Tips for Making Smart Choices in Unhealthy Environments

Happy Sunday Funday!

Our job as puppy babysitters has come to an end. Hogan was adorable and fun to play with, but watching him for a few days reminded me of how far we’ve come as dog owners with our Harley girl. It is so nice to be out of that puppy stage and for her to be fully potty trained, no longer teething and way more chilled out. I’m happy with just having one dog and think it’s safe to say that we won’t be getting a new puppy anytime soon!

This weekend was a very sporty one for me. Last night we went to the Chargers/Cowboys preseason game. I’m a huge NY Giants fan, but it was a really fun time finally going to an NFL game in San Diego. It was even better because the Chargers were playing the Cowboys, who I strongly dislike, so last night I was all Go Chargers! and just rooting for the Cowboys to lose as I usually do.

Then, I spent this afternoon downtown at Petco Park for a Padres/Giants game. This also marked the first baseball game I’ve been to in San Diego. As I said, this weekend was sports packed!

Between these two sporting events and the concert I went to last week, I’ve been around a ton of unhealthy food lately. This got me thinking about the ways I try to make it easiest on myself to make good choices in environments that aren’t necessarily promoting healthy eating and drinking. Here are a few tips I have:

• Don’t go hungry. Before the football game last night, we made sure to have dinner. I had a busy morning today, but on the way to the baseball game, I made sure to fill up with a fruit smoothie and protein bar. If you go to the event with a full belly, you’ll be less likely to crave the fat-filled nachos or sugar-filled cotton candy everyone’s eating around you.
• Scope out all your choices. If you do go hungry, check out all your options before standing on the first line you see. At the Chargers game, I saw a farm-to-table food stand full of decent for you eats, such as mozzarella & tomato salads. I obviously got excited about this even though I wasn’t hungry or eating –YAY for healthy options! These types of stands may not be available everywhere, but it’s smart to look around and see. The more we as consumers request higher quality eats, the more choices we’ll be presented with.
• Hydrate. Sometimes your body will mistake thirst for hunger, so make sure you drink water and stay hydrated before and during a sporting event, concert, or whatever your plans may be. Out of all the overpriced things for sale, the $5 bottle of water is most worth your purchase.
• Pick one indulgence. If you’re dying for a beer and could kind of go for popcorn with it, just buy the beverage. An all-or-nothing mentality (which I can certainly be guilty of myself) will only make you feel guilty afterwards, but if you only eat/drink the thing you’re in the mood for the most, you can lessen the damage and enjoy it more. Better yet, split your purchase with a person you’re with, as popcorn and nacho orders are usually multiple portions anyways.
• Skip the soda. Okay, so you can’t get the jumbo pretzel out of your head at the ball game. Instead of depriving yourself of something you’re really in the mood for, I say go ahead and get that pretzel. But, don’t get a regular soda along with it, as it will knock you back hundreds of more calories, not to mention all of the sugar it contains. Instead, opt for water and hydrate yourself!  *Random tidbit: According to the HBO series The Weight of the Nation, soda and sugar sweetened beverages are the #1 calorie source in Americans’ diets. It’s also the ONLY individual food/drink directly linked to obesity.*
• Lastly,  if you overdo it at an event one night (and who hasn’t done this?!), there’s no use in punishing yourself and feeling guilty afterwards. The important thing is to just shake it off and get back to a healthy routine the next day.

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” – Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

A Boozy Monopoly Night

Happy Saturday!

Look who we’re babysitting for the weekend:

Adam’s friend recently got this 10-week old Bulldog and had to go out of town this weekend, so we are watching him for a few days. I can’t even deal with the way Hogan wiggles his cute little body around!

Hanging in his little bed

We were interested to see how Harley would act with Hogan here. She’s gotten a little territorial with him, but last night they were rough housing with each other like old buddies. Harley is typically really submissive and kept rolling over and letting him get on top of her to play. He is just this little goofball who was flopping around and doing his miniature bark and it was pretty entertaining!

Moving onto food, check out what I baked this morning:

Banana cinnamon muffins from the Skinny Bitch cookbook. One of my first blog posts talked about this recipe (here) – they are SO yummy!

Now for this week’s edition of “What this Vegetarian Eats in a Day,” here is a rundown of my Friday eats –

Breakfast was a cinnamon apple sandwich: a Granny Smith apple cut into thick chunks with cinnamon peanut butter, Kashi Go Lean Crisp Cinnamon Crumble cereal, and sprinkled cinnamon in the middle.

When my stomach started growling for lunch, I whipped up some homemade hummus…

…and spread some on whole wheat toast with sliced avocado, lettuce, tomato, and a slice of cheddar cheese, along with some strawberries:

I liked this lunch so much I just might repeat the same exact combo this afternoon.

Later on in the day, I snacked on a Chobani apple cinnamon yogurt. I’m kind of obsessed with Greek yogurt. It’s high in protein, low in fat and calories and delicious. I think this may be my new favorite flavor!

For dinner last night, Adam and I used a Groupon we had for a restaurant in Hillcrest called Fig Tree Cafe. First we share an appetizer of roasted tomato, onion, basil, and goat cheese bruschetta:

And then my entree was a mixed greens salad with goat cheese, walnuts, dried cranberries and lemon-poppyseed dressing:

[Easy healthy living tip: always order your dressing on the side. I usually don’t wind up using all the dressing and save myself some unwanted calories by doing this!]

San Diego has so many great areas and things to do and see, and I love getting deals for places I’ve never been to and trying them out. Sure, some deals wind up working out better than others (I got a pretty weird massage recently with one), but I adore exploring our city. And who doesn’t like to save some bucks?!

After dinner, for a reason I’m not sure of, Adam decided that he really wanted to play Monopoly. Once we picked up the game at the store and returned home to hang with the dogs, it turned into a boozy game night at our place.

It became my “cheat” night and I enjoyed a bottle couple glasses of Gewurztraminer wine and some pretzel crisps while Adam and I got into our game of Monopoly. Hey, we all deserve to indulge sometimes right? 😉

We were laughing at how we used to play this game as kids, but probably had little concept of what it was all about. Mortgages? Rent? Utility bills? I’m pretty sure as a 10-year old I wasn’t too in the know on these things, but I distinctly remember having drawn-out games of Monopoly with my older brother. They lasted for days, and we would take our money and pieces to our rooms when we were done playing for the night, in fear that the other person would cheat and steal some of the other’s assets.

It was also pretty comical because at the start of the game I said, “One of the biggest things I remember about Monopoly is that whoever lands on (and buys) Park Park and the Boardwalk first always wins in the end.” I was right, and unfortunately, that person was Adam! No worries though, I have plans to coax him into playing cards sometime in the near future and redeeming myself (…but we aren’t competitive with each other!).

Question: What were your favorite games to play growing up? 

Besides Monopoly, I also remember loving Life, Uno, Candy Land and Sorry.

Some Workout Inspiration

Well, today I am feeling SORE! During my workout yesterday I did a few new weight training exercises, but didn’t expect them to make me so achy. It’s funny how that happens sometimes. I also changed things up yesterday by hopping on the treadmill for the first time in a long time. Recently, I haven’t been running at all and the nagging calf injury I’ve mentioned in previous posts has ceased to exist. It took 2 1/2 years to feel completely back to normal, but it’s been feeling so good lately that I stopped wearing my calf compression band during workouts. It’s pretty awesome!

Since I determined that running is the only thing that brings my calf soreness to a head, for the time being I’ve decided to just not run. After all, it’s one type of cardio I actually loathe, and there are so many other forms of exercise that I enjoy. However, since I frequently hike outdoors without an issue, I have no problem with treadmill incline walking workouts. I brought one back into the mix with this half hour routine:

I also wanted to share some motivational [workout] sayings I’ve come across recently:

And with that, I’m off to get ready for a weeknight date with my hubby! We’re seeing Gavin DeGraw and Colbie Caillat in concert at a venue called Humphreys by the Bay. The tickets were one of my birthday gifts from him. 🙂

I hope she sings this:

And he sings this:

“I don’t want to be anything other than what I’ve been trying to be lately. All I have to do is think of me and I have peace of mind. I’m tired of looking ’round rooms wondering what I’ve got to do or who I’m supposed to be. I don’t want to be anything other than me.”

One Sweaty Sunday

Well, another weekend is coming to a close. As always, the past few days have gone by quickly!

