2010 January | See Cat Run

The blink of an eye

Where do my days go?

To work… well that's fairly self-explanatory. I work from 7 am to 4 pm with an hour lunch break made nice and wonky by class attendance.

To a biology test… a test is a test, I'm a little disappointed that I made either an 87 or a 91 (depending on what the real answer to the wrongly coded question was) and very annoyed that my group bubbled an answer wrong on the group portion. Hopefully that won't bring my grade down farther if I got the question itself right!

To the library health fair… The nutrition information was insanely lame (baked Lays are better than the regular Lays which contain only potato, sunflower oil, and salt?!) but they had flexibility testing (I'm down to fair, need to do yoga!), blood pressure testing (I'm excellent with a slow pulse), height/weight/bmi (I'm very pleased, my bras are right, I've lost weight), and body fat measuring (not sure how accurate the pulse machine is, but again, I'm happy).

To the grocery store… I was sorely missing crackers at lunch today and was lacking various other items but no more.

To dinner… Hubs made a frozen skillet meal (I have no idea what brand or anything). It seemed to be a chicken and vegetable alfredo. The package got thrown away before I could look at any nutritional stats/ingredients, but look at all that zucchini! I love zucchini.

He also is determined to make space in our freezer so cooked some tater tots. I had these… times about three. I can't let good carbs go to waste! (Though I did have the foresight to put some of the pasta away though it was originally on my plate)

Honestly, I don't think I've been at this weight since before my last growth spurt ended and my legs have a lot more muscle now than then. I'm not sure I want it that low so I'm thinking I may up my portions a bit to make sure things don't fall too low.There's that nagging little voice in my head reminding me that bigger portions cost more money though… stupid voice. I'll have to put some thought into this and see what I can figure out.

To bio lab homework… Nothing interesting to share except I don't appreciate being made to feel stupid. I'm blaming it on the fact that I didn't sleep well last night and my brain was refusing to work. I swear I would have been able to figure that out with a fulling functioning brain. Grrrr.

To trying to figure out Heidi Montag… Just WTF. Like seriously. WTF.

To getting ready for bed… I wrap this up just in time to take the pupster out again and make myself comfy. I was hoping for more time with my yoga mat or my foam roller (or both) but I need sleep. Sorry legs, but after you made me cry out in pain with your buddy f.rolly last night, I'm going to be selfish and give my brain the rest it needs now.

Goodnight!

Hurts so good

My friend ran me into the ground today. Not on purpose! She was willing to go as slow as I wanted but when you run with someone its hard to keep a slow pace. It was great running with her though and worked out perfectly. She had 16 miles to do and just happened to have four to run between her place and mine so she ran here, we ran my eight (or 7.85, close enough) and she ran home.

I am seriously exhausted. Didn't help that I got to bed late last night. So lets just say that my food today was pretty much "the usual" of oatmeal, clementines, cereal and almonds, salad, leftover pasta and tofu, and I ended up having a Clif bar before leaving work to give me extra energy. I still definitely got hungry on the run though. We ran a rather random route through neighborhoods and campus that had an unappreciated hill or two (I'll hurt tomorrow, my hips are already screamin').

Mile 1: 11:18
mile 2: 11:23
mile 3: 11:10
mile 4: 11:10
mile 5: 11:42
mile 6: 11:46
mile 7: 11:53
mile .85: 9:51 (11:34/mile pace, I really didn't want to take the long way back to the apartment)

Mile goal pace was supposed to be 12:16 and there were definitely times when Garmie would chime at me to speed up, so averaging 11 some-odd mile is damn good. Especially for a new personal distance record (PDR).

Hubs brought his own dinner home and there was nothing here I particularly wanted so I ran up to Earthfare (closest grocery store, conveniently enough) and bought two Amy's wraps (hey, its what I was craving)

They were both fabulous (for frozen meals) and totally satisfying. Lots of protein!

I'm too tired to stay up for fro-yo, or for Life Unexpected. I am going to hit up some tennis ball and foam rollar action before bed though. My feet and legs hurt! Goodnight!

Foody weekend

Does anybody else get a fatal error when they try to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress? Just curious.

Well I have a lot to say and not a lot of time to say it. It's 7 minutes till bedtime, but I guess I'll stay up and fill you kids in for a bit.

Oh its been a long weekend… Lets see. Hubs and I wound up at Starbucks Saturday morning because we've got homework and we've got gift cards. Do any of your know about the fabulosity of Starbucks gift cards? If you register them on s-buck's website (and keep money on them to pay with) you get free syrups, free soy milk, free drink with a bag of coffee, and two hours of internet free a day! I lose focus well before my two hours would be up so this is so totally perfect for me! Anyway, I bought a large coffee with two pumps of white chocolate syrup and a perfect oatmeal with all the toppings. Yum! Didn't get as much studying done as I would have liked, but that's kind of the standard for this weekend.

I had coupons for 1/2 off the salad bar or hot bar at Earthfare so we used those for lunch. I got a base of spinach and mixed greens, two stuffed grape leaves, quinoa (finally!!! we agreed to buy more next time I get a coupon requiring a purchase), a piece of tofu, kale salad (not nearly as good as what I had Last Resort), a cabbage salad, a bite of potato salad, and some shiitake soy dressing.

Hubs got a little bit of everything at the hot bar. Mac'n'cheese, some amazing sweet red pepper + goat cheese turkey meat loaf, jerk sweet potatoes, cabbage, steamed veggies, beans, and some fish. That meat loaf was seriously amazing. My favorite part (his was the sweet potatoes, so we didn't have competition ).

Last night's dinner was rushed, I had some leftover tofu and several handfuls of Quaker oatmeal squares. Then my friend picked me up and we went to Aromas coffee and wine bar for a girl's night! For the last year and a half we've been able to eat lunch together a few days a week, but not this semester. She's moving to Chattanooga in June so we need to really make time to see each other. It was great, this is the second time we've gone out for a drink and end up talking for 4 hours straight completely effortlessly. She's training for a marathon so we may start doing our long runs together, she'll run down to my apartment and 'pick me up' and do whatever I need to do, then run home. Awesome!

Today we had lunch planned with Hubs's father, step mother, brother, his girlfriend, grandmother, step-grandfather, and 3/4 of the family friends we spent Christmas night with. I had a grapefruit for breakfast and took some oatmeal squares on the road when I started getting hungry. We went to a Malaysian restaurant in Atlanta called Penang. I didn't realize it till we got there, but I went to the restaurant several times while I was in college! A girl down my hall took me a couple of times and it was my first time every trying tofu.

My step mother in law is Malaysian so she ordered everything family style and it was fabulous. I don't have pictures, but I can tell you (most of) what we had!

APPETIZERS It’s the all-times favorite Malaysian crispy Indian style pancake. Served with curry chicken potato sauce.

ROTI CANAI ROTI TELUR 4.95

ROTI CANAI It’s the all-times favorite Malaysian crispy Indian style pancake. Served with curry chicken potato sauce.

PENANG SATAY

Marinated beef or chicken on skewers, charcoal grilled to perfection. Served with peanut sauce (Malaysian specialties). (We got both chicken and beef)

PENANG POPIA Steamed Malaysian spring roll stuffed with jicama. Served with peanut sauce.

PENANG LOBAK Deep fried minced pork wrapped with bean curd skin, shrimp pancake and fried tofu.

NASI LEMAK Coconut rice flavored with cloves & screwpine leaves. Served with chili anchovy curry chicken and fried egg.

SIZZLING JAPANESE TOFU Stir fried tofu, vegetables and Chinese mushroom.

LADY FINGER BELACAN

Sautéed okra with spicy Malaysian shrimp paste sauce.

I also had a loban fruit juice which was really good. Loban is a fruit that I think is native to Malaysia. Yum! Everything was utterly fabulous but my favorites were the roti canai and lady finger belacan. But as I said, I loved it all.

And it put me to sleep… I slept almost all the way home and then continued to nap once here. I blame the rain. It also rained out my weekly long run, but I'm going to join Sarah tomorrow for eight miles on my part. Crazy!

Hubs and I seem to have an excess of pasta at the moment, so that would be what we had for dinner. I bought this wine cube at Target a month or so ago and it is really good! A zinfandel, merlot, cabernet sauvignon blend. Nice and sweet from the zin with a bit of depth from the heavier wines. Plus its four bottles worth of wine in a nice compact, recyclable container!

We had shells, sauteed onions, and marinara sauce. easy peasy, with some buttered Italian bread on the side (wooo, love my carbs!)

And dessert was another huge treat… Look what I found at Kroger! I'd seen this on Meghann's blog and a few others a month or so back and knew I had to try some when I spotted it here.

This. is. amazing. A very light tartness similar to key lime ice cream with a ribbon of clover honey to surprise you with its sticky sweetness. This is going to be hoarded and hidden and I'll be as selfish as I can be until I find more Love love love it. And it has probiotics!!! I'm a very happy girly.

Hopefully we can avoid any more tornado warnings tonight so I can sleep tight. I hate hearing those damn tornado sirens, but its a good thing we have them I guess. Goodnight!

Speedy seven!

I am bone tired so this is going to be quick.

I slept an extra half hour this morning (wasn't expecting to actually fall back asleep!) so it was oatmeal that was sacrificed. I packed up some oatmeal squares, raw nuts (walnuts, almonds and pecans) and craisins to eat at work.

But I did have time to eat one of our grapefruit before I left (barely time!). That's an 18 lb bag folks.

My cereal and nuts held me over all morning. Lunch was a spinach salad with mushroom, green peppers and leftover tofu. It seems to have eluded the camera.

I came home and head out for seven miles of speed work.

Mile 0-1: (warmup) 12:17
Mile 1-2: (goal of 10:03) 9:59
Mile 2-2.5: (jog) 12:09
Mile 2.5-3.5: (10:03) 9:58
Mile 3.5-4: (jog) 11:41
Mile 4-5: (10:03) 9:31
Mile 5-6: (jog) 11:43
Mile 6-7: (cooldown) 11:19

I have to say I'm quite pleased. I really, really didn't want to go. I'd been cold all day and it was cold outside. I've slept poorly this week so I had absolutely no energy, but I took some of Tina's "just do it" attitude and ended up rocking it! Once I started on the fast sections it was actually really hard to slow down to 10:00, and my usual goal pace for long and easy runs is a 12:16 these days, so I feel like I did really well. I've had only good runs lately (knock on wood!), maybe I'm finally getting the hang of it. I still don't feel like a real runner though, maybe because all of the "real runner" blogs I read just completed a marathon or run 8:30/miles. I know that everyone has to start somewhere, but it just hasn't hit me that I'm one of those people you see out running after work. Maybe because I feel so slow. If someone passes me I just tell myself that I'm going for distance, not speed. I don't feel like a real runner yet though.

After burning over 600 calories in just over an hour I needed food! I had a Quaker chewy oatmeal bar that's been living in my desk for a few months before leaving work, but it got burned off quickly! I had a glass of G2 as soon as I walked in the door to start on rehydrating. About half an hour later I looked in the pantry, saw a certain blue box and felt that I must have macaroni and cheese for dinner, which quickly turned into macaroni and peas (leftover from Tuesday night). It was just what I was craving and sooooooo satisfying. Probably wouldn't be nearly as good on a random night, but tonight it was perfect.

After watching the dogs play for 20 minutes or so (and texting pet pictures back and forth with my mom) my hunger was still there, so I had some cake. I may or may not have finished this whole slice. I'll leave that to you to decide. But hey, there are pecans, and carrots, and raisins, its not all bad!

I'm still sitting in stinky (and cold!!) workout clothes so I'm going to go shower off and hit the hay. My body hurts and wants the relief of our fabulous mattress (best wedding gift, hands down). Goodnight lovelies!

Highlight reel

I haven't been a very good photographer lately but I'm taking a break from biology tonight to blog and watch Vampire Diaries! I have thirteen minutes, lets type fast.

Tuesday night I had peas and made some of Gliding Calm's tofu. Yum! I'm so glad to finally have a decent recipe! And leftovers

Last night after bio lab I stopped at Your Pie on the way home and got myself a pizza. I wish I had gotten different toppings, I remember liking it better the first time (granted I'd had a bit much to drink). This is whole wheat crust, marinara, no cheese, spinach, broccoli, red onion, and roasted garlic. I ate half last night and half today for lunch (minus the garlic).

