Warrior Weekend, Part One!

This weekend was a BLAST! I highly recommend participating in the Warrior Dash. I cannot believe how much fun I had…

Our weekend started on Friday. As soon as I got off work, I rushed home to finish packing for our road trip to Austin. We were on the road a little later than we anticipated so we skipped dinner. I snacked on a handful of Quaker Mini Rice Cakes and the hubby grabbed a protein bar along the way. When we got there, we immediately picked up dinner. There is a bar-b-que place right down the street from my friends house so we went to pick up some Pok-e-Jo’s Bar-b-Que… I had a 2 meat plate with brisket and pork ribs with 2 sides: Jalapeno Corn Bread Casserole and Mac n cheese. This was delicious! 

source:

http://cafemunchkin.com/2008/09/02/pok-e-jos-bbq/

Saturday morning the hubby made some breakfast potatoes (from P90X recipe), scrambled eggs and bacon. Then, our friends busted out some salsa and flour tortillas, so we had breakfast tacos. I also had my daily Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte and we hit the road. This ‘fuel’ was probably not the best choice before our run…

We signed up for the 12:30 time slot but got stuck in crazy traffic. It took us an hour to go 2.5 miles. CRAZY!!

Anyway, when we arrived we had to rush to make it to the 1 PM start time. We didn’t have time to stretch or warm up really. We just started with the crowd. It was off to a slow start and finally we had time to spread out and jog a little. Shortly after beginning to jog, my calves started to tighten up and then I got a side stitch. It was horrible! I am pretty sure the lack of training in my new shoes was part of the problem…

I must say these shoes were AWESOME though. We had to run through a muddy river and they didn’t weigh me down like normal tennis shoes would have. I was really happy with them (aside from my calves and ankles being sore for the next 3 days).

If you've never heard of the Warrior Dash, it is a 5K with a crazy amount of obstacles, and costumes are encouraged. We had to run up and down crazy hills, jump over walls like hurdles, climb over cargo nets, run through a river, navigate through strings woven through trees, walk over planks, all kinds of things. It was such an awesome experience. I can't wait to do it again. The end was army crawling through mud under barbed wire before getting up to go through the finish line. Afterwards, we drank free beer, ate bratwursts (would have been turkey legs but they were out) and hung out with friends... I LOVED IT!

I will leave you with a muddy pic of an edited, costumed me:

Falling off the Wagon?

This was a pretty rough week for me on the P90X diet front. You see, we’re are on Phase II, Week 4 which is our rest week and resting we have done… Cooking every night is exhausting; going to 3 grocery stores in one day is even more exhausting and doing the workouts seems to put me overboard. Luckily, we have plenty of Recovery Drink in our household as I am addicted to it. SO GOOD! It’s the only reason I do the workouts. Ha, ok, enough of my Tony Horton quotes… 

Anyway, because cooking is so much work we ate at Subway for lunch quite a few times this week. I also skipped a workout on Wednesday and today. We were supposed to go to the gym to run. We have the Warrior Dash next Saturday. I feel so unprepared. I almost don’t want to do it AT ALL but we’ve already registered so we’re ‘pot committed’. Le sigh… 

The hubby and I went to a movie tonight. We saw Due Date and I don’t recommend it. It had its funny moments but I think I would have rather just Redboxed it when it comes out. On the way out, the husband had to pay a visit to the claw machine to win our dog a Smurf plush toy. Hopefully she doesn’t do to this one what she did to the last one…. 

Today’s food has been delicious. We had eggs, hash browns and OJ for breakfast, Subway for lunch, and then I ate an Auntie Anne’s pretzel as a snack. Full of butter and half salt and half cinnamon sugar. It was delish! I shared a couple bites with my husband. I ate some popcorn at the movies and 2 slices of the Meatloaf from the diet plan. The rest of the week was full of this:

Whirlwind

What a whirlwind of a weekend I had! In fact, I am still recovering from all the stuff we did.

Friday night, we did our P90X leg and back workout. I use the term ‘we’ very loosely here, seeing as how only my husband actually did his workout. While he worked out, I was busy surfing the Internet. But, oh well… this is a new week! We had a pretty early evening because we were going to be up at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday. We always look forward to Saturday’s Phase II breakfasts. OMG, breakfast potatoes?! And eggs! SCORE!

