Satisfying Saturday

This morning, I got up bright and early (at least for me), and got ready for my spin class. First, I needed to fuel for it. I fixed 1/2 strawberry Greek yogurt, some oatmeal, chopped almonds and fresh blackberries. I mixed everything together and finished getting ready.


Spin class was just what I needed, especially after all the yummy food from yesterday. I sweat like a pig in class today. I had 55 minutes of drenched sweat pouring off of me. I'm estimating a burn of about 550 calories in 45 minutes. I love our instructor. She knows what she's talking about. We had a ton of intervals and 2 hills. The hills were the worst. My legs were screaming at me the entire time. They wanted to stop, but I forced them to keep going. To get back to our place, I have to walk up a little hill, that was almost impossible today. The stairs were the death of my legs. They checked out for the rest of the day, good thing I had loaners (he, he).

After I showered and got cleaned up, I had a post workout snack. This included some yummy freshly brewed coffee and my banana crunch muffins I made last night. I found the recipe on Food Network. I love finding great recipes on there. I ALWAYS find something good to make, either for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks.

After 20 minutes in the oven, they came out perfect! It's pretty rare that my muffins come out PERFECT. I loved it. They were VERY hardy and moist. The perfect post workout snack.

Quite a few hours later, I had 1/2 PB&J sandwich on whole wheat bread. I balanced that with about 10 tortilla chips. I polished everything off with a bottle of ice cold, refreshing water.

A few hours later, I was starting to get a little munchy (I know I've been doing that all weekend). I had a first ever home made granola bar. I also found this recipe on the Food Network website. It was so easy to make, and it was only 15 minutes in the oven. Very quick clean up (my favorite part). They didn't hold together as much as I'd hope, but they were still very hardy and easy to eat.

Tonight I made another favorite, veggie hamburgers and potato salad. Once again, another winner. I make these often when I want something quick, and easy for dinner on a hot summer night. This is one of many go-to meals. No need for veggies on the side, they're all inside the burger, hiding.

While we were finishing up watching the movie The Green Zone, we had a bowl of Snickers Ice Cream. Ice cream is a weakness during the summer. You know, it's hot outside, and you want something cold to cool you down. Ice cream is the best. Actually Gelato is the best, but this ice cream was cheaper. Satisfying my sweet tooth. I am now finished eating for the night. I'll probably have a few bottles of water, but that's about it. Hope everyone is enjoying their nice summer night!

What is your "go to" summer dish?

So much food and no workout

I started my day out the regular "healthy" way. I ate my cereal for breakfast, and when it came to snack time, I ate my banana. When my boss came in, she had donuts. Of course, my favorite, chocolate. There is no way I can turn down a chocolate donut. They're my favorite! I took my time eating it, about 1 hour. That's super slow for me, usually it takes about 1 minute (yes, I'm a pig).


About 2:30, I ate an early lunch, since I was getting off early. I had my usual whole wheat 1/2 sandwich. Since I was able to get off of work early and spend some time with my hubby, I was super happy all day. He works nights and I work days, so we don't get that much time together (when we're both awake). He was out and about and was kind enough to bring home something I've been craving lately...a REAL hamburger. I am a meat eater. I love meat, and I needed something badly. I've been craving it for a few weeks. I know he was too. I love the Habit, they have the best burgers. They are charbroiled. When you pull into their parking lot, it smells like you're at a BBQ. The food is always made right in front of you, and it tastes so fresh. If you like burgers, I'd highly recommend trying the Habit.

I did some baking tonight, which I will post, as I eat what I've made. One baking item that I just love is my terrcotta discs. What you do is soak them in water for about 10 minutes, then bake them at 350 for about 15 minutes, wait until they cool and place them inside your container of brown sugar. Then, you say good-bye to those nasty lumps. I love it! I've had mine for a few years, and never had any lumps. It works great. You only have to do the soaking and stuff once when ever you change out the brown sugar. Something else I'd highly recommend.