I actually had Starbucks' Perfect Oatmeal for breakfast this morning but the pictures are on my phone downstairs and it wasn't really anything special. Standard mushy quick cook oats.

Hubs decided it should be date night tonight so we went to a restaurant called Five Star Day Cafe. I had been to a different location once before but he'd never been. This one is much bigger and quite cute!

The restaurant is empty because we are an old couple and eat dinner at 5:30 pm.

I got the Garden of Eatin' platter (veggie plate) with a side salad (with poppyseed dressing, yum!), black eyed peas, and fried okra. Everything was excellent! I also had bites of Hubs' mashed potatoes (super delish) and collard greens. He said his chicken was just average but that the veggies were excellent.

It was rainy and cold today so I pushed my speed work back to tomorrow (again). Time for dessert and vampires!!

Soon…

Hey guys and gals, I'm afraid I'm going to be MIA for another day or so, I way underestimated the amount of reading I'd need to be doing this week and since I'm trying to stay sane, sleep is currently taking preferences over blogging.

Five days in one? Why not

Hi there! I know I've been negligent. Again. I should have mentioned in my last post that I wouldn't be posting on Thursday. Friday was my brother's 19th birthday but due to work schedules we celebrated a day early. Hubs, Ollie and I drove to Atlanta after I got off work and the fam went to a restaurant called Mo Mo Ya (I always want to call it Yo Yo Ma) that is a hibachi grill. I didn't pull my camera back out to catch any of the fire volcano stuff, but I did photograph my food! And I caught a piece of egg in my mouth, I'd never tried before! I was pretty pleased with myself

We started out with yummy soup, the standard stuff that I have no idea what its called. Broth, mushrooms and shallots.

Then an iceberg salad with that awesome ginger dressing they serve at Japanese restaurants.

I actually wanted the vegetable maki combo so that's what I ordered. I had definitely planned to ask for brown sushi rice, but the poor waiter was already so confused that I wanted a sushi menu in the grill room, and that I was then actually ordering sushi off said sushi menu, that I let it go. These are six pieces of asparagus roll, six pieces of avocado roll, and eight pieces of cucumber & yamagobo (Japanese carrot) roll. The best was definitely the avocado, the rest were actually a little boring. I ate them all anyway!

While the fam was at dinner my parents' neighbor offered to play with Ollie for a bit and she brought him a present! I love Mary Beth and I'm glad I got to see her, however briefly (she left before we got home, having her own dinner cooking on the stove). She bought him a puppy Kong stick that he loves. Two days later he already knew the sound of a peanut butter jar opening, rather like someone else in the bloggo-sphere. So cute. Plus it gives hubs and I half hour or so to get some studying done Definitely not having kids while taking college classes!!!

Lets see, looks like my camera is jumping to Friday dinner. Since we went to Atlanta on Thursday I did my tempo run on Friday.

Mile 1: No stats, very easy
Mile 2: 10:34
Mile 3: 10:07
Mile 4: 10:26
Mile 5: 10:27
Mile 6: 11:18

The plan called for 10:45 for the middle four miles so I think I did pretty well! I was also very happy to stop only twice (other than for stop lights). The first time I had to catch my breath after running up a hill on campus where I ended up keeping my pace up because I was running past bus stops . I stopped and walked for about a minute before my cool down mile too.

Dinner was a stirfry that we'd been planning for a few days. Just a bag of stir fry veggies that Hubs heated up in a pan with some Mrs Dash tomato basil garlic (don't know why but it worked), served over brown rice, with some popcorn shrimp for protein, and lots of soy sauce. Hubs and I watched The Darjeeling Limited (I liked it! Lots of good actors) and afterward I climbed straight to bed.

Saturday breakfast was a two egg fluff with some toasted French bread and butter. Half of that bread was for the Hubs!

And a grape fruit! This was delicious and I actually regretted putting honey on it, it didn't need it at all! This was my first time trying to eat a grapefruit, but I had a coupon for two free ones from Earthfare. Now I want more!! It was so good and grape fruit juice reminds me of London. I'd have it every morning with breakfast while we stayed there… sigh.

Hubs and I went to Panera for lunch on Saturday because its right next door to Target. I got tomato soup (yum!!) and the Mediterranean veggie half sandwich. The sandwich I noticed last time we were there and didn't fully read the description this time… it has cilantro hummus on it and I am not a fan of cilantro. It wasn't too overpowering so I ate it anyway.

