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So this morning was the first test of my healthy eating ability. I came home this morning, ready to make a great bowl of creamy banana oats, and there was absolutely no fruit in the house! I kept scavenging though until I found this:


an apple that has been in the refrigerator since I was home for Spring Break in early March! Determined to get some nutrients into my oats, I got out the knife and started slicing. Luckily I was able to save over half the apple. Crisis Averted! Looks like I'm definitely going to have to start doing my own grocery shopping.

I cooked my oats in a half cup of apple juice and a half cup of water to make them even more apply and added in:

• diced apples
• craisins
• flax
• pecans
  
• cinnamon

This was my first time having normal Quaker Oats after having McCann's Steel Cut Oats for so long. I have to say that I miss steel cut :( It's just so much heartier. I think I'll cave in and buy soon.

With a black Starbucks dark roast coffee and a multivitamin. It was actually really really bad coffee. I hate starbucks coffee but always attempt to convince myself otherwise. It's always ridiculously strong, no matter how many scoops I add! My roommate left a bag when she moved out though so I thought i'd give it another chance. Note to self: Give up on Starbucks! I'm definitely a Dunkin Donuts kinda girl.



On the side in my oats I had a tbsp of Naturally Nutty Butter Toffee PB. Yes, I finally let my self open up a new jar from my stash last night! After taking about an hour to decide, Butter Toffee won out and did not disappoint!

While you can taste the butter toffee flavor, it doesn't overpower the peanut butter taste. I was completely surprised of the creamy texture. Perfect peanut butter consistency! I couldn't really taste the hemp or flax seeds but they are noticeable in the spread. Those little seeds add in 670mg of Omega-3's per serving!






I have two more Naturally Nutty peanut butters to try - White Chocolate Coconut and Honey Roasted Cinnamon. I'm a big fan of PB & Co's cinnamon raisin so I'm excited to compare. It doesn't look like it will take me too long to finish this jar - I'm wishing I got the larger jar right about now.

After breakfast I hopped on the treadmill with a goal of 15 minutes and then I was gunna switch over the the bike for 15. Instead I ended up staying on for 40 minutes while watching Regis and Kelly. Jack from Lost was guest starring! Anyone else love that show?!

Here are my stats:

Duration: 40 minutes
Calories: 278
Avg HR: 150

I couldn't find my Nike Plus sensor that plugs into my ipod so unfortunately I don't have any distance stats today! I hate working out without it now. Hopefully it's not lost!

Then I went upstairs and did my full abs workout and burned an additional 85 calories. It included:

• 4 minutes of planks
• 4 minutes of side planks
• front leg kicks
• 4 minutes of the one where you lay on the floor with your legs up and a weight in your hand and move it side to side. Sorry, I can't find the name for it! ( I call it the bus driver but I have a feeling that's not the real name)
  

I still have to do 2 minutes of the abdominal hold to complete my workout but I need a chair for that so I'll do it whenever.

I'm going to head out to enjoy this sunny day. It's supposed to be back in the 60s tomorrow! I'm a little relieved, I'm not ready for this 90 degree weather yet!

Garden Fever

One of my goals this summer is to help my Mom get healthier and lose some weight. Her problem is too little exercise and too much eating out. I'm super excited that this morning I got her to exercise with me! My Dad set up the treadmill and our two stationary bikes in a row downstairs in front of the tv and we exercised side by side. Hopefully I can make this an often occurrence! I biked and she walked while we watched Regis & Kelly.

Here are my stats:

45 minutes

145 avg heart rate

278 calories

My Mom only did 25 minutes but it's a start. Then she helped me unpack three of my bags of random stuff. If I do two or three a day I should be unpacked in a week! It's pretty important because I have absolutely nothing to wear. I'm stuck with only plain tank tops and running shorts for now.

Healthifying my Home Life Part 1: Start a Garden

Gardening is a great way to stay healthy while living at home! Other than getting me to be active outside, I will have fresh vegetables all the time once everything's ready for harvest.

I didn't get around to starting my own garden today but I went over to boyfriend's and worked in his garden. Gardening is hard work!!! I wore my hrm because I was curious how many calories I was burning. In an hour and 45 minutes I burned around 140 calories. Not bad!

We had to finish expanding his garden to get it to the right size so the majority of the time was spent ripping up grass with a pitchfork, throwing it in a wheel barrow, and then wheel barrowing it over to the woods and dumping it once it was full. I was supposed to do my arm workout today but I think the gardening arm workout will suffice!

After doing this we had to remove all the rocks in the dirt and wheelbarrow them away before we were finally able to plant.

Then we planted a few tomato plants and a few eggplants.

Before

After

eggplant

tomato

He already has a lot of stuff planted from before: asparagus, radishes, strawberries, onions, carrots, lettuce, peppers, and spinach.

strawberry!

After all that hard work, I went inside and made lunch. I was in the mood for a salad after working with the vegetables.

Here's my toppings:

• strawberries
• apple
• peanuts
• craisins
• wheat germ
• pear
• cottage cheese

I ate it outside on the deck and soaked up some more rays. It's supposed to be 95 degrees tomorrow - what kind of Spring weather is this?!

I'm off to head home, shower, and eat dinner. Have a good night!