June 2019 - The Hockey Mom Fit Life

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019

Summer Vacation Has Started

Summer vacation has started and thus far it is taking a serious toll on my wallet and my patience. Don’t get me wrong, I do revel in foregoing the school routine in the morning. Last week was the boys’ first full week out of school. Admittedly, I felt their hot lunch bill was taking a huge toll with the multiple sandwiches/entrees and drinks everyday, but boy was I wrong. Let’s take a look at their first week home by the numbers:

8 frozen pizzas slayed
120 pizza rolls devoured
60 juice boxes demolished
14 Jimmy Dean croissant sandwiches gone
12 Powerades depleted
10 hotdogs enjoyed
4 gallons of milk
A jar of peanut butter gone
A loaf of bread
1 lb of spaghetti
A jar of marinara sauce
1 lb of chicken
1 can of black beans
1/2 bag of brown rice

I say slayed for the pizzas because one met a different fate having been dropped half in the bottom of my oven, while the other half fell to the floor. I should also mention that over the course of the week, the Mayor did cook them spaghetti with onions and jerk chicken with black beans and rice for lunch on separate days. With the younger two boys now 13 and 15, my grocery bill is sky rocketing. Both boys are growing like weeds and eating like they’ve never been fed. I might send them to summer school to bring down my food bill! This week I added some more milk and more fruit.

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Back to the pizza for a second because I fully thought they had eaten 8 frozen pizzas. After all I bought 6 Digiorno pizzas on Wednesday and by Thursday night there was only one left. Apparently, the Mayor had a slight pizza mishap with a major portion of it landing on the bottom of my oven. Importantly, the Mayor forgot to mention to anybody that this had happened. You can imagine my surprise when the room became very smoky as I pre-heated the oven for brownies. We’re still working on getting the smoke out of the house! Fortunately, it was only a lot of smoke and no fire, but the Mayor learned an important lesson: make sure you tell your parents if you drop a significant amount of food in the oven.

While they’ve been busy eating us out of house and home, they’ve also logged some nice hours outdoors fishing. The weather has only been cooperative for them in the morning and evenings these past few days. Fortunately, the Mayor and Goalielocks have been able to take advantage of the few morning hours and fish before the daily afternoon storms fire up. Our lake in back has some nice sized large mouth and peacock bass, which my boys love to fish.

Of course, they’ve had their share of chores over this past week. Unfortunately, they’re not as proficient in competing their chores as they are in eating their weight daily. Nonetheless, we saw some some serious progress on that front at the end of the week. Thankfully, I’m able to control our house’s wifi from my phone, so there was no wifi until all of the chores were completed. Summer vacation has started and hopefully as the weeks go by they get better at completing their chores. One could only hope!

June 3, 2019June 3, 2019

Memorial Day 5k

Better late than never, last Monday Jake, the Mayor and I ran the Memorial Day 5k. This was my third race since being cleared to work out again. Although I’m not sure my doctor will be thrilled when I tell her about it Tuesday, but we shall see. She did after all give me the clearance to exercise…

Race morning, I was filled with the usual pangs of regret as my alarm went off last Monday for the Memorial Day 5k. After all it was 5:05 am and usually I’d get up, take my Synthroid and go back to bed for another hour or two before finally crawling out of bed. Meanwhile the bookends and I headed to Boca by 5:45 am to get our run on. Fortunately, or unfortunately, this run started at 7:00 am, which sounds early, but is the only way to beat the South Florida heat.

The run itself went really well. Fortunately, there were no bridges to contend with like in the Mamacita Mimoas 5k two weeks ago. The Mayor went out guns blazing, which is never a recipe for success when running distance. We ended up running together for the first two miles before I ended up pulling away. I was thrilled that I was able to complete mile 1 in less than 10 minutes. It felt like a huge accomplishment.

Mile two was slower, but not by too much. It was difficult and the water stations kind of through of my mojo a bit. They had stations every half a mile, which is nice, but it slows you down a bit. By mile three, however, I was struggling. In fact, an old guy with a limp, who was power walking the race passed me as we approached mile 3. I cannot tell a lie: that was quite the hit to the pride. I was resolute, however, that I would finish before him come hell or high water. In the end, I had enough in the tank to finish before him and 2 two minutes faster than the previous weekend’s 5k. Yay!

