The Season

Tis the season!  For….

Pumpkin spice loaf cake (from work).

Starbucks holiday cups (which they changed this year!!  Waaahhhh).  Totally not worth $3.75 by the way.  Ridic-u-lous.  But took advantage of the “Buy-1-get-1-free” with the roommate.

That would be a 1-pump peppermint 1-pump mocha with foam.  Still super sweet.

And peppermint hot cocoa. 

In my graduation mug Thank you sister!!

It’s also the season for:

• Holiday music
• 25 days of Christmas movies
• Falalala Lifetime
• Pounding rain (keeping you from sleeping)
• New winter coats (which I don’t get much use out of here in CA)
• Nsync Christmas CD

Source

Don’t deny it.  You love that CD too.

 

I know it’s not even Thanksgiving and many people say you can’t celebrate Christmas season until after Thanksgiving.  But c’mon.  Show me some Thanksgiving music then.

That’s what I thought.

Therefore, we have the right to listen to Christmas music now.

Besides, the 4 weeks between the two holidays goes too fast anyways.

 

What’s your favorite aspect to the “season.”  (Not the holiday itself – but the whole season!).  I love the tree.  Our tree at home is always so beautiful. 

so

Read Full Post »

All Day Happy Hour

The reason I only had 1 spoonful of ice cream last night was because I find that sometimes eating ice cream late at night causes me tummy aches in the morning.

Yet, I still woke up bloated and burpy (when I say burpy, I mean I feel like I have burps stuck in my chest. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with my acid reflux/stomach issues). Perhaps it was the late night plain yogurt that did it to me? haha.

Anyways, it was hard to scarf down food when I already felt pressure and full. But I needed to before my long run!

2 pieces of Ezekiel cinnamon raisin with a special nut butter, vanilla-pear butter, and a whole giant banana (I ate the rest of the ‘naner separate).

I had to break into this jar of almond butter, I swear!!!

The only nut butter I had open was my chocolate hazelnut butter, and I really wasn’t feeling that on cinnamon toast. This Justin’s maple almond butter was bought on super sale, and meant to be saved for a while.

Oh well.

Anyways, on to my run. My legs felt dead the whole time. From mile 1, all the way until the end. Tired tired legs.

My whole left side was also screaming at me. My left knee had a slight pain. My left butt cheek occasionally had a sharp pain. And towards the end, the bottom of my left foot was aching. WTF left side – what was your deal??  Cardio wise, I felt fine!  Never gasping to dying for air.

Don’t worry, I didn’t push through any horrible pain. And if I hurt later on or on my next run, I’ll rest up. But I am worried I need new orthotics and that was the cause of my left foot pain. Oh the joys of money.

I decided to cut my run short at 11.5 (I wanted to do 12), but after a short break on a bus stop bench, I decided I could push through another .5 mile easily enough. 12 it was!

Distance: 12 miles
Time: 1:53.05
Average: 9:25

• 1 – 8:38
• 2 – 9:13
• 3 – 9:13 (I’m so damn consistent, I can’t stand it)
• 4 – 9:26
• 5 – 9:08
• 6 – 10:01 (bummer. So close)
• 7 – 8:55 (woah missy!)
• 8 – 9:59
• 9 – 9:49
• 10 – 9:27
• 11 – 9:51
• 12 – 9:22

During, I fueled with my usual peach rings (I had 4 at mile 5.75), and a new find I got on sale at Target.

I brought along 2 little balls, and had 1 at mile 8, and another at mile 10.

These were actually pretty tasty. Stats:

I do feel that their recommended amounts per hour are a bit high though:

I really felt like a post-run beer.

Unfortunately it was 10:43 am.

Fortunately, I didn’t really care.

Yes – before 11 am. It is Thirsty Thursday, after all. I actually only drank half if that makes any difference.

A 12 mile run also deserves a long awaited pumpkin spice light frappie. Especially since I had a giftcard.

Sidenote: $4.35 for this thing? Are you kidding me?!?!? That’s a bit ridiculous.

Too sweet. Less pumps next time.

For lunch, all I really wanted was leftover pumpkin bread pudding. (BTW – I’ve totally been picking at this all week unpictured. It’s bomb). But I knew I needed more substance to my lunch.

I’m not sure why I added more bread and some chocolate filled crisps and called that substance.

On second thought, I added some feta to the hummus bread.

Mmmm pumpkin pie bread pudding.

At work I snacked on some of my new favorite granola.

And then ran some errands. Guess what’s right next door to the bank?

That’s right. It was pretty small – only $1.50 worth of yogurt. I honestly thought about not posting about this…WHAT?!?! Why should I be ashamed that I had a frappie in the morning and froyo in the afternoon? I shouldn’t. And I’m not. It was delish!

More snackage. Or dinner appetizers. However you want to look at it.

With ketchup and hummus for dippage.

Once I awoke from a glorious nap, all intentions of making lasagna went out the window. Something easy instead was required.

Whole wheat sweet potato gnocchi with pumpkin pasta sauce and some feta cheese. I thought about adding veggies to the mix, but nixed the idea. It’s a good thing I had those carrot fries. And that pumpkin definitely counts as a vegetable.

Come here my little pretty.

The sauce was phenom. The gnocchi was blah. No sweet potato flavor at all.

I’m now enjoying a cup of cookie dough coffee at 8:00 pm. Why? Because, like I said. It’s Thirsty Thursday. And I don’t work at 6 am tomorrow like I do the rest of the weekend.

Therefore – a great reason to go out on the town.

Read Full Post »

Happy Hour

Breakfast this morning was something I’ve had on my mind for a while.

Breakfast sandwich!

I microwaved 3 egg whites and layered it on a sprouted cinnamon raisin bagel which I spread pesto hummus & whipped chive cream cheese onto. Oh, and can’t forget the ketchup. This side looks pretty.

I had issues cutting it again.

The sweet and savory combo worked quite well and this was delicious. As was the addition of the pesto hummus & chive cream cheese. Happy belly.

I then headed to work where I made tons of money spent my paycheck on clothes. Ha. Whoops. In my defense it was all clearance items, and a few things I’ve been eyeing for a while. It was a bit depressing though when all my normal sizes didn’t fit at all. It’s one thing for my size to be tight, but quite another to have to go up 1 or 2 sizes. Seriously need to get my butt in gear here!

Lunchie chowed down during my 15 minute break:

• Chobani yogurt
• Kashi Go Lean cereal
• Strawberries (added post picture)
• Spoonful of PB

It’s hard to figure out an eating schedule with work. Sometimes I’m not hungry before work or during my break, but I know it’ll be a couple hours before I can eat again. So I know I need to eat something! Frustrating to make myself eat when I’m not hungry though!

Then it was time for happy hour!

Source – google images.

Starbucks frappucinos are all half off from 3-5 pm until May 17th! I know they are chemical laden and just plain not good for you. But who can deny themselves a frappie once and a while? 😉

Caramel light frappucino with non-fat milk. Perfect pre-run snack with a jolt.

My run was short but sweet.

3 miles in 28 minutes. I only did about 4-5 minutes of walk breaks throughout.

I’ve been building up the distance of my weekly “long run,” but keeping my other runs at 2.5-3.5 miles each. I really can’t wait until I can start adding miles to these runs too and head out for a 5-6 miler without a second thought. All in good time 🙂

Dinner was unpictured. I’m not joking when I say I was so starving, I started to eat it right off the pan, and then continued eating while talking to my roommates. And before I knew it, all my delicious parsnip fries were gone. But yup – parsnip fries!! Coated with nut butter. You betcha I’ll be making those again 😉

I also had the same salad I’ve been enjoying recently, which looked like this:

Finished off the texas caviar mix. You were quite tasty, but I probably wouldn’t buy again.

Oh can’t forget my little handful of granola in between my run and dinner 😉

Coconut Pomegranate Granola

• 3 cups oats
• 1/4 cup raisins or other dried fruit
• 1/2 cup nuts (I used almonds)
• 8 oz pomegranate juice
• 2 TB coconut oil
• 1/4 cup ground flax meal
• 1/4 cup Agave syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine above ingredients and toss to coat
3. Spread on baking sheet and bake 25-30 minutes, tossing every 10 minutes or so.

So honestly, I had high hopes for this granola. But it never crisped up in the oven! Maybe it was because I used a container of multigrain oats. But it was still tasty 🙂

Are you a frappucino fan? Favorite flavor?

Caramel light frappie obsessed over here! Lovvvvve that caramel drizzle.

Read Full Post »