Weekend Update.

….but not so much the SNL kind, although I heart it.

Lets review the weekend, shall we?

Firstly, thanks to all of your sweet and encouraging comments on our “Eight To The Eight’s” competition!  I will be keeping everyone updated as the program continues!

Saturday’s dinner included a trip to my favorite Chinese locale for a trip to the “Mongolian Grill” which is fresh veggie heaven.  You choose the veggies..sauce, and then they grill it up right before your eyes!  Sweet!

This bad boy had:

Pineapple

Broccoli

Cabbage

Carrots

Onion

Squash

Zucchini

“House Sauce”

Pineapple Juice

gotta love the fun place mats…

After dinner I hit up some Black Light Yoga with Maggie and Kim!  We go to an awesome studio called Simple Abundance here in our town, and it is fannnnntastic.  She takes requests, and played the one and only GaGa for me this time…twice!  Talk about connections.    She has also kindly offered to teach a class JUST for our contestants for “Eight To The Eight’s”!!!  So pumped!

After dinner I went with Maggie to the Mellow Mushroom.  She hadn’t eaten, and I already had.  Was inspired by my water though….

Which prompted me to order this….

Key Lime Pie anyone?!?!

Aren’t Saturday nights required by law to include dessert?!?!  I certainly obide by that rule.

Sunday morning was also started off with a local favorite.  Can anyone say Cracker Barrel???  I did. 

I’m telling you guys.  Their oatmeal/bran muffin combo cannot be beat.  Not to mention their killer coffee!!!  This is one Sunday tradition I do not break.

And to wrap things up…made ANOTHER trip to Mellow Mushroom tonight where I actually ate food/food, and not dessert!

Mega Veggie….Tempeh instead of Tofu.

This bad boy x2.

PHEW is all I have to say after this weekend.  From all the craziness/excitement with Eight To The Eights….to teaching a bazillion classes…to spending time with some amazing people….I am pooped.

I think the perfect solution is “My Best Friend’s Wedding” for the 23827319847390874092th time on DVD…and….

………enough said.

Night bloggies.  Watching MBFW for seriously the nine-thousandth time prompts me to ask:

What is your “go to” movie that you A) know every line of….and B) could not live without in your DVD collection?!?!

Update Overload!

Hello Blogworld!  I have been running around like a proverbial grass-fed free range chicken with his head cut off the past 2 days!  Prepping for the interviews tomorrow for Eight To The Eights has been INSANE, but so much fun.  We have had an overwhelming response, and I wish we could take each and every team that applied.

Rewinding to yesterday…..I now present you, a day in the life of Oli (the boxer pup):

Pretty exhausting, eh?  ;-)

Sam manages to be a bit more elusive, but always shows up when there is food involved:

Speaking of sweet potato fries, that brings me to my fabulous lunch from yesterday!  Tried a new Gardenburger this time around…

So I took a wrap, sprinkled some cheese, sprouts, spinach, and the chopped “burger” on top…

Layers -o- joy!

This is where the sweet potato fries came into play (beautifully!)

After lunch/email/blog stalking It was time to prep for my KidFit class, and Total Body HIIT.

KidFit was hilarious as always.  They love doing sprint relays, and love even more when I time them to see if they can improve their times.  We basically ran the whole 45 minutes…..score!

Total Body HIIT was a sweat SESSION.  I don’t know if the gym was hotter than normal or what, but by the first working song (squats) I had sweat dripping from my elbows!  TMI, but totally needed to get the mental  image going, huh?  After class was over I ran down to the Chop House to meet with the team to go over the applications for Eight To The Eights.  Had a random, but lovely, dinner…which included a massive salad:

(see, there was totally work going on in between bites….we had a MASSIVE stack of applications to review!)

There was also my second round of sweet potato lovin’ of the day:

Do you see that massive dollop of cinnamon butter love?!?!  I tried to pick it off, but it was too delcious.  ;-)

Good food, good friends, good times!!!  Plus, we got alot of work done for the program!

After dinner I had a much needed movie date with Maggie.  Can I just confess my love for our little local movie theatre???  This is not the main one in the mall, but one located near it.  It is small, quaint, and adorable.  The ticket prices are super low ($5.50 a movie!!!) and the staff are so nice.  We got there a little late for the movie, but just for the fun of it, they put us in our OWN theatre….and started it over.  How amazing is that?!?!  They also may or may not have GIVEN us a tub of popcorn the size of a small bathtub.  That bad boy went undocumented, I’m afraid.  Use your imagination to picture the devouring of corn that commenced.

I hit the hay the instant my head hit the pillow, and awoke a short 5 hours later for 5:45am spin!  Did I mention that I picked up two more 5:45am classes at the YMCA which means I now teach an early class EVERY weekday.  What am I thinking?!?!?! I will be doing a Total Body HIIT on Tuesday mornings, and an Interval Circuit class on Thursdays until one of our instructors comes back from maternity leave.

After Spin, major carb replenishment was needed, and what better place to serve that then the Barrel!  Started with a gallon or so of the good stuff:

Then moved on to more delicious options….aka pecan pancakes!!!

