Although my clothes shopping trip ended up being pointless, I did get the ankle weights I needed.

Per doctor’s orders I’m suppose to start at 1-2 pounds and add 1 pound a week until I’m up to 10 pounds. I bought the 1-5 adjustable weights because they were cheaper and I figured that when I work my way up to more than 5 pounds I can just strap both weights on one leg.

The exercises (2 sets of 20 of each exercise on each leg)

• Straight leg raises (Quad Strengthening): Lie on your back with one leg straight and one knee
  bent. Tighten abdominal muscles to stabilize low back. Slowly lift leg straight up about 6 to 12 inches and hold 1 to 5 seconds. Lower leg slowly.
• Side lifts (abductors/ outer thigh Strengthening) :Lie on floor on your right side, shoulder and hips aligned.
  Bend right leg (leg on floor) to 90 degrees.
  Slowly raise you left leg about 18 inches, hold for a second, then slowly lower leg.
• Side lefts (adductors/inner thigh Strengthening):Lie on floor on your right side, shoulder and hips aligned. Use your right hand to prop up your head. Place the left hand on floor in front of you to help balance yourself. Bend left leg and bring it to the floor in front of you. Slowly raise your right leg about 10 inches off the floor then, hold for a second, then slowly lower leg to ground

I started with 3 pounds and started feeling the burn after about 10 especially during the abductor side lifts. It’s odd to me how heavy 3 pounds can feel- I always thought my legs were extremely strong, but turns out they’re not as strong as they could be. These are great exercises if you are a runner or if you experience knee pain because strengthening the muscles that support the knee with knee exercises is most important in protecting your knees from injury and knee pain. (PS These exercises were recommended to me by my doctor, but I’m not a physical therapist or doc, so if you are experiencing knee pain please see your doctor.)

For dinner last night I stopped by a local market to grab something I had been craving for a few days now- SPRING ROLLS. I know it’s fall and all but I was really craving this summer staple.

I have to admit I wasn’t impressed with these rolls. They weren’t all that fresh- as evidenced by the browning avocado. I guess I’m just spoiled with the rolls I get at Ginger Thai and the ones I make myself at home, both of which are way better that the ones I had last night. These didn’t satisfy my craving so I guess I’ll just have to make my own sometime this week. That shouldn’t be a problem

I also had some Chobani Greek Yogurt. The new Pomegranate flavor is so good. It isn’t tart like plain Greek yogurt but rather really sweet. It was probably a bit sweeter than I normally prefer, but besides that I really enjoyed it. The best part is that it even has actual pomegranate seeds mixed in.

This morning I had a hempilicious bowl of oats upon waking.

• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 of a browning banana (sliced)

Once the oats were cooked via the stovetop, I stirred in 1 tablespoon of Nutiva Hemp seeds and sprinkled a few on top with a shake of cinnamon. And, of course I had a spoonful of Better n PB on the side.

Twas a lazy Sunday morning and I didn’t really do all that much. Just lounged, read blogs, etc. I got hungry for lunch and broke out a new product- Blue Diamond Almond Nut Thins. They looked intriguing plus they were on sale for $1.50 a box. I can’t resist a good sale.

I had about one serving with garlic hummus.

These little crackers reminded me a lot of Japanese style rice crackers, but I didn’t really taste the almonds. What I like about them is that they are gluten free, light, and crispy- perfect for dipping into hummus. I’d be interested in trying the other Nut Thins as they also make pecan, hazelnut, smokehouse, country ranch, and cheddar cheese flavors.

The main entree for lunch ended up being an oven “fried” tofu wrap. I seriously love this tofu, it’s so flavorful and easy and I had left over breading from the last time I made it so it was super simple to whip up this morning.

I put a little hummus on a whole wheat tortilla and filled it with avocado, orange bell pepper, yellow tomatoes, red onion, the fu’ and arugula. With a side of grapes!

My friend and I went shopping a cute vintage store looking for some unique clothes since I couldn’t seem to find anything in the mall yesterday. After yet another disappointing shopping trip we hit up a Core Flow yoga class, which did not disappoint! It was quite challenging and I ended up being one sweaty lady by the end of class. Maybe low impact workouts for a few weeks won’t be so bad after all!

Question for ya: What’s your favorite place to shop for clothes? I’m having a tough time finding stuff for the “20 something female” that fits well, is high quality, and affordable- any suggestions?

