Beach, Birthday and a Wedding

My week of birthday celebrations is coming to an end....yes I get an entire week haha.  I got home Thursday from work, the day before my birthday, with flowers waiting for me :)  It was the perfect start to my long weekend. I took Friday off because we were going to our friend's wedding at the beach that night, and because I think it's no fun to work on your birthday.  Since I had off, I decided to move my long run to Friday morning. My body woke me up at 5:25am. Yikes. So I went with it, and went to the park to run 10 miles. I started my morning with a half a bagel with almond butter and craisins on top. Then I was off!

Me after my 10! I finished with a 10:04 pace and felt really good. I felt so much better than my 10 mile run last weekend. I got home, showered up and got to packing for the beach!

I made myself a high protein recovery meal of "oatmeal minus the oats."  I've been eating a lot of this lately and have found that I like it cold better than hot.

In an almost empty peanut butter jar. 

In the mix:

1 mashed banana

1/2 cup egg whites

1/4 cup almond milk

1 tbsp ground flax

several shakes cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla

handfull of craisins

Heat on the stove until it starts to thicken up and then enjoy.  I usually make mine the night before and stick it in the fridge to have the next morning.

After stuffing my face we were off! We drove 2 hours, checked into our hotel and then headed over to the beach for the wedding.

Janice walking down the aisle with her brother.

After the ceremony we went to Irish Eyes for the reception.  We ate some really good food and enjoyed the views of the marina.

I may have taken the nautical theme too far, but I loved my dress lol. 

Matt and I were both pretty tired that night, so we went to bed early and saved the bars for Saturday night. Saturday morning we woke up to a cloudy day.  The morning was chilly and windy, but by noon the sun was coming out and we got a couple of hours in at the beach before heading out to Jamfest at a local bar.

Jamfest at The Bottle And Cork

Holy crowdedness.  That place was packed! I almost got smooshed trying to get to the bathroom.

The lead singer got on the roof for one of the songs!

Later that night we met up with a bunch of friends for dinner, then went back to the bars.  I was proud of my usually early to bed self.  I made it to 1:30am!!

Sunday we got some time in at the beach, and then went home :(  Even though we were tired, Matt and I both wanted to get a strength workout in before we crashed.  I decided to do this Medacine Ball Workout from Blonde Ponytail:

I used a 10lb medacine ball and my inner thighs and arms are killing me today!

I was so depressed going to work this morning and then I walked into my office and saw this:

My birthday cubical.  Work flew by, thank goodness, and I went for a quick run after work.  3 miles went by quickly and I finished in 28.42!

When I got home I did a quick crossfit style workout to finish off. 

3 rounds as quickly as possible

25 dips

25 crunches

25 pushups

25 russian twists

Time to go make my breakfast/lunch for tomorrow.



WIAW! Protein Packed Edition!

Happy What I Ate Wednesday!  Once again I haven't followed an entire day of eats, just have pictured some of my favorite foods over the past couple of days.

On Saturday after my 8 mile run I decided to try a new protein packed breakfast. I've been wanting to try Tina's Oatmeal Minus The Oats for a while and decided this would be the perfect time. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup liquid egg whites

1/2 cup coconut almond milk

1 banana mashed

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp flaxseed meal

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients and cook on the stovetop until the right consistency for you is reached. It wasn't bad....but it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. I think next time I will make less because I couldn't even finish it.  But I was glad to get a good post run meal in full of protein.

Other meals I've been loving:

two of my favorite things together: almonds and chocolate

hummus, veggie and cheese wrap

Last night's dinner was also really good:

Turkey Taco Pasta  I followed this recipe, but cut it in half and used turkey instead of chicken. I also used only greek yogurt instead of greek yogurt and cream cheese to thicken the sauce.

In the pan cooking before I added the pasta and greek yogurt

YUM  get in my belly. This recipe is a keeper.

I've also been keeping up with my half marathon training schedule. I ran 4 miles outside yesterday after work and it actually wasn't horribly hot out!

Today I am "off" meaning Matt and I have volleyball tonight.  Tomorrow I have 3 plus strength on the agenda and Saturday I will be trying for 8 miles again.