I know, I know... 11/29/11

First of all, a big thanks to a certain miss Heidi for always jumping my ass when I have a blog fail! J

Which, obviously, is precisely what we’re experiencing. I can’t even begin to explain how hectic life has been lately… not only was Thanksgiving a giant clusterf*ck but after that I had Christmas decorations to set up at 3 different locations (not including my own house) on top of regular life… ya know, child/husband/laundry/groceries, silly things like that. I’ve been absolutely exhausted and my eating and exercising habits have certainly been reflecting this exhaustion by way of some pretty terrible choices. Where to start… hm….

Well, Thanksgiving:

I started Tday at my In-law’s house, where the only thing in the house that I could eat was the vegan oatmeal cookies that I brought… so I had 2 cookies and then had to scurry off to my uncle’s house (a good hour away) where I was able to eat some roasted veggies and green beans. After my uncles, I dropped Nora w/ my parents and went back to my in-laws house for a night full of alcohol and really awkward family bonding, only to be immediately followed by Black Friday shopping! Note to self, drunken Black Friday shopping is not the greatest idea… by the time 5oclock that evening rolled around, I couldn’t remember what I had bought. Ha!

Friday was relatively lazy. Again, we spent most of the time at my in-law’s house which had no food that I could eat so I ended up going and getting a salad at Chipotle (which they left my black beans off of) and then didn’t eat again until like 930 that night after I went to Kroger and got an Amy’s Vegan veggie &  rice bowl. It was totally tasty..

Saturday was more productive, had oatmeal for breakfast then worked until about 3:30 on a client’s house decorating for Christmas. Not easy work by any means, about 1 million trips up/down the stairs, carrying boxes of stuff all around, up/down ladders etc… After that, I had some pineapple rice for lunch and ended the evening w/ chips and salsa for dinner. Party.

Sunday I woke up and went to the grocery store then Nora and I went to my grammy’s house and helped set up her Christmas décor… after that, we went to Branden’s work and I set up their 12 foot Christmas tree in their lobby… then after THAT we went home ( stopped at Papa Murphy’s and got a veggie pizza w/ no cheese) and set up my own damn tree! It’s a really good thing that I LOVE Christmas.

As I mentioned, my exercise habits have been really poor. Actually, the last time I worked out was Thursday morning when I ran 2 ½ miles. I’ve just been so tired and overwhelmed with everything else, I haven’t had the gumption to force myself out of bed/chair/couch/whatever. This morning included.

I haven’t weighed myself in 2 weeks but I’m fairly certain that if I were to do so I would see a gain. After skipping my run this morning, I woke up cussing myself and committing to getting myself back on my regular routine. My food choices were much better yesterday:

Breakfast: Fresh juice and an apple

Snack: Oatmeal

Lunch: 1 slice leftover veggie pizza no cheese and an apple

Snack: Protein Tofu

Dinner: Portobello burgers, sautéed broccoli/zucchini/onion and roasted sweet potatoes

Food Today:

Breakfast

Fresh Juice

Snack

Oatmeal

Lunch

Leftover veggie chili

Snack

Protein tofu

Dinner

Spaghetti

Okay I feel a lot better now that I have caught this up! But alas, I am overly busy and must cut this short. I hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope you’re as excited about the upcoming holiday as I am!!

Until tomorrow… (hopefully!)

Wednesday 11/23/11

Happy Friday! Well, for me at least J Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and my boss was kind enough to give me Friday off as well! I’m so excited, I plan to spend Friday putting up Christmas decorations at my grammy’s house, my house and most likely my mom’s house! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I cannot wait to have everything decked in holiday décor!

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, my job has been crazy busy and stressful lately and I haven’t had a moment to think. Luckily, today is starting off slower and I’m kind of hoping that it stays that way!

Yesterday was a BIG day for me, goal-wise!! My goal was 4 miles by Christmas and 5 miles by January… well I went running yesterday morning and I ran 5 MILES! Without stopping! In the freezing ass rain! I was SO happy and proud of myself! I love being surprised by my own abilities! Aside from a few sore spots and a slight burn in my chest, I felt fantastic after my run! It also made me really great when I talked to my brother after and I told him my time and he said that’s about the same pace that they (being his navy people) keep when they run so I’m not as slow as I thought I was! So now that I have the distance, I have plenty of time to work on speed! I already know that when I do the actual 8k my speed will be faster b/c it’s a flat course, as opposed to the inclines that I run now.

