Running On Empty

This was one of those days when I was running from morning to night!  It started with an early dentist appointment, so I had to eat a quick breakfast.  I decided on a Banana Nut Vitatop…

 

I really like these…

Can you believe I ate it without any topping??? 

Then brushed, flossed and headed to the dentist.  Which I hate.  But, ya gotta do it.  Thankfully, it was just a cleaning and I got out of there unscathed!  Until January, when the drilling will commence :(

I stopped home to pick up my BFF…

 

 

then made a pit stop at Grams’ house to say “hi” and off again to little daughter’s school to help with a book fair.  By this time, I was starving!  I couldn’t wait to get home for lunch, but it had to wait until after my 3 mile run.  Boo! 

I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it through the run without any food in my stomach, so I had a few bites of banana…

 

That’s about all I can handle before a run.  I can’t run with a full stomach or even a half full one, but a few bites seems to be okay. 

It was perfect weather for an outdoor run – sunny and 60 degrees!  I took advantage of it and did my run in my hilly neighborhood.  The first mile was a little shaky;  I haven’t done hills in a while, but I took my time, kept my breathing even and managed to crank it all out!

I felt really good when I was done.  And really ready to eat!!  It was a great opportunity to try out one of the Bean and Rice Burritos from the freezer.   My heating instructions…

• loosely wrap frozen burrito in a slightly damp paper towel
• place in microwave on defrost for 2 minutes
• after slightly defrosted, microwave on high for 2-3 minutes
• let stand for 1 minute or you will burn the bejesus out of your mouth

I served it with a Fuji apple butt…     :D

So hearty and filling;  I almost couldn’t finish the whole thing…almost…

I barely finished my last bite before I was out the door again to pick up the daughters for afterschool activities which lasted until dinner time.

I wasn’t super hungry, so I fixed dinner for the family and waited a bit until I figured out what to eat.  I finally opted for a Tofu Scramble using up some of the leftovers in the fridge.  In the mix…

• 1/2 package Nasoya Lite Firm Tofu
• diced red onion
• 3 baby carrots, sliced
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1/4 cup black beans

I came across this cheese in the natural foods section of Giant Supermarket and thought I’d add it to the mix (to practice for Vegan for a Day!)…

One word – funky.

I ended up adding an ounce of 2% cheese which made it all taste delicious :)

Served with a toasted whole wheat pita for crunch…

I thought I might have some dessert tonight, but ended up ditching that idea since I was full.  I even had to dig into the box of Cheez-its for big daughter’s snack and didn’t feel the need to dive head first into the box!  As if I would fit  ;P

ONE GOOD THING:  I felt really good about how I approached my food today.  Even though breakfast was on the light side, I didn’t use that as an excuse to overeat later in the day.  I felt more in touch with my body and my hunger cues today.  Honestly, I’ve been struggling with it for the past few weeks (more to come on that – I promise!), but today I tuned in!

Have a great day, everyone!

Random Question of the Day:  What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Just Another Sunday

I have to start off this post saying THANK YOU to all for your encouraging and congratulatory comments!  I am so humbled by it and I appreciate it so much.  It makes me so glad to think that I have inspired some of you to push outside of your comfort zone, set your fears aside and accomplish things you never thought you could.  It’s so cliche, but seriously, if I can do it, you can, too!  Don’t let fears hold you back.  You can lose weight, you can keep it off, you can make healthy choices, you can make time to exercise, you can run, you can bike, you can..you can.. you can!  Don’t doubt it.  It’s all out there waiting for you :) 

Okay, Tony Robbins pep talk over;  let’s get to the food!

After lazing around the rest of Saturday, it was a little hard to get moving on Sunday.  We had to be at church by 9:30 for a special service involving little daughter’s religion class, so I was rushed for time.  I ended up not eating breakfast before we left and forgot to grab a bar or something portable, too!  The race fried my brain!

