Concertizing and other fun stuff

Again, I am sorry for an extended absence. I really do miss you all! Recently, I have been preparing for a fairly large recital in Missouri and most of my attention has been on that. Additionally, I am now a part-time violin teacher at a local school here and have been trying to take care of clearances, FBI fingerprinting, a health check and more. So forgive me. I will still be blogging, but probably not until after March 20th.

However, rest assured that my blog world silence is only because my life is so full of exciting and wonderful opportunities right now! I am incredibly grateful for the work and experiences that I have now and will report back in a little over a week with stories of success and inspiration!

In the meantime, I'm trying to start running again, after an extended break because I had a VERY bad shin splint in my left leg only. I kind of suspect it was actually a stress fracture, as the pain radiated from my shin up to my knee and down to my big toe and top of my foot. I have tried to rest it. I took 3 weeks off entirely, and before that only ran twice since December. I just purchased insoles for my running shoes yesterday with a much higher arch and it seemed to be much better today on a 6-ish mile run. Only problem is that I have a huge blister, but the inserts are heat customizable, so hopefully that will be taken care of soon!

Aaaand....

I'm supposed to run my first half marathon on March 27th!! I have NO IDEA why I impulsively signed up for it, but I am determined to complete it. Even though I know that I am grossly under trained.

See Girl Run!! For fun and to prove it to myself!

Well, I hope that everyone's lives are as beautiful and wonderful as mine is right now, because life is truly a gift and an exciting one at that! Take care of yourselves while I'm away!

P.S. If you want an excellent book to read I'd suggest:

On opportunities and life.

Wow, the title sounds super serious, and I guess to a certain extent it is. I've had a lot on my mind recently (partly responsible for the running) and I've been doing a lot of thinking.

On the good news end of things, I had an AMAZING opportunity presented to me, as a violinist! I will be performing some works that a colleague of mine wrote at a university in Missouri in March! It's going to be very exciting, and I definitely have my work cut out for me in learning the pieces! (They are quite difficult!) I am super excited!

On the other end of things, I broke up with my bf over 2 months ago and we were going to remain friends, but now he is acting less and less like that's going to be possible, at least not for a very long time. I don't get it! You know who I am...why did you say that you were committed to remaining friends if you really didn't mean it? I know that I am partly responsible, because I've gotten a little emotional a few times and he feels like he's hurting me. But seriously, I'll be OK, even if I did miss him a little in a boyfriend way, while we are hanging out as friends. Whatever. I DON'T want to be that whiny little ex-girlfriend, so I'm giving him as much space as he needs. He knows my number whenever he wants to call.

Whew. Felt good to get that off my chest.

One of the (many) reasons I know that I am 100% over my eating disorder is that I haven't felt any need/urge to engage in any unhealthy behaviors over the break up and/or the general male population being slightly infuriating in the past few months! Yes, true, I'm exercising a lot to take my mind off things, but I'm eating plenty to make up for it, and I'm approaching exercise from a positive mental standpoint of "let's see what I can accomplish today" and/or training for my first 2 half marathons and I can honestly say that the thought of how many calories I've burned really almost never crosses my mind, except to make sure I'm getting enough calories. (I.e. extra large breakfasts before long runs, energy gels and/or honey packets during exercise, extra sleep to help my body repair, etc.)

OK, onward to one of my favorite topics: FOOD! :)
(And just a note to any new readers, this is NOT EVEN CLOSE to all of what I eat in a given day. I simply don't have time or inclination to take pictures of absolutely everything. Maybe one of these days it would be a fun project for the blog.)

Here is breakfast today, *x2* (as in 2 bowls roughly this size)

-frozen blueberries and blackberries on the bottom (hence the purple milk!)
-skim milk (unmeasured)
-Kashi GoLean original (unmeasured)
-PB (probably a bit more than a TB-not exactly sure)

*This bowl times 2* I was hungry after yesterday's workout which made me feel really bad ass:

I did all three triathlon sports! *What's the best workout you've gotten in recently?*

At my first day of swimming in God knows how long (like at least 4 years!), I was dying after just one time across the pool. I kept at it for 12 laps (300 meters) and then called it good. :)

So then I did about 30 minutes of arms and abs conditioning. **The former gymnast in me actually really loves sit-ups, push-ups, strength work, etc! Yes, I know I'm strange!**

Then, with a lot of extra time on my hands (I was barely teaching yesterday!) I hoped on a stationary bike and rode an easy 7 miles in roughly 33 minutes.

Got home (ate a Luna bar on the way home from the gym), grabbed this lunch of grilled cheese (full fat, of course!), avocado, hummus and spinach:


And drank this mixture:

Then I was off running, literally.

My church has a (small and informal) running group so I decided to check it out. Keep in mind that it's ~20 degrees here, and there was snow and ice all over the track! It made me feel very hardcore, like Dean Karnazes running over Antarctica! :)

I ran roughly 4.3 miles in a 55 minutes. My pace is slow. I'm OK with that. It was just cool to do all three triathlon events in the same day! My sister is a much better swimmer than myself, and we've talked about doing a sprint triathlon together. I think it would be super kick ass and I'm hoping that it'll happen over this summer! Nothing official yet that I'm training for! (Especially since I have A LOT of ground to make up in the swimming department!)

Anyway, onto some other food that was eaten recently.

Several breakfasts that are all quite similar. (I go through nut butter like it's my JOB!)

And lunches or snacks:


Lentils over sauteed veggies.


Much better when topped with hummus!

(I top PB bread with frozen berries--doesn't everyone?)

Finally, some recent running gear purchases:

(Super excited about this top! And by the way, Marshall's and T.J.Maxx are excellent for finding cheap but good workout clothes!)

And on a random note, I found some awesome washcloths at Target there's 6 of them for just $10! My roommates seem to have absconded with the ones that I had, so I bought these, as I can't find the ones I had!

Sorry for the really long post! Hopefully you made it through the whole thing!

Here's a few giveaways to enter:

Marlene's Lift Your Sole giveaway.

Oh Nuts giveaway.

Nathan's Hydration Belt.

Have a great day! I've got to get some practicing in!

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!

Recital success!

I know I haven't posted for a few days, but they've been a good few days. I've definitely kept busy! The most exciting thing that happened was my first ever studio recital on Sunday! Fourteen of my students performed a solo piece and I also played at the end. We had a very full house, with about 75 parents, relatives and friends in attendance! I had typed up and printed programs on fancy paper, but we quickly ran out of the 35 I had made. We even had to borrow chairs from the Subway sandwich shop next door! And my boyfriend recorded the whole recital on his laptop so I can even send a CD to my own parents, who live 2,400 miles away. Woohoo! I heard only positive feedback from the parents; they all thought it was a lovely event and thanked me for working hard to organize it! It was incredibly exciting! I can't share pictures due to privacy, but I did get several very cute pictures with my students and two of them gave me these beautiful bouquets.



Then on Tuesday I had a concert, for which the dress rehearsal was on Monday night. I was only playing one short piece, but it was still a lot of time of getting to the rehearsal and sitting around. The annoying part of it is that I had to reschedule my normal Tuesday night students, but most of the families are very understanding.

Anyway, here are some of my eats. I've really been trying to cut back on most sugars and I really feel much better. I've found that I'm really not wanting a lot of sugar anyway. I've even lost a couple of pounds, but that's not my primary focus.

Breakfast today:

2 Boca sausage links w. organic ketchup
sweet potatoes with PB
organic broccoli with hummus (you'll probably see this again!)
1/2 slice healthy homemade nanner bread w. PB
{there was coffee too, of course}

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A random snack yesterday (and eaten again today, but would be exactly the same picture) is pepper jack cheese on Kashi crackers. One of the most delicious things! {And I have a HUGE bag of leftover cheese from the recital! I got to take home sooooo much free food!}


And yes--you guessed it. The carrots and dip are also from the recital! :) I've been eating tons of carrots with three different kinds of hummus, in addition to that dip you see. I sill have lots of hummus and I am not complaining.

And how's this for a low-sugar breakfast?

2 Boca links
sweet potatoes
broccoli with PB {yes, I know I'm weird. PB goes on everything. Don't knock it 'til you try it!}

And wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I have so many breakfasts on my camera! Breakfast is always my biggest meal and then I pretty much graze throughout the day. And breakfast is always the easiest to take a picture of. So here's two more for you:


2 eggs, zucchini sauteed in EVOO, 1 slice nanner bread with PB.