Lately it’s been warmer than usual in San Diego. 90 degrees and hotter is typical for a lot of places in the summer, but it feels pretty toasty here since I’m used to it constantly being my ideal temp – 75! I started off my Sunday sweating outdoors when I took Harley for a long walk to burn off some of her crazy puppy energy. She’s been really feeling the heat and tuckering out quickly, and by the end of our walk around the neighborhood trail, her tongue was out and she was ready to relax in the AC.

When we got home, I wanted to exercise and I did 2 workouts from Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD. Her routines are no joke! About half an hour into it, Adam walked into the house and said, “Wow, you’re really sweating!” Why yes, yes I am. Mission accomplished! 🙂

Post living room workout, Adam and I headed to La Jolla for an afternoon at the beach. We went to a good surfing spot (he surfs, me not so much) I had never been to before, which was in a gorgeous area with elaborate homes and cliffs that people were parasailing near — hence the photo above. It was a nice hike from our car down to the beach, and my glutes definitely got a workout heading back up.

Usually on the beach in San Diego it feels nice and breezy, but today I was feeling hot. It was one of the rare occasions when I took a dip in the Pacific to cool off!

Moving onto food, this evening’s dinner was pasta primavera, a dish I enjoy making when I want to clear out any veggies from my kitchen that are nearing the end of their prime:

When throwing together a pasta primavera meal, you have a lot of choices as to what you feel like including.  Here are the basic guidelines I always follow:

#1 – Pick your veggies. For me tonight, this included broccoli and zucchini that were nearing their end, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, and spinach, along with some fresh basil to give it some pizazz. I usually adopt an “everything but the kitchen sink” mentality and include any veggies I have around.

#2 – Pick your pasta. Angel hair, penne, elbows, spaghetti, rigatoni… the possibilities are endless! Tonight I used whole grain farfalle.

#3 – Boil a pot of salted water and cook pasta according to directions. Meanwhile, chop all your veggies into bite sized pieces.

#4- Choose a sautéing liquid. To keep the calorie count low, I used white cooking wine. You can also opt to use any kind of oil or broth. Heat a bit of the liquid up, along with a few cloves of minced garlic (optional).  Saute veggies until softened, adding liquid in every so often once it absorbs.

#5 – Combine veggies and cooked pasta.

#6 – Season with whatever you wish — I added Italian seasoning and mixed up salt and pepper. Add some flavor with either a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and/or butter, and combine well.

#7 – Optional: Sprinkle a bit of grated cheese on top for added flavor.

It makes for an easy breezy, healthy and yummy meal!

I’m off to watch tonight’s episode of True Blood, so I’ll leave you with an awesome quote I recently came across:

A Few Sights from the Dog Beach Today

“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things — a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.” – John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog

“There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face.” – B. Williams

Hiking Iron Mountain

“Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.” – Greg Child

Last night Adam surprised me with an early birthday gift — a CamelBak for use during my outdoor workouts! It’s a backpack that you fill with water and can continuously drink from. This was a perfect little gift, as I’m always thirsty and drink an insane amount of water, especially during exercise. What a smart man I married!

Wanting to put my new workout gear to use, today my little family and I headed to a nearby town called Poway to hike somewhere we had never been to before, Iron Mountain.

showing off my new CamelBak

In reading reviews of the mountain prior to going, I had seen a few time estimates at 4 hours. My first thought was that there is no way Harley would last that long, as she has crazy amounts of energy but not so much endurance. The summit we hike a lot usually takes 90 minutes roundtrip, and that really tires her out. But once I read a review of a 79-year old man saying he did it in 3 hours both ways, I decided that we should give it a shot (and if a 79-year old can do the hike, Harley should be able to do it right?!).

Adam and I guesstimated that we could do the 7 mile roundtrip hike in about 2 hours. In the end, I clocked the excursion at around 2 1/2 hours — 1 hour and 15 minutes to climb up, 15 minutes of hanging out at the top, and a few minutes over an hour getting back down.

Based on what I had read, I expected the trail to be super crowded, especially since we went on a Saturday and didn’t get there until 11 am. Compared to the very popular Cowles Mountain, I didn’t think that Iron Mountain was too packed at all. I was pleasantly surprised that we easily got a parking spot in the lot, after reading in reviews that the lot stays filled up from 7 am on.

As far as the puppy goes, I’m happy to report that Harley did a pretty good job on the way up. On the descend, she kept trying to lay down and kind of reached her breaking point at the very end, but we made it! The three of us had a great hike together:

I think that last photo is pretty hilarious.

