Longest cold ever!

Good morning! I'm blogging after waking up at 11:30am, because I purposely let my body sleep A LOT due to a cold that is still hanging on. It's so annoying, and I'm a little worried because I think it might be turning into a sinus infection. My ears still feel clogged and I'm a little dizzy, no matter how much sleep I've had. I REALLY don't want to have to go to the doctor for antibiotics, but I might have to. However, I've already been there *twice* in the past month, first for antibiotics for my finger infection and then for general blood work to try and figure out way my periods are still very irregular, even 6 years after anorexia. So we'll see; hopefully I don't have to go.

Anyway, here's some food I ate over the weekend and today for breakfast. I'm not able to take too many pictures over the weekend because I'm usually around a lot of people and I'm still keeping this blog pretty private. Even my boyfriend doesn't know about it. I wonder sometimes if that's weird and if I should just tell him, but most of my friends don't share my passion for healthy eating and blogging.

Breakfast today was a bowl of oat bran (which I like more than oatmeal) with 1 peach, 1/3 C ff cottage cheese, 2 different kinds of PB, and pumpkin stirred in. With coffee and skim milk.


On Saturday I played a really fancy wedding gig. It was so nice and the clients really appreciated me! They thanked me and tipped me well and were such sweet people that I wanted to play exceptionally well for them. It turned out so perfectly! On my way to that gig, I bought a small Quizno's turkey and cheese sub.


Doesn't it look tasty?!

Plus a free sample of their chocolate chip cookie!


And in the car while driving I had this:


Earlier on Saturday, after the 5K run, my bf and I went to Denny's where I got an egg white veggie omelet with dry grits and dry wheat toast, and a glass of FF milk that turned into probably 16 ounces! So good! And I was craving milk after the run! (No pictures-sorry.)

I also had half of this bar, that was given out after a race LAST weekend that I also ran.



As a heads up, you can request a free sample of Kashi cereal here.

You can also get a free sample of Nature Valley Nut Clusters here.

As for a giveaway, you can enter to win a Wanchai Fairy "stay-at-home" prize pack here, including Chinese food, Asian inspired rice bowls, chopsticks and bamboo place mats!

I'm off to go to something productive. I need to practice for a bit and shower, maybe take a walk and hit the bank, then I'm teaching for two hours and I have a rehearsal tonight. Here's to hoping that this cold or sinus infection or whatever it is goes away SOON!

Hope everyone has a lovely Monday!

BLAB: Running

For any new readers, BLAB stands for BLogging ABout and then I always have some topic which I just feel like rambling on about for a while. After all, it is my blog, right? ;-)

So I ran a 5K race this morning, but when I say "ran" I use that term very loosely. For some reason, running for long periods of time (which isn't long at all--I'm talking like more than 10 minutes) is very hard for me, despite the fact that I work out fairly regularly and I am in reasonably good health. I'm not even running that fast--about a 10 minute mile pace, which I can keep up for only a mile on a good day. I'm wondering if you lovely, beautiful and talented ladies have any advice for me. Let me elaborate: I can use an elliptical for 60+ minutes non-stop at a reasonable speed/resistance/incline. I can bike for 60+ minutes no problem without stopping. I play racquetball regularly for at least an hour or two. I am still active in gymnastics once in a while. I do strength training quite often. I can walk (even briskly) literally all freaking day. I'm in pretty decent shape. But when I start running, my heart rate goes up very high very quickly. I get a cramp in my side (regardless of what or what time I last ate) and I pretty much am forced, by my body, to slow down after just a few minutes, no matter how slow the jog is.

Does anyone have any ideas on why this might be?!?!

This is really becoming a major source of frustration for me, because I desperately want to be able to run, for myself, for exercise and for fun. Also, my boyfriend is a natural runner and I think it would be fun to be able to more or less keep pace with him. I also wrestle with shin splints, but that's not the main problem. Pain I can deal with; frustration is MUCH harder. I DO listen to music to pump myself up (play list coming soon!), I psyche myself up positively (which also really helps with drowning out my inner critic who is a malicious liar to me!) and I do try and eat reasonably well before hand, etc etc.

