Personal Training

Fancy Fish

Posted on by Naomi

Hi hi hi! I took a little blogging break, but I am back! I had a lovely weekend, but what is not so lovely is how dark it gets so early! I know, the sun rises earlier, but to cut down the amount of daylight just doesn’t make me a happy camper! Oh well, all the more reason to get home fast, put on those PJs and relax! I find it so interesting to see the moods change with people as the weather changes. People at work have just been negative and cranky and everyone seems to work more in the winter time, and have less “fun” I am NOT going to be one of those people! Winter time, sure its cold, dark, dreary but I still can have fun!

  • Skiing
  • Ice skating
  • Hot coffee
  • Hot homemade soup
  • Fires
  • Lighting candles 
  • Time for movies and going to the movies
  • Working out at the gym.

All of these things and more is what I look forward to in the winter time! Are there parts of the winter time that you look forward to?

Fitness
My workouts have been going really well! November started last Monday, so that means a whole new workout schedule. I love the CSF program because each month the workouts change, the days that we work certain body parts change, the functional workout (which is a plyometric workout to be done in a fitness studio) changes. All of these changes in workouts from month to month keep the body from plateauing which is extremely important! (Generally with an exercise program, (given that diet is in check) results can be seen from 3-8 weeks. After about 8 weeks, the human body has the wonderful ability to adjust itself to the stress and load of your current workout program. This is called adaptation, and that simply means that the body has done just that, adjusted and adapted to the stress you’re putting on it, and the body is now considering that as normal. This means that you have to change your program or add something new every several weeks) My workouts change every 4 weeks, which ensures no plateauing over here! My favorite workout this month is definately the leg day. This is HUGE for me to say because legs is generally my least favorite body part to work. I have never enjoyed going to the gym for leg day, but I know how important it is to have strong legs so of course I work them hard! For my cardio I have been experimenting with different equipment and plyometrics. My current favorite machine is the stairmaster. I know, most people loathe the stairmaster (and I mean the old school stairmaster, not the revolving stairs) however, I have been seeing some very noticible changes in my legs and glutes, and I know the stairmaster has something to do with it.  Click HERE for one of my stairmaster workouts I posted! My current favorite ab exercise is the stability ball Russian twist, which looks like this:

Food
Well, what can I say I have been enjoying myself these past couple days. Well acutally just on Saturday. We went to dinner wth some friends, and I had a delicious meal! We went to Beehive in Boston. We split the Antipasto Platter which was served with cured meats, cheeses, olives, and salads. We also split salad with baby greens, blue cheese, walnuts and slices pears. For my entree I got the Roast half chicken which was served with lemon infused rice and a cucumber tahini salad. HOLY DELICIOUS! I didn’t snap pictures but this was such a great meal! I enjoyed every bite I wish I had leftovers to have the next day!
I have been enjoying breakfasts:

And protein shakes. I just recieved a new Muscle Gauge Nutrition protein powder flavor. This is the caramel vanilla flavor. I added some cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and a few drops of vanilla stevia. It is delicious! I think this brand of protein is one of the best mixing ones I have ever tried. Each shake comes out thick and frappe-like!

Obviously, I have been enjoying my fair share of salads! This one has roasted cauliflower atop a big bowl of baby spinach, red bell pepper, cabbage slaw, grilled chicken and cucumbers.
And this more modest salad, eaten out of a tupperware (story of my life) was just as delicious, even though maybe not as appealing to the eye.
I have been loving my George Foreman grill, but have NOT loved teh clean up afterwards. I just never want to clean that thing! Its so hard to get it spic n’ span clean and its just such a hassle!! I let it sit for a while before I realize its not going to clean itself.
I have also been food prepping! I have been trying to eat different fruits, proteins, fats and vegetables and never have the same thing week to week. This week I was all about these brussels sprouts that just looked so delicious and big in Whole Foods. I tossed them in some olive oil and pepper and roasted them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes (flipping them every 10 minutes or so)
Meanwhile on the top of the stove, I had a whole lot going on (top right, thats my crazy mom’s soup defrosting, there is no heat on underneath the plastic tupperware-although I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned it on by mistake) Bottom right is collard greens cooking with garlic and lemon zest. Bottom left is scallops cooked with lemon juice, lemon zest, dijon mustard, oregano and balsamic glaze

I adore scallops, and try to have them once every couple of weeks. Scallops seem like such a ‘fancy’ fish to prepare, I have no idea why, but the thought of eating scallops over something like tilapia or salmon just seems to much more fancy. I had to take these little babies seriously! I marinated them for about 1 hour in:
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • Zest of half of a lemon
  • 2 T oregano
  • 1 T dijon mustard
  • A few shakes of pepper
Once it was time for cooking, I heated a pan with some olive oil and dropped in 2 crushed cloves of garlic. Then I placed the scallops on the hot, garlic filled pan. I LOVE that first ‘sizzle’ on the pan. Scallops cook very fast, so I kept an eye on the pan the whole time. When they were almost ready to be served, I squirted on some balsamic glaze to get that ‘glaze’ finish on the tops of the scallops. This was a great last minute decision!!
I whipped up a simple salad on the side with fresh, heirloom tomatoes as the star player
And nibbled a few BS
I served the hot scallops over the lemony, garlicky collard greens and called it dinner!
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On another note, I was watching Inside Edition last night and saw this shocking story that one of the reporters did undercover. The reporter went around to gas station marts as a buyer to get some food products. What she found was that many of the shelf items had been expired–some by even 2 years!! For some of the items, they put an IE (for Inside Edition) on the label with a special pen that can only been seen with a special light. She tried returning some of the expired products, then went back the next day to find that the product she returned was BACK on the shelf! I couldn’t believe this, and it will make me much more aware of looking at expiration dates!
And now, I’m off to go inspect expiration dates of items in my cabinet! But listening to this song first
Naomi
Naomi