Healthy and Sane

Entries Tagged as 'polenta'

Being bullied into PT

October 2nd, 2009 · 14 Comments · Ellie Krieger, breakfast, pizza, polenta, product reviews, salmon, shrimp, snacks

Ah, I wrote a post last night and forgot to publish it!! I was wondering why you guys didn’t comment :???: I ended up making cookies for the guy and told him that I need to think about it but that finances are tight right now. The truth is that I could pay for it in theory (it may be a little painful but probably doable if I cut out some other things), but I can’t decide if I really need it (I can’t just spend $300+ without really thinking about it. Maybe one day when I’m rich and famous ;) ).  Do you think I made the right choice? So here it goes…

I have a little story from today. Bare with me… I need your help!!!

I planned on doing some speed work on the treadmill today. It got COLD here in Boston, so speed work seemed like the perfect answer… 10×400s were on the schedule to be exact. I “met” someone else that is running the Boston half marathon, and emailing back and forth with Betsy this morning got me even more excited about the race. I was so ready to run today… until I got on that treadmill :( Even during my warm-up walk I was feeling off. I couldn’t walk as fast as I’m used to because it hurt my shins. Not a sharp pain, but something that was definitely nagging me. Then I sped up to a slow warm up run. Once again, I couldn’t do my usual warm up. It hurt. I continued for a few minutes, hoping I just needed to warm up, but then started worrying that I’m actually contributing to an injury. I got off the treadmill and decided to talk to a trainer. Long story short, the guy was a postural therapist and offered to look at me. He said my alignment was completely off, that I wasn’t using my right hamstring and let all my left leg do all the work, yadda yadda yadda he scared me shitless. He then said he could “fix it” if I came back in an hour for a session. Sweet! I was shaking I was so scared that I couldn’t run. The session was great. He stretched me for 30 minutes, massaged my right calf (which was the problem), made me do some random exercises (one legged squats, etc.) and then I went back on the treadmill. It seemed to be ok now. He said my alignment was good now.

I asked the guy if I owed him anything for the session and he said that this one was free, but that I should really schedule some follow up personal training sessions, where he’d show me strengthening exercises so that I run more evenly and don’t get injured. He said he’ll also thoroughly stretch me out before every session and that this should really help. He was ready to schedule my next appointment but this was just a lot of information thrown at me in one hour’s time, and I wasn’t ready to fork over hundreds of dollars for a package of training sessions. I told him I’ll email him with my schedule, but now I’m not sure. It’s a lot of money and I feel like I’m being bullied into this. I think the sessions would help and I know that I’m not running straight (that’s why my right hip always hurts after my long runs) but I don’t think I urgently need to start seeing a personal trainer either. This is so hard. What would you do in my situation? I’m leaning towards sending him a very nice email telling him I can’t afford it right now and bringing some cookies over. :) … Or should I suck it up and get some sessions since they’ll help me in the long term?

By the way, I went back to the gym after work and finished what I started – 10 x 400 at 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.5, 8.6, 8.5, 8.5, 8.5, 8.6 with recovery at 6.5. It was hard but I knew I would feel a million times better if I finished, and I did!!! :D

BREAKFAST

Inspired by the week’s CEiMB recipe for New York Breakfast hosted by imafoodblog.com, my breakfast was a yummy lox/tomato sammie. I somehow ended up with a whole lot of bread at home, including some new light bagels so I didn’t buy the bread Ellie recommended for this.  Now that I think about it, though, by substituting a bagel for pumpernickel bread this breakfast became even more “New York.”

IMG_7447 IMG_7446

*These bagels are somewhere in between a mini bagel and a regular bagel in size; they seem a little less dense that a regular bagel (good thing!) and are only 110 calories. I like them! :)

So for breakfast I had 1 Kim’s wheat bagel with 1 laughing cow wedge + some wild lox and a sprinkle of dried dill

IMG_7422

IMG_7424

Mmm, lox <3

+ some TJ’s nonfat European style yogurt with tomato slices. I love that I had a serving of veggies for breakfast! :D

IMG_7427

MID-MORNING SNACK

1/2 FFL english muffin + Barney Butter and 1/2 banana

IMG_7429

LUNCH

Leftover parmesan polenta with roasted mushrooms + shrimp

IMG_7430

IMG_7432

+ 1 serving of sea salt somersaults (my favorite flavor!!)