Food yesterday was pretty basic:

Breakfast: protein shake, granola w/ soy milk, juice

Snack: Oatmeal

Lunch: Leftover chili

Snack: Protein Tofu

Dinner: Veggie tacos w/ black beans

Well I’m officially 0 for 2 this week for my gym workouts. My child has not been sleeping well AT ALL which means I’m getting little to no sleep and I just don’t have the energy when my alarm goes off in the morning. Now that I’m down 2 of the 3 gym workout this week I think I may just skip the Friday workout as well and start over on Monday clean.

Food Today

Breakfast:

½ c Granola w/ soy milk

Fresh juice (see pictures below)

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover veggie chili

Snack:

Protein Tofu

Dinner:

Asian Stir Fry (I bought some new fancy toasted sesame oil I’m excited to try!)

So I’ve been talking about juicing for the past few weeks and I thought this morning I would finally take pictures of it all!

The first picture is the produce that I prepped for our juice (2 servings) and the second is the finished result J



That's 1 Golden Apple, 1 Red Apple, 1 Green Apple, 1 Orange, 2 Strawberries, 1 Carrot, 1/2 container Blackberries and 1tbs Cranberries per serving



The Result! Yummy organic juice!

As you can see, a lot of produce goes into a serving of juice! It’s both a blessing and a curse – blessing as you get loads of produce in a compact serving and a curse as it can get a little expensive buying so much organic produce! Totally worth it, I’m not complaining and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon, I’m just sayin…. J

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge T-day fan. I’m so overly obsessed with Christmas that Thanksgiving has always just been a giant dinner between Halloween and Santa time lol… I’ve never been a fan of the ‘holiday food’ (turkey/gravy/pie, etc) so it was never a big day that I looked forward to…. And even less so this year lol. This year we are spending Thanksgiving w/ my inlaws and my mother in law’s family… I’ve only met them once and well, yeah. I’m also slightly concerned with the fact that I probably won’t be able to eat anything that they’re serving so I plan to make a big thing of roasted veggies to take so I can have that… oh well, just roll with the punches I guess!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a healthy and happy Thanksgiving! Don’t cram 11 pounds of turkey down your throat just because It’s a holiday lol… be mindful of your bites!

Until next time…

Oh, Hello Stress. 11/21/11

Well hello there! It’s just a shit storm over here. I am so work-stressed right now I can’t even function. Ugh.

Weekend recap:

Friday: Work (terrible) then went home and spent some QT w/ my sweet Nora, my mom and my sister. Much-needed!

I went and danced Thurs night (for like 2 hours straight!) and then I didn’t eat dinner so by the time Friday rolled around I was starving! I had granola & juice for breakfast, oatmeal for snack then I ate my chili really early AND ordered a small thin crust veggie no-cheese pizza from Larosa’s! Honestly, I don’t think it was all that bad.. it wasn’t greasy at all. I finally got home from work near 7 and I had my protein tofu then we ordered Chinese and had a late dinner, I had steamed rice w/ veggies in a garlic sauce. Not the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Saturday: Lazy day for the most part! Hung out at the house and with my sister then went and ran about 3 ¼ miles (I did a different loop b/c it was daytime and my 5mi loop is dangerous w/ traffic). More on this later, it was great! Food: Granola for breakfast, chips and salsa for lunch and black bean crostini for dinner. I’m sure I had a few nibbles here and there that I don’t remember but not much.

Sunday: Grocery shopping, cooking then to my Aunt’s for Thanksgiving! My dad’s side of the family always does T-day the Sunday before. I took a salad and a sweet treat (vegan, of course) and my mom took a vegan option and my aunt had a vegan option so I was happy! I had salad (recipe below), green beans w/ mushrooms & water chestnuts, roasted sweet potatoes and brussel sprout/pomegranate salad. It was mighty tasty J

To top everything off, I didn’t go to the gym this morning. I haven’t been sleeping well AT ALL and I woke up absolutely exhausted. I don’t have time in my life to be sick so I thought that the extra hour of sleep was more important for me this morning. Not that it was even a solid hour… I hate that I missed, this is the first workout I’ve missed since I started doing the Crossfit stuff and it does not feel good. Oh well, hopefully that just gives me more energy to get in a good run tomorrow morning!

