Day 2: Being Proactive!

Today was a great day!  Truly awesome.  I started the day taking the boys to an indoor play ground, which they love and had tons of fun running around and playing.  Then I put them down for a nap, but instead of crawling into bed like I wanted to, I marched myself to the kitchen and started cooking.  I made a pot of vegetarian chilli, a batch of carob,chick pea and quinois flour cookies and an egg white omelet (for my lunch).  I tried out the manna bread that I bought on the weekend and LOVED it!!!   Manna bread is like raw bread, I bought cinnamon date flavour so it was a desert for me.  It is made with sprouted wheat and doesn't use any rising agents.  I put it in the toaster and fell in love.  But at 5$ a loaf, it will have to be a special treat.

So after cooking I did two loads of laundry, put away 3 more, cleaned the kitchen, and actually sat down while eating and folding laundry to watch last nights episode of Off the Map.  Then when Mark got home I had to run out to the Doctors, yes everything is fine, just a medication adjustment based on some blood work (I have a thyroid and low iron so I'm always doing blood work), the I booted it back home to change and pack a snack for my evening.  Then I headed to the gym to try to replicate the same workout the trainer had for me on Monday.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that no one was using the equipment in the women's gym so I was able to plow through the tough workout at top speeds, with little to no rest between circuits.  It was kind of bootcamp style, the exercises targeted major muscle groups but where combined with core strength to get maximum results.  Rest, if you call it that, was actually active rest, which brings me back to my swimming days, when our coach would put us through the ringer and then tell us to swim at 60-70% of our max, to flush out the lactic acid from our muscles.  So in my case, the active rest or recovery was two different variations of a squat.  I'll have to learn the names of them at some point.  So anyway I ran out of the gym, no cool down or stretch after 50 minutes of non stop work, I then ate in the car as I drove to the hot yoga studio.  I decided that I actually had a few minutes to spare so I thought I would visit Organic Garage to see what type of decaf coffee they have.  While there I decided to pick up a few of my favorite treats, the stuff you can't really find anywhere else but here.  So tomorrow I get to drink decaf coffee, that I know will taste amazing, and that I feel really good about.  Woohoo for Fair Trade!!!  I am doing my little part, next time you buy some coffee or chocolate, think fair trade!  It's the honest way to go, the farmers will thank you (as opposed to the company).  Here are my treats!

 

Not sure why this is sideways!  I tried to fix it!  But this larabar is my new favorite, peanut butter chocolate chip. Yum!!!

Hot Yoga was... hot and crazy!  Just the way I like it.  I put my mat as close to the heater as I could, yes I am a heat hog, most people try to get away from it!  But I find I feel stronger the warmer I am, plus I wanted to warm up fast since I had skipped my stretch at the gym.  I lost track of how many Crow poses we did, I can finally do it and actually stay for a few breaths without falling out of it, woot!  And I nearly flipped when we were jumping into hand stand, clearly I don't fear the ground (but I was a little worried about the heater), so I did a very ungraceful retreat before I swung to far over.   Now what I need to seriously practise is jumping into plank from crow pose, I feel like I'm the most ungraceful crow there ever was, I get one leg back and the other kind of flops down, hippo like!  My mind tells it to "go back with the other leg" and let me tell you we had enough practise, we must have tried this about at least a dozen times, no use.  Crow to plank is the only thing I can't do!  And that is a challenge, I hope I get stronger from all the extra weights that I'm doing so that I can finally manage this transition with a little more grace than a hippo!  (not that I'm comparing myself to a hippo, it's basically the sound that comes from the room when everyone is flopping all at once, not many yogis can do this)

So now I am looking forward to tomorrow, I will have a great steaming hot cup of decaf coffee.  By the way how much caffeine is in green tea? Is it negligible, how about white tea?  

nb:  the cookies were gluten free, I'll do my best to sort of tell you what I put in them, I was just making it up!

Gluten Free: Carob, chick pea/quinoa cookies  (excellent source of protein)

I used powdered roasted chick peas - about a cup
quinoa flour - about a cup and half
carob powder- half a cup or a bit more to taste
flax meal - about 1/3 cup
baking powder - 1 tsp
prune puree- one small baby jar
1 egg
vanilla- 1 or 2 tsp
apple sauce- about 3 tbsp
agave- 2 tbsp (or more if you want really sweet cookies)
vegetable oil- 2 tbsp
roasted pumpkin seeds - a handful
sunflower seeds - about a tbsp
dried currants- about a tbsp
80% dark chocolate chunks (I just cut up a piece of chocolate bar that I had)- 1/3 cup (ish)
 - the mixture will be sticky, if you find it isn't try adding more liquid - just a tbsp at a time

Oven at 350F, on a parchment lined baking sheet, roll 1" sized balls and flatten (I wet my hands with water it seemed to work much better).  Bake for 10 minutes.  Good Luck!!!