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By Liz, December 10, 2009 10:23 pm

Well hello there! It’s about time I wrote a post, isn’t it now?!

So what the heck has been going on since last Friday? I think a list is in order for this recap:

• Friday night I went to a fun Christmas party aaaand I got to dress up in a cute little black dress. Always fun to dress up and get all girly every once in a while!
• Saturday night involved some friends getting together to celebrate Jacob’s 22nd year of life. Some drunken Jenga was played, and I may have deejayed my awesome trance music
• Sunday was Jacob’s official birthday and we just lazed around doing nothing. Good stuff!
• And this week has involved school, work and more school. What a surprise!

Today was actually my last day off classes, with finals being the only thing I need to worry about now…till next semester that is. But I’m trying to stay in the present and enjoy the fact I’m done for now. It’s a very good feeling!

Eats have been especially yummy over here. Here are some highlights of the week:

I don’t know why I don’t eat baked sweet potatoes more often. I always make fries with ‘em. But this was sooo good! Just a baked sweet potato with butter and cinnamon. Pretty heavenly!

That’s Jacob’s birthday brunch. Whole wheat waffles from scratch, eggs with spinach, pure maple syrup and orange slices. Always, always good!

There’s Jacob’s birthday dinner. I made his favorites…pigs in a blanket and spaghetti and meatballs. I added my healthy twists though. I made whole wheat biscuits and used whole wheat pasta. The meatballs weren’t exactly health food though. But they were delish! I had actually never made meatballs before. It was surprisinglyreally easy! I mixed together the ground beef, panko breadcrumbs, spices and parm. Then I shaped the meat into golf ball sized balls, browned them in a skillet with olive oil and finished the cooking process by simmering the meatballs in my homemade marinara sauce. Soooo good! Jacob was a very very happy guy. I mean, who doesn’t love having someone cook a special dinner for them on their b-day?

I think I ate this yesterday. I haven’t been eating as many salads lately and I felt I was due for some leafy greens and cruciferous veggies. And that totally is a huge dollop of homemade hummus in the middle there. This hit the spot!

All messed up with Alison’s easy peasy salad dressing…1/2 and avocado mashed with salsa.

I’ve had oatmeal almost everyday for breakfast this week. However this was my favorite, and I just happened to eat this one this very Thursday morning. This oat bowl included 1/2 cup oats cooked with 50/50 water and milk, an egg and a chopped apple. I mixed in ground flax and cinnamon after cooking and topped it all with chopped dates, pumpkin butter and peanut butter.

And…the finale of my super great week of eats…..duh duh duh dunnnnnn….

This is the sinfully delicious cup of fro-yo I indulged in tonight. Oh sooo necessary! There is frozen yogurt under there, chocolate and peanut butter to be exact.

Just to make it clear, cause it seems you can never be too clear in the blogosphere…these pictures do not reflect everything I ate this week, just some of the more interesting meals and treats.

I’ve fit in some working out this week too, but nothing too spectacular. Just some running, weight lifting, swimming and ellipticalling in no certain order. I love breaking a good sweat. I just puts a smile on my face to think about it!

Now, I’ve gotta toot my own horn here for a sec….I think I’m gonna end up with a 4.0 this semester. I’m pretty stoked! I have an A in all my classes as of today, so if finals go well, which they should, I will end up with a 4.0. I got a 4.0 last semester too, so to get another one this semester is pretty cool. Okay, *end of bragging*

Well, it’s time for me to hit the sack. I have a big day tomorrow. Working out, working, then cleaning a house. I love making money Almost as much as working out….now I just need to find a way how I can make money through working out. Dare to dream!

Nighty night!

Comments (6)

By Liz, November 4, 2009 11:19 pm

Hey guys! I have been really slammed with life in general lately, so I apologize for my lack of posts. However, I am here to chronicle my past few busy days. There are some interesting tidbits to discuss!

Okay so Monday!

I ate one of these….

Have I mentioned that I am in absolute love with Chunky Strawberries? Haha, I am truly obsessed!

I did some Trader Joe’s shopping and got some crazy cool stuff…like Sprouted Wheat Bagels (yum!), Pumpkin Butter (yummier!) and Peanut butter filled pretzels (the yummiest of yum!). I got other things too (like 5 jars of peanut butter-what addiction?) but those 3 items are definitely the standouts of the bunch.

