OND

Hello, Friends.  Over the weekend I was busy doing homework for the class I'm taking, and I dismally admitted to myself that I hadn't done any of my workouts all week long.  FAIL.  So much for my Accountability Calendar!  I've been trying to get ahead in my school work so when I go to South Carolina this weekend to visit my friend Kristin, I could really just enjoy it and not have to think about school work.  Anyway...this whole calendar, keeping myself accountable for excercising, and eating right consistently is just a lot of work!  A LOT!  Especially this time of year when all I want to do is eat, watch movies, snuggle with my puppies and bury myself under warm, fuzzy blankets. 

I work for a Wine and Spirits distribution company, and we have a "season" called O.N.D.  which stands for October, November, December.  OND, for my company is the busiest time of the year...mostly because of football, and all the holidays.  I giggle, because I changed the acronym OND to Obviously No Diets.    HA HA.  Well seriously, October, it starts to get cold, and apple crisp, pumpkins scones, pumpkin latte's, pumpkin muffins, pies, etc... fill my head with their goodness and then of course Thanksgiving comes sneakily out of nowhere, and then Christmas...  BAM CHRISTMAS!  I hate to break it to you, but Christmas is 10 weeks away!  So...my point is....working out and eating healthy is important to me, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.  I'm going to enjoy life.  Be an epicure of the season's treats, hold close to the ones I love and be mindful of my choices. 

HAPPY OND to you and 'Toasts ma goats!'

If it's important to you, you'll find a way

Morning, friends!  This week is flying by for me.  It's already Thursday!  I've been so busy at work and have had a ton of school work to catch up on this week, which hasn't left me much time to get my workouts in.  I did however over the weekend, get in a mile run which I shaved off 17 seconds from my last timed mile and did it in 10:14!  Progress people!  Progress!  In order to do this, I sped up the treadmill to about 7.5 every other quarter of a mile, then back down to 6. 

Monday's workout I managed to complete in 6 minutes.  Here's an overview of it:

5 Rounds for time:
10x Mountain Climbers
10x Jumping Jacks
10x Tuck Jumps
10x Squats  

The tuck jumps nearly killed me.  They seem so easy, but, they seriously get my heart rate up, quickly.  I also managed to complete an outdoor 2 mile run after that workout.  Well, it was more like a WOG.  (walk/jog).  My legs were on fire after that.  I''m hoping to get in Wednesday's missed workout at some point today.    

   

A Quickie!

Today's WOD (workout of the day) was a quickie!! I aim for the easy, do anywhere, kind of workouts.

5 Rounds for time:
15 Walking Lunges with a weight in each hand
30 Tuck Jumps  

This workout took me 8 minutes to complete, and I was a sweaty, exhausted mess at completion.  Another workout checked off my calendar!

Keeping Yourself Accountable

Hi Friends!  I'm trying to get better to schedule in my workouts on a calendar to keep me more accountable to actually doing them.  To Summarize, I'm trying to get in a mile run/walk 5 days per week, and 3 crossfit workouts per week. 



My October Workout Calendar



Yesterday I was successful with a mile and the following crossfit workout:

5 Rounds for Time~

5 Burpees
10 Push- ups
15 Superman's
20 Air- Squats  

My mile time sucks (10:31)....I got under 11 minutes though!  Ha ha, that's good for me.  Just another goal though to get my time down.  The crossfit workout I completed in 17 minutes.  WOOP WOOP!    How do you keep yourself accountable and motivated to workout consistently?    

Paper Anniversary

 

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 marked mine & Eddie's 1 year wedding anniversary.  To celebrate, I looked up the traditional anniversary symbol for the first year, which was "paper".  Some of the gift ideas were things like concert tickets, money, gift certificates, a box of notes to open etc, etc etc.... But I didn't like any of those ideas.  So the longer I thought about paper...paper comes from trees..., I'll get him a tree!!  Our very own 'Love' tree.  ;)



The Casinover Love Tree



 



Ha ha, Had to post this...this convo could happen.



So going along with this idea, I wrote Eddie a letter...on paper of course, explaining to him the symbol of paper for the 1st year being the most delicate of years, and as the years go on each traditional symbol, the material gets stronger and more valuable, just as I hope our marriage will.  



