not in the mood - 10 randoms

i'm just not in the mood for blogging ... yesterday OR today!


so here is a quick list of what's going DOWN:

1) blog meet up girls - i posted this question on FB but no one is responding - do you have any sort of itinerary for drinks/dinner on friday or saturday. i want to join you for dinner one night (probably saturday) but i need to plan ahead, if possible. no stress if you don't have a plan yet.

2) I REGISTERED FOR THE MARATHON! no backing out now. training begins the week of the 22nd. i know i can do it even though i've never run that far before - it will be my greatest physical achievement ... SO FAR!

3) i am full time back on the oats. no green monsters this week. sorry greenies but i missed oatmeal in the morning - so filling and delicious.

4) tomorrow at work we are having a potluck to test recipes for an upcoming cookbook. i am making a potato salad. i have to shop at lunch for potatoes, eggs, cucumber and avocado oil. i have never tried this avocado oil before - it better not be expensive!

5) speaking of expensive, i am now very poor due to my car repairs. but i put it on my amex with air miles so just think about how many air miles i'll be getting. silver lining on a cloud? not really.

6) last night i did an old workout in my condo gym. i used to do this all the time. it goes like this:

5 minutes walking (speed 4.0, incline 1%)
10 minutes running (speed 6.0 to 6.2 mph)
break for 5 minutes of arm weights
10 minutes running
break for 5 minutes of arm weights
10 minutes of running
5 minutes walking (speed 4.0)
a few more minutes of walking (reducing speed) until i reach a total of 4 miles
100 sit ups (different kinds)
stretches
20 push ups (girl ones)

it's a fast workout, just over an hour but effective. and since you only run for 10 minutes at a time, it's not too boring and your heart rate stays elevated for longer than just running alone.

7) if there is a sobey's supermarche near you - go there right now. go to the frozen food section and buy the sobey's brand lean chicken and cheese meatballs. they are 100 calories for 4 and the tastiest meatballs i have ever had. last night i made dinner with sauteed broccoli, baby tomatoes and roasted red peppers from a jar, and six meatballs cooked in the oven, all drizzled with garlic salt and chili lime hot sauce. yum yum. i was hungry later though, so be warned if you try it at home.

8) last night i watched benjamin button and it was good.

9) in exactly one week and let's say 7 hours i'll be watching no doubt live WOOHOO!

10) in exactly one week and ten or eleven hours i'll be 28 instead of 27. noooooooooooooo! can't i stay young 4eva? will it help if i type like a youngster? 4eva? i think step one would be not to say "youngster." ;)

and one bonus - tonight i am planning on a swim, i think. i am going to try to attempt a morning run tomorrow. i'll have to get up VERY early but i want to get in the habit of running before work since i'm going to be training in the hot summer and want to run while it's still mildly cool outside.

does this sound good to you?

GRILLED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM SANDWICH
With spinach, goat cheese, pomegranate molasses, red pepper, fresh basil. Crafted with our wonderful hearth baked, traditional Italian Ciabatta bread.

served with crisp greens.

it's what i had for lunch at milestones

i am going to eat the second half of my sandwich later when HUNGER STRIKES.

no monster today

i had to take a break from the monster. why? WHY? i'll tell you why:

1) i had to leave my house this morning at 6:30am to take my car in to the dealership for repairs. i got an oil change and a water belt something something maintenance thingymabob and when i was backing out of parking spots and turning i could hear a grinding in my engine, so i wanted to get that looked at. they call me at 10:00 am and kindly let me know that the grinding noise means i need new break pads. that's okay because it's not that expensive. i was hoping it would be relatively cheap and it was sort of, if you consider an all-inclusive vacation cheap. anyway. they also informed me that i have a crack in my exhaust, need all new tires and an alignment. yikes. i am doing it all because i don't want to meet my untimely death driving home from work in an unsafe vehicle. yikes. not cheap. i guess it's better to be poor than dead, right?

my point is i didn't have time this morning to be blending.

2) even though my smoothies contained fiber from the spinach, they weren't ... how should i say ... regulating my system quite like my regular oatmeal breakfast. by the end of the day yesterday i was feeling really bloated and gross. my lower stomach was really protruding! yes, i said it - protruding!!!

