Brie Fit

You know, I was always envious of those bloggers who really loved running (or cycling, or whatever, but mostly running) because they were excited to work out and got sad if they missed a day.

I never had that with running.  I lived for rest days, not running days.  Deep in my heart, I knew it was not something I could maintain the rest of my life because I didn’t love it.  I had to drag myself out the door to do it.

I’m so glad I had the proverbial balls to try CrossFit.  I feel like I’ve finally found something I’m excited about.  Am I super great at it?  No, not really.  But I miss it when I’m not doing it, and I feel like I have a lot of room for big gains in the future.  It forces me to work on my weaknesses and encourages me to grow in my strengths.  I love it.  All of it.

Today’s WOD:

• 15 hang cleans (45#)
• 10 pull-ups
• 200 meter run
• 30 hang cleans (45#)
• 15 pull-ups
• 400 meter run
• 15 hang cleans (45#)
• 10 pull-ups
• 200 meter run

Results?

13:40.  Not bad. 

I wish I’d gone a little heavier on the hang cleans, but I grabbed an Olympic bar and tried 65# and it was too much for 60 reps.  I feel like 55 would have been perfect.

After the WOD we did a sit-up/push-up split tabata.  I’m proud of myself for doing all the sets of push-ups on my toes.  It wasn’t pretty, but it’s a progression from being on my knees (that’s what she said) and those feel way too easy now.  I just have to keep doing the ugly toe ones until I get stronger, I guess.

I also got my official CrossFit photo taken for the wall today.  I’ll have to take a picture for you guys.  I’m sweaty and wearing hot pink.  Appropriate? 

Oh, and speaking of CrossFit and running…I’m running a Turkey Trot with my box on Thanksgiving morning.  It’s a 5K and I haven’t done any running that wasn’t more than a sprint since September.  I’m doing it mostly for fun, but also out of morbid curiosity to see a) if I still CAN run a 5K and, if so, b) if CrossFit has made me faster, slower, or about the same.  Should be a fun experiment!

Breakfast was some raisin bran, leftovers from when I was pregnant and wanted to eat cold cereal and milk (and nothing else) all the time:

For dinner I made some baked penne with chopped spinach.  Again with the “using things up” theme, tonight’s victim was a half-finished, slightly sketchy thing of ricotta in the fridge.

(Sorry so blurry!  I didn’t realize.)

I’m off to Boise, Idaho tomorrow afternoon.  Yee haw.

What do you LOVE to do for exercise?  Or are you still looking for it?

When I was in a sorority in college, there was a ceremony that talked about how having sisters will halve your sorrows and double your joys.

Then, that same phrase was used in our marriage vows.

Having a blog doesn’t just halve your sorrows and double your joys.  It respectively reduces and multiplies it by a factor of the THE INTERNET, which is approximately one bajillion.

This is my way of saying thank you for sharing in both my joys and sorrows over the last few months.  I am glad to be in the “joy” camp again.

Ahem.  Anyway. 

So!  I’m on staycation for the rest of the week. 

So I slept a little late (9:30) and cuddled the dog and my iPhone in bed for awhile and read through all the awesome comments from last night and smiled some more.

Then I had breakfast.  I had packed a lunch for yesterday, then I remembered I was going to lunch with Chandra and Therese so I didn’t need it.  So, I had the PB&J English muffin for breakfast with a little cantaloupe.

I loafed for a bit, and then got ready, and then decided to just have a big morning snack—a big bowl of fruit and a Babybel cheese.

Then I went shopping! 

I’m pretty disappointed in the clothes selection I’ve seen lately, but I did exchange an eyeliner that kept breaking at Sephora (LOVE their return policy), and got a free gift of Benefit samples as well as these amazing tinted lip balms I’ve been coveting for awhile.

Then, I had an eye doctor appointment at 2.  I’ve been having some trouble with the ol’ peepers lately—specifically, I feel like my left and right eyes aren’t working together well, and things have been very blurry and my eyes have been constantly itchy and burning.

The optometrist visibly recoiled at the sight of my corneas, which she deemed “ravaged” by allergies.  So, for at least the next week, I’ll be rocking glasses…

…and three kinds of eye drops.

And then I have to go back in to get re-fitted for contacts, since she determined that fitting me today would be pointless, since it’s like I’m looking through a dirty window right now because my eyes are so irritated. 

I tend to shy away from my glasses but I’m looking forward to some quality time with them the next few days.

Anyway, I went home and had some eggs with goat cheese and a slice of peanut butter toast.

(I didn’t eat the yogurt—was full after the other stuff!)

Then, a few hours later, yet another fruit-and-cheese snack.

…because I was doing late-night CrossFit!

A new CrossFit gym is getting ready to open here, and I’ve been in touch with the super-nice owner, and he said I could tag along to some of their test classes this week!

And…it was a doozy.  In a good way.  It was a partner workout, meaning my partner and I had to share all the reps (so, she would do 50, I’d do 50, she’d do 50, I’d do 50).  Whoever WASN’T working had to be babysitting our “pet”—a 35 pound kettlebell that wasn’t allowed to touch the ground for fear of a 10 burpee penalty. 

We did…

• 200 squats
• 200 sit-ups
• 150 push-ups
• 150 lunges
• 100 box jumps
• 100 thrusters

It took everyone in the group about 35-37 minutes.  I was dying by the end!

The nice part about having a partner was that you could play to individual strengths.  My partner was a pilates instructor who rocked out more than her fair share of sit-ups and push-ups…but since I’ve got strong legs, I did extra squats, lunges, and box jumps. 

Anyway, I think I’m going to head back tomorrow. It was a lot of (masochistic) fun!

I made enchilada soup in the crockpot but by the time I got home all I wanted was a bowl of cereal.

(Apparently, I ate breakfast for all three meals today.  Huh.)

And now…I’m going to crash.  I can’t believe my day off was so busy!  Good times.  I think I may attempt to purchase actual clothing again tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Any suggestions on how to get eye drops in your eyes effectively?  I’m terrible at it!

First day of school today!

You all know I’m excited about it, but Callie pretty much summed up my feelings exactly this morning, so go read her post. 

I’m really loving Kashi GoLean lately.  The cereal itself tastes a bit like twigs, but in a good way.  Adding the freeze-dried fruit and a splash of cinnamon makes a world of difference. 

Also, please note the very important new addition to the back of this photo:

Being nice to the IT guy means that when you say, “Um, do we have any of that air to clean out keyboard junk?” you get an entirely new fancy silent keyboard. 

I had a light lunch today—soup (only ate about half), salad, and a bowl of cantaloupe, pineapple, and cherries.

Why the light lunch?  Well, we went out to happy hour to celebrate the new school year!

I had a beer, a slider, a chicken kabob and a few french fries.  It was pretty delicious. 

(It was a really happy hour.  For serious. )

For dinner, we had this quick Birdseye Voila! meal I received as a part of Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker program.

Specifically…Tim decided he wanted to make it.  I figured it was easy enough that he could figure it out, as he’s not the most adept in the kitchen.

It worked well, once we got past the initial hurdle of “What’s a skillet?”

We aren’t so much frozen dinner people around here, but the ingredients on this weren’t too bad and I liked that it was veggie-based.  It tasted pretty good, too!  I liked that it wasn’t drowning in sauce—it was very light and flavorful.   Tim also commented that the veggies tasted nice and fresh and not soggy, and I agree!  All in all, not something I’d eat every day, but I’ll definitely keep one or two in the freezer for extra busy (or, okay, lazy) nights.

Due to the fact that I went to happy hour and I apparently injured my foot in my sleep last night, instead of going to the gym, I baked this sour cream coffee cake.  Except I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

This will be going to work with Timbo in the morning.  (He licked the batter bowl and deemed it “like cream cheese frosting” so I think it’ll be a good one.)

Welcome to happy hour.  What appetizer and drink do you order?

First things first:  the winner of my Click Protein Powder giveaway is…

…Tracy, who said:

Tracy, email me your address at thefitbride at gmail and I’ll get it out to you!

Anyway.  Weekend time!  It’s been terribly boring, actually, but we’re trying to be budget-conscious so…options are limited.  There’s been a lot of Netflix and Hulu streaming—we finished Friday Night Lights, watched a bit of Veronica Mars, and have been re-watching Mad Men.

You’re getting the food highlight reel today since the majority of our meals were uninteresting—homemade pizza, burgers on the grill, eggs.  Snooze.

For breakfast today before church I had Kashi GoLean cereal, to which I added some freeze dried strawberries.

I always really liked the Special K kind that had berries, but it’s pretty low in protein and high in weird ingredients, so this is a good substitute. 

And I can’t get enough carrots & hummus and cherries.  (No hummus on the cherries.  Duh.)

To make this weekend even less thrilling, our air conditioner went out and our cable was finally shut off.

Milhouse is not amused.

I’m going on staycation Wednesday through Friday, but I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday, so it’ll be a short week.

What are your favorite ways to entertain yourself on a budget?

Guys, let me come clean.

I’ve been struggling with stress eating lately and the scale hasn’t been kind.  Specifically, I’ve put about half the weight I lost earlier this year back on. 

I say this because I want to be honest.  I’m human; I struggle.  It’s a rough time for us and I find comfort in eating my favorite foods.  Which sucks. 

This stressful thing I’ve been alluding to (which I cannot share with you guys specifically, at the request of someone I love) has been going on for several months now, so I’ve been coping with it for quite a long time.  I’m still working out, which I consider a success, since I really don’t have much interest in doing that lately, either.

People always say, “throw your stress into a good workout!” which works maaaybe 40% of the time for me.  And I can’t just up and go exercise in the middle of a workday when I’ve gotten more bad news, or something someone has said has set into a panic spiral.  But I can grab a Dove chocolate from my secretary’s candy dish and escape into something that makes me happy for a minute.  My pants are a little tighter than I’d like.  I swear to God I’m trying, but I just have little strength left for awesome food choices when I have to be strong in so many other arenas right now.

