A productive Sunday

Since T and I spent all day yesterday doing fun stuff, today was all business!  (Still fun, though.)

First, I went grocery shopping, and to Petsmart.

Since I’m going to be traveling this week again for work (Chicago this time–home sweet home!  Yay.), I decided to get in a workout today.  (I don’t usually work out on weekends unless I’m running a race.)  I kind of wanted to go for a run outside, but it’s been POURING rain all day.  I’d go if it was sprinkling, but this was full out, chilly rain, and the roads were slippery and muddy.  No thanks!  Instead I spent 50 minutes with Jillian Michaels, doing her “No More Trouble Zones” DVD.

Tangent: I believe in lifting HEAVY weights and I do not believe in “toning” with light weights.  HOWEVER, I will enthusiastically recommend any of Jillian’s DVDs that use tiny 5 pound-ish weights.  Why?  Well, they all involve awesome compound moves that are great for your body, like squats, combined with smaller isolation exercises, like a tricep kickback.  The larger move, like the squat, will skyrocket your heart rate, with the added benefit of the smaller exercise making it a wee bit more challenging. I don’t consider these DVDs weightlifting–I consider them cardio exercise, and I view the light weights as just adding a little extra level of difficulty to the cardio.  So, they’re kind of like cardio plus, I suppose?  Nonetheless, I give every single DVD by Jillian Michaels 5 out of 5 stars, and I’m pretty sure I’ve done them all.   They are challenging, require minimal equipment, and are effective.  Most of her workouts can be broken into two shorter workouts as well, which I like.

Then, after lunch and a shower, I threw in a load of laundry and hit the kitchen.  First project?  Chicken Corn Chowder, which I first saw on Heather’s blog.  I borrowed the recipe pretty much verbatim from her and Cooking Light, except I used garlic instead of green onion.

I made this last year and T wasn’t a fan, but I liked it.  So, I made a batch to freeze, heat, and eat for easy lunches.  I will honestly say that this soup is good, but not great, but I love soup and it is great and healthy for lunch paired with a nice salad.  Mission accomplished!

Tomorrow at work is our official Thanksgiving Dinner.  The university provides us with a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese and everyone else brings in sides, desserts, and drinks.  I volunteered to bring a dessert, because I love nothing more than making baked goods…and then getting them out of my house.

Enter brownie balls, the cousin of the cake ball:

Directions: make brownie mix and bake.  Crumble.  Mix with frosting.  Ball.  Freeze.  Dip in chocolate.  NOM.

Then, I decided to roast another chicken with some veggies.  I just love these–tomorrow’s dinner will be quesadillas with leftover chicken, Laughing cow cheese, and wraps, and T will take some for lunch.  I am a big fan of meals that can stretch and stretch into several!  This time I added not only potatoes and carrots, but sweet potatoes to the pan.  I don’t think it could hold another veggie if I tried!

We are waiting for it to cook now with some Chateau Ste. Michelle cabernet sauvignon.  T and I recently discovered our love of cabernet, and so we are going to try to work on our wine knowledge without becoming snobs about it.  Next up is this bottle of Deep Purple red zinfandel!  Any suggestions for us?

Needless to say, after all this cooking, I’m exhausted, but alas, I have piles of laundry to iron.   Sigh.

What are your favorite recipes that can be re-invented throughout the week?

Injury report

Take me off the DL, folks.  Mystery Shoulder Injury 2009 appears to be 100% healed, and my feet are no longer covered in heinous large blisters.

So, recap: a few weeks ago, I “tweaked” something in my right shoulder that made it hurt when I lifted it above parallel.  It got worse for awhile, and turned into a pain that radiated down my arm.  I started icing and heating it alternately for awhile, and it felt much better, just kinda weak.  I also laid off weightlifting for awhile to let it heal properly. I’ve left it alone for the last week and haven’t noticed any pain, so I decided to test it out today at the gym.

I didn’t want to leave Milhouse in the crate for too long, so I planned a 40 minute or so workout.  I went into the gym planning to do a four mile run, but after the first mile I just wasn’t feeling it.  The weights looked awfully appetizing, and my shoulder felt fine so I did a short lifting workout just to test the waters.  Here’s what I did:

• Dumbbell push press, 3 sets of 8 reps at 22.5 pounds (per arm, so 45 total)
• Barbell deadlift, 3 sets of 8 reps at 80 pounds
• Lat pulldown, 3 sets of 8 reps at 90 pounds
• Olympic bar squat, 3 sets of 8 reps at 135 pounds

Here’s photographic proof:

I was going to run another mile after all that, but I got on the treadmill and my legs said, “Um, Brie?  You haven’t squatted that much in about a month.  We aren’t going to stand for this!”  So, I jumped off and went home.  I gave Milhouse a nice 20 minute walk this morning, and will probably give him another one later, so I’ve definitely been active.

Oh, and my blisters have turned into lizardlike calluses that shed layers of skin from time to time.  It’s gross, but useful, and I’m not in searing pain when I run anymore.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole, “fail to plan, plan to fail” thing.  I need to come up with some good strategies for working out once I start my job on Monday.  I CANNOT use my job as an excuse.  Since I’ve gotten in shape, I’ve always been a student or unemployed so I’ve had a pretty flexible schedule.  I’ve never done the healthy 9-5 thing before.  So, it will be a challenge.  Here are a few random thoughts I’m marinating in my head:

• Goal: work out 4-5 days a week.  Rest days will be weekdays.  I will go to the gym on Saturday and Sunday for longer distance runs and weightlifting, and during the week, I will do some kind of exercise two or three times a week, either at home or make it to the gym.
• When I’m working out at home, I can’t force myself to run hills more than once a week.  They are brutally hard and my body doesn’t like them.  They make me wheezy.  BUT, I will run outside on hills once a week.
• Re: wheeziness.  Once good work insurance starts up, see a doctor and get an albuterol inhaler to keep my lungs happy.
• Consider investing in Jillian Michaels’ new DVDs.  I loved the Shred, but I’ve done it so much in the last year and a half I’m bored with it even though it can still be challenging.  (Any reviews?)
• Consider buying a yoga or pilates DVD.  The summer I lost a bunch of weight, I actually was working 9-5 and would do the Shred every night because it was so easy to just walk upstairs and do it.  I need to get that kind of thing going again.
• If all else fails and I’m really genuinely tired, take the dog for a long walk.

Hopefully soon I’ll be in a good routine and have this all figured out!