When I got home this afternoon, I found a box on my door step. Shelley at Vitalicious was kind enough to send me a huge box of vita muffins and vita brownies to try out. They looked so yummy, I didn't want to put them in the freezer, I wanted to eat them all right then.

This evening, after dinner, I wanted to try one of the vita muffins. I chose to try the deep chocolate flavor. I was so hard to choose which ONE I wanted to try first. What is great about the vita muffins is that they're only 100 calories (especially since I'm a calorie counter), they have 5g - 6g of fiber, 0g - 1.5g of fat, 3g - 4g protein with 15 vitamins and minerals. I've heard really good things about this brand. They aren't loaded with sugar, artificial ingredients and preservatives, and they still taste great! I'm so use to "fake food" and I'm trying to eat better, and these will help with my chocolate craving, and I won't feel guilty by eating them.

Here's all the great information on the back of the wrapper.

These babies are pretty thick. It has a nice layer of chocolate frosting on top and little chunks of chocolate inside. If I could, I would eat these every day. These suckers are 2oz., that's pretty heavy. When I first saw them, they reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld when Elaine wants to open her own bakery that only sells muffin tops and she has to get Newman to eat the bottoms because no one else would take them. These are so much better for you than those muffins, though. They are pretty moist, it was like they were just made. Chocolatey goodness!

Today was an off day from the gym. I wish I would have gone after all the food I ate today. I am very full right now and will not be eating until after the gym tomorrow.

Some questions that have been are going to be answered right now:

The 1/2 marathon I'm training for is the American River Parkway 1/2 in May 2011. I'm not a great runner, so I need to give myself plenty of time to get a descent time. The weather has been a little warm, too warm for me to run outside, so I hit the treadmill during the week. On Sunday mornings, I am able to get outside and run, since I hate getting up earlier than what I have to before work.

Bacon inside brownies will be something I may try. I have to get up the courage, though. I will be buying some pretzels with PB inside, now. I love that combo, now. I am also a bake good slut, I love trying new things and old things. I'll post more this weekend of what I've made tonight.

Do you have nay tricks to keep items lasting longer (ie: the terracotta disc)?

Hills and Drills

Another standard Thursday morning. Hit snooze a million times, ate my cereal, and off to work. I was tough at work and didn't cave into the blackberry cobbler. Yesterday, I had more than my fair share. My co-worker will finish it tomorrow, how nice of him! I had my banana and apple as my snacks instead. My standard lunch did the trick for a few hours.

Before I headed out to the gym, I ate 1/2 of a Mojo bar. The flavor was PB Pretzels.

I've never had a Mojo bar before and wasn't sure what to expect. When I opened it, I first thing I noticed the little PB chips. I've actually never had PB and pretzels together before. It was pretty good. I was thinking that all the water weight that I'll retain from this bar, after it goes away, I'll weight myself and I'll be lighter than expected. Which will make me happy!! I would recommend this bar to anyone. Maybe as a post workout bar.

At the gym, I spent 35:48 minutes on the treadmill doing hills and drills. Drills, to me, are really sprints. For the hills, I was at 6.5 incline, and the sprints were flat. I had about 15 seconds recovery between. I really kicked my ass today. I wasn't really feeling the standard run in one spot today for 4 miles. So, I did this in 3 miles. Yay me!!

For dinner, I ate the last of the left over spaghetti. It was still good. The veggies stayed just prefect. I was surprised that they still tasted good. I'm glad it worked out! Dessert was, once again, another granola bar. I love the chocolate chip bars. So good! Of course, like many girls, I LOVE chocolate.

I hope I'm in the mood to bake right when I get home (instead of laying around for a few hours first) tomorrow. I don't want to make a mess in the kitchen tonight (I don't feel like cleaning), so I'll wait until tomorrow. A fellow blogger gave me a suggestion I will definitely use (probably not tomorrow), to use Reed's crystallized ginger in muffins. She mentioned how it crystallizes inside the muffin and tastes amazing. I can't wait to try this. Maybe next weekend...

