boring saturday night

Well my night turned into a snooze-fest. But at least I had a fun afternoon!

I went to meet my cousin, Dawn, at a local frozen yogurt bar, The Skinny Dip. Local Va Beach readers – go if you haven’t tried it yet! I’ve been craving frozen yogurt for a while but it is awkward to go alone and sit and eat it. It isn’t a food you can just take and save for later or eat in the car, you know?

Low-fat key lime and low-fat cake batter fro yo (swirled) with kiwi, banana, chocolate chips, and granola.

I love the self-serve places that just charge by the ounce! I have to remember next time that banana is heavy! And clearly I was on a banana kick today…

It was fun to visit with my cousin! She’s my oldest cousin (9 of us grandkids on my mom’s side) and she’s 7 months pregnant with a little boy The day of my 10k is her baby shower! It is weird because just a year ago we were having her bridal shower. She doesn’t want a baby shower since the baby was unexpected and she feels bad that she just got married and had everyone give her gifts, but I say “Free stuff? Take it!”

After I bought the broccoli I was craving, a friend made plans to have dinner with me in Norfolk. But when I got back from frozen yogurt, he cancelled on me. I was a little depressed and had a small piece of potato knish to cheer up (I know, I know… emotional eating is bad).

But I compensated with making a great dinner + a glass of wine. Unfortunately the wine was awful and I didn’t drink more than 2 sips. Cabernet sauvignon is my favorite, but this one was not. But the food was! I roasted up some of that broccoli, half a zucchini, onion, and tofu (all marinated in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper). I also made a serving of TJ’s mushroom fettuccini on the side.

Roasted veggies + tofu; 1 serving TJ's mushroom fettuccini.

YUM.

The pasta was kind of an after-thought. I mean, maybe I should have gone with something else. But it was good. That’s what counts right?

A while later, I wanted something sweet. Even though I already had frozen yogurt, I still wanted ice cream. So I threw 1/3 of a pear in the microwave and topped it with a little vegan ice cream.

1/3 cup TJ's chocolate soy creamy with 1 1/2 tbsp naturally sweetened granola & 1/3 bosc pear.

That meddlesome monster is trying to steal my eats!!! She’s been BAD today, including tearing the carpet up and eating it and stealing a Laughing Cow wedge off the counter and eating it, wrapper and all. Ugh.

Gosh my mom just called me and I completely lost my train of thought!!!!  We were talking about some kind of heavy, emotional stuff. Now I’m mentally spent.

In other news, the Bobby Flay “Throw Down” episode that took place on my campus freshman year is on! I ate the food (back in my carnivore days) and Bobby definitely deserved 2nd place The guy he’s challenging is amazing, I’ve met him on several occasions and he gave me a tour of his kitchens once!

Off to watch and go to bed early. I’m tired!

addiction

So I’ve had quite the productive day so far! (Productive as far as I really have no obligations on the weekend, so to some it probably seems lame).

I woke up a few minutes too late to make it to the spin class I was thinking about (whoops!). But I didn’t want to set an alarm, because who wants an alarm on Saturday morning? So I slowly got myself ready and ate a snack pre-gym.

1 (split) piece of whole grain baguette with 1 tbsp PB and some honey.

So even though my foot was still feeling kind of iffy, I really wanted to run. And stupidly, I did. I told myself “If it gets any worse, I will immediately stop and do the elliptical.” Well miraculously after 1 mile the pain disappeared (??) and I felt fine! I didn’t want to push too hard because of the foot and also I’ve just recently made it to 5 miles and it is genuinely accepted as BAD to increase mileage too quickly. So I paced it slower than usual to get a feel for how I want to do my 10k. I ended up finishing 4 miles in 43 minutes! I stretched (especially my foot), did some abs, and lifted some weights before calling it a day.

As I was in the locker room, I got a HUGE craving for broccoli. I also knew that we were out of bananas at home and I really wanted a smoothie so I ended up swinging by Trader Joe’s on my way home (conveniently located near my gym). Enter my addiction. But I really WANTED it!! It was between Harris Teeter, for which I had forgotten the coupons, and K-Mart (ew) so I obviously went with TJ. I forgot about the Fresh Market even closer to my gym until after I was already walking into TJ’s. Maybe next time? I could buy almost everything in this store and be happy, though. I controlled my addiction, however, and told myself I was not allowed to buy anything over $1.50 except the Greek yogurt I wanted, and I accomplished that! Got out of TJ’s for only $8! (1 personal-sized container soy yogurt, 1 container nonfat Greek yogurt, 2 fuji apples, 1 bunch bananas, 1 giant head of broccoli).

By the time I got home, it was nearly lunch time and I have meal plans for today (shocking — I have a social life!) so I wanted to keep it light post-gym to not throw my schedule off too much.

Green Monster! (1 banana, 1/2 cup skim milk, 2 cups spinach)

I couldn’t have a frozen banana since they were fresh from TJ’s and I definitely prefer it with a frozen banana. But it was still super tasty And I used milk instead of almond milk, but I think the flavor of the almond milk goes better with the banana.

After I unpacked groceries, cleaned up my smoothie mess, fed the puppy, and fed myself, I did a computer back-up, wrestled with Monster (aka Sophie the puppy), and made plans for my social life. To me, that is a productive Saturday!

Not but an hour and a half after my smoothie, hunger snuck up on me which was perfect! I planned well with just that smoothie so lunch was at a normal time (1pm) to allow for optimal snackage at my plans for 4pm (details to come later!). Also I might be going out to dinner, too! So exciting.

1 Morningstar Spicy Black Bean burger on 2 slices rye bread with 1 slice vegan "cheese" and ketchup; ~1/2 cup baby carrots with 1 heaping tbsp pine nut hummus; 1/2 banana.

Mona left half of a banana after she got home from the gym, too, so what else was I supposed to do with it? Leave it sitting alone? But good news: I’ve probably gotten my daily serving of potassium before 2pm! And, as you know, I am a whole wheat kinda gal, but when you have fresh, amazing rye bread from the local Jewish deli, you don’t just leave that be. You EAT IT. Made for a perfect veggie burger

On a less positive note, I was saddened to have accidentally killed a squirrel on the way to the gym. Don’t laugh! I take road kill very (too) seriously. It really makes me sad to see those animals dead. I know that it is probably a population stabilizer, but I wish I didn’t have to see it (or have CAUSED it!). It made me a little upset But I did my best to avoid the little guy…