First snow of the year

Pin It and the city panics!  It's not nice out there...I think I'll stay home from the gym (since they closed @ 5pm due to the weather...oh and because I can barely walk after last night's Jillian workout!)

My name is Tanya and I have an addiction

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To PINEAPPLE that is!  Growing up I absolutely HATED pineapple.  I've gone 36 (almost 37) years refusing to eat it.  At a meeting at work last week I decided I was going to force myself to try it...why not, I've tried kickboxing, Zumba, Step and a whole host of other things lately, so what's a little pineapple over the lips?  Guess what??  LOVED it.  They are on sale this week (2 for $5) so I bought a cored one and ate the entire thing between Saturday and Monday and I'm ready to go back for another one!  It was like eating candy!  I think the problem growing up was that the pineapple that we had was canned.  I've tried "fake" pineapple this week (in some yogurt) and I still don't care for it, but I am a convert when it comes to the fresh stuff :)  Long live the pineapple!

Yesterday I saw Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2011 for the Wii at Costco for $18.99 and on a whim I bought it...what was I thinking??  Jillian scares me at the best of times (although I don't find her that scary on The Doctors...I miss her terror trips from BL).  I got home tonight after spending the day out of town with a friend (spa day, FOOD and more food) and I was too late for Super Power or Zumba, so I popped Jillian into the Wii and away I went.  I did the training part for 40 minutes working on Abs and upper body....man oh man!  I was dripping with sweat...woulda posted a picture for you but I'm too beat to walk across the room to get my Blackberry to take the picture :)  It was a great workout - much more effective (I think) than the Wii Fit Plus workouts...I was panting through most of it - there's no way I could have carried on a conversation, so I put it in my WW tracker as high intensity and earned myself 10 Activity Points (only 2 fewer than I would have earned at Zumba :) 

Back to work tomorrow...it's going to be hard after being off for 4 days...hoping to make it to water aerobics tomorrow night, but we are supposed to get a storm tomorrow (snow or rain, dunno which...hoping for just rain!) so we'll see how the weather holds up...that's all I want to do is walk the 15 minutes to the bus in the snow after doing water aerobics for an hour...

Blah and spicy

Pin It I made two new recipes this weekend - one blah and one spicy :)

The first one was from the Weight Watchers magazine for Red Curried Vegetables.  It was OK (6.5/10 maybe), but I doubt I'd make it again.  The recipe was single serving (waste of time if you ask me) and it didn't have much flavour.  I added onions and red peppers to give it some flavour, but nope... disappointing.

This afternoon I decided to try a recipe from Sparkpeople.com - Spicy CrockPot Thai Chicken.  I knew it was going to be spicy but when I removed the CrockPot lid and my eyes watered, I was concerned it would be TOO spicy (hard for anything to be too spicy for me!)  The recipe didn't call for the chicken to be shredded, but it seemed like a good idea :)  I served it over spaghetti squash with steamed carrots and broccoli on the side.  It was AMAZING!  Spicy, but not too spicy - a great 7 PointsPlus meal!  It would be great over rice or mashed potatoes, but why waste the points, eh?  I give this recipe a 10/10 (hmm, maybe even a 12?)  Super easy, super fast (well, except the cooking time - 4 hrs on high) and super yummy.  It left me wanting more.  Not because the serving size was too small - it was just that good :)

So my plan for this week for fitness is:

Sunday - deep water aerobics (done!)
Monday - Step
Tuesday - Super Power (no Zumba this Tues - I have physio after Super Power)
Wednesday - Cardio plus sexy arms aquafit
Thursday - Zumba
Friday - day off

My plan for Tuesday nights when I don't have physio is to do Super Power and then Zumba - if I can get my act in gear and plan a MAJOR snack for late afternoon and a lighter supper for after classes.

Tonight I joined the party!

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The Zumba Party that is!  And I loved it!!  Finally, after two years of my friend Cheryl trying to convince me to try it, I finally gave in.  They offer it at my gym twice each week and I've been considering it for a couple of weeks and tonight I decided to take the plunge, despite suffering the after-effects of the spinning class I tried last night.  Oh yeah, did I mention I did a spin class last night?  Well, I did a little over half of one..yup, 35 minutes was all I could handle, then I gave up and went home :)  Today my "parts" (yes, all of them) are sore...sorry for TMI here, but I want to warn anyone who THINKS they have enough padding to handle a spin class...um, no.  You do NOT.  Believe me, I have serious padding in the posterior and I've never been so uncomfortable in my life!  I've had "lady doctor" visits that were less invasive.  That's all I'm going to say on the spin class experience.  Let's just say I won't be going back to that class anytime soon..a.at least not til they put lay-z-boy seats on those bikes!

So far in the past month I've tried step class, super power class, spin class and Zumba, AND I've gone back to water aerobics...I'd say 5 classes isn't too shabby for someone afraid of group fitness!  What will I try next...hmmmm....rock climbing perhaps??  :)  I feel like I could take on the world.  Tonight when I got home from work I was half a dead dog and I took an HOUR (yes, a whole hour) to convince myself to go to Zumba tonight (I even bribed myself with a cookie...shameful, I know)...I was tired, sore and not motivated at all...but I am SO glad I went!

Hungarian Beef Goulash

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It's done!  I have to give this recipe a 10/10.  Super easy (don't bother doing all the prep stuff on the stove ahead of time - just toss it in the crockpot, meat first) and very, very tasty and only 4 points+ per serving!  I was going to have it over rice or noodles, but I had a hankering for roasted potatoes so I had my goulash in a bowl :)  I've never had this kind of goulash before.  I've always fried up hamburger, tossed in tomatoes,  spices and cheese and called it goulash in the past...this is totally different and totally yummy.  Click here to see the recipe.


WARNING:  Your home will smell incredible and neighbours might come calling....turn out the lights and hide behind the sofa - you'll want this all to yourself! ;-) 

Very lemony oatmeal

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I finally made a recipe from the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook, which I've had for um....a couple years :)  Decided to make the Very Lemony Oatmeal.  I love oats, love lemon, so it's gotta be good, right?  YES it is!  And to make it even better, I added some raspberries (love the combo of lemon and raspberries!!)  Here is the recipe (5 Points+).

PS - I cooked my oatmeal in the microwave - same amount of water, 2 mins on high