Olympic Motivation!

Sunday
I was supposed to start off the ending of my break with a 10 miler... but I made it 7.75 and failed miserably. I tried out a new trail today, but not knowing where I'm going with all the mini trails that break off the main one, messes with my head. I hate feeling I'm farther along than I really am and I was going at a snails pace and feeling awful. So I stopped before I started hating it. :(
James and I did go to the Farmers Market again in Norfolk! We got some more beets, booboo peaches, cucumbers, and some peppers. We also ate at the 'Fresh Cafe' they have there. They make everything from scratch basically with everything from the market while you shop. It was soooooooooo good. I got a crab cake sandwhich, and it comes with all these colorful healthy sides. After, we picked up 5 pounds of 97% lean ground turkey, 6 pounds of diced tomatoes and a couple melons from Sam's Club we headed home to make a HUGE pot o chili. Chili is so easy to make and you can put anything you want in it. We made a huge pot to last the week so you can adjust the measurements to what ever you want, but We Used:
*2.5 pounds of Turkey                 *1 can of white beans
*6 pounds of diced tomatoes       *Chili powder
*1 poblano pepper                      
*1 canned chipotle pepper (with  out seeds!! way too spicy with it)
*1 big can of chili beans        
*Light sour cream and reduced fat shredded mozzarella
Cooking: We just threw everything in a big pot and cooked the turkey separately then threw it in. Boiled it all together then let it simmer for a bit. After we plated it, we sprinkled a little cheese and a tiny bit of sour cream on top. I also baked some tortilla chips (that I mentioned in an earlier post) for some scoopage action. It was all so healthy and cheap!! For like 10 pounds of food it was around $20.
Then we sat around the rest of the night eating our chili and watching the olympics.

                                         Monday
It was just a cross training day so I whooped some butt on the elliptical and did some mountain climbing on the treadmill with incline. I did to do one of my favorite things today!! GO TO A RUNNING STORE! I could be in one all day, even though it's depressing everythings so expensive and I want to buy everything :( but I did get some new gels to try! For dinner we met up with friends and went to Cheddars! So, a really really really tasty and healthy choice from there that I had was the Portebello ciabatta sandwhich (with out mayo, but I kept the cheese) with steamed broccoli.  I also treated myself to a little drink, I got a skinny margarita with out 109 calories and it was delicious :D

                                        Tuesday

It's Kimi Size!

Busted out 3 miles and some cross training this morning, then had a Drs appointment in the afternoon. I went in for some knee pain I've been having for a lonnnngggggg time and for some help with my nutrition. I've been wanting a referral to see the nutritionist about trying to lose weight while eating enough for marathon training and for a little help with my big of binging I some times run in to. I ended up leaving with some pain meds and a referral for physical therapy and the nutritionist. So I'm happy! I haven't gone the physical therapy route before so I'm really hoping it will help. I've never ran without this knee problem, and that would be amazing!! My little treat today was a mini slurpee from 7/11. Those are our addictions, I used to crave them every time I would just pass my 7/11. The sugar free ones are soooo good too :D

For Dinner I made some of James's shredded BBQ chicken that he passed down to me. All I used was 2 chicken breasts and BBQ sauce. Put the stove on medium, a layer of BBQ sauce down and plop in the chicken. Once its visibly cooked half way through, flip it over and cover it till it's all the ways cooked. Then use 2 forks to pull it apart.
For a Snack, I found a quick recipe off of pinterest for chocolate protein granola. I made some alterations to the original recipe so here's what I used:
*1 tbsp. honey                               *1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
*3 tbsp. water                                *1 tsp. Maple syrup (optional)
*4 Stevia packets                           *1 tsp. Olive oil (or canola)
*2 c old fashioned oats                  *1tbsp. Cocoa powder
*2 tbsp. chia seeds (optional)       
*1/2 scoop of chocolate protein  powder
-Preheat the oven to 370. Mix everything together (oats last!). Spread it on a cookie sheet and bake! Stir it at 10 minutes and cook it for another 10 or until crunchy. Its sooo good and soo healthy! 1/2 cup is a serving.

