Hey gang!  Dinner last night was risotto!

YUM!  With:

• Carrots
• Zucchini
• Onion
• Sundried tomatoes
• Artichokes
• Shrimp
• Red pepper and asiago chicken sausage

I put some shredded asiago on top and it was delish!  I do not add cheese to the risotto but put it on top instead.  This helps me control the cheese amount better and then everyone can have as much or as little as they want.   I know this isn’t technically how risotto is done but it works for us!

Then I had a glass of white (celebrate!) and some dark chocolate with sea salt.  YUM!  And I read for a wee bit and crashed out in my warm toasty bed in my warm toasty house.

I got up this morning to snow on the ground.  Bleh.  I’m over snow. :p  When I took Rocky outside for his morning potty run, I noticed how not cold it was.  Hrm.  Then as I headed out for my run I realized how much of a mess everything was turning into.  It was warm out so the snow was melting quickly, turning into a slushy mess on the roads.  Yick!  I did 4.5 miles and headed home.  It was a tad slippery out and my hamstrings were getting a little tight.  I was perfectly fine with a 4.5 mile run though!

I’m feeling pretty good about my training so far.  My long run is up to 8 miles and I think I might be able to jump that to 9 here soon.  The half I want to run is in May and I should be pretty ready to knock that out by then!  My goal is to have run 13 or at least 12 miles a few times before the race.  I know this goes against most training plans but to be perfectly honest, I don’t understand the theory behind cutting the training short.

Last year my training plan cut me off at 10 miles with the expectation that come race day I would just tack on those extra three miles no problem.  Sure, I’ll just add on another 5k there at the end on race day!  And marathon plans do the same, cut you off at 20 miles expecting you to just add those 6 miles on at the end.

Sorry, but this seems like it’s covered in Crazy Sauce to me and I think that’s part of the reason why I got injured last year (combined with not enough strength training).  Adding on a mile a week was too aggressive for me, so adding on 3 more miles, no go.  I have to take it slow and add on a mile every few weeks or so.  I have to be able to run something consistently so that my body gets used to it before I start increasing my miles.  Otherwise my legs get tight and I’ll strain something.  Again.

Dinner was fish!  YaY!

Salmon with a marinade of:

• Teriyaki sauce
• Honey
• Toasted sesame oil
• Coconut oil
• Garlic chili sauce
• Garlic powder
• Smoked sea salt
• Cayenne pepper

So good!

Asparagus on the side with:

• Olive oil
• Habanero hot sauce
• Soy sauce
• Garlic powder
• Sea salt

And leftover risotto to round out the meal.

Alright gang, wanted to bust this out so I can hit the bed to read! Catch you on the flip side!

P.S. I forgot to take a picture of today’s smoothie!  Whoops! I must have been too busy stuffing my face with lunch. :p

Hey gang! Sorry for no post yesterday but if we weren’t running around buying space heaters then we were under the blankets trying to stay warm.

Saturday’s dinner ended up being chili from the freezer.

The last of the pumpkin squash chili! Sadface. Multigrain bread and butta on the side.

Sunday, January 31st:

I got up early in the morning and headed out for my long run.  I was dying to run because I hadn’t been out since Wednesday, this makes me cranky.  The difference with yesterday is that Scott was up with me!  He’s never up that early on a Sunday so it was a bit unusual around here in the morning.  Rocky was confused and thought Scott was cramping his style. “This is me and mama time DAD!”  :p  It was cold yesterday but I was going to get my shiz done!  Because there was no wind I was able to bust out 8 miles in 11degrees, not too shabby.

It had been weeks since I’ve run eight miles and I’m happy to say it was not a struggle.  Hooray!  I was able to crank that out no problem.  I also discovered something about my hands and their coldness.  Because it’s cold out, when I first start a run my bod’s main concern is keeping my core warm (which is standard operating procedure anyway) so my hands get major cold.  During my first mile yesterday my hands were so cold they stung and just plain hurt.  Once my body was warm though and it realized we were doing fine, then the blood flow back to my hands started again and they were fine for the next 7 miles.  So I just have to keep in mind to make it through that first mile and I should be peachy.

After a ridiculous shower experience (nice warm shower, frozen over bathroom = not fun) I made a bowl of oats for myself.  We were expecting LG and her man yesterday morning so her man could check out the furnace.  Since I didn’t know how long they would be staying, I wanted something that would last me a while.

Unfortunately he couldn’t fix the furnace so Scott and I headed out to get more space heaters.  I was only going to send Scott but then realized that our car and the store were warmer than my house, so I went too!  We got some wine and more Rogue beer along with the space heaters.  Necessities, you know how it is.

By the time we got home and I made “Sunday Breakfast” it actually turned into Sunday Dinner.  Breakfast for Dinner! Lauren would be so proud.

I made a big honkin’ feast too.

Scrambled eggs with green peppers and onions, roasted potatoes, Ezek muffin, and chicken breakfast sausage!  After eating, we got snug on the couch with lots of blankets and Rocky.  We watched a hockey game and several hours later I had a snack plate.  As much as I loved “dinner”, running 8 miles means that isn’t going to cut it and my bod needs some more food.

On this plate of randomness is:

• Carrots
• Cucumber
• Pear
• Crackers
• Cheese (cheddar and Parano)

So good!  It was exactly what I needed, something light and delish.  After the game we watched an old movie, I forget the name but it was a Bogey movie where he is an ex-criminal and got plastic surgery that healed in a week.  Amazing what black market doctors can do!

During the movie was snackage:

Red wine and some almost-vegan chocolate chip cookies.  Mmm mmm!  Around 11:30 I crashed out and headed up to bed where the heated mattress pad was set on high and the space heater was singing a lullaby.

