Bad Blogger!

Whomp, whomp guys!  I forgot my cell phone at home this morning, which of course equals…all my pictures from last night.

BAD BLOGGER, ASHLEY!

Thankfully, I actually didn’t take TOO many pictures of my evening, so you aren’t missing TOO much.  And I had the fun Ashley’s A B C’s already set up for you 🙂

Last Night

I left work a few minutes early to make it to my final evening of free yoga at Core Power.  I had planned the 5:15 C2, but when I got there I saw that there was actually a Sculpt class available at the same time.  WIN!

Work Out

Imagine this is actually a picture of bare feet, a yoga mat, and 5 lb weights (that really should have been 3 lb weights after my morning arm workout, but at least I kicked my own butt).

The class was very similar to what I remember when I used to take them often in Chicago — but I guess my poor brain blocked out how hard some of those intervals with weights really can be.  Let’s just say my legs are FEELING the squats today.  And because of that, I’m considering a nice easy hike post work today instead of run or anything too challenging.

I got home right around 630 sweaty and happy.  It’s far too early to tell, but one thing I do know is my little body has more energy and is feeling way less bloated than it has in awhile.  Is it the changes I’ve made to my diet?  Hard to say, but one thing I do know is I’m comfortable and that is a GOOD THING.

Dinner

Zach had a repeat of the previous nights dinner while I treated myself to some sushi from Whole foods.

once again, an old picture. But I had the spicy pacific salad roll, which looks VERY similar to this, minus the cream cheese.

Plus some more of the delicious carrot chips from Whole Foods.

We wrapped up the evening with a couple episodes of The Office and some Gluten Free Lemon Shortbread cookies.  YUM!

This Morning

I woke up feeling the Sculpt class from the evening before, so I looked up a 20 minute stretch yoga routine.  The practice said that it focused on abs and back, but it did some good hip and hamstring stretches as well.   It was an easy, but very nice class and was perfect for loosening up my angry muscles!

Like I mentioned, at this point, my plan for the evening is a short hike out in the front range, but I’ll keep you up to date 🙂

Do you feel naked when your forget your phone?  

A Great Day To Be Outside

First off, thank you to everyone who commented on this morning’s post about What I’ve Been Trying.   If you haven’t already, go through some of the comments (and add your own two cents, please!).     I want to stress again that I am FAR FROM an expert, and am NOT cutting gluten out completely from my diet (unless this REALLY works, then I may consider going to a doctor and getting tested/discuss a nutrition plan).

There was a really good point made in the comments about balance, and being careful when cutting ANYTHING completely out of your diet, which is why I wanted to once again stress my point here.  In reality, the only “bad” gluten that I really struggle with in my diet is in the form of processed bars and foods as work snacks, which like I mentioned, nobody really needs.  And these are the foods that I’m most focused on this week.

Let’s backtrack to yesterday, shall we :).

Yesterday Afternoon

We had a bit of an overcast afternoon/evening, which made perfect Summer weather for outdoor activities.   I managed to sneak out for a 2 mile or so walk during my lunch break at work to take advantage of the weather.

Walk

And hit the road for some hill work the moment I got home.  I was lucky yesterday and had a partner in crime in the form of my hubby for the first two miles, followed by a little under 3 miles of hill work on my own.

RUN

Overall the run looked like this:

• 2 miles with Zach
• 1 mile to get to a hill
• Repeats of 1 minute up hill, 30 seconds downhill, until I made it up the hill and back home.

Zach and I’s new neighborhood is right on top of a pretty serious hill, so I have been taking advantage of that and doing these hill repeats about once a week.  I can definitely tell a difference already, especially this weekend in Breck!

Dinner

We got back from our run about 615 and both had a couple things we wanted to get done around the house before dinner.  Right around 7 PM Zach started the grill and I got to making the salads.

On the menu last night was grilled flank steak, veggie burgers, and salads.

Plus hunks of rosemary sourdough bread for Zach and carrots chips from Whole Foods for me.

Num num!

We both washed down dinner with a glass of wine and enjoyed the cooler than normal evening outdoors until the misquitos started getting at Zach.  At which point we headed indoors and watched a Jim Gaffigan special while I ate some new-to-me Gluten Free cookies.

I’d never seen this brand before but they were pretty solid.  Unfortunately my sweet tooth took over and I ate 2.5 cookies.  What can I say, I’m a cookie monster!

This Morning

I woke up feeling good this morning and did a 30 minute arm routine including:

• bicep curls (20 lbs)
• push ups
• overhead tricep curls (13 lbs)
• tricep kick backs (8 lbs)
• chest press (20 lbs)
• shoulder press (20 lbs)

I did these work outs in super sets, completing 3 rounds of two of the work outs together.  It took about 30 minutes overall and my arms felt nice and tired after.  I’m shooting for a hot yoga class tonight since it’s the last night of my free week at Core Power Yoga, so hopefully I can sneak out work.

I got a huge bunch of baby carrots, pineapple and strawberries to munch on all morning, so I’m about to head that way! 🙂

What are your favorite hill work outs?  Do you love/hate hills?

Favorite fresh fruit?

Who Forgot To Mention Hot Yoga Is Hot

Can I just speak to how much I love you all?  Honestly, I knew I missed you but the response I have gotten has brought me darn near tears multiple times since posting yesterday.  YOU ARE AMAZING! 🙂

For any of you who haven’t spent much time in Denver, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.  Denver is Sunny.

Nine days out of 10, you’re going to have the sun shining for a good chunk of your afternoon.

 Yesterday was NOT a Sunny Denver Day.

Yup, July 30th and I was wearing a sweater and long pants yesterday.  No wonder everyone is struggling with the beloved Summer colds.  Whomp whomp.

It rained relentlessly morning, afternoon and night.  Monsoon rain, with cloud overhang that I’m used to seeing in the Midwest, not Colorado.   It was the topic of conversation for everyone at work and out and about.  Us Coloradan’s aren’t used to weather like this!

Make The Best Of It

All I wanted to do yesterday was crawl back in bed and curl up with a good book.  I had running on the agenda, but in the end, I was inspired by something much more weather friendly.  Hey, a hot room sounded PERFECT.

Workout 

I made it back to Core Power Yoga for the first time since moving to Denver, and let me tell you.  All my instagram followers, you forgot to tell or remind me how challenging these classes are. I was DRIPPING buckets midway through class.  Talk about a detox.

There is nothing like the post run endorphin high, but man that class felt good.  60 minutes of a C2 class had this lady smilin ear to ear, and ready to EAT!

Good Eats

My gut has been all kinds of cranky this past week, so I’ve been drinking tons of juices and smoothies to get me through the mornings/afternoons.  And yesterday was one of those days.

At least they’re delicious!

My eats during the day have been mostly liquid to appease my gut, but dinners are still chewable ;).  And healthy!

Yesterday’s dinner started off with a cucumber, squash and tomato salad dressed simply with olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and fresh basil.  YUM!

Zach and I ran out of greens earlier in the week and stumbled upon this meal.  No real recipe, we just used the mandolin slicer to pickle slice the veggies (one small cucumber and one small squash), added a few fresh tomatoes from the garden, and threw enough dressing to cover the mix.  I recommend letting it sit in the fridge and marinate a bit if possible, but trust me it’s fresh either way!

Also on the menu were homemade grilled falafel burgers and a side of Trader Joe’s pretzel bread.

All together now!

With a side of kambucha to wash it all down 🙂

Fresh, healthy and delicious!  Let me know if you guys are interested in the falafel recipe, I’d be happy to share!

Zach and I spent the rest of the evening finishing up the final season of Dexter (we gave up cable and got Netflix.  Best.Decision.Ever).

I may or may not have enjoyed a Whole Foods vegan cookie and a glass of wine while we waited up for Zach’s mom and sister to make it into Denver.

That’s right!  Family in town for the weekend!  We’re heading up to Breckenridge tomorrow afternoon to enjoy my favorite part of Colorado in the Summer!  Let’s hope the weather straightens it’s act up.

I leave you with a picture of our very happy furball.  We bought her a new scratch pad which she became attached to IMMEDIATELY.   We may or may not have entertained ourselves for a little while watching her go crazy on some cat nip.  Don’t judge.  It was one AM and we were all slap happy!

Have you ever done hot yoga?  Did you sweat yourself off your mat?

Falafel recipe?

Tips for an angry gut?

Plans for the weekend?