Don’t Hate

Good evening!  The rest of the day ended up not like I expected.  I ended up leaving work, by my own choosing, (surprise, surprise) early so I could get some errands ran, a run in and dinner, all in a timely manner.  To be honest, my mind is honestly not anywhere focused towards work right now.  Yes, I do my job and I love it but all I can think about is the marathon!  As I biked into work this morning, I already started mentally preparing for this Saturday.  I already find myself praying unceasingly for the Lord to give me the physical and mental strength to start and FINISH this marathon.  So weird how one thing can have you so focused….

ANYWAY!!  I know you don’t want to keep hearing about all of that so I’ll get onto my lunch.  I had the rest of my frozen pot roast from Easter.  So delish!

There is some meat under the potatoes, carrots and onions!

I found myself extremely ravenous about one o’clock which is really unusual for me.  Usually I can hold out until 4 or 5 but by 2:30, I couldn’t wait any longer.  It was all over.  I needed to dig into this bad boy!

I was so excited!  These bars turned out PERFECT!!!  I was seriously impressed with myself!  Adding more brown rice syrup, peanut butter and chocolate chips was the best decision ever!  I will be making these fairly often, I believe.  So easy.  I’m going to start experimenting with other ingredients for sure so stay tuned for granola bar adventures. 🙂

I left work at 3:30, biked home, hopped in the car with the hubs and ran some errands.  We got home around 5:30 or so and decided it was time for dinner because I was extremely cranky acting due to HUNGER!  What is with me?  I could not keep my hunger at bay at all today!

Guess what dinner was?

Don’t hate!  This small Reese’s Cup blizzard needed me, I couldn’t say no!

Exercise tonight was over 3.5 miles of walking and jogging.  I coerced the hubs into going with me as we walked to DQ and then headed over to St. James Court a mile down the road.  I now feel like I need to get some chest, back and ab exercises in.  I’m feeling super productive since we tackled some much needed errands, dinner, walk/jog, getting food ready for work tomorrow, and now blogging… all before 8:15 p.m.!

I have two more days of work this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and they are super busy as is the rest of the week!  Tomorrow night we have a dinner to go to, Wednesday night we have a birthday to celebrate for a friend with dessert and games, Thursday morning I have my last run planned with one of my sweetest friends at 5:30 a.m. and my special guest comes into town!  Lots more from Thursday thru Sunday but I’ll get to more of that closer to time.  Hope you had a good one!

What’s your favorite Blizzard flavor?

Vitamin D

It’s 12:30 and I’m happy to say that I am currently soaking in some much needed Vitamin D laying out on the rooftop of our loft.

Now I had to improvise since all my bathing suits are still in storage so I’ve got a sports bra on with the straps pulled down to avoid tan lines and Soffe workout shorts on. Hey. You gotta do what you gotta do. I’d rather get some color on my skin than none at all so I had to be creative!

Anyway… work called this morning and put me on call so I fell back asleep until 9 and it was wonderful!! I called at 9 to see if they needed me to come in at 11 and they said no and that I could have the rest of the day off. Woo hoo!! I’m all about it.

So I slowly woke up while I watched two quick 30 minute shows that were on our DVR and decided to go for a run. I ended up doing 4 miles and decided it was time for a little lunch and laying out since I didn’t eat breakfast. I was sure to put on the sunscreen. Safety first!

I fixed a lunch to take on the rooftop with me. Lots of water, a PB&J and a sliced pear.

Maybe a book and a magazine will be read too. 🙂

I mean, can the weather get any better today!?

It’s so perfect. The slight breeze makes this day of laying out perfectly pleasant. Not too hot, not too chilly or overcast. I plan on soaking as much sun in as I can!

I was thinking as I was running today, I have a very special person that will be in town one week from today to cheer me on for the marathon. I’m very privileged they are traveling to come support me!! I’m keeping it a secret until they arrive but can you guess who it may be!?

Alright, Pandora is calling my name to turn it on as I enjoy this day. I’m off to do some grocery shopping later and then biking to Community Group. Oops… that reminds me! We’re supposed to bring dessert tonight. Guess I’ll be whipping something up in the kitchen later too. It’ll be quite a productive day once it’s over. I love it!!

What are your plans for today and tonight?

Or better yet, how would you improvise a swimsuit if yours was in storage and you wanted to soak up some rays?

What A Day

And what a day it has been.  After I left you all earlier, I headed for a ten mile run.  I decided to run on the dreadmill treadmill at the hotel gym instead of running along the river.  I felt better in my heart about it since there weren’t many people out and about this morning.  I love to run outside but I don’t want to be unsafe either.  Especially since it’s an area and city I don’t really know.

The hubs popped in on me and I decided to end my run at 5 miles and us walk to the local farmer’s market down the street instead.

I forgot how hard it is to run on a treadmill.  I was literally dripping with sweat due to not having an outside breeze.  The monotony of the treadmill doesn’t help things either but I like being able to up my pace easily and push myself hard.

I love they had fresh towels and bottles of water for us in the gym.  Have I mentioned how much I love this hotel?!

We walked to the farmer’s market and I loved it.  We’ve never been to a farmer’s market before and I can’t believe the first one we went to was in a whole other state and city!  Louisville has a great farmer’s market from what we hear and we will definitely be frequenting it this year!!

Lots of fresh strawberries, veggies, and herbs.

We didn’t buy anything just because we didn’t want to have to worry about it on the 13 hour drive back home but I can’t wait to go to our farmer’s market at home!!

It was time to get ready to head to Grandmother Watson’s surprise party before we knew it.  We arrived and I immediately snapped pictures of the food before everyone arrived so I wouldn’t get so many weird looks on why I was snapping pictures of food.  🙂

Fruits and veggies!

The cake!!

They were serving fried duck as a starter while we were waiting.  I tried one tiny piece.  Not my cup of tea.

One half of the spread.  Fried chicken legs and fried catfish.  I had one piece of fried catfish.

Deviled Eggs, Chicken Salad on croissants and the fried duck.

The other half of the spread.  Fresh salad and crawfish etouffee (which is a classic Louisiana dish).

Grandmother Watson finally arrived and we were so excited!  I haven’t seen her in over a year so I couldn’t wait to get some Grandmother loving!  Isn’t she the cutest?!

Hugging on her grandson (aka: my hubs)

The sweetest woman ever.  I love her.  And am thankful to be a part of the Watson family.

Here’s my plate.  Lots of salad (I ended up having two helpings), a tad bit of crawfish etouffee, a piece of fried catfish, lots of fruit, deviled eggs (I ended up eating a couple), and a slice of the chicken salad on the croissant.

They also had this shrimp dip with some amazing crackers that I snacked on later.  So good!!  No picture though.  Sorry!

Cake came a little while later.

Four of the Watson men sang Grandmother a song for her birthday.  It was too terribly sweet because it was like a little barber shop quartet.

Cousin Brian, Uncle Charley, Father-in-law Tom and the Hubs.

It was a big hit!  Lots of family pictures afterwards.

The kids.  Charley, Grandmother, D’An and Tom.

The grandkids.

Grandkids plus grandkids by marriage.

The hubs and I.

My in-laws.

The original three.

A picture with Grandmother of course.

We ended up heading over to Grandmother’s and hung out for a little while with the family before we headed back to our hotel.

I immediately put on my running gear so I could hit the treadmill again.

I pounded out 3.5 miles and decided it was time for a walk around downtown and maybe some dinner along the way.

We headed out and ended up walking and stopping at this place called Schlittz & Giggles.  The hubs ordered a ten inch personal size pepperoni pizza and I decided I didn’t want anything.  I was still pretty full from our late surprise lunch and I’m never that hungry after I immediately run.

I did eat one pepperoni though.  🙂  The hubs practically force fed it to me.  He gets worried when I turn down food, especially pizza.  You all know how much I love pizza so it was a pretty big deal that I declined.  I just wasn’t feeling it tonight and am glad I listened to my food voice instead of food noise and refrained.  I feel great and I’m getting super excited about breakfast at our hotel in the morning!  It’s going to be another early morning.  We’re waking up at 5:30 to head down to breakfast at 6 and then we’re hitting the road by 7 a.m.!  It’s going to be another long day of traveling but worth it because there is no place like home.

Hope you all had a great Saturday!  See you after breakfast hopefully!  I’m thinking I might splurge and order a made to order waffle or pancakes.  We shall see!

Do you like running on the treadmill or outside?

I’m definitely an outside runner!!

Breakfast Done Right

Before I get to the title of this blog I need to catch you all up on last night.  We had a great time with our cousins.  We went to dinner right across the street from our hotel, The Capital Grille and had a great dinner.  I decided to order a variety so I could sample and taste all without going overboard or feeling pressure to eat it all.

We ordered their garden fresh salsa to start.

I ate two small plate fulls like what you see below.  I loved the chunkiness of the salsa with all the tomatoes and fresh veggies.

I then ordered the crab cakes for my entree and ate 1 1/4 of them and gave the rest to the hubs.

He ordered the tenderloin salad which was greens tossed with bleu cheese crumbles, ceasar dressing, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and topped with medium cooked beef tenderloin.  I stole several bites of the salad.

After dinner we headed up to the rooftop of the building next door and ate dessert.  I split it between my cousins, Beccy and Stephanie and it was a perfect portion.  It’s called the Tsinful Tsunami and it’s a decadent rich flourless chocolate cake with a side of ice cream and berries.

Us on the rooftop.  So glad I wore long sleeves and a pashmina.  I was quite chilly.

Love the bridge in the background.  Thanks Beccy for such a great picture!

We got back to the hotel last night and were asleep before we knew it!  We were whooped from traveling all day.  I got an amazing night’s rest and woke up at 6:45 to get dressed for my 10 mile run this morning.  I got all ready to go and the hubs sort of begged me to eat breakfast with him first before going on my run because he was afraid he’d miss out on the good stuff if we didn’t get to eat it until the last hour it was open.  I obliged because I’m sweet that way and we headed downstairs.

I am not disappointed I chose to eat a good breakfast before my run at all.  This was a dream hotel breakfast!  The way it should be!

We were seated at this cute table.

And they had the most awesome buffet.  I was so pleased with all the healthy choices.  They had a whole selection of yogurts, granola, fruit, coffee cakes, breads, heart healthy cereals, eggs, sausage, omelet station, pancakes, etc.

Here’s my plate of food.  Lots of fruit, a Yoplait light strawberry yogurt topped with granola, and a piece of whole wheat toast.

I ate 3/4 of my yogurt, all my pineapple, most of my cantaloupe, a couple of blueberries and one bite of the strawberries.  The strawberries had no flavor at all.  So weird because they are in season now!  I did eat all my toast though.  I need some carbs in my system before my run!

I snagged this individual container of Kashi cereal.

I’ve been wanting to try this flavor because they sell it in bulk at Sam’s so maybe I’ll like it and we can get it in bulk!  I didn’t eat it this morning because I didn’t want too much dairy (due to adding the milk, obviously) because of my run but I’ll gladly take it home and try it this week.

I absolutely am so satisfied and feel like I’ll be fueled up for my run in a little bit!  I am more excited because we’ll eat breakfast again tomorrow and I might be splurging a little more… say one… maybe some pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits?  Knowing me I’ll go light again but I love they had such a great breakfast!  It makes for a great start to the day!  Alright, I’m off to digest for a little longer and then hit the pavement running!  I can’t wait until we see Grandmother today and surprise her for her birthday!!  It’s going to be a great day!  I don’t know when I’ll be able to post again but keep checking back.  You never know.  Hope you all have a great Saturday.

P.S. Can you believe that at this time in 2 weeks I will be in the midst of completing my first marathon?!  I cannot!!

What’s your ideal hotel breakfast?  Decadent items that you would normally never treat yourself to at home or healthy conscious foods?

Knotted Up

Once again, I wasn’t asleep until after 11 o’clock last night. This week has been terribly “off” for us because we’ve had something planned every night! Which is always awesome when you have such great friends to hang out with but I have to say I’m thankful for tonight. No plans. Just a regular night at home.

I biked into work today in hopes that it won’t rain later like the weathermen say it’s going to so I can bike home. I truly love being back in the routine of biking. It gets my blood pumping in the morning and sets my metabolism up to be increased for the whole day. And I’m reducing my carbon footprint while saving money on gas. Gotta love it.

Breakfast was an unexpected bagel. A medical rep provided bagels this morning and I happily accepted. I cut my whole wheat bagel in half and saved the other half for tomorrow. I popped it in the toaster at work and then put a spread if cream cheese on it. Yum yum. I just love bagels!

I also ate a nanner for some fruit intake.

Lunch was the other half of my dinner from last night. Turkey burger with lettuce, onion, tomato, relish, mustard and ketchup. The other half of my French fries too.

Snack was my first taste test of store bought yogurt. I desperately want to love yogurt but have never really like any that people have had me taste. Since I loved the chick-fil-a yogurt I tried a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start buying individual containers at the store and trying those.

I started out with Danon plain yogurt and didn’t like it at all.

So after a couple taste testing bites, I threw it out and tried the Danon strawberry. Loved it! I mixed in my granola and was good to go. Score!

I couldn’t wait to get home because (a) a storm was rolling in and I wanted to be able to bike home instead of having the hubs come pick me up and (b)  I couldn’t wait to have a night at home with no plans but to eat, do some sort of working out and getting into bed and getting to sleep by 10!

I came home to a great dinner.  We did a light simple salad tonight tossed with balasamic vinaigrette and topped with baby carrots, olives, bacon and cheese.

The hubs baked up some whole wheat tortillas and made them into chips.  I spread some Laughing Cow on there and it was perfection!!

I had some dessert of course!  Thin Mint Girl Scout ice cream?!  Absolutely!  In a martini glass?  Even better!

I am completely satisfied.  After a long day at the hospital, it was the perfect treat to end it with.  I’m off to do some arm, shoulder and ab exercises and then hit the hay!  My right calf is pretty knotted up since my race this past Saturday so I’m resting it this week.  I do have a training run when I’m out of town this weekend.  It’s only 10 miles so I know I’ll be fine but  I hate to push it now when I’ve made it this far having avoided injury.  I feel blessed that I have a body that can run these long distances and handle it well so I’m going to stay thankful and wait until my calf muscles release from this knot and feels normal again. Happy Hump Day!  See you tomorrow friends!

I’ll leave you with a picture of this sweet thing.  He’s saying a late Happy Easter!!

But now he’s ready to watch some TV.  Gotta go!!

What fun bowls, glasses, plates, etc. do you like to put your food/dessert in?