Monday, February 1st:

The temp this morning in the house when I got up was 54 degrees which is only one degree lower than yesterday’s morning temp.  Tolerable but cold enough to make the dish soap start to solidify and change colors.  It also causes my geriatric microwave to protest about it’s aching joints and sciatic nerve.  I’m pretty sure it’s lying about the nerve part but I don’t have proof.

My new routine has me lifting and doing shred on Mondays but seeing as how working out means I would then have to shower, that is put on hold for now.  Showering is not fun.  It is ill advised to bring space heaters into the bathroom with you.  Did you know this?  I bet you did.  And since bathrooms are all cold ass tile, that means getting into and out of the shower is unpleasant.  Unpleasant indeed.

I walked through the downstairs flipping on the space heaters, put on a toboggan, and my gloves and started my day.  When Scott got up he put on the fireplace and then he called to have someone come out to look at the furnace.

I sat at my desk with multiple cups of coffee, the space heater, and an electric blanket.  Only breaking free to switch out the loads of laundry.

Interestingly enough Scott and I are pros at the no-heat thing.  But having experience doesn’t mean the situation sucks any less, mind you.

When we lived in North Carolina a few years back, we bought a house.  And our first winter in that house we got hit with a huge ice storm (I will refrain from ranting on now NC refuses to believe they actually experience “winter”).  In fact most of the entire state got hit with this ice storm and leaving it paralyzed because no one had any power.  Power trucks were brought in from several neighboring states to help out and get power back to people.  No power means no heat.  All we had was a wood-burning fireplace with no wood.  We did have some duralogs and those were the only things that kept us warm along with several blankets, jackets, gloves and so forth.

Our water was part of a community well, with no power there was no way for us to draw water from it.  That meant we had no water.  Couldn’t flush the toilets, couldn’t get water to drink.  It was cold and us and our two animals spent most of our time either reading or sleeping.  The only upside was that since it was cold, we didn’t lose any food because everything stayed cold.  We were without power and heat for five days. Yes, five days.  We cooked on the grill outside and also heated things up over the duralog.

Scott said that someday we would laugh about that situation and I’m still waiting for that day to arrive.

Then a few years ago for Scott’s 30th b-day, I surprised him with a trip to a cabin in the middle of nowhere.  Ohio just happened to get hit with a really bad storm the day we left for the cabin.  The cabin was nice but poorly constructed with a very poor heater.  It was dang cold! With frost forming on the window sills inside the cabin you know it was cold.  We sucked it up and had a nice time but it was flipping cold.  Thank goodness we had the forethought to bring extra blankets and electric blankets!

So yeah, we can handle the no heat thing but that doesn’t mean we want to.

It also makes me wonder why people do this willingly to themselves.  You know those people who refuse no matter how cold it gets to turn the thermostat up?  I don’t understand being cold by choice in your own housewhen you can afford heat.

Despite being cold, I still made us smoothies for lunch:

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry juice
• 1C Soymilk
• Spinach
• Banana
• Frozen blueberries

Crazy good!

I also had some Amy’s veggie lentil soup on the side to help keep me warm and toasty.  I didn’t eat all of that though because I was too busy inhaling my smoothie and salad.

The update is that we now currently have heat!  Apparently the circuit board to the furnace blew and we needed a new one.  We got that replaced and signed up for a service agreement for the next year.  We are looking at a possible furnace replacement in the near future since our current one is pushing 20years old.  Original to the house.  I love living in a home but do hate how expensive things can be when you need to replace stuff.  Oh well, goes with the territory!

Now I’m off to celebrate having heat with my loves!  We are staying home tonight to keep any eye on things and make sure it continues to work.  Wouldn’t want to come back home to cold house again!  I’m making a lovely dinner and drinking some wine.  Hooray!  I’ll show you dinner tomorrow gang!

P.S. And also showering because it’s not such a risky behavior anymore.

Hi guys!  Check out Thursday’s snackies:

Red wine and some chocolate chocolate-chip cookies.  Mmmm!  We watched some 24 while snacking.  We don’t watch a lot of TV shows because either I think they’re dumb or they started off great and turned craptastic (Heroes anyone?).  While I know 24 can get a little ridiculous, I still love seeing some Bauer Power in action.  HAWT!  Then I crashed out in bed.

Friday:

Normally Fridays are my rest days but since I didn’t run on Thursday and only did conditioning class, I really felt the need to workout.  I didn’t run because it was late in the morning and because it was really cold.  So I did two levels of shred and a few other extra lifts and called it good.  I felt so much better having gotten something done!

Then the rest of the day I putzed around on the computer looking at gaming stuff. No lie, I found a great website of one of my favorite games and proceeded to waste away the hours.  Can’t help it, that stinking game sucks me in every time!

Yesterday’s smoothie was fabbo:

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry juice
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Banana
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen pineapple

YUM!

Also I had a Morningstar blackbean burger with salsa on the side.

Love those burgers!

Scott and I headed out to run some quick errands and then it was back home.  It was late and I was tired.  Both of us were in the mood for Asian food so we made a quick work of getting some take-out.

Pad Thai (same place) and some shrimp and veggies on the side.  I plowed through those veggies like it was nothing and ate about 1/3 of the Pad Thai.  Thanks to streaming NetFlix we watched an old Sherlock Holmes movie while we ate.

I had some red wine and kicked it with Kat William’s for a bit.  Love Kat Williams!  Then I crashed in bed.

Saturday:

Scott and I had way too much crap to get done today and sadly we had to miss MT class.  I made today my “rest” day making me doubly glad that I did something yesterday.

We had some errands to run and put away the Christmas decorations.  We’re also getting the basement cleaned up to make it a workout room.  Blah blah blah, we just had a bunch of crap to get done today.

Breakfast was different this morning.

Since I knew we weren’t going to MT, I decided to switch things up a bit.  I made some muffins with all my fave things: Yogurt, PB, oats, Flax, and banana!

I had two muffins with an apple on the side.  They were so yummy! But totally not filling like I was expecting.  Oh well they went perfect with coffee!

