ActiveGal

I ventured out from my monotonous treadmill run tonight and decided it was time to venture back outside.

I haven't run in the area around my apartment complex in a while, so it was a nice change of scenery. I planned out my course using http://www.mapmyrun.com and started out to try and beat the sun.

I did 5.10 miles in 50 minutes exactly.  It was a good, steady run. I went a little slower than I was expecting, but since I hadn't been outside it took some adjusting for my legs and my lungs. I was not used to breathing in the cooler air.

I think one of the great things about running is that you can do it anywhere you are. I love to find new places to run.

After I got back from the run my stomach wasn't feeling well so I started out by eating a banana. I need the potassium as well because I have been incredibly sore from my weight lifting workout yesterday.

I waited about 30 more minutes until my stomach had calmed down before I ate dinner. I wasn't feeling like anything too big so I ended up making some whole wheat pancakes. It was completely random, but just what I was craving!

I think one of the reasons I wasn't feeling well was that I had a much bigger lunch than normal. My mom came and ate with me for lunch and I ended up having a egg, onion, green pepper, and cheese omelet. It was delicious, but it was way too much for my stomach to process prior to the run.

Some of my favorite pre-run foods (which I eat AT LEAST 1 hour prior) are:
-half a bagel with peanut butter
-half a bagel with honey
-granola bar
-banana (with or without peanut butter)
-Greek yogurt with fruit
-small protein smoothie/shake

What are some of your favorite pre-run snacks?

I have never been a very good cook, so over the next few weeks I'm going to be putting it into high gear trying to learn new recipes and teach myself the basics of cooking.

Today I decided to try a new recipe, spaghetti with turkey meatballs.

Ingredients
-1 lb ground turkey
-1/2 cup bread crumbs
-1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
-Garlic powder
-Minced onion
-Cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

I combined all the ingredients in the bowl. I wanted the cayenne pepper to add some spice to the meatballs, but it didn't really do the trick. I will have to try something new next time.

I mixed all the ingredients and separated the meat into individual balls.

I warmed up some spaghetti sauce to have ready for when the meatballs were done and began to boil the pasta.

I would have made my own spaghetti sauce but since we got back at 7 pm from the gym, it was much quicker to used the bottled spaghetti sauce tonight.

Place the meatballs in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until cooked all the way through.

Don't they just look yummy?

I combined the sauce, meatballs, and pasta together and ta-da!

I was happy with my first meal attempt of the week. Check back throughout the next couple weeks for new recipes!

I got in a good cardio-less workout today. I used to be in the mindset that unless cardio was in my workout I wasn't getting the benefit, but I had to get out of that mind set quickly. I did  a total of 50 minutes of strength training and worked up an intense sweat!

Do you ever have workouts where you just strenght train? I only do this once a week if that, but it felt nice to give my legs a rest.

Today I completed my longest run in almost 6 month, 7 miles. I was excited and nervous for the run.

I woke up and ate my pre-run snack. I had half a blueberry bagel with peanut butter.

I also drank an 8 oz bottle of water prior to running.

An hour after I had eaten breakfast we got in the car and headed to the trail to start the long run.

I ran on the American Tobacco Trail which in total is a 13 mile course.

It was another beautiful day here in North Carolina. My car said it was 68 degrees, perfect running weather!

I wish I could say that this was the greatest run I have ever had, unfortunately, it did not go so well. The first 4 miles were pretty uneventful but as soon as I hit mile 5 I started to cramp early bad. I guess I had not let enough time go between my bagel and the start of the run.

I ended up finishing the entire run in 1 hour and 12 minutes. I was happy with my time, but I wasn't trying to go at any particular pace. I was just trying to finish it, which I did! Go Me!

This is me post-run in all my sweatiness. Wes had a 20 mile run to complete for his marathon training so I waited in the car for him and hydrated. I think I blinded people on the trail with my paleness. :)

I just woke up for a wonderful hour nap and now we are getting ready to go meet some friends to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game. I know a lot of people in the blog world are from Canada, so I apologize in advance for this, but GO USA!! I have to pull for my country :)

It is an absolutely beautiful weekend here in North Carolina! I was so happy to walk outside this morning and feel the temperature right around 60 degrees. Heaven!

I started the morning off with an hour workout. I took yesterday off so it was nice to get back in action. I didn't push myself too hard today because tomorrow I am going to try to pick up my running and complete 7 miles. That would be the furthest I have run in over 4 months. I am nervous but excited!

Tonight after my date night with the boyfriend I'm going to prep for my run. It is supposed to be another beautiful day tomorrow.

Basic longer run prep consists of:
-laying out my clothes
-downloading songs for the ipod
-updating ipod
-prepare a small pre-run snack
-postive thoughts

After I finished my workout I tried some Vitalyte Cool Citrus Electrolyte Replacement powder.

I put one scoop full into a 8 oz bottle of water.

