As Many Reps as Possible!

I have finished the first phase of "The New Rules of Lifting for Women."  Well, almost.  I have one more workout and then I'll begin phase two.  There are 16 work outs in the first phase with 2 "bonus" work outs at the end.  In the bonus work out you drop back down to the weight you did in the first work out and do as many repetitions as you can.  In the first work out when I did squats I used 50 pounds, 15 reps.  This time I did 50 pounds and 100 reps!  There are a couple reasons for this, I think.  I don't believe I was using as much weight as I could have the at first and I was using a barbell that was cumbersome to get overhead.  Haha.  Lately, I've been using the Smith machine that makes it easier to get under the amount of weight you want to use.  Anyway, after that I was feeling really great about myself.  Next was pushups.  I STILL suck at push ups.  I could only do 14 at an incline and I got a little discouraged here.  The rest of the work out went OK.  Maybe I tired myself out too much with the squatting.  I am going to try harder with my push ups in the future.  Looking ahead into phase 2 I see there are push ups to do.  I'm going to try to be more consistent and make sure I'm pushing myself.  I didn't do very well with the step ups either.  I hate step ups and lunges.  I'll be working on that.  I am also going to take my measurements to compare after I'm done with phase 2.

I have nothing else to share today.  Let me find you all a nice picture to end with.

Oh!  Here's a nice calming manatee.  These got me through the last couple months of my pregnancy.

There's more here if you want to see them.  It's really nice.  http://calmingmanatee.com/30
  

Salmon Patties

Do I have a hum-dinger of a recipe for you all today?!?!  Yes, yes I do.  When I was little my mom used to make salmon patties for us and we would eat them with ketchup and I remember always wanting MORE.  They were so delicious and crispy, I couldn't get enough.  And she never made them often enough.  It should have been a weekly thing.  Sidenote, when we lived in Santa Fe,  every Monday was ravioli night.  My dad would pick up delicious cheese ravioli from one of his clients and we would have that and marinara sauce for dinner.  I remember my older sister and I  got exactly 5 ravioli.  Not enough ravioli.  My little sister had special angel hair pasta because she didn't like ravioli.  She was 2 or 3 then, she didn't know what she was missing.  So I feel like salmon patties should have been a Tuesday night thing.  On Mondays we eat ravioli, on Tuesdays we eat salmon patties, on Wednesday we wear pink.

Anyway, my mom was here today and I told her I had a hankering for salmon patties and I started to look up recipes.  My mom said she made ours with salmon, crackers and an egg or two.  Simple.  I don't have any crackers and I wanted something a little healthier.  So I threw in some butter beans and half a sweet potato.  I had no idea how to spice these, so I just winged it.  You could use any bean you have on hand or even hummus.  If you're into dill you could try that.  I will test that out later too.  Next time I will leave out the panko crumbs, well, because I'm out of them now.  Here it is!   

Salmon Patties
1 7.5 ounce can of salmon, I used Trader Joe's
1/2 of a medium sweet potato baked, I usually have a couple already baked in the fridge for Silas
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup Ian's gluten free panko crumbs
1/2 cup butter beans, mushed
1 egg
pinch of curry
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon paprika, I used Hungarian sweet because that's all I had 
3 teaspoons garlic powder

Throw all ingredients in a bowl and mix very well.  I tried to mash the beans a little before I added them.  Shape into 6-8 balls.  You can bake these in the oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes until golden brown, or pan fry until golden and heated.  I did both.  I think the pan fry was better for some reason.  I feel like the onions carmelized a little it in the oven and it wasn't as good as the pan fry.  You could use oil or pan spray.  They aren't very sticky.

Here's two waiting to go in the oven.

Here's my little pan fried friend. 

This is one from out of the oven. 

These were so good.  I put all the ingredients in my Lose It app so here's the nutrition information, if you make 7 patties.  

1 patty 

102 calories

3.5 grams fat

53 milligrams cholesterol

161 milligrams sodium 

9 grams carbohydrates

1.5 grams fiber

1.4 grams sugar

9 grams of protein 

Not too shabby, huh?  You could make these into burgers, crumble them over salad or dip them in ketchup. 

Silas loved them.  I was so surprised.  This morning he ate some oatmeal that I blended up with a banana hunk.  He loved that!  Then he ate some crackers that Granny brought over and the salmon patties and most surprisingly GRAPEFRUIT!!  He loved it!  I thought he would find it was too sour but he enjoyed it.  He's such a good little eater.  

So, got any recipes you want me to try and clean up?  Do you like salmon patties?  Do you have any fond memories of raviolis?  

 

The Revenge of Saint Valentine

Yeah, even I don't know what I'm talking about.  I do know that Valentine's day has passed and we all had a terrible stomach bug.  It all started Wednesday morning.  I thought it was going to be a great day because Silas slept in really late, 8 am!  I noticed he had a little mess on him when he woke up, what I assumed was some yucky spit up.  I'm going to go ahead right here and say that this post is going to be pretty vomit-heavy, so if you can't stand that kind of thing, come back in a couple days.  Anyway, I gave him a bottle and he threw that up all over the couch.  Whoops.  I cleaned that up and gave him another bottle.  I thought it was a fluke.  He threw that up all over his play yard.  This is when I realized he was sick.  It went on like this all day, I tried to give him a little fluid to keep him hydrated and I wore him around in the K'Tan to keep him comfortable and close.  I felt so bad for him!  The husband came home with some Pedialyte and we had a miserable night.  Thursday he was able to keep small amounts down and my mom came over so I could go to the gym.  Friday I started to feel pretty sick and had a very uncomfortable night.  Saturday the husband started getting sick too.  My mother got it as well, and took it home to my father and little sister.  It's the gift that keeps on giving!  There are no sick days when you're a mom, that is true.  Thankfully, we are almost all better now.  Silas has some lingering symptoms, but the worst of it is over and he's in good spirits again.  I have never dealt with a baby that sick.  I only had it for about 24 hours and I was in so much pain and so nauseous, I can't imagine all that discomfort in such a tiny body! 

Thank goodness that's over. 

So Valentine's Day!  We have never been really into Valentine's Day.  We're cards, candy, flowers people.  My husband is so awesome, he got me a card from himself, Silas and the cat!  Here's how the card from the cat was addressed:

Can you see that?  It says "Hooman."  He's so funny.  Here's the card:

And here's my beautiful table with the cards and flowers:

So nice. 

In other news, Thursday and Friday I made some new donuts.  Thursday I made blueberry and Friday I made chocolate peanut butter.  The blueberry ones are not great and the chocolate peanut butter ones have been tainted by the flu.  I still can't even look at them.  Here's a picture of both for your viewing pleasure.  If anyone is interested I'll post the recipes, although I doubt you'll be asking after that stunning description.   

Blueberry

Chocolate Peanut Butter

Geez, looking at the preview of this post, I really need to work on my photography skills.  

When's the last time you had the stomach flu?  Did you want to die? 

Cleaning up the Diet and Making the Donuts

Today was somewhat uneventful.  I took Silas to the gym with me.  He loves going to the gym.  He loves seeing all the other kids.  I think he's going to be a social fellow and I won't have to worry about him being shy like his mama.  This was the end of my third week (I think) doing this program.  I love it, but I'm really looking forward to when I get to add cardio to the mix.  By the time I'm done lifting I feel like I've got a little more in me.  I'm trying to hit the weights as hard as I can, but I guess I have a lot of pent up energy I have to get out.

I've been thinking about my goals a lot and I know I need to clean up my diet.  It doesn't matter what I'm doing in the gym, if I'm eating pizza at night, I'm never going to get where I want to be.  That said, I've had pizza 4 times this week.  That's gross.  So I'm going to clean it up.  I keep track of my calories with the "Lose It" app, and that's been really helpful, but I need improvement.  So I'm going to work on that!  One of my last posts I mentioned my goals for the week was to make it to the gym at least 3 times, which I did, and to take progress pictures, which I also did.  I didn't get a picture of my back though.  I was trying to take pictures while the baby was asleep and he woke up in the middle of my session.  I guess there's still tonight.  The week isn't technically over yet!!

My goal for this coming week is to clean up my diet.  Maybe pizza just once.

