Working for the Weekend (2.05.2009)

Wednesday Night

I am sorry to say that we didn't end up going to Mezze last night. Our friends weren't able to make it because one was sick, so we decided to lay low.

I made it to the gym for my run, but I only managed to run a 5k (3.1 miles) because my butt and upper thighs were so tight and fatigued from my workout last night. I have decided that I am not going to worry about the key runs for this week and just do what I can. I will repeat this training week next week.

I finally tried Laura's Wholesome Junk Food - Chocolate Chip Bite-lettes last night and I am addicted. These things are incredible. I am really going to have to ration these out so I don't overindulge.

I also roasted a spaghetti squash to have for lunch today. I like when it gets the caramelized color seen below... Its amazing how it comes out looking like spaghetti...I topped mine with 3 turkey meatballs and spicy tomato sauce for lunch today. This is one of my favorite work lunches.

Thursday

Oatmeal this morning contained:

• 3/4 c oats
• skim milk (enough to cover the oats)
• handful blueberries
• tsp brown sugar
• few white chocolate/pb chips
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• spoonful of almond butter

Wow, I am boring today. Sorry about that. I am excited about having my new dishwasher installed tomorrow because I am working from home in the afternoon! So I feel like my weekend is starting early...

I just realized that the fact that I am excited about my new dishwasher makes me officially OLD. Man-oh-Man.

Saturday is my friend's baby shower and Saturday night I am having dinner with my family for restaurant week. Lots to look forward too. :)

What are you all looking forward to doing this weekend?

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Overwhelmed (11.18.2008)

Anyone else feeling overwhelmed? My to-do list is overflowing right now and I feel like there isn't enough time in the day to do everything. Plus, I have been a zombie since Sunday night, when we got home from the football game at 1:30am!!! So, while I had a ton of things to do last night - I barely got anything done. Well, I did finish up the laundry and take Lucy to her vet appt - so that counts for something!

To top everything off - I haven't worked out in over a week!! Besides my daily walks with Oscar, which have helped me stay mostly sane. Ok, enough of all that complaining - let's get back to food!

Over the weekend I ate alot of great stuff, and took pictures of some of it. Here is a sampling of my weekend eats.

Saturday at the Columbia Mall, my sister and I got salads from Bistro Sensations. I went with the greek salad, that came topped with two stuffed grape leaves and a grilled pita. It was a great salad.

Sunday's Lunch was Creamy Tomato Soup - I have been wanting to try this brand of soup and I really enjoyed it - especially knowing it was low-fat, low-sodium, and organic!

I also made some grilled cheese for dipping and put a spoonful of fat free ricotta in the soup. I definitely had enough cheese for the day with this lunch.

Sunday night's football game was alot of fun, except for the fact that they didn't beat Dallas - UGHH. We were freezing in the 40 degree, windy weather and had the most obnoxious Dallas fan sitting next to us. He was getting into fights with everyone around us. Some may find this disgusting, but I love stadium hot dogs - they taste so good! After having an incredible hot dog - we got to see these two Redskins Legends get their Hall of Fame rings. pretty cool.

Breakfast this morning was grape nuts with raisins, dried cranberries, and lots of skim milk.

Snacks today will be a very ripe pear...

and a PB Larabar. yum.

I roasted up a spaghetti squash last night, so lunch today will be that with turkey meatballs and tomato sauce. (my pictures have to be taken before work, so the meatballs are frozen in the picture!)

Getting back to my workouts/runs or lack there of. It has been a little over a week since the marathon and I know that my hamstring still needs time off from running, but I need to start doing something! I don't currently belong to a gym - so I am going to head over to my father's gym after work. It is a little ways away, but I need a good workout, so I plan to get my butt kicked in a spin class and then do some lifting. I'm hoping my hamstring will be ok. I am so excited to sweat - is that weird?

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Countdown to Race Day (5 days to go)

So this week, I am going to be tracking my food consumption pretty closely because last week I went crazy and since the marathon is SATURDAY - I really want to make sure I am eating healthy and carb loading, but not overeating or changing anything up too much! (I also want to be able to look back in the future to see what I did for this race!)

This morning started with a bowl of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and skim milk. This cereal is awesome and a great snack to just eat plain.

