I haven’t talked much about running lately.  Mainly because I haven’t been doing much of it!  I seem to go for these stretches of time when I just get burnt out.  This morning, I decided to hop on the treadmill and give it another whirl.  I wasn’t feeling very strong, so I opted to do 1:1 intervals to break in slowly. 

And before I knew it, I finished up a little over 2 miles!

The GYMBOSS was happy to be back in action!  I ended my workout with 10 minutes of weights – biceps, triceps, front lateral raises and shoulder presses.  I’m trying to be consistent with strength training at least twice a week!

After the workout, I whipped out the blender for a Green Monster breakfast …

In the mix …

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 scoop Pea Protein Powder 
• 1/2 banana, frozen
• 8 strawberries, frozen
• 2 BIG handfuls fresh baby spinach

I forget how much I like these!!

Then, it was off to my niece, Nikki’s apartment for a Girls’ Lunch.  She kindly invited the Aunts and Grandmoms, along with her Mom and sister for a delicious healthy, homemade lunch.

We started with Spinach and Artichoke Dip, pita chips and almonds while we toured her apartment…

For our lunch, Nikki made White Chicken Enchiladas adapted from this recipe …

Served with mixed bean salad…

Yummy cornbread …

And a fresh citrus salad made by my SIL (her mom)…

I devoured everything on my plate!  It was all so good…

The gang…

Our get- togethers never seem complete without some kind of dessert!  Nikki knew this, of course, and made these beautious chocolate mousse cups …

And my SIL made an Apple Pecan Cake, too …

Decisions, decisions!  I actually felt very satisfied with my meal, so I just indulged in a small taste of cake …

Delicious and just enough to satisfy my curious taste buds.

Thanks to the hostess for a great lunch!

I’ll be back tomorrow for leftovers.

After such a lovely lunch, I wasn’t into making much fuss for dinner.  Pasta and salad is the best fuss-free option…

The husband and daughters wish EVERY night was fuss-free!   No such luck… it’s my job to torture them with “fancy” food. 

Have a great day, everyone!

What is your favorite fuss-free meal?

Wow.  You guys never cease to amaze me with your unwavering support!  Thank you so much for the kind comments on my last post! 

I feel badly to disappoint my Weight Watchers followers by not continuing with the program and posting my eats with Points values.  I do get a lot of emails from you looking for support in that way, but please know that you can scroll through the past posts archives and also the Recipe Page to see many meals with the Points values attached.  I still plan on blogging my daily eats, so moving forward, hopefully I’ll at least be able to give you some healthy meal inspiration!  Thanks for understanding.

How about some running inspiration, too???  It was a glorious morning, so after getting the kids off to school, I set out to a neighborhood paved trail.  I didn’t have an exact plan for how far I wanted to run today.  I figured on somewhere in the 2 mile range.  Boy, if I had to decide within the first 1o minutes of running, I would have said only a mile!  My legs were like lead!  But, I stuck with it and before I knew it…. 3 miles were in the tank!  I kept with 2:1 run/walk intervals on the GYMBOSS …

Feels great to be back on the road again!

One of the things I’m noticing now that I’m trying to become aware of my physical hunger is that I begin to feel hungry about an hour after waking.  In the past, I would ignore this.   Again the timing thing goes through my head – “if I eat this early, I’ll need a snack before lunch and/or have to eat lunch early” – which in my crazy head equates to “extra eating”.  Now, instead of downing coffee or glasses of water to shut off the hunger until I deemed it a “reasonable hour” to have breakfast, I just eat!!  Imagine… what a concept, right?

So earlier, before heading out for the run, I made breakfast – egg whites with 2% cheese and a slice of whole wheat toast with light butter…

Then, I downed the coffee and water.

Lunch was an old standard – turkey wrap with a side of carrots and trio chips …

After I took that picture, my camera decided to dive bomb it into the chips!  The chips went flying!  Oops…

Camera – 1 , Chips – 0.

I’ve been getting by without an afternoon snack lately, but today I felt hungry.  Enter these deadly things …

They definitely have crack-like tendencies!  I portioned some out along with a plum for good measure  …

Dinner was a quick take on Eggplant Parmesan.  I used pre-breaded frozen eggplant slices from Trader Joe’s and layered them with marinara and light shredded mozzarella, then baked until melty…

Served with a side of oven roasted zucchini …

A filling veggie dinner!

Have a great day, everyone!

What’s one vegetable you will NEVER eat?  Mine is beets!  I have tried to like them, but … ick. 

Hey, guys!  Thanks so much for your kind comments on my hunger post.  Sharing these insights is hard, but nice to know that many of you can relate to them.  I really appreciate that.

Sooooooo, guess what I did today?!  It involved running shoes and PAVEMENT!  Yep, I finally got outdoors for a run!  I can’t believe it’s been close to 3 months since I’ve hit the asphalt.  I’ve been such a wuss with running these few months.  I guess I needed a little break.  And it sure was a different experience than my treadmill running that I’ve gotten away with used to this summer!

I headed out to my good ole trail – just me, my tunes and the GYMBOSS.  I scaled back my intervals to 2:1 again and got started.  It was a little rough going!  My cadence  and breathing were all sorts of wonky.  It took until mile 2 for things to feel more even and controlled.   Still, I’m fairly certain it was kinda like this …

(source)

HA!

Regardless, I’m happy to have finally gotten out there!  I finished up 2.5 miles …

Happy

Before I went out on my running adventure, I fixed breakfast.  One of my faves – mock Egg McMuffin (english muffin, egg whites and 2% cheese) …

Lunch was a quick pit-stop between “running” from store to store looking for big daughter’s Homecoming Dance accessories/dresses.  Shopping is exhausting!  A grilled cheese and tomato soup sounded like a splendid way to refuel …

Yes, I did just say splendid.  It’s the shopping.

I decided on a tostada dinner for the family, but at the last minute, changed it up for myself.  A big taco salad was much more appealing …

• romaine lettuce
• 96% lean ground beef w/ taco seasoning
• shredded cheddar
• salsa
• guacamole
• corn tortilla (cut into strips and baked)

Hit the spot!

~~~~~~

One of the things I’m also working on is eating what I crave.  That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but actually, it is a very helpful tool.  What I’m finding is if I eat what I am craving or in “the mood” for at the time when I am physically hungry, I am much more satisfied. 

Many times in the past, I have chosen what I think is “healthy” over listening to what my body truly wants.  Now, we all say – “If I ate what I craved, I’d be eating brownies or cookies  or ( insert favorite food) all the time!”  In actuality, that’s not the case.  If you listen to your body with an aware mind (not emotional or mindless) in that moment of hunger, you will know exactly what you want to eat.  My present experience is that when I follow through with this, I am always satisfied with my food choice and don’t look for “more”.    My past experience has been when I don’t eat what I want and instead choose something I think I should have, I feel unsatisfied and end up in the pantry eating a bunch of other crapola.   Not a good feeling.

I’ve already blogged your eyes off, so I’ll talk more about this and how I’m going about it in another post! 

Have a great day, everyone!

Do you eat what you crave or do you make choices based on what you “think” you should have ?