Great Eight!

After my overindulgence at dinner last night, I decided to have a simple breakfast this morning. An Egg Beaters Garden Vegetable omelet with sauteed red onion, spinach and red bell pepper and half a grapefruit. I like dipping my omelets (or eggs in general) in ketchup, is that weird?

About 10:00 I started getting really hungry again and when I typed in my points for breakfast and realized I had only eaten 1.5 points for breakfast (about 150 calories) I realized why. I normally eat about 5 points or 250 calories in the morning. Tim and I were getting ready to go running and I didn't want anything very heavy on my stomach so I had a chocolate graham cracker with 1 Tbsp of reduced fat peanut butter on it.

The peanut butter actually sat really heavy on my stomach and I felt like I had a rock in my belly the entire time I was running. I won't do that again! Stupid PB!

I've run 8 miles before, but only once so I feel super accomplished today. It was a really good run other than the heavy tummy. I wore my knee brace and I didn't have any pain. The weather was nice and the road was flat. We ran an out and back route (x2). On the first trip out I was feeling really good but I kept thinking, "Yeah, you feel good now, but you still have 7 miles to go!" Luckily the good feeling stuck around.

Mile 1 - 8:49
Mile 2 - 8:56
Mile 3 - 8:57
Mile 4 - 8:57
Mile 5 - 9:05
Mile 6 - 9:10
Mile 7 - 9:12
Mile 8 - 8:49

While I waited on Tim to finish up his run I made sure to stretch really well, so that hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow.

I was really suprised to see how late it was after we finished running. It was already 3:00 and we hadn't had lunch yet. I'm never very hungry after I run for atleast 2 hours, so I decided we'd just skip lunch and eat a huge dinner. I made Shake N Bake Chicken, sauteed onions and squash, steamed cabbage and cheesy potatoes. It sounded like a really good idea at the time, but it turned out really .... yellow. Yellow and delicious! I ate an enormous plate and finished every bite.

It really bother me when the food on my plate isn't colorful enough. I never think about the color of things before I cook, but once I plate it up I make sure not to put things of similar color beside each other. Weird? Yes? No? The funny thing is that I almost made corn on the cob instead of the cabbage. What a yellow mess that would have been! That would have been almost unbearable.

Dont forget to make sure you switch to my new blog Eat to Live, Live to Run. I'll be double posting for a while, but not long! Have a great night! I'm off to watch a movie with the hubby.

Not In The Plan!

Lets check in on the To-Do List for the day:

1 hour Elliptical
Buy fresh fruits and veggies (we have none!)
Make BBQ pizzas for lunch with leftover chicken.
Take Lincoln to the zoo or the park.
Clean and organize pantry.
Fold and put away about 4 loads of laundry.
RELAX!
Make Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce for dinner.

I definitely didn't accomplish everything, but I got a good amount done. I went to the Y and banged out an hour on the elliptical, it actually went by really fast. Ever since I wrote the blog about podcasts a while back I've been listening to them alot while I workout. My favorite one that I have found so far is called 2 Gomers Run a Marathon, but today I listened to one called Savage Love. It was ok, but not my favorite by any means. Basically people call in and ask advice on sex or relationship related things. I thought it might be funny, but it wasn't as funny as I expected.

After my workout I went to the grocery store and spent $50 on fresh produce (and a couple other things). It hurts my heart to spend that much money at the store now that I'm all into couponing, but I got ... apples, bananas, cabbage, green beans, grapefruit, asparagus, bell peppers, lettuce, spinach, onions, zucchini, squash and carrots. I should have taken a picture, it was a pretty impressive bounty!

The BBQ chicken pizza turned out pretty fantastic. I've never made (or eaten) BBQ pizza before so this was a first for me. It included: Raspberry Chipolte BBQ sauce, shredded BBQ chicken, mozzarella cheese, spinach, red onion and red pepper.

Toys R Us had a special sale going on today on all of their bikes so we thought instead of going to the park (it was getting dark anyway) that we would go see about getting Lincoln a tricycle for Christmas. It was pretty much a bust though because we discovered that an 19 month old (ours atleast) can't really pedal a trike. So we left empty handed.