I'm off to spend the rest of my time watching the olympics now!! Man do I want all their amazing bodies!!! All the gymnasts and volleyball players have no jiggle and fat! I'd rather look fit than skinny any day :D

Taking a Few Days Off :(

My little yoga area upstairs!

Thursday
So basically I've been really noticing my performance has been going down and I've been running a lot slower. The weather has been attrocious here which can really affect performance, but I think I was running too much at race pace. Like when I was on vacation, since I didn't have the gym to do cross training I just ended up running more to make up for it or I would do a lot of extra cardio after running which probably didn't help. I know my diet is pretty good but I dont think I'm eating enough to keep my glycogen stores up. I don't want my performance to get worse or to injure myself so reluctantly I'm taking Thursday-Saturday off. The only thing I'll be doing during those days is... YOGA! I'm bad at getting my stretching in, so this will really help! It is so relaxing, you feel like a new person after! I actually got a free yoga mat and 3 DVDs from the Airman's Attic. Marshalls has some cheap mats also. The DVDs I have are Gaiam brand and they have all kinds for different purposes.
James and I have still been keeping up with our juice a day!! Lately we've been making some new ones:
*Beet Red: 1 beet, 1 peach, 1/2 cucumber, 1 big carrot. (Don't spill it any where!! James wont let me drink it outside of the kitchen :p)
*A pear of carrots: 1 Pear, 2 carrots, 1/2 cucumber.
Basically what ever I'm feeling I'll throw 1 of each in, I don't care too much for the beets but James loves them. You can also juice the greens too!
Since it has been a week of super clean eating James and I can deviate just a little so we don't have a mega binge sooner or later. For dinner we decided to try out the new pizza place down the road. There are so many ways you can alter a take out pizza to be a lot healthier:
*No cheese! You can even order pizza to only have cheese on one half if other people want it!
*Thin crust. You save tons of fat, sugar, and calories ditching the deep dish or hand tossed.
*Marinara Sauce. The ranch and white sauces have so much fat and calories!
*Pack on the veggies! You could even go meatless!
We ended up not going by any of those rules... but we ate sensibly! I actually cut my pizza slices into halves or thirds so it kind of tricks me into thinking I'm eating more! So I can turn 2 pieces into 5 slices. I also always blot all the grease off the pizza... I think it's absolutely disgusting eating something that I can see my reflection in.
Friday
I am starting to feel the affects of not running everyday though. Normally my appetite seems to actually sky rocket when I exercise less. I think it's really just mindless eating and I'm trying to find something to fill the time I normally use running... I hate when this happens! At least there's only healthy stuff in the cupboards so even if I go a little over board I can't be completely disapointed. I've been keeping up with the leg work out I posted earlier, and after a few days my legs are noticeably firmer when I flex.

James ate almost all the fries :(

For Dinner tonight I made some Tilapia tacos and garlic fries but it could also be altered to be some healthy Fish and Chips. Basically I breaded and baked the tilapia, so you could just eat it with out putting it in the taco. For the tacos I used: *4 tilapia filets, olive oil, bread crumbs and spices, avocado, tomato, onion, fat free sour cream, and corn tortillas.
To bake the fish: preheat the over to 375, brush olive oil on each side of the fish and then pat on some bread crumbs and spices. Then just cook it for 10 minutes on one side and flip then cook for another 5-10 minutes! Cut up the avocado, tomato, and onion for toppings!
Garlic Fries! So these are baked and not fried, I used 4 med potatoes, 4 cloves of garlic, salt and olive oil. Pre heat the oven to 450, cut up the potatoes into the size fries you want, chop some garlic then mix the fries, garlic, salt and olive oil together. Then just bake for 30 minutes or until they're bubbly and crispy. Delicious!
Saturday
This week I tried out cooking most of my food for my 4 day work week on my Sunday (which was really last Tuesday). I made a large batch of steel cut oats, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, and grilled chicken breasts. It ended up working really well and saving so much time! In the mornings I just heated up the oatmeal and added in what ever I felt like, and for my lunches I'd cut up some chicken and add it to either the quinoa or pasta. Then for snacks I had a big bag of single serving microwaveable edamame from sams club. It was so quick and easy! I also brought some carrots and hummus for snacks too. It's finally my Friday night today, yay! But that means tomorrow I'm starting running again after my mini break, I'm so excited!! I get jealous seeing people run around base! I think I'm going to do another 10 miler tomorrow but we'll see how it goes!