I quickly found Jake post race as he waited for me at the finish line. The Mayor, however, took another four minutes to cross the finish line. Apparently, he had made a friend along the course and took to socializing instead of running. Nonetheless, he still covered the 3.1 miles and logged some decent cardio. Afterwards, we waited for the mile run to finish, so we could watch Jake get his award for taking second place in his age group. As for the Mayor and me, we were just happy to get our finisher pie. We then headed home with our three finisher apple pies because that’s exactly what you need after a hard fought race.

Here’s our gear:
Shoes brought to you by Asics – my go to running shoe. I love my Gel Kayanos and am on my fourth pair. They’re the perfect shoe for serious runners. My little man loves his Asics GT1000.

My running pants and shirt: Call by Carrie Underwood Shop at Dicks Sporting Goods

20% OFF ENTIRE ORDER with code: WELLNESS20. Plus Free Shipping over $45! Pharmaca.com. Coupon Code: WELLNESS20

June 2, 2019June 3, 2019

Lazy Sunday

After an insane week, lazy Sunday was the perfect follow up to lazy Saturday. Yep, there was a 90% chance that today was gonna be a Netflix and chill type of day and indeed it was. That’s not to say I wasn’t productive. I caught up on all the laundry after Goalielocks finished scorekeeping at the rink this morning. I even meal prepped for the week. Meanwhile Goalielocks fished and the Mayor watched Netflix from the comfort of my yoga silk.

As I continue to on the Graves/thyroid rollercoaster, meal prepping has become increasingly important in my attempts to stay healthy. I say healthy because while I see no change on the outside, I’d like to think under the layers I’m getting both stronger and healthier. We’ll see what Dr. G has to say when I see her on Tuesday. I’m sure she’ll be none to thrilled that I didn’t just complete the corporate run, but two other 5ks as well, but more on that later.

For my meal prep, I look for something easy, high protein and relatively quick to put together. This week I made five containers of chicken stir fry and brown rice. For my fasting days, I’m currently doing the 5:2 intermittent fasting plan, I did not include brown rice. For simplicity and time’s sake, I used Target’s Simply Balanced organic steamed in the bag stir fry vegetables. Tyson’s thin sliced chicken strips, non-gmo and antibiotic free, were the perfect protein for the stir fry.

I started my meal prep, by firing up my Instantpot to make brown rice. Fortunately, the Instantpot has proven to be a real time saver for cooking rice. If you’re not a fan of brown rice, you could definitely substitute white rice. Each weekend, I’ll cook up an entire bag of brown rice, which I’ll use for my weekly meals. In addition, I have enough rice to package up three portions of rice that can be used for family meals. This is where my Foodsaver plus is truly clutch. I cook the rice in a 1:1 ratio rice to water for 22 minutes on high pressure followed by 10 minutes natural venting. Lastly, I turn the knob and release all of the pressure.

Meanwhile on the stove, I’ve already browned my chicken. The vegetables, which were steamed in the microwave were then stirred into the pan with the left over oil from the chicken. Once I’ve cut up the chicken, I add it back to the pan with the veggies and teriyaki sauce. In the span of less than an hour, I’ve made my lunches for the entire week. Additionally, thanks to my beautiful egg cooker, my breakfast for the week was done even before the rice had finished cooking.

The key to maintaining healthy habits is ensuring it’s simple, easy and can fit into your lifestyle. If it takes too much time or is too cumbersome, it won’t stick. My Instantpot, Foodsaver and egg cooker have been complete life savers. These three handy appliances have been life altering. I can now plan ahead and meal prep my lunches as well as family dinners. We don’t time during hockey season to make family dinners. Fortunately, being able to prep on a rare free weekend gives us the help we need to eat healthy during the crazy hockey season.

This evening I was able to sneak in a 30 minute run on the elliptical as the roast cooked in the oven. My ankles have been a bit sore since the last 5k, so I’ve taken it easy on them this week by sticking to the elliptical instead of the road or treadmill. Tomorrow will be leg day – oh joy!

P.S. Tonight’s drama was our duck’s escape from its cage. Yeah, there’s a whole series of posts coming your way on our duck drama. I assure you it will be worth the wait.

Products used for today’s Meal prep: