Author Archives: Emily

My “First” Run

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It’s a late evening, but I’m not that worried about bedtime because Adam and I actually took a long nap this afternoon!  We haven’t been sleeping very well and it felt great to catch some daytime zzz’s.

Post-nap, we headed over to the gym for my 1st run in 2months!  I hopped on the treadmill for 5minutes walking, 5minutes at a slow jog, and 5minutes of walking for 1mile and 15minutes.  I can’t even tell you how hard it was to make myself stop running!  I ended with 15minutes of strength training.  My fracture didn’t hurt at all, but I had a twinge higher up in my leg so I did use a cold pack when I got home.

I was dying to eat dinner, so I snaked on a big handful of dried apricots while I waited.

Dinner was mostly an excuse to demolish my daily veggie goal.

Here is the recipe link, but I basically topped thin ww spaghetti with roasted broccoli, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

Delish!  P.S.  I also ate a small serving of dark chocolate whilst Buffy watching.

Veggies eaten today: 3.5cups

Great News

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I hope everyone is having a great Monday.  Mine has been full of all sorts of good news so far –

  • I got a 95% on the final and ended up with an A- in Anthropology
  • I finished my first set of Chemistry classes with an A in 102
  • My leg hasn’t hurt for the 3rd day in a row (more on what that means below)
  • Our plans are all set to visit Adam’s brother this weekend

As you might guess, I’m in a pretty good mood 😀  And all good days start with good breakfasts.

Stonyfield Blueberry Fat Free Yogurt with All-Bran Wheat Flakes (my final sample box) and fresh blackberries.

I’m going to be volunteering again for the next three weeks, so after breakfast I headed off to the hospital.  It felt so good to be back I ended up staying long over my time-commitment.

My late lunch was a veggie sensation.

I finally got to try the Nut-Butter Crusted Parsnip Fries blogworld has been raving about.

I tossed 1.5cups of peeled and chopped ‘snips in 2T of SunButter, then sprinkled them with salt and baked at 400* for 30minutes.  Here is the original recipe.  Angela was right, they are life-changing; I want to eat this every day!

I also had 1/2 cup of vegetarian baked beans.

Eat More Veggies Tip # 1 – Don’t be afraid to test their versatility, most veggies can go savory or sweet.

Eat More Veggies Tip # 2 – Canned veggies are just as healthy, and because they are non-perishable to easy to always have them on hand.

While I wait for lunch to digest, I will tell what about what I consider to be the best news of all: I can run again!!!!!  My doctor told me that my leg wouldn’t stop hurting until the fracture was fully healed, so 3 days without pain should mean I’m good to go.  I want to be able to keep running, so I’m going to be VERY careful.  i.e. –

  • icing as much as possible
  • stretching every day
  • working on leg strength training 3x a week
  • never running 2 days in a row
  • taking things really really slowly.  This first week I’m only going to let myself run for 5minutes.  And I’m not going to cross-train either until I’m sure I’m really healed.

So in just a bit I’ll be off to the gym, so exciting!  I’ll let you know how it goes over dinner.

Veggies eaten so far today:  2cups

Gotten any good news lately you’d like to share?  Brag away!

May 10th – May 16th: Eat 2 Cups of Vegetables Each Day

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I’m challenging myself to eat a more healthy diet this month.  You can check this post for more information, but essentially I am turning to the USDA’s food pyramid for inspiration.  This week’s goal is to hit or surpass the daily recommended allowance of veggies.

Here is a chart from MyPyramid.gov with the recommended allowances –

Since I’m a woman in my 20s my goal will be to eat at least 2.5 cups of veggies each day this week.  The pyramid divides the veggie requirement into 4 subgroups – dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, dry beans and peas, and starchy vegetables – I’ll try to spread my consumption across all four groups.

Here are some examples of what “1cup” of means for the common veggies-

The website has good tips for including mores servings into your diet.  Just like last week with fruit, I’ll being give my own ideas for squeezing in vegetables as well.

[All images and facts in this post sourced from http://www.mypyramid.gov]

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

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It is soooooo windy here today!  I’m a little afraid that if I take a nap I’ll wake up exclaiming “we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto!”  Or maybe that’s just on my mind because the latest episode of “Bones” had a witch in red slippers 🙂

However,  as always, hunger > bad weather so we braved the gales and headed to the grocery store.  Our weekly salad bar trip is kind of my favorite date!

I didn’t eat breakfast so I really made lunch count!  A little bit of general tso chicken,

a big scoop of ginger eggplant (the same pretty healthy, super tasty stuff from last week),

a bit of broccoli,

and some delicious fresh fruit, i.e. mango, watermelon, and pineapple.

Yums!  It made perfect fuel for sale scouring.  I also had a few undocumented samples.

Now we are going to follow the yellow brick road on down to the movie theater.  Hope everyone else is having a great Saturday!

Fruit eaten so far today: ~1.5cups

*****Updated to add –

Everything I didn this weekend seemed to be very picture unfriendly – dark movie theatres, bars, etc – so I decided to spare you the bad pictures and start fresh on Monday.  Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Carbs and Cola

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I’m feeling much better today; thankfully I took aspirin early enough that I never developed a full-fledged migraine.  I got a lot of migraines as a kid, and often they would hurt so bad that the pain would cause me to throw up.  Thankfully the husband is really diligent about getting me medicine as soon as he sees me rubbing my eye.

I did, however, have a strong enough headache that the only foods that appealed to me were carbs and diet coke.  I just went with it and ordered a Turkey Grill (sourdough, swiss cheese, turkey, tomato, thousand island dressing) with fries from the bar down the street.

I also ate a small bowl of popcorn.

Two confessions – 1. I totally would have eaten more than that but we ran out; 2. I think it’s kind of hysterical that what I consider to be so small a bowl it’s hardly worth it is probably just a normal serving size to most people!

What foods sound good to you when you are feeling sick?  I’m pretty much always down for a CokeZero.  If I order a non-diet, clear soda than you know I’m really sick.

Mousecapades

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I have a terrible migraine so my culinary adventures tonight are going to be less than exciting.  I’ll be back in the morning when I’m not clutching my head and moaning.

I’ll leave you with this –

If that video didn’t make you laugh and cry you are a monster.  Period.

Yes, Of Course I’ll Hold

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I gritted my teeth and silently pictured the people I had to deal with on the phone today getting punched in the face and got all my to-do’s done.  I also watched some tv 😉  Anyone else into “Private Practice” this season?  I starting bawling at the end the most recent episode.

I ate while I lived vicariously through the lives of the tiny people on my laptop.

My tasty fruit salad contained 2 kiwis and a honey tangerine.

I also dug into the stewed tamarinds.

Tamarinds grow inside a pod, and to eat one you have to split the pod and suck the meat off of the seeds.  Even when they are stewed, West Indian style you still have to worry about the seeds.

The deliciousness is worth the mess though, I promise.

I also dug into the freezer for something I bought on super sale last week.

Weight Watchers pizza bagels sounded a little iffy, but for less than $1 I figured it was worth a shot.

They were actually pretty good.

Back to the couch!

What was the last company that put you on hold?  How long did you have to wait?  I feel like everything I’ve done this week has been extra ridiculous, but one time this summer Budget put me on hold for 45minutes!  Their company is so unprofessional I finally just gave up trying to get reimbursed for the insurance money they owe me.

Fruit eaten so far today:  2+cups (I’m not really sure how to count the tamarinds)

A Second Go

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I can’t really talk about it on the blog, but there are a few things going on right now that I’m really frustrated about.  Which I wouldn’t mention at all, except that I’m pretty sure my irritation has something to do with why I started my morning with a HUGE spoonful of Biscoff Spread.  Just putting that out there…

Now, breakfast!  Last time I tried oats in a jar I was left underwhelmed.  But every blogger can’t be wrong, so I decided to give it another go.  To give the trial a fair shake, I changed my methods up as well.  This time I used a jar with more than just a few scrapings of sunbutter.

Last night I poured 1/3cup oats and 1/2cup skim milk into the jar, and this morning I stirred in 1/4cup Stonyfield Low Fat Strawberry Yogurt; OvernightOIAJ!

I also topped my bowl jar off with 1/2cup of fresh strawberries.

The verdict?  They were right!   How can this not be good?

I’m not sure what today will bring, this weekend is pretty free.  I had a fun project on the agenda but I might put it off and catch up on tv, whilst sulking of course.

What was the very first thing you ate this morning?  I killed that Biscoff spoon before I even brushed my teeth 🙂

Fruit eaten so far today: .5cup