Highlights:

- I can’t stay out of the kitchen for too long. Last night I made a recipe that’s been on my list for a whole year. Yes, this one is from July 2009 Cooking Light issue – phyllo pizza with feta, basil and tomatoes (recipe here). It sounded (and looked!) delicious so I thought this would be a perfect dinner to make on a meatless Monday. Now here is the kicker – have you ever worked with phyllo? It was crazy. The sheets of dough were SO thin and they were definitely sticking together and breaking the second I touched them. The recipe said to use one sheet at a time and spray it with EVOO spray (layering it with the cheese mixture every 3 sheets). I fought it for a few rounds and then started grabbing 2-3 at a time. I was nervous that it would result in a rubbery final product but it was one of the best things I’ve made in a long time. So flaky and light, the cheese melted beautifully between all the layers and the super fresh tomatoes enhanced the dish even further. It tasted like a cheat meal but it wasn’t! I will never attempt to make something like this on a weeknight again (especially since work was waiting!) but I think I need to give phyllo another go. It’s too delicious not to.

- The chocolate chip cookies from yesterday’s post were from The Best Light Recipe cookbook. I made them as a thank-you for our neighbors but we never saw them so I brought them to work instead. This cookbook is amazing but I have to say this recipe was just okay. The cookies were a little too crunchy and actually got rock hard after a few hours on a plate. I had to warm them up to bring them to life. Warm cookies are always better!

- No gym today. I get too overwhelmed on Mondays. I feel like I’ll never meet my deadline. Hopefully it will all come together soon (I definitely made a lot of progress over the weekend).

That’s all I’ve got for today. Here is yesterday’s breakfast and lunch (snacks were unphotographed – imagine a breakfast cookie, a serving of almonds and 1 plum).

Cya tonight!

It felt a little strange being there – like I’m invading something. I grabbed a vanilla yogurt from the lovely Amy (I have yet to taste it) and almost walked away. And then I collected myself and introduced myself to Mr. Siggi (fun fact: Siggi is his first name). He was super nice and really excited to answer any of my questions. The story of how he started his yogurt business was unlikely many other small business start-ups. He didn’t care for his job, he missed his yogurt from homeland Iceland, so he decided to make his own… and then eventually began selling it. Siggi’s yogurt is now sold nationally at every Whole Foods. How’s that for realizing the American dream? (Siggi has been in the US for only 8 years!).

So here are a few interesting things I learned about chatting with Siggi…

• Siggi’s yogurt sources dairy from 6 small farms in New York. They have many standards, including those about humane treatment of animals. Although the dairy is not organic (it is cost-prohibitive at this point given the small scale of his operation), “the cows have names, not numbers.” Siggi spends some of his days visiting the farms.
• The plain siggi’s yogurt tastes pretty close to the original Icelandic yogurt Siggi missed when moving to the US. The flavored varieties are a little more unique.
• Siggi’s yogurt is a little more tart than most (in my opinion at least) because Greek and Icelandic-type yogurts are naturally tart but manufacturers add a lot of sugar to them to sweeten/mellow them out. Siggi’s yogurt uses just a touch of agave nectar and that’s why it is not sugar-laden.
• They work on new flavors all the time. I’m volunteering to be a taste tester.
• We talked about my Moldovian origin and about our Kefir. Apparently Kefir has a natural alcohol content. I’m going to google that soon.

Siggi was so nice. I LOVE meeting small business owners that are passionate about their business and do it right – without cutting corners at the expense of the consumer and our environment!

And here is a picture of me and Siggi – now you know what the man behind the yogurt looks like. He’s taaaaaaall.

Thank you, Siggi, for chatting with me… and thanks Judith for setting up this event. I think I may actually go to Healthworks today to work out. Imagine that!

Now onto yesterday’s eats…

BREAKFAST

The breakfast pizza is back!

Ww tortilla, almond butter, 2% TJ’s greek yogurt, 1/2 banana, raspberries, dried cherries and Kashi Golean cereal

A pizza slice, anyone?

