Peace out, V-town

*Cue beginning of Usher's "Yeah"* (feeling a little old school)

How are you all?? IT'S FRIDAY!
And I'm all packed up (finally...):

fastest blog post EVER since I have to leave for the airport in 10 minutes! Ay ay ay!

I woke up early to a giant breakfast cookie:

Ran 4 miles and walked .5 to cool down, dropped Bella off at the groomer, and dropped Viesa off at Megan's --VS is too big to fit under the seat in front of me and I didn't want to put her under the plane, so the amazing Megan and her pilot are watching her for me this week.

Snack:

So good!

I did laundry, cleaned, packed, went to pick up new contacts (because I know I'll rip or lose one of mine on vacation), and picked up Bella (who looks gorgeous)

Lunch:

roasted tomatoes, onions, with fresh rosemary, sea salt and pepper

Salmon burger with lots of ketchup and mustard:

Airplane food!!!

Megan packed me some snacks :D I made the dehydrated apple (with lemon and cinnamon), and she packed me some spelt sesame sticks, dehydrated mulberries (!) and persimmon, which I've been wanting to try since I saw it on The Salad Girl

I grabbed a Luna bar too, since it's gonna be late night

And I'm off! See you tomorrow from beautiful Tucson, AZ! I'm so stoked to see my familia and Tucson friends :D

xoxo,

Gina

I could eat Indian food all the live long day

Hey everyone! It's THURSDAY! One wake-up until FRIIIIDAY when I am on a plane on the way to Tucson! AHHHH! I'm just so excited :D

First:

Homemade fruit roll-ups that I made in the dehydrator to send to the pilot!

Strawberry banana

I think he'll like them :D Some people have asked what brand my dehydrator is- it's an Excalibur 9 tray which is like the Rolls Royce of food dehydrators. When I asked my friend Megan what kind to request for my birthday, she basically said to get an Excalibur or don't get one at all.

Second:

I have seen quite a few breakfast cookies floating around the blogworld!!! I'm so glad you guys like them! I also wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to those of you who link back to my site when you make one-- the b-fast cookie is my favorite creation and I appreciate the shout-outs in a world where it's very easy to pawn ideas off as if they're your own. So thank you thank you thank you! <3

To rewind a little, yesterday I grabbed my favorite bar ever created (and the last one in Valdosta) to munch 1/2 before spin and 1/2 before Zumba.

I made a new spin playlist and to those of you who teach, like to spin or run download the Fallout Boy version of "Beat It"-- it is an AMAZING sprinting song. Great for spinning or for high intensity intervals if you like to run :D What's the one song that gives you that extra kick of energy when you're working out??

Between spin and Zumba, I burned 890 cals :-O

The two wives who were supposed to meet Megan and I for Indian food ended up not being able to make it, so of course Megan and I went anyway.

I got my favorite, Baigan Bharta, which is pureed roasted eggplant, veggies and spices

Whole wheat naan:

Here's my plate with the eggplant dish, naan and some of the vegetable dish Megan ordered

I also had a glass of Merlot :D

We came back to my casa to chill and make my submission for this week's BSI

The fabulous Lindsay at For the Love of Oats chose pumpkin for the Blogger Secret Ingredient and I knew right away what I wanted to make:

PUMPKIN BANANA ICE CREAM

- 1/2 cup soaked raw cashews

-2 containers of vanilla Oikos (or any greek yogurt of your choice, but if you have access to Thai Young coconut, use the meat instead--- sadly we are in desperate need of a coconut run so I had to improvise)

-1 tbs vanilla extract

-2 tbs pumpkin pie spice

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1/3 cup agave nectar

-1 small ripe banana

Blend all of the ingredients in a blender then pour into the ice cream maker. Wait 20 minutes and Voila!

Garnish with candied pumpkin seeds (which we didn't have either, so we used cinnamon)

We ate our ice cream, drank some more vino and it was a pretty wonderful night :D

This morning, I got up pretty early and made some pumpkin oats:

-1/3 cup oats

-1/2 cup pumpkin

-1 small mashed banana

-2/3 peanut butter Gnu bar on top

I met with some of the wives at the food bank to volunteer for two hours. It was so nice to chill with the girls and do a little something to help others. In undergrad, I used to volunteer a lot for a club I was in and really enjoyed it. Do you have any holiday philanthropy traditions??

When I left, I munched a Larabar on the way home.

The Cherry Pie was a little tart for my taste, but I still liked it

(Hard to read... I think I need a new camera for Christmas... hint, hint mister pilot)

I grabbed a small handful of cashews, and before I made an unitentional snack monster of myself, I decided to make a salad.

Fiesta style- vegetarian refried beans, spinach, Texas Pete, tomatoes and jalapenos

I still have a pretty hefty to-do list for the day- laundry, pack, choreograph for step, hit the gym for upper body, teach step, go to school, dinner party.... and tomorrow is even crazier before I leave.

So I'm going to try to blog tomorrow, but if things get too hectic around here, I will see you Saturday from beautiful Tucson!!! I would blog from the airport but it might be a little tough since I'll have a puppy with me :D

Have a wonderful day!

Love,

G$

The shrimpies made me do it!!!

Hey everyone! Happy Humpday! Hope you're all having a great day so far :D

Yesterday afternoon, I had a lovely Gnu bar for a snack:

When it was lunchtime, I brought out a snowman plate:

Covered him in a raw taco shell made out of dehydrated corn, chopped jalapenos, yellow bell pepper, flax and salt and topped with vegetarian refried beans, salsa, spinach, and jalapenos (because I live for spicy)

It was one giant taco of glorious joy:

I packed a Luna and apple to eat in between teaching step and going to school:

(I really, really like the oatmeal raisin flavor Luna)

Teaching step was awesome --even though we had a small class of 6-- we burned 400 cals and I left for escuela.

WE GOT OUT OF CLASS 2 HOURS EARLY!!!! WHooooo hoooo! It's a 3 hour class (I don't know why I did it to myself either), and our teacher is supercool. I was stoked because I could make it to Ichiban on time for Jeni's bday dinner.

I had no intention of ordering a full meal.

I was going to get a salad, a sashimii order, have a little cake and call it a night.

That is, until I saw the shrimpies.

If you are a fairly new Fitnessista reader, you may not know how much I love shrimp. This is the #1 reason why I can never be a full-up vegetarian.

So all inhibitions flew out the window and I ordered the hibachi shrimp with no rice.

And golly gee, was it amazing.

Soup:

 

Salad:

Veggies:

Topped with succulent shrimp:

You know I ate the whole thing. I was full to the brim.

Well, not too full for cake... There's always room for cake :D

Look at this beautiful ice cream cake:

My piece:
 

We had a great time, great food, and fabulous company as usual :D

I went home, bundled up like an Eskimo and crashed out with my puppers.

And overslept.

I was going to train a friend this morning, so I grabbed one of these running out the door:

It was a little too sweet for me in the morning, but it held me over wonderfully.

When I got home, I made a banana sandwich and then met Megan at Bizzle for some coffee.

I got some kind of orange tea:

I ran some errands, walked the puppies and devoured a whole butternut squash in fry form (which is becoming a typical occurrence) with some Annie's ketchup for lunch:

I'm eating fairly light today because I'm meeting some friends for INDIAN FOOD tonight and also making a BSI recipe for dessert :D

I have been going out to eat a LOT this week, which I don't usually like to do. However, I leave for Tucson in 2 days and see no point in buying more groceries for 1 person (I have fruits, veggies, bars, and oatmeal-- the necessities), so I'm gonna roll with it. Also, I hate to turn down dinner invitations with good friends :D

I'm off to make a new spin cd, teach spin and Zumba, then dinner with the girls.

See ya later gators,

G

I'm dreaming of a Tucson Christmas...

