West side Best side, reformer week

Hello Again!

I said I would post and here I am posting. I hope everyone's had a good week. My week was crazy so much happened, a co worker got a better show and left, I got a free latte from the cute barista but he didn't write his number on the cup, talk about your mixed signals anyways that's another story for another day. I only had one misstep on my healthy eating track, I fell asleep Saturday when I was supposed to be going to the grocery store and when I woke up the store was closed and I was hungry so I went to Wendy's and got a burger. While it wasn't the worst thing I could do but it did make me ill and it was a moment of weakness and probably not the last.

But now for the good I ate the Changes Orange Chicken I made and it was delicious here's a photo of it at my desk.

Also today I went for hike with two of my good friends since I didn't ask if I could mention them in this blog so lets call them K and D. We went to the Culver City Nature Trail I found this trail about a month ago and its a great short little hike up a wooden path which makes it wheelchair and stroller friendly the total path is .25 miles one way so one circuit is only half a mile but you can go up and down as many times as you want. it's located at of Jefferson and Duquesne. There is a parking lot and roadside parking all along the road on the way up. 

 Doggie paw prints on the side walk lead to the dog park which is to the right of the trail

  Parking lot and beginning of the trail

                                                    Sign at the start of the trail, also I like taking photos of signs

                                     View of cross street  and driving entrance from halfway up the trail

                                        View of the wooden trail.

                                              Close up of the trail. its all wooden with rails

                                             Top of the trail there's a baseball field today there was a soccer sign up

                                         Pictures of the  soccer sign up

                                          Stairs at the top across the parking lot, my goal is climb them this week

                                          The park at the bottom of the nature trail it has grills and a basketball court

                                              Fulcrum's climbing  area along the trail.

                                          Beginning of the trail  in the evening there are cats that gather.
I really like this trail because its a great reformer trail if you are hurting or out of shape or both it's low incline and low impact there are places to stop along the way (they are called scenic look out points so you don't have to feel bad that you need a break just look out at beautiful downtown Culver City). At the top there are benches  and a park area you can stretch or rest or if you're ambitious you can try to do the stairs across the way. After the trail we went to brunch at a place called Akasha  I had delicious omelette and coffee the coffee cups were soo cute I took a photo.

                                         Cute coffee cups.

                                            Omelette with a salad.

So now you have two new things to try on the Westside a great hike and a great Sunday brunch.

For this week's recipe Lemon Dill Chicken I pinned this recipe last year and i've made it twice so here's the link: http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/lemon_dill_chicken.html 

Well that's about it for this entry. this week's plan hit the Nature trail at least once during the week. And go with K and D to Griffith Park for a hike. In next week's entry I'll talk about Griffith park workout's and K anI are going to experiment with a farmer's market lasagna made with eggplant and zucchini and no pasta! but more on that next week!

Until then keep Takin' Care-a Business!
~C

Cleaner Eating Through Planning and Failing

So after months of X-rays, blood tests and Physical Therapy Consultations that aside from mildly high Cholesterol nothing is wrong with me, All of this despite the fact that I have abject  pain from my hip to my foot primarily on my left side all day and all night, and that because of said pain I stopped being active and gained a bunch of weight. The doctors whom I presume have all completed some sort of medical training have given the advice of exercise and diet, which seems ironic since the whole reason I came to see them in the first place is that I started having this pain get progressively worse and it prevented me from my normal activities of going to the gym and hiking. The only Dr. I have seen that has made any sense is my Gastroenterologist after talking to me for more then five minutes she helped alleviate my fears of  having  gall bladder disease or some sort of parasite, It turned out my stomach problems were the result of food poisoning several months prior, which was caused a multitude of stomach and digestive problems, she also encouraged me to do low impact exercises such as yoga in hopes that it would lower my stress and possibly help my pain. I am telling you all this because I plan to  start keeping a blog filled with my recipes and workout routines as both self accounting measure and hopefully helpful guide for others. Unlike other clean eating cross-fitting   fitness nazis who tell you never to eat carbs or eat only organic and locally sourced I am not like that, this is me primarily  sharing my journey and hoping that people will support me and I can help support them in their journey. I live on a budget and if I bought all grass fed organic etc I wouldn't buy enough to last a day let alone a week. I am also going to indulge once and awhile. Why because I had a trainer who for 2 years monitored my daily food and would tell me to do things like not eat carbs for two weeks or no red meat ever, and the first thing I did after we broke up (and believe me it was a break up which was odd) is I went to set and hit the crafty hard there was soda and candy and mexican food galore I was so sick afterwards but what I learned is deprivation doesn't work eventually you are going to break down and undo it all, so instead if you and your co workers order pizza every Friday night like mine do, go ahead and have pizza on Friday just make sure you've brought your own homemade carefully measured dinner every night prior to Friday.

So This week's semi made up recipe is:

PF Changes Orange Peel Chicken

1lb Boneless skinless chicken breast ( I buy the eat well Chicken breast from Fresh and Easy because its never frozen and extra trimmed so if you don't live near a fresh and easy try to find chicken with as little fat as possible)

1 Jar Orange peel simmer sauce ( again no Fresh and easy? find a comparable sauce at your local store or make your own there are some great recipes to be found on google or pintrest that I amy try next time).

3 servings of brown rice steamed (this varies depending on what rice you buy I have a rice cooker/steamer combo  so I tend to make a bunch of rice at once and use it in multiple recipes) but buy whatever rice you like or is easy for you, minute rice make brown rice or if you forget the rice most stores have ready to  heat and serve brown rice.

olive oil

Chop Chicken into quarter size cubes ( the size is dependent on you but make sure they are all about the same size so that they cook at the same pace and are done at the same time. Note this is a tip I got from Master chef )

Grab a large skillet or wok and place on stove. add a bit of olive oil (about a tablespoon) place in pan.

Turn on heat med high to high

heat oil in pan, when the oil is hot aka little wisps of smoke come off of it. Add your chicken pieces.

now quickly toss or stir your chicken in the pan/ wok you want the chicken to be lightly coated in the oil so it doesn't stick to the pan.

continue stirring and turn the chicken  until is cooked through no pink chicken, pink chicken is bad.

Open then simmer sauce and add to the pan and stir lower heat to med low and allow it to simmer until sauce is heated through stirring occasionally.

if you had some steamed broccoli lying around you could toss it in now as well.

This recipe makes 3 servings or so and with rice is about 400  calories.

Next time I will be talking about my new favorite short hike in Culver City its a great starter or restarter  hike that anyone can do. Seriously it was designed to be wheelchair accessible.

So until next time Take care-a business!
~C