Speaking of running, my run Saturday was great! It was challenging for sure but I felt so fantastic and proud of myself when I was finished! I did a loop that I used to take Nora walking and I remember when I used to walk up one hill in particular and I would think ‘How in the hell do people run this?!’… and then I did! I did all of the hills and I didn’t stop once! I was really excited! I’ve also decided to make a more conscious effort to stop doubting myself! As I was coming up on the biggest hill in the run I was saying to myself “I’ll probably need to stop at the top.. that’s okay, I’ll just stop and walk for a little bit…” then once I got to the top I was like F THIS I’m not stopping! I’m no longer going to assume that I can’t do something! How silly is that? Sometimes, my own brain is my main competitor.

Food Today:

Breakfast:

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Fresh Juice

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins & cinnamon

Lunch:

Veggie chili w/ brown rice

Snack:

Salad of mixed greens, red onion, green apple and dried cranberries w/ homemade cranberry vinaigrette

Dinner:

Pineapple rice w/ curried tofu (new recipe!)

Cranberry Salad:

Dressing:

1c Fresh or frozen cranberries

¼ c + 2tbs Apply cider Vinegar

¼ c + 1tbs Pure Maple syrup

1.5 tsp Dijon Mustard (*I forgot this in my dressing and it was still yummy J)

½ c + 1tbs fresh orange juice (1 lg orange)

2 tbs EVOO

½ tsp Salt

Pinch black pepper

Salad:

Mixed Greens

1 lg apple, chopped

1 lg pear, chopped

½ c dried cranberries

½ c walnuts

For Dressing:

-          In a medium pot, heat the cranberries, maple syrup and vinegar over medium heat until the cranberries burst, about 7-10 min

-          Slightly cool the mixture and place in a blender/food processor along with all other dressing ingredients (excluding salt and pepper) and blend until smooth. Taste and add salt, blend again and taste again. Adjust as necessary.

-          Allow dressing to chill to room temp then put in the fridge to continue to chill and serve over the salad ingredients!

The dressing has a really bright tart flavor, I love it!

Well, I believe that’s all I have for today! I’m going to try to go dance tonight to help make up for my lack of workout this morning… oh and my mom’s scale broke! I’ve been using her scale throughout this entire journey so I trust it to tell the truth of my loss but it’s gone to scale heaven L… hopefully I can get another one soon!

Until tomorrow, friends…

Running more! 11-17

Hello friends! Sorry for the late post another busy day! This will be a quick one...
I went running thus morning and it went really well! I actually covered about 3.5 mikes without stopping! Again, it was a pretty slow pace but it was also cold and windy and I'm really proud of myself! My brother and I had set my goal as 2.5 by Christmas... So I changed it as of today to 4 by Christmas!The hardest part is that right at the 3.5 mark, it's an up-hill, which is where I stopped today, after I got up the hill... So it may take me a bit to build up my endurance and work through the hill! I'm totally confident that I can do it, though. :-) Other than run I did 50 crunches before and 50 after plus stretched. Overall, a good workout!

Food Today
Bfast
Granola w soy milk
Fresh juice

Snack
Oatmeal

Lunch
Black bean spread on roasted garlic ital bread

Snack
Protein tofu

Dinner
Veggie chili

Well I'm headed to tribal night to dance! Until tomorrow!

You People are FANTASTIC! 11/16/11

Greetings from a crazy-busy day! Work is insane right now but I finally had a small break to put together a quick post!