Smoothie was pretty typical today:

• 1C Carrot Juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry Juice
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Banana
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen peaches

I had a wee bit of Pad Thai on the side and I ate that cold.  Just so we’re on the same page for anyone who might be new, a smoothie is not the only thing I eat at lunch.  I have a salad and fruit but since that is the same everyday, I don’t show it.  Boring. But smoothies are fun!

And that’s all I have to show you gang!  We haven’t had dinner yet because we are currently dealing with a furnace that isn’t heating.  Eeep!  Hopefully it will get repaired tomorrow.  I will show you dinner then!  Now I’m off to try and get warm.  Wine helps with that, yes?

Hi gang!  Last night after stick fighting class I had a snack.

A whole wheat pita with PB and honey.  I only ate half though, that was plenty for me.  I was a bit hungry and since I planned on running a good distance this morning, I figured the extra fuel was no problem.

And then I didn’t run.  Boo!  When I got up this morning there was some seriously crazy wind going on.  Like hardcore wind.  No way I’m running in that.  I hate cold winter wind!  Back in the day when I first started running and was on the weight-loss train, I would have ran in it for sure.  Now that I’m in maintenance mode I can be a little bit more laid back with the runs (not much because I still need to get my run on or I get really cranky).  If it’s windy out, then I’m not running.  Winter wind I’m talking about, in the summer it’s not so bad.

Later in the morning I took Rocky out for a walk and it was still windy and dang cold.  We made super quick work of that walk for sure!  And then I came home and cuddled up with a smoothie.

• 1C Carrot Juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry-Pom Juice
• 1C Soymilk
• Spinach
• Banana
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen peaches

This is my favorite kind of smoothie.  Even if the banana was missing, it would still be my favorite smoothie combo ever.  The soymilk makes it creamy, rich, and thick.  It also helps the spinach and fruits to just melt away leaving a very smooth smoothie.  It’s divine!  I don’t have it everyday because I have soymilk in my coffee and in my oats (or oatbran) so I don’t want to overload myself on soymilk.  Having it on occasion makes it more of a treat and keeps it ranked as my fave.

Since I didn’t get a chance to run this morning, I was super looking forward to conditioning class this evening!  Despite the crazy cold, we braved the weather and headed out.

Then you know what it was, time for Pizza Thursday!  Wheee!!!

Straight up veggie pizza today:

• Spelt crust
• Spinach and sundried tomato pesto base on my side
• Pizza sauce on Scott’s side
• Shredded moz and parm
• Sprinkle of feta on my side
• Red onion
• Shredded carrot
• Shredded zucchini
• Chopped artichoke

YUM!

The spelt dough was giving me some problems today.  It stayed sticky and it was really airy.  I dunno what was going on with it but it turned out really yummy!  The feta was amazing on top!  It just browned and warmed through.  It was nice to have a burst of salty cheesiness that was also very creamy!  It didn’t melt or anything just got very warm and delish.

Now it’s wine time!  Then dessert and I’m totally thinking chocolate is on the menu for this evening!  Till tomorrow guys!

Hi gang! I could tell this morning when I looked outside that the sun was going to make an appearance today.  You can sort of get an impression of what the day is going to be like when you’re up just as the sun is starting to rise.  Despite the fact that Scott and I would like to move elsewhere, the one upside to Ohio is that we do at least get some sunshine during the winter months.  Hooray!

Thanks to the crazy wind we had last night, most of the snow had blown away leaving the roads and sidewalks clear.  There were a few ice patches but they were easy to avoid.  It was colder this morning than it was yesterday morning but there was no wind so I was able to bust out five miles no prob!  Well my legs felt a bit tired today but I didn’t let that get me down, I powered on through!  Then I did week 2 of Gina’s Winter Shape-Up and took a much needed shower.  Highlight of the day was holding a plank for a whole minute! WHOO! That’s my first minute long plank and I’m feeling very smug.

I better watch out because I just might get addicted to lifting after my runs!  It makes me feel a little more balanced and loads better with workout highs!  Whooo!

My HRM is still bunk but I’m taking Kim’s advice and looking for a new battery for it.  Needing a new battery totally makes sense!  Hopefully that will work otherwise I may have to start the mourning process.

Lunch was late today because Scott had some conference calls going on.  By the time we got to eat, we were hungry and grumpy!  Smoothie today was glorious though:

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry-Pom
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen pineapple

Delish! But apparently I forgot to take a pic of it! Sorry ’bout that gang.  It was purple and beautis!

Rumors of an Apple Tablet coming out were true and Apple released it’s new iPad today.  Yes, iPad.  Back in the day I used to have major Apple love and now I do not.  However if I was on my own without a Scotty in my life, I would be using Apple (if I could afford it!) because I don’t know diddley about Linux and I don’t trust Windows.  Anyway, I’m not really sure what the point is behind this whole tablet business.  A cross between an iPhone and a laptop? First impressions are not so great.  Maybe it will grow on me and I’ll appreciate it more.  Right now, I’ll just love on my iPhone because as much as Apple annoys me, I do lurve my iPhone!

Dinner today was soup!  Kale and white bean soup with some lentils and a little extra veggie thrown in for good measure!  I also added in some kielbasa for Scotts.  I picked around that though as I was not in a kielbasa mood.  I know shocking!

• Chicken stock base
• Onions
• Carrot
• White beans (2 cans)
• 1/3C green lentils (uncooked)
• 2 huge bunches of kale chopped
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• Various seasonings

Pure comfort food dinner and it was awesome.

Bringing back the cheesy white bread!  Some asiago bread on the side which hit the spot.  Alright gang, I’m out! I want to get some chill time in for a minute before heading out to SF.  Till tomorrow pretties!

Monday night while Scott and I were eating dinner, the wind picked up and it started snowing.  Like crazy snowing and within about 5 minutes our deck was covered.  The remainder of the evening it went back and forth between snow and freezing rain.  Nice.  Does not make for lovely driving conditions or lovely conditions period.

