Sweets and Sweats

Let's start out with the sweats, shall we? On Friday I told you all about my first two Bikram classes. I loved them and couldn't wait to do more. I made it home in time on Friday afternoon to hit the 4:30pm class, but this one didn't go quite as well. I thought that since I saw so many people wearing just little shorts and sports bras that I should try that, too (instead of capri spandex and a t-shirt or tank top) so that's what I did. I wore a pair of running shorts and a sports bra. This was bad for a couple reasons. First of all, running shorts aren't really ideal for hot yoga. The material isn't stretchy and isn't absorbent - it just got wet and clung to me. Halfway through class I started getting nervous that I would lean too far into a pose and my shorts would split, revealing my super classy pink tie-dye undies from Vicki's. Luckily that didn't happen, but the fear of flashing an entire room of strangers kind of ruined the peaceful mindset I was looking for. The second problem was that with so little clothing, my sweat had nowhere to go but to run down my body and drip even more (instead of being mostly soaked up by my capris and t-shirt). Everything was slippery and I actually felt hotter with less clothing on. On top of that, all I had was a water bottle full of warm water because I didn't have time to fill it with ice before class. This combination of things did not add up to the best experience ever. Shorts and sports bras might work for some people, but I quickly found out that I prefer spandex and shirts. 

After class I made myself a big salad to curb my hunger until Pat came home (incidentally, dinner ended up being a second round of salads). I find that after class I'm craving fresh fruits and veggies more than anything else.

Very green and orange salad!

My salad was a bed of organic baby spinach, some organic baby carrots, avocado, and a segmented orange. After segmenting the orange, I squeezed the "skeleton" (not sure what the stuff that's left over after the pieces have been cut out is called) to have fresh orange juice as my dressing, then dusted it with some ground pepper and sea salt. Delicious!

I didn't do another Bikram class on Saturday because I had my last "long" run before the half marathon next Saturday. It wasn't really very long, I just ran 8 miles because I'm tapering down this week. I wasn't terribly happy with how the run went. The first couple miles felt good, but then I slowed down and my legs felt tight and heavy as lead. I'm thinking that this is because I did three days in a row of Bikram and my body isn't used to the extreme stretching or poses. I finished my 8 miles with an average pace of 9:00 minute miles. Not the pace I'm hoping for at the race next weekend, so we'll see how this week goes. I'm going to do a couple short runs (2-4 miles each) throughout the week and rest on Friday.

The rest of Saturday was spent running a bunch of errands with Pat. I brought my car to the shop to have some last minute check ups done before my road trip to Charlottesville on Wednesday. We bought a new GPS, since Pat's was stolen. I borrowed a couple audio books from the library to listen to on my trip. We did all of the grocery shopping, went out for ice cream cones, and even fit in a couple episodes of Mad Men. On Saturday night we met up with some friends to go bowling. I hadn't been bowling in forever - it was a lot of fun!

On Sunday morning I went to my fourth Bikram class. The alarm went off at 6:45 and I surprised myself by easily rolling out of bed and heading out the door. Class went from 7:30-9:00 and was the best yet. I was wearing the right clothes, had a big bottle of ice water, and enjoyed a pomegranate popsicle on the way home.

The Bikram studio in Nashua has a freezer full of many different flavors of Edy's Fruit Bars which is such a great way to end class. When I got home I made myself some breakfast:

Egg whites with spinach on whole wheat toast (with some melted light Swiss cheese on half), drizzled with Sriracha hot sauce, and a side of cantaloupe.

I've heard from some friends and some blog friends that they're afraid to try Bikram. I was really nervous about going and waited until I had a friend to go with because I was convinced that I'd find a way to embarrass myself the first class. I've only been four times at this point, so I'm still quite a beginner, but I urge anyone who's interested to give it a try (even if you don't have a friend to go with you!). All of the instructors have been really welcoming and put absolutely no pressure on you to do anything aside sit there and breath. I thought I'd be too hot, class was too long, and I'd look stupid next to everyone else. You actually get used to the heat (once you've found the clothes that work for you), class goes by pretty quickly, and you'll see that there are people of every level in the room with you, so it isn't at all intimidating.  I'm so glad I finally went!

Bikram? 

Speaking of lots of baking...I made about 175 cookies, 25 cupcakes, and platters of cheese, crackers and grapes for the get together on Sunday night. I didn't remember to take any pictures of the cookies, aside from this delicious picture of one of the doughs:

Cookie dough with butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips

I made two types of cookies (although basically the same idea): chocolate chip and butterscotch/white chocolate chip. I used the Chewy Chocolate Chip recipe from a few months ago - I wanted to try a new recipe but Pat insisted that I make these (they're his favorite).

I cheated for the cupcakes. Rather than baking from scratch I tried Paula Deen's mix for white cake. I was surprised that it didn't call for a few sticks of butter, and even more surprised when I saw that just 2 tablespoons of oil was needed and she suggested egg whites instead of full eggs. For the frosting I used a can of store-bought vanilla, and jazzed it up with some color and added sugar to make my favorite CRUNCHY SUGAR frosting! Yum! All you need is:

Sugar In The Raw, Frosting, Food Coloring

I learned this from my friend Krissy. All you do is add Sugar In The Raw to frosting and it creates a crunchy, sugary frosting that makes ordinary cupcakes a lot more fun.

This looked more violet than blue in person. Just cover your cupcakes in frosting, and if you want, add some sprinkles on top.

These are delicious!

I wish I'd taken pictures of the full display of cupcakes and cookies, but it was barely set up before dozens of hands began reaching in for the goods.

Its very cold and rainy outside now, and I'm trying to convince myself to get outside for a 4 mile run. Doesn't sound too tempting at all.

What are your favorite kind of cupcakes?

My favorites are carrot cake, coconut, and white cake with crunchy sugar frosting!