So last night, I showed Nora a side-by-side picture of my 1^st picture and my November picture and she pointed to November and said “That’s mommy!” then pointed to the first picture and said “Who’s that mommy?”. It was so adorable and I was actually surprised that she didn’t know who I was in the ‘before’ picture! I shared this on Facebook and cannot believe the response that I’ve gotten from all of my supporters! It’s so crazy, I never know who is actually reading this blog or following along in my path but I will say, it brought tears to my eyes when I woke up this morning and saw SO many comments, ‘likes’ and wall posts with amazing, supportive words of praise and encouragement. Today was one of those days when I woke up and said “Ehhh.. maybe I’ll just go back to sleep today.” Then, I started reading everything I had received over the night and immediately jumped up and got my ass to the gym! I cannot even begin to explain how much all of the support means to me! My goal one day is to take my experiences and knowledge that I’ve gained along this journey and utilize it all to help other people gain control of their lives and help them live the healthiest, happiest lives possible! So, with ALL of that being said, I just want to give a giant heart-felt THANK YOU! to each and every one of you that continue to read/follow/support, even through my pity-parties and bitching… this is one of the most important things I have ever attempted in my life and it has been such a tremendous help knowing that I have an amazing support system right behind me. J

So the workout this morning went well, I finished about 1 ½ minutes ahead of last month. It was focused on hamstrings and glutes today and I’ll just say… my butt hurts a bit.

Here’s what I did: J

3 Rounds for time:	w/bar
GoodMornings	25
DeadLift	25
Asymmetrical Squats	15 ea/leg
Bike	1 mile
TIME:		19:55

Good Morning: place bar on the back of upper shoulders and feet hip-width apart, bend at waist until parallel w/ ground and then raise back up, keeping feet planted

Dead Lift: with the bar resting on the ground, keep feet planted hip-width apart and a slight bend in the knee, bend down and pick up the bar and stand up until back is straight. Bend to put bar back on ground (or nearly on ground) and repeat

Asmmetrical Squats: Place bar on the back of upper shoulders and stagger feet, about 2 ft apart (one in front of the other) squat down then straighten back up, repeat on both legs

It went well! It was a bit challenging, especially towards the end but I got through it with minimal rest. I was sweating my ass off this morning too! I guess I was working harder than I thought lol.. Oh well, I don’t mind sweating, it’s cleansing!

For dinner last night I made vegan manicotti.. it turned out pretty well! I’ll share the recipe below

Food Today

Breakfast:

Small portion protein tofu immediately after workout (I’m out of protein powder L)

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Banana

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ raisins, goji berries and cinnamon

Lunch:

Leftover manicotti w/ ½ whole grain ciabatta

Snack:

Protein tofu

Dinner:

Black bean burgers w/ sweet potato fries and some sort of veggie.. maybe sauted kale?

Vegan Manicotti

1 8oz pkg manicotti shells

1lb Firm tofu, drained

2 pkgs frozen spinach, thawed and drained/squeezed well

4 tbs EVOO

3tbs minced garlic

1tsp dried oregano

¼ c nutritional yeast flakes (I got it in the ‘nature’s market’ at Kroger)

1tsp salt

Ground black pepper to taste

¼ tsp Red Pepper Flake

1 jar tomato/spaghetti sauce of choice (I used emeril’s Roasted Gaaaahlic)

Vegan shredded mozzarella cheese (I like Daiya)

-          Pre-heat oven to 375

-          In a food processor, (I used my Ninja) put tofu, spinach, 2tbs EVOO, garlic, oregano, red pepper flake, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper and pulse until thoroughly combined.

-          In a large bowl, pour jar of tomato sauce, refill jar w/ ½ c water, replace lid and shake to get all of the sauce and add to the tomato sauce along w/ 2tbs EVOO, mix thoroughly

-          In a 13x9 pan, ladle ½ of the sauce into the bottom of the pan

-          Put tofu mix into a large Ziploc bag and snip off end, pipe into uncooked manicotti shells

-          Put shells on top of sauce in baking pan in 1 layer

-          Ladle remaining sauce over shells, cover w/ foil and bake for 35 minutes

-          Remove foil, spread shredded cheese over top and return to oven, baking an additional 10-15 minutes. Should be bubbly and delicious!

-          I served w/ whole grain ciabatta rolls and would work wonderfully with a salad!

I liked the recipe as a basic start but I am going to play around with the ingredients next time and add some more flavors! I’m thinking sundried tomatoes, banana peppers, onions..

