Long Run, Pizza and Brownies

I’m baaaack! I had a wild few nights at the “Baby Factory”, but all is good. I got off work at 7 am this morning and slept until about 1 pm. I could have easily slept until 4 or 5 but I wanted to have plenty of daylight left to get in my long run for the week.

Tim baked me a potato for lunch. He ate half and I ate half. I planned on topping mine with cheese and steamed broccoli, but I ended up having a much more unique and probably less healthy combination: hummus, margarine and Tzatziki. Weirdest combo ever! But delicious!

After lunch we got dressed and headed out to Fort Toulouse for our 9-miler. Tim decided on the way that he’d switch this week and next week’s long runs and do a 10-miler today instead because of his work schedule next week. I really wasn’t feeling up for a run today, but I bit the bullet.

This is my, “I’m about to do something I really don’t feel like doing right now” face.

As soon as I got out on the road my attitude changed though and I really had a great run!

I finished 9 miles in 1:17:04.

My splits were:

1. 8:26
2. 8:28
3. 8:28
4. 8:25
5. 8:50 (stopped to drink water)
6. 8:39
7. 8:40
8. 8:34
9. 8:40

I was pleased with my really speedy run! Today was the first day I got to wear my new shoes outside and I really like them. They were stiff and heavy to begin with, but they are breaking in nicely.

After my run I gathered my Kindle, cellphone, water, ice packs, keys and Gu and found a nice picnic table to sit at and read and ice my knees until Tim finished up his run. Unfortunately as soon as I turned my Kindle on it was D-E-A-D, dead.

Oh well … you win some, you lose some.

On another note: Orange Roctane Gu is disgusting! I mean really really disgusting. I much prefer Strawberry Banana.

I got some strange looks walking around with these puppies on my knees:

I couldn’t think of any fancy vegetarian recipes to try tonight so Tim and I decided to make a couple pizzas. Mine included: tomato sauce, feta cheese, portobello mushrooms, purple basil (from my Aerogarden) spinach, red onion and red bell pepper.

I had two big pieces with 2 beers.

I may have gone back for a third smaller piece, but I’ll never tell.

Tim convinced me that brownies for dessert was a good idea, so I’m baking brownies and planning on spending the rest of the evening on the couch watching Big Love.

Will Work for Veggies

I’m headed back to work tonight for the next 3 nights. It will be my first night at work since Pledge to Be Veg. I would say wish me luck, but I don’t need it 🙂

This is what I have packed…

Mexican Minestrone (E-Mealz recipe) with pinto beans, diced tomatoes, green beans, corn, vegetable stock and potatoes and a large green salad.

See you guys in a couple of days! Have a great weekend.

How Do You Do That With Your Toes?

The shin pain has returned. I woke up this morning almost limping and decided that today is the day for new shoes.

But first breakfast …

Egg Beater omelet with zucchini, yellow bell pepper, fresh basil (from my Aerogarden) and cheese with a side of home fries. The inside looked like this:

After breakfast Lincoln and I headed out to run our errands, starting with buying me some new running shoes. I went to MAC Sports and explained to the lady about my issues I’ve been having recently. She asked a lot of good questions and brought out 3 or 4 pairs of shoes for me to try. Unfortunately we don’t have a specific running store in my area, but I could tell this lady really knew what she was talking about. She said she’s been running for 30 years! I hope I can say that one day 🙂

Anyway, I ended up with these bad boys …

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10

Tim and I were looking at my old running shoes and wondering how in the world I did this to the toes …

Strange huh?

Lunch was yummy left over Falafel from dinner last night.

I was so full and satisfied after lunch that I fell asleep for about 30 minutes.

I’m going to trade my scheduled 4 mile run today for elliptical time instead. I feel like I should let my shin rest today then hopefully I’ll be able to pick back up on the schedule tomorrow for a 5-miler and break my new Brooks in.

My Big Fat Greek Day

Today was another succesful vegetarian day! I promise I’ll stop counting my vegetarian days soon, but right now each day is something new to be proud of. I’m really starting to see myself not being able to go back to eating meat like I did before ever again. I definitely don’t see myself ever wanting to eat beef or chicken for sure. Ultimately I think I’m going to end up flexi/pesca-tarian. I’ll probably occasionally eat fish and I really don’t have a problem with eating things without a brain such as oysters and clams. Thats where I see myself ultimately on the food issue. But for the next 28 days its all veggie all the time baby!

For breakfast I had Oikos Honey Greek Yogurt with Cascadia Farms Granola. Yum!

And then Lincoln and I headed out for a day on the town. We had roofers working on our house today and I really didn’t want to spend the entire day listening to loud banging so we ran some errands. First up we took Lincoln for a hair cut. I dread getting that done … I’m always afraid they are gonna take an ear off or jab and eye the way he turns his head from side to side.

After the haircut and some shopping at Target we headed over to my grandparents house. They watched Lincoln while I went for a run. I got in my 5 miles for the day early. It was a tough run because I was headed into the wind most of the time and it was really windy today. I almost felt like I wasn’t moving forward at all.

I ended up completing my 5 miles in just under 44 minutes.

My Nana insisted on making lunch for us, so I had to tell her about the Veg Pledge. She was cool with it although she insisted that fish is NOT MEAT! I ended up having a small green salad, half of a twice baked potato, a roll and a small piece of Pumpkin Pie.

I headed over to my local library after lunch to get a library card. I can’t believe I’ve lived in this city for 4 years and have never been to the library! I got my card and checked out 3 books.

Can’t wait to dive into those books! Right now I’m reading Living Vegetarian for Dummies and its really enlightening. I also like the fact that the nutrition information is very up to date because the book was just published in November 2009.

I got a great deal on Hummus at Costco today. Normally I make my own hummus, but for $1.90 for this huge mother who could say no? …

I bought 3.

I snacked on some hummus and baby carrots this afternoon while I was waiting on Tim to get home from the gym so I could make dinner.

Dinner was Baked Falafel. I love falafel, but I’ve never made it myself. This recipe definitely did not dissapoint though. It turned out absolutely delicous!

The ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons olive oil

Directions

1. Wrap onion in cheese cloth and squeeze out as much moisture as possible. Set aside. Place garbanzo beans, parsley, garlic, cumin, coriander, salt, and baking soda in a food processor. Process until the mixture is coarsely pureed. Mix garbanzo bean mixture and onion together in a bowl. Stir in the flour and egg. Shape mixture into four large patties and let stand for 15 minutes.
2. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
3. Heat olive oil in a large, oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Place the patties in the skillet; cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side.
4. Transfer skillet to the preheated oven and bake until heated through, about 10 minutes

I served my Falafels in pitas with spinach, Tzatziki, cherry tomatoes and avocado (last minute additon, but sooo worth it).

The final product:

Om nom nom!

Greek yogurt, hummus, Falafel, Tzatziki … It was definitely a big fat Greek day.

Now I’m headed to the couch for the rest of the night to watch The Biggest Loser. 🙂

Pledge to Be Veg – Day 1 … Done!

I think Pledge to Be Veg day 1 has been very successful. I started Day 1 at midnight ( I was at work so I was awake anyway).

Today I’ve eaten:

•  Boca Burger on an Arnold Sandwhich Thin
• Clementine
• Fruit and Nut Trail Mix Bar
• Strawberry Banana Gu (after my run)
• California Grilled Veggie Sandwhich
• Baby Carrots with Veggie Dip

After working my extra shift last night (yay overtime!) I crashed this morning and didn’t wake up until about 3 pm! I desperately wanted to make up for my 9-miler I missed yesterday, so I rushed over to Fort Toulouse park to try to beat the sunset and bang out my 9. I really must find new places to run.

My stats looked like this:

Mile 1 – 8:45
Mile 2 – 8:37
Mile 3 – 8:35
Mile 4 – 8:42
Mile 5 – 8:44
Mile 6 – 8:43
Mile 7 – 8:49
Mile 8 – 8:41
Mile 9 – 8:50

Overall the run went really well, I finished before it got too dark to see. More importantly though I didn’t have any reoccurence of the shin pain I have been feeling recently. However, around mile 7.5 my right knee started really aching. Not a stabbing sharp pain by any means, but just an annoying sore achiness. By the time I finished out my 9 miles it was really aching!

Tim and I headed over to Walmart and I dropped $40 on 2 reusable ice/heat packs, 1 disposable ice pack (for right then), and a box of Prilosec to hopefully take care of the heartburn-indigestion-chest pain – thingy that has been bothering me lately. The cashier looked very confused with my purchases and asked me if I had hurt myself.

By the time I got home I was STARVING! I made the most yummy Grilled Veggie Sandwhiches!

My sandwhich included:

• Garlic Parmesan Foccacia Bread
• Red Pepper
• Squash
• Zucchini
• Eggplant
• Red Onion
• Spinach
• Goat Cheese

All of that and olive oil, a smear of mayo and balsamic vinegar for flavor. DEEEEEEEEEVINE!

I sprayed the veggies with a combo of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and grilled them on the George Foreman and then piled them high onto my bread.

Once I assembled the sandwhiches, I grilled the whole thing panini style on the George Forman and sliced them in half. I served it with a side of raw baby carrots and fat free veggie dip.

So healthy! This one definitely ranks in my Top 5 faves!

An Unexpected Rest Day

My shin has been aching since Thursday when I ran my 4 miles at the park with the jog stroller. I’m not sure if the problem was the extra weight of the jog stroller or if I just need new shoes. I don’t think its quite time for new shoes yet, but maybe so. Either way … I can’t ignore the discomfort anymore. I ran the 5K yesterday against my better judgement. Today I was scheduled to do my weekly long run (9 miles), but I’m just going  to have to reschedule it.

When I first got out of bed this morning my shin was so tight I was slightly limping. Since I’ve been up for several hours now and taken some Ibuprofen it has really loosened up. I probably could physically run 9 miles right now, but I think my body is asking me to take  a rest day. So I will listen.

I’m working an extra shift at the hospital tonight to help with my goal of paying off our debt. So I’ve been doing some housework today in the meantime. I can’t stand to go to work with a messy house!

For breakfast I had Honey Oikos with Cascadian Farms Granola (a totally organic breakfast!)

I thought that I would take this rest day as an opportunity to reunite with an old friend. My breadmaker!

Tim gave me my breadmaker for Christmas last year and I used it alot for a good while, but I haven’t made anything in it recently. This morning I decided to make some Zucchini Bread (my way of course). I used the recipe in my breadmaker manual as a guide and then put my own spin on it by adding carrots, pecans and chocolate chips.

I only ended up using 1 1/2 carrots and 1 zucchini and I still had more than what the recipe called for. Just dump everything in the breadmaker (in the correct order) and with the touch of a button you get fresh Zucchini Bread in about an hour and a half.

Taaadaa!

For lunch I made pizzas on Flat Out Wraps with the usual suspects: spinach, goat cheese, red onion, red pepper and mushrooms.

And for dessert I had a half a slice of the Zucchini Bread with a smear of cream cheese. Mmmm!

Its pouring down rain outside right now and I’m headed to bed for a nap before my extra work shift tonight. Have a great day!

Cruisin’ The Creekwalk 5K

I woke up this morning at 3:00 am with that weird chest pain again that I had on Christmas Eve when I almost went to the hospital. I paced back and forth around my room in the dark stretching my arms above my head for about an hour and a half. I took 3 Tums and drank some milk. I tried to lay back down and go to sleep but it hurt worse when I layed down so I paced more. Eventually the pain subsided and I was able to go back to sleep. I’m pretty sure its just Acid Reflux, but it’s really uncomfortable and scary!

When my alarm clock went off at 6:00 this morning I rolled over and asked Tim if he wanted to go run or if he wanted to just go back to sleep. I was really hoping he’d give me an out, but he just replied that it was up to me. Grrreat. After I stretched in bed for a few more minutes I decided that I’d feel better if I just went.

I checked the weather before I left the house to help decide what to wear and it said it would be 50 degrees and sunny at the time the race started. So we got dressed and headed about 30 minutes away to Prattville. The race benefitted the Autauga County Youth Leadership and was held at the Doster Community Center.

It was freezing! The weatherman definitely lied. It was more like 40 degrees and very overcast and windy!

I took the opportunity to take a couple pictures with some characters.

Tim and I were joking about me taking a picture with the Chick-fil-A cow since I’ll be eating neither chicken or cow for atleast the next 30 days. It’ll be more like …

Mmmm, veggie sub 🙂

The race got underway at about 9:00 and the course was very similar to the Spinner’s Pumpkin Run that we did back in the fall. There were a couple of hills, one was slightly brutal but short and there was alot of downhills. My only goal for today was to run the absolute fastest I could and see what happened … and thats exactly what I did.

My splits were:

Mile 1 – 7:33
Mile 2 – 7:17
Mile 3 – 7:08

My official time was 22:45. A new PR! I think this one is going to take the cake for a while though because I honestly can’t imagine myself running any faster than I did today.

After the race we headed inside for warmth and pizza. I had 2 slices of cheese.

While we waited for the Awards Ceremony they gave out some door prizes. Tim won a free oil change and tire rotation …

And I won a $15 gift certificate for Road ID.

I was actually pretty stoked because I’ve wanted one of these for a while! Tim was jealous though.

When they started the awards ceremony I was curious to see where I would place. My friend from work was there cheering on her daughter who ran and she told me that she thought I finished in the first 5 females atleast. I thought I might actually win my age group when I heard that, but I ended up finishing 3rd in my division. Still great!

I have to remind myself when I get slightly disappointed in things like not winning that this time last year I weighed over 235 pounds and couldn’t have run a block if someone was chasing me. Sometimes you just have to put things into perspective!

After the awards we headed to The Farmer’s Market for some fresh locally grown produce and goodies.

We bought a whole cardboard box full of: onions, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, zucchini, squash, eggplant and bell peppers. We also got some Homemade Salsa and Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.

We intended to head home after The Farmer’s Market and pick up our little man from his Grandma’s house, but when we called to check on him he was taking a nap. Tim and I took that opportunity to go out to lunch before heading back. We went to a Laos Thai restaurant that I’ve never been to before.

I never saw any Papaya on the menu, but we did order some yummy Veggie Rolls with Peanut Sauce.

And for my main dish I got Tofu Massaman Curry.

It was really delicious! I could have easily eaten the entire plate, but I payed attention to my body and made myself stop when I was satisfied. So now I have a little leftover to take to work tomorrow night 🙂

When I got home I had a special surprise waiting in my mailbox.

My Half Marathon decal came today! Yay!

Pledge To Be Veg for 30 Days

I have decided to join in a challenge to be vegetarian for a full 30 days. I was surfing around some of my favorite blogs tonight and came across this. You probably remember from my recent post that I’ve been putting some serious thought into vegetarianism lately, so this seemed like the perfect challenge for me to really test it out.

When I read the blog I thought it was a great idea, but I was secretly hoping to start in February so that I’d have over a week to put some serious thought into it and prepare meal ideas and research recipes. But alas, the challenge starts Monday (Jan. 25th) and ends Tuesday, February 23rd. So until then …

During this challenge I will give up all meats including fish and poultry. I will continue to eat eggs, milk, and cheese. I will continue to feed my son meat throughout the 30 days (he really doesn’t eat that much anyway other than the occasional fish stick).

If you would like to join in this challenge with me please let me know. It would be so awesome to have a support system doing this together. Please visit Go Veg for more information.

What will happen at the end of the 30 days? I honestly have no idea. I could decide that I want to be a vegetarian full time, I might decide it sucks … but most like I’ll decide to be a flexitarian. Flexitarianism: A diet that consists primarily of vegetarian food, but includes occasional exceptions. I honestly don’t know that I could live without eating sushi, which is odd because I don’t eat it very often at all but it is my favorite food on earth. Who knows though? My views could drastically change.

I watched this video tonight and it really hit home.

But until Monday, meat is ok. Atleast the meat that I have already purchased. I have not bought any new meat in a couple weeks.

This was our dinner tonight …

It just doesn’t even look appealing to me after watching that video. I’m excited about this challenge!

Tomorrow morning I’m running in my 8th race, a 5K benefitting Youth Leadership. I’ll keep you posted!

Holy Peanut Butter!

 

I saw this brand of peanut butter (Peanut Butter & Co.) recently on a blog I read and I thought it looked really delicious! Imagine my surprise when I came across it at my local Wal-Mart today! Of course I had to get it.

They actually had 3 varieties but at $3.24 a jar I thought I better stick with just 2.

The back of the jar boasts that the company is a small sandwich shop in New York City. I always like supporting small businesses when possible.

I had to crack the jar open immediately when I got home from the store. I tried a little of the Dark Chocolate Dreams on a Ritz cracker, and it was delicious!

If you see this brand in your store, it’s definitely worth giving it a try!

Everyone Deserves A Second Chance

This morning I decided that I would give my jog stroller a 2nd chance. You might remember from a previous post that I bought a $300 jog stroller and then absolutely hated it. It was hard to steer because it had a fixed wheel, it was heavy and the first time I used it I could only run about 1 mile with it and then I had to walk the rest of the way.

Its been several months since I’ve tried it out and I decided that today I would give it another go. My running endurance and my strength have greatly increased since the last time I used the stroller so I was hopeful that my experience would be better this time.

Lincoln and I set out to Blount Cultural Park this morning. I planned to attempt an easy 4 miles with the stroller. Lincoln was game …

The first mile was HARD! But after that I got into the groove and it wasn’t so bad. I was able to complete all 4 miles that I set out to do without having to stop and walk. I actually discovered that it is easier to give the stroller a big push and then catch up with it and push it again. Once I figured out that little trick it really wasn’t any big deal at all.

Running with the stroller dropped my pace from my normal 8:30 pace to a 9:30 pace, but that doesn’t really matter to me. I’m just glad that I got to spend some quality running time with my baby boy. After my run we stopped to feed the geese.

And took some random pictures …

I’m really relieved that I had a decent experience with the jog stroller, now I don’t feel so bad for spending the money on it. I don’t think I’ll use it everyday by any means, and I certainly won’t be entering any races with it anytime soon but atleast I feel like I can use it for some of my shorter easy runs every now and then.

My eats for today included:

A Chocolate Chip & Spinach Pancake for breakfast with an omelet made with leftover Corn and Black Bean Salad.

Lunch was a leftover Sweet Potato Burrito and more Corn and Black Bean Salad.

I had lots of not so healthy snacks at a baby shower I attended tonight and then dinner was a Spinach, Red Onion and Mushroom Quesadilla from El Rey which I didn’t get a picture of. I actually ordered the Enchilada but they got it wrong. Turns out the restaurant didn’t have any highchairs; we tried to let Lincoln sit in the booth with us but he started climbing all over the place and crying when I tried to make him sit down. I ended up just getting my food to go and taking him home. It was a really miserable experience! There’s nothing like paying $40 for food and having to eat it at home luke warm and then finding out they didn’t even get your order right. Grrrr!

Anyway, I’m off now to finish the Big Love episode I started last night and fell asleep during. Maybe this time I’ll actually make it to the end. See you tomorrow!