IMG_7439

And 3/4 serving of TJ’s chocolate covered edamame. I was definitely stress eating at this point because of my mini injury. :oops:

IMG_7440

At some point, again out of stress, I ate a brownie (unpictured). I wasn’t proud of it at the time, but at the end it fueled me through a kick-ass workout so I guess it was ok. Sugar is good sometimes!

DINNER

Tortilla pizza: TJ’s low carb ww tortilla with pizza sauce, organic part skim mozzarella, roasted mushrooms and black beans + carrot sticks on the side. Sometimes these tortilla pizzas totally take care of my pizza craving (like today!!). So easy, quick and delicious :grin:

IMG_7434

LATE NIGHT SNACKING

‘Nuff said. Seriously, no more eating out of the bag!!!!!!

IMG_7441

Please help me figure out what to do with this trainer/postural therapist thing! Thanks, guys – you’re the best!! :mrgreen:

[Read more →]

Bigger is not better

October 1st, 2009 · 29 Comments · breakfast, comfort foods, eggs, oats, polenta, sandwich, snacks

My title refers to clothes! This morning I got dressed; the forecast was low 60’s so I thought it was appropriate to wear some long pants (during the warmer weather months, I mostly sported capris, skirts and dresses). I reached into my closet and found a pair of pants I haven’t worn for a while. These used to be one of my favorite pairs because I felt thin in them.  Today – they were baggy, embarrassingly baggy. I’ve about maintained my weight for the past year and a half. These pants were purchased at some point during that time. When did they become baggy? Sometimes baggy = relaxed. When it’s paired with heels for work, baggy = tired and frumpy. Instead of feeling skinny because my pants were too big, I wanted to hide in my cube because I felt like a little girl playing in my mom’s closet. These pictures don’t truly show how laughably big my pants were. Adam called them clown pants!

IMG_7415 IMG_7416

What I found interesting is that despite feeling uncomfortable in my big pants, I am hesitant to put them in the donation bin. They are only 1 size larger than I am today! What if I gain a few pounds? If you’ve lost weight before, did you hold on to your old clothes or got rid of them as soon as they got too big? I got rid of pants that were several sizes too big, but these ones I’m struggling with… even though I feel like I’ve reached my comfortable weight (i.e. I stopped dieting and am maintaining this weight with little effort)!

BREAKFAST

Banana oats with white chocolate chips, almonds, pecans, raisins and cranberries + coffee

IMG_7402

IMG_7403

Warm and creamy. I gave a taste to Adam because this bowl was just extra good and he said he wanted me to make oats for him next time :)

LUNCH

Turkey/laughing cow/grape sammie on Nature’s Pride whole wheat + carrot sticks

IMG_7406

The combo of creamy cheese, slightly salty turkey and super sweet grapes was divine. All of you non-vegetarians must try this sandwich!!!!

IMG_7411

SNACKS

Oikos + 1/2 banana + Nature’s Path Heritage cereal (unpictured – added the cereal last minute at my desk)

IMG_7412

Chocolate chip z-bar

IMG_7413

100 calorie almonds pack

IMG_7414

DINNER

I haven’t had time to hit the gym again (work :evil: ) so making a healthy dinner was the only way I could “treat” myself. I followed this recipe for parmesan polenta with eggs and roasted mushrooms.  This dinner took a lot longer than the promised 20 minutes (could be my sloooow oven and only 2 burners), but it was really worth it!!! This is comfort food for me.

IMG_7418

I am really obsessed with mushrooms and their woodsy flavor paired so nicely with the creamy cheesy polenta. We only had 1 egg left, so I decided to add shrimp to Adam’s dinner. While I was cooking the shrimp, I forgot about my egg and it cooked a little too long. No runny egg. :( I bet it would have really tied everything together. In any case, I LOVED my dinner (Adam just liked it) :D

IMG_7419

After dinner I watched the Biggest Loser (ok, I totally understand now who Jillian referred to as the devil… she clearly hates this girl!!!) and ate some pecans and 2 Kashi cookies. I didn’t need those; I just really wanted this food for the taste of it. I went to bed feeling quite guilty, although I know it wasn’t really about the nuts or cookies but rather a combination of feeling bluh all day (boo baggy pants), being hungry all day (I fed myself healthy snacks to remedy that), skipping the gym (need to make it a priority no matter what!) and then eating when not hungry. Every time I feel like I lose a good amount of weight and start feeling good about my body, I begin to gain. I think I felt guilty because I was scared.

