Keep on Runnin’

So…how do you combat a morning fail?

Make an afternoon SUCCESS!!!

Another week, another extra minute on the running intervals.  Up to 3 x 8:1 on the treadmill.  WooT!  I was sweating like a beast, but running at my slow and steady pace helped me make it through with very little struggle.  I even threw in some hills during each run and didn’t miss a beat. 

Including warm up and cool down = 2.15 miles (3.46km), 220 cals, 32 minutes.

Plus strength exercises:

• 3 x 15 – tricep pulldowns, bicep curls, ab twists
• 2 x 1 minute plank
• 2 x 15 – crunches, reverse crunches

Before I went out I grabbed lunch for the car…

Clementines, leftover PB&J Larabar, Bolthouse Vanilla Chai…

19 grams of soy protein in that bottle!  I drank half before the gym, and half after.

Unfortunately I never did get my x-ray.  I wasted over half an hour driving down there only to have an incredibly hard time finding the right building…argh.  The hospital here takes up several blocks and you need a city planning degree to figure out where to go.  Especially when two of the side streets I needed were blocked off for construction.  By the time I think I figured it out, it was too late to bother…the clinic would be closing when I got there.  Oh well.  Friday I guess.

Due to my less than stellar lunch I was famished after my workout so I opted to eat my dinner right away.

Leftovers from last night.  Yummy!  I felt much better!

After working to clean up the time I missed while driving aimlessly around the hospital working out, I still needed to get some veggies in for the day so I made a bigass salad.

 

Bigass spinach salad to be exact.

With cucumber, red onion, pomegranate, mozzarella…drizzled with honey & grapeseed oil and sprinkled with sea salt…

Holy deeelish.  Topped with walnuts after plating.

And added a handful of these veggie chips I picked up the other day.  Terra Chips - Sweets & Beets.

 

Pretty tasty.  A nice change for a chip.  I like the beets better than the sweet potatoes but that’s not to say I didn’t like the taters.  :)  I did have to hunt around in the bag for the beet chips though…would like to see more of those!

Now some warm Apple Pomegranate Crisp and a little SYTYCD. (I’m having trouble getting into the US version…the Canadian version was just toooooo goooood!!)

Night all!

Time Management

Set alarm to get up an hour earlier than usual.

Sleep through alarm…snooze without noticing…wake up 15 minutes later than usual.

FAIL!!

So needless to say I didn’t make it to the x-ray clinic this morning.  Dammit.  Sleep and I need to forge a better relationship!

However, even after the sleep-in I seem to have set off on a good schedule for the day…even though it wasn’t the one I had envisioned.  New plan…work, work, work, blog, work work work, leave early enough to get x-ray, run errands, and hit gym.  Maybe have to do a little extra work after dinner, but nothing too major. 

I think I can, I think I can…tooooot tooooot.

I was extra hungry this morning for some reason.  Grumbly tummy and all.  Sounded like a call for oatmeal to me!

In the pot:  1/2 cup vanilla Almond Breeze, 1/2 cup water, 1/3 cup oats, 2 tsp flax, 1/2 chopped banana, 1 tbsp raisins…

Toppings:  1 tbsp toasted walnut pieces, 2 chopped dried apricots, scoop of White Chocolate Wonderful…

nom nom nom.

With coffee…

Today’s mantra:  “I shall complete my to-do list!!”  (repeat 10x)

The One Where I’m the Runner

I had one of “those” moments today.  While I was out for my run the trail was quite busy…lots of folks out for a stroll or walking their dogs.  That was usually me.  But today…I was the runner passing everyone! 

I’s the runner!!  toooooot tooooot!  :)

Another 4km of fun in the sun. 

Before which I munched on half a Larabar.  PB & J to be exact.  (heads up Haligonians…I found this at Superstore yesterday!!)

After the run I was about to fall down so immediately made a green smoothie…

In the blender today: 1/2 banana, bigass handful of baby spinach, 6 oz skim milk, packet of Amazing Grass Berry Superfood…

 

I think I figured out which AG flavor I don’t like.  Just a personal thing…so far the other flavors had more of a malty taste to them (which I lurve!), but this one was just meh.  Twas still a good boost of energy after my run though.

Following my shower…actual lunch…

Leftover homemade veggie pizza, raw veggies and hummus…

As for the Project Energize plan for today…I need to add time management to the list!  I spend too much time fiddling around with the internet and working out at random times…and today that bit me in the ass.  I worked too late to get to the post office and the pharmacy.  Gah.  Must fix this!

The dinner plan went off without a hitch though.

Butternut fries.  Tossed with Hy’s seasoning salt, Montreal steak spice, and cayenne pepper.

With parmesan haddock.  Filet dredged in egg white wash, seasoned flour and parmesan cheese.  Pan fried with a smidge of real butter.

Served with steamed broccoli and homemade tartar sauce.

Yummmmmm.

Ending the evening with all the comforts of home…tea, Apple Pomegranate Crisp, my heat pack, and HIMYM.  Night!

