Fitness Friday: Getting Back on Track!

Phew! February was a bit of a rough month since I was sick for like half of it, so I didn't really see much point in doing fitness recaps since I wasn't really doing anything "fitness-y" anyway. But I'm happy to be back at it and I had a pretty great week of workouts!

Rewinding to last Friday:

• Evening BodyPump class at GoodLife Fitness. I officially got my butt back into the gym on the Wednesday before that for a BodyPump class, and it felt good to do two classes close together. It was a nice start to my weekend! (9,017 steps taken)

Saturday:

• Off (10,903 steps!)

Sunday:

• BodyPump date with all of these lovely ladies! BodyPump is a great class, but it's even more fun when you go with your friends. Terrible step day though as my Fitbit died sometime in the afternoon: 4,965 steps.

{Jo, Ashley, Becky, Kaella, Kris//Me, Jen & Leigh}

Monday:

• Off. I needed to recover from the weekend's festivities! I was also too lazy to go get my Fitbit charger from my vehicle (where I charge my Fitbit) so I only logged in 2,977 steps for that day. Although I'm sure that's not far off from my actual number!

Tuesday:

• BodyFlow at GoodLife Fitness. I'm always hesitant to bother going to this class, thinking that it's not enough of a workout, but this class seriously challenged me! I'm really digging the combo of tai chi, Pilates and yoga and need to start going regularly. Plus, the relaxation period at the end of class is heavenly. (8,759 steps)

Wednesday:

• Back to BodyPump! I upped my weights a bit and am I ever feeling it today! (10,330 steps!)

Thursday:

• Off. 3km brisk walk pushing Sully in the stroller. (10,330 steps at time of writing this).

So not too shabby! I'm going to have to try out childminding at the gym again because I don't always want to go in the evenings, and then I also miss bedtime every time I go, but at least that option is there for me. 

And other than those two days where I didn't charge my Fitbit, I'm pretty happy with the steps I logged. 

On the books for this weekend: hopefully an evening BodyPump class again, and then I'm not sure about the weekend. I'm expecting my best friend to come down with her three kiddos for a visit, so I'm sure my "workouts" will consist of running around after the kids, ha!

How was your week of workouts?

Anything fun planned for the weekend?

*Linking up with Kris from Canadian Girl Runs for Fitness Friday and

Jill Conyers for Living a Life of Fitness Health & Happiness!

Cucumber Tomato & Feta Hummus Dip

It's pretty much a given, that if you invite me to your house and ask me to bring something to eat, this is the dish I'm going to bring. 

Life is busy, and while I love trying new dishes, I find it really stressful when you have to come up with something to bring to a potluck, or a party. What if no likes what you bring? (My worst fear). 

For a long time, I always wished I had my own "signature" potluck/party-going dish. Something I could be counted on to bring and something people looked forward to eating. And something that didn't take a ton of time to prepare, and calls for minimal ingredients. Friends, I'm happy to say, I finally have that dish!

I first ate a version of this at one of my book club meetings back when I was still living in Edmonton, and I absolutely loved it. I knew I needed to try and recreate it at home. It takes your regular old hummus with veggies and kicks it up a notch. It looks appealing, it's healthy and you it will also satisfy any of your vegetarian friends out there. Or you can make it vegan by skipping the feta altogether (which I have on numerous occasions when I don't have any on hand, and it still tastes just as delicious). 

Cucumber Tomato & Feta Hummus Dip

1 pint of grape tomatoes, halved

1 small cucumber or 4-5 mini cucumbers, diced

1/2 cup cubed feta

1 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)

Hummus (approx half a container)

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tsp crushed red chili pepper 

salt & pepper to taste

Add the tomatoes, cucumber (I prefer to leave the skin on as it adds a nice crunch), feta and parsley to a bowl.  

Drizzle with the olive oil.

Toss with crushed red chili pepper, salt and pepper. I usually taste test here and add more chili, salt, or pepper as I feel is necessary. 

Let sit for at least 30 minutes, but if you're in a rush, that's okay too. Sometimes I even make this part the night before to really 'marinate' the flavours. Either way, it will stay taste great. 

Spread a thin layer of hummus on the bottom of the dish you will serve the dip in. I typically use about half of a regular sized container of hummus, but you can use more if you wish. You will want to use a dish that has a lip. 

Using a slotted spoon to drain the excess liquid, top the hummus with the cucumber, tomato and feta mixture. Depending on the size of dish you use, you may have some mix left over. 

Serve with your choice of crackers or tortilla chips! 

This keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days.

What's your go-to potluck or party dish?

March Goals

Whoa! I feel like I blinked and February was over. And we even had an extra day in the month this year!

I knew February would fly by - it always does so I kept that in mind for when I made my goals for the month. What I didn't plan on though, was getting sick for almost two weeks last month. Two weeks! That's half the month. I'm not sure what hit me, but I had one of the worst colds I've had in years and I just couldn't shake it. Usually I recover really quickly when I come down with someone, but not this time. And when I'm sick, or feeling under the weather, I lose control in almost all areas of my life.

Regular workouts? Didn't happen. Meal planning? Lots of pinning of recipes, but little making of them. I didn't even get to bed at a decent time most nights, which you think would be an easy one to accomplish when you aren't feeling well! My daily steps also suffered, but that's not surprising considering how little we left the house in those two weeks.

Anyway! I'm glad to finally say that that brutal cold and lack of energy I was feeling is behind me and I feel back to my normal self. So I'm not going to dwell on last month and feel badly about the things I didn't accomplish, instead, I'm moving forward and I'm going to use March as a refresher month to get my life back on track!


MARCH GOALS

1. Be in bed, lights out by 11p.m., every single night.

While I had more success with this last month than I expected, I still had some really late nights and I only have myself to blame for them. But it's not easy to ditch your night-owl ways, so I'm sticking with this same goal for March. And amazingly, when I do get to bed, with the lights out by 11p.m., I actually feel really good in the morning! So even this still relatively late bedtime is working better for me than midnight and beyond (obviously).

2. Walk 10,000 steps a day and strength train (BodyPump) 3x per week.

I basically took half of February off from working out, but I've already been back at it for a solid week. I've been participating in step challenges with my fitbit and I really need to step up my game. I'm usually a really competitive person, but for some reason, getting my steps in isn't bringing out that side of me. Although I wish it were! I feel so great when I go to BodyPump that I'm committed to getting to a class 3x a week, even if that means I have to go in the evenings.

3. Run 3-4x per week.

I talked about it in this post, but I need to step up my running game. I was working at building up my running strength by following a 5k training plan in efforts to focus on getting stronger as a runner both mentally and physically. I took many months off of running and I should stop expecting my body to be able to just jump back into running a 5k comfortably. My goal is to feel ready and confident for my first 10k of the year, which is at the end of May.

4. Read 3 books

I've been doing really well at making reading a priority, and my goal is just to continue with that. I have a few book club commitments to read for this month so my focus will be on getting through those books.

5. Start an online book club on the blog.

I keep saying I'm going to do this, but then I give an excuse as to why it hasn't happened yet. Honestly, I'm nervous to officially put it out there and then not have it received well. But it's something I really want to do, and since I read anyway, it's not a total loss if no one participates.

6. Meal plan once a week (on Saturday/Sunday), and grocery shop only once a week.

Like I said above, February was a bad month in the meal planning department. Many meals were made last minute, I went to the grocery store more than once a week and a lot of nights were "fend for yourself" nights which are fun once in awhile, but we had too many of them. I really just have to commit to taking the 30-60 minutes to sit down and pick out my meals for the week, because if I don't do it on the weekend, it doesn't end up happening.

And that's my plan for getting back on track (keeping in mind my word for 2016 was organize!) and I'm hopeful that March is going to be a better month! I know these goals are repeats, but they are things that I'm trying to make into habits and habits are definitely not made overnight. So I'm not giving up yet!

Do you make mini-goals for the month? Did you make goals for March? 

I'd love to hear about them!