the two is important!

I have been much better about working out this quarter, but I still feel off-kilter.  I’m not sure if I need to step it up or if this “blah” feeling is due to diet or stress.  I’m guessing a combination of both.  I do not think I’ve ever felt this stressed out in my life–thanks, recession!  Thanks, grad school!

Yeah, feeling a little bitter over here.  I’m sure I’ll feel better after step class, though.  Sorry about finally getting around to writing something only to bitch about my life!

Open casting call

That’s right, I have moved beyond LARABAR to try out different brands.  Today’s test: Kashi GoLean Chewy protein & fiber bar’s chocolate & peanut butter. 

At opening: This wrapper seems to be substantially larger than the bar itself.  Kashi, why so much extra space?

First bite: Mmm. Sugar! I love sugar.

Fifth bite: How many calories are in this thing?  It seems much sweeter than I would expect given all the protein and fiber that is supposed to be in there.

About to take sixth bite, looks at nutritional info: 290 calories? Say WHAT?  I know that my LARABARs are 210, but at least it’s filled with fruit and nuts.  31 grams of sugar? 13 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber hardly seem worth it.

30 minutes later:  Well, at least it’s tasty.  I do love chocolate and peanut butter.  And…sugar coma…zzzzzz.

Summary: It’s probably healthier than several of the protein bars out there, but there are healthier ones available with much less sugar.  It has the chewy texture that I like, but I don’t particularly care for super-sugary treats.

Up soon: Balance bars and a “caramel nut brownie” Luna Bar.

There are a lot of snack bars that I am dying to try but cannot find at my local store.  It might be time to go to the “upscale” grocery store, which I try to avoid because I go a little batty each time I go. And by batty, I mean that I hand over the contents of my wallet to the checker.

For your consideration

Why does LARABAR not have a pumpkin pie flavor?  I feel that this is a huge oversight.  I tried the pecan flavor–not bad, but I still prefer peanut butter cookie, lemon bar, and cashew cookie.  Mmm. I guess I should be careful about what I ask for, though, because the apple pie and cherry pie flavors are not so tasty.  Oatmeal chocolate chip cookie would be good, too, but I think that would be difficult to pull off. 

I wish that Seattle pilates studios would look around at the recession and lower their prices.  I really want to try the machines!  I think that we have enough people around here who are recession-proof that my dream of bargain-basement prices is likely never to come to fruition.  The Eastside seems particularly immune, even with all the Microsoft and Boeing layoffs.  Would someone start a “pilates for the people” movement, please?

My current goal is to do at least 15 minutes of exercise every single day of the week. Sounds like a lot, I know, but I am counting light walks, yoga, etc.  The idea is to make “making time for exercise” a habit.  We’ll see how I do: I didn’t work out yesterday after the Super Bowl.  Obviously that was a failure in planning!

The great LARABAR search of 2009

I shop at a lot of grocery stores.  I have visited Safeway, QFC, Trader Joe’s, PCC Natural Market, Whole Foods, and Metropolitan Market in the last 6 months.  Oddly enough, most of the stores I often frequent only have about 5 Larabar flavors: peanut butter cookie, apple pie, cashew cookie, cherry pie, and one of the chocolate flavors.  My jealousy at other people’s enjoyment of flavors like key lime pie, gingersnap, cinnamon roll, etc, has grown and grown.  I want to try all of the flavors, damn it!

I went searching for new flavors the other day and found cinnamon roll, gingersnap, and lemon bar!  I was very, very excited.  I have been doling out these new flavors all week, and I found that, for the most part, I will be happy sticking with my favorites (cashew cookie and peanut butter).  The lemon bar was my favorite so far. Unlike the gingersnap and cinnamon roll, the “main star” flavor wasn’t overpowering!  The gingersnap was like biting into a spice cabinet, and not in a pleasant way, and the cinnamon roll was a similar experience. Plus, the gingersnap seemed…unprocessed.  It was chunkier than I normally see the bars.

The scorecard so far:

Yummy!: PB cookie, cashew cookie, lemon bar

Meh: apple pie, cinnamon roll

Ugh: cherry pie, gingersnap, chocolate-orange (Jocalat)

Not yet tried: key lime pie, pecan pie, coconut cream pie, banana bread, cocoa mole, pistachio, chocolate coconut

Sun on my window

The Pacific NW is capricious; I woke up to darkness, then there was a blue sky with lovely, lovely sunlight, and then BAM! We are back to cloudy skies.  I was really happy that it was sunny today; it has been a while since we’re had a lot of sun.

It feels like school has accelerated faster than anticipated, and I am now being pulled along by its momentum.  Actually, the correct image is of grad school bumping along down the road, dragging me along with it.  I am exhausted.

I am having difficulty buying the correct amount of food for the week.  One of two scenarios happens: I end up returning to the grocery store over and over because I just don’t have enough food, or I have to toss out what was once perfectly good food that I did not have time to eat.  It’s frustrating, and I don’t know how to fix it!