Creature of Habit

I have a morning routine. It isn’t quite timed down to the minute, but…it’s close.
My alarm goes off at 5:39 am. At this point I have two choices, a) get up, or b) snooze my alarm for 5 minutes. I usually just get up right away. I change my clothes, let the dog out of his crate, bundle up and try to be out the door for our walk no later than 5:50.
Our walks usually end between 6:18 and 6:20 am, depending on how late we get out the door. Between 6:20 and 6:30 I feed the dog, and turn on the TV to watch the news/weather report while I stretch. At 6:30am, I throw the dog in the back yard, and get in the shower. I am done with showering, lotioning, blow drying and putting on my makeup at 7:00am. I need to be eating my breakfast by 7:10. I eat and watch the Today show until 7:20. Then I brush my teeth, warm up the car, scrape the windows (if needed) kiss my husband goodbye, and back out of the drive way at 7:30am.

I am not this type A about anything else in my life. Ever. I don’t plan out my schedule to the minute too cook dinner, or make my lunch for the next day. But, I like to have a plan, a schedule for the morning.
And when it gets thrown off..I know it’s going to be one of those days.

Today, I woke up at 6:07am. My alarm was flashing, but not making any noise. I think it was probably set to “wake up to ipod” (it’s an ipod docking station alarm clock, Thanks Husband!), and my ipod wasn’t docked. So…..that is almost 30 minutes later than I normally wake up! Gah. It shortned my walk and made the whole shebang just feel off.

On our walk, which was exceptionally cold at 24 degrees!, I saw the most incredible shooting star! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a shooting star “in town.” I’m pretty sure all of the shooting stars I’ve ever seen have been out in the woods, far far away from city lights. Anyway, I was still feeling frustrated about my alarm going off late, and seeing this star kind of put it in perspective for me. A little cheesy…I know.

Ok, on to something relevant…
I posted about the grocery challenge that I am doing this month, in my last post. This week I bought $55.00 worth of groceries. It was only 50, until my husband invited his parents over for dinner tonight, and I needed some supplemental food. Anyway, that brings me to a total of $91 dollars for the month, so far.

I normally buy a bunch of bananas to have for breakfast each week. This week at the grocery store, every single bunch of bananas was bright green. Ick, not oatmeal ready!
So, I found two of the yellowiest bananas, and bought a huge can of pumpkin to have in oats this week.

I’ve decided that I prefer to microwave my oats each morning (it fits better in the aforementioned routine), but if I am going to have pumpkin in my oats, I think I prefer stove top!

Here is today’s bowl of oats. I’m calling it pumpkin pie oatmeal with maple infused whipped cream, topped with nuts.

Here is what is in it
½ cup oats.
Dash of salt
Water, I don’t measure, I just put in enough ot cover the oats.
Microwaved for 1 minute.
Take out, and add in 3 big spoonfuls of pumpkin (see not type A about cooking!)
A few dashes of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla
Stir and microwave for another 1.5 minutes.

Top with plain non fat yogurt, mixed with maple syrup and topped with walnuts.

This was actually really good! The only thing I would have done differently would have been to mix the maple syrup and yogurt in a separate container, and then spread evenly on the oat meal. It really made the flavor combo.

I love vegetables that taste like dessert!

A new way of walkin..

So... I'm on week seven of not going to the gym in the mornings, and walking the dog 2x a day. I'm maintaing my fitness...but lately I've been allowing myself to get lazy and skip my pre walk workout video. My allergies have really been acting up, and that extra 25 minutes of sleep feel necessary. So...I've been trying the whole run/walk thing five times a week (I've also started keeping track of my daily mileage, between both walks/jogs) and then doing strength training twice a week. Today I was planning on getting up a few minutes earlier to to my Carmen Electra vide0-dont' judge! anyway...I wanted that extra sleep...so I went on a "Toning Walk." With the dog in one hand, and my purple flashlight (it's pitch black at 5:40..gotta be safe, plus this guy is like a foot long and doubles as a nightstick)..I was off.

The flaslight is actually my husbands from college. I love to tease him about the purple color. but I digress. I started out with some fast walking, and then walked on my toes for 20 feet. I then went about 30 feet with one foot on the road, and the other on the curb, then I crossed the street to do the other leg, gotta keep it even! This was followed by (kept walking the whole time):
50 front arm raises on each arm with the flashlight as weight.
30 feet of high knees
90 bicep curls on each arm with the flashlight as weight,
and then speed walk home
I finished at home with a set of tricep dips on our picnic table bench.

It wasn't the same as doing a good heavy weights workout, but it def. added to my walk and got some toning in there. And my biceps are def. feeling it now!