1st Meetup: Peters Canyon hike

In May, I made the goal of going to 2+ Meetup events. Well, I didn't, and the goal didn't carry over. Still, like with everything, I had it in the back of my mind. Plus, I get all the e-mails.

I also have Peters Canyon in my Yelp bookmarks. One of my co-workers hikes there sometimes, and let's be real, Orange County hiking couldn't be extremely strenuous. Yet I never managed to go alone.

I saw that the OC Young, Fun and Nerdy group had a hiking venture to Peters Canyon and jumped on it. And... I actually went!

Oatmeal to get me going:

Everyone was extremely easy to talk to and lots of fun. I had a chance to talk to everyone in the group during the 1.5 hour hike. We did 5 miles with some hills.

 

The group ate lunch afterwards. I decided to hang around but ate when I came home. After a long, hot walk, I wanted something cool: shrimp spring rolls (in rice paper not fried) again! Its been my go-to meal lately.

Summary of my first Meetup group event:

• I'm excited to get to know these people.
• I will not shy away from Meetup groups.
• In our group of 10, there were 2 or 3 other first timers.
• I'm okay walking uphill, but it's the downhill I dislike.
• So I'm not as nerdy as I think. My cousin doesn't think I'm particularly nerdy either.

I was quite dusty so after a show, I took a quick nap. Once I stop moving, my body gets tired. When I woke up, I went grocery shopping to make my meals for the week, or at least tomorrow.

For tomorrow's breakfast, I made Powercakes' Power Pumpkin Roll. It's so good that I'm making it my birthday breakfast!

The roll is cooling in the fridge. It looks like a burrito wrapped in foil.

I haven't added the frosting yet, but it's simply Greek yogurt, chia seeds, vanilla extract, and sugar.

For dessert tonight, I picked up frozen yogurt from Yogurtland with my cousin and a bar of World Market's strawberry & champagne dark chocolate.

The chocolate is less dark than usual. The dried strawberries are speckled throughout and give a teeny crunch. Not sure if the champagne flavor is quite there.

Time to catch up on "MasterChef 3" while I do a little baking - I'll tell you about it later.

"The only thing that Chinese people don't eat with legs are chairs."
- Felix, "MasterChef 3"

What outdoor activities have you done so far?
Have you ever joined a Meetup group or anything similar? I went to an Easter Day hike coordinated by the local yoga community center. It wasn't as fun as this one though. We did yoga at the top of our hike, but the terrain didn't allow us to walk side-by-side.

Not everyday eating

I could not eat like I did today everyday. Lunch and dinner cost me over $30!

I had breakfast at home: double fiber English muffin with 2 egg whites & goat cheese on one side and PB & banana on the other.

Usually I pack my own meals. I packed a lunch of buffalo chicken mac & cheese quinoa and some rotisserie chicken breast for dinner promising to buy something to supplement it.

Well, the quinoa lacked chicken. I must not have divided the batch right. And the quinoa tasted funky. It had been in the fridge for a few days so I didn't see a problem.

Instead, I ate my chicken.

After work, on the referral of a co-worker, I went to Loving Hut Vegan. I've bookmarked it on yelp for a long time and finally went.

I didn't want rice. They gave me rice though changed it out for salad. She didn't close it properly and my sweet and sour divine spilled in the bag and my car.

Okay, onto the food. For $8, it was terrible. There were maybe 5 or 6 little nuggets of soy protein and not very good at that.

I ended up eating Chobani peach during my break but was still hungry.

I stopped by Mother's even though we got out late and the hot bar was closed. I didn't like the looks of their pizza however, my mouth was watering big time.

I grabbed a bag of Love Crunch's aloha blend granola and took a handful to hold me over. I like this one more than carrot cake and definitely better than red berries and dark chocolate.

Since I knew we didn't have food at home, I called Avanti Cafe and ordered a gluten-free pizza with tomato cumin sauce, mozzarella, avocado, and soy nuggets.

I ended up eating there. Each table had two tea lights so it was impossible to take a picture till I packed it in my to-go box.

Fortunately, the pizza was much better. The crust was crumbly like gluten-free food sometimes is.

And my leftovers will be 2 more meals for me!

They also gave me a free snicker doodle that I'll eat later. :)

I'm on vegan kick. Just today though. And cookies this whole week! I'm normally a cake girl, but I keep dreaming of cookies.

Oh and coffee in the morning. I have extra time in the morning when I workout at night, which didn't happen today - I wasn't well nourished and we got out late.

Today I tried Bagelmania's Hawaiian hazelnut coffee. So delicious! I wanted one of their huge bagels with Hawaiian cream cheese (must be coconut and pineapple right?) but I restrained myself. I did just have breakfast.

Check out their cool cup design!

I'm wiped out so I'm glad it's the weekend and I only have to work tomorrow morning.

What's your back-up lunch? Is there a specific place you go or are you like me with bookmarks on your yelp app? I used to eat Subway and Taco Bell's fresco menu when I student taught. Everyday. I lost 10 pounds, but I definitely wasn't healthy. I was just too preoccupied.

Do you have a limit for the amount you spend on a weekday meal?

Try again

7 is early for me though honestly, I'd like to wake up at 6:30 more often. It'll just have to happen one day and I'll be so exhausted that I will need to sleep early.

I woke up "early" and headed to a new-to-me gym location: downtown/pier!

It's small, and everyone was older or a meat-head. I don't live in Venice Beach, but it sure felt like it.

I biked for 20 minutes on the stationary bike, which has been foreign to me since I started using the upright bike.

The muscles you work are so different on the two bikes that I really had to work up to the stationary bike. My lower back/booty sweats more. That's always welcome.

I wanted to TurboKick with my BodyPump instructor. She was sick though. Fortunately, her sub was none other than my usual TurboKick instructor. I was glad it was her and not someone else.

My shoes kept slipping and getting low was hard (thanks to the video workout yesterday) so I jumped more today.

I joined the weightlifters downstairs for a quick session.

• Abs on the ball.
• Bicep curls.
• Hammer curls.
• Attempt at chest that hurt my shoulders still!
• Triceps with the pull down machine, which was fruitful.

Overall, besides the chest, I was able to work the correct muscles.

On the way home, I made a quick pot stop to buy plant-based food enzymes as per my masseuse's suggestion.

I had one before my salmon + goat cheese + pineapple salsa spinach salad.

It's a little personal, but it looks like it will help.

Since I have a whole loaf of bread now, I made myself another PB sandwich.

I picked up a shift today in exchange for next Saturday off. Preferable since 12-4:30 is friendlier than 10:30-3:30.

Other eats:

The apple-cinnamon pack:

I'm trying to get more protein in my diet. Funny thing: Live Laugh Eat's Allie just wrote a post on protein intake.

I sampled some hummus from The Hummus Bar & Grill at Whole Foods. So fluffy and creamy. I had it with green beans.

Are you working today?
What exercises do you do for chest?
Do you eat gluten-free food or have you self-tested for gluten intolerance?

Math of fall recipes

Fall = pumpkins + sweet potatoes + apples + other carbs

Mini pumpkin pie croissants


5-minute coffee cake


Pumpkin crunch roll


Apple butter cupcake


Sweet potato cakelets


Peach & cinnamon breakfast rolls


Apple cobbler cookies


Sweet potato coconut quick bread


Sugar-free coconut granola

Icky sticky legs

Ugh. I subscribed to Nylon Magazine because it was alternative and artsy. I like the clothes, but I guess I'm not the audience.*



One of their issues had a whole spread on lingerie for the fuller ladies and there is one big girl in there, but she's famous somehow... does that count?

*Yeah yeah. I know some people will say I'm thin now, but heck no am I ever going to have stick legs like those chicks.

How about some food then?

Yesterday was a day off so I enjoyed watching "From Prada to Nada," which was much better for me than "The Lincoln Lawyer." I'm just not good at watching any serious movies. I tried some Xxtra Flamin' Hot Cheetos: pretty spicy. Did I do yoga? No, but this is my mat and I intended to do some. Oh well... Hey, I walked for an hour and a half to Walmart and El Super to get the chips and movie. :)

Today, I ate half of this baby. It's gluten-free, vegan, nut-free Black Forest cupcake (read its German background here) without the frosting but with the cherry filling. Sensitive Sweets opened up close to home. I was surprised by how good this was - all of it! Their white bread sample was also quite good; I'd love to get some of their cinnamon or chocolate chip bread. Be warned: both are chewy, but I'm all for it.

Did you notice I changed my nails again? Without a top coat and with quite a bit of free time, I was able to change it up again thanks to my cousin's blue denim and hot pink polishes.

Couple of recent bakes

Chocolate-zucchini snack cake from Flat Belly Diet


It was okay. I'd give it a 5 'cause it was too dry.

If I go to the cookout, I want to make some type of summer pie/cobbler/tart.

The second thing I baked last night: the best darn ever gluten-free and vegan chewy chocolate chip date cookies! I've eaten like 5 of these babies since yesterday! :/


Must stop eating them...