The dogs did not get their pre-breakfast walk this morning. We all were too hungry to do it so we'll plan on doing something later after it cools down. Instead I had my coffee and oatmeal. Love! My oatmeal this morning was coach's oats (from Costco) with chia seeds, raisins, some chopped almonds, banana and some peanut butter. So good. I get all these great ideas from reading other fitness and food blogs online. So incredible the amount of information you can find and the awesome food ideas. I could spend a whole day reading them :) It gets a little overwhelming though... I feel like there are so many foods I should be trying and different products to incorporate into my diet but if I try to incorporate all of them I'd be eating A LOT. So anyways, I've just been experimenting a little bit and plan to try some protein powders in the near future and generally just picking and choosing what works for me / us.
I did make these AWESOME blueberry crumb bars the other day that I found on this site: http://canyoustayfordinner.com/2010/06/19/blueberry-crumb-bars/ Its a great blog and she has some really yummy looking baked goods I want to try making. On a side note I just did a spinning class at noon which I think just about blew out my ear drums. Why do they have to have the music so loud...really... I'm not out clubbing. Am I getting old? Anyways, I then came home and made an ugly but tasty omelet. It had leftover yellow squash we grilled the other night, black beans, garlic, cheese, LOTS of homemade salsa all wrapped in 1 egg + ~ 1/2 c egg whites. I say ugly because apparently my skills at getting an omelet out of a pan onto the plate are quite lacking. When I tried to dump it out it unfolded and kind of just became a lump of stuff but it was still good!
Now I'm looking forward to dinner. Yes, I literally just finished lunch and am already planning ahead. We all have to have goals don't we! Actually I'm thinking of having something sweet(ish) so maybe some strawberries. I know for dinner we're having grilled shark wraps. We've got this ezekiel wrap and inside it'll be shark and something else. Dave mentioned homemade coleslaw but I need to look up a recipe.
So many things to do and oh yeah.. I'm working too ;)
The other day I listed my 2010 goal list I found buried in my bedside table. It contained 14 goals. Maybe I'll comment on goal #1 today and see how its going. So # 1 was "Eat more veggies as snacks". So I think I could definitely ramp this up a little bit or I might scrap this as a goal. We do eat a decent amount of veggies in our meals and it seems like more than we used to eat so I think we're improving. As far as snacking on veggies I think I was being a little overzealous on this one. I don't really 'snack' on veggies and can't really think of veggies I want to snack on but you know I can always try. I just doubt I'll be having a bowl of broccoli in front of the TV next time I watch one of my completely non-educational reality shows!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Morning workouts - bittersweet
I am not a morning person..however I'm not sure I'm really a night person either. I guess that makes me more of a midday person. Its not that I'm grumpy in the morning, actually once I get up and get on my way I'd say I'm quite pleasant :) I just really enjoy not having to get out of bed super early and more than that I love starting my morning with coffee and breakfast. Breakfast is my most favorite meal of the day... I'm not sure why exactly but I just really like it. As boring as it sounds I love oatmeal in the morning as long as its plain oatmeal that I can doctor up in my own way. Its a morning ritual I relish and really want to take my time with. In my mind working out in the morning often interferes with this morning ritual of coffee and oatmeal. If I want to eat it ahead of time I need to get up early enough to make it and eat it and let it "settle" before I start running which could take a while since oatmeal is a pretty filling meal I'd prefer not to take off on a jog right after I set the bowl down. Now, eating it after my run is an option but this also means I need to get up early enough to run and then get home in time to have breakfast while its still breakfast time. Also, if I run before I eat my breakfast I still need a snack before I run. I'm not a big fan of running on an empty stomach and need to at least put something in there. Usually this is some kind of bar and I try to keep it around 200 calories or else its like a whole meal in itself and then I'm having 2 breakfasts and I wouldn't say my workouts are so tough that they warrant 2 breakfasts.
