Day of the Week Rankings

Good morning and happy Friday eve! 🙂

Yesterday Ryan and I were discussing how each day of the week feels. Here’s my rating (5 stars is the best):

• Monday: **
• Tuesday: *
• Wednesday: ***
• Thursday: ****
• Friday: *****
• Saturday: *****
• Sunday: ****

Days of the Week

Yes, I actually ranked Tuesdays worse than Mondays… I always feel fresh on Mondays and then Tuesday is when the “blah” feeling kicks in. Thankfully it’s all up from there! 🙂

What is your favorite day of the week?

I am inclined to say Saturday, but honestly I’ve always loved Fridays. Even though I have to go to work, everyone is generally in a good mood and I love the excitement and anticipation of a fun weekend ahead.

Workout

Today’s cardio workout was a goodie!

I followed a 25 minute treadmill workout I clipped out of Oxygen Magazine a few months ago.

25 Minute Treadmill Training

I made a couple of modifications, like only bringing the incline down to one, not zero, and warming up/cooling down at a 4.0 pace rather than a 3.5 pace.

After the 25 minute treadmill fun, I walked for another 10 minutes on an incline before finishing up with 15 minutes on the elliptical.

Breakfast

Chocolate attack!

Chocolate Delight

Today my breakfast was a bowl of chocolate goodness:

• Chocolate cream Flax-Z-Snax hot cereal
• All the Whey chocolate peanut butter cup protein powder
• Cocoa powder

Thursday's Breakfast

As Dale from Doug would say, “Yum, yum, eat ’em up!” Yes, I did just reference a classic Nickelodeon show. Doug was the best!

Doug!

Dessert Breakfast Bowl

My breakfast this morning tasted more like a dessert bowl than a healthy breakfast.

I think the addition of cocoa meringues to my morning yogurt made it taste indulgent and delicious.

Meringues

I topped a bowl of Chobani Greek yogurt with several crunched up meringues and a crumbled Atkins caramel double chocolate crunch bar.

Chocolate Crunch

I served my yogurt with a hot cup of Yogi Mayan cocoa spice tea to keep the chocolate theme goin’.

Mayan Cocoa Spice

Wednesday's Breakfast

What are your favorite yogurt mix-ins?

I just loooove the taste of chocolate in the morning. Adding several chocolate mix-ins really kicked my yogurt up a notch.

Miss Sniffles

This week my morning walks with Sadie have been saturated with sniffing. A food and wine festival took place last weekend around the lake we circle daily, and I think the remnants from the event are providing Sadie with a sensory field day.

Miss Sniffles Herself

Sadie has even managed to pick up some of the smelly treasures to show me. Usually she’ll just pick up a stick or two to hold in her mouth on our walks, but this week I’ve had the pleasure of removing several stinky goodies (like a half-eaten roast beef sandwich) from her mouth… all before 7:30 a.m. Yummy!

I’ve found myself quoting How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (great movie!) to little Sadie numerous times: “Nobody likes a Mister Sniffles!” (Except I actually do love my little Miss Sniffles. She’s pretty darn cute.)

Four C’s Breakfast

Today’s breakfast was a 4-C super meal: cocoa Cheerio cottage cheese! I could really get crazy and add in “crunchy” and “creamy” but let’s not take it too far. 😉

The base for my mornin’ meal was no salt added cottage cheese (terrible on it’s own, but delicious when blended) blended with sweetener and cocoa powder.

Pre-Blended Cocoa Cottage Cheese

Blended Chocolate Bowl

I used about a tablespoon of cocoa powder in this mix, so it was super chocolatey. Just the way I like it!

I then added a cup of Cheerios to the mix for some whole grains and that crunch I adore.

The One and Only Cheerios

Four "C" Delight

Creamy, crunchy and filling. Agreat Wednesday breakfast.

Workout

I have been attending BodyPump classes Monday, Wednesday and Fridays for a while now. I usually try to trade out one day of the class for my own total-body weight routine to keep my body guessing, but I was enjoying the Pump so much that I haven’t done that in a while.