I've been craving to go out to eat really bad for the past 2 days. Not any specific restaurant or any specific food really, just the experience of going out to eat. So we decided to go to dinner at Bonefish Grill. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best idea for our budget (financial or caloric). I had Grouper with Mango Salsa and asparagus with a side salad and .... key lime pie!

It was heavenly, but I'm definitely regretting it now. Its a good thing I'm running 8 miles tomorrow!

Sometimes You Need Simplicity.

I finished up my third 12 hour shift for this week at the hospital, so now I have a little more time to write. Yay! I think about all these things I want to say but I don't have time to blog while I'm working so by the time I get the chance to I forget what I wanted to talk about.

I went grocery shopping this morning after I got off work (see receipt below, Yay again!), and got a really good deal on boneless skinless chicken breasts for $2.99/lb. I eat my fair share of chicken breasts, so I stocked up.

Tim has been craving this recipe for Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwhiches for a couple of weeks now since he ran across it on All Recipes one night. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to make it. You know I love me a crockpot recipe! But the wing sauce that we had was Thai flavored and I had forgotten that. I didn't know if that would be good or not and I definitely wasn't going back to the grocery store, so I decided to do something different.

Instead I made shredded bbq chicken. This is hands-down the easiest thing I've ever cooked (can you even call it "cooking"?). Two ingredients - chicken breasts and barbeque sauce. It doesn't get simpler than that. I cooked the breasts on low in the sauce for about 6 hours and then shredded it and served it on hamburger buns with some veggies.

I can't believe I haven't done this before! It was the easiest thing ever and it was DELICIOUS! I think I'm going to use the leftover meat to make BBQ Chicken Pizzas tomorrow for lunch. That will be another first for me. I'm loving the simplicity!

Manic & Boring Monday

I woke up this morning at 6:20 in a panic because my husband's alarm was suppose to go off at 5:00 am for his business trip today. Oops! Lucky for him he was driving today instead of flying so he didn't have to worry about missing a flight.

I made a yummy Green Monster for breakfast.

Yep, I've used that picture before ... so sue me! I love Green Monsters, but one thing I don't like about them is that they don't keep me full until lunch. I snacked on some semi-stale Kashi Heart to Heart crackers around 10:30.

I ran around my house cleaning like a mad woman for about 2 hours after breakfast. I always get really behind on my housework when I work several 12 hour shifts in a row. I had about 4 loads of laundry backed up. I actually have a housekeeper that comes every two weeks on Monday and does the deep cleaning stuff, but I'm so self conscious that I pre-clean for her. I know I'm crazy! I just don't find it fair to make her do 4 loads of laundry and pick all my things up off the floor, so I do most of that stuff before she comes.

Lincoln took a nice long nap this morning, so I was able to run on the treadmill while he slept. I just did an easy 3 miles today. I swear I would rather run 7 miles outside than 3 on the treadmill anyday. It is soooo boring! But it comes in handy on days when the weather is bad and when I don't have anyone to keep Lincoln while I run.

For lunch I made a yummy homemade pizza. Its really becoming a staple around here. Yep, I've used this picture before too ...

It was really quiet and boring around the house without Tim here today, so Lincoln and I decided to go to the playground to work off some of his "energies". The poor little guy really took a beating at the playground. He fell several times and then went down the slide on his face. Before we left I pushed him on the tire swing for a little while and I made the mistake of grabbing his sides while I was pushing him (he's incredibly ticklish) and he let go of the chains and fell flat on his face ... again. He looked like he had been beaten by the time we left, but he had so much fun he never cried once.

For dinner tonight I decided to make one of my E-Mealz recipes. This one wasn't actually a Weight Watchers friendly recipe, but I altered it to reduce the points value as much as possible. It was called Italian Casserole. I used 96% Lean Ground Beef, Light Sour Cream, 2% Mozzarella cheese and Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls, but it still came out to 7 points per serving. But it was worth it! I definitely recommend checking out E-Mealz if you haven't already, their recipes are really simple and delicious.

Does anyone recognize a theme? Yes, I had spinach for every single meal today. I think I've definitely met my green leafy quota!

