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Running, Lifting, Stir Frying

Perks of Fall - Running at Lunch
The temperatures really dropped last night. It was 51 degrees when I headed into work this morning. I am so not happy to have to wear sleeved shirts I must add. I will try to find the positives out of cooler weather though. One is being able to run at lunch again without dying of a heat stroke.

So, that leads me to my first workout of the day - a lunchtime run with Jason. We managed to squeeze in 3.8 miles in 31 minutes. Not too shabby. It was gorgeous out, but the breeze was strong at times. It felt good, but not when we were running into it of course.

I will say that I am sad about the fall foliage this year. Because the summer was so hot and so dry, the leaves are mostly just dying and falling to the ground. We sometimes have just spectacular colors, but not this year.

After work, I hit the weights. I was itching to get biceps and abs done. I love working biceps. I decided to go with straight sets of 3x8 trying to increase the weight if possible.

Alternating biceps curls

Hammer curls

Preacher curls (hate hate hate)

Biceps curls to failure - 20 curls lowered weight approximately 40%

Hammer curls to failure - 20 curls lowered weight approximately 30%

I did ab work from Cathe's Cardio and Weights DVD. It's always a good, solid ab workout. Do you ever get sort of itchy to do weights - just feel your muscles begging for it?

Stir-Fry Thursday
So, yesterday evening while I was in the kitchen making huge messes (aka new recipes), I also went ahead and baked off some tofu for a quick meal for tonight. I had rice in the freezer along with lots of veggies (both frozen and fresh) so I thought "stir fry." I decided to stick with the honey idea for the tofu making a Sweet Spicy Sesame Marinade.

Sweet Spicy Sesame Tofu
Ingredients:
1 package tofu, pressed, then cubed
Low-sodium soy sauce (approximately 1/3 cup)
1 tbsp tahini
1/3 cup honey or agave (I did a combination and amount is approximate)
Hefty squirt of sriracha chili sauce
Splash of rice wine vinegar

Directions:
Whisk all ingredients together then add in tofu and toss until coated. Let marinate.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place tofu on a prepared baking sheet and bake approximately 50-60 minutes until browned and firm flipping at least once. Bake longer if you like crispier.

This came in hand for this evening. We had an event to go to at the Arts Center, which meant we'd be home a little later than usual. So, dinner needed to be something fast. This definitely fit the bill. For the stir fry part, I used a "California" frozen veggie mix, peas, fresh broccoli, purple cabbage, arame, cashews, and baby corn and of course the tofu.
 
 
Happy Thursday friends!

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