A Change of Routine

Mar 312012
 
 Posted by on March 31, 2012 at 11:08 pm in Life 1 Response »

Overall, today was NOT a change of routine. It was a very typical Saturday, beginning with sleeping past 11 when I had sworn up and down that I would get up at 9 at the LATEST. French toast for “breakfast” at noon, followed by an afternoon of reading blogs, shopping for patio chairs and looking at pictures cute kittens Brandon want as a pet instead of tackling the to-do list I promised myself I would take on today. What can I say, I go all out on Saturdays.

What has been a change of routine is getting back into the rhythm of traveling for work during the week. Our laundry, grocery, and apartment upkeep in general has steadily deteriorated since just before I went on vacation to LA. I still haven’t put all my laundry away from my trip, and while we did wash all the dirty laundry today, it is currently in a giant heap in the downstairs closet. We gathered together some of the non-perishables we still have in the cupboards and freezer for dinner, along with the last of the lettuce. I combined mine into this Mediterranean-ish salad featuring Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains and baked chicken (mmm):

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What makes it Mediterranean is the  hummus, obviously. This dinner struck me as pretty funny because growing up, I would NOT let my different groups of food touch on my plate, and to this day, when dishes are separate on my plate I go around my plate and eat them one by one. I guess if I can combine it into a “salad”, my funny plate tendencies don’t apply.

Evidence of just how bad it’s gotten:

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Yes, friends, that is an entire box of spiral mac ‘n’ cheese being consumed out of a German beer mug. Sweet t-shirt, too.

My half marathon training routine got completely jacked up this week, too. Ugh, I’m really disappointed in myself, but I really could not bring my exhausted self to do a hotel room workout this week without shoes. It was a complete business travel/life balance fail, both in forgetting to pack my running shoes and in getting so wigged out about my change in routine that I skipped ALL of my workouts.

I got back from the airport pretty late on Thursday, so no time to workout there. I went to work and took care of an afternoon appointment yesterday, which resulted in me feeling sort of frazzled from running around (walk to work, walk home, drive to the appointment, drive home, rush to log back into work..). I had planned to run 4.5 miles after work, but when my best friend called to say she and her boyfriend were going to happy hour at the restaurant on our block, I was more than happy to say we’d join in. I had a mini-win by doing a quick TurboFire HIIT 15 workout before a speedy shower and change of clothes to head out.

It is amazing what a small change in your workout routine does to your body. Even though I’m bummed about skimping on my weekly workouts, that 15 minute high-intensity workout yesterday left me gasping for air, and today my body is more sore than I’ve been in weeks. Somehow, my upper back is the most sore and I can NOT figure out what worked it so hard! The workout included lots of jumping jacks and punching moves, so maybe just the upper body movement? Who knows. The funny thing is, back in August when I had been doing TurboFire for a few months, I went for a run with coworkers. I was so sure it was going to be super easy since I had been doing cardio and high intensity interval workouts 5-6 times a week, and the run kicked my butt. Just goes to show that changing up your routine once in awhile is good to keep your body challenged, plus it always helps me keep my mind from getting bored.

I ran 4.5 miles today, no problem, and I’m getting up at a normal time tomorrow to do my 7 mile long run. I swear, before 10 am, really. Ahem. I’m afraid this week of slacking off isn’t going to be noticeable for a few weeks when my mileage starts to ramp up and even my weekly runs are a bit longer (5 miles on Tuesday/Thursdays in the weeks leading up to the half). I also signed up to do Goldy’s Run in 2 weeks. GoldyFunRun

It’s a 10 miler, which I am REALLY scared about because that’s more miles that early in my plan than I had been planning on. However, I’m happy that I will get a chance to participate in a larger organized race before the half, since my only previous race experience was a small 5k in my hometown. Plus, there’s a finisher’s medal – nice!

I’m about to go cap off this day of avoiding non-lazy activities with a margarita and a batch of cookies. Hope you are having a similarly lazy weekend!

- Did you have any funny eating habits growing up? I’ll never understand the no-crust-on-sandwiches thing, but I know it’s so common!

Over the Hump

Mar 282012
 
 Posted by on March 28, 2012 at 9:27 pm in Life 2 Responses »

LONGEST WEEK EVER.

