2009 September | See Cat Run

Yoga I missed you

Breakfast was a smoothie! This is the other half of Saturday's smoothie. I froze it after drinking the first half to keep it for this week and forgot about it. Yay nutrients!

I also had a lick of peanut butter while giving Rose her pills.

I didn't have my usual slice of bread with peanut butter since that's essentially what I had for lunch… So exciting, right? Good thing I still love peanut butter after all these years. I also had some Sunmaid berry medley dried fruit on the side (in lieu of jelly)

I ate lunch at 11 and worked through my normal lunch break because I left early to go to the doctor. Just a check up, I'll call in 2 weeks to make sure everything's healthy. They were refusing to keep refilling my birth control without seeing me in person though. Before leaving the office at 1:30 I also had this:

Sugar! But it has live cultures so I'll roll with it.

Since I was driving by the store on the way home anyway I stopped in to buy more spinach and some plain yogurt for breakfasts the rest of the week. After I got home it was time to run!

Exercise: I started in on the sprint workouts on Monday and even though I couldn't hold out for the instructed duration it still left me with sore quads and a strained right calf. Thankfully the calf was feeling better this afternoon so I thought I'd try today's long run anyway: Run 40 minutes; for the next 8 minutes run one, walk one. I covered 3.69 miles in the first 40 and finished over all with 4.3. It's so cool to think that each run is a new PR for me at this point! I was pretty excited.

Dinner: I didn't follow Brendan Brazier's recovery plan very well and just sort of ate as I got hungry, about 45 minutes after getting home. I'm sure this looks rather familiar, but I had Husband's leftover mac'n'cheese from last night, a dab of potato salad, and some almost thawed veggies.

That's a lot of macaroni. I'm not stuffed though so no complaints here.

After a shower and bathing Rose I just did Yoga Download's 20 minute Lunar flow (#1) and feel all nice and relaxed. I'm now leaning towards and episode of Gossip Girl before watching Glee at 9!

Scatterbrained!

When Dan is around, there are bound to be some of these:

The football game was cold and rainy Saturday night so when the gang got home, after running for a change of clothes, something to warm them was demanded. No whisky for hot toddys, so Dan lit things on fire instead. Last time he did this they tasted so gross he actually spit his onto me. I passed this time. Pretty cool looking though.

Sunday we went to Atlanta to take advantage of our parents having free items we needed (desk chairs, computer monitors) and I completely forgot my camera! Which is a shame since we went to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch (George's Bar and Grill) and were taken out for a nice anniversary dinner where we had some awesome food. We went to Bonefish and everyone was very impressed.

Monday… well… there's no good excuse for Monday.

And before I start on today's eats I'd like to say that I haven't been to the grocery store in over a week so I'm very limited in my available food…

Breakfast Hubs decided we could splurge on breakfast so we stopped by Chickfila on our way to drop me off at work (he had to have the car to drop Rose off to finally have surgery on her mouth). I wanted just an egg and cheese bagel but we both got flustered and confused when going through the drivethru so it came with the chicken too. I was going to take the chicken off, but they put the cheese on top of it instead of under the egg, so I just ate it all. The bagel itself was pretty disappointing, but I think that might be because I had to let it sit for half an hour before I could eat so it was a bit soggy. Overall it was pretty tasty and actually has less sodium than the usual chicken biscuit and only 50 more calories.

Lunch Hubs has collected Subway scrabble pieces and gave me a couple for free six inch subs. Since I have no jelly and peanut butter between two pieces of bread is a little dull (though probably what I'll have again tomorrow) I decided to use one today. May I present a veggie sub on 9 grain wheat bread:

Let's see, this had:

lettuce
red onion
olive
tomato
banana pepper
green pepper
pickles
cucumber
white American cheese
oil and vinegar
oregano

I also splurged and paid for chips and a drink. Soda was sounding good so I had one. And I saved the (unpictured) chips for a rather needed snack later in the day.

Dinner I had leftover mac'n'cheese from last night (the blue box kind) so I warmed that up. Thawed stirfry veggies. Potato salad someone bought on Saturday.

And salmon that our guests didn't eat. I only had a small piece of Hubby's. (Guess what mom, second time eating salmon in three days). I'm pretty sure he used this recipe (minus the dill that we don't have). It was pretty good.

My poor Rosita is pouty because her mouth is sore again and I'm sure she's noticed by now that something seems to be missing (she no longer has front teeth on top). She's back on pain medicine though so she'll be okay in a day or so. Unfortunately the vet noticed that her spleen is enlarged. We're hoping it's just because it has been making more red blood cells having to replace all those lost. The other option seems to be a tumor Where's the pet insurance when you need it?

