Good morning from snowy DC! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed the look of my Healthy Peanut Butter Power Cookies (vegan & gluten free) yesterday! Enjoy them – perfect for charging up your afternoon at work. 🙂
Waking up to a world blanketed in white was quite a surprise this morning, especially since it was randomly 60 degrees when we landed in DC on Sunday evening! I had plans to meet my friend Karen bright and early for a CorePower Yoga class (our fave is the heated power yoga with weights – it’s insane in the best kind of way), and I got up and got ready before I saw a text from her about the snow. What?! Guess I should have looked outside! Plans, foiled. We’re hoping it stops and the roads are okay enough to go this evening instead. 🙂 On gross weather days like this I feel extremely lucky to be able to work from home. I hope all of you that are driving/traveling today are safe!
I did get in a good workout yesterday morning, though! Even though I stayed pretty active while on all our holiday travels, it’s still not quite the same as getting in a totally butt kicking workout, you know? I texted my friends Chelsea and Kathleen from the airport on Sunday saying I was in need of a total sweat fest and wondering if they wanted to hit the 6 a.m. total body class at Urban Athletic Club on Monday. They were up for it! Let’s do this. Nerdy photo for your viewing pleasure:
It was a great workout, as always! I bought a 10 class pack so you’ll be seeing more of these workouts popping up on the blog over the next few months. As before, we did a great mix of cardio, HIIT style weight work, TRX moves, etc. Whew! Nothing like starting your week with a butt kicking. Felt so good.
On the food front, I’ve been enjoying getting back to some of my standard favorites that I missed while we were traveling!
Yesterday’s post-workout breakfast (pre-workout I had a piece of Ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast with cashew butter) was some plain Greek yogurt with a sliced Harry & David pear (obsessed), some berries I pilfered from my parents fridge, and chopped walnuts. Hit the spot!
I had the same thing this morning, but with roasted and salted pepitas instead of walnuts.
Plus a hunk of fresh braided raisin challah from Lyon Bakery in DC that came in our From the Farmer box this morning. Yum!
On the lunch front, I was super pumped to have my old favorite – a huge salad with tuna mixed with balsamic vinaigrette (homemade with lemon juice + balsamic + flaxseed oil + dijon mustard). The only thing missing was some brown rice – I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping until later in the day, and we didn’t have a ton of food on hand besides what I grabbed from my parent’s fridge on Sunday night. 😉
Zara was also very pleased about the tuna at lunchtime choice. I always give her a little. 🙂 My family spoiled her rotten the last couple weeks with a lot of play time, but she still seems to be happy to be home. I was worried she might not want to come back after all that fun!
In lieu of brown rice, I had some Blue Diamond crackers and Cabot cheese on the side with my salad. Nom!
As for an afternoon snack, once I picked up a thousand groceries, I threw together some nut butter, fruit, and oat balls to enjoy this week. Matt and I love these and the variations are endless. I didn’t bother measuring because I hate dirtying measuring cups unless absolutely necessary (anyone else?), so I just threw together the ingredients in a bowl until it looked right. Here’s the recipe I’ve followed before that I like: Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites. For this batch, I used quick oats, dried cherries (I didn’t bother chopping them and it was fine), salted peanut butter, shredded unsweetened coconut, and cinnamon. Soooo good. Smushed it all together by hand, rolled into balls, and placed in little baggies for easy grabbing and go-ing – Matt loves these for breakfast! If you like the sound of these, check out my Oatmeal Raisin Energy Bites recipe, too – they are similar. 🙂
I’ll be back tomorrow to share a post with some of my best health tips and healthy recipes from over the years to inspire you this January. Until then, if you missed it, check out my Tips for a Healthy New Year post from last week! Stay tuned and stay warm out there, my friends!
What are you eating this week?
p.s. My good friend and blogger buddy Gina’s new book, HIIT It!, was released yesterday! I’ll be doing a full review soon, but for now, it’s great, go buy it. 🙂
