Running Peep Show

Today the temps reached over 100. For San Luis Obispo – a coastal town that averages 70 year round, that is crazy hot.

It was probably 20 degrees hotter than that in the kitchen at work. I do not lie.

I had a delicious yogurt bowl at 5:30 this morning.

Mixed with a nectarine, Trader Joe’s high fiber cereal, and a big ol’ scoop of Nutzo.

Breakfast #2 at 9:00.

+ a banana muffin.

I wasn’t very hungry only 2 hours later for lunch. So I got steamed carrots and a wrap that I could eat part of and save the rest for later.

It was a Greek turkey wrap with turkey, veggies, and feta cheese. It was a bit dry so I topped it with some caesar dressing at work, and BBQ sauce at home.

These wraps are massive.

I then ran a few errands and picked up some groceries to make dessert for a potluck tomorrow. Vons had a deal going on if you buy 5 specific items, you save $5. Doing so made this $2.79. And I knew I had to have it.

A small taster.

It makes the perfect pre-run snack if I do say so myself.

Soon after I put on some running shorts I’ve actually never worn. I love them because they’re embroidered with the date and race of my marathon. Yet I got them on super sale the year after.

However, I’ve never worn them because they’re see-through. You can see the panty liner through the light pink fabric. Today I said “MEH” and sported them anyway. Take a good look boys!!

3.1 miles later I was a hot sweaty mess. It was still WAY hot outside at 7:00. Crazy. Now our summer weather hits us! My run wasn’t the greatest, but I was happy I made it out after such a long day.

I really wasn’t hungry the rest of the night. I was actually feeling rather bloated. A hot meal and veggies might not have been the best choice. But too late now.

I cooked up a can of green beans (note to self: by the salt added next time! These were bland), along with pasta sauce. Layered it over a salad, topped with feta cheese, a small scoop of pesto and 2 tortellinis that my roommate was cooking up.

You also best believe that I couldn’t end my night without some of this action.

How can I buy a container of ice cream and ignore it on the very first night? I mean, feelings would be hurt and grudges might develop.

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A Perfect Dozen

The morning sang with the hymns of “Long Run Day!!”. It was a dreary perfect foggy and misty morning.

Bummer for beach days.

Perfect for long run days 😉

I debated having an English muffin (look – I capitalized it this time) like before my last long run. But decided on having something more filling. Much more filling. I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the butt stomach with a side cramp.

OAT-ME-ALLLL!!! That’s how I sing it. And that’s how I roll.

• 1/4 cup oats + 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1/2 cup almond milk + 1/2 cup water (+ a extra splash of almond milk towards the end because it was too thick)
• 1 egg
• Cinnamon & maple syrup
• Peanut flour

Toppings include vanilla-pear butter, strawberry jam, and melty melty chocolate hazelnut butter.

Perfect-o!! Not one, I repeat in all caps, NOT ONE side cramp during my run. I can’t remember the last time that’s happened. I set out aiming for 11 miles. Partway through I decided to do 11.5. A little farther I decided “what the heck! Let’s do 12!!”.

And 12 glorious wonderful stupendous miles it was. These long runs are so exciting to me now – not necessarily that they’re the longest I’ve ever ran (I don’t think I’ll ever go farther than 26.2 haha). But because they’ve all been the farthest I’ve ran since April 2009, when my injury hit.

Distance: 12 miles
Time: 1:52.44
Avg pace: 9:24

• Mile 1: 8:36
• Mile 2: 9:12
• Mile 3: 9:33
• Mile 4: 9:39
• Mile 5: 9:22
• Mile 6: 9:59 <– 3/4 of the mile is up a big hill
• Mile 7: 9:41
• Mile 8: 9:38
• Mile 9: 8:54 <–1/2 uphill, 1/2 downhill – speedy me!
• Mile 10: 9:29
• Mile 11: 9:11 <–Getting excited to finish
• Mile 12: 9:30

I want to note that I’ve kept up a run/walk pattern with most of my runs.  Usually about 2 minutes walking every 1.5-2 miles or so.  Today I walked 30-45 seconds (about .05 of a mile) every mile.  Even if I didn’t feel the need to, I walked 30 seconds at that mile mark.  Sometimes it was hard to make myself stop.  But I didn’t want to regret it in the end!

