Early Bird

I'm trying to transition into being more of an early bird. It's a little bit of a struggle because I really love my sleep, but I find that I feel so good when I've gotten up and spent my morning getting things done rather than sleeping til noon. I don't work until 3:00 today, so I easily could have slept the day away. BUT I didn't! I was up at 8:30 and hit the gym early, even though I'd already done my five days of cardio this week. I just did a little biking - I rode one of the ones that are preset for 24 minutes, and did that twice and then headed home and did my weights and situps. It wasn't a particularly intense workout, but I'm glad that I went because it was better than laying around.

When I got home, I tried my hand at making a fancy bowl of oatmeal a la Kath, my lovely boss and food blogger extraordinaire. Her Tribute to Oatmeal page is OUTRAGEOUS and is full of amazing looking oatmeal creations that she eats almost every morning for breakfast. Mine was pretty successful for my first try! I followed her instructions to make her whipped banana oatmeal - rolled oats, milk, water, banana, and vanilla in a saucepan for a few minutes (Nicole and I still can't figure out where to get chia seeds). I also added pumpkin! I've had two cans in my cabinet for a while, so I put a dollop in.

The oatmeal by itself isn't anything special. It's when you add stuff to it that it really becomes a masterpiece!

To my bowl I added: toasted almonds, Cville Cluster granola, a few more banana slices, semisweet chocolate chips, cashew butter, and a drizzle of honey.

Making the oatmeal was fun! I don't think it will be something I do all the time - something about the texture is kind of weird for me... I get picky about things being too mushy, and oatmeal is definitely mushy. The toppings helped a lot, though, especially the chocolate chips! Overall, it was a fun experiment!