Brie Fit

It’s been a fun weekend!  Unfortunately, today I’ve been ravaged by the allergy monster and have been snuffling and sniffling like crazy.  Ugh.  October and November are always tough for my allergies.

Last night Tim and I got all dolled up and went to a work event.  I wasn’t feeling great, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  (Although the food was terrible.  The entrée was chicken stuffed with crab, and my shellfish allergy meant I got a plain chicken breast.  Snooze.)

Today’s been a laundry day.  I did do some cooking, though!  We had walnut and rosemary oven fried chicken tenders, homemade mashed potatoes, and spinach salads for dinner.

The chicken was especially good.  Rosemary isn’t my favorite spice of all time, but combined with the walnut and the panko it was very nutty and fresh tasting. 

I also made my favorite wagon wheel taco pasta salad…with quinoa instead of pasta!  It’s my first adventure with quinoa, but it seems like a pretty awesome little grain so I’m excited to incorporate it more in the future.  I’m going to pack the salad in my lunch this week.

Anyway, I took Saturday and Sunday off CrossFit because my body’s been feeling pretty tired.  I’m looking forward to getting back to the box bright and early tomorrow!

What are your favorite quinoa recipes?

For the second time in two weeks, our air conditioner is broken.  Sigh.  Needless to say, it was a long, hot, nearly-sleepless night.   Not exactly the best start to the week, but I’m still kind of walking on air lately so…meh.

Anyway, after five days away from the office, my inbox was quite full! 

For lunch:

For snack:

It was a fairly fun day, though…my travel schedule got all shifted around and I booked probably 10 flights today!  I will officially be visiting the following places in October and November:

• Toronto, Ontario
• Iowa City and Des Moines, Iowa
• Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska
• Boise, Idaho
• Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona
• San Francisco, California
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Boulder, Colorado
• Norman, Oklahoma
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Atlanta, Georgia

Phew!  I’m actually not going to have a ton of time to enjoy the destinations, but I’m looking forward to visiting three new states I’ve never been to before (Utah, Arizona, and Oklahoma).

After work, I ran four miles.  It was painful.  The blisters I’m getting on the balls of my feet are just a nightmare and get super sensitive by my second mile.  Bleh.   It’s always something, right?

Dinner was a mish-mash that wound up being surprisingly good.

We had leftover roasted chicken with barbecue sauce, black beans cooked in cumin, lime juice, and garlic, and a few cantaloupe chunks. 

Tim starts his new job after labor day, so he is a man of leisure this week.  Last night, in the middle of the night, he urgently turned to me and said, “So what do you think about the ad?” to which I responded, “Um, what?” and he kept persisting, “You know.  The ad.”

Turns out, he was talking in his sleep after watching an episode of Mad Men.  It was pretty funny.

Do you talk in your sleep?

Not so much on the food photography this weekend—sorry, guys.

We did have a lovely Sunday dinner—I roasted a whole chicken with a sliced lime and garlic cloves stuffed up its butt, plus roasted potatoes and a spinach and strawberry salad.

I’ve actually been napping for much of the day (after church and brunch with Tim’s uncle).  I have this weird nausea thing going on which is often hormonal (no, I’m not pregnant), which is a bit bothersome.

Anyway, it’s obviously been a big and exciting week for us.  For SO LONG OMG we’ve been kind of saying “We’ll do X after we know what Tim’s job situation is.”  And it’s been intensely frustrating in many ways.  Not only have we  been trying to save money (which, let’s face it, is why this blog has been a little boring lately), we’ve been putting off major life decisions until we knew what was up in the name of being responsible adults.

So.  Without further ado, here are some things we are going to get going on, including some ch-ch-ch-changes I’ll be making in the fitness arena.

1. I talked a little bit about house hunting awhile back, but we hope to kick this into high gear in the next few months.  Our lease is up on November 30th, and ideally, we’d like to not have to pay an extra month or two’s rent beyond that.  We’re working on the whole pre-approval thing right now, and are starting to look for a realtor as well.  (Any recommendations in the Kansas City area?)  This whole thing is big and a bit scary, but exciting!  It’s a great time to be buying a home.
2. Babies are forthcoming (we hope), but not quite yet.  House is priority #1.  For various reasons, we’d like a fall/winter 2012 baby (if we could plan it, although I’m fully aware that’s not always possible), so we have awhile!
3. I’m sick of running.  There.  I said it.   I have the Nike Women’s Half on the schedule for October, and of course I’ll do it, but I’m not opposed to run-walking it and just having fun with it.  I may do a few shorter races, but honestly…it’s on the back burner for me.  I’m kind of feeling been-there, done-that about it all lately and frankly, if it’s not fun…why do it?  I tend to have a bit of workout ADD.  I like things for awhile, and then my interest in them wanes, and then I’ll come back to them.  I felt a little bit bad about this, like I should be all RUNNER! or whatever, but ultimately, my goal is to be healthy and fit.
4. Apropos of #3  above, I am 98.7% sure I will be joining Crossfit when they open near me next week.  It looks like I’ll be able to get in on the ground floor as a charter member for a good deal, and I’ve really enjoyed the community aspect of it and the fact that it’s always changing and not boring.   My current gym is free through my job, so I’ll still have that.  I think, going forward, I’ll probably attempt to run or swim or cross-train a two or three a week, and CrossFit two or three times a week.  I love to lift and I can’t wait to start seeing some strength gains and making new friends.
5. Apropos of #4 above, I’ve put on a few pounds due to all the stress lately.  I’m going to work on it.  I’m not totally sure how, but I’m not happy with the fit of my pants these days. 

In other news, I cannot decide whether to keep my hair pixie-esque or grow it back into a bob with blunt bangs.  Discuss.

As I’m sure you guys all know…I want to have a baby.  Like, yesterday.

One of the most frustrating things ever is to desperately want a baby and to have people flippantly tell you, “Oh, just enjoy your time together as newlyweds!” as if I could just flip a switch and shut down eleventy billion years of primal, hormonal instincts, and go out and have a Coke and ride unicycles with my husband instead.  We ARE enjoying our time together as newlyweds.  That doesn’t mean I can’t also think “hmm, what would my due date be?” every month and contemplate whether it’s weird to buy a totally cute maternity dress at Target while decidedly unpregnant.

But, we can’t just yet, so instead I try to focus on the things I like about not having another (tiny, adorable, sometimes screamy) human totally dependent on me.

Today I did just that.  I started by sleeping until noon.  I swear I don’t USUALLY do this on weekends, but my sleep has been terrible lately so I went with it.

Then, I got up and polished off a bag of chocolate chips for “breakfast.”  Thankfully, there were maybe only four or five left.  I actually WANTED the leftover pancake from yesterday, but Tim hid it.

And then, I glued my ass to the couch and watched reruns on TLC (baby shows, duh) until I could work up enough energy to make myself lunch.

Spinach this week was BOGO again (yay!) so we’ll be eating a lot of it.  I also picked up my favorite salad toppings—craisins, goat cheese, pecans, and Newman’s Own raspberry walnut dressing.

So yeah.  I had a salad, and some fruit and yogurt, and a homemade pretzel roll I made at 10:30 last night.

I meant to work out, but instead I watched more TLC and went to Target to get some sticky goop for my sassy haircut.

And had a banana with PB.

And I did not do anything except dick around on my laptop and do one load of laundry.

For dinner, I made Skinny Taste macaroni and cheese at Tim’s request, with lots and lots of spinach, and some “chicken nuggets”—chicken breast pieces tossed in breadcrumbs, hot and spicy seasoning, and parmesan cheese and baked.

Not too shabby.

The plan for the rest of the week, workout wise, will likely be swimming Tuesday and Thursday, lifting Wednesday, and maaaybe a quick workout in the hotel while I’m in DC on Friday or Saturday.  But honestly, I’m booked pretty solid while I’m there, so I just don’t know.

Back to work tomorrow!

Edit: I’m a dirty liar.  After I published this post (after dinner, and ice cream, and showering), I got the urge to run, so I went out for a hilly 3 miler in the dark.  I ran 9:41, 9:53, and 9:34 miles, which is pretty great considering the steep terrain.  Who am I again?

What’s your favorite adults-only activity?  (Not THAT, you pervs.)

Back to work, back to work.  Is it weird that Monday (or fake Monday, as it were) is my favorite day of the work week?  I always feel so refreshed and rejuvenated and okay, I’ll shut up now.

