Snow em gee
[thank you lovely Katie for the post title!]
You see that white stuff in the background?
It’s SNOW!
In typical Tucson kids’ fashion, we all ran outside in between our classes to take pictures of each other with snow in the background. Rookies, I tell ya. Snow is an extreme rarity here!
My absolute favorite part of the day was bundling Liv up to take her outside with my mom when I got home from work. She was clapping for the snow. She kept saying, “Agua! Agua!” until we told her that it was snow.. and then it turned into, “Oooh! Snow! Snow!” My heart couldn’t even take it.
Another every blue moon kinda thing? What I Ate Wednesday 🙂 These aren’t in the usual blog rotation because
#1: I think it would get redundant (boring) since I eat a lot of the same things and
#2: it’s challenging to actually photograph everything that goes into my face.
For previous WIAW posts, I’ve showcased what a normal day of eats looks like for me with one active teaching class (Zumba). Today, I thought it would be fun to show my eats for a more intense teaching day with a higher energy requirement.
I taught 5 classes today. At first, you might think “Omg, you worked out for 5 hours!” but not all of them are extremely active classes. For most, I’ll show a few of the moves, any modifications and get the class going, and then I’ll walk around, coach the heck out of it and correct form. The classes are for the guests, not for me. Of course, there are definitely some in there that require me to do the full class with the participants (like Zumba!) and slightly more active ones (like ball or glide vs. something like stretch), but all in all, I use my brain and my voice more than anything. I always have to have my next move ready to go, along with the transition and any modifications.
Here’s what I taught today:
-Ball (Ballast)
-Barre
-Latin dance
-Stretch
The sweatiest was Zumba, then Latin dance (fairly low-key), Barre and ball were fairly equal (more coaching than anything) and stretch was a lot of walking around/assisting. For days like today, I try to keep a ballpark idea of extra calorie burn in my head, so I can be mindful of the extra fuel I need. It can be tricky since I don’t like to teach with a giant food baby, but I’ve found that frequent snacks and smaller meals throughout the day help me keep my energy up without feeling lethargic. Because of this, I’ll often eat a little something every hour in between each class.
Here are the eats:
Breakfast:
2 eggs, 1 tortilla, Cholula from my gym bag, coffee, eaten after ball while sitting on the floor
Lunch:
A friend from work, who is also a personal chef, took orders in advance to bring us lunch today. On the menu: jerk chicken-stuffed sweet potato with mango salsa. I’ll ask her for the recipe to share with you, because it was INCREDIBLE. The serving was hefty and perfect, too.
Snacks:
2 sweet potato brownies
Sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwich
2 kiwis
Coffee #2
Chicken, black bean, 2 egg and salsa scramble (4 whole eggs today, which is a little much for me, but it’s what I was feeling) on salad greens, with tea
I made the shredded chicken this weekend to have on hand for snacks/tacos/salads
Dinner:
2 spinach enchiladas, using an adapted version of this recipe
They were amazing- so creamy and delicious. As you guys know, I’m not a huge dairy fan, but sometimes I’ll crave a little and eat it. Today was one of those days.
Wine-thirty:
A glass of Malbec and some chocolate
So there ya go: a full day of teaching eats!
I may have a coffee cup of cereal with almond milk if I’m hungry before bed, but for now, I’m feeling pretty good 🙂
Your turn! What was on the menu today? Did you try any new recipes??
See ya in the morning with the BodyMedia winner! <3
xoxo
Gina
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Today I was all over the place.
I had a protein smoothies for breakfast,
lunch: taco salad with 1 egg, and 1 egg white (hard boiled)
snacks were graham crackers and peanut butter. (i’m out of almond butter:( )
supper 2 bowls of life cereal
just now I had 2 hard boiled eggs and gave the yolks to the hubs! 🙂
I LOVE that you guys do the picture thing when it snows. Unfortunately we curse it up here in the midwest! haha
Everything you ate looks AMAZING. those sweet potato brownies look delicious, I’ll make to try them out for myself one of these days. I made “italian” enchiladas during week 1 which were pretty incredible! but the spinach ones look tasty! another good recipe to try.
Today I ate, two baked breakfast cookies, half a banana, post workout protein recovery shake, toast, handful of nuts and dark chocolate chips, and a clean out the fridge dinner of veggies, over easy eggs and a tin of sardines with goat cheese, avocado and cilantro. sounds gross but was so good! I’ll probably have a pre-bed yogurt.
Aw how cute was Livi in the snow!? that’s so fun she got to play in the snow today! What a fun afternoon for you guys!
I seriously LOVE these posts 🙂 So, I’ve never made chicken in the slow cooker and shredded it before, but I did tonight and made it into kind of a stew and it turned out amazing! I topped it with greek yogurt and avocado which was perfect because it was pretty spicy! My boyfriend and I had it for dinner and he kept going to the slow cooker to have more. I love when I cook a good meal for my boyfriend 😀 It feels like I accomplished something so good
Is there a recipe for sweet potato brownies? Looks yummy!!!
I love your What I Ate Wednesday posts! Today I had an egg puff with nutritional yeast alongside some cereal and nuttzo butter for breakfast, a huge apple and a bowl of vegan creamy curry bean soup (from the daily garnish! so good!) for lunch, and a big salad with tempeh, lots of veggies, and miso sauce for dinner. After dinner I snacked on some kettlecorn and a bite of a lemon bar 🙂 my appetite has actually been kinda decreased lately (running seems to do it to me, which makes no sense…), so it was a bit of a weird day, but hopefully I’ll be back to normal in no time!
I had a really good quinoa/hummus/veggie collard wrap… I am sooooo happy that it tasted good! I am 18 weeks preg now and up until a week or so ago I couldn’t eat any vegetables. So glad to get a few in today 🙂
I’m so glad little Livi got to see snow! I didn’t even know if it could snow there, I always think of AZ being so hot! Here in PA snow is an every other day occurence in the winter. I’m thinking spring thoughts!
Can I just say that you look awesome in the first snow photos… I’m having arm envy. 😉
wow, thank you friend!
i AGREE…your upper body (decolletage, arms, shoulders, clavicles) is gorgeous.
you know how to make a girl blush! thank you
I agree with Brittany above, you look absolutely amazing in the above picture! I’m kind of jealous you have snow going on! In Canada, where I live, we’ve had zero snow all Winter! Something is wrong with this picture!
Um, those enchiladas look amazing!
thank you!!
that is so crazy you haven’t had snow yet- i picture winter wonderland when i think of canada
Love Livi’s reaction to the snow- too cute! As a fellow AZ dweller for most of my life, I can totally understand her confusion!
I’m so curious about the whole teaching 5 classes in one day thing- how many breaks/how much time do you have between each class? Do you get to shower before the next one?
totally random, but thanks to you, I’m hooked on the TJ’s brown rice tortillas, so from a fellow GF girl, thank you!
the classes are 45 min long, so we have 10 minutes to get to the next class. that’s enough time to eat or quickly shower, but not usually both. i usually pick eat 😉
i’m so glad you like the tortillas!
Gotcha! Thank you so much for responding!
No new recipes today, but I did pull out an old favourite: a peanut butter and jelly ‘quesadilla’ that I toasted over the gas stove. Mmmm…warm, melty, and so tasty!
whoaaaaa i’m doing that soon!
I love your what i ate wednesday posts!!
pre workout snack-AB on ezekial bread
Protein Smoothie/postvworkout -almond milk, sun warrior, 2spoons of pumpkin, banana, cinnamon and spinach
breakfast-goat yogurt apple and cinnamon
Lunch-chicken salsa avocado asparagus and ezekial bread
Snack -vans waffle with AB and mixed berries
Dinner -black bean burger with kale chips
Snack -hard boiled eggs whites
Random day of eats
Gina I’m really interested that you seem to be bringing Liv up with two languages. Have you written any posts about this? (If you have i must have missed them!) I’d like to know how you’re handling the two languages and also whether you are bilingual yourself – I’m assuming you are. Did it have any positive or negative effects on you as a young child? I’m very interested in how babies develop language.
my family speaks spanish, so she’s been surrounded with english and spanish from the beginning. i grew up with spanish and english (my mom’s family is hispanic, my dad’s is not), but always answered the fam in english. i can speak it, and try to use it with liv whenever possible. so far, she’s been talking up a storm in english and spanish, as well as some baby signs (the post on that is here: http://fitnessista.com/2013/01/baby-signs/)
i’d love to do a post on it, but my nana would be the one to do it! she’s the one who has taught liv most of her spanish 🙂
Great idea, a guest post from Nana!! We hear so much about your awesome Nana, it would be great to “meet” her! 🙂
Oh all the food looks so good and you look beautiful on thatsnow pic! We had so much snow this winter I am pretty glad when it is finally gone 🙂
I cooked up a coconut-egg-frittata with asparagus for dinner – was sooooo good!!!