Hey everyone! I finally broke out the holiday music! I've been listening to it all day and love it! What's your favorite holiday song? My favorite fun song is "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and pretty song is "O Holy Night" (the Charlotte Church version is gorgeous)

I loved reading about your mascots- some of them were totally hilarious. I think it's a toss up between the Poets (the "pen is mightier than the sword") and the HOT DOGS! Processed meat can be frightening but not anything to shake up a football player. Haha.

Last night, when I got home from Zumba, I brought out a snowman plate (I adore snowmen)

Covered him up with a Mediterranean pizza crust blanket (which was dehydrated raw cashews, yellow squash, flax, water and sea salt.... I'm getting good use out of my new dehydrator!)

 

And topped it with hummus, roma tomato, spinach and kalamata olives

It was delicious! My sweet tooth kicked it, so I squashed him with one of these little loves:

I studied, watched Dancing With the Stars, and called it a night.

This morning I woke up to a protein-free b-fast cookie:

I used:

1/2 cup oats

1 tbs AB

1/8 cup milk

1 packet of Stevia and some cinnamon

and a whole mashed nanner

A lot of people have been asking if the cookie would work without the protein powder. I wanted to try it myself before I gave an answer and can now confidently say that yes it does! :D Is it delicious? Yes. Is it the same texture? Almost. Which one is better? The protein version. This one was still very, very good, but I think if you give me a choice between something that has chocolate and something that doesn't, you know I'm gonna roll with the chocolatey option. Maybe I could add a tbs of cocoa powder?? That might make it perfect....

I hit up the gym for a low-key leg workout since I'm teaching step tonight:

Elliptical	Cross Country 1, Level 5, 10 minutes
Hip raise with flat weight	Hold for 45 seconds then do 12 calf raises; 3 sets
Stability ball plie with inner thigh squeeze	Body weight, 3 sets of 12
Weighted step-ups with knee lift	8 lbs each, 3 sets of 10
V-glutes	Body weight, 3 sets of 12
Hip abductor	50 lbs, 3 sets of 12
Total time: 35 mins

 

When I got home, I was ready to snack, so I grabbed 1/2 yellow bell pepper and hummus and some grapes:

I'm still a little hungry, so I might grab a bar to take with me to walk the puppies.

Here is a daily dose of Viesa:

And Bella:

The rest of the day includes:

-walking the puppies on the base trail

-reading for Finance

-Choreographing for step

-teaching

-school

-out with the girls for Jeni's bday!!! (I'm keeping my fingers crossed I get out of class EARLY!)

busy busy....

Hope ya'll have a HAPPY TUESDAY!

Love,

G

I said BRRRRR! It's cold in here!

There must be some Cougars in the atmosphere!

(Yes, my HS mascot was a cougar. Did anyone have a ridiculous mascot? Hahah some of my friends were Penguins. Not so intimidating)

Helloooooooooo! Happy Monday!

I knew it would be a good day since I started it with one of these:

A BREAKFAST COOKIE

Today it consisted of 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1/8 cup almond milk, I packet of Stevia, pumpkin pie spice, and Caramel Drizzle coffee

Another reason it was a good day: I got to video chat with the pilot!!! We've had webcams for a while but just now set up everything so we could talk and it was amazing. After the tough day yesterday, it was just what I needed.

Speaking of yesterday, thank you so very much for all of your words of encouragement and support. It means the world to me and I hope you know how much I appreciate it. Thank you also to those of you who de-lurked to step out and say something sweet!! You all know how to make a girl feel like a million bucks :D

For snack, I had a Banana Cookie Larabar for the first time (and it tasted just like banana bread!), and some grapes.

I took the puppies to the base trail for their walk, and thought I'd snap a pic to show you guys where I usually run.

Not too shabby, eh?

 

Here are the puppers:

During the walk, I was freezing!!! I finally warmed up by the time we left (about 40 minutes later!) and was wishing I had a nice, warm beanie to keep my ears warm since it's getting colder.

