Simply the Best

I love Tina Turner. But that’s beside the point. Tonight I had simply the best dinner ever! Let me preface it by saying I looove food. Also, I think Giada de Laurentiis is awesome. Her recipes are usually easy to prepare, and very very tasty. She totally didn’t fail with this one.

On the most recent episode of Giada at Home, she made a caramelized onion and grapefruit salad. I made it for dinner and it did not disappoint. The only adjustment I made was I roasted the fennel, as I wasn’t in the mood for it raw. Either way, the salad was awesome, and my tummy couldn’t be happier. It was accompanied by baked tilapia. Ever eat something and wish you could rewind and eat it again? It was that good.

See you on the flipside!

Sous Chef

My husband Fabian might be the professional chef, but I am the chef at home =) Lets be kind and rewind to yesterday! A big grocery shop was in order, and grocery shop I did. Well as much as possible. With the threat, er I mean joy of work on Monday morning looming over my head, I was definitely in no mood to grocery shop, I just wanted to chill. And that feeling led to procrastination, and procrastination led to well an okay grocery shop as opposed to a wonderful one.I did brave the store with my list and came home pretty excited about what I got:

I got:

– Sweet potatoes
– Red potatoes
– Clementines
– AMAZING Grapefruit
– Carrots
– Granola
– Organic Eggs
– Asparagus
– Fennel
– Cilantro
– Cornbread
– Almond Breeze
– Spinach
– Spring mix
– Frozen papaya
– Bananas
– Flank Steak
– Roasted Garlic chicken sausage
– Beans and tomato sauce for chili later this week

Annnd a couple of other things. In the very near future, I would like to have a set budget for weekly grocery shopping. Right now, I tend to plan but often feel with more planning we could trim the amount we spend in this category.

After such an exhausting grocery shop, dinner was really easy! Trader Joe’s Indian Fare lentils over brown rice with chicken.

After, the husband and I watched an episode of SNL and it was night night for me. Getting ready to finally eat dinner and kind of unwind from my first day at work.Most of tonight was more prepping (i.e. the fun smoothie bags I created below) Okay, maybe not your definition of fun, but I’m super excited about making my green monster in the morning thanks to these babies!

Each little baggie contains 1 cup of mixed berries, 1 cup of papaya, 1/2  a banana that will be added to lightly steamed spinach, almond breeze and protein powder for a green monster on the run!

Speaking of run, I have to eat and get some sleep. I swear, sometimes I feel like the to-do list is endless. At least its fun =)

Have a great night!

Pepper in my tea?

Good afternoon!!

I actually went to bed pretty early last night..and then overslept!! What is going on? Anyway, I rushed to get ready for church, and got on my way. You know how they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day? Well, that might be the case, but I didn’t eat it. With this whole sinus infection thing, my appetite hasn’t exactly been normal.  On the way out the door was a tea I picked up at Trader Joe’s last night, and a little more than half of Luna Bar’s Nutz Over Chocolate.

So about the tea. I’m totally a tea and coffee person, and I’m acquiring quite the stash. I picked this up last night because I am incredibly congested, and I keep waking my husband up with my noisy breathing. I’d love to stop doing that. Not to mention that, well I love food. And as we speak, I can’t taste much. (Except for that Indian food last night)

I digress.

Yogi Tea’s Cold Season is supposed to support respiratory tract health. It contains Ginger, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Basil and Lemongrass. Whew! Long list. It also contains other spices and herbs but the most interesting of the list was the Black Pepper. Oh, and Oregano leaf. To me, it has a strong peppery taste, but I’m not feeling the warming effects of all of those spices that are supposed to warm.

The verdict is still out on whether or not this is working, but I’ll be sure to keep you updated.Off I go for a real grocery shop and possibly to renew my gym membership.  Up later, my groceries, a recap of my birthday dinner, a revamp to the about me page and plans for the week! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Laundry Bootcamp

My sleep schedule is completely off! Last night started with my traditional birthday dinner at my parent’s house (I’ll have pics of that up later), and then Fabian (my husband) and I caught a 11:30pm showing of Avatar. In 3D. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to like the movie, as the previews didn’t impress me…but it was AMAZING! Can’t believe I waited this long to see a movie in 3D =) The plot was awesome too. I’m a huge proud nerd lol.

Anyway, I woke up early this afternoon, and was still determined to get my sweat on today. I had planned on running at the gym, but have yet to renew my membership, and figured I would just wing-it with a boot camp style workout a-la Jillian Michaels or something. Enter first obstacle: our apartment. I love it, but we do live on the second level and do have hardwood floors..which do not make for a quiet workout. I try to be a considerate neighbor =) So with no gym, and our apartment ruled out, I was kind of stuck.Then I kept thinking of my to-do list for today. And then, I slowly started coming up with excuses to just pass on a workout today.

Oh how easy that would have been.

But I have a sweat commitment, not to mention, I’m still whittling my middle right? So I decided to drop it low. My workout, that is. I took it to the basement! Luckily, we have one neighbor downstairs and a huge shared basement.

After putting in a load of laundry (on my to-do list for today), I scribbled onto two huge sticky notes, Whittle My Middle included. In addition to what is listed, I did jumping jacks, high knee jumps and walking lunges. I did bring a jump rope down which would have been awesome to use, but sadly the ceiling was too low. However, I did have lots of fun using the timer on the washer for cardio intervals!

As you can see, the set up did look pretty sparse, but I made it fun. I actually felt a little like rocky! I forgot my weights up stairs for the torso twists, but replaced the weight with a bottle of bleach. How’s that for being inventive?

Lunch was a grilled chicken breast with broccoli and tomato sauce over brown rice. Sounds boring, looked messy, but was yummy! Had to clean out the fridge before the grocery shop. I’m postponing today’s grocery shop until tomorrow, because it’s late and I hate shopping for picked-over food. That and I haven’t finished the grocery list.A girl’s gotta eat though!

I’m  off to Trader Joe’s or Whole foods to pick up ingredients for dinner, and then in for the night. Maybe a bubble bath and the BBC’s Hotel Babylon to relax with.

Happy New Year!!

Happy Birthday to me!! Ha! 2010 is off to a great start! I brought the new year in singing at church, seeing Cece Winans perform at church, and then being surprised by my husband and our friends with a late night birthday cake and taco bar. Fabian, my husband is a wonderful chef and had to work last night. I believe we officially rung in the new year with Juno, Alaska? It’s been a pretty relaxing birthday, sleeping in a family dinner and a late night movie. Pretty awesome. I can’t believe I’m already 26. It feels like just yesterday I was starting college.

Now, down to fitness for the day. Has anyone checked out Lululemon’s blog?  I love Lululemon and am particularly excited about their Sweat Once a Day Challenge . It’s pretty simple,  not too hard right? This combined with my aspiration to deepen my yoga practice brought me to my workout this morning:

But our cat, Izzy totally got started on yoga before I did! Not quite sure why, but every time I pull the yoga mat out, she’s the first to hop on. After getting set up, I did 20 minutes of Yoga Download’s Balancing flow #1. I thought I would start off pretty easy, as I usually have the attention span of a fruit fly when it comes to yoga, and this worked perfectly. The great thing about Yoga Download is that it comes with charts for each 20 minute class that is pretty helpful. I actually broke a little sweat, and continued on with…*drumroll*  day one of Oh She Glow’s Whittle My Middle challenge!! I tend to have hamster belly, meaning thats where I gain my weight, so I’m looking forward to participating.

My stats are below. From time to time I’ll be documenting that workout here, but I will totally be following it for the next 31 days.

Front Plank – 60 seconds
Side Plank – 30 seconds each side
Torso Twists – 2 sets 1 reps
Plank Ups – 10 (with both legs on the ground)
Boat Pose – 1 set 15 reps
Side Plank with Twist – 10 reps each side
Bicycle – 2 sets 3 reps

Lots planned for tomorrow: Running, a grocery shop for the week, prepping for a new workout plan, cleaning and a trip to the health food store to see if I can find a natural remedy for this sinus infection 😦 Boo. If anyone knows of anything that could possibly help, let me know. Hopefully it goes away soon!

Have a great night!

What Better Time?

Hi there! I promise to make this inaugural post very short and sweet. After all, it is New Year’s Eve, right? Also, a little known fact until right now, it also the eve of my birthday! How awesome is that? If you want to know about me, check out the about me feature. Sometime in the near future, I’ll do a more in-depth post about me and where I’m headed, but I decided to start this blog today because it felt like such an awesome time to do it. I don’t feel like a resolution person, maybe because I am constantly creating goals for myself throughout the year.

I’m starting Fit Twentysix because I’m entering into my 26th year of life, and I want to squeeze every possible joyful moment out of it possible. With an awesome body. Is that too much to ask for?

In the past year I’ve come to realize how much being fit impacts your quality of life…and I would love to experience that fully starting now. If you feel the uncontrollable need to categorize this blog, I suppose you can call it a healthy living blog. While I may post what I eat some of the time, I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my progress in a variety of ways. What I can promise is a good look into the life of a 26-year-old wife, friend and aunt on a path to get fit, her way.

So Happy New Years! Please check out my blog roll of bloggers that  have inspired me thus far. See you in 2010!