Of course, Eddie probably would have rather of had concert tickets, or money....but I'm a helpless romantic... and who am I kidding.  This was more fun for me.  The whole celebration was paper!  Paper napkins, paper plates, I even found these adorable paper place mats. 



Paper Place mats



 A whole year passed. Hard to believe, it went by so fast. Here's to many more!  Cheers!

September 11, 2011 - Our Wedding Day









I Will Survive

On my drive to work the other day, I was inspired.  Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" came on the radio and I belted it out word for word on my drive.  It's alot of fun for me to sing as loud as I can while I drive..errr, alone, anyway.  I will save your ears.  There was a time where I would think of people during this song, but today, it wasn't about a person....it was about food!  So here is my new rendition of the song...Sing along if you'd like.....Ahem......

 "At first, I was afraid, I was petrified

Kept thinking, I could never live without you by my side

Paleo Dilema

But then I spent so many nights thinking, how you did me wrong



Flabby ab-by

And I grew strong
and I learned how to get along

And so you're back from outer space

I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face

Temptation






I should have changed that stupid lock



I should have made you leave your key



If I'd known for just one second you'd be back to bother me

Go on now, go, walk out the door, just turn around now

'Cause you're not welcome anymore

Weren't you the one, who tried to hurt me with goodbye?

Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?

Oh, no, not I, I will survive

Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive

I've got all my life to live, I've got all my love to give

And I'll survive, I will survive, hey, hey

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I've been reading the The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I read a chapter last night that was about consciously making more time in her schedule for fun.  That's right.  Fun!  Pure, wholesome, self-fulfilling, enjoyment.  That got me thinking...what do I do for fun?  Or even a better question....what do I consider 'fun'? 

If I was to answer quickly, I'd say, "I have fun all the time.  My calendar is full of events and things to do with my friends."  But busy doesn't necessarily mean 'fun'.  Do I enjoy having a busy a schedule?  Sometimes.  But sometimes I appreciate not having anything on my schedule so I can do...nothing!

So pondering this 'fun' topic, I realized I'm not sure I know what I enjoy doing.  I'll try just about anything... kayaking, fishing, rappelling, rock climbing, and heck I've even tried shooting guns,  but as adventurous as those things are, and I do believe that I like them, they are not necessarily the thing I want to pick up doing when I want to have a few moments to myself.  I think I'd be more honest with myself to say I like the idea that I DO those things, not necessarily because they are all fun for me to do. 

I want to like reading a whole lot more than I do, and I wish I liked running a lot more than I do.  But I just don't.  But, I love crossfit.  I don't always have the motivation to get up and do a workout, but when I actually do it, the duration I enjoy, as well as the fulfillment I get after completing a workout.  I also enjoy finding nutritious recipes that I can "paleo-fy".  Yes, I may have just made that word up, but seriously, I can spend hours on Pinterest looking up recipes and altering them to be more paleo.  So the hunt of finding recipes is fun, but I'd much rather be in a fully stocked kitchen (because I don't enjoy grocery shopping) to create the paleo'fy'd dishes.  To top off all that fun, I want to share this new meal with all my girlfriends' for a girls night with a bottle of wine and giggles!  Now that to me is fun!  What do you do for fun?

Summer Eatin'



Roasting Beets and carrots with olive oil and fresh rosemary



Hi all!  So I experienced my first farmer's market since moving to Maryland last Sunday.  It was the Baltimore Farmers' Market & Bazaar located in downtown Baltimore.  It was simply, GREAT!  I spent about $60 and got roughly about two weeks worth of produce.  In my satchel I collected beets, beet greens, baby zucchini & summer squash, carrots, spinach, Maryland olive oil, Maryland home grown willdflower raw honey, sugar snap peas, broccoli rabe, sweet potatoes, Sweet and Sassy beef jerky (for Eddie) and some peaches.  Complete summer freshness and good eating is commencing in the Casinover household, not to mention colorful and beautiful side dishes and healthy snacks. 

The market was a wonderful experience, and a perfect way to support the local farmers.  I fully intend to hit it up at least once a month, if not twice.  Here's to summer and healthy eating!! 