Dinner was not one of my best moments so I didn't photograph. Some folks came over and we ordered from a place called Gumby's pizza who seems to only establish itself in college towns. They have this pizza called the Stoner Pie which we always get… pepperoni, bacon, extra cheese, french fries, and mozzarella sticks I definitely pull the french fries and mozzarella sticks off and eat them separately. So I had a slice of that and a slice of the chicken bacon ranch pizza that we also got… Oh goodness, I really really don't want to know what kind of damage I did. After dinner Alex and I retreated upstairs and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was cute! I like Amy Adams and Krysten Ritter and of course Hugh Dancy.

I had leftover cheesy bread from Gumby's for breakfast Sunday… oh well. I also had leftover Gumby's for lunch after a trip to the mall where I got my eyebrows threaded with a friend and got some very surprising news… More on that later.

This morning (finally we're almost current!) I had a serving of Quaker oatmeal squares with a handful of natural almonds and a sprinkling of Craisins, followed by half a grapefruit (Hubs ate the other half). Tasty!

After another trip to Target I had a clementine while I waited on some bread to toast for peanut butter toast. I took a picture of the fruit but completely forgot about the toast! I'm sure you can imagine…

After letting lunch digest and typing up my class notes from Thursday I went on a seven mile long run. I was so happy with how I did! No voluntary stops, just stopping for traffic (sure, one of those stops I might have waited a little longer than necessary…). I felt really good the whole time. Around mile four I started struggling for breath and around mile 4.5-5.5 I had to really talk myself into continuing to run because I knew I could do it! I made sure to start out really slow so that I wouldn't tire myself too much.

Mile 1: 11:50
Mile 2: 11:44
Mile 3: 11:26
Mile 4: 11:16
Mile 5: 11:07
Mile 6: 10:58
Mile 7: 11:00

My goal was at 12:16/mi so I'd say I did pretty good! I don't think I fueled very well though. Wish I'd had a more substantial, earlier lunch.

I came home and chugged a glass and a half of water followed by a glass of soy milk with a spoonful of protein powder. I can't remember where I read that this is a good recovery drink for the lactose intolerant, but I did. I forgot to take a picture… the protein powder doesn't mix very well anyway.

Dinner a few hours (and a shower) later was tilapia and whole grain shells with veggied up marinara sauce. We used this recipe for the fish and hubs added onion, green pepper, and baby portobello mushrooms to the sauce. It was pretty good and I ended up leaving some pasta on my plate.

Now I'm drinking a glass of cabernet sauvignon that my parents gave us and I predict a slice of carrot cake in my future if my stomach empties a bit. My brother decided he doesn't actually like carrot cake, so we got to bring half his birthday cake home with us.

*******

And now… On my About page I mention enjoying watching my body change as I grow fitter and I haven't really followed up on that in awhile. How about now?

This weekend has been nice and warm (low to mid-60s) so on my last two runs I've had the chance to admire my sexy runners legs. Since starting running my calves have gotten a lot bigger (than the nothing I had before) which I'm not thrilled about but I can accept. My quads are definitely getting more and more defined though, which I'm loving. I think runners legs are so sexy. I've got a cut on the outside of each thigh and they're nicely curved in the back and front.

I haven't particularly noticed any difference in my torso and I guess my tush is a firmer but haven't really checked

The shock I got came yesterday at Victoria's Secret. Let me say first that I get dressed by my closet, far away from my mirrors and most days in the dark, so I don't really see myself shirtless very often. Well I stopped by Vicky's Secret to see about exchanging some bras that I ordered online in the size I've worn since high school and seemed to be too small. Well evidently you can't exchange things from online in the store but I asked her to measure me anyway so I'd know what size to order. Well evidently I've actually lost a cup size or two! Since then I've tried on my old bras in front of a mirror and it's pretty obvious, but I was completely oblivious! Should make bras easier to find and I can buy them at cheaper places like Target (thus the trip back today). I have no idea why the two I ordered online seem too small, but oh well. It's such a shock though… I haven't really lost that much weight elsewhere… I tend to bounce back and forth about four pounds and when I went to the doctor right before Christmas I was back at the lower end of the spectrum. Sorry, this is still kind of mind blowing!!! It really just never occurred to me though they always say that's the first place women lose weight. Maybe the weight loss will move down to the belly next…

*******

Alright, after that marathon of a post (remind me to post about upcoming race ruminations by the way…) I'm going to go read for a bit and then watch the premier of Life Unexpected. It comes on at bed time though, maybe not the best idea

New lab

So I only have one food photo for you today. My eats were kind of off, but it was actually a pretty good day (and I don't say that often, most of my days seem to just be eh).

