Day 2: Adjusting

Today’s Happy Note: I had an interesting class this evening!  Score.  So far I have felt mostly sleepy and bored in school, but I think it’s just my body/mind transitioning back into student mode.  The one this evening was called Narrative and Human Rights.  Cool, no?

I only had two classes today.  I have three, normally, but Iyengar Yoga doesn’t start until next week.  I’m pretty excited about it!  Confession: I feel asleep about eight times in my seminar this morning.  It’s the same slightly crazy prof I wrote about yesterday.  I have the pleasure of having him for two classes.  Happy happy joy joy.  He seems interesting though, and most definitely knowledgeable.  The problem is that he is so knowledgeable that he spends the entire class talking about the background to the background of the history of the material he’s teaching.  That doesn’t even make sense but I swear that’s what he does.

Harumph.

Marathon Training: Wednesday’s are usually an “easy” day on my plan.  Today consisted of four sloooooowwwww miles with 6×100 meter strides in the last mile.  I took advantage of my very open day to squeeze in 40 minutes of weights at the gym too (arms/abs).  I always forget how much I walk during school days.  I probably did about 3 miles walking today as well.

Eats:

Gloppy-looking 1/3 cup of oats with a fresh peach and an invisible scoop of sunbutter (~2 tablespoons).

Snacky day (also had another spoonful pb).

Lunch!  Don’t let this innocent looking smoothie fool you; it has four servings of produce!  Frozen berries, half a banana, spinach, and cucumber slices (plus almond milk and vanilla protein powder).  I really liked it, but it needed ice.  This is one of the great dilemmas of my life: my mini fridge freezer is too small for an ice tray. I need ice in my life.  I crave it — I chew on it (I know it’s a terrible habit) and think it makes smoothies infinitely better.  I can easily go through a whole tray in one smoothie.

So now my life (and my smoothies) are iceless.  I don’t know what to do.  Help!  Anyone have any ice-making solutions?

I did indeed bring my own nut butter to The Lite Choice (in my defense, I only had the AB in my bag because I was on my way back from WF).

Stir fry leftovers (shrimp, rainbow chard, yellow squash, broccoli,  yellow pepper, coconut, peanut dressing) with brown rice for dinners.  Just had some hot cocoa to end the day, with a little dark chocolate melted in (my favorite way to eat it).

I feel like this is a good, healthy intake for a day of moderate exercise.  I can never tell if I am eating too little, enough, or enough. Eating is a funny thing because every body is different. I am proud of myself, though, for trying to figure out what works for me.  I feel pretty good right now, like I had enough but not too much.  I don’t want to fall into the comparison trap, so I try to think of my eating only in terms of myself — also, I need to remember that most of my friends and peers are not training for a marathon and running 40-50 miles a week right now.  So when I’m with friends and they don’t snack after dinner (or after lunch, or after breakfast, or after snack, or…), I need to not freak out and think I’m being weird or overeating.  I just need to remember to listen to my body.  It gets easier everyday that I do it. 🙂

I hope you all had splendid, happy Wednesdays!

FYI, L has been on vacation so I’ll be at therapy on Friday this week.  Thereafter I *think* I’ll be switching to Thursdays for the rest of the semester.

Goodnight friends!

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Adventure Saturday: Yoga/Farmer’s Market and Fava Bean Pasta Salad

Today’s Happy Note: Everything!  It was just a very pleasant Saturday.  I need a list.

1. Turtles.  I found this little pond in CP with a small dock.  I ran down the dock and discovered that the pond was swarming with turtles — hundreds of them!  My favorites are the big old ones.  They’re such serene and graceful creatures.

2. Buying myself sunflowers!  See farmer’s market pictures below.  They are brightening up my dining room table.

3. Getting things done: lots of errands and tasks (calling grandparents, buying paper towels, letter writing, etc.).

4. One of my best random dinner creations ever.

5. Spectacular batch of protein ice cream (that I am currently eating).

6. Chatting with friends, even if only briefly.  Always makes my day so much better.

7. Catching up on Bethenny Getting Married, which is the best reality show ever.  I think Bethenny is really sassy and clever.  She is totally someone who I would want as my friend!

