Training and Holiday Cookie

Monday, Monday, Monday….

I officially started training today for the Shamrock Half-Marathon! Waking up bright and early to run in 30-degree weather isn’t what I call fun but it felt great. I have to tough it out through the winter training outside and have a feeling it’s going to be a rough winter. You may have guessed that after some convincing from the hubby, I will not be joining a gym like I’d hoped. So there is no back up plan for running in a warm gym on a treadmill. Instead I’ll bundle up and hit the pavement. Maybe Santa will bring a treadmill :) along with the Garmin Forerunner. (Shhhh… I’m not supposed to know).



I mapped out my run after I stretched this morning and it ended up being 2.13 miles. Just a little over the scheduled 2 miles.

• Ran 2 miles (21:00/9:86)
• Stretched
• Abs (plank-side plank-reverse crunch- twisted leg crunch)

My hip felt a little better today while running. I definitely felt improvement other than my bruised butt that still hurts. Yes, it’s big and bounces while running! The worst pain I felt was during my ab workout. While holding plank, especially side plank, my hip really hurt. I tried not to over do it on my right side hoping not to put too much strain on it.

I also reserved our hotel room for the race today. My bestest girlfriend and running buddy is joining me. We are driving down on Saturday to check-in and p/u our race packets and the race is on Sunday, 3/21. Did I mention it’s on my birthday? Probably! I’m getting super excited!!

On my way into work today I stopped at Giant for dog food. Oh, and I got an awesome deal too! Regularly $14.99/14 lb bag, on sale for $12.99 plus each bag had a $1.50 coupon!! Anyway, what I was going to say is that I also picked up some vanilla Nasoya Silken Style Creations to make sugar cookies tonight. Hopefully this will get us in the holiday mood since we haven’t put up our tree yet. After seeing these cookies on Tina’s blog I have to try them.

For breakfast this morning I had oats, go figure. I decided not to photograph them since that picture is getting rather boring. I did switch it up by adding almond butter rather than pb.

• ½ c oats
• Dash of cinnamon
• ½ tsp agave nectar
• 1 spoon full of almond butter
• ¾ of banana

This was good but I still love my peanut butter. The almond butter doesn’t have the smooth and creamy texture that I like about natural pb.


Packed for lunch today is a variety of Amy’s organic soups (I have four cans in my desk), 2 clementines, and an apple.



I decided to have the alphabet soup since it sounded fun and a bit childish.



It tasted a bit like spaghetti-o’s but that didn’t stop me from cleaning my bowl. I wasn’t completely satisfied so I had a PB&J Larabar (also stashed in my desk) and saved the other goodies for tomorrow.

On the menu for dinner tonight is stir fry- one of my favorites! I marinated chicken for Jeff and tempeh for me in ginger sesame dressing. The vegetables are a mix including asparagus, carrots, mushrooms, squash and zucchini that we’ll have over brown rice.



Turns out the veggie mix had cauliflower which we found kind of strange in a stir fry mix. But it tasted pretty sweet.



Dinner is cleaned up and it's time to bake sugar cookie! Yay! I'll post them tomorrow... good night

Morning!

Good morning ya'll!

Not too much going on today but I wanted to share my lovely dinner from last night. The hubby made a beautiful meal and we had a nice evening in watching Christmas programs on mpt (Maryland Public TV). yes we are dorks. We threw this dinner idea together at the last minute: seared ahi tuna over salad and caramelized onion flatbread. We couldn't wait to try this flatbread mix from C and B.



Jeff had the perfect idea to top it with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar.



He also marinated ahi tuna with some Asian flavors and seared for on top salad.

What a pretty plate. When we eat like this it makes me sad that we spend money going out. (sometimes it’s nice though)





Side note: I've been eating mostly vegan these days however I don't like to label my "diet". I do enjoy seafood now and than hence our meal with tuna.


The flatbread turned out wonderful! The mix is a little expensive and we probably won't buy it again unless we have another gift card. I'll have to find a recipe to make it from scratch.



Feeling like I have so much to do today. I just got finished eating breakfast which was ww toast with the new almond butter topped with 1/2 a banana and drizzled with agave nectar. I also had iced coffee since there were leftovers from what we brewed yesterday.


not great pictures.



Here is the rest of my day's agenda:

Whole Foods- quick/small grocery shop
Laundry
Clean house
Write "Thank You" note to my SIL
Write Christmas cards and mail
Workout- abs and leg routine
Pack lunches for Monday and set out work clothes
Plan menu for this week

That's enough!


Take care and enjoy your day :)

Saturday shopping

Playing catch up here today… I have pictures to share from my time away for work. Very few since I didn’t take my camera with me to meetings and dinner.

On my way to Lancaster on Thursday morning I took a Larabar, an apple, and coffee since I didn’t know if breakfast would be served. Ended up eating the bar and saving my apple for Friday.



Here is the new bar I tried Thursday night after dinner. My co-workers and I were in the mood for something sweet and I opted to have this bar from the hotel’s snack shop. The ingredients sounded much healthier than the chocolate-covered pretzel ice cream that everyone else got. (sorry ladies) I had some hot tea and an apple with my granola bar. *bored eating*







Now for today…. We went shopping! I love the weekends when we have no plans and just end up poking around. Originally we were going to go cut down our Christmas tree but with the rainy/snow mix we decided to wait. Instead we went to a tile store and finally picked out back splash tile for our kitchen. We’ve been looking forever and couldn’t agree on any styles. Here are the samples we brought home, it’s a travertine style (fancy word- I’d describe as a stone look).




After the tile store we stopped by Baltimore Coffee & Tea Company for a pound of roast. I’ve been trying to drink coffee black which surprisingly taste pretty good, but I wanted a quality coffee to enjoy. Jeff and I both love Jamaican blue mountain coffee but it was $43/pd… no way. So the associate suggested this coffee which tastes similar to blue mountain. He described it as a mild, rich, full body flavor with low acidity. Sounded great to us and it was only $13/pd. I brewed some as soon as we got home and it taste perfect- great recommendation by their staff.



Here's a close up since I forgot the name.



Our next stop was the Sears Outlet. As always we needed nothing but found a good deal that we couldn’t pass up. Now we have wanted a stainless steel microwave but have put it off since we didn’t need it. As soon as we both saw this one, we didn’t even think twice and ended up buying it. Here is the Kenmore Elite stainless microwave we purchased for $99!!! It’s huge, has lots of cool functions, and was originally sold for $190. It does take up a lot of counter space but what can I say… it’s nice.





The last stop we made was the Pennsylvania Dutch Market. This market is filled with homemade crafts, furniture, and food. Of course the bakery was the first section when you walk in- very tempting but we passed up the homemade donuts and woopie pies. Instead we checked out the gorgeous furniture, sampled the fresh squeezed orange juice and almond butter, and ate lunch. There are several food stations set up around the market so Jeff and I went our separate ways in search for lunch. He met me with his pit beef sandwich and chicken wings and I found some 3-bean salad and vegetable pasta salad. Everything there is fresh, homemade, affordable, and oh so tasty.

Before we left I purchased some homemade almond butter. Almond butter is so expensive in the grocery store so I haven’t tried it until now. The lady working at the stand ground it fresh for me since I requested a smaller container than was displayed. I couldn’t have found any almond butter fresher; the container was warm when she handed it to me. I asked what went into the butter and all it was were almonds… sweet, just what I was looking for. I can’t wait to try this tomorrow with breakfast.



So good...


By the time we left the market it was snowing pretty hard. The roads were getting slick so we decided it was best to head home.

Now I need to find motivation to clean and get out the holiday decorations. With this weather I’d much rather curl up and watch a movie.


Quick update on my hip: yesterday morning I worked out on the elliptical since it was lower impact than the treadmill and it was still a little painful. It’s feeling a lot better today but I decided to take a day off and rest my body. I’d rather not hurt it worse. Tomorrow I plan on fitting in some kind of workout so we’ll see how it feels. Fingers crossed.

That’s all for now… have a great weekend!

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Hurry it ends Monday

Work travel and hip pain

Staying out-of-town for work can be so relaxing. A night alone to yourself feels great sometimes. I’m sitting here with the TV on and control of the remote, my laptop, granola bar, and hot tea. It’s going to be a chill night.

So yesterday I fell down the steps, which is so frustrating! I felt like crap yesterday since I was sore and couldn’t motivate myself to workout. Feeling guilty I headed to the hotel’s fitness center immediately after our meeting today. Yeah, forgot to mention that I am in Lancaster, PA where my company’s headquarters are located, for our annual HR Department meeting.

Anyway… I had an hour-long workout this afternoon. Unfortunately I may have hurt myself worse than I thought yesterday. While running I felt a lot of pain in my right hip, the opposite side than I landed on. My bruised butt hurt while bouncing up and down too! So I did intervals of running/6.3 and walking/4.2 for 35 minutes. Then I jumped on the elliptical which felt so much better for 15 minutes of intervals. Stretched and showered to meet my co-workers for dinner.

The hotel we’re staying at has complementary dinner with wine! Sweet deal! Tonight’s menu was a Santa Fe salad bar with dinner rolls. Kind of boring but hey it was free. I had two helpings of salad with spring mix, cucumbers, tomatoes, and these tiny little shrimp. It wasn’t very filling so I had a whole-wheat dinner roll but skipped the wine.

After dinner we were all craving something sweet but there were no dessert offerings. We headed to the hotel’s “snack shack” for munchies. I couldn’t do ice cream as much as I wanted to. I opted for a granola bar that I’d never heard of: Mrs. May’s Naturals Trio. The ingredients sounded great.