Farmers Marketing!

I started Sunday morning off with a cup of coffee and 2 slices of toast before going out for my 10 mile run it was already 83 at 7am :( But it wasn't terrible and I felt good. I've been having issues with my pace though, a few months ago I was running a little of a minute faster per mile so I'm not really sure what's going on. I might need to work on how I recover and make sure I'm getting enough carbs. Also another thing, I think I'm going to switch from the New Jersey Marathon to the Norfolk one which is a week later. It'll be a lot easier since it's a town over instead of driving 6 hrs and having to get a hotel.

They say you should eat the colors of the rainbow!

After my run I made myself another cake batter protein shake!! I can't stop making them. Then James and I went to the farmers market!! It was pretty awesome, it was inside so we didn't have to stand out in the sun, there were bands, stands for homemade cookies, breads, jewelry, and salsa. Since it was the last day everything was 25% off but it was the last of bunch. It was great to be able to help the community out though and buy some really fresh, plump, delicious veggies and fruits. I think we're going to try and go every Sunday to get fresh produce. There was also a little book store connected with $1 and $2 books, I ended up finding one with running stories and poems! We ended up picking up some beets, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, canary melon, a huge tomatoe, and 'boo boo' peaches. I thought boo boo peaches were some different type of peaches till James gave me a stupid look and said that meant they were the bruised and mushed ones. -_- ANY WAYS!!

Soooo many jalapeno seeds!

We also bought some jalapeno salsa (SPICY!!!) from one of the stands but didn't have any chips at home... so I made some tortilla chips!! Its super easy and actually a lot healthier. All you need are yellow corn tortillas (40 calories per tortilla) and cut them up in to fourths. Then bake them at 450 for 5-8 minutes until they start to curl up. You can spray olive oil on them and sprinkle them salt and what ever spices.
Later for another snack I cut up the watermelon that I had and the canary melon from the market and mixed it in a big bowl, yum!!  
For dinner we had stuffed bell peppers! There are tons of different things you can in but here's what we used:
*2 bell peppers                        *Garlic
*1/2 can of black beans           *Onion
*1/2 can of diced tomatoes      *1 cup of dry quinoa
*Spices
Directions
*I cooked the Quinoa first in my rice cooker, you can just follow the directions on the box for different methods
*Preheat the oven to 400, then cut the peppers length wise and core them.
*Then boil the peppers for 5 minutes
*For the filling: I chopped the garlic and onions very finely and cooked them in a pan with some olive oil, then added in the beans, tomatoes and half of the cooked quinoa and just heated it all up together for about 5 minutes. (I kept the rest of the quinoa to have extra)
*Then we stuffed the peppers and stuck them in the oven for 30-35 mins.
*optional: We packed some bread crumbs on top to make it a little crunchy and broiled them at the end for a few minutes.

Monday James and I had a Peach, Apple, and Carrot Juice. Yummy! I just stuck one of each into the juicer, Voila!
Then for a late breakfast I had blueberry cheese cake oatmeal! I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs that I follow. Here's the link for the recipe! Basically all you need is:
*Oatmeal               *Blueberries
*Honey                  *Cream cheese (I used a Tbs of Sugar free/ fat free cheese cake jello instead)
*Vanilla extract     *Nuts
*Cinnamon
Just cook the oatmeal then basically add everything else in!
Delicious! I think tomorrow I'm going to make a big batch so I don't have to make breakfast every morning before work.
For my workout today I walked around the Williamsburg outlets for 2 and a half hours! See, shopping is a good thing :p Ahhhhh I wanted to buy everything from Nike, Reebok, Finishline, and Under Armour.
Last meal I'm going to share with ya'll is DINNER!! It was quick and easy, we picked up some salmon burgers from Sams club and cooked them up in a pan and put them on whole wheat buns. While those were cooking I made Sweet Potato Fries! I love them! I got a recipe off pinterest to make them sort of crunchy by adding a Tbs of corn starch. I just cut up 2 medium sweet potatoes and shook them in a bag with 2 Tbs of olive oil, the corn starch, salt and what ever else you want. Then I cooked them at 450 for 20-25 minutes. Some times I put too much cornstarch which gets chalky, so you can omit it if you want!
... Time for another cake batter protein shake, I haven't had one today yet!