Someone must have known I was in desperate need of a beanie...

STONYFIELD!

The wonderful Sarah at Stonyfield Farm was generous enough to send me a super cute beanie --which I had been coveting ever since I fist saw it in the blogworld-- and a BOATLOAD of coupons! Thank you so much Sarah!!!!

To celebrate, I decided to have the last Oikos that was sitting in the fridge.

Blueberry:

It was delicious. I loved the fruit at the bottom, the awesome amount of protein, the fact that Oikos is ORGANIC, and only 120 calories. Sign me up.

I'm thinking the vanilla flavor is the only one I don't like because I absolutely adored the honey flavor and really liked the blueberry as well. Next, I'm gonna give plain a whirl...

I also had my favorite bar ever created, which I finally found yesterday at Winn-Dixie and bought the only two they had left:

I studied a little, ran some errands (gas, post office and Wizzle... why can't Target be closer to the house??), then came back to the casa with a surprise for the puppies:

New jackets!!!

Doesn't Bella look beautiful?

And Viesa looks gorgeous in her green jacket:

Well I'm off to do a little more hw (blechhhhhh), then work on my Zumba dances, then off to teach. No spin tonight, so it will be a little break to have 1 hr of cardio instead of 2.

On another note: how INTENSE was Desperate Housewives last night?!?!?! Oh my goodness!

Have a wonderful day and I'll "see" ya soon!

xo,

G

Sunday run-day and Pilates party

Hey everyone!

Is the weekend really over already?! How is it that the weekdays kinda drag but the weekends fly by? Meh.

Dinner last night was so much fun!

Here's a pic of Megan and I:

13 of us went to the ever-delicious Charlie Trippers for dinner. Sorry for not posting the group shot but I don't want to weird any of the girls out by posting their face on the internet without asking :D

I started with a mixed green salad (spinach, romaine, arugula, pea tendrils and shaved celery tossed in champagne vinaigrette) with dressing on the side:

For dinner, I ordered my favorite tuna (sesame crusted yellow tail tuna, sliced served with Asian vegetables and soba noodles tossed in hoisin lime sauce) with no sauce and asparagus instead of noodles:

It was a great time-- the wives in our squadron are so much fun and I'm so lucky to be part of such an incredible group of dash ones (wives).

After dinner, Megan came back to my casa and we watched Made of Honor. Oh how I love McDreamy :D She also made some air popped popcorn and drizzled melted organic butter on it and sprinkled it with sea salt and nutritional yeast (which tastes just like cheese). I'm totally buying a popcorn popper-- it was seriously delish.

This morning, I reached into the macaroon jar (actually it's a Cool Whip container, but whatever) and had one of these before b-fast:

I was really craving some pumpkin oats --the pumpkin in the fridge sparked this craving since I need to eat it before it goes bad-- so I made some Nick-inspired pumpkin pie oats:

1/3 cup pumpkin

-1/3 cup oats

-1 small mashed banana

-1 tbs AB

Renee and I met up for a long run- a little over 7 miles!!! Yowza!!

It felt glooooorious, too. What is this?! Am I turning into a runner????

We did 1 hr 10 minutes (including 5 minutes of walking to cool down) and burned 540 cals.

I came home to let the puppers out and grabbed some food:

I went back to Renee's house and our friend Ashley came over for a little Pilates party. Ashley is a Pilates teacher and she gave us an hour class in Renee's living room. It was the perfect way to stretch and tone after such an intense run. After Pilates, we were starving, so the 3 of us went to Barberitos for lunch.

I got the healthy salad with no meat-- it included lettuce, black beans, pico, guacamole, cucumbers, jalapeno, lime juice, mushrooms and hot salsa.

I killed it :D

After lunch, I came home and was greeted by the puppies and the pile of homework I've been avoiding.

I studied for a while, watched multiple episodes of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders while reading for Finance, and made some of the best fries ever.

Butternut squash!!! mmmm mmm!

