Brie Fit

(shrug)

Lunch today was basically a repeat of yesterday, except I remembered my PB sammich.

Snack was also a repeat because I enjoyed it so much yesterday.

After work, instead of hitting the gym (I’m tapering!) I went to pick up my packet for Saturday.  It was smooth and uneventful.  I really like the shirts—they’re black adidas tech tees and they had women’s cut/sizes!  Score one for this event.  And they let me exchange mine for a different size, no questions asked.

So, you know what makes me happy?

(fangirl shriek)

Dinner was beige and I’m not sorry.

Chicken stuffed with some Laughing Cow garlic and herb cheese, roasted fingerling potatoes, and a toasted sandwich thin (I’m carb loading!)

I almost feel like things are aligning TOO perfectly for my half on Saturday.  The weather is supposed to be 65 and clear.  My body feels awesome.  My hair looks great.  It’s been an easy, slow week at work with very little stress.  It’s worrying me a little bit.

(PS: I’m working on a post about what, exactly, I do pre- and post- race…hopefully it will be up tomorrow.)

Dear lurkers: I know you are out there.  Introduce yourself in the comments!  I’m nice!  Tell me about yourself: who are you, what do you do, do you like pizza, etc.

Eff that noise.

(Note: I revised that sentence about ten times for vulgarity and removed the phrase “in the butt” twice.  You’re welcome!)

Whatthefuckever.  I ate some damn cereal for breakfast.

Lunch was at least tasty.  Even though I forgot part of it.

Carrots and hummus are becoming one of my most favorite things. 

Also, I made mini egg frittatas again—I just whipped together 3 eggs, 4 whites, some shredded reduced fat cheddar, 1/3 c. milk, some chives and salt and pepper and baked in a muffin tin for about 25 minutes.  I’m a big fan and Tim loves them too!  I wish I’d had some spinach (okay, and bacon) to throw in them, though.

Then, I went on to Sparkpeople to check out my daily breakdown, and realized, “oh yeah, I was supposed to bring PB on a sandwich thin, but I left it in the fridge.”

So instead I ate chocolate hazelnut butter out of the packet.  I cut it open and licked it.  No shame.  This stuff is good.

Afternoon snack:

I’m loving grapes lately.  I think I bought three pounds at the store last week and I plan to finish all of them.

After work, I hit the gym and spent 45 minutes on the elliptical.  I owe this feat of mental fortitude to the discovery of streaming Netflix on my iPhone.  Thank you to Jenn who suggested this to me on Twitter!  I wish I’d known about this during marathon training.

(For the record, I’m starting to watch Lost at the gym, and Tim and I are working our way through Friday Night Lights together at home.  I guess we prefer for other people to watch the entire run of a show and deem it good before we start it?)

I didn’t menu plan this week and it’s turning out to be a pasta-heavy one.  I guess given a half on Saturday, it’s okay.

Whole wheat ravioli with lean ground beef and spicy tomato sauce, and a side salad with the last tiny sprinkle of dressing from the bottle.

Today I developed a theory of race fees.

I’ve  decided that my upper limit for what I’ll pay for a race is determined by this formula:

So.  In other words, I will not pay more than a dollar a minute to race.

For a 5K, my estimated finish time is probably in the 28-30 minute range.  So, $30 is my upper limit for what I’ll pay for a 5K. 

For a half marathon, my estimated finish time is about 130 minutes, so I’ll pay up to $130.

The Chicago Marathon was a bargain!  I think I paid $120 for that,  and I was on that wretchedly hot course for 5 hours and 51 minutes, bringing the estimated total per minute to a mere $0.34!  What a deal!

In all seriousness, this is my new policy.  It’s a good thing I’m not super fast!

How much will you pay for a race entry fee?  What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a race?

Thanks for all your comments last night!  It’s obvious that I’m a little frustrated, BUT I need to remember that slow and steady is the way to go.  I think the most useful advice was just to calm down and remember how far I’ve come.  I don’t have a lot to lose, so it will take awhile.

Several people suggested I experiment with cutting carbs, which is honestly something I don’t think I’m willing to do.  I’m happy enough at my current weight, and in the past, when I’ve attempted to hit the magic 40-30-30 carbs-protein-fat range, I drove myself nuts.   I currently hit about a 50-25-25 balance naturally, and feel pretty good about that.  Plus, since I’m running a half marathon on Saturday, I think I kind of need them.

The scale is going down.  Super duper slowly, but it’s going down in the aggregate.  I have a feeling that starting up CrossFit is going to shake up my routine, and I’m going to increase my calories a bit  for the rest of the week in preparation for Saturday’s race. 

And?  Something is obviously going right, because the non-scale victories keep coming.  Today I noticed that I can’t wear two pairs of my work pants with flats anymore because they’ve gotten so long!   I also think I may need to get my wedding and engagement rings sized eventually, because they feel really big, too.  So that’s nice.

Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble tastes like Crunch Berries.  I love it.

For lunch, I satisfied a craving I’ve had for awhile for a PB&J sandwich on REAL bread, not a sandwich thin.  I had some baby carrots, a mini cheese, and pineapple with yogurt on the side.

The carrots were sad and bland without hummus, so I sprinkled them with a little balsamic vinegar I found in my desk and they were much better.  (What?  You don’t keep tiny bottles of vinegar in your desk?)

My afternoon snack was kind of random.  Around 3 pm, I had some pecans:

Then I went to a 3:30 meeting, and at 4 I had some grapes:

Man, I love grapes.  I’m so excited for summer berry and melon season to be here already!

After work, I did a 10 minute warm-up on the arc trainer and 35 minutes of upper body weights.  I’m keeping away from the lower body stuff until after race day.  I was planning on doing some more cardio afterwards, but I have a pretty bad headache so I just headed home.

Dinner was a childhood throwback: leftover mac and cheese with a hot dog and side salad.

(Tomorrow is produce delivery day!  Hooray!)

Anyway.  Bubbles has decided he really likes napping on purses and bags lately.  He snoozed on my nice leather bag all weekend, and now that it’s the work week, he’s stowing away.

He’s such a precious little cat.  I love him!

I’m getting really excited and nervous for Saturday.  I feel like this is the first half I’m actually going to attempt to race and not just finish.  I am going to cling to that 2:10:00 pacer for dear life!

I’m off to nurse my headache.

What foods did you eat a lot as a kid?  PB&J and hot dogs and mac and cheese were my favorites (and still are)!

So, it was nice breaking through that plateau for all of a day.  W. T. F.

Whatever.  You’ve been warned, I’m crampy and edgy today.

Cereal for breakfast.

Lunch was questionably stale carrots and hummus, pineapple with yogurt and Kashi, and turkey and cheddar on a sandwich thin.

I am not a huge deli meat fan (it’s so slimy and smells like farts), but I thought it might be a nice change and it was on sale.  So I stuck this in our office’s toaster oven to dry it out a bit, and that helped.

I like nuts. 

After work exercise was a speedy-ish three miles.  People always ask me how to make the treadmill interesting, and my answer is always intervals!  They don’t have to be big changes, but altering the speed a little bit every quarter of a mile gives me small, intermediate goals to work towards.

I increased the speed one click up every quarter mile for the first 1.5 miles, starting at 6.2 (9:40 pace) and ending at 6.7 (8:53 pace), and then spending the next 1.5 miles clicking back down at a similar rate.  It was almost like running up a speed hill…plateauing at 8:53 for half a mile…and then riding it back down.

I felt strong, for the most part.  The last half mile was bad because I was feeling super crampy, but that can’t be helped.  Also, the guy on my left smelled like taco seasoning, and the guy on my right had a juicy, loud cough, which was nasty.

Dinner was Skinny Taste mac and cheese and baked chicken nuggets.

Both winners!

Anyway, guys?  I’m kind of confused.

I know how weight loss works—calories in, calories out.  But something ain’t working these days.