I had my usual breakfast, and instead of coffee this morning I had another Click protein shake, this time in Vanilla Latte flavor.  I’m not getting any sort of kickbacks from them, or anything, I just won this stuff randomly, and guys—it’s awesome.  I mixed one scoop (so half a serving) with some ice water and a splash of my usual coffee creamer and it was decadent.  I’m a total convert.  I love iced coffee anyway, so this is perfect for summer!  Definitely worth a try.  I’ve added both flavors to my Amazon store here and here.

I’m not taking lunch breaks to make up for my Mondays off, so lunch was munched while I worked.  Spinach salad, carrots and hummus, Greek yogurt, and a banana with peanut butter.

For a pre-swim snack:

I had my best swim yet today!  I swam 1300 meters in 39:08.  I was thinking about continuing to a mile today, but the pool was getting crowded and a particularly splashy old lady was breaststroking wildly in my path, so I left.

Also, my face hurt.  And I didn’t realize why until I snapped my goggles off  and I nearly keeled over with the pain.

Eyeball hickeys.  Big ones.

Yes, I need an eyebrow wax and some eye makeup remover and a Clarisonic.  (My birthday is coming, friends!)

But OMG.  2 hours later and I still have red marks under my eyes.  I’m a little worried I broke some capillaries or something!  Note to self: loosen straps.

Dinner was a revelation.

I saw chicken parmesan burgers pop up on my Google Reader last week on the Skinny Taste blog.  And then Blogger crashed and the recipe disappeared, so I winged it.  So, thanks Gina for the inspiration!

Last night I mixed 8 ounces of lean ground chicken with some chopped garlic, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper and formed it into patties.  Tonight, I coated them in seasoned breadcrumbs and baked them for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees, then topped them with a little marinara and mozzarella.

And YUM.  These are going into the permanent rotation!  Ground chicken is pretty cheap and healthy, so I’m pretty thrilled.

I meant to serve them with waffle fries, but there were only enough for one person, so I gave them to Tim and had a baked potato instead.

I can hear some ice cream calling my name.  Swimming hunger is no joke!

Have you ever had an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction?

Today has been characterized by crazy mood swings. 

Things today started out down.  I woke up in a NyQuil fog and popped a DayQuil immediately.  All morning at work, I was just sluggish and couldn’t focus and kind of depressed.

Then things perked up.  My office is big on field trips, so my three co-workers and I went out to do a little work off-site, then had a catered working lunch together, then did a little more work, and then we went to Red Mango for a fro-yo snack.

I had a small cup of coconut and pineapple fro-yo, and stuck to fruit and a little coconut for toppings so I could pretend this was a healthy snack.

And, okay, like three M&Ms at the bottom.  I couldn’t resist.

Then, I went back down.  My cold really caught up with me again and I spent the rest of the afternoon hacking in my office.  I decided against the gym because I didn’t want to be THAT GIRL on the elliptical spreading my germs all over everyone else.

So, I went home and cuddled Southie.  Actually, I hand fed her pieces of plain boiled chicken, which she gobbled down with great gusto.  She’s still obviously weak, and tired, but is eating a decent amount of wet food again and is hopping from the couch to the ottoman to the chair to the floor to her cat tree without much effort.

I made a fun dinner that brought my mood back up, though:

Beer can chicken!

Or…Diet Dr. Pepper can chicken! 

I used a clean, empty soda can and filled it with bottled Boulevard IPA we got in a sampler pack (we both dislike IPAs).   Then, I suppressed a million phallic jokes in my head as I shoved the giant can up the chicken hole. 

I rubbed it with my favorite chicken vesuvio seasoning and baked it at 400 degrees for about an hour and 40 minutes.  I threw in some carrots and potatoes to roast, too.

It was pretty delicious.  I’ll definitely do this again!

I’m hoping my body (and schedule) will be back to normal enough tomorrow to get back to the regular calorie-tracking and gym routine tomorrow.   I’m dying for a good run, but I think that may be a bit ambitious given the sludge still coating my sinuses and throat.  Maybe a swim or lifting?  We’ll see.

What were your highs and lows today?

(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.

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?

