WIAW & WOD

So. Many. abