Archive for July, 2010
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Dinner with Us
Last night was date night. Before going out, I went to the gym and did cardio on the elliptical and stair climber and weights. I was hungry afterwards!
We planned on going to a cafe in town called Russell’s but it was closed. Mark was really disappointed. I suggested TGIFriday’s, not thinking that it might be really busy. It was busy, but not that bad.
I got the Sante Fe salad:
It had grilled chicken, black beans, cheese, avocado, and corn. It was pretty good, but nothing special. TGIFriday’s does not release its nutritional information, which I was surprised by. I was able to do some recon before ordering and figured out that this salad had about 500 calories—although we can’t be sure since it doesn’t come from the restaurant itself. It sounded about right considering what was in it.
Then we went to see “Dinner with Schmucks” which had Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell and Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords. If you have seen previews, you probably know that this movie wasn’t my choice. Parts of it were pretty funny, and other parts made me cringe and want to leave the movie because it made you feel so uncomfortable for the characters.
Mark and I have plans to go to a party tonight and I’ve got to work on the garden. Oh yeah, and the house desperately needs cleaning!
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Shrimp Veggie “Scampi”
Over the last year, I’ve felt more and more comfortable going into the kitchen and making something edible without a recipe. It makes cooking more fun and satisfying. Angela at Oh She Glows was writing about how she decides what to make for dinner: she opens the fridge and checks what veggies need to be used and builds a meal around that.
Today my process was similar. Starting this morning, I noticed that the summer squash and zucchini I bought about a week and a half ago were still in there. I had sweet potatoes in the pantry and couldn’t remember how old they were. Then there was the frozen shrimp that I moved from the freezer to the fridge and never did anything with it.
A meal was born out of necessity: Shrimp Veggie “Scampi”
I processed two summer squash and two small zucchinis – they came out wonderfully thin and almost pasta-like. It made a lot of veggies! I added that to a pan with olive oil in it and heated it on low and stirred to coat the veggies in oil. I then took the thawed shrimp, rinsed it, and added it straight to the veggies.
I was really happy that they were already de-tailed.
I wasn’t sure what seasonings to add to this, but this is what I did: salt, pepper, ground ginger and dried basil. Shrimp and squash cooks so quickly. It’s a great weeknight meal. With a little mozzarella cheese:
I almost forgot – I wrapped the sweet potatoes in saran wrap and heated them in the microwave for 7 minutes. I haven’t eaten mine yet since I am full on veggies.
It was such an easy, fast dinner, with leftovers for tomorrow – and husband approved.
Before I made dinner I ran – I did the tempo workout for this week: 1 mile easy, 2 miles @ 8:50, 1 mile easy, 2 miles @ 8:50, 1 mile easy.
This workout was hard. I haven’t been pushing myself lately, so it was a real challenge. But that’s a good thing.
For anyone interested, the plan I’m doing is here.
So glad tomorrow is Friday!
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All the rage
There was a weird appearance of tabbouleh around the blog world today! I saw it here and here. I don’t know how to explain it. I do know how to eat it.
For breakfast I had the usual, a yogurt and frozen berry mix. Then I got hungry around 10 and ate half a cucumber. I was hungry!
I decided to take a break from work and go to Border’s and I got a flavored coffee.
And then came the tabbouleh – which is Middle Eastern salad with bulgur, chopped herbs like parsley and mint, tomato, onion, lemon juice & olive oil. Mine came from a box!
I mixed mine with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber.
And ate it with a nectarine and (unpictured) wheat thins. Nectarines and peaches are so hard to eat! They’re so juicy that I make a huge mess, not to mention, I feel like I’m slurping fruit.
The fun part about blogging meals is that when I don’t have a mirror, I can easily check to see if I have something in my teeth:
Yep. Looks like there’s something in there.
My run today was a fail. I got into work early hoping I could leave early, and my boss was 25 minutes late to our meeting. I left an hour later than I intended, and because I had no afternoon snack, my blood sugar was pretty low. I thought that I had blown it and couldn’t run. But I talked myself into trying. Sure enough, my legs felt like lead and I felt light-headed. I only did about 15 minutes. I’m sure it will go better tomorrow morning, but a bad run can feel defeating. I haven’t had a bad run in a while so I suppose I was overdue
I’m glad that I at least tried. Here’s to a run tomorrow!I’m having coffee with a friend later although I think I may just get a smoothie since I’ve had my share of caffeine today. Maybe we’ll work in a walk too.
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Here we go…
So much to say today!