See that giant BLOB of butter in the background?!?!  I was able to fend it off, unlike the cinnamon butter love on the sweet potato from earlier.  Topped with da best syrup evah!

Deeeeeeee-lish.

After breakfast, I worked on calling applicants for Eight To The Eights, and scheduling interviews.  We will be having 10 minute blocks to interview each team/individual, and I get to be on the judging panel!  We had to turn alot of applicants down right away just because we do not have time to interview them all.  Sad day.  It breaks my heart, and I wish we could take EVERY person.  *sigh*

I now sit here at Panizzle, blogging, eating, and relaxing…before work calls my name again at 4:30.

Their veggie sandwich is thebomb.com!

Later bloggies.  Have an AWESOME Friday!  Did I mention that in a mere 24 hours I will be heading to Knoxvegas to see KATHY GRIFFIN LIVE?!?!?!  Eeeeeeek!!!!  :-)

Tempeh’ting Sunday

Happy Sunday my little bloggers!  How has the weekend treated you?!?!  All good on my end.  What happens when you oversleep (score) and miss the 10am oatmeal cut off time at Cracker Barrel????

You OBVIOUSLY get pecan pancakes.

I need to oversleep more often, obviously.

Epic fail involved when I forgot my camera at home for the day!!  After breakfast I headed to the YMCA and taught Spin.  Major sweat session.  This CD is sweat gold…I need to mark it as especially hard for future reference!  Right after spin I rushed to my other gym for the running program.  ABSOLUTELY loving it.  I am depressed there are only two more weeks left until the big race!  My group is fannnnn-tastic.  Todays weather was also super conducive to some awesome running:

After running, Hank and Natalie totally twisted my arm into going to the Mellow Mushroom.  ;-)  Took alot of convincing, let me tell ya.

Normally I got for the pizza, but today the tempeh hoagie caught my eye.  What is tempeh??  Ask, and yee shall receive.  Again…no camera, but yay for cell phone picture!

This bad boy was fantastic!  Company was awesome as well!  Natalie brought her new dog, meet Martini!

Ahhhhh-dorable.

After lunch I met up with Christie for a much needed Starbizzle date.  Stuck with the decaff, because 6:00am BodyPump is calling me name!

Earth Feezy was up next, I was in desperate need of groceries.

All the cool kids put their grocery loot in boxes.  Especially the cool ones who ALWAYS forget their re-usable bags.  D’oh!

Totally used all my coupons, and got all my weeks worth -o- schtuff for…….$47.06!

You can always shop semi-cheap and organic!  Healthy AND Fun.  Get it?!?!  ;-)

Have a great Sunday bloggers.  I am getting ready to make a weeks worth of Steel Cut oats in the crock pot, thanks to a suggestion from a dear friend!  Can’t wait to see how they turn out!

Refund?!?!

Have you ever been in a movie so awful….so terrible….so mind-numbingly bad that you asked for a refund?!?!

Well, it happened last night.

“Hot Tub Time Machine” was hands down the worst movie I have ever had the mis-fortune of watching half of.  Now, I can horse laugh at “stupid” comedies with the best of them.  Hello, I adore “Dumb & Dumber” but this was just taken to an extreme.  Nudity, the f bomb every other word…just a plain awkward movie to even sit in!  It was raunchy, un-funny…and had no plot.

Now, I am a pretty laid back guy 98.4% of the time.  I can easily let things go…go with the flow, etc, etc.  This was just plain AWFUL!  Emily and I kept looking at each other throughout the movie commenting on how horrible it was, til I eventually got up and asked about the refund policy.  We now have refund tickets to see a, hopefully, not horrendous movie.

DO NOT SEE HOT TUB TIME MACHINE!

There, off of my soap box.

To counteract the negative movie non-sense…here are some positive Sunday vibes…Cracker Barrel style!

There was also some liquid energy consumed to fuel a full day of workouts:

I came home and went on a mini-OCD induced cleaning rampage post Barrel.  I think the coffee sparked me to be so productive.  I am actually moving in about 2 weeks, and have not even started to think about packing.  I still live with the rents (go ahead…chuckle now) so I don’t have *that* much stuff to move, but it will still be a pain!  I am so excited though!  Having my own house will be a complete and utter shock to my system, in a great way!

Cleaning worked up an appetite…and another Veggie Burger was high on the list of things to eat.

Gardenburger with swiss, red pepper flakes, and spinach on what proved to be a deeeeeelicious new bread I picked up recently:

Lunch at the computer always proves to attract jealous on-lookers.

On the agenda today:

Spin Class @ 2:00pm (I am going old school and using one of my very first CD’s just for fun!)

Running Program @ 3:30pm (Fun times!!!  I love coaching people on how to *love* running)

Fun Times with Maggie!  (Indian food…shopping……more running?!!?  Who knows.)

Earth Feezy Trip (I am dangerously low on fruit/veggies/random items of joy)

Well….Sunday is calling…get out there, and get it crackin’!!!!

What is the WORST movie you have ever seen?

