Giveaway winner + more giveaways to enter

Good morning! Quickly, before I announce the winners of the giveaway I had last week, here's my breakfast.

-banana bread with PB (didn't turn out as well as I hoped because I was out of baking soda!)
-cottage cheese
-a sliced plum

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I know I'm a few days late selecting a winner for my Nut Clusters giveaway, but here it is.

"I would like to try these products for the simple fact that the name Nut Clusters sounds dirty and makes me want to say "that's what she said". Is that inappropriate or is it a good enough reason? Haha"

Congratulations to Michelle, who also won my last giveaway! I promise this was randomly generated!


But it's OK because Michelle is such an awesome blogger! :) And yes, that is definitely a good enough reason! Haha!

And for the second winner of two coupons for nut clusters The Skinny Plate was selected who said:

"Would love to try these. Nuts are great snack."

Please send me your addresses and I'll put them in the mail.

You can e-mail me at violingrad19 [at] yahoo [dot] com

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Here are some more giveaways happening in the blog world:

Leah from Simply Fabulous is giving away a bottle of GlamEyes mascara!

RuntotheFinish is giving away gluten free vegan Agape nutrition bars. These things look amazing!

Healing With (Raw) Juices is giving away raw chia seeds! I've wanted to try these for so long!

OK, I'm off for another run. Hoping it goes well! Have an awesome Friday and Saturday everyone! A good friend of mine is coming into town tonight, so I'm packing her up from the airport and hanging out with her! I'm so excited!! And tomorrow I have two gigs to play (a wedding and a formal event of some sort) as well as a lesson to teach, then in the evening one of my friends is having his birthday get together/hang out and I'll still be wanting to spend time with my out-of-town friend. So I might be away tomorrow but hopefully back on Sunday after the zoo race! :)

The ups and downs of life are a funny thing.

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments on yesterday's post! They really mean so much to me, I could not even tell you! I am so glad to be a part of the blog world!

Today went much better! I think my bf and I realized that we had both let things slip in terms of making sure the other one felt appreciated and loved in this relationship. The discussion we had yesterday was very good, even if it was hard, and I think we both feel closer to each other today! I honestly feel like I'm a better person around him, and I love his companionship and constant support of me. I am blessed to be dating him and I can't imagine us breaking up. Therefore, I am going to be more intentional about making sure he knows how much I care about him and how valuable he is to me. This doesn't mean that we don't still have some differences to work through, but I think that we're coming at it from a much better angle to resolve those things.

And on a related note, I'm really proud of myself for not even once--at all--having thoughts of restricting through all of this! In the (recent) past, I've had those thoughts but I haven't acted on them--despite the strong temptation. And in the farther past, this is exactly the thing that would feed disordered thoughts. I'm very pleased about that--like I said, I haven't actually struggled with that for a while, but this is the first time that those thoughts haven't even showed up! :)

So here's the yummy food I've been eating.

Yesterday's breakfast was a great bowl of oatmeal with PB, raisins, flax, pumpkin and cottage cheese:

And a whole plum (I had already eaten most of it--sorry!)


Then, while I was baby-sitting I had one chocolate chip muffin that the mom said I was welcome to--it was delicious!!

I slept in a bit more today but still got less than 7 hours of sleep. Surprisingly though I felt OK and I went on a 5.5 mile "run". (Remember my running is short segments with a lot of walking in between.) It was great though, and I felt awesome afterwards! I have that 5K at the zoo on Sunday, so I think I'm going to do one more "long" run tomorrow and then rest on Saturday (which is a VERY busy day for me anyway, so it works well.)

Yesterday night I made a delicious dinner/snack of sauteed zucchini and EVOO topped with Sabra spinach and artichoke hummus! I think it's a new flavor and I love it!


Speaking of hummus, check out this awesome giveaway to win some free tubs of it!

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Yesterday I got my first ever package from FoodBuzz!! I got ridiculously excited upon opening them! Woohoo!

(I apologize for the blurry pictures!)

So far I have only tried the Whole Wheat loaf and it is excellent! I have been enjoying it--many pieces of it!--topped with cheddar cheese and avocado like this:

And then with spinach too like this:

It also makes excellent sandwiches, such as this one with veggie "bologna", cheese, avocado and spinach:

For a non-traditional breakfast this morning I had the same thing (finished the avocado--so sad!) and had mushrooms and carrots with hummus also.


And with coffee. (By the way, yes my plates are always perched precariously on the edge of my computer desk, where I'm eating while either reading blogs or doing e-mail!)


The bread is so delicious and I am very much looking forward to trying the other loaf soon! Thanks FoodBuzz!!

My bf and I went on a real date to get dinner at Chik-Fil-A (my first time ever!! I got the char grilled sandwich and fries and I loved it! It seems A LOT better than most fast food places!) and to see "The Hangover" which looked good and was still showing in theatres. It was hilarious (minus a few raunchy scenes!) and I actually really enjoyed it!

We sneaked these in and I had quite a few. (Like definitely more than one serving...so good!) This has been kind of a major choclate week for me!

Finally, I've been snacking on many Shapers whole grain chips (black bean and salsa flavor!) because I fund big bags at Big Lots for $1.80! They're very comparable to Sun Chips in their nutritional facts and I've been enjoying them frequently!

(Thank you Google Images!)

Here's one more great giveaway:

AnAppleADay is giving away Tropical Traditions coconut oil to cook with! I've wanted to try this for so long because I've read about it frequently in the blog world.

Good night everyone!

Good run! And a horrible meal!

Yay! I'm pretty proud of myself. I went out tonight around 7:30pm, just to get a run in, no matter how short, since I really wasn't in the mood to run at all. Well, for some reason I was able to run much longer than I usually can and I ended up being out for 1 hour and 20 minutes, including two 20 minute running segments (plus many shorter ones, in fact most of tonight was running!!) I don't know how far it was or my speed, but I do know that I ran farther than I ever have and I'm honestly really proud of myself for not giving up, even though it doesn't come naturally to me! I'm trying hard not to compare myself also, because I know that running for 20 minutes at a time in the blog world isn't very much! I had made a new play list (Caitlin inspired me to mix things up!) and in the words of Jimmy Eat World (one of my favorite songs ever!):

Hey, Don't write yourself off yet.
It's only in your head you feel left out,
Or looked down on.
Just try your best,
Try everything you can.
And don't you worry what they tell themselves
When you're away.

[Chorus]

It just takes some time,
little girl, you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything, everything will be just fine,
Everything, everything will be alright. (alright)

Hey, You know they're all the same.
You know you're doing better on your own, (on your own)
So don't buy in.
Live right now.
Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's good enough (good enough)
For someone else.

[Chorus x2]

Hey, don't write yourself off yet.
It's only in your head you feel left out, (feel left out)
Or looked down on.
Just do your best, (just do your best)
Do everything you can. (do everything you can)
And don't you worry what their bitter hearts (bitter hearts)
Are gonna say.

This part is my very favorite of all, because it's so true and such a good reminder:

Live right now.
Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's good enough (good enough)
For someone else.

Anyway, before the run, I had a lot of carbo-licious good eats. Hah! The first part of my day wasn't exactly the healthiest ever. Here we go.

Breakfast was a bowl of two kinds of cereal with half a banana and a spoon of PB.

The dry mix, with ground flax sprinkled on top:


And with 1/2 a banana, PB, and milk added--much better!


And with my beloved coffee. Better still!


After church I had a wheat-ish (they're never actually whole grain, are they?) bagel with cream cheese and a Luna bar in my car. I have had WAYYY too many of these--like 5 in the past 3 days! (All this flavor which is my favorite!) I don't do moderation. But I don't feel too bad about these, especially because they're low glycemic, so they really don't adversely affect my blood sugar. In fact, they keep me full for a long time!)


Then I bought a frozen yogurt from a new shop in town on a whim just because. It was OK, but it was very plain and really over priced. ($3.20 for a small without mix-ins--definitely not worth it!) It said it had live and active cultures, so I'm going to take that and run with it, at least in terms of how I didn't waste my money.


And I went to a local Italian street festival with a friend where I had a HUGE slice of thin crust cheese pizza. It was sooooo good! :) No picture of that either. Sorry.

After running tonight I was craving brussel sprouts. Go figure. I'm so weird! But I had probably about 8 of these.


And a few minutes later when the real hunger set in, I had (yet another!) rice bowl.


Same basic idea as the ones I've already blogged about:

-brown rice
-zucchini w. tofu
-1/2 can of tuna
-rest of the avocado (but I have another one! Woo! Expect more of these! :)
-cheddar cheese
-salsa

Seriously, this is the easiest, most customizable meal and it's really healthy (and cheap!), too! You might be seeing more of these, just to warn you. ;-)

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Now for the weekend recap. I had a busy day on Saturday. After teaching in the morning (9-12:15, including driving times during which, yes, I had another Luna bar!) I could have gone home but I only had a little time and it would have been extra driving, so I decided to stay out and hang out killing time at Starbucks and Whole Foods. I'm terrible. Hehe! I got a large black coffee at Starbucks and for some reason drinking it was even more pleasurable than usual. I got tingles through out my body and goosebumps all over my skin. Who knows?! But I seriously love coffee. It's like a spiritual experience for me, and very calming!

Onto Whole Foods, where in addition to picking up a few groceries, I also bought myself lunch (which I need to STOP doing simply for budget purposes! But seriously, this came to a little over $8 and I'd spend at least that much getting a Quizno's sandwich. When I'm out and about this seems like a reasonably good option, even as far as price as concerned, as certainly superior in the nutrition department!)

-tikka chicken (lower left)
-curried chick peas (far right)
-Indian tofu (upper left)
-lemon cilantro tofu (upper right)
-steamed broccoli and peppers (throughout)

Anyway, I then taught from 2:30-4:45 and came home to make work-related phone calls from 5:15pm to 7:15pm non-stop. (I had like 9 people to contact!)

And finally, on Saturday night, the bf had a show from 9pm-1am and we got there by 8pm. (I didn't want to be out that late and definitely should have driven my own car!) But I was HANGRY at that point and I needed to eat, but the place said it would be a super long time for our food. Well, this wasn't an option for me, so we politely told them that I was with the band and eventually I could order a salad.

It looked promising:


But honestly, it was HORRIBLE! It's never a good sign when you're expecting to be sick after a meal! The veggies were soggy, the dressing was way too heavy, the goat cheese seemed old and worst of all: I think I saw two gnats in my food!!! I should have sent it back at that point (diseases? Hello?) but I'm the ever way-too-polite girl who didn't want to make a fuss, so I choked down as much of it as I could and luckily got full because it had a lot of fat in it. But it was nasty! (And by the way, I didn't get sick!)

What about you? Do you have a hard time voicing needs, especially complaints?

I am NOT good at this, obviously from the above example and I am trying to work on it. I even have a hard time bringing up issues to my roommates, like if they owe me money or something. I rarely ever send back anything at a restaurant because I feel bad, like I'm being rude.

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Well, I got another sample in the mail this weekend:

I can't wait to try them!

Finally, check out this rockin' giveaway of some really delicious food stuffs!

OK, it's 2am. I should go to bed. Good night, all!

Happy Saturday!

Good morning!

I woke up very hungry for some reason (frequently happens after strength training) so I made breakfast right away. I had a bowl of oat bran with:

-organic ground flax
-1 chopped fig
-1/2 a peach
-1/3 C (?) cottage cheese
-PB

And with coffee:

Right after blogging this morning, I'm off to teach at one studio in the morning and another studio in the afternoon. Only about 3 1/2 hours of teaching, but there will be a lot of driving, as there are on most of my Saturdays.

Yesterday I made another fabulous lunch of a rice bowl with tons of toppings:

This included:

-brown rice
-last of the sauteed cabbage
-1/2 can of tuna
-1/2 sauteed zucchini with tofu
-cheddar cheese
-avocado
-salsa

I'm out of salsa, so I need to get that, and today I plan to have this meal again with the remainder of the tuna and the zucchini. :) It's REALLY tasty!


My sweet tooth hit HARD yesterday night so at first I had a banana with PB.

Then I was still craving sweets so I had the other half of a cupcake that I bought from a local bakery that had their $1 cupcake day on Wednesday. (I never blogged about the other half, eaten on Wednesday night.) I believe this flavor was vegan too, although I ordered it simply because it was so chocolatey! :)



Oooh! It stands up. (*I'm so proud*-haha!)


And another random snack from yesterday:


Plus, look what came in the mail! A free sample!


It might have to get eaten today.

Well, I'm running late to go shower and teach, so I'll see you all tonight to read and comment! Hope you all have a FABULOUS Saturday! :)

New and different food, finally.

Thanks for your comments on yesterday's post about my running frustrations. As soon as I finish this post, I'm heading out again to run. I'll monitor my heart rate again, to see if it's still just as high as it has been. I'm doing the 3rd week of the "Couch Potato to 5K" running plan which means that each workout is a 5 minute warm up, followed by a 90 second running interval, then a 90 second walking interval and then a 3 minute running interval and a 3 minute walking interval. You repeat this one time for a total of about 18 minutes and then finish with a 5 minute cool down walk, although mine is always a lot longer, because I find myself far from home and I have to get back. :) Plus, I plan to do upper body strength training at my gym today, so I'll end the walk/run at my gym (which is about 15 minutes away from home).

Anyway, on to my food and as promised in the title of this post, it's actually new and exciting! :)

On Wednesday afternoons I now teach violin from 2pm to 8pm with an hour break from 3-4, so I will probably routinely treat myself to Whole Foods, since I teach about a 5 minute walk from there! :)

This included:

-spinach
-dandelion
-Asian tofu (upper left)
-chicken salad (upper middle)
-sweet potatoes (upper right)
-two kinds of quinoa salad (middle-ish)
-antipasto salad (lower middle)
-balsamic marinated mushrooms (lower left)
-Parmesan cheese sprinkled all over!

Then one of my students brought me this:

This particular family is very close to my heart. Their child, who I teach, is a very bright little girl who is also a perfectionist, and very hard on herself, just like I was at her age! I think the ABSOLUTE best part of my job is having a lot of young girls look up to me! I have had MANY parents tell me that their child loves having me as their violin teacher! I want to be the best possible example to them that I can be and I want them to know that I care about them as wonderful individuals, not just as my violin students! I want to give them the tools through music, to succeed in life, using skills that I can teach them such as mental toughness, persistence, patience, self-forgiveness, work ethic, and determination. I care about my students so much that I send many hours during the week thinking about them, their needs, their personalities, and how I can best help them. And the return of knowing that I have and am continuing to inspire them is the best pay off ever!

What about you? What is the BEST part of your job?

Ok, back to food stuff now. Sorry, in case you couldn't tell, I have a passion for teaching! :)

On Wednesday night I made myself a bunch of leftovers.


This was the other Indian-spiced sausage from Whole Foods (needed to be eaten!), leftover butternut squash (that was also about to go bad!) and some more sauteed cabbage/tofu/red pepper. With a glass of white wine. I've really been going through a wine phase recently. Oh well, there are many worse things I could be consuming, right? ;-)


Then yesterday morning I woke up thinking about an omelet so that's exactly what I made. And what an omelet it was!!

This included:

-1 egg, 1 egg white
-sauteed mushrooms and spinach (with garlic)
-avocado
-cheddar cheese!

with salsa on the side!

Along with coffee and a banana!

Then I caught up on blogs and for the first time in a long time my Google reader was empty!


For a late lunch (after I ran!) yesterday I made this creative concoction!


Layered:

-brown rice (can't really see it)
-sauteed cabbage
-one can of tuna
-melted Cheddar cheese
-avocado
-salsa all around

This was honestly SOOO good! I'm going to do something similar to it today later on! (Brown rice needs to be used up before it goes bad!)

I definitely had TWO Luna bars while out teaching yesterday. I'm addicted to the chocolate raspberry kind! They're like a decadent brownie!

And I came home to this sugar free fudgesicle:

(While reading blogs.)

Finally, last but not least, my most scrumptious breakfast this morning was this bowl of oatmeal:


-cottage cheese
-almond butter (finished the jar! Not even close to the 11 servings it said was in there! *smirks*)
-a few remaining raspberries
-leftover nut mix with a little sugar that was in the bottom of the bag sprinkled on
-freeze-dried banana and pineapple Gerber baby mini-fruits! These:



Don't judge. I found them at Big Lots yesterday and they were $1.00! I figured that they'd be good on oatmeal (I was right!) and the don't have any added sugars!

Don't forget to enter my Nut Clusters giveaway! If nothing else, the name of them is so dirty that you just HAVE to want to try them, right? *Thanks to Michelle for pointing out the innuendo here! Hah!*

Finally, congratulations to Caitlin for all of her successes and life changes. This woman inspires me so much! I totally believe in her Operation Beautiful campaign and her attitude through all of her hard work is so positive! I admire everything about her!

Alrighty, I'm off to workout then I'm teaching just two students later on, so I have a pretty light day today.

Happy Friday everyone!