These are a few of my favorite things! (that's supposed to be song form :p)

I have to share this amazing cake batter protein shake! I actually found it on Pinterest. Here's the link for the recipe. 

Seriously this thing tasted just like cake batter. I can't wait to get back home from work so I can make me another one... then make James one so I can drink some of his.
So besides that, I wanted to share my favorite things in the kitchen and a few other things on Pinterest that I'm working on.

I got this great ab and leg work out off Pinterest. It doesn't include any squats or lunges which is perfect for me and my bad knees! All you need is wall space and that's what you do all the exercises against. It says to do it 5-6 days a week and you'll results in 2 weeks! I've been doing it for 3 days now so I'll repost in 2 weeks how my manly man legs (what James calls them since he jealous of my muslce! :p) are looking. Try it here!
Another Pinterest find was a Jillian Micahel's detox and debloat drink recipe. She says to just drink it everyday for a week along with your normal eating habits (its not a fasting thing) and you'll loose up to 5 pounds of water weight. All you need is:
*60oz of water                *1TBS of sugar free Cranberry juice
*2 TBS of Lemon Juice   *1 Dandelion root tea bag
For the lemon juice I just used one of those plastic lemons, and I found the dandelion root tea at target but health food stores should have it too! I've actually been doing this for a few weeks and I'm not really sure how much water weight I lost since I didn't weigh my self, but I will say I do feel a lot less bloated. I keep drinking because it is healthy in general, It keeps my water intake going all day, and dandelion root tea is said to be really great for digestion aid, lots of vitamins, and cleaning out your liver! So just mix them all up and get chuggin!
I Also wanted to share my top favorite things I always have in the kitchen:
*Olive oil spritzer: All you do is pump it up and spray it like cooking spray. I love to use it on everything since you only use a few calories instead of dumping tablespoons of oil and eye balling it. I use it on garbanzo beans, salad, pop corn, on pans, etc.
*Sugar Free Jelly: It comes with added fiber and is only 10 calories a TBS! That's always my first choice on toast and its so good, sometimes when I'm craving something sweet I'll have a spoon of it.
*Nature's Own Whole Wheat Bread: ONLY 50 CALORIES PER SLICE! This is the only bread I buy and it's 100% whole wheat. A quick super low calorie snack with some sugar free jelly!
*Popcorn kernels: Popcorn is my favorite food in the whole wide world ever. I used to eat a bag every single day for month! Now I'll just pop some in my popper and spritz some olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt.
*Smooth Move Laxative Tea: This is my life saver! All I'm going to say is, if ya need to clean yourself out... this is the stuff. 2 bags and you are empty!
*Egg Beaters egg whites: Way better than eggs, they only have 25 calories compared to 70 in an egg. They have no fat and have added vitamins. So for breakfast I can cook 5 eggs for just 125 calories and then I'll throw in tons of spinach onions and mushrooms. It also saves calories in recipes!

Quick note on cake batter protein shake! I just made a 2nd one tonight and completely forgot to add the protein powder -_- but it still tasted really good and cut some calories too. So if you don't have any protein powder it still taste great!
I've got a 10 mile run tomorrow morning :) so I guess I should go to sleep :( 

YUMMMM

Getting back on track with clean eating.