When I arrived at work, I peeled and ate this orange from South Africa! (that's what the label said anyways)

Around 11am, I snacked on some Stacy's Simply Naked (just sea salt) Pita chips and hummus.

These are great pita chips and they even had a bigger bag at the store to benefit breast cancer awareness. I grabbed it up because those little bags always go so fast and it is a great cause. Now they just need to make a the cinnamon/sugar flavor in a larger bag - wait - maybe not.

I wasnt hungry for lunch until about 1:30, but went and heated up my spaghetti squash and turkey meatballs. The hardest part about the spaghetti squash is cutting it in half. Then it goes into the oven for 40 mins or so and is done. It really is so easy to make and I always look forward to this lunch.

OK - time to get back to work, I brought a lemon bar larabar for my snack - cant wait to try this one!

Here are Three Golden Rules of Marathon Week (copied from Runner's World website, where Coach Jenny Hadfield was answering a question from a person getting ready for the Chicago Marathon). I think these are great tips for any length race you are training for, so I thought I would share:

Go With What You Know. It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement and begin to make drastic changes in your diet, training and equipment. The number one rule in marathoning is DON'T TRY ANYTHING NEW on race day. This should be extended for the entire week of the marathon. Every long run has been a dress rehearsal for the big day and by now, you should know what to eat, how much to drink and what you're going to wear. The time to make changes and adjustments is during the season. For example you'll want to avoid drinking tons more water in the hopes of being well hydrated, eating a ton more veggies than normal and trying new equipment. When you get tempted to make a change, remember Golden Rule One and stick to what your body knows. It's what got you here and what will get you through race day.

Have A Mental Plan. Training is 90% physical and 10% mental. Race day is the exact opposite. Your body is trained, rested and ready to go. Your mind is in charge on race day. Keep your mind actively engaged in the race and think your way through the course. Review the marathon course map and break it up into smaller, more digestible pieces. It's easier to stay focused and engaged for shorter periods of time than for several hours. Understand marathoning is like life and you're going to go through peaks and valleys. Bring power words and positive mantra to carry you through the valleys. Words like "strong and steady" are useful in keeping your mind focused and out of the bite me zone (pit of negativity).

Pace Yourself. The number one thing you can control on race day is your pace. It is very easy to get caught up in all the excitement, especially in a large race like the Chicago Marathon with 45,000 runners, music, fans and more! Marathoning is all about energy management. If you blow through a lot of energy early in the race by running too fast, it will make for a fabulous first 10-K and a really tough and not-so-pretty rest of the race. Not to mention your finish line photo will be dreadful:) Conserve your energy by running at either an even effort throughout the race or run a negative split (my favorite) by taking the first half slightly slower than the second. There is nothing more fun and motivating than to have the strength, focus and energy to pass people in the last six miles of the race. But in order to do this, you need to be disciplined early and hold back the reigns.

Anyone have any other tips to add?

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Back to the Grind...

Now that my experiment with the "Michael Phelps" diet is over, it's time to get back into my routine. ;)

This morning's breakfast was one of my favorites, huevos rancheros. A mix of green chiles, eggs and babybel cheese inside two corn tortillas.I stopped on the way to work and picked up a hot, skim vanilla latte with one splenda - it was delicious. Mid-morning snack was a chocolate coconut larabar. This wasnt my favorite - i need to get some more of the coconut creme pie flavor.Lunch was leftover spaghetti squash with turkey meatballs and tomato sauce. It was still good from last week, but my taste buds weren't really in the mood, so I ate about half of this at lunch. Check out that huge piece of garlic from the sauce - i threw that out so people at work didn't have fire breath on them during meetings.
Dessert was a piece of whole wheat potato toast with almond butter and pumpkin butter. I love this. Very exciting picture of the slice of bread - ha, hope you enjoy it. and here is the almond butter and pumpkin butter that went on the bread. Afternoon snack was my best yogurt combination yet. I mixed honey flavored Oikos greek yogurt with Honey Almond Flax GoLean Crunch (is this new? b/c it was the first time i had seen it) and a very ripe peach from the produce stand yesterday. The peach was so ripe that the skin basically fell off as I was slicing it, and it was extremely juicy, so it made this peachy, yogurt sauce that was to die for.When I got home from work tonight, I took Oscar for a walk in the park and then came home to do some upper body lifting and abs. I did the following:

• 3 sets of 20 regular sit-ups
• 3 sets of 15 modified push-ups
• 3 sets of 10 side shoulder raises
• 3 sets of 10 front shoulder raises
• 3 sets of 15 triceps extensions
• 3 sets of 20 bicycle crunches
• 3 sets of vertical leg crunches
• 3 sets of 15 bicep curls
  

It felt good to do some lifting since I have been slacking in that department.