My Early Birthday Present

My birthday isn't for a little over 3 weeks, but I was in desperate need of a new iPod. I actually have two iPod Classics, but they have really been acting up lately. The first one randomly dies and says it has no battery power left when it has been charged in for hours. The second one started giving me a strange error message that I can't get rid of. I probably could have sent them back to Apple to have them fixed, but I figured this is a good excuse for me to get a new model.

I give you my new iPod Nano ...

My favorite colors are pink and purple, but I see those colors around all the time. I wanted something different so I chose green. I had read that the new 5th generation iPods had FM radio and video cameras built in, but I forgot about that until I bought mine. Super cool features I must say.

Caitlin over at Healthy Tipping Point wrote a blog earlier today about people who listen to podcasts while running instead of music. Several of her readers said they prefer podcasts for various reasons to music while running, so I thought I would give it a try today. I downloaded several different podcasts. One I was really interested in trying was called 4 Feet Running. I also downloaded The Biggest Loser Fan Podcast as well as a couple others. I started off my 5 mile run trying to listen to the 4 Feet Running, but I found the sound quality so bad that I couldn't deal with it. I don't know if it was just that specific episode, or if that is the way that all of them are but I had to turn it off. I ended up listening to the Biggest Loser podcast. It was pretty interesting commentary, the actual recap of the episode was boring because they are discussing the show from 2 episodes ago. I might start listening to podcasts more often if I can find some really good ones. I get bored with my music so quickly it would make for a nice change.

We planned to grill out BBQ chicken breasts tonight for dinner, but I'm still really confused with the time change and before we could get out to cook it was completely dark. Instead we made homemade pizzas. I've made these several times before, but they are always delicious. Tonight we didn't have any goat cheese since we ate it all last night, so we used regular ol' mozzarella instead. We had spinach salads with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and apple slices on the side.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my 9 days off, but its almost time to go back to work. I have to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. So I'll see you guys on Sunday! In the meantime ... what are some of your favorite podcasts to listen to? I need some ideas.

Back on Track and The Best Dinner EVER!

This morning I woke up and hopped on the scale to assess the damage I've done recently, and it was definitely as bad if not worse than I thought it would be. I gained 9 (yes, nine) pounds! Normally I would cut myself a little slack and chalk it up to being on vacation, but lets face it ... I was only on vacation for 4 days. There is no way I should have ever let 9 pound slip back on in 4 days! I think the bigger problem is that I temporarily lost my motivation as I discussed here.

The good news is that I had time to reflect on what was going on, and made a recommitment to myself. Sometimes I think that its necessary to backslide in order to ultimately keep moving in the right direction and not lose focus. Sometimes you just need a break! Whether it be from counting points, exercise, weighing and measuring food ... whatever the case may be. I came back from this hiatus with a brand new attitude and an excitement that I haven't had in a while.

The excitement came at a good time because I decided that today I would make up for my long run that I missed on Sunday. 7 miles! I've done 7 miles (and even 8) before, but its been a while and I wasn't sure how I'd do after such an off track week. I did really well though, I'm not saying it was easy but it was a good feeling to get back out there. My iPod died during my 2nd mile and that was a bummer, but after a little while I got used to listening to myself breathe and got caught up in my thoughts. It actually turned out kinda nice to not have the music. I compared my run time today to my previous 7 mile run and was very surprised to see that I beat my time by a full 6 minutes!

My splits for today were:

Mile 1 - 8:46
Mile 2 - 8:49
Mile 3 - 9:00
Mile 4 - 8:56
Mile 5 - 8:57
Mile 6 - 9:01
Mile 7 - 8:52

After our run we ate lunch at Roly Poly. I ordered a small Ultimate Veggie wrap with hummus instead of ranch dressing and a bag of Baked Lays. It was yummalish and very low in points!

Tim and I decided to let the little man spend the night at his grandma's house tonight so that we could have a little break and some time together at home alone. I wanted to cook something special tonight that I haven't made before. I browsed the internet for a while looking for something that seemed right, and then I remember the Eggplant Spinach Stacks that my fellow blogger Allison from Balance in Bites post a few days ago. I've been salivating over these since the day she posted them, so I thought this might be the perfect opportunity.

