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Training Days 4-6

August 16, 2010 § 4 Comments

What a great weekend! It was the perfect mix of relaxing and fun. I have to admit that I was pretty jealous seeing the posts and tweets from all the Healthy Living Summit attendees, but it motivated me in so many ways. I look forward to going to a blogger conference in the future and am going to try to make the Food Buzz Conference.

Saturday morning I went to the Y for a Zumba Class. I really love Zumba, it is such a great workout and since you are dancing and in a fun environment it doesn’t feel like your typical exercise class. Sometimes when I am in a spin or even a more traditional aerobics class, I find myself straining to see the clock and how many more minutes I have left (because I am usually bored). I had a very enthusiastic high schooler next to me that was very into the dance so that was fun too.

Saturday night my brother wanted to know if I wanted to go bowling with him and our friend Kaytea. I of course said yes because she is super fun and I knew that it would be a good time.

I did pretty horrible in bowling, but it was about fun and not about competition. I even rolled it down once like an old lady in honor of my friend Arika! My brother had a great time too, he posed for a picture:

Kaytea and my brother kicked my butt in bowling and in Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). I felt like I was a kid again because after we bowled we went into the arcade. I only did DDR one time and it was my first time ever and it wasn’t that easy! My brother and Kaytea played for a long time and it was very funny.

On Sunday morning when I woke up I had a severe headache. I rarely get headaches and when I do I am a super baby about it. I didn’t know if I was dehydrated and felt like I could use an IV hydration drip or a Pinkberry drip. Now I have never had Pinkberry but thought it could solve all of my problems 🙂

I was right! I went down to the South Park area of Charlotte, met my friends Arika and Hunter for a Pinkberry experience.

How was it? OMG AMAZING!!!!

I think all of the worlds problems can and should by solved by Pinkberry 🙂

My brother complained that all we have in our refrigerator is vegetables and fruit ( I see that as a good thing!) So I told him that I would make him chocolate chip cookies, plus I was looking for an excuse to bake.

For dinner we had a Roma tomato (local), fresh mozzarella, garlic (local) and basil pizza (local).

And I totally forgot to get a picture of the finished pizza but it was super yummy and the flavor was amazing…maybe I should open a pizza shop 🙂

This was a much longer post than usual but I had a whole lot to say. Onto more 10k training tonight!

Do you like to bake? What do you do with your baked goods? Do you eat them? Bring them to work? Give to neighbors? Please comment!

Basily Good For Now-

Elizabeth

10k Training Day 1

August 10, 2010 § Leave a comment

So yesterday I had this crazy idea of signing up for a 10k after I received an email advertising a race at work. I also decided that I was going to blog my experience. Here is today’s update!

Today was CSA day at work, so I had to stay late to pick up my share as well as help the people who run the CSA pickup and let them out of the building. Now remember that I live in North Carolina and it is August. So when I got home it was approx 90 something degrees with over 50% humidity and it felt like it was well over 100 degrees. My brother asked me about 5 minutes after walking in the door if I wanted to go to Davidson College to run to the trail.

My first thought: “ummmmmm no!” then after about 5 more minutes I was all about it and getting my exercise clothes on and heading towards the car. I haven’t been to the Davidson College Trails in about 4 years so I really did not remember what it was like. I also had Miss Darla Marla with me and even though she is a weiner dog with stubby legs she can go the distance. My goal was to complete the 5k loop. I thought I was real smart going into it and thought I would have no problem doing it.

Before mile 1 of the 5k I was planning on moving into the kudzu (see pic below) and starting life over from there. The trail had rolling hills and I felt like I was in the video game Oregon Trail.

After 5k and about 20,000 burned calories later Miss Darla Marla and I reached the end, I did the fist pump and darla trotted along. Darla has been warn out since we have been back 🙂

I however feel full of energy and actually really good. Tomorrow I have the day off from work because of a hair appointment. I plan on going to the gym before the appointment and then trying to get some exercise in while I am babysitting tomorrow night. Tomorrow at the gym I will do the elliptical for 30 minutes, stair stepper for 30 minutes, walk 2 miles on the track and do some weights.

Oats you glad I am serious about this?!

Elizabeth

PS: sorry no pictures of the eats today, it was a leftover day with some amazing oats in the morning :_

Eating Clean: Lunch from the Desk

July 26, 2010 § Leave a comment

I believe one of the hardest places to “eat clean” is at work. So many temptations lurking around every corner. The dreaded vending machines, that co-worker that is a size 0 with an extra-large bowl of candy on her desk, the brownies some made while playing susie homemaker. Just temptations everywhere! Then when it comes to lunch you feel too lazy in the mornings to make something and who knows what you are going to feel like eating hours from now. It is often just as easy to wander off to the campus cafe, drool over the grill and those yummy smelling onion rings and call it a day. While I am good and opt for healthier items from the cafe, I need to focus more on bringing my lunch. Today I do that, I am very proud of myself. I brought a half of a pita, with humus, lettuce, tomato, cheese and deli meet turkey. I can’t eat just one item so I packed a serving of UTZ Gluten Free Cheese Balls.