What is your favorite secret ingredient? If you don't have one, what your favorite item to bake?

Hilly Wednesday

This morning was a nice morning. I got up, fed the dog, ate my normal breakfast and headed out to work. When my boss arrived, he had a surprise for us. He made another batch of blackberry cobbler. He changed a few things up, but it tasted great! I was strong and didn't eat the entire dish. About 1pm, I had my banana for my 2nd snack.

After eating my standard whole wheat lunch, I went back to work. About 1/2 hour before I left, I enjoyed 1/2 bar of my Luna bar. This flavor was my all time favorite. It was Nutz Over Chocolate. It was so good, I could have eaten 10 of these bars. Candy bar for a snack!

The gym was pretty laid back. I ran hills today on the treadmill. I ran 3 miles at 6 incline for 34:28 minutes. Afterwards, I headed straight to my spin class. We had the new guy again. He was pretty good, I got a good sweat going during class. I think I wasn't into the music, or something. For some reason, I kept looking at the clock. Time did not fly by. I was probably in one of "those" moods where I didn't want to be there, but I forced myself anyways. I'm estimating that I burned about 500-600 calories at the gym today. It was a good day. I needed to burn off some of that cobbler.

Tonight's dinner was left over spaghetti with yummy veggies. It was just as good the second day as the first. I started getting caught up on my DVR. I think that if I didn't have the DVR, I wouldn't watch nearly as many shows as I do. Oh well, I do love TV.

Right now, I'm finishing up 1/2 of a strawberry Greek yogurt with fresh blackberries. I love this combo...so good!

I feel the need to bake, so this weekend will be a baking frenzy!! I can't wait until I decide what I want to bake. I'm seeing chocolate PB biscotti in my Saturday morning coffee. I can't wait to get back to my 9am Saturday spin class. I love that class. I think I love the fact that I get to go home and relax ALL DAY LONG and not watch the time. I love the weekends. This weekend will be great because we don't have a single plan (beside the normal working out).

What is your favorite Saturday morning activity (after your workout)? I love sitting outside enjoying with a warm cup of coffee and watching the leaves blow off the tree (of course more in the fall time). It's so relaxing outside at that time, when no one else is up, yet.

Back on Track

Today, I'm feeling good. I was able to eat my normal whole grain cereal this morning. I had my banana and my apple for my afternoon snacks. Before I headed over to the gym, I finished my other half of my PB bar (from Saturday's race).

I wasn't really wanting to go to the gym. I forced myself to go and I'm glad I did. I felt happier by the time I left. I did cut my cardio down today. I didn't realize that my stomach was a little weak, until I started working it out. I did 25 minutes on the elliptical, and 15 minutes on my abs. It was a pretty good workout. I usually measure my workouts my how much sweat is dripping off of me. Nothing was dripping today, but I had a thick coat of sweat on.

I had some errands to run after the gym. By the time I got home, I was starving. I put things away and started working on my dinner right away. I was making another version of my spaghetti. Let's see how many veggies I can sneak inside...

First, I used ground turkey. I love this stuff. I tastes healthier and the texture is the same as red meat. It's so much better for you. I never feel guilty when I eat it.


Here are some of the last minutes herbs and grape tomatoes I used. The herbs were parsley, oregano, and rosemary.

The veggies were zucchini, 2 different types of squash, and frozen peas (thawed).

I cooked the meat most of the way through, then added the first set of veggies

I then added some spaghetti sauce. It wasn't enough, so I added 1 can of tomato sauce, and I added the last minutes veggies and herbs. I stirred everything together and let it simmer until the noodles were finished cooking (in another pot).

I then drained the noodles and added everything in one pot. When I plated the dinner, I topped with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. I followed dinner with a glass of juice. All in all, it was a pretty healthy meal.

