The Dog Track

Tuesdays are speed work in my half-marathon training plan. I usually don’t bring the dog because she can be a hassle. However, I brought her to the track this morning and she was perfect! I didn’t have her on the leash, but she ran right beside me in the next lane for 4x1600s. (Plus, when a man stepped on the track unbenounced to me, Punky growled and barked to alert me – good doggie).

I broke out the good stuff for breakfast.

1 cup milk, ½ cup oats, ¼ cup pumpkin, brown sugar, chocolate chips, and cinnamon. Definitely DPAAB (dessert parading around as breakfast).

Plus coffee out of a favorite mug.

Today is SPORTS DAY at school, and I am decked out in my CU Buffs gear.

What would you wear if it were SPORTS DAY where you work or go to school?

Life is just a bowl of broccoli

The broccoli-love continued with lunch.

Lunch was 1 head of broccoli (roasted last night) with cottage cheese, and about ½ cup of stuffing from a box. Not a typical food (the stuffing) for me, but very good nonetheless.

The broccoli-love continued with dinner.

Romain, 1 head of roasted broccoli, 1 apple, 1 shredded carrot, and dressing made from: plain yogurt, red wine vinegar and spicy mustard. Yums.

I wasn’t sure about the dressing, as I had never used plain yogurt as a base, but it was g-o-o-d.

The apple was so crunchy and fantastic, I had to have more. I had another apple combined with a ½ mango, a kiwi, and a sprinkle of coconut flakes and cinnamon.

I poured milk over this bowl and had a mouthwatering and heavenly dessert of fruit cereal. No one can accuse me of not eating enough fiber today.

Meeker wasn’t thrilled about my fruit/veggie fest…he took his dinner in another direction.

Wasabi nut mix and a Guinness.

Now we are happily parked on the couch watching Dallas do its thang…GO COWBOYS!

__

Oh, I had to draw some animals in class today to model a project on animal habitats we are working on. Usually – I resort to stick figures when I draw in for an audience, but today’s wildlife turned out so well (for ME), that I actually took pictures. Haha.

A bear sharpening his claws on a dead tree.

A woodpecker eating timber beetles.

A nest in the hollow of a dead tree: a good habitat for bluebirds.

Lazy Day

It is spirit week at my school, and today is lazy day! That means that I am wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt to work today. I vote for all Mondays to be like this.

Breakfast was a repeat, sort of.

1 egg on the left, hot sauce on the right. When I put them together, the yolk broke perfectly.

It got a little messy towards the end, but all that yolk-y goodness was really a treat. I usually use egg whites (and then some cheese), but this morning I went whole egg and no cheese. I’ve got to mix-it up somehow.

Happy Monday – I hope you are as comfortable as I am today!

Summer is Back

Summer weather came back for the day! I took full advantage of the sunshine and instead of grading papers – we went to the dog park all afternoon. It was glorious and we had fun playing in the water with the doggie.

I ate some pretty fantastic things, too.

Dried apple rings and 2 baby frozen cookies.

A bagel sandwich that was so satisfying…

A whole wheat bagel with a little cheese (melted under the broiler) and 2 egg whites with salsa.

The dinner…oh.my.goodness.

½ sweet potato, roasted broccoli and carrots, plain yogurt and mashed avocado.

This was eye-closing good. I didn’t even want to chew it – but just hold it in my mouth and taste it forever. That’s not weird…right?

I think the only difference that I noticed regarding my post-run snack (and it could be coincidental), was that my metabolism was on fire! I snacked all day, and had pretty small meals (for me), but I was always ready for more food a couple of hours later. Not a problem for me – in fact, I prefer my food that way, so maybe there really is something to this post-run eating thing.

I will leave you with this picture of my kitties: Bagheera (Baggy) and Bellatrix.

I promise I won’t turn into the cat lady (at least not publically).

Something New

I have said (about a million times) how much I rely on routine to keep my sanity. But today I tried something new.

Pre-Run Meal:

And then had to hang out for a while before heading out the door for my 10 miles – which were very good! It was easy this morning, and I enjoyed it a lot. However, I enjoy ALL my Saturday morning runs, and the pre-run fuel didn’t seem to make much of a difference. It certainly didn’t hurt me.

Post-Run Meal:

…and water, of course.

I consider myself a pretty low-maintenance runner. I don’t run with music. I don’t run with a watch/clock. I don’t run with water. I don’t fuel before runs, and sometimes it takes me up to 2 hours to eat afterwards. The only thing I always do before runs is chug 2 glasses of water and put on my favorite running shoes. I have been running since I was 10 years old, and this is just the way things have gone.

However, after reading Angharad’s post last week about her running routine – I started re-thinking some of my habits. There is no real “reason” for doing what I do; I just haven’t done anything else. So far, today’s changes haven’t made much difference. Although, I think it may take a few hours to feel the effects of the post-run fuel. I will let you know.

Until then, I am doing a very
routine Saturday activity. Watching football and tackling a big pile of grading.

Cookie for Breakfast

Meeker found a good kickboxing workout on instant Netflix for me this morning. The original plan was to ride the bike, but it was pouring rain. Oh well. Plan B ended up being enjoyable.

I was starving after exercise and shower. I scrambled downstairs to hurriedly make a bowl of goodness.

Cottage cheese, a peach, grapes, cinnamon, sesame seeds and…yes, that’s a cookie.

There really is cottage cheese hiding under there…

Perfection.

I will leave you with this adorable (albeit blurry and washed out – iphone picture) of my kitties having a snug fest.

Happy Friday!

Thanks Goodness for Thursday

I have a teacher in-service day tomorrow, so it might as well be a Friday! I love teaching and being with the kiddos, but a day without them at school is pretty much a day off.

In honor of my favorite day of the week, I ate my favorite stand-by meals all day.

Lunch:

• 2/3 cup cottage cheese
• Dollop of hummus
• 1 shredded carrot
• ½ avocado
• 1 Boca Burger

Aside from roasted veggies – this is the best thing on Earth. I stir and stir until it turns into a wonderful mushy mess, then add the avocado on top. Goodness gracious it’s delicious.

Dinner was THE favorite food.

The Roasties in all their glory…broccoli, carrots, eggplant and 1 bell pepper (to be honest, I could have done without the pepper – it didn’t really “go” with the other flavors). I seasoned this batch with cumin, garlic powder, dried onions and dried mustard.

Then, topped it with plain yogurt and hummus.

The yogurt adds such a delicious “tang” to the dish. I literally cannot think of anything that tastes better than this bowl did. Not even cake. (Gasp!)

A day of favorite foods wouldn’t be complete without dessert- inspired by my new favorite cook book given to me by my besties’ mama.

I used only the first 4 ingredients on the first batch, but then did my thing by adding pumpkin, and a handful of ww flour plus some oh so necessary cinnamon and nutmeg on the second batch. Plus, to add some more SWEET – a handful of butter scotch chips. I may even get around to writing a proper recipe for these. If/when that happens – I will post it on the recipe page.

Until then…