Crampy Legs to the Doc

Happy Friday everyone!!

Last night I went on a run with Jessie, Running Buddy, around town and we did 5 miles. It was pretty miserable and crampy the whole time. I wore my compression socks during the run to see if that would help lessen the cramps, but in fact, I think they made them worse. Needless to say, I hobbled myself for 5 miles around town and was only 8 min slower than my 5 mile PR. I call that a not bad job!

I went home and made dinner. I had no clue of what to make but while talking to Mother (what I call my Dad's Mom) she gave me the idea of a tuna salad. I added chopped green onion, green bell pepper, hard boiled eggs, parmesean cheese and light miracle whip and ate it on toast. It was pretty good but you wouldn't want to be around me afterwards b/c those onions were pretty potent.

tuna salad on toast

leftover peach cobbler chia pudding

At 9:30, there was nothing on tv and I was cold from being sweaty after my run and I keep my house at a whopping 57 degrees, so I went to my bed and turned the heating blanket on and look who joined me.

She's being dainty by crossing all of her legs for you.

In bed, I read a few chapters of Catching Fire and went to bed at 11. I've been working on going to bed sooner, but it turns out that 11 is as early as I could swing it last night.

For breakfast, I tried a new flavor of the Good2Go bars. This is the peanut butter fruit and nut. Instead of the chocolate chips like the other bars, there were chunks of what seemed like dried fruit. Still very yummy.

WW Salsbury steak and Mac n Cheese

raspberry greek yogurt

Hard boiled egg

Around 1:30 I was thirsty and brought this stuff to school, so I had a glass. It smells like chopped up grass but tastes like fruit and has 2 servings of fruit/veggie per 8oz.

After my green juice, I had made an appointment at Health & Wellness with the Sports Medicine Dr. (Hot Doc) that looks after the athletic teams on campus. I went to him about my cramping issue to see what he thought about it. My sister was diagnosed with Compartment Syndrome when playing volleyball in college and I didn't know if it was hereditary and I had it too. 

After talking, him bending and stretching my legs and walking up and down the hall a few times, we sat down to talk. He said that my hips were weak and that I could use some more strength in my core (can't we all!) He said that we could look into the idea of Compartment Syndrome but that dealt with a lot of poking and prodding and wanted to try something else first. His suggestion was physical therapy. The funny thing is that my sister is now going to school for physical therapy! (Well I think it's a funny coincidence.)

I made an appointment for 4:30 on Monday and will keep you posted. I also learned at my appt. that the old Nutritionist left to continue her schooling but they had just hired a new one. I used to make semesterly visits to the Nutritionist to check in since I've been on my healthy journey and felt lost when I couldn't go in the fall. I made an appt to see her on Tuesday at 11am. 

I'm going to Spokane with Erin tomorrow b/c she's getting her car stereo looked at and going to a cousin's basketball game. It will be nice to hang out with her and her family tomorrow. Sunday, Jessie and I are going on a long run. We did 3 tonight after work and my legs were tired and heavy from the run yesterday. 

Here's to a rest day tomorrow and my free day for sweets from the Get Healthy Challenge!

What does your weekend look like?

Have you tried that green juice before?

Have you ever been to Physical Therapy and did it help? 

Food Smash Up

Last night, I didn't go to the gym but did an abs workout while watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune on my living room floor. It felt kind of lame but it's better than sitting on the couch all night like a bum.

While I was working out, I had this little distraction "working out" on the floor next to me and couldn't help but take a video. Rabbit kicks anyone? Penny do you recognize that ball? Now 2 of my 3 kids have played with it!

After working out, I got fancy and did a food "smash up" (anyone watch Glee?) of leftovers of sorts. I made a sloppy joe salad with green olives! It was amazingly delicious! I also started 'Catching Fire' #2 of the Hunger Games series!

snack during group meeting

Sloppy Joe salad with green olives

wheat toast with almond butter

egg sammy with pepper jack cheese-- look out!!

Last night, while I was playing around on the interwebs after group meeting, I had joined in on the FitFluential twitter chat and they were talking about chia seeds. I even got one of my tweets retweeted by FitFluential and some comments after!! How cool! But during the convo, someone posted a recipe for peach cobbler chia pudding and I had to try it! I made it last night and had it for a pre-lunch snack today. It ended up being more than a snack b/c it held me over from 10:30-1pm, when I was hungry enough to eat lunch.

peach cobbler chia pudding

sloppy joe salad for lunch

snacks

Tonight, I'm going running with my Running Buddy and we are going for 4 miles around town. I feel like I need a good sweat session after last night's performance.

So far I've been good with my 'Get Healthy Challenge' and haven't eaten sweets yet and have earned full points so far. I was having troubles deciding when I should set my free day and my teammates chimed in that they were doing it on a weekend day and I think I will do the same.

How is your week going? Tomorrow is Friday!! I can hardly believe it!! WOO HOO!

Running Buddy

Last night, I ran with someone for the first time and it was fun! I was worried about being slow or not being able to talk b/c I was gasping for air. She runs faster than me but we ended up doing about 3 miles at a 12:32 pace!! That's faster than I usually run at a 13:05 pace. I felt great after and really enjoyed that she was there and pushed me to go harder/ farther. We have another running date set for 4 miles tomorrow. We are both running the HM on March 3 and are now going to train together!