I don't normally eat this healthy. Just, right now, everyone I know has a garden and they are kind enough to give me some of their goodies. I'm trying to eat everything we have in the freezer, pantry and fridge (before they go bad). Every once in a while, it's good to go through everything (even cans) and use them up.

I am still full from dinner, I'm not sure if I will have any dessert tonight. If I do, I think it may be some left over apple crisp. Yum!! I'm trying to think of what I want to make this weekend for a goody. I'm thinking chocolate biscotti with almonds...maybe muffins instead. I'm not sure, yet. We'll see. Good night my friends!

What did you have for dinner?

Another Rest Day

When I finally was able to go to bed (about 2:30am) yesterday, my stomach was staring to ache. It felt like I had a huge rock inside and it was trying to force its way out. When I woke up this morning, to go to work, I wasn't feeling much better. I needed to go in because a co-worker had jury duty. I went in, and she was excused from jury duty, so I was able to leave early. When I got home, I changed back into my pj's and laid on the couch in the fetal position. That's what made me feel the best. It hurt to stand, or sit, up straight.

I was getting hungry around 12:30pm, since I only had a small bowl of cereal (which I forced myself to eat) this morning. Jason offered to make me some lunch, but I was afraid to eat anything (it felt like it would come back up). So, I declined. About an hour later, I took him up on his offer of making me some food. I asked for some whole wheat toast with some butter and very little jelly. It hurt to eat, but I'm glad I did.

After he left for work, I was still camped out on the couch. I was getting hungry, again (about 4pm), so I had a PB&J sandwich with a handful of tortilla chips. I could almost feel the food hit the bottom of my stomach. I think I'm getting hungry, again and will need to find some easy going food, probably some Greek yogurt.

Because I wasn't feeling well today, I didn't go to the gym. Instead of having a horrendous workout, I relaxed at home. I know my body is telling me to relax, but I feel horrible because I didn't go to the gym. Tomorrow, I'm staying at work all day and am going to do my full cardio workout. I can't wait! I hope my tummy feels better by 5pm tomorrow!

What is your comfort food when you're sick?

Is the weekend really over??

This morning, we got up at 9am. I had a cup of coffee with my multi grain cereal. We headed out with our Roxy girl to the lake, before it got too hot for her. Since she's a black dog, she gets extremely hot extremely fast. She loves playing in the lake with her soccer ball. It's her favorite!

When we got home a few hours later, Roxy girl got a bath to wash off the lake water. She loves her bathes!

I was feeling pretty hungry afterwards, so I decided to have some chocolate milk while I made a snack. I like a lot of chocolate!

For our snack, I made stuffed tomatoes (from my boss's garden). Here is the mixture that went inside: 2 pieces of baked bacon, 2 cloves garlic, Italian seasoned bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, zucchini, and squash.

Here's the baked bacon. I'll never make bacon in the microwave or on stove top again. Much cleaner and faster (I can go do other things while it bakes).

Here's the stuffed tomatoes. Yummy! So much flavor.

I also made baked zucchini. I followed a recipe from Food Network (that wasn't that good). It called for whole wheat flour, and corn meal. You use 2 egg whites for the binder, then dip in the flour mixture. Bake at 425 for 7 minutes, then flip and bake another 5 minutes. There wasn't much flavor. Next next, I'll use the bread crumbs and parm. cheese. I think that will be good!

Here's everything plated. I dipped the zucchini in non-fat ranch dressing.

A few hours later, hunger struck me. I hate needing food sometimes. Oh well, everyone does. If we didn't need food, just think about how much time would save... For lunch, I had an opened face egg salad sandwich (left over from Friday's dinner), and a handful of tortilla chips.

I was feeling quite tired, so I made an iced mocha. Cold coffee and chocolate. More yum! I had a lot to do today and needed a pick me up. (I'm still up and it's 1am, I shouldn't have done that.)

Dinner was another experiment...the stuffing mixture from the tomatoes (just larger quantity) and cooked 4 cheese ravioli. I poured a little spaghetti sauce on top with some more bread crumbs and parm. cheese. It was so good, I went back for seconds.

For dessert, I had left over apple crisp with some french vanilla ice cream. I heated the crisp up and laid the ice cream over top and watched it melt.

I am getting a little hungry. I think I'm going to try to pass on some food (since hopefully I'll be going to sleep soon) and will have a yummy (usual) breakfast tomorrow. Today was a rest day (post race). Tomorrow goes back to being a hellish Monday. I can't wait!!

What were your plans this weekend?

A New PR Has Been Set!

All day, I have been concentrating on what I should be eating before my 8:30pm 5k. I woke up (after sleeping in for the first time since I started training about 2 months ago) just before 10am. I started with a cup of coffee, had a bowl of cereal, and a banana.

The time was on my mind all day. I've never raced at night before and wasn't sure what I should eat and when. A few hours later, I started to get hungry, so I had 1/2 vanilla-honey Greek yogurt with some fresh blackberries. So yummy, this is my new thing (if you can't tell).

Before I left, I munched on whole wheat toast with PB. Another yummy item. Here's what I wore to my race. I have everything I need...Luna bar, water bottle with pocket, MP3 player, hair bands, shoes, socks and of course Capri's, tank top and sports bra. I'm all set!

I picked up my packet, and got all my stuff attached (bib and timing chip). I went back to my car to put everything else away.

Jason was getting hungry, and we had time to kill (about 1 1/2 hours) before the 1/2 marathon started. There was a Chinese food place across the street, so I watched him enjoy his food. Yes, that's right, I was strong and turned down Chinese food. Here's what he had:

I was watching people pick up their packets and prep themselves for the race. I could tell who was running the 1/2 and who was running the 5k.

The entertainment for the night was the Aggie's band. They played some Ozzy songs, so that was cool.

I enjoyed my snack, which was 1/2 a Luna bar. Yummy-ness! We did sneak over to a place that was giving away free smoothie samples, but I think that's what gave my a horrible side ache. Still tasted good!

Here's everyone lined up for the 5k (the 1/2 had already taken off). People stretching and getting focused. It took a while until they finally let us go.

Can you see my hot pink back in the middle of the picture? There I go (thanks to Jason for being my personal photographer).

All I wanted to see was (at the most) 30:59. I had a good start for the first couple miles (10 minute mile for my average). I was getting worried because my side was still in horrible pain, and it hurt to breath. I dealt with the pain and kept thinking that as soon as I crossed that finish line, I could relax. I crossed the finish line at 30:58. Hey it's close, but I'm extremely happy! I finally met my goal. All my hard training has been paying off and it's not for nothing. I am very excited!! Here I am seconds after I crossed the finish line.

Here's the race shirt, bib and glow bracelet. It's a pretty cute shirt. This was the first year of this race (Davis Moo-nlight 5k) and I would like to race it again next year. It was a very flat course without a lot of turns.

Here I am enjoying my post race deli sandwich. I love all the good free stuff you get when you race. I'm all sweaty and red. I look like I worked out some tonight.

When I got home and showered, I fixed myself (and Jason) and nice dessert in celebration of my new PR. My take of a banana split. It has 1/2 banana, 1 tablespoon PB, 2 scoops french vanilla ice cream, handful of walnuts (out of almonds), some oats, chocolate syrup, and 2 cherries. So good. I did so well,why not splurge!!

It's time to relax and put my legs up. This has been a great week. I weighted myself for the first time in about 1 month (I was afraid of what I would see), and I'm under my goal weight, and now I've set a new PR!! What a great end to a great week. We're off to the lake with our dog tomorrow.

What is your PR for a 5k (or marathon)? Mine in now 30:58