Trying new things

One of the hardest things (for me) about working in the fitness world is still making time to get your own workouts in.  Thankfully I'm not a trainer so I don't have to deal with people coming up and asking me questions mid-workout.  I do however have to balance my class schedule with my workout schedule.  I'm currently teaching about five classes a week, which makes it a bit challenging.


Given that I'm still out of work and have lots of time on my hands, I'm trying to branch out and take new classes when I can.  Last week was the yoga fiasco.  Today I went for Pilates.  It was not a fiasco, so that's good.  I haven't taken Pilates in at least three years (probably significantly more), so it was rather foreign, but it was good, and I will go back.  Mission accomplished for today.


I know people get nervous about going to new classes or trying new things.  I'm here to say that nerves are OK, but don't let it prevent you from trying something.  Everyone is new at some point.  Show up a few minutes early, tell the instructor you're new.  They'll appreciate that and ideally be extra willing to help you get settled.


I still tell the story about when I first started spinning.  My mother had been spinning for some time and had lost a good amount of weight and was loving her spin classes.  She encouraged me to try it, but I hesitated, because I was scared.  Sometime later I decided it was time to take my first spin class, so I put myself on a training regimen.  Yes, you read correctly, I trained for spin.  Nothing too crazy, but I made myself ride the stationary bike in the gym progressively until I reached 45 minutes, then I felt ready.


I called the gym the day before to sign up for the class.  I told them I wanted to sign up for the 6:30 class, gave my name, and hung up.  No turning back.  The next day, as I was leaving work and heading to class I realized that I didn't specify AM or PM.  Minor freak out ensued.  I called the gym and sure enough I was on the morning list, but she assured me that there was room in the PM class.  So I went for it.  I showed up about 15 minutes early (which I still do to this day), introduced myself to the instructor and told him I was new.  He showed me the ropes and it was great.  At the end of the class he congratulated me in front of everyone and they clapped.  I was hooked.


Now on a side note, one of my pet peeves is when new students come to my class on time, not early.  Because I showed up 15 minutes early the instructor had plenty of time to explain things to me.  When you show up right at the start of the class, I can't put the class on hold to teach you.  So while I do get it done, it's not ideal, so any future spinners reading this, please try to show up early for your first class, your instructor will really appreciate it.  Unless he/she isn't on time...but that's a whole other topic....

MIA Monday

Sorry for the lack of a post today.  Looong day.  I've now been up for 15 hours.  Ouch.

Weekend was a blast, lots of pool time and fun times with friends. xoxo

Monday as of late is a 6am and 9:30a spin day.  6a was fine.  9:30 I was dragging.  Energy was low and was just feeling blah.  I apologized to the class for my lack of energy and they said they didn't notice.  Phew.  Came home and ate, and rested, and ate, and rested.  Exciting day.

I feel like I might be fighting a cold and for me the best way to win that fight is to get plenty of sleep.  So I gave myself permission to just laze around and relax.  Mission accomplished.  Still not feeling 100% but hopefully on the mend.

Will try to put up a useful post tomorrow.  Today, case of the Mondays.

Happy Friday! (and a spin ride)

HAPPY FRIDAY!  So glad the weekend is almost here.  I have two friends coming in to town tomorrow for a little pool party.  Should be great!

On the To Do list for today...
Clean!
Supermarket (maybe)
Gym

The emphasis is on the cleaning.  I am pretty much the farthest thing from Mr. Clean that you'll ever meet.  An ex of mine said that the cleaning gene is something you either have or you don't...let's just say I DON'T.  When this same ex moved in to his own place (ages ago) he asked me what kind of vacuum he should get and I told him I didn't understand why he even needed a vacuum.  Oops!  Just so you know, I do now own a vacuum and have for years.

Any tricks for making cleaning more bearable?  I'm thinking music and maybe open windows (although it's probably hot as hell here).

As promised, here's a better late than never Spin ride that I was rocking last week.  It has some more recent music so I'm not sure how it will age, but we'll see.

Ride Like the Wind - Remix - 4:00 (not sure of artist)
Warm up

Dynamite - Taio Cruz - 3:23
Seated climb, starting out moderate, let's get the party started.  Add resistance every minute or so.

Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran - 3:26
Let's take that same hill out of the saddle and get it heavy.

Na de Na - Angel y Kriz - 3:22
Back to the saddle, back off half of the resistance, settling somewhere moderate and get ready for jumps.  6 counts and then 4 counts for the last minute.

If I Can't Have You - Kelly Clarkson - 3:40
Flat road, recover and then do sprints on the chorus.

Nothing on You - B.O.B. - 3:41
Seated climb, going back up.

Holiday - Green Day - 3:53
Standing climb, getting heavy.  Picking up the pace on the chorus.

Beds Are Burning - Novaspace - 3:23
Nice fast remix.  Once again, back the resistance down to moderate and jump. 

Love Sex Magic - Justin Timberlake and Cierra - 3:42
Flat road, recover.  If/when riders are ready, they can pick up their pace.  As the song nears the end, let's start to add resistance a little at a time to prepare for our next hill.

Runaway - Bon Jovi - 3:53
Run/climb combo.  Start out in a run (standing 2), transition between there and standing 3.  Adding resistance after the completion of a set.

Shut Up and Drive - Rihanna - 3:33
Sprints!  On the chorus, there are 3 of them, each about 30 seconds.
First sprint is on the same hill we just came off of, second sprint at half resistance, third is on the flat.  So each time those legs are able to move faster.

Ready Steady Go - Paul Oakenfeld (I think) - 4:15
This is my KILLER song.  Take it out to a climb in 3, starting moderate.  Every time they say "ready steady go" I instruct the class to pick up their pace (as close to a sprint as possible) and do a 10 second breakaway.  I count and tell them when to slow down.  There are a couple of natural breaks in the song during which I prompt the class to add resistance.  By the end of this song we are spent and out of breath but feeling great!

Cool down!! (not sure of my music)

Please do me a favor and have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!  Thanks :)

Thursday (for lack of a better title)

Happy Thursday (almost Friday, really)!

Somehow I managed to literally kick my own a$$ in my classes on Wednesday.  I teach two classes every Wednesday, sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not.  Apparently yesterday was one of the tougher days.  So this AM, I was sore.  Plus during my Boxing class on Tuesday I managed to strain my lower back.  I blame the kettlebells. Side note:  If you're new to them, please ask for help as they can be really dangerous to the back.

So I figured I'd take it easy today and do Yoga.  Great plan.

Showed up at one of the gyms for an 11am class.  I was there by 10:45 and in the studio about 10:55.  No instructor to be found.  Others in the class told me she's always late.  She rolled in about 11:20 complaining of traffic.  No offense lady, but that's bullsh*t, especially if it happens EVERY week.  Class was kind of lousy.  My opinion?  She needs to be fired.  Lateness is not acceptable.  There are plenty of new/enthusiastic yoga instructors there looking for classes (I don't know this for a fact but I'm guessing).

I'm not a huge yoga fan as I'm more of a go-go-go type person (hence spin), but I recognize that it's great to add in to the mix to improve flexibility and strength in a different way.  So much for the Thursday class, guess I'll have to find another to try.

Looking forward to giving Pilates another whirl as well.  A good friend (hi Jacky!) recently got certified and I can't wait until she has a class.

In summary, I'm a cardio-a-holic and like working hard, but do feel that some yoga/pilates in the mix is a great thing!

Confession:  I can't stand the end of a Yoga class when you just lie there, drives me nuts!  Am I alone here?

nada

I can't believe that the oreo's did such a number on me.  But, lesson learned, so I guess it's OK.  My stomach was still feeling off last night after the gym.

My motivation was seriously lacking yesterday.  I didn't even get dressed until around 5:30p when I put my gym clothes on.  I thought class was at 6:30.  Oops, it was at 7, so I had an extra 30 minutes.  Hopped on the treadmill for a run and after a mile had nearly debilitating stomach cramps (damn oreos!).

Stomach was better during Boxing class but still left me feeling queasy at times.  WTF Nabisco!?!?!?

Taught this AM and used my latest 80s ride, which I'll post one of these days.  I know I owe you guys a spin ride so I'll put one up later today.  Speaking of which, these rides don't have to be used for Spin only, you can totally use them for a run or just as ideas for new songs.

Not much else going on here, going to try to stay motivated as my Wednesday have me driving about 30 miles later tonight to teach a second class.

