A Food Diary

At this point in the semester, I've decided that I do indeed want to keep blogging. It gives me a nice little outlet to relieve stress. But I've also decided that taking pictures and posting them onto the blog is just (unfortunately) not something I can concentrate on due to end of the semester stresses, etc, etc.

So for now, this will be my place to talk about food. To track what I eat (because stress = terrible eating). To rant about running and training. All for three more weeks...when I'll hopefully have more time to just breathe. And cook!

Eats for 4/7/2009

* Dried plums
* Soy latte
* Salad: mixed greens, red peppers, red onions, tomato, mozzarella cheese, honey dijon dressing
* Dove dark chocolate bar
* Croissant
* Diet coke (not something I usually drink - at all - but my body was craving the caffeine)
* Amy's black bean soup
* 2 pieces dried ginger

Busy beaver

First off, I'd like to apologize for the lack of post yesterday. Tuesdays are so hectic, by the time I sat down and had time to breathe I just couldn't bring myself to do anything except sit there and vegetate and online window shop at Patagonia.

Second off, I'd like to say that there will be a post later on this evening. Woohoo!

Lastly, I would like to order a nice huge slice of chocolate cake and lie down in the sun.

I am one busy girl but I promise I will be back with recaps and posts!

1st day down

Is it really only Monday? Aaaaaaaaaaaah. This girl is already ready for Friday, and it's only been the first day back from spring break! (Although to be fair, I didn't have a "real" break since I was sick for 90% of it).

I did manage to get my sleepy butt out on the greenway for a run though; I jogged for 30 minutes and could have gone for quite a bit longer if it hadn't been for my time constraints. I didn't want to push my pace too much, what with still recovering from a nasty chest cold...or whatever the heck that was!

Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day so I may bump tomorrow's swim to Wednesday and take advantage of the great weather before the rain blows in for Wednesday. The ambitious side of me wants to say I'll do a brick but I'm just not sure that I want to push myself into exhaustion two days into post-break life (am I cushy on myself or what?!)

My appetite is still meh - Before my run I snacked on a square of mint dark chocolate and after my run I grabbed a Key Lime Pie Larabar and after watching Blade Runner for my English class I ate a bag of pretzels and a banana. Not ideal dinnering by any stretch of the imagination - that's something I feel I'm going to have to work on this second half of the semester.

Overall my calorie tally comes to about 1750 calories, which is not too shabby (I try to aim for 1600-1800 a day) considering I never sat down and let myself have a real, relaxing meal. I felt like I was constantly eating on the run today.

But I'll stop rambling. See ya'll tomorrow for hopefully more organized and appetiteful eats. Tuesday is my crazy day (2 hours of work, lecture, lunch/errands, lab, lecture, workout, homework) so we'll see how that all goes!

Appetite, o appetite

Where for art thou appetite?! I woke up this morning with more anger at an alarm clock than I can reasonably explain (oh spring break, you were too short!) and absolutely zero desire to eat any sort of breakfast, nevermind the full breakfast that a good little worker-bee student such as I should ideally be eating. So after hitting snooze three times and getting up at the last possible second, I groggily grabbed a banana on my way out the door.

After class, my appetite was slightly resurfacing so I picked up a tall, non-fat latte and some trail mix from Starbucks. I'm not so much a fan of Starbucks coffee but was feeling too lazy to walk back down the flight of stairs to grab something from the school cafeteria and I really wanted that Starbucks trail mix. It is delish; the cranberries are orange infused!

[a] Lunch didn't happen at the normal time either; I was still "full" from the trail mix (which I guess makes sense since I downed 2.5 servings of the stuff). But by the time my French class let out I was slightly ravenous, or at least that's how it seemed, so I had a Dannon low-fat/all-natural strawberry yogurt with a handful of Kashi Vive (the vanilla-graham flavor - very very very appetizing), half a lavash with hummus, and some dried cranberries/papaya.
> Now I'm sitting in my favorite little coffee shop with a glass of iced tea and wondering if a) I should go for a run and b) if I'll want anything to do with dinner. I'm thinking that a run would do my appetite good...

