Dance Central

I love leftovers because then we can make steak omelets for breakfast! Oh man.. I'm going to be so meated out after this long holiday weekend. I voiced my concern to Tarek about eating too much meat and he suggested we eat the leftovers this week and go meatless next week. I agreed. I'll just have to make sure to eat red meat alternatives for lunch this week.

Yummmm.. this omelet was perfectly cheesy and salty from the meat. Delish!

She "waltzed" for her tiny piece of steak this morning. T likes to pretend our dog can dance. Cue the lights and music please.

In da gym: While doing the ab exercises with the ball, I realized how badly my core shape is. I could barely do 6 reps of the leg extension with the ball in between my legs! I'm going to try and squeeze out 8 reps next time and work my way up to 12- as pain free as possible. That will be my ab-tastic goal for the summer! :-D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vsAiarmZN4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2tzsjVfiz0

my muscle recovery potion never tasted so good!!

Protein smoothie for muscle recovery: I also made sure to stretch an extra long time after my workout. I did an overall total body stretch but placed a big emphasis on my hamstrings which were SUPER tight and sore last time.

• skim milk
• frozen berries: mixture of strawberries, blueberries, black berries raspberries, red currant
• banana
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• agave nectar
• scoop of protein powder

T made us lunch while I did some more Dance Central for Kinect. If you like to dance, I would definitely recommend getting this game. I'm currently working through some of the songs on the easy version. All you have to do is mirror the dancer on the screen and Kinect can detect your movements and award you stars on the basis of how many points you get aka how many moves you dance correctly. So far, I've already gotten four stars on four songs and five on one. Waaa hooo! *nerd alert!* As I get better, I fully intend on challenging myself and going from easy-medium-hard!

beef fried rice prepared thai style. I scarfed it down like it was my job. After eating we took Noms to the park and I layed down to finish my book. It was a very easy and semi enjoyable read but not one of my favorites.
http://www.emilygiffin.com/books/heartofthematter.php

Time to get my study on!

Memorial Day bbq

T made lunch for us yesterday after I got back from the gym. I stopped at the store and bought some shrimp and scallops (2 for £5!). Pasta sounded good to me after my tough workout. It actually felt good to sort of "suffer" through another workout. Thankfully, my body is adjusting and isn't as sore as last week when I couldn't move for like 4 days!

Mid afternoon snack of PnB and celery sticks to tide me over til dinner.

T made us a delicious dinner of lamb shanks done Provence style. The smell of the lamb cooking in the house was lovely :)

Mmm.. mmm.. mmm.. all over brown rice.

I didn't feel like anything in particular this morning so I made myself a protein smoothie for breakfast. I put some seeds and wheat germ on the bottom for extra vits and mins.

Smoothie and coffee. Breakfast of lazy Champions. :-D he. he. he.

toppings: Special K cereal, pistachios, goji berries, and raisins

Fridge is stocked for our Memorial Day bbq! Gee, could our fridge be any smaller!!

The hubby worked cooked while I was in charge of cleaning duties and keeping people topped up on beverages

lamb chops and shrimp skewers

Kefta and veggie skewers. The kefta was from Tarek's mom who sent it in a care package with his sister who came over for the bbq.

Miso soaked cod. I let everyone else dig in but got to sneak in a tiny bite; it was delicious and very flavorful.

I did help myself to a ginormous burger with cheddar cheese. It isn't a proper Memorial Day without a burger. I swear- it was worth the calories!

Rainbow trout for the pescetarians at the table. I didn't have any but I heard it tasted a bit like salmon. It looked yummy anyway.

Last but not least, some skirt steak to top off our meat feast!

Agenda: Off to salsa to burn off some of the calories..if I could only get my bum off this chair.. Blergh.

La Reve at Cafe De Paris

Quick snack before teaching Zumba. I spread a tablespoon of goat cheese and topped it with premade spaghetti sauce on wholewheat toast. It was quite yummy! Unfortunately, it didn't hold me through the class. I was SO tired after teaching. T brought up a good point and said maybe I shouldn't practice so much, especially on the day of teaching. It's just so hard to stop. Can't. stop. dancing! :-D

http://www.vitacost.com/ISS-Research-OhYeah-Protein-Bar-Almond-Fudge-Brownie

I grabbed a quick protein bar before T rushed me out the door to his surprise date night. By the way, these protein bars are ammaazing!!! It tastes like pure chocolate goodness and not grainy or "fake chocolate" tasting at all. Of course, this made me skeptical and I had to check out the nutritional stats. Not bad for 30 grams of protein. I had T sneak bites in with me so I wouldn't be eating the entire 350 calorie bar on my own. We were planning on going out to eat after his surprise. I definitely wouldn't eat these everyday but they are a great meal substitute for when you're on the run.

Drum roll puhhhhhhleaasseeeee...............