Spin on!

Confession

I was an emotional eater yesterday.

For dinner I ate Kraft Organic Macaroni and Cheese and for dessert I ate a whole sleeve of Double Stuff Oreos.  Bad Jess!

Needless to say, I'm paying the price today.  My poor belly!

Bodies...

Hello again!

I just wanted to post about how every person's body is different; shape, size, density, composition.

Where did this come from you ask.  SHAPE magazine.

Like many health/fitness magazines, SHAPE tracks people in their weight loss/exercise journeys.  SHAPE was tracking one particular woman, who's recent stats I found intriguing.

These people share their weight, height, age, body fat percentage, and VO2 max.

The most recent woman's stats are as follows:
Height: 5'7
Weight: 134
Body Fat: 25.5%

The reason why this caught my attention is because I'm SHORTER than her and considerably HEAVIER than her, yet my body fat is lower.  Does this make any sense?

The reason it does make sense is because we are all different and no two bodies are exactly alike.  This example explains why healthy/fitness professionals are starting to shy away from the Body Mass Index (BMI) method of determining a healthy weight.

Embrace your body and the fact that there are plenty of people out there who want to embrace it too!  :)

Bikram Spin

Good morning all!

Unfortunately I've got a lot of crap to deal with right now, so I'm going to go with the mantra "fake it until you make it" and just pretend that all is peachy keen. (deep breath)

My home gym is currently doing some renovations.  They were refinishing the studio floors and the building we're in was re-doing the roof, so lots of construction going on.

I arrive for class on Saturday only to find that in all the work, they've somehow knocked out the AC in the spin studio.  Lovely.  It's ten minutes before class and I have one student.  Okay.  Well, class ended up being almost full...in a room with no AC.  I had a fan blowing out at the class, but as the instructor I was behind the fan, thus getting NO air.  But it's OK, I'll gladly give the air to the class and take one for the team.

So if you think spin makes you sweat under normal conditions, imagine this...no AC.  Holy cow!

I joked with them that it was bikram spin and we should focus on all the toxins we're getting out.

I must say the class was awesome and they still worked just as hard.  I gave them permission to get up and walk out of the class room for air, go to the water fountain, come stand by the fan, you name it, they could do it, but almost every one of them pushed through it.  And I'm happy to say no one fainted post-class.

So bikram spin, perhaps I'm on to something?

At Panera now between classes (6a, then 9:30a), will try to post again later, off to teach!

Friday!!

I'm kind of all over the place today.

First of all, I'm hungry.  I just looked at Eat This Not That and they did a whole thing on sushi, so after looking at the nice pictures of the featured rolls, I could totally go for some sushi.  Yum! 
The highlights of the article were pretty obvious (in my mind).  Stay away from the spicy rolls (spicy=mayo+chili sauce), fried rolls, and eel rolls (while a great source of Omega 3's, eel is usually covered in sugary sweet BBQ sauce).
Sushi....yummmmm

Anyway...

Did another leg workout last night after teaching a spin class.  This time I added in a few jumping squats and three wall sits (30s each).  I did about 12 reps of every exercise and kept going with little to no breaks.  I was a sweaty mess and I loved it.  Not feeling overly sore today, but maybe there's a one day delay, we shall see.

On the wrist front...
I've been removing the brace when I teach because it gets SWEATY!
I'm supposed to have another 5/6 days with it, but honestly, I'm not feeling much of an improvement so I've taken the liberty of removing it at times.  Sadly I really don't have the funds right now to keep going back to the doctor, so I may wait it out, in the mean time doing some wrist strengthening exercises with light weight to see if maybe it's just weak.

Fitness related but totally mindless...have you seen Jackie Warner lately?
If you're not sure who she is, she's the trainer behind the show Workout on Bravo.  She's in the July issue of Fitness and personally, I think she's had some work done.  And by some, I mean a lot.  She looks really different.
Is it just me?

Have a fab weekend!  I'll post a spin ride in the next few days.

Overnight Oats?

Happy Thursday!

I'm currently on hold with the CT department of labor.  They said the expected wait time was 43 minutes.  Given how hard it is to get through to them, I pretty much have to suck it up and wait.  So here I sit.  It's been 24 minutes.  Ugh.