So, the real excitement on Monday began after I got home from work and TJs. This was the day that I was finally able to get some new running shoes. My old shoes are kinda…what’s the word?…GROSS! They smell like dirty gym socks and are covered in dirt…not to mention that the cushioning is completely worn out and I have put almost 700 miles on those babies. Yep, it was time for a new pair. So, Jacob and I ventured down SLO to get me a new pair. Sadly, the only stores that sell my shoe are 45 minutes away and my work (running shoe store) doesn’t carry my brand. Okay, so I get to the first store…don’t have my size. I get to the second store….don’t have my size. At the second store though I got a new pair of racing flats that were only 20 bucks!! I couldn’t pass that up, especially because there are holes in my old ones. But, I still didn’t have the prize in hand. I went to a third store…and they didn’t have my size! I was kinda pissed. We had just spent precious time and gasoline to go down to SLO to buy me some running shoes that I was in desperate need of, and we came out fruitless! However, we made the best of the situation and decided to go out to eat for a dinner date. We ended up going to get Indian food, because Jacob has never had it before. Oh, that boy needed to be enlightened. Now, I’m a bad blogger and didn’t bring my camera with me. I wasn’t planning on needing it, as I thought my shoe expedition would be a quick one. But let me just tell you, the food was amazing. I definitely ate my fair share…plus a pint of beer. Hey, you gotta live a little! We don’t go out to eat very often, so I thoroughly enjoyed our night out. Only drawback, we got home kinda late from out unexpectedly long outing that I had to stay up late and do homework. Boo!

Tuesday was pretty run of the mill. School, school, school. The most notable part was my speed workout at cross country practice. I did 2×200m then 4×800m then 2×200m. It was a very fast workout. The first 200s weren’t timed. My 800s were supposed to be at 3:24. My actual splits were 3:21, 3:18, 3:16 and 3:13. My last 200s were :45 and :40. I was a speed demon! Again, I exceeded my coach’s and my own expectations regarding my abilities. I’m very proud of myself. Total, including warm-up and cool-down, I ran 4 miles. SoCals here I come!

And now we have arrived at Wednesday, good ole Humpday!

My day started off with a swim. I created a good little workout for myself: 2oom warmup, 6×300m. Between each 300 I would alternate either 10 pushups or a 1 min plank. I did 30 pushups altogether (a few of them were girl pushups) and 3x 1 minute planks. Total, the swim was 2000m. It took about 45 minutes.

Okay, so I gotta throw this out there….I have a new addiction. Lately, I have just been craving coffee! Yesterday and today I stopped at Starbucks and got a tall black coffee with 2 pumps pumpkin spice and a splash of half and half. Boy of boy, this is good! I need to refrain from making this a habit though, as my bank account will slowly get drained if I do.

Next order of business…breakfast…

Featuring 2 of my TJs foods: Sprouted Wheat Bagels and pumpkin butter. The other half my bagel is smeared with peanut butter. And if you didn’t realize, that yellow blob in front of the bagel is eggs.

Work work work…uninteresting leftover soup was consumed with a pear and my other super cool TJ find:

Whoever thought to put peanut butter inside of a pretzel was a genius!

Look what was waiting for me when I got home!

My new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 12s! Since no stores had my shoe, I resorted to buying them off the Internet and I got 2 day shipping, because I needed these guys bad! The Wave Rider is my all time favorite shoe ever. They were my first shoe when I began cross country in high school, and I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. Yay for new shoes!

Check out my old pair:

Can you say “well worn”? These were subsequently thrown in the trash. The stench was so bad on these guys, I couldn’t even keep them or kick-a-round shoes. But first, I had to get a side by side picture, so y’all could see the striking difference.

Go Mizuno!

I also bought two nifty items at my work today.

1) a new pair of Superfeet for my insoles.

These were recommended to me by my podiatrist when I broke my foot two summers ago. I’ve been wearing them in my running shoes ever since. They add a bit of arch support and really cup the whole foot so it feels comfortable and locked in place. These are great and I highly recommend them. It’s cool also, because they sell them at my work, so I get a discount…yay!