Tarek took me to Cafe De Paris to watch a Burlesque show called La Reve. We also got lucky because we were originally supposed to be standing in the balcony (there were no seats available!!) but the hostess approached us to let us know there were two seats downstairs at the dining tables and we were welcome to sit there and order our drinks from a waitress. Woo hoo! We got to enjoy the show from the comfort of our own seats. It was especially nice for me because my whole body was aching! :-D I love lucky streaks. I was very grateful to the hostess and tried to track her down afterwards to thank her but she had disappeared! The show was a bit risque, entertaining with comedic musicians, had a bit of magic and was a very different but fun night out.

breakfast before heading out to the gym. I'm going to try a new Tone it Up Workout found here:
http://toneitup.com/blog.php?Bikini-Workout-with-SELF-Magazine-5090
I love these girls and their workouts/fitness tips!

Agenda for the day: gym, study, watch some fooootball aka soccer!

T brought me my guilty celeb gossip pleasure!

ASOS

Arrrgh... I don't know why I didn't notice this blurry picture. I hardly ever take blurry pictures..especially if I have the right camera and not my Iphone. Weird!

I ran out of frozen fruit so I had to make due with a banana and spinach smoothie:

• 1 cup skim milk
• a couple heaping tablespoons of greek yogurt
• whole banana
• 3 cups spinach
• scoop of chocolate protein powder
• agave nectar
• ice

We ordered in last night and our excuse was because it was cruddy aka rainy and thunder all day. Okay.. actually no excuses, we just felt like eating junk food! :-D Hooray for junk food night and a couple episodes of Glee! We're getting caught up on the past season and btw..I can't believe Kurt got kissed by the jerk jock dude. didn't see that one coming!

I was awakened this morning by a pleasant surprise.. My clothes from ASOS came in! My friend recently told me about ASOS, an online shopping website. I immediately went on and ordered five new pieces of clothing. I'm going to return two of them because they didn't fit right. ahh the perils of online shopping. Here are the pieces I like:

It's got a sexy open back; perfect to show off a muscular or toned backside. Note to self. Must. keep. training. :)

love the fit but I'm not quite sure what to wear underneath it.. its kinda tight and sort of see through :P

for only 12 pounds.. not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Oatmeal breakfast

• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 mashed banana
• wheat germ, flaxseed mix
• crumbled pumpkin muffin on top to sweeten it up

I did more Zumba today for exercise and to refresh my memory for tonight's class. I also did a 10 minute ab segment from my Quick Tummy Toner dvd.

Made myself a chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread with ketchup, mayo and American cheese for lunch w. a side of chips and an unpictured salad. Too bad I didn't get the salad because it had all sorts of vegetables like green, yellow, and red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, and spinach. Yum!

My poor dog is stuck inside today because my hubby took both our sets of keys to work! :( Thankfully I was able to let her out to go pee while propping the back door open. Sigh... no one likes being stuck inside!!

Agenda: Zumba, then T is taking me out tonight but all I was told was a cryptic "dress up like you're going somewhere between Milk and Honey (the members only club) and a night out clubbing". Uhhmm..perdon?? Should be fun I hope!

Video of the day: The response from one of the patrons in this video is so touching.. inspirational really.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhl9MLno424

pumpkin spiced muffins

http://sweetandnatural.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/spiced-pumpkin-honey-muffins

I wanted to make something to top my oatmeal in the morning so I made spiced pumpkin muffins.

•  1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda

I made a mistake and added in too much pumpkin puree. The recipe called for half the 15 ounce can but I used all of it. Oopps!! It isn't baking with Hanna if there isn't a mistake or an accident in the kitchen!

• 1/2 can of pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt (substituted since I didn't have any applesauce)
• 1 cup honey
• 3 egg whites

176 degree celcius for 25 minutes

I kept waiting for the insides of the muffins to cook so I sort of browned the tops a bit too much. Sigh.. not perfect but still the pumpkin flavor I was looking for. If you like a lot of spice, this is the recipe for you. If not, I would tone down the spices and maybe use half the recommended amount.

T brought this back for me and I tried it for lunch. It's tasted alright. I wouldn't eat it again :/

I think I had a problem with eating the noodles. It just didn't taste very fresh.

I added some siracha for flavor and spice

leftovers for dinner

Crumbled pumpkin muffins on top of banana swirled oatmeal with raisins.

New reading material! I need a break from fitness reading material so I checked out a new book from Emily Giffin. She's also the author of Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Love the One you're With.

Back in the gym this morning:  12 reps, 3 sets, rest 2 minutes in between

• barbell row
• incline chest press
• seated low pulley row
• chest fly
• lat pulldown
• chest press
• bent over lateral raise
• calf press

I was starving after the gym so I stopped by Pret A Manger to pick up a tuna and cucumber sandwich and a side of sweet chili sunchips.

Agenda: Zumba, read, study Korean, relax, CSI Season 8 :)