How did that even HAPPEN?

Thank goodness, my knee issue seemed to be a freak thing. Was still sore on Friday, but by yesterday I was dying to get out on the path and run again. I cranked out 11 miles with no knee issues, and it felt fine afterwards too. Success! Thank goodness I managed to go yesterday-we have a gloomy, rainy day on deck here. As a matter of fact, there is some wicked thunder, lightning, and rain coming down right now. 

A few odd things happened during my run yesterday-some cool, some not so great. One of the major intersections on our bike path system used to have a water fountain, but it got removed when they were doing some work on the underground pipes. Some nice soul put out a cooler full of water and cups for everyone. There’s about 3 weeks to go until Lincoln’s Marathon, so lots of people were getting in their last long runs before the taper yesterday, and water was pretty necessary. I passed lots of smiling, waving runners-and a few who looked pained. But the weirdest thing…chaffing. This wasn’t normal stuff, either. I was getting ready to take my shower after my run, and OUCH! Looked down, and somehow my belly button and stomach had a big red welt across them! I think that one came from my hydration belt, but that’s never happened before. I also had one in a quite unusual spot-I think my heart rate monitor must have been a bit askew. One of “my girls” has a red dot of pain! How does that even happen? So weird. Ah, the life of a runner. 

While I was running, I made a conscious decision to try not to look at my splits and just run by feel. If I felt like I needed to slow down, I did, and if I felt like I could speed up, I did. After I got home and checked my times, I was pleasantly surprised. I averaged out at 8:46 per mile! If I can do that during the marathon or better, I’ll totally PR it. YES! 

During my run, I had alternately been dreaming of a giant sandwich and a chicken topped salad. Got home pretty exhausted and decided I didn’t feel like cleaning up and going to grab a sandwich. BUT, the salad I was dreaming of had gone to work with Jeff the day before. Got inspired and just made a sweet potato with some salsa on top and the chicken. It hit the spot, and I promptly took a quick nap. Got up, took my shower (yes, I couldn’t even be bothered before my nap to shower), and set off to do the normal Saturday junk-yardwork, errands, the usual. Except I ended the day by being this awesome: 

Homemade pizza AND chocolate cupcakes.

Today’s rain isn’t motivating me to do much. Did manage to un-Winter my closet and Spring/Summer it up. Will probably get bored later and organize something else, but in the meantime, I think it’s time to do this: 

 

Happy Sunday! 

MiMM-Marvelous in my Monday-More fun in my Sunday

A little late in the day, but I’ll still leech onto Katie’s roundup designed to make us feel a bit better about today being the day of the week I most resemble grumpy cat (the resemblance still exists the other days, but isn’t nearly as striking).

After the rocky start to my weekend Friday, my tummy finally settled down around 9:30. Playing it safe, I stuck to my single girl dinner of days gone by:

Popcorn in the Stir Crazy, a few M&M’s for flavor.

Woke up Saturday and knew 2 things were certain: I probably SHOULDN’T run yet, and I was totally going to. The sky was a creepy overcast gray, and I’m a terrible morning runner, but I got in my 5 miles. I’d gotten in my new compression socks last week and hadn’t had a chance to test them out yet! I didn’t notice much difference, but maybe once the distances get a bit greater they’ll come into play more. For all the grumbling I do about morning workouts, I will say this: virtually nobody on the path I ran wasn’t also running, and it was kind of nice to be part of the Saturday morning run community. There’s a tight head nod that we give that seems to say “respect” much as the way a fist bump would. My pace is coming back to pre-surgery levels, and while 9:15 isn’t cause for excitement in most runners I know, I’ll totally take it.

Saturday night rolled around, and then this happened:

yeah, that picture does things no justice. We finally hit the new Korean place, Yami, for a bibimbap. There was an egg on top that cooked in as you stir things around. It was SO good, but I had the hottest hot pot bowl and it got my rice kinda crispy on the bottom. I won the lottery there! It was good but also really similar to beef fried rice? Regardless, I foresee times in my future where that’s totally going to hit the spot. After the dinner, Jeff was super full (I totally dominated him in the “I can eat more than you dept”) and we scrapped our plans to find a new Speakeasy in town and headed to the Red Box instead. It had been kind of picked over, but we grabbed World War Z and The Great Gatsby. We popped Gatsby in when we got home, around 830, and I kid you not-Jeff was out in like 10 minutes. I surfed, I knitted, I laid around on the couch before I was that obnoxious bee flicking his ear trying to wake him up to head to bed. Fun fact: my husband sleeps like the dead. He fell asleep at my aunt and uncles once and they laughed at me-it took a good 10 minutes to wake him up. Usually I give up and let him sleep on the couch after some semi-conscious groans and displeasure are voiced, but he looked super awkward and I knew his neck would hurt the next day if I let him sleep there all night. That’s a thoughtful wife for you-I’ll annoy the crap out of you to wake you up, all in the selfless name of no cricks in the neck.

