Cherry Kuchen Bars

I make a lot of desserts.  I go through pounds of sugar every month.  I love to bake, but I also love to fit into my jeans.  So here are the ways that I stay healthy and still make all these tasty treats.  Maybe my tips will help you keep off the pounds but let you enjoy time in the kitchen!

- For most of my recipes, I will make half batches.  Having fewer cookies around means fewer to eat.

- I make things that Boyfriend likes to eat.  As long as I leave fruit out of my dessert recipes, he'll happily chow down cookies, brownies and blondies.  He's six foot three inches and burns calories like a hummingbird.

- My coworkers often enjoy treats on Monday morning.  I once put an entire bundt cake in the lunchroom and left for an hour.  When I returned, I found an empty cake plate.

- Boyfriends coworkers also get to have sweets.  Things like cakes, cupcakes and pies stay in New Jersey because they are awkward to carry on the commuter train.  The most positive thing about sending them to work with BF is that I don't eat any extras.  The downside?  I've lost a few containers because someone forgets to bring them home.

- The freezer is full of dessert.  They are there if I really want something sweet.  At the end of the month I go through the freezer and clean out all the excess food.

Of course I also hit the gym several times a week and I'm on my feet a lot during the work day.  I generally eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch during the week (oatmeal for breakfast & a salad for lunch) and I make lean protein and veggies for dinner.  Repetition helps me maintain my healthy weight.

Or you could think about it this way.  The more cupcakes you feed your coworkers, the thinner you look in comparison!  It's a win-win.

Wilde Week #5

1. I think I have a problem - I'm addicted to Fairway markets.  If you aren't from the Tri-state area, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.  If you live near one of these beautiful grocery stores, you totally understand.  If you live in Brooklyn, I feel for you and your Sandy-ravaged store.  (Worry not, it's opening back up on March 1st!).  If I ever need any strange, foreign or fancy ingredient, I know that I can go to Fairway and they will have exactly what I need.

On my most recent trip there I bought the following strange variety of items...
- Blueberry extract
- Biscoff Spread
- Adobo sauce
- Gummy bears
- Meyer lemons
- Tiny, fancy pears
- Dried Kiwi

2. The book of the week - "Matched" by Ally Condie.  Yeah, so I'm a total sucker for teen lit.  Matched is another girl living in a post-apocalyptic world.  Something changes her perspective and all of a sudden the rebellion is on.  Needless to say, I loved it and it only took three days to read.  I'm on to the second book.
3. Sometimes chemistry is super cool.  Take this compound that I made earlier this week.  I walked away from it for twenty minutes and when I came back it had transformed!  It turned from a yellow oil to a sparkly crystal!  Too neat.

4. What color are my nails this week?  They're teal of course!  ("Skinny Jeans" - Sephora by OPI)


I've had this on for a few days, so please ignore the chipped tips!



5. I love this and this and I'm totally doing it later this week.  The question is, weekday hourly photo or weekend hourly photo?  If I do it during the week, you'll get four different views of the commuter trains of NYC!  If I do it on the weekend you'll realize I'm totally boring and like to hang out at home, with a short side trip to Fairway...

6. My mom is super talented and crafty.  Three weeks ago I sent her a pinterest link with a quilt that I thought was pretty.  Within the hour she had asked what size quilt I wanted and had made her way to the quilting store.  Yesterday I received  a giant package in the mail from my mom and it was filled with this amazing quilt!  She's so good to me.

7. Have an iPhone?  Go grocery shopping?  You have to get this app.  Grocery IQ (see it down there, green icon, orange in the Q).  You can use it on all your iDevices and it will sync to each of them!  I like to make my grocery list on the couch with my iPad.  Then I bring my phone with me to the grocery store and shop!  Check check check and I'm done.  I like it that I can add things to my list whenever I think of them.

8. Crossfit continues!  Yesterday they kicked my butt with a power clean warm-up drill.  We went into the core workout in teams of three and performed a round of three exercises.  Pull-ups, power cleans and 200m runs.  As many rounds as your team could do in twenty minutes!  It helped that everyone cheers each other on during the workout, I felt so good after the workout.  Loving it.  Getting buff.

Pear-Raspberry Soda

I'm not quite sure if I still have legs right now.  I mean, I see them and they did carry me home from the gym last night, but they don't really seem to be attached to my body.  I blame Crossfit.

Yep, that's right, I joined the Crossfit cult.  Although I'm not really sure if I'm ready to drink the Kool-aid.  I spent four years participating in and teaching BodyPump  - a totally different type of weight lifting class.  BodyPump is all about repetition until you reach muscle failure.  Crossfit is an Olympic style lifting class that seems to try and make your legs fall off with excessive rowing.

So much rowing!  My poor shins are tired!

There are a few reasons I decided to give Crossfit a try...

1. I have been doing BodyPump for five years and was looking for something a little different.
2. Many of my friends have been going to Crossfit and RAVE about, constantly.
3. The Crossfit gym is literally a block away from my apartment and they have 8pm classes.

Sold.  I'm signed up to go twice a week and I'm ready to burn!  First, I had to spend two weeks taking a Fundamentals class - learning the bar moves so I won't hurt myself during class.  I've been to three classes in the past week and I'm enjoying it, though my legs are wishing we'd cut it with the rowing.

You're wondering what an average Crossfit workout looks like?  Here's what we did yesterday...

Strength work
Bench Press - warm-up & 2x5reps at max weight, 3rd set - go until muscle failure

Conditioning Work
225 jump ropes (or 75 double-unders... which I haven't mastered yet)
50 Ball squats (you first do a squat, then you toss a heavy ball in the air)
25 Knees to elbows (hanging from a pull-up bar, you lift your knees as high as you can!)
Row 1500 meters (So much rowing)

I came home and ate a whole bunch of Girl Scout cookies.  Yum.

I'll keep you posted with the workouts and whether I see myself getting stronger and leaner.  Leaner probably won't happen if I continue finishing my workouts with a row of Peanut Butter patties...