2) My second item was a pair of Skins compression tights

I have been wanting a pair of these for forever! However, I didn’t want to spend all the money (they retail for 100 bucks!). I just found out about a program that the Skins company offers to store employees (not Skins store employees, but employees of stores that carry their products) that gives them 30% off wholesale, which brings the price down to 40 bucks. That’s a big difference! So, I bite the bullet, and decided today was the day to get me some Skins. Check out the website on the link and read about them. This product may be expensive, but I can already tell that these work! My legs feel fresher and less sore. These will especially come in handy when I’m riding in a van for 5 hours down to LA for SoCals tomorrow. I’ve been hanging out in these all day.

Pretty darn comfy. My legs feel awesome. I’ll give a full review on these at a later time when I can test them out a bit more.

I spent most of the afternoon today baking my Superpowerfood muffins for the team tomorrow. Sadly, they turned out a little burnt, but they taste okay. I also made homemade Larabars for the first time. I used this recipe. They look just like a Larabar!

I took a little nibble and they taste just like a Larabar, too! I made PB & J Larabars, although I have ‘t had the real version yet. I used dates, dried cranberries and peanuts. Simple and delicious. I made these because one of the girls on my team is hypoglycemic and can’t eat flour or refined sugar. So, I wanted to make something that she could eat, too. I hope she likes em!

The rest of the afternoon included some of this…

and this…

(Barbara’s Shredded Oats in fat-free milk)

plus I did some homework. This evening I had a work meeting where I was served chili, salad, rice and bread for dinner. No pics though, it didn’t seem appropriate. More homework after that…and now I am here, typing away.

I’m pretty exhausted. I’ve had a busy busy day. Tomorrow I am leaving for SoCals at around 10am. I still need to pack and stuff…but I’ll do that in the morning. I’m racing Friday morning at 10:30 (send those vibes my way!) and getting back Friday evening. So, till then…tata for now!

Gotta catch some Z’s. Night guys!

Comments (5)

By Liz, October 18, 2009 9:10 pm

Today has been a great day. Actually, it’s been a great weekend. I haven’t had a really enjoyable weekend in a while where I feel refreshed and relaxed. Ahh, too bad this can’t go on for a few more days!

So, last nights plan of going out with the girls didn’t happen. Oh well, I got to relax in bed, catch up on some blogs and wake up refreshed for my long run today.

When I woke up this morning I had 1/2 a banana with peanut butter to fuel up.

I got dressed in my running outfit, filled up my Camelbak with HEED and was out the door. I ran 8.5 miles in 1 hr and 26 min. It was a good run…not the best ever but good. My legs were a little fatigued and my legs didn’t feel very warmed up the whole time. But I finished in a decent time and got through the run okay, so that’s what matters.

I chugged 2 huge glasses of ice cold water when I got back home, showered and make a quick breakfast.

I had about 1 cup of whole milk plain yogurt topped with ground flax, Uncle Sam’s cereal, the other 1/2 of my banana, chopped walnuts and 4 dates. Yum yum!

Today, Jacob and I decided to spend some quality time together…something we haven’t had much time or opportunity to do in a while. So, we went wine tasting in Paso Robles! If you guys haven’t noticed yet…I really love wine! It is definitely my drink of choice.

I decided to look pretty and rock my new skinny jeans.

I really like ‘em! They are so comfortable, and I think my legs look pretty good in ‘em, too.

I packed a picnic lunch to take with us on our tasting exursion.

Those are fixins for shredded chicken sandwiches including sprouted wheat bread, carrot, avocado, cucumber, tomato and goddess dressing. I also packed 2 pears and honeydew melon.

We stopped at 3 wineries today: York Mountain, Halter Ranch and Thunderbolt.

First stop was York Mountain.

The drive to this winery was magical. It was on a back road with lots of overhanging oak trees and pines. The wines did not disappoint. I especially liked the Viognier and the 2006 Pinot Noir. They had an 2007 Pinot also, but it wasn’t as good. All the other wines were good, but they just didn’t stand to me the way those two did.