I'm off to work on finishing The Thrive Diet. Only 40 pages left of content before getting to the meal plan and recipes. I think I can finish by Thursday. If anyone's feeling generous I'd love a copy of this book though so that I can have the recipes! Or I think I do. I haven't really read them yet.

The unhealthier side of me

Well I didn't get up at 8:00 to run, but I did get one in later! It was tough, slow, and I was running with a cramped diaphragm the whole frickin time. I strongly considered waiting and just doing tomorrow's scheduled run but chose to run today, skip tomorrow, and run again on Monday.

I had a couple of unpictured pieces of bread with peanut butter, one at 11:30 when I got up and one after my run. After my shower I had a green monster! It included the last of my spinach, banana, protein powder, some rhubarb.

We had football games on all afternoon which of course requires football snacks. The gang decided to wait to grill burgers and dogs until after the game so lunch/first dinner was Totinos pizza rolls.

I'm annoyed to say that I ate my weight in these things. But I've been thinking I need to experiment with eating more to lose more weight (as explained in this post) so I'm not beating myself up too much (though it should be healthier food I'm eating more of, not junk like this). After a walk to get the mail and a nap I'm no longer uncomfortably full.

Dan's friends brought okra from their garden! Love love love okra. I've been meaning to buy some and Hubs now agrees that it needs to be on the grocery list. I had a few pieces which were just microwaved with a little evoo and some salt. Loves it.

There will be more food later but until then I have the apartment to myself (and three dogs). I plan on reading more of the Thrive Diet (since I have to turn it in on Thursday) and watching some Gossip Girl!

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Don't scroll down unless you want nightmares… Our neighbors (we live in a duplex) unfortunately hunt deer and occasionally (okay at least once a week for the past month) clean them from something they have rigged between our decks. I thankfully haven't seen them at it yet, but they left a nice skull hanging from it Wednesday night. I'm not a fan of hunting. Or catch and release fishing, for that matter.

Could you repeat that?

Breakfast I got my free Bear Naked sample in the mail yesterday! There's an ad on Facebook you can request a sample though. I'm a fan of cranberry raisin.

It has a lovely ingredient list (all pronounceable!). The flavor couldn't hold up against my yogurt though. The yogurt isn't very strongly flavored vanilla, but I could only really taste the raisins in this mix. I ended up just eating the cereal off the top and finishing the yogurt with some Kashi Go Lean for a little extra fiber.

A coworker went to her doctor this morning, who's office is next door to a local bakery. She brought back donuts! I nabbed a red velvet donut which had chocolate icing (Our wedding cake was red velvet) You can tell they donuts are made in store. Mine was actually a little dry but I suffered through and ate it. No picture though. sorry!

Lunch More shrimp fried rice. I added some thawed stir fry vegetables at lunch time.

Snack I have a picture of a pear for you today! It's amazing! The donut held me through the morning so I waited and ate the pear this afternoon.

Dinner Are you sick of seeing this yet? Because I'm getting a little tired of it. This is the last of the fried rice though. It just tastes more and more buttery the longer I have to eat it. It's good, especially when I add my own vegetables, but I've had four meals of it now? It's a bit much.

Dan's friends aren't here yet. Their ETA keeps being pushed back by two hours here or two hours there. I'm having a cup of black tea (with peach syrup) in the hopes that it will keep me awake enough to read until they get here. But first I have to get through the Shall We Dance scene in The King and I. My favorite!

A moment to vent, please

Breakfast Dan and Alex had a study group going last night so I skipped blending up another smoothie and instead took a Lactaid before eating cereal and yogurt for breakfast. It worked pretty well, not an ideal solution, though I might be doing it tomorrow.

Lunch was another repeat: brown rice, back beans, yellow squash, zuchini, onion, grape tomatoes, and asparagus.

Dinner I was ready to eat by the time I got home but put it off till closer to 6:00. I had leftover shrimp fried rice but bulked it up with some frozen vegetables.

Still no exercise and I'm still just as frustrated about it. I'm a bit of a perfectionist so its really bugging me to be so far behind in the training plan. I'm sure part of me is worried about gaining weight too, but I have to remind myself that even running twice a week is more than I used to do and I'm eating healthier than I used to, so I won't gain weight. MizFit agreed that I sound exhausted (couldn't make it through a paragraph of Eat Pray Love without my eyes closing).

I can't remember when I last felt well rested. It was sometime before high school, I'm fairly certain. To have blood work done I have to ask for time off on two separate days since I have to be at work at 7 AM (one day to have blood drawn and another for the follow up). I've asked for more time off than usual in the past two weeks so I'm going to wait until mid-October to ask about more time for this, but I'm sick of never having any energy. I doubt its a thyroid issues since I'm lacking any sudden weight gain or loss. Someone might make an argument of depression, but I don't want to antidepressants or sleeping pills.

Today I started reading Brendan Brazier's Thrive Diet book and he's got me fairly convinced it's stress… but there's no one thing that I could put my finger on that is hugely stressful in my life so I'm not sure how I could go about changing that.

I'm eating healthier, drink plenty of water, and exercise is supposed to help give you more energy.

My run will probably be put off until Saturday morning. Dan has friends coming into town tomorrow and Hubs doesn't go into work until 10pm, so I'll be hanging out once I get off work. I need that run to happen.

A ricey day

Alright, breakfast looked exactly like yesterday's but involved just one slice of bread with the peanut butter… I also had an unpictured pear at about 9:30 when I was starting to get hungry again.

Lunch was something different though (finally, right?). I took more of that brown rice, tossed in some black beans that need eating, and some of the grilled veggies from Saturday night (all things that need eating sooner rather than later)

I tossed the black beans and rice with some Mrs Dash chipotle seasoning for a slight kick. Yum! I think you can expect to see this again in the next day or two

Dinner Hubz texted me just before I got off work to ask if I wanted Chinese for dinner. I decided to try shrimp fried rice this time. I had this much:

Which left his much of a dent in the package:

It didn't occur to me until after I'd started eating that I'd already had rice today… Oh well. Notice anything missing? I think I could have gone for a few more veggies and shrimps. I've been unimpressed with their chow mein and low mein… I think this might be off my list.

I was trying to talk myself into getting a run in this afternoon but ended up nodding off before even finishing a paragraph of Eat, Pray, Love. I'm really trying not to feel guilty about skipping it, but I think that amount of sleepiness is a reason to opt out. Maybe I'll try tomorrow or just wait for Fridays.

I did get a good stretch last night from a 30 minute Yoga Journal podcast. I did their evening sequence which is great for the hips and all about the gentle stretch. That counts for something, right?

While waiting on dinner to arrive I actually finished Eat Pray Love. I don't feel like I'll remember the last few chapters very well, but that's okay. I really enjoyed it and appreciate that she isn't preachy though some of her spiritual experiences stretch the imagination a bit if you haven't had one yourself. It's kind of hard to believe it to be a memoir instead of fiction. I recommend it.

Happy Anniversary, love!

Two years ago today (it was a Saturday back then) I married my sweetheart. I wanted to share pictures as I relived the evening, but I'm afraid I can't find the dvd that has all 500-odd wedding pictures on it. Instead you get some rather lame photographs of our wedding album. It was beautiful and my only regret is not having a videographer to record the evening, it certainly passed in a bit of a blur!

The dress, the shoes, the bridesmaids, a fountain, the "getting ready" shot, flowers, bridesmaids

Me and my mom

the Hubs, his dad and step mother, and all the boys

Loved the first shot of the ceremony, our wine ceremony, first kiss!, and officially married

I guess I can't say that he never dances with me…

We got married at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and it was beautiful.

Sorry these came out so horribly, maybe I'll find the dvd by the time our next anniversary rolls around!

Briefly…

Breakfast Today I had a much healthier green monster! Two big handfuls of spinach, some rhubarb, protein powder, water, a banana and I have breakfast for two days in a row:

With a peanut butter sandwich to round things out

Lunch was eaten in two stages again today. Salad at 11 to stop my tummy from rumbling

And tuna and a serving of these crackers at noon:

This basically taste like Wheat Thins, but they also taste slightly buttered. Tasty, but maybe not as healthy as I was hoping.

Dinner was microwaved egg, some black beans, peppers, rice, cheese, and Mrs Dash chipotle seasoning. A little on the dry side, eaten with some tortilla chips.

I didn't sleep well last night so the plan is to watch perhaps a little more Gossip Girl, do some much needed yoga (didn't stretch very well after the gym yesterday and my quads are feeling it today), and if I manage to perk up I might put together a special post before bed. We'll see how much work getting pictures off my backup drive ends up being.

Back to the grind

Breakfast I had Kashi Go Lean with Cabot Greek style yogurt for breakfast. I think maybe it's just this yogurt that affects my lactose intolerance so badly. When I was eating other yogurts it wasn't so bad but today I was mighty uncomfortable so this breakfast is going to be saved for a weekend treat.

Snack Pears were on sale at Kroger when we were there friday night so I grabbed one on my way out the door this morning, knowing I'd be hungry. No picture! I was running late.

There was leftover birthday cake in the office today which was tempting. I got through the morning reminding myself that I wasn't hungry and that I had an outstanding piece of cake with dinner last night. After lunch was a little tough, I always want something sweet after a meal. I mentioned it to the woman who brought it in and she said she was rather disappointed with it, that it hadn't gotten wrapped up properly and was quite dry. She talked me out of it! Normally I always give in to cake, but last night's tiramasu layer cake was so delish that a simple yellow cake with chocolate icing would have blemished the memory. Plus I'm really trying to work on eating more intuitively and I just wasn't hungry or craving sweets. Or not until after lunch at least, by which point I was feeling gross thanks to starting my day with dairy. I feel like it was an easy win and let me have a bigger, tastier dinner later

Lunch Bet you can't guess what I had! Yuppers, it was a spinach salad with peppers, almond slivers, and balsamic vinaigrette.