Whew!

I can't believe it's 9:30 and spring break is officially coming to a close :( The good news, though, is that today was absolutely *beautiful* and I got a lot more done than I had originally even planned on doing and I am happy to report that I am once again back to my cheery (although still not hungry) self after all the strange feelings this morning.

After moping around the couch for a bit, I decided to get cleaned up and head to my favorite little coffee shop to try and be semi-productive. Almost immeadiately upon arriving, I ordered my weekend favorite: iced coffee with skim milk. I had two of these bad boys during my 5 1/2 hours there:


I also had a DELICIOUS lemon-poppyseed muffin. I usually get the bagels but man, am I glad they were out today. It was so amazingly good. Not too overwhelmingly sweet (tasted almost like a corn muffin with a hint of lemon) and full of poppyseed goodness

After a good, long afternoon of mostly studying (and not, ahem, looking at Crate & Barrel's website and drooling like a puppy), I headed home and planted myself on the couch (where I ate a spoonful of PB, a hummus & provolone sandwich with dried cranberries and papaya, and a square of mint dark chocolate...product review of that chocolate to come!)

But it's spring time in Tennessee and I could not help myself...I got dressed and went on a nice hour-long walk down the greenway. It felt nice to do *something* active, even though it wasn't running.

When I got home (part deux), my roomie arrived and announced she wanted to go grocery shopping so I chugged (literally chugged) a Naked Juice - I had the Watermelon Chill Bare Breeze and it tasted just like the juice left over after you cut a watermelon. Apparently, though, it consisted of "1 slice of watermelon, lots of yummy white grapes, 1 strawberry, and a hint of apple, lime, and Aronia". So delicious!!!!


And now I am fully stocked with groceries too. So providing that my appetite comes back, I'll be able to eat all my wonderful goodies.

Sad breakfast

I went to sleep fairly early last night, before 10, feeling really sad. I have to say, I've been doing fairly well with the whole "getting over the ex" deal but sometimes the loneliness and the heartbreak just hits me and I don't know why.


Unfortunately, the mood has somewhat carried over to this morning and my appetite is nil. I chewed down some dried ginger and drank some English breakfast tea but I just don't have the gut for anything else.


All these natural appetite suppressants are really starting to annoy me! First being sick and now feeling heartbreak. I want to enjoy food, by golly!

I have plans for enjoying the weather and my favorite cute little coffee shop today (to catch up on homework, blech), so stayed tuned for further. I decided against running because I would like to be able to pick my training up again tomorrow and I can't do that if I push myself and go for a run today!

Mmm...rice

It's always nice to get back to an empty apartment and have the ability to lounge around and get re-acquainted with life before post-spring break realizations hit (The plus, though? Only 5 more weeks of class!!!!).

After a slightly hectic day of traveling through airports (think being the last person to board the plane and windy skies...), I was definitely not in the mood to make a complicated dinner and I was definitely not in the mood to walk anywhere to buy a complicated dinner. So I did what a lazy & returning vacationer does: a microwave meal.
I started out with some "key lime pie" yogurt - I try not to eat this type of yogurt on a regular basis but there was an extra in the refrigerator and I just could not help myself. And honestly, for what it is, the yogurt is actually pretty delicious. But maybe that's just my still-stuffy taste buds speaking.

Then, with my rumbling stomach subdued enough to "cook", I moved onto my meal. I'd like to think that my microwave meal was fairly nutritious and it was completely low-maintenance: microwave steamed broccoli and Uncle Ben's long & wild grain 90 second rice. Mixed together + pepper, the two are actually quite delicious.

Excuse our nasty microwave...



And, the finished product:


I finished off my meal with a few pieces of dried ginger. I've never had dried ginger before a whew! what a taste bud surprise! Definitely delicious, but I'll never throw more than one of those babies in my mouth at a time again!

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to run tomorrow since it's supposed to be beautiful. Hope for me!

Woohoo! Pictures!

This post was not intentionally delayed. I did, in fact, have legit reasons...those reasons being a) I spent all of yesterday shopping and eating and bike repairing and packing and b) I now have a camera cord!

So I'll here's a recap of yesterday:

Breakfast was my "usual" of the week, which means Voskos honey-vanilla bean Greek yogurt with honey puffed wheat cereal

(I didn't take a picture but imagine a creamy, yogurt-y, carbohydrate-y breakfast of goodness)

Lunch was. absolutely. positively. yum. Every time I come up to the frigid north to visit my parents, my mom and I have a tradition of visiting Cosi, which I suppose you could just call an "upscale sandwich shop" but I love it.

My usual order is the roasted turkey and brie sandwich (which is to die for) but this time I opted for the TBM (tomato, basil, and mozzarella with vinaigrette) and a side Signature salad (mixed greens, pistachios, slices of grapes, gorgonzola, cranberries, and sherry shallot vinaigrette). I'm not so much a Rachael Ray fan, but it was yum-o.

After a long day of shopping (and I mean looooooooooooooooong; but I made out with some great new workout loot and a sundress from J. Crew!), the 'rents took me out to Olive Garden where I had the obligatory salad and deliciouso breadsticks followed by quite possibly the best Olive Garden pasta I have ever tasted: I had the Linguini di Mare, which was linguini with mussels, shrimp, and clams all tossed in an arrabiata sauce (fancy word for spicy marinara). Soooooooo goooooood.

My plate of clam and mussel shells:

I don't have any pictures from today, what with all the crazy airport traveling and realizing too late that my camera was buried at the bottom of my carry-on, but I will be back apres-dinner for an update!

Ahhhh...leaving my family is always sad but it's so nice to be home.

I love eating

Dinner was spectacular; my appetite is nearly back at it's full fledged annoyingness (yep, I'm one of those people who feels like she's hungry every 30 seconds) and although I could not 100% taste what I was putting into my mouth, I'm 99.9999% sure it was delicious because my dad is an *excellent* cook.

He marinated a T-bone steak (for him) and a sirloin steak (for us girls) in a garlic-olive oil-pepper marinade and even put little chunks of fresh garlic into slits that were cut into the steak. I'm an absolute garlic lover (hmmm...could that be why I'm boyfriendless?!) so I was head over heels for this steak-y goodness. The smell had me drooling.

To accompany my garlicky sirloin, I had a decent sized helping of mashed potatoes with lots of freshly ground pepper and a skewer of grilled red and green peppers.

Yum, yum, yum. I'm really wishing I had a way to get pictures on my computer right about now :(

A little laugh and lunch (!!!)

Since I'm stuck on the couch with nothing productive to do, I've been browsing the blogosphere and I happened upon Vanilla and his mini collection of funny videos. And I just could. not. resist. putting this video up on my blog because a) I heart Lance Armstrong and b) I'm currently training for a triathlon, with swimming being my weakest sport, so the little cracks during the end "interview" were that much funnier for me.

Just watch!



And....I was hungry for lunch! That's two meals in a row! I think I may have just broken a record for number of meals eaten in a row this week. I had a hunk of sharp cheddar cheese with pepper, an overeasy fried egg on wheat toast, and salad with balsamic vinaigrette. My salad was pretty gosh-darn boring but the kalamata olives made it that much better. Mmm, kalamata olives.

See y'all for dinner ;)

Newsflash!

I actually ate (and was hungry for) a real-like breakfast this morning! That's a sign that I'm getting better! Of course I still feel slightly horrible and I still resemble death, but I'll take any improvements I can get. Colds are so irritating.

But I digress. I actually ate this morning! Of course I'm still camera cord-less so here's a pictureless recap:

Breakfast was Voskos honey-vanilla bean yogurt with a handful of honey puffed wheat cereal and a nice glassful (as opposed to the beer mugful) of orange juice.

Before this morning I had never tried Voskos, and I was a bit put off by the liquid I had to pour off the top before eating, but I was more than pleasantly surprised. Voskos is not quite as thick as Greek yogurts such as Fage, but the flavor has a bit more "bite" while still being creamy; since I had the honey-vanilla bean flavor, I was worried that the sugary sweetness would be overpowering but found that it wasn't overly sweet at all. That may come from the fact that my nose is super stuffy and I can't taste everything 100% truly at the moment, but I was not disappointed by Voskos Greek yogurt.

Food Swings

Instead of mood swings, I'm having food swings; one minute I'm starving and the next minute I'm repulsed by the idea of eating. I did manage to groggily make it to Whole Foods, however, and stocked up on some "necessary" eats:

• Key Lime Pie & Coconut Cream Pie Larabars
• Cold Season Yogi tea
• Amy's Fire roasted Southwestern veggie & Thai coconut soups
• Fresh okra
• Endangered Species dark chocolate squares
• Dried ginger
• Dried papaya
• Voskos Honey Greek Yogurt

I've only ever had a few of these items so there will be product reviews to come!

Dinner tonight (when my appetite once again resurfaced for an hour) consisted of a huge plateful of okra in a olive oil/tomato paste "sauce", a huge hunk of crusty wheat ciabatta, and some extra sharp cheddar.

Now I'm taking my post on the couch, finishing up the Top Chef marathon, and drinking tea & orange juice like it's my job. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll feel at least slightly better tomorrow!

Still sick and craving chocolate

Unfortunately, I found myself still sick upon waking this morning; my fever and aches have turned into congestion and extraordinarily gross sounding coughs and I'm not quite sure which one is worse. I'm fairly sure I'd rather have neither considering my breakfast has consisted of a bite of homemade wheat bread with natural peanut butter, two squares of Hershey's Special Dark chocolate, more Red Rose tea with splashes of milk and two gargantuan beer mugs full of Tropicana orange juice.

My appetite has slightly returned (not quite with the vengeance it did last night) but the idea of eating anything is annoyingly unappealing. Except for more chocolate, thanks to Cowgirl Chocolate and Dagoba.

Dagoba has me wanting to run to Whole Foods just to load up on chocolate...which is something I just may do if I ever stop feeling like death run over...

(Also, check out Quaker True Delights. You can get a *free sample* of their dark chocolate raspberry almond bars!)

Sick as a dog

I've somehow found myself confined to the couch and watching Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on this St. Patrick's Day. I was feeling the aches and coughs this morning but took a Mucinex and kept hoping that it was simply allergies and not some strange flu-like bug. Unfortunately, I was not so lucky.

My appetite was nearly nil throughout the entire day; I munched on whole wheat Fig Newtons and sweetened dried cranberries and downed more Red Rose tea with milk than I care to think about. I know that when I don't feel like eating something has to be wrong since I usually have an active appetite!

Thankfully my desire for food came back for dinner and I ate like a champ. My dad and I went to the local pizza shop where I had approximately 1/3 (slightly more) of a HUGE calzone with mozzarella, ricotta, spinach, tomatoes, and marinara. I also chomped on some Greek salad with vinaigrette dressing.

Needless to say, however, I had to skip my planned swim. I definitely was not in any physical or mental condition to hop into a cold pool and swim laps for 45 minutes! But I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to hop on the bike and enjoy the warm-ish weather tomorrow. If not, I'll be slightly disappointed but being healthy is far more important than getting ahead in my training.

Oh, and I'm hungry again! Woohoo!

Epic breakfast fail

Last night, after reading through dozens upon dozens of food blogs, I found myself craving oatmeal so I decided that in the morning, I would have a nice and hearty oatmeal breakfast. I even went to far as to decide that I wanted "refrigerator oats", made it ahead of time (3/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, 1 cup 1% milk - left in the refrigerator overnight), and planned out my toppings (banana, cinnamon, brown sugar, and a spoonful of natural peanut butter).

