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. 



Busy WIAW

Happy What I Ate Wednesday! I haven't been doing a great job at taking pictures of my food today.  I got the basic three meals, but was slacking on the snacks...and I eat a lot of snacks. 

My breakfast, as always, was my favorite part of my day.

Fitnessnista's Breakfast Cookie! I mixed 1/3 cup old fashioned oats, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, craisins, chopped walnuts  and half a mashed banana together, spread it on a plate, and stuck it in the fridge overnight. It turned out really well.  I toopped it with some apple butter and the rest of my banana.

Definitely a keeper. I really think I love all breakfast food. Nothing ever lets me down. 

Work was super busy today, so I'm glad this kept me full for a good portion of the morning.  Mid morning I snacked on an apple and some trail mix before lunch.

Lunch:

Tuna salad and the rest of my packet of trail mix.

Tuna mixed with chopped carrots, string beans, celery, craisins and hummus in place of mayo.

Today we had our weekly volleyball game at 5:30.  I had a blueberry chobani and some pretzels before I left work to tide me over. Then we headed to a friend's house for dinner!

Chili with lots of cheese on top!

Salad and homeade bread on the side. I'm totally impressed by people that can make bread because it seriously intimidates me.  I just buy mine from great harvest.  When I got home I snacked on some dark chocolate while I made my breakfast/lunch for the following day.  I also returned my several phone calls that I missed while playing volleyball.  All of my friends are calling me because they think I should be freaking out by now since my wedding is in 10 days.  Not freaking out yet!!! haha. But who knows where I'll be next week. 

I seriously can't wait to run tomorrow!!!! My foot and my muscles are feeling a lot better and it's supposed to be a beautiful day!



Tuesday Things

Creative title I know right?? haha.  Honestly, today was nothing special minus one very big event.  I went with my mom to the bridal store today to pick up my dress and to try it on one more time!! And it's official, it acutally fits, and this time it only took one person to get me zipped up.  If you aren't aware of my dress story, it was a bit snug around my ribs and back, so I got it let out about an inch.  Good decision on my part so that I can acutally move on my wedding day.....and break it down of on the dance floor of course. 

When I got home from getting my dress Matt had started dinner on the grill.

Bunless burger with a bunch of veggies and sweet potatoes.  I'm not the biggest burger person, but every now and then I let Matt have his way lol. 

I took a day off fromw working out today and my leg muscles are very happy about this.  Here are some random things that will fill in the space I would usually talk about my workouts!

The other highlight of my day was ordering some books off of amazon to read on our honeymoon.  I still have to finish the third book of the Hunger Games, but I don't think that will take me very long.

source

I've heard this book is really good, so I'm going to give it a go. It's very unlike my usual reading material of romance novels and teenage vampire books lol. 

I also got this book, more for when I get home from the honeymoon.  I'm hoping to learn more about lifting and thought this book would help me out.

And one more random turn...here are some new bars I've found and am loving.  They were both on sale at the store so I picked up a couple.

KIND bars.  Trail mix in a bar, nuf said.

Think Thin bars.  20g of protein and 0g of sugar!! I munch on these after workouts to tide me over until dinner. I've also tried the brownie and chocolate fudge flavors, and of course I like the chocolate flavors the best.



Two Day Post

Sorry for no post last night! In all honestly, I just didn't feel like it. I was too tired and I just felt like being lazy and watching a movie with Matt, so that's what I did!  But I'm back in the swing today so I'll catch you up on what's been happening the past couple of days.

I currently cannot walk without looking like an crippled old woman because of my workout sunday morning. I wanted to get a good stregnth workout in because I knew I woulnd't have much time for another until next weekend. Well, I may have pushed it a bit too far....oops. Here's what I did:

I went through this workout 3x, then did 15 minutes of random abs work, followed by 20 minutes on the eliptical to finishe it out.  I think the thing that really got me in the end were the squat swings.

This is pretty much what I did, except that I used a single 15lb dumbbell instead of a kettleball (because my gym doesn't have any) and only used one arm instead of two.  I did 10 with each arm and boy did they end up killing my legs, but in a good way!

After my workout I went to see The Avengers with Matt.  It was alright.  I really think I should have watched Thor first, because I had no idea what was happening sometimes.  When I got home from the movie, dinner was waiting in the crockpot!

It's a little hard to see, but I made Skinnytaste's Crockpot Buffalo Chicken.  I put mine on a deli flat and made a blue cheese sauce to go with it.  I combined 2 tbsp greek yogurt, 2 tbsp low fat mayo, 1 tbsp white vinegar and two tbsp blue cheese.  Perfect addition to the sandwhich.

salad on the side.

My Monday was nothing special, besides the fact that I woke up and coulnd't move.  I decided to go the gym anyways and take it easy.  I did a 20 minute abs workout and then hopped on the treadmill.  Bad idea.  My ankle had been bothering me a bit since our trail run on Saturday, and it still hurts a bit when I run.  I finished 1.5 miles in 15 minutes and decided to stop.  I got on the stationary bike for 20 minutes instead to finish off my workout.  I biked at random setting level 8 and tried to keep my RPM above 7.0 the whole time.  Tomorrow I am taking the day off so I can go pick up my wedding dress! I'm sure my muscles will appreciate it. 

For dinner I had something quick and easy planned.

Ready made tortelloni, mixed with shrimp, veggies and pesto sauce.

YUM. 

I'm trying to think of a couple of books to get for our honeymoon.  Any recommendations out there??