This morning Hubs and I took advantage of Chickfila's free breakfast promotion and snagged a three pack of chicken minis each. I don't like the sweet stuff (butter?) they brush on top. Hubs also ordered me a large coffee which surprisingly didn't make me all jittery like it has other days lately. In fact I was much much more productive this morning at work, though that is probably more because of the reserve lists I worked on than the coffee. Unfortunately I completely crashed sometime between 1:30 and 2. Motivation gone, energy gone, excitement about my new organizational system gone… Not good.

Since I knew we were going out to breakfast I made my lunch while waiting on Ollie to eat (he takes awhile) and put it back in the fridge because it was still early. Well of course I forgot it so I bought a pimento cheese sandwich at the snackbar in the library. Nowhere near the best pimento cheese I've had, but it held me over quite well. I never actually got particularly hungry today strangely enough. I had my almonds/cereal and a tangerine for my morning snack and managed to last until dinner at 7:00 just on the sandwich at lunch.

Tonight was my first biology lab and it was really lame. A lot of talk about what scientific inquiry and inquiry based learning mean followed by a really easy make-a-graph activity. I was really hoping to get out early but it lasted nearly the whole two hours.

Hubs decided that he needed to cook his ground beef so opted for tacos and so I chose to put off the stirfry till later. I had a more complex version of last night's dinner.

brown rice
black beans
taco cheese (which includes taco seasoning which I can't taste)
green pepper
onion
salsa

Followed by chip crumbs and salsa for dessert. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'll take carbs over a sweet dessert any day!

And just so that this post isn't completely pictureless here's my new running outfit I got last Monday:

The top is closer to purple in real light and new running tights. Not a great picture (we need to teach the Hubs about some photography!) but it'll do. I love the top and treat it more as a jacket than a shirt. I love Target athletic-wear!!!

I meant to start Caitlin's weight lifting challenge today, but I think Wednesdays are going to be rest days. Looks like there won't be any time between work/lab/dinner/blog/chill/bed for workouts!

And it's already 8:00 again… I guess a 4:40-6:35 lab will do that to you. Time to go read for a bit!

Organization!

I feel so, so organized today. Hooray! I didn't feel rushed at any point, I'm going to try Google Tasks again, I'm caught up in my homework (except I haven't taken notes on the stuff I've read yet) and worked on organizing my go-to notebook. Now I blog really quick and go read for fun. I haven't done as much of that as I'd like, but oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Just a few notes about my day:

My projects at work seem to take longer than I expect them to, professors are making things more complicated than they should be and don't pay attention to deadlines (then get angry at us when they're reserve list isn't processed the day after they turn it in).
I would have started taking notes on bio this evening but I'm using Hubs' book (which is way more detailed than my class requires) and he needs it for his own homework.
I used to pull out recipes and workouts from Shape magazine (and now Self too) and I've finally started putting them all in a notebook organized by type. I also have various recipes I've printed out at work and beauty tips pulled from the magazines (eye make up looks I like or their "best buy" guides). I still have a lot of old magazines to go through but hopefully this will motivate me to actually do more strength training. I think Caitlin's and Tina's challenges should definitely help too.
I had a nice long conversation with my mom today about oatmeal and even pointed her toward Ange's crock pot apple oats as well as Kath's tribute. We'll see what comes of it.

Thinking of oatmeal… I had some for breakfast! This was just my usual 1/3 cup dry oats base with 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup plain soy milk, 1/2 a banana, with a ton of cinnamon and a few drops of vanilla extract stirred in at the end. I used 1/4 of a leftover cinnamon roll as my topping which surprisingly only served to reinforce how salty the roll was! Something you don't notice when eating it alone but was not a pleasant addition on my oats. I might have eaten the other 3/4 of the cinnamon roll after my oatmeal.