Thankfully, the husband keeps a nut stash in his car for snacking during his travels, so I grabbed a handful and munched after church…

We ran some errands as a family which is always fun not and headed home for some much needed lunching.  I was in a salty mood (in flavor not attitude!), so I made up a proscuitto, asiago and pesto panini using 2 slices proscuitto, 1 slice asiago cheese, 1 tsp. pesto and a handful of baby spinach on whole wheat pane bread.  I pressed it in the George Forman grill til it got warm and melty.  Sweet goes great with salty, so a Fuji apple was the perfect side…

A little later, I worked on some homework with the daughters.  I made us a study snack of Celestial Seasons Sugar Cookie Tea and some homemade granola bar pieces…

Tofu was on my dinner menu (not the husband or daughters of course!) since I had some Nasoya Firm Lite Tofu in the fridge that needed to get used up.  I decided to dice it up and bake it this time instead of baking in slices like I have done in the past.  I seasoned it with some garlic powder, onion powder, s+p, a few dashes of Frank’s Hot Sauce and a tbsp. of honey bbq sauce.  I baked it, on a foil-lined cookie sheet, with some sweet potato wedges and served it with green beans sauteed in evoo and garlic.  This was the best dinner…

And ketchup on sweet potatoes = fab:)

So, that’s my regular old just another day Sunday!  Quite anti-climatic after Saturday!  But, it’s just the way I like it :)

ONE GOOD THING:  My hip is not as sore as I thought it might be after the race.  I think the pre and post ibuprofen really worked!

Question of the Day:  What is one thing that you would like to do, but have doubts that are holding you back?

They Got Me

I feel like H E double hockey sticks.  The sick people got me with this nasty cold.  The daughters are better, but the husband and I have the worst of it now.  My head feels like an elephant is stepping on it.  Excellent.  But, nothin’ stops a mom, so I keep on trudging…

After getting the daughters off to school, I mixed up a batch of stovetop oatbran for the husband and I.  I used the same method as oatmeal, the bran just takes a few extra minutes to cook and I like the texture a  lot more than regular oats.  To mine, I added 1/4 c. dried cherries, some dark chocolate chips and a couple chopped walnuts.  Cherry Chocolate Walnut Oatbran is GOOOOD…

and filling.  I think.  Hard to tell because I’m not so hungry due to the giant foot on my face.  But, I’m pretty sure the bran did a good job and I wasn’t ready to eat something until around 1:30.  I was craving cheesiness.  I had some leftover Hot Artichoke-Cheese Dip, so I schmeared that over 2 slices of Seven Grain Bread, topped each with 1/2 slice of Asiago cheese and ran it under the broiler.  With a side of fuji apple, it was heaven…

I spent the remainder of the day scraping wallpaper off my kitchen walls.  Can I tell you how much this job sucks??  Wallpaper scrapers should make a million dollars a year because it is a very sucky job.  Tedious, time-consuming and requiring loads of patience of which I have none!  Scrape, scrape, peel, dip, scrape…

I forgot that I got recruited volunteered to help out in the church office while little daughter was in religion class, so I left in my schlocky scraping clothes and headed over to organize papers for a couple hours.  FUN ;P

When we got back, I was in no shape to be cooking a big dinner.  My head was killing me, so I announced “breakfast for dinner” which made everyone happy- eggs, bacon and bagels have a way of doing that!  I wasn’t much in the mood for eating anything (gosh, WHY can’t this happen everyday!!  Without the stinkin’ head throb), but decided I should feed my body something nutritious.  Thankfully, I had loads of  Big Batch Bulgur Chili already portioned out, so I heated up a container and topped it with some avocado and a sprinkle of lite cheese…

Despite my head, I continued to scrape until bedtime.  We hope to be painting on Saturday, so I’ll be able to show the before and after this weekend.

Off to do more scraping….

Stay well, everyone!!!

ONE GOOD THING :  I didn’t think about food much at all today.  I love when that happens :D

Life Is Good

Thanks for your comments on my last post;  sad to see many of you are like me and don’t take time to “just be”!  We have to work at that, right?!!

There was no time to “just be” in the morning either!  For some reason, it started off rush, rush, rush!  Before I ran out the door to take little daughter to school, I made up my Yogurt Bowl.  Many of you have asked about making the fruit “syrup”, so here’s a look…

Slice a few (about 3-4) strawberries and place in a microwave safe bowl…

Microwave for 30 sec.- 1 min. (depending on fruit ) until it appears “cooked” and the juice releases…

That’s it!  Couldn’t be easier!  You could do it stovetop also in a bigger batch, refrigerate and add to yogurt (or top ice cream, mmmm) as needed.

I poured my strawberry syrup over the remainder of my Chobani nonfat plain yogurt, added more fresh berries and sprinkled with a bit of Post Trail Mix Crunch…

then ran out the door with my ginormous container to eat in the car…  at red lights and stop signs, MOM!!!