Regarding hills – honestly, I live all around hills, and there are inclines every other mile.  Some are steeper than others, but can’t avoid ’em!  I also planned my route to hit up drinking fountains, but knew I needed some fuel. 2 problems:

1. I had no Gus/gels to bring.
2. I left my fuel belt at home, so had no where to store food.

Solutions!

1. I bought peach rings last night with my extra dinner money in the cafeteria, mainly because my roommate loves them. Perfect fuel 🙂
2. Plastic baggy down the sports bra. Don’t judge. It actually wasn’t uncomfortable. I just had to make sure to sneakily take the baggy out at my breaks. Awkward.

I had 2 of these at mile 5 and 3 at mile 8.

I actually finished up 12 miles pretty far from my house. As tempted as I was to keep going, I didn’t want to push it, so I stopped and did a long cooldown walk of 1.6 miles in approximately 28 minutes. Towards the end I just wanted to get home, sit down, and eat.

Guess what! My wrap I forgot at work the other day was still in the fridge yesterday. Thank goodness 🙂

A seriously delicious blend of petso, mozzarella cheese, turkey, squash, portabello mushrooms, and basil.

The mushrooms and squash gave it a very meaty feel.

Prior to work I had a small snack. Not at all hungry, I knew I would get hungry during work. 2 rice cakes with some maple PB and vanilla-pear butter.

Dinner at work consisted of some nasty looking kung pao chicken (didn’t taste super great either – yet I still ate most of it), brown butter & chive mashed potatoes (yeah – those were good)..

And some type of apple crumble thing. When I saw this, I knew I had to have it.

And I just finished up a night-time snack of a mix of cereal. I sprinkle cinnamon in my cereal – that’s why it looks so brown.

Globs of PB in cold cereal is amazing.  Try it.  You won’t be sorry.

The tiredness of a long run + walking around for 5 hours at work is setting in. Goodnight!

What’s the farthest you’ve ever ran? And what’s the farthest you’d ever want to run?

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A Romantic + Pumpkin Heaven

This post was meant to go up yesterday (Sunday).  It looks like I wrote it, uploaded it, and then completely forgot to publish it.  Shows how tired I was.

Up and at ’em at 5:00 am yet again!

I had some of my new cereal and yogurt. Plus a scoop of maple PB.

And mulitple cups of coffee obviously.

Breakfast#2 at breaktime (again – sorry of the awful lighting in the cafeteria that early in the morning).

I had some Kashi Heart to Heart with milk (it’s been so long since I’ve had normal cow’s milk!), a banana, 1/2 a blueberry muffin, and a few bites of scrambled egg.

Due to the larger than normal meal at 8:45, 2 more cups of coffee + creamer, and a large cup of water, I really wasn’t that hungry when 11:00 lunch break rolled around.

I had some steamed peas & carrots. And got a pesto turkey wrap from the ‘to-go’ section. This wrap was delicious. Turkey, pesto, mozzarella, and different squashes.

So so good!! But I was super full and only had a few bites. I saved the rest in the fridge for when I would actually get hungry.

I did have a small piece of banana bread overly sweetened shortbread with brown “banana” globs during the afternoon. Leftover from the patients’ lunch menu. It was okay. Remnants:

It wasn’t until I got home that I realized I left my wrap in the fridge at work! You don’t understand how upset I was.

1. Because I was planning on eating the rest at a normal lunch time. Or for dinner.

2. Because it really was so delicious.

3. Because they might throw it away. I seriously hope not.

So instead, I had a whole wheat english muffin (is english muffin capitalized or not? Still not sure) with mixed berry cream cheese.

I was not expecting the cream cheese to be so….purpley-blue.

Eaten while enjoying the beautiful sunshine outside.

Then I decided to run some errands. Why? I’m not sure. I didn’t exactly need anything. Apple eaten on my way out the door.

I might have gotten 2 huge bottles of wine at Trader Joe’s for an amazingly low low price of $2.99.

And at Costco, I got slightly jipped on my sample. Excuse me, who eats the strawberry stem on their strawberry shortcake?

I got an ad in the male from Cost Plus this week advertising these on sale:

Having a love for anything (I mean anything) pumpkin – I knew I had to treat myself.

