Archive for October, 2012

October 31st, 2012

What I Ate The Day Before Halloween

by Tiff

Happy Halloween! As of yet, I have not dug into my stash of Halloween candy. The goal is to open it for the first trick-or-treater and have exactly 49 little ghouls/goblins/witches/supermen come to the door so that I have only 1 Reese’s cup leftover for myself. We’ll see how that works out for me.

wiawCheck out Jen’s WIAW Linkup!

Pre-Gym – slice of low-sodium Ezekiel bread & my last Aminolast packet (actually this was between running and lifting)

amino

Breakfast – a schmear of pb on a slice of low-sodium ‘zeek bread with half an apple (*tip: thinly slice your apple and microwave it for about 20 seconds to soften it up – yum!)

breakfastSnack – ridiculously good banana bread

bread

Lunch – salad (lettuce, cabbage, boiled egg, sunflower seeds, carrots, broccoli, & Newman’s Own lite honey mustard)

salad

Snack -7 almonds and a small honeycrisp apple

Dinner – tempeh Guinness pumpkin pie – Recipe Coming Tomorrow – and some bedtime snack baked potato chips, whoops!

recipe

Don’t scare too many little kids, and don’t eat too much candy. Wow, I really took the fun out of that, didn’t I? Have fun tonight!

  • What’s your favorite Halloween candy?
  • Please tell me you don’t give out stickers or toothbrushes. ;)
October 30th, 2012

Packages of Fun

by Tiff

Who says fun doesn’t come in packages, boxes, and bags?  Oh wait – that’s Christmas.  Christmas certainly does not come in packages, but fun definitely can!

When I woke up yesterday, my legs felt like lead.  They were heavy, and I was tired.  The gym wasnothappening.  Instead I got up, read a few blogs, drank coffee, and eventually got to work.  Cleo didn’t help my motivation.

lazy

I later heard a knock on the door.  My Running Warehouse shipment arrived  Squeeeee!  How could I not get excited about a new Asics running skort and Asiccs kicks?  For you shoe lovers out there, I ordered these babies for just $53 with free shipping.  I think they’re the 2010 model of the GT 2160.

package

Perhaps it was the package, or perhaps it was the restful morning, but my motivation returned.  As soon as I got out of work, I busted out Katy’s “99 Hardcore Workout.”  My arms were jello the rest of the night.  She ends her workout with an 11-minute run, but I opted for a walk instead.

goodies

When I got the mail after my walk, I found more goodies.  Muscle & Fitness recently asked me to be an ambassador for their online store.  I’m not sure if that’s kosher with my ad network, but I at least agreed to review some of the products for a few months.  (Twist my arm, right?)

aminolast

This little sample was perfect for my needs yesterday.  I just finished a tough workout, but I didn’t want a full protein shake since I was about to cook up some high-protein veg chili in about half an hour.  Insert “Aminolast: recovery & endurance BCAA superfuel” here!  For only 10 calories, one serving contains 2 g protein, 10 g amino acids, and some electrolytes.

I honestly thought it even tasted good – kind of like strawberry lemonade.  I usually try to go for more natural foods and supplements, but this really fit the bill for my needs yesterday.

  • Are you into supplements?

 

October 29th, 2012

Fall Fun

by Tiff

Fall finally feels upon us… or at least me.  It’s finally supposed to get chilly tonight.  Woohoo!  Though I’m happy for sweaters and boots, I’m glad this weekend stayed relatively warm.  I was busy busy busy!

fall

I spent most of the day Friday sanding and painting furniture, which was exhausting. Oh, did I mention I had an extremely hilly 3.5-mile run before even starting on the furniture?  You better believe I was happy for this crock pot meal.  And the beer.  Okay, I was especially happy for the beer.

tamale   beer

Meal: Clean Eating’s tamale pie, Beer: Warsteiner Oktoberfest

I was just as busy Saturday at my Habitat for Humanity build. Lunch was graciously provided, but turkey/ham sandwiches don’t do much for a girl with a veg pledge. Lucky for me there were leftover whole wheat bagels from breakfast.

lunch   h5h

I definitely burned those carbs!

