A different kind of training and my food
The last two days, it’s been all about fitness here on A Lady Goes West. And while that’s a big part of my life, I don’t want to bore those of you who would like to hear about something else. Therefore, other than telling you that I’m teaching a special double-header of classes tonight featuring the new Les Mills group fitness releases (BODYATTACK 87 and BODYPUMP 92), I’m going to jump right into another topic and then share my food. And yes, I will definitely be reviewing both of those new releases on the blog, after I teach them a few times and get some member feedback.
Learning some tips from Apple personal training
So yesterday, I had a personal training session, but it wasn’t the kind of personal training that I’m used to. You see, I had a one-on-one 30-minute appointment with a friendly gal named Katie at the big Apple store in downtown San Francisco. For my birthday in December, Dave bought me a fancy new MacBook Air, and he also bought me a year of Apple lessons. Why would someone need Apple lessons? Well, there are all sorts of interesting things you can learn to do, like make and edit videos, optimize your file storage and create things with all the Mac-based programs, like Keynote, GarageBand, Numbers, iMovie, etc. You can even learn tips on working better on your iPhone.
The second floor of the San Francisco Apple store has tons of large desk spaces set up just for personal and group training sessions. I met my trainer right here at this well-labeled table, with someone else’s session taking place just across from us.
My 30-minute session yesterday was under the category of “Getting Started on your Mac,” and it was a good chance for me to ask basic questions about how to work faster on my Mac. Because I switched from a PC, I definitely had a little learning curve as far as functionality. Yesterday, I picked up some quick keyboard shortcuts, figured out how to do a few cool scrolling tricks on the mouse touch-pad and set up my mailbox a bit better, so I don’t have to rely on web-based Gmail. I brought my computer, and my Apple trainer answered my questions by telling me how to do what I wanted right there on my laptop. She never took the reigns, and talked me through it all, which is a great way to learn. I definitely felt like it was a worthwhile way to spend my time, and I plan to go back. You can choose to go to a personal training session, group training session or open training on a particular topic, so I’m returning on Friday for a 90-minute group training session, in which I’m hoping to learn even more tips on efficiency. Maybe I’ll even get some good video editing tricks at a future session that I can showcase right here on A Lady Goes West? Let’s hope!
I mention this training session, because I had no idea such thing existed, until of course, Dave gifted the one year of lessons to me. I figured someone else out there may benefit from the knowledge too, in case you need a little help. And honestly, I think the price is very reasonable: It is $99 for a year of unlimited access to sessions. To register for a session, you find your Apple store of choice online, and check out the availability for One-to-One. Easy as pie. If you’re in need of some usability assistance on your Apple device, give it a go.
Now it’s time for “What I Ate Wednesday”
Okay guys, because it’s Wednesday, let’s get to the food. Each week, I like to share pictures of every single thing I ate during the course of one day. These recaps are usually from a healthy weekday, and that’s what we’ve got below. After all the fun of the holidays and my last holiday party on Sunday night, I was ready to dive into clean eats on Monday morning. This is everything I ate on Monday, with some mindless chatter to fill in the holes. Please enjoy.
Breakfast at 8:30 a.m.
A hearty helping of vanilla protein overnight oats, topped with a banana and cinnamon. Hot green tea sweetened with stevia and almond milk on the side.
So I have a banana slicer, which I use to cut up my bananas at breakfast (shown above), and sadly, it’s on its last leg. Dave had been insistent that I buy it back when we lived in Orlando around the time we were registering for wedding gifts almost three years ago. I wasn’t sure I needed it, but it is so easy to use and efficient, that I’ve actually run it to the ground. I’ll definitely want to buy a new one once my current one officially gives out.
Lunch at noon
One colorful spread, featuring two fried eggs, a veggie patty, roasted cauliflower and some plain sweet tomatoes. The veggie patties are a new find from Trader Joe’s, and I’m definitely a fan.
On New Year’s Eve this year, Dave and I made a bunch of food at home and stayed in, rather than braving the streets of San Francisco. One of the things I made for us, in addition to some fun nibblies, was roasted cauliflower for dipping. It was so tasty and easy, that I repeated that process this week to have some extra veggies as sides. One big head of cauliflower roasts up to about three small servings. Sooo yummy.
Snack at 4 p.m.
The holiday season may be over, but I still found some Pumpkin Chobani in the store this weekend. That, along with a coconut water and some peanuts from my last flight made up this mid-afternoon snack.
