I would have posted this hours ago, but I locked myself out of my apartment while doing laundry with no phone or wallet. Imagine: It'll be hours until my roommates are home, I'm new to the building so I know absolutely no one, I'm wearing an oversized T-shirt dress with NO form of underwear (because if I had ANY clean underwear left, let's be honest- I wouldn't have been doing laundry in the first place). I set about introducing myself to everyone who lives above or below me. I learned: 3B's fire escape is blocked by furniture, 5B's is locked and they can't find the key, 2B didn't trust me, and 6B (the only male who answered the door...) is my savior. I made a daring fire-escape break in, using my flip flop to pry my window open. Only me. Only me.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming:
SWEAT
This AM, I hopped over to the gym, planning to do 30 mins of some form of cardio followed by some serious strength training. This chiquita is spending the last week of August in Cape Cod, and wants to look gooooood in her swimmies. After a half hour of battling the Precor AMT- what IS this thing, and HOW do I use it?- I slipped into my first ZUMBA class by chance. It was fun, though admittedly it left me wishing I was in a real dance class, and every time we turned around there was a line of men drooling through the windows into the aerobics studio. Eesh. Does this happen EVERY Zumba class? I mean, I know there's a lot of booty shaking, but come on- don't you have a workout you should be doing?
I usually prefer fasted cardio in the AMs, but I think on strength days I'll need to pack a snack. Granted, Zumba was unplanned, but I was running on fumes by the time I finished. Tomorrow will be weight-heavy. I have a 1 mile walk each way between my gym and the apartment, so tacking 2 miles onto each visit is a nice bonus!
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FUEL
I was STARVING after the gym. I stopped on my way home to haggle with a fruit vendor and I scored a pint of blueberries and a lb of GINORMOUS strawberries for $3.
I like my bananas GREEN!
I tossed some blueberries, strawberries and a half a banana into our mini blender with a scoop of Vega's Choc-A-Lot smoothie powder. 1 scoop = 105 cal, 3g fat, 9g carbs, 1g sugar, 7g fiber and 11g protein.
Blended with some ice and Soy Slender's Chocolate Soy Milk!
I LOVE chocolate soy milk but hate that it's usually jam-packed with sugar. Less than 1g per serving!
Mmmmmm....
I can rarely resist buying mint when I see it- though I only ever use it for one purpose, which is to make mint limeade!
Keelie's Kewlest Mint Limeade
(I challenge you to use the word 'kewl' today, proudly.)
As goes everything in my life, plans or recipes are merely suggestive- improvisation is everything.
Here's how it went down:
-the juice from 6 fresh limes
-appx 2 tablespoons minced fresh spearmint leaves (give or take, because you obviously bought the mint days ago and never got around to using it so most of it got dry and crunchy and unusable- whatever is salvageable is the PERFECT amount, I swear)
-appx 25 drops of stevia- to taste- this may be way to much for some and nowhere near enough for others
-5 cups ices cold water
-a big fat handful of ice cubes
Mix 'em, baby, and enjoy. If you're feeling particularly rococo, blend yours for a slushie treat.
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I. LOVE. WARBY. PARKER. I recently used their services to order my second pair of glasses EVER (my first pair were about to celebrate their 13th anniversary, so it was time.)
They've got a brilliant business model that allows anyone with an updated eyeglass prescription to order a set of SWEET spectacles (frames AND lenses included) for $95, and they donate a pair to someone in need for every pair you buy. They recently hit an impressive milestone- 500,000 donated pairs of glasses. Keep up the good work, Warby Parker. I'm impressed.
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Last night I watched most of Lutz Hachmeister's documentary Three Stars, which explores the Michelin system of chef/ restaurant rating. I have a great respect and appreciation for the dedication, study, discipline and craft employed by these master chefs, and I'm inspired to step up my own cooking game. I particularly enjoyed hearing the chef's perspectives on the Michelin stars, what the accreditation meant to them, and how it affected their businesses. Worth a watch if you're mildly (or majorly) obsessed with the ins and outs of food production and the restaurant industry.
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I need to know:
What else do you put spearmint into aside from mint limeade?
Watched any good documentaries recently?
What do you put in your smoothies?