Sparkpeople suggests that, to lose 1 pound a week, I should eat 1,430-1,780 calories/day, if I burn an estimated 2300 calories per week.

Livestrong and BMR/the Harris-Benedict Equation suggest that, to lose 1 pound a week, at a moderate activity level, I should eat 1,883 calories.

The Fat 2 Fit Podcast calculators suggest that I should eat 2,319 calories per day and lose very slowly.

I guess I don’t quite know where to land.

If I eat on Sparkpeople’s low end of 1430 calories/day, I will be cranky and my running will suffer, but I will lose weight.

If I eat on Sparkpeople’s high end in the 1700ish calorie range, my running will be great, but I’m not losing weight right now, even though by all calculations, I should be.

I’m tempted to just take the rest of this week and, for shits and giggles, go up to, say, 2100-2200 calories a day, monitor my weight closely, and see what the hell happens.  If it goes up significantly, obviously that’s not what I want, and I’ll rein it in.

I guess it’s just easier to experiment going up rather than down.  In a way, I feel like it’s kind of a cop-out…like, “oh, what the hell, let’s just eat more.”  But on the other hand…I can’t imagine seriously experimenting with going down the the 1400 calorie/day range, because I know that can’t be a permanent lifestyle, you know?  I would be miserable and my workouts would suffer.

Go up?  Go down?  Stick with what I’m doing? WTF?

…to announce two very exciting things.

1. 

160.2!  160.2!

(AND?  That photo was totally a recreation, at 11:38 am, after I’d eaten breakfast already.)

Did I bust through my plateau?  Maybe, just maybe?

I *almost* didn’t weigh myself this morning.  Yesterday was indulgent.  First, I slept until 11 am, and then, since I skipped breakfast, I ate a giant, runger-fueled brunch at noon.

A two-egg omelet with cheese, toast with PB, and pineapple and yogurt topped with Kashi.

And then, because I had a dire need for chocolate, I made Kier’s Ooey Gooey Single Serving Chocolate Brownies for Tim and I.  (Except I’m not cool enough to have stuff like almond milk in our house, so we used regular milk, and it worked)

And man, those were fan-freaking-tastic, and I may have to make them for dessert again tonight.  (I calculated…one serving=260 calories, which really is excellent for how awesome it is.)

Then, for dinner, well, I was owed a steak dinner because I set a friend of Tim’s up on a blind date (that turned into a few more dates, but never went further—oh well).  We went to The Majestic, which is kind of a quintessential Kansas City place: lots of steak and jazz.

I didn’t take pictures, but I consumed a cup of potato soup (that contained TWO different kinds of bacon), a 6 ounce filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes, some butter-drenched veggies and three glasses of wine.  The steak and wine and soup were awesome—the potatoes and veggies were just okay. 

Tangent: I used to really hate Kansas City, but now I really like it.  There’s something deeply satisfying about being able to drive downtown on a Saturday night, park for free, walk into a nice restaurant with live jazz without a reservation, and enjoy a great meal at a price that doesn’t even come close to what you’d pay in Chicago or New York.  I’m happy with our decision to stay here for the time being.

ANYWAY, my point is that I almost didn’t weigh myself this morning, but I’m glad I did.

Apropos of the weight loss, this weekend I finally started noticing that my clothes are starting to seriously look big.  I’m wearing a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in probably a year and a half comfortably now since my latest go-to pair is suddenly giving me saggy diaper butt…and this morning, for church, the cardigan I picked out was way looser than I remembered it ever being before.   So…that’s nice, too.

2.  Remember how I was in a slump, and you all were like “buy a Groupon and try something new!” and I was like, “Yeah, well, KC Groupons are usually for the opposite side of town and not at all convenient?”

Surprise!

My in-real-life bestie Lindsey (who blogs about her Cross-Fitting and primal/paleo eating lifestyle!) has been encouraging me to try CrossFit lately, and it’s definitely sounded like something I would like.  I mean, come on—quick, intense workouts that involve lots of lifting heavy things and throwing and natural body movements?  My kind of thing.