First, I plugged in my workouts for my half marathon today. Tomorrow’s workout is:
10-20 minutes warm-up jog; 2 x (6 x 400m @ 7:35) (1:30 RI) (2:30 RI between sets), 10 minutes cool-down jogging
RI = recovery interval
This workout seems pretty complicated – I am doing a lot of arithmetic when I’m doing a speed workout. But this one is pretty tame compared to some of the others. I guess you *could* do these outdoors, but I really prefer my treadmill – it takes some of the guesswork out.
Secondly, as I’ve been talking about here on the blog, I went to a Weight Watchers meeting today. I decided to do this for many reasons, but basically I need more accountability in my life to lose the weight I’m looking to lose. It’s not a lot compared to some of the women in the program. Technically, I’m not classified as overweight on the BMI index. However, I’m not where I want to be, and I need a sensible program in my life to help me along.
I had mixed feelings at the meeting. I know I don’t fit the stereotypical Weight Watchers member profile. I ran a marathon a few months ago; I’m training for a half marathon; I’m not obese. It makes me feel kind of weird. I don’t know right now how many more meetings I will go to, but I am aware that going to the meetings is one of the reasons that people on WW are successful. It’s certainly not a cool or hip program. It’s not EXTREME. Many features of the WW program are predicated on the idea that humans are fallible. There’s that 95% legend (that 95% who lose weight ultimately fail) to take into consideration. Now that’s EXTREME.
I thought I ate pretty well today, but I logged my points this afternoon and discovered that maybe I did not – my breakfast, lunch, and snacks already put me over my allotted points (you get allotted points and then additional weekly allowance – I broke into the allowance, which apparently you are supposed to do). Just so you know, I didn’t run out and eat a Baconator for lunch, even though the numbers make it look like it – I had carrots, tabbouleh with fresh mozzarella, and wheat thins. Realizing what happened, I ate just a small snack tonight and hopefully tomorrow I will be smarter with how I spread my food through the day.
[I had to check … WW does not have the Baconator in its online database. Imagine that!]
Most of the blogs I read are written by women that are already finished with their weight struggles and are extremely fit and run marathons and triathlons. I’m in this weird in-between. I hope someone finds it entertaining!
I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing, whether it’s cool or not, makes me feel like a weirdo or not, and hopefully I’ll get where I want to be. *shrug*
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Peaches with Blue Eyes
Hello & happy Monday.
I’m not sure what “the case of the Mondays is” (Who says that? I think you’d get your ass kicked saying something like that, man) but I think I have it. I have been really tired and copious amounts of caffeine hasn’t fixed it.
Also, ice cream does not fix it. You can’t see it, but I’m rolling my eyes at myself. I should put a note on the freezer to that effect.
On a different note, when I was little, I constantly confused nectarines and peaches. Today, while eating a nectarine at lunch (and reading wikipedia), I discovered why.
(those are nectarines, at least according to the sticker)
The nectarine is a cultivar group of peach that has a smooth skin. Though fuzzy peaches and nectarines are regarded commercially as different fruits, . . . they belong to the same species as peaches. Several genetic studies have concluded in fact that nectarines are created as the result of a recessive gene, whereas a fuzzy peach skin is dominant.[7] Nectarines have arisen many times from peach trees, often as bud sports.
So, the only visible difference is the lack of fuzz. Genetically, they are like peaches with blue eyes.
Let’s talk race training.
Training plans I’ve previously used include the Furman Institute plan (FIRST), to made up, to Hal Higdon. I have been looking for a good half marathon plan, and have been disappointed. In the latest issue of Runner’s World, there is a plan to get you in shape for a 2:00 or less race. Looking at the plan, all of the long runs are 1:30 over race pace. There is very little speed training, and a few medium distance runs at race pace. The rest of the runs are quite slow.
The Furman Institute plan includes one speed training run per week. While doing it, I didn’t necessarily enjoy it, but I did like pushing my limits that way. The FIRST half marathon plan also had long runs much slower than race pace. What I would like to do is to run my long runs at race pace. I know that there is wisdom to training below race pace – avoiding injury/burnout/overtraining. But I’m starting to be part of the “train slow, you race slow” school. I just don’t pick it up that much more on race day.
Honestly, I am not even sure how close I stuck to the planned pace for long runs during marathon training – I think when I got to double digit runs, I disregarded pace a little.
I have a plan printed out, the next step will be to add it to my Google Calendar. This worked well for my marathon because I could see my workout anywhere I went – on my iPhone.
But first, I think I might take a nap.
About Me
My name is Michelle and I like to write about running, food, and fitness in general. Check out my About Michelle section for more!