Mini-Vacation Madness.

I am currently in my mad state of packing/throwing things into my suitcase…it’s mini vacation time!

Kim, Christie, and I are heading to Augusta Georgia later today for some YMCA sponsored shenanigans for the weekend.

Ooh, here was dinner last night.  It was Maggie’s birthday, so we went to the stir fry!

I went with the Racha…LIGHT sauce, and brown rice.  (add broccoli.)

They also brought out the crunchy rectangles of death.

I may have had one or thirty.

It was then time for CAKE!  Jessica made Maggie a Vegan Carrot Cake that we are all obsessed with via Earth Fare.  She actually got the recipe from Whole Foods:

Click here for the recipe.

I could have eaten the entire conglomeration.  We wanted to, and did, sing to an ever embarrassed birthday girl:

Here was my little slice -o- heaven.

Yum.  There may have been more involved that didn’t make it to picture form.  What can I say, I love me some carrot cake.  Great times, I tell you!

……….

Fast forward to crack thirty this morning when I woke up for 5:45am spin class!  Had a rockin’ group today and definitely had some carrot cake to burn off.  We had an awesome sweat sesh thanks to Lady GaGa.  ;-)

Breakfast was in order afterwards, when I met the Padre at my favorite spot.

It was the obvious choice!

Yummy as usual!

Well, time to pack and panic.  I love these little pre-vacation freakout sessions.  Why can’t I ever be on time or organized for ANYTHING?!?!  I will literally be throwing things into the suitcase as we are pulling out of the driveway.  Bad TYLER….BAD!

I am so stoked because I am meeting up with Ashlei later to have my first Indian Food!!!!  So excited for lunch and to catch up on her latest Florida trip!

Here is another little preview of the mystery box.  Should be getting semi-guessable now.  I covered up the majority of the logo with the bow….but what is that word????  Hmmmmm….

What a Sunday!

Hello bloggies!  What a day I have had.  Sorry it took so long to blog, but Maggie and I headed to Knoxville for the day!

My day started off amazing with my favorite breakfast spot:

If this doesn’t entice you, then little will…

The grub wasn’t half bad, either.  ;-)

Had to jump start with the coffee buzz.  Moved onto something a wee bit more substantial.

Bran Muffin, Sliced Nana, and my precious oatmeal!  Topped with a truckload of pecans.

Perfect start for the day.

I got ready, packed all my healthy snacks…and headed to meet Maggie.  We were Knoxville bound for Alice In Wonderland, IMAX style!

Chowed down on an apple and some grapes.  Also busted out my new Nalgene with my sticker from Florida!

We made it to the theater with little time to spare!

Going to the movies meant two things today:

A) 3D glasses

B) sneaking in lots of yummy movie treats.

The LAST (sadness) of my dried Kiwi, a new Raw bar (honestly….wasn’t a fan), and two cuties!

Movie was great.  It was so amazing getting that IMAX experience.  I think they could have shown two hours worth of grass growing in 3D and I would have been happy.  The screen was giganourmous.  Oh yes, it’s a word.

We met our friend Jessica in Knoxville, and her boyfriend and amazingly cute son that Maggie and I instantly adopted.  We became Aunt and Uncle for the day.  The fun kind of Aunt and Uncle that loads the kid up on sugar, lets them do as they please, then drops them off with the parents as a crazed wild lunatic.  Parenting.  Isn’t it fun?!

We went to another Hibachi place for dinner (I am two for two on those this weekend!)

Started with a salad with ginger dressing, and the classic soup!

Maggie and I both got the “Hibachi Vegetables” and boy…they didn’t skimp up on the veggies!

Here was my portion, that was large enough to feed the entire TABLE.

Check out all the yummy veggies!

Needless to say I have enough leftovers for several fun meals in the next few days.  ;-)

Also, there was an EARTH FARE in this shopping complex.  You know we had to stop.

A simple grain that has taken the blog world caught my eyes…and was on sale.  I decided it was time to give it a go.

Ch, Ch, Ch, Chia!

What do you bloggers do with Chia?  I know oatmeal, of which I will be trying first thing in the a.m., but what are some other good Chia inspired recipes?!?

Maggie and I continued assuming our role of fun Aunt/Uncle…

And got my favorite dessert ever.  Vegan.  Carrot.  Cake.  Joyness.

Drool-WORTHY!!!!!!!!!!!  Moist and delicious.  How they make it Vegan I will never know, as it always just tastes like the most glorious cake you could ever imagine.

While I need groceries badly, I just picked up some fun items…the bulk of my shopping will be done at MY Earth Feezy tomorrow!

I haven’t saved a zebra yet!!!  I swear these Endangered Species chocolates are more addicting than Beanie Babies, and way more edible.  ;-)  Also got two of my most favorite bars….Raw Choco-Coconut.  Hands down the best bars EVER!  And the Chia.

Ok guys, what do I need to be doing with these?!?!  I know there are tons of ideas out there.  Lets hear em!

Also check back tomorrow when I will announce the winner of the OIKOS Greek Yogurt prize pack!