I really love this breakfast. It’s so satisfying without being too filling.

LUNCH

Giant salad: mixed greens, grape tomatoes, radish, chickpeas, feta and Seta’s Mediterranean beet salad

This salad was fantastic -the beet salad was definitely the highlight. It came from the Copley Farmers market (Seta is there on Tuesdays) – the salad contains beets, dried mint, lemon juice and EVOO. Simple yet so flavorful. I LOVE beets!

WORKOUT

Yesterday’s workout was pretty random – I wanted to do a simple run outside but got bored so I turned around. I ran for a little over 20 minutes and then went to the gym and did 15 minutes of the elliptical there. I got my sweat on, so I guess that’s all I can ask of myself.

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Pita chips + Samira’s baba ganoush

Loved the crunch. I finished this container with a spoon after I ran out of the chips. Classy.

After meeting Mr. Siggi, I went to Joe’s to meet my co-workers for a few drinks. While there, I had one Hoegaarden and a glass of Cabernet + a little slice of margarita pizza.

I came home slightly buzzed and ready to chow down on more food.

DINNER

Dinner was based on this sandwich Shannon recently blogged about. You can’t really see the insides (bad blogger!) but this contains mustard, green apples, pickled green tomatoes and Cabot horseradish cheddar.

I know this sounds strange but it really is nicely balanced. Since the apples are only slightly sweet, they work well with the sour pickled tomatoes. I dare you to try it!

Dessert: cookies ‘n cream cheesecake bar

Plus 2 joe-joes (unpictured).

Phew – long post, fun day! Can you believe it’s Thursday already? I love love love Thursdays because of the Thursday Prudential farmers market. Plus I have really fun workouts planned for today. See you later, alligators. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t already.

I’ve dined solo many times, mostly while traveling. It’s actually kind of relaxing and weirdly empowering. I like bringing a book with me otherwise I just eat too fast. Tonight though, I ended up just throwing a quick dinner together. Hopefully we can go out together with Adam some other night, once his work crisis is averted.

Before we get to my average dinner and some other “business,” let me quickly announce the winner of the CSN Stores giveaway. I had 230 eligible entries, and the winner is…. #119 (Blair).

Sorry mom, you can’t cheat the system – you’re going to have to buy that crockpot yourself. Perhaps at cookware. com? Blair, please email me your address asap – elina@healthyandsane.com

Those of you who didn’t win, you will be happy to know that I have ANOTHER giveaway for you. Through my amazingly persuasive powers (kidding), one lucky reader will receive an Oikos package that will include – 4 free 5.3 oz coupons, 2 multipacks, and one 16 oz oikos coupon + an Oikos tote bag. I’m pretty excited about this one. I’m a giant fan of oikos and I want you to taste it (if you haven’t already) or get a little more addicted if you’ve already tried it.

So here are the rules (they are a bit different this time so read carefully):

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me a random fact about the dairy or organic industry. Here are a few resources for you:

• My last post about the Stonyfield luncheon
• The importance of organic farming (from the Stonyfield website)
• The organic center
  

2) If you have a blog, let others know about the giveaway and link back to this post.  If you don’t have a blog, tell someone about this giveaway and let me know that you’ve done so (after they enter the giveaway by commenting). You can also tweet about this giveaway *Either one earns you 2 bonus point* Please come back to this post and tell me you did so (twice).

I will announce the winner of this giveaway next Tuesday, June 1st.

All right, let’s talk about food. I had a good day of official healthy living checklist err checking.

BALANCED BREAKFAST – check!

I got a few Siggi’s coupons in my Healthworks swag bag. I’ve seen Siggi’s yogurt all over the blog world but to be honest never cared to buy it because it’s not organic. Like I said, I’m a pretty die hard oikos fan. I buy TJ’s european style organic yogurt too because oikos is so expensive. I kind of alternate between those 2. The free siggi’s coupons made me purchase a few and this morning I tried the grapefruit kind.