For a bunch of reasons, I have been a huge ball of stress and tension all week and have slept between 3 – 5 hours the past two nights. I am a huge baby about getting up in the morning so getting up and socializing over breakfast with my teammates first thing in the AM the past couple days has been a little rough. I mostly blame the fact that I’m getting used to sleeping in hotel beds again after being home for so long. Okay, done whining about how much I like sleep and my own bed. Thank god it’s Wednesday and I get to go home tomorrow so you don’t have to listen to my self pity for another day.

My scheduled running days are Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday, but I got back from dinner pretty late last night, had some work to look at, and was a little sleepy. Oh, and had to shop on REI.com for 45 minutes – I had a coupon. Priorities. I got a zip-up performance fleece for runs in any lingering cold weather and for ski season next year, since I’m pretty much a pro now that I own a helmet. I also ordered some Clif gels, Gu chomps and Honey Stinger chews to try out on some longer runs. I found this post on Run Eat Repeat to be super helpful and now that I’m getting into the 7+ mile range for long runs (and I’m slow), I figure I’ll need a little run-snack around mile 7 or 8 to keep my legs going. I’ll let ya know how it goes.

I had myself fully psyched to run 4.5 miles tonight and then do my strength workout when I got back from dinner tonight… and I forgot my effing running shoes at home.

(not here. ugh.)

I even made Brandon go check in the closet to see that they were still at home because I was SO SURE I had packed them. What a bummer, especially since I had myself mentally prepared to take on a long, sweaty workout, too. I had a little pout session over my lack of shoes but have successfully talked myself out of spending $100 on lululemon and also out of ordering PB2 from Amazon. I think I’m still going to do my TurboFire resistance band DVD sans shoes so the night isn’t a total waste.

All in all, this second week back in the groove of traveling for work hasn’t been that bad (other than the lack of workouts, and what can ya do). The location is MUCH better than the last client site in terms of restaurant choices, and I have even spotted a few yoga studios around the area. Just the thought of having fun things to do helps the feeling of being homesick and isolated, even if we don’t always have a lot of extra time outside of work. This week, I’ve had fish tacos, a delicious Thai shrimp curry, and Baigan Bhartha (vegetarian Indian eggplant dish) as dinners, which is a huge improvement over my standard dinner of sad-side-salad and plain baked potato last time. The project so far has been very busy and at times, very stressful, but work is work :)

…. but I am definitely ready to go home tomorrow.

How’s your week going? Oh yeah, and sorry about the super old and recycled pictures. Life on the road is kinda boring, and the view of my hotel room is definitely snooze inducing.

Healthy “Fish Fry” and Monthly Goals

Mar 262012
 
 Posted by on March 26, 2012 at 11:56 pm in Food, Goals 2 Responses »

Brandon loooooves Shore Lunch fish batter. If any of you don’t know, fish fry is a bonafide THING in Wisconsin and we both love it. Going out for Friday fish is a likely event every time we head to our hometown, and when the mister figured out we could fry up a decent version ourselves in a little bit of oil on the stove, it was ON. He drools over the walleye in the seafood cooler every time we grocery shop together but damn – walleye is expensive! So we like to try lots of different kinds of fish, and Brandon always likes his fried.

I usually broil mine with a little olive oil while his portion sizzles in the pan – I can take on an all you can eat fish fry no problem, but try to save it for the really good stuff. You know, out of restaurant deep fryers. Last night, we defrosted a couple tilapia fillets that we had bought on a buy-one-get-one sale, totaling about $6 for a pound of fish. I was feeling something different than my usual broiling technique, so I consulted the Kitchen Bible: How to Cook Everything. It was a gift from my parents a few Christmases ago and I consult it at least once a week.

After Mark Bittman shat all over our grocery choice:

I decided to take his advice on an alternative breading for baked breaded fish – rice cereal. I had brown rice crisp cereal (Whole Foods brand), which I crushed up in a plastic bag, then mixed in a bowl with a generous sprinkle of Trader Joe’s 21 Spice Salute. Then, in a separate bowl, I scrambled up an egg. 1) Coat fish fillet in egg. 2) Dredge fish fillet in breading of choice (Shore Lunch for manfriend, brown rice cereal crispy coating for moi). Then, while Brandon’s fillet fried in hot sunflower oil in a skillet, I baked my fillet at 450* in a baking pan with just a spritz of oil oil spray for a little over 15 minutes.

SO GOOD! I loved how the rice crisp cereal made the breading crunchy, and coating the fillet in egg helped the seasoning really soak into the fish, too. Mark Bittman can say what he wants, it was a pretty successful tilapia if I do say so myself. Brandon liked his fish too, obviously. Direct quote: “You could pretty much cover a turd in Shore Lunch and fry it up and I would think it was good.” Nice, babe. Reaaaal nice.

