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.