I went to the grocery store and got all the ingredients, plus stuff to make roasted fingerling potatoes and Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus. I must say this was the best dinner I've made in a very long time if not ever.

I used goat cheese on both the Eggplant stacks and in the asparagus instead of the feta and cream cheese that was suggested. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a sucker for goat cheese and I'll fit it in wherever I can get it. The eggplant was the clear winner, but I have to say that the asparagus bundles were quite divine as well!

My husband would probably divorce me if I didn't show the picture of the eggplant that he picked out. Lets just say, it was happy to see us. My husband especially found it quite amusing.

And on that note, I think I'll say goodnight!

Pumpkin Cider Pancakes

Sticking with the pumpkin theme from yesterday, I decided to perk up my pancakes a bit this morning with some pumpkin puree. I just threw a few things together and came up with a really great recipe. Actually my husband said they were the best pancakes he has ever eaten and suggested that I submit it to a recipe website.

One of my favorite websites for recipes is All Recipes. So this afternoon I submitted the recipe. The last recipe I submitted (in Dec 2004) never got reviewed or published, so I'm hoping that this one will. The link to my recipe for the Pumpkin Cider Pancakes is here. Give them a try and rate/review them on All Recipes. Hope you enjoy!

Day 2

I'm too exhausted tonight to write much, but I took some great pictures that I wanted to share. We went to the Smoky Mountain National Park today as I mentioned in an earlier post, these are some shots I got.

Tonight for dinner we decided to stay at the cabin and cook out on the grill. I was pretty nervous after seeing the 4 bears earlier this evening on the back porch but they decided not to join us for dinner thankfully. We made: BBQ chicken breasts, grilled mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes and pineapple, creamed corn and leftover rolls from the steak place last night. It was delish! It was just exactly what I wanted and it was much cheaper and more nutritional than going out to eat.

After dinner I was craving something sweet so we drove down the mountain to Downtown Gatlinburg to find something to satisfy my craving. There were all kinds of fudge shops, ice cream shops, candy stores, and bakeries. I almost decided on a funnel cake, but at the last minute I changed my mind and we ended up at Ben & Jerrys. I've been craving pumpkin lately and Ben & Jerrys had Pumpkin Cheesecake Icecream.

It was heavenly! Now if I could just figure out a way to make myself not feel guilty for eating it. I keep going back and forth through my mind between "You are on vacation, relax! You can work it off next week" and "You don't need that and you are not hungry. Have you learned nothing?" I wish I could find a better balance.

I still haven't found any good running spots. I guess I'm gonna be doing some trips up and down the staircase tomorrow to get my cardio in if I don't figure out something quickly. I'd really hate to miss my long run for the week on Sunday, but if I can't find a place that I can safely run with a baby stroller then I'm just gonna have to put it off until I get back home.

But for now ... I'm going to retire to the bedroom with a good book. Goodnight!

Vacation Day 1 - Done!

Tim and I woke up early yesterday morning at 4:30 am to get ready to leave for our Gatlinburg vacation. I wanted to leave home at 6:00 am, but of course nothing is ever on time when you have a baby. We didn't end up leaving until a little after 7:00, but who's counting?

The trip was suppose to take about 6-7 hours driving time, but I knew we would have to make fairly frequent stops to let Lincoln stretch his legs. The last time we tried to travel with him was to Destin, FL (only 4 hours) and he screamed a good portion of the way. I decided this time that no matter what happened I was going to make a conscious effort to be patient with him even if it took us 10 hours to drive.

I could not have been more impressed with the way the trip went. Lincoln slept for the first 2 hours of the trip, then we stopped for snacks and a bathroom break. Luckily we brought our secret weapon that we swore before we were parents we would never have ... a DVD player in the car. With that he was entertained until lunch time.

I really wanted to stop somewhere new and exciting for lunch that I had never been before. But hunger hit me hard and fast and the only thing nearby was Cracker Barrel. I ordered grilled chicken fingers, green beans, whole kernel corn and sweet potato casserole.

Excuse the hair, it was raining.