Ugh.  This is really annoying.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, though!  I totally celebrated:

I specifically selected an Irish Cream K-Cup for my morning coffee.  I also wore a green camisole under my shirt and wore my claddaugh ring.  Totally festive, y’all.

My lunch contained a glut of fruit and veggie servings.  Baller.

Except I bought a new flavor of hummus and hated it, so I only ate a little bit of it and about half the carrots.  In lieu of hummus, I ate some peanut butter off the measuring spoon.

So, after yesterday’s clean up my diet rant, I was kind of embarrassed to discover that I’d left my healthy, natural snack at home and had to eat a bar that would make Tosca Reno clutch her pearls.

At least it was tasty.

Happy brag: today I ate zero inappropriate and random snacks.  No pretzels from the boss’ jar, no handful from the community popcorn, no hard candies, no nothing.  AND, my boss even offered me her box of FlipSides pretzel garlic herb crackers, which I love, and I said no.  So, win on that one today.

After work I had another shitty workout.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  I was hungry and didn’t want to crosstrain on the stupid elliptical.  I did 20 minutes on the elliptical, switched to the bike, did 10 minutes and my vag hurt so I quit.  WTF.

On my way home from work I remedied another major issue.   My lunch box is WAY too small, so I bought a giant, embarrassing-but-awesome 18 can cooler at Target and some icepacks.  I use an obscene amount of Gladware every day between breakfast and lunch and snacks, so I might as well just embrace the freakshow.

The bonus of this is that I no longer have to use the community fridge at work, which always smells funny and is so full I think it might collapse one of these days. 

Dinner featured this:

Plus some chicken, mushrooms, and a little bit of random sauce I made from sherry, garlic, lemon, and chicken broth.

Yum.

I would be glad it’s Friday tomorrow, but I get to work late (yay) tomorrow and work on Saturday (awesome).  So…weekend in the toilet.   I’m looking forward to May when we go down to summer hours and I work four day weeks!

Do you take a lunch to work?  How do you pack it?

Ah, well.  The streak was good while it lasted.

This morning I went in to work late because had a date with the gynecologist!  Good times.

Highlight: I mentioned we MAYBE will start trying for a baby before my next annual (MAYBE) and he sent he home with a giant bag with formula logos on it full of diapers and other baby crap and some lady congratulated me in the elevator.  Awk.  Ward.

Lunch was a bit of this, a bit of that—mini bagel with cream cheese, carrots with hummus, yogurt+berries+Kashi, mini Babybel Gouda, spinach with balsamic.

These Luna Protein bars are starting to grow on me.  I had one for my afternoon snack since my lunch box was too small to contain a snack from home AND my massive lunch. Meghann said on Twitter that she thinks they taste like “garbage chalk,” and…they kind of do, but it’s chocolate mint flavored garbage chalk.  I don’t think I’d buy these, but since they were free I’m enjoying them.  There are better protein bars out there for my money, though.

After work, I went to the gym for a quick tempo run.  I had to get back to the vet to pick up Bubbles by 6:30!

I decided to go a hair faster than my ideal 5K pace for two miles, and I brought it home in 17:11, or an 8:36/mile pace!  It was uncomfortable, but that’s kind of the point of a tempo run.  Sometimes I think I sell myself short by running so slow, and I really wonder what I’m capable of.  It’s hard to really bang out a tough run after a 9 hour workday, though!

Anyway, I was able to pick up Bubbles in time and got some good news—his feline leukemia, FIV, and heartworm tests were all negative.   He had ear mites, but was treated for them, and is otherwise in good shape.  He even got a rabies shot!  Also, can you believe he’s two years old?  Not me!  He’s so teeny!

Unfortunately, all the rescues we’ve contacted are coming up as dead ends.  We do NOT need another cat, but we are committed to getting him a good home, and if we have to foster him for awhile, so be it. It’s just the right thing to do.

Tim and Bubbles are currently watching the basketball game.  We’re doing very slow, supervised introductions with our pets.

Dinner was mostly ready when I got home.  I made a whole chicken in the crockpot using this recipe and it turned out really well.  I also chopped up and peeled a sweet potato, half an acorn squash, and some baby carrots, tossed them in maple syrup and a little cinnamon and roasted them.

The veggies were just so-so.  Acorn squash is pretty flavorless, actually.

Sparkpeople calories:

And run data from my Polar F4: