Restaurants, Travel

10-Mile-Saturday

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Saturday morning I woke up around 7am to get my run in.  It was already 80+ degrees and 85%+ humidity.  Perfect running weather, right?  Even though the air was so thick feeling, I was excited to get out and explore some of Charleston on my run.  I’m still on week #5 of the interval training, which means I’m doing 3 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 7 minutes running.

Here’s the route I ran:

 

My time per mile was a lot slower than my Charlotte run earlier in the week — but I’ll crack that up to the crazy humidity!

We were planning to have a late breakfast, and were in search of bottomless mimosas, so we headed to Toast.

Bottomless mimosas:

I took this picture several times, and somehow a bulging bicep kept appearing in the background… 😉

We split the Deluxe French Toast stuffed with apples and apple syrup:

And the all garden omelet (which I added sausage, zucchini, and pepper jack cheese to):

Both of these were delicious, and the mimosa made for a very relaxing brunch 🙂

(Unintentional foreshadowing:  we are headed to the Folly Beach Pier today!)

After brunch, we set out to walk along the river banks.  We walked, and walked, and wallllkkkeeeedddd…..

On our way back towards the studio, we stopped at the Buccaneer restaurant for some margaritas and snacks.  The Buccaneer has a ton of authentic pirate artifacts, which was pretty neat.

 

I ordered the crab cake:

This was pretty good, but I don’t think my belly is sold on crab meat yet.  I could only eat half of this (may have been do to the exhaustion from walking though).

Here’s the route we walked during our Saturday afternoon excursions:

That’s over 7 miles.  Add that to the 3 miles for my AM interval training, and you’ve got yourself a 10-Mile-Saturday!

After a much needed 2-hour nap and showers, we headed to California Dreaming for some waterfront dining.

View from our table:

First up was the bottle of wine:

We split the chicken quesadilla appetizer:

SOOO frickin good.

For dinner, we split the blackened chicken pasta:

Pasta four nights in a row?  Check. 😀

And then we split the hot brownie with ice cream for dessert:

Of course we were extremely happy with this meal:

California Dreaming on Urbanspoon

We decided to go green on the way home, and called up a Green Taxi:

Jarrod was pretty pumped about this:

Today is our last day in Charleston!  We plan to get in a little beach time then head to King street for some grub 🙂

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What I ate

Tuesday Tastes Good

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Today marks Day #3, week #3 of my interval training plan!  I am just flying right along….. Which does make me a little nervous.  I keep waiting for another knee injury to surface… Hopefully with good stretching and elevation while at work I can continue to work my way back up to running the entire time.

I’m really hoping to be able to participate in the Healthy Living Summit group run in August too…  We shall see 🙂

Breakfast #1:  Just-sayin-no to muffin(tops)

I had a breakfast meeting at Panera this morning for the Knowledgeable Network of Women in Akron.  In a previous life, I would have been PUMPED for a muffie and/or bagel from Panera…  Coffee cake?  Bring-it-on.  Nowadays I just stare longingly at these delicious treats through the glass case and drool…. 

BUT there is good news!  Panera carries Stonyfield Farms yogurt!  So, I ordered up some of that with fruit (no granola though) and a TALLLLLL coffee 🙂

Breakfast #2:  Giving low-carb waffles a second go

I made low-carb waffles for the first time last week, and I was really excited to try them again.  There’s lots of things I’d like to play around with, but for the sake of determining what works and what doesn’t I only changed a few minor things this time around.

Last night I cooked up the waffle batter below for 10 minutes on the waffle iron:

This morning, I popped the waffles into the toaster, then topped ’em off with some fresh/frozen strawberries/bananas/blackberries that I heated up in the microwave along with some PB2 (added extra H20 fo’ the drizzle).

YUMMMMMM…..  So tasty, even though the texture is not quite what I want.  Guess I’ll just have to keep on experimenting.  No complaints here!

Stats on waffles with fixins:  206 calories, 31g carbs, 4g fat, 21g protein, 8g fiber

Lunch

Lately, I’m pretty much obsessed with hummus and spinach sandwiches of any variety.  It’s not just me either.  I made a wrap with hummus on it for the BF over the weekend, and he seconded my desire to rub it all over my face and marinate in its deliciousness.  Hahahah… 😉

Today’s wrap consisted of:

Heavenly 🙂

Stats on wrap & sliced yellow pepper:  295 calories, 23g carbs, 10g fat, 24g protein, 8g fiber

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Fitness, What I ate

Getcho run on!

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What is it about running first thing in the morning that makes me feel like I can tackle anything the day brings me?  This morning I completed Day #3, Week #2 of my interval training plan.  Woo hoo!  That means Friday I’ll be up to 2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running… and still no knee pain in sight 🙂

  

Breakfast #1

In honor of the fabulous PB2 GIVEAWAY, I decided to make a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap using Chocolate PB2. 

I took 2 tbsp of powdered chocolate PB2:

Then added 1 tbsp water:

Then smeared it on a  Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla and topped with 1/4 cup each of strawberries and blueberries

I wrapped everything up, and put it on the george foreman for 5 minutes.  Then wrapped in foil and stuck in my purse:

And enjoyed at my desk at work:

Mmmmmmm…. love love love the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps!!!

Stats on the wrap:  145 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

 

Make sure you post a comment on the PB2 giveaway by midnight Sunday July 4th!

 

Breakfast #2

Bowl of overnight oats consisting of:

  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze almond milk
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia)
  • Cinnamon
  • Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries (added this morning)

I <3 overnight oats.

 Stats on the oats:  203 calories, 39g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

 

Lunch

Last night when I was packing my lunch I was really craving a sandwich.  (The carb tooth strikes again!) 

