Star Pupil

I woke up hungry and dove into a hearty bowl of banana flax oats topped with more banana and some natural peanut butter. YUM. I also had two mugs of tea and a multi vitamin.

I got to work straight away and broke for lunch around 1:00 pm. I grabbed the easiest option, the last of the leftover pizza. I'm glad it's gone!

Around 2:30 pm I decided to head to the gym for a 13 mile treadmill run. Running on treadmills is not my favorite thing but the Florida afternoon heat (my car read 101 degrees) wasn't conducive to an outdoor run. Well, my 13 miles were cut short at 5. Apparently there's a 30 minute limit at the gym when people are waiting for treadmills. Boo!!!! But 5 miles is better than no miles, I suppose.

I stopped for a decaf latte on my way home. Check out "The Way I See It #21"

I had to take Bella for training tonight and was planning on eating once I got home. However, my stomach had other plans. I was HUNGRY so I had a hearty snack of yogurt and a sprinkle of Optimum Slim cereal.

Here's Bella in her carrier waiting to go to class. She doesn't look too happy, does she? I cooked a chicken breast for her to bring to training. She could have cared less about her training treats last week so I made her favorite food to bring to class tonight.

It paid off! She was the star pupil tonight. I think she just needed the right motivation. We celebrated with a glass of Merlot while cooking dinner.

I made kale chips! Here's a photo tutorial. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Start with freshly washed, bunch kale (not the chopped kale that comes in a bag).

Remove the stem and trim it into chip size pieces before spinning dry in a lettuce spinner.

Arrange on a foil lined pan and spray with olive oil. Be careful not to overlap the chips.

Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper and sea salt.

Pop in oven and check them after about 15 minutes. If needed, add 5 more minutes.

The edges will be slightly brown.

Dinner! HUGE pile of kale chips, a veggie dog on a spelt bun and a crisp, delicious apple.

I had a serious sweet tooth tonight so I had some dark chocolate M&Ms (I had about three times the amount pictured).

Time to get a bit more work done before calling it a night.

Bloodletting

I set my alarm to get up early for a 4 mile, fast paced run. Well, my body had other plans! I felt exhausted and washed out so I gave myself a rest day and went back to bed for another hour. When I did get up I made myself a small bowl of banana flax oats topped with a small sliced banana, 0% Fage and almonds.

After several hours of work I broke for lunch -- veggie dog on spelt bun with a slice of cheddar and mustard, apple, and pretzel sticks with mustard for dipping. For perspective, these two plates are small side plates.

Later in the afternoon I met my friend Leslee at Fresh Fields Farm for some produce shopping. I picked up some okra, a sweet onion, peaches, pears, sweet potato, dried chickpeas and a jar of local, raw honey.

Then we donated blood! I walked out of the blood bank with this hot pink smiley face arm wrap. Did you know that everybody's blood is a different color? I was quizzing the woman who was taking my blood about the nuances of being a medicinal vampire (isn't that an appropriate title?).

We replenished our blood supply with a nutritious dinner at Loving Hut, a vegan restaurant.

They began the meal by serving this delicious clear broth soup with potato, tofu, carrot, and cilantro.

We shared the summer rolls (veggies & tofu)...

and the quinoa salad. It was all very fresh and tasty.

We ran a few errands, including a Starbucks stop for a decaf latte, before heading to meet some friends in Avalon Park.

And we bought roses for our friend Christina's birthday! Aren't these lovely?

Once home I decided to have a beer to unwind...until I nearly jumped out of my chair!

I was relaxing with my pup when out of the corner of my eye I saw quick movement. Eeeek! Living in Florida this usually means a cockroach has invaded the house. Ew. Since Chris is out of town I wasn't too excited about the idea of killing a cockroach myself. Fortunately it was just a tiny frog who had made its way inside. He was SO CLOSE to jumping under the entertainment center. I was able to trap him in a cup just inches from our cabinet!

I was glad I found him when I did because I could tell he'd been in the house for a while since he was covered in dust bunnies! Poor little dude. I carefully released him into the bushes. Gotta love happy endings!

9 mile oats

This morning I got up and headed out for a 9 mile run. I filled my water bottles with a mix of G2 (low cal Gatorade) and water.

Man was it hot out there today! I try to keep my heart rate in the 150s when I go for long runs, but I overheated around mile 6 and my heart rate jumped into the high 170s. I had to slow it down and take walk breaks the last three miles to keep myself from having a heat stroke. I guess that's what you get when you run outdoors in Florida in August. Good thing I was packing water.

After I was showered and stretched out, I began thinking about what to eat for a late breakfast/post-run recovery meal. Since my heart rate monitor said I burned 1,015 calories, I knew I had to eat something nutritious to keep myself from falling asleep at my computer. I settled on banana oats.

I brought to a low boil 1/4 cup oats, thinly sliced half of a banana, 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of milk, and a dash of sea salt, then reduced the heat to low and stirred for about five minutes while cooking. Here's my pot before the burner was turned on.

At the end of cooking I added about 1 tbs of Bob's Red Mill muesli (for a little crunch), and 1 tbs flax. Here are the oats after they've been cooked, with the muesli & flax stirred in.

I topped my bowl with a scoop of Fage greek yogurt, a small dollop of almond butter, the remaining half of my banana, and a sprinkle of sliced almonds.

Now I'm very full and satisfied. Time to get to work!