Yes, a weekend recap on THURSDAY. I'm awesome.

WOAH. Is it really Thursday already? This week has just FLOWN by.

I didn't even tell you about the race I ran this weekend! WHO AM I?!?!?

Cliffnote's version: My little sister and I (both University of Illinois alums) decided to do a race sponsored by U of I's I-Fund (which provides scholarships to athletes) which was being held this past weekend in Chicago.

We signed up for the 8K, but the lil sis wasn't really feeling the full 8 that morning, so we dropped down to the 5K.

I'm REALLY glad we did. It was COLD. And WINDY. And RAINY. We even LOOK cold, don't we?

And, yes-- I made my poor baby sister take her jacket off (she's holding it in the above pic) just so we could get a pic both in orange. I'm such a bad sister.

Anyway- we ran the 5K. Nothing really noteworthy. She's not a huge runner and we finished right around 30 minutes with only one small walk break. Girls a rockstar!

We got to Chicago the night before and stayed with her and her boyfriend, which was tons of fun! Sadie even came with and did SO good in the car. Her longest car ride to date!

The weekend was a blur... bib pick up, a TJ's stop, dinner at a crazy burger place (my burger had Siracha on it!! HEAVEN!), a movie (Taken 2... skip it), the race, and then a fabulous brunch. Super fun weekend. Love you, baby sis!!

So, that was this weekend. Yes, I am talking about LAST weekend 1 day away from THIS weekend. I'm way outta it this week.

Other than that, this week's been pretty normal... work, gym, work, gym. I even work my new race shirt to the gym Tuesday morning.

Yeah, this is HUGE. Why do race shirts never fit me right?!? Too bad too, because this one is CUTE and the back says "I RUN THIS TOWN". Love. Drat the fit. It'll still work for the gym, though.

Anyway-- this weekend's packed... Friday night we're doing a charity trivia night (which I have to bake for tonight!), Saturday I have to work, then we may go see a friend do comedy. Sunday I wanna try (if the rain hold off) to get a long run in. It's looking good right now...

Post-long run I have big house cleaning and laundry plans. FUN, FUN.

Wanna come clean my house for me this weekend?? We can go for a run together first! Then, I'll nap while you clean. PERFECT. Who could pass up a deal like that?!?!? :)

WIAW - Monday #elf4health Edition

(source)

I interrupt your normally scheduled day of work and n*sync holiday radio (just me?!?) to bring you this week's WIAW edition. New to WIAW? Hop over to Jen's website and let her tell you all about it. It's basically just a fun way to show a day-in-the-life via food. So, let's get to it!

This week my WIAW is all my eats from Monday, December 3, 2012. This also happened to be W2D1 of the Elf4Health Challenge and the challenge of the day was to eat at least 25-30g of fiber. So, let's see how I did...

Before I ate breakfast I went to the gym for a 5:30am 60-minute spinning class. I don't eat before going to the gym or working out, unless it's the weekend and it's a pre-planned long run (over 10 miles). I do drink loads of (unpictured) water during and after the workout.


Breakfast: 9am

 

What you can't read those nutrition facts from there? Well, that'd be a big fat ZERO for the fiber count.

 

While I suppose challenge wise, this was a big fail with no grams of fiber, it's still an incredibly healthy breakfast. Plus, every morning I have fiber via my (unpictured) morning coffee via benefiber-type powder.

My doctor "prescribed" two servings of this every morning as a way to help with my IBS (so sexy). I don't mention it much because adding this has helped with it INCREDIBLY and it doesn't bother me much at all any more.

Anyway, with the addition of the soluble fiber, I hit 6g (2 servings) for breakfast.


Lunch: 12pm

If you live near a Trader Joe's and haven't tried this soup-- try it. It's good. Not knock-your-socks-off fabulous, but definitely good for a quick, hot lunch. Yum. I, for the record, do not have a TJ's near me, but I do always stop and STOCK UP whenever I go to a city that has one. This was my first time trying this soup and I only got 1 can. FAIL, Meagan. Oh well. Anyway, take the soup (5g) add an apple (~ 5g) and a FiberOne brownie (which, btw, aren't GREAT, but are pretty OK. Try them cold. It makes them even better, which is weird, I know.) (5g) and that put my lunch at 15g of fiber. Add my once a day can of diet coke on the side and call it lunch!


Snack: 3pm

I spy a Santa Claus pepper shaker! Don't worry... I didn't sprinkle my almonds with pepper. Promise!

 

Speaking of Trader Joe's-- they have the best almonds. Sounds weird... I mean, it's a plain ol' nut. How can it be better or worse at some places? It can. TJ's is the bomb. Trust me.

Anyway, according to self.com, almonds are pretty BA on the nutritional front. Note: the info below is based on a 1-cup serving (which is a LOT of nuts!).

(source)

 

Ok, so they aren't exactly low-cal, but they are an excellent fiber and protein source.

 

I had about 1/4 a cup, clocking in at 137 calories, 5g protein, and 3g of fiber FTW.

 

 

(Note: By here I had already ALMOST met the challenge with 24g of fiber, so I wasn't really too concerned with getting a HUGE amount at dinner.)

 

Dinner: 6pm

I definitely had 2 more pieces after this. Just being honest.

The Hubs and I made pizza! Can you tell pizza is the Hubs FAVORITE food? We only eat it like once a week so I'm not sure if you've caught on. ;)

Anyway, we made this on a Trader Joe's (woah! Just noticed I ate TJ's stuff ALL day. Yes, I am obsessed with this store. Our next move WILL be based on its proximity to a Trader Joe's. You heard it here first. Don' tell the Hubs.) garlic dough. His 1/2 was sausage and pepperoni with mozzarella cheese. My 1/2 was sausage and goat cheese. YUUUUUM. So, so, so good. Noooot so good on the fiber front, though. The sausage and goat cheese offered MINIMAL, if any, fiber (but loads of protein!), but the dough helped! 2g protein for 1/8 the crust. I probably had about 3/8 of the crust (Hey! Don't judge. I was hungry!) totalling to 6g of fiber.

Oh, and there was definitely a big bowl of low-fat ice cream for dessert. Inhaled it MUCH too quickly to snap a pic. Blogger fail, I know.




So, all in all I finished the #elf4health challenge with about 30g of fiber. Challenge = Dominated!

Quick review of challenge: To be honest, I didn't really THINK about my fiber intake at all during the day. I know I tend to get enough, so I wasn't really concerned. After looking at it as I was writing this post, I was a little surprised I didn't get even MORE. So, maybe I'm not getting AS MUCH as I thought I was and should be more aware in the future. I also noticed how tracking fiber is great... but, there are also other health needs too! I did pretty good on protein today, but that "didn't count". It's important to know there's more than 1 way to be healthy. I could have eaten nothing but FiberOne brownies all day and met the challenge, but FAILED at... life? Haha. Kidding. But, really-- I definitely wouldn't have been HEALTHY. Though, to be clear-- I don't think the point of the challenge was to not eat anything other than fiber. I think it was just trying to get us to pay attention to an aspect of our diet we might not pay much attention to. 

It's important to know there's more to "healthy eating" (not that I eat healthy nor am I anywhere remotely close to a "healthy eater") than just fiber. Or protein. Or calories. Or sodium. Ya know... the whole has to equal the sum of all the parts. Or whatever. 

Weekend Fun - Pizza, Shopping, Running, and Movies!

I had a fabulous weekend! Did you? I hope so!

So, what made mine so great? Lots of things!

Friday night started with a meeting with our financial planner (woah-- serious stuff. we're like grown ups and stuff.) followed by a quick trip to the outlet mall to get a little Christmas shopping in before meeting the in-laws for pizza and beer! YUM!!! Was it the healthiest or most colorful (elf4health challenge of the day was to eat the rainbow)--- meh. Not so much. And, wanna know a secret? I didn't care even a little bit. Why workout so much if you can't eat some pizza and drink a beer without guilt? I won't even call it an "indulgence"... it was just--- dinner. And damn good dinner.

Saturday I worked in the morning. Sometimes I proctor SATs or ACTs for some extra cash. Easy money! Basically, I sat there and read blogs and books. And got PAID to do it. Score.

After work Saturday I hit the road to Kalamazoo to meet up with some friends. We headed immediately out for an Ikea, Trader Joe's, and HomeGoods shopping extravaganza! So much Christmas shopping done! And, lots of yummy food from TJs! So, so good!!!! Wish there was one closer. Best part? LOTS of girl talk!

I stayed the night with my running-bff, Amy. She and I had big long run plans for Sunday. But, before we could get to that-- we had some Ikea furniture to put together!

 That's Amy and her cart!

 

OK, maybe it doesn't look like much and it might be upside down, but we assembled a kitchen cart-- all on our own! I'm pretty proud!!

 

Sunday morning we negotiated a start time-- I wanted 8, she wanted 9 (true morning bird and night owl right there)-- we settled on 8:30am and were out the door right on time!

 

We hit a local trail and were off by about 9am.

 

The weather was ALMOST perfect. A little rainy/misty, but not too bad at all. Not too windy and not too cold or hot. AMAZING company. All around-- perfect.

It was a straight out and back course in almost complete isolation. It was SO quiet! I do all my runs around a city and college campuses which almost always have other people, runners, dogs, bike and everything in between. It was almost therapeutic to have it be so quiet and be alone (ya know... minus having Amy there next to me). It was just amazing.  Maybe it was because we were going a bit slower and I didn't obsess over pace at all. I didn't push myself at all. I didn't have a care in the world. I could just-- be. And run. Complete and utter running perfection.

We chatted the whole way out (about 7.5 miles) and each zoned out to music the way back (about 7.4 miles). Again-- just complete and utter running perfection. I couldn't have asked for a better run with better company. I loved every second of this run. I legit found myself grinning like a mad woman at some moments and had to intentionally wipe the grin off my face so Amy wouldn't think I was crazzzzzy. (Though, let's be honest-- she already knows I am.)

 Thanks for the run, Amy !! Best running friend evvvvver. And, for the record-- you KICKED that trail's ass. Just like you're gonna kick the WDW Marathon's ass in a few weeks. Get pumped. It's gonna happen.

 

We covered 15 miles even at about an 11:15/mile pace.

 

Maybe it wasn't my fastest run. Maybe it wasn't even a "fast" run (whoever defines what "fast" is and isn't, I'll never know). Maybe it wasn't hilly or hot or snowing. Maybe nothing crazy or even of note happened. WHO CARES? It was perfect. I loved every step. I loved not caring. I loved not tracking. I loved just RUNNING. And having a great friend there to talk about life and love and food and running and everything in between.


I headed home after our run where the Hubs was waiting with flowers and a clean house (even the laundry was done!). BEST. HUBS. EVVVVVVER. Seriously. Ever.

We went to see Pitch Perfect and the local cheap theatre. Good movie. Not great, but good. Funny and cute. Definitely worth a redbox trip in the future if you haven't seen it yet.

Post-movie we grabbed some dinner and then just chilled. I was SOOOO tired. That run took it outta me! I was long, long asleep by 9pm.

Today started off with the classic 5am alarm and Monday morning Spinning Class. Another Monday, another spin class. Done and done.

Today's elf4health challenge is to eat lots of fiber and I've been doing that all day like it's my job! Stay tuned for Wednesday's WIAW to check it out! Veggie soup, almonds, apples-- oh my!

Anyway-- today's still a Monday and Monday's are pretty much always rough... luckily today I have a secret weapon to help me get through it.

Yup. N*Sync Holiday Station on Pandora. Don't believe me? Try it. It'll brighten your day, even if just a little. You'll see.

Jason Mraz and a Bachelorette Party!

This weekend has been an absolute whirlwind. Wowza. It's not even over yet, but it feels like I've had 3 separate weekends. It was wonderful, but man o' man... I am EXHAUSTED.

So, what did I do all weekend? Well, this may take a while. Let's just start with Friday to Saturday.

Friday morning kicked off with an early morning at the gym.

Definitely not the most exciting workout, but at least I had a Running Times to keep me a little entertained. 50 minutes on the elliptical. It had to be done. 

Friday I had a big event for work, so I was there by 7:30am and moving (in heels... bad choice!) til I left early at 1pm. My feet hurt SO bad and my legs were achey. Boo.

As I said, I left at 1 and headed down to Indianapolis where I met one of my best friends to see Jason Mraz in concert! 

We got to the arena around 6:45pm. We had GREAT seats! We were dead center, though we were pretty far back. Since we got there so early, we saw the entire opening act-- Christina Perri! LOVE her!! She was amazing! After she wrapped up and a set change it was time for the one and only Jason Mraz!!

JASON MRAZ!!! He put on a great show! My bff and I had a great time. We got in some great girl time and got to see my (other) husband sing! Fabulous night.

We stayed in a CRAPPY hotel in Indy, but it was only for 1 night and cheap, so what are ya gonna do?!? 

My friend had to take off WAYYYY too early Saturday, so after saying a sad see-ya-soon to her and getting a bit more shut eye, I finally got up, ready, and checked out around 10am. 

On the way outta town, I made a few pitstops...

My very first trip to HomeGoods and my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season (even though it was an iced version... def not the same... though still delicious!). HomeGoods is awesome. I didn't get much, but definitely a great store. Next time we move, definitely hitting up HomeGoods. After HomeGoods, I made a super quick stop at Trader Joe's. I didn't have a cooler, so couldn't stock up tooooo much... but, got a few pantry items... cereal, canned goods, quinoa. TJs=Love.

Then, it was time to hit the open roooooad.

I hate to drive. HATE. But, I must say... it was a BEAUTIFUL day for a drive. Gorgeous.

2 1/2 hours later, I got home to this surprise from the Hubs! FLOWERS! 

Beautiful, beautiful flowers. Best Hubs ever. Poor guy wasn't even home... he had to go into the office on a Saturday. Boo!! But, I enjoyed the lovely flowers, had left overs for lunch, and took a quick nap.

After my way too short nap, I was up and ready to hit the town for a friends bachelorette party! You know what that means....

SHOTS! Wine! Beer! Waaaaay too much food. I tried not to go TOO crazy, as I knew I had a long run to get in Sunday morning. But, I definitely had fun, too! I left a little early and got home and into bed just before 1am. I won't share anymore pictures... what happens at a bachelorette party stays at a bachelorette party! ;)

I swear, Friday alone felt like 2 full days between work, driving, and the concert. Then Saturday felt like 3 days! It was just a crazy 2 days!

Stay tuned for Sunday's recap... {Spoiler: I kinda rocked my long run!!}

WIAW – Weekend Version

WIAW – Weekend Version

I decided since my weekday eats are pretty much the exact same week after week after week, I’d spice things up a bit for this WIAW (and, of course, thanks to our host!) and recap my day of eating from a typical weekend… so, here’s my Sunday in food:

Breakfast: We were in Indy for a wedding, so had breakfast at a local diner with Matt’s cousins and their 2 adorable kids before heading back home.

I had an egg white omelet with spinach and feta. THIS (left) is what it looked like. Seriously. It was at least 3 inches thick. It looked like a puffy, weird pastry almost. I was more than hesitant when I saw it, but dug in anyway. It was just OK. WAY WAYYYY too much feta and the egg tasted kinda weird. I ate about 1/3 and called it. I did however finish every, single bite of those pancakes (right). I had like 4 cups of coffee too. I mean... obviously.

Driving Snack:

A few (unpictured) pretzels and these Skinny Cow chocolates (shared the pack w/ the Hubs). And lots of gas station fountain diet pepsi.

Lunch:

After we got home I wasn't super hungry... that breakfast was BIG and I had those pretzels & chocolates in the car. The Hubs was making English Muffin Pizzas and that sounded perfect. 1 whole wheat (high fiber, low fat) English Muffin, some pizza sauce, and FF mozz cheese. Perfect, light "lunch".  


Another Snack:

On Saturday, in between the ceremony and reception, the Hubs and I hit up Trader Joes (yaaaay!!!). Sadly we couldn’t get anything cold or frozen because it was just too hot to stay good. Damn! But, we did get these suckers. Definitely good. Not GREAT. But, definitely good. I had a 4 or 5 for a quick snack. More because I was bored than because I was hungry. Just being honest.

Dinner: The Hubs and I cooked. We slightly followed a receipe from Rocco DiSpirito’s cookbook “Now Eat This”. We really just used it as a base. Into low-fat Tortilla Factory shells went grilled chicken (that we grilled on the George Foreman seasoned with chili powder, cajun seasoning and seasoned salt), black beans, fresh cilantro and fat free mozz cheese (the Hubs had low-fat cheddar cheese).

We wrapped them in foil and baked them for 10 minutes. I served mine on a bed of romaine lettuce (the Hubs said that we weird… I said it was delicious!) with like 1/10 of a diced avocado (which I realize looks like lime or a zucchini or something in the pic... it's an avocado, I promise!). OMG. SO good. Suepr easy to put together and SO, SO good. We had a small serving of TJ’s fat-free refried beans (sprinkled with FF mozz cheese) on the side with baked tortilla chips with a quick version of homemade guacamole (1 avocado, 1 diced garlic clove, some raw white onion, salt and some chopped jalapeños). SO amazingly good. The Hubs and I destroyed that guac.

This was the best (and SO easy!!) dinner we’ve made in a while. YUUUUUUM.

Dessert 1: Fresh strawberries and blueberries drizzled (ok, drenched) in Hershey’s SF chocolate sauce and topped with a scoop of frozen FF cool whip (try it frozen! Makes it have an ice-cream like texture… love it). Delicious.

Dessert 2: WW Chocolate Raspberry bar. I am addicted. Send help.

It was semi-impossible to "count calories" today... but, I was pretty happy with my overall day. I was VERY snacky and hungry all day, which really always happens the day after a long run. Dinner was GREAT though and I'm excited because we have several left over burritos for throughout the week! Bring it on!

Signature Strength, Spinning, and Swanky-ness

Today's workout was Signature Strength class. TONS of lunges, squats, abs, arms... wowza. I was shaking all class. I'm already sore. I wasn't going to run... I really wasn't. Then, I thought of one of my favorite bloggers and decided to just SHUT UP IN RUN. I got 2 in in 18:20. I might run at lunch or after work OUTSIDE later since it's the coolest day of the week and I'm trying to enjoy semi-cool days with outdoor runs while I can. We'll see...  

Monday’s workout was one of those “I love to run!!” workouts. I started the day off when my alarm went off at 5am—UGH!!—and was slow to get up. Monday’s are ALWAYS the hardest, but when I take Sunday as a rest day, they seem to be even harder. You’d think the extra rest that comes with a REST day would leave me feeling RESTED… but, I think it just makes me feel lazy and lethargic. Anyway—even though I realllly didn’t want to get up, I did and was immediately glad I did. I remember thinking in the car how much easier it is to get up early the entire rest of the week when I get up Monday and start the week off that way.

So, I went to a 60-minute Spinning Class. Pretty non-eventful. It was freaking HOT in the room. The music was bleh. I spun, but not as hard as I usually do.

Then, I hit the treadmill for 2 quick miles (8:48 pace), showered and rushed to work. At lunch I got another 5 miles (9:06 pace) in at lunch on the indoor track.

It’s SO hot and humid and gross outside… I swear, I sweat more on the walk to and from the gym than I did during the 5 mile run. Crazy!

Now that we’ve covered today, let’s back up to the weekend… the Hubs and I had a pretty eventful weekend. We went out for dinner Friday night to a local bar and grill, Brother’s. We went there a few weeks ago and the Hubs loved it, so we went back again. This time, we started with some chips and salsa and then I went with the Southwest Salad (hold the cheese, tomatoes, and tortilla strips… dressing on side) to kinda even out the chips and salsa.

It was meh. Had there been some avocado, it would’ve been 10 times better.

After dinner we grocery shopped, picked up a RedBox (Gone with Amanda Seyfeid), got FroYo (duh) and then spent a quiet night in watching our movie (meh… not very good… save your money). I called it a night around 11… super “late” for me!

I got up crazy early (for a Saturday) to get my long run in. We were going to a wedding in Indianapolis Saturday and I knew we needed to leave by 9:30, so I had to get my run in and shower and be out the door by then. So, a 5:55am alarm on a Saturday morning it was. UGH! But, I knew I could nap in the car, so that helped my mental state as I pulled myself outta bed.

10 miles was on the plan. I did 11 (1:47:11, average pace: 9:44) .

The Hubs has actually started getting in the habit of asking me how many miles I was “supposed” to run after I tell him how many I actually did. Whatever. I’m an over achiever. I can’t help myself.

The run was hot and sunny. I felt pretty good the whole time, though. Had I had more time, I would’ve gotten a few more miles in.


After the run I treated myself to a skinny iced vanilla late. SO good. Worth all $2329384 dollars these crazy fancy coffee drinks get.

We got to Matt’s cousins house, who we were staying with for the night, just outside Indianapolis in just enough time to change, freshen up, and hit the road for the wedding.

Gorgeous wedding at a church in Indy. The mass started at 2:30 and ended about 3:45pm. The cocktail hour was about 15 minutes away, but didn’t start til 5 so we had some time to kill. I knew right away what I wanted to do.

Another skinny iced vanilla late and a Trader Joe’s trip. Perfect way to blow an hour.  

The reception was at a really swanky old renovated cathedral in downtown Indy.  It was really nice, the bride and groom (the groom was the Hubs freshmen year college roommate and HS/grade school friend) were gorgeous, and everyone had a great time. We drank, dined, and danced til about 9:30pm when I just couldn’t stay awake any longer and called it a night.

We left Matt’s cousin Sunday morning after getting breakfast (stay tuned to this week’s WIAW!). We got back home around lunch and then just had a lazy night in. Several episodes of Snapped on Oxygen, some reading, a whole lot of just lounging arund, made dinner, and watched another RedBox (don't even remember the name... had Mark Wahlberg... not a great movie... you're not missing out on anything. Except a hot Mark Wahlberg. That's it. I promise.). I love lazy Sunday afternoon’s, so it was a great end to the weekend to me!