On we go

I can happily report that today ended much better than I thought it would, given its start.  I was super down on myself for not waking up early enough to get to the gym before heading in early to work. Then, I forgot to take some medicine for the sniffles I had and tragically forgot the birthday cookies :-O But to be honest, that’s as “bad” as the day got.  It was a busy, full and productive day.  I spent my time being extra careful and mindful of what I was doing at work AND learned a new technique.  I’m absolutely geeking out here, but am I the only who loves it when we’re reminded at how amazing, cool, weird, downright freaky and horrifying it is, the things that our body do to function?  Its pretty amazing the things it does to get by from day to day, let alone all the extra stresses we add onto it.  Yikes!  Along those lines, I heard something frightening today on the news – according to the census, if American’s continue on with their current “path”, so to speak, by 2012, its estimated that over 70% of men and women will be considered overweight (I’m generalizing the numbers here for simplicity, but suffice to say, I rounded DOWN and COMBINED the percentages for men and women).  It was a good reminder why being healthy (sleeping well, exercising and eating right, not to mention smiles) is so important.

So.  After a good day of work and some reaffirmations for staying healthy, I have had a pretty enjoyable evening.  I hopped back on the treadmill tonight and pounded out another 3.1 miles.  Beat Tuesday’s time of 28:49 with a solid 28:01!!!!!  I have no idea how these times will translate into my Turkey Trot next week (holy cow, ONE WEEK LEFT!?), but I’m still really happy with my continued achievements of personal bests.  Thursday nights are my run + lifting night, my legs are pretty tired from running around work in heels all day (oops) and the workout, so I’m focusing on arms for lifting tonight.  With a busy night still ahead of me, I opted to sneak in the lifting throughout the evening during down times with the few sets of weights that I own.  I’m really hoping that in the next few months I can build up a solid collection of weights at home, that way, on nights where staying 1.5 hrs at the gym to run and lift just isn’t feasible.  Besides, the cats like to look at me funny when I drop and give ’em twenty ten pushups.  🙂

Tonight for dinner, I also kept in mind my goal of trying to come up with creative fun recipes in the kitchen.  Tonight I made a Vegetarian Pineapple Stirfry.  It was delicious, healthy and insanely easy to make.

I love stirfries, because there really aren’t any rules.  I didn’t feel like cooking or prepping any tofu tonight to go with it, so instead, I threw in some slivered almonds to give it some healthy extras and a bit of crunch, i.e., texture…(I THOUGHT about adding flax seeds, but held myself back – a girl can only go SO Far).

Vegetarian Pineapple Stirfry

Brown Rice:  Prepared according to your favorite method 🙂

Stir Fry Veggies:  I used a pack of frozen stir fry veggies with broccoli, peas, red pepper, onion, water chestnuts, etc etc etc. I’ve never tried it with fresh veggies, i’m sure it would taste amazing though.

Canned Pineapple:  I used a whole 15 (ish?) oz can, because this was the main player of the dish for me.  If you’re pairing it with a protein of some sort, You could probably cut it back.

Sesame Oil

Chili Garlic Sauce

Teriyaki Sauce

All I did, was cook the veggies in a pan with a drizzle of sesame oil.  Toss in the almonds and cook those up with the veggies, next comes the pineapple, the rice and the sauces (to taste) and turn up the heat just a tad, just to get the flavors to come together and make it nice and hot.   If you’re going to add a meat to it, I think it would taste good with shrimp or steak.  There’s always chicken, but why not mix it up a bit and try something fun!

Brandon suggested a side of Garlic bread, but I managed to talk him out of it…

And so, my friends – we have made it to Friday. I think the general consensus that its been a bit of a week for a lot of people, so tomorrow we will certainly appreciate the chance to stop, take a breath and a sip of beer.  At least, I know I will 🙂

But despite it being “a week”, its been a good one, if I’m honest with myself.  Seriously productive and a lot of good things have come out of it.  Productivity, self-reflection and improvement…and stir fry 🙂

And with this positive frame of mind, what was I grateful for today?

Today, I am grateful for the reminder that I am NOT superwoman and sometimes I need to slow down.

I am grateful for the feeling of accomplishment after a long and busy day.

I am grateful for being able to help people smile during the day

I am grateful for my BODY and all the freaky things it does on the inside to let me keep trying to be superwoman.

I’m off to nab a ginger bread cookie, some tea and a paper, hop into bed and give my tired body a rest – because tomorrow we’re gonna do it all over again 🙂  So in the words of one of my newfound favorite authors, David McCullough:

“On we go…”

xo