After lunch Lincoln fell back asleep and slept all the way to Knoxville, only an hour from the cabin. I took some random pictures on the way down out of boredom. Here are a couple shots of the pretty fall colors on the way and our first view of the mountains in the distance.

We finally found the way to the cabin thanks to TomTom our GPS navigation system. I was absolutely in love. I started getting worried on the way up the mountain because there were some pretty shabby looking cabins around, but there were some really nice ones as well. I didn't get any pics of the outside, but here are a few of the inside.

After getting settled in we spent a few minutes in the hot tub, and then got ready and decided on where to go for dinner. We chose The Peddler Steakhouse. It was rated the #1 place to eat in Gatlinburg so we thought we'd give it a try.

Tim and I both ordered the Blackened Tuna with Hollandaise sauce, and I got sauteed mushrooms as my side item. All entrees come with unlimited trips to their enormous salad bar and a basket of yeast rolls. We ordered a bottle of Kendall Jackson Pinot Noir to help us relax after a long day in the car.

I ordered my tuna medium rare and it was more like medium well, but it had good flavor and the salad bar, mushrooms, and wine made up for what the tuna was lacking. I also stole Lincoln's tartar sauce and it was HEAVENLY on the tuna. I've never had tartar sauce that tasted so good!

Unfortunately Tim and I ended up eating most of our meal alone because Lincoln was exhausted and finally had the meltdown I anticipated all day. While one of us ate the other walked him around the restaurant. A waitress (not ours) saw that we were having a really hard time and she came over and offered to walk with him while we enjoyed our dinner. Normally I would never let someone do that, but I was tired, frustrated and hungry and it sounded like a great idea at the time. We were able to finish up our meal and enjoy our wine. We really appreciated her help!

Today we are going to the Smoky Mountain National Park for a picnic, bike riding and my scheduled 3 mile run.

This is Dedication!

Getting up at 6:45 on a Sunday morning to go run 6 miles in 40 degree weather = dedication.

I tried out a new route today. I've been getting bored with running in the same neighborhood all of the time, so I thought I'd try something new. I parked my car at my mother in laws house and ran in her neighborhood. I drove the route in my car first to see it if would be safe and I saw that it was a little hilly, but nothing I couldn't handle. There was one stretch that was on a moderately busy road, but it was only about 1/4 of a mile or so.

I don't think I'll do this route again, atleast not anytime soon. The hills were hillier than I previously thought and really wrecked my knees, I got chased by 2 packs of dogs, and there was more traffic than I was comfortable with. I guess its back to the drawing board!

I like to think of my runs as being in one of three categories:

1. I could have run much longer.
2. I couldn't have taken one more step.
3. I could have gone farther, but I'm glad I didn't have to.

Today was definitely a 3. I could have gone farther, but I was really happy to stop also. I've never had knee pain before while I was running, but I think those days are over. For the past week or so my knees have been very achey, not excrutiating but just uncomfortable. I thought maybe its time for me to start icing my knees after my runs.

I wanted something really filling to eat for breakfast this morning and I've been really craving oatmeal (specifically oatmeal with pumpkin puree, but I haven't bought the pumpkin yet). I made 2 packets of Maple and Brown Sugar oatmeal and added 1/2 a banana, Agave nectar and 1 Tbsp of chunky peanut butter. I think it was the best thing I've ever put in my mouth! (It was 9.5 points though).

I'm going back to work tonight for 3 more nights, and then we are off on Thursday morning for our fall vacation to Gatlinburg. I'm so excited!!!

Freaked Out About Maintenance.

I cheated and weighed myself this morning even though my weigh-in day isn't until Monday. If what I weighed today sticks around I'm only going to be about 5 or 6 pounds away from my goal weight. You'd think I'd be ridiculously happy about that, and I am in a way, but I'm pretty freaked out and a little scared too.

I've never in my life maintained my weight. I've either been losing weight or gaining weight as long as I can remember. I don't know how to do anything else! I'm curious about how much I'll be able to eat on my maintenance program. I don't want to slack off on my exercise, I'd much rather just eat more!

