pleasant change in schedule

Hello Once again, I am sitting in a hotel room, catching up on blogs and emails. I wasn’t lying to you when I said how much I am traveling in the coming weeks! I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s say I’m not even halfway through this travel marathon.

Today I was super hungry for lunch (a 5 mile run will do that to me) and went with what I was craving!

Steamed brussels sprouts with s&p; smoky sweet potato hash with 2 tbsp crumbled goat cheese

This hash is so easy and so amazing. I use smoked paprika but you could use any spice you wanted to create your own flavor!

A short while later, I wanted something sweet and was not entirely satisfied. Apparently there wasn’t enough carbs in my sweet potato because that is all I wanted!!!

A handful each of Cheerios & flax flakes with blackberries and 1/4 cup light coconut milk

Since I’m not a huge milk fan as it is, I decided to change it up and use the light coconut milk. It isn’t something I’d do every day (it has a lot of fat, still) but it was yummy and definitely satisfied my sweet & carb craving!

I then cooked my dinner to pack for the hotel room and headed out the door to the tailor to get my bridesmaid dress fitted. I ordered it in November when I warned them I would be losing more weight, yet the snooty boutique wouldn’t order it in a size that wasn’t “correct” based on my measurements. Well guess what? That was like 30 lbs ago or something so I am swimming in the dress. $100 in alterations later, I will have a dress that fits in 2 weeks. While leaving the tailor, I found out my babysitting skills were not needed for the day so I got on the road 3 hours early for Richmond.

I snacked on a banana and a 100 calorie pack of natural almonds while I drove

I like the empty hotel room, but will be glad when Harris gets here (we’re sharing a room since we’re both attending the same meeting tomorrow). It has given me the opportunity to take a short nap, do the mountain of paperwork for my meeting tomorrow, and get some writing done for a couple projects. Yay!

I finally busted out my dinner that I cooked earlier…

Steamed broccoli & Mexican pasta

This pasta was rocking! Along with another recipe by my bff Harris, I will be adding it to my recipes page stat! There are a few I still need to add, but don’t have the written (official) versions with me right now. Another day…

Dessert was necessary (when is it not?) so I brought along the end of my Chocolove Crystallized Ginger bar. I don’t think I’ve detailed my love for this bar adequately. For anyone who has ever eaten sushi with me or read a post in which I ate sushi, you will know that I LOVE ginger and ask for extra. Well this doesn’t change when it is put into chocolate! I think I have a special taste for it since I get motion sick pretty easily and I innately know it is good for me THIS BAR IS FANTASTIC.

The end of my Chocolove Crystallized Ginger bar!

And did you know that this bar came with a love poem inside the wrapper??

An excerpt from Robert Browning's "Two in the Campagna"

If you’re a nerd like me, you’ve already Googled the rest of the poem. But from the excerpt, the middle stanza is particularly amazing:

Such life here, through such lengths of hours,
Such miracles performed in play,
Such primal naked forms of flowers,
Such letting nature have her way
While heaven looks from its towers!

And I leave you with that Tomorrow there is an AMAZING guest post lined up, so tune to see the first official guest post that someone wrote for MY blog!!

git r done

This morning I woke up with the Larry the Cable Guy “Git r done” attitude.

So I headed downstairs to grab my pre-run fuel and got right back into bed with my laptop. This routine works so well for me because I am a little slow to wake up and get motivated for a run! And sometimes I like to digest my food.

Mini Luna Lemon Zest bar

Side note: MINI Luna bars are a great creation.

Almost an hour later I got myself slathered in sunscreen (my face and chest, at least) and faced the breezy, chilly morning. I drove out to the Oceanfront and went all the way down to the end of the world boardwalk and met up with Mel, a friend I met in my wave at the 10k. We’re both training for a half marathon in the fall (different races) so we decided today was a good day to try and run 5 miles. And who doesn’t love running with an ocean view?? It was so nice to have her there, I surely would have quit earlier had I been alone. My legs are killing me from the million squats we did in spin class yesterday and I have really not been feeling running lately. I really enjoyed having company & conversation, it made the whole thing go by so quickly and we both needed the extra push from each other at the end! The whole time I was thinking “Git r done” and Mel was chiming in “Almost there” every time I checked our distance on my Garmin.

When I got home I felt so good for just having accomplished it and it was just the push I need to get my attitude back into running. The lighter running I’ve been doing has been a nice break but the change of scenery and added company was the extra boost I needed And I also needed breakfast.

Banana cinnamon pilaf with an egg

It may look weird but I was craving salty and sweet. So I had the rest of the batch of sweet pilaf I made yesterday and after I reheated it, I topped it with an egg (I had planned for it to be over easy but I’m spatula-challenged). It was SO good. Just the right amount of salty and sweet.

Now I need to pack and get to the tailor! I need to drop off my bridesmaid dress for a fitting before I babysit this afternoon and pack because as soon as I finish with the kids, I’m going to Richmond for the weekend. Tomorrow I have a meeting for my summer job and they’re fronting the hotel room and reimbursing gas And then Saturday and Sunday I have stuff to do for Tiffany’s wedding (luncheon and shower) and friends to visit!!! It shall be a lovely weekend. Do you have fun plans??