The tasting room gal at York recommended visiting Halter Ranch. I also remember my Dad saying something good about them…I think. It was a bit far out on the back roads, but it was a drive well worth it. This winery had a special event going on today (It was Harvest Fest in Paso) for the festival. We didn’t know about it, so it was a pleasant surprise. The tasting fee included 2 glasses, the wine of course and they had fresh baked pizza. I wasn’t blown away by all their wine. The Viognier I actually quite disliked. But then I had their 2008 Cotes de Paso Blanc, which was a blend, but I can’t remember what of. This wine was up there with my fave Pinot Grigio from Bianchi. It was so refreshing and floral…very drinkable. We tried a couple reds that were kinda eh, but then I had the Syrah and the Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were amazing. Truthfully, I don’t remember exactly the specific tastes (black currant, smoke, etc.) but I remember being really impressed by both. The last wine we tried at Halter was their 2005 Ancestor. This blend was pretty good, and Jacob’s favorite. It had a smoky, earthy flavor. I liked it, but the Syrah and Cab were better in my opinion.

Here’s pic of Jacob in front of the winery.

We decided to eat our sandwiches while we were at Halter. It was a pretty place to stop and eat.

I had my sandwich, a bite of Jacob’s pear and a pizza roll up.

However, the highlight of our visit at Halter was talking to the chef/baker who was making the pizza. The pizza bite I had was amazing, but it wasn’t the sauce or toppings that were good…it was the crust! I have never had a better pizza crust, ever. So, I just had to talk to the guy who was behind this delicious crust. His name was Ciro, and not only did I learn a lot about baking but I learned some good life lessons, too (or as he would say, I understood some life lessons). We chatted a bit about different flours and how they affected the texture of the bread. Then he got into the deep philosphies with me. First off, he said that that with bread and with life, simple is always better. And that the secret to success and happiness is intuition, creativity and fun. Very true indeed. Talking to Ciro really made my day.

After Halter Ranch, we stopped at a winery I had never heard of before called Thunderbolt. Apparently this winery is only a few years old…they have been open for 4 years. I was actually really impressed by all their wine except for one. They only had one white wine, a Viognier, and it was actually pretty bad. But their red wine made up for it. I liked every single one! I’m not a huge red wine fan, I love me some Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. But, boy, all the reds were so drinkable and tasty. The one that stood out the most to me was surprisingly their Zinfandel. Way delish! The view from the winery was absolutely gorgeous and the ladies working there were a hoot to talk to.

That was enough wine for me! I probably had the equivalent of 3 maybe 4 glasses of wine. I was kinda feelin it by the time we got home. I was feeling a bit munchy and had a bowl of chocolate moose tracks with peanut butter in top. Totally hit the spot!

Jacob and I snuggled up and watched one of my fave movies, Stranger Than Fiction. I really love this movie because it’s all about living life to the fullest. I swear there is no better message than living every day like it’s your last and not taking any moment for granted.

After movie watching, I heated up some leftover casserole for dinner.

Not the prettiest dinner ever, but casserole isn’t usually pretty. I made a mexican style casserole to share with the roomies last night. The ingredients: onion, bell pepper, spinach, zuchini, pinto beans, cooked and shredded chicken, cheddar cheese, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika. I just layered each ingredient in a 13×9 pyrex dish twice. Then I made corn muffin batter and covered the casserole with the batter. I popped the casserole in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Then, I served it with fresh cilantro on top. I turned out really great, although it could have used a bit more spice. I got tons of leftovers out of it, too.

Not much left on the agenda tonight. Currently watching some low-budge horror flick on Lifetime. It’s pretty funny!

Back to reality tomorrow! I’m gonna milk every last second out of the rest of my Sunday night.

Nighty night folks! I hope y’all had a great weekend, too!

Comments (5)

By Liz, October 17, 2009 8:21 pm

What’s happenin?! Today has been a pretty good day so far. There were some low points but then a bunch of highlights. Let’s start the beginning, shall we?

So, I woke up bright and early at 6:20 to get ready and leave for my race. I made a green monster to fuel my run.