I baked some "healthy" donuts today.  They're from paleomg.com.  Have you seen this blog?  I love this girl.  She's so funny and I've made a few of her recipes and so far they've been awesome.  I made her Chocolate Strawberry Donuts tonight.  I didn't have chocolate chips on hand because I have no self control, so I left them out and I didn't make the icing, again because of the chocolate chips.  And I subbed Nikki's Coconut Butter for the coconut oil.  They turned out great!

Here they are before they were baked in my shiny new pan!

And here they are out of the oven!

 

They taste good.  Not too sweet and with a yummy chocolate covered strawberry flavor.  The only downside is they're nearly 330 calories for one donut.  Without the chocolate chips. They do have 11 grams of protein though.  That's something, right?  RIGHT?? 

Hopefully my husband has polished them off when I go back downstairs.  I'm looking for a great protein-packed donut.  Something that's a little naughty, but has some redeeming qualities.  Kinda like yours truly. 

Well that's all I think I have for today.  I leave you with a cutie booty.

Got a protein donut recipe to share?  How much pizza do you eat in a week? 

Cleaning Schedule and Dip

I feel like after nearly 8 months of being a stay at home mom, I'm finally getting in a groove and figuring some things out.  I know some new moms barely miss a step and they're back at work, cooking, cleaning, crafting, exercising or doing whatever they were doing before they had a baby.  Or maybe it just appears that way.  For me, I have honestly had a very hard time adjusting.  Before Silas was born I worked in Chicago and had a long commute but I still managed to cook for us, pack our lunches, and make a hot breakfast, as well as keep the house reasonably clean and have a social life.  After Silas was born I could barely eat and shower.  For months.  I know that things are getting easier because Silas is getting older, but I also think taking some time for myself has made a huge difference too.  Getting to the gym has been a lifesaver.  It gives me some "me" time and it's helping me reach my goals.  When we're done at the gym, I'm refreshed, have some great endorphins going and I can enjoy my son SO much more.  Going to the gym is just one of the healthy, new habits I'm adopting for myself, but I'll share the rest of those in another post. 

Along with resuming my exercise regimen, I'm making a goal to keep the house in better order.  I downloaded this cleaning schedule from French Press Mornings blog:

What are the rules for posting these kind of things?  I've given her credit here...  I hope she doesn't mind.  Ha, who am I kidding?  She'll never see this.  (Dear French Press Mornings, I can take it down or do something different if you like.)  Anyway, I like how the days are broken up, laundry, kitchen, bathrooms, etc.  It's much less daunting than when I sit back and think to myself "I need to clean the house!  The whole house is a mess!"  Inevitably, I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done.  This helps.  Today is kitchen day and boy, did it need it!  I started to clean out the fridge, but that stuff is sticky and I'll work on that shelf by shelf.  I dragged out the vacuum, which I hate to do and did the floors and moved all the junk and gave it all a pretty decent cleaning.  I didn't mop yet though.  I may have time to do that later.  Silas gets scared of the vacuum.  I think that tells you how often he's been exposed to it.  Does that mean I should vacuum more or less often, to avoid traumatizing him?  Haha.  I may have to revise this to include a day for the living/dining room and their floors.  Also, I don't meal plan or do much yard work but I end up doing a little laundry every day. However, this is a great start and her design is so lovely.  I will have some yard work this summer but right now it's winter in Illinois and I'm not going out there!!

Speaking of going out there!!  There were 4 deer in our back yard this morning!  I was SO excited I ran out to the front where the hubs was snow blowing to tell him.  He really did not care.  He's says "Great.  Put a coat on."  Fine.  Here's two pictures my neighbor took:

       

How awesome is that?  I know they eat up our hostas and our gardens, but I think they're so cool and make me happy. 

Speaking of neighbors, the lovely wife of the fellow who took these pictures makes a dip I am obsessed with.  It's a simple dill dip made with sour cream.  It is so good.  Whenever we eat together she makes it and I eat an embarrassing amount.  She has this big tray she fills with veggies and the dip is in the middle and it's one of my favorite things about good weather.  We get together and eat this dip.  I know that a little sour cream isn't that bad for you, especially when it encourages you to eat 6 pounds of raw carrots, broccoli, cucumbers and their friends, but the way I eat this stuff, it behooves me to try and clean it up a little bit.  I've tried non fat Greek yogurt, which was decent, but not as tasty as sour cream and I've tried non fat sour cream, close, but not as luxuriant.  Today though I spotted a tub of cottage cheese and figured "why not?"  Conclusion?  It's good!  It'll never be the original, but it's a good substitute.  Cottage cheese is a good source of protein and you can purchase it in a range of fat contents.  I happened to have 2% milk fat.  Since I was just experimenting I used a small amount of cottage cheese first.  This could easily be adapted to more:

Cottage Cheese Dill Dip
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp dried dill

Combine all ingredients in a container and bust out your immersion blender and blend until smooth.  You could also do this in a blender, scraping down the sides until smooth.  Since we're out of veggies (I need to go shopping) I put a little on toast to test it out. 

