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!

P90X - Chest, Shoulders and Triceps

Last night we ate Pho for dinner… I ate the pho with filet mignon and it was soooo good. Too bad I woke up this morning and gained 2 pounds!! My husband gained two pounds also. So weird. Unfortunately, my weight has fluctuated up to the ten pound tier I just got out of. Very frustrating. I knew today I had to be extra good… 

This morning I ate my pear and granola muffin (recipe in P90X book) on top of one cup of plain yogurt. Then I drank my daily Pumpkin Spice Latte and ate my Chocolate Almond Kashi Bar. 

For lunch, I ate a 6 inch turkey, double meat on wheat Subway sandwich. Subway is right down the street from work so it is my go to lunch when hubby doesn’t feel like cooking. After lunch, I was unsatisfied. It was a pretty stressful day and my students were annoying me all day, so I caved and ate a chocolate bar with almonds. 

I came home and did my ridiculous workout: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. It was tough. I’m not going to lie, I wanted to quit QUITE a few times. But I worked through it, thank God, because I had to do Ab Ripper X afterwards. I quit Ab Ripper with only 7 minutes left. I did not have the energy today. And after dealing with parents, students and bosses, I figured I would call it a day and ‘slip a little recovery drink in my water’, as Tony always says and drank some of it outside... Ahhh, refreshing.

Dinner was 6 oz of chicken and a mushroom, squash and onion sauté. It was pretty good. I’m finally satisfied and ready for bed!

GOOD NIGHT!

The Low Times at Ridgemont High

I am a high school teacher. I must say most of the time, I love it! I try to make an impact on the kids, be personable, get to know them and tailor assignments to their liking. Sometimes, my tailor made assignments crash and burn.

Take last week, for instance. The assignment was to create a research paper using Word. I taught them how to create a Research Paper, you must have an introductory paragraph, include three paragraphs about the topics you introduced, and a conclusion to wrap up your paper. I admit, we only touched on these topics, because, hey! I’m a computer teacher, not an English teacher.

I think everything I covered went in one ear and out the other. Here are some of the gems that were turned in:

In October they have to important events, Columbus Day and Halloween.

Everyone celebrated the day Christopher Columbus came to America, which accrued October 12, 1492…

The American Dietetic Association (ADA) in March was the national nutrition month.  The ADA is United States' largest organization of food and nutrition professionals with nearly sixty seven thousands members. Approximately 75 % of ADA's members are registered dietitians and about 4 % are dietetic technicians, registered…

In this month of October there is this holiday named Halloween...

Today, we started a newsletter. I thought it would be a fun assignment to create a newsletter for the neighborhood they live in. The lesson didn’t go so well. We walked through the steps of creating a newsletter. Adding columns, section breaks, clip art, everything. At the end, I asked if they understood everyone had tons of questions. Turns out, no students even knew what a Newsletter was. Opps. Lesson failure #2…

I found out the students don’t learn five paragraph essays anymore. Instead, they are required to write very personal, descriptive paragraphs that don’t need to follow the normal conventions of a research paper. Now that I know this, I can plan accordingly. I don’t have to agree with it, though. All the teachers are aware that this is doing our students a huge disservice when they get to college, but who are we to change it? Just a few small voices who vent on a blog….

Where to Begin?

Yesterday was a pretty good day as far as the diet and fitness went…

I had to eat 1 cup of oatmeal (A LOT!), topped with ½ oz of raisins, 8 oz skim milk and 1 tbsp of protein powder. Breakfast was amended slightly to my liking; I topped it with about 2 tbsp of Libby’s Canned Pumpkin and about 1 tbsp mixed nuts. Also, my 8 oz of milk was actually a triple grande, three pump, non fat, no whip Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. It was only a few minor changes!

 

Lunch was chicken pasta pomodoro and dinner was:

6 oz extra lean burger patty

1.5 oz low fat cheddar cheese

2 cups salad greens with cucumbers and tomatoes and 2 tbsp dressing.

I should have also had ½ cup of fresh berries but have you been to HEB looking for berries in October? It’s not a pretty sight. Most of them are moldy, or they look like they will die by the time you get home from the grocery store. It’s so not worth it… We are considering trying frozen berries, now that we have the Vitamix!

Yesterday’s dinner was delicious!

I also did the Core Synergistics workout, which is not my favorite. Actually, I guess I can say that about all the P90X workouts. I always feel so much better after I finish them though, that’s the only thing that keeps me going.

When it was time for bed, I washed my face with my new toy: the Clairsonic face/body 

I must say it was awesome!! (Please note, this was not given to me by the company to review).

I have wanted one of these things for a few Christmases now, so when I saw it offered on qvc I ordered it right away. I felt a noticeable difference in my skin just after one use. CRAZY!

I will leave you with a not so great picture of my not so great smoothie I made yesterday. Still working on recipe ideas for the Vitamix…

What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?

Busy Day!

Today was such a busy day! I would love to blog about it but it’s time to get ready for bed! 

  

I will be back tomorrow with a long post including a product review, food and P90X summary, and a post about the stress that goes along with teaching high school students. That teacher would be me, by the way. I am a high school teacher who will occasionally vent, but will mostly try to share the words of wisdom passed to me from my students. 

See you tomorrow!