I made my GM with 1 cup of fat free milk, a frozen banana, 2 tbsp of peanut butter and 2 big handfuls of spinach. It was quite delicious, but then again, I haven’t had a GM that wasn’t

I got to the race around 7:30. The race today was at our home course, right across the street from school. That was nifty because I knew all the hills and every part of the course like the back of my hand. That fact made me feel more relaxed about everything. Me and the my other teammates walked parts of the course then warmed up with about a mile and some plyometrics. I was feeling a bit tired, but feeling good for the most part. Sadly after that, it all went downhill. My race today was supposed to be a tempo run and I had specific paces I had to hit. Here’s what I was supposed to do: 7:45, 15:32, 23:30 were supposed to me my times going through the 1 mile mark, 2 mile mark and finish time. Well, what actually happened was 8:00, 16:38, 25:11. I pretty much sucked. Here’s what I think happened: By the first 800 meters my body felt completely depleted. I had that feeling when you’re into a long run and you haven’t fueled enough and start to hit that wall. I know what it feels like to be glycogen depleted and I defenitly felt that today. It wasn’t the same feeling of just being tired or over-trained. It felt like I had no energy or fuel in my body. Also, when I finished I was extremely dizzy and almost blacked out. So…why would I be so carb depleted. Well, I hate to say it but it’s most likely from eating no grains yesterday and I didn’t have grains on Thursday either. So that’s two days with out grains. I didn’t realize how much carbohydrate I was really cutting out! So, pretty much…I made a mistake. But I guess that’s what happens when you experiment. I was trying something new out, and it backfired…but not all experiments come out with the results you want. And hopefully, you guys can learn from my mistake. I think there’s a quote that goes something like this…If I can’t be a shining example, let me be a terrible warning.

I’m afraid someone may say “I told ya so..,” or something along those lines. Well, please don’t. I already feel kinda stupid and really beat myself up about my race and my no-grain experiment this morning. I told myself “I told ya so…and you should have known better…and duh! Runners need carbs.” a bunch of times…but like I said before, I experimented and it just didn’t turn out right. The primal diet will not work for me now…but if there is a time in my life when running is not as important, then I may try it again. Oh, and also, there may have been another variable that affected my race and it may not have been the no-grain thing, but I have a pretty strong feeling it was my diet change that affected my race this morning.

Okay, so that was the lowlight today. However, the rest of the day was great. My mom came to watch me race, which was wonderful. I felt bad because I sucked so bad, but her support really made me feel better. After the race I went over to my mom’s house and made her brunch. Before I started cooking my mom offered me a cinnamon roll my dad made her for breakfast a la Pillsbury. I just couldn’t say no!

I made quite the delish brunch if I do say so myself!

I made multi-grain pancakes with whole wheat flour, oat bran and cornmeal. These turned out light and fluffy and oh so yummy! I dipped my pancakes in a little less than a quarter cup of pure maple syrup. I also made omelets similar to the one I had yesterday. I used two eggs, and filled the omelet with spinach and parmesan cheese and topped the omelet with 1/4 of an avocado. My mom and I ate and chatted about life and stuff. Great company and great food! I had a funny thought when I was cooking for my mom…What college student cooks for their parents? It’s usually the other way around! Haha…I just love to cook, and I’m pretty sure my parents love my cooking…so it’s all good.

Apparently, I went back on the grains right away. And I gotta say, those pancakes were darn good!

After brunch, we went to do a little shopping. My mom got me a few essentials…I got a pair of skinny jeans (which make my legs looks awesome btw!), some undies and 2 bras. You can’t go without underwear! I got my mom a pair of really cute owl socks when we were out, too.

We stopped by my dad’s work (he’s a tasting room attendant) at Bianchi. Bianchi has my absolute favorite wine ever…their Pinot Grigio! I had two tastes of that, plus a sauvignon blanc, a chard and a few reds. Here’s my dad hard at work.

My mom and I sat and talked for a bit at the winery…deep conversations about life ensued…and then we headed back to her house and I went home. It was quite the eventful day, and I really enjoyed spending some quality time with my mom.

I was pretty famished when I got home. Some beef stew was scarfed.

As well as a bit of chocolate.

I have a casserole in the oven to eat and share with the roomies right now. I may also be going out tonight with a girlfriend. We’ll see…one of my friends flaked out already, so I’m just playing it by ear.

Have a great Saturday night!

And Happy Birthday Momma!

Comments (3)

By Liz, September 25, 2009 7:10 pm

Hey guys! How’s every one’s Friday going? Hopefully well!