I woke up  to about 3 inches of snow and some ice on the roads.  The weather was cold and it was windy.  That meant it was back to two layers of clothes and YakTrax for running yesterday morning. *sigh*

Now there are parts of winter running that just stink.  But one of the worst?  Is when you get a break from all that winter weather for a bit.  We had temps in the 50s, the snow melted, and I only had to wear one pair of pants for my morning runs.  When you get to experience the joys of such a break only to wake up the next morning smack dab back into the middle of winter, it’s a little, disheartening to say the least.  It can make you really cranky if you aren’t careful.

I tried my best but wow the weather got to me this morning.  It was windy and cold and I was tired.  Huge mental games I had to play with myself to keep going and crank out those five miles.  But I did it!  Even though my HRM was totally out to lunch, telling me my HR was flip-flopping between 40 and 79.  It said that I burned 100 calories during my 50 minute 5 mile run.

Nice!

I have no idea what is up with that little bug.  He’s only going on 2 years old so he shouldn’t be having a mid-life crisis just yet.

I was starving this morning and could not wait to be done with my shower to hit the oat pan.  Mmmm oats!  I made a huge batch too just so I could dive into a large bowl headfirst.

And I totally did.

Rocky and I kicked it for a walk which despite the fact it was noon and hours since my run, it was colder, windier, and things were starting to refreeze.  Awesome.

Smoothie yesterday kicked major ass.  It was thick like a shake and was very tart.  I think it might be the combo of blueberries and cranberry-pom juice that caused that.

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry-Pom juice
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen mango
• Frozen peaches

MMMM!

To be perfectly honest, sometimes during situations like yesterday, I don’t really want to leave my house when the evening rolls around.  It’s true.  It’s total winter hibernation going on.  It’s dark and cold outside and I would rather be in a warm bed than bundling up and heading out the door.  I suppose some people feel the same way about early morning workouts?  But I’m a morning person (please note this does not mean I am chatty/chipper/happy/talkative, it just means I would rather get up and get stuff taken care of!) so I would rather get things done early and have the evenings to myself.

I didn’t let it keep me down yesterday though!  I was done with work and Scott (he’s been having a lot of work and freelance stuff going on.  Good for moolah not so good for freetime) had no meetings on the schedule so off to MT class we went for a lovely workout.

Back home for Fish Tuesday!

We had flounder and I decided to make some extra because I was hungry plus I wanted extra for Scott’s lunch the next day.  Wrong-oh! This fish cooked up really small and even though I took two pieces they were super tiny and not enough.  I gave Scott most of the fish because I’m considerate like that and ended up taking some rice which I didn’t even want in the first place.  Oh well, live and learn!  The fish was seasoned with:

• Coconut oil
• Olive oil (to help bring the smoke point up a bit)
• Soy sauce
• Curry powder
• Garlic powder

YUM!  Baked at 400 for about 5 minutes.

On the side was some roasted cauliflower and jasmine rice.  The cauliflower was so so good!  It had:

• Olive oil
• Soy sauce
• Garlic powder
• Chili powder
• S&P
• Red pepper flakes

Scott kept talking about how fantastic the cauliflower was so I must have done something right! :p  The last of the coleslaw also made an appearance.  I made it through one period of hockey and then went to bed.  I was asleep by about 10:30 and it was awesome!

Prezzie:

Looky I got something in the mail!  Whitney from I Run, I Sweat sent me some very awesome toe and handwarmers to wear during my runs!  They came just in time too!  She also sent me some Clif bars and biodegradable doggie bags.  Oh yeah!  Do you all read her blog because you totally should if you do not.   Thanks Whitney!

Hi gang! Oh man I don’t think I could be even more blah today.  It’s one of those days where I’m constantly behind and running to catch up.  First last night we watched an old movie and had a snack.

Some white wine and nutrolls!  YUM! We watched, After The Thin Man and if you like old movies that are “who done it” type you definitely should give the Thin Man series a look.  The movies are hilarious!  The storyline is interesting, the dialogue is fantastic, and the interaction between the two main characters is great!  Of course with old movies one does have to deal with certain actions and behaviors towards women.  Meh.  It’s a good lesson in how far we’ve come as a society and how far we still have to go.

I went to bed way too late and had too much wine.  Bah!  For the record I don’t get buzzed or drunk (nor does Scott) because for us that’s not the purpose of a nice drink.  I think sometimes people assume that if one is drinking they are only doing it to get drunk which is a limited and sad perspective to have.  Wine and beer to me are like great desserts, something to treat yourself with and to savor!  But I have my limits and too much wine means I sleep like crap and get too hot in bed.  Both of which happened last night, combined with being overly tired and that added up to a really crap sleep.

I was still going to run this morning regardless but it was pouring rain again and windy outside.  Blech.  I was gross feeling anyway coming off of too little sleep.  I hate that feeling which is the reason I’m so behind today.  I just can’t get motivated to do anything and then by the time I start it’s late.

I did walk Rocky when there was a break in the weather and wow it was great to get outside!  It might have been cold and windy but the fresh air was a nice change after being cooped up all day yesterday!

Today’s lunch smoothie was Exorcist green but don’t let that scare you, it was really tasty!

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry Juice
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Banana
• Frozen mango
• Frozen peaches

YUM!

Dinner was pretty easy today since it involved leftovers.  Scott had leftover pulled pork and I had leftover soup from Saturday.

The soup was perfect for today because the weather was crappy.  But then I got jealous of Scott’s tacos (there’s a joke in there somewhere) because I wanted one too!  But I didn’t want pork two days in a row (can’t do meat two days in a row) so what to do?

A-ha!

I passed on the bread and put some of my soup into a taco, topped with guac and hotsauce.  YUM!  Then I used the broken leftover taco pieces and dipped them in my soup.  Perfect solution!

