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!!



New Butt Kicking Circuit Workout!!

Last night when we got home from Marie's graduation I had this waiting at my doorstep:

I was so excited I attempted to flip through the whole thing in one night, until I realized it was over 400 pages long.  So let's just say I SKIMMED it. 

I was most interested in the section for total body workout moves.  I made my own little circuit workout for this morning at the gym.  I did three sets of this workout with a set of cardo work that I found on pinterest.

Big Book Of Exercises Full Body Circuit Workout

Dumbbell Straight Leg Deadlift To Row (15 dumbbells, 12 reps)

Single Arm Dumbbell Swing (single 12 lb dumbbell, 10 reps each arm)

Seated dumbbell overhead tricep extension (8lb dumbbells, 12 reps)

Side Lunge and Press (8lb dumbbells, 10 reps each side)

Split Stance Dumbbell Curl (10lb dumbbells)

Single Arm Dumbbell Snatch (15lb dumbbell, 10 reps each side)

My favorite new move was the single arm dumbbell snatch:

I loved this. I felt like I was in crossfit! PS I want to try crossfit so bad but it is rediculously overpriced.  $150/month...I think I'll stick with my $24/month gym membership.  Matt and I watched the Crossfit Games on ESPN this weekend and we were both like "I want to try that so bad!!"  Maybe someday when we are rich and famous haha.

Sooo anyways...after each round of my circuit workout I did this short but very intense cardio workout from the creator of Insanity, Shaun T.  This workout consisted of 7 different moves that you do for 30 seconds each with no rest in between.  Let me tell you, my thighs were on fire after this.

Pushup Jacks

Power Knees (30 sec each knee)

Ski Abs

Tricep Dips

Plank Squats

Power Jumps

Power Squats

I'm going to be totally honest with you, I couldn't do teh pushup jacks, so I cut them out of my workout.  My favorite move were the plank squats.

After three rounds of the circuit workout and three rounds of the cardio workout, I was dead. It took me 45 minutes all together. I ended my workout with about 10 minutes of ab work and lots of stretching.

The rest of my day was spent running errands out the wazoo.  The high point in my errands?? Purchasing these wedges from DSW (I had a $20 coupon).

And making homeade turkey meatballs for dinner :)

No method to the madness really.  Turkey, oregano, basil, an egg, panko, and parmesean.  Baked for 25 minutes at 400 degrees.

That's right, I eat my spaghetti with a spoon.  All real Italians do lol. 

I only have 3 days of work this week and lots of little things to get done. I asked Matt to proof read the place cards that I made, and for one husband and wife I actually wrote Mr. and Mr. instead of Mr. and Mrs.  Oops. haha.



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.