Anyway.  Needed to get that off my chest.  I’m not perfect and I don’t claim to be, and I’m sorry if you think I’m a perfect healthy living blogger, because you’ll be disappointed. 

For breakfast I went back to my trusty Kashi.

For lunch, I went to my trusty Sahara and grabbed a grilled chicken and hummus meal.

And I ate way too much of it.  Plus two Dove chocolates.

Because of my lunchtime gluttony, I skipped an afternoon snack.

I also skipped a workout because it was Friday and I’d done four days in a row and I just wanted to go home.

When I got home, we had our traditional Friday night pizza.

Then I went to do a little shopping.  It’s tax-free weekend in Missouri, meaning that there’s no sales tax on stuff like clothes and school supplies.

Last week I bought a bunch of Soma underpants after hearing lots of people rave about them, and deciding that it was time to expand my horizons beyond underwear bought with a Victoria’s Secret free panty coupon.  But they came, and they had rubber on them to affix them to my ass, and were kind of pricey, and ugly, so I decided to return them.

So, I went to Kohl’s with a 20% off coupon in hand.  On my way into the store, some nice man handed me a $10 off coupon, and they allowed me to stack them, meaning I got 9 pairs of underwear for $40.

It was pretty exciting.  Which is why I’m showing off my underpants in the first place, yes?

Then I went to Target for grocery shopping, and made this S’mores Ice Cream Terrine for my brother-in-law’s birthday tomorrow, and now I am relaxing.

Do you deal with stress eating?  How do you stop it and make saying “no” a priority when things get rough (and stay rough)?

And I took a sick day from work.  I think it’s my first sick day in almost two years at my job!

My alarm went off today and I was like, “haha.  Funny.”  I rolled back over and went to sleep and called in later.  My throat was sore and scratchy, I had a headache, and I still felt exhausted…good enough reason for me.

I got up around 9 and obsessively followed the Boston Marathon on Twitter for awhile.

I had a small bowl of cereal for breakfast.

I spent the rest of the morning on the couch watching TLC and drinking Gatorade.

A little while later, I made breakfast for lunch—eggs, cheese, toast, and yogurt.

I snacked on some fruit with a smear of peanut butter…

(Unpictured: Cadbury Crème Egg.  Whoops.)

I took some naps.

And for dinner, I had salsa chicken going in the crockpot all day long.

Also, today, I added a Racing page!  Check out the recaps here. 

I’m actually feeling much better already.  I’m glad I took today off to recover properly.

I’m either going to get in the pool tomorrow or Wednesday.  Tim thinks I need another rest day, but I’m eager to get moving.  I might just go and do a few laps to get used to it and dust off the cobwebs, so to speak.

What’s your favorite sick day activity?  I loved watching all kinds of girly crappy TV shows today!

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

I just feel like April has been an epic shitshow for eating and exercise (and, consequently, weight).  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE running half marathons, but…

• March 28-April 1: tapering
• April 2: half marathon
• April 3-6: recovering from half/light workouts
• April 7-10: traveling
• April 11-15: tapering again
• April 16: another half marathon

So, I’ve pretty much been tapering, recovering, or traveling for the last three weeks.   I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but light elliptical workouts so as not to trash my legs.  I miss hard, sweaty workouts!

Also, today’s eats sucked because I was an idiot.

I threw my cereal milk in my lunch bag today, but…no cereal.

I had to stop for gas anyway, and picked up some HFCS-laden Raisin Bran Crunch at the gas station.

Options were slim.  It was this, donuts, honey buns, or a hot dog from the roller grill.

Fail.

At least I remembered my lunch.

Cheese, pineapple, egg white sandwich, Greek yogurt.

After work I lifted upper body weights for 20 minutes and spent 20 minutes on the arc trainer.  It was boring, but my legs feel fine.

I’d planned on making black bean burgers, steamed veggies, and brown rice for dinner.

And then, in idiot moment number two, I realized we had no black beans.  We ALWAYS have black beans.  Except for today.

So Tim suggested hot dogs and macaroni and cheese and I went with it.  We didn’t have any other decent protein source in the house that could be thawed quickly and I was too tired to be more creative.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  Today was kind of a lose.

However, I did do something I’m excited about!

Since I started blogging in August 2009, I’ve had “take a swimming lesson class” listed as one of my Goals.   

I can swim, sort of—I am an excellent backstroker, can tread water for days, and do some sort of half-wit freestyle.  I did a bit of this back when I lost weight, but haven’t been to a pool since late 2008, probably.  But I have always envied people who swim laps.  It’s so peaceful and I think it would be a great way to cross-train, especially in the summer!  I have access to a college indoor/outdoor pool, so why not use it?

Anyway, the exciting part is that I contacted the aquatics director about getting a few lessons—either classes or one-on-one.  I don’t think I need a LOT of help, but I do have some trouble coordinating the whole kicking/stroking/breathing thing.  Hopefully I’ll hear back tomorrow and can start swimming this summer!  (If I don’t, I’m going to figure it out on my own.)

Stupid idiot menu:

Make me feel better: what was your idiot moment today?

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)!

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?

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?