I've found one online "training" program for a couch potato to 5K (non-stop) in 2 months. You can view that plan here. I think it is very helpful in terms of increasing endurance. But for myself I know that I'm going to have to extend the plan, maybe spending two or three weeks on each individual week of the plan that they list. My boyfriend tells me not to get frustrated with myself and to be patient as my endurance improves, but really, I'd love to be able to run the whole way with out stopping! I can seriously only do the first week so far, which is alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes (I double it and go for 40-45 minutes at a time). I'm moving onto the 2nd week come Monday. (2nd week of the plan is 90 seconds running with 2 minutes walking to recover, alternating for 20-40 minutes).

Anyway, that's my rant/vent/whatever. I would REALLY APPRECIATE comments, advice, encouragement, and support as I keep running. :)

Secondly, I want to get a heart rate monitor. I know that Garmin and Polar ones are the most famous. Right now they're a little out of my price range. I went to Target and looked at what they have, which is several products in the Sportline brand. Has anyone tried these? Are they worth it? They look comparable to the Garmins and Polars. They still track heart rate, calories, speed, time, and distance, which is really all I'm interested in.

The funny thing is that despite my slow walk/run time (which I'm not posting--sorry folks!), I still got a trophy from the race this morning, because I was the only female in the 20-24 year old age range, so therefore I finished first. Haha! But it's a cool trophy, so I'll roll with that. :)

Lastly, Peanut Butter and Jenny is giving away sampler packs of Kay's products. They all look delicious!

Now I'm off to shower, then go to a meeting for an upcoming community orchestra (starting in the Fall) that I will be working with, and then to play solo violin at a 3 hour long gig (wedding ceremony, cocktail hour and dinner!) So that's my Saturday. What are you all up to this weekend? Any exciting plans?

100th post!

Good evening everyone! I'm posting this at 2:30am--I am a night owl, but unfortunately I have to be up to run a 5K with my boyfriend at 6:30 (race at 9am). Oops, I was just out with friends for a couple of drinks (1 glass of red wine and 1 diet coke and vodka) and a big order of French Fries (no picture).

I just wanted to get a few pictures of my food from today up. I haven't been nearly as hungry as I normally am lately, really for an entire week or so now. I wonder what's up?

For breakfast I had a bowl of WF high fiber cereal, blueberry granola, FF milk and a bit of PB. Plus coffee with milk, of course.


Then I took another nap in the morning (trying to get over this cold) and ate aquick easy lunch of more tofu + veggies + PB. Topping it with Peanut butter really is the key. It's so delicious!

For a snack I had a bowl of grapes:


And I've been drinking a lot of a low calorie beverages lately, unintentionally, or rather intuitively I've been craving cold liquids, while still definitely consuming enough water as well.

This was an FRS low calorie packet mixed with water for after the gym today (workout = 35 minutes on the elliptical, 45 minutes of walking).


I'm so sorry for the fuzzy picture. I thought it was good enough, but I guess I was wrong. But you get the idea, and this was another lovely cold beverage for a hot day.

For dinner I had a slice of ww bread with hummus and full fat cheddar cheese, plus another slice of bread with PB and a whole red bell pepper on the side (my favorite!)

And earlier in the day I had a yogurt with cereal, and tonight after I got home I had another yogurt and about half of a large Starbucks pastry. Oops, but I had been well under my calories for today, so it's not really a problem at all.

Well, I'm off to get some laundry and then go to sleep! I'll see you all in the morning. It's always *SOOO* much fun to run a 5K on under 4 hours of sleep! Hah!

Relaxing day

Yay for being back to consistent blogging!

My boyfriend and I were planning on going to an amusement park today, but neither of us thought to check and make sure it was open today. Hah! We checked on-line for their hours before we left, and found out that the entire park was closed today. So much for that. FAIL. :)

It's OK though, because I'm getting over a cold and I still don't have a lot of energy today. Instead we played Scrabble and went to Red Robin for lunch. I got their BBQ whiskey chicken wrap. Forgive the Google images picture.


It was only OK. I should have asked for it without Ranch dressing, because I'm not a huge fan of it, but overall it was pretty tasty. I only had 1 half, plus a few bites of the other, some fries and the melon. I actually felt good, not stuffed, afterwards, and I was pleased.

Then I napped in the afternoon because I'm still trying to fight the cold. And for dinner I made myself a delicious pan of sauteed veggies (organic cabbage, red bell pepper, organic white onion, zucchini) and tofu, which I topped with PB. This isn't weird, right?


Delicious! And some low calorie organic Pomegranate Lemonade from WF, with a bite of a Starbucks M and M cookie for dessert. Truthfully, I had another chunk of the cookie, about as large, and several glasses of juice, but it only has 30 calories in 6 ounces, so I'm fine.


In blog news, check out these giveaways:

AnAppleADay has MetroMint water. I've wanted to try this for a long time!

Missy Maintains is giving away Dave's Killer Bread! The loaves look fantastic, with excellent nutritional stats.

One Frugal Foodie is giving away a gift package with a bunch of Pamela's Products.

I'm off to bed. It's 11:35pm, and I need to be up early (for me) to teach. And I'm really trying to take it easy to get over my cold.

So hard to blog consistently!

I'm so sorry about my multiple hiatuses. (hiati? I studied Latin and that should be correct...augh, I'm such a nerd!)

There's no excuse for my many days of not blogging. Yes, I've been busy with violin teaching and playing, and hanging out with my boyfriend and my other friends. I'm preparing for my first studio recital of all of my students. There will be about 15 private students of mine and I'll play at the end (upon request from some families). Plus there will be a reception afterward! I'm so excited for it!

Check out this cute picture posted at a place where I play violin.


Here are some totally random eats throughout several weeks. One of the things I try to do and therefore blog, is to eat a variety of foods, both healthy and fun. I crave a lot of veggies and stuff, but I also eat chocolate cake, go out with friends, etc etc. You'll see both.


This was a very balanced meal of ww bread, cheese, hummus, red peppers (my favorite!), broccoli and peas. Eat what you love, love what you eat!

One of my favorite bars!

I enjoyed this bread for a while. Overall lately, I've noticed myself craving carbs MUCH less. Fruit, bread, sugary things just are not sounding as appealing to me. Whatever. My body is pretty good about telling me what it needs.


Cheap red bell peppers is one of my favorite things about summer!


Broccoli with hummus. Yum!


They served this after a gig that I played, so of course I had to grab a piece. Free, and DELICIOUS! :)

I made this protein drink, with excellent nutritional facts from Whole Foods. I'm not going to lie though--it was pretty disgusting! I hate to be negative at all, and like I said, it was so healthy! I with is tasted a bit better. I mixed it with 1% milk and I managed to finish it all, but that's about it. Oh well. Live and learn.


I had some leftover pizza that my boyfriend brought home. Double this slice as part of a meal, and I had two big slices over the course of a few days. I love pizza but I rarely eat it, not because of any nutritional reason (well, maybe partially), but just because I never think to buy it for myself. Just not in that habit.


This bowl of tofu and sauteed veggies accompanied the pizza! :)


On a random day I was craving sweet potato fries so I bought a pack of Alexis ones from WF. They are so good. And I had carrots with hummus too.



Random bowl of oat bran with raisins, PB and carob chips. I've been feeling a lot better with MORE fat in my diet. I started experimenting with it, since I've been reading Heather Eats Almond Butter for so long. And I definitely fell better having upwards of 20 grams of fat at every meal and/or snack. I really think everyone's body is different because I know some people feel lethargic or even sick on a higher fat diet, but for me, I have much more energy and I don't struggle with low blood sugar as often then.


Bruggers Bagels: Herby Turkey sandwich. Try it! :)

Speaking of a higher fat diet, these are excellent to snack on!


This was really strange. I didn't DISlike it, but it was really hard to get used to. I'm not sure if I'd buy it again, but it wasn't that bad.

Well, I'm off to have a doctor's appointment to try and figure out why my periods are still totally irregular after 5+ years of recovery from an ED. Then I'm teaching and playing tonight, but I'll be back soon!