Enter: this morning! After 25 minutes of light cardio on the elliptical (while browsing through The Popcorn Factory’s holiday catalog and salivating at every item), I hit the weight room for a total-body weight routine. My workout today looked like this:

• Step ups: 30 lbs., 15 reps per leg, 3 sets
• Shoulder raises: 20 lbs., 15 reps, 3 sets
• Deadlifts: 60 lbs. 15 reps, 3 sets
• Bicep curls: 30 lbs., 15 reps, 3 sets
• Tricep extensions: 20 lbs., 15 reps, 3 sets
• Side bends: 30 lbs., 15 reps each side, 3 sets
• Hamstring exercise ball curls: Body weight, 20 reps, 3 sets
• Abdominal work
• Leg extensions: 40 lbs., 15 reps, 3 sets

(Note: The weight listed is the total amount of weight used. For instance in the Bicep curls, I used a total of 30 lbs. with 15 lb. dumbbells in each hand.)

It felt good to change it up a bit!

What’s your favorite body part to work out in the gym?

My favorite is probably my shoulders or my abs. I really don’t like working out legs! Ughhh.

Shake That Laffy Taffy

Office Shenanigans

After my boss’ daughter handed out lots of Halloween goodies, everyone around the office enjoyed swapping corny jokes, courtesy of the Laffy Taffy wrappers.

(Picture from SweetFactory.com)

Here are a few I remember:

Why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing!

What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo? A pouch potato!

Why did the stadium get hot after the football game? Because all the fans left!

The tomato one was definitely my favorite. 🙂

Feel free to share your favorite corny joke!

Are You My Mother?

I’m so happy to have Ryan back! As happy as I am, I think Sadie may show her happiness with a little more crazy and obsessive behavior enthusiasm than I can muster up, considering I wouldn’t want to body slam Ryan every five minutes to show my love.

I know she missed her doggie dad because on our walks throughout the week, whenever we’d pass a guy about Ryan’s height (6’2”), Sadie would pause and her tail would start wagging uncontrollably. From a distance she was clearly thinking “Are you my daddy?”

She reminded me of the little bird in the children’s book “Are You My Mother?”

(Picture from kidscorner.org)

 

Our lil’ pup is clearly happy to have her family back together again.

Just wait until she gets to see Grandmama and Mister Bob tomorrow! (Grandmama is my mom and Uncle Bob is my dad… he refuses to be a grandpa. I wonder if my future children will also have to refer to him as Mister Bob?)

Dinner

After enjoying chocolate candy at work today, my craving for anything chocolate was in full swing. I decided not to ignore my desires and fixed myself a chocolate cheesecake bowl for dinn-ah!

I blended 1 cup of cottage cheese with a splash of Almond Breeze almond milk and a serving of Jello chocolate fudge sugar-free pudding powder.

Pre-blended

 

Sugar-Free Jello Pudding Mix

I used an imersion blender to make the mixture nice and smooth (and thick!) before topping it with Quaker chocolate granola bites.

Quaker Granola Bites

Chocolate Delight

Sometimes you just gotta listen to your body. Tonight my body was saying “Veggies, no! Chocolate, yes!“

Golden Monday

Foodie thoughts are officially entering my dreams. Last night I dreamed about veggie burgers. I think I’ve entered the dark side.

I woke up this morning excited to enjoy an old childhood favorite: Golden Grahams!

The Makings of Monday's Breakfast

I topped my Greek yogurt with a small pack of Golden Grahams and a pack of South Beach Living chocolate-covered soy nuts.

Golden Grahams and Chocolate-Covered Soy Nuts

I love overflowing cups of Greek yogurt topped with tasty crunchies!

Monday's Breakfast

Mmm, mmm good!

Gossip Girl

I must admit I am enjoying season one of Gossip Girl and it helped soothe my post-family time blues! Watching the show last night with Sadie on my lap and a stack of magazines beside me definitely improved my mood. 🙂

Question: What’s your go-to mood improving tactic?