Vitalyte was actually created by a marathon runner. It contains no fat, 40 calories, 10 grams of sugar, 58 mg of sodium, 68 mg of potassium, and 10 grams of carbohydrates. It also contains vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium.

It has a great light taste that doesn't over power. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good electrolyte replacement drink. My boyfriend drinks it every day while he is marathon training, so I thought I would give it a shot this morning!

I showered, got dressed, and we headed to the NC State vs. Wake Forest basketball game. Guess what, we won!!!

We were walking up to our seats in the nose bleed section when someone asked if we wanted court side seats. Um, YES PLEASE!!! We got moved down to the floor.

It was a good game and a good win for my wolf pack. Unfortunately it is too late in the season now to really do anything with it.

We are getting ready to head back out for dinner and a movie.

What are you favorite sport drinks? Do you use anything special when are you have a longer workout or a long run?

I have read a lot about people who really struggle trying to find ways to stay active and healthy when working an 8-5 job in the office.

I don't think going to the copier, vigorously typing, answering the phone, walking down the hall to meetings, or walking to the kitchen to fix lunch really counts as exercise. It makes it even harder that work takes out some of the most productive hours of the day. I either have the option of waking up around 4:45 am (excuse my English but, hell no!) or heading to the gym right after work around 6 pm.

I am going to stop now so that I don't sound like I am complaining. There are ways to be active even with a full time job at the office. I had to learn to stop letting the office become an excuse.

Here are some of the ways I try to stay active while at work:
1. Bring casual clothes to work. I have done everything from going on a walk outside to running the stairs of my 12 story building. This is a killer workout. I don't tend to go and run simply because there are no showers and no matter what some girls may say I definitely sweat, I don't "glisten."
2. Squats are your friend. When you get up and go to the bathroom try to do 20-30 squats before you head back to your desk. Sound stupid? You may feel stupid but it is a great quick workout. I often find it an even better working out doing squats in heels, quite the challenge!
3. Go out of your way. If you have to print something, print to the furthest printer from you. I used to just dial an extension when I needed to talk to someone, now I get up and walk to their desk no matter how close or far away they may be.
4. Use the stairs. This is hard for me because I work on the 9th floor, but when you can, try to use the stairs instead of the elevator. This can be a killer workout for your thighs and butt.
5. Use your lunch for something other than eating. It is easy to eat at my desk while working, so during my hour lunch break I will go out and take a walk or go read. Even though reading is not "exercise", I think it is very healthy to get away from the office and clear your head throughout the day.

It is a lot simpler than we make it for ourselves a lot of the time. It is a matter of going out of your way to be active, even if it is the smallest thing. Anything is going to be an improvement over sitting at your desk the entire day.

I still have to go to the gym at the end of the day, but staying moderately active while at work increases my energy levels for the rest of the day.

Eats for most of the day consisted of coffee and a Green Super Food Bar for breakfast.

I liked this one a lot better than the last bar I tried by Amazing Grass.

Lunch was some Skippy Natural Peanut Butter on Arnolds 100% Whole Wheat bread.

Off to get ready for bed. If you need something to watch switch to the Sweden vs Canada hockey game. This is the first ice hockey game that has been fun to watch!

Wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, go to the gym, fix dinner, blog, shower, and sleep. Rinse and repeat.

This is not to say I don't enjoy my life, I do! I just wish sometimes that my whole life wasn't so planned out. Honestly, I don't know how to function when my life isn't planned out.

I am working on it. I think it is healthy to have a plan, but I also believe that it is healthy to be spontaneous and change things up every once in a while. I get caught up in my schedule so much sometimes that one little change will completely fluster me.

I am determined to have one unplanned today this week! I'll let you know how that turns out.

Breakfast was a blueberry bagel with a very small amount of cream cheese. The boyfriend took the honey this morning, so I thought a little something was better than nothing.

I finished off the last of my P.F. Chang's leftovers. We are trying to get rid of the crazy amount of leftovers we have before we spend money on more food, so please accept my apology for the monotony of my lunches so far this week.

A few hours later I needed a little something to get me through until my workout. I munched on some Emerald Cocoa Roasted Almonds.

If you have never tried them, they are delicious! They also help to satisfy your sweet tooth.

I headed straight to the gym after work and got in 4.0 mile run followed by some leg strengthening workouts. You can read about the workout here.

Off to shower and head to watching my Wolfpack lose another game of basketball. :(

Maybe if you cheer for them it will help! Pretty please??

A free cup of Oikos yogurt is always a wonderful way to start off the morning. That's right, I finally worked my coupons so that the yogurt was on sale and I had a $1 off coupon. I went with the Strawberry Greek Yogurt this morning, it was delicious!

Today I had to run for 40 minutes. I was having a hard time looking forward to it because I was dreading the treadmill. I decided to switch up my workout.

0.30 miles at 7.3 pace
0.70 miles at 6.8 pace
Repeat 3 more times
0.30 miles at 7.3 pace
The last bit I ran at a 6.5 pace to cool down.

This really helped my workout go by much quicker. It really helps to switch up a "regular" run sometimes to make it not so boring and monotonous.

After I completed my run I went and did some strength training. You can read about my full workout here. No reason to bore you with it twice! :)

I love to workout my arms. I have never had a strong upper body, so since I have finally been seeing improvement I get really psyched knowing I have an upper body workout day.

I strongly dislike working out my lower body. I have no idea why! I think it has to do with the fact that running takes so much out of my legs already.

GOAL for this week: find new workouts to excite me about working out my legs. I will try to post a new workout each day to go along with my goal.

My first leg workout is set for tomorrow, so be on the lookout!

I had dinner plans set up for tonight with a new friend of mine, but she had to stay late at work so I was forced to pull some leftovers out of the refrigerator.  I ended up having some leftover lasagna my mom brought up for me this weekend. It was not the best nutritionally sound meal, but for tonight it did the trick.

Do you ever have nights where you just have to eat whatever you have? I would have had a dinner prepared but was already counting on going out to dinner.

Off to watch the Olympics! GO USA!! I am watching men's Ice Hockey right now, of course I am pulling for USA, but secretly I'm also pulling for Canada. :)

Happy President's Day! Working with the stock market finally came in handy today, and I got a day off! I also took a rest day today from working out because my body was so tired and soar from the past few days of exercise.

The day started out with a 100 calorie English muffin with eggs and a small amount of cheese.

Washed down with half a glass of cranberry juice.

I spent most of my day working on getting the apartment cleaned, organizing my week ahead, and prepping for dinner tonight.

Barbecue Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
-1 whole wheat pizza crust (or dough)
-1 cup pizza sauce
-BBQ sauce
-1 cup low fat mozzarella cheese
-4 ounces cooked chicken breast

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cook the chicken breast.
3. Roll out the whole wheat dough, or take out your already made pizza crust.
4. Spread out pizza sauce until crust is covered.
5. Add chicken to pizza crust
6. Spread cheese over top
7. Drizzle barbecue sauce over top.
8. Bake for 12-14 minutes (if using pre-baked crust). Bake 20 minutes (if using un-cooked pizza dough)

It was delicious! It is even boyfriend approved, which means just about everyone will enjoy it!

Off to finish the laundry and watch In the Line of Fire.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day. I started my day by babysitting at my church per usual. It was a slow 5 hours today, I guess no one was in the mood to bring their kids to church on Valentine's Day.

After I finished at the church I headed to the trail to get in my run for the day. It was a good run overall, I was a little stiff to begin with but after about a mile in I finally started to feel better.

I came back home, showered, and got ready for a lovely dinner out with the boyfriend.

Wes and I pre dinner. Don't we look cute? :)

Of course, we had to get pictures with the kitties before we left.

As you can tell he was very excited to have his picture taken.

Izzy could not sit still for more than 3 seconds, so this is the best we could do.

We had reservations at P.F. Changs. We have been there every year for Valentine's day, and this marks the 6th one we have celebrated together.

The meal started out with some yummy Calamari for an appetizer.

I apologize for the sub-par photograph, the lighting was not good in the restaurant and when I tried to take it with the flash it was even worse.

Dinner was Chicken Chow Fun. I barley dented the platter and most of it was carried out in a to-go bag, but it was delicious!

This picture came out much better than the first.

We just got home and are settling in to watch a Neftlix movie. The boyfriend is letting me pick the movie since it is Valentine's Day.

I made some of his favorite chocolate chip cookies. Don't worry, I only had two.

Please don't think less of me for this calorie filled Valentine's Day. It will be back to the normal eating tomorrow.

I apologize for not posting yesterday, we didn't get back here till about 12:30 am and I was really tired. We went to see Valentine's Day, I thought it was cute. It was funny too so I think the boyfriend enjoyed it as well, it's not completely a girl movie.

I started off today with a lovely workout, which you can read all about here.

I was happy to be able to get back to the gym after feeling pretty cruddy all week long. I am still feeling a little sick, but I have come a long way since this all began on Tuesday.

Guess what...

It snowed here again last night! It was the perfect snow, it covered the grounds but not the roads. I enjoy snow but I hate when it keeps you inside all weekend.

After I got back from the gym I tried my very first batch of Pumpkin Oatmeal.

Ingredients:
-2/3 cup oatmeal
-1/2 cup low fat milk
-2 spoon fulls of pumpkin
-a few pinches of brown sugar

It was pretty good. I think I was missing something though, If any of you all eat this pretty regularly, what do you typically put in your pumpkin oatmeal?

I am off to get in the shower and get ready to go out to dinner. We are taking my Dad out for his 60th birthday party! It should be a fun night :) I'll be back later tonight! Have a WONDERFUL Saturday!