Master Mind

My fellow Americans… and everyone else who reads this blog… hehe. I’m feeling better, can you tell? I went to the back cracker today and he told me that I am doing well and don’t need to come back. Fantastic! My back has gone from painful to uncomfortable in a matter of days, thanks to my resting. Starting my workouts again next week looks promising.

For those of you who read this blog fairly consistently, you know that I often times am at war within my own mind over health and fitness. I go through spurts of avidly counting calories, to the point where it becomes obsession. Other times, I say to myself, You know what? I’m just going to let it go, be healthy, and enjoy life. But alas, I always find myself falling back into the food guilt trap.

With the wedding coming up, I’ve been especially obsessive, spastic, and emotional over my food intake. I understand this is not beneficial behavior, but still have a hard time removing myself from it. Then I get here to SA, where good food is everywhere and nutrition facts are listed in kilojoules, making it nearly impossible to count calories. The fare is succulent, it’s beautiful, it’s savory, it’s sweet—everything a food lover could dream of. But it’s also very hard to resist.

A combination of knowing that I am losing a week’s worth of working out coupled with being around some of the most amazing food I’ve ever tasted, I immediately started to worry about fitting into my dress and started planning twice-a-day boot camp routines for myself once I got better.

Then today, as I mulled over my future calorie-burning workouts, I thought, I’m doing all of this for what? I’m going to fit into my dress, bottom line. I’m not going to gain 10 lbs. in 4 weeks, or even 5 for that matter. And why should I be harder on myself and make myself miserable (and everyone around me) just a few weeks before what’s supposed to be one of the most wonderful days of my life. This process is about being happy and in love and celebration. Not deprivation, punishment, and irritability.

So I’m going to just keep doing what I’ve been doing: making sure I get exercise in 5 or 6 days a week and eating well.

Here are today’s attempts successes at doing so:

Grapefruit and cottage cheese with dried raisins, apples, and cherries.

Most gorgeous, blood-red grapefruit I've ever seen. Most juicy, sweet grapefruit I've ever eaten.

Smooth cottage cheese will forever be a substitute for cream cheese. New obsession.

This is so delish. And has 5 g of fiber, 5 g of protein. Yes please.

Rice cake with hummus and cukes, rice cake with cottage cheese and sliced tomatoes, celery with peanut butter, chopped carrot, and yumalicious figs.

Curried ground beef with brown rice and salad with avocado OTS.

My wedding day should be about joy and the pleasures of life, and I don’t want to be dreading the preparation. My worst fear is to spend all this time fretting over stupid stuff and not enjoy the actual day itself. I only get one shot at this.  I always say I want to enjoy life, live in the moment, and not sweat the small stuff. One can say they want to do those things all they want, but never actually do them. It’s all about training your thinking, which is something I need (and desperately want) to learn to do. But it’s a process, just like everything in this life. It has to become a habit, one that I am going to implement.

Something to think about:

“…You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you’re gonna to wear that day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on your mind.” –Eat, Pray, Love

Short and Sweet

Hiya Pals! Can we just talk about how expensive college is? It sucks. I know there is a great deal to be gained from taking pointless classes for 4 years, but come on. It's madness. And don't even get me started on the way they figure how much money you should get. I am fairly certain their calculator is screwed uuuuppp. Just sayin'. I spent several hours on the phone with the financial aid department finagling my way to a cheaper education. I did succeed, however trivially. 

I had to get in a nice workout since I knew Thursday would not be conducive for such things. Lucy and I ran 1.7 miles (the length of my hood) in 18 minutes, which isn't too shabby, considering I haven't actually RAN in about 2 weeks. Then I did my usual strength training thaaang.

In the midst of it all, I had some yummy eats.

Papaya, oats, and coconut milk. Don't forget the java.

Egg salad, pickle, and Snack Face's Cheetahs. They look more like Black Panthers.I forgot to take altitude into account.

Avo on toast with afternoon coffee. My daily dose of Glamour in the background.

Hamburger, sauerkraut, and cauliflower. Not too colorful, but oh so yummy.

 After dinner, I decided to make scones. Again. I am addicted. This time, I went for chocolate chip and almonds... and triangles.

Thursday's breakfast.

 Perfection. The recipe will be coming soon…

Thursday starts the last semester of my college career. I am beyond excited. I am so ready to be back into the groove of things, doing something worthwhile.  It’s gonna be a crazy day on Thursday. Class from 10-4, straight through. What fun. I will come back with a full report on the school day (and the scones).

Later peeps.

The Holidays Are Here!

On Monday, it hit me that it is the week before Christmas! YEAH! I am so excited. It also occurred to me that I had one more Christmas present to buy. Yikes. I know that the malls and stores are crazy right now, but I also knew that further delaying the shopping would lead to an even more painfully stressful experience.

I woke up with sore calves from this weekend’s jump roping, and decided against cardio. So, I piddled around, spoke to my lovey, and got ready to go out on the town. 

Then, being the wonderful daughter and sister that I am, I took my sister and my mama out for lunch at Panera. Yes, gluten-free people, Panera. When I went gluten-free, I assumed that Panera Bread was totally out-of-the-question. However, when it was suggested as a meal option, I was curious to find out. I read that nothing is "certified" gluten-free (obvs. It’s a bakery). But, there ARE several dishes with all gluten-free ingredients. Check it out

Note: If you are a severe Celiac, you probably shouldn’t try this out due to cross-contamination.

Hurrah! I celebrated this discovery by getting a Classic Café Salad.  

Cafe goodness.

Mons and I happy to be at our long, lost cafe.

Afterward, I made my way to America’s Friendliest Hometown to get my last present. Great success!

When I got home, my mama and I gave each other manicures. Productive activities. It made me realize how much pointless stuff I do every day. Geez.

At least my nails look awesome.

Since my nails were wet, and my mom’s weren’t, she was kind enough to make my dinner.

Low cal pastrami (this is not a joke) and sauerkraut sandwich with sauteed veggies

 Unfortunately, this lovely dinner was followed by this:

Food for baby dogs.

 I say unfortunately because munching a little bit of Puppy Chow equals munching on lots of calories. Oh well. ‘Tis the season for enjoyment, fa-la-la-la-la…la-la-la-la.

To work off some of those glorious calories, I did an upper body and ab workout.

It struck me that I will be battling minor weight gain this week. But I am completely ok with it. As long as I workout, do my thing, and don’t go overboard, then why should I worry?

 I know those extra pounds we rack up during the holidays make us feel a little bleh, and everyone wants to stay in tip-top shape. Some of us have weddings to attend, parties to go to, or just want to feel a little lighter. Well, there is a solution that the makers of Yoplait have come up with! It’s called the Two-Week Tune Up! It’s a custom diet plan designed especially for you by Yoplait!

For more information, visit Yoplait’s Two Week Tune Up.

I have been given the opportunity to try out this new plan after the holiday season has ended, thanks to Yoplait! I will track my progress here for you guys to see! I will share more information about it when the time gets closer!

Until then, I will just be enjoying myself in moderation, keeping up my workout routine, and having happy holidays. I hope you will too!

What are your holiday plans this year? How do you plan to stay fit and healthy over the next two weeks? Leave a comment!

Running for Time

When training for the 10K, we newbie runners focused mostly on distance and a little on time. When running for distance, equal parts time and distance training are needed. Personally, I do better with time than distance. Probably because I can set my own speed, or just because I have an I’ll-run-however-freakin’-far (or not-so-far)-I-want-to-run attitude. So when I found this program by Women’s Health, I jumped for joy. Ok not really, but I was excited.

This beginner program is an uber-slow progression toward being able to run for 30 solid minutes. None of it is based upon distance. It’s a combination of running and walking 4 times a week and body toning 2 days a week. The toning programs are there too! Talk about easy. It’s all there. (If you're feeling froggy, you can do the intermediate program to get to 60 minutes.)

I am on week three, day one. Today was 10 min walking, 10 min alternating 1 min walking, 1 min running, and then 10 more min walking. Easy squeezey lemon peezy. So, if you are like me and hate to be told how far you have to run, give this a try. I am loving it.

Women's Health Running Program