Girl Talk:

I hate to label it that way but since the topic is periods, I doubt the dudes are interested. :p  Did any of you read the Breathe Article by Kath discussing the topic of embracing the cycle?  For a short article it was pretty interesting and came at a time when I was just dealing with that situation.

Since I’m currently in maintenance mode, I don’t really weigh myself as much as I used to.  I do it now strictly just for maintenance to make sure I’m still on track.  I go mostly by how I feel and since I’m feeling great and my clothes fit beautifully, I’m pretty happy.  I did weigh myself recently though and noticed an increase of three pounds.  I didn’t freak out, I just assumed that my new love for feta in my salads caught up with me.  No biggie, reduce the feta, up veggies and fruit and the three pounds would be history.  I didn’t really think much of it.  Then the following week I weighed myself and the three pounds were gone.  Well that was fast so I knew something had to be up.

Hrm.

Then things finally clicked I realized that this was period weight.  Since my eating has become very clean, I haven’t really had to deal with period bloating and weight gain for a long time.  I still get hormone cranky and craving chocolate but that’s about it.  Anytime I feel bloaty it’s because my eating has been off or I haven’t taken in enough water.  By “off” I mean eating processed foods (an Amy’s burrito for lunch with no veggies makes me bloaty and feeling gross) or if I don’t get enough fruits and veggies that day.  What’s interesting is that I didn’t feel bloated or any different at all really.  Nor did my clothes fit any differently.

It does make me wonder if this turn of events is diet related.  Since it has not been an issue for over a year now, perhaps my new love for feta did catch up with me! :p  I’m actually curious to see if this is a trend that is going to start up again and continue.  Next month I’m going to have to check again and see if there is some weight gain.  If so, I am going to maybe look at what I’m taking in a little more closely to see if I can determine what’s going on.  Not that I’m worried about period weight but I am curious to try and understand why it’s an issue again after being dormant for over a year.  If it’s here to stay, so be it!

Do you have to deal with the monthly water weight or is it a non-issue?

Hi gang! I’m so sorry for going off grid but we’ve been so busy with just life that I haven’t had much of a chance to sit at the computer and type out a post.  It happens.   So let’s tap the way back machine and get going!

Friday, Jan. 22nd:

Thursday evening before the show, we headed over to a local Chinese place for dinner. I had pad thai and there’s no picture.  I was starving you see and since you all have seen pad thai numerous times here, I did not take a picture.  It’s pad thai from the place we normally get takeout from, so it’s been featured.  Plus, I just wanted to enjoy dinner without worrying about the perfect shot, I fully own that.  I am coming to terms (slowly!) with the fact that not everything has to be photographed.

Now I have to get a few grumbles off my chest.  They are totally food related but if you do not want to read the grumps, feel free to move along.

1. I cannot say never, because who knows what could happen in the future, but I hope to not have to eat toast and fruit for breakfast again (See’s Thursday’s post for a refresher).  It did not fill me up and in fact left me empty feeling for the rest of the day.  I never reached the satisfied and content stage after the meal.  I was missing my whole grains!  Even after lunch I was sort of “empty” feeling.  Not empty hungry but empty like something was missing.  By the time we got to dinner I was starving and even dinner didn’t fill me up.

Which brings me to grump #2.

2. This particular Chinese place is such that when you dine in you actually get less food for your money.  If you get takeout, you get way more food.  It’s weird.  AND they skimp on veggies like whoa.  I ordered veggie pad thai last night with extra veggies ($1 worth, whatever that means) and really I couldn’t even tell there were veggies in this dish.  It was so lame with the veggies.  In the grand scheme of things, veg for restaurants is cheap cheap, so what is with the skimp?

I could have easily cleared my plate but I didn’t because I don’t want to fill up on noodles.  I want to get full from real food; veggies and protein.  Not noodles and not rice.  Nothing wrong with those they just are not my preference.  I have the worst time tracking down veggies when we dine out.  I don’t understand it!  Give up the goods and gimme some produce already.  Jeeze.

We went to our first show at Shadowbox and it was amazing!  I had a very overpriced glass of wine but I didn’t really care it was overpriced because everything goes towards the show and the workers.  Shadowbox is a mix of comedy skits and music.  It was awesome and I can’t wait to check it out again! The show is hilarious and the band kicks ass; if you are a local definitely check it out.

We got home late and I snugged in bed chatting with Scott.  It was probably going on close to midnight when I tucked myself in bed for sleeping purposes.

I got up Friday morning and was ready to start my rest day.  I patted myself on the back for listening to my own advice and still working out Thursday because there was no way I felt like doing anything.  Fridays are three cups of coffee days and I enjoyed that to the max.

I did have a huge bowl of oatmeal which was very sad but I didn’t care because it was oats.  Gimme those grains!  I’m out of bananas and the apple I added in was a bit mealy so it turned a little too soft during the cooking process.  I couldn’t be bothered to care if I’m to be honest, I just wanted to eat some food.  I had a bit of a greater appreciation for my oatmeal breakfast having dealt with the toast void the day before.

Lunch was beyond lame.  We were out of everything, no salad fixings, no fresh fruit, not even any carrots period!

There was a smoothie, frozen burrito and some dried fruit (apricots, prunes, raisins).  I switched burritos with Scott, he was having an Amy’s one.  I just was not feeling the one I made for myself, so what is pictured isn’t what I actually ate.  The Amy’s burrito was alright but this lunch was heavy which is no surprise since there wasn’t enough raw for me.

It was so heavy that I never really had an appetite the rest of the day.

Scott’s laptop crapped out on him and he spent the rest of the day backing stuff up and trying to his computer to boot.  I was having a blah day so I did some stuff around the house.  I got out of my funk because Scott said we should hit the grocery store. :p  Hooray! That meant I could get some veggies.  We just went to Kroger and I got myself some dinner as well.