I had a spectacular Adventure this morning to a yoga class with live music.  I have never had a class with live musicians and it was fun, especially since the players were kinda cute.  I don’t think it really changed my experience but I did notice I felt a little more relaxed.  Like there was less stuff floating around in my head interfering with my practice.

I have been thinking a lot about compassion lately.  Yoga always reminds me to be kind: towards myself and others.  This is one of my favorite things about it, besides the obvious physical benefits.  After yoga, the Adventure continued to the Farmer’s Market.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera since I only had my running waist pack.  There was such a wide variety of vendors there today.  I wanted to try so many things — fresh goat cheese, blueberry jam, sprouts, lamb, herb teas, squashes.  I didn’t think I should spend my life savings at the FM though, so I had to drag myself away eventually.  My little trip reminded me of Averie!  I wish she could shop at the farmer’s market in NYC with me.  I know she would love it and we would be buddies!

When I was done shopping, I munched on a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie from Stone Arch Farms (my favorite baked goods vendor by far) dipped in my newly acquired cashew butter!  I had gotten a few things at WF beforehand. Sadly, the cashew butter was a bit disappointing.  It was sort of thick and goopy and slimy.  Cashews are my favorite nut too.  I don’t know where things went wrong.

Loot:

Peaches, cookies, banana chip bread, eggs, fava beans, sunflowers, cucumbers, sweet corn!  WF loot:

Basil, spring greens, almond milk, frozen mahi mahi burgers (!!!), raspberries, cashew butter.  Can you tell what I was thinking of making for dinner? Probably not.  Because only a few of the ingredients are here.  And only my crazy brain would think up the bizarre concoction that it turned into.

So what did dinner turn into?

Summer Pasta Salad (this is for one)

1 serving whole wheat noodles

1/2 pound fava beans (once shelled, you’ll have about 1/2 – 3/4 cups)

2 C spinach, washed

1 C fresh basil, washed

2 Tbsp EVOO

2 Tbsp hummus

Lemon pepper to taste

Salt to taste

Boil a pot of water and add a teaspoon or two of salt.  While it boils, remove fava beans from pods.  Add them into the boiling water for three or four minutes; meanwhile, prepare a bowl of ice water.  Remove fava beans from pot and submerge in ice water.  Add pasta to water and cook for ten to twelve minutes.  The fava beans actually have another shell that must now be removed.  I took them out of the ice water and, using a dull-ish knife (I didn’t want to slice my hand open), make a slice along one edge, then squeeze the bean out.  Once all of the beans have been shelled, toss into a frying pan with a little EVOO, lemon pepper, and salt.  Into a blender goes the hummus, the other tablespoon of EVOO, more salt and lemon pepper, and the basil.  Blend until creamy.  Beans should be sauteed for about five minutes, while pasta is finishing up.  When everything is complete, add pasta, beans, and sauce to a bowl.  Toss together thoroughly, then add the spinach and toss again.  Serve with cheese, sunny side up egg, more basil, or other fresh herbs.

The Bean.

This was such a fun dinner!  I was  *this close* to not cooking but decided I wanted to do a little kitchen experimentation.  So glad I did!  It’s creamy yet tangy yet not overpowering.  I will probably make a version of this again.  I need to buy more favas next time!

Do you have a favorite easy summer recipe?

Outside of my yoga/farmer’s market adventure, I also ran and lifted today.  I did about seven and a half miles then twenty-ish minutes of arm strength.  I was proud of myself for that distance.  It felt surprisingly easy, considering that I have run all of five miles in the last two weeks.  I think I should be back up to my regular weekend long runs in no time at all.

Tomorrow will, hopefully, include more Adventures.  I think that’s what weekend are all about

What Adventures are you having on this lovely (albeit sticky) July weekend?