Cost Plus has the most amazing pumpkin selection in the world. I was in heaven (because I stood in awe at all the glory) and hell (since I couldn’t slam down my unlimited debit card and but it all).

Beer!!

Pumpkin caramel corn?!?!

Pasta sauce!!!!!!!

+ cookies, pancake mix, bread mix, cupcake mix, scone mix, coffee, syrup, pumpkin bark…OMG GUYS. I was in there staring at all things pumpkin for a good hour.

Now I also had a $10 off a $30 purchase. So I decided to spend another $20 to get me up to $30. Which would then giveme $10 off and bring me down to $20. So in reality, I would only be spending another $10 than I already was. But getting $20 worth of goods. Make sense? It does to a bargain shopper.

Anyways, I walked out with this:

+ some amazing looking vanilla pear butter, which I broke into promptly upon returning home. A little pre-run snack.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm. I found my new true love.

Seriously. This gave me the energy to go on a bangin’ 3 mile run. Bangin because:

1. I felt awesome and sped through it at a fast and uncomfortable pace.  I made a goal when I first set out to try and make it under 27 minutes/9 min. per mile pace.  I ended up with 3.1 miles in 26:53. That would be an 8:39 average, with my max pace peaking at 6:55 minute mile. Prior to my injury, I used to average all my runs at an 8-8:30 pace.  But since I’ve gotten back into running, my pace has definitely been slower.  I was so proud today 😀
2. I wasn’t even planning on running. Yet I went out. And did it. And loved it.
3. I was purely motivated by wine.

Who said wine isn’t a great post-run recovery drink? I had a date with these 2 right after my run:

Nothing (I mean nothing) screams classier than foam rolling while drinking wine. With a few ice cubes. Yes. I’m serious.

Thank you Trader Joe’s cheap, yet delicious wine. Check out this beast in comparison to a normal bottle of wine.

It’s like a handle of juice wine! Glorious.

I was also excited because I figured out how to use the corkscrew and pop this beauty open. All by myself. First time doing that ever. Pathetic or not, it’s true.

2 large completely normal glasses of wine later (I’m no lightweight, trust me)…I had a dinner of carrot fries, and homemade spring roll. No picture. Muchos apologies.

But needed something more around 9:15. Enter my latest obsession – Yogurt + stevia + peanut flour. Put said yogurt into freezer. 15-30 minutes later (depending on patience) remove from freezer and mix in some jam or preserves. Holla holla holla!!!! So good.

(This time I added some cereal for more substance).

All mixed up – the jam gets all swirly.

I guess it just looks like a normal yogurt mess. But the half-frozen nature of this thing just makes it so much better.

Can’t forget my nightly chocolate fix 😉

GOODNIGHT to one and all. This Tay-Tay needs some major shut eye.

Here’s to hoping my wrap is stil in the fridge safe and sound tomorrow.

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Quarter Marathon

I ran 1/2 a half marathon this morning! AKA a quarter marathon. Whichever name floats your boat. Or sounds more impressive.

Distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 64 minutes

I’m okay with that time considering I have multiple walk breaks (that I don’t stop my Garmin during – the time keeps rollin’!) and that it’s a faster pace than last week’s long run. However, it’s sad/weird to think I used to whip out 6.5 miles like no other business in like 50 minutes. Aw well. That was then. This is now. And now = 6.5 miles!!! The longest I’ve ran in over a year 😀

Since I started my blog post-long run training, I never did get to be a part of the “Holding up your fingers for how long your long run was” club. Therefore, I took advantage today.

Yeah so what if it’s not 16 or 20 miles? 6.5 is more than I ever thought I’d run again!

My little nubbin of a middle finger is the ‘.5’ to the 6.

Notice anything different?

*Gasp*!

No knee brace! I really don’t think the knee brace helps my problem. And during my 3 mile run on Tuesday, it seemed to apply pressure to my painful spot and actually hurt it more. So I decided to try today’s run….naked, if you will.

Pre-run I had a midgy yogurt mess –

Pretty much just a normal yogurt mess with less yogurt, less cereal, and less PB the same amount of PB.

And cawwwwfeeeee.

Post-run I remembered since I’m getting into longer distances, I need a little somethin’ somethin’ post run. I had a blueberry pomegranate muffin with a smidge of DCD.

Followed by:

• 35 minutes foam rolling
• 8 minutes stretching
• 20 minutes icing

I still feel kind of weird waiting so long after my run to ice. By the time I get in, foam roll, stretch, and sit – it’s almost an hour after my run before ice [ice baby] hits my knees. Before I started foam rolling, I’d ice immediately after I worked out, and I’ve read that’s the best thing to do. But I also need to foam roll. Oh dilemna.

While icing I ate a real meal.

• TJ whole wheat flatbread
• Peanut butter
• Crofter’s superfruit spread
• Apple

Then let Mr. Foreman do his grilling job.

Holy eff this was gooooooood. It tasted like a warm pie with melty peanut butter. I forgot to put cinnamon inside which would probalby make it 2398573 milion times more amazing. Cannot wait to make another.

Now I’m just munching on some carrots and dip (yogurt ranch + BBQ sauce) before heading to work.

Excited for Farmer’s Market tonight!!

For any of you who foam roll and ice, which order do you do it in? Do you ice immediately post-run or do you foam roll, and then ice? Or anyone have opinions on this?

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Where did all the raisins go?

Howdy!

So I really don’t have much energy to put into this post right now 😦 Let me say

Crawling baby + potty training toddler = exhaustion.

Simple math.

Chowed down on my easy breakfast on the drive to work. A cinnamon raisin Ezekiel english muffin –

• 1/2 with pumpkin cream cheese & jam
• 1/2 with Naturally More PB, jam & banana slices

But seriously? Where were the raisins in this beast? I believe they accidentally slipped a plain flavor into my package!

Work was full of snackies including carrots, celery & cookie dough – yummm. And oddly wasn’t super hungry all day.

Had some love of my life kabocha squash around 2:00. With ketchup of course.

And then “whatever’s in the fridge” (a.k.a turkey slice, spinach, tofu & mustard) wrap around 4:15 –

Highly appetzing white blobs, no?

And this was able to hold me over through whining and crying, especially when the 3-year old closed the 9 month old’s fingers in the door which led to a large group hug and cry fest.

But I do still love them 🙂

Finally had a super late dinner at 8:45. Once I’m home that late, I’m always craving comfort breakfast foods (usually french toast) and nut butters. That’s it.  I could’ve gone to town with the peanut butter jar.  But since I had no bread, and I knew spoonfuls of peanut butter wouldn’t be the brightest idea I’d had in a while, I went for a lovely yogurt bowl.

• Greek yogurt + pumpkin + cinnamon + maple syrup
• Nature’s Path mesa sunrise
• Quaker oatmeal squares
• Globs of Naturally More PB & pumpkin butter

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about you orange oddly neutral colored dream machine.

And hot chocolate…duh.

What do you normally crave or end up eating for a late dinner?  Do you still do a full meal?

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Seniority

Hello there! Again apologizing for being so MIA, but it seriously gets hard with school and work. The stress is already getting to me this quarter, especially since this quarter I’m working on my Senior Project.

According to my school’s website:

The senior project is a capstone experience required for all Cal Poly students receiving a baccalaureate degree. It integrates theory and application from across the student’s undergraduate educational experiences. The senior project consists of one or more of the following:

• a design or construction experience,
• an experiment,
• a self-guided study or research project,
• a presentation,
• a report based on internship, co-op, or service learning experience, and/or
• a public portfolio display or performance.

Luckily, my major only requires an extensive 25-35 page research paper, but it’s still mad stress. In the past few days, I had to pick a specific topic to study. My ideas revolved around:

• Endurance exercise and carbohydrate/fat metabolism
• Endurance exercise and hormones
• Endurance exercise and the female athlete triad

Can you tell I have an interest in endurance exercise? haha.

Besides finding articles online, I’ve been busy with food and work as well 😉

My breakfast this morning consisted of:

• Strained yogurt (to make it Greek-like consistency)
• Pumpkin
• Cinnamon
• Multibran Vitatop
• Almond butter
• Pumpkin butter

I’m sad I only recently discovered the deliciousness of a smushed up heated vitatop in yogurt. It’s doughy and delicious!