How do you dress? Do baggy clothes comfort you or do you like to show off your curves?

Only a few days left to enter the Lazy Baker cookie mix giveaway. Get those extra bonus points. The cookies are worth it!!! :mrgreen:

[Read more →]

The Cleaner Life challenge continues – day 2

June 17th, 2009 · 14 Comments · Cleaner Life, Cooking Light, chicken, comfort foods, polenta, sandwich, yogurt

The Cleaner Life challenge continues. It was really nice to see such positive feedback from you guys on this challenge. I’ve been trying to clean up my diet for about a year now, and have successfully gotten rid of my diet coke addiction and kicked splenda to the curb but I still had a very high consumption of sugar. I realized I was eating chocolate A LOT and although it’s been only 2 days, I’m realizing I don’t need it as often as I thought. I’m discovering nature’s candy does the trick for satisfying my sweet tooth – dried cherries, raisins, dates and dried apricots are replacing my usual chocolate toppings. We’ll see whether I get the shakes in a few days but so far so good ;)

Yesterday was a great 2nd day of the challenge. I wasn’t going to blog about it since I blogged about our NYC trip last night, but it was such a good day, I just had to share (NYC recaps will continue over the next few days).  I feel like I’m eating so much fresher. Despite a busy day at work I was able to eat wholesome foods. Yay! :D I’m keeping this short and letting the pictures talk for themselves (if they don’t talk loudly enough, scroll over for descriptions :) )

chobs, blueberries, almonds, dried cherries, pb granola

yogurt closeup

[308, incl. coffee]

giant pear

[125 calories]

2 AK MAKs

[46 calories]

Grilled chicken, 1/4 avocado + laughing cow on a Food for Life english muffin

[400 calories]

This guy is confusing so I’ll explain. I made one of my favorite sides the other day with dinner – mashed plantains from this recipe for jerk chicken with plaintains in Cooking Light (the jerk chicken in the recipe is nothing to write home about but the plaintains are delicious. I cut the butter in the recipe by 1/2). With the leftovers, I made little patties, rolled them in some whole wheat bread crumbs and pan fried them. They were kind of mushy, but still delicious… and made for a great snack in the very late afternoon.

plantain cutlet

[173 calories]

Dinner requires a tiny bit of an explanation as well. Ever since I saw Kelly use langoustines as a lobster substitute, I knew I had to find me some of these jewels at TJ’s and put them to good use. Last night after a long work day, I did just that and as I was passing by a frozen package of polenta Provencale (balls) with spinach and peas in a creamy spicy sauce, I remembered I had it in my freezer at home. This is where the idea for a quick and satisfying dinner came. I added some fresh broccoli to the pan, together with the polenta mix, while defrosting some langostino tails under cold water in the sink. After a few minutes they were ready to be added to the rest of the mix, and voila – dinner was ready in less than 10 minutes.

polenta balls + langostino tails and broccoli

Mmm, lobster (almost :) )

langostino closeup

[342 calories]

chocolate macaroon

[106 calories?]

Total calories consumed during the day: ~1499

WORKOUT

I knew it was going to be another long night at work, so I made sure to squeeze in a workout during lunch. I was craving running (I think I’m back to prefering the treadmill over outside running but maybe that will change with nicer weather). I started with a 0.20 mile walk at 4.7 mph, stretched, and then ran 5 miles at 6.9-7.0 mph, breaking it up by 0.25 mile intervals and changing inclines (0-2.0). After a 0.2 mile cooldown walk, I completed the 60 minutes with 11 minutes on the elliptical. I burnt about 570 calories, I think, and was ready to get back to work and crank out that project of mine :D

Great day! Let’s hope today is just as good :mrgreen: Happy Humpday!

[Read more →]

POM themed dinner

April 7th, 2009 · 14 Comments · breakfast, dessert, oats, polenta, salad, shrimp, tofu

Today’s food was all really delicious. I guess I’ll start with my POM inspired dinner. I actually had plans to make butternut squash risotto, but silly me didn’t realize that you had to roast the squash before adding it to risotto. Since that would take ages, I figured I can postpone this dish for a day (look for it soon!). Luckily, I just stopped by TJ’s on the way home from work, and picked up a package of tofu “just in case.” Good thing, because this dish was excellent!