Here is my non-turd dinner in its entirety – delicious, healthy, baked crispy breaded fish, mashed baby reds topped with Chobani, and mixed greens with some Green Goddess dressing.

Delicious and nutritious.

So… remember how posting monthly goals was one of my New Year’s resolutions? I’m sure you don’t remember because I sure didn’t. I last posted goals for February during a week where I was feeling pretty negative – here they are:

Stick to my half marathon plan. It’s getting important now.
I’m doing a good job on this one! I ran 6 miles yesterday and felt like I could run at least another mile, no problem. I have been slacking pretty badly on a weekly stretch or yoga sessions and I have missed a strength session here and there, but I have been doing three runs a week no excuses. So far, I feel like I’m going to be ready for my race on May 6, and I’m definitely accomplishing my goals of getting back into a consistent workout routine and getting myself fit enough to finish the race. As I get better and better at running, I’ve been wondering if I should set a time goal for myself, but I’m going to keep this first half marathon fun by aiming to enjoy myself and make it to the finish and hopefully sign up for some more races soon.

Go to bed earlier. Hope this results in waking up earlier.
LOLZ. Nope. Going to keep trying… Brandon has been on a really good schedule of getting to bed around 9 the past week while I’ve been traveling, so I’m going to try to get myself on his schedule. 9:00 bedtime is crazy early for this night owl, but shooting for 10 pm is realistic. I say this as I am typing this post at midnight because I slept for my entire 2 hour flight this morning and now am not tired…  I blame switching between Pacific, Central and now Eastern time zones in the last week. Right, that’s it, definitely the time zone.

Live in the love, not in the hate. Every day. The end.
I was a major crankypants when I wrote these goals back in the beginning of February. There are still a lot of stressful things happening behind the scenes with Brandon’s and my personal lives/families/work but that’s life, and I remind myself that all I can control is my reaction. I would say I have definitely been in a more positive mindset lately. I have also decided to keep the blog around and not act like a stressed out freak about something that is fun. It helps me remember to reflect on the things that make me happy and feel grateful – keeping it was a good decision!

Do nice things for people. 
Pigs in a blanket. Enough said.

In a nutshell, my goals were to get my life on a healthier and happier groove – done. I feel good about my upcoming half marathon and I’m feeling positive, especially with the weather getting so warm! Now that I’m out of my funk, here are some more ambitious goals for the rest of March and April:

Continue to stay true to my half marathon training plan – do not skip yoga!
Now that my distances are getting a little longer (7 miles this Sunday! Eeee!) the stretching is going to be even more important. No more skimping.

Finish A Game of Thrones
I’m almost halfway through the book and reallyyyy really liking it. I have heard the show is really entertaining but I always like to read the book before watching the movie/TV show version when I can. I actually can’t wait to spend some more time reading this book – just need to set aside a little time for it!

Plan a birthday trip for the boyfriend’s birthday
Brandon’s birthday is May 11 and we have talked about a few different trips – Toronto, Vegas, and most recently, we have been trying to put together a trip to Washington, DC. A few of his best friends live nearby, and I’ve never been to our nation’s capitol and REALLYYY want to visit. I can’t wait to do all the touristy things and to see Brandon’s friends, who I haven’t seen in forever.

Do 1 run per week in the morning
Yep, this is yet another thinly veiled attempt at tricking myself to get up earlier and go to bed at a normal time.

Work on the blog!!
I’m hoping to set aside an entire DAY sometime in the next month or so to do some major blog work. I have a new domain name I want to move to, a redesign in mind, some links to take down (*ahem* workout tracker), and some blog homework to do, like resizing all the massive images I’ve uploaded.

That’s a lot of goals… but I am feeling energized by the start of spring and can’t wait to do some work!

(Our new fun spring accessories – Bahama Breeze candle which I continue to call “Bahama Mama” because I can’t get it out of my head/remember the actual scent and the CUTEST carrot-shaped Easter eggs. Brandon already ate all the candy. Edited to add – I can’t believe I forgot to say that my grandma got these for us!! Isn’t she the best? Thanks gma :)  )

One final note:

(paparazzi)

THE BEARD IS GONE!

- Have any men in your life shed their winter facial fur? I actually love Brandon’s beard but it is nice to see his face again :)

- Working on any goals of your own? Check out this amazing blog post by Justine Musk on how to change yourself and/or your life. I’ve read it like 5 times.

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