As above, except with a peach instead of the banana bread. YUM! Note to self--buy more zucchini! Zucchini ranks up there with my favorite veggies, along with broccoli, snap peas, red bell peppers and carrots! What are your favorite veggies? What are your favorite raw ones versus cooked?


That loaf of banana bread fed me well all week! This was just another random snack...

...so was this! (The ever self-explanatory carrots and PB, my go-to snack!)


And a quick WF stop. (OK, there might have been a couple of these! GAH--I need to stop doing this! But I usually keep it to about $7 and that's really no more than I'd spend at Quizno's and less than for Chinese takeout. I'd prefer this healthy AMAZING stuff, any day! And sometimes, you're just hungry while you're out and about!) Anyway, this was garlicky greens, sweet potatoes, and a couple different kinds of tofu! Delicious!


Here's my last of those chocolate covered cherries my BF got me. Yes, they're pretty much just the best thing I've ever tasted!

Last, but certainly not least, I've been enjoying this delicious snack mix that I bought while I was at Target anyway. It's honestly not THAT unhealthy, and I've been preferring that it's higher in fat, lower in sugar and still very chocolatey! Of course, it's still more of a moderation food, but I've been pretty good about sticking to one serving at a time. {Because fat fills me up and keeps me full --and not wanting food-- for a long time!}


Well, I'm off to read in bed. I'll definitely comment in the morning. I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on!

Long day to practice!

Good morning! I'm going to put up a quick post and then get to practicing. I need to learn three pieces for a concert coming up very soon. I'm the only violinist in the group and they are quite difficult! Later today I'm teaching and rehearsing an opera.

I have a few more random meals to catch up on so here you go.

This is a Boca patty (mushroom mozzarella, I think?) "burger" with a bunch of sauteed zucchini and onions on the side.

Eaten while studying this:

And since I was still hungry:

Breakfast yesterday morning was a bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, pumpkin and carob chips. I'm all out of strawberries and they are another "MUST" purchase today. Fresh strawberries are one of my favorite foods ever!


I stopped by Starbucks before teaching for 6 hours yesterday to get a venti skinny caramel latte. It's nice to have something with milk (calories + protein) to sip, especially since sometimes I don't have any dinner break at all. On those days I'll bring a Naked Protein drink which has about 400 calories in the bottle, but yesterday I had 20 minutes for dinner so I grabbed a 6 inch Subway ham on wheat with Pepperjack cheese. Sorry, no picture though.

And a quick snack.

Yesterday night I went out with my boyfriend (3+ months and he's still wonderful, sweet, and amazing!) and I gt a Hoegaarden beer plus 5 chicken bites (sort of like chicken nuggets, but way better) and some pitas to dip in hummus and guacamole. It was a lot of food for how late it was, but it was delicious! No pictures, because I haven't told him about the blog.

Anyway, the point is that I am reminded again at how good our bodies are at taking care of us. This morning I made 2 Boca sausage links and a bowl of (completely plain-gasp!) oatmeal. I only used about 1/3 cup of oats and I couldn't finish it. So I didn't, because my body told me I was full. To be honest, satiety is still a relatively new concept for me. In my ED/DE years I just never got full which led to binging and then either feeling guilty or trying to purge (and feeling guilty again). Only recently (after I gained enough body fat and was eating enough ALL THE TIME) did I ever start to experience the feeling of fullness.

I only have these two pictures for you because my roommate came out to the kitchen and I couldn't get any more.


And lastly, during some of my travels, I got the chance to stop at this memorial of Flight 93. It crashed in Western Pennsylvania and they have a beautiful and seemingly sacred memorial on that ground. There is something incredibly chilling to know that the passengers on the plane KNEW they weren't going to survive, so they worked together to force the plane to crash into the ground there, instead of letting it make it to its destination of Washington D. C., which is where the terrorists were aiming for it to go.


In memory of each person who died.

They had a large wall to leave stuff in memory. None of it ever gets thrown away, and is instead removed when it reaches capacity and starts to get too old.

GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES OF ALL THE SELFLESS PEOPLE ON THAT PLANE THAT REFUSED TO LET THE TERRORISTS TAKE EVEN MORE LIVES.

Happy hump day! I'm off to practice!