This morning was a morning run day. I always have such grand ideas at night as I'm going to bed like; "Tomorrow morning I'll get up and go to the 5:45 AM spin class" or "I'll get up when Dave gets home at 6:30 and head out for a run". These things rarely happen and just leave me feeling like a failure. But this morning I actually followed through - although reluctantly and perhaps about 30 minutes later than I had originally planned; I still go out the door. I knew I wanted to run and since yesterday was a total rest day I figured I'd try to put in some good miles. So I wanted to do 8 miles. I had a meeting on my calendar for 10am which I needed to be at home and on the phone for. So this means I needed to leave myself about 1.5 hours to do the run and leave enough time to actually cool off for a second before I sat at my desk. When I went to bed I was thinking that I'd go running at 7:30 so I could be back in time for pre-meeting breakfast and prep. My alarm went off somewhere around 7:15 I think and I kept snoozing it and was semi-awake and again (like I always do for morning workouts) trying to talk myself out of it. Maybe I'll go this afternoon.. or maybe I'll just go to the gym later. Why is it SO hard to get out of bed to do a morning run when I know afterwards I'll feel great and so glad I got it over with. I love getting the workout done in the morning because later in the day it almost feels like cheating...like I never worked out. Somehow I convinced myself to go. I finally got moving closer to 8 and felt slow and heavy for the first mile and then settled in a bit. I had to do some more mind games when it was getting close to the 1/2 way point because I wanted to turn around early but I stuck it out and glad I did. For some reason as soon as I turn around on an out and back I feel much better :) By mile 7 I was surprised how good I felt. So I finished it out with an average pace of 9min/mile which felt good. So glad I got it done but I KNOW I'll have to do the same convincing next time I plan to get out of bed early!
Tomorrow I'm planning on walking the dogs before breakfast :)... we'll see!
This morning was a morning run day. I always have such grand ideas at night as I'm going to bed like; "Tomorrow morning I'll get up and go to the 5:45 AM spin class" or "I'll get up when Dave gets home at 6:30 and head out for a run". These things rarely happen and just leave me feeling like a failure. But this morning I actually followed through - although reluctantly and perhaps about 30 minutes later than I had originally planned; I still go out the door. I knew I wanted to run and since yesterday was a total rest day I figured I'd try to put in some good miles. So I wanted to do 8 miles. I had a meeting on my calendar for 10am which I needed to be at home and on the phone for. So this means I needed to leave myself about 1.5 hours to do the run and leave enough time to actually cool off for a second before I sat at my desk. When I went to bed I was thinking that I'd go running at 7:30 so I could be back in time for pre-meeting breakfast and prep. My alarm went off somewhere around 7:15 I think and I kept snoozing it and was semi-awake and again (like I always do for morning workouts) trying to talk myself out of it. Maybe I'll go this afternoon.. or maybe I'll just go to the gym later. Why is it SO hard to get out of bed to do a morning run when I know afterwards I'll feel great and so glad I got it over with. I love getting the workout done in the morning because later in the day it almost feels like cheating...like I never worked out. Somehow I convinced myself to go. I finally got moving closer to 8 and felt slow and heavy for the first mile and then settled in a bit. I had to do some more mind games when it was getting close to the 1/2 way point because I wanted to turn around early but I stuck it out and glad I did. For some reason as soon as I turn around on an out and back I feel much better :) By mile 7 I was surprised how good I felt. So I finished it out with an average pace of 9min/mile which felt good. So glad I got it done but I KNOW I'll have to do the same convincing next time I plan to get out of bed early!
Tomorrow I'm planning on walking the dogs before breakfast :)... we'll see!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Where to start
Well my last post was quite some time ago. Its already the 4th week in June. Really, I had planned to start blogging more often and then look what happened. You know what I think it really is is a few things. First, I have a lot of ideas of where to go with this blog. Should I talk about what / how we eat. Should I blog about our workouts and my struggles to become an "athlete". I could blog when we do trips. I could blog about random thoughts I have day to day... or my job. So many ideas that seem all over the place so why don't I just start blogging what comes up and then maybe I'll hone it into a genre..or maybe not. Also, I think it freaks me out a little bit that people could actually read it and for those days where I decide to blog on what I'm thinking; could actually know what I'm thinking :) Also, I'm not exactly the most interested in my job so I think I'm a little afraid of putting it on paper because I'm afraid of what it might sound like out loud. I really do appreciate the face that I have a job. I think I just need to cultivate the passion in it!. I guess we'll see where it all goes!!
So to start. I just found this notebook in my side table that I used to record what I ate in. It stopped in 2008 I notice. 4/19/08 to be exact and the very last thing I wrote that I ate was Peeps :) Yes people, I love Peeps. I realize they aren't "whole" foods and are terribly sugar laden...but the devil lives inside me as a sweet tooth. Oh yeah, I love cotton candy too! Anyways, I try to only eat Peeps seasonally which used to mean I only had them around Easter.. now Peeps has gone and sucked me into many other holidays. I can now get them at Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's day for sure so I might have a problem on my hands. Back to where I started. So this notebook was once used for journaling my food choices which I am wondering if I should start doing again. It might be interesting to see what I'm eating and how it affects my workouts and hunger etc. Also, "they" say that keeping a food diary helps keep you on track with your eating. It is interesting to note that I weighed about the same back in 2007/2008 as I do now. I guess that is a good thing but it means that I've been talking since then about losing those last 5-10 lbs. Makes me wonder if I really mean it....more on that some other post.
In this same journal at the end I found a 2010 Goals list that I believe I penned right before I went to bed one night. I have no idea what night or how far into 2010 it was because I didn't date it. I can only imagine it came after catching a late night Oprah show where she tells me to find my authentic self :) So, here was my 2010 goals list:
1. Eat more veggies as snacks
2. Eat less sugar
3. Do more yoga. Strive for @ least 1 session in Rancho and 1 in Carlsbad
4. Add additional strength training to workouts
5. Ramp up the cardio / workouts in general....no more excuses, yes you can do it!!!
6. Do more adventurous things with Dave; maybe an international trip in the next few years
7. Spend more time with my sisters and girlfriends; plan better and make trips
8. Cook more dinners
9. Use local fresh ingredients more often
10. Pick an area of life or home to "green" and do it.
11. Explore hobbies / careers / passions; find your drive!
12. Journal or write 1x/week at least.
13. Organize something...nail down an idea and do it - pictures, organize frames, albums, display!.. or kitchen or linen cabinets... or office/game closet
14. You have so many things you think you "should" do or should be better at. What really speaks to you and it could be a few things
* learn something new
* bike
* paddleboard
* pilates certification
* cooking/baking
* learn a language
* learn piano
15. there was a number 15 but it was blank... guess I got distracted
So, there it is folks. Clearly after reading #14 my hunch about Oprah was right. I don't think I'd speak to myself in those words otherwise... why on earth am I speaking to myself anyways? 14 goals for 2010. Not sure if that is high or not but since I just dug this out and its already June I think I'm a little behind. In all fairness I actually have done a lot of these or attempted to focus on them a little bit. Perhaps over the next few posts I'll break down what I've done on each of them. Or maybe I'll just put the blogging on my to do list as #15... could be a while!
So to start. I just found this notebook in my side table that I used to record what I ate in. It stopped in 2008 I notice. 4/19/08 to be exact and the very last thing I wrote that I ate was Peeps :) Yes people, I love Peeps. I realize they aren't "whole" foods and are terribly sugar laden...but the devil lives inside me as a sweet tooth. Oh yeah, I love cotton candy too! Anyways, I try to only eat Peeps seasonally which used to mean I only had them around Easter.. now Peeps has gone and sucked me into many other holidays. I can now get them at Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's day for sure so I might have a problem on my hands. Back to where I started. So this notebook was once used for journaling my food choices which I am wondering if I should start doing again. It might be interesting to see what I'm eating and how it affects my workouts and hunger etc. Also, "they" say that keeping a food diary helps keep you on track with your eating. It is interesting to note that I weighed about the same back in 2007/2008 as I do now. I guess that is a good thing but it means that I've been talking since then about losing those last 5-10 lbs. Makes me wonder if I really mean it....more on that some other post.
In this same journal at the end I found a 2010 Goals list that I believe I penned right before I went to bed one night. I have no idea what night or how far into 2010 it was because I didn't date it. I can only imagine it came after catching a late night Oprah show where she tells me to find my authentic self :) So, here was my 2010 goals list:
1. Eat more veggies as snacks
2. Eat less sugar
3. Do more yoga. Strive for @ least 1 session in Rancho and 1 in Carlsbad
4. Add additional strength training to workouts
5. Ramp up the cardio / workouts in general....no more excuses, yes you can do it!!!
6. Do more adventurous things with Dave; maybe an international trip in the next few years
7. Spend more time with my sisters and girlfriends; plan better and make trips
8. Cook more dinners
9. Use local fresh ingredients more often
10. Pick an area of life or home to "green" and do it.
11. Explore hobbies / careers / passions; find your drive!
12. Journal or write 1x/week at least.
13. Organize something...nail down an idea and do it - pictures, organize frames, albums, display!.. or kitchen or linen cabinets... or office/game closet
14. You have so many things you think you "should" do or should be better at. What really speaks to you and it could be a few things
* learn something new
* bike
* paddleboard
* pilates certification
* cooking/baking
* learn a language
* learn piano
15. there was a number 15 but it was blank... guess I got distracted
So, there it is folks. Clearly after reading #14 my hunch about Oprah was right. I don't think I'd speak to myself in those words otherwise... why on earth am I speaking to myself anyways? 14 goals for 2010. Not sure if that is high or not but since I just dug this out and its already June I think I'm a little behind. In all fairness I actually have done a lot of these or attempted to focus on them a little bit. Perhaps over the next few posts I'll break down what I've done on each of them. Or maybe I'll just put the blogging on my to do list as #15... could be a while!
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