I am eating while I am writing (bad, bad I know!) but today is a busy monday at work so I need to do what I need to do.

In other news I joined Calorie King, I think that it will be very beneficial to track my calories. I have a goal this week to track my calories all 7 days starting today and to get 3 days of exercise in. I am thinking about starting running again too…

Cheese Balls-

Elizabeth

Grill Goddess?

July 7, 2010 § Leave a comment

My facebook status last night was “I can never get the grill lit, if I was living back in the cave man days I wouldn’t make it to far up the evolutionary ladder.” I don’t know what my issue is but I am just not meant to create fire! I DID EVENTUALLY get the grill going however… before I get into more details about that let me tell you what dinner consisted of:

Turkey Burgers – Perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper
Seasoned Steak Fries
Corn on the Cob

The plan was to cook the burgers and corn on the grill to replicate a meal that I had a few nights ago cooked by my brother. He used H2O soaked hickory chips on the coals, which produced a magnificent flavor in all foods. This was my attempt:

The burgers are looking OK in this pic..but don’t be fooled they soon had to be moved to the George Foreman Grill (which I have perfectly mastered 🙂 )

The corn did turn out quite well:

Then it was time for the yummy baked fries to come out of the oven:

Time to plate the feast:

Yumm-o-! I choose to have the grilled white corn (there was also yellow corn), along with a turkey burger topped with some fructose corn syrup free ketchup, lettuce and new york state cheddar cheese. I also took a portion of steak fries as well 🙂 Please note that my plates are salad sized plates so that will help give you a concept on how large my portions are.

While I was waiting for the food to cook I took some pictures of the new place:

I love my new kitchen!

Elizabeth

Post Run Jiggly Legs

April 24, 2010 § Leave a comment

I can feel my muscles powering around inside my legs still, they are probably like “thank you for waking us up, we thought you forgot about us!”

I went to the Davidson Home Economist for this afternoon’s health fair. I met a lot of cool people, tried out a lot of cool products and took home some even cooler samples. Someone representing Vega was there and I took the time to explain my experience with the product and asked for suggestions. I told him that I really wanted to like Vega but am just not there. He explained how he uses the product (with water) and a hand shaker…you know one of those protein shake reusable containers that has the mixer inside it. He pulled one out of his products and gave it to me and I told him that I would give the Vega another go. He also recommend that I use Chlorophyl in with the drink. When he said this I was picturing a lethal chemical, but he said you put a few drops in your water and it helps your hemoglobin…research to follow-up on this.

I will review some of the samples that I received as I use them. After all that talking, browsing I was hungry. Since I ate lunch at like 10:30 it was about time for another meal at 2:3o. I decided to keep the good health going today and had a wonderful salad:

Tonight I am going to go check out the new movie theater in Davidson and go to the North Harbor Club. I’ll post again either later tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers-

Elizabeth

Marti Estes 5k

April 24, 2010 § 3 Comments

I survived! My time wasn’t the best in the history of running but I didn’t come in last! I came in at 39:00 on the dot, not to bad considering I am not a runner and the hills that were involved 🙂 I woke up at 6:30 am to start my morning routine. I was ready to go with my music selection and my iPod wouldn’t work 😦 I had this great plan to run while listening to wicked, glee, counting crows and some other of my motivational music…didn’t work out to well. But that’s ok, I was able to smile at people who were watching us run and even carry on conversations with some other runners.

After my running group finished the 5k we met at the stage area and did 3 Zumba routines….my legs were like jelly. This was before the awards ceremony so there were a ton of people watching us, nothing like a dance recital after a run. I had a BLAST!

Before my run I had a banana cut in quarters with almond butter, sunflower seeds and chia seeds. It was the perfect amount of something in my stomach to keep me full and give me energy.

After the race i had a half a banana and some water. I was ready for a snack and new I was out of oats so I decided to head to the Davidson Home Economist to pick up something. I knew I needed some GFree oats so I grabbed those and also got a packaged vegan Gfree meal to go. I really wanted the mac and cheese (vegetarian) but knew I should go with something a little more healthy. I choose the tofu, pumpkin seed quinoa meal:

It was alright, I do not like rosemary and there were sprigs of it on top of the tofu. I think I probably just had that mac and cheese on my mind.

However I am glad I went to the Home Economist because I saw that they are having a health fair from 1-3 today. They are going to have tons of samples and practitioners there.

Not sure where else today will lead me but life is an adventure and I am all about it.

Until later,

Elizabeth