Workout:

Snuck in a few minutes on the home elliptical early in the morning yesterday.

Taught my usual classes at the Y last night. I made sure not to leave any muscle group untouched in my strength training class.

I always start the class with big moves for the lower body. Last night it was squat, reverse lunge, squat, revers lunge (on opposite side). We went through that about a billion times with different tempos and pulses, etc.

I also tried this shoulder move I found in Self Magazine out on my class last night and it was a goodie.

I don’t know what possessed me to get on the rowing machine last night at the gym, but I did. Maybe because my friend Janae rocked the rowing machine while she was injured.

Couldn’t remember the last time I was on one. I’m pretty sure it was college. I stayed on there just long enough to break a little sweat, realize it didn’t feel that great on my lower back and figure out that you could indeed adjust the foot things so your feet stay in place..

That was 20 minutes.

I’m not really thinking that I’ll be going on it again anytime soon, but you never know. This Men’s Health article says it’s one of the best total-body workout cardio machines. I think I need to do a bit more research on it first.

The YMCA gymnastic center in town has this cool thing once a week called “open gym” for preschool age kids. We’ve been wanting to try it out for awhile, but finally had the opportunity yesterday.

Pretty darn cool. Best $10 entertainment we’ve had for awhile. We will definitely be going back.

Here’s a couple random pictures just because. My sweet roasted kabocha squash I ate cold and plain for a change yesterday. It was still marvelous all by it’s lonesome.

My afternoon drink was a mix of Good Earth Sweet and Spicy tea, apple cider vinegar and a CocoaVia summer citrus packet.

I always have to have a little something fun to drink in the afternoon with a little caffeine to get me through the rest of the day. Anyone else?

Okay, so I felt pressure to experiment with the Quest Nutrition Pastabilities noodles from my last post. Last night I went with the spinach ones.

They remind me a lot of the tofu shirataki noodles, except they’re not made of tofu.

I prepared them just like the package said.

Drain.

Rinse.

Drain again. Dry. (A lot. I tried to get as much of the water off as possible.)

Microwave.

They definitely do have a weird smell when you open them. The package calls it an “ocean scent”. I’m not sure that’s how I would describe it, but it does go away after rinsing the noodles.

I tasted one noodle plain. Not recommended.

Then I piled the rest of the noodles on some seriously roasted broccoli slaw, brussel sprouts and chicken.

I topped it all with my favorite toppings

and created one heck of an Italian feast bowl.

I also had to add a little fresh basil from my plant.

Not too shabby.

They were definitely fun to play with and if you’re someone who loves pasta, but doesn’t want all the carbs I’d say to give them shot. Quest Nutrition knows what they’re doing. Make sure you follow the directions on the package though and don’t expect them to taste just like pasta. They are chewier and the texture is a bit different, but they are pretty good. They don’t have much of a taste so I’d imagine you could do a lot with them.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. My wonderful friends at SunButter have a little post of mine up on their page.

Check it out here and give SunButter a little loving. Ironic that I share marathon getting ready tips and I have a race I’m supposed to do in two weeks that I will not be getting ready for. Ha.

Okay, long day today. A gym meeting and some doctor visits. Good times.

Rowing machine- yay or nay?

Have you tried the Pastabilities or low carb noodles like that? What do you think?

Personally, if I really want pasta I want the real deal (same goes for pizza), but I like the idea of having low carb noodles on hand for times when you’re craving them and don’t really want all the carbs.

Wednesday Workout:

Taught spin. (Complete with a few new songs thanks to you. I’ll share my play list once I get it organized.)

30 minutes on the stair mill and 30 minutes on the elliptical

I’m a little scatter brained this morning. So….

random Thursday thoughts it is.

I love these carts at Vons. Definitely helps grocery shopping with toddlers easier. However, it never fails that by the time we are paying for our groceries someone is having a meltdown.

Thankfully there is also a Starbucks inside Vons. Ha.

After cutting all those coupons, I forgot to take them yesterday. Duh.

Then while unloading groceries I realized we’re down to the last roll of paper towels. Lovely.

I went for my first Chobani Flip cup yesterday.

Almond Coco Loco did not disappoint.

I don’t know about you, but I’m usually not one to just eat a yogurt right out of the container. I always have to add something or use the yogurt as a topping.

Yesterday I got a little out of control with my flip.

Um, yeah. It was a topping for one monster of a creation.

A sweet roasted kabocha squash with a 120 calorie dark chocolate microwave muffin baked in half of it also topped with a little NuttZo and SunButter and some PB2 powder.

Holy cow.

You need to see it again, yes?

I found a dead bug in a Trader Joe’s power to the greens bag last night.

I thought about still eating the rest and taking just the bug out, but I just couldn’t do it.

This guy has me on my toes this fine morning.

I just caught him getting into the GNC key lime protein powder. He was licking it up from the counter. Lovely. The shirt is quite appropriate.

Hmm… now I’m craving a key lime pie muffin.

I’ve been loving an iced cinnamon coconut americano lately as my drink of choice.

It works much better when the cinnamon and coconut oil are added first though, not like in this picture. It’s also better when sipped with a glass straw.

I got some new Quest Nutrition Pastabilities noodles in the mail the other day to try out.

Has anyone tried these? I might experiment with them tonight. I’m curious to see how they taste.

Okay. I’m off. Enjoy your day!

Well hello!

Workout:

30 minutes of the darn stair mill, 30 minutes on the elliptical

Taught a 45 minute interval BOSU class and left some serious sweat on the floor. I was dripping, it was kind of embarrassing actually, but hey, it felt darn good afterwards.

Here’s the NuttZo Giveaway winners first just in case that’s the only reason you’re reading today.

The winner who gets to try out a jar of the brand new, not yet released NuttZo creamy chosen by random.org is:

#261 Ashlei

The other 5 winners that will each receive 1 jar of each of the crunchy flavors are:

#120 Jennifer

#295 Jillian

#148 Kari

#251  Merle

#273 KristenB

Congrats! winners, email me your mailing information (kristin@stuftfitness.com) and I’ll forward it on to my nutty friends.

Dang, I’m not going to lie, I wish I could give away a lot more NuttZo to you all. Maybe I should just have a big blog party and have everyone over for some STUFT NuttZo Monkey Balls or NuttZo Doughtzel Balls. That sounds like a plan, yes?

So, I declared yesterday a “Mom Day”. There was so much work I needed to do, but I just didn’t feel like it. What I really wanted to do was just hang with my main men. So, that’s exactly what I did.

It was marvelous.

I’ve been a little grumpy with the whole injury situation lately and I finally decided that it was time to suck it up and really take advantage of it. I can talk all day how I’m thankful for the chance to slow down, but until I actually DO slow down it doesn’t really mean anything, right?

I did find time to do my exercises (with a little assistance).

Speaking of, this Friday I have a follow up appointment with my PT and an appointment with a new doctor who specializes in Osteopathic Manipulation and Prolotherapy. I’m a little nervous, but at this point am getting desperate to just not be in pain every day. I think it’s more my hip dysplasia that’s causing me trouble now rather than the torn hamstrings. Who knows.

My mom told me I should give up running and find a new “hobby”. I told her running is one of the few things I feel like I know I’m meant to do in life. I guess time will tell which one of us is right.

I did get this paper randomly in the mail yesterday about the Big Sur Marathon I was at a couple of weeks ago.

The woman who won is 42 years old. I’ve got time friends if all goes well. I would LOVE to come back strong and run well. I’m not too old for that am I? Dang, I have some pretty big dreams. Kinda silly.

I may be giving up the next few races I have planned unfortunately, but then I can focus on making the Big Sur Half Marathon (in November) my comeback race if that’s the way life works out.

We shall see.

It’s better to have big dreams than none at all, yes?

Anyhoo….

the rest of “Mom Day” looked a little like this.

Don’t they looked thrilled they got to hang out with me all day?

This changed their mind a bit.

Yes, that’s right, I totally pretended like microwave kettle corn was cereal. It’s what the cool moms do I guess. Also in that massive mug bowl- cake batter protein shake, a PB Crave Quest Nutrition cup and PB2.

I even cut coupons yesterday, even though I’m 99% sure I’ll never use them.

We made Sarah’s sneaky chocolate pudding.

It was for dessert, but I guess it was a bit of an appetizer too.

Dinner was these Costco pierogies for the third Tuesday in a row.

I got smart and baked them in a dish with Smart Balance, olive oil, some Italian seasoning, garlic and parmesan. I covered it with aluminum foil and just baked it like Lazy Mama Lasagna.

They came out perfectly (for a change).

Hey, fitting that on my “Mom Day”, this STUFT Mama got a little feature on the Chobani Champions website for a cool Mamapalooza thing they’re doing. You can read the short interview here. The best part are the quotes at the end from the boys about what a good mommy does. Um, yeah.

Speaking of Chobani, we recently got one heck of a delivery from our favorite yogurt company. I pretty much “flipped” over all these new cups.

I’ve been drooling over them at the grocery store. I’m too excited about them I don’t even know which one to try first. You should also probably know that I told STUFT Daddy he couldn’t touch them until I could take pictures, and then told him we had to split them equally.

Aren’t I nice?

Okay, gotta work on my spin list for class today. You gave me some darn good songs I’m going to try to impress my class with. Thank you so much for that. I better get on it.

Oh, I almost forgot. Today is the last day to get FREE SHIPPING on any Halo products. Use code HALOSHIP515 on their website. I’ll be sporting my headband for my class today.

Have a good one!