… with a zucchini spelt muffin + coffee

I was surprised at how thick siggi is. Almost thicker than greek yogurt. I liked that. What I didn’t like was that it was a bit grainy and I was definitely not a fan of the grapefruit flavor. I actually don’t even like grapefruit but for some reason I thought this yogurt would be awesome. Maybe it’s the pretty picture.

What I did like… all of these things:

Milk from grass fed cows (weather permitting)? No artificial stuff? Music to my ears. What’s also cool is that Siggi’s is lightly sweetened with agave nectar (the plain variety is not sweetened at all). And then there is this super cool label recycling option:

Love it! Let’s hope their plain yogurt tastes good because I really like what they’re doing here. I also plan on meeting Mr. Siggi soon and find out why his yogurt is not organic. Changing the world one yogurt at a time

SNACK #1 – check!

Chocolate cherry granola bar

MOVE FOR at least 20 MINUTES – check!

It was brutally hot in Boston today and I knew I would have a terrible run if I attempted it. So for the first time in months, I treadmilled it. It was actually a great 5 miler. I alternated between 5.5-7.0 mph at 0.5-2.5 incline. I cooled down with a 1/2 mile walk and stretched a bunch. Great workout!

BALANCED LUNCH

Leftover slice of grilled veggie + fromage blanc pizza

Potato slices sauteed with 1t EVOO, garlic and dried thyme (yum!!)

Simple salad – mixed greens, pea shots, grape tomatoes

BALANCED DINNER – check!

Canned salmon salad with hummus, carrots and tomatoes

Snow peas, carrots, pickle

SNACK #2 (unpictured)

An orange + somersaults

TREAT

Baked brownie (test recipe #1 for the brownie bake-off). I’m going to try to make all of the ones you commented about.

This is 1/2 piece – I ended up eating the other half too – they’re good!

All right, I want to hear about your dining solo stories and if you’re interested in some free oikos coupons, you gotta follow the rules.

So this post today has no real purpose except to tell you about my fabulous day and of course share my eats with you (although Boston readers have a special offer below, read on for more details). Sometimes I find the positive energy transfer over my computer screen as I read other bloggers’ happy posts. I hope this one brings a smile to your face and makes your day filled with a little more sunshine.

Every day starts with…

BREAKFAST

Nonfat organic yogurt, mango, Kashi Golean cereal and the Healthy and Sane YouTrailMix

Mangos + trail mix in yogurt is my favorite combo of all times

As my mid-afternoon/pre-workout snack I had a camera-shy chocolate, cherry & pb granola bar. Yummy.

Insert here a 5.25 mile run in the sun (during which I got a mild case of shin splints and really bad chafe marks on my belly button from the water belt scraping against it for nearly an hour, but that’s just details). On the way back I stopped by the first farmers market of the season at the Prudential Plaza. Weeeeeeee. This market is really tiny and basically this time there was not much fresh produce (some lettuce and fiddleheads, that’s it) but there were 2 new stands that I was particularly excited about.

• One was Samira’s Homemade. I am beyond obsessed with Samira’s baba ganoush. I buy it at Whole Foods nearly every week and can seriously polish off a container in 2 days (actually I could really polish it off in one day, but I “behave myself” ha). Last week I actually forbid myself from buying it because it’s so good, I go through it too fast – so I gave myself a little time out (the stuff ain’t cheap, you know?). Samira actually saw my positive thoughts on baba ganoush on the blog before and thanked me by email, so this time despite being sweaty and gross, I introduced myself to her at the farmers market. I can’t wait to try more hummus flavors! Samira hooked me up with some free baba ganoush and a bean dip. Score! I want to go back there next week less sweaty, with a camera in tow and “introduce” her to you. I’d love to feature local producers here on the blog.
• The second booth that peaked my interest was the Foxboro Cheese Co. They were selling grass fed humainely raised veal (yeah, I didn’t know that existed either!), grass fed beef hot dogs and burgers and cheese! The cheese is made from milk from their grass fed cows. Yay – love love love that. I bought a tub of tomato basil fromage blanc.

My farmers market purchases made it into a fresh…

LUNCH

Organic arugula, pea shots, cucumbers, Samira’s baba ganoush + white bean dip, Foxboro Cheese tomato basil fromage blanc, basil EVOO & lime juice + a big chunk of When Pigs Fly olive bread (remember it from here? I’ve been anxiously waiting for the farmers market’s return just for this bread).

Mid afternoon snacks included an apple and a small packet of somersaults. I also attempted to make this week’s CEiMB recipe – chocolate egg cream hosted by Chaya’s Comfy Cook blog. I admit – I wasn’t excited about this one and I was right, it’s not my thing. It tasted like a creamier sweater selzer. Really not my thing. After 2 sips, this thing was poured out.

It’s cool. I had yummier things to fill my belly with. I had a Blogger Bash to attend, hosted by Healthworks. The Bash started with a spin class which I couldn’t fit into my schedule, but I met with the girls at the club before heading out for drinks and food. PS – a little tip – if you go out with bloggers and they ask you to take a picture of them, beware. You’re going to be there for a while.

The gang:

Can you recognize your favorite bloggers… like ME?

On our way out, Judith pointed out the new and improved Healthworks sign…

… and everyone busted out their cameras. I was cracking up in the corner (of course after taking a picture myself. So predictable. )

After a quick T ride, we were at our destination – the gorgeous Liberty Hotel.

So many bloggers!

Our bash was held at Alibi. The Liberty hotel used to be a Charles Street Jail, so Alibi plays up the history of the space with a modern take on “jail chic” as I like to call it. The windows had prison bars and the walls featured photos of celebs that have spent a night or two in jail. The place felt surprisingly cozy for such a creepy motif.

Bloggers, bloggers everywhere. Melissa, your arms look awesome in this pic. I’d frame it if I were you.

Is it time for food yet? Oh yes, it is! All the food was courtesy of Alibi but came from the Scampo kitchen (upstairs, in the Liberty hotel). It was SO GOOD. Let’s see…

Fresh mozzarella, tomato and roasted garlic pizza

Caprese salad

Artichoke, prosciutto, pear and arugula pizza

Hi, Meghan!

Tuna tartare with a wasabi aioli (they made a special one for me, without onions!!! love)

Pizza bianco with bufala ricotta, fontina & green asparagus and truffle oil

Excuse the deteriorating quality of the pics. It was DARK in there (thank god for my super fancy lens I got as a gift from the rents for my birthday. Ok, I got a bit of track. Moving on).

The food was seriously amazing. You guys may know this already but I am one picky customer. This was possibly the best pizza I’ve had in Boston. I’m pretty sure it was. Yeah, that says a lot!

Of course drinks were involved as well. Double Cross vodka and RIPE sponsored this portion of the bash.

I had 1.5 of the strawberry basil cocktails (the half was due to the fact that somehow I lost my drink mid-evening – too much gabbing I guess)

This was so well balanced – not too sweet and had a fun little twist to it. I just loved the basil! I’m realizing I’m a fan of herbs in my cocktails. The best cocktail I’ve had to-date was a combo of thyme and pear at Church.

Shannon played with my camera for a minute and took some artsy photos of the Double Cross vodka bottles. Cool, right?

Hi, Shannon!

I had SUCH a fabulous time. I met so many cool Boston bloggers and one from Philly. I can’t wait to check out everyone’s blogs. I love finding new friends.

And if that’s not all, did I mention there was a swag bag involved? Yeah, this was SICK. So.much.stuff (like free massages and haircuts and yogurt coupons and passes to Healthworks,…….). I’ll review them as I go.

Thank you, Healthworks, for organizing such a fantastic event!!! I hope we can keep in touch.

Boston readers – if you’d like to check out a Healthworks gym near you, follow this link for a free 3-day pass. I got some passes too and am very much looking forward to trying some fun new classes.

Lastly, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my cookware giveaway!

Happy Friday! Birthday countdown: less than 24 hours!