Another lunch, another salad. Baby lettuce mix with a bit of green bell pepper, onion, and goat cheese. No idea what changed (probably just my taste buds) but this combination seemed amazing today (where as yesterday I wasn't all that impressed). Blame it on hormones? Oh yeah, eaten with Ken's lite balsamic vinaigrette and followed by Kashi cheddar tasty little crackers.

My snacks were the same as yesterday, Stoneyfield's O'soy yogurt in the morning, almonds and cereal followed by a clementine in the afternoon. But yesterday I ate the last of my Shredded Wheat'n'bran. Quaker cereals are on sale at Publix at the moment so I bought myself a treat… Quaker oatmeal squares! I love these things dearly though they aren't nearly as good for you as the wheat'n'bran. Just a hint of brown sugar. I could probably eat the whole box in one sitting and be happy. Luckily I'm good with portions

The almonds I'm eating these days are roasted but unsalted. It's been a bit of a journey from not liking any nuts at all to Blue Diamond's smokehouse almonds, followed by a move to regular roasted/salted almonds and now here we are. I didn't really like the roasted/unsalted at first but was a bit overzealous with Earthfare's bulk bins so I ate them anyway and now I totally love them! Next on the agenda are natural almonds… but that's mostly because I got a pack free with a coupon at Earthfare last week. I'm waiting till I finish these off though.

I went for my usual Tuesday easy run of two miles, averaging 11:00/mi the first half and 10:00/mi the second. I'm pretty happy about that.

I came home and shared some chips and salsa (Kroger brand tonight) with Hubs while my rice cooked (brown rice takes so long!) and then had some black beans and rice for my entree. I mixed it together with some cajun seasoning and it was pretty tasty! Nothing like a nice simple dinner from time to time though I've seriously overloaded on carbs today. Need to add some veggies in tomorrow! I've got a veggie stirfry in mind to use up some of this rice…

I'm off to get ready for bed and then read a bit of Septimus Heap for awhile. I'm still waiting to see whether I get drawn in or not. If I don't soon these books will be going back and I'll move on to one of the many other novels I have checked out. Goodnight!

A fresh start

So I'm going to try shifting my days around a bit… I hate showering at night and discovered on Friday (when it turned out I did actually have to go into work) that I actually have plenty of time for a quick one in the mornings without getting up any earlier than I already do. So yay! More time with my books in the evening (said books including: Biology, The End of Overeating, and Magyk the first Septimus Heap book)

I get up and immediately take the dogs out and this morning I had instructions to turn on the oven so that Hubs could later make cinnamon rolls. I had two. And coffee. Now that I have time to sip coffee at home I might make it a more regular thing. Antioxidants and all.

For my morning snack I tried Stonyfield's O'soy yogurt. It was… interesting. I'd like to start consuming probiotics again but I'm not sure that this is going to be the way I'll do it. I bought a six pack so I'll eat the rest and see if I can get used to it.

Lunch was the usual salad, but with a baby green mix this time (from Earthfare!) and green bell pepper (not organic, though its one of the dirty dozen) and goat cheese that I guess sunk to the bottom before I took this. Plus a serving of Cheddar Kashis. Yum yum yum.

I had one of these clementines with my morning yogurt and had the nuts/cereal/second clementine for my afternoon snack.

We have a ton of taco shells to use so I had two for dinner. This is black beans (with a bit of reduced sodium sauce from the can, it didn't add anything so I'll drain and rinse them from now on), onion, green pepper, and cheese on a whole wheat wrap. Yes, a bit dry but I wanted to savor my salsa…

Because Newman's Own was on sale at Publix!!! (By the way, Athenians, Sunday evening is not the time to shop at the eastside Publix, they were pretty paired down produce-wise, no red bell peppers!) This is absolutely heaven in a jar:

And since its Newman's Own you know its organic. I'm going to have a cup of tea while I call my dad back and then get down to some bio reading. I'm hoping to conserve the last hour of my nights (from 8-9, I get up at 5 so I'm an early bird) for reading, half an hour for whatever non-fiction book I'm reading for fun and the last half hour for my fiction book of choice. Wish me luck!

See Cat Run

Adventures in running and budget eating