Bikram for breakfast

When I have a little more time to work out, I love going to Bikram.  While the class is only 90 minutes, it takes about 15-20 min to get there and home and then you need to acclimate to the heat (110deg!) — and claim your favorite spot — a good 15 minutes early.  So when all is said and down, it’s nearly a 2.5 hour venture.

It was HOT and HUMID in the yoga room when I got there.  They had the “rhino” on to boot!  The rhino is this large machine that blasts more humidity in the room.  I’m thinking it should be banned because it makes you drip sweat the instant you walk into the room.  My mind immediately wanted to play tricks on me: “it’s so hot,” “I’m not going to make it,” “can I go home?”, “water, need more water!”  But once the class started, i hit my zen and was good to go.  I go to Bikram Yoga San Jose since it is the closest studio near me.  If you are in the area, you should certainly try it out!

When I returned home, looking like a wrinkled prune, I was greeted by cone-head Naava   She made it through surgery just fine and seemed just as happy as ever.  Now she’s a little dopey and drugged, but I’m sure she’ll be good as new in no time.

A great workout always prompts me to eat extra healthy, so I thought it was time for a GREEN MONSTER.  I have to admit, I never thought I’d get on this craze.  What’s a green monster?  It’s a smoothie with spinach as the main ingredient.  Don’t get me wrong, I like spinach, but, um, well, not to drink.  However, I started making them last week and created my third one today.  This was a wee bit too spinach-y!  I felt a little like Popeye (did Olive Oyl not eat spinach?).

In my think drink went 1+ cups of frozen spinach, 2/3 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 banana, and 2/3 cup almond milk.  My previous versions had blueberries and skim milk and were tastier I’d say.

Behold!  The Green Monster…mwuahahahaha!

One of those days…

Do you ever have one of those days when everything seems to go wrong.  The whole week was a bit of that..ups and downs all over the place.

Well Thursday night, we took our new dog (Naava, 5 yr old female, German Shepherd mix from SPCA) to her first appointment with our vet.  When we adopted her we were concerned about a lumpy mass on her tummy, but were assured that it was simply a fatty cyst and nothing to be concerned about.  When poor little Naava was showing signs of having troubles going potty, we were concerned and got her into the vet.  Our vet noted immediately that the cyst was no cyst, but a hernia!  In fact, her bladder was poking into this hernia.  They wanted to do surgery right away but we wanted to speak with the SPCA to see if they would do the surgery since they misdiagnosed her.

Really long story short and many hours at the SPCA on my off-Friday, we found out she needed to have the surgery that day.  The plus was that they were going to cover the cost!  Yay!  So off Naava went and I got back into Zach’s car (his SUV is easier with the dog than my car).  I continued running errands for the day and when I came out of a store, I saw that someone had hit Zach’s (new) car.  Oh boy.  Not good.  I felt so horrible that it happened on my watch.  Zach was not too pleased either.

What a day, what a day…So when I got home and set in to make dinner, I know I wanted a lovely glass of vino.

Flock is by Smoking Loon and is their ‘higher end’ brand, but still under $20!  It’s a really great rustic-y Pinot Noir, which happens to be my favorite kind of wine.

Onto dinner, I picked up some basil polenta that I wanted to work with.  I decided to simply saute it until slightly brown and top with a jazzed up tomato sauce.  I lightly sauteed 2 cloves of garlic and a small red onion in a pan before adding organic tomato sauce (from a jar) as well as some additional fresh tomatoes.  On top of the polenta and sauce was freshly grated parmigiano reggiano (yum!).  And on the side, some steamed broccoli.

The night was rounding out to be far better than the day

Better late than never!

Hey there…so seeing how I cannot have my cell phone or camera within the walls of my work, nor can I access most external websites, my time to devote to my blog is (and will be) tight!  Eeek!

Let’s back up to Thursday… For some reason I was hungry ALL DAY!  Nothing was satisfying me.  I had 1 packet oatmeal and about 40 calories worth of raisins for breakfast.  Then for lunch I had broccoli slaw with chopped carrots in some balsamic vinagrette.  My snack was a Nugo Dark (must take a pic so you can pick up your own!).  Anyway, I got home to walk the pup and grab a snack before spinning class at Gold’s.  Let me tell you, the fat kid moment hit me hard.  I have no clue where it came from, but I had to respond, and did I!  Oye!  Let’s just say the following were involved: homemade cookie dough that I had frozen, Thin Mints, Omega-3 PB, and some chips and salsa.  I felt sooo sick afterward.

But spinning called and despite the pangs in my side from eating too much and then exercising, it was a good class.  When I returned home, I wasn’t hungry at all — go figure.

Off to the vet to round out Thursday night.