This is when my new rule (and the fact that my husband was in fact at the gym that very moment) came in handy. I planned on going for a run (if thousands can run 26.2 miles on this day, surely I could do a few miles, no?) but I told myself that just going out there and walking for 20 minutes will be enough, if that’s all I feel like (redefining success). I changed into my running gear, grabbed my ipod loaded with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and took off.

About a minute later my garmin died. Normally this would freak me out and I’d treat it as a sign that a run was not in the cards, but all of a sudden the sun came out and it was gorgeous out. I checked the clock on my ipod and just started running. It was an easy jog, I ran while listening to my book and I swear I could keep running forever. It was amazing!! I think I can partly contribute this to the book “on-tape” because my mind was occupied the entire time (and it wasn’t occupied with ways to convince myself to stop). I finally stopped because I got really close to home and wanted to do a short cooldown walk – 46 minutes my ipod said. I’m guessing I just banged out 5 miles. Sweet! I felt like a million bucks. From now on – 20 minutes, that’s all I’m committing too. I’m sure some days that’s all it will be, but on others I may just surprise myself with a 5-miler. Now I can’t wait to go for another run!!!

BREAKFAST

TJ’s European style nonfat yogurt, 1/2 mango, All-bran flakes, apple butter + coffee

The mangos were not sweet enough and the whole mixture was pretty sour so I added a serving of TJ’s nutty american trek mix. The chocolate chunks transformed this breakfast into a new level of deliciousness.

MID-MORNING SNACK

LUNCH

This lunch was such a treat because both Adam and I got to eat a freshly cooked meal at home during lunch. It didn’t take long at all! I followed Cara’s recipe for sizzling haloumi with roasted asparagus and tomatoes but Whole Foods was out of the haloumi (which was supposed to be on sale) so I subbed some fresh tilapia for it instead.

I stir fried the fish in a sprayed skillet + 1T of EVOO, cooking it for maybe 3 minutes (if that) on each side. Wow, this was beyond fantastic!!! It was bursting with flavor. The delicate fish drizzled with the EVOO/lemon/caper sauce was so beautiful paired with the young roasted asparagus and the roasted tomatoes that popped in your mouth.

Both Adam and I were floored at how delicious and fresh tasting this was. Very spring-y. It’s going on our favorites list!!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACKS

A little brownie with walnuts from our secretary (my treat for the day)

Chocolate peanut butter granola for a pre-run snack

DINNER

During my lunch break, I also plopped all the taco soup ingredients into our crock pot. I love that the chicken breasts go in whole so there is no prep work. This literally took less than 5 minutes to “make” and dinner was waiting for me after my run. Adam already sampled it and “warned” me that it was amazing. 2 for 2 today?

I topped my taco soup with a bit of lite mexican cheese and a dollop of nofat yogurt + 1/2 tortilla wrap toasted and cut into pieces. After mixing the yogurt and cheese in, the soup got super creamy and man was it flavorful! A nutritious and delicious dinner in less than 5 minutes of prep? Sign me up. We’ll be making this again

I got used to having dessert after dinner but I’m trying to stick to one treat a day and see how that goes. Since I already had a brownie mid-afternoon, I chugged a bunch of water after dinner and it totally did the trick. Some tv, cuddled up with the hubs on the couch, also took my mind off snacking.

Are you a morning, afternoon, or a night exerciser? Is it hard for you to get out there if you’re thrown off your regular schedule? What are you tricks?

DINNER

This week’s CEiMB’s recipe was chosen by Grandma’s Kitchen. I rarely make soups so I was actually excited to be “forced” to make Ellie’s lemon chicken soup with orzo (recipe is on page 86 of The Food You Crave and has been retyped here). The idea of a lemony soup sounded so fresh and appealing to me. Adam wasn’t too psyched but once in a while he has to eat things for the love of the blog (plus I know what he’ll really hate and I wouldn’t serve that to him)

So chicken + lemon sounded delicious but onions and celery did not. For some reason most soups call for carrots, onions and celery as the only veggies. Given my hatred for the 2 latter veggies, I was determined to replace them with veggies I do like… but what would work in chicken soup? My twitter friends helped me out with this dilemma (follow me on twitter if you don’t already!). I decided to add a pepper, some frozen corn and baby spinach. I also realized I had some leftover cooked wild rice so I nixed the orzo for the rice. Since I wasn’t cooking the orzo in the soup (and my rice wouldn’t absorb much of the liquid), I also cut the amount of chicken broth to 4 cups in total. I guess at the end, my soup did not resemble that of Ellie’s much… although I did still use chicken + lemon.