Veggie sushi with brown rice! With actual veggies in it and some spicy Thai dressing for dipping.  I also sipped on some of Scott’s beer, Sam Adam’s Winter Lager.  I ate that whole container of sushi too!  Normally I have sushi with lunch and can only eat about three to four pieces.  Having it with dinner is a whole other ballgame and I was able to eat much more.  MMM!  One of the keys to sushi with me is having something to dip it into, soy sauce doesn’t cut it.  I need something with more flavor.

We watched hockey and then I kicked it in bed early because I was passing out.

Saturday, Jan. 23rd:

I got up early Saturday morning and sat on the couch watching some TV and drinking coffee.  Scott got up and I made us some pumpkin oatbran, still with no banana because they were not ripe enough yet.  We chatted for a bit and then got ready for MT class.

Yesterday was a big errand day for us.  After class we did some stuff and then came home for lunch.  I made us a big lunch because I was starving (I blew through the oatbran and was already hungry when MT class started!) and wanted some food already!

Basic lunch with smoothie:

• The juices
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Frozen yogurt cubes
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen mango
• Frozen peaches

With the addition of some vegan nuggets on the side for extra protein power:

I get these from Whole Foods, in the prepared foods section.  They are so good!

Scott had to run to Micro Center to get a program to help reboot his laptop and some additional stuff like backup drives.  I knew he would take forever and I can’t stand Micro Center so I had him drop me off at Filene’s and DSW while he did his stuff.  Filene’s is having a big sale clearing out all their winter gear.  I got two sweaters, two t-shirts, and a pair of dark chocolate cords for a great price.  No shoes though, boo.  I looked real hard too!

After he picked me up, we walked over to Whole Foods to pick up a few things.  Whole Foods was packed for a Saturday night!  And I was surprised by how many people were having their dinners there as well.  It’s not a destination spot I would have pictured for people going out on a Saturday night.

By the time we got home it was late in the evening and I was hungry and tired.  Not a good combo at all!  Thankfully I’ve got a freezer full of yumtastic stuff.

I pulled out some sauerkraut stew (veggie bigos) and heated that up along with some beer bread.  YUM!  And it was perfectly comforting for me.  So good!  We watched more hockey and then I crashed out in bed around 10pm.  I was wiped out.

Sunday, Jan. 24th:

The weather called for rain all day today, I knew this before hand.  My plan was to get my run in and walk Rocky before the weather turned.

I was wrong.  At 6:30 this morning I was awoken to the sound of thunder.  I initially thought it was a plane flying over but when it started pouring rain I knew it was actually thunder.  Damn.  I turned off my alarm and hoped it would be done raining when I got up.

The answer to that was no, no it was not done raining.  I did two levels of shred plus some extra weight stuff instead.  It was fine and I felt pretty bangin’ afterwards but I had really been looking forward to a long run.  When you enjoy distance running, long run days are something you start looking forward to.  When you can’t get it, you can feel sort of off balance.

I will make up for it this week and try to squeeze it in if I can.

After a quick shower it was time for some yogurt and granola.  Hooray!  And check out what I scored at Whole Foods:

A huge freaking tub of Fage!  And by tub I mean this is 33oz of Fage love.  WHOOO!  Whole Foods started carrying the large tubs of 0% Fage but I don’t eat that and started praying they would carry the 2% soon.  I saw a slot for it but it was always empty.  Scott surprised me by saying, “Look what I put in the cart.”  He was in charge of gathering the yogurt.  Squeals of delight and dances of joy commenced.

You know I opened that bad johnny today!

With granola and some dark chocolate chips.  YUM!  We’ve been out of yogurt for what seems like forever and I was very happy to be able to munch on this today.

I ate breakfast and then went back into the kitchen to get dinner ready for this evening.  I got everything assembled into the crockpot and also made the side dish.  While I was prepping the side dish, Scott made his way downstairs.  We chatted for a little while and then I made some Sunday breakfast.

I heated up some waffles from the freezer, gingerbread flavor.  And topped them with nutty seed topping and some French Vanilla Stoneyfield.

Mmm mmm!  The topping had:

• Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
• Crushed nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashews)
• Ground flax
• Wheat Germ

Maple syrup to hold everything together.  Very tasty!

There was fruit in the middle, orange and banana.  Then I got up and added in another orange and banana since both of us wanted more fruit today.  I did not have that third waffle, I was pretty full after two!

The original plan was to put away Christmas decorations today but since we have been running around nonstop since Thursday, that didn’t happen.  I wanted some time with my hunnies today so we hung out.  Our time made even longer since I already prepped dinner!

We had pulled pork!  I have been wanting to make this for ages and got a chance today!

Pork butt roast with bone that I seasoned with:

• S&P
• Garlic powder
• Chili powder
• Smoked paprika
• Grill seasoning

In the crockpot with onions, green peppers, chipotle pepper, and chicken stock.  Once that cooked for a few hours I shredded it and pulled some aside for Scott’s leftovers tomorrow.  Then I added some salsa to what was in the crockpot and let that heat through for a few minutes.  Quick guacamole for the top.

Served on blue taco shells from Whole Foods!

The side was some purple slaw, hold the mayo.  Purple cabbage, red onion, and shredded carrot with a mustard and vinegar base.

There was also some Fage yogurt and shredded cheddar for Scott to use as toppings.  I passed, wasn’t feeling cheese and already had two servings of yogurt today! :p

Dinner was awesome!  The taco shells from Whole Foods were light and crispy, not heavy or greasy.  The pulled pork was delish and the slaw was outstanding.  A very fabbo Sunday Supper!  Woo!

Now I’m off to sit on the couch and watch some hockey and hopefully have time for an old movie as well.  There will most definitely be wine and dessert in my future!