So when this popped up today I immediately bought it.

And then I felt a little guilty, because we are trying to save money and I’ve kind of forgotten about that for the last week and spent more than I should, and I have a perfectly adequate gym membership.

But…what’s done is done, and I am looking forward to trying this out after my half next week. My spring “racing season,” so to speak, will be over, and I think I’ll really like a new challenge.

Although I admit that I’m totally intimidated and also a little bit irritated that their website kind of implies that all runners are stupid and lazy.  But whatever.

Anyhow, it’s been an exciting morning today, although I kind of feel like injecting Midol directly into my bloodstream and have had zero desire to menu plan for this week and am thus whining at Tim “What do you waaaant for dinnnner?” repeatedly.

What should I make for dinner?  I took out boneless skinless chicken breasts, but am clueless beyond that.

I forget exactly what the number was.  All the 161.2s and 161.6s are blurring together.  Whatever.

Breakfast was the same.  Lunch: soup, a peanut butter mini bagel, a tiny tangerine, a mini cheese, and Fage.

Oh, Fage.  Why can’t you be on sale every week?   This blueberry topping was positively luxurious.

Not pictured: two mini donut holes I swiped from the break room to go with my morning coffee.  I decided that since it was long run day I could be a bit more casual with calories.

Snack:

I put some extra PB on it for a little sticking power.

After work, I went to the gym for my long run.  Lately, I’ve been employing a more flexible training strategy for races.  I hate setting specific numerical goals—like, you have to run 10 miles today—because I’d feel bad if I couldn’t quite hit it for whatever reason.

So today I set out for something in the 9-ish to 11-ish range.  I figured that since it was after work, I probably wouldn’t hit 11, but 9 or 10 could be doable.  I was nervous that yet another run would be jinxed and painful.

Thank God, I was wrong!  Today’s run was…joyful, almost?  I felt rested and happy to be moving.  I listened to several episodes of the Fat 2 Fit Podcast which is EXCELLENT and I highly recommend for great motivation and logical advice.

I decided to change the speed every mile just for fun and wound up doing:

• Mile 1: 10:00
• Mile 2: 9:50
• Mile 3: 9:43
• Mile 4: 9:32
• Mile 5: 9:21 (!)
• Mile 6: 9:21 (!)
• Mile 7: 9:32
• Mile 8: 9:43
• Mile 9: 9:50
• Mile 9-9.5: 5:00
• Total: 9.5 miles in 1:31:54, average pace of 9:40!

I had to stop at mile 9.5 because I thought I might poop the treadmill.  No lie.

I used to beat myself up when I couldn’t finish runs after work because of gastrointestinal issues, but now, I’m a lot more relaxed about it.  I know running on a full stomach isn’t ideal, but morning runs aren’t feasible, although they are much easier on my stomach.  I know I can do the distance so I don’t freak about it anymore.

(PS: only ingested Gatorade on this run and felt pretty fantastic, energy-wise.)

Anyway, my half goal is to break 2:10:00 this time around.  I’m planning on hanging with the pacers and just going for it, and I think, with today’s run, I’ve got the confidence that I just might be able to pull this one off!

Tim made the pizza tonight.  It was a smidge lopsided.

I ate a quick dinner, then headed out to grocery shop.   I splurged on some fun produce, like a pineapple and some grapes, since I’m sick of eating oranges and apples like I have been all winter!

And now I’m re-hydrating (can’t get enough water today!) and, uh, re-fueling with strawberry ice cream with dark chocolate chips.  And letting my calves get snuggled by my Zensah compression sleeves.

True story: I LOVE the chocolate strawberry flavor combination…but I’m not a huge fan of chocolate covered strawberries.  They are kind of smushy and the chocolate breaks off too easily. 

Related fact: one layer of our wedding cake was vanilla cake with both chocolate mousse and strawberry mousse, like Neopolitan ice cream.  That was good stuff.  Mmm.