Somehow my husband drank a whole bunch POM (perhaps too many of Adam’s excellent pomegranate margaritas were consumed?) but I found 1 lonely bottle in the back of the fridge and decided to make pom glazed tofu. Yum!

I stole the glaze recipe from here, and then baked the tofu at 400* for about 30 minutes, flipping once (and coating the other side with the glaze). The flavor was surprisingly subtle (because the glaze was crazy sweet) but paired very well with the tofu. I also made some whole wheat couscous on the side, and combined it with dried fruit (cranberries, blueberries, raisins) and toasted almond slices… and some snap peas for some green on the plate. I thought the dried fruit would complement the pom glaze nicely, and I was right :)

pom glazed tofu + coscous with dried fruit and almonds + snap peas

pom glazed tofu closeup

[~340 calories]

I continued my pom theme (unintentionally, actually) by having a warm slice of pumpkin chocolate loaf, 1/4 cup of Berryline coconut frozen yogurt topped with pomegranite syrup. Yeah, this was pretty much heaven. I love when healthy food tastes sinful! :D

chocolate pumpkin bread slice + berryline coconut frozen yogurt + pom syrup

[~280 calories]

OTHER (DELICIOUS!) EATS

1/2 oat bran, 1/2 c skim milk, 1/2 c water, 1/2 banana, 1/2T flaxseed + Archer Farms cranberry pecan trail mix

[360 calories]

mixed greens, grape tomatoes, grilled shrimp, 1 polenta cake with parmesan cheese, carrot circles, sugar snap peas + 1T Annie's woodstock dressing

salad closeup

[320 calories]

BTW, the shrimp and polenta cake were leftovers from Friday night dinner, which I had no time to blog about.  I made this recipe for smoky shrimp and parmesan polenta cakes again, and it was once again crazy delicious :)

shrimp polenta cakes

shrimp polenta cake closeup

1/2 Odwalla banana nut bar

[120 calories]

Total calories consumed: ~1565

WORKOUTS

I resumed my 10K training and during lunch completed a 5.5 mile run (on the treadmill) + 0.5 mile walk. I started out a little slow (it’s been 3 days since I ran!) but quickly my legs got used to the activity and I was able to increase my speed (but didn’t crazy push myself as recommended). Here is what my run looked like:

  • 4 miles at 6.2-6.5 mph (increasing by 0.1mph every mile – I hate running at the same speed for too long!)
  • 0.75 miles at 6.6 mph
  • 0.5 miles at 6.7 mph
  • 0.25 miles at 6.8 mph

I felt like I could push it harder, but since it’s my first running day for the week, I’m sure my legs will appreciate not being shot. Workout stats:

  • Duration: 0:58 (+ stretching)
  • Calories burnt: 529 (35% fat)
  • Ave HR: 151 (78%); Max HR: 164 (85%)

After work I did Level 2 of Shred (because Adam joined me). I really wasn’t feeling it, but it felt good to finish what I planned on. Sometimes you just have to do it!! Shredding stats:

  • Duration: 0:25 (+stretching)
  • Calories burnt: 168 (50% fat)
  • Ave HR: 127 (65%); Max HR: 154 (79%)

    • Lastly, since my blender died (tear) do you have any recommendations for a new one? I’d love a Vita-Mix but it’s so expensive. Boo! :(

    [Read more →]

    The streak continues

    November 7th, 2008 · 4 Comments · NYC streaking challenge, breakfast, polenta, salad, snacks

    Streak day 4, 7 days ’till NYC…

    Another excellent day today. Sorry if I keep starting these last few posts the same way, but I’m just always so excited about my good food choices and I feel great! Work is busy, but it doesn’t matter because I just feel good about myself which translates into feeling good about everything else. Ok, onto food… :D

    Breakfast

    ‘Nuff said? Jk! This breakfast is not only extremely photogenic but is also extremely delicious! In this cup was about 3/4 cups of nonfat yogurt, 1/2 banana, a serving of TJ’s american trek mix, some kashi golean and Erin’s double chocolate granola. I definitely wanted more when I finished, but that’s because there was chocolate involved and I always want more chocolate :D This breakfast was slightly more calories than my typical breakfasts (the addition of granola was the extra) because I was planning on doing an 8 mile run during lunch and wanted to increase my calorie intake a little bit to fuel this workout.

