A Case of the Monday's

The morning started out well with week 2/session 1 of the C25K (5k training program) and a yummy protein smoothie. Then the day pretty much went down hill from there. :-(
I dropped my 5 day old cell phone in the water and now it's acting weird.... bleh. Not happy.

For lunch, the office ordered in Chili's. I got the Southwest Cobb salad of which I forgot to specify grilled chicken instead of fried.  I ended up scraping the breading off most of the chicken and added it to my salad that way. Ugh...

Grocery shopping was uneventful but at least I'm stocked up with lots of good-for-me goodies! my DH (dear husband) ate left over pizza for dinner by the time I got home, so I threw together a salad for myself.  The salad consisted of mixed greens, tomatoes, fresh roasted zucchini and a homemade balsamic dressing. I'll admit that I'm not real big on salads. Well, I guess I'm not big on them when made at home. I prefer one from a restaurant that's full of goodies! Basically what mine lacked this evening.... LOL

Eh, it wasn't terrible but it wasn't great.

After dinner, I chopped veggies and whipped up some homemade hummus so that I don't have an excuse that the healthy items aren't convenient, later in the week.  While the kitchen was disassembled, I went ahead and prepared my breakfast for tomorrow morning as well. I made this Breakfast "cookie" and will taste test it in the morning.

Lets hope Tuesday is better than Monday. After all, I only have two days left of the work week since I get Thursday and Friday off for my birthday!! That right there is reason enough to make tomorrow better than today. :o) One step closer to sweet freedom!

Are you a "salad person"?

Tell me in the comments section!

I never really thought about it until today and hate to admit that I'll have to find other methods of including veggies into my daily routine.  Oh well, bring on another challenge. :o)

Bottom of the Barrel

We're scraping the bottom of the barrel for food in our household today.

I was somehow able to scrape together some frozen strawberries, blueberries, ice, soy milk, chunky peanut butter and chocolate protein powder to make a smoothie this morning. Thank goodness I thought to whip this up before walking out the door to Lucy's birthday party, as it held me over and kept me from over indulging in the goodies!

Grocery shopping has been pushed aside for far too long so we had to order a pizza for dinner.  I was given little time to make the healthiest order from Pizza Hut (I know you're laughing , but I think I made a decent choice) and chose a thin crust pizza with light cheese, chopped tomatoes and grilled chicken. You gotta give me some points for creativity on that one! ;-)

Thanksgiving leftovers served us well over the past few days but that has come to an end.  Before I make the trek to the grocery store (remember....I live in the sticks and the closest grocery store is 25 minutes away) I like to make a grocery list to make the most of the trip. For some reason, the task of preparing a grocery list and planning out meals, stresses the heck out of me! I tend to over think the whole thing and give up in frustration.

I've taken a few deep breaths and several breaks from making this weeks list and finally have it completed.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all planned out, this way I'll have plenty of healthy options in the house instead of having to scrounge up whatever I can find! Speaking from experience, planning is everything when eating good-for-you food. 

My food goal this week: Include a fruit or veggie at every snack and meal. - Two to three snacks/per day  and three meals/per day.

In addition, I'm going to try some new good-for-you recipes that are (hopefully) going to be full of flavor and requests for seconds by the hubby! ;-)

I'll report back with results (and maybe even a recipe if all goes well) at the end of the week.

Do YOU plan out your meals and make a list before hitting the grocery store, or do you wing it? Tell me in the 'comments' section!

A Turkey Coma

Raise your hand if you were in a turkey coma today. Yep, just as I thought. I KNEW I wasn't the only one. It's a good thing most of us had the day off to recover from the festivities of Thanksgiving.

My family and close friends know that I'm not one to sit around, watch TV, take a nap, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with any of these tasks; I've just never enjoyed partaking in any of them. ;-P I always have something "better" to do and would rather keep "busy".  With this being said, today was quite the opposite, as I chose to partake in a day of rest... for the most part. Since Derek is sick, the couch and TV were our good friends today.  At one point, I made an effort to somewhat organize one of the upstairs bedrooms and attempted to move the treadmill to the other side of the room. I don't even think I was able to move it an inch before I gave up. I'll have to wait for my man to feel better so he can handle it. 

Around 3:30, I decided to get to work on my niece's cookies for her 1st birthday party.  They are going to be individually packed and handed out as party favors.  Aren't they adorable?!

I have a confession to make. Brace yourself. I taste tested. A lot. A lot of taste testing was done. OIY!

Needless to say, this day of a turkey coma must come to an end and I must pick myself up, dust off the sugar dust and move forward with my good-for-me goals. Who's with me?

My dad and I have planned to go for a nice walk tomorrow, to get some fresh air and make a good-for-us difference.