I hate when vacations come to an end and when I have to leave family, but I suppose the positive in this situation is not having to be surrounded by cake, ice cream, candy, BBQ, and In n Out any more. So back to clean eating!! For me, eating fatty, sugary, and satly foods can completely ruin my day and make me feel so blahhhh, and after just 2 days of being back in VA with healthy eating I feel amazing. I have nothing to feel guitly for or continuously think 'Why did I eat those 4 pieces of pizza and bowl of chips!', then continuously hate my self for the rest of the day. I still feel terrible for my last meal on my way home from the airport... I won't say much except it involved a bag of cheetos :( So James and I made a deal to eat as clean and healthy as possible for the first week being back just to get our minds and bodies back on track and away from the habbit of constant snacking... bad snacking. So no cheat meals and no alcohol!

Since we got back at 5 am we took a long nap and then went MEGA GROCERY SHOPPING!
We got some:
*Whole grain pasta                         *Bell peppers
*Chunk light tuna                           *Spinach
*Low sodium garbanzo beans        *Carrots
*Egg beaters                                   *Watermelon
*Quinoa                                          *Hummus
*Whole wheat bread                       *Almonds
*Craisins                                         *Cottage cheese

We're also starting a habbit of drinking at least one 'carrot, apple, and spinach juice' a day.
James came up with a great idea to make our own trail mix for a fraction of the price of a pre-made one and with about 4 times as much. This one was really simple, all it included was craisins and roasted almonds but you can add in shredded coconut, different raw nuts, raisins, or dark chocolate chips. For $15.00 we were able to make 92 oz. I can also throw this mix into some oatmeal and cottage cheese.
 
For dinner that night we cooked up some Tilapia tacos! They're really simple:
Just cook some fish and bell peppers and onions. Add salt, pepper, lime and what ever spices you want to the fish. Then put half of a fish in a corn tortilla and add a TBS of light sour cream, and a bit of hot sauce or salsa.
For one taco w/ light sour cream its 120 calories!
This morning I made both of us a juice and then after my morning run I made my self a spinach omelet. I just cooked up 5 eggs (Egg beaters), threw in a bunch of spinach and a piece of toast. All together the eggs were 125 calories and the toast was 50 calories.
This afternoon I made a tuna salad open sand which. I mixed one small can of tuna with a TBS of light miracle whip and dijon mustand. Then I made two open faced sandwhiches so I felt like I was eating more instead of combining the bread to make one sandwhich. All together it was only 220 calories! 100 calories of tuna, 100 calories for bread, and 20 for miracle whip.
So in conclusion! EatGoodFeelGood.

New Shoes!

I would like to thank my wonderful dad and husband for taking me to get fitted for new running shoes!! Any one who is serious about running or puts in some decent mileage should definitely go get fitted! The first VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL I learned about shoes for distance is... minimalist shoes such as 'Nike Frees' aren't the best shoes for the distance running... unless you learn how to correctly run in them with proper form. I've been wearing light minimalist shoes as long as I've been running and Nike Frees are my favorite style, but it's important to work your way down to them. Mainly you need to find what is best for yourself. SECOND MOST IMPORTANT DETAIL is buying the correct size. For years I've bought a size 7.5 but I left the shoe store wearing an 8.5! They also walked me run around the store so they could see how foot pushes of the ground, I thought I rolled outward but the fitter said I actually was neutral. These types of things can determine buying a completely different shoes. So far I was completely wrong about 3 of the most important details for shoes.
So I got a brand spanking new pair of 'Nike Vamero 7's'. They're a lot different from what I'm used too (minimalist) and I've only ran 6 miles but I'm so excited hopefully experience more efficient running and less foot and knee pain. I'll update!!
Another important accessory is orthotics. Even if you're not looking for new shoes yet, orthotics can help with shin splints, plantar faciitis (feels like your arch is ripping), and running better in general.                                                     In conclusion, GET FITTED!

My graveyard of minimalist shoes

1st Half Marathon!!!

First a quick update of my week!!

