The Fog Is Lifting

In the last few days I’ve been feeling like my old self again.  I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I’ve lived a year without Tony that I know that I can go on without him, my day spent in Chicago doing something I wanted, or just my overall feeling of being happy again.  It’s almost as if I’ve been living in a fog these last 365 days and it finally feels like it’s being lifted.

And how ironic that I woke up yesterday to get some steps in before work and it was foggy out when I walked out my back door, only for the fog to start lifting by the time I got to the river.  I literally stood there looking at the water for probably five minutes.  It was so quiet.  Peaceful.  The sound of birds chirping.  A bit of drizzle on my face.  I truly felt alive and it felt amazing.

I never eat anything before my walk in the morning, so by the time I got to work I was really hungry.  Avocado toast for the win! I know I’ve talked about it before but Jimmy John’s sells their day old bread from .50 to $1 a loaf (the one by my office charges $1 – the one by my house is .50!) either way it’s a bargain and great to use for any recipe needing bread – bread pudding, stuffing or even this avocado toast.

I tore out some of the inside of the bread, so this was 1.5 ounces of bread, 1/2 a small avocado, two medium eggs, a tablespoon of cheese, sliced radish and salsa. This was a calorie bomb at 507 calories, but it was super filling and delicious.  #winwin!

We are going to have unseasonable warm weather this week with temps in the 40s and 50s.  Yaaasss!  I got my walking shoes on, and even though it was a bit drizzly, I knew I wouldn’t melt, even though I am sweet.

My store had 16-20 count shrimp for $6.99 a pound, so I bought 1/2 a pound to make shrimp cocktail.  Once I found America’s Test Kitchen’s full proof recipe to make shrimp cocktail at home, I’ve never used any other recipe.  It doesn’t matter what size shrimp you have, they come out perfect every time.  So while in my head while I wished I was sitting on a picnic table next to the water in Naples, Florida, I had to make do with sitting at my desk.  In the middle is Sabra Hummus’s lemon twist hummus – OMG, so good!  Perfect picky plate for lunch and this plate comes in around 325 calories.

So since I’ve been feeling more like myself lately, I’ve realized that I’ve really been going through the motions of my workouts.  Yep, getting my 10k steps most days, but I can’t remember when I really broke a sweat, ya know?  I went to my favorite site bodybuilding.com, and found a workout called the Bizzy 21 day workout – and thought – it was meant to be!  I couldn’t download the ebook – but it’s 4 days on, 3 days off.  One day of complete rest and the other two days medium intensity cardio.  Here is a link to the workout (I am not doing the diet plan though). 

I didn’t even read the entire workout until I got to the gym.  Holy balls.  20 minutes of HIIT – every running minute I ran a bit faster so that my last 1 minute run was at a 6.5 mph pace.  Then it was 2x of 5 sets of upper body strength, another 10 minute round of cardio, then repeat the upper body a second time.

WEIGHTLIFTING: Set up 5 exercises, do 20 reps of each exercise 2x through, once completed do 5 minutes of low intensity cardio, 5 minutes intense cardio and then repeat just the lifts. 2X THROUGH—20 REPS EACH 1. CHEST: Flat bench press or flat dumbbell press or pushups 2. BACK: 1 arm dumbbell row 20x each arm 3. SHOULDERS: Military press 4. BICEPS: Curls 5. TRICEPS: Kickbacks

That routine above took me 50 minutes to complete, and it felt really good.  I used 20 pounds on the bench press and 7.5 pounds on the dumbbell.  And you better believe I was sweaty by the end of it.  

I ended up getting home a bit later than usual, but I was still home by 7.  And because Hannah was at school we have another installment of MEAT MONDAY!   When I was at the Fulton Market event over the weekend I picked up a bottle of this Poblano Mustard from Co-Op Sauce Company. 

I decided to use this as the base of a pan sauce after our steaks cooked.  I seasoned the New York strips generously with salt and pepper.  I seared them for 2 1/2 minutes per side and let them rest.  In another pan I sauteed up zucchini, mushrooms and broccoli in a teaspoon of olive oil.  Jacob isn’t too much of a fan veggies, so I made him some skinny fries (um, the fryer may be on the counter still!).  After I took the steaks out I added 1/3 cup of chicken stock to the pan, 1 teaspoon A-1 steak sauce and 1 tablespoon of the poblano mustard sauce and scraped all the wonderful bits on the bottom of my cast iron skillet.  In a separate bowl I stirred in 1 teaspoon of water into 1 tablespoon of corn starch, added that back to the pan and let it cook for a minute or so until thickened, then added a teaspoon of butter and seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper.

Um, I may have topped my steak with an ounce of Jacob’s fries, and a tablespoon of French fried onions that were leftover from Thanksgiving.  We both agreed that the French fried onions were delish.  Never thought to do that before.  This whole plate though??  Under 500 calories!  479 in fact, and that includes the butter and oil used in the recipe.  Yum!

I have to laugh guys, over the weekend I was tagging my recipes (sadly I’ve never done that, and with over 7 years of content, it’s going to take me a while!).  Well, I found this steak and crab cake dinner I made back in 2009. 

I am just a tad happy that my photography and plating skills have improved over the years!

So without much effort, I walked 15 minutes before work, walked 35 minutes at lunch, and did a 50 minute workout after work – 100 minutes of exercise and I got in just under 18k steps.  Not too bad!  I am just hoping to get back into the swing of things with the exercise, it’s consistency, not perfection, especially through this holiday season.  If I can maintain or even lose a few pounds before the beginning the near year, I’ll consider that a win!

Alright my friends, off to get those steps in – make it a great day!