What are you doing this weekend to "recover" from the festivities?

Today is for counting blessings, not calories! ;o)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the famous Kuda Pumpkin Cheesecake, so I slaved worked in the kitchen last night, until midnight to get that baby done. I even set my alarm for 2:00 am to get up and put the cake in the fridge after it cooled for two hours. (Now that's what I call a crazy woman dedication!) Here she is in all her glory. ;-)

In case you were wondering, this very special cake is unique in that it has zero calories, no trans fat and is actually very healthy for you. NOT! But that's what the holidays are for, right? Pace yourself the days leading up to the big day and actually enjoy (in moderation) instead of depriving yourself.  That's my philosophy anyways. ;o)

As I mentioned in my first post, I have a healthy and able body of which I am very thankful for. We (or at least I do) tend to take such things for granted and forget to care for this blessing through nutrition and exercise. Thank you, Lord, for my health.

I'm thankful this Thanksgiving for...

• the gift of life that my father was given through a kidney transplant just two months ago. 
• my marriage and knight in shining armor who continually sweeps me off my feet
• my family. Each and every one of them
• the example my parents have set for their children through their marriage over the past 25 years
  
• my husband's job and mine
• the roof over my head
• the food in our kitchen
• our troops who risk their lives each and every day for our freedom

What are YOU thankful for today?

Leave a comment of at least one thing you're thankful for.

First Things First

Set a goal! I'm setting a goal that's not quite as intimidating as a whole marathon.... I learned my lesson on that.

GOAL: Run a 5k

I've decided to follow the 9 week training program, Couch to 5k.  I started the training four days ago on Sunday the 22nd, so I should complete the program the week of January 11, 2010 if all goes as planned. This is of course pending no sickness or unforeseen circumstances that would hinder my three times a week training.

The next step is to choose an actual 5k to run. My search for this 5k will begin soon with hopefully a decision by Christmas.  I'm aiming for a Spring run, when the weather begins to warm up.

I plan to generally train on Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's in the morning before work. This week, I changed up the schedule because of Thanksgiving.  As long as I commit to three days a week, I think I'll be on my way to forming a habit, making exercise come easier and more natural - one of my ultimate goals.

The first week of training went like this:
Sunday - Week One, Session One
Tuesday - Week One, Session Two (After run munchies: Fresh oatmeal with agave nectar, cinnamon and peanut butter for breakfast)
Wednesday - Week One, Session Three (After run munchies: One egg with red bell pepper and freshly grated cheddar cheese) Mmmmm protein! ;-P

Much to my surprise, the training this week came quite easily to me. I'm hoping this is going to remain true throughout the process. ;-) Hey! A girl can dream, can't she?!

Why dontcha (don't ya) just run!

I have every intention of making healthful decisions TODAY that will forever effect me TOMORROW.

This life statement sounds so good, but putting those words into action is where the difficulty comes in. That my friends, is the very reason I created this blog. It's a place to track my progress and encourage me to make the right decisions each day in regards to food and fitness.

For the past twelve months, I have made several promises to myself regarding the sport of running. My interest in running was peaked when a friend of mine was training for the Chicago Marathon last year. I went on a few runs with her and really, thoroughly enjoyed it but was discouraged by many things of which I'll cover in future posts.

The Disney Marathon in January 2010 was first on the agenda. I was "ready" to begin my training for this marathon, with little to no past experience in running long distances. This run was going to be for my dad, as I was going to raise money and awareness for the PKD foundation; the organization that represents the kidney disease my grandfather, father, brother and aunts have all been plagued with. The fund and awareness raising was going to be particularly for my dad since he was in the process of getting on the transplant list for a new kidney. More on that later.

Needless to say, my imagination got ahead of me and reality soon sank in when I realized just how long a marathon is and how much dedication it takes to train. The monster thought of a marathon squashed my ambitions and I quit before I even started.

Quitting the marathon training before it even started didn't take away the fact that I wanted to run. I would long to have a treadmill at home so I could run whenever I pleased. A treadmill would fix my dilemma. I could hop on there whenever I pleased. It would fix my inability to just lace up and run out the front door since I live in the sticks (country) and not in a neighborhood fit for running. Right?

WRONG! That treadmill has sat upstairs for a good two months, only being used about 10 times. What excuse do I have now? I don't have children yet, I work "normal" hours from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday and have a perfectly able and healthy body. That's right... there are none.

I've decided that if I can't "figure it out" now, before children and before life gets any crazier (which it will, I'm sure it will, it's inevitable) then I'll never figure it out. That may be a harsh and close minded statement, but I really think that it's only going to get harder from here; so why not (why dontcha) start today?