A Beautiful, Happy Sunday

Before departing on our little journey, I snacked on a honeycrisp apple with cinnamon raisin swirl PB. The jar is almost empty and is screaming to be used for oats in a jar!

Hubbers, poochie and I headed into the city for a little shoe shopping. The girl who helped me at Jack Rabbit told me I needed a neutral shoe. I wound up with some Saucony’s. As I dreaded, they are a size 10. Just call me big foot :( They’re muy comfy though!

The weather was beautiful! We hung out in Union Square for a bit. Hubbers took a pic of me with my new kicks, but I deleted it by mistake on the way home.

Two little stud muffins

We perused some art,

watched this guy do a little sand art,

grabbed a Starbies soy chai latte and hit up this joint…

mmmmm hmmmmm…

Feast your eyes!

When I got home, I immediately laced up my new kicks and took them for a spin!

Comfy and cute!

And which PB did I choose? How could a girl go home with only one?

So many possibilities! Oats better watch out!

I took my new sneakies for a 5K spin.

Distance: 3.10
Time: 27:35
Avg. Pace: 8:53/mile

Thanks, new shoes! Also, I am happy to say that I’m groin pain free! My shoe consultant said it was most likely just from worn out shoes. Hip-hip-hooray! (pun intended)

I just ate a warm little bowl of chili and now am off to clean this casa.

The Yankees and the Giants are playing tonight. This requires us going to a bar to watch because we require more than one television. We’re meeting up with friends for sports and brewskis! Mom offered to have us over for dinner, so I’m good to go for the night.

I leave you with this because it is making me giddy. Yes, I am 28 years old.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Cramping My Style

This post is going to be quite the mother-load. First off, I have to say that I totally identified with Hangry Heather’s post the other day. It’s always hard getting back into the swing of things for a new school year. Throw in hosting a party over the weekend and a long run and football on Sunday and I was toast Monday. So let’s catch up.

Since we chatted last, I had a long run Sunday, biked on Monday and a three-miler today.

Sunday:

Distance: 7.01 miles
Time: 1:31:42
Avg. Pace: 10:30/mile
(I’m too lazy to fetch my HR monitor and get you those stats…be honest, you don’t care)

Monday: 45 minute bike ride with Hubbers

Tuesday:

Distance: 2.86 miles
Time: 25:06
Avg. Pace: 8:44/mile

(My Nike+ was acting up again…I paced a 9:22 on it for some reason. So mad I didn’t get credit to make this month’s speed goal!)

I also had some MAJOR cramping in my stomach during this run. It was really painful and caused me to walk a few times. It was not a fun run.

Since my groin has been bothering me lately, I decided to ice, ice baby after my run:

Then Hubbers was a doll and stretched it out for me. I sat in that exact position and he sat next to me and just pulled my leg to make an L with the other leg. It felt reeeeeally good!

SUNDAY:

Breakfast:

Kashi H2H, Nature’s Path pumpkin flax granola, almond milk, strawberries

Lunch:

Leftover pasta salad from Saturday’s block party

Dinner:

was at our neighbor’s house for the Giants/Redskins game. Hubbers and I are Giants fans, they’re Redskins fans. We watch the games they play each other together and take turns hosting. I was so glad it wasn’t my turn. I was beat from Saturday and the 7 mile run!

MONDAY:

Breakfast:

Pumpkin oats…see what’s in the mix here.

Lunch/Snack:

A.M. snack was a mini CLIF bar.

Veggie/hummus wrap on lavash bread with spinach, tomato and carrots

and a kiwi

Dinner: was out – I was craving a burger and forgot to photograph. Sometimes a girl just needs a burger. It was awesome.

TUESDAY:

Breakfast:

Creamy Oatbran

In the mix:

• 1/3 cup oatbran
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• 1 mashed banana

Topped with plain Chobani and strawberries…delightful!

My throat was feeling a little sore, so I slammed back some “EmergenC” on the way out the door.

Lunch/Snack:

Snack was a mini CLIF…I know, shocking.

Amy’s Light in Sodium Minestrone and a mini ciabatta roll with some…

grapes!

Snack: One of my former students came by with a birthday treat of a Carvel flying saucer. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I ate it. It was delish.

Dinner:

Wild Sockeye Salmon broiled with salt, pepper, fresh garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes and oregano and spinach salad with carrots and tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette. This piece of salmon was HUGE. I couldn’t finish it, but it was really good.

Then I put together some mini caprese paninis for tomorrow’s lunch. While the press was heating, I finished my bottle of Sauv. B. I’m still savoring this glass.

I know I said I’d take pics on Saturday, but honestly I was running around so much I completely forgot! Here are the appetizers and dessert. I showed you the pasta salad earlier. I also made teriyaki chicken, BBQ shrimp and chicken sausage – all which Hubbers grilled to perfection and served a green salad.

Beer bread with spinach dip (I got a million compliments on the dip…thanks, Joe ;) Trader Joe that is!)

Potato chips and fake pirate’s booty from TJ’s

Chips and salsa

Veggies and dip

Pina Colada cupcakes

The party was a success. I had one too many vodka and pink sparkling lemonades for the day. Running on Sunday was painful. Everyone had a great time, though!

In other news, I’m super excited that Antonio won HGTV’s Design Star!

I’m a big fan!

Also, as we speak, my DVR is recording…

I’m beyond excited! I LOOOOOOOOOOVE me some BL. Can’t wait to see what’s in store this season!

AND, if you thought all that was good…look what was on my doorstep when I arrived home…

The AMAZING folks at Amazing Grass sent me some products to test out and review for the blog. I’m super excited and can’t wait to start taste-testing! Thanks again, Teri! I smell an “amazing” giveaway in your future, readers! Time to come out of the woodwork and make yourselves known!

Have a great night!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like September…

Everywhere you go… (cue Bing Crosby).

I am a nerd when it comes to back to school time. I am aware of this. Going back to school early and setting up my classroom has always been fun for me. Again…nerd. That being said, I spent practically the whole day in my room setting up. Here are some pics:

From the front door looking back. The banner above the closets says “Shoot for the moon – even if you fall, you’ll land among the stars.” It’s probably one of my favorite things on earth. That’s from the back looking toward the windows. Another inspirational quote on my desk: “Your teacher’s goal is simple – to help you reach yours!”

From the back corner where my desk is, looking toward the front. My fave Vera Bradley lunch bag on my desk makes me happy. I'm not gonna lie, I would be a pretty happy camper if I was a kid and this was my classroom. Don' t you agree?

Breakfast

This morning I made a green monster. I’m making an effort to get rid of all of the produce in my fridge as we’re going away this weekend. More on that tomorrow.

In the mix:

• organic baby spinach
• 1 cup almond milk
• 5 sliced strawberries
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 T almond butter
• 1 T Amazing Meal
• 1 T ground flax

Morning Snack/Lunch

I packed a snack and lunch to have in my classroom. Snack was a CLIF Zbar (honey graham…yum). Lunch was a TJ’s organic Greek yogurt (vanilla), blueberries and strawberries and Nature’s Path hemp granola and a ruby red grapefruit.

Afternoon Snack

Small piece of a blueberry crisp (new flavor to me…and YUM) CLIF bar. I bought it while picking up shampoo, lotion, etc. and got HANGRY in the car on the way home, so I dove in.

Dinner

I had every intention of making shrimp for dinner tonight. As you can see, that did not happen. I stopped in a few stores on my way home from school, then met my friend at a local country club for a meeting about our high school reunion. We loved the place and put a hold on it, which is really great news! But, by the time I got home, it was 6:30 and I was not in a cooking mood. My shrimpies are frozen so they’ll wait for me to use them another day. Hubbers was a doll and offered to go out and pick up pizza. I had this slice of thin crust with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil and I added some balsamic. I ate it with a tall glass of refreshing seltzer. I was going to make a spinach salad to go alongside, but after eating the slice, I wasn’t hungry any more.

I’m going to do some Yoga Download power yoga tonight. I need some yoga in my life big time! Namaste!

Burn the Floor

This morning’s workout was Jillian’s No More Trouble Zones DVD. It felt good to lift weights as I’ve been focusing a lot on cardio lately. Jillian is still a beast, but I love her.

Allow me to preface this section by saying, this was NOT my healthiest of days. I didn’t eat anything necessarily “bad” for me, but I certainly did not eat enough or the best foods. You’ll see what I mean…

Breakfast

Green monster
In the mix:

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

“Lunch”

Original tart yogurt from Red Mango with mangoes, kiwi and organic granola.

Dinner

Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant near the theater (I’ll get to that in a minute).

Crystal veggie dumpling x2

Saigon vegetarian noodles. YUM!

Dessert when I got home was a dark chocolate almond cookie and 3 mini pb cups.

I ate no snacks today. Bad.

Mom and I had a “girls day” and went into the city to see a Broadway show. We saw “Burn the Floor.” It’s all ballroom dancing. We loved it!!

Click the link for info. If you’re in the NYC area, I HIGHLY recommend seeing this show! We were dancing in our seats! Really made me want to take a ballroom dancing class! Maybe I will…