The Right Foot

The week, the plan:

Last night I wrote out my week’s worth of dinner plans, workouts, and to-do’s…

Today…

Only planned to Friday because FH will be home!!  No structured plans for his first weekend back!!  (although I did throw in an extra workout on Friday so I don’t have to worry about it over the weekend…).

Did I mention this is also my birthday weekend?  And Farm Girl’s birthday weekend!  tooooot tooooot!!  :)

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This week’s Project Energize goals…

• fitness: 4 workouts, including 3 runs (at least one outdoors) and 2 strength sessions
• diet: continue menu planning, up fruits and veg, lower sugary snacks, drink more water
• work: create daily/weekly/monthly to-do lists
• home: all household chores done prior to weekend, clean bedroom/dresser
• relationship: FH home on Friday!!!
• finances: monitor budget daily
• health: get X-ray, take vitamins, stretch, earlier to bed

What are your goals this week?

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Breakfast this morning was something different…French Toast!

Whole wheat bread soaked in a mixture of egg whites, vanilla Almond Breeze and cinnamon.  Cooked in a sprayed pan until brown and crispy.

Topped with maple bananas.  Chopped banana mixed with real maple syrup and heated in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Hot syrup goes further, tastes better and keeps your French Toast warm!  nom nom nom.

With coffee of course.  Fully caff’d today!  :) weeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Off to complete 30 minutes more work and then taking to the trail for an outdoor run.  The skies are blue!!

Apple Crisp with a Twist

Being a lazy Sunday, my eats haven’t been too blog worthy so I thought I’d just give y’all a post about a baked treat I threw together today instead.

A very simple but tasty twist on classic Apple Crisp. 

I added pomegranate!  Tis the season!

Apple Pomegranate Crisp

I have had several crisp recipes over the years, but this one I ripped out of the Sobey’s flyer last year works every time.  I think it’s the stirring in of the melted butter at the end that makes the crumble topping turn out the way I like it.

First I seeded a fresh pomegranate.  I’ve done enough of these now that I’m pretty good at it!  :)

Then peeled and chopped three of the apples I had in the fridge.  One unidentified yellow Nova Scotia apple, one regular size Honeycrisp apple, and another Honeycrisp the size of a small child’s head.

 

To the chopped apples I added a big handful of pomegranate arils (approx 1/2 cup), then the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon as per the recipe…and about 2 tbsp original POM juice.

Added the mixture to a small sprayed baking dish…

For the topping, I mixed the flour, brown sugar and oats according to the recipe…but also added more cinnamon. Then went half and half with POM juice instead of all butter.

Sprinkled it on and baked for 35 minutes at 350.

Et voila. 

 

Perfectly cooked apples…soft yet still with bite.  And extra pops of flavor and crunch added by the pomegranate bits.  Deeeeeeelish.

Makes 8 small or 6 large servings.  I like mine warm with a big drizzle of cream or milk.  nom nom nom.  :)

The One With the Giant Santa

This should have been last night’s post, but after a busy evening I came home and curled up on the couch and took a break from the computer.  I was in a bit of a food coma and the time-off was glorious.

Sarah and I hit up the big craft fair at The Forum. 

It is tauted as Halifax’s BEST Xmas fair so I think I was expecting more.  Although I’m no craft fair expert so maybe this was super fantabulous and I just didn’t get it.  LOL.  Lots of cool stuff, lots of weird stuff, and lots of stuff that was very nice but not my style (I’m not really a craft or folk art person…which makes it odd that I wanted to go there!).  I left with a few little gifties and a new Grinch ornament for our tree.  Too funny.

Afterwards, as predicted, Sarah and I opted for an ethnic dinner.  It’s been months since we went to Mezza so we decided to go there again.  Modern Lebanese cuisine.  My third time there and it was delicious as always. [First visit.]  [Second visit.]

The ambience is very dim and candlelit…definitely not good for photo taking (and certainly not the kind of place where a flash would go unnoticed) so I apologize for the picture quality.  You can’t even tell what most of the food looked like!

House Shiraz to start…

Incredible cheese – Shankleesh - A blend of cheeses with hot paprika, tomato, onions oregano and olive oil…

Calamari… with tzatziki thick like cream cheese…

Mezzet Sampler - Samples of Hommus, Baba Ghanouj, Warek Enab, Kebbe, Vegetable Kebbe, Phylo Cheese Rolls, Taboulé and Fatouch Salata…

 

Their hommus is a.maz.ing.  Love it.  And the phylo cheese rolls are soooo decadent and delicious.

We left a lot of food on the platter.  We knew we were ordering too much, but we just wanted to try EVERYTHING!  Sarah took the leftovers home for her hubby…lucky boy!

Finished with a decaf tea since we weren’t done with our girl talk yet.

I was very full, but not uncomfortably so…although like I said I did fall into a food coma once I came home and put my pj’s on.  Glad I had that incredible workout in the morning so I don’t feel even a smidge of worry about the indulgent dinner.  Deeeeelish!