One High-Maintenance Latte Please

 

Today was my last official weekday of the “Back to School Wake-up Warm-up Week".”  I forget if we’ve chatted about this or not.  Well, if not, let me bring you up to speed.  Each August/September, one week before school begins, I start going to bed early and waking up progressively earlier.  I do this so that on the first week of school, I don’t wind up looking like this:

That would be bad for business.  So today was 6:30 am and… great success!  I should be perfectly ready come next Tuesday. 

In keeping with National Yoga Month (thanks for the idea, Jenny), I did my daily yoga.  Today was Morning Flow 1 from Yoga Download, obvs.  Morning flow sounds a little like “Aunt Flow” to me, but I ignored it and back-bended my little heart-center out. 

And now for today’s eats.

Breakfast:

Kiwi-strawberry green monster (inspired by the Snapple I drank at least once weekly as a teenager)

In the mix:

• organic baby spinach
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 small pieces of frozen naner
• 1/2 kiwi
• 5 strawberries
• 1 T almond butter
• 1 T Amazing Meal
• 1 T ground flax

Honestly, it wasn’t as wonderful as I imagined.  My camera was low on battery, by the way, hence the half-drank smoothie.

As I was returning my camera battery to the charger and about to flip the DVR back to play just in time to hear Tim Gunn say “Designers, now I’m giving you twenty minutes to caucus” (seriously, I LOVE when he says caucus…it seems ridiculously inappropriate and unnecessary), I knocked my little monster on the floor.

Slime central…(You Can’t Do that on Television anyone??)

It was really hard to clean.  I sopped up the wet stuff and doused my carpet and ottoman with wet paper towels.  It was soaked.  Then I remembered I had this:

Yeah, that’s a sham-wow.  And WOW, look at those green handprints.  Really soaked up that liquid.

Bailey was confused.

Anyhoo…after Morning Flow, I was hungry (I wonder why…didn’t I drink a monster?), so I had a mini CLIF

More Snacks:

 

Grapes and water to bring to the beach.  I also ate a pack of chocolate bunny grahams.

Lunch:

was a waffle sandwich with almond butter and TJ’s superfruit spread.  Delish!  (didn't snap it though)

Snack:

Dinner:

was at my favorite ale house I talked about a few weeks ago.  I had salad:

and some grilled veggie/chicken quesadilla.

I touched none of those fixins…what a waste of guac and sour cream.

And for dessert:

Read that high maintenance cup…that’s a decaf two pump soy no whip pumpkin spice latte.  boy do I love my PSL!  I also had a few bites of pumpkin muffin.  I was feeling pumpkin-y clearly.

Today could potentially have been my last beach day of the season.  I leave you with this picture of the insane and raging seagulls of Long Island…

Can you see those suckers?  It was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie out there…

Thank goodness they stayed on the other side of the beach!  That would not have been cute.

Hot town, Summer in the City

Yesterday, I took my bike out for my first official spin.  I biked 10.5 miles and loved every second of it!

Distance:  10.5 miles
Time:  51:16
Max HR:  158
Avg. HR:  138
Calories:  379 (50% fat)

LUNCH  (Saturday) 

Yesterday’s lunch was thrown together completely off the cuff.  I had some leftover whole wheat spaghetti from dinner the other night.  I decided to whip up a quick peanut sauce and add some veggies for a tasty lunch.  For the sauce, I whisked together a little less than a tablespoon of peanut butter, some soy sauce, a splash of water and a squirt of agave.  Then I tossed the noodles with the sauce and some shredded carrots, broccoli slaw and thinly sliced red peppers.  It was yum!

“Dessert” was bunny grahams.

Post-bike snack was a cookie.  Mumsy and Bro called to see if we wanted to grab a quick bite with them, so I didn’t really eat a big snack.

DINNER (Saturday)

We went to a great ale house for a quick dinner.  They are well-known for their wings, so we got a plate to share as an appetizer.

  Apparently I couldn’t wait to eat them!

My dinner was a salad with blackened chicken.  It was a beast.  I ate about half.

BREAKFAST (Sunday)

I made some French toast using egg whites, almond milk, vanilla and cinnamon.  I dunked two slices of Ezekiel raisin bread for me and plain for Hubbers.  I had mine with some sliced strawberries and cantaloupe.  It was the perfect Sunday breakfast.

MORNING SNACK (Sunday)

We don’t need to go there with a pic…it was about 7 or 8 TJ’s PB-filled pretzels. 

LUNCH (Sunday)

My leftover salad from yesterday.  I had to have some ranch dressing.  Theirs is delicious.  I know it’s not my healthiest choice, but oh well.

I also had a piece of Mumsy’s leftover quesadilla.  It was filled with grilled veggies.  It’s another of my favorite dishes from that restaurant.

Look at those delicious veggies!  I peeled some of the cheese out due to my lactose intolerance.  I didn’t want to take a lactaid as this was not enough to warrant a whole pill and I would wind up getting a stomach ache.

Last night we went into the city (NYC) for a friend’s birthday party.  I was a little slow and didn’t check my camera battery before going out.  I’ll have to wait for my friends to post some pics to share.  The party was at a rooftop bar and it was so humid and sticky.  We had fun, but wound up catching the earlier train option since it was so hot.  Early meaning 12:40 am…I guess not so early.  I had 3 cocktails – vodka sodas with splash of cranberry.  My fave.  These pics are from when we got home…explains the shininess.