Most likely it will be a few more weeks until I have to worry about how its all going to work though because next week I'm going on vacation. I'm not planning on being super strict about what I eat while I'm on vacation, but I'm hopefully not going to blow myself out of the water either. I'm planning on staying on track with my half-marathon training while I'm gone also. I hope there will be some great scenic places to run up in the mountains.

So far my eats today have included:

Chobani Strawberry Greek Yogurt with Kashi Crunch cereal.

A ham sandwhich on Arnold's Sandwhich Thins with Laughing Cow cheese, sprouts, onions, lettuce and mustard. Stacy's Simply Naked Bagel chips, and baby carrots.

I also snacked on some Chex Mix (I'm telling you, I'm addicted!), a Gala apple and a Homemade Clif Bar that Tim made (more on that later). Tonight for dinner we are having Pork Tenderloin and some undetermined vegetables.

Oysters Rock My World!

Today we took my mother in law to lunch for her 70th birthday celebration. We went to Wintzell's Oyster House. I have debated for several days back and forth about what I would order when we went. Part of me wanted to try to be really good and get some grilled fish and vegetables or something of the sort, but most of me really wanted the Oyster Sampler Platter.

Ultimately I decided to compromise and order oysters, but to order only 6 instead of 16. I started with Sauteed Crab Claws. I thought I was doing good by ordering sauteed instead of fried crab claws, but I totally wasn't thinking about the fact that sauteed most likely means it will be sitting in a pool of butter. So one strike against me already! I tried to just eat the meat and stay out of the garlic butter.

Then I had a side salad with Light Ranch dressing on the side. Yes, of course it was covered in shredded cheese, but atleast it didn't have bacon or croutons.

For my entree I order a half dozen Oysters Rockefeller with a side of broccoli. I forgot to take a picture of my broccoli, but it was also sitting in a pool of butter. I was really disappointed, it didn't say anything about butter on the menu. I guess thats what I get for not asking.

The oysters were awesome! I definitely could have eaten 16 of them if I had let myself. All of that stuff would have probably been fine if I hadn't eaten about half of my son's fried shrimp and french fries that he wouldn't touch. Oh, and garlic bread ... my god, the garlic bread!

This was the real "the world is out to get me" moment though: Tim went to the restroom and while he was gone my mother in law ordered herself and him Bread Pudding. I told her I didn't want any. Well, when he came back he stopped by the counter and asked the waitress if we had already ordered dessert and she told him yes, that we ordered 2 bread puddings. So he told her to put in an order for him one too! So to my suprise she brought 3 HUGE servings of bread pudding to the table. Talk about a test of willpower! I failed!

This afternoon we took Lincoln over to my grandmother's house to visit with my mom, sister, Aunt and cousin that were in town to celebrate my Aunt's birthday. Of course there was cake and icecream! On the back of the lunch we had, it was really easy to say no to the cake and icecream though. I wasn't even tempted in the least, which I'm pretty sure pissed my grandmother off. She is one of those types of people that takes incredible offense if you don't eat what she provides.

Instead of eating we dumped Lincoln off on the family and decided to go for a run around my grandparent's neighborhood. I intended to run 7 miles, but I kept saying "I'm going to try to run 7 miles". I wasn't convinced that I could actually do it, even though I've done it once before ... especially after that big lunch.

I actually ended up running 8.16 miles! A new personal distance record. I intentionally made myself run at a slower pace than normal so that I could stretch out my run. It also helped that I got absolutely and utterly lost in the neighborhood. I just kept running until I found my way back.

I had planned on not eating again today, but after such a long run I really felt like I needed something. So I made what I'm gonna call "Boca Taco Pita". Basically it was a pita stuffed with a Boca Burger, lettuce, green onions, salsa and sour cream. I also had a side of baby carrots and Fat Free Ranch Dip. It wasn't very photogenic, but it actually tasted really good!

What is your favorite thing to do with a Boca Burger?

What A Difference A Year Makes!

A couple of weeks ago I posted my family picture from October 2008. If you don't recall, this is what it looks like:

We picked up our new family pictures yesterday. Exactly one year later this is what we look like:

The photographer took a picture of just Tim and I without Lincoln, and that picture turned out waaaay better than this one. But I just couldn't see the point in buying a picture that didn't have my son in it. So we only bought these.