Acceptance

Whole30 Challenge Week 2

Week 1 was successful!  Week 2, also successful, so far.  But Week 2 is giving me some struggle.  The CRAVINGS have been horrible!  I've craved wine, cheesecake, peanut butter, cream cheese, Wine, milk, wine and some other random things, but on a side note, randomly found out that I like olives!  I found green olives at the olive bar at the grocery store with olive oil and garlic on them.  Those with some almonds, were a really great snack a few times this week.  I only bought, literally 5 olives, because I wasn't really sure why I was buying them, because for as long as I've known myself, I've never liked them.  One of the Whole30 Challenge'ss side effects are that your tastebuds may change.  So maybe that's it. 

My menu this past week so far has looked something like this...2 Eggs for breakfast, leftover spaghetti squash for lunch.  At least up until today when I ran out of spaghetti squash.  For dinner Monday, Eddie had a hankering for sushi so I asked the sushi chef what I could have without rice?  He made these delicious salmon with spicy tuna rolls wrapped in cucumbers.  I loaded up on the wasabi and fresh ginger, and wowza!  DELISH! 



Salmon & Spicy Tuna rolls wrapped in Cucumber



Tuesday night dinner, I baked in my crocketpot cornish hens with carrots with sea salt, rosemary, olive oil and oregano.  Kind of bland for my taste, and Eddie's too since he added some gluten free soy sauce to his.  But regardless I ate the leftovers today for lunch.  Wednesday  night was a rush for me, because I started a class for the Spring semester at the local college.  So I quickly chopped up some cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion and fresh red cabbage with lemon juice, olive oil and some sea salt for a simple greek salad.  I was wishing I had saved a few olives to throw in there, but I was piggy Monday and Tuesday and finished those off.  So the greek salad was OK,  not the greatest.  But, I plan on eating that tonight for dinner before I start my homework.  I'm so proud of myself for not wasting any food the past two weeks.   

Cornish Hen & Carrots

So other than the cornish hens this week, I haven't done any cooking.  It's all been leftovers or quick cold (salads) meals.  I've snacked on an apple everyday too in the morning and a Lara Bar the other day when Eddie ate some carrot cake with cream cheese frosting....mmmm.  HA HA 

Almost halfway through.  Also, there are plans in the making for a girls night this weekend, so I'll keep you posted on how I do with that!  Hopefully I'll be able to keep my wine craving under control.

Whole30 Challenge : Week 1

WOO HOO!!  I've finished Week 1 of the Whole30 challenge successfully.  I've lost 4 lbs...not that I've really been wanting to keep track, but at work we weigh in weekly for our Biggest Loser Contest that my company has put together to motivate associates towards a healthy lifestyle.  So I may or may not have done cartwheels in the HR office when I weighed in and saw that I lost weight already.  I've received a few questions regarding my photo's of meals I've prepared that I've posted on Facebook.  So, I'll give you a list of what I ate this week, and if you have further questions, I'll gather my step by step instructions.

Day 1:  Breakfast I had 2 hard boiled with grapes and coffee - black.

I had some cashews for a snack with an apple and for Lunch I made a mixed greens salad with chia seeds, grape tomatoes, carrots and raw broccoli and dressed it with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Dinner, I made a ginger chicken breast stuffed with dates and apples with a a side of ginger carrots.

Day 2:   Breakfast I had 1 hard boiled egg with some grapes and coffee -black.  I had some cashews for a snack with a pear.  Lunch consisted the leftovers of my ginger-date-apple stuffed chicken and carrots, had a banana before going to Vinyasa Yoga and then made for dinner a 3 egg omelet with garlic, zucchini, and fresh tomatoes. 

3 Egg Omelet

           

Day 3:  Breakfast consisted of coffee - black, and didn't have time for much of anything else, so I went straight to a snack.  I had an apple with some cashews.  For lunch I had pot roast that I had made the day before in the crockpot which Eddie ate while I was at Yoga.  Leftover's are key in this challenge or I'd be really sick and tired of salad.  For Dinner I made what I called Orange Chicken with steamed broccoli and sweet potatoes.  I'll have to share that recipe with you soon...especially the sweet potatoes.  Yum.

Orange Chicken with Sweet Potatoes

Pot roast

Day 4:  Breakfast was two sunny side up eggs with leftover a couple slices of leftover sweet potatoes.  Lunch I had a salad like on day1, and for dinner....LEFTOVERS.  More pot roast.

Day 5:  as you can see, Eggs are in breakfast almost daily...and nothing different for this Friday, 2 sunny side up eggs again, with another leftover sweet potato.  Lunch, I can't remember what I had, but it wasn't anything new, it was leftovers...either the pot roast or another salad..pretty sure it was a salad because I was saving room to go out to dinner with some friends.  I scouted the menu earlier to  be prepared when I got to the restaurant.  I ordered an ice tea - unsweetened with a lemon wedge, a shrimp cocktail without the cocktail sauce, and a scallop with sautéed garlic-spinach dressed with balsamic glaze and some strawberries.  It was yummy, but I'm wondering if there was something in there that I shouldn't have eaten because I had heartburn later that night.  But after dinner I went home and made myself a little dessert.  Banana slice, blueberries, raspberries and some walnuts.  So delicious for my sweets cravings.

Qdoba Salad

Saturday morning was my day 6.  I had 2 sunny side up eggs with some sweet potato slices.  For lunch, Eddie was in the mood for Mexican so we went to Qdoba Mexican Grill.  I ordered there taco salad, without the tortilla bowl shell, no dressing.  It was lettuce, steak, their fresh tomato salsa and I had them add their grilled veggies of zucchini and summer squash.  It was very tasty.  Dinner was a beef patty that I added a little sea salt and balsamic to on a bed of mixed greens and fresh tomatoes.  I have to say that unfortunately, was my least favorite meal.

Beef Ribs

Day 7:  Breakfast was two eggs sunny side up with some fresh cherries and two cups of coffee-black.  Lunch I sautéed some beef ribs in garlic and olive and oil.  Eddie and I ran out and did some errands and he wanted to swing by Starbucks, so from another fellow Whole30'er I saw that she was making daily almond milk latte's.  So I ordered that, but Starbucks doesn't carry almond milk.  And I currently can't have soy milk either on the Whole30 so I settled for their new brew, a tall Blonde.  Sounds like I ordered a beer, huh?

When we got home I was starving again, so I snacked on two of these things I found in the grocery store yesterday.  They are dates rolled in coconut flakes and almonds.  To me, they tasted like a donut.  OMG!  They are so good.  Have you ever seen these before?   They kind of look like little chocolates, but I assure you, all the labeled ingredients are Whole30 approved.  

Ingredients for sauce

Spaghetti Squash with Paleo Meatballs

So now I bring you to my favorite meal of the week.  I LOVE Italian food, so I was excited to find this week a Paleo Meatball recipe that I could use for "Pasta Sunday".  I followed the directions almost exactly but left out the onion since I was putting them in my homemade sauce, and I also used a grass-fed beef, veal and pork combo for the meat.  The sauce I made I found CENTO canned "Fresh ripe tomatoes written on the ingredients of the can and nothing else.  I was so excited to find this.  Almost everything canned now a days has some extra preservative or additive, but not this one.  So after sauteing onions, carrots, and some leftover zucchini from my omelet the other day, I browned my meatballs in the same pan.  Once browned, I added the canned tomatoes and some sea salt and let it all simmer for most of the afternoon.  When dinner time rolled around, I baked a spaghetti squash for me, and some fettuccine for Eddie and we had pasta Sunday dinner.  This was by far, my favorite meal of the week.  And guess what?  I have LOTS of leftovers.  :)

Whole30 Again

Hey everyone!  I'll be participating in the Whole30 Challenge again.  You may remember my first experience with it back in March of last year.  If not, you can read about it here and  here.  I've recruited some more friends this go round...My lovely sister, Katy, and a colleague at work.  I'll be posting more about my second experience soon.  In the meantime I'm on Day 3. 

Here is the updated The Whole30 2012 version link.  They seemed to have taken off the food lists and helpful grocery lists that they had on there before, but I'll try to get them to you if you're interested from when I did them in March. 

Happy New Year!  Happy New You!