Food Time

Dang, I feel like I’ve been getting down to some serious business in my last two posts.

In JOB RELATED news:

Thank you thank you thank you for all honest opinions regarding the job situation. It’s definitely one of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make yet – something that will change the course of my life for the next year (and even years after depending what happens!).

It turns out the hospital job back at school is only part time (25-35 hours a week), so I would definitely have to get another part time job in the morning hours (before 3:00) and/or the weekends.

I didn’t talk about it yesterday, but the job here at home is in a weight loss clinic and it deals with counseling patients, meal planning, and other weight loss related issues. Something that interests me very much – especially considering it pays more than double the hospital job 😉

I have to let the hospital know by the end of this week. And the nutrition counseling/weight loss clinic job won’t let me know if they want to do a 2nd interview until the end of this week/beginning of next. Oy.

Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances, money is tighter than tight right now, so my parents won’t be able to help me out at all if I move. Many of you suggested that option, but that is a no-go.

In FOOD/RUN related news, I thought I would give you a glimpse into my day (not today -a few days ago):

Breakfast was carb-o-licious.

2 Nature’s Path hemp plus waffles topped with 2 T Einstein’s bluberry cream cheese & syrup. I love these waffles. But the maple cinnamon are still my favorite 🙂

My run was tough!! I thought about going on a long run, but really didn’t feel up to it, so I decided on a mid-length run of 7-8 miles. Plus my knee has been really sore since my knee brace-less run on Wednesday. The route I went on today used to be my favorite when I was running a couple years ago, but it’s very very hilly.

I would show you just how hilly, but my Garmin is being dumb (no offense Garmin – I still love you!) and not connecting to my computer.)

Total: 7.12 miles
Time: 1:10

Post-run turkey, laughing cow, mustard on a whole wheat tortilla.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to add nectarine slices?

Snack soon after before heading on errands – Cottage cheese & berries.

Errand food:

(not very good. I swear I tasted coconut?)

At Costco they were sampling cookies vitamin loaded chemical bars from the “Cookie Diet.” Of course since I’m all aboard the weight loss train now, I was down to try a cookie for my next meal.

Please please don’t tell me you believed that. I was just very curious to see what these “cookies” tasted like. Blech. I literally had to spit it out. Cookie? Cookie???? These people should be arrested for calling this a cookie. Poor poor cookies everywhere. Don’t let this guy give you a bad name.

I came home starving for dinna! Peanut butter jelly Sushiiiiiiii time.

Broccoli time.

And soon after – carrot fry time!

The other day I happened to get up and start making carrot fries in the afternoon. My sister asked what I was making.

“Carrots fries,” I say. Duh.

“Oh of course – carrot fries. A totally normal thing to make.” My sister replies.

I guess I forget sometimes not everyone eats carrot fries, oatmeal out of nut butter jars, and pumpkin on a daily basis like bloggers.

Later that night, more snackage continued. With watermelon x2.

And chocolate “ice cream” (almond milk + cocoa powder + ice + xanthan/guar gum) topped with chocolate syrup and a small scoop of Heath Toffee real ice cream.

And yes. This was all in accordance with my weight loss plan 😉

Please insert 3-5 apricots somewhere between the above pictures. I forget when and how much I ate of them.

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Stressful Decisions

Thank you so much for all your support regarding my new changes. Every comment I received was supportive, and many of you even want to keep each other motivated 🙂 Way to go! 🙂

Today has been stressful and I have to get some opinions on this one. Last weekend I had a last minute job interview back in my college town (where I just moved from). The job is perfect – a diet assistant position at a hospital. Exactly what would look amazing on my application for an internship I need to apply to next year. However it only pays $9 an hour. I figured I’d come home with about $1300/month and after some approximations, I figured it would cost me $1500 to live very very frugally. And by frugally I mean no saving, no clothes shopping, and barely any fun money.