Enter Saturday… We overslept, missed breakfast, rushed to get ready, made a smoothie and headed out the door. We took a day trip to Dallas, which was an all day affair because we do not live day trip worthy to Dallas. It was my husband’s niece’s birthday so we were at least able to see her for a little bit and help celebrate. She is soooo cute and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we got home rather late, around 7:30 or so, and we skipped dinner. I was exhausted from the car ride so I immediately got home and ready for bed. Needless to say, we skipped Kenpo X on Saturday…

Sunday was a little more relaxing. I was able to get a little bit of work done and my husband was able to go to the grocery store for us to get groceries for the week. P90X is tough… I’m not going to lie. It is A TON of work. Yesterday I spent 45 minutes chopping vegetables for today’s lunch. We are always cooking (again, using the term ‘we’ loosely). My husband does most of the cooking. But it pays off. I have lost about 5 pounds (more or less on some days), and I can tell a difference in my body. I’m sure I could tell more of a difference if I cut back on the daily Starbucks.

I made a dessert full of my leftover Halloween candy and took it with us to Dallas. It was a hit! Of course it was, it was from Annie’s Eats, what do you expect? She is awesome. Here is the recipe:

(Image Source: bonappetit.com)

Ingredients
1 pound bittersweet chocolate bar
8 fun size Butterfinger candy bars, chopped
3 1.4-ounce Skor or Heath toffee candy bars, cut into irregular 3/4-inch pieces ( I omitted)
8 fun size peanut butter cups, each cut into 8 wedges
1/4 cup honey-roasted peanuts
3 ounces high-quality white chocolate, chopped
Reese's Pieces and/or yellow and orange peanut M&M's

Line baking sheet with foil. Stir chocolate chips in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until melted and warm to touch. Pour chocolate onto foil; spread to 1/4-inch thickness (about 12x10-inch rectangle). Sprinkle with Butterfinger candy, toffee, peanut butter cups, and nuts, making sure all pieces touch melted chocolate to adhere.

Put white chocolate in heavy small saucepan. Stir constantly over very low heat until chocolate is melted and warm (not hot) to touch. Remove from heat. Dip spoon into chocolate; wave from side to side over bark, creating zigzag lines. Scatter Reese's Pieces and M&M's over, making sure candy touches melted chocolate.
Chill bark until firm, 30 minutes. Slide foil with candy onto work surface; peel off foil. Cut bark into irregular pieces.

Skipping the Workout thing….

I haven’t been feeling well the past two days. I skipped yesterday’s workout, chest, triceps and shoulders and today’s workout, yoga. However, I am certain I will complete tomorrow’s workout, chest and back. Despite how much I hate the legs and back routine, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. See, tomorrow I am going on a field trip, which equates to a much needed break from my regular classes. This year has been absolutely exhausting, and it’s only the beginning of November. In fact, here’s a few conversations I’ve had this week… 

Mrs. Nguyen, do you have a child by the name of Chris?

No, I do not have any kids.

Oh, ok. I found this kid’s ID card and he had the same last name as you, so I figured he must be your kid or related to you somehow.

Hmmm… ok.. I’m 29 years old. How freaking old do you think I am to have a kid in High School??! Nevermind, don’t answer that. I don’t want to be depressed the rest of the day. And SERIOUSLY? NGUYEN is the most commonly used last name on Earth. Read a fucking book for once, kid… (LOL, that’s a movie quote… any guesses?)

And here’s another conversation from today:

Your assignment is on page blah, blah, blah. You need to open the book and complete the assignment. Do you all understand? Do you have any questions?

:a student raises his hand:

Yes?

Mrs. Nguyen, do you know what your first name means?

*sigh* Does anyone have any questions related to the assignment?

It reminds me of this youtube video my husband showed me. It absolutely sums up the life of a high school teacher. I will leave you with it. Watch it and revel in the fact that you are not a teacher. 

Happy Halloween!

Today was super productive. The husband and I had to go to the grocery store to get things needed for this next week of P90X. We are on Phase 2, Week 3. We always end up spending a lot on these trips. We had to make many stops today. 

First things first: Breakfast! I woke up early to get my daily Starbucks and some eggs from Kroger to make Sunday Pancakes. As soon as I got home I got to work and made the husband and myself 3, 3.6 oz whole wheat pancakes. The hubby couldn’t even finish his serving… I’m not going to lie, 10.8 oz of pancakes is A LOT! Especially when they are super dense made with whole wheat flour and wheat germ.