Hot Running, Frozen Treats

Today’s Happy Note: Top Chef!  Anyone else watching this season?  I have never watched it before this summer, but it’s a lot of fun (except Padma’s voice is really annoying)!

I raaaaaaaan today!  Happy face.  I set out for 3-5 miles and ended up doing 4.  At first, I let the angry/bad thoughts come up (“you suck, you’re only doing four miles”, “you’ll never be thin and beautiful when you’re this lazy!”), but then I said, you know what “shut up self” and realized that for me, right now, 4 miles is an acocmplishment.  And I am proud of it.  It may have taken me 50 minutes, but it was also 90 degrees at seven AM and I was pretty tired.  I would love to run again tomorrow; we shall see.

I also did some strength training tonight since I have no idea when else I would be able to do it this week.  I lifted for about 40 minutes, doing leg, arm, and ab exercises.

The heat. Oh the heat.  If you live in the NYC area, you know what I am talking about: the dripping bodies, the sweltering, deathly subway stations, the cracked hydrants.  For everyone else: it’s been 100+ degrees the past few days.  I have had to do work stuff in the afternoon, which has meant being outdoors in the middle of the day.  Even if only for very brief periods of time, being out has been unbearable.  And I sweat.  And sweat.  And sweat.

There is no point to this anecdote.  Other than reminding you all to be careful when walking around or working out in the heat!  Which you all know anyways so I’m being silly.

Thanks for your comments yesterday.  Blog friends never fail to make me feel better. 🙂  I love blogland because it’s like a whole new social network of friends and comrades and supporters!

I have had no less than three delicious frozen treats today.  Two smoothies and one “frozen dessert” from The Lite Choice. Speaking of TLC…





TLC people are so nice!  They’re doing a promotion with Scoop Street, who features local businesses.  They have a special flavor throughout July called Scoopstachio, made from pistachio flavor and ground peanuts.  I think that it sounds tasty!  Anyways, if you go to a TLC you can sign up for more info, win prizes, try the new flavor, etc.

My other frozen treats:

Breakfast (and dessert tonight!): Peanut butter peach protein smoothie!  Frozen peaches, ice, vanilla almond milk, vanilla protein powder, and a giant scoop of PB.  This was perfect.  It filled up that giant 32 ounce water bottle almost all the way!  Had to eat it with a spoon on my walk to work. 🙂

I had an afternoon meeting for my other job.  I brought a hummus/cheese/spinach wrap with greenbeans and blueberries.  But when I got to the meeting it turned out they had provided lunch: pizza.  I tend to be afraid of pizza, but it actually is something that I really enjoy, every once in a while. At first I was going to eat my wrap in the corner while everyone else ate their pizza.  But then I decided that if I really wanted it, I should just enjoy it and save the wrap for dinner!  And that’s exactly what I did.  I had one slice of mushroom and one of pepperoni, with my green beans on the side and blueberries for an afternoon snack.  Alongside this, of course:

Half mint and half chocolate with oreos!

Just ate an unnecessary bowl of cereal.  Meh.  Need to practice some of my self-soothing techniques I learned form this book.

Alright friends, I’m off to start compiling my therapy posts into one monster booklet for L!  Happy Thursday!  Almost the weekend!

Blogdentity

Today’s Happy Note: Evening walks!  I forgot how lovely it can be outside in the early evening in summer.  Dusky sun rays, lavender skies, warm-cool temperatures.  What’s not to like?

Hello, hello, hello!

Other than the fact that I think I just had some spoiled milk this has been a very happy day!  I just felt…happy.  Sometimes that happens.  It’s nice to know, during the down times, that I am capable of just feeling good for no reason at all.  I’ve been doing some breathing meditations for a few minutes at a time over the last few days.   Instantly calming — especially after getting some minorly bad news today (not the end of the world, but a genuine short-term problem).

When things like this happen, I know very clearly that I want to be a lawyer.  Anything that strikes me as even a little bit unjust deeply upsets me.  I think law could help me direct this frustration into a positive, clear anger towards making things right.

Had an awesome early-AM workout!  I took the boot camp class at my gym and holy mackerel.  Wow.  It was only 50 minutes but it was insane!!!  We did a quick warm-up that involved cardio (running, butt kicks, jumping jacks) and strength (lots of push-ups and squats).  I’ve never done strength in a warm-up but I enjoyed it; I felt like it prepared me better.  Then we did some ridiculous circuits.  It was things that seemed easy, but weren’t, because they involved lots of different muscle groups.  Some of the moves were simultaneous plyo-strength.  At one point the instructor asked me “if this was the hardest thing I’d ever done.”  I hope this was because it was my first time at the class and not because I was a weakling!  I am more used to endurance training than super speedy stuff like that.  Followed up the class with 15 minutes on the stepmill because I had some time to kill.

Weekly treat breakfast: toasted bagel with melty pb.

Lunch dessert.  Always a necessity.  I can’t get over these dried hibiscuses.  So cute.  Like little…vegan pink octopuses…

I had a really good sammy for lunch but forgot to take a picture because  I was walking.  A multi-grain wrap with hummus, white cheddar, and an egg, toasted on the stove.

Other delish sammy combos: AB and apple and spinach, salami and gouda and mayonnaise (I know, not the healthiest — but it’s a childhood fave!), salami and egg and cheese, turkey and loads of veggies.  Your favorite sammy combos?

Farmer’s market loot!  Asparagus, apples, yogurt drink, milk (spoiled culprit!).

Unfortunately, my dinner smoothie-salad (it’s a new term I’ve coined for dinner-sized smoothies that involve veggies.  Which is pretty much all my smoothies, but whatever) involved the bad milk.  Hopefully I survive.  If I don’t blog tomorrow tonight, call my mom, okay?

New chocolate find!  WF dark chocolate with coconut flakes!  Shhh, don’t tell Evan.  I need it all for myself.  This was splendid.  I wouldn’t really call it dark, it’s pretty sweet, especially with the coconut.  But that’s not to say that it isn’t working.  Quite the contrary!  This was crunchy, flaky, smooth, melty.  Basically, choclate bar perfection.

Coconut, why have we been separated for so long?  I hated coconut as a kid.  Among other things: almonds, walnuts, plain oatmeal,  dark chocolate (the horror!), tofu, grapefruit, mushrooms, and peppers.  I think I’ve stopped liking new foods in the last few years.  Guess my taste bud development is winding down.  Just goes to show you how long we grow and develop for!  I’m 20 years old!  What foods did you hate as a kid but savor now?

Okay.  Serious question.  Is it weird that I blog intensely about both mental and physical health? I sort of had a mini moment of panic this afternoon when I started thinking about my blog friends.  It feels like people are either mind-focused or body-focused.  Neither of which is a bad thing!  I find those blogs fun, informative, and focused.  And then I feel too unfocused.  Does it confuse you that I bounce between green monsters and therapy Monday, or long runs and moments of anxiety? Sometimes it confuses me, and I’m the one blogging about it!  I think that both types of health are so important, but sometimes I wonder if I’m trying to cover too much ground.  I need to figure out my blogdentity…Honestly, what do you guys  think?

Happy Friday my friends!

Adventure Friday: Milk And Cookies And Yoga

Today’s Happy Note: Listening to my body.  I had this whole big workout planned for the evening, but when I got home from work I realized I wanted to do something a bit simpler!  At first I was nervous to ditch my plans for an hour long run followed by an hour yoga class.  I just went to the class and am so glad I did.  It was the perfect amount of movement!  Often, I am afraid to do a shorter, less intense workout (although yoga is actually pretty hard!).  But my body knows when it needs a break and I’m proud of myself for listening.

Perhaps a long run is in store for tomorrow.  We shall see.

I also walked a few miles today all over the place.  I went in search of dumbbells at TJMaxx but was unsuccessful. Where else should I look for low-priced sports equipment?

Announcements, announcements, announnnnnncements!