So, today has been quite the lazy day for me. I did go to work, but I kinda sorta skipped out on the workout I had planned. I just really wasn’t feeling going to the gym. So…I didn’t! To me, exercise should be enjoyable and going to the gym did not seem enjoyable. What did I do instead? I took a nap. Yep, you read that right. I napped. I don’t give myself very much time to just relax. Boy, did it feel good.

Now… you guys wanna hear about the race now don’t ya!

So, the trip to San Fran was actually quite exciting. Well, only some parts. About half-way there we got into a car accident.

So here’s to low-down. We were driving along and a car in front of was trying to change lanes. But, they almost hit a car that was in the lane they were trying to merge into. So, when they realized the mistake they over corrected, hit the median divider and stopped. We were right behind all this and tried to brake as fast as possible. We bumped the car that crashed. What really sucked is that the car that caused the crash sped off! Luckily, the car that hit the divider and our van were the only two vehicles involved and no one was hurt. The situation could have been way worse.

We had to stick around for highway patrol to check everything out.

Not sure why they needed 4 squad cars to help us, but whatevs. So, the moral of the story here is that we got to San Fran in one piece!

Eats wise, I had a pre-race meal 3 hours prior to the race consisting of one of my famous muffins, a peanut butter sandwich, a carrot and a banana. No pics, I think my pre-race nerves make me forget everything!

I don’t have pictures of the race yet. One of my friend’s on the team took a bunch of awesome pics on her spiffy camera and she’ll be e-mailing them to me soon. I will tell you guys that I ran the 5k in 22:45. I finished feeling like I could have put more effort into it. So, it was not a stellar race, but it wasn’t horrible. I really have issues getting my game face on. I need to focus on my competitive side and really get “into” to race. Next time….next time…

Post -race I snacked on my last Balance bar. Thank goodness those are gone. As I’ve said before, I was not a fan of those bars.

So, after the race, the team headed to the legendary Haight St. for din din. We did a little walking around before we settled on somewhere to eat.

There were head shops everywhere! There was also lots of interesting graffiti and tons of homeless hippies, and just some “normal” homeless people. Most of us decided to eat at a little cafe called the People’s Cafe.

It seemed to be quite the happenin’ place.

The menu was really extensive, but I decided on the Nicoise salad. When I sat down to eat it, I knew I made the right choice!

I also ordered a side of sweet potato fries to share. The salad contained greens tossed in balsamic vinaigrette, sauteed squash and peppers, olives, a sear piece of salmon and a hard-boiled egg. Two hunks of perfectly toasted bread were on the side. I was really pleased with my entree. I forgot to order dressing on the side, but luckily they didn’t over dress it. And, of course, the fries were amazing. You just can’t go wrong with sweet potato fries! I ate about 1/3 of the plate of fries and I finished all the salad.

So, after dinner, the team was homeward bound. I got home just around midnight and crashed! Twas a long day.

**********************************************

So, fast forward to today. Breakfast was a big heaping bowl of oats.

Oats were cooked with banana, chia seeds, milk and water. I stirred in flax and cinnamon at the end and topped everything with a dollop of almond butta and a light sprinkle of brown sugar.

I had leftovers for lunch at work.

This was a major salt-fest. The leftover stir-fry was saturated in teriyaki sauce and the beans were soaking in a salty liquid. I felt a teeny bit gross after eating this. Eeeww. I did have a redeeming apple.

These apples are teeny tiny! But soooo delish. I think all the flavor is intensified because of the teeniness.

So, like I said, after work I just got lazy. I napped and had a snack after my nap. It was more of a mini-meal actually.

I had a yogurt bowl with ground flax, Uncle Sam’s cereal, chocolate chips, a banana and almond butter. The yogurt base was just the usual lowfat plain yogurt.

I’ve been munching on things here and there since then. A little spoonful of pb here, a couple chocolate chips there…you get the picture. I do want to do something semi-active tonight, although it is getting late. I’m thinking some yoga. We’ll see. Also, not sure what the dinner sitch is.

So, there ya have it. That’s Friday. Have a good night!

For you runners and racers out there…What do you do to get your “game face” on for a race or hard workout? How do you pump yourself up and get competitive with yourself and others? I need some help with this! Thanks!