Weekend Update: No Green Beer for Me!

The weather was simply gorgeous this weekend with highs in the 70’s both Saturday and Sunday.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a long run.  We took the kids to my favorite park.  Hubby let them play on the playground while I ran.

I had to keep reminding myself that I am running a Half Marathon in 3 weeks!!!  So far, this run was my longest to date: 6.5 miles.  I guess I’m not too worried because I also did the same thing last year.  I focused on more anaerobic training rather than long runs and I got a PR!  So I figure now, if I can run 6.5, I can 13.1.  Right?

But I’ve got a small dilemma in the shoe department.  These Asics are fairly new (since Christmas).  I like them ok, but after about 4 miles, my feet start to hurt.  And they rubbed a huge blister on my toe.  So that’s not going to work for the marathon.  But I’m afraid if I buy a new pair now, I’m not going to have time to break them in before the race.  Or I could wear an old pair with a hole in the toe.  EEK – what would you do???

I was so excited to try out my brand new heart rate monitor!!  I ordered the Polar FT4 after seeing more than a couple of bloggers using this one.  I had a Timex brand, but the chest strap would never consistently pick up my heart rate.  So this was my first run using the Polar.  I’m converted.  This one is WAY better.  There was still a period of time (about a mile or so) where it didn’t detect my heart beat.  I readjusted the strap, wiped off the sweat, and a few minutes later it started working again.  I love how it displays the time and the calories burned at the end.  And it also keeps a training log so I can go back and look at my workouts.  Now that’s pretty cool!

When the run was over, hubby and the kids met me in the parking lot with Subway in hand.  We found a nice spot in the grass to lay our blanket and devour eat our sandwiches.  I was starving!!!

This month’s featured $5 footlong sub is the buffalo chicken!  One of my favorites.  Hubby and I always split a foot long.  The kids are hit or miss whether they will eat Subway or not.  Luke likes the bacon, egg & cheese on flatbread.

Not my favorite pic here but the only one we got of me and the kids.  Ignore the red face and dried sweat….  and little bit has jelly all over her face.

My 7-year old spent the night with a buddy, so hubby and I enjoyed a semi-quiet house on Saturday night.  He grilled us some salmon while I opened a bottle of wine.  Aaahhhh……  relaxing!

Sunday was a busy day.  So busy, in fact, I never took a single picture!  I am happy to report that I finished my Anatomy & Physiology class.  I got a 95!!  Yippeeee!

So that was my Marvelous weekend.  No green beer.  No St. Patty’s Day celebrations.  Nothing too wild.  Just food, fitness and fun.  (and a little studying)!  🙂

I’m hoping for more days just like that.  I need the warm air and the sun for my mental health!!  Winter is so depressing.

What I Ate Wednesday: 3/13/13

Wednesday.  My favorite day of the week.  Why?  You get to see what I ate today.  🙂

I know some people use the WIAW post to share pictures of the food they’ve eaten this week or over the weekend.  But I take the ‘What I Ate Wednesday’ title very seriously.  This is literally what I ate on Wednesday ….  Most of this was posted on Instagram (katiedaisy921), so if you follow me, you’ve probably already seen all these pictures …..

So today was Day 2 of the Fitfluential Diet Bet.  And I am very motivated to keep it up right now.  So I started the day with one of my famous Kale Protein Shakes.  These are seriously my favorite breakfast.  High in protein, high in vitamins, and very filling.  YUM!

I sipped on it in the car.   Thankgoodness for heated seats or I’d be an icicle by the time I got to work drinking that frozen shake.

Despite the cold temperatures, it was a beautiful morning.

We took a client out for lunch today.  This particular client works in an area where there aren’t a lot of restauarant options.  Since it’s standard practice to ask the client where they would like to eat, I have to just go along with the decision.  The client chose O’Charley’s, which is probably one of my least favorite restaurants.

I immediately jumped on the internet to check out the nutritional data.

Good thing I did, too.  The salad I would have ordered, the Chicken Apple Spinach Salad, had over 1,000 calories and 71 carbs!!  Yikes!  So instead I got the California Chicken Salad, a half order with the dressing on the side.

And you know what?  It was actually really good.  I would order that again.  Now, I don’t mean I am going to drive to O’Charley’s just to get that salad.  But if someone forces me to eat there again, I know which salad I’m getting!

I was really craving a sweet snack this afternoon.  Thankfully, I had this Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar in my desk.

No, I didn’t eat the whole bar.  I had one little square, I swear.

I really wanted to get a long run in this afternoon.  But today was the one day of the week when the temperatures dipped down in the 40’s (while the rest of the week was supposed to be in the 60’s).  So I opted for an inside workout today, so I can save my run for a warmer day.

Max Interval Circuit was the video I chose for today.  I think I sweated more in just the warm up than I would have if I’d gone running!!  Insanity is no joke!  That’s tuff stuff.  But I loved it!!

After the workout, it was time for some dinner.  I was starving!!

Usually, I will make tacos on Tuesday night (just because I love alliteration and ‘Taco Tuesday’ has such a nice ring to it.)  🙂

But we didn’t do the tacos on Tuesday and my kids were asking for them.  So I turned my taco into a salad.

This was so quick and easy ….  the time it took to make was just the time necessary to brown the ground chicken.

Here’s the ‘before’….

And the ‘after’ ….  with ranch dressing and sriracha squeezed on top.

And here are my kids eating their double decker tacos.  I swear, neither one of them can keep their shirts on.  LOL

Well, there you have it …. Wednesday’s eats. I also managed to drink about 60 oz of water today. I was shooting for around 80 oz, but didn’t quite make it. I am proud that I didn’t have any snacks after dinner. I had gotten in a bad habit of spreading some Trader Joe’s cookie butter on a graham cracker (or two) before bed. But since we started the Diet Bet, I’m going cold turkey on the cookie butter!!

Questions of the Day: What did you eat on Wednesday?? Have you tried Insanity? And what is your favorite bedtime snack??

Mid-Week Motivation: 3/13/13

Happy Hump Day everyone!!

I had a really hard time getting up this morning.  I don’t think my body has adjusted to the time change yet.  Anyone else struggling with getting up?  Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE the daylight savings time change.  I am so grateful to get that extra few hours of sun in the evening!!  I just have a hard time waking up.

While sipping my coffee this morning, I was perusing Pinterest looking for some motivation.  I ran across these quotes and thought they were rather inspiring, so I thought I would share them with you ….

Just in case you needed a little boost like I did.  🙂

Have a great Wednesday!!  What is it that you will do today to help you get closer to your goals??  Me?  I’m going for a long run tonight.  🙂

What I Ate Wednesday: 3/6/13

Well, hello there.  How have you been??  I know, long time no blog.It’s been over a week since I even logged into WordPress.  I guess you could say I took a little holiday from social media.  Not intentionally, of course.  Life just got in the way. I wish I could tell you I was on a real vacation, but sadly, I wasn’t.  I wish I could tell you that I was purposefully taking some me-time.  Nope, just busy.

But what better day to make a come back if not on Wednesday????  Thanks of course to Jenn at Peas and Crayons for hosting the linkup!! So let’s get this party started!  First of all, let me say that I am not a workout-in-the-morning kind of person.  I am a sit-with-my-coffee-and-blog kind of person.  But yesterday, I got up early to get on the treadmill before my shower!  30 minutes of incline intervals.  After the treadmill, I jumped off and did 50 squats, 50 lunges, 25 push ups, and 25 overhead presses.  I was a sweaty mess by the time I got in the shower!

I didn’t take a picture of it, but my breakfast this morning was a protein shake.  I simply take a scoop of my cookies n’ cream whey protein powder, add a tablespoon of PB2, the rest of my cooled-off mug of coffee, top with water, then shake.  Yummy!! It had also snowed overnight.  Not much, but enough to delay school for an hour.

It also delayed me getting to work.As you can see from the tracks, I attempted multiple times to leave my driveway but it just wasn’t happening.  I would drive up, slide back down, drive up, slide back down.  The hill doesn’t look like much in the picture, but it definitely gets steeper closer to the road. So, funny story ….  I had a meeting at 10am at a client’s office very close to my house.  But my presentations were still sitting on my desk.  I texted my boss and asked him if he could grab the presentations and meet me out at the client’s office.  I even sent him this picture of my driveway to prove I wasn’t making this up.  Well, 30 minutes go by and I don’t hear from him.  At 9 o’clock I text him again.  Nothing.  So hubby tries to make it out of the driveway in my car.  He did it on the first try.  Whatever.  I made the path for him.  Anways, it takes me 20 minutes to get to work.  I walk in the door just at the moment we need to leave for the client’s office, and I notice he is not there.  So I call him on his cell phone, asking him what the plan was.  He said he would meet me there.  Fine.  But then I asked him if he got my text messages.  He said he had just woken up.  It was 9:30am!!!!!   Seriously??  So it’s a very good thing that I did drive all the way to work (only to drive right back to a place a few miles from my house), because otherwise no one would have had the presentations.

 

By the time the meeting was over and I was back at my desk, it was 1pm and I was starving!!!!  I brought a salad from home.  It doesn’t look pretty. Perhaps it doesn’t travel well.  Or perhaps it doesn’t photograph well.  But it was delicious. Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, hard-boiled egg, cheese, jalapenos, sriracha and ranch.  With deer meat. Yes, I said deer meat.  Hubby is a hunter so we typically have a venison roast in the freezer.  We recently put it in the crock pot so I’ve been using the leftovers for salads and wraps.  So yummy!

For dinner, I was in the mood to cook.  But the only meat we had left in the fridge was ground beef.  So I made pizza meat loaf.  One of the kids’ favorites!!  (And possibly mine too).  With mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.

(And before you comment on her lack of clothes, she won’t keep them on.  But it works out well during meal times because they she doesn’t get food on her clothes)!

So there you have it.  What I ate Wednesday.  I may have left out a few little snacks here and there.  But for the most part, that was it.Tell me – what did you eat Wednesday???  And did you prepare it yourself or did you go out?

Weekend Recap: Snow and Putt-Putt

As I told you on Friday, I was planning for a fabulous, productive 4-day weekend.  My To Do List included lots of housework, studying, running and playing with the kids.

On Saturday, they were calling for snow flurries. I was surprised when it really started coming down!! The kids were thrilled!!

It wasn’t enough for snowballs or snowmen.  But they were some big fat flakes!!  And just as quickly as it started, it was gone.

On Sunday, hubby woke up with a stomach bug.  ;(

So he spent much of the day laying around, while I spent the day doing homework and studying.

It was still so cold outside.

Therefore, I kept the workout inside on both Saturday and Sunday.  45 minute interval with some incline, some speedwork, and some weights.

Thankfully, it warmed up on Monday because we were ready to get out of the house.

We’d promised my son at the beginning of the week that if he had an all-blue week we’d take him to play putt-putt.

It was actually his first time to putt-putt. He had so much fun.

She enjoyed just running around from hole to hole, watching everything that was going on.

Hubby and I had a little bet going to see who would win. I had an early lead but I lost it. I think I got too cocky.

Now I owe him a back rub!  😉

For dinner on Monday, I made us salads.  Can you guess which one is mine?!?  (Hint: I think I’m addicted to sriracha).

And, while I was at it, I went ahead and made my lunch for the next day too.  (Love it when I’m on the ball like that)!

That’s the weekend.  And then it was back to the grind on Tuesday.   But I’m happy to report that I got a lot done!  Including 100’s on my homework and my test.  YAY!

Friday Fun: Day Off

I took Friday off so hubby could go to a car show in Chattanooga.  It was already going to be a 3-day weekend with President’s Day on Monday.  But taking Friday gave me a 4-day weekend!!  Woo hoo!!

It was just me and the little girl all day.  It was fabulous.  Made me realize how much fun I would have if I could be a stay-at-home mom.  AND … how much I would get accomplished!

Not only did we have time to play, read books, work on our ABC’s and hang out together, but I also got 4 loads of laundry done, the fridge cleaned out,  the kitchen spotless and all the hardwoods swiffered.  I even had time to study while she was napping.  It was fabulous.  BEST. DAY. EVER!

my lunch

I also realized how well I would eat if I were home all day.  I made myself a wonderful lunch while drinking more than my fair share of water!!  (Detox water, at that!  Recipe to come soon.)

I picked up big brother and we all enjoyed some leftovers for dinner.

I enjoyed a leftover fajita from the other night.  It was still yummy!!

After I put them down for bed, I caught up on 2 old episodes of Revenge (on Netflix).  I’m still on Season One.  I have 2 episodes left.  Then I have to figure out how to catch up on Season 2.  Man, that is such a good show.  I’m totally obsessed.   I just happened to find this review of Revenge that cracked me up.  I totally agree with that list of 7 things.

And as much as I enjoyed my time alone with the kids, I am so glad to have hubby back home.  All is right with the world.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!!

Katie  🙂

 

Last Things Thursday: Valentines Edition

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!!  I did.  🙂

1. Last food you ate:

V-day dinner.  Grilled salmon with steamed green beans.  Delish!!!  Nothing says love like pink fish.  🙂

topped with sriracha, of course

2. Last beverage you drank

Oh my gosh, you guys!!  I found this wine with chocolate.  One tastes like chocolate covered cherries and the other is a drier wine with dark chocolate.  So yummy!  I’ve never seen it any other time of the year.  I should have stocked up!

And it went perfectly with the chocolate covered strawberries I made!!!

3. Last workout

I left work to run at my favorite trail.  It was a perfect 50 degrees out.  It was the best run I’ve had in a long time.  My legs felt great and I was faster than usual.  (Plus, I wanted to get home to enjoy the Vday dinner and dessert)!

Lakeshore trail

4. Last thing you pinned  (Pinterest= katiedaisy921)

Love this.  I usually use Froyo as Luke’s carrot.  “If you have a good week at school, we’ll get Froyo this weekend.”

5. Last text message you sent

To hubby to let him know I was done with my run and headed home.
6. Last blog you visited

I was reading Megan’s post about Valentines Day over at Food & Fitness.  I love her description of her lunch time run.  I have definitely been there with the quick changes and post-run red face.  🙂
7. Last place you visited

Asheville, NC.  Last weekend.  Post still to come.  🙂
8. Last show you watched

The Office.  After enjoying our salmon dinner, we caught up on the DVR.  We were 3 episodes behind.  They really should have put this show to bed a few seasons ago.  I’m just hanging on simply because I know it’s almost over.
9. Last thing you baked

It’s tradition in our house to bake a heart-shaped cake for Valentines Day.  I even found the picture from our first Valentines Day in 1995 where I made our first heart-shaped cake.  Which means we’ve celebrated 18 Valentines Days together.  Awwww…..

strawberry cake with strawberry icing

I also made Red Velvet Cake Balls for my son’s Valentines party at school….

 
10. Last photo you instagrammed  (Instagram = katiedaisy921)

Actually the last photo I instagrammed was the cake, the one before that was of the wine, and the one before that was my run.  So here is Thursday morning …. my son had a 7:15am teeth cleaning appointment.  We had to get out the door extra early today.

And finally, outfit of the day (#ootd).  Who doesn’t wear red on Valentines Day?  It’s like a rule, right?

So what did you do on Valentines day???  Did you wear red???

Last Things Thursday – 2/7/13

1. Last Food you Ate:

A big, fat juicy hamburger from a restaurant called Tripps.  I was starving by the time we sat down so any healthy options were out the window.

 

2. Last Beverage You Drank:

Water ….  right after a Fat Tire from the tap!!  🙂

3. Last Workout:

Treadmill time this morning.  Quick intervals with squats/ walking lunges/wall sits afterwards.

4. Last Thing You Pinned:  (Follow Me:  katiedaisy921)

A spinach crust pizza.  I am so intrigued.  We tried the cauliflower crust and it was good, but I love spinach so I can only imagine how much better this will be!

Source:  http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2012/12/spinach-crust-pizza.html

5. Last Text Message You Sent:

To my MIL checking on the kids.  They were having a good time at Gramma and Grampa’s house.

6. Last Blog You Visited:

Peas and Crayons for the Weekly Linkup of WIAW.

7. Last Place You Visited:

Besides a new restaurant named Tripps, I also visited the Wine Store today.  (I found these really cool chocolate red wines for Valentines Day).

8. Last Show You Watched:

‘The Biggest Loser’ while on the treadmill.  I’m still a couple of episodes behind, so don’t tell me who’s gone home the last couple of weeks.  🙂

9. Last Thing You Baked:

I’ve cooked since Sunday, but the last thing I baked had to be our fun appetizers we had on Super Bowl Sunday.

10. Last Photo You Instagrammed:   (Follow Me:  katiedaisy921)

Since I’ve already shared with you the last 2 photos I instagrammed in yesterday’s post, here is a photo I took today.  I meant to share it on Instagram, but never finished the post.  I think the fog looks so cool over the mountains.

Weekend Recap: Ice Storm and Warm Weather

We woke up to an ice storm on Friday morning.  The freezing rain produced icy conditions which prevented us from leaving the house.  Schools were closed and with my hill of a driveway, there was no way I could get to work  (Yay!!)

Doesn’t the 4Runner look mean with icicles hanging off it?

So we stayed in our pajamas most of the day!!  The kids had fun playing with play doh ….  (why does that stuff have to make such a MESS!?!)

While I made a crockpot of White Chicken Chili for dinner.

My recipe is adapted from a local restaurant.  But I apparently can’t ever leave an original recipe alone.  All my recipes look like this …  marked up.

And the end result ….  YUM!!!

I also took the day off as an opportunity to get in a really good treadmill workout while watching The Biggest Loser.

 

Hubby made me eggs for breakfast ….

Breakfast

The temperature rose quickly and melted all the ice so we were no longer stuck inside.  Which was great since we had plans to go out for my Aunt’s birthday.

We went to Aubrey’s, which is a great local restaurant.  In fact, the same people own Aubrey’s that own Sunspot, which is another one of my favorites.  So when I saw Salmon BLT on the menu, I sure hoped it was exactly like the one at Sunspot.  If you’ll remember, Hubby and I ate there on New Years Eve before our concert.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same.  While the salmon was tasty, I was disappointed in the bread.  If I pay $12 for a sandwich at a restaurant, I expect it to not be on the same bread I can buy at the grocery store.

But the sweet potato fries were really good.  (That’s something they don’t have at the Sunspot)!

The kids had fun, and we discovered how much my daughter LOVES honey mustard.  She was dipping fries in honey mustard and sucking it off.  LOL  She may as well have just drank it from the ramekin.

To celebrate my Aunt’s birthday, I made Magic Cookie Bars.

Nothing special about them, really.  I just went through a cookbook til I found a recipe with ingredients I had on hand.

Butter, graham crackers, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.  That’s all.  Nothing healthy about it.

My kids were so good to play together all weekend.  Makes for a happy Mommy!!  🙂

I’ll leave you with a picture of my lunch on Sunday.

Egg Wrap.  Kinda like an egg salad but without the mayo!  YUM!!

Sunday was a super lazy day.  But that’s how I like them!!

What a wonderful, unexpected 3-day weekend.  I could seriously get used to those!  Back to the grind on Monday.  😦

December Bulu Box Review and B.A.M.M. Winner

I realize I am REALLY late in reviewing this one.  But, better late than never, right???

This December box came in the middle of the holiday madness.  I think I was cleaning the house, getting ready for company to come over and shoved the “mail pile” in a closet to hide it.  Well, I forgot about it.  So a couple weeks later, it was like Christmas all over again.

Especially when I opened it up to find that I had won the monthly BAMM prize!!!!!  So exciting!!

So ….  what all do we have in here?

Sun Warrior Protein Mix – Vanilla flavor:  I really enjoyed this.  It’s smooth and creamy.  It’s plant-based and dairy free.

SafSlim Belly Fat Supplement:  The consistency is gel-like, but not as thick as Gu.  The berry cream fusion flavor was actually quite yummy.  If it works, I may need to buy more!  🙂

Herbal Papaya Tea:  This was the only thing I didn’t try.  The flavor I received was mint.  And I can tell you right now – I am not a fan of mint tea.  I know that’s weird.  But to me, I don’t want it to taste like I’m drinking tea and brushing my teeth at the same time.

Vitamin C Spray by Marzsprays:  It’s a megadose of Vitamin C that you spray directly in your mouth.  I was hesitant to try this, concerned about how it would taste.  But it’s actually good.  It leaves a nice after taste.  And who doesn’t need a little extra Vitamin C this time of year?!?

Vibrant Health Vibrant Cleanse:  It’s a powder that can make either a hot or cold drink.  I drank mine hot, though I would have also liked to have tried it cold.  I liked this.  I’ve always been wary of anything with a “detox” label.  But this tasted good.  I would buy more of this!

But of course, my favorite thing in the Box was my winning ticket!!!!

They shipped me the Breville Control Grip Immersion Blender right away.

I can’t wait to use it.  I’m thinking soup first.  The possibilities are endless.

Thank you, Bulu Box!!!

If you haven’t tried Bulu Box yet, it’s only $10 for a monthly subscription.  (Which includes shipping!!)  Why not check it out.