Sunday night I grilled up a big batch of chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  So I packed one of the breasts (about a 2.5 ouncer), 1 cup spinach, tomato, onion, a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy hummus.

Can you say YUM?  Yum. 😀

Stats on the sammy:  230 calories, 29g carbs, 5g fat, 22g protein, 9g fiber

 

Women Power

Tonight I’m headed up to Cleveland for the Athena Women’s award dinner.  This opportunity came up through my involvement with the Knowledgeable Network of Women through the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

And I’m taking my camera.  First time for me to let my inner food blogger out at a business function… should be interesting 🙂

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Fitness, What I ate

Running in the Rain

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I started this lovely Monday morning off with Day #2, Week #2 of interval training.  It looked pretty grey outside, but after consulting the local radar on my weather channel app, I determined I could definitely get 30 minutes in before any rain approached.

Whelp, I was about 15 minutes off on my calculation…  Half way through  my normal route, a torrential downpour started to erupt from the sky!  Running in the rain is actually pretty fun, and I would have kept right on going had I not JUST got a new iPhone to replace the iPhone that suffered water damage last week.  So, I threw my iphone in my sports bra to keep it dry and took shelter under a nearby tree for about 15 minutes until the rain let up.  Standing under the tree in the rain was actually pretty peaceful and relaxing!  I’m sure I looked like a creeper though 🙂

Breakfast #1

I’m really loving the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps I’ve been making for breakfast.  Today, I made one with half of a banana and Smucker’s Organic Peanut Butter atop a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla.  I wrapped everything up and threw it on the george foreman for about 5 minutes.

(I’ll have to post the pic later.. left the stinkin cord for my old camera at home!)

Soooo delicious!

Stats on B#1:  218 calories, 23g carbs, 11g fat, 10g protein, 7 g fiber

 

Breakfast #2

I was still pretty hungry after B#1, so I decided to overload my overnight oats.  Last night, I put 1/2 cup quick oats, 1/2 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze Almond milk, 1 tsp brown sugar, and some cinnamon in a bowl in the fridge.  This morning, I overloaded the oats with blueberries, strawberries, the other 1/2 of my breakfast banana, and some Barbara’s Bakery Peanut Butter Puffins for crunch.

Yum-o.

Stats on B#2:  308 calories, 61g carbs (hello excessive carbs), 6g fat, 8g protein, 10g fiber

 

Lunch

After all the carbs at breakfast, I was glad I packed a salad for lunch!  Today’s salad consisted of romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, a sliced up Trader Joe’s Spinach Fontina Roasted Garlic Chicken Sausage, with 2tbsp Hidden Valley fat free ranch dressing.

Couldn’t get the flash to go off for the life of me… haha… need to spend some time playing with the camera! 🙂  I’m really liking the Trader Joe’s sausage!  I wish I would have picked up more than one kind… oh well, guess I’ll have to go back 😉

Stats on Lunch:  239 calories, 22g carbs, 8g fat, 19g protein, 6g fiber

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What I ate

Saturday is for the Chirpy

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Hello friends!

Good news!  I woke up this morning, and I literally had a smile on my face 😀  The sun was shining and the birds were chirping (which some people find annoying but I happen to love)…   Come to think of it, that is odd for me considering I have a phobia of birds… 

After my rough start to the day yesterday, we thought the best cure would be Gionino’s pizza and their amazing hot sauce for dinner last night (we will take any excuse for the G, really):

After dinner, I walked 2.5 miles at about a 4 mile per hour pace.  I’m not 100% sure the walking is helping me to rebuild the strength in my knee, but it doesn’t seem to be hurting so I’m going to keep on keeping on!

For breakfast #1 today I decided to make up some eggs.  I swear my body goes through egg withdrawal if I am sans-eggs for more than a couple days!  I chopped up a small potato into bite size pieces, then microwaved for 4 minutes flipping the little guys over half way through. 

Then I threw them into a hot pan to crisp up on both sides.  Once the potatoes were crispy, I added the following mixture: 4 egg whites, some Frank’s red hot, S&P, red pepper flakes, and  a splash of water.  

Served em up with a dollop of ketchup 🙂

Stats on breakfast #1:  215 calories, 36g carbs, 9g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

After the eggs, I completed Day #1, Week #2 of my interval training plan which consisted of 5 intervals of 3 minutes walking and 3 minutes running.  No knee pain!  Boo ya!  I got to the 2.5 mile marker in 27 minutes. 

Breakfast #2 today was some overnight oats 😀

Last night I threw the following into a bowl then popped it into the fridge:

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened almond breeze vanilla almond milk
  • 1 tsp JIF peanut butter
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • sprinkling of cinnamon

This morning, I topped the oats off with some fresh strawberries.  Mmmm mmmm gooooood 🙂

Stats on breakfast #2:  233 calories, 36g carbs, 8g fat, 7g protein, 6g fiber

You know what I really love about overnight oats (besides the delicious creamy coolness)?  It’s like a little surprise for yourself.  You take 1 minute of time for yourself the night before, and the next morning you have this little bundle of joy just waiting for you! 

Speaking of preparing, I haven’t been doing a very good job of planning my meals out for the week in advance.  During tax season, I am amazing at this (not to brag or anything 😉 ) and not only do I shop for the meals on Sunday, but I also cook EVERYTHING for the week on Sunday.  Lately, it feels like I’ve been going to the grocery store several times a week, instead of one large trip over the weekend.  So, this week I’m going to do my best to sit down and plan everything out.  Speaking of planning… I need to plan out what to make for dinner tonight!

Headed to the yard for hours of glorious yard work 🙂

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