Here are all the goodies!

The soup was lacking in flavor a bit so I added extra lemon juice and a dash of cayenne pepper to add depth and a bit of spice. Much better! I really liked how the egg made the soup a bit creamier. I’ll use that trick in my next soup adventure! What’s your favorite kind of soup?

[Rewind]

BREAKFAST

TJ’s european style yogurt, chia seeds, mango, muesli + TJ’s nutty American trek mix

My favorite trail mix is back at TJ’s!!!!! It’s been gone for probably a year (I thought it was discontinued) so I almost squealed with excitement when I saw it at TJ’s a few days ago. I bought 2 packages – just in case.

Best yogurt bowl I’ve had in ages. Amazing!!

LUNCH

The yummy eats continued with an amazing sandwich. TJ’s ww Tuscan pane with pesto, turkey, mozzarella and tomato. All ooey, gooey…mmm

Steamed brussels sprouts + a pickle for some added veggie love

And an impulse V8 juice I spotted at the back of the fridge. I love this juice but need to get used to the low sodium kind.

SNACKS

Mid-afternoon I snacked on a Zbar (brownie flavor) and an orange and after dinner this guy was very much enjoyed…

Whole wheat Tuscan pane with roasted garlic hummus and avocado

Definitely lots of deliciousness all around.

I skipped my workout for the day because my mid-morning meeting ran into lunch and I missed my spin class. I had no motivation to do my own thing so it turned into a rest day. I used the extra time at night to research Haiti relief programs and chose to donate 100% of my February blog earnings to the National Nurses United. Every dollar donated is used to send volunteer nurses to Haiti.

Happy Thursday… and please wish my mom a happy birthday in the comments. I know she’ll feel the love.

[Back tomorrow with a restaurant review]

Now onto today’s eats…

BREAKFAST

TJ’s european style yogurt, pear, fresh blueberries and 1/2 blueberry muffin + coffee

The muffin chunks tasted like CAKE for breakfast! Best idea ever.

All messy… mmm

[302 calories]

MID-MORNING SNACK

The other half of the muffin + orange slices

[206 calories]

Man, it hurts me to post this ugly picture. It was crazy delicious though. I promise!

WORKOUT - abs + spin. Nice and sweaty

LUNCH

Baba ganoush, turkey, cucumbers and mustard on white whole wheat bread

A garlic pickle <3

+ baby carrots and cucumber slices

All together:

[326 calories]

I know this is obvious, but I just wanted to remind you all that cucumbers in sandwiches are awesome!!!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Strawberry Soyjoy I got at a conference ages ago.

[130 calories]

I liked it a lot. It kind of tasted like a strawberry cookie.

DINNER

Did I mention how much I love our new kitchen? Because I do! It’s seriously a pleasure being in it. I can’t get enough! I hope Adam can keep up with all the dish washing because I kind of want to live in the kitchen for a little while

For dinner tonight I made some sweet potato falafel by following this recipe from the Pink Apron. My pita bread totally fell apart so this was one messy meal, but it was quite tasty nonetheless. I loved how crunchy the baked falafel balls were and the subtle sweetness of the sweet potatoes added a fun twist to the traditional recipe. The tomatoes + cucumbers added a nice freshness to this meal. Unfortunately, the sauce, to be honest, was just okay. I didn’t thin it enough so it was quite thick and Adam is not a fan of parsley so I just used a bit of dried parsley instead of fresh and the sauce ended up tasting kind of like plain sour cream. Not that exciting (not Kelly’s fault since I didn’t follow her directions properly). I’d make the falafel again but probably use hummus for sauce.