    Pre-workout Snack
    Again, this one was a little bit on the larger size for a snack for me. Last night I made this little sandwich and photographed it before packing it up…

    Whole wheat “british muffin” (from TJ’s) with a tablespoon of spreadable fruit and a little over 1/2 tablespoon of natural pb (mix of chunky and smooth). The spreadable fruit made the muffin slightly soggy, but it was still pretty yummy and was definitely good fuel for later :)

    Workout
    I’ve been meaning to do this 8 mile run since last Friday, but things just kept coming up. I’ve never run longer than 7 miles before, but the 7 miles didn’t feel like my limit, so I figured I should be able to do the 8. I still get nervous almost every time before I run. I don’t know why. I always do well. In fact, let me fastward to my workout today… I kicked butt! At mile 7 I kept on increasing speed at which point I actually had to slow down on purpose so as to not injure myself. I didn’t want to regret this run, but yeah, I definitely could have done this faster or run longer. Awesome! I actually forgot to look at the clock on the treadmill (yes I ran 8 miles on the treadmill! It was no problem for me, I was just watching tv the entire time)… but I averaged 6.4 mph, so maybe it took like 73 minutes or so?? I also did 0.15 mile walk for warmup and 0.15 mile walk for a cooldown… and I stretched after my run. I really wanted to make sure I wake up tomorrow and am able to walk :D

    Do you ever slow down on purpose or do you just give it your all?

    LunchJustify FullLunch today was leftovers from last night: hamburger stroganoff. It was still super delicious!!!

    I also had a pear for “dessert.” It was super juicy and delicious!

    Afternoon snack
    I had a hair appointment after work so I decided to have a quick snack so I wouldn’t be starving when I finally got home. I tried a new kind of KIND bar: walnut & date.

    OMG, I am seriously in love with kind bars!!!! This is the second kind I’ve had one (well actually I tried another kind at a little tasting they had at Whole Foods and loved it too) and I love love loved it! Here is the picture of the bar up-close:

    See how there are huge chunks of dates?! You can actually taste the ingredients, which are basically dates, walnuts and honey (there are a few others in there but these are the main ones). Awesome! I can’t wait to dig into my next one (I kind of bought every kind they had in the store :P )

    Dinner
    My husband went out while I was getting my hair done so I was on my own for dinner. He doesn’t really like salads and I seriously crave them, so this was definitely a salad night! I put the salad together but then realized it was too low-cal, so I made little polenta stacks, inspired by Caitlin. For the salad dressing I wanted a nice balsamic vinegrette (I think it goes perfect with spinach) but we didn’t have any at home because I can’t stand any of the low fat kinds and I never bought the full fat version until my recent goddess dressing purchase. I brought the goddess dressing to work, so I couldn’t use it tonight, but it actually inspired me to make my own. I remembered the tahini in it and thought that’s maybe the ingredient that makes the balsamic vinegrettes that I’ve liked before cloudy. I started putting a bunch of stuff together and it came out really well! I was super inpressed with myself :)

    So here is dinner altogether:

    The salad had spinach, some grape tomatoes, 1/3 oz of dried cranberries, 1/4 oz of pecans, and 1/2 oz of goat cheese. This is a really great combo!

    My dressing consisted of (I think):
    - 1 teaspoon of EVOO
    - 1 teasp
    oon of tahini
    - 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
    - 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
    - 1/2 teaspoon of honey
    - S&P to taste

    And then the polenta stacks… I cut up 1/4 of a polenta log into 4 circles, baked them in the toaster oven for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees, topped them with 1/2 oz of cheddar cheese (I was going to use fresh mozzarella but it went bad :( ) and broiled it for a few more minutes. Here they are out of the oven:

    And put together, on the side of my large salad:

    And ouf course I couldn’t end the meal without dessert so I had 1/4 serving of TJ’s chocolate covered edamames. Yum!

    And that brought me to 1650 calories exactly for the day. Funny how that worked out!

    So here are my goal results for today:

    NYC streaking challenge – day 4:
    Calories (1200 – 1650) – DONE – 1650 exactly
    Fitness – DONE- 8 mile run + 0.3 mile walk
    Water – DONE – 8 cups
    F/V – DONE – banana, mushrooms, pear, kind bar (dates), spinach, grape tomatoes, slices tomato, cranberries

    And that’s it for today. Do you like the new format (breaking it up into sections)?

    Related Posts with Thumbnails

    [Read more →]