Until this year I hadn’t been to a wedding in quite some time, but now it seems like every weekend someone else is either having their wedding, getting engaged, hosting a shower/bachelorette, or talking about their wedding. Saturday Isaac’s cousins got hitched in Norfolk on the water. We decided to head up early to get a little beach (bay) time in before all the shenanigans started at 6:00.

After hitting up the gym, packing, and dropping off Olive at a friends and then we were on our way. I still haven’t eaten a full breakfast (just a slice of toast) so I brought some greens in a cup along for the ride.

I got these samples from the nice folks at Amazing Grass a while ago. I tried the All Natural Green SuperFood mixed with water and to put it frankly, it wasn’t my cup of tea. It simply didn’t taste good. Even if something is really healthy, it has to taste good or else I’m not going to eat it – end of story. There are way too many healthy foods that taste good to eat foods that don’t So, I put the rest of the samples in a kitchen draw and kind of forgot about them. Yesterday I was getting ready to make a smoothie for breakfast and realized I was out of chocolate protein powder so I thought I would give the Amazing Grass Chocolate GREEN SuperFood a try.

I made a purple smoothie.   

• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 3 pieces of ice
• Amazing Grass Chocolate GREEN SuperFood

The smoothie ended up kind of looking like tar but I was okay with it because it tasted awesome. I could taste the SuperFood powder, but it wasn’t over powering and the sweetness of the smoothie worked to my advantage. I think I found a good way to put my Amazing Grass samples to use. Score!

I also packed some good reading material. Oxygen, a cookbook Isaac bought for me from an auction at school, and The Whole Truth – an awesome book/cookbook Isaac’s mom gave me this autographed copy after receiving it at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.

The Whole Truth is probably one of my top 3 cookbooks. I’ve had this two part eating guide and cookbook for over 2 years now and I absolutely love it. Andrea Beaman, a graduate from IIN and the Kushi Institue, is both a Holistic Health Counselor and a natural chef. She sums up in about 100 pages how to eat for your health. Her eating guide is a quick read with brief chapters like Seasonal Sustenance, Sugar Plum Fairies, Pickle-licious Food and The Sea Inside. She explains why each each category of food is important and ends the chapter with Tasty Tidbits, the key points to take away. These are quite helpful because without rereading the book you can easily remind yourself of the key points again. There’s literally so much good information in the book and all the recipes I have tried were easy to make and have turned out great. A few the recipes I have posted on my blog have been inspired by this cookbook- off the top of my head I know that the Brown Rice Porridge and the Brown Rice Krispiees were. PLUS, there’s even a recipe for a banana icecream with walnuts, very similar to the recipe for the banana softserve that Gena made famous.

After some quality car time, we finally arrived to the hotel, lounged around and then got ready for the wedding.

Here we are, all dolled up before the wedding. It was a Jewish influenced ceremony (the Bride is Jewish) with a Chuppah and the breaking of the wine glass- simply beautiful. The groom was a big softy and was crying even before the bride walked down the aisle- so sweet. I can’t say anything because I was crying too.

After the ceremony, the party begin with cocktail hour. I had a glass of pinot noir before being seated and then moved on to black russians (kahula and vodka) for the rest of the night. These are so good. Almost too good, considering I can’t remember how many I had….

The reception was very well planned and the food came out soon after cocktail hour.

To start- a house salad with raspberry vinegarette.

The entree had both salmon and spinach stuffed chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. I gave my chicken to Isaac and ate the rest and it was quite delicious.

For dessert, of course there was cake. I’m not a huge cake person, more of an ice cream girl really, but I was feeling the cake last night so I snagged a piece. So glad I did, it was super moist yellow cake with raspberry filling- awesome!

Here’s one of the bride (Isaac’s cousin, Rachel) and the Groom (Daniel) cutting the cake.

There was also a groom’s cake, which is too cute not to share. This cake sums up the groom very well- he is German and loves all things technical, namely computer programming (notice the linux penguin) “Ich Lieve Dich” is I love you in German.

They had a really great band so Isaac and I spend most of the time on the dance floor, only breaking for crazy pictures like this.

It was a lovely night! We woke up this morning and my tummy wasn’t feeling so good from all the drinks. I hit up the hotel gym for some detox. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill and about 15 minutes of arms. It felt good to sweat out some of the alcohol still in my system- gross!