[395 calories]

I just totaled up my calories for the day and realized I’m a bit low. I’m munching on a clementine and calling it a day.

See you later alligators!

[This ended up being a long recap - follow along at your own discretion ]

I woke up an hour and a half before my planned run and had my usual toast with Barney Butter and banana (you’ve seen it a million times, click here for a visual if you need it ). I was a bit nervous, but decided to just take it really easy. Slow and steady wins the race, right? Ok, no exactly… but it may make for a more pleasurable run. After a 1/2 mile warm-up walk (until my Garmin found the satellites) I got to it. I roughly planned out my route to make a 9 mile loop. I like running to a “destination” so there is something to look forward to. Also, this prevents me from deciding to cut the run short because I’m already so close to home. Today’s “destination” was the Jamaica Pond (in Jamaica Plain). I’ve done this run so many times and it never gets old. There are always so many runners and power walkers by the pond, no matter the weather, and I feel proud to be part of this little community.

So I took off, every time I looked down my Garmin said I was doing an 8:30-8:40 pace. I couldn’t believe it – it felt so easy! I know that usually when Molly and I run we talk the entire time. It makes the time really fly by, and we catch up on everything that’s happened in the past week. When we ran the half, we ran side by side, but didn’t talk, and our pace indeed was the pace I was running at today. I wasn’t complaining, that’s for sure! Around mile 3, I really wanted to stop and walk. Originally my plan was to run straight through – no stopping, but right around that mile 3 marker that seemed like a silly plan. So what if I stopped for just a minute? Would it really make that much of a difference? I bargained with myself and decided to take a walking break at the half-way point. Man, that’s a whole 1.5 miles away!! No, no – that’s negative thinking, I could do this!

Minutes after deciding to allow myself that walking break, I realized that I was running uphill. The second I hit flat ground, a walking break seemed like a silly idea. Now I really wanted to make it a full 9 miles without stopping, and this time I really did know I could do it. I ran around the pond twice, it’s fairly flat there and very beautiful. After the second loop, I was at 5.6 miles – the perfect time to run back home. I was smiling ear to ear at this point. OMG, I’m going to rock this run!!

By the way, I forgot to mention that this run was basically the exact same route that the BAA half follows (except I turned around 2 miles earlier). Around 7 miles or so, I was starting to slow down. My legs were starting to hurt a little. I was at the exact location that I started to really feel it during my half (it was mile 9 then). I distinctly remember Molly asking me if I wanted to walk for a minute or slow down… and I remember saying “I don’t know…” and kept running. I wanted to be stronger than that on THIS run. I pictured the point at which I thought I saw a 13 mile market (it was a 12-mile marker in fact). I wanted to get there, and I wanted to keep going. Remember, I was going to rock this run!! So I kept running and drinking water. I brought some orange slices with me for fuel, but I didn’t want them. I knew I could finish without them. I slowed down a bunch just to make sure I finished the run strong. Finishing the distance was my main goal. I didn’t care about speed. At the end, I was happy with both. I finished 9 miles in 1:22 hours – 9:08 minute average pace. I did it!!!!!! [Insert happy dance here ]

After a good stretch and a shower, I met up with Coco for a celebratory brunch. I’m going to do a recap of that in a separate post because you are probably tired from reading. Here are the rest of the day’s eats.

Organic fuji apple

Grilled chicken, avocado and cheese panini + baby carrots and grape tomatoes

I ended up dumping a bunch of salsa over the sandwich. That was an awesome addition to the panini!

TJ’s nonfat european style yogurt, chia seeds, pear slices + Zoe’s granola

A Black Dinah Chocolatiers truffle

It was the perfect Sunday!

Do you have any tips for completing long workouts?

Anyways, before the stupid binge (which included a bunch of pecans, a Mojo mountain mix bar, chocolate covered edamame and chips!! <– I never want those!) my eats were super delicious. Let’s review, shall we?