3) my boyfriend really likes when i make salads with dinner. he thinks my salads are so special because i add carrot shreds, tomatoes and the key - red onion for a kick. i know it's pretty standard but i'm keeping that to myself. anyway, i think i'm ODing on greens since the thought of having a salad last night really made me nauseated. we had hot dogs and soup. not bad but no veggies - what's going on here?

4) i love oatmeal and missed it dearly.

i needed a break from the monster. instead i had a multibran vitatop in my car on the way to the dealership, and later at work a nice bowl of oatmeal which included an instant pc multigrain oats pack, 1/4 cup all bran, 1/2 banana, 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts and 3 chopped pitted dates. YUM. so hot and delicious and filling.

anyway, that's that. for those who asked, my green monster was very large. i took that picture after i drank some. it went to the top of the bottle. and yes, i drank it all even with the gross coffee in it. i added a bit of splenda. i wasn't going to not eat anything! heaven forbid. and here is my lunch:


hahaha it's backwards - do you love it?

green monster

ingredients:

4 cups spinach
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
1 banana
1 T natural peanut butter
3/4 cup frozen mixed summer fruits
1 cup coffee
1 scoop vanilla protein powder


comments: adding coffee was really gross. the combo of spinach and coffee was really bitter. i won't be doing that again. i only added it because i made it yesterday morning and didn't have time to drink it and put it in the fridge and thought what the hell. what the hell is right! i had to put it in that massive jar because i forgot my 800 mL plastic bottle at work yesterday. man oh man oh man.

contest

angela at oh she glows is giving away a Hip T here! What a great idea - it really bothers me when my shirts are too short.

yes, yes, yes

so i'm going to run the half-marathon. it has been decided! now i just have to sign up. i should probably sign up soon, right, so i don't flake out. not that i'm a big flaker or anything.

last night i couldn't bring myself to go swimming. and i have a giant stack of magazines waiting to be read, so i busted out four miles at 4 miles an hour on the treadmill, alternating a 5 incline and a 0 incline every two minutes. after that i did a bit of arm work, some stretches and sit-ups. it was my book club last night too so i had to boot it upstairs to shower and eat.

my green monster yesterday was pretty filling. i'd say i was hungry for lunch around noon and i drank the monster around 8:30. i brought it to work in a bottle.

i made another one today and here is what i put in:

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze (i have never seen chocolate unsweetened, by the way!)
2 T chocolate PB2
1 scoop chocolate whey isolate protein powder
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
5 ice cubes
4 cups of spinach

yes, i really spinached it up today. and why not? that's the money food right there, might as well take it to the bank. for lunch i'm having a honey maple turkey sandwich on a pc mutligrain sandwich thin, with a slice of low-fat swiss, tomatoes and dill pickle slices. i have an apple, a yogurt and some fiber one but i think i'll save it for later. tonight i am going to my parents house for dinner in the burbs. i'm taking my running stuff so i can get a workout in before dinner.

everyone is so gung-ho about posting pictures of their food. maybe i will have to jump on the bandwagon.

dear everyone

my green monster smoothie was yummy. i had a hard time getting over the fact that i was drinking EIGHT weight watchers points for breakfast, but everything was healthy.

it had 1 cup vanilla almond breeze (2 points)
1/2 cup frozen berries (0 points)
1 banana (2 points)
2-3 cups spinach (0 points)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder, whey isolate (2 points)
1 T natural pb (2 points)

all good stuff. i could reduce the points by using 2 T PB2 instead of natural PB, and i could use unsweetened almond breeze for 1 point instead of the regular vanilla. 6 points isn't too bad. and i could add more spinach. first i used my immersion blender because my regular blender didn't like the giant chunk of frozen berries i had, and then i switched it back to the regular blender to really blend up the spinach. this is the key - blending the spinach so there are NO spinach pieces ... they are gross.

in other news, today i can't stop thinking about ...

running the scotiabank half marathon in september. i have never run any race before. but why not? there is this online training program they give you that starts june 22 and lasts 14 weeks. it's for people who run 30 minutes three times per week. that sounds like me! what do you think? is it too much too soon, or is it a good goal? they give out neat medals and i think it would be a great accomplishment for me.

ps. june today but FREEZING! yikes.