Real Desserts for Real Runners

I ate my usual cereal with milk this morning and rushed out the door. When I got to work, I was pretty thirsty. I down a couple bottles of water. Water is my best friend. It quenches my thirst and does a body good.

This afternoon, I ate my usual chopped apple. I felt very hungry after eating. It gave it about an hour, and I still was hungry. So, I went into the kitchen and ate 1 piece of the left over biscotti. I've been so strong to have turned these down this entire week. I couldn't help myself and I didn't have any other snacks. That did the trick.

My usual lunch was my whole wheat sandwich and some more water. Before heading to the gym, I finished my other half on my balance bar. I was ok, nothing special. It tasted the same as the first half. You can't beat peanut butter and chocolate, though.

The gym was great today. Lots of sweat poured off of me. My muscles worked to their death. I feel great now. I love this feeling. There are some times that I may not want to go to the gym, but afterwards, I feel great! I'm thinking about upping my time on the treadmill tomorrow to 4 miles. Tomorrow is my running day, so I think I will. My run felt so good this afternoon. My run went by so fast and before I knew it, my 3 1/2 miles were finished and it was time for my spin class.

I was so hungry after my workout and needed to fix dinner as soon as I got home. I had left over spaghetti with a glass of V8 juice. So good. It really did the job and filled me up. I loved it. I have one more dinner out of this.

I was starting to get snacky and decided to have a real dessert. No more carrots for me (at least tonight). My husband and I both love peanut butter and chocolate mixed together. Like I said, you can't beat PB & chocolate. I wanted to make peanut butter cookies with some mini chocolate chips on top. I've made Jif's PB cookies before and loved them so much, these are my go to PB cookies. The recipe is on the back on the jar. I use chunky PB (that's the best). The only I did was add mini chocolate chips on top before baking.

All the ingredients (Jif, Crisco, Brown sugar, vanilla, egg, milk, baking soda, salt and flour) mixed together. Such an easy recipe to make. If you've never baked before, you can make this easily.

All ready to go in the oven. "Bake me!!"

About 7 minutes later, they were already to be eaten. The BEST PB recipe EVER!! "Eat me!!"

I think I will fill up on cookies tonight. I know, I shouldn't do that, but they're calling my name. I know I won't eat all of these cookies...my husband will be pretty hungry when he gets home and will eat them too.

It's time to watch Elton on Good Eats on the Food Network channel. He explains everything so well. He's great. I'm not the best cook, and I don't know that much about cooking, spices, herbs and things like that. He explains everything in detail, and I don't feel stupid.

What is your favorite cookie?

Do you prefer to make your cookies made from scratch, from the freeze section or store bought?

Monstrous Monday!!

This morning started out like any other morning: 7:30 am alarm and a few snoozes, multi grain cereal, and rushing out the door for work. I wasn't very hungry this morning, for my snack. This is pretty unusual, I'm normally trying to eat my desk, I'm so hungry. I ended up eating my snack around 1pm (normally 12).

I love cut up apples. They always taste so much better when they're chopped. They're even better when someone else chops them for you, I don't know why.

At 3pm (my normal lunch time), I had my whole wheat bread, deli chicken meat, mixed greens and mustard sandwich (only half of the sandwich to save on calories). I knew I was going to need something to tied me over until I was finished with my 3 hour workout today. So, I went searching my a protein bar.

In my desk, I had a Balance Gold bar. It had a chocolate outside and so many good things inside. It only had 180 calories, which I only ate, 1/2 of. Everything was all natural, no artificial flavors or coloring. So much wheat, and sunflower oil. Those were the two major ingredients. I was thinking I wasn't going to like the taste, because of what it looked like inside (green horse poop), but it was fantastic. It was more expensive than the other bars I've tried, but definitely worth it. I will be buying these again!

Every Monday, I always say "I never knew I could workout this hard". It was on of those Mondays. I had sweat pouring out of my body. After the gym, I had salt stuck to my skin, and it hurt to take off. I loved it! It means something is happening and I'm not working this hard for nothing. I love seeing results and having to work for them. I means that I'm real, and I deserve it.

Today (as all Mondays are), I ran a flat 3 1/2 miles on the treadmill, rushed over to my 55 minute spin class. This time, our instructor had a lot of sprints. Sprints are one of my favorite things to do (treadmill, road or bikes). Then, I had to hurry and grab my yoga mat for my 1 hour long yoga class. Yoga is great after pushing your muscles so far, then being able to stretch them out for an entire hour! My body loves my last hour at the gym.

Tonight's dinner was, once again, left overs. I tend to make too much food, and we have left overs forever! The left overs were from Saturday. I had a hot dog in bun with ketchup and mustard, potato salad with a bottle of water. I love summer time food!

Tonight's dessert was one of my favorites....baby carrots. I love how they crunch and they're a little watery and they help cool you down on a nice warm summer night. Yummy!!

What is your favorite summer time dessert??

What is the longest you have spent in the gym in one "sitting"?