Is it possible that the treadmill lies?

Today I had one of my bussiest days ever at work.  I was totally drained by the end of the day, but forced my self to get my butt to the gym! I knew it would help me de-stress and be in a better mood when I got home (aka helps me not to be a b!#$* to Matt for no reason haha).  I hopped on the treadmill for a run since it was a million degrees out today, I'm not even kidding.  I set my pace at 9:30 and had 5 miles in mind. The first 3.5 went alright, and then I started feeling really dead.  This always happens to me when I'm on the treadmill. I will take a pace that I can easily do outside, and it becomes really difficult for me to do on the treadmill.  I talked to Matt about it when I got home and he said he felt the same way.  Soooo we are both hoping that the treadmill lies and that our fancy shmancy (expensive) Garmins are correct haha.

Well I finished, but it wasn't the most impressive run. 

When I got home I whipped together a really quick dinner.

Veggies Plus...

Whole wheat pasta, shrimp and spinach artichoke sauce =

A yummy dinner.  After dinner I went to the grocery store aka the bane of my existence.  They were having a special deal that if you spend $75 on certain brands, about 100 of them, you geta $25 gift card to the store for your next visit. I had it all planned out. I went with my list of things, and my pen and paper to keep track of how much I was adding up.  Well, I lost the pen within the first 5 minutes of being in the store. FAIL. I ended up attempting to keep track of the money in my head, an it actually worked! I kind of felt like one of those crazy couponers, but it was worth it! Now for some relaxing, or going on pinterest, facebook, and blogger.  Decisions, Decision.

Bad Blogger

Today was such a fun day! However, I was a very bad blogger and didn't take pictures of half of it.  Well it started out bright and early.  Matt and I got up around 7:30 today and grabbed a small bite to eat before heading to campus for a run.  I ate a banana with peanut butter and craisins on top, my version of ants on a log.  When Matt and I got to campus, I felt like...nature was calling, if you know what I mean.  I had planned to stop at one of the student centers along the way, but they were both locked! WTF.  So I ended up holding it the whole way which was not so much fun.  Today I finished 5.5 miles.

It was an ok run.  I tried out my new water belt since the last long run I did I almost died from the heat.

Pretty much the coolest person ever I know.  It has two water bottles on it and a little area that fits my keys.  I wasn't a big fan of running with it at first because it sloshes, but by the end of the run I kind of got used to it. It's going to be necessary for this summer though. Matt also ran 5.5 miles, about 10 minutes faster than me because he's awesome like that

hahah

After our run we were both starving. I ate a greek yogurt with some granolla and some protein bar when we got home.  Then at noon we were off to lums pond for a bbq with some friends....and no pictures. Sorry!

We got home from the bbq at 5pm and did some cleaning until we got hungry. I just made a quick salad for dinner and had half a KIND bar with it because I wasn't too hungry.

Spinach, carrots, green beans, celery, tuna, black beans, sliced cherries

I got an email that our grocery store had fresh cherries and I was so excited I went out and got a big bag of them.  I love them, but I hate their pits.  I told Matt that I'm going to engineer a pitless  cherry so that we can be rich and  travel the world!! 

After dinner, Matt and I really couldn't decide what we wanted to do.  We both knew that if we just stayed in the house all night we would both go stir crazy.  We took Champ for a walk and then decided to set up our fire pit that we got for our wedding.

photobomb by champ

Matt enjoying some wine and dorritos. Classy!!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to the gym for a strength workout and then we are taking my mom and dad to a local vineyard for father's day!



Vacation Food/Workouts

Now that I'm back from vacation, I'm trying to get back into better eating habits and working out.  Matt and I struggled through a 5 mile run today in the heat, and we both discussed the inevitability of us having to run on the treadmill/run after the sun goes down while training for our upcoming half marathon.  Right now I'm looking at a 12 week training program that I will start on the week of June 25th to be ready for the half on September 16th. 

Anyways, I figured since this is a food/fitness blog I would show you some of the amazing food we had in St. Lucia.