Hi gang!  Listen yesterday was just Le Crazah with me cranking out stuff here at home which lead to no post.  I know you all understand which is why I don’t even stress about it but I do still feel the need to explain myself so perhaps I still stress a bit? I also apologize for that terrible run on sentence but whatever I was not an English/Journalism major, I was Crim-Psych and we didn’t care about no stinkin’ sentence structure.  Unless we were turning in paper and even then whatever.

Random fact that will blow your mind(although my other fellow grannies will yell HOLLA): Back in the day when I was in college, most people didn’t even have computers.  Yup. Had to type a paper?  Computer lab baby, computer lab.  I had my own but no printer so I still had to kick in the lab to print out my shiz.  And I got to carry around those sexah discs.  USB what? Not.  Typing papers in high school was nonexistent.  You had to hand write those puppies and depending on your style of writing a 10 page paper could be easy or difficult.  You pick!

We also didn’t have cell phones in college. No one did, hell we were still getting used to those new fangled cordless phones with the extending antenna! The kind that you would bang against the wall until you got used to the fact it extended 2 feet away from the handset.  Yes those!   Had to call someone long distance?  Calling cards.  If you had one that was 10cents a minute you were golden because most of them were 25cents a minute.  Scott had a 10cent one, that rate kicked in after 7pm (restrictions FTW!) which was handy since we went to different colleges 7 hours apart.  He also had more money than I did in college so I didn’t mind him being the one making the call in the evening. True story.  He also has more money than I do now so at least we are consistent!

I had a 5 mile run yesterday and then came back and did some of Gina’s workout.  I mixed and matched, some from the beginners and some from the intermediate.  I also don’t have a medicine ball yet so I used my handweights for some things which totally worked out.  I have to say that I felt awesome after my workout! I love running and feel good afterwards, but yesterday running combined with the weights, I got the high.  I love the high!  Normally I only get that if I do speed drills and quick fast runs.  I do not get the runners high from distance alone.  Yesterday running plus weights gave me a workout high and it was fantastic!  For sure I need to do this more often.

Anyway yesterday was same old same old except I was kicking it Donna Reed style most of the day.  Lunch was the usual with an addition:

A little bit of Amy’s veggie barely soup on the side.  I bumped up the veg by mixing in the leftover mashed cauliflower from Sunday.  I am a rockstar!  It totally worked, now had I actually liked this Amy’s soup I probably would have been a bit more happy.  Sometimes Amy’s soups seem to have a very weird onion taste going on.  Since I love onions, for me to say “weird onion” you know something totally funky must be happening.  I think I’m going to stick with the tomato and lentil versions of her soup.

Smoothie:

• The Juices (I told you!)
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• 3 frozen yogurt cubes
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen peaches

Fantastic!

After lunch, I cleaned up the kitchen and then cranked out some pizza dough.  Then I pulled out a new prezzie to use:

Silpats!  Well, silpat, I got one for Christmas.

Riddle me this, instructions on the silpat say to store it flat yet it is sold and packaged all rolled up.

  Drive on the parkway, park in the driveway kind of stuff going on right there.

I made some almost vegan chocolate chip cookies. My chocolate chips are not vegan, so you know, that’s the almost part.  I LOVE THEM with all my itty bitty heart.  The cookies.  The silpat is nice too and worked divinely.

Dinner was PIZZA!

Confused?  Well here’s the thing, Thursday (today) we are going to dinner and a show with friends so there really wouldn’t be time for pizza.  And we must have the pizza!  Normally I would have just bumped it to Friday but we might be going out to dinner Friday (it’s restaurant week here) so you see my dilemma.

Scott had to work late yesterday and since we weren’t able to hit stick fighting class I make the executive decision to move pizza day to Wednesday.

Pretty standard OHC pizza:

• Spelt crust
• Pizza sauce
• Shredded moz and parano cheese (my fave cheese!)
• Shredded carrot and zucchini
• Red onion and green pepper
• Banana peppers
• Buffalo chicken sausage

YUM!

I had three pieces while we watched some hockey.  Let’s not discuss that.   Then it was time for my snacky!

Some red wine and cookies!   I had two cookies, mmm!  They were a little bit poofy but overall very good and if you want the recipe I’ll post it!

I went to bed at 10:30 because I was passing out.

Thursday, January 21:

I woke up at 7am this morning and heard the wind.  I flip-flopped back and forth about whether to run today or do a rest day.  Rocky was sleeping in all peaceful which he never does so I went with it and just laid in bed for a while.  I should have gotten up but whatever it’s over now, no sense on dwelling on it.

I was going to run and do strength until I took Rocky out for his potty run which is when I got slammed with the wind.  Cold wind sucks to run in, plain and simple.  I hate it.  I didn’t want a rest day though.  I really enjoy having rest days on Fridays so what to do?

Strength!

Duh.  Sometimes it takes me a sec.   I did 2 levels of shred and then some extra stuff on my own from Gina’s workout and some additional stuff I added in for hamstrings.

Hamstring strength move, you need a stability ball:

Lie on your back on the floor.  Both feet placed on top of the stability ball and lift your hips/pelvis off the floor and hold for two seconds.  Drop back down, rinse repeat.  You will feel it burning instantly!  You can do this on a chair or bench too.  The stability ball just gives you an extra level because you have to keep it stable as well as lift your hips.

I was spent after an hour of hardcore kicking it! And I felt awesome and was totally pleased with myself for working out.

Breakfast was lame.  LAME!

It was late in the morning and I didn’t want something super heavy.  Oatmeal and oatbran would have been too much.  I really wanted a mess but we are out of yogurt (grumble).  I decided on two slices of cinnamon raisin Ezek with PB and honey, along with a huge red delicious.

Yummy?  Yes.  Filling?  NO!  My body was like, “Oh hey, breakfast appetizer, we can dig it.  Where’s the real food now?”  I was so hungry still!  I’m not proud of what I did next but well, when I’m hungry it’s best if you just yield and get out of the way.

I took Scott’s breakfast.

