Happy Friday!

I hope you have some fun plans for this weekend!  Despite the two snow days and class cancellation, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t ready for the weekend 🙂  I don’t have any plans set in stone for this weekend, but I need to do something FUN.

I’m going to give you the run down of this week’s workouts, and a little food idea at the bottom of the post.

Workouts:

Saturday:  Rest…unless going out and dancing counts 🙂

Sunday:  4 mile run outside and 2 mile run inside.  It’s been a LONG time since I’ve run six miles!  It felt good.

Monday: Rest.  I had an interview 🙂

Tuesday: We had a snow day!  25 minute run on the treadmill and five minutes on the track + triceps and abs.  The gym was absolutely PACKED and it was a bit miserable.  I guess the combination of January goals + a snow day made people go to the gym, but it’s definitely thinned out over the week (Yay!)  I think it’s great that people want to work out and get in shape, buuuuut….I like an empty gym.

Wednesday:  Another snow day!  40 minute run on the treadmill + shoulders + abs.

Thursday:  15 minutes on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the treadmill, 5 minutes on the stairmaster (total cardio: 30 minutes).  I wasn’t feeling all that great, so I did some chest exercises and called it quits.

Friday:  I was really pumped to do BodyPUMP (pun intended), but I eventually realized that group classes start next week. Anywho, I completed 26 minutes (3 miles) on the treadmill, in addition to jogging/ shuffling .75 miles home from class because it was SO COLD.  I also did legs (lunges, squats, ballet squats, jump squats, moving squats, hip adductors, one other machine, and leg floor exercises) + abs.  My legs are going to be SMOKED tomorrow.  They feel extra shaky right now (in a good way!)

I just got back from the gym and since I ran out of meals (oops), I’m eating an old favorite.  Pb + Raisins…because I don’t have jelly.

Workout wise, it was a pretty good week, despite having a slight cold and not feeling 100%.  I’m a strong believer in “sweating out the cold“, but not pushing myself any more than I think I can handle.  Being in school definitely helps me stay on track and follow a schedule.

How to Have Your Cake:

You know those days where the only thing you want is the thing that isn’t that good for you?  Everyone has those days and I’m all for eating whatever I want, but in the winter, more often than not, all I want is cheesy, creamy, hot food.  Instead of eating bowl after bowl of rich, dense food with nary a vegetable in sight, I’ve come up with a way to Have My Cake and Eat It, Too.

I walked around the dining hall yesterday and the only thing that sounded remotely good was Creamy Cheddar Potato Soup.  To be honest, this is the only thing that sounds good pretty often.  There are only so many bowls of beans and rice and salad that a girl can eat.  If I eat an entire bowl of that stuff, I usually end up feeling weighed down and sluggish and according to their posted nutritional stats, the soup is in not really…healthy- so I used a little trick that I’ve learned over the years!

Step One:  Take a soup bowl.

Step Two:  Fill the soup bowl 3/4 of the way with veggies.  I chose spinach, cucumbers and mushrooms.

Step Three:  Pour soup over the veggies.

Step Four:  Enjoy!

Sometimes I do this when I know I need some vegetables, but something hot sounds better.  I feel like I’m enjoying a big bowl of creamy soup, but really it’s mostly vegetables with all of the cheesy flavor (and a lot less fat/ calories). (It’s also a great way to have vegetables if they aren’t really “your thing”).  I had two bowls of “soup” that came out to about one ladle of soup + half of a roll.  So that’s it- it’s a good way to have your cake and eat it, too!

And I also had a juicy orange on the side:

*Note: I don’t do this with broth or tomato-based soups, just heavy cream soups.

*Note 2: This trick can also work with things like lasagna or other pasta dishes- fill the plate/ bowl with vegetables and then place a smaller portion on top to coat the veggies in whatever flavor it is.

*Note 3: I am NOT saying “eating what you want” or “honoring your cravings” shouldn’t happen, this is just a way to do that without the calorie bomb.  If soup is what you want, a bowl of it isn’t a bad thing! 

Have a wonderful weekend!