We ate brunch at the hotel and then hopped back in the car for the drive home. And now, we’re home sweet home with Ms. Olive.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

I think I captured all my eats today, which is rare, because normally I don’t have the time to take a picture of every little thing I eat, plus some stuff just isn’t really blog worthy.

Today’s breakfast = totally blog worthy. Chia Seed Oats.

Notice the congealedness today? It’s because I actually let them sit for about 10 minutes before digging in. I am usually starving and have no patience to wait.

Work went well for a Monday morning and I walked home for lunch per the usual. I put the left over tzatziki to good use and made little pita triangles with hummus, tomato, red onion, avocado, and the tzatziki.

These little babies were so easy and so GOOD! The pitas that I used are awesome because they don’t break apart when you stuff them like most other pita breads do. They’re Joseph’s Middle East Bakery Low Carb Pitas. I’ve talked about Joseph before when I tried his lavash bread. Now it looks like the domain for his website has expired. I’m wondering if they are still in business? I surely hope so, because I’ll be quite sad if I can’t find these pitas anymore.

With lunch I also had the rest of the Amy’s Black Bean Soup from yesterday.

And some fresh cherries (this plate X 2). Gotta love fresh cherries!

Once back at the office I got right to work and by mid afternoon the trail mix was calling my name. I had one small handful.

And then another.

And I may or may not have gone back for a few more pieces. I’ll keep ya guessing!

After eating the mix I wasn’t satisfied and decided to eat the snack I had brought from home – another flavor of Rachel’s Cottage Cheese – Pear Mangosteen this time!

This one lived up to it’s name. It was wickedly delicious. It probably had something to do with the sweetness, as this one had double the sugar in comparison with the one with red pepper. But, I tend to like fruit with cottage cheese so I’m not surprised I like the Pear Mangosteen better.

This evening I decided to go shopping in lieu of hitting up the gym. It was for good reason. I have a wedding to attend Saturday and I bought this dress over the weekend but I need a new pair of shoes. I found a pair tonight at DSW that I thought would work perfect. Too bad I got home and tried them on with the dress and I wasn’t in love with how they looked together. Oh well, I guess I might have to go shopping again… how very sad.

Once home, Olive and I went for a walk while I baked some sweet potato fries.

With the fries I had a veggie egg with sauteed summer squash, red onion, green pepper, and hot salsa.

It was a great little dinner. I love love love having breakfast for dinner. It’s been one of my favorite meals since childhood.

Keeping with the breakfast theme I also had a small mug of kashi go lean, a sliced berry and unsweetened almond milk for a snack.

Totally hit the spot. I’m off to read and try to get to hit the sack early. I was up much of last night due to a huge storm that came through. Every few seconds my entire bedroom was lit up from the lightening. Plus, Isaac had already left for DC so I only had little Olive to snuggle. I’m not usually scared of storms, but trust me this one was on the intense side.

Good night friends!

I felt like a true DC native as I walked to the Metro this morning in my black suit. Although, people may have realized I wasn’t actually a true Washingtonian considering I was wearing flip-flops with my suit. I had to do it! My feet are sensitive (I get blisters faster than you can say Dr. Scholl’s) and I was going to be standing on concrete for 8 hours in the heels I had neatly packed in my bag. Plus I didn’t feel as though heels were necessary for the Metro.

But, before leaving for the conference, I cooked up 1/2 cup of steel cut oats in water with 1/2 of a banana, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and a dollop of pb.

Oh so chewy! I’m not sure I prefer steel cut over regular oats or oat bran, but it’s fun to switch it up from time to time.

After a quick metro ride I was at the convention center and talking to folks about education technology and the software that my company sells. Apparently today was busier than yesterday at the booth, which was a good thing because the morning went by rather quickly and lunch arrived just when I really needed to sit down and rest. I walked around the convention center food booths and decided I didn’t want to pay $8.00 for a greasy garden patty (one of the few veggie options besides plain side salads). I ventured out towards Chinatown looking for a Cosi or a Chop’t. I kept seeing people with those bags so I know they must have been around there somewhere but I never found the actual shops. I ended up at Starbucks and it was good, but it was pretty pointless for me to leave the convention center because there was a Starbucks right inside.

I went for the Power Protein Plate, one of Starbucks Healthy Breakfast Items, which includes 1 whole wheat mini bagel, a packet of PB,  2 slices of cheese, 2 apple slices, a small bunch of grapes, and a hard boiled egg.

For a little under $5 I got a really filling lunch, plus they were playing Paul Simon’s Kodachrome so that pretty much made the extra walking in heels worth it. It was the perfect portion for lunch and I would definitely buy it again. I stayed full all afternoon and only snacked on a few Life Saver mints that I snagged from other vendors. Although, when the conference ended at 5 I was pretty exhausted and needed a snack.

I ate an Apple Cinnamon PURE Bar as I walked to the Metro station. I’m pretty sure that I mentioned it before but I’m not in love with the PURE bars. I find them to be just okay, but today the Apple Cinnamon flavor tasted remarkably good- maybe I just really needed a snack but I’m now, pretty much certain, that the Apple Cinnamon is the one flavor I would consider buying!!

I was planning to leave DC this evening after the conference. I hung around until dinner time – 7:30PM to beat the rush hour traffic. One of Isaac’s house-mates cooked up a rather tasty dinner of vegetable sauce with eggplant, turnip greens, red peppers, onions, summer squash, nutritional yeast, and other spices- I’m actually unsure of what all was put in it, but it was served over whole grain pasta and tasted quite yummy.

I was all ready to leave with my belly full of pasta but due to the current weather conditions- pouring rain- I’ve decided just to stay one more night in DC and head back home and straight to work in the AM.

Happy Humpday!

This weekend I decided to make a trek up non-scenic, traffic laden I-95 to visit my love- he is spending the majority of summer living in DC for a training program. What was suppose to be a 2 hour trip took me 3.5 hours (lots of traffic)-  it’s cool though I was able to catch up with both of my best friends from college, a new friend from blog world, and listen to some of my new favorite jams… I highly recommend this compliation album as there are a ton of great artists on it including some of my favorites, plus it’s for a good cause, not to mention it’s cheap!

Before leaving on Saturday I woke up early, went to my usual Saturday morning spin class. After getting the heart rate up I did a quick weight workout and then headed home to pack up everything including ms. Olive who is spending the weekend at Isaac’s parents’ house.

For lunch I decided to try the Natalia’s Green Lemonade:

Foamy… Ummm….. I wasn’t impressed. The smell was a little off putting and the taste was even worse. I found it hard to choke down the whole container and I actually didn’t end up finishing it. I don’t  know, maybe I did something wrong or maybe romaine would have been a better than celery or more apples? I used 1.5 Jazz, which is a sweet variety, similar to fujis. However, they were small. Perhaps I need to give the green lemonade another go. For those out there who have tried it… do you like it? Do you use celery or romaine? Is it something that grows on you?

Once I FINALLY arrived at Isaac’s place I was starving. The green lemonade, carrot sticks, and raw almonds I had packed just weren’t cutting it. Isaac was excited to fix me up a sweet treat from goods he had purchased at the Farmer’s Market earlier.

Toasted sunflower and flax seed bread topped with homemade creamy peanut butter, homemade apple butter, and some local blueberries and strawberries.

The perfect snack… the bread was so dense and being topped with both pb and ab- this snack had some staying power. It kept me full well past dinner time.

Isaac showed me around his home away from home. He is subletting a room from a friend at a community house shared with 5 other tenants. It’s a HUGE old house in Mount Pleasant (NW DC) and everyone living here is vegetarian/vegan and VERY eco-friendly. (I guess Isaac won’t be eating much meat this summer!)

They have a roof top garden and 2 compost bins in the back yard. They make their own laundry detergent, ride bikes or walk, and have a water/power usage graph hung in the kitchen. They share food as well, and are members of a CSA. Someone in the house is in charge of making a Vegan meal each night for dinner and tonight is Isaac’s night so I’m going to help him prepare something delish. Quinoa will be involved!

I don’t think I mentioned it, but I’m actually staying in DC longer than just the weekend because I have a conference to attend for work  here on Tuesday. It just so happened that I planned on coming this weekend to visit and the conference was this week. I’ll work from “home” tomorrow, go to the conference Tuesday, then head back to Richmond. In other big news… I finished my first nutrition course and start my next one tomorrow- wish me luck!

Isaac’s napping now, but later we are headed to  a drum circle. I’m not exactly sure what a drum circle entails, but I’m assuming it will be fun! Then coming back to the casa to cook our meal for the house.

Hope eveyone is having a lovely weekend.