With tuna (my favorite flavor!) and the last of these Kashis to round out the meal. At least I'll have a new cracker to review tomorrow!

Exercise It's been pouring for days here but I was determined to get in a run today. It was dry when I got home but as I was changing it started to absolutely pour, so I remembered that little gym membership that I have and figured I'd grind it out on the treadmill. By the time I was leaving the house the rain had stopped again. I started to regret driving to the gym, but there was so much water dripping off the trees I would have been wet anyway. Then driving up the street I would have been running along, I saw a girl get completely drenched by a passing car. No more regrets!

Running 36 minutes on a treadmill is really, really boring and therefore really tough mentally. I took breaks at minute 22 and 26 for about a minute each. I got myself through 35 minutes by telling myself to make it to 30 minutes, then round out 3 miles, then 3 more minutes to complete the 35. I then reversed the run/walk intervals to walk a minute, run a minute for 6 minutes. Definitely happy I made it through but it was tough. With 4 minutes of walking to cool down I did 3.85 miles.

Dinner I came home in time to give the dogs dinner and their medicines right on schedule. I put a pot of brown rice on to cook and hung out with Rose and had Hubby help me take care of those blisters. They're now gone, yay!

After forever the rice was done and I reheated leftovers from Saturday. Grilled asparagus, tomatoes, squash, onion and zuchini, grilled hot sausage (on the rice) and cheesy potatoes. A very tasty dinner. And very filling though my stomach is starting to empty out again (which might mean there's room for dessert!)

I'm not a fan of the texture of brown rice. The last few times I've made it I took it off the stove a good 5-10 minutes before the cooking instructions recommended and the texture was perfect (soft and mushy). Today I let it cook the full time and it was chewy so I think the key (for me at least) is less cooking time. Glad I figured this out!

I'm quite beat. I woke up right at midnight last night as though I still had to wake up to dose the dogs. Stupid internal clock seriously can work against a girl! I think it will probably take me a few nights to get it set back to normal. With that in mind I'm now going to take a shower and hopefully get in bed not too long after 9:00.

Brunch When we got up at 10:00 (after I got up at 6 for the dogs) Hubby kindly made me an omelet with Italian blend cheeses. Yum! I love eggs. And cheese makes everything better!

Soon afterward I made myself some toast (which got a bit well done) with cinnamon and sugar and ate a pear.

Snack After my nap and trip to the grocery store I had a minibag of popcorn to see me over till dinner.

Dinner Our second wedding anniversary is Tuesday We were originally going out of town this weekend, until our dogs decided to rack up some major vet bills. Because of that original plan, Hubby's working on our actual anniversary. So we went to a restaurant called Last Resort tonight to celebrate.

We started out with a bottle of zinfandel. We had a great zinfandel on the last night of our honeymoon and brought home a bottle which we drank on our first anniversary (we somehow didn't actually receive the top tier of our wedding cake). This isn't the same brand, but it's quite good.

I had about 2.5 pieces of bread which was literally fresh out of the oven. We had to wait for it! Quite tasty.

I also had a salad with a balsamic vinaigrette.

I ordered one of the specials for my entree:

The catch of the day was tilapia over red onion and red peppers, topped with a chipotle mint pesto. It came with kale and cheese grits.

The fish was seared and then baked in parchment. I was so excited to try kale! I read about it on almost every blog out there but haven't had the guts to try it myself. It was so good! I loved the lemon juice and how it brought out the flavor of the greens (Hubby's reaction to the kale was that "some greens should be left alone"). I totally cleaned my plate.

Hubby got the salmon and grits which was Atlantic salmon on a bed of Charlestonian grits with a caper cream sauce. Pretty tasty. I liked mine better

On a whim I ordered some decaf coffee while Hubs ordered regular (study study study) and was so excited to try another new item! They had Truvia! I've been curious about stevia too and was pleasantly surprised with Truvia. The coffee was perfect with a single packet. Not sweet, but not the usual bitter either.

My excitement was soon eclipsed by dessert… Hubby was set on a mocha toffee cheesecake so I opted for my own cake slice of tiramasu layer cake. It wasn't tiramasu but it was still fabulous!

I ate it all. No regrets. Hubby gave his two week notice at work this past Thursday so we won't be eating very adventurously for quite awhile. It will be good for him and we'll get creative about budgeting even further. Dinner tonight was absolutely fabulous and such a treat.

See Cat Run

Adventures in running and budget eating