Night at the Newseum

Happy Saturday!! Hope your weekend is off to a good start. Mine is!

Last night, I went with some of my girlfriends to an afterhours party at the Newseum. This was the first time the museum did an after hours event, and it completely sold out! The event was from 8 to 11 and they had several exhibits open plus a cash bar and food provided by Wolfgang Puck. It was SO fun! We started out at Jess and Amy’s apartment.

Lianne, Jess, Amy, Tiffany, Me and I’m drawing a total blank! Notice the sunglass display on the wall behind us… 🙂

We cheersed with some champagne before heading out to the event.

Which was SO crowded!

We somehow managed to slip in really quickly even though there was a long line. Unfortunately it was really crowded and I didn’t take too much advantage of checking out the exhibits that were open. 😦 Everything looked awesome though.

I only ended up staying until 10:30 or so because I was exhausted. You couldn’t buy any drinks or food with regular cash (even though the invite info said cash bar). Instead, you had to wait in a really long line to purchase sheets of paper with dollars printed on those and use the fake money to buy drinks or food. I wasn’t really up for that so I left. When I got outside the museum I felt so turned around that I walked the complete wrong way to try to find the metro. It was so chilly out that it was quite unfortunate I was wondering around out there for longer than needed.

This morning I ended up waking up super early for me on a weekend – around 7:30. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I ended up making some coffee and then hitting up the gym. I had a banana as preworkout fuel, and then got in a great workout.

I started with running a mile on the treadmill to warm up at 6.0 mph (10 minutes) and then did the following circuit 3 times:

• 15 deadlifts with a bicep curl (12 lb free weight in each hand)
• 15 tricep curls with a 15 lb free weight
• 15 lunges on each leg
• 15 shoulder presses (at 10 lbs on a machine)
• 15 chest presses (at 20 lbs on a machine)
• 50 jumping jacks

After the strength training, I got back on the treadmill for 30 minutes and covered 3.1 miles. It was actually a run I really had to fight for because I started feeling a little nausceous during the last leg of it. I ended up slwoing down a bit and drinking some water and pushed through, and in the end was glad that I did.

Not too shabby.

After the workout, I was HUNGRY. I ended up throwing together a delicious but super simple breakfast with what I had in the fridge. The highlight was a veggie scramble with grape tomatoes, red onion, corn, mushrooms, and some tarragon.

I started by sauteeing the onion for a bit, then added in the mushrooms, then the corn (which was frozen) and the tomatoes. I found the tarragon in the fridge so decided to throw that in there too. It was SO good. I forgot what a difference fresh herbs make! The whole plate:

The veggie scramble, one sunny side up egg, a toasted arnold thin, and 1 serving of hash browns. I used only nonstick spray to cook everything  – no oil.

After breakfast I showered, packed, and then ran around to pick up a few last minute things because I’m about to head to Philly for the night! We’re doing dinner at a fancy restaurant in Philly for my mom’s 60th birthday (which is Thursday). Tomorrow is my sister Wendy’s actual birthday (the one who lives in Philly), so we’re going to go to her church in the morning and then to Dim Sum for her birthday lunch. Lots of fun ahead!

Do you use a lot of fresh herbs in cooking? What’s your favorite? I try to use fresh herbs but I honestly don’t know very much about which herbs go with what. My favorite herb is cilantro, followed by basil, probably because those are the two I know how to use the best in cooking!

Time to Regroup

Today is the first day I’ve had off in two weeks since I worked through last weekend at the conference in Columbus. I was so looking forward to sleeping in and not setting an alarm for the first time in 15 days… but at 5:10 am Wil’s alarm went off because he accidentally set it and I woke up for about an hour and a half before I could fall back asleep. Boo.

I feel like I’ve gotten pretty off track since my half marathon. Granted, I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life as well as my work life, but excuses are excuses, and it’s important for me to focus on myself a bit even when a lot of other things are going on. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t written about working out in some time… that’s because I took 10 full days off from any form of exercise! I can’t even tell you the last time I went that long without working out, and it didn’t feel very good. It hung over my head almost daily, but I just couldn’t get it together to go to the gym. I was working almost 17 hour days in Columbus and then just exhausted when I got back and had to go grocery shopping, clean, unpack, laundry, etc, etc.