I didn’t really track accurately today since I gave myself a long run allowance.  I estimate I clocked in at about 2300 today, but I burned 1150 on my run, so I needed them all!

I can’t wait to sleep super late tomorrow and lounge around all weekend.  It’s been awhile since we’ve had a totally free weekend.

What are your favorite sweet combinations—chocolate strawberry? Peanut butter banana?  Apples and cinnamon? 

Womp womp.  So close, but yet so far!

Thank you for all your comments on my post last night about my exercise slump!  There are a lot of things I’d love to try, but money won’t allow right now.  I think that after my half I’m going to FINALLY look into getting a private swim lesson or two to get me to a point where I can do some more efficient lap swimming. 

Breffist:

Lunch.  The last of my Target breakfast sandwiches, carrots and hummus, cheese, a tangerine, and Fage.

You know…I really do like these breakfast sandwiches.  They are egg whites, a wheat English muffin, Canadian bacon, and cheese, and are frozen.  I think this is one food where I may go for the convenience frozen option—I like eggs for lunch, but my microwave eggs never turn out great and it’s a pain to pack five different things.

I had a bar for lunch.

It wasn’t very good.  I ate about 2/3 and threw the rest out.

After work, instead of working out, I went to a networking event and enjoyed a nice glass of cabernet.  That’s practically the same as going to the gym, right?

Dinner was a quickie—steaks on the George Forman and sweet potato fries.

So, unrelated to pretty much everything.  Today on Twitter, I vented about something:

Facebook is just killing me lately.

I went through this in that weird period where I knew Tim and I would be getting married but we weren’t engaged yet.   It seemed like everyone else in the world was getting engaged but me, and it sucked.  Was I happy for my friends (or random acquaintances)?  Yeah.  But was I also sad for me?  Yeah.

And now, that thing is babies.  And houses.  But mostly babies.

In the last few months, my news feed has exploded.  Every day my friends are buying houses, and announcing pregnancies and births.  I can’t open Facebook without an ultrasound picture, or a picture of someone excitedly dangling keys to their new house, popping up.

And it kills me.

I’m impatient.   I know that someday, God willing, I will be that annoying friend with the house and the baby.    But for now?  We’re in limbo.  I have no idea when either of those things will occur and it just kills me.

I realize how petty I sound right now: “I want this, and I WANT IT NOW.”  But I’m seriously, honestly struggling with this.   I AM happy for these people, but I’m sad for me because we have to wait, and it hurts to see everyone else’s successes where I feel like I’m lagging behind.

Does Facebook ever bother you?  How and why?

Down, up, down, up, rinse, repeat.

At least our kitties (and kitty houseguest) are cute.

Lunch was another Branny burrito (yum!), a salad, a teeny tangerine, a teeny cheese, and Fage with cherries.

I really, really, really love Fage.  There’s just something about the texture and flavor—it’s super creamy, but doesn’t really have a huge tang like a lot of Greek yogurt, and the topping is just enough to make it sweet without being overwhelming.

Unfortunately, it’s the most expensive yogurt at the grocery store.  It was on sale this week, though!

Nana and PB snack:

Leftovers for dinner.

So, I had another shitball workout today. 

I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately.  For the last two weeks, I feel like my only good workouts have been lifting.  My running and other cardio has just sucked.  I hate it.  I stare at the clock on the treadmill/my Garmin and just will it to move faster. 

And a million tiny little things are always wrong.  My shins are sore and I’m afraid they’re going to get worse.  My asthma flares up and my throat closes.  Today, I forgot my water bottle, and my mouth was painfully dry to the point where I felt like I was choking.

It’s just stupid.  I just feel like I want every run to be over before it even starts.  And then I feel even worse because I get lots of people who say I inspire them, and I feel the furthest thing from an inspiration right now. 

I’m not really sure what I need, but I’m running a half marathon in a week and a half.  I’m hoping for a decent long run on Friday, and hoping that my base will power me through.  But I hate that approach, you know?  I wanted to really be able to train hard for this race, but God knows why, it just isn’t happening.

Here’s what I WANT to do for exercise:

• Spinning classes with a fun, motivating instructor and great music
• Sweaty power yoga
• Lifting in a place that isn’t packed like sardines
• Kickboxing/boxing classes
• Work with a personal trainer for the first time
• Crossfit style workouts
• Run, sometimes, when I want to.  Train to improve speed.

Here’s what my current gym situation allows  me to do:

• Outdoor track running
• Treadmill running
• Track running
• Ellipticaling
• Lifting free weights in a packed weight room
• Weightlifting machines
• Stationary biking
• Swimming

See the problem?

My gym offers classes, but they are at times I can’t go and extremely expensive.

My gym is extremely cheap and I don’t feel comfortable spending more money.  And I don’t feel comfortable getting into a new contract with a gym since we may be moving this year.   And there aren’t any great options near our house or my office anyway.  I liked the gym I went to when we first moved here, but given where we live, and where I work, and where the gym is, I’d never get there. 

The only new option I haven’t tried yet at my gym is swimming.  I think I would like swimming, and I can swim, in the very-poor-form-freestyle vein, but I feel like embarrassment at my lack of skill is holding me back. 

Anyway.

I can’t decide if my workouts are sucking because I’m feeling bored and unmotivated, or because I’m not eating enough, or because it’s just a slump, or because I need to take a rest week, or what.

But they are sucky lately and I’m sorry.

(Today’s workout: run 1.35 miles on treadmill.  Die of dry mouth.  Get water.  Run .5 miles on track.  Shin starts to ache.  15 minutes on elliptical.  Leave.)

At least there was this funny sign that made the trip almost worth it:

WTF?  Who is lubing up in the weight room?  On the rubber floor? 

Does not compute.

How do you get over a slump?  Do I need a rest week?  Do I need to eat more?  Do I need a new gym?  Should I take a swimming  class?  Do I need to suck it up and just make it work?

Well, I certainly like that better than 163.   That is just 1.1 pounds away from the 150s.  I can do this.  It may be slow, and you may want to bash my head in because I use “161.0” as a post title for the next three weeks, but I will get there. 

Eventually.

I’m not in any great rush, other than the “I’m impatient!” kind.  Which, as you know, exists.

Anyway, I have a grand total of one food photo today!  Sorry, guys.

Breakfast was cereal.  Duh.

For lunch, we celebrated Tim’s birthday with his co-workers at Blanc Burgers! 

And I didn’t take a picture, lest they think I’m weird.  They all know me as “the girl who bakes compulsively and sends it to work with Tim every Monday,” which I think puts me on the oddball scale already. 

But man.  Turkey burgers aren’t something I do, really.  When you lose weight, people tend to say, “Substitute ground turkey for beef!” and I did that, the first time around.

Until Tim and I realized that turkey burgers are dry and flavorless, and yes, we can tell a difference  in ground turkey in our pasta sauce/tacos/etc.  And we didn’t like it.

So, we added ground beef >ground turkey to the list of Things We Won’t Compromise On Even Though They Are Healthy.

Anyway.  Sometimes when I order off menus, I kind of panic.  I actually WANTED a black bean burger for something interesting yet healthy, but they didn’t have one.  They offered a lentil burger done up with Indian spices, which aren’t my favorite.

So, when the waiter came to take our order,  I blurted out, “TURKEY BURGER” and got a side salad instead of fries.

And man, it was good.  It was soft and juicy and not dry at all, and the bun was perfectly cooked.  And the side salad was fantastic as well.   I poached a few of Tim’s fries, which had a good flavor, but were a bit thin for my liking…I like mine a little thicker.  (That’s what she said!) I left feeling perfectly satiated but not heavy. 

I’m definitely going back to Blanc Burgers soon!  Yum!

After work, I went to the gym and did Susan’s new Upper Body Workout “for heavyweights.”  Though…I prefer not to call myself a heavyweight.  Maybe just badass.  Either way, it must have worked, because I had trouble washing my face in the shower afterwards.