Not bad at all! 


I gave Silas a little plain cottage cheese this morning.  I don't think he disliked it, but maybe the lumps were weird for him.  He eventually spit them everywhere.  We went back to his regularly scheduled butternut squash.  He liked that much better.  Since we were in the experimenting mood, I gave him a taste of this dip.  He did NOT like it.  Perhaps a little too much garlic for such a little baby. 

So anyway, how do you keep up with your cleaning?  Do you use a schedule?  How about wildlife?  Anything in your neck of the woods?  What about your babies?  Ever give them something you know will make their chubby little cheeks pucker up in disgust on purpose?  No?  Just me? 

   

Sunday and Birthday Recap

I haven't been posting for a little bit, I guess I feel a little uninspired.  This passed Wednesday I turned 30.  The Dirty Thirty.  I know a lot of people, especially the girls I know get a little bent out of shape about turning thirty, but I'm not.  At least not yet.  Maybe it'll hit later. Here's this quote I like about growing older, with a picture!!

 How nice is that? With a yoga babe to boot!

My last year of my twenties, I got everything I wanted.  I celebrated 29 with my family, I was pregnant with my son and working toward welcoming him to the world.  I got married in March, and Baby Boy Sunshine was born in June.  I feel as if I have accomplished many of the things I've wanted to by this season of my life. 

We celebrated 30 quietly, just the hubs and myself at dinner Wednesday night.  Yummy salads and maybe a little vodka.  Yesterday we all went and met up with my family for a nice brunch.  This restaurant called Prasino is very good.  They serve all kinds of yummy foods and have great vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options.  They used to have a restaurant closer to us, but they closed it down to open another restaurant, which bums me out.  We haven't been to this new restaurant.  I'm going to pretend it's out of spite.  Anyway, I had an awesome omelet that came with sweet potato hash that Baby Boy Sunshine also enjoyed.  They wouldn't let us eat the cake that my sister baked for me there though!  I have never run into that before!  We have been bringing our own cakes to restaurants for years now and this is the first time we weren't allowed to eat it there.  However, that meant we ordered 3 desserts off their menu and I took some of the delicious cake my sister made home with me.  Hahaha. 

Speaking of cake, I have been rocking my workouts!  After all that dessert yesterday I hit the gym in the evening.  I've been doing Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for about 3 weeks now, I think.  Yesterday I bumped up my weights and did 3 sets of 10 reps.  I love feeling myself getting stronger.  I keep a workout journal so I know how much weight I did the last time and I try to do a little more each time.  Sometimes it's impossible because I'm lifting 15 pounds, let's say, and to jump up to a 20 weight is not practical.  But if I can lift 20 just once, it's an improvement.  Then I pop back down to 15.  I signed up for the Kid's Klub so I'd like to go at least once more per week.  I need to work out for my mental health.  Not to mention my physical health!  I want to try some of the classes they offer too.

Woo!  It's really cold in my office right now.  Well, all of Illinois.  Hahaha.  I wonder if the groundhog saw his shadow today?  I grew up in Wyoming, and I always though it was so stupid to wonder if spring was coming February 2nd.  I always thought "Why are we doing this now?  Shouldn't we be doing this in May or even June?"  I guess it's different when you grow up in the mountains!!   

A quick google search tells me there will be six more weeks of winter.  DO YOU HEAR THAT WYOMING? 

I'll wrap up this post by sharing my goals for the week.  I will make it to the gym at least 3 times this week, but hopefully 4.  I will take "progress" pictures.  Ugh. 

Now for my closing questions.  How do you feel about Groundhog's Day?  How did you feel turning 30 or at what age did you freak out about getting "old?"