Behind the Scenes- Workouts, Eats and Some Zucchini Chat

Not everything makes it on the blog. Our life is crazy and I try to spare you the majority of craziness, workouts and massive amounts of food we consume over here. However, as much as I plan on just writing about one thing, I usually find myself blabbing on about a million other things.

Lucky you.

It happens a lot at night if I turn the computer on. I get carried away and find myself up until 1 am writing about nonsense.

Again, lucky you and lucky me for staying up so late.

I haven’t been making the best choices lately about sleeping which has led to me not making the best choices about eating. It’s funny how it’s all connected like that. I go through this a lot when I don’t have a big race coming up. I get a bit “lost”.

The next few days I’m focusing on resting up a bit more, being really mindful about what I put in my mouth and trying to relax a bit. Last night instead of writing a post or answering the bazillion emails in my inbox, I did this.

Don’t mind the cat butt by my favorite wine. And yes, that’s The Bachelorette on the TV in case you can’t tell. I got about halfway through it before I got bored and started staring at my iPhone. Ha.

Look who else hasn’t been making the best choices.

Yay. Dangerous. Obviously I stepped in as soon as possible to rescue Kitty (after I took a couple pictures of course).

So here’s just some of what’s been going on around here that I’ve wanted to share, but tried to spare you. I really do have a post in the works that will solely be dedicated to a special project I’m involved in and a chance for you to join and I’ll try my best to keep the STUFT crazies out of it. Not today though.

Workouts:

I get asked a lot about my workout routine and what I do. I workout a lot because it’s my job and because running is not only my therapy, but I’m really trying to step up my racing game. I need to find some sponsors and win STUFT Daddy some money. Ha.

Monday-

I taught 5 classes:

(It’s usually 6 classes in the day with a spin class at noon, but I had Monday off from that one.)

A.M.-

Stroller Jam at the Y (stroller run with resistance band at various stops)

P.M.-

Kid’s Fitness (games and such)

Y40X class (high intensity body weight training)

Back 2 Abs (core strength training with weights, bands and stability balls)

Step aerobics

Tuesday:

A.M.-

5.6 slow, hot stroller miles at the park (with a stop to feed the ducks)

Taught a 45 minute BOSU class at the gym

P.M.-

Backyard boot camp class (I had some friends and their kiddos come over for a little backyard circuit workout. It was a blast.)

Here’s the only “workout” picture I took yesterday.

Lovely.

Eats:

I’m not going to show you any breakfast pictures. (You’re welcome.) I pretty much eat the same breakfast STUFTwich every day with an iced version of my perfect summer mocha.

Since my friend Jenn has been doing a little snack theme for her What I Ate Wednesday link ups this month (which is almost over by the way)

I’ll show you what we’ve been snacking on the last few days. This “snack” is big so we’ve actually been turning it into a hefty lunch, but I’m most likely going to have it again today for the third day in a row so I thought I’d share.

I know, right? You want need some of this.

It’s a modified version of green chia cookie monster dough dip that pretty much has rocked my world the past two days.

It’s even rocked the boy’s world.

Talk about kicking off summer the right way. Ha.

Here it is.

*This recipe is adapted from chia cookie dough dip, healthy cookie dough dip and green chia cookie monster dough dip.

Summer Surprise Cookie Dough Dip

(makes 2 big servings or 3-4 smaller ones)

1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)

1-2 handfuls of spinach

1/4 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup PB2 

1/4 cup sugar or sugar substitute (I use Splenda granulated)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon chia (or flaxseed)

1-2 teaspoons vanilla

pinch of salt

pinch of baking soda

cinnamon (optional)

1-2 tablespoons nondairy milk (if needed for consistency)

Put everything in a food processor and blend.

Add the nondairy milk if needed to get desired consistency.

Chill if desired.

Or eat as soon as possible and lick the bowl because you’re ravenous (not that that’s happened to me).

I usually top mine with some kind of nut butter and serve it up with some Flatout cinnamon crisps and fruit on the side.

I ate the same thing yesterday for lunch but added a little easiest dark chocolate frosting (frozen) to the top.

I actually prefer it without the chocolate frosting mixed in. It was a little too much. Guess what though…

I didn’t even burn the cinnamon crisps yesterday.

Go me.

And…. I didn’t burn my roasted zucchini noodles last night either.

Again, go me.

I topped them with rotisserie chicken, fresh basil and this new marinara sauce I found at Costco.

It’s pretty good. More calories than the normal Classico and Trader Joe’s marinara sauces that I usually use, but it’s worth it for the flavor.

The cheese less sandwich on the side was this version with brewer’s yeast. It’s growing on me.

Oh, and…..

last night I found these hiding in the back of my freezer.

I must have been keeping them for a special occasion or something. I totally thought I was out and was going to have to whip up my high protein dark chocolate muffin. Nope. Thank you to The Bachelorette for being my “special occasion”.

I created a big dessert with low calorie ice cream and these little Vitatop gems.

There’s some dark chocolate frosting and PB Crave peanut butter somewhere in the mess too.

STUFT Daddy must have felt bad for me after reading my last post about being out of everything so he brought us more zucchini last night (since I have a little zucchini hoarding problem and all).

Yeah we love our zucchinis around here. (And yes, the boys do have some new cute pajamas. Thanks for noticing.)

Actually, to be honest I’m not really sure STUFT Daddy even read that post. He’s subscribed to the blog only because I subscribed him myself and he informed me that he “skims” the blog and looks for “Andrew” or “STUFT Daddy” only.

Ha.

Okay. A little zucchini chat since I haven’t talked about it enough the past week.

Check out some of our zucchini pictures from last summer.

Here and here and here.

Pretty funny stuff.

And I totally forgot about these low fat zucchini muffins that I’m going to have to make again very soon. 

And… I still really want this spiralizer to make real noodles from these bad boys. When is Amazon going to have it back in stock? And what kind of excuse can I come up with for “needing” it?

Also….. I’m thinking some shredded zucchini would do really good in place of spinach in my mighty chocolate microwave muffin. I may have to try it out.

Lastly, here’s my toddler tip for the day (involving zucchini of course) ….

Add cut up zucchini while your cooking whole wheat noodles the last 3 minutes or so that they are boiling.

Watch your kitchen “helpers” carefully though.

Dang, everyone sure is getting dangerously close to the stove these days.

Serve up your noodles and zucchini with a little olive oil, Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese.

Happy tots.

Oh and a very special shout out to my AWESOME Aunt Margaret who celebrated a birthday on Monday! Happy Happy Birthday! Miss you!

This happy birthday video never gets old.

Have a great day everyone!

Do you have a favorite way to eat zucchini?