Pilates, Tabatas, and Shrimp - Oh, my!

I forgot my food for today. I spent 15 minutes carefully measuring out my breakfast, lunch, and snacks to the appropriate level of calories, put it in my reusable food bag, threw it in the fridge, and forgot it before walking out the door. Look how cute the bag is (from reuseit.com, see pic at right)! All nicely forgotten and waiting to be used tomorrow, I suppose. Guess that means I can sleep in those 15 minutes tomorrow?

Anyhow, had to make instant oatmeal for brekkie (160 cal) and grab a small turkey & guacamole on wheat from quiznos for lunch (330 cal: no cheese, no sauce, with lettuce/tomatoes/onion/olives/pickles/mustard). I always want more sandwich, but with a nice large cup of mint tea (0 cal), it hits the spot ok. I don't have a snack, which is becoming incresingly painful... I usually have carrots and hummus or a lite string cheese before I hit the gym (right.about.now, actually). Maybe we have some in the fridge here? They go pretty quickly... Dinner will be Salt & Pepper Shrimp, one of my faves (458 cal). We omit the bell peppers and add 10 crimini mushies, 1 large green onion, 1 med tomato, and 1/2 avocado. The avocado is nice to cambat the heat from the jalapeno. I'll put my recipe at the bottom with the link to Eating Well's version too.

Today is Monday, which is Pilates day. It's nice to have a few days off from cardio, but last Monday was Memorial Day, so it has now been a few weeks since I've had Pilates and my abs are a little bit nervous! I'm looking forward to it, though. After, I'm supposed to be meeting up with a fellow gym member to do some tabata intervals. We've been doing them on Thursdays with our F.I.T. class trainer on the Bosu (short for "BOth Sides Up") and could really reap the benefits of having them at least another day a week. Tabata intervals are 20-seconds of all out intensity exercise followed by 10-seconds of rest. Here was what we did:

Interval A: Drop Squats on floor or squats on the Bosu (round side)
Interval B: Push ups on the Bosu (flat side)
Interval C: Bosu shuffle (round side up)
Interval D: Mountain climbers on the Bosu (flat side)
Do these twice, 20 sec each, 10 sec rest in between (2 min)
Rest 1 min
Cardio: Jump Rope
20 second intervals with 10 seconds rest for 2 minutes
Rest 1 minute
Interval E: Bosu Get-ups (round side up)
Interval F: Bosu jumping jacks or burpees (flat side up)
Interval G: ??? I clearly blocked this one out of my memory

Interval H: Reverse lunge on the Bosu (flat side up)

Do these twice, 20 sec each, 10 sec rest in between (2 min total)
Rest 1 min
Cardio: Jump Rope
20 second intervals with 10 seconds rest for 2 minutes
DONE!

We'll probably just do the first 4 minues and stop. Apparently that's all you need, to start out with, to reap the benefits. Go look up Tabata Intervals for more info, they're all the rage right now.

Anyhow, here's the recipe, as promised.

Salt & Pepper Shrimp
Adapted from EatingWell2 servings

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon juice works too)
• 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 3 cups thinly sliced napa cabbage
• 10 crimini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large green onion, sliced
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• ½ teaspoon five-spice powder, (see Note)
• 10 ounces raw shrimp, (21-25 per pound), peeled and deveined
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 jalapeno pepper, half of seeds removed and minced
• ½ ripe avocado, sliced

Preparation
1. Whisk lime juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar in a large bowl until the sugar is dissolved. Add cabbage, mushrooms, onion, and tomato; toss to combine.
2. Combine cornstarch, salt, pepper and five-spice powder in a medium bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring often, until they are pink and curled, 3 to 4 minutes. Add jalapeno and cook until the shrimp are cooked through, about 1 minute more.
4. Serve the slaw topped with the avocado and shrimp.