I also have another job interview tomorrow for a job here that pays much more. This job would look good on applications, although not nearly as good. I’ve also gotten offered a part-time nannying position. Now I’m stressed for deciding what to do.

Say YES to Job at school:

Pros – Great experience
Live back in my college town with friends (which I LOVE)
Guaranteed job with benefits

Cons – Live almost in poverty
Save nothing
Have to pack up and move within the next week

Say NO to job at school (keep looking at home/hopefully get the job I’m interviewing for tomorrow)

Pros – Don’t have to pay rent (live at home)
Don’t have to pack up and move again
Will make almost double the pay at another job or nannying

Cons – Take a risk and hopefully get the job I’m inteviewing for
Live at home (blah)
Live at home (yes I had to say it again)
Give up great experience at a hospital

Just a sidenote – the other job here at home is still nutrition related, would look good on my application, and includes benefits. I just don’t know 100% if I would get it or not.

So felt I had to share with y’all my dilemna right now. I know it’s my life and my decision, but if you were in my position – What would you choose to do right now? Thoughts?

Moving on to today’s eats:

Breakfast eaten at 10:30 (yes I slept in!)

• 3/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 nectarine
• Blueberries
• 2 figs
• 1/2 cup TJ’s high fiber cereal

I missed my nut butter in this mix!

And 2 mugs of coffee with almond milk and 1 T SF creamer in each mug.

All while checking out half marathon training schedules 😀

Followed by some strength training & Lost watching. I love that about having a weight set in our house – can watch episodes while doing so 😉

Starving for lunch! Turkey + laughing cow + mustard in a whole wheat wrap. Eaten on the go to Costco!

+ 2 apricots on the side.

Snack at around 4:00 while browsing Tar-jay.

Came home to munch on numerous carrots & dressing.

Dinner was Thai flavored noodles over veggies.

And a scrambled egg (unpictured – sorry!).

+ a nibble of my sister’s brownie 😉

I’m feeling a bit hungry now, so I’ll probably go have some melon or strawberry “ice cream” (thick thick strawberry smoothie).

Opinions on the job front please!!

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Heading Back

This post contains weight and weight loss talk. If you’re not comfortable with this, I advise skipping this post.

I know many poeple don’t like reading about weight loss or bloggers talking about eating for weight loss. Many of you are foodies and you like to see good food, and lots of it! 😉 It took me a while to convince myself to write this post, but this is my blog, but isn’t the point of having your own blog to be able to write what you want? Your thoughts?

I’ve mentioned before how I gained a little bit of weight when I stopped running. Many people don’t, but I did. About 10 pounds. Which isn’t huge, and I still fit into most my clothes.

Then it was over the holidays that I gained another 10 pounds. That might sound almost impossible over just Thanksgiving and Christmas, but my metabolism is often times slower than molasses after what I’ve put it through in the past.

This second 10-pound gain brought me a little higher than I wanted. But I still mostly felt comfortable, strong and beautiful in my own skin.

Then, over the past few months of April celebrations, graduation partying, vacations (think Vegas), and end of the year drinking, my body packed on another 5. And I’m now 160-162 pounds. The highest I’ve been since sometime freshman year.

I’ve been trying to maintain the mind set of feeling beautiful no matter what your size, and I still do truly believe it. But I can’t ignore the fact that all my pants/shorts are too small now. That I barely recognize myself in photos anymore. My BMI is even in the “overweight” category (barely. And I know BMIs aren’t everything, but still).

Why am I ranting about all this? I just want you all to know what’s going on, support me (if you will!) and I’d like to document some of my journey on the blog. I’m not looking to get down to my lowest previous weight, but I am looking to get down to at least 145. I was able to maintain my weight easily there for most of last year, so I feel it’s my body’s “comfy happy weight.”

137ish when I felt most comfortable:

I understand not everyone may agree with me, but I know when I feel most comfortable, and that’s not now.

So starting today I’m getting serious about getting rid of my recent gain. It’s easier now that I’m home – I have a full on weight set in the other room. And let’s face it – I’m not tempted to drink as much as I was at school 😉 I’ve done it before, and I know I can do it again!

