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!