Enjoy the snow! We’re supposed to get a bunch tomorrow, I’m not looking forward to it. I’m sick of snow & super cold weather. My ankle acts funny when it’s cold. We’re moving back down South in a few months to where the weather is much nicer in the winter months.
I love seeing what other people eat. Today I had a pumpkin/cranberry/raisin bar type thing I made the other day with fresh ground whole wheat & ground oats with a banana for breakfast. I had roasted zucchini, carrots & mushrooms for lunch. Snack was a banana. Dinner was a lower calorie linguine alfredo, instead of using a bunch of cream I used half cream half fat free chicken broth. I in no way intended it to be low cal but I threw to much cheese in and didn’t have any more cream to make it less thick so I put in the chicken broth. We had spring mix & spinach with dinner. For dessert I had a piece of the bar I had for breakfast with cream cheese frosting and pineapple orange juice mixed half and half with carbonated water.
You’re looking amazing and super fit mama! Xo
I unexpectedly taught 8 classes today – it was supposed to be 4 and all bodybalance at that! Then there was a bodyattack, bodystep and two shbams. Basically trying to shove as many good calories down my gob right now because I really didn’t fuel for it!
5.30am I had quinoa porridge with coconut cream, raspberries and cacao powder
7am post first class – protein shake made with water
9.30am/10.30am classes 2 & 3
Lunch 1 – salad with shredded chicken, spinach, pomegranates and cucumber
12.15pm class 4 and 5
Lunch 2 – leftover bibimbap with an extra poached egg on top
NAP
(This is where I failed)
4.45 class 6 & 7
Class 7 instructor didn’t turn up which is why I taught that one, and then was in a rush to get to #8.
Oh and ps – that is the first time I’ve taught more than 4 classes in a day and definitely don’t recommend it!!
what kind of malbec do you like?
Ahhh the adorableness of your description of Liv’s reaction to the snow literally made me squeal with delight as I sipped my coffee.
That would be wonderful if your co-worker shared that sweet potato, jerk chicken recipe, it looks delicious!
Love this! Everything looks amazing and gives me some great ideas of what to fuel with on days when I am teaching a lot or am super active! I always love your what I ate wednesday posts! On a side note, I can’t believe you had snow! Crazy!
Wow – crazy busy day for you!!
Snow here in Kansas, too – almost looking blizzard like (the weather men/people) were right on with the forecast. Whole city almost cancelled everything for today.
I made 2 new dishes for my family yesterday but they aren’t nearly as healthy as yours – I have 2 teenage/preteen boys and we eat a lot of meat and carbs!!!
Glad that Liv got to enjoy the Arizona snow!!
Dark chocolate always makes the night better 🙂
I have been wanting to take Zumba for the longest time and I kinda want the DVDs as well. I was a dancer for 17 years so I love any exercises that have dance in it probably why I like Turbo Fire so much. A little bit of dance and a little bit of kickboxing. My eats were all over yesterday. I had a site visit in Milwaukee so I had a 2.5 hour drive there and back which meant, pumpkin bread in the car, luna bar on the way home, lunch at buffalo wild wings with the hubby plus a beer then thai for dinner. Not the healthy but darn good!!
Today was leftover day for lunch and dinner but I did try a new-to-me chocolate: Lindt intense orange dark chocolate and before you ask, yes, it was amazing.
Hahah I love how it’s snowing in the background and you’re in a tank. Hardcore 😉 And I love how much mexican you eat, it’s one of my favorite cuisines!
So beautiful!!!
Malbec and some chocolate – yes please!! Malbec is our favorite!!
HUGS
My family and a bunch of friends live in the Phoenix area, and it snowed there too. My Facebook feed was blowing up about the SNOW, SNOW, SNOW! Haha! It sure is a rarity there! How fun to have Olivia experience it!
All of your eats look super yummy! I need to try out those sweet potato brownies!
I heard about the snow in AZ, that is crazy! We are supposed to get hit with another 6-10 inches this weekend in Boston….it gets old pretty quick, trust me!