I have decided to stop tracking my calories!  May not sound like a big deal but it seems significant to me.  I’ve been doing it for a few months and I think I’m at a point where I have a better idea of what portions should be, what kind of food combinations keep me full, and how much I need on different days.  SparkPeople was definitely useful, but I think that if I go too much further with it, it might become obsessive and I do NOT want that.  I have become more intuitive with my food choices and am excited to improve even more, learning how to eat when I’m hungry and nourishing myself well.  With things like raspberry sorbet, of course.

So what was that splendiferous looking dessert from yesterday?

Warmed-up brownie (that I somehow burnt in the microwave) topped with raspberry sorbet and crunchy peanut butter.  That’s it.  So simple, yet so splendid.  I feel like this was a really eloquent dessert.  Does that make any sense?

I used this kind of sorbet:

It’s called Talenti and the flavor is Roman Raspberry.  Smooth, icy, sweet, deep.  Yum.  Okay, so I have a story now.  And I like to talk so I am going to tell it to you.

I thought that I didn’t like sorbet — I mean why not just go for the Ben and Jerry’s, right?  But when I was “home” (in MI) at my mother’s house, she bought this about two days before I left.  She bought it especially for me and I didn’t get a chance to try it (I was out for dinners, didn’t want it for dessert, etc.).  For some reason, this sorbet took on a massive emotional meaning for me.  I literally got to my apartment in NY and cried over it.  I wanted to be with my mother, eating it in the backyard in the evening, watching the peonies open.  I still want this.  But I live here, in NY, by myself right now.  And I confess: I am lonely.  I bought the sorbet a few days ago because it made me feel closer to “home.”  I’ll probably make a picnic for myself for the holiday.  And eat alone in the park.  My friends aren’t here right now.  Loneliness is a terrible feeling.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Being lonely and anti-social has, time and again, proved to be one of the worst things for my mental health.  I seriously spent like ten minutes talking to the cashier at TJ’s this evening.  I will have to find ways to be social and meet new people this summer.  It’s not really an option.  I need people.  Making friends as an adult is hard.

Eats hodgepodge!

I like it when egg yolks get golden yellow, and they’re somewhere between drippy and solid.

Adventure Friday

Being that today is Cookie Friday and Adventure Friday (as every Friday is, I suppose!), why not combine them?  I wanted to run to a new bakery, but just was not in a running mood so I combined a trip to Milk and Cookies with my visit to Yoga Vida. It was a pleasant little end of the week adventure.  Not too strenuous, but still invigorating.  When are cookies and yoga not invigorating, though? 🙂

Milk and Cookies is a bakery near Union Square that is pretty well known for their cookies.  I think Ada first told me about it actually.  I went to their smaller branch which is actually inside of another store.  The woman behind the counter was really warm and welcoming.  She smiled and let me take my time and even pulled the rack of cookie sheets closer so I could get a good look at my options.  So far, so good.  I thought chocolate chip caramel, chocolate mint, and chocolate chip peanut butter sounded good.  I settled on the latter.

The good: Nice chunks of chocolate and peanuts, not too thin or too thick, decent flavor, perfect size.

The bad: The texture was off — there was no chewy, gooey soft factor and the flavor was just okay.  Too dry.  Peanuts were bland.

Overall, I think I’d rather have a bigger, undoubtedly more calorie dense cookie like the one I had from Levain.  This one was just okay.  My home made ones are definitely better.  With that said, I would love to go back to Milk and Cookies and try some of their other flavors, which may be better. Anyone else been there?

I would describe the flavor as dense, slightly chewy (but not enough), too typical, and not sweet enough or bold enough.

Important Discoveries: Food Edition

Today’s Happy Note: I try to avoid making food my happy note, but today was a very grumpy day and not much else seemed joyful.  So I’m gonna go ahead and say that my frozen yogurt (cookies and cream/vanilla) with chocolate chips made me happy.  TLC is better though.