Here’s the ingredient list: cashews, almonds, pistachios, cranberries, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dates, raisins, rice malt, natural flavors, evaporated can juice, sea salt.

Not near as good as Larabars but I had to try it!! I took a picture but will have to post it once I get home. The verdict- it taste good, whole, and filling. However I won’t go searching for these when I get home.

I am going to spend sometime exploring blogs and then hit the bed. Hopefully I’m not too sore tomorrow since I got a 6:00 am wake up call to workout. Nighty night all!

*I'll add pics when I get home*

One last thing- I almost forgot to add this link. Bobbi's post today offers some great tips for staying fit this holiday season.

Caution: don't wear socks while walking down steps

Good Morning! Today started out more eventful than expected. I didn’t go to the gym this morning since I plan on taking a class tonight. However, Elli woke me up at the normal 5:30 to take her out. I was half a sleep as we walked downstairs and fell half way through the flight of stairs. I wasn’t wearing shoes, just socks, and my feet just went out from under me. I bounced on my butt to the bottom and landed on my left side. Elli just nosed at me while I laid there moaning in pain. Luckily I knew right away that I didn’t break anything but man am I sore.

I have a meeting all day today which allowed for a little extra time to get moving this morning. I got Jeff’s breakfast and coffee ready and then sat down for my normal oatmeal. Still no ripe bananas!



Since I’m not sure what will be served for lunch today I packed an apple and granola bar. Just in case there are no veg options I’ll have something to munch on.



Well off to work I go… tonight I have to finish packing and get in bed early. We’re leaving for our work trip at 7:20 so I need my beauty sleep. Depending on how my butt feels I might try the class tonight.

Happy Hump Day!

Baby its Cold Outside

Burr… it was a cold 38 degrees this morning. December has arrived!

I feel like I have so much to share today- hopefully I don’t ramble too much.

I finally registered for my next race! I’ll be running the Virginia Beach Shamrock Half-Marathon on my birthday, 3/21. I went online last night only to see that the cost went up so I eagerly paid my $80 registration and now the training begins. I needed something to keep me motivated through the winter and signing up for a spring race is just what I needed. I haven’t found a training schedule that I’ll follow yet but I started this morning out with a 3 mile run. I set the treadmill for the 5K loop and kept my speed between 6.5-6.7, about an average 9-minute mile. It felt great to start off my morning and training with this run! After my run I was sure to stretch well and work my abs.


On my way to work this morning I had some iced coffee with soymilk and agave nectar. I made it last night using Tina’s directions from Carrots-N-Cake.


For breakfast I packed some oatmeal:

½ c. quick oats
1 tsp. Agave nectar
Dash of cinnamon
1 tbs. Natural peanut butter

This is a great breakfast for work since it’s easy to “cook” with the hot water from our water cooler. All I was missing was some banana. I just got a bunch but they’re not quite ripe- bummer.



I wanted to give an update on the new gym. I really like the gym that I’ve been going to for my trail membership. It’s small but offers good classes however it’s not somewhere that Jeff and I can both benefit. There is a larger gym in a neighbor (luckily we have options) that has a basketball court, a pool, lots of classes, and all the regular equipment. Jeff agreed that if I join this gym that he would join with me, since we would both benefit from their amenities. I scheduled a tour tonight so we can get some membership info. I will let you know how it goes but this may be a win-win for both of us.

Since we have the gym tour tonight we’re having a quick dinner: Boca burgers with green beans on the side. We really threw off our meal plan for this week. Last night we were in the mood for pasta so instead of making the Asian broccoli and rice, we steamed the broccoli and tossed it with whole-wheat linguine and marinara sauce. It taste so good! After fixing it we both realized that pasta was on the menu for tonight so we made some changes. Tomorrow is leftover and/or clean out the frig night.

Shot of dinner prep.



Steaming green beans with garlic and earth balance.



Took this picture in a hurry before adding mustard and ketchup. Pretty boring: Beans, Boca, and soy cheese.





We have really been “winging” our meals this week. It’s always fun to see what you can make while clearing out the refrigerator and pantry.


Rewind a bit to lunch. Today I tried a new brand (new to me anyway) of miso soup from TJ’s: Annie Chun’s All Natural Asian Cuisine. This soup stood out to me for a few reasons: it wasn’t the normal TJ’s packaging since it’s not their brand, and this miso soup has udon noodles which I’ve never noticed before, it’s low fat, dairy free, and ready in 2 minutes! Sounded great and turned out it taste great too. The noodles were a little big which made it difficult to eat without flinging broth all over my desk. So I decided to only eat the smaller noodles that fit in my spoon, that way I saved some carbs along with a mess. Oh yeah, I recognized every item on the ingredients list. That’s a plus!



Miso with Udon noodles.



Under the packaging was a $1.00 off coupon so I’ll be sure to try some more of these products.

I’m going out of town for work Thursday and need to start packing.

Cuddle up with a loved one and stay warm…. Nighty-night.