Author Archives: Emily

A Southern Feast

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I’m trying to experiment with different mid-race fuels so I downed this Lemon Sublime Goo right before we headed to the gym.

Unfortunately I ended up having a frustrating, pathetic work-out.  I wanted to do the same treadmill interval set as yesterday but my legs were not having it.  My left ankle was killing me and my whole leg just felt week.  I ended up stopping at 24minutes (2miles).  Then I moved to the elliptical for 16minutes at level 6, hills.  Lame.

In spite of its patheticness my workout did leave me starving, I ate a spoonful of pb as soon as I got home.

After icing my legs and a quick shower I made a dinner that was so not lame!

Yummy chicken salad (recipe below),

buttermilk biscuits from this Cooking Light recipe, split with honey and Smart Balance Light,

and a side of sautéed okra.

It was my own healthy Southern feast!

I knew the okra and chicken would rock but I was seriously so impressed with how well the biscuits turned out; I’m a baker!  They were perfectly biscuit-y and healthy!

awesome chicken salad, serves 3

  • 12oz cooked chicken breast, shredded
  • 2T lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup plus 2T Miracle Whip
  • 1/3 cup toasted walnuts
  • 1 cup grapes, halved

What is your favorite chicken salad recipe?  I like this one a lot but I’m also partial to curried chicken salad.

Better than Bonobo’s

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Today has been another mish-mash day.  I feel like this whole week is going to be crazy until I take my tests next Thursday and Friday.  It doesn’t help that my insomnia is back in full-force: going to bed at 10:30 meant falling asleep past 2am and waking up after 10.   Unfortunately, I actually haven’t even really started studying yet because the whole day has been swamped with errands. 

Thankfully we did have time for a bit of fun during those errands.  Like getting a Valentine’s gift from my parents when we went to the post office.

And enjoying lunch from Wegman’s salad bar.

Veggies = steamed broccoli, squash, and mushroom.

Protein = a tiny bit each tofu, tandori chicken, and general tso’s chicken.

We enjoyed a treat post shopping, Green and Black Milk Chocolate Peanut Bar.

My parents have been raving about this ever since we gave my dad one for Christmas, it has carmelized peanuts and sea salt!  My portion-

My lunch was pretty small, especially since I didn’t have breakfast so I knew I needed a snack as well.  We turned this,

into this.

The world’s best smoothie contained the flesh and water from 1 young coconut, with 6oz of lowfat plain yogurt, half a tray of ice, a drizzle of honey, and a huge shake of cinnamon.

Mmmmn.  Seriously, people who want to try the coconut chai from Bonobo’s, make this!

The rest of the day is going to be some sort of mix of studying, cleaning, dinner and gym.  See ya later.

Coconut, love it or hate it?  I LOVE it!  I can’t think of a single application I don’t adore it in.

Fancy Friday

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It’s officially the weekend!  My laptop recycling went well, they even gave me back the hard drive which I thought was pretty cool.

I had a coupon to Aunt Annie’s so while we were at the mall we enjoyed some pretzels.

I had 2/3, with mustard.

When we got home we got right now work on dinner which ended up being a pretty fancy affair.

Salad with homemade dressing and oven “fried” brie.

And the husband made salmon patties.

It all came together to make quite the meal.

Oven “Fried” Brie

  • President Brie Logs
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs
  1. Cut brie log into 1/2inch slices.
  2. Dip slices in egg and then dredge in bread crumbs.
  3. Place breaded brie on a foiled, sprayed cooking sheet and bake at 450* for 10minutes.

The dressing was inspired by our “finished” container of Jack Daniels mustard.

To the remains of the mustard I added 2t clementine oil, 2t red wine vinegar and shook.  I also pulled out the last of the 1000island dressing from last week for salmon patty dipping.

Adam and I are watching the latest episode of “Bones” and then the plan is to be in bed before 10:30.  Tomorrow is a busy day.

Do you ever make your own salad dressing.  Any combos you’d like to recommend.

Mish-Mash Day

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Today has been a strange kind of mish-mash, backwards schedule day.  Apparently what we learned last night is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns are a bad idea right before bedtime: I had the strangest dreams all night and I woke up very late, completely cocooned!  However, once I extracted myself from the bed sheets I got right down to business.

While I was organizing some school files (I have two tests this week!) I drank this Sugar Free Rockstar.

Actually, I stretched that baby out for a couple hours because I was still drinking it while I did house stuff with the husband.

We had a 3pm tax meeting with H&R Block, and when we got home I headed to the gym.  I have 30 days to get in cardiovascular shape for the half marathon while hopefully not hurting any of my various leg problems.  I’ve decided the best plan is to do several long workouts a week while very slowly upping my running-walking ratio.  Plus strength training will be key.

Backing up, pre-gym I snacked on some grapes and a KIND bar on the way to tax-dealings.

At the gym I did some running on the treadmill.  2/1 run/walk intervals x18.  With warm up and cool down my totals were 63minutes / 640calories / and 5+ miles (the treadmil shuts off at 60minutes).

Now, post-shower, we are heading to the mall to deal with buyer’s insurance and donate my old laptop to charity.  Speaking of good causes, are you wearing red today?

What do you do with your defunct tech stuff?  I try to donate or recycle everything I can.  Staples will even give you a gift certificate in exchange for used up printer cartridges.

Attacking the Problem

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It’s official, I need to pull it together.  Before I even start this post, I want to apologize in advance if I offend anyone.

It’s normal (ok) for me to be pissed about the two years of my life I lost to my terrible teaching job.  It’s normal to be pissed that I keep having physical issues that hold me back from running.  It’s normal to be pissed that I had to have foot surgery.  It’s normal to be pissed – even though I very happily make sacrifices for the husband – that Adam’s medical school schedule means I can’t have a job right now.

BUT, and this is a pretty big but (man that’s 8 kinds of a pun!)

That anger isn’t helping me.  And my version of “coping” has led to the fact that my pants barely fit and I feel trapped and itchy in my own skin.  And the fact that I probably will not be able to finish my half marathon.  And those two facts make me far sadder and angrier than any of the other stuff.

However, I knew all this before.  Maybe not with as much clarity but these thoughts have all been brewing.  What caused them to bubble over today?

I saw a severely overweight woman in the library at school today and had a mild panic attack.  I seriously had to sit down and catch my breath.  That kind of reaction is clear indicator that I need to make my health a priority again.

Let me just add in here that I’ve always had a really strong reaction to people I perceive to be unhealthy or isolated.  I don’t know what that is about, I’ve never lost someone close to me due to unhealthy habits and I’ve never been unpopular.  Nonetheless, when I worked at Cold Stone in high school and severely overweight kids would come in with their parents I would go in the back and cry.

The main point here is that I think I’m finally realizing my reality (or something that sounds less Dr. Phill).  And I’ll be back tomorrow, in better spirits.

Stressed is Just Desserts Spelled Backwards

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We’ll get to my stress eating in a minute, first let’s back it up to this morning.  I had my first ChemII lab and quiz this morning and I was pretty nervous.  I might have gotten in bed at 10pm last night (go me!) but I didn’t fall asleep for at least another 1.5hours.  I wanted to do a bit of review in the car this morning so I made a nice portable smoothie –

1 frozen banana + frozen blackberries + Yoplait low fat Blackberry Yogurt + half scoop chocolate Amazing Grass + big pour light Chocolate Almond Breeze + small squeeze honey.  Plus, it matched my outfit!

The quiz went pretty well and I finished my lab procedure quickly enough that I had time to finish up my lab report before noon.  And I cracked away at some of my reading while I waited for Adam.  An awesome morning.  Until I drove home.

I HATE parking at our apartment!  It’s not a matter of getting a close spot (I really don’t care, I’ll happily walk) it’s that we live on the business section so 95% of the parking is $$$.  The areas that aren’t 1hour metered are filled with fire hydrants, drive ways, and other cars.  Arrrrrrgh!!!!!  I made 3 loops around the ‘hood to no avail.  I parked at Walgreens for a bit and walked around to kill time, not once, but twice.  Finally, 2loops after that, I found a spot that’s about a mile away from our apartment.  And I’m not even all that comfortable with it, I’m pretty nervous about getting a ticket.

And I tell you that fun story to explain why lunch looked a bit like this –

You can go ahead and assume I finished off most of that GIANT bag of chips.  Plus this –

Oh yes I am in training for a half marathon.  Ha!

After my crapfest (and a looong phone call with one of my best friends, who I’ll be staying with in Orlando in a month actually) I feel a little better.  I’d feel a lot better if I’d soothed my soul with some carrots but somethings just don’t work out.

When was the last time you ate your feelings?  What’d you have and did you regret it

P.S. Not surprisingly I have a bit of a tummy ache!  I’ll be back tomorrow.

Combos are Like Rocket Fuel for Studying

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I have my first Chemistry quiz at 8am sharp tomorrow (as well as my first ChemII lab experiment!) so I’ll keep this short and sweet.  I hate doing one loooooong post, I like 2x or 3x days better.

Breakfast was delicious.

The last small serving of carrot cake pancakes smeared with sunbutter and maple syrup.

And a Cara Cara Orange.  I think I’m in love!  This had such a perfect balance of sour and sweet and it’s PINK.

My appetite has been crazy lately and I was so hungry I wanted to chew off my arm within minutes of finishing breakfast!  The only solution was to make my favorite snack of all time –

Cedar’s pita chips with feta spread.  I finished off the feta spread today and I just might have shed a few tears about it!

I randomly decided it was a fantastic idea to watch Make it or Break it in the middle of the day, which meant that lunch was an on-the-go affair eaten during Anthropology.

Naked Red Machine Juice and an Almond and Cashew KIND Plus Bar.

Plus the snack of champions a few hours later in Chemistry.

Combos and diet soda are always a winning pair 🙂

Dinner-dinner was leftover Cocoa-Coconut Chili (1C serving),

topped with 2% colby jack, 0% Fage, and some jalopenos.

Yum!  This is much healthier than the jalopeno and cheddar nachos I was inhaling a while back but just as tasty.

The plan for the evening is to study a bit and make it to bed before 10.  I do NOT feel prepared, I got a lot of catching up to do before my two tests next week.  I’ll let you know how the quiz went tomorrow at lunch, hasta!

Are you a combos fan?  I dare a 90’s child to say no!

P.S. My inner-fatty wouldn’t stop screaming so I ate this snack while I studied –

I want to call bad lighting but it really did look like that!  (Approximately) 1 ripe banana + 2T 0% Fage + 1T sunbutter + cinnamon + crumbled caramel filled cookie.

P.P.S. I completely forgot to do a Fest Check-in

  • Food – pretty good, if I had packed an apple or something I could have skipped the Combos
  • Exercise – meh, I chose not to work out in leiu of studying but this ties into T
  • Sleep – if I actually brush my teeth and go to bed now (9:40ish) pretty damn good
  • Time management – sucessful people do not watch tv shows about teenage gymnasts in the middle of the day!

Carb Craving

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When my hunger did finally hit this afternoon it did so with a vengeance.  All I wanted was carbs.  We can just pretend I was carbo-loading for all that intense working out I do, cough cough 🙂

I had a bowl of Adam’s pasta topped with 2% colby.

And then a single-serving bowl of Frosted Flakes.

With some Kashi Go Lean Crunch to finish off the milk.

Around 5 we headed out to The Spot to do some studying.  I did dinner there.

Fountain diet coke and a Mike’s (egg and cheese) Bagel Sandwich.

I told myself that if I worked out once I got home (after 10!) I could eat a cookie, so I bought a cookie at the gas station on the way home to ensure that I wouldn’t shirk out on my work out.

I Netflix’d Crunch: Pick Your Spot Pilates.  I did abs, buns, and thighs for a 30minute workout.  As much as I enjoy this DVD, I think it is too easy for a “real” workout, I’m going to try to incorporate it more for stretching or mornings.

And now I’m enjoying this hottness before shower and bed-time –

FEST Check-in, Day 4:  Most of this is N/A since almost fainting is clearly never in the plans.  I am proud of myself for getting in a work out though, no matter how small.

What is your favorite kind of carbs?  Mine is definitely NYC bagels, yum!