Anyway, that was dinner last night! Totally yummy and the leftovers were great, too! That was the first time I had used the vegan Daiya cheese (I try to stay away from processed vegan substitutes) but it was really delicious! It melted beautifully and tasted fantastic!

Alrighty… well I suppose that’s all I have for today! I’m hoping it’s not raining so hard tomorrow b/c I’m running outside no matter what!! J

Until tomorrow, dear followers…. J

Picture Day! 11/15/11

It’s picture day! Not a huge difference by any means, but I’m FINALLY starting to see change in my face! I still feel like my face is a giant puff ball all of the time, but I can see a bit of difference in my face from last month to this month! Either way, it’s progress and I like it!

Last night for dinner I had a banana w/ organic peanut butter (from Whole Foods – literally ground peanuts at their grinder!) and that’s about all… Branden wanted Broccoli casserole and I had tried to make a lightened version of a chicken casserole before and it was really terrible so I just decided to go ahead and make a traditional broccoli casserole for Bran and Nora, which they seemed to enjoy. J

My run this morning was… well, less than good. It was cold and rainy this morning and I don’t have a spare minute in my life to get sick so I decided to hit the gym and use the treadmill rather than run outside in the poopy weather.. terrible decision. For some reason, I just couldn’t get it going on the treadmill! I did a slow mile then some abs and then another ¼ mile or so and I just wasn’t feeling it. At that point I was so discouraged, I just called it a day and went home. Ugh. I’m definitely hitting the pavement for my run Thursday and I’m determined to make it a good one! BTW – shout out to my big brother – he beat his PR (personal record) for the 1 ½ mile fitness test this morning! 10m 30s for 1 ½ miles! I’d say that’s pretty damn good, especially for a giant 6’5” fella! Proud of him and can’t wait to run together! Regardless of the less than stellar run, it did feel good to get some extra ab workouts in. I feel like abs are the only thing my workouts are missing so I’m going to start incorporating more on running days.

Food Today

Breakfast

Protein shake immediately after workout

½ c granola w/ about ¼ c unsweetened organic soy milk

Fresh Juice of spinach, carrot, apples, orange and ½ a kiwi J

Snack

Oatmeal w/ raisins, cinnamon and goji berries. I bought some organic cinnamon and I can really taste the difference between that and the cheap stuff! It’s great!

Lunch

Leftover tortilla soup (I didn’t share recipe b/c it’s less than fantastic – but edible.)

Brown rice w/ cilantro/lime juice

Snack

Protein Tofu

Dinner

Vegan Manicotti  - a new recipe, I’m excited to try it out!!

I really must say that I am so appreciative of all of the amazing feedback I’m getting from family and friends! I went out Saturday night and hung out with a few guy friends that I haven’t seen in forever and upon seeing me, one of my friends said “Is that Humbert? You look f*ckin gorgeous, I wanna make out with you!” Inappropriate as it may have been, I can’t help but love it. J  My friends are really classy, by the way… lol! Anyway, I had lots of compliments and I couldn’t help but feel amazing!

Okay, now for the pictures!

First Picture, April 2011



Last Month, October 2011



Aaaaand.....



This Month, November 2011



Again, not a huge difference but I see it in my face and it seems as if my waist is becoming a bit more defined... what do you think?

Well, I suppose that's all I have for today! I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy Tuesday!

Until tomorrow... :)

Recap!