Breakfast: Not too much different than the US

I got a container of quick oats and would cook some of them up and mix with some yoplait greek yogurt that I came across. I also took packets of peanut butter with me, because I can't live without it.  And thank goodness I could have my coffee each morning out on our balcony

Lunches were pretty random. Some of the tours we went on included lunch, and other days we just ate what we could find around our villa which was usually an egg sandwich and some fruits and veggies. My all time favorite lunch was at Ladera:

Mahi Mahi salad. Not only was the food good, but the view was even better.

somehow we ended up with the best seat in the house.

another lunch out, a roasted veggie wrap with grilled pineapple

Dinner was really where we went all out exploring the local cuisine. We ate A LOT of fish which I loved. I didn't have meat at all for dinner while we were there. The fish was just too good.

Tuna at La Terrace. 

Matt got the pork ribs

Crab back appatizer at The Coal Pot

My favorite meal at The Coal Pot.  Tuna in a coconut curry sauce.  The sauce made the meal.

And one night we cooked for ourselves. We got some red snapper from the fish market and cooked it on the grill.

My favorite "local meal" was the Roti.  A roti is meat or vegetables with potato cooked in a yellow curry sauce wrapped up in a savory crepe. I had the veggie roti filled with mixed veggies, tofu and potatoes.

Really good but super filling. I could only eat half, so this is actually the other half that we had on the side when we cooked our snapper and some of matt's fries.

Snacks:

plantain chips

Cassava Cakes.  Our cab driver introduced us to these at a little shack on the side of the road. Casava is similar to sweet potato.  They make cakes out of them and eat them for breakfast.  The shop had a lot of different flavors. This one is apple cinnamon.  They taste exactly like baked oatmeal.

Drinks:

margarita

Bermuda triangle. Didn't know they were two for one until the woman gave me two drinks. Matt finished the second one for me.

Our favorite local beer similar to Corona.

we tried a ginger wine (in my hand) but it was disgusting, so we went down to the market and got some white wine instead.

coconut water (Matt's angry face is his attempt at taking an arm out picture haha)

Workouts:

Matt and I tried our best to workout every other day.  Even though we were staying active throughout the trip, it made us both feel a lot better to sweat it out in the mornings. However, we really had to get creative. We would bring the pads from the lounge chairs and put them on the deck for ab work. I would cycle through some abs work, lunges, squats, push ups, dips....and then I would go down on the beach and run down to the next hotel and back, about .4 miles.  Our beach didn't have too much room to run, but we managed.  I would go through this cycle 3 times and then would jump in the pool b/c it was so hot I was drenched in sweat.

Love this picture!

I also wrote down some workouts that I found on pinterest that were quick, but got your heart rate up for about 20 minutes. We figured, something is better than nothing.  The first day we got back from vacation, Matt and I went in the basement and did a good 40 minute strength workout. We both missed this the most while we were there, and we are both paying for it today with our sore muscles.

Some people think we are crazy for working out on vacation, but we love it.  There are worse things to be addicted to right?? lol



Back To Reality...But Only For 4 Days

Today I was back to work trying desperately to stop looking at wedding pictures and actually pay attention to what I needed to get done.  It was difficult to say the least. Not only do I still have wedding on my mind, but now I have honeymoon on the mind which is steadily approaching! Good thing I was super busy at work, or I might have actually fallen asleep.  The HVAC system was broken once again and it was 82 degrees in our office by the end of the day.  That didn't even compare to the 97 that it reached outside.  I so desperately wanted to run outside, but decided that it wouldn't be a good idea for me to have a heat stroke today.  So I headed to the good old gym.

I started off with some weights machines concentrating on my arms and abs since my ars is killing me from mine and Matt's workout yesterday (we did a 45 minute weights workout in our basement yesterday morning since our gym was closed and once again it was a million degrees out).  After that I got on the treadmill to run 3 miles in 28 minutes:

5 minute warm up

2 minutes at 6.0

2 minutes at 6.2

2 minutes at 6.4

2 minutes at 6.6

2 minuts at 6.8

repeat until you reach 3 miles.