I lost more weight! Woo hoo!! I weighed myself before my massive food consumption occurred and I lost another .8 pounds. These little numbers are starting to add up. I was feeling pretty proud of myself considering how bad the hubby and I ate yesterday. 

After breakfast, we headed out for our multiple stops: Costco, the Asian Food store, HEB, Starbucks (yes, again) and Subway for lunch. We stocked up on the regular stuff at Costco: Turkey Jerky, Water, string cheese and Kashi Bars to get us through the afternoon snacks. From Costco, we headed straight to the Asian Food store to stock up on a few things. The asian food store is the place to go for cheap stuff. We can get a whole pound of fresh basil for less than $2. We also bought some shrimp and some tuna before we headed off to HEB. Then, we ate Subway for lunch and I may have snacked on some Halloween candy throughout the afternoon… Ok, I did… I ate some butterfingers and a reese’s peanut butter cup. I’m hoping we have leftover candy so I can try the recipe Halloween Bark from Annie. Not that I need it because it’s clearly not on the diet but I can give some away, right??

Lola is not a fan of the Halloween costume we bought for her. You're not supposed to eat it, silly dog.

Dinner was delicious. Filet Mignon with Pear and Peppercorn sauce and some portabella mushrooms. While I don’t really enjoy any of the workouts on P90X, I have been really happy with every recipe from their cookbook. 

Fun Times, Better Beer

Today was a pretty good day! I woke up at 7:15 to the yummy smell of brisket in the house. My husband smoked a brisket this morning for his brother’s 21^st birthday today.

After I woke up and munched on a couple bits and pieces of brisket, I got ready for the day and had my daily Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. When I got home my husband had already cooked us our Saturday P90X breakfast: Breakfast Potatoes and 2 eggs over medium. I forgot to take a picture so I will instead show you my husband’s picture/portion. My pile of potatoes was about half of that. 

We packed up the brisket and sausages and headed out to Saint Arnolds Brewery. It was so fun! We arrived and purchased our glass and 4 tokens for beer tastings. We found the rest of the family and dug in to the food. I ate 1 slice of wheat bread stuffed full of brisket, bar-b-que sauce and a pickle. Then I had some sausage slices stuffed in another slice of bread topped with bar-b-que sauce. Soooo good. 

CAKE! Hubby and I shared a slice. And, yes, the brother in law did get a Hello Kitty birthday candle!

I also drank 2 glasses of St. Arnolds Lawnmower brew. I actually liked it. It was really light and I prefer light beer.  

I came home, took a nap and woke up to make a smoothie FAIL. I will never get the measurements right for a decent smoothie. This one was bland so I threw it out and instead, I broke into the Halloween candy bag and ate 2 fun size butterfingers. 

I read some blogs and decided to do some Kenpo X. Kenpo X was actually pretty fun today. I think it’s growing on me! Beats the heck out of leg day…

All this P90X talk has gotten my parents to start the program. Their first day is Monday so I wish them lots of luck!

Munchies

I have been hungry all day! I think it was because today’s breakfast was only a strawberry banana protein smoothie.

I tried to make a decent smoothie but I’m still having issues getting my Vitamix calculations right. I used half a cup of frozen strawberries, ½ frozen banana, 1 cup of skim milk, and 2 tbsp of Whey Protein Powder. It wasn’t very good. I had to drink it on ice because it was not smoothie cold.  Even after I drank my daily Pumpkin Spice Latte, I still felt unfulfilled. I ate my Chocolate Almond Kashi bar by 9:15 AM and was starving by 11! I ate some turkey jerky until lunch. Lunch was a monster of a sandwich. 

It was so good… That’s tomatoes, lettuce and a little deli mustard with 6 oz of turkey lunch meat.

By the afternoon, a student gave me a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup that I happily scarfed down. I do miss my junk food on this P90X diet/workout plan. 

I’ve been extra tired lately. I think the more intense workouts are starting to get to me. I came home and pushed myself through only 45 minutes (or so) of my Thursday P90X Yoga session. The 90 minute yoga session is just too much! I definitely need more rest days but I need to start training for the WARRIOR DASH!! It’s only 3 weeks away and I have yet to start really training for it. This will be my first 5K and I have sadly neglected putting any effort into it. I will start running on Saturday. For sure!