Home Gym

WARNING: The following pictures use flash and are just plain terrible. These images may be offensive to some viewers (mainly professional photographers). Viewer discretion is advised.

Well we got a home gym this week! My husband has been scouring the city, looking for the best deals around. He did a great job people!

This is part of it. The most I could capture in one shot.

Starting from the left: kettle bell, power blocks, and free weights.

Our yoga gear. Power blocks and mats. I like to do yoga about once a week, just to keep my muscles loose.

This is our squat rack. There is a lat pull down and a seated row (there are different handles that go with the cable machine. So you could do bicep curls, tricep extensions, etc.).

Not sure what this one is called. But you can do a hanging back extension and hanging sit ups. This machine is killer!

Here is where we do pull ups. I love working on my pull ups. I can do about three in a row, then I have to switch to jumping pull ups.

There is a roman chair on the other side of the pull up machine. There are also handles that you can use for tricep dips.

Starting on the left: rower, bench, and Drew's bike that he has on a stand, so he can ride it inside during the winter.

Things that went unmentioned so far: punching bag, plyo boxes, medicine balls, and swiss ball.

We're moving to a home we're building now. It won't be ready till October, but in our gym there, we're planning to install mirrors on most of the walls. Can't wait for that. It's so nice to see your form when you're doing an exercise. I would argue that it's vital.

I am still going to keep a gym membership. I like having the variety of all the equipment a commercial gym contains.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Gotta get some school work done now.

Food Log

My post today is another adventure in my daily eats.

I don't know what's up, but for about a week my hunger has gone through the roof! About a month and a half ago I upped my calorie intake from 1500 calories per day to 1800 calories per day. Even with the added calories, I wake up at night to my stomach growling, and all throughout the day I can hardly go two hours without being hungry.

Any idea what's up? I'd love to have some advice!

Breakfast this morning was a little different.

I didn't add any fruit to my bowl of oats, so I added... cover your ears... splenda (I know... very bad. Tisk on me).

• 30 grams oats
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds (gelled overnight)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup egg whites 
• 1 tablespoon almond butter

Lunch was pretty plain-jane.

Just a piece of whole wheat toast with 3/4 tablespoon peanut butter, and a serving of 1% cottage cheese.

Snack 1 was a Muscle Cook's protein bar. LOVE these bars, even though they are pretty sticky. 

Snack 2 (consumed maybe an hour later) was leftover turkey meatballs. 

Supper was really good. Usually I get super sick of eating stir fries, but tonight's was awesome. 

• 5 ounces chicken breast
• 1 cup broccoli 
• 1/3 cup green beans
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce 

Lastly, dessert. 

My sister has me hooked on greek yogurt and honey. Perfect combo! Eaten with this, Jamie Eason's carrot cake protein bars. 

All in all, 1,787 calories, 58g fat, 150g carbs, 177g protein. 

I have some exciting posts coming up! One of them is a guest post written by a trainer out of Seattle, and the other is my new workout cycle, Dane (the trainer from Seattle), has made for me. So stay tuned! 

Turkey Meatballs

Another recipe!

Hello friends. It was a busy weekend... filled with morrrrre snow!

Anyways, before I go off on another tangent about our terrible weather, let me tell you about our dinner last night.

It was another tomato sauce based recipe. Turkey meatballs with tomato sauce.

For the meatballs:

• 32 ounces ground turkey breast
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs 
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• basil, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder (all to your taste)

Mix all the ingredients together (with your hands works best), but don't over mix. Mix just until everything is combined. Form the mix into meatballs. I got 17 out of this recipe, and they were pretty big. Bake them on a greased baking sheet at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 

For the tomato sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 an onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon ground basil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano 
• big pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 28 ounce can of tomatoes
•  1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 

Heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onion and let cook until soft. Add the garlic and spices and cook for about a minute more. Then add the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Don't skip out on the vinegar! It adds a great depth of flavor. Again, the longer you cook the sauce, the better it will taste. If it gets too thick, just add a little water. 

You can serve this meal with spaghetti squash, pasta, or a salad like we had.

Here's what our backyard looks like with all the snow. They say we've had more snow this year than we've had in 20 years!

Makes me wanna cry looking at it.... 

Shrimp Soup Recipe

I love answering questions on my blog. One of the commenters from my last post, asked me if I could share my recipe for Shrimp Soup. 

It's the simplest recipe I can think of!