Thank you in advance guys for your support 🙂

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Self-Portrait

Seriously. Full of self-portraits. Or perhaps it should be titled “Taylor has yet to master self-portraits with her Iphone.”

I just about died on my run today.

Okay. That’s a bit of an overstatement. But I sure felt like I was about to.

I set out planning to go 10-10.5. Since I’m getting pretty bored of the routes around my house, I drove about 15 minutes to our downtown area to run the trails and neighborhoods down there. I also got up “early” to beat the heat. But in all honesty I didn’t get out the door until 9:45. That’s really not beating the heat much.

Miles 1-3: Felt pretty good. I walked for 1 minute about every 9-10 minutes. Towards mile 3 it started to get tough. The sun was really getting to me.

Miles 4-5: Getting more tough. There were a lot of hills around this point of the run, and I started to walk every 5 minutes or so. Around mile 5 I really started to doubt going 10. As I tweeted “Dyingggg. Only 5.2…halfway! Will probs cut it short.” I paused for a bit in the shade and ate half the fuel I packed –

Cashew butter & peach jam on sandwich thin (ate half)

Giving myself a 2-3 minute break in the shade made a HUGE difference. I powered up the rest of the hill quite refreshed.

Mile 6-7: These miles were in mostly shade and it’s amazing how much easier the shade made my run. I was still struggling, but not nearly as much. At mile 7 I literally stopped and leaned against the fence almost crying that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do a full 10. No way José. I decided to do a run 1:30/walk 1 minute pattern. I know this sounds like a ton of walking. Heck! It’s almost half walking, half running! But honestly, I figured that if I focused on just finishing (and not speed or the time I would finish in) that I could do it. I could finish all 10.

Mile 8-9: SO. MUCH. BETTER. The shorter running segments with more frequent walk breaks kept me going. My legs weren’t dying anymore. I wasn’t getting chills. I wasn’t feeling like I was gasping for air. It allowed me to finish my planned 10 miler.

Mile 10: The path I was on for the last 2 miles was almost 100% shaded, allowing me to run a tad longer with less frequent walk breaks. In fact, I ran the last 1/2 mile straight. Once I finished I cooled down a bit on some benches in the shade.

Relief!! 10 miler done! Welcome back to double-digit land!!!

(Please ignore my creepy neck.  That sometimes happens when I smile strangely)

Okay, fine. This is really how I felt. Special, I know.

Few! Thank you Mr. Garmin for holding out the entire time.

Finished in 1:42.43.  So 10.24 pace even with all the walking.

As proud and happy I am about this run, HOW ON EARTH DID I USED TO DO THIS ALL THE TIME? I know I’m building back up from a base of…um…nothing. But I’ve done this before. And I don’t remember it being this hard. When will it get easy again? Boy oh boy.

Now my thoughts on the walking. I always used to be a runner who hated walk breaks. I would only break at stoplights or when pausing for water/food. I’ve been including walking breaks into my runs post-injury to keep it easier on my knee. Today I almost reached a 50:50 run:walk ratio. To some, this might seem like “cheating.” Heck, I probably would have used to view it this way. To some, I didn’t actually “run” 10 miles. But if you add up all my walk breaks, it probably was less than 1 mile. And I’m proud of what I did! And of my knee. GO KNEE 😀 You rock.

Moving past the essay I just wrote…

Pre-run fuel was overnight oats.

• 1/3 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 scoop soy protein powder (1/2 serving)
• 2/3 cup almond milk
• Banana cream pie yogurt (Lucerne brand)
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Peanut butter

This A.M topped with:

• Cashew butter
• Blueberries
• Apple butter

Post-run I had the magnificent idea of Starbucks. I’m sure I stunk out the entire place when I walked in.

Hello sugar, chemicals and crap carbs, caffeine and protein(?).

A couple hours later – the quickest lunch possible. 2 veggie dogs on sandwich thin halves. With a nectarine.

Eaten while melting reading outside.

This book’s description reminds me of Face on the Milk Carton. Easy peasy read. I got through over 100 pages today in an hour.

I swear I melted away liters of sweat water. Mmmm water I love you. Please replenish me.

Snacks:

Watermelon slices x4

Source

1/2 yogurt container with cashews & PB mixed in

2 Diet Cracks

(Repeat photo!)

A few cheesy fries my sister made.

And a few bites of my other sister’s cupcake.

Dinner was BBQ chicken – I had 1 1/2 breasts (tee hee. I’m mature) a scoop of rice, and a multitude of grilled onions.

And then I made these puppies to bring with me on my roadtrip tomorrow.

I’m sure I had 2-3 worth of dough. Mmmmm dough.

What are your thoughts on the walk/run (typically known as the Galloway method) training?

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Tour de Strawberry

So I know I mentioned I was at “The Cabin” and I’ve talked about it on the blog before. But I’ve never fully described the cabin on the blog before.

Ladies & gentlemen, let me introduce you to Strawberry cabin.

(For the record, Hunter is not my last name)

The cabin used to belong to my great-grandma, and when she died my grandparents bought it from all the inheritants. So while it technically belongs to my grandparents, my family is welcome to go up whenever (as long as it’s not booked!), and I definitely consider it our own.

We’ve been regularly going up to Strawberry cabin for probably 13ish years now.

It’s fun in the winter. There’s a sledding hill only a 5 minute walk away.

But I definitely like it better in the summer.

There’s a lake 2 miles away which is awesome to relax at, paddle-boat, kayak, hike, and swim.

Literally in the backyard of our cabin is a beautiful river which we’ve been known to raft down, relax at, and chill (quite literally) in the water.

The house in the distance at the top of this photo is ours!

The cabin isn’t big by any means. But wonderfully cozy 😉 There’s a family room area

With some awesome comfy chairs 😉

And the kitchen/dining room area.

(Taken on Thanksgiving)

The kitchen was remodeled a few years ago. Made a HUGE difference in space!

And then our wonderful porch of course.

With the view!

Upstairs is the bedroom. Yes, literally our entire upstairs is one giant bedroom with 8 beds and a bathroom. And that’s where we all sleep!

So there you have it – Strawberry Cabin 🙂 Now you’ll know what I’m talking about whenver I visit “Strawberry.”

Yesterday morning before my run, I rummaged the cabinets and found some oatmeal packets.

Ooops 😉 And 2 cups coffee. Go U-Penn baseball! (My brother’s school/team).

I then headed out on a pretty hard 3.5 miler. The first 1.5 miles was literally a complete uphill battle. But I finished, and that’s what matters!

Talk about perfect timing – almost a 100% 10 minute mile pace!

Post-run leftover pizza and garlic bread from the night before.

This was a Safeway take-and-bake pizza, and I have to say I liked it!

Do you have a specific vacation spot that your family tends to return to over and over again? Something that is special and reminds you of childhood?

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Strawberry Moments

Greetings from Strawberry cabin!

Saturday started with seeing Lonestar at the local county fair.

I tried to take a picture of them on the stage with my phone but failed. Iphone camera < old canon camera.

After picking up some Chipotle (wolfed down in 5 minutes. No joke), we got to the cabin late Saturday night.

Some of the below pictures are recycled from previous trips. But all things I did this past weekend!

Things I love about our cabin:

• Beachin’ it & kayaking

• Swimming to the floating docks and cannon-balling off them
• Family time

• S’mores

• Coffee in the mornings on the deck

• Ice cream cones after a long day at the beach

• Hiking!!!

Look familiar? 😉

(From last year)

Monday morning, I wanted to hike to Cleo’s Baths, but decided to just do a shorter loop around the lake.

About halfway around the lake, you get to the Cleo’s Bath turnoff.

Next time Cleo’s. Next time!

It took me a good 1 hour 30 minutes, which I was surprised at. I’m pretty sure it’s a 3.5-4 mile hike, but usually takes me closer to 1 hour! I also stopped at 3 different times while walking to do 3 sets of 20 standing pushups against the rocks. Not nearly as difficult as normal pushups, but better than nothing!

I did wear my new 3 month old running shoes. I usually wear old dirty ones, but I didn’t want to risk anything with my knee.

They’re only shoes right? Okay if they get a little dirty!

Baby squirrel sighting on the porch!!

Little cutie pie 🙂

Well I’m off for a quick run in this mountain air. See you all when I get back home!S

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It’s been a while…

Hey folks! I know I haven’t been around much lately. In the past week I packed up my entire life at school, and hit the road for home.

Right now, the #1 question asked to me is: “So what are your plans now that you’ve graduated?”

In all honesty, I don’t know. Before I can become a registered dietician, I must complete a 1-2 year long internship at a hospital. Pretty much, it’s almost like attending grad school. More money paid, and no money made! 😉 Until that time comes, I’ve moved home and am currently looking for nutrition related work to give me experience to help me get into said internship. They’re quite competitive!

So what else have I been up to?

Besides unpacking and moving in to share a room with my 9-year old sister (yup – roommates), days have been filled with laying by the pool

4th of July festivities – the parade, during which I melted.

I have no idea how my sister and her team kept up their fancy schmancy gymnastics the whole time.

Or how this person even survived the heat.

Or this person.

Yes. There is a person in there.

And then fireworks/dessert. Here is my failure of a beautiful beautiful cake.

Originally I planned to make this flag cake.

I came across a few problems along the way.

1. My family had no round cake pans. Seriously. I had to use glass pie pans.

2. I forgot to add the food dye to one of the cakes, and had to take it out of the oven and add food coloring a few minutes after I’d already stuck it in the oven.

3. The cakes were too thick to bake. Therefore, I had to over-bake them so the middle would cook. And they ended up sticking to the pans. And falling apart.

4. There was no way I could slice these round cakes down the middle.

Which led to my 3-layer massively huge striped cake!

3 boxes of cake mix and 3 cans of frosting later….

Cake hates me. Remind me never to be a professional baker. Oh well, it all tastes the same, right? 😉

Eaten with copious amounts of ice cream.

Also been on a couple runs – including my long run of 9.5 miles! Which was one of my most difficult runs yet. This heat at home is sure going to take some getting used!

9.5 miles in 1:37.45. I honeslty don’t think I’ve ever ran a run that slow before. Walk breaks galore.

Thank the sweet heavens above for lemonade stands. And thank you past me for sticking a $5 bill in my fuel belt for emergencies. This was definitely one of them.

Please ignore the headphone cord in the way of my lens. It’s difficult to take a one-handed self portrait with an Iphone.

I also had a mini Clif bar around mile 6 hoping it would give me a bit more energy.

Fail. Run was still hard.

To off-set my hard run, I had an awesome run yesterday!

5 miles in 44:57. BOOYAH. I busted out the last 1/2 mile in an effort to keep it under 9 minute mile pace. It was also the farthest I’ve continuously ran since before my injury. I took only one 1-minute walk break at the halfway mark. I’m slowly getting back to my old running self! (knock on wood)

I also went and saw Eclipse! Have to say, best one yet of the series. It had an actual suspenseful plot. And there were actually scenes where Edward looked…dare I say…attractive? He didn’t have nearly as much makeup painted on as in the past films.

Although Kristen Stewart’s wig was a bit much for me.

[source]

Oh well, it entertained me for a good 2 hours.

Are you a good baker? Or do you tend to have bad luck in certain areas?

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Patriotic

Happy 4th!!!

From past 4th of Julys….

I can sum of 4th of July in 3 words pictures

The parade

Apple pie

[source]

And fireworks in our trunk. To this song specifically

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with family and friends 😀

xoxo

What 3 words describe your 4th of July?

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