Who knew running with someone after all this time would be fun! I think I'm hooked!

After running, I trekked myself to my car and went home. Here are the eats for the day...

pre-diner snack

meat stew

last of the sprouts

last spoon of pb :(

bad pic of grapes in a bag

dessert- cup of tea

I rolled it out while watching BL and Parenthood

breakfast

last of the meat stew

raspberry greek yogurt

lunch

snack

So my food kind of ran into each other but after I dug out that last spoon of pb, I have the container to Heif b/c he loves pb as much as I do and this is what happened.

Finding the right spot

Nom nom nom... I like pb!!

I watched the BL and Parenthood last night and feel like I'm getting back into my routine since the Holidays. I enjoy routines so it's good for me. 

I forgot to tell you that I finished the Hunger Games and totally got sucked in and borrowed #2 and #3 from a friend. I'm starting #2 tonight and will keep you posted.

I'm forgoing the gym tonight but I'm going to do some ab work and some arms to get my 30 mins of exercise in for the day.

How's day #4 of the New Year treating you?

New Class

Last night, I went to the gym with all intentions of running and then lifting some weights. I went to the counter to check out a lock and saw that there were some free classes being offered over break. Last night's class that was being offered from 5:45-6:45 was Gravity Pilates. It was 5:40, so I hustled my butt upstairs and joined in.

I wasn't sure what to expect because I've heard mixed opinions about Pilates in general. That it's easy, you don't get a good workout in, or it's not worth it. One of my favorite instructors was teaching the class, so I knew it had to be good.

It ended up being a full body workout. We focused on our breathing, did legs, arms and abs! And let me tell you, I am sore today!! I was pretty surprised! I would love to take a full class, but at $37 for 8 weeks, my 2 other classes beat the bang for the buck. I will totally take another one of these free classes. Hello Thursday!
After the gym, I came home and ate dinner. 

Meat Stew

Half of these sprouts and a greek yogurt

SF Rice Pudding for "dessert"

For breakfast I had my usual egg sammy with tea.

Snack

Meat stew over greens

raspberry greek yogurt

Tonight, I'm going for my first "run with a buddy" and am going to wear these bad boys that Erin got me for Christmas.

I'll let you know how the run goes and I have a "21 random facts about me" post coming up soon. 

Is there anything you want to know about me?

Have you ever tried Gravity Pilates? What did you think?

Hello 2012!

I said good-bye to 2011 by going ice skating and then some tea/ dessert time with Erin on Friday night. It was super fun. We just sat there chatting and then looked at the time and it was 11:45pm! Oops! We promptly left but this was my dessert choice b/c I knew I couldn't go crazy for a while (til my birthday).

Lava cake a la mode!

NYE Day, I was a bum and layed around most of the day and didn't get out of my pjs til 4 when I took a shower to get ready for the night. My excuse was that I needed to rest up if I was going to make it past the ball drop. I'm not the night owl I used to be! But I'm not really a morning person yet either.

I met up with Erin at the bar her bf was working at and hung out til the ball drop. Another uneventful NYE in the books!

For the start of the new year, I have dedicated myself to two different challenges. First is the Food Journal, which I have started. I'm writing down my food, mood and hunger and taking pictures. I started last night with dinner since I didn't eat much during the day yesterday.

Be prepared to be bored with my food b/c I eat a lot of the same things over and over b/c I don't really get bored til it's gone or I get nightmares about it. 

Meat stew- chicken, pork, quinoa, brown rice, pasta sauce

2 egg sandwich with cheese and light miracle whip

plain greek yogurt with chia seeds and frozen raspberries

Thai style chicken and rice noodles

pretzels to fuel my workout

I'll be having meat stew for dinner.

The second challenge I signed up for is called the 'Get Healthy Challenge' that I saw on my friend Julia's facebook wall. I would say this is similar to the HBBC but less focused on working out and more about healthy choices. You earn points for fruits/ veggies, 48 oz water, no eating after 9pm... that idea. There are daily points, weekly points for weight lost/ gained/ maintained, and monthly points for inches lost. This is a 12 week challenge and you get one rest day a week. I think this is very do-able and will keep you posted.

I definitely need to do something because my next half is in 2 months and I'm up 10 lbs since I ran my last half in October. I need to get with the any program! I have had success in documenting my food before and hopefully this does the trick. I just need to stick with it and make it a habit and not just something to do when motivated. 

On another note, I went and saw 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' yesterday. Overall, I would say it's a good movie but strays from the book. I would say that the Swedish version was more accurate. I'm not a big fan of the girl that plays Lisbeth b/c she doesn't look as rough as I think she could and her "tattoo" is amazingly weak considered to the Swedish version but more like the representation from the book cover. I won't spoil it for anyone, but here are some comparison shots I found: Swedish vs. American. I definitely liked seeing Daniel Craig in this movie and look forward to the next 2 in this series.

     

           

Did you sign up for any challenges?

Have you seen the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo yet? Any thoughts?