pb&j oats

Today is Week 4, Day 1 of my half marathon training. Mike joined me for 3 miles this morning and it was actually a really good run. Tomorrow I will need to get up a tad earlier so I can squeeze in 4 miles, but I will worry about that tomorrow.

I made it the entire 3 miles without having to stop for my knee. Towards the end, I definitely started to feel it flare up a bit, but it didn't really ever slow me down. I went ahead and iced it down this morning anyway, just to be safe. Actually, I am currently sitting here with my leg elevated under my desk and an ice pack on my knee, I am such a good patient. :)

A while ago, my friend Layne (hi!), told me about peanut butter and jelly oatmeal. She raved about this combination and although it doesn't sound too far off from my normal oatmeal concoctions, I resisted making it because I am not the biggest fan of pb&j. I eat it when I am hungry and there is nothing else, but it is never my first choice in a sandwich combination. Well, last night as I was packing my lunch, I realized we are literally out of everything in our kitchen. I had no fresh fruit or yogurt to add to my oatmeal, so I decided to make things easy and try pb&j oats. I combined chocolate protein powder, oatmeal, a scoop of peanut butter, and a small teaspoon of homemade raspberry jam in a bowl and covered it with skim milk.

It was amazing. Probably one of the best oatmeal combos I have ever had and you better believe that it will be making a regular appearance in my breakfasts.

I am trying to get more food back into my posts, but it has been very difficult with the amount of eating out and quick meals we have been throwing together lately. Now that things have settled down a bit, I hope to get back in the kitchen and making some full dinners again!

accountability

In keeping with my accountability of my progress and work outs, I have decided to post each day of my training on here. Sometimes, that might be all that you get, but I am promising to post it. No matter how slow, how crappy, or how miserable my run was, I will post it. I feel like making that promise will force me to keep up with my training and continue toward my half marathon goal.

Today was Week 1, Day 1 of half marathon training. According to Hal Higdon's training schedule, I need to run 3 miles today, as well as tomorrow and Thursday, with a 4 mile run on Saturday. For some reason, I was moving this morning! Maybe I was excited about starting the training, or maybe it was just one of those "great runs" I was talking about before, but I looked down a few times and I was running in the 7s!

I felt pretty great during my run and was shocked to look at my splits. I never understood how people got faster in the last mile of their run, but it looks like I did just that this morning.

So my plan is to post at least the above pictures for each of my runs during training. That should hold me accountable and help me to get out of bed every morning. The only time I won't be posting the runs will be while I am in Mexico, unless they have free wifi and I can throw up those snapshots without being charged a few hundred pesos. If I can't do it there, I will post as soon as I return to the states, because I will be running in Mexico. Again, I WILL BE RUNNING IN MEXICO... No excuses, not even tequila related excuses. :)

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Last night I made a quick stop at Joe the Trader's to grab a few things, including our dinner. Mike and I were both in the mood for hot dogs, (why?) so I grabbed some chicken sausages instead. Along with our sausages, we had some garlic fries, which were surprisingly delicious for frozen fries. They were just the right amount of crunchy and tasted somewhat fried.

Somehow these ended up in my cart which proves the point of never going to a grocery store hungry... I had these puppies open within seconds of getting into my car.

The good news is that we actually have some food in our house now, which we didn't have any of before. I am really sick of eating crap and ready to get back to my regular eating schedule. Yesterday I tried one of the new salads from Wendy's and was pleasantly surprised. The dressing was not terrible for you and I was excited to see they offer half sized portions now, which are just the right size for lunch.

This was the apple pecan chicken salad (half portion) with pomegranate vinegarette dressing. It was really tasty. But, I just looked up the sodium content and am not very happy about it... so maybe I will steer clear of those in the future.



While we are talking about nutrition and sodium content, I thought I would circle back to my calorie counting. I had stopped for a while, because I feel like I have a really good handle on what I was eating, but I think I need to start back up again. Although I am pretty good about knowing what is going in my body, I don't know that I am staying completely on track. My weight loss has been at quite the standstill lately, which I am actually ok with, but I still have about 4 lbs to get to my 1 year goal. I have no doubt I will get there, but I am just kind of hanging out in the 139-142 lbs range. I am super proud and happy about that, but I think if I got back into my strict calorie counting, I could drop those last 4 lbs easily.

Another reason I want to start it back up is because I know I will need to increase my calories as I increase my mileage with the half marathon training. I haven't done a ton of research just yet on how and what to do change my calorie intake, but I plan on figuring all that out as I get into the 5-10 mile range.

As far as my sodium is concerned, I am pretty convinced that it is not having a huge impact on my blood pressure. I haven't talked to my doctor yet about it, but I feel like on the days that I have a lot of sodium, my bp is no different than on days that I haven't had a lot of sodium. One thing I have noticed is that I get headaches and feel crummy on days that I have things with a lot of sodium in them. Maybe I am just crazy, but I definitely feel a difference when I eat out or eat things that I know are pretty high in sodium.

I think I would like to stick to the low sodium lifestyle, since our bodies just do not need as much sodium as we take in. I know that I will have to adjust that as well, since through running, sweating, and losing sodium, I will need to make sure that I don't get dehydrated. But, I hope to find some sort of balance through it all, since I obviously am going to have this blood pressure problem, and I still don't want to go on any type of medication for it. (FYI, my bp is too low to actually go on bp meds, but this is something that I may have to accept in the future).

Well, would you look at that, I only meant to write a short little post about how I plan on posting my runs throughout my training but I actually wrote a whole post. Lucky you! :)

Yesterday's Stats:

Calories (-) 309
Sodium (+) 1437
Protein (+) 9

30

Settle in... it is going to be a long one.


On Monday, I turned the big ole 3-0. I think the anticipation of turning 30 was way worse than actually turning 30. Once I really thought about it, I am really happy about being 30.

I spent this last week on a little 'stay-cation.' I took some time off from work to just stay home and enjoy my surroundings. It was glorious.

My weekend started on Friday night, where Mike and I catered to our healing puppy dog, cleaned up our house, and relaxed. I made How Sweet's Cheddar and Corn Quinoa, which turned out pretty good.

I wish I had taken more pictures on my iPhone so I could share the awesomeness that was Saturday. Unfortunately, I only took pictures with my real camera, and getting those onto the computer, let alone the blog, is pretty impossible. You will have to just imagine how wonderful it was through my description and a few of Lindsay's photos.

For my birthday, my friends and Mike planned a celebration which included lots of wine and good food. We headed to one of my favorite Raleigh restaurants, Irregardless, for a lunch time cooking class and wine tasting. The cooking class was more like a hang out in the kitchen while the chef tells you what he is doing and you drink copious amounts of rum and wine, but hey, it was still pretty awesome.

Then it was time to eat. :)

We had seared ahi tuna with tuna tartar, wasabi pea puree, and jicama, cucumber, and seaweed salad. It was incredible.

After lunch, 2 trays of dessert were brought out for the table to share. Of course, I could have eaten the entire plate myself.

When everyone was finished eating, we all headed over to Lindsay and Fred's pool clubhouse, where a wonderful little party was put together for me. I had an absolute blast spending time with my friends, dancing, singing, and eating cake.

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Sunday, Mike and I spent the day lounging around, watching movies, and just recovering from Saturday's shenanigans. Plus, it was about 105 degrees on Sunday, so indoors seemed like the most comfortable way to spend the day.

Monday was my actual birthday. My mom came into town and we started the day with a birthday breakfast at The Flying Biscuit.

We spent the remainder of the day shopping our faces off at the mall. That is one of the things my mom and I used to do together all the time, shop! We haven't shopped like that together in a long time, so it was really fun to spend the day with her.

She headed back home that evening and I waited for Mike to get home so we could go out to dinner. Dinner was amazing! We tried out a new restaurant that we have been eying called Midtown Grille. This might be a new favorite spot for special occasions. The food was delicious, the service was excellent, and the ambiance was perfect.

We started with a little wine and some calamari.

For my entree, I ordered the NY Strip steak and it was one of the best steaks I have ever had. It was cooked PERFECTLY and the flavor was amazing.

Mike ordered the beef shortribs and they were also very good.

We were too full for any dessert, but our stomachs were happy!

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Tuesday, we woke up and I headed out for a run. I needed to get out there and do some running after all the horrible eating I had been doing all weekend. I went for a quick 3 mile run around the neighborhood and got to use some of my new running gear. Mike and Lindsay got me a bunch of new running stuff for my birthday and I ended up finding a big sale on work out clothes while shopping with my mom, so I am fully equipped now.

I feel so official! Another awesome thing I got from my dear friend Lindsay, is a RoadID bracelet! I have been wanting one for a while and I was so excited to open that gift!!! I would show it to you, but I don't really want any creeps to see my personal info and phone numbers... and I have no idea how to get fancy and blur those out... instead, here is the box!

It was really hot out, but the run went pretty smoothly. I have been a little slack lately and we are a short 5 weeks (!!) til Mexico, so it is time to kick it into high gear!

After running, Mike and I decided to cancel out every calorie that I had burned that morning and went out for hot dogs. There is a place called The Roast Grill in downtown Raleigh that is super old and a total dive, but we had heard amazing things about their hot dogs. Since they have very limited hours on the weekends and evenings, we figured it was a good opportunity to try it out.

The verdict? Pretty good! They don't have anything but hot dogs there, and they only have certain toppings (one of them NOT being ketchup, they don't allow it in the place), but I really liked my hot dogs. The place is super old fashioned and they sell soda out of old glass bottles, so it was a good experience, but since it was super small and crowded in there, I don't know that I would go back. Luckily, we have been wanting to go there for over 3 years now and finally got the opportunity, so that is probably not an option anyway.

We spent the rest of Tuesday at the pool and then headed to the movies to see Ted. It was really funny.

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The 4th of July was bittersweet for me since it was the end of my mini vacation but it was the 4th of July... who doesn't love the 4th of July?? We spent it with friends, which is always a good time.

We went to a bar that had a beer 'tent' and watched the fireworks from there. I use the term 'tent' loosely since there was no actual tent. It was just a roped off area of the parking lot with a beer truck in the middle.

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About the whole turning 30 thing... I am not phased. I am the happiest and healthiest I have ever been in my life. I have a wonderful husband, amazing friends, and a great family. I have nothing to be sad about and I am more proud of myself than I have ever been. Turning 30 has really just made me realize all that I have and all that I will have in the future. I am really happy with where I am in life, and I wouldn't change a bit of it.

100 miles

Hey there! I am going to try my hardest to post everyday this week, but I have a lot on my plate, so we will see if that happens. :)

I know I have been running long before March 5, but that is the day that I used the Nike+ GPS app for the first time. Since then, I have been hitting the pavement with that app and it slowly counted up all the miles I have completed. On Friday morning, when Mike and I went for a pre-work run, I hit the big one.

In a little over 2 months, I put 100 miles on these legs of mine. That is certainly something I can be proud of. :)

We ran the route over by his work and decided to reverse it this time. Bad move by me. The hills were 10x worse going the opposite direction that we usually go. It was rough.

We only did 3 miles, since we both planned to get a long run in on Saturday up in Virginia. We headed to Virginia Beach on Friday night after work to celebrate Mike's sister, Haylie, and her fiance, Tim, at their wedding shower.

Saturday morning, Mike, Haylie, Tim, Jay (our friend), and I headed out early in the morning to go for a run. Or in Haylie's case, a "blading session."

Mike and Jay made a lot of fun of her for roller blading, but she took it pretty well. At least she came with us!

We went running along the waterfront of Virginia Beach and it was so gorgeous. Running is so much easier when there are new and exciting things to look at and take pictures of. :)

Along our run, we went past an aquarium so, of course, I had to stop in to see the seals.

It was awesome to see them swimming around in the open tank. They are so adorable!

Since Haylie and I stopped to see the seals, the boys left us. It was fine with me since they had planned to run 11 miles that day and I only wanted to get in 5. When we got to the aquarium we were right around 3 miles, so Haylie and I turned around and headed to the boardwalk to finish up.

We ran along the boardwalk for a little while before we finally hit 5 miles. Then we enjoyed the beach for a few minutes.

It was quite windy, so I was getting pelted by sand in order to get this picture. When I got home, I had sand all throughout my scalp.  Oh the things to get a blog photo...

It was a really fun run and I am so glad the weather allowed for us to enjoy it. It was nice to catch up with my sister in law too.

We did about a 2 mile walk after this to get back to the car, so my legs were nice and stretched by the time we got home. I actually wasn't sore at all on Sunday either.

When we got home, I had to rush to get ready so I could help set up for the shower at one of Haylie's friend's houses. I was in charge of the chalkboard signs and paper poms, so once I was dressed, I hurried over there to get started. Those poms take forever to puff out!

The backyard was perfect for hanging poms from the trees and everything turned out so nice. The food was also amazing. The party was thrown by myself and two of Haylie's bridesmaids and I think we did an awesome job.

Those spicy thai noodles were banging. Yesterday, after we got home, I couldn't get them out of my head, so I tried to re-create them with stuff I had on hand in the house. They didn't even come close to tasting like the noodles at the party, but they were still ok.

Since Tim's family is from England, we tried to sneak in at least one element for their sake. The host of the party found a recipe for a traditional drink that is called "Pimm's Cup." It uses Pimm's gin and fruit juice, along with fresh fruit, mint, and rosemary to make a sangria-like drink. It was really tasty.

The favors were mason jars, so I had mine in one of those. There is something about a drink in a mason jar that just makes me so happy. Especially being outside with paper poms hanging all around.

The party was a lot of fun and I think the bride and groom really enjoyed themselves. We had a blast getting to know their friends and hanging out with the family.

Of course, Mike and I had to get a photo together. It is mandatory.

We all passed out at roughly 9:30 pm after the party. Running + a few drinks + entertaining others = exhausted.  Oh, and I forgot to mention we had to clean up a huge mess from my little puppy dog who decided he didn't want to stay in his cage while we were at the party all day. He somehow wedged himself out of his cage and tore up the entire house. Needless to say when we went out for lunch on Sunday, we had to get creative.

Little punk...

Have a good week!