Yes, Dave and I usually fly Southwest so we can rack up loyalty points. And because the friendly flight-attendants walk around more than once on long flights to offer snacks, I always say yes, whether I am hungry or not. I pick up a variety of foods each time, knowing that either Dave or I will want to eat it some time, in the air or on the ground. And this snack above shows that it’s a gift that keeps on giving. I’ve still got one mini bag of roasted peanuts left.
Post-class protein at 6:30 p.m.
A tasty vanilla protein shake post-workout, enjoyed with a side of choreography prep.
So I said I was done talking about fitness, but I have spent a lot of time learning choreography over the past few days, so it’s worth mentioning again in the recap of this day of eating. I get better and quicker at learning whole classes with every release, and since I’ve been teaching BODYPUMP for so many years, I can memorize that program in a flash. However, when I have more than one class to launch at a time, things get a little more complicated. Hopefully tonight will go well.
Dinner at 8:30 p.m.
A grilled turkey burger, sauteed spinach and spaghetti squash with organic tomato basil sauce. And yes, I mixed them all together in each bite.
Reason number 999 that I’m excited to be moving into a bigger apartment at the end of the month? Cooking food. See that turkey burger up there? It smoked up our entire place, even with all the windows open. Dave was working at a basketball game, so I was all by myself trying to fan the scented air out of the little window cracks before our smoke alarm went off. So fun. Our place still smells like turkey burgers. And although I like to eat them, I don’t like to smell them a day later.
And with that, let’s close this out. As you can see, I’m actively trying to add a little variety into my meals this week, and this day of eating sure had some new items and a lot of color. Eat the rainbow, my friends.
One month of unlimited online workouts giveaway
In case you missed it, there’s still time to enter to win a free month of unlimited online workouts via the Gigabody fitness library, which I reviewed yesterday. The giveaway ends Saturday night, so act now.
I hope you guys have a great Wednesday. Don’t get into too much trouble, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow.
More pictures of food
Each week, “What I Ate Wednesday” is hosted by Peas and Crayons for bloggers to showcase their eats to the world. If you want to see more food recaps, check out some of my posts from the past here:
- A full day of eating in pictures
- Another full day of my eats and drinks
- Real food isn’t always pretty
- Do you have a balanced dining out strategy?
- What I ate and drank all day
- Three meals, two snacks and a shake
- Food trucks and rest-day eating
- Plenty of protein at every meal
- Colorful fuel for a day of training
- Long days of training require a lot of food
- Making do on “What I Ate Wednesday”
- Healthy foods for a rest day
- Who doesn’t like pictures of food?
- A look at a full day of eating in pictures
- Snapshots from a day of delicious meals
- Pictures of food, because you like them
- Food pictures and the juice cleanse that wasn’t
- A look at what I really eat in a day
- What I ate in the Sunshine State
- My weekend eats and a little narrative
- Stories about food and yesterday’s meals
- A day of eating and some commentary
- Do you want to know what I ate yesterday?
- Healthy challenges and foods from my day
- Eating, napping and eating again
- Filling up on healthy food before the holiday
- A perfect birthday at home and my eats
- Top blog posts, reader stats and my food
Questions of the day
What’s the best thing you’ve eaten lately? Are you a Mac or PC user? Do you have any cool Mac shortcuts to share with me? What’s your favorite kitchen tool?
I always fly Southwest too! And I never say no to the snacks. I have two bags of peanuts and my cabinet now for a snack. I love how nice the flight attendants are. On my last flight it was really turbulent and the flight attendant asked if I wanted a glass of wine – I don’t love flying. I kindly said no but thought it was so nice of them to offer. ha
Hi Sara! Yes, they are usually pretty friendly on Southwest, which is good. But the boarding process? Not really a fan of that!
I switched to a MAC last year and was surprised by the learning curve. iPhones and iPads are pretty intuitive but the computer is a whole new world. It took me some time to get used to it but now I love mine. I’ve thought about doing the classes & had no idea about the one on one. I need help organized my zillions of pictures from blogging!
Hi Megan, I got some help with file organization yesterday specifically for my pictures actually. 🙂
Good to know! I will have to check this out.
I hoping to get a mac soon….and will def look into some “personal training”- I’m not very intuitive with technology!
Hi Marielle! I hope you get a new computer soon. And we all need a little help with technology some times. 🙂
A year of mac classes is SUCH a good gift – props to your hubby on thinking of that one. I’ve been a Macbook user for the past 7 years but I know there are so many random little things I don’t know about and would love to take some classes!
Hi Christa! Yes, you should definitely think about giving the classes a try to see what shortcuts you can learn. Did you know you can do different things on the mousepad of a laptop with 3 or 4 fingers? So cool!
A banana slicer?! I totally want one! And I found a recipe for buffalo roasted cauliflower and it was out of this world! Oh, we are flying Southwest to Florida in March and I agree they are one of the better airlines!
Make sure you take all the snacks you can on your flight. And check in EXACTLY 24 hours before your flight to get a good boarding group. 🙂
I am sure those lessons will be very helpful for maximizing your new computer. I agree that it’s a steal for $99 if you really use the service. Yay for a bigger apartment! Hope you guys are doing well with you house hunt.
We are! Found a new place for the end of the month. Thanks, Lauren:)
I think those apple lessons are a great idea. I was going to try them out but never got around to it. I’ve had a Mac for years now so I’ve got down the basics but I’m certain there’s a lot of functions I don’t know about that could make my life easier.
Hi Jen! Definitely is always more to learn, like you can do different things with three or four fingers on the mousepad. So cool. Happy Wednesday!! 🙂
I absolutely love my MacBook Air! I also have a iMac desktop at home, so I was pretty used to all of the features. One, however, I never knew until recently was the freaking keyboard scrolling trick! For YEARS I was having to re-size windows just to scroll. Idiot move for sure. 😉 Your turkey burger incident sounds like something I would definitely do. Have fun teaching the new classes!
Hi Heather! Yes, I learned the three-finger and four-finger scrolling functions yesterday, which are so cool. Loving my MacBook Air so far! But I have also been using a big HP desktop at home in between. I go back and forth. 🙂
The chile lime chicken burgers at Trader Joes are also fantastic! The Apple lessons are a great idea. I really want a Mac Book Pro, so I will need to sign up for lessons!
Hi Leslie! Chili lime chicken? mmmmm. Are they spicy? I don’t do well with spice.
I don’t think they are spicy at all, but they are super flavorful!
I just got a MacBook Pro (on Craigslist because I’m cheap), and I LOVE it, but there’s so much to learn! I’m pretty tech savvy, but this thing is making me feel like my grandmother trying to learn to use an iPhone. Except I don’t have grandkids I can call to ask for help. Please share whatever you can from these lessons on shortcuts, etc.!
Also, I totally hoard airplane snacks. And tea bags. And instant coffee packets from hotel rooms. (Did I mention I’m cheap? Haha)
Hi Jess, I’m a cheap hoarder too! hahaha Love it!! 🙂 And I will share some tips for sure! Thanks for stopping by:)
I love your food pictures! They are making me so hungry!!
Hi Chelsi! Well thanks! They make me hungry too, good thing it’s almost lunch time here in SF! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
I’m so excited to see other fitness teaching health nuts out there! This food looks delicious, I wish we could get spaghetti squash where I’m living right now. I’ve always wanted to try it and when we moved abroad it didn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t be able to find it, and now I can’t
Hi Ashley! Thanks for stopping by. Oh no, that’s so sad. I eat spaghetti squash at least a couple of times a week because it is so easy. I’ve also been enjoying brown-rice pasta. Hope you have a great WIAW! 🙂
I’m so excited for you to be moving into a bigger place! One that doesn’t smell like turkey burgers. 🙂
I tried the new Body Attack on Monday and it was really fun! And hard! Do you know if the shorter time will be that way in all of the future releases?
I’m hoping that traffic cooperates today and I can make it to Pump to try the new release too!
Hi Sarah! Glad you tried the new ATTACK. So this release is not any shorter, but there is an option for instructors to teach a shorter track 5, which is what yours may have done. They combined two tracks (upper and lower body) in this release, but it’s not any shorter if they do the full version. I’m teaching the full tonight, which has a 7-minute track 5 and 6-minute track 10, which are both long to make up for the one missing track. Does that make sense?
It does make sense! Actually now that you explain it, I think it was the same amount of time, it just felt shorter because there were less tracks. I like it though!
I tried the new Pump last night and I wasn’t that crazy about it. There were a few tracks that were fun (I liked the lunge track) but I felt like overall it left something to be desired.
What happened with your turkey burger is exactly why I can never bring myself to cook fish in the house. The SMELL!!!! Such a shame, because I love fish.
I know, it’s so sad, and we don’t cook fish because of it either! Ohhh to live in a larger place one day! 🙂 Hope you’re having a good week, Kim. 🙂
I had no idea you could schedule a training session with computer guys! That’s brilliant…I totally need to do that
The Doctor Diva
Hi Carly! The wonders of Apple and Mac! Yes, ma’am. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great Wednesday:)
I am still buying that pumpkin spice Chobani as well. I am obsessed with it and I love the fact that it is low in sugar. Jealous of your gorgeous new laptop 😉
Hi Alice! Thanks! I was in dire need of the new laptop hehehe. And I love everything pumpkin, as well as anything Chobani. Easy to please, I guess. Have a great Wednesday!
Seeing your overnight oats made me remember to start making them more often! I always love when I wake up in the morning and have breakfast already made, it’s just the doing it the night before I have to get myself to do!
Hi Brie! I always have overnight oats for that reason. I’m way too hungry in the morning to prepare something. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’re having a great week! 🙂
I had no idea Apple offered lessons. I have tried to use my brothers mac a few times and I get so annoyed. Apple’s are so much better for blogging and editing but I am such a PC girl I never thought I could make the switch but if I can take classes I might be more open to it.
Hi Mattie, Yes, it’s not an easy switch, because so many things are different on the Mac. But I’m sooo in love with my new Mac that it’s worth the learning curve. Hope you had a good evening!! 🙂
I really need to look out for those Apple classes- I’m almost certain that I don’t use my Mac or iPhone to their full potential! Your eats look delish, Ashley- especially dinner! Best thing I’ve eaten recently was a grilled cheese in the airport- so simple yet hit the spot…it’s been far too long since I had one :)!
Hi Khushboo! Thanks so much for stopping by. You know, I haven’t had a grilled cheese in far too long. That’s a classic. I used to rely on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which is another simple and solid choice. Hope you have a good night! 🙂
I’m totally with ya on mixing all the foods into one bite 😉 I do that all the time! That turkey burger looks delicious! And your breakfast is so creative — I need to get out of my egg rut!
Hi Lauren! Food lovers know how to make a good bite. I like to make “perfect bites” in fact. heheh! Happy Wednesday:)
Eeep! I’m so excited for you! I’m a Mac user – I’ve never taken one of those training sessions, but I’ve always wanted to learn what kind of tips and tricks they could teach me. Hmmm – one of my most-used mac shortcuts is: command + control + shift + 4 to take a screenshot of whatever I highlight and copy it to my clipboard. What cool tricks did you learn?!
Oh neat, I’ll use that one. I learned about the three-fingers on the mousepad scroll to the right and the four-fingers on the mousepad scroll up to toggle between screens. Thanks, Sarah!
Wow, I never knew apple had these classes. I’ve had a macbook for 4 years now and still don’t know how to use it. When I first got it, I had to use my phone to google how to shut it down lol!
Roasted cauliflower is my all time favourite vegetable. The only downside is how small it gets once roasted!
Hi Arman, I know! I’d like to cook some vegetable that gets bigger when you serve it. Know of any?? 🙂 Size matters with food to me!
I need to get to one of those Apple classes. I know there is so much more that I could be doing with my MacBook Air too, I just haven’t had the chance!
Hi Sue, I wouldn’t have either if my hubby hadn’t purchased them. I like to figure things out for myself, which isn’t always the best option eheheh! I’m sure you are doing fine on yours though.
Ahhh I totally missed the post where you said you were moving?? Where are you moving to? congrats!!!
Hi Cassie! Ohhh you know, just a bit outside the City. More details coming soon:)
Your dinner looks so good! I love mixing all my food together.
I am so impressed that you can memorize the choreography for so many different releases and classes. I would get so confused since many of the tracks are so similar!
Hi Lisa, It has taken a long time to be able to memorize quickly. You get better with every release. And I’m so glad you are a food mixer. I like to make the perfect bite with all of my foods together. 🙂 Happy Thursday!
you make healthy eating look good! I’ve been wanting to try making noodles out of healthier ingredients!
Hi Annie! Oh thanks! I make spaghetti squash noodles and sometimes zucchini noodles using a veggie spiralizer. It’s so easy. Hubby doesn’t like them though, so he still gets regular pasta. 🙂 You should give it a try, I have a good spiralizer rec. if you need it.