Pleasantly Surprised

I'm back...a little later than I planned to be, but today kept me busy! Sorry for last night's post, or lack thereof. I was feeling discouraged and a bit down on myself and didn't want to project that negativity on blogland. I'm feeling better today but it took a mid-day run to really get over it.

Friday:

What do I remember about yesterday? It seems so long ago already. I started the day off with my usual run, and got done about 2 minutes faster than the day before. I think the threat of rain keeps my booty going a bit faster. I had my typical pre-run snack of some puffins and a little marathon bread with pb. I really can't eat much before exercising or I feel sick. I hadn't planned on doing my full, usual run so I was really pushing it timewise in the morning because I slept a few extra minutes. Once I get into the groove though its hard to stop. Seriously, I paused today a few times to adjust my heart rate monitor and my legs felt like they were shaking.

Breakfast:
We were out of bananas yesterday! I made do though and made a pretty tasty bowl of oats with mango, peaches, and walnuts. I added in the usual mix-ins of ground flax, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger and topped it with non-fat cottage cheese. I got the added treat of hot coffee because my dad made a pot since he didn't have to work Friday (but does tomorrow). I took it along in my favorite mug to the restaurant.


Breakfast was super filling which on one hand rocks but on the other I'm wondering if I need to make it a little smaller to mesh better with my schedule on restaurant days. I'm never hungry before the lunch rush and if its really busy I can't stop to eat. I get hungry in the middle of it usually. The problem is once my blood sugar drops, my energy drops, and in addition to getting cranky, I start feeling sick. That happened yesterday and I felt horrible. Whats worse is when I realized how hungry I was and how not right I felt, I was in the kitchen alone for a bit. I pulled through it and made the few orders that came in plus two of the girls lunches before making my own. I felt kind of proud that I got left alone for a little while though and didn't screw anything up. When I finally got a chance to make my lunch it was getting close to 3 I believe. I just grabbed things to make a salad because I didn't know what I wanted other than food. My salad wasn't too different than usual. I used chopped romaine, baby spinach, tomatoes, salsa, 2 egg whites and some black olives and cheddar cheese. I also used half of an avocado. A little after my salad I cracked into my strawberry non-fat Chobani with some granola and blueberries. I ate this in between filling dressings for the night. I've noticed that when I have a good serving of avocado I tend to be pleasantly satisfied for quite a bit. I expected to make myself a small dinner at some point, but never needed to. I did snack on some veggies and had some of my parent's leftover wine (they came in for dinner), and had a hershey kiss but never felt the need to eat another meal...which is good and bad again. When I got home and felt kind of down I started to pick around the kitchen but realized I wasn't hungry, it was 9:30, and I really just wanted my bed....so I got out of the kitchen.





Today:

I definitely woke up feeling a bit better about myself this morning but still not 100%. I spent the first half of the day in the tired, dazed state as I didn't run first thing in the morning. Instead, we all threw on clothes and went out for breakfast at Bob Evans. I knew they have oatmeal so I was ok with it because I knew there would be something I'd find edible. I ended up trying a new breakfast combination they have, which I think is a pretty good mix. Its supposed to be their no cholesterol eggs with a turkey sausage link and your choice of a fruit and yogurt crepe, oatmeal, or a fruit and yogurt parfait. Of course I chose the oatmeal but asked for egg whites in place of their egg mix. I'm not big on egg beaters. My mom got the same as me. We thought the fruit and yogurt crepes sounded good as well so we ordered two to share. They turned out to be quite large so all three of us shared, and I mainly went for the berries and low-fat yogurt. I ate all of my egg whites with some ketchup, maybe a 1/3 of the sausage (I'm not a big sausage fan) and maybe a 1/3 of the oatmeal which I added some craisins too and just a bit of brown sugar which it didn't need. It doesn't look like much there, but it was quite a bit of oatmeal! It was delicious and creamy though. I wish the restaurant had oatmeal in the mornings. On days I was running behind I'd still get my oat fix!!






After breakfast we had to go run a few errands. One of which was a trip to a natural foods store that they told me about at Tapenade. It was pretty cool. It had all organic produce, some local...and a HUGE temperature controlled bulk room with grains, granola, and other things. We picked up a few items. My parents actually bought some vegan cookies. They opened their oatmeal raisin ones on the way home and I had a sample taste (no pic). It was really good and I didn't realize it was a vegan cookie until I was looking at the packaging post sample. I was surprised that they would pick that up. I also had some grapes on the ride home that I got there. A little after getting home I decided to go for a short run...which turned into longer than planned. It was rough. It was in the 80's and incredibly humid. I'm glad I went on it though because afterwards I felt more alert and so much better about myself. It definitely took me out of my funk. Runs like that remind me that if I put my mind to something I can do it. My heart rate monitor kept annoying me though. Does anyone else have issues with the Polar f4? This last week its been getting stuck on the same number and I'm trying to fix it while running and it looks like I'm trying to hold my boobs down. Then it will drop to some number that is obviously not right and then shoot back to a number that seems appropriate. So frustrating! Anyway, I did some good stretches and then finally got a shower after my run! I was ready for something to eat after that but it was almost 4 so I didn't want anything to big and my parents decided to do our weekly grocery shop at the same time. I made a quick snack of a banana with almond butter and some non-fat milk. It wasn't much after close to a 55 minute run (cut off a little of the end part but added on part I usually skip) but it kept me satisfied through grocery shopping and dinner prep. I got water at the store and tried to re-hydrate during the shop.


I didn't realize I would be in charge of preparing dinner tonight so I didn't pick anything out. I have no problem doing that, I just wished I had realized it. My parents picked up some tilapia and a breading that we like to have for dinner. Once home and I found out I was preparing it, I decided to cut that breading and try my own with some panko I picked up recently. I combined a cup of panko bread crumbs with red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, chili powder, ground red pepper, freshly ground black pepper, and some garlic powder. I just eyeballed all the spices doing a palmful on the first few, and a little less on the red pepper and garlic powder. The freshly ground pepper I just cranked until it looked ok. I first dredged the fish in some egg whites seasoned with s&p. I should have added a little salt to the bread crumb mix but forgot. It was good, but was missing that little something and I think salt was it. It wasn't overly hot/spicy, but nicely so. I felt a little warm after eating it but that could have been because we sat on the porch! I also steamed up some corn on the cob. I ate maybe 3/4 of my fish and had two ears of corn. I am dreading the end of the fresh corn! With dinner we had another Spanish wine, this time a white. It was delicious.




I did more of a tasting with my dessert tonight because I couldn't make up my mind what to have. I had a small chunk of tiramisu, a sample of the chocolate chip cookie, and maybe a quarter cup of both a chocolate ripple ice cream and my fav non-fat vanilla fro yo. I was a little disappointed in the cookie. The oatmeal raisin was spicy, soft, and tasted almost homemade. The chocolate chip was just kind of blah, and the texture was funny. Oh well.


Today flew by as did yesterday. I've got some blueberries that need used up so I'm going to go find something interesting to do with them! Have a great night!