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• half an onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground basil (didn't have fresh, but it's better)
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano 
• 1 generous pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 28 ounce can of tomatoes 
• 40 medium sized shrimp, cleaned and shelled

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and cook until they are soft.
2. Add the garlic and spices. Cook them for a minute.
3. Add the tomatoes. The longer you cook these ingredients the more flavor will be developed. 
4. When you are about 5 minutes away from serving the soup, add the shrimp and cover the pot. Shrimp take hardly any time at all to cook. You'll know they're done when the curl up and turn pink.  

Nutritional Info: 286 calories, 27.8 grams protein, 18.1 grams carbs, 9.3 grams fat

If you make it, let me know what you think. I love it. It's one of my stand by recipes actually. We love shrimp, so I have it on hand always. 

Stuck in the Snow

You know you're dedicated to working out when you get stuck in the snow twice trying to get to the gym!

This is the view outside my front door. If you can see those tire tracks, it's on that very road that I got stuck. BRUTAL conditions here in Alberta, Canada. We got about six inches of snow last night. That plus the snow we had before last night, goes past my knees when I step in it! There's still a heavy snowfall warning in effect, and it's supposed to snow until tomorrow night.

I think it's probably pointless to say that I'm missing Hawaii more than ever! Being locked up in your house, with zero groceries is less than ideal. My diet has consisted of oatmeal, egg whites, and smoothies. That's about all I can make with the food that I do have in my house.

I wanted to talk a bit about post vacation meals today. After I travel for more than a week, my body is usually craving homemade food, protein, and green tea. This vacation was special because we had a kitchen to cook healthy meals in, so my body wasn't really craving anything at all when I came home. Never the less, there was plenty of cheating in Hawaii (think oreos, wine, and nacho chips). So I've been making a special effort to get my meals back to normal.

Pumpkin Oatbran with egg whites and almond butter

Berry Oatmeal with egg whites and almond butter

Green Tea (trying to stay warm here!)

Toast with peanut butter and cinnamon

Smoothies

Tomato Shrimp Soup

Scrambled Eggs

That's about all it's been for the last few days. Can't wait till the roads are good enough to make a Cosco trip.

Hope the weather is better where you are!

Pictures from Hawaii

I'm back in freezing cold Canada, and missing the warm sun in Hawaii! Seriously, I could move there so easily. If only I could just pick up my life (as it is now), and move it to Hawaii.

But I did miss the blog world. I'm catching up on all your posts!

Let me share a few pics from the vacation. There were 10 of us (family members and close family friends) there renting the house. Renting a house is SO much better than staying in a hotel. We had a kitchen so I could make clean meals. It was also nice to have the freedom to stay at our own pool instead of going to a crowded beach.

Views from the house we rented in Honolulu.

Pics of the house:

This is the pool. On the other side of those four rectangular windows was our bedroom.  

The other end of the house.

The hallway to the front door. There were fish in those ponds!

The living room.

The kitchen. We were probably cooking after hanging out in the pool in this pic.

We went to Pearl Harbor.

My sister and I at a Luau on News Years Eve.

On our way home.

We did many more things while in Hawaii, but I didn't take pictures of most of them. I'm terrible at keeping my camera with me. Sorry about that.

I'm sad to be home. It was amazing to be somewhere new and exciting. But looking towards the positive. It'll be nice to get back to my old workouts. For the last ten days I've been mostly doing cardio and plyometrics because we didn't get to a gym more than once. We went one day, but the charge was outrageous. So I took it as a nice break for my muscles. We also tried out a Bikram studio while we were there. It was nice to stay active and try new things.

Look forward to more upcoming posts!

Christmas Woes

I thought I should check in. I'm still here, have no fear! Just spending time with my sister while she's still here (she's on Christmas break from school in Seattle and will be going back in a few weeks). On Boxing Day (the 26th), we're going to HAWAII! So excited to see the sun again and the ocean.

Are you all ready for Christmas? Presents bought? We're all done at our household. Usually I'm the one buying presents on Christmas Eve, but not this year! I don't even know what to do with myself.

With Christmas looming I can't stop thinking (worrying) about the food that comes along with it. I've already been to two Christmas parties, and I have to admit, they were both major cheat meals. Do you guys worry about the same things? I know in the long run meals like these won't make much difference, but I'm going to Hawaii in less than a week! BIKINIS!

Any ways, I really hope you all have an amazing Christmas!