BREAKFAST

Overnight oats with banana slices, Kashi Golean cereal, walnuts and raisins + coffee

Looks pretty but it wasn’t that exciting. I think overnight oats are just not for me. I’d rather have yogurt straight up… or hot oats. That’s just me

[398 calories]

The perfect bite!

MID-MORNING SNACK

[168 calories]

LUNCH

I was pretty proud of this one! It was so fresh and SO delicious (thanks to the sauce).  Spinach, broccoli, snow peas, shredded carrots, TJ’s organic savory baked tofu + almonds in Jenna’s spicy sesame noodle sauce (I made it ages ago).

The sauce recipe made like a gallon and the stuff is caloric so I’ve been using only a tablespoon or 2 at a time.  I have been keeping the sauce in a Nalgene bottle and it was as fresh tasting yesterday as it was a year ago. Just opening the sauce bottle in the morning got me super excited about lunch! The sauce aroma is amazing – tahini + sesame oil really are a match made in heaven.

Saucy lunch…

Brownie anyone?

[all together ~ 515 calories]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

PURE cherry cashew bar – love them!

[200 calories]

DINNER

Another amazing meal – seriously prior to my binge I was eating like a queen!! Apple chicken sausage “dog” with honey mustard, pumpkin butter and fresh pear slices + baby carrots

The star of the show… the perfect balance between sweet and savory.

Before reading food blogs (and of course writing one), I would have never thought I’d like something like this. Good thing I’m more adventurous now – it was an incredible combination of flavors!!

The only thing that got documented as I was eating my weight in food…

KITCHEN REMODEL UPDATE

Our walls and ceiling are closed!! I can actually picture what the kitchen will look like now. It’s so open – I love it! We have less than a week left for it to be done (fingers crossed)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any fun plans for Valentine’s day? I think we’re going to wake up to the oh so romantic sound of kitchen remodeling.

BREAKFAST

I tried to start the morning with some overnight oats, except later in the day I realized that what I prepared last night was just yogurt with oats… you need milk for overnight oats. Hey, it still tasted pretty yummy!

In the mix – 1/3 c rolled oats, 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, Zoe’s granola, fresh mango, 1 medjool date and walnut pieces. Sweet and tart – delicious.

[422 calories with coffee]

MID-MORNING SNACK

Fresh banana bread (from the office)

[~200 calories?]

LUNCH

Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, 1/4 avocado, pinto beans + meat from 1.5 chicken drumsticks, dressed in 1T of Annie’s balsamic vinaigrette

So much delicious healthy fat – the avocado + pinto beans were super creamy and the chicken tasted extra buttery (no butter there, just dark meat which I rarely eat).

[306 calories]

WORKOUT

I ran outside today!! I received an email from my sister today telling me she ran outside at 6 am this morning. I was so impressed that I decided to go for a run outside myself… and I even found a buddy to go with me. A girl that works at my gym is training for a half marathon right now. We snuck out of work mid-day for a 40 minute run. I didn’t start my garmin right away, but I think we held an 8:30 minute pace (it was hard!!!) and ran for about 4.5 miles. The cooldown walk never felt so good (even though it was freezing and windy out)!!

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

Blueberry mango cranberry bran muffin

[220 calories]

DINNER

Late night at work calls for super easy dinners – this is V8 tomato soup + a toast with organic cheddar

The soup was a little sweet on its own, but the cheddar toasts balanced it out really well.

Mmm, who doesn’t love grilled cheese dipped in tomato soup? This soup even had other hidden veggies (like zucchini). Love that!

[349 calories]

[100 calories] – This cookie is nothing special.

POST-WORK SNACK

A few spoonfuls of pomegranate seeds… I love how they burst in your mouth!

Total calories consumed: 1622 + pomegranate seeds (can’t find their nutritionals right now)

How do you balance out your meals + snacks? Do you include dessert with a meal or eat it as a snack (if at all)? I usually prefer sweeter snacks over savory ones, but once in a while I crave pickles or hummus.