Well, actually I have 2 surprises!
Yesterday, on my way home from work, I was planning to stop by our mailbox at our apartment complex to check the mail. Lo, and behold, on my way there, I passed Donovan, who rolled down his window and threw a small box at me and said “Here ya go!” . I had no idea what he was doing as they box clearly had his name on it. I was really confused. When I got home, I threw the box back at Donovan and was like, “YOU open it! It has YOUR name on it!” Laughing, he opened the box and pulled out this small wonder:
That’s right! My husband surprised with a Polar FT40 heart rate monitor! (It’s the small things, people). I was so excited to see the box I was practically jumping up and down! I had been talking about wanting a heart rate monitor for about a year now, and I didn’t think anyone was listening. I may have sent Donovan a few links to the Polar FT40 the other day during a G-Chat session, and he listened! š
I’ve never been so excited about a fitness product in my life! My FT40 came with the wristwatch/computer and the strap that goes around your chest. When I first put it on, it was a bit uncomfortable, but Donovan helped me to get the chest strap adjusted properly. We had to wet the strap – which was weird…and cold…but I guess that makes it collect the data better. I wore it around the house for a bit, and eventually forgot I was even wearing the chest strap. I set up all of my information – weight, height, metric system, etc, and got going. I kept laughing because my sitting heart rate was around 80. Typically, when I get on the treadmill at the gym, and I’m just getting warmed up (walking slowly) the treadmill says my heart rate is like 140 or 150! Poor Donovan had to give me a tutorial on what a GOOD heart rate actually was – and what I should be shooting for.
Although I was REALLY sore from spinning on Wednesday, we decided to hit the gym to test out my new gadget.
Holy sweat balls! It was really cool to see my heart rate go up exponentially while doing squats and leg presses. At one point, Iwas at 172! Although that is quite high, my Polar FT40 is still trying to learn me and my heart rate during training/fitness exercises.
When we got home last night (at 8pm) we were STARVING and dinner took forever to make. I’ve been trying to make crockpot meals and easy dishes on nights that I know I’m going to get home later. I thought last night’s dinner would be easy, but I forgot to cook the chicken in the crockpot during the day, so I had to come home and make it — which added 30 minutes of time before we could eat.
My 2nd surprise was how moist I learned how to cook chicken!!!
Whenever I’ve had to make shredded chicken, I always pop it in the crockpot and let it sit all day while I’m at work. Easy Peasy. I tried something new last night instead, and it worked almost better!
I cut up the chicken into bite size pieces, and tossed them in flour, herbs, and salt and pepper. I didn’t coat them heavily in flour because I didn’t want to fry them. I probably could have used almond flour for a healthy alternative – but I ran out.
Then, I heated up the skillet on medium-high heat. Once it was hot, I added a bit of olive oil and a pat (small!) of butter. Let it sizzle and swirl around in the pan. Then, add all the chicken to the pan, and turn the heat down to medium. Let the chicken sit for a minute, and then flip over. You aren’t trying to sear it or brown it, just a minute.
Once all the chicken is flipped over, put the lid on the skillet, and let it sit on low for 10 minutes. Do not open the lid. Do not turn the heat up/down. After the 10 minutes is up, turn the heat completely off, but leave the lid on and let it sit for another 10 minutes. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF.
After the 2nd 10 minutes has passed, VOILA! You have really awesome, tasty chicken!
Since we ate dinner so late night, we didn’t get to bed until 11pm – which is about an hour and a half after I’m usually already in bed. Needless to say, I’m really tired today and I can’t wait for the weekend!
Do any of y’all have a Polar FT40? Any advice or suggestions?
Newlywed Greggs 