When we got back to the parking lot, Harley kept oddly sticking her face underneath our car. We thought maybe she was just tired and looking for shade, but I peered underneath near my back tire to see a face staring back at me that looked like this…

A muskrat! I’m not going to lie, my heart might have skipped a beat (or two or three). Looking from the back of my car, all I could see was its long tail coming out. Yikes, I get the creeps just looking at a photo of one of these big rodents. Adam had to move the car around for a minute for it to finally jump down (I may or may not have been squealing) and then hit the ground running. Adam thinks the muskrat must of had something wrong with him to be so close to humans during the day like that. All I know is that I’m glad that Harley didn’t get bit when her face was looking right at him underneath the car. A trip to the vet would not have been my idea of a good end to our hike!

I love hiking because I get to workout, be outdoors enjoying the weather, give Harley some exercise, and spend time with Adam all at once. It’s kind of awesome! I definitely enjoyed Iron Mountain and would go again. The hike is pretty long but not too difficult, and is just a steady incline and nice walk pretty much the whole time.

I think the hike tired us all out, as I’m currently blogging while resting my achy feet, Harley is curled up passed out, and Adam is laying on the floor watching a movie. I plan to continue relaxing until our dinner date tonight. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Kayaking & Beer

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Yesterday I planned a day of fun for Adam’s birthday, which is coming up on Tuesday. I made up these mildly corny but funny little poems that were clues as to what activities we would be doing and what his presents were. Oh yes, I’m quite the poet! 😉

First up, I rented us a kayak in La Jolla. We paddled around near the caves there and checked out the seals, who were mostly just hanging out basking in the sun as usual. One seal was swimming around us just a few feet from our kayak, which was pretty cool.

 The birthday boy:

Though we got kind of crushed by a wave heading out, we managed to not tip over getting back to shore on the choppy waters. WOOHOO! After kayaking, we hung out on the beach, ate lunch and relaxed.

Next, we headed to a local brewery we’ve never been to called Ballast Point for a tour and beer tasting…

I’ll be honest, I really do NOT like beer. One of them was not too horrendous, but the others…. ick. I kind of wish I did, but I gave up trying to like it after years of attempting to drink it in college. But, Adam likes beer and I thought it’d be fun to go to a brewery as part of his birthday fun. And it’s a place we had never been to, and we’re all for seeing as much as we can in San Diego!

The last time I forced myself to try beer was when we were in St. Louis at the Anheuser-Busch brewery a few years ago. I thought that the tour was really interesting, but I enjoyed seeing the Clydesdales more than trying the beer…

Yes, I’m a wino all the way!

I digress.

After the brewery, we headed to Adam’s favorite Japanese joint for dinner. I forgot to snap photos of our grub, but the food was good as usual.

Following dinner, we made a stop at the mall to look for a motorcycle jacket for Adam (a birthday gift from me), though we had little luck.

As another birthday gift, I surprised Adam with tickets to a Chargers pre-season game in a few weeks. We both love football and have yet to go to a game here, so it should be a good time!

Our night ended fabulously by eating fro yo and watching the Olympics.

It was a pretty awesome day together!

Next on the agenda for my Sunday is seeing the new Batman movie. To anyone who has seen it, what did you think??

Broccoli Red Pepper Quiche

Adam running down a bike trail hill

Yesterday marked my first mountain biking excursion of the year.

Biking on a rocky, mountainous trail is both exhilarating and scary. One of the things I love about San Diego is that we have access to so many things in such a short distance — from the beach and wineries, to mountains and countryside. The place where Adam and I went biking yesterday is just a couple minutes away, yet it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was a lot of fun and a nice workout.

Speaking of bikes, this weekend my hubby got another kind of bike:

That’s right, I suppose I’m going to be a biker babe now! Adam has been wanting a motorcycle, and what better time than soon after he returned home from a deployment, right?! He’s in the process of getting his motorcycle license, and soon we’ll be cruising around town together.

Moving onto food, today’s recipe is a tasty dish that can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner…

Broccoli & Red Pepper Quiche

Makes 8 Servings

Ingredients:

• 1 deep dish frozen pie crust (Pillsbury)
• 2 c chopped broccoli
• 3 large eggs
• 1.5 c (almond) milk
• 1.5 c shredded mozzarella, cheddar, or other cheese of choice
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 TBSP (light) butter
• salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add onions, garlic, broccoli and bell pepper. Cook until veggies are soft, stirring occasionally.