I finished most of it just as I was pulling in to the gym.  I wasn’t that hungry, so I left the rest and headed in to get my sweat on with one of my new LIFE IS GOOD shirts…

Gotta love that!  There’s also a cool tag at the bottom of the shirt…

Okay, enough of my dopey wardrobe!  Anyway, I hit the elliptical for 40 minutes while watching my boyfriend, Dr. Oz and his new show which was quite steamy (sex ed) I might add!  Then, he did some dance which made me love him even more!

I tore myself away from the tv’s and did a 25 minute lower body circuit weight workout.  I love  the leg press;  makes me feel like a brute!

After a stop at the produce store, I headed home and was ready for lunch!  I got hungry earlier than usual, probably because I didn’t eat enough at breakfast.  But, my stomach was telling me that I couldn’t put it off any longer.  I broke open one of these Cedar Lane Bean ,Rice and Cheese Burritos.  I’ve showed these before, but it’s been a while…

They are really good and filling!  I wolfed it down with a side of leftover sweet potato fries and a fuji apple…

Yes, WOLFED.  As in here one minute, gone the next.  That was NOT mindful eating!!!  And then, I knew it was coming.  Because I didn’t pay much attention to the eating process, I still wanted to munch away.  And I did…on these guys…

x about 55!!  Ugh!  I knew I was doing it and WHY, so I guess that’s part of the process of learning to STOP it next time.

Believe it or not, I was hungry again later when the daughters came home.  I’ve been eyeing this Pecan Sticky Bun Granola up (why do I buy these things?!)

so I had a small bowl with skim milk…

Dinner was nothing fancy, but I’ll call it Pasta Pesto Primavera!  I made some Ronzoni Smart Taste Rotini Pasta, mixed it with a little pesto and a box of Green Giant Immune Blend Veggies…

finished with some Parmesan cheese…

Quick and easy!

And later, I may or may not have had a little bit of this…

Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.  I did not have that;  I don’t know who is writing this right now!!! ;P

ONE GOOD THING:  I recognized why I pigged out after lunch, so that I can try to prevent that next time :)

*I took 5 minutes right before bed to “just be”, but I think I fell asleep about 2 minutes into it!  Does that count???*

Have a great day everyone!

Just Be Myself

Hey all!  Weekend go okay?  It was so nice here.  I had intended on going for a walk or maybe doing some Pilates as my “rest day” activity, but ended up doing NADA!  Oh well!  I have to say that my hip is thanking me for it.  I gave it a nice recoup time this weekend and it feels a lot better!  So instead of working out, I worked around the house cleaning and catching up on laundry. I worked up an appetite for breakfast and stopped for an old fave of Trader Joe’s High Fiber O’s, strawberries and skim milk…

More cleaning and laundry.  We live like pigs, I’ve decided.  Or maybe our dog is really disguised as a pig.  I don’t know, it was just a mess around here!

I finally got things in semi-order and settled in to make lunch.  I was craving a wrap, mainly because I found these cool new (to me) Joseph’s Lavash Bread (found them in BJ’s)…

They are huge!  A serving is a half, but with these great stats, eating a whole one is no biggie…

I made a basic turkey and asiago cheese with lettuce, tomato and dijon mustard and had a super sweet Fuji apple on the side “for dessert”…

I really wanted to have some time to sit this afternoon.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately that I don’t take time to “just be”.  Everything is so fast;  the day flies by and I have a million things in my head about what I should be doing, what I want to do, where I need to go, etc.  My mind is never quiet.  I’m feeling unfocused, maybe even a little unnerved because of it.  Even if it’s just 5 minutes to STOP.  BREATHE.  LISTEN.  That’s all I’m asking of myself.  Did I do it?  NO!  Too many distractions.  But, it’s a goal I have for this week!

My Mom, Dad and Gram came over later in the day to hang out and have Sunday dinner with us.  It was so nice out, we decided on squeaking out the last days of grilling time.  I made burgers on the grill served on “healthy” Ezekiel Hamburger Buns and white, fluffy kaiser buns for the protesters to healthiness (you know who they are ;)…

Some sweet potato fries…

a big green salad…

and Gram brought her Zucchini Quiche, too…

My plate…

Mmmm…my burger with some fixins…

It was a fun time with healthy eats!  The Ezekiel buns were a hit and so filling that I didn’t even finish my burger!  Unheard of!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

ONE GOOD THING:  I respected my body and took time off to let it recoup from my hard workout week.

Question of the Day:  Do you take time during the day to “just be”?