See that little red blob on the plate??

Ya know what that is?!?

KETCHUP!!!

"Ketchup?" you say

YES! The special thing about this ketchup is that I haven't had ketchup in 6 years.

That's right, friends. 6 WHOLE YEARS of a ketchup-less existence.

When I began my weight loss journey, I had to give up my favorite food ever: french fries. I only ate ketchup with french fries and since it's usually laden with sugar and chemicals, that was out, too.

Until Annie's saved my life:

See? Eating healthy doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite things! Just find a healthy swap-- for me it was butternut squash instead of potatoes and Annie's ketchup instead of Heintz. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

I haven't eaten anything else today (except for the handful of grapes, macaroon and dip into the Almond Butter jar), and I know I should, but the thing is my appetite is a little off again. It's been a weird day. I have a lot of fun with my friends and keep myself super busy, but with the holidays coming up and the pilot away, it's been a little rough. So I'm asking the calorie-counters out there who like to send me emails and leave comments telling me to eat more: please understand. I'll be back to normal soon and I know what I should eat, how much, blah blah, but I'm gonna do what feels right to me. I see food as fuel --incredibly delicious and amazing fuel--- and if I'm not hungry, I'm not going to force feed myself. Just think about the person you love more than anything in the world being thousands of miles away from you and there's nothing you can do about it. Hungry now?? I know it's a job I signed up for, but it doesn't make it any easier. Just hang in there with me, k? :D

Hope you all have a great night!
See ya tomorrow,

G

A complimentary gobble, gobble

Hellooooooo!

Hope your Saturday is going well :D

I woke up bright and shining early for this morning's 5k race, and had a glorious b-fast of protein overnight oats with a crumbled macaroon on top:

How did they 5k go?

I can happily say I kicked its booty.

24:33!!! My fastest time EVER! I came in second place overall and first for my age group :D *cheers and does a little jig*

The prize?

A FREE TURKEY!!!! Hahahah

If I still ate turkey, I would have happily accepted it, but since I don't and we had the choice between a turkey or a Winn Dixie gift card, I rolled with the gift card.

Here's my shirt, number, and gift card:

The back of the shirt:

Pretty cute, huh? And long-sleeved which I love

After the race (I ran with Renee, who also set a new PR! Whoo hoo!), I came home to the puppies and banana sandwich with AB:

I cleaned the house like crazy and finished some much-needed hw.

For snack, the brown rice crispy treat Gliding Calm sent me:

 

(TJs is giving Glenny's a run for their money.. it was incredible! THANK YOU, Em!)

And still hungry, the rest of my never-fried beans with lettuce and salsita on top:

I took the babies on a walk, ran some errands, and went to the gym for weights.

I had no intention of doing more cardio today until I received my new Oxygen mag in the mail. I can't just sit and read a magazine --if I'm gonna sit still for a long time it's for something boring, like homework-- so I spent 20 minutes (super light intensity) on the elliptical before doing upper body.

Elliptical	20 minutes, cross country, level 1
Vertical chest press	20 lbs, 3 sets of 12
Straight-bar bicep curl	30 lbs, 3 sets of 12
Straight-bar tricep pressdown	40 lbs, 3 sets of 12
Upward row	30 lbs, 3 sets of 10
V-rope pullback	70 lbs, 3 sets of 12
Back extension	50 lbs, 3 sets of 12
LOTS of stretching	5 minutes

 

Total time: 45 minutes

When I got home, I had half of a AB & J pita and some grapies:

After doing some laundry, I grabbed an espresso cupful of brown rice cereal and almond milk.

To be honest I'm still way hungry. I'm trying to hold out for another hour because we're all doing to the fabulous Charlie Trippers for dinner. That Ahi Tuna is calling my name....

Hope ya'll have a great night! I'll be back tomorrow with fun pics from tonight's celebration

Much love,

G

Edited to say: I might have eaten another macaroon... and a half... but there's no pic, so who really knows, right? ;)