I took James on a tour of San Francisco, we took the BART and walked alllll the way down to Pier 39 so we got a mini work out in. We walked past tons of runners which was making me jealous! I would love to be able to run down the pier every day especially with that weather and all the interesting people always there. So that was tons of fun! SATURDAY! Normally races are early in the morning but this one was at 7 at night. So I had to hold off on the huge BBQ Rib cook off my dad was having at the house :( There was deviled eggs, potato salad, tons of chips and different dips, and 4 cakes!!! I definitely did not feel like testing out my digestive system for my first half marathon though. Soooo I just had oatmeal in the morning and whole wheat toast with a little bit of peanut butter on it through out the day, then just had some tortilla chips with salsa during the party. I wasn't really able to have a small meal before so I made sure I brought an extra GU with me to take 20 minutes before the start. 
Before I left I made sure I have everything ready:
*Shoes 
*Socks
*Tech Tee W/ Bib pre-pinned
*Hand held bottle W/ GUs
*Head phones
*Toilet paper or tissue (To blow my nose or bathroom stops!)
*Hat
*ID (for my free post race beer!)
*Petroleum jelly (Cheaper than BodyGlide for chaffing) 
Quick note: Toilet paper is definitely a must have to bring on a run, there's been so many times I've needed to blow my nose and I'm not too comfortable with the whole snot rocket thing yet. Then of course the dreaded runners trots... just in case I have to jump in a bush (hopefully that will never happen) or use a porta potty with out toilet paper I'll have some handy.     *SPOILER! Here's my finish picture, I guess a picture is worth a 1,000 words... 

Okay, back to the race!
When we got there it was packed!! There was over 1,600 runners for the half and the 5K and 10K had about 4,500 people all together! I really liked how organized the event was, there was someone one on a mic constantly explaining the times for everything and who needed to be ready next and there were big markers for where to stand depending on your mile pace.
Through the entire race I was terrified of having to take a poop stop but I made it all the way through without any problems! It was really frustrating feeling like I was on mile 5 and then passing the 3 mile marker. -_- The last 3 miles were the longest miles ever, they each felt like 2 miles. The only times I stopped to walk was when I took my GU at mile 5 and a few more times when I had to sip some water. It was definitely great to have my hand held bottle instead of getting held up at the hydration stations. It was so exciting to see mile 11 and mile 12 markers and knowing I was so close to being done!

I was expecting a 2:45 finish but I ran a 2:29!! I'm still soooooo excited about it!!! My feet hurt so bad and my legs were about to curl up into mush, but again it was the best feeling to have finished and better than I thought I would. Also, my past few races I ran alone but this time I ran it with family so it was awesome to be greeted at the finish line and cheer on others as they finished.

FINISHED!!!!!!

After the race I finally got to eat my ribs, tater salad and cake. I did have a few beers to catch up with the party... which wasn't the best thing to do for recovery but I did make sure I had a bottle of water for every beer I had.
So It was a great race and weekend and I cannot wait till September for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach!!!!
-Kimi


P.S. My breakfast from today. Nomnom crepes!

Family time in Ca = Lots of yummy unhealthy food.

It's been a week since my last post, I've been meaning to post sooner but I've been busy in Ca. So I'll try and condense everything!

So I know eating at the airport can be expensive and unhealthy, all the fast food places and quick snacks are inviting. The bad thing is, you're probably not going to exercise on your travel day, you're sitting in a plane all day, and you're going to feel bloated and bleh. Some healthy alternatives for airport dining can be:

*Fruit salads (can be expensive though)

*grilled chicken sandwhiches from fast food places

*Salads (light on the dressing)

*Frozen yogurt

*Smoothies (watch the calories still!)

*Breakfast sandwhiches with egg whites and spinach (from Dunkin Donuts or Subway)

*Whole wheat bagels or toast 

I ended up splitting a whole wheat bagel and had a smoothie (looked up the calories on my phone) during the lay over. Its easy to forget during traveling, but make sure to drink plenty of water!!

My first meal when I got home was... IN n OUT!!!! I did make it as healthy as possible, I got it protein style (no bun, wrapped in lettuce) and without cheese or sauce. I got the sauce on the side so I could just a little bit. I Definitely did not skimp on the fries though, I ate my order.