On top of the lack of exercise, I’ve been really lax with eating junk and drinking, and I think all three go very hand-in-hand for me. I’m not saying I haven’t had fun or enjoyed myself with it, I’ve just been feeling kind of gross lately for lack of a better word. Last night after work I went for a drink with my coworker Emily at Bar Dupont. They had an awesome drink menu with cocktails that are normally $11 priced at just $5 for happy hour from 4-6.

I went with the Alan’s Love, which had Smirnoff Pear Vodka, St. Germaine, Honey, Muddled Cucumber, and Lime.

It was AWESOME. Perfect level of sweetness for me and had a nice fresh taste from the cucumber and lime. We were served some bar snacks:

Mixed Nuts, Wasabi Peas, and Corn Nuts. Perfect crunch to go with the drink. We also ordered a flatbread to share.

With fig jam as the sauce, gorgonzola, dried figs, and arugula. SO good. Figs twice in one day is fine by me! 🙂

After Bar Dupont, we ventured over my friend Jess and Amy’s new apartment and had a few more drinks and snacks. We also played dress up…

Amy, Me, and Jess. They have a chest full of costumes and we went a little crazy with it… I have a flapper wig on, a hula skirt, and a sequenced tube top over my clothes. Ha. ‘Twas a fun night!

But I woke up today feeling like I really needed to get it together and start taking care of myself better. I started out by making a delicious breakfast with potato hash and an egg. I started with a potato, a green pepper, and an onion…

I chopped up half the potato

And then nuked it with some water for 3 minutes to cook it. While that was going, I chopped up half the pepper and a chunk of onion.

And then added the onion, 1 tsp of olive oil, and 1 clove of garlic to a pan. After a minute, I tossed in the pepper too.

Once that was going for 3-4 minutes and the onion and pepper were getting soft, I tossed the cooked potatoes into the mix…

And cooked it for one more minute. I cracked an egg directly on top of the potato hash…

Added a little veggie stock to create some steam, and covered the pan until the egg white was cooked through.

Carefully transfered it to a bowl, and voila!

I also had a toasted Bagel Thin on the side.

To help soak up the perfectly cooked yolk…

So good. (FYI – this whole bowl was 4 points on WW, plus 1 for the bagel thin, for a total of 5. 1/2 potato = 1, 1 tsp olive oil = 1, egg = 2, bagel thin = 1)

After that, I went on an amazing bike ride and it felt sooooo good. My goal was to keep all the miles under 5:00 minutes, and I discovered this 11 mile loop the last time I went biking (11 days ago…) that I went for again. Here are the stats:

Distance: 11.01 miles

Duration: 48:50

Avg. Speed: 13.5 mph

Avg. Pace: 4:26 min/mile

Calories: 701

It is an absolutely gorgeous day in DC – around 70 degrees, sunny, and clear. It felt so nice to be outside and work up a sweat. I don’t know WHY I let myself go so long without exercise because its one thing that always makes me feel good.  My plan for the rest of the day is to try to hit up Bikram at 4 because that always helps me get back into a healthy mindset and sweat it out big time, and then laying low. I am really enjoying the relaxation factor this weekend is bringing, and really need to take some time for me. I’m also going to try to lay off drinking because I much prefer waking up feeling refreshed, rather than with a headache. It’s just so hard when if you want to hang out with friends, all there is to do is drink! Argh.

How has your weekend been so far? What is your favorite way to “regroup” when you feel like you’ve gotten off track? Suggestions welcome. 🙂

Nats!

Guess where I went last night?

That’s right, the Nationals Park! Wil got free tickets from a vendor at work, so we got some pretty good seats in the “Stars and Stripes Club.” It sounded pretty glorious but all it involved was walking up many many ramps and then having similar seats to the other areas of the stadium. Wil didn’t think I looked supportive enough of our team, so he bought me a Nats hat.

And then we went in! We only stayed for a few innings because we were losing 8-1 and it was the 4th inning, so we ended up going in search of some food. I was nervous about finding healthy options at the ballpark because most of the stands have hotdogs, hamburgers, sausages, funnelcakes, pizza, ice cream, candy, etc. I did find a place that had a Grilled Veggie Sandwich, and it came with portabello mushrooms, zucchini, onions, lettuce and tomato. It also had “goat cheese” but it looked and tasted a lot like ranch to me…

I only ate half the bun and all the veggies, so it wasn’t so bad. The sandwich itself tasted good, but I still feel a little skeptical of that “goat cheese.” I also got a ceasar salad with no dressing at a little restaurant in the park, which was surprisngly delicious. The romaine was crisp and there was the perfect amount of cheese and just a few croutons.

On our way out of the stadium, I spotted the racing presidents, which are the National’s mascots who do a race e every game. I forget who won the race last night, but I still wanted to get a picture with them!

Abe Lincoln, Wil, Thomas Jefferson, Me, and Teddy Roosevelt. Exciting stuff.

This morning was an special day… CSA day! Here’s the goods from this week:

• 5 eggplants
• 2 mystery herbs
• 2 boxes of baby tomatoes
• 1 regular tomato
• 2 yellow scallop squash
• peaches
• nectarines
• 1 cucumber

This week my friend who I split the share with is on vacation, so I get to keep the whole thing! I am especially excited about the eggplant, scallop squash, and baby tomatoes! I’ve never had yellow scallop squash before so it’s going to be fun to come up with something to do with it!

Breakfast today was a simple bowl of (as Caitlin puts it) unovernight oats.

In the mix:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats (1.5 pts)
• 1/2 scoop protein powder (1 pt)
• 1 tsp chia seeds (.5 pts)
• 1/2 cup light soy milk (.5 pts)
• 2 tbsp HempPlus Granola (.5 pts)

Simple, quick and delish. Yum.

Do you go to professional sporting events? Whats your favorite sport? Ever had your picture taken with the mascot?

Grumbling

I woke up this morning a little hungry since last night’s dinner was pretty light. I think next time I’d add some noodles in those rolls or some carbs on the side if I have it for a meal after a workout just to replenish myself fully. I normally am not hungry when I first wake up and my stomach was grumbling from the second I opened my eyes!

What’s better than peanut butter on toast first thing in the morning?

This was one slice of whole wheat bread (1 pt) with 1 tbsp crunchy peanut butter (2 pts). I ate it quickly and waited just a few minutes before heading out.

Distance: 3.5 miles

Duration: 33:39 min

Avg Pace: 9:36 min/mile

Avg Speed: 6.2 mph

Calories: 409

This was pretty fast for me! I’m usually averaging closer to 10:00 minute miles, but to be honest the run was not that easy. I started out feeling great but then around the turnaround point was really struggling to keep myself from walking. I think because I’ve learned to take successful walking breaks where I just walk a little and then run the rest of the way, it makes me feel like it’s OK to take walking breaks. To clarify, I think it is OK for some people, but for me, it’s not that I NEED a walking break, its just that I want one since I’ve recently gotten into the habit. I think I need to just power through and not stop, especially on shorter runs between 3 and 4 miles when it’s not even that hot.

After my run, I took a quick shower and threw together my lunch. I was already running a little behind and wasn’t that hungry since I’d had the PB Toast right before my run, so I just whipped up a smoothie and brought it to work to drink here. It was my first time ever transporting a smoothie from home, and I just used a bell jar and it worked perfectly!

In the mix:

• 1 cup light soy milk (1 pt)
• 1/2 large frozen banana (1 pt)
• 1 cup frozen strawberries (1 pt)

Simple, but delicious.

I probably should have added some protein powder or peanut butter/almond butter to the mix to make it more filling because by 11:30 my stomach was grumbling and screaming for lunch!

I manged to hold off until a few minutes after 12 because if I eat before noon that can be dangerous for later in the day. Lunch was a new-to-me slash strange combination based on what I had in my fridge. Sweet Potatoes and Black Beans is one of my favorite combos of all times, but unfortunately I am out of black beans at the moment. Instead, I had some chickpeas (1 pt) in the fridge, so I brought those to give the sweet potato (3 pts) a protein boost, plus a laughing cow babybel cheese (1 pt).

Totally weird combo, but it worked! It was a little dry because I microwaved the chickpeas to get them hot which dried them out a bit, but I had brought some salsa along (0 pts) so I poured that on top after a few bites.

It was actually really good! I think sweet potatoes and black beans are a better combo, but if I’m all out of black beans I wouldn’t hesitate to try this again. When a friend asked me what was for lunch today and I said a sweet potato, chickpeas, babybel cheese, and salsa, it definitely sounded weird coming out of my mouth, but tasted quite good going into it. 🙂

On the side I also had some leftover cabbage from last night (0 pts)

Sad but true – I ate an entire head of cabbage between last night and tonight. I’m pretty sure vegetables are going to start coming out of my ears pretty soon…

Two questions today…

Have you tried any weird combos of food lately that you wouldn’t expect to go together? Did the combination work or not so much?

Do you eat before you run/workout if you’re an AM exerciser? If so, how long do you usually wait after eating before getting started?

Training Plan Revealed

I feel totally lost without my camera. Luckily, my sister overnighted it so I’ll be back in business tomorrow (THANKS WENDY!!) 🙂

Today’s eats have been boring but quite nutritious and delicious. I started out the morning after another failed attempt at getting up to exercise with some fruit.

1/2 cup grapes plus one slice of canteloupe (1 pt together). I got an email from my farm today saying we are getting another melon in this week’s box so I cannot wait for that to come since this was the last of it! I also had a Stonyfield organic yogurt (unpictured) for 2 points plus a coffee with just a splash of skim to round out breakfast.

Lunch was leftovers from last night’s delicious salad, reworked. I took the blanched green beans (0 pts) and cut them down the middle lengthwise, and then mixed in a chopped hardboiled egg (2 pts) and 1/2 can of tuna packed in water (1 pt). I mixed in 1 tbsp of Olive Oil Mayo (1 pt) and had it on a bed of mixed greens (0 pts) with Wasa Rye Crackers (1 pt).

It was actually awesome. Before last night, I hadn’t had hardboiled eggs in ages and I almost forgot how good they are! This salad was a great mix of protein and veggies but still felt pretty indulgent because of the mayo. It was only 5 points though and was VERY filling. I snacked on two small peaches for dessert, one regular and one donut (1 pt together).

I also had an unpictured mini biscotti that my sister gave me on Sunday (1 pt) and 5 peanut M&Ms. Clearly not doing that great on the low-carb part…

So two additional things to share:

1.) Thank you for all your advice/concern on the dress. As I mentioned, it actually looks pretty good, its just a bit too snug for comfort. I’m going back to the tailor tonight to see if there’s any way they can let it out a bit, because even a centimeter will make a huge difference. I’m also going to look into a body shaper/Spanx like was recommended, and I actually did a bunch of research today and found plenty of affordable strapless body shapers online. I’m probably going to go check out Macy’s tomorrow to see if I can find one after I talk to the seamstress tonight.

2.) My Half Marathon Training Plan – I realize I never shared this with you guys after I formalized it! I mostly modeled my own plan based off Hal Higdon’s plans, but wanted to combine some things from both the Novice and Intermediate Plans (even though I consider myself a novice since I’ve never run this distance before). My goal was to develop a plan that would have two main things: 1.) running about 3x a week so that I could balance it out with other forms of exercise and 2.) running more than 10 miles for my longest run because I’ve heard others say they hit a wall at the 10 mile mark if they hadn’t gone farther in training.

So, my plan (which I’ve been doing for a few weeks now) involves 2 shorter runs during the week with one longer run on the weekends. The shorter runs will mostly be Tuesday/Thursday (unless my schedule deems otherwise) and started at 3 miles each, but now I am moving them up from 3 to 4 miles, and they will eventually be 5  miles once my overall mileage is up. As for the long run on the weekends, I started at 4 miles, did 5 miles two weeks ago, and did 6 miles this past weekend. I plan to up my long run by 1 mile per week, which allows me to get up to 12 miles as my longest run IF I do a long run every single weekend from now until then. I am giving myself flexibility for one week if I’m too busy (lots of traveling coming up in August!) or if I want to repeat the previous weeks distance so my body can get used to it, which will mean I get up to 11 miles in training, which I am fine with. My goal is simply to be able to run the entire 13.1 miles, not to finish in a certain time. If I come out the other end alive, I may want to do another half and then I can think about beating my time for this one, but for now I’m just focused on finishing!

So, there you have it!

Do you have any races coming up? How do you normally approach training for distances that are farther than you’ve gone before?

Open Face Peanut Butter, Banana, and Chocolate Chip Sammie

Hello Thursday! Thank you all for your comments on the post about Fat Girl Mentality. If you haven’t chimed in on it yet, I’d love to hear from you because I’m very curious to continue to hear others’ opinions on the matter. A friend of mine, Amber, just left a comment that really struck a cord.

She said, “I think whether your fat or thin, women in our culture are constantly self-conscious about SOMETHING as we strive for perfection. Overcoming “fat girl mentality” is an example of how you transcended from judging yourself, set some goals (impressive ones at that) and strived to achieve them, which gave you the confidence to accept yourself. A healthy woman is a beautiful woman – and we should all remember to embrace ourselves (and stop judging, ourselves and others) and maybe the paranoia about others judging us will subside too!”

I think it’s so true that women are so quick to judge themselves, its no wonder they feel that they are judged by others. Whether you’ve ever been the fat girl or not, I think its a sentiment that all of us can relate to on some level.

Anywho, last night I ended up going to Bikram after work… my second double workout of the week! That means I got 6 workouts in the past week, which is more than I’ve gotten in for a while. Not gonna lie, Bikram was pretty brutal last night with the humidity. For a second there I thought I might have to leave the room, but I just sat down through a few of the postures. More people left the room than any class I’ve ever been in because of the humidity, but somehow I made it through.

I had a frozen smoothie waiting for me at home which really is the best post-workout snack/meal there is.

In the mix:

• 1 medium banana, frozen (1.5 pts)
• 1 cup light soy milk (1 pt)
• 1 cup frozen peaches (1 pt)
• 2 handfuls of spinach
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (2 pts)
• 2 tbsp HempPlus Granola (.5 pts)

I also had another banana (can’t get enough lately!) and then this Bora Bora bar:

That pictures cracks me up. It looks like an infomercial or something. But the bar itself was delicious (3 points)! It’s a raw bar and basically has dates, nuts, brown sugar and just a handful of other ingredients. It was really tasty, and definitely a bar I’d buy again if I find them on sale (they were $1 each at Whole Foods!).

This morning I got to pick up my CSA and it was a very fruity week!

\

• Green Beans
• Tomato
• Summer Squash
• Huge bag of peaches (9)
• Huge bag of donut peaches
• Melon

I love getting so much fruit in the baskets!! Makes me very happy. After I brought that home, I made a breakfast that was realllly delicious and felt so indulgent, but really wasn’t!

I’ve seen Grilled Banana PB Sandwiches all over the blog world or some variation thereof. They normally have a few too many points/calories for me while I’m still trying to lose a few more pounds, so I made a low point version today that was AMAZING. I was drooling a little while looking over the pictures.

Open Face Peanut Butter, Banana, and Chocolate Chip Sammie

Ingredients

• Slice Whole Wheat Bread (1 pt)
• 1/2 large banana (1 pt)
• 1 tbsp dark chocolate chips (1 pt)
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (2 pts)

Directions:

• Toast slice of bread, and while that is happening…
• Slice Banana and brown it in a pan

• Add banana to the bread and top with peanut butter and chocolate chips
• Put in microwave for 20 seconds to melt the chocolate chips a bit

Oh.my.gosh. This seriously felt SO indulgent and was amazing to eat. It would make such a great dessert, breakfast, or snack any time you want something filling and sweet. If you wanted to make it even lower points/calories, you could use light bread, and better n peanut butter or just 1 tsp of peanut butter, but this was just perfect for me. Try it!!

Do you eat energy/protein bars often? I really only eat them when I’m on the go, and bring them with me to have after Bikram or after a bike ride or run if I won’t have time to prepare a whole meal, though they never really fill me up. I try to use them only as a snack or to hold me over until I can have a full meal because for me they are not enough!

Serial Snacker

Another gorgeous day… this is incredible after the over-the-top heat from last week/the weekend.

Yesterday was a really snacky day after lunch. It’s funny because having the blog and documenting my food helps me notice trends in my eating bigtime. And then trend from yesterday was snacks.

“Dessert” was frozen grapes.

Ever tried these? You just rinse and freeze the grapes overnight and they are one of the best snacks ever because they taste like sherbet, take a while to eat, and are only 1 point for a cup and very nutritious! 🙂 Later I had an unpictured banana, and then when I got home from work I had two Wasa Crackers (1 pt) with a babybell cheese (1 pt).

I ended up going out for a nice bike ride after my snack. It was such a beautiful day out and though I had run in the morning, it was just a quick run (3 miles), plus I had nothing else to do! Stats:

Distance: 10.23 miles

Duration: 46:14 min

Avg. Speed: 13.3 mph

Avg. Pace: 4:31 min/mile

Calories: 535

Amazing ride in the perfect weather, plus I had thrown together a smoothie before the ride so was fantasizing about it the whole way and dove into it immediately when I got home.

In the mix:

• 1 cup light soy milk (1 pt)
• 1 medium frozen banana (1.5 pts)
• two handfuls of spinach (0 pts)
• 1/2 tsp cocoa powder (0 pts)
• vanilla extract (0 pts)
• few ice cubes (0 pts)

I topped it with a packet of barney butter (90 calories – 2 pts) and it was soooooo good. I ate it out on my balcony to enjoy the beautiful night a bit more.

A few hours later I made a small quesadilla with 2 corn tortillas (2 pts), RF shredded mozzarella cheese (1 pt) and garlic gold (0 pts).

And then a baby bowl of cereal with 1/2 cub fiber one (0 pts), 3/4 cup Puffins (1 pt) and ~1 cup of light soy milk (1 pt).

And then I felt satisfied so I went to bed.

Lesson learned? Eat a bigger snack in the afternoon and a meal at night. Should be intuitive, but everyone works at their own pace, right? 😉

This morning breakfast was simple because I was feeling lazy in the cooking department.

Stonyfield Organic Blueberry Yogurt (2 pts) with 1/4 cup rolled oats (1 pt)  and a pink lady apple (1 pt).

Are you a snacker or more into eating larger meals? What are some of your favorite snacks?

Savory Oats

Morning and happy Monday! It is a lovely day in DC – – sooo much milder than it was this weekend.  I woke up early this morning to go for a run because the weather prediction said it was going to be mid 70s and sunny this morning, aka perfect for a run. As much as I loved running a 5k Saturday in the hottest day of the year, I prefer the weather from this morning…

Stats:

Distance: 3.0 miles

Duration: 28:25 min

Avg. Pace: 9:28 min/mile

Avg. Speed: 6.3 mph

Total Calories: 348

If you notice, this run was a lot faster than I’ve been running lately, which made me so happy! I honestly think the heat has been slowing me down majorly, and while intuitively that makes sense, I was starting to lose a little faith in that when time after time I was getting over 10:00 min/miles. Now, don’t get me wrong – 10:00 min/miles is not a bad thing at all for me or for many people. But when I first started running I was going faster than that, so it was just putting me off a bit to be slower than when I first started a year and half ago.

Rewind a bit – – yesterday was a nice, relaxing day. Charlotte and Nora were with us all day, so we went bowling as our big outing for the day. It was another scorcher out, so we wanted to avoid spending too much time outdoors but did want to get out of the house. Bowling was the perfect medium. I ended up doing really poorly at bowling – aka 59 the first time and 76 the second time, but still had a good time. We went out to Mexican and I got veggie fajitas after bowling:

While the meal that I ordered was healthy, I ended up totally overdoing it to the point of feeling sick to my stomach. I had way too many chips and salsa, plus queso that the girls ordered. Then I ended up having.. 4 flour tortillas!! I never have that many – I don’t know what got into me. But when we walked out, my stomach was hurting so bad. I ended up just having a green smoothie for dinner while everyone else had Caesar salad with chicken because my stomach was feeling so off still.

Both yesterday and today, I had savory oats for breakfast. I always think of oats on the sweeter side and usually have them with fruit, cereal, nut butter, or other sweet/dessert-y toppings. But yesterday, I got a hankering for Savory Oats, so I made oats with green onions and salt, then put a fried egg on top and a veggie sausage. This morning after my run, I was craving something very similar, so I just went with it. I sauteed an onion in a pan while cooking the rolled oats in water.

Once the onions were soft I added them into the cooking oats

While those were finishing up, I poached an egg in a pan of boiling water and vinegar, and put it on top of the finished oats.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know by now that I looooove poached eggs. Cracking the runny yolk onto whatever I’m eating with the egg is therapeutic in some way for me.

So delicious. The whole bowl was 1/2 cup rolled oats (2 pts) cooked in 1 cup water, with 1/2 cup onions (0 pts), salt, and 1 egg (2 pts) for 4 points total. This hit the spot big time and has left me very full and satisfied.

Have you ever had savory oats before or do you keep them fruity/sweet like I normally do? What are you favorite toppings for either savory or fruity? I love getting new ideas for things like this!

Sporty Spice

Hi! Happy Friday. I’m so glad you guys liked yesterday’s Roasted Red Pepper and Chickpea Burgers – they are SO good. Let me know if you try them and what you think!

Last night I decided it would be a good idea to run home from work. I snacked on a banana before leaving:

And then got geared up in my running clothes, Garmin, and Camelbak. As I was walking back to my desk, one of coworkers said “Hey there, Sporty Spice!” and it cracked me up. I guess it’s not normal to walk around your office with a CamelBak on… 🙂

I ended up setting out for the run but it was SOOOO hot. I was basically choking on the air during the run and was very happy with my decision to put ice in the CamelBak. I ended up going 4.8 miles total, but walked .4 of them. I took 4 tenth-of a mile walking breaks, first after 2.5 miles, then after .5 and .5, and then the walking intervals got a bit more frequent. I was just happy when I made it home! Stats:

Distance: 4.79 miles

Duration: 51:22

Pace: 10:43 mi/mile (walking breaks included)

Calories Burned: 542

Whew I need this heat wave to pass! Tomorrow is going to have a heat index of 110º (!!!) and i am supposed to run a 5k tomorrow night. Even at 8pm, it says it will still feel like 101º so I’m going to play that one by ear…

After my run and much needed shower, I wanted to make a quick little something to replenish myself, so I made a fried egg (2 pts) with a babybell light cheese (1 pt) on a light english muffin (1 pt) with some garlic gold (0 pts).

After eating the egg, I put together a platter of stuff to munch on because we had some friends coming over.

• Pickles
• Roasted Red Pepper Hummus
• Scallion Hummus
• Two types of crackers
• Sliced Yellow Squash

Amber and Mike brought over some spiced shrimp cocktail, and then some cheese, but I didn’t take pictures. Sometimes it’s nice to just put the camera away and enjoy yourself! I ended up having 1.5 glasses of wine and munching on some shrimp and hummus and crackers. I felt really good because I didn’t overeat at all which is a pretty regular thing for me when there’s a platter out in front. It’s nice when you’re the host though because you can control what goes out and make sure there are healthy options available.

This morning I had a quick breakfast since I didn’t have time to throw anything together last night:

Two small peaches (1 pt), a toasted light english muffin (1 pt), and a Stonyfield Organic Low-Fat Blueberry Yogurt (2 pts). Simple but delicious and filling!

I’ve been craving a tuna pasta salad for a while now, so today was finally the day. I cut up an entire yellow squash from my CSA and microwaved it for 1 minute with a little water in the bottom of the container.

Then I added in a handful of spinach and threw it back in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Then I added 1 cup of cooked whole wheat pasta (1 pt), 1 can of chunk light tuna in water (2 pts), and 1 tbsp of olive oil mayo (1 pt).

Mixed it all together and it was AWESOME. I chilled it in the fridge for a few hours and it ended up making this:

x2. 6 points in total and really filling. I love making healthier versions of things I’m craving because pasta/tuna salad can be very unhealthy if it’s loaded with mayo, albeit delicious. 🙂

Best news of the day? It’s FRIDAY!! Only a few hours left until the weekend. What do you have planned? I’m just staying put but couldn’t be more excited about it. The heat index is supposed to be through the roof today and tomorrow so I might try to stay indoors as much as possible though my pasty legs could definitely use a little sun…

Office Party Recap

Hey! Happy Thursday slash almost Friday to ya. I am so happy we’re in the latter part of this week because I have NO PLANS for this weekend. Well, that’s not true. I have a 5k at 8pm on Saturday night that I’m looking forward to, but no plans to travel – – just staying put! I love weekends like that. 🙂

Yesterday the party was fuuun. We held it in our conference room yesterday afternoon and had a nice little spread of appetizers:

Chips and 6 Layer Dip, Shrimp Cocktail, and a Veggie Tray. In case you didn’t see the last two well:

4 whole pounds of Shrimp Cocktail

A veggie tray (from Costco!) with ranch dip. After the party I looked and realized it was Low-Fat Peppercorn Ranch dip which made me feel better about having eaten a lot of it.

We also had an ice cream cake:

Here’s a picture of a few of my coworkers:

Jeremy, Ryan, and Jackie.

Kara, me and Emily.

In terms of staying on track, I did OK at the party with eating/drinking. I didn’t have any beer or wine, and stuck with this:

(It helps when you appoint yourself to be the one to pick up the non alcoholic beverages!)

I also ate mostly veggies and the shrimp, but I ate wayyyyyy too much. I did have some chips and dip as well, but I just kept piling on more veggies and more shrimp, and I left feeling really really full and bloated. The pros were that I didn’t have any alcohol or birthday cake, and focused on eating more shrimp/veggies than chips and dip, but if I had just had a few less shrimp, I would have left the party with an A. Instead I got a B. 😉

I made it to a 7:30pm Bikram class last night with my friend Amber, and it felt really good to sweat! I am definitely feeling a bit sore today, but I really enjoyed the class last night and am finding going once a week is working well for now. I made myself a smoothie before going to Bikram and left it in the freezer for 3 hours. Having a smoothie in the freezer to look forward to post workout is new for me, but seriously amazing. It gives me motivation to get through my workout and its the perfect post workout treat!

This smoothie had 1 cup light soy milk (1 pt) + 1 medium frozen banana (1.5 pts) + 4 frozen strawberries (.5 pts) + 2 big handfuls of spinach (0 pts). I ate it up after Bikram and it was perfect. Normally I would have had something else to eat but I had so much food at the party that I wasn’t even hungry after the smoothie and slept like a baby afterwards.

Breakfast this morning was quick and delicious. I took 1 cup of leftover succotash from Sunday night (last day to eat it!) and heated it up in a pan, and then added 1/2 cup egg whites and made a scramble. I put a few slices of basil on top for garnish/fresh flavor, plus a piece of whole wheat toast.

Succotash (2 pts) + Egg Whites (1 pt) + Whole Wheat Toast (1 pt) = 4 pts total.

What did you have for breakfast today?