When I finished my build and Kevin returned from class (all-day grad school session), we headed out to meet friends for a few drinks. To my dismay, I participated in zero costume festivities. I don’t think I would have been able to keep my eyes open too long anyway.

Sunday was a bit more relaxed. I put the finishing touches on the furniture, headed to church, and baked some bread.  Thank goodness for rest days!

bread   bread

The bread tasted fan-friggin-tastic. I followed Katie’s recipe, but I used 1/3 cup of maple syrup instead of 1/2 cup, and I used about 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips.  (Oh gosh… those gooey, melty, chips… I may have had a little tooooo much of them yesterday.)

That’s my weekend in a blog post nutshell.

  • Did you try any new recipes over the weekend?
  • Ever been too exhausted to party?  *Side note: getting old ain’t easy.  ha

 

October 26th, 2012

No work but still no play

by Tiff

Happy Friday!  Today’s post is a little later than normal because I don’t have to work today.  Yay!  I have NO idea how I had a couple extra vacation days this year, but now seemed like as good a time as any to take one of them.

After all, it is the day after Clemson’s Thursday night game… wink wink.  Okay, that actually had nothing to do with it even though Kevin and I did meet up with some friends to watch the game.

dinner

We had dinner at home first.  *Side note: I had never tried this combo before, but it’s heaven for a carb queen like myself, baked beans over a baked sweet potato.

bells

I had two beers at the bar, both of which were Bell’s Two Hearted – a fantastic IPA.  Though I managed to not order fries while I was out, I failed to resist temptation at home.  Sorry I polished off all your chips, Kev.  Whoops!

brekkie

So here I am now with my breakfast and green tea gearing up for a run.  Yesterday was supposed to be my run day, but I swapped it with today’s arm workout since my legs were too sore.  They’re actually still pretty sore, but that’s what you get with a new squat PR!  That felt pretty good!  (at the time)

gym

So even though I don’t have work today, I still have a workout and one last dresser to sand and paint.  I have another Habitat for Humanity build tomorrow, so I better not push myself too hard today!

  • Have you ever had leftover vacation days?
  • What are you up to this weekend?
October 25th, 2012

#DrinkUpLinkUp – Boulevard Brewing

by Tiff

It’s exhausting having such a jam-packed social calendar.  I joined Heather’s Meatless Monday blog party Monday, and I attended Jen’s WIAW blog party yesterday.  Now look at me linking up again with Janine’s #DrinkUpLinkUp shenanigans.  Apparently I get around…

boulevard

This weekend I tried a new-to-me brew from a somewhat familiar brewery.  I tried both Boulevard Brewing’s IPA and its pale ale when I was in Kansas (pictured above), and I loved them both.  Good news – Boulevard has begun selling in North Carolina.  Squeeee!

beer

While watching some football on Saturday, I ordered Boulevard’s Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale on draft.  Wow.  Just wow.  This saison earned is “exceptional” score of 91 points of BeerAdvocate!  At 8% ABV, it’s a bit higher than I would like, but the flavor made it very worthwhile.  Here, lemme’ summarize…

  • Appearance: the color of a golden lager, but more bubbles and slightly more cloudy, lingering head
  • Smell: hoppy with incredible floral notes – gimme a bouquet of these babies!
  • Taste: only slightly sweet with a clove-like hint of spice, but then out of nowhere, the funk kicks you in the mouth – it’s great!
  • Mouthfeel: very smooth, thicker than you’d expect from the appearance, and finishes relatively dry
  • Overall: love love love it – can’t wait to order another

lace

In other beer news…

  • This search term brought someone to my site yesterday, and I giggled aloud: “creeper holding beer”  Ha!
  • Here’s “A Vegetarian’s Approach to Craft Beer Pairings
  • Another lovely post from one of my favorite Beer Runners
  • St. Augustine was the patron saint of brewers.  I just learned that he once said, “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”  Okay… that’s not beer news exactly, but I just happened to like it.

 

Had any good brews lately?  (beer, coffee, tea)