Gak!  I wanted to post last night, but discovered that the internet at my new apartment is not yet functional.  I’m going to get a new router tonight so hopefully that will solve things (by the way — I discovered that this is what I needed after talking, for free, with an agent at geeksquad online — it was incredibly helpful!).

I flew back to NY yesterday.  I can’t decide to say whether I “flew home” or “left home”.  Weird.

Plane lunch and snacks!

Shrimp/garlic hummus/spinach sammy on seedy whole grain bread.  This combo was a wise choice indeed.  I am in love with garlic hummus but am afraid to bring it in lunches for fear that my breath would smell.  But seeing as I was on a plane where I knew no one, I went for it. 🙂

Other snacks: orange pepper strips, apple, peanuts, cinnamon roll larabar, cashews in the evening.

Always, always, always plan ahead for travel! You can save money, eat healthfully, and enjoy your food when you do this.  For most flights, I recommend packing a variety of snacks and a sandwich.  Portable and convenient.  I wrapped my sammy in cling wrap and then put it in a plastic bag.  Travel is the one time when I am not nice to the environment with my lunch — tupperware just doesn’t cut it.  Ideal travel snacks: cut up fruits and veggies, granola bars, trail mix, plain cereal, sandwiches, etc.  FYI: don’t bring yogurt.  It is, apparently, a gel — I’ve had it taken away before.  Another thing I like to do is bring my own water bottle (EMPTY) and then fill it from a drinking fountain when I get through security.  No overpriced plastic bottles for me!

What are your favorite travel snacks?

When I got to the new apartment, I did some unpacking and then faced the grocery store monster (I was tired).  Thankfully, WF was not crowded (the one on the UWS almost never is) and it wasn’t so bad.  I got a tasty, easy dinner there as well:

Delish.  Serious question: has anyone ever spent less than $10 at the WF hot/cold/salad bars?  Is it possible? I figured I needed a treat after all that travelling (which, by the way, I totally count as exercise.  Especially when getting lost on the E train and having to walk everywhere with my heavy suitcase.  Dear JFK airport, YOU ARE THE WORST AIRPORT IN THE WORLD.  And this girl has done her fair share of travelling).

This morning I got up bright and early.  Okay, well it was actually seven.  I know some bloggers get up at 5 or 6 to exercise.  I have no idea how they make it through the work day.

I ran a decent five miles along the river.  It’s fun planning out new routes and paths from my new place — it’s less than a mile from my dorm, but the perspective and mileage is totally different!  I like switching things up like that once in a while 🙂

Today’s eating discoveries:

I made a major discovery at breakfast: you CAN cook instant oats (from a packet) on the stovetop!  And they get thick like regular oats.  Why would I do this?  Well, normally I am rushed in the morning and hate cooking oats on the stove, but the apartment seems to lack a microwave and I have no intentions of buying one.  Grumph.

Other extremely significant discoveries (seriously, I should become, like, a food reporter or something.  How fun would that be?)…

~Crack wraps taste good un-melted too!

~Frozen yogurt makes me feel better after a terrible day at therapy, everytime!

~Kashi dark mocha almond granola bars are yummy.  I was always afraid to try them because I thought, “a coffee-flavored granola bar, really?  Gross!”  But good thing this is so not the case.  It had that palatable, sweet, chocolaty coffee taste.  Like coffee ice cream.  I like this better than I like their cherry dark chocolate (my former favorite).

~Cooking dinner for yourself, by yourself, day after day, gets a little lonely and boring. 😦  I need a dinner companion!

I had therapy today (instead of Monday since I was travelling).  I think I’ll share my reflections tomorrow because I don’t want this post to be a massive text-monster and I need more time to think.  I just have not had a good month or so with therapy.  It’s frustrating for every session not to go the way I want it.  What’s even more frustrating is that it’s kind of my fault — I basically refuse to talk to my (sweet, kind, understanding) therapist about everything.  It’s very strange.  As soon as I arrive and sit down, I feel angry and sad and stubborn and like I would rather die than tell her anything about my life.  I have no clue why this might be happening but I hope I will get over it very soon.  Anyone have any ideas?

I hope you are all having the most lovely of weeks.  Summer is coming!

Finals Week Health Challenge

Today’s Happy Note: I got one paper done (8 pages).  I still need to edit it, but getting the first draft out is always the hardest part.  Here’s what’s left between now and Friday: one 15-page paper, one 10 page take home exam, and one in class final.  That’s not so terrible!  I can do it!

Speaking of school, finals, and papers, I want to give myself a little challenge.  I found myself eating way too much this weekend because I was stressed and/or bored.  Finals week(s) is always a difficult time to follow the diet (in the lifestyle sense, not the weight loss sense) that works best for me, so…

Introducing the Finals Week Health Challenge!

There are several components:

1. 60 minutes of physical activity every day (I suspect this one will be the easiest).

2. 6+ servings of fruits and veggies (dried, fresh, frozen, sauces — it all counts).

3. No late night stress snacking: if I am genuinely awake and using energy studying and I need fuel, that is fine, but I am going to try to maintain a semi-decent schedule, and I would like to institute my no after dinner snacking rule (besides dessert, of course).

4. Mental health: tell myself 3 positive/nice things everyday.  Don’t panic; remain calm and know that everything will get done!

That’s it!  Pretty simple.  This is how I try to live most of the time, but things tend to get crazy during finals — think 12 hour marathon paper writing sessions accompanied by a bag of chocolate chips, etc.  Any college students out there who want to join me are welcome! It starts immediately, unless you don’t have exams yet.

Here’s today’s progress:

1. Check.  I did a 6 mile run (which took me almost 70 minutes; it was 85 degrees and I am NOT adjusted to the heat yet) followed by a 90 minute yoga class at The Shala. The actual class and teacher and flows were great, bu I was so disgustingly sweaty that I could hardly concentrate.

2. Check. I have consumed the following today: blackberries, half a banana, frozen berries and pineapple, arugula/lettuce mix, roasted broccoli, and roasted bell peppers.  I think it was probably somewhere around six or seven servings.

3. Not check.  I had my standard dessert after dinner, but felt the need to eat some unnecessary cereal and peanut butter afterwards.  Not sure if it was genuine hunger (I was pretty active today) or stress, but I’m leaning towards the latter.

4. I think I was pretty un-stressed today, and I have had plenty of positive thoughts.  Why, you want to know?  Because I asked a boy on a date(ish) yesterday!!!!  This is a first for me, and I am VERY PROUD of myself.  It’s such a simple thing, but men are a huge source of anxiety for me.  We’re having lunch on Tuesday.  I’ll let you know how it goes! 🙂

I did a 12-miler yesterday; I wasn’t planning on a long run but I woke up early and just decided to do it.  It was a bit slow but I felt really good during parts of it.

Eats:

LOTS of cereal/smoothie/trail mix bowls.  They’re just so easy.  With the weather this hot,I’m really craving cold smoothies and cereal.  I think I only had oatmeal once this weekend!  My favorite smoothie is really simple: about a cup of frozen berries, a scoop of protein powder, either soy milk or greek yogurt plus a little water, a few bug handfuls spinach, and, sometimes, pb or ab.  Anyone have a favorite smoothie recipe I should try?

Dinner tonight was really good and really easy!  I roasted broccoli and bell peppers with EVOO, salt, and crushed red pepper for 30 minutes.  When it had ten minutes left I heated some EVOO in a non stick pan and added several thin sole fillets (it was on sale at WF this week) and lemon pepper.  I heated up a tiny bit of leftover rice in the microwave and washed a bunch of arugula/lettuce to use as a base.  When everything was done I just threw it in the bowl!  Easy and delish.  The sole tasted a little too fishy for me, but whatever.

Yum!  Sometimes it scares me how fast I go through spinach.  Does anyone else have this problem?

Back to the grind for me.  Stay tuned for Therapy Monday tomorrow!

Questions to entertain me:

1. What food do you go through the fastest?  What do you spend the most on?

2. What’s the craziest thing you did in college?