Since the weather was so beautiful outside today, I decided to do some gardening for my ‘exercise’ of the day:
I raked, and raked, and raked the flower beds! Until I got some nasty blisters! I put gloves on but they didn’t help.
Tulips??
The plant below looks like chives…I’m so confused! hahaha.
More Orange: I had some delicious lemon water for mini breaks. It was so refreshing! In the summer I love making flavoured waters with lemons, oranges, cukes, strawberries, etc.
Progress!
Some yoga stretching. :D Complete with a creepy gardening glove!
Beautiful Crocuses!
I raked for 1 hour and 25 minutes! Well, that included some mini breaks :) Before I started gardening I threw on my Heart Rate Monitor just to see what kind of calorie burn this type of exercises produces.
‘Workout’ stats:
- Duration: 1 hour 25 mins
- Max heart rate: 111 bpm
- Avg heart rate: 90bpm (so low! I swear it felt harder)
- Feel the burn: 200 kcals
Not to shabby for an ‘off’ day of exercise! :) As I mentioned in this morning’s post, I decided to take today off of formal exercise because my quads and glutes were sore from my outdoor run yesterday. I think I got a great arm workout today from all the raking! Today was a great example of cross-training.
Not all exercise needs to come in the form of ‘traditional’ exercise to be effective! Sometimes it is fun to just get outside and play.
And to reward myself for my hard work, I took out the lounger from the garage and set it up on the deck!
Of course I had to test it out!
Once inside I was starving! I had this huge, juicy orange to keep the orange theme going. :) Then I had not 1, but 2 bowls of cereal! My cereal included Spelt flakes, dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and ground flax. I was finally satisfied after 2 bowls!
I also nibbled on a protein bar + other things while I waited for Eric to get home for dinner. Today wasn’t the best example of ending mindless eating I will admit!
Dinner was a wrap…yes, again!
I am obsessed with these wraps lately! I need to start making my Spelt tortillas again and saving some moula. ;)
The toppings:
- 1/2 avocado
- 2 T tomato paste
- 3 cup cooked spinach
- black pepper
- 1 Money’s Gardenburger
- 2 tomato slices
It hit the spot! But of course I knew something amazing was cooking in the oven…
I present to you, part 1 of my next baking experiment!
Part 1 = Vegan Banana Cake
I modified this recipe found here.
Yes, that’s right. I crumbled the whole cake apart!
But not before I served myself a piece of cake– the cook needs to sample! And then I went back for another. It was that good! I used toasted walnuts and it made the cake. Finally the hunger monster inside me is satisfied today! :)
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 and Part 3 of the crumbly cake experiment- you won’t believe what I am making with this!
I leave you with the infamous Sketchie:
His new thing is opening cabinet doors in the office, crawling in them, and hiding!
What weird and wonderful things do your pets do?
I was missing Sketchie’s pictures for a few days now!The crocus looks beautiful!
My cat and dog can’t do anything remarkable, except being lovable and cute. (or moody, in my cat’s case). But I had a hamster when I was young who learned how to open his cage and crawl up and down our stairs. We had to wire his cage shut.
My cat loves to jump on top of doors and he climbs to the very top of the cabinets in the kitchen to chill. He’s quite the adventurer!
That wrap looks tasty. But I have to admit I thought the tomatoes were strawberries at first – probably because I was eating some as I read it… oops!
1) I channeled you today and my post started with all letter “F” stuff!
2) SKETCHIE!!!
3) I think those mystery flowers are snow drops… I could be wrong, but they look like the snow drops we used to have
Happy Friday!
Our boys (14 month old cats – Arty & Fuey) like to go into their toy box and pull out every single toy just because they can. I’ve watched them do it and it actually is pretty funny to watch them work their way around to pull out one toy at a time (I’ve actually seen Fuey pull out two toys at once and put one back (!) just so he can pull it out again). If only I could get them to put the stupid things back once they’re done playing with them…
Money’s garden burgers are some of my favs! My dog loves socks – he climbs into the laundry basket, rescues them, and drags them onto the living room rug.
I always see the daily BBBC challenges a day late so sometimes I do the exercises a day later or often I find I have done exactly what was suggested. I was pleased to see yesterday (Friday’s) challenge – ending mindless eating. Munching and snacking my little heart out is something I am a professional at. Yesterday I had decided to go to my favorite vegetarian restaurant (it’s a buffet like a whole foods salad bar). I made sure to focus on eating conciously and stopping when I was full. The times I have been to this buffet in the past I have eaten way too much and walked away feeling nauseatingly full. This time I made sure to take small portions, eat slowly, remind myself that I didn’t have to eat everything, left the things that weren’t my absolute favorite on the plate and didn’t go back for seconds (one plate of cold salads and one plate of the warm meals). I felt quite proud of myself for this, I still walked away very full and I know it was a very big portion for me but it substituted for both breakfast and lunch plus I’d just had several bottles and glasses of water since I’d done Bikram yoga in the morning so that was part of my “stuffed” feeling. Anyway, in the evening I was feeling very snacky but managed to limit myself more than usually. I portioned up things and didn’t just snack right out of the cabinet and I didn’t overeat – even though I was home alone and bored! So, I’d say I did pretty good. Thank you for your brilliant challenges, they’re all so good!
Hooray for gardening, “creepy gardening glove” yoga (haha ;-) ), dinner wraps, and for Sketchie!!
what a beautiful day, and great shot of sketchie :)
Beautiful flowers! Gardening is great activity and while not formal exercise still very good for the body and heart. I think we often overlook activities like that but they play a huge role in overall daily calorie burn. There is even a term for it–NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis)
My cat is obsessed with plastic bags and will lick and chomp on them for hours. Not eat them, just kind of gum them. Cats are silly creatures.
I love your top, I just love the back! Lululemon right?
My 2 cats are crazy too! I have a photo of one sleeping in a mixing bowl full of icing, with a spoon hanging out… I should dig that up, it was the funniest thing to see. Or when we found them sleeping in the fridge one morning, ate themselves full and didn’t even have the energy to get out. Oh the stories and crazy things those cats do. Mine are getting old so they do less now.
Enjoy your gardening, I wish it was sunny here too!
My cat LOVES to rip paper with her teeth. I don’t think she actually eats the paper, just shreds it into tiny pieces. It’s a little annoying to not be able to leave random papers out, but it keeps my desk clean!
By the way, I had my first green monster last week and I absolutely loved it. Thanks for sharing! :)