Then it was time for dinner...on our new plates!!

I made these almond crusted chicken fingers, but this time I used walnuts instead.  Salad on the side and bbq sauce for dipping.

In love with our new "casual" china.  We are not fancy enough for regular china.  I would probably just end up breaking most of it anyways.

Now we are just working on unpacking some of the amazing gifts that we received for the shower and wedding now that it's not bad luck to use this stuff.

Sign from my brother and his girlfriend.

There's a big storm heading our way. Fingers crossed that the power doesn't go out tonight. It's way too hot for that. 



Negative Splits!

Today was either going to be hit or miss weather wise for running. They've been calling for scattered thunderstorms for the entire week and it wasn't looking the greatest out, so I just stalked the weather all morning.  When I looked at 3pm, it said there was a 30 chance of rain.  That's good enough for me. I was out the door and ready to run.  I really needed to clear my head today after a super busy day at work and an even busier day that is coming my way tomorrow. 

When I started running, it took me a while for my legs to get warmed up.  I had a slow first mile, but then I started feeling fast. I decided to go for negative splits for my run (run each mile faster than the last).  I see all those cool marathon runners doing negative splits on their blogs all the time, and I want to be cool like them obviously.

My Splits:

9.27

9.11

8.56

8.51

0.5 miles at 8.14 pace (sprinted that biznatch)

Running felt great minus the gross humidity outside. I haven't sweat this much in a really long time.  I was sweating so much that it started to drip into my eyes and man did that sting.

"glistening" sweaty hot mess

When I got home I was so excited for dinner. Somehow I convinced Matt to make breakfast for dinner.  I could literally eat breakfast food for every meal.  Matt cooked the pancakes and I cooked the eggs.

almond butter between and apple butter on top of pancakes

Don't worry, I evened this out with a big salad for lunch.  And there's story behind that. All you people not from the DE or PA area, the best convenience store around here is Wawa!  I love wawa.  You can have sandwiches and hogies made to order and they have pre-made sandwiches, salads, fruit cups, veggie cups...lots of stuff.  Well I go there today because I was too lazy to make a lunch and I really wanted a good sandwich on rye bread.  They just got a bunch of new toppings too including spinach and cucumbers.  I go to the machine to order my sandwich and.....it's not there!! There were only hogies.  What happened to the sandwich??? I'm not a huge fan of hogies, just too much bread, so I ended up with a garden salad and a  hummus and mini pita package. 

Now that that tangent is over....4 days until the wedding!! Tomorrow is my last day of work until next Tuesday.  We got new ID badges today at work and mine has my new name on it:

That's going to take some getting used to.  Pretty sweet last name I know hahah. 



Is it Guac or Hummus?

The title of my post I'll get to in a second. First things first...let's talk about the highlight of my night last night. Keeping Up With The Kardashians returned and it was just as horrible as I remember.  I just can't Not watch it.  And poor Matt got sucked into watching it too, what a good fiance lol. 

But there was one thing that was different about the way we watched the Kardashians last night....we watched them in HD and boy was it scary.  Yikes.  Bruce's face looked like it was sliding off his skull and Kris's face looked like it was so taught that you could pop it like a balloon. And then the makeup on all of them was a whole different story. I think I'll go back to watching it on the regular channel so I can make it through the entire hour.

Now onto my Monday.  I decided to try something a little outside of the box for lunch.  I found a recipe on Pinterest from Running To The Kitchen that I based mine off of for a Smashed Chickpea and Avocado Sandwich.

First I drained a 15oz can of chickpeas and smashed them with a potato masher.  Then I added an entire avocado to the mix and combined the two.  I aslo mixed in a teaspoon of chopped garlic, 3 chopped sundried tomatoes salt, pepper and lime juice.  Simple as that.

I spread mine on a whole wheat deli flat and topped it with a slice of cheese and spinach.  The flavor of the mixture was really great. Some sort of cross between hummus and guacamole (both of which I love).  The only thing I had to get used to was the texture since the chickpeas are only smashed and not blended like when they are in hummus. And this recipe made a lot.  Probably enough for another 3 sandwiches.  It could also be used as a dip for veggies!

After work I went to the gym since it was nasty out.  My legs were pretty sore from my workout yesterday, but I decided to attempt a slow run.  I started out with a five minute warm up, and once my legs got loose I felt great.  I did 4 miles of interval work, first doing a 2 minute jog and 1 minute sprint cycle and then switching to 2 minutes of sprinting with 1 minute of jogging for the second half. I finished 4 miles in 38 minutes. 

Then it was time for dinner and yet another recipe from pinterest (I have issues I know).  I used this recipe to make my own.  I cooked two chicken breasts in a crockpot all day while I was at work.  When I got home from the gym all I had to do was cook up some peppers and onions, combine that with the chicken, wrap it in my whole wheat wraps and assemble.  I loved the combination of greek yogurt and salsa for the enchilada sauce, both things I already had in the fridge.

Not the prettiest picture b/c I had some difficulty getting them out of the pan, but they still tasted amazing.  And we have lots of leftovers. 

My day of eats tomorrow will not be as excited. I'm lunch ADD again and can't decide what to have, so I will probably be running to the salad bar for lunch. Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain tomorrow!!



Healthy Chocolate For Breakfast??

My morning started out on a high note. I made a new batch of chocolate overnight oats.  Yes, that's right...chocolate for breakfast.  I mixed 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup plain nonfat greek yogurt, 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 1/4 cup almond milk and 1 packet stevia in the raw.

Cocoa powder is jam packed with with antioxidants and no sugar! When I mixed the oats with the cocoa powder alone it was a bit bitter, so I added 1 packed of stevia in the raw which is a natural sweetener derived from the Stevia Plant.  I'm not big on artificial sweeteners but I thought I would give this one a try since I have been reading mostly positive things about it because it is from a plant.  It was alright.  I think most of the time I will stick with honey, agave or normal sugar. 

After breakfast Matt and I headed to UD campus for a run. We each took our own route and then met up at the end. Matt ran 6 miles and I did in about the same time.

My average pace was an 8.54 minute mile. 

Splits:

9.24

9.06

8.52

8.44

8.23

strike a pose

strike the same pose

It was nice to run around campus right before we get married and remember all the good times Matt and I had when we first met.  I can pass the house where we met, where we had our first kiss, and where he asked me to be his girlfriend all in one run. 

setting up for graduation next weekend

When we got home from our run, we made a quick lunch and then had to get ready to head out for Matt's sister's graduation. She graduated from Widener Law School today.

Veggie and cheese egg white omlet.

Because I am such an awesome blogger, I totally didn't take any pictures at Widener or at dinner.  Blogger fail.  I loved my dinner though. I ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna Salad and it was amazing.  This is quickly becoming one of my favorite entrees. 

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get to the gym early and then run lots of errands all day!!



Mini PDR!!

Today was the most gorgeous day this year. It was 75 when I got out of work with very little humidity aka the perfect day for a run!! My legs were itching to go the entire day.  I decided that I wanted to try for 6 and that I wanted to slow my pace down a bit and really enjoy the run, not die from exhaustion.  When I got to mile 5 I decided to take it out a little longer to 6.5 miles, the furthest I've ever run.....only by .3 miles, but hey I'll take what I can get lol. 

Yay 6.5 miles!

Splits:

9.34

9.19

9.21

9.21

9.31

9.34

0.5 miles at 9.05 pace

Here's to hoping that these white legs got some color while I was out there!

I did have to stop once at the student center to get some water. I was sweating like wooo and needed to replenish. While I was there I came across this contraption.

This water bottle filler was right above the water fountain.  Pretty cool...if you like the taste of Newark water.  They never had these when I went to UD. Sheesh.

Dinner was a simple thai coconut curry.

I cooked up some broccoli, zucchini, string beans, green peppers and tofu and then mixed in some red curry paste and lite coconut milk. 

I had a slice of great harvest dakota bread to sop up the curry goodness.

Now I'm just working on the grocery list for tomorrow and tying up some loose ends for the wedding.