There’s the outfit…it’s kind of bad light, but you get the idea.  It was past 1:30 am and I was self-timing.

Hubbers and I are heading to TJ’s in a bit.  Woo HOOO!

Playing Catch up

It's been a few crazy days. Without boring you with all the gory details, I’ll tell you that my car has been in the shop since Wednesday, someone who is not me or my husband bought a computer with his debit card for over $1,000 and a pair of sandals that I ordered in May never arrived because they never processed the order, yet charged aforementioned debit card. I’ve been on the phone…a lot. But I’ve also had some great workouts and good eats, so pull up a chair and let’s catch up, shall we?

Let’s start with workouts:

WEDNESDAY

I was stresssssssssssed out dealing with fraudulent charges and incompetent service people all day. Yoga was in order. I did the 20 minute detox yoga from Yoga Download and felt really great afterward.

THURSDAY

I decided I wanted to be speedy and it was too hot for words, so I did a quick two miles on the treadmill. Here’s what I pounded out:

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:00
Avg. Pace: 8:58/mile
Max HR: 184 bpm
Avg. HR: 164 bpm
Calories: 213 (30 % fat)
Power Through Song: “Good Girls Go Bad” Cobra Starship

FRIDAY

Today was my long run day. After fighting with nike+ online (I still love you, don’t worry), my run finally posted. Stats I’m proud of (unlike last week’s long run):

Distance: 6.76 miles
Time: 1:09:40
Avg. Pace: 10:18/mile
Max HR: 178 bpm
Avg. HR: 170 bpm
Calories: 745 (!!) (25% fat)
Power Through Song: “Sweetness” Jimmy Eat World / “Get Up” James Brown

I had a little accomplice on this run:

yeah, that’s blue Gatorade watered down. I had no choice. It rocked my socks and really helped on this hot and humid day. I am aware it is chemical. Don’t judge.

Also…I have to say how much I LOVE MY POLAR BOTTLE. That blue madness stayed chilly the whole time – even in my hot little hand!

On to eats…

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast was a green monster.

In the mix:

• 1 cup almond milk
• organic baby spinach
• cantaloupe
• 1/4 avocado
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 T Amazing Meal
• 1 T ground flax

I had to take a shot of those pretty colors together.

MORNING SNACK

I had a Clif ZBar for snack-a-roo.

LUNCH

was pizza. I didn’t take a pic. I was with a friend and am still an incognito blogger. It had fresh mozz, tomato and balsamic.

DINNER

Mixed baby greens with red pears, pecans and goat cheese. Balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Yummalicious.

THURSDAY

BREAKFAST

green monster

In the mix:

• organic baby spinach
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 frozen banana
• handful cantaloupe
• 1 T almond butter
• 1 T ground flax
• 1 T Amazing Meal

MORNING SNACK

This handful of TJ’s peanut butter-filled pretzels x2

LUNCH

Veggie wrap – lavash flatbread, hummus, avocado, red bell pepper, shredded carrot, broccoli slaw

DINNER

Salad of organic baby arugula, my friend’s grandma’s home grown tomatoes, red onion and shaved parmesan.

Plus organic whole wheat pasta with turkey meatballs.

FRIDAY

PRE-RUN

Kashi H2H with almond milk

POST-RUN

Smoothie of light chocolate soy milk, baby spinach, frozen banana and 1 T Amazing Meal. (Not naming this one a green monster…it’s just not monster-y enough for me). What color does that remind you of? Hmmmm… It did taste delish though.

LUNCH

Lunch was eaten at the beach today. Here’s what I packed along:

TJ’s Organic Greek yogurt – Honey flavor, cantaloupe and a chocolate chip ZBar.

AFTERNOON SNACK

More TJ’s PB-filled pretzel nuggets. I’m becoming obsessed…move over Tempting trail mix!

DINNER

We went to one of our favorite spots…Grimaldi’s for brick oven pizza. We invited my mom along. (Disclaimer...these shots were taken with hub's old Blackberry. I left mine at home and forgot the camera). I started with this salad, which I split with Mumsy.

It was baby spinach, walnuts and craisins with raspberry vinaigrette. It was a little dressing-y, but still good.

Then Mumsy and I split a personal pizza. This was my slice. It had fresh mozzarella, eggplant and spinach. I ate that slice and half of another. The spinach made it very filling!

In fun news, I picked up my bike yesterday! I’m going to have hubbers take a sweet pic of me with it tomorrow. I’ll def be rocking my totally cool pink helmet also! I took it out for a little 5-mile spin last night. I did my usual 3 mile running loop (13 mins on the bike compared with 28 or so running) and then came back home and rode along side hubbers for his 2 mile jog for some motivation.

I’m super excited to have my bike to exercise, but also to run quick errands. I hate starting the car, wasting gas and polluting the environment just to go to the post office or the library.

In other news, my friend loaned me her Twilight dvd. I have seen it, of course; but hubbers hasn’t, of course. I’m going to try to seduce him into watching it tonight. Hopefully it’ll work ;)

That was a lot to catch up on friends, let’s do this again real soon!