It's definitely been difficult to control my eating at home, there's always something being cooked and the pantry is filled with any thing and everything :( including 3 buckets of Halloween candy. So it has definitely been a struggle. I've been eating oatmeal with nuts and fruit in the morning with green tea w/ matcha (Matcha has tons more antioxidants than regular green tea) and having good balanced lunches, but it's always towards the end of the day that gets me. I have been eating lots of carrots with hummus and apples to keep the hunger away though. 


Running hasn't been an issue though!!! I'm so excited! This Saturday is the Moonlight Half Marathon in Davis! 

Quick pic of Lake Tahoe

*Fall Update!! I made it 2 days here fall free... and then my third day running I slid down the side walk. Probably my nastiest fall to date. I had to run the my last 3 1/2 miles with blood running down my leg while everyone I passed just smiled and waved at me.
I did get to run past through Tahoe and past the lake in the early morning, it was beautiful!!! Then I got to run by a group of guys  with beer, yelling and screaming at 6:30 in the morning and I saw  some beautiful puke piles down the sidewalks. 


So this last week I'm trying to salvage my diet! I'll let ya'll know how it goes and my run!!!!!!


-Kimi


P.S.

Finally reunited with DONUT!!!!

Welcome!!

Hey Ya'll!! This is my first official post! So basically I'll just talk about how my run went, what I ate, add in some pictures, and share what ever I learned! Basically it'll be my food, exercise, and daily journal.

So! Sunday was my long run for the week, 11 miles!! That's my farthest distance to date. I got up at 5:45 to start some coffee and and steel cut oats (take 12 mins in the microwave to cook!!) and looked out side... all I could see was lightning, pouring rain and I could feel the thunder. I thought I was about to have to all 11 miles on the tread mill!!!! That would've been beyond mental torture... maybe thats what interrogators should do. But half an hour before I was going to leave it all cleared up! So I packed up my GU, Water bottle and hat and left for base. The weather wasn't too awfully hot since it just stormed but I was definitely feelin it. I was doing great up until about mile 8 I thought my knees were going to explode and from then on ever 3/4 of a mile I had to stop for a couple seconds. Those last 2 miles were the hardest I've ever had to do but I kept on shuffling through!! I absolutely love the feeling of running a new distance, even though I'm training for the big goal, all the smaller accomplishments (like running a faster pace or a new distance) make me feel akdfhakdf.

After, I inched my way back to my car I stopped at the commisary so I could walk around and loosen my legs up, I was starting to feel the post run rigamortis... but I picked up some carrots, granny smith apples, and spinach to try out my awesome new juicer!!! I got back home and stacked up all the pillows and got out my homemade ice bags (purple and blue!), wrapped them up in a shirt, plopped my laptop in my lap and watched Extreme Makeover Weightloss for a few hours with some chocolate milk! I love recovery time.


Once James got up I tried out the juicer and it was AMAZING! Especially for being free from the Airman's Attic on base. It worked perfectly, I used 2 apples, about a cup of carrots, and stuffed in some spinach... it was so good! James even approved.

For the rest of my food today I had:
*Steel cut oats with 100 cal sugar free Brown sugar instant oatmeal
*a tuna salad sandwhich on one slice of whole wheat bread
*a can of garbanzo beans with olive oil and sea salt through out the day
*turkey slices on one slice of whole wheat bread
*1/2 cup of cottage cheese with cinnamon and stevia
*chocolate brownie cliff bar
*yogurt cover raisins

I'd say not too shabby for the day!

I finished off the day playing some 'Move' on the PS3 with James. He whooped my butt in volley ball, sword fighting, bocce ball, disc golf, and archery. :( What ever! All I know is that I can run farther than him...

I'm leaving for CALIFORNIA tomorrow!!! It's been a year and a half since I've been home!! The only struggle is going to be all the food temptations... like In n Out, Which of course will be my first meal.

That's it for now, gotta pack and head for DC.

Se La Vie!

-Kimi