Creativity and Lettuce Tacos, With a Little Bit of Kundalini

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How was your weekend? 

Mine was wonderful, with just the right combination of activity and rest. Friday, fiance and I went on a date. Then, Saturday, we did an insanely hard Spinning class, then I went to Blogger Book Club, and then we had dinner with one of our fave couples at a schwanky restaurant in West Town. Yesterday, we relaxed, had a yummy breakfast at The Breakfast Club, and tried our first session of Kundalini Yoga!

Delicious spread at Blogger Book Club, hosted by Kelsey

Yummy dinner at Leopold in West Town

Swirlymon Coffee at The Breakfast Club

Creativity and Kundalini? 
Yesterday, fiance and I decided to take a yoga class at the gym. Neither of us were feeling up for anything highly aerobic, because we were both absolutely wiped and needed a day to rest. So, we saw something called 'Beginner's Yoga' (we are not beginners, mind you) on the schedule, and decided to give it a try.

Totally not what I was expecting. As it turned out, the instructor taught Kundalini Yoga. I know, you thought the "Kundalini" in the title was an Italian dish, didn't you? I don't blame you. Fun fact, though: I don't like Italian dishes. I legitimately dislike pasta (notice there are like zero pasta recipes on my food page).

Anyway, apparently, Kundalini as a yoga practice is meant to "cultivate the creative spiritual potential of a human to uphold values, speak truth, and focus on the compassion and consciousness needed to serve and heal others" (yes, I'm quoting Wikipedia again). Most of what I got out of that explanation was the part about cultivating the creative spiritual potential.

So, what's the deal with Kundalini Yoga? It was just alright. The instructor had us do small repetitive movements for about 2 minutes each, combining it with breathing techniques. I'll admit that I did feel some heat in my arms, and, at one point, in my abs... but, when I'm spending an hour in a class, I expect a bit more than that.

That said, who knows. Maybe my creativity has been increased in its wake. Who knows what kind of magic I'll whip up today?!

Lettuce Tacos? 

Fiance loves himself some Turkey Tacos. They're lean, they're mean, and they're just darn good. It's been our Sunday Night meal for a while now.

But there's one thing I just don't love about it, which is what I call the vehicle. The taco shell, itself (or it-shell-f? ha). Just as your car is a vehicle to get you to Hobby Lobby (loveeeeee), the taco shell is really just a vehicle to get that turkey and cheese goodness into my oh-so-happy mouth. I could eat more of the turkey and less of the taco shell.

Enter large lettuce heads. Bib lettuce, if you will. I grabbed a head of it for $0.99 at the grocer. Now, I can get my fill on that delicious protein, instead of spending on the carby carb carbs.

It's kind of like if skinny fish tacos and turkey lettuce wraps had a baby. You could also do something similar with Swiss Chard, and it would be a bit more hearty, so you could really load those babies up with meat.

Really, though. Check it out. His and hers tacos?

Questions...

• How was your weekend? I want to know!
• What have you done creatively this week - in the kitchen or elsewhere? 

Bodypump Is A Weird Name for a Workout

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I tried a Bodypump class for the first time yesterday morning. My gym runs a class from 6-7am, meaning I had to wake up at 5:30. So painful. Thank God for my alarm, which says "If Katniss can win the Hunger Games, you can get your ass to the gym this morning." Can't let down Katniss, can I?

For those of you who aren't familiar with Bodypump, it's a weight-based fitness class that lasts 60 minutes. It's made up of multiple tracks/songs, each of which focuses on one or two muscle groups.

Equipment: You use a barbell with various amounts of weight (you can change it up between tracks, as long as you grabbed enough weights to set aside for a quick change). You also use a mat (for crunches/pushups), free weights (optional), and an aerobics step (used for lunges and also for lying down during a few arm exercises).

Structure: The class had a warm up, then squats (quads and glutes), chest, back, triceps, biceps, lunges, shoulders, and abs.

At first, I wasn't sure about the class. I didn't sweat enough to merit washing my hair, which would generally make me feel as though the workout was a failure. Yet, I definitely felt the burn, and now, a few hours after the class, I can tell that my muscles definitely got a good workout.

I've heard that it can take a few times to truly reap the rewards of Bodypump, because everything is weights based, and it can take you a few tries to get the correct weights dialed in for yourself. You typically commit to a certain amount of weight on your bar before each track, so you're stuck with it for the next 3-5 minutes. I tended to go a bit light, because I feared getting stuck in the middle of a track with weights that were far too heavy. Next time I'll go up a bit.

Overall, I love getting the workout in so early in the morning (though it's painful to get up) and I can definitely tell my body got a good workout. I'm planning to make it a regular Thursday-morning thing... we'll see how that goes.

Have any of you ever tried Bodypump?
Are you trying any new workout classes this week?

Skyfall Advanced Screening

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Bf and I saw an advanced showing of Skyfall last night. I only get today to gloat, so bear with me here. The movie was (obviously) awesome. It's a James Bond movie, after all, so it's bound to be filled with beautiful people, creepy characters, awesome scenery, and badass cars... that end up blown to bits, as usual.

And Adele's amazing voice during the always epic Bond song. It's been stuck in my head all morning.



The invitation was from Cadillac, who hosted the event in order to gain enthusiasm for their new line of cars, Cadillac ATS. They ran the event through Klout, which is how they found me (and a hundred other Chicago area folks who are social media nerds).

The invitation said "Red Carpet," so I was a touch confused, at first. What does "Red Carpet" mean? Do I have to dress up? Not to mention that I squeezed in a Stairmaster Sprint at the gym, so I had ~30 minutes to get ready (including the shower). The invite didn't specify black tie or anything, so I decided to go halfsies. I wore tights, a cute dark gray dress, and a faux fur jacket. Oh, and the greatest Stella and Dot earrings on the face of the earth, courtesy of my mom.

After we got our wristbands, they gave us free tickets for the event and food/drink. Once we got upstairs, there was a "Cocktail Hour." Seriously. Cocktails before a James Bond film. What could possibly be more fitting?

And yes, my friends. There was a red carpet. There weren't any celebrities on it, but it still felt awesome to walk on red. I sneakily snapped a pic for you as proof. :)

What about you guys? Are you planning to see the movie? What are your weekend plans?

Asian Lettuce Wraps [Laura's Review]

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Last night, my friend Laura tried out this recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps.

To make things even healthier, she substituted ground turkey for ground beef!

Here's her twitter review:

And a twitter photo of her meal:

You know how sometimes you make a recipe and it looks absolutely nothing like the picture you found online?  I hate that! This is not one of those recipes!  Laura's looks exactly the way mine did! Seriously, here's a screenshot from my recipe post... Same thing!

   

**If you're looking for the recipe for Asian Lettuce Wraps (P.F. Changs style), click the photo above or click here.

**If anyone else has tried any of the recipes on this site, tweet me @Createliveblog and I'll post your review!