1Hello! So I've been a blog fail for the past couple of days, I know! Work and life have been crazy busy! Brief recap:
Friday morning worked out, granola and protein for breakfast, oatmeal snack, can't remember lunch and granola for dinner (long story).
Saturday I went for my first outdoor run! It was fantastic!! I ran 2 1/2 miles, walked a mile then ran the last 1 1/2 miles home! I was so excited with myself for doing the 2 1/2! It was slow going, took 1hr 7min for the full workout but I was really proud of myself! After my run, I weighed in... Only lost like 1/2 pound last week but that's okay. Again, I'm more focused on my overall fitness and health than the numbers on the scale it this point. I went to Louisville with my mom for a luncheon/fashion show hosted by one of my customers and the only thing that I was able to eat there was a tiny salad with just lemon juice (surprisingly tasty) and crackers so we went to this fabulous tapas restaurant and shared hummus, guacamole w/ plantain chips and sweet potato fries. Not the lightest of meals but dammit it was tasty! I skipped dinner b/c lunch was late and went out for my friend's birthday. Another proud time for me, I went the entire evening and only had 2 1/2 cocktails! Normally in this environment I would have had a whole bottle of something but I still had just as much if not more fun being soberish! :-)
Sunday I was tired but still got up and took Nora to Whole Foods and Kroger with me. I had a tiny bit of granola for breakfast then 2 pieces of falafel and 1 stuffed grape leaf at Whole Foods... For a late lunch I had 1/2 an order of garlic veggies with steamed rice. Again, skipped dinner.
And finally, today!
Workout went pretty well. It was actually like a minute slower than last month but I had distractions this time. Either way, my arms were feeling it! Here's what I did:
4 rounds for time:
Dumbbell Flyes 15 @ 10 lbs
Barbell push press 20 @ 40 lbs
bent over row 20 @ 40 lb bar
side to Side bends 20 @ 20 lbs
time 9:30

Food Today
breakfast
Protein after workout
1/2 c granola w/ soymilk
fresh juice

Snack
oatmeal

Lunch
veggie sushi made w/ brown rice
cup of veggie soup

Snack
chips and salsa

Dinner
tbd

That's alk I have for today! I need to get this child to bed. Run tomorrow and picture day!!
until then...

Just Run! 11/10/11

Hello! Well I’m all excitable about running today! I did my Day 2 8k training today and it went well… and I made an executive decision. I decided that if I’m training for a run on the streets, I need to train on the streets! (seems pretty obvious, right?) Honestly my only excuse for not running on the streets to this point is because I know it’s going to be far more challenging than the treadmill… but that’s the point of training, right? To challenge yourself so you can improve your ability? So starting on Saturday, I’m going to be doing my runs outside. I’ve mapped a 5 mile course from my house and I’m just going to run as far as I can and walk the rest, if necessary. (which I’m sure will be necessary for a while J) It’s getting colder outside so that kind of sucks BUT I’m thinking that will only help my run farther b/c I’ll want to get home faster lol. We’ll see…. First outside run is in 2 days… oh boy.

As far as my run this morning, it went just fine! I’ve been keeping about an 11minute pace and that seems to suit my current performance abilities. The only other thing about running outside is that I’m (a little J) OCD and I like to track my speed and exact distance for reference… I can’t really do that other than just comparing times to keep record of speed progress BUT at least I know that the full track is right around 5 miles so once I can do that, I’m ready to rock and roll! J

Workout This Morning:

50 Crunches

1.5 miles run

50 Crunches

Food Today:

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately following workout

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Fresh juice of spinach, carrots, grapes, apples, kiwi, blackberries and red & golden raspberries… it was delish!

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ cinnamon, raisins and goji berries

Lunch:

Leftover mexi rice bowl from last night (recipe below)

Snack:

Protein tofu

Banana

Dinner:

WW Pasta w/ veggies

Mexican Rice Bowl

Approx 10 small/med Tomatillos, husk removed and cut into 1/8ths

1lg poblano pepper

1tbs + 1tsp + ¼ tsp EVOO

Approx 4c cooked brown rice

1c black beans

1c frozen corn

1/2c diced red onion

1tsp + 1tsp cumin

½ tsp chili powder

1tbs + 1tsp minced garlic

½ c chopped cilantro

Zest and juice of 1 lime

Garlic-y salsa of choice (optional)

Diced fresh tomato

Diced fresh green onion

-          Pre-heat oven to 400f

-          Chop tomatillos and put in large bowl, drizzle w/ 1tbs EVOO and add 1tsp cumin, ½ tsp chili powder and 1tsp garlic; toss to coat, pour onto foil-lined baking sheet

-          Drizzle ¼ tsp EVOO over poblano in same bowl as tomatillos and rub to cover pepper; lay on same baking sheet

-          Roast tomatillos and poblano for 20-30 minutes, until well softened and edges of tomatillo juices are browning, stirring twice through cooking

-          Meanwhile, heat 1tsp EVOO in large pan over medium heat and add red onion, 1tbs garlic and 1tsp cumin. Saute, stirring, until onions are soft (about 3-5 min)

-          Add black beans and corn, season w/ salt and continue to cook, stirring. If it starts to stick, reduce heat and add a bit of veg stock if necessary (low sodium, preferably)

-          Heat your rice and add zest of 1 lime and ½ of the chopped cilantro, stir w/ fork to combine

-          Once finished roasting, remove tomatillos from oven and add to the pan w/ beans and corn. Remove stem and chop the poblano, then add to same pan.