Sunday was another run day, brunch at the egg and I-no pics, oops, and homemade pizza to cap the night. Nothing too stellar or outrageous happened, but it was a darn good day. Here’s Foster in his “aren’t I pathetic? Now can I have that food you have?” pose:

I think he feels like the flatter he is to the floor, the more pathetic he seems. And while that’s not untrue…you still can’t have my pizza, buddy.

 

WIAW-What I Ate Wednesday-Truth In Advertising

 

Here we go! It’s another food porn round up with Katie. I really, really enjoy looking at the interesting combinations everyone comes up with. Sometimes I get a tiny bit of food shame-I think I tried to choke down a green smoothie once and had to sandpaper my tongue before I could ever eat again. Honestly, every time I start to write a WIAW post I pause. I’m a terrible photographer, and only fleetingly remember to take a picture of my food once I’ve consumed at least half of it. But hey, I blog to be honest, right? Lets go through a typical day. 

MORNING: 

No talky before coffee.

Yep, my day starts with a few of these mugs full of coffee. I love coffee and pretty much don’t go a day without it. Jeff and I have an espresso maker at home, although he’s still the master of our coffee domain. I generally wake up first on weekends and have a cup of drip brewed coffee while I wait for him to wake up so we can have espresso together. It’s just part of the morning ritual! 

old fashioned oatmeal.

During the week, I have pretty much the same breakfast every day. Old fashioned quick oats with a sprinkling of a few chocolate chips, a few almond slivers, and a few dried cranberries. As you can tell, I forgot to snap this pic today until I was halfway done. Don’t judge, I was super hungry this morning. Usually I have a mid morning banana a few hours after this, and sometimes I go REALLY crazy and also have a clementine.

Lunch lately has been the vegan beans & rice I was talking about last week. It’s actually a funny story this week-it was our first experience cooking with dried beans. Jeff was nice enough to throw everything in the crock pot for me Monday, but he just figured the beans would cook in the crock pot so he only soaked them and didn’t cook them. Needless to say, I love the rest of my lunch but I’m officially the weird girl in the office this week picking the little black bean bullets out of my food. I refuse to believe one bad apple spoils the bunch here. I’m throwing some extra salsa, a sprinkling of cheddar, and some diced avocado on top if you’re really curious. I also have gotten into having a little tupperware container of frozen mixed berries as my “dessert”. 

Afternoons are pretty snacky for me. Lately I’ll have an apple and some fage yogurt with blueberry acai, some carrots and italian dressing, and a clementine with string cheese. Sometimes not all of them, sometimes I use this bad boy: 

SO COOL!

I got this for Christmas after we’d put it on our wedding registry and that’s where it stayed. It’s a microwave air popper for popcorn! I’m a popcorn freak, and this lets me control what goes on my popcorn-it’s usually a bit of sprayed butter and some plain old salt, MAYBE  a few M&M’s mixed in. OK, usually a few M&M’s mixed in. We’re being honest here, right? 

spinach salad.

By the time I get home from work, I’ve usually done one workout over lunch, and another right after work. I’m a ravenous hungry beast and I have crazy eyes. Jeff loves cooking dinner, and we usually eat anywhere between 8-9 at night. I’d probably hurt someone if I didn’t have something to tide me over. I usually throw together a salad while Jeff’s cooking and we chat a bit. Here’s a typical, once a week dinner for us, except the mini ice cream cone I usually cap my meal off with:

love the ignored pizza stone on the bottom, complete with charred chex mix casualties on top of it.

So the more I think about it, maybe I’m NOT a healthy living blogger. Maybe I’m a balanced living blogger. Most of my meals don’t contain some form of squash like other healthy bloggers, or smoothies, or even alternative flours. I workout, most days more than once. I’m at a healthy weight, and all my markers for blood pressure, cholesterol, etc are normal. But for every workout I finish, odds are I’m not dreaming of salad at the end of that rainbow, but of my husband’s grilled steak and roasted brussels sprouts. And probably a glass of wine. Does that mean I’m NOT healthy? Of course not. But if you’re reading this because I’ve touted myself as someone who can help you lose weight then I’ve misled you. Yes, I’m fit. Yes, I eat plenty of fresh food. Funny‘s a bit subjective, but hey-if you like sarcasm, I’m your girl. And that’s your truth in advertising disclaimer.