Listen!  He was eating so slow and he only had two pieces of toast.  He didn’t even have the fruit part!  He said he was full and wasn’t going to finish his breakfast anyway, so I took his remaining half of toast.

This quieted my bellah but in no way filled me up.

When lunch time rolled around I was more than ready!  Knowing that I did a good bit of strength stuff today, I took Gina’s advice and bumped up the protein a bit in lunch today.

Smoothie:

• 1C Carrot Juice
• 1C Unsweetened Cranberry juice
• 1C Soymilk
• Spinach
• 2 frozen yogurt cubes
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen peaches

Thick and lovely! Like a milkshake!  I had a chick’n patty on the side:

With some BBQ sauce for dipping.  Standard salad too but no fruit because we are out of fresh fruit.  Other than an apple and I already had that today.  Scott again got full before clearing lunch so I finished the last two bites of his chick’n patty.  Then I had two huge prunes because I was still hungry.

If I ever again think I can get away with eating some toast for breakfast smack me.  Or spank me, whichever.

I’m out pretties!  We are headed out to dinner and a show tonight with friends so recap will be up tomorrow.  Wooo!  Have a great one!

Hi guys!  I could not get warm last night at all.  I hate that!  I made a mug of tea and headed to bed to get snug with my toasty bed warmer (I mean that literally, “bed warmer” is not a euphemism) but it took me ages to get warm.  I even had to sleep with my socks on for a bit.  Sexah!  And also, ew.

I’m still reading SK’s, Under the Dome.  It’s just okay so far.  Some of the characters are a little hard for me to read because they have personalities that I cannot stand.  The kind where you are able to relate because you know/knew/interacted with someone just like that?  Yeah.  Sometimes the actions and behaviors of the characters are a little hard to stomach.  Does that ever happen to you when you are reading a book?  Do you ever stop reading a book due to the sheer fact you absolutely hate the characters?

That’s happened to me only once.  Normally I can finish a book out no matter how much I hate it or the characters, although there I have been times where I’ve stopped just because I couldn’t get into the book.  However, Twilight, is the most craptastic piece of drivel I’ve ever read with horrible characters.  I was able to finish the first two books but could not read anymore of the series for fear my head would explode from all of the bad.

Under the Dome, I’m close to being about 200 pages in and while some of the characters (most of them) are dolts, I’m still able to push through alright.

I got up this morning and headed out for what I was hoping would be a longish run. I wanted to crank out at least 6-7 miles this morning but that was not happening.  It was 31 degrees out which was warm but still below freezing.  It was also misting out which meant that everything was covered in a thin layer of ice, including the roads.  Because it was such a thin layer I couldn’t wear my YakTrax but it was enough ice to make things miserable and difficult.  I managed a 3.5 mile run and had to turn in and come home.  It was just too risky to do more and with cars slipping and sliding everywhere, I could not justify trying to do more miles.  I was really cranky about it too.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal but you know how it goes when you want to run, run, and run but can’t for whatever reason.  Meh.

The upside is that being 31 degrees I only had to wear one pair of pants and a running hoodie, wooo!   Still had to wear my toboggan and gloves though, let’s not get crazy here.  I have a feeling that this warm weather isn’t going to last. February can tend to be a psycho-hosebeast sometimes and March is just plain old emo wanting attention for being “Spring!” but not getting it.

My HRM has been acting goofy lately, it bottoms out.  I don’t get the Flashing-Double-Zeros-Of-Death but in the middle of my run it will suddenly tell me that my HR is like 80.  Then in a little while it will jump back up to a normal reading.  Clearly this is not proper behavior and even though my endurance is up and my heart is stronger, I can in no way pull off an 80 HR in the middle of a run!   So what is the deal?  Is the signal getting lost some how?  Do I need to clean it better?  I love my little HRM so I need to know how to take care of it!

Breakfast was fun! And yummy, but I don’t have a picture for you because pictures would have looked neither fun or yummy.  I made some pumpkin chocolate oatbran!  And since I can’t take a picture of dark foods to save my soul, I spared you have to view my breakfast.  It was regular oatbran with about 1/2C pumpkin and 1TBSP unsweetened cocoa mixed in.  Delish!

Smoothie today was very pretty and very tasty.

• 1C Carrot juice
• 1C Unsweetened cranberry juice (considering calling this mix “The Juices” because it is always the same)
• 1C Water
• Spinach
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen pineapple
• 1tsp of Maca powder

Oh yes we  sampled some of the famed Maca powder the Mayans loved.  This was given to me by the fabbo LG and I finally remembered to pull it out and try it!

Here is a slice of convo Scott and I had about it:

Scott: So I see you’re using the new stuff.  Maca.

Me: Right.

Scott: So what does it do for us?

Me: Well, I don’t remember everything off the top of my head because it’s a lot, but I do know it’s supposed to increase libido.

Scott: I see.

Me: Feel anything yet?

I barely noticed it in the smoothie till I got to the end and then it was a little powdery chalky tasting.  I’m going to slowly add it to stuff here and there and see what happens.

Kicked it at MT and then came home to glorious food!

Salmon! With some crab topping!  The salmon marinade had:

• Sweet and spicy mustard
• Teriyaki sauce
• Sesame oil
• Honey
• Garlic powder
• Sea salt
• Cayenne powder
• Chili powder

I had some leftover crab from when I made risotto so I seasoned that with:

• A touch of olive oil
• Cayenne
• Garlic powder
• Panko bread crumbs

I kept it simple because I wanted to taste the crab and didn’t want it to compete with the salmon.

Roasted veggies on the side; asparagus and baby eggplants.  Super simple and easy!  Brown jasmine rice as well.  YUM!  The baby eggplants were very tasty and I could eat the skin because it was super tender.  Normally I pass on eggplant skin because I find it too chewy but this was excellent.

Alright pretties, I am wiped out.  I’m off to bed to read and then crash it!  Till tomorrow!