So this morning, I pulled my little oatmeal container out of the fridge, poured them into a bowl, and took a quick taste to see how my concoction went. And what did I taste? Not creamy, milky, oat-y goodness. Nope. I tasted dish detergent. And my poor bananas were unripened.

I tried to mask the dish detergent/unripe banana flavors with cinnamon, brown sugar, & peanut butter and ate through half of the oatmeal, but only ended up with cinnamon and brown sugar flavored dish detergent oatmeal going down the disposal and a spoonful of peanut butter in my mouth.

Not a shining moment in my oatmeal world! Thankfully it was all made better with a square of dark chocolate. Here's to hoping lunch will be more of a success...

Eats, a run, and a hike, 3/16/2009

Unfortunately, I discovered that I left my camera cord in Tennessee so unless I can get my hands on one, this blog will be picture free until Saturday :(

Today's picture-less eats:

For breakfast I had a Chobani Greek yogurt (the kind with strawberries already mixed in) and a banana. I'm biased and usually eat Fage but I was really craving Greek yogurt and I managed to snatch the last one in the fridge before anyone else went searching for it. Thankfully it hit the spot, but I'll be stopping at the grocery store to restock, that's for sure.

My lunch started with the cutest little key lime pie mini-Larabar. I think my dad had gotten it in a goody bag from a race somewhere but no one else in my family has yet discovered the wonders of the Larabar so I was glad to take it off their hands. I then ate a chicken sandwich (oven-roasted chicken breast from last night's dinner, along with some mayo) on whole wheat bread, a nice 'n juicy naval orange, and some Hershey's special dark chocolate.

After a 40 minute "trail" run (really, it's just a dirt/mud road that goes through some old turf farms) and a 30ish minute "hike-walk" at the local park with my dad, my stomach was grumbling so I attempted to quiet the rumbling with a boiled egg and a McIntosh apple. When I lived up here, I detested McIntosh apples but now that I can't find them down in my local Kroger I am much more appreciative of their yumminess (except for the too-mealy ones. blech).
Dinner was salad and spaghetti. My body was screaming for carboyhydrates, my dad suggested pasta, and even though I ate a pretty good-sized bowl of it yesterday I just couldn't turn it down. But my parents, being heath conscious (that must be where I got it from...) always eat whole wheat spaghetti. And it was definitely what my body needed!

Now I'm about to settle down with some milky tea, flip on the tube, and enjoy having the house to myself for a few hours.

25 Things

Because I'm new to the blogosphere (and because I was inspired by a post on the Chic Runner's 25 Things post), here's a little insight into my world with my own list of 25 Things:

1. I'm left-handed. And whenever something goes wrong my first (joking) response is, "It's because I'm a lefty."
2. I am obsessed with all things French; I've only been to France once (and got to see the finish of Le Tour de France!!!) but if all goes according to plan I'll be spending a month there next summer.
3. I have been running since elementary school and I'm not sure I could live without it, although we do tend to have a love/hate relationship
4. I'm currently training for my first triathlon; I've been cycling and running more seriously for a few years so the only ingredient I had to add was the swimming.
5. I'm not a fan of tomato products; cold tomato paste, canned tomatoes, ketchup, & canned tomato sauce really actually gross me out.
6. I don't have a shopping problem until I'm confronted with workout clothes/gear. Or books. Then it's all over
7. I was quite terrible at baking until just recently; when I was younger I had the knack of messing up even boxed cookie mixes. Thankfully I no longer have that problem.
8. I will never, ever say no to free food.
9. I am terrible at remember names, and they usually slip my mind just minutes after meeting the person, but I can recognize faces without fail.
10. Carbohydrates are my downfall; I am a pasta and bread addict.
11. I love hiking and being outdoors; there's something so peaceful about walking through the woods...even if the trail is steep and rocky and a little scary. I'd like to do a trek to Everest base camp one day. Oh, and Machu Picchu.
12. I just recently started taking ice skating lessons. Left-over-right crossovers are giving me a little bit of difficulty but I love skating because it makes me feel, well, graceful.
13. I'm in school to become and audiologist (a hearing doctor, to put it simple). I never thought I would be so interested in an ear, but the inner workings are truly amazing. Such tiny little parts doing such important things.
14. I'm addicted to Starbucks vanilla lattes...but trying to wean myself off. I even bought my own milk-frother so we'll see if I actually make good use of it.
15. I'm a first generation American and, although I hated it when I was little, I'm finally starting to appreciate my culture and being 'different'.
16. I've been to Norway (cross-country skiing trip), France (sight-seeing/Tour de France), Greece (visiting family), Canada, and various states. And if I weren't so broke, I'd be traveling that much more.
17. In May I'll be moving into my first roommate-less apartment and I have never been more excited. It has me feeling 'grown-up' and, well, really looking forward to decorating and making it my own spot.
18. I'm New England born and raised but have lived in the South for the past 2ish years and I don't think I could move back to my hometown without some extensive persuasion. I love living in new places and meeting new people and trying new things so settling down doesn't appear to be in the horizon any time soon.
19. Baklava is my baking specialty. Secret recipe though!
20. I finally landed myself a part-time job in my school's library and am looking forward to spending some quality time with books and recharging since most of my days are usually spent interacting and talking with people.
21. If I could do anything, regardless of cost, I would move to France for the summer and live as much like a local as possible. I get bitten by the travel bug quite frequently, although I'm pretty happy with the city I'm living in now and plan on being here for at least the rest of my degree.
22. I. Love. Cheese. And dark chocolate. That is all.
23. I used to really want to be a photographer for National Geographic. And I'm not gonna lie, that type of career still does appeal to the more free-spirited, artsy side of me. That and baker...
24. Grocery shopping is my favorite "chore"
25. I like to ramble...a lot!

Tired legs

So I'm at Chez Parents, always such a big adjustment. And despite being the ultimate crankasaurus this morning, I somehow convinced myself that doing a St. Patty's Day 5k would be a good idea. And it's not that it ended up being a bad idea, the weather is beautiful for March in New England and the crowd was very green/fun/energetic, it's just that my legs are not quite as used to going as fast as 5ks require and goodness gracious, they're achy.

Come to think of it, they were achy from the very start because I did a little too much just standing around waiting for the gun to go off; tight calves and shins make for a slightly uncomfortable run (note to self: stretch girl!). I will be making best buddies with the Stick in a few minutes, here.

But here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 7:35
Mile 2 - 15:00
Finish - 23:47

Pace - 7:40
Place - 6th in age group
Place overall - 233/1713

Honestly, I am amazed that I was able to pull out that finishing time; I've been doing a lot of spinning with the tri club that I'm part of but I did not expect that to translate into running times as well as it did. So yeah, I'm gosh darn proud of myself! (And celebrated with some dark chocolate and a trip to Bertucci's with my little sis, although my rigatoni, broccoli, & chicken with wine sauce was a little more than disappointing).

My dad was the official photographer so hopefully I'll have some pictures to put up later!

Blueberry Lemon sparkling soda

Today is a day of firsts; first day of spring break, first day going back to my hometown after officially moving away, first day of trying to *really* move on from someone I have loved for three years, first day really tasting the blueberry in my delicious Kroger brand blueberry lemon sparkling soda, first day posting on this spiffy new blog (standing at my kitchen counter in my pajamas, no less).

Firsts are scary. But not impossible. And I digress...

The idea for the blog started, well, with me reaching into the fridge and drinking the last half of a bottle of blueberry lemon sparkling soda after eating the last of a jar of applesauce straight from the measuring cup. And I thought to myself that, as lazy as that may appear, I finally have my own life. And I do what I want. And I'd like to have a place to chronicle all my running/baking/triathloning adventures...plus the crazy that comes with it. (Oh yeah, and a quick warning, I have a slight obsession with all things French. So don't be alarmed!)

Just a quick run-down of some goals:

10k in April
Sprint tri in April
Swim 1 mile (straight) by end of May

Bienvenue!