Chicken and wraps

I'm in my rest week for the P90X program. Next week it's back to work and the workouts will change a little which is the premise of the workouts. The workouts change to get you over your plateaus so you can continue to progress.

On to food...

Last week, I made something new and something old. I used to make a baked chicken that was marinated in a mixture of hoisin sauce and a little coconut juice and thought that was sounding good so I made some of that. I saved some of the sauce and cooked it down to make a spread or dipping sauce for some wraps. The wraps consisted of some sweet corn and some chopped up tomatoes and orange bell pepper. I just seasoned and sauteed and then placed on top of some romaine lettuce. Here's what it looked like:



I had one wrap with chicken and one without. Both ways turned out really good.

I'm home this week and probably won't have any more entries this week since this weekend is the 4th July. I've already got some ideas for food for next week so check back then. Have a good and safe 4th.

Later

Irish Stout... Steak!

So I'm back in Annapolis this week. While at home last week I decided I probably wouldn't focus so much on losing weight, but just to get my pant size down. Right now I'm wearing a 34, but would ultimately like to get to a 32. Doesn't seem like much but even when I hit 192 lbs, I was still barely in a 33 pant.

Now to the food

I made an interesting discovery on the Food Network while I was home last week. I saw someone making some steaks marinaded with a little Irish stout so I decided to give that a try this week. I basically bought some beef tenderloins and made a marinade of a bottle of Guinness and some Worcestershire. Be careful not to put too much Worcestershire or the sauce becomes too spicy and overpowers the beer. Set aside a quarter of that to make sauce to top the steak with later. Marinade your steak(s) for about an hour and season just before cooking (Montreal Steak Seasoning is my choice). To cook, I broiled in the oven (the urban man's grill) for 10 min on one side and 8 min on the other for a nice pink middle. While that cooks, put the sauce that you set aside into a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. This breaks down the alcohol in the beer. I pan fried some asparagus with garlic for my side and had a little brown rice as well. Here's what the meal looked like:


Workouts are going good as well. I'm on day 12 of the P90X workouts. Last night was Yoga X and that kicked my butt. I can't even finish that video yet. I got 45 min into it and had to stop. I'm determined to finish it so I'm gonna stick with it. Legs and Back video was this morning and I'll probably shoot some hoops after work today.

Thanks for reading! I'm out...

Traveling Dougie

Being home doesn't change anything

Hi All,

So I got a little break from the travel bug and had a chance to stay home this week. That doesn't change anything though. I've been waking up at 7AM to do my P90X workouts before turning on my computer to start work. Breakfast has consisted of 2 eggs over easy and a piece of toast. I use the spray olive oil to oil up my pan and season my eggs with a little garlic pepper and some Tony Chachere. Lunches has been mostly left overs but one day I had to resort to good ole Ramen noodles.

For dinner last night I took advantage of having the crock pot and tried out a new recipe. Here it is:

4 to 8 pieces of chicken (I used 3 boneless/skinless chicken breasts, 3 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, and also threw in some drumsticks)
3 Granny Smith apples (removed core and cut into small wedges)
1 container of mushrooms (sliced)
1 medium sized yellow onion (halved slices)
Garlic pepper seasoning
Salt if you like
2 zucchinis

I seasoned the chicken with garlic pepper (I'm not big on using a lot of salt but feel free to use if you like). I then layered the ingredients in the crock pot starting with the mushrooms, then onions, then apples. Then just place the chicken on top, close and set to low. Cook for 7 to 9 hours. Basically, the apples break down into a liquid and marinates the other ingredients as they cook.

What's good about using the crock pot is you can put all of your ingredients in before you leave for work in the morning and come home and it's all ready for you. When the chicken was about ready, I cut the zucchini in spears, brushed with olive oil and seasoned with garlic pepper. Just pan sear them but you can throw them on a grill if that works best for you. In addition to the recipe, I threw a salad together for a little appetizer.

Here's what the meal looked like (Salad not pictured)


The chicken turned out very delicious but the real treat was the other ingredients that cooked in the apple juice. I topped off the rice with some of that. Everything cost around $40 and it was enough to feed 4 and still have left overs for lunches for a couple of days.

Tonight I get to be bad and hit up a steak night. At least Erin and I split it so it's only half as bad.

Until next time
Traveling Dougie out...

Helpful tool

There's a cool tool I've found to help keep up with my workouts. I've downloaded an app to my phone call MapMyRun. From my phone, the app is set up to automatically upload a run or a bike ride (if I decide to carry my phone). If I don't take my phone, they have a URL (http://MapMyRun.com) where I can manually enter my workout information. It can auto calculate the calories burned and keep track of your progress in a monthly summary. The site also allows you to import data from devices such as a Garmin GPS, Polar HRM (heart rate monitor), or the Nike +.

It's free to create an account. An awesome feature about MapMyRun is you can select some goals for yourself. Right now I am signed up for "Run 50 Miles in 30 Days". When you enter a workout, it automatically updates the progress of you goal. There are plenty more goals to choose from such as:

Run 100 miles in 30 days
Bike 300 miles in 30 days
Get more sleep in 15 or 30 days
Drink more water in 15 or 30 days
and much more...

You can challenge your friends to do these too and even set up groups to compare yourself to your friends. It's a great way to help get motivated especially if you travel alone.

Yesterday, I ran down the road where I thought there was a park that might have had a running trail or maybe just a sidewalk I could run on. Well, unfortunately it was just a wooded area. I did manage to run just over a mile to get to that location. I mapped it out on Google maps to get the exact mileage and then was able to enter it into my MapMyRun log.

Whether on the road or at home, you can still keep track of progress easily and at virtually no cost. Seeing your progress is a good way to keep you active and motivated.

Thanks for reading!

Traveling Dougie

A little about me...

This week I am in Annapolis, MD. It's a pretty cool little city. The Naval Academy is here and it's really close to Washington DC so there's a lot of good site seeing and eats in the area. Typically my travel schedule can put me in a different city every week but I'm actually suppose to be in and out of here quite a bit over the course of the next few months. So why not start finding the best restaurants and hang outs? Oh I plan to. This area has some really good seafood and I was told to look for something called a half smoked (???). But first things first... what's up with this blog?

Just over 2 years ago I was weighing in at 252 lbs. That is the heaviest I've been my whole life. Doesn't sound like much but when you're 5' 7" it's a lot. I had a fairly active lifestyle and probably went to the gym to lift weights at least 4 times a week but cardio wasn't in my regimen of exercises very often. That year I managed to get down to 192 lbs by the end of the year by simply cutting my portion sizes (in half) and adding running to my schedule and I was able to maintain around 200 lbs for about a year. Here are some before and after pics:





Here's where the traveling comes into play. In September 2008, I started a new job that put me on the road about 3 weeks out of the month. My schedule was to fly out on Monday morning and fly back either Thursday or Friday night. I ate out for every meal from the time I flew out til the time I got back home. The best part of it was every meal is expensed so I got to eat some really good steaks, seafood, BBQ, and what ever else you can imagine. Since I got to eat such good food and so much of it, I was spending less time on my workouts and my cardio sessions were going from 45 min or an hour to just 15 or 20 min. Sometimes even less. Needless to say, my weight jumped up to 225 lbs. Here's what I did about it.

About 8 to 10 weeks ago, I started looking for a hotel with a kitchen if possible. Ideally, I will cook dinner for every night of the week but allow myself to eat out one time a week. If I want to eat out one other time then that's OK too, I just don't let it get out of hand like before. When I cook, I make enough to bring into work for lunch the next day. I actually liked cooking before starting this regimen. If you don't' like to cook or don't know how all I have to say is if you can follow instructions to make Ramen Noodles, you can pick out any recipe off of google and make that too.

This means you have to make a trip to the grocery store too. This week I plan to have salmon some kind of veggies and my alternative food is homemade soup with pork neck bones and veggies. I also got me some fruits and 2 gallons of water for the week. Here are some pics of my dinner tonight.




I bought sushi grade salmon that was probably enough for 2 meals. I also made sauteed onions and mushrooms and spinach with garlic also. I had some non-stick olive oil spray and brown rice from a previous trip (I just saved the non-perishables at the office in a plastic bag) and bought some mangoes, kiwis, and cherries for the week to snack on or to have as my desert. Every once in a while, I'll buy a six pack of beer but will probably only drink 2 or 3 of those during the week. Yes, sorry, I do have to waste the beer sometimes which is why I don't buy it as often.

I also had a chance to go running today. The workout facilities is not good at all at this hotel so I just picked out a road to go run down. If the safety of the neighborhood is in doubt, I'll Google a park that I can go running at or I'll pull out my trusty resistance bands or jump rope. I also have the P90x workouts iso'd to my laptop so I can get in one of those workouts for variety.

All of this seems like a lot of work but I really think it's worth it. Not only do I get to see a bunch of different cities, but I get to eat good and healthy, and more economically during the these hard time. I'll try to make entries when I'm not traveling too. I'm aiming to show that there doesn't have to be a huge difference in your lifestyle on the road than when you're at home. Check back with us later and leave some comments. I'm looking forward to them.

Thanks,
Traveling Dougie