I made the Thai Coconut Curry recipe you linked to the other day and it was so, so, so good! Had to leave out fish sauce since we didn’t have any on hand, and it definitely would have made it better. Thanks for sharing the link! My first attempt at a curry recipe was a success!
I actually feel gross today. I don’t even remember what I ate, but I think it has something to do with too much meat. I was a vegetarian for 5 years until I got pregnant. After that, I figured if I was craving something, the baby needed it (within reason) so meat came back into the picture. After I had our son, I knew I needed more protein than what I used to eat to build my muscle tone back up so I continued eating chicken/turkey/pork. I think I’ve just gotten to the point where its too much. I’m pretty much where I want to be as far as muscle tone so I’m ready to go back into maintenance mode, which will probably just be eggs & seafood.
I miss wine and Malbec is one of my favorites. I’m currently 14 weeks pregnant which is thrilling, but a glass of wine would be nice every now and then!
The snow is here today! We even got a snow day for the first time in my college career! 🙂
I love the dump-a-bunch-of-stuff-on-greens method. Makes up for 99% of my own lunches, I think!
Snow!! Wow, I have to drive 4 hours to the mountains to see that! But I guess it’s more of a rarity in AZ.
I thought I had an active day yesterday running to three meetings in three different buildings in heels. At least it was cool outside that I didn’t break a sweat 🙂
Ah snow! We’ve had so much snow this year it’s crazy. I can’t imagine a winter without snow. Everywhere I’ve lived my whole life it’s always been cold and snowy, ha ha.
That chocolate from TJ’s took me off guard when I first tried it, I wasn’t expecting the graininess even though I should’ve from the description! It was good though 🙂
i don’t really love the graininess. when i’m eating sugar, i don’t need a constant reminder of how much sugar is in there 😉
So off topic but MY GOD YOUR ARMS LOOK AMAZING!
I was thinking the same thing!
thank you! <3 i guess lifting 25 lbs all day has been helping haha
I loved that Liv’s reaction to the snow. I need to break out of my meal rut and start making more new things. I tried some new bean salads today from a Greek place, but I thought the beans were very uncooked for my liking (maybe that’s just how they roll).
i like my beans on the mushy side… not al dente 😉
Jerk Chicken stuffed sweet potato has been on my mind since I read this, I tell ya! A guy at my work has been bringing me tons of sweet potatoes from the local veggie stand, and I was at a loss with what to do with them.
it was SO GOOD
I just discovered your blog recently and it it so inspirational! I love your workouts and have tried a few already… I am a runner who needs to do more weight training and your strength workouts are amazing! I also appreciate your choice of wine… One of my faves. I think this post is really great because I feel like it shows a really balanced day of eating (I have an active job where I am always moving and I work out on top of that) and it is nice to see how another active person fuels their day . I work at a bakery and was wondering if you had any suggestions for breakfasts and lunches that can be eaten on the go(my days are pretty packed with breakfast eaten on my commute and lunch eaten on my feet.) I need to get out of my granola bar with peanut butter rut. Thanks!
It’s good to see people fuelling their bodies when they work hard- a great role model for everyone 🙂
Hey girl, all your eats look super yum, especially the brownies, i love how you can sneak a vegie in your dessert, it totally makes it ok to have seconds in my book 🙂 Anyway just wanted to let you know i have been reading from the very beginning and you have inspired me so much over the years, i am now pursuing my dream to become a PT. So excited for the next chapter!! So thank you for that, Also I am just curious on days where you teach the most classes how much do you think you increase your calories by?? I know everybody’s needs differ but i am just curious as to how much more you need to fuel up for, thanks G xx
Yay thank you Gina for another WIAW – I definitely think you should do more as they give me some serious food envy – and great ideas for fuelling workouts! Those Brownies look fantastic.
Also I am developing some serious arm muscles from carrying around my nearly 6 month niece! 1 day of that – aching arms the next 😉 Serious workout right there.
Please send some TJs dark chocolate to Australia 🙂
X Michelle
Hi! Do you have a recipe for the sweet potato brownies? They look delicious!
http://fitnessista.com/2012/06/sweet/
Great tips on weight lifting. When I first started going to the gym, I focused only on cardio. After learning more about fitness training and how important it is to build muscle, I now try to do half cardio and half weight training.
I especially liked your tip about muscle imbalances. Like you, my right arm is also much stronger than my left.