I did it to the letter and tacked on 15 minutes on the spin bike at the end for funsies. 

Dinner was leftovers from Sunday.  We had garlic bread made with sandwich rolls instead of rice because we were out.

Obviously, the lunch calories here are a total guess.  Also, I skipped my afternoon snack because I was still full from my fabulous lunch:

In other news…Tim received some promising news on the job front today!  It’s so nice to finally have some good news.   So, please cross your fingers/legs/send good vibrations/pray/meditate/throw Secret-style affirmations into the air  in our general direction until you see a post from me titled “!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.  Thanks.

What is your best job search/interview tip or piece of advice?

Alternate title: Yes, I’m still stuck.

Well, whatever.  Maybe my body needs a little break from losing weight before it keeps going?

Moving right along. 

Here is my latest breakfast obsession.

You know I love my Kashi, but this Archer Farms (aka Target) brand cereal has similar nutrition stats and is a nice change of pace as far as flavor and texture go.  I add some extra cinnamon and I can almost imagine it’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch! 

(pauses and drools briefly while thinking about REAL Cinnamon Toast Crunch)

Seriously, though, it’s yummy.

Lisa asked last week if eating cereal keeps me full.  And my answer is, as a true lawyer: it depends!  The cereals I choose to eat for breakfast keep me full until lunch (or at least half an hour before, when I think it’s appropriate to start getting hungry).  I will only eat cereals that have lots of protein, like the one above and Kashi.  I love other semi-healthy cereals, like Raisin Bran and such, but since they’re straight carbs, no protein, they don’t keep me full for more than an hour so I don’t buy them.  Protein is key!

Lunchtime was exciting!

Mostly because it was a deviation from my normal pattern.  I had spinach/field greens tossed in balsamic, a Fage 0% Strawberry Goji (I don’t usually buy these but they were on sale and I LOVE them), and a sweet potato and black bean burrito.  I made five of these yesterday using Branny’s recipe, and they are a total win!  Tim and I both loved them—they have a nice spice that isn’t overwhelming, and they were very filling.

Snack was trail mix.  Extreme close-up!

After work I had a shitty run outside on the track.  I forgot my asthma and allergy meds last night, and I made it about three-quarters of a mile before I could not draw a deep breath without pain in my lungs.  My legs felt great and I was flying at what felt like an easy pace of 9:00/mile…but I quickly got lightheaded from the lack of, you know, breathing.  I did a “jog the straightaways, walk the curves” thing for another mile, and then gave up, took my rescue inhaler, and went inside to elliptical for 25 minutes.  (I felt better almost immediately after going indoors.)

Part of the problem with having asthma is that it feels remarkably like being out of shape.   It really fucks with your mind, in that I know that I can run decently fast without my lungs on fire on a good day…but then, on a day like today, where I’m itching for a good one to boost my confidence a little, and I fail terribly.

At least I moved today and I was dripping sweat afterwards.  The elliptical session was pretty intense given that my heart rate was still nice and high from running and/or my inhaler.

For dinner, we tried a new veggie!

We got collard greens in our Door to Door Organics box last week (they are on KC’s Groupon today!  Check it out!) and I was determined to give them a try.

I did two things.

One.  I googled “how to cook collard greens quickly,” came upon this video, watched it, and did it.

Two.  I decided that a little butter is totally okay if it makes me try a new green veggie.  I sauteed the collards in a bit of melted butter and sauteed garlic and Tim and I both enjoyed it!  I was a little hesitant when I read that collards have a “bitter” flavor, but I didn’t get that from these at all.  I would definitely make them again, probably with a little less butter next time!  (Baby steps, right?)

On the right: crockpot meatballs (mmmm) over whole grain pasta (mmmm).

I’m excited to try a new place for lunch tomorrow for Tim’s belated work birthday lunch…and also excited that we’ll finally get to meet our new nephew on April 7th! 

What new foods have you tried lately?  Anything I need to try?