Obviously some things are changing, hence me calling the DOL.  More to come on that at another time.

To the subject at hand....Overnight Oats

I've read about overnight on a few blogs but wasn't really sure what they were.  (Although I could make an educated guess based upon the name.)

I'm a HUGE fan of oatmeal, so I was intrigued.

I finally looked it up and learned that you essentially take your oats and add your liquids (milk/yogurt, etc.), then cover it and leave it in the fridge overnight.  Then when you wake up in the morning it is supposedly creamy and delicious.

I'm going to do a bit more research on the ingredients and then give this a try, I'll let you know how it goes.

Given that I've only recently started consuming milk, I'm not sure about making a batch using so much milk, but we'll see, maybe almond milk is an option too.

If you've ever made overnight oats, drop me a comment and let me know how you did it and what you thought.

NYY

I know i've aleady posted for the day, but it's been a rough week for Yankees fans so I had to mention it.

Within the past few days, the Yankees organization has lost two people who are very near and dear to their hearts.  First it was Bob Sheppard (public announcer) on Sunday and now it's George Steinbrenner (owner).  My thoughts are with the families of both men and the Yankees.

Go Yanks!

Bites?

Do you get bug bites?  Tons?  Few?  None?

Unfortunately I get TONS, and I mean tons.  I was outside for a BBQ on July 5th and ended up with at least 15.  Gross...and annoying...and ITCHY!

Apparently I'm tasty.

I had heard that ingesting more vitamin B1 might make you less appealing to mosquitoes so I decided to look in to this.  While it seems like the perfect simple solution, unfortunately there is no concrete evidence backing this allegation.  However, it has also been said that increasing your B1 might make bites less itchy, which would also help for me.

That said, I'm going to check my multivitamin for it's B1 content and then consider taking an additional supplement, since wearing long sleeves and pants isn't always an option in July/August.

Any tips?

Jessica's A$$ Kicking Workout (literally)

Happy Monday!  Hope you all had wonderful weekends.  Mine was good, laid back.  Spent some time with my parents as they're leaving for vacation on Wednesday (to China!) and so I won't see them for a while.

Still getting by with the wrist brace.  It's annoying and I actually have had it off for the past few hours and think my wrist might feel better.  Odd. 

Since I'm still figuring things out on the workout front I decided last Thursday to dedicate my workout to legs.  No issues there, right?

After putzing around the gym and talking to friends for (gasp!) 30 minutes, I finally got started.  I don't have the exact breakdown of what I did but I'll give you an outline.  Let me just say that I was still considerably sore on Sunday.  Yes, SUNDAY.

Squats with body bar
Lunges with body bar
step up with overhead press
Squats on bosu ball
Side lunges
Plie squats
Calf raises
Lunges on bosu ball
Alternating lunges
One legged squats (not the best exercise to do last)

I moved quickly from one exercise to the next, then finished up with sets on the adductor/abductor and the glutes kick-back machine.

Next time I'll pay more attention to what I did and will gladly share it here.

Look out Beyonce and JLo is all I have to say!  :)

Pot Luck Friday

I'm going to a ladies only potluck dinner tonight, so I had to get the culinary juices flowing.  I normally tend towards desserts for these sort of things, but the hostess said "no desserts", so out of my comfort zone I went.

I figured this was a great chance to try out a recipe as well as go with a standby to play it safe.

Of course I made the spinach balls (here's the recipe).  For such a simple recipe, it's amazing that they're such a crowd pleaser.  I know of at least four people who now make them as their go to for entertaining.

So for my other recipe, I decided to make Beet Orzo with Goat Cheese.  I gave this recipe to my parents several years ago.  My father likes beets, my mother does not.  I had heard that this recipe was a great way to "sneak" beets in to food.  They made it, but since my dad doesn't really like cheese, they omitted the goat cheese.  That said, I'd been wanting to try it with the cheese for sometime.  So today was the day.

First of all, the beets make it gorgeous.  I took a few pictures, but they don't really do it justice.

The top picture is as I was adding the goat cheese.  The bottom picture is once everything is mixed together.  I of course tasted it and was very happy with the outcome.  The recipe calls for it to be served hot, but I may serve it warm/cool.

If you're interested in giving it a try, here's the recipe.

Beet Orzo with Goat Cheese
1 large or 2 medium beets, peeled and trimmed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, diced
1 cup orzo pasta
2 cups chicken broth
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons red wine or sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 oz goat cheese

Grate beets on the large holes of a box grater.
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat.  Add the onion and cook until it softens, about 3 minutes.  Add the orzo and toast, stirring constantly, until golden brown.
Add the broth, beets, two generous pinches of salt and a few grounds of pepper to the pan.  Stir and bring the broth to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is absorbed at the beets and orzo are cooked, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the vinegar and butter.  Spoon in to serving bowls and crumble a little goat cheese over each portion.

Jessica's modifications...
Oops, made a few mistakes when making the recipe, but since it came out OK I'm going to say it was for the best.
I used one whole medium onion (instead of 1/2 small).
I also used 2 tablespoons of vinegar (instead of teaspoons).
I also chose to mix the goat cheese in to the entire mixture (instead of crumbling it over individual servings).  I tasted it with and without and thought with was better.
As I mentioned, I may serve it warm or cool, since it's for a pot luck and I'm not sure how easy it will be to reheat it.

Enjoy!

I should probably be on Top Chef

Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating just a tad, but really, I've impressed myself.

Top Chef is one of my favorite shows.  They're always talking about flavor profiles and things needing citrus and all sorts of little details I'd never think of on my own.

Well I put together what I'd like to consider an AMAZING flavor profile (if that's even the correct term).

I've used this combo on the delicious chicken burgers from Trader Joe's as well as the Dr. Praeger's veggie burgers.  Thing is, it's so simple, but every time I eat it I am VERY impressed with the flavor.

Two ingredients...

Hot sauce (I had bought some in Costa Rica so that's what I'm using)

Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss flavor wedges.

YUMMMY!!!!!

I typically put this delicious combo on a sandwich, hot sauce on the top and the cheese spread out on the bottom.  I can't say what it is about the combination of the two, but they taste amazing together!

Plus, the laughing cow has only 35 calories per wedge and is creamy (and dreamy).

I encourage any non-vegan readers to give it a try and let me know what you think.

Hair we go again

I was going for a play on words on the 80s song...here I go again on my own...going down the only road I've ever known...Um yeah, that would be Whitesnake.

Anyway...

This is what I look like when I go to the gym. 

I always always always have a headband on.  I learned years ago that my hair likes to go a bit crazy (read: frizzy) when I sweat/workout.

A headband allows me to keep things in check, specifically those flyaways.

Lately however, I've become known as the girl with the headband, so I'm thinking maybe it's time for a change.

My hair takes a beating when I work out.  It's always pulled back in a ponytail so I tend to suffer from breakage.

That said, I figured i'd put this dilemma out to the masses and see if anyone has any suggestions.  I do on occasion wear a hat, but since I wear my hats kind of low, my vision is a little limited for teaching.  I also snagged a bandana but am not really sure I can rock it without looking like I'm going to clean your house.

Let me know what you do.

Back to the grind

Somehow the work weeks always seem to come back.  What is that about?

Hope everyone had a great and safe 4th!  Mine was good, but man was it HOT!  Too hot in my opinion.

It was great to spend time with my girls, but it was a bit too much of the eating, drinking, and lounging, so i'm somewhat happy to be back and getting back in to my routine.

Wrist update - teaching was tough.  I had no idea that the brace would effect me the way it did.  It was uncomfortable to hold the handlebars in both positions 1 and 3, so that stunk.  I'm curious to see how it goes tomorrow.  Hopefully I can overcome because not teaching is not an option.

I'm running out of steam right now so I'll cut this short.  A better post and maybe even some useful information tomorrow.

Till then...

TGI(Friggin')F

Wooo hoooo!  Weekend!  Yes!  Finally!   Wooohooo!

Can you tell I'm glad the weekend is here?  I'm so ready to leave my "job" way behind, woohoo!  Too bad it's not forever, ooops, did I say that?

And a happy early 4th to you!  The 4th of July is one of my FAVORITE holidays.  I love the summer, the bbq's, the sun, and of course the fireworks!  I've toyed with the idea of getting married on the 4th (of course i'm nowhere near getting married so that's a moot point).

So back to the wishes, hope it's great, safe, and fun!  Eat, drink, and be merry.  But please don't drink and drive.  OK?

So yesterday my wrist brace and I went to the gym.  I will admit that I felt a bit gimp like, but it was ok.  Some people noticed and asked about it, others gave me weird looks, and some probably wouldn't even notice if I came in with a cast on my head.  Oh well.

Cardio wasn't too limiting.  I did the treadmill from hell (aka the moving stairs), then managed to run 2.5 miles on the treadmill.  I almost think the wrist support was helpful with my running form, but maybe that's just in my head.  That part was easy.

The weights portion, not so much.  In addition to feeling like a tool, I just wasn't sure what I could and couldn't do.  I did some work on biceps, triceps, and shoulders, then got frustrated and gave up.  Baby steps.  Then did some abs.  That was my workout, it was ok.

Tomorrow i'm teaching, so we'll see how that goes.  It's a holiday weekend so i'm hoping that it won't be too empty.  People got to get their cardio on before binge eating and drinking, right? (nice grammar Jess)

So again, have a fab weekend and i'll catch ya on the flip side!

Injury Update

So here's the outcome of my doctor's appointment today.  Lovely, right?  Thankfully it's not a serious injury and he seems to think that 3 weeks of wearing this brace should do the trick.  The good news is that he said I can pretty much do whatever I want, as long as the brace is on.  So i'm going to test this out at the gym tonight and we'll see how it goes.

Xrays didn't show any  major issues, aside from a "deformity" (my term, not his).  The wrist is made up of the radius and the ulna.  Well I guess one of them is typically straight and the other is a bit curved (not sure which is which) but on me, they're reversed and the straight one is curved, etc.  Leave it to me to be a little different.

So he said it just seems like a bit of trauma/irritation from whatever I did plus a little carpal tunnel.  So i'm on advil 3x's a day for the next week and then the brace as often as possible for the next three weeks.  Then hopefully i'll be cured!

Now I can do a weekly post on what it's like to workout with a brace on.  Ha!

Veggie burgers

I'm a very veggie-friendly non-veggie.  In other words, I'm not a vegetarian, but since I have been in the past, I still eat some foods that are thought to be vegetarian fare.

Veggie burgers were a staple when I didn't eat meat, but since I thoroughly enjoy them, i've kept them in the mix ever since.

I feel like I've had most brands and flavors so I figured I'd share my thoughts on the different brands out there.  As I was cooking up my veggie burger du jour, I thought of this idea and here I am.

I typically cook my veggie burgers in the microwave, so all of these judments are based upon that. 

Dr. Praeger's

Tthis is what i'm eating today, the California veggie burger.  They're tasty and what I love is that the veggies are very identifyable in the patty.  However, they don't microwave well so they didn't work well when I brought them to work for lunch.

They have a Tex/Mex flavor, which I've never tried and possibly something with an Indian flair.
Today I cooked mine in a skillet and was very happy with the outcome.




Boca Burgers
I feel like these were one of the originals.  Where they differ from the others here is that they try to mimic meat.  I love a good hamburger so I was open to giving these a try.
While the smell is close and there's a bit of a smoky flavor, the consistency is off and I always get heartburn when I eat these.
I'd eat this if it was my only choice, but otherwise, I'll pass.

Gardenburger
I like this brand.  They have several varieties and I prefer their original and veggie medley varieties over some of the other brands.  They have a more oaty/grain feeling, which makes me feel a bit more satisfied after eating them.  I'm also a big fan of their Black Bean Chipotle variety, which gives you a little heat and a nice dose of fiber.  I also like the corn in that flavor.

Morningstar Farms
This is another brand that I feel like I've  eatingfor a long long time.  The consistency of their burgers is a bit different than the Gardenburger, which I feel is their closest competitor.  I've had the Garden Veggie,  Chipotle Black Bean, and Asian Veggie varieties.  I feel that both the veggie flavors cook up on the greasier side and then to give me indigestion.  The Asian variety makes my apt. smell weird when I cook them.  Again, not my favorite.

I'm sure there are other brands out there that I'm overlooking, but these are the most common.

Have you had another brand you'd recommend, or stay away from?  I had veggie burgers from Costco last summer (I think they were homemade) and they were amazing, but haven't seen them since.