Place your pie crust on a baking sheet. Spoon veggies into the crust, then spread the cheese on top.

In a bowl, combine the eggs and milk, whisking to combine. Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the veggies and cheese. Bake for around 35 minutes, until quiche is lightly browned.

Nutrition stats per slice: 190 calories, 11 g fat, 8 g protein, 15 g carbs

Homemade Pizza Night: The Classic Margherita

Happy (almost) 4th of July!

Last night I took my San Diego visitors, my brother Danny and his girlfriend Desiree, to The Shout House, a piano bar downtown. It is so much fun there! I’ve played the piano since I was a little kid, so I feel like I appreciate the pianists and how talented they are even more so than the average person. It was trivia night and they had an America themed round, of which I can only recall one question…

Who was the only man to actually sign the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July? Answer at the bottom of this post!

Before we went out on the town, I made us some pizza to enjoy for dinner. If you’ve read this blog and haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m a big fan of pizza! I kept it simple and delicious last night with this pie:

Classic Margherita Pizza

Makes 1 pie/4 servings 

• 1 whole wheat pizza dough (Trader Joe’s)
• 3 vine ripe tomatoes, sliced
• 8 oz mozzarella, sliced
• About 1/2 c marinara sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Fresh basil, coarsely chopped (I used about 5 or 6 leaves)
• Mixed up salt & pepper
• Whole wheat flour to help roll dough out

Preheat oven to 400. Roll out pizza dough using a rolling pin, dusting flour on the counter and pin every so often.

Place dough on a pizza pan lightly coated with cooking spray. Spread sauce across dough, then begin adding your toppings: garlic, mozzarella, sliced tomato, basil, salt & pepper.

Pop that bad boy in the oven until lightly browned, around 15 minutes.

Per 1 serving/2 slices: 390 calories, 14 g fat, 19 g protein, 54 g carbs

I was productive with work today, got Harley some exercise outside, and had a yoga session. Now that these things are off my day’s to-do list, I’m about to kick off another fun-filled night and the start of my July 4th celebration with these 2 crazy 21-year olds!

And the answer to the trivia question is John Hancock. 🙂

Dog Beach Date + A New Biking PR

Love this quote.

Speaking of moving, today I hit a new biking PR. Let’s get one thing straight, I’m no avid cyclist. I think mountain biking is a lot of fun, but most of the cycling I do is on a stationary bike at my gym to get the cardio portion of my workout in. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that recently we got new, more high tech bikes, and I’m having fun setting distance goals when I do longer rides.

I began alternating the resistance every other mile, keeping my heart rate between 60-65% for a mile, then upping the level to bike at 70-80% of my max heart rate for a mile. At first, I just wanted to get to 15 miles. Then it became 20. Next I hit 25. And today, I went past that to 26.2. I got to 26, and then thought, hmm why not go an extra .2 in honor of the marathon I have no desire to ever run? 😉

This made me curious as to how far a marathon is for biking. Googling it gave me a lot of different answers. All I know is that typical road races can be 100’s of miles long. If I ever decide to train for a long bike race like that, one thing is for sure… I definitely will be needing butt pads (as mine starts hurting after about mile 8!)!

I was proud of myself for getting to 26.2 in 80 minutes today because I wanted to quit most of the time and kept telling myself to just go one more mile, to just keep moving. The fact that I wasn’t really feeling it but wound up setting a new PR reassures me that we are capable of pushing ourselves to do more and keep going if we set our minds to it. Next bike session, I just might do 30 miles!

Dog Beach 

Tonight I took Harley to the dog beach for some playtime. I usually take her for a long walk sometime during the day whenever I can fit it in. But today I was chugging along with work and didn’t wind up walking her much at all, so I figured it’d be good to get to the beach and wear her out a bit.

Harley is NOT a fan of the water. It’s really funny to watch her run around when it’s low tide, because she’ll chase other pups around everywhere until they get near waves or puddles, at which point she’ll stop dead in her tracks.

Case in point:

She’s quite a character.

I’ll leave you with a pic of tonight’s sunset: