3 for 1

No it’s not a deal or anything, but I’m going to try to recap the past three days into one post! Like I said in the previous post, I got some new things at the Farmer’s Market. I’m sure most of these foods are normal staples for you, but for someone who is just now venturing out into the health food world, they’re new for me! Most of my lunches have been boring and consisting of turkey sandwiches, ezekiel bread, spicy mustard and lettuce, but I will tell you about a few exciting highlights!

For the past two days, I’ve had my new FAVORITE breakfast. I comine 1 Chobani Pomegranate flavored Greek Yogurt, some Puffins, Muesli, banana sliced, almond butter and chia seeds! It’s the BEST. If you haven’t tried it, you must. I think what makes it is the pomegranate flavor yogurt that I finally found at the Farmers Market this weekend. I wish I had bought more! I’m in love! Another new addition to my breakfast is the chia seeds. I couldn’t even tell they were there and they pack a pretty good nutritional punch!

For dinner the past two nights, I made some angle hair pasta with organic marinara sauce. I also roasted tomatoes, onions, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, zucchini, and squash with a little evoo and spices. I kept the squash separate but poured the rest of the veggies on top of my pasta. It was SO good! I only had one serving per dinner of pasta, but boy was I stuffed both nights! I’m still on the fence about the squash. I can’t decide if I like the texture or not. Not worries, I’ve only eaten about an 1/8th of it, so I have plenty more to try!

Angel Hair Pasta and Roasted Squash

Kiwis, kiwis, Kiwis, another ‘new’ item I’m in LOVE with! I’m still mad at my mom for depriving me of these as a kid. They taste like candy and I’m convinced if I had been exposed to them sooner, I would have eaten more fruit. I would eat one everyday if I could, but I only bought 3 for the week, so I’m trying to ration. I only have one more left .

Workout Updates: Monday I took a day of Rest because my shins were hurting and I was worried about getting shin splints which I’ve had before. I iced and rested. Tuesday, I did another 5 mile run on the treadmill while watching Racheal Ray and Paula Deen on the food network….yes, I’m that fat girl at heart drooling over food while i’m working out! I’m hoping to get a 3 miler in today and some strength training as well.

Slacker is my middle name

So….as you can see, i haven’t been too great at keeping up with the blog that I recently started. Though, I haven’t been slacking on reading everyone else’s! It really does inspire me after reading about what other people are doing and eating. My camera battery is dead which is also another reason for my absence. But, I will try harder. I think also I’ve been going back and forth trying to decide what the purpose of this blog will be and what I am trying to get out of it. I also get a little intimidated after reading others because I am not a writer or even good at it for that matter. Anyway, here’s a recap of some the past few days, because they have been exciting (for me anyway) on food choices and trying new things. Let me also say that I don’t eat seafood and I guess you could call me a “sheltered” or inexperienced eater, or so I have come to recently find out.

Saturday: I ate at RuSan’s with a friend. Now, I don’t eat sushi or seafood like I said, so this took a lot of talking into. I ended up trying raw tuna, salmon and few other rolls. I also had some snap peas, fried rice, noodles, and few pieces of chicken……oh and maybe an eclair . The funniest part was I thought all this time that the pickled ginger was some type of fish! Though I didn’t dislike any of the foods I tried, I’m not sure that I would ever eat them again. I just wasn’t into the texture or the thought of what I was eating. I ate a few snacks during the day and then went for another 5 mile run. I wasn’t really hungry for dinner, so I had some mango sorbet with frozen bananas and then went out with some friends to an irish pub.

Sunday: Millet Bread, almond butter, and a sliced banana for breakfast. Lunch was my mom’s chicken salad on thin white bread. The weather was gorgeous this weekend! It was in the 60′s! Sunday, I set out to try to run for even longer (I recently just started running 5 miles). I went to Piedmont park and ran around the Oval Track for 1.5 hours and made 8 miles….yes 8 miles! I can hardly believe it myself! My shins were hurting and I was out of water, but I wanted to go further. After my run, I headed to the farmer’s market for my weekly shopping trip.

Here’s a few things I got:

Kobachu squash

Zuchinni

Chia Seeds

Angel Hair Pasta

Organic Tomato Sauce

Boar’s Head sliced turkey 1/2 lb

Take and Go Spinach pizza

Chocolate bar

2 Sweet Potatoes

Tomatoes, Onions, other veggies

3 Kiwis

Pomegranate Chobani

Bananas

Hot Sauce

Pepperjack Cheese

Flatbreads

I think that’s most of it! All together, I only spent $48.00 and got tons! I mean tons! of food. $8 of that was the pizza my roommate and I devoured when we got home.

TGIF

So here goes the list in my lunchbox today:

Overnight Oats with 1/2 rolled and 1/2 steel cut, almond butter, banana, and cinnamon

Clementine

Some dried fruit pieces

Canteloupe

Turkey Sandwich on Ezekiel bread, spicy mustard, pepperjack, and turkey

Luna Bar- Cranberry Nut Flavored

I got low intensity workout in during lunch of 30 mins. walking on a 13.0 incline and then some abwork, push ups and weights because I knew I wouldn’t have any time to get one in tonight.

After work I’m meeting some friends for a happy hour and then we’re headed back to my place for some appetizers before a night out on the town. I still have a whole bag of red potatoes from the farmer’s market that I need to dispose of before I eat them! So, I am going to make potato skins /twice baked potatoes out of them. The recipe looks pretty simple and I did most of the preparation work last night. I’m also having some spinach artichoke dip, corn salsa and maybe some cut up cheese and grapes. Dinner will probably be snacking on these somewhat healthy appetizers and maybe a greek yogurt if there’s time.

I’m so ready for the weekend to be here! Only a few more hours of work.

I finally feel like a runner!

On the way home from work I stopped at the store to get a few things including something for dinner. I opted for an Amy’s spinach pizza pocket. I had never tried Amy’s brand and it looked like it had a lot of protein comparatively, but I was determined to get some running in. I was going to do my usual routine of 30 mins, but I decided to change it up a bit and did some interval running with 8.5 mins of running and 1.5 mins of walking (sometimes for a little longer). When I got home, I changed right into my workout clothes and hit our apartment gym. During my step aerobics class today, I was dragging, but I ended up running 5 miles! Never in my life have I run 5 miles. Boy was I tired, but I felt like I could actually have ran longer and that was after an intense step class in the same day. I finally feel like a real runner now! I’m more determined than ever to keep my mileage up and continue, maybe I’ll even try 6 miles next time! For dinner I had the pizza pocket and a greek salad to go along.

Amy's Pizza Pocket

I also had a few spoonfuls of my mango sorbet and some chocolate I got at Kroger today.

What’s in a Name

So let me backtrack a little to the beginning where the naming of this blog came about. My whole purpose is to become a healthier, better me through a healthy lifestyle and everything that encompasses; eating, living, cooking, etc. I am trying to change the way I look at food so that everything that I put in my mouth has a purpose whether that’s for energy, vitamins, protein, or to jump start my metabolism. I want to view food as fuel for my body instead of something of I simply eat three times a day because that is what society has said to do. This blog is to help me stay accountable and to put an end to emotional eating or eating out of boredom instead of hunger. Yes, I will have my downfalls, but atleast I will be able to look back on what led to those and hopefully move past them. Speaking of fuel, I’m feeling on E, I think I’ll eat my banana!

In my lunchbox:

Today I’ve packed:

Overnight Oats: Last night I tried the steel cut oats again, this time, I added 1/2 steel cut and 1/2 rolled to have a mix. I also stirred in my almond butter and cinnamon while I let it cook. This morning I got it out and added 1/4 cup of almond milk and a little more almond butter to take to work. I reheated it when I got here. I also packed a banana which I forgot to cut up in my oats .

Clementine

Chedder Sesame Sticks (which I’m snacking on now)

TJ’s chocolate

1/3 Luna Bar- PB flavored to eat before my lunch workout

Turkey Sandwich

Grapes

Workouts Planned:

Step Aerobics during lunch

Running or Elliptical this evening

Weights and Abwork

Hopefully I’ll stick to this!

Creature of Habit

I have come to realize that I am a creature of habit and usually do/eat the same things repeatedly until a) I run out of them or b) I get tired of them. Wednesday was one of those days where I felt my food was just stuck on ‘repeat.’ For breakfast, I did change it up and had one of my favorites! Trader Joe’s Mango Flavored Greek Yogurt, one banana sliced, some Puffins, a little bit of almond butter and some Muesli. Before my lunch workout I snacked on a Powerbar that was Berry Smoothie Flavored. This was the first time I had tried that bar, but it will not be something that I will buy again. It just tasted processed and ‘fake.’ For my workout I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill, running for 8.5 mins and then walking for 1.5 minutes. I usually don’t do this, but it is something I’m going to try for awhile, taking small breaks to see if I can start running longer distances. I’ve never been a runner but I’m working on it! I also did a some lunges with a 5lb weight before I had to get back to work. I was starving once I got back to my desk, so I had my lunch of the week, turkey sandwich on Ezekiel bread with spicy mustard, lettuce, and pepperjack cheese. I also had some hummus and carrots. Later during the day I think some trader joe’s dark chocolate came out, an apple, and some grapes.

When I got home from work, I put my workout clothes back on and headed back out to the gym.  I did 30 mins. on the Elliptical machine, and then ran another mile on the treadmill. I got home and popped in the 30 min. Shred DVD and got through the first 6 mins. and just wasn’t feeling it. I decided to go ahead and make my dinner, which again was a repeat of a greek salad and later had the leftover corn from Tuesday night. I also may or may not have had a few more bites of chocolate. Then, I sat and watched the Olympics for awhile and got my lunch packed. Before bed, I did some abwork on my exercise ball and called it a day.

Sorry I don’t have many pictures from today’s food since the majority of it was repeats. I’ll try to become more adventurous! and better with taking pictures!