-          Add the rest of the cilantro and juice of the lime to the black bean pan, stir and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.

-          To serve: 1 generous scoop of rice, topped w/ black bean mixture then a bit of your favorite salsa and sprinkle fresh tomato & green onion.

-          YUM!

This morning I went to the store to get some soy milk and spicy blue corn chips (don’t judge me, Branden actually ate most of the last bag!) and I picked up a Women’s Running magazine! I almost feel like part of the club now. J I am going to go to Dick’s and buy some cold-weather running tights and a headband so I can bare the upcoming brisk season! Man, I like running… and I especially like what it’s doing to my body!

Feeling great today… and I hope you are too!!

Until tomorrow… J

Wednesday, 11/9/11

Hello! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, things are pretty crazy at work!

Brief recap:

Day 1 of 8k training was pretty great! I wore my new running pants and they were FANTASTIC and the run went well! It took about 17 minutes to do a mile and a half so I was keeping a little more than 11m mile pace… again, I’m only working on distance right now and I will work on speed once I get deeper into training. Either way, I felt as if I could have run further at the end so that’s a good sign! I contemplated just running until I couldn’t run no mo’ to see how far I could go but I decided I’d rather stick to my training schedule. I also did 50 crunches to warm up, stretching after the run and a quick set of shotguns when I got home.

Food Yesterday:

Breakfast: protein shake after workout, ½ c granola w/ soy milk and fresh juice of various fruits/veggies

Snack: oatmeal w/ cinnamon, raisins and goji berries

Lunch: I was bad. Chipotle salad (lettuce, rice, black beans, fajita veggies & all 4 salsas) aaaand a bag of chips. I wasn’t going to do the chips but they were in front of my face and I gave in. We had a little bridal shower for a lady at work and she loves Chipotle so we ordered and I rationalized it as the chips were in place of the cake that everyone else had… :/

Snack: Protein tofu

Dinner: Portabella mushroom burger on sprouted grain bread w/ hummus, spinach and tomato, sauted brussel sprouts and roasted veggies on the side

Today!

Here is my workout from today:

Wednesday
5 Rounds for time:
Clean & Squat	5 @ 65#
Curl & Overhead Press	10 @ 20#
Backward DB Lunges	10 @ 30#
Bike	1 mile
TIME:		31:48:00

My time for this workout last month was 37minutes so that’s a 5.12 minute improvement! I was pleased to see that. J I specifically remember this workout and how much I hated it last month but it was definitely a LOT easier this time around! Man, I just love seeing/feeling progress! People always ask me what keeps me going and how I don’t get burnt out… and there you have it ladies and gentlemen, progress. It NEVER gets old. J

Food today:

Breakfast:

Protein shake immediately after workout (1c organic, unsweetened soy milk w/ 1 scoop vegan choc protein powder)

½ c granola w/ soy milk

Fresh juice of apples, orange, grapes, spinach and carrots

Snack:

Oatmeal w/ cinnamon, raisins and goji berries

Lunch:

Leftover roasted veggies from last night (cauliflower, sweet potatoes, daikon and dried cranberries dressed in EVOO, balsamic vinegar and garlic)

Snack:

Protein tofu

Dinner:

Mexican rice bowls! I’m pretty much going to be making this up as I’m cooking so I’ll fill you in tomorrow J

I went to visit a local customer today to do a little in-person preview/selling and she said she didn’t recognize me when I got out of the car and that she thought my boss had gotten a new assistant. J It’s pretty nice to not be recognized! (never thought I’d say that?)

Oh well, I suppose that’s all I have for today!

Until tomorrow…