Unfamiliar with What I Ate Wednesday (WIAW)? WIAW is a blogger link-up created by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons. The idea is that once a week, you keep track of all of your eats for a day and share. The very first blogs I started reading were daily food journal type blogs, so even though that’s not a popular format anymore, it was cool to be able to write my own post in that style.
I will say that nothing makes you overly scrutinize your food like knowing that you will be posting it for the world to see. After I uploaded all of the photos, I’m like “UGH I ate two tortillas in one day, not enough variety! All of my food is too mushy and ugly! What if they think I eat too much dairy?!?!?!” But I think that’s the beauty of WIAW. No one eats beautiful food all the time! And it’s cool to get real, practical ideas from all different kinds of lifestyles and diets.
And also in my defense, we bought a pack of tortillas from Costco this past weekend and I am DETERMINED not to waste food so I will be rolling anything and everything into a tortilla until those bastards are gone.
I woke up with some extra time this morning (a rare occurence) so I took some time to make my favorite breakfast, eggs! I scrambled these on low in butter and then added a slice of cheese on top.
Breakfast: Tortilla with two scrambled eggs, covered in a slice of cheese and smashed avocado. And hot sauce (of course). Normally I wouldn’t do cheese AND avocado, but I was still waking up apparently and started melting the cheese without thinking. So, two delicious things on my eggs it is. Oh noooo. A latte, made with one “Lungo” sized Nespresso and a cup of steamed milk. I also added Salted Caramel Syrup. Sorry for that unappetizing drip on the side. Work today was pretty uneventful. Spreadsheets, meetings, etc.
Mid-morning green tea at work. I felt like a complete jackass styling this little photo with the tea box and prayed no one walked by my cubicle while I was doing this. Morning snack: I got all the way through peeling this before I remembered to take a pic of this tangerine. WIAW is hard. Lunch: My salad that I eat almost every day. Spinach, romaine, chicken, bleu cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and dried cranberries. With homemade balsamic (Balsamic, evoo, salt, pepper and dijon). More tea, because my office was cold af today.I actually had a meeting today at 3:00 which is the exact time that I like to partake in my afternoon snack, how dare they. So I had a later than normal snack.
I’ve been making my own hummus lately and really like being able to customize it.
Afternoon snack: Roasted red pepper hummus and baby carrots. More afternoon snack: Two babybels. Got halfway through peeling the first one before I remembered to take a picture, an improvement from my morning snack.After work, we headed to the gym where I ran on the treadmill. I did a tempo run (10 min comfortable pace, 15 mins at a medium difficulty pace, 10 min cooldown at comfortable pace) where I cranked that bad boy all the way up to 6.2 mph for the tempo part. Wow, it was tough. I was sweating like a mofo and my face was BEET red. Trying to get faster is hard work.
Dinner: Another tortilla! With crockpot salsa chicken, black beans, corn, and fajita veggies. Topped with more smashed avocado. I also added some more salsa after this pic was taken.
I really enjoyed participating in WIAW this week! Hopefully my pictures weren’t too insanely boring or nausea-inducing.
And in conclusion, I think I have a tea problem and will be seeking help soon. Thank you for your support during this difficult time.
How much tea do you drink on a daily basis? Make me feel better about my consumption please?
I’ve gotten a question (kidding, I just felt like talking about it) about my current fitness routine. So buckle up, because I’m about to share more about my fitness than any other human could ever care to know.
I’m the sort of person who NEEDS to follow a prescribed fitness program, I really don’t do well with trying to come up with stuff on my own and end up just dicking around aimlessly. It’s way too easy for me to be like “ok screw it, I will just elliptical and watch tv for hours on end per week, ensuring that I don’t actually exert any effort.” And while that’s certainly better than nothing, it’s not doing a whole lot to help me achieve the body that I want.
I’ve followed a lot of programs (half marathon training, 30 Day Shred, Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution, Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide, New Rules of Weight Lifting for Women, Nike Training Club, Lauren Gleisberg’s 30×30, JNL Fusion to name a few) and have found that I do best with something that is mostly circuit training and strength moves. I like the variety and it seems to do the best with helping me lose weight (when that is my goal).
I lost a decent amount of weight in the beginning of this year and through the summer while doing the Bikini Body Guide (BBG) and 30×30. Then I started half marathon training. I have yet to successfully drop pounds while training for any sort of race distance. I’m sure it’s possible, but either I don’t understand the calorie adjustments I need to make while running, or I have other external factors that cause me to lose motivation, or I just don’t push myself enough while running. Or something. It just doesn’t work for me. And I have these last 5 vanity pounds that I am somewhat committed to losing.
BUT I also don’t want to give up my running endurance that I’ve built and would really like to focus on speed.
Sooo, all of this long-winded ramble to say that I’m going to go back to a routine that is mostly circuit training and some strength, with a little bit of running thrown in. I’m basing my routine on a program that Lauren Gleisberg is currently running, since I’ve had success with her programs and genuinely enjoy them. I’m using the Fitabulous Fall calendar, and will insert two run days per week. I’m not substituting days, just adding days, so this will stretch out the calendar. For example, my first week looked something like this:
For my runs, I’m planning to do one day a week of a tempo or interval run, and one day of a normal/slow run. Here are some articles or suggested workouts that I’m using to base my speed runs on:
So! That’s what my plan is for the next few months. I plan on updating you guys on the program and how I’m progressing and liking it as I go along and will be sure to do a full review of the program at the end!
Wow, 4 whole Friday’s of blogging? Time flies when you are having fun reliving your vacations I guess!
Me, today.
I have grave news. I attempted to download iOS 9.2 and it crashed my phone. I am currently phoneless while my poor little broken phone is at home trying to restore itself. All because I wanted the new taco emoji. I will never look at tacos the same again (that’s a lie, I love tacos).
This weekend will be a really fun one, I am headed to Richmond for healthnut’s bachelorette party! We are going to have a spa day followed by a night out, I can’t wait!
Recovery from the half marathon has went really well. I felt less sore than I have with previous halfs (halves?? Someone please tell me!!). The only thing I really did differently (except for not completing my training) was the compression socks. I will be wearing these always.
Also unlike previous races, I actually feel like I want to continue running and work on my speed for a while. I still want to continue on with the Lauren Gleisberg plan I mentioned previously, but will shoot to incorporate two run days per week. I’m eyeing a Turkey Trot 5k or a Jingle Bell Run for some short-term motivation.
I started reading “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt this week. I’m only 50 or so pages in and I’m having some trouble really getting into it. Has anyone else read this one? I wanted to continue the Joe Abercrombie series I mentioned last week, but they don’t have books 2 or 3 available at my library.
Dinners were really good this week! Nick had a ton of poblanos from our garden that needed to be used up so we made up a stuffed pepper recipe of sorts. I cooked some ground beef with onions, garlic, chili powder and cumin. We mixed that with black beans, mexican blend shredded cheese and green enchilada sauce. We stuffed the peppers with the mixture and put them in a 9X13 pan. I then put more cheese and enchilada sauce over the top. It turned out great! We served it with rice, salsa, and extra cilantro.
Talk to me: What are your plans this weekend? Have you read any good books lately?
A Long Life 