While making dinner, I was snacking on some wasabi peas and blowing my nose because these were clearing out my senses.
Dinner tonight was brown rice with sauteed zucchini, squash, broccoli, onions and garlic. Unfortunately I have never had the best luck cooking brown rice and I overcooked it. I think it is because I have always undercooked it, so I went a little overboard and it was mushy. I used some of the marinade from the tofu below to season up the rice and veggies. I ate a bowl of it that was just OK - would have been better if the rice was cooked properly.I also made an attempt to bake some tofu. I have been wanting to do this after reading about it for awhile in food blog land. I found a recipe for a peanut sauce marinade and decided to go for it since I had basically everything in the recipe. I cooked it at 400 degrees for about 45 mins and it turned out pretty good. But after I ate a piece, I decided to put it back in the oven for another 10 mins to try and get it really crispy. I think it turned out well and loved how the chopped peanuts from the marinade got all caramelized on top.Dessert was a rice pudding with raisins and a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar mixture. These rice pudding packs are the best and only 90 calories!I am off to do some dishes because i made a mess in the kitchen and then settle in to watch the HILLs. :)

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Salad always tastes better when...

...someone else makes it! I feel like the salads I make just aren’t as tasty or exciting as other people or places make. Maybe I just haven’t found the right dressing? Including enough good stuff? But for some reason, if I try to make a salad for my lunch – it just doesn’t seem as appetizing as say…an Orchard Harvest half salad from Panera. I got one today and it was delicious. It had spinach and other greens, pecans, dried cherries, pears and gorgonzola crumbles. It came with a cherry balsamic dressing that I dipped my bites into as I ate. Barely used any of the dressing this way!

I also had half of this frontega chicken sandwich, which had smoked & pulled white meat chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, red onions, chopped basil & chipotle mayonnaise, grilled on Focaccia. There was too much bread in the first few bites, so I took off the top half and made it an open-faced sandwich. I also hate mayonnaise, so I scrapped off as much as that as possible. Both of these things probably helped with the amount of calories!

Breakfast this morning was some huevos rancheros with half of a banana. I didnt make enough eggs, so they were more like quesadillas today.

Mid-morning snack was a PB cookie larabar. I do like this, but feel like I would rather have had clif mojo mountain mix over it! Those are a new favorite!

Lunch was everything mentioned above and another great peach - need to get more of these!!I hate that I have had to go out to lunch two of the days this week already. I think it has to do with my lack of planning, so I am trying to change that tonight because I feel like I have a ton of groceries and good stuff in the fridge and just havent been planning meals and lunches. it really does make a difference, especially if I am rushing around in the morning - which is usually the case! I am sad to say that I let my kale and lettuce from the produce share go bad. I didnt use it in time and it got gross so that I couldnt use it. :(

Afternoon snack was chocolate covered edamame and some dry oatmeal squares. Didnt feel like having the yogurt that I brought today and I just didnt have much time this afternoon - lots of meetings.Tonight was a perfect night for running. Oscar, Kevin and I went for a run around the park and then down by the harbor. Probably did around 3.5 - 4 miles - it was relaxing and felt easy. Love that feeling!

Got home and made some TJ jalapeno chicken sausage, whole wheat couscous (i put some pine nuts in this and used chicken stock for cooking instead of water), and roasted cauliflower. Not that colorful of a meal, but it was very tasty. I love the crunchy brown sides of the cauliflower :)Dessert was a piece of whole wheat potato bread with RF peanut butter, raisins, and a drizzle of honey. I take BIG bites. :)
I also roasted up some spaghetti squash and plan to bring that for lunch tomorrow with some turkey meatballs. Cant wait!

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