Busy and busier

Happy Monday Everyone!
I’m actually happy to start this week, because even though it is going to be another busy one, it’s the beginning of the end! That’s right folks, my last full week of classes this week, then I have a 3-day week next week followed by finals! I can’t believe how quickly it has flown by.

My weekend was just as busy as I anticipate the coming week to be. Nonstop! The only difference is I am MAKING SURE I make time for structured exercise, whereas this weekend I focused on running around + work for calorie burning.

I sure hoped I did burn some extra calories through the craziness, because I had some pretty good eats:

Saturday night, I showered and rushed back to Nick’s from my parent’s, where I got home approximately 30 seconds before he did. So much for having dinner on the table! Even though he was tired from his long day, he offered to help me with some dinner prep (what a guy), so he threw together the salad while I put together a fantastic new Mac n’cheese recipe from Cooking Light.

Macaroni and cheese with sausage. Mmm! This is a combo of montery jack, reduced fat sharp cheddar and light cream cheese for extra creaminess. With little chunks of sundried tomato sausage to up the protein and flavor. It was fantastic, I licked my plate and Nick had seconds!

As for the salad, we had a simple Caesar light salad, with romaine, parmesan, Caesar dressing and croutons. A good addition of some greens to the meal.

For dessert, I was craving some chocolate, so I decided to dig into some of my Easter candy stash. I was excited to try this new dark chocolate bar my mom picked out for me- it’s “Fully loaded” with pecans and toffee, yum! The bar has 4 servings, only 100 calories each and 6 grams of fat. I had ¼, and it was just enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

I had no time to blog on Sunday, I was up and running at 7am to start another full day of work.

I started the morning off with something different. I went for eggs, because I knew I needed something protein-packed to hold me all morning. I quickly scrambled 2 medium sized eggs and topped them with some reduced fat cheddar, s&p and a drizzle of hot sauce, and wrapped them in a whole wheat Wrap-itz tortilla. With a banana on the side for some fruit.

It was perfect to hold me over 3 hours, until I had my snack. I packed this bar, and had ½ in the morning, half in the afternoon.

For lunch I packed another protein-filled meal. I used a whole can of tuna, and tossed it with 2 tbsp Annie’s Gingerly Viniagrette for a different kick on a tuna mix in. It was great! I’d definitely eat it this way again. I brought some carrots to have alongside, as well as one of my favorites- a Rachel’s cottage cheese (the savory cucumber dill went great with the tuna).

This held me all afternoon, until I had the other ½ of my clif bar, and then some grapes while I was studying-

I wanted to wait until Nick was on his way home to start dinner, so I got pretty hungry and I snacked on a handful of TJ’s wasabi wow trailmix. This was just enough to hold me until dinner.

Lesson learned? Fueling my body and responding to hunger when it calls has been a GREAT way to prevent me from overeating, or snacking too much while cooking. Intuitive eating? Check.

Dinner was simple and healthy- Chicken breasts, marinated with a Greek dry glaze (rubbed in EVOO, and then mixed with the spice mixture, let sit for 30 minutes to create a glaze), zucchini and squash sautéed in evoo (had a bit of an accident while cutting the zucchini, had to call Nick to buy me bandaids on the way home!), and quinoa- my alltime favorite ‘grain’.

I thought it was great, everything was really flavorful and it filled me up so I didn’t need anything for dessert.

This morning, I woke up excited to have the breakfast I made the night before… the return of the breakfast cookie! This big cookie contained ½ cup 7 grain oats, cinnamon, ½ scoop protein powder, 1/2 a squished banana, a splash of skim milk and a scoop of almond butter. On top I had the other ½ of my banana.

This does a great job of keeping me fueled throughout my workout. My workout has been the same- 35 minutes of the elliptical and 35 minutes of upper body. I’ve adde some more back moves to my upper body routine as well- some rows and lat pulldown, as well as some pecs in the form of bench press.

I am STILL trying to use what I have before I buy new grocery items- today I had my last Amy’s California burger with spinach, a light laughing cow and ketchup on an Arnold’s sandwich thin. With an apple on the side, it was the perfect balanced lunch.

For snacks, I packed a light string cheese I had before class, and a muscle milk light bar and some grapes for the afternoon.

Nick is making me dinner tonight- Jambalaya, one of my favorite things he makes! (I can’t decide if I like his beer battered chicken or his jambalaya the best… I’ll get back to ya on that.)

On another note:I’m sure many of you have noticed I haven’t been spending a lot of time with my love, running. Well, I’ve kind of taken a hiatus from running this spring, and for good reason- my school schedule, along with the amount of work I have for my classes, and working on the weekends, has not allowed for a proper training regimen. I’ve realize in order to run regularly, I have to TRAIN. When I pushed myself too hard a couple of weeks ago, it was a wake up call that I need to train properly, or take it easy to avoid hurting myself. And pushing myself is the last thing I want to do right now when I’m already stressed from school!
That being said, I have a race on Saturday, a 5k that I’d like to do. I know I haven’t been training, and I know in order to avoid injury and still have a good race, I need to slow it down and take it easy. Being a ‘speed demon’ in the past has made it hard for me to accept this, but I’ve set the goal of under 27 minutes for this race, an easy enough 8-9 minute pace that is right around where I want to be for races this year, because my ultimate goals are the 10-miler at the end of July, and a half marathon in the fall.

Just wanted to keep you updated, I’ll let you know how everything goes!