During my 1-hour break at school, I hit up the gym for

• 20 minutes upper body weights
• 10 minutes hip and ab work

Followed by yet another wrap for lunch (I have a pack of 20 wraps to use up – and they’re convenient for school!). Filled with spinach, mushrooms, mustard and Morningstar Farms Asian veggie patty.

And I snacked on an unpictured JamFrakas bar. It’s pretty much just a smaller “kids” Larabar.

Okay in the taste department – it definitely had a delicious “Lara taste” to it. But it was lacking everywhere else. 1 gram of fiber and 2 grams protein? No thanks.

And mid-afternoon at work I munched on some of these

And a little bit of this amazing peanut butter-chocolate type of fudge thing they had at work.

Not sure what it was, but twas delish!

And din-din consisted of almost a whole head (yes a whole head) of roasted cauliflower with a zucchini.

I loooooooove cauliflower. So good! Seasoned with:

• Garlic salt
• Pepper
• Paprika
• Cumin

Beyond delicious.

And yet another tortilla pizza.

(Repeat picture alert 😦 )

Topped with:

• BBQ sauce
• Sauteed zucchini and onion
• 3 chopped up buffalo chicken meatballs
• Feta cheese

I’m currently enjoying some hot chocolate and going to watch one more Buffy episode on hulu before hitting the hay. Class tomorrow, but not until 12, which means I can sleep in 🙂

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

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Hips Don’t Lie

This weekend was filled with a bit too much of this:

(Thank you google images)

Way too many of these:

And plenty of fun times 😀

We actually ended up going out both nights (that is a lot for me!) since it was our friend’s birthday on Saturday night (where the 2 pieces of cake and about 6 cookies came in to play). But it was fun 🙂 And exhausting!

Breakfast this morning was a delicious cereal bowl! Filled with

• Strained yogurt
• Kashi U cereal
• Almond butter
• And the ripest honeydew ever!

My mommy would be so proud – I picked a good honeydew 😉 She taught me to feel for the “tackiest” non-smooth surface you can find.  It works!

I then completed

• 20 minutes upper body weights
• 5 minutes abs
• 15 minutes hip exercises

The physical therapist gave me 4 hip exercises to do to strengthen my hips. We started off with easier versions, but progressed to these basic exercises: (ignore my pictures in real clothes – I don’t normally workout in a sweater 😉 haha)

1. One-legged squat (3x 20 reps each side)

As you sink into a one-legged squat, reach forward with your other foot, as if you were about to step forward.

As you rise back, bring your foot all the way up.

And squat again as you reach your leg to the back.

Make sure to focus on:

• Keeping your hips/waistband of your shorts in a straight line – do not let your opposite hip drop
• Keeping your squatting knee in line with you 2nd toe – do not let it roll inward.

2. Power clam – 3x 20 reps on each side. Work up to 2 minutes straight on each side.

Start on your side on your elbow, hips up, knees closed together.

Lift your top leg up into an open “clam” position, with ankles still touching, then kick your leg backwards.

Return to “clam” position, and lower knee back down.

3. Plank leg lift – 3x 10 reps on each side

Start in plank position. Tighten the butt and lift left leg. Lower and repeat with right leg.

4. Hamstring curl – 3x 20 reps each side

Start with one leg lifted backwards, foot twisted so you’re pointing your heel out.

Curl leg up

This one is just to give my hamstring a little work.

So there you have my strength exercises! They are tough and my hips are always shaky/weak after the power clam!

I’ve also been instructed to foam roll my hamstring, IT band, and quads. However I wasn’t instructed on how long to foam roll for. Any experienced foam rollers have reccomendations?

Lunch at school was a turkey wrap (rolled up of course) & carrots.

And an iced SF hazelnut starbies to get me through my afternoon lab 😉

In lab, I muched on these new Protein Cookie Bites I won in a giveaway.

They were okay – but I’ll give a better review on them soon.

And dinner was “pizza”.

• BBQ sauce
• Sauteed zucchini, onions, and mushrooms
• Chopped up chicken meatballs
• Goat cheese
• Whole wheat wrap

I then spent the rest of the evening oggling over this guy

While enjoying 2 of mugs of this:

+ a little more dark chocolate 😉

Anyone else watching The Bachelor? I normally don’t, but my roommate is into it so I’ve watched the last two episodes with her.

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Return of the Almond Butter

Hi peachies! So I’m still getting back in the swing of things, but plan to play catch-up today. No class! Normally I’ll work, but today I have off 🙂

First things first, I received an exciting package the other day that I forgot to mention on my last post! I got my bloggie secret santa package sent to me here at school – so I finally got to open it when I returned.

Thank you so much Katy!! You know me too well 😉

Wednesdays I have no class so I’ll usually be working all day. Today, however, I had the day off, so it was a definite laid back day 🙂

Woke up starving after a late night out and made my typical yogurt bowl.

• Strained yogurt mixed with pumpkin, pie spice & maple syrup
• Wheatbix twigs & flakes cereal
• Quaker oatmeal squares
• Almond butter

I recently used a coupon I had for a Maranatha product, and decided to finally try out raw almond butter.

I’ve heard mixed reviews on raw almond butter. It tastes “dirtier” to me – does that make sense? Not sure if I like it better than roasted or not. One thing I know for certain – it’s been too long since I’ve had almond butter in my life and I’ve missed it!

I’ve also been eating this cereal in most of my recent yogurt messes –

Delicious. The perfect balance of sweet, and great nutrition stats!

I really wanted to hit up the gym this morning since I had the whole day off, but I really need to balance it out with my knee pain. I did a treadmill workout yesterday, so I knew two days in a row wouldn’t be the best idea. Instead, I did:

• 35 minutes upper body dumbells & ab work
• Physical therapy hip exercises
• Stretching and foam rolling

I haven’t talked about it yet on the blog, but over break I got a second, more powerful MRI done that focused more on the top of the tibia bone rather than just directly on the knee. According to the doctor and new physical therapist I saw, I have inflammation exactly where the hamstring muscle connects to the tibia – and that’s exactly where the peak of my pain is.

My pain is the worst right my fingers are. Please ignore my chipped polish – yes I need to do my nails.

And notice the weird pale indent on the left side of my knee? That’s where I got my cortisone shot 6 months ago. Apparently they can cause skin discoloration and decrease in adipose tissue, hence the weird indent. Pretty, isn’t it? 😉

After anaylizing my arch, feet, walking, running, skipping, squats, etc, the physical therapist diagnosed me with weak hip muscles, which causes my hips to drop during the landing part of running, which in turn causes my knees to turn inward like this:

While the knee is supposed to stay in-line with the second toe like this:

This causes my hamstring muscle to work extra hard to pull my knee back to the right position, therefore pulling extra hard where it attached to the tibia. Causing inflammation, causing the pain.

We went over a lot of hip exerises an stretches, which I’ll go over in my next post. I just felt relief to at least hear what very possible is the root of my pain, rather than just “runner’s knee” or “knee pain”.

I made lunch immediately after my 1 hour workout. 1 egg + 2 egg whites, Morningstar Asian veggie patty, laughing cow cheese, & roasted red pepper dressing in a WW wrap.

+ 1307538 million baby carrots and 2 clementines.

Afternoon snack was an unpictured WW sandwich thin with jam and a few slices of deli turkey.

And dinner was a veggie-filled bowl of:

• Sauteed zucchini, mushrooms & onions
• Cranberry jalapeno chicken meatballs
• Trader Joe’s baked beans

Not going to lie when I thought these baked beans tasted a little plasticy. I LOVE baked beans, but have never had Trader Joe’s brand. Maybe it was just a fluke?

Remember – we are more than halfway through the week!!

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Donation Creation Fail

A couple blogers have recently written about “Default Thinking” and what you think about during day to day activities. And then Angela wrote yesterday about getting rid of the negative default thoughts that might occur. She recommended writing down all your negative thoughts about yourself every night and morning, and then crossing them out to replace them with positive thoughts.

Here’s a confession: I struggle with a lot of negative self talk that I’m really trying to work through. Having lost a lot of weight in the past, I think it’s still hard for me to accept my new body and trust it. I’ve come a long way, and whenever a negative comment enters my mind, I try my hardest to slap myself (in my head) for it.

I was just about to fall asleep last night, when I remembered I wanted to try out Angela’s exercise. I hopped right up and whipped out a blank page in my journal (which I haven’t written in in a couple months – whoops). This is hard for me to do, but I am going to share with you what I wrote down last night, and what I replaced each thought with.

Note: I know that none of these negaative thoughts are true statements. They are just honest thoughts that popped into my head last night and at often times. I’m just being honest here.

• My arms are fat. I have strong arms from lifting weights. We just rearranged the family room, and I could lift so many things by myself that my skinny roommate could hardly lift for a second….with help.

• My stomach is too flabby. My soft stomach shows how much weight I lost and how hard I worked at it.

• My hair is ugly. I wish I had different hair. Other people love my hair – it curls and straightens.

• I look like a balloon. I look like an athlete.

• I can’t lose weight. I look beautiful how I am. I’ve lost 60 pounds before!! Even though I’ve recently gained weight, I’m stable where I am, and don’t need to lose anything.

• I don’t have a big personality. I wish I was more comfortable to be myself around others. I’m funny and kind. Just don’t be intimidated to show it around people you don’t know well.

So there you have it. Exactly what I wrote down. It’s a process that I’m really working hard on, and I’m hoping that these little lists help. Thanks for the tip Angela 🙂

Now onto eats.

I eventually made my way to campus this morning for a gym & library sesh. Which one was I dreading most did I want to get out of the way first? I chose gym first (which was probably a bad idea because then I was pooped and just wanted to sleep in the library).

Anyways – I’m still on knee hiatus, so I stuck to weights and mat work. I did:

• 20 minutes upper body machines
• 15 minute ab work
• Some lower body PT strength moves
• 5 minutes upper body dumbells

Total: 55 minutes

Phew! Pump that iron! Feel that burn! Build those muscles! Yeah….

Off to nap study time where I snacked on a very appetizing (??) looking cranberry Heart Thrive bar.

Awww Nutrition Therapy Love.

I could barely keep my eyes open and registered….nothing. So I hopped on the next bus, made my way home, vegged on the couch with an iced coffee, Ellen, and a bowl of yum.

Not long after, my roommate and I made the exciting trip downtown to Coldstones for our free $1 donation creation! Which turned out to be a pre-made 3-bite creation. No joke. But I did eat it. In 3 bites.

That would be sweet cream ice cream + brownies + sprinkles + caramel sauce on top. Honestly, all I could taste were the sprinkles (exactly why I hate sprinkles in my ice cream). Why did I eat it again? Not sure. Oh well, what’s done is done.

Needless to say, my roommate and I were still a bit hungry starving after this so we hurried home for dinner.

Laughing cow cheese + sunbutter hummus + spinach + Sunshine falafel burger in a Rudi’s spelt wrap. Grilled on Mr. Foreman. With zucchinis on the side.

(Still not feelin’ the falafel patty.  It’s just dry to me!  Need to pick a better flavor next time).

And a small side mix of random salad gatherings that my roommate gave me. I think there was coleslaw, kideny beans, chickpeas, mushrooms, bell peppers, and olives? With some TJ’s poppyseed dressing.

I also snacked on frozen mango chunks after this. And finished off the meal with a triple chocolate mini Twix bar (those things are good good good – triple the good. Get it? God, I’m clever).

Well I spent the night with google reader and a couple TV shows – Flash Forward (did anyone else watch?? I liked it!) and Supernatural (Dean = drooool). Which means I didn’t study at all. Which also means I need to do that now…

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Bad boys, Bad boys

Not meant to be a dirty title at all, but to the tune of “Bad boys…whatcha gonna do?  Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?”  Shame on your if your mind went dirty.

After my giant bowl of heaven oats, I hit up the gym for 2.75 mile run on the dreadmill. I finished with about 10 minutes of upper body weight machines before I had to hurry and catch the bus.

Unfortunately, my knee has been bothering me more the past few days. Yesterday it was achy all day, which wasn’t a good sign after 3 days of rest. And today it was more sore than usual. Even though I hadn’t done anything different or more strenuous, I know from the past (and when I first injured it) not to push through the pain. It doesn’t hurt bad enough to keep me from running or doing daily activities, but I cannot risk injuring it further. While it is in no way healed at all, it’s about 50% better than it felt at the peak of my pain. And I can’t start all over again. No way. So I’m pretty sure I’m taking the next week or so off from running. I might do another short one on the treadmill, but hopefully I can restrain myself. No more track for a bit though, since that’s harder on my knees.

My hunger definitely caught up with me today. I was starving after the gym (even though it was only about 3 hours post-breakkie), and whipped up a breakfast lunch burrito type of deal.

1 egg + 1 egg white scrambled with cilantro and avocado wrapped in a Rudi’s whole spelt tortilla.

I searched high and low for some shredded cheese with no success.  So imagine some melted cheese in there.

With 1/4 honeydew melon that I directly scooped and ate with a spoon. My favorite way to eat melon.

And a delicious Montanna Whopper for dessert. Contrary to my original review of them being semi-tastelss, these definitely got better after the first day I made them. Can’t wait to make them next time with the correct ingredients 🙂

I then got to work on my grocery goals.

First, I went through all my food and typed up what I have on hand so I can easily go through and meal plan in the future.

Next, I jotted down lunch and dinner ideas for the next week.

Lastly, I made a shopping list with staples that I’m out of (such as bananas) or additions to pick up in order to make my meals this week (such as a tomato or onion).

Then I hit up Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Albertsons where I knew some good deals were!

Samples consumed at Costco got me excited because I’ve been curious to try these.  Nature’s Path toaster pastries.

Completely disliked the strawberry (or whatever type of berry) one, but loved the brown sugar cinnamon.  Yumm.

Apparently Old Navy must have been in the fine print on my list too, since I wandered in there on my way to Costco. I had seen this comfy dress on a couple blogs lately, and wanted to check it out for myself!  Then…I walked out of there with two. Yes – I cannot make decisions. While they were cheap, I probably won’t keep both, so you tell me.  Which color should I keep? Ignore my gross unshowered gym hair.

Gray/teal?

or White/gray?

(There also was a white/camely-brown one that I spent roughly an hour debating between as well)

Awkward poses where I had no idea how to stand and where to put my hands. Hence the “make use of the pockets and bend the knee” stance.

K – so looking at these pics now, I definitely like the gray/teal better. Or should I keep both? (I know I’m ca-razy). Only $15 and super comfy! 🙂

Besides my Old Navy purchases, I only made one extra purchase – Einstein’s honey almond cream cheese. Could have done without that one, but I’m still proud of myself for sticking to my list 😀 I even set a couple things down that were originally on my list, but too expensive/not completely necessary (such as teh $5 tub of paremsan cheese.  Really?).

My lunch kept me full for, oh…about 2 hours (yes – told you I was hungry). So I whipped out the new Tropical Larabar to snack on.

Please avert your eyes if you’re easily grossed out. What you’re looking at there is literally spit out lara (although honestly, it doesn’t look much different than the original bar, does it?)

I’m sorry Tropical fans, but I found it N-A-S-T-Y (which spells nasty for anyone who cares). So bad that I would’ve stuffed anything in my mouth (hopefully that’s not what she said) to get rid of the flavor, but unfortunately had nothing within reach. Blech. So sad. So sad.  PB&J – you win.

Sorry Miss Lara, but this bad boy won me over when I got home. Chocolate fig vitatop with earth balance PB.

I’ve always had a thing for the bad boys. This one in particular:

Rory was totally supposed to end up with Jess. What the hell happened there?

Then my roommate and I got cookin’ with our new old cast aside rice cooker that a friend gave us. Good thing fajita salad was on my meal list, and cilantro lime rice went perfectly!

Sauteed garlic & lime chicken patty (cut up) with onions, cilantro lime brown rice, homemade guac, FF sour cream, & tomatoes. Poor suffocating spinach lay underneith it all.

This bowl was massive. And then I inhaled a large bowl of strawberries + a peach. Followed by some way too liquidy banana/mango whip topped with sunbutter (eaten a few hours later):

K, I think I’m finally full. Holy moly, guess my appetite received my letter in full force, no?

So tomorrow I actually have classes (only 11-12 and 12-2 though). Unlike today where school technically started, but I had none. Yeah I’m pretty legit and know how to work the system like that.

Edited to add more midnight snackage:

3 Mary’s carraway crackers (1 entered the mouth before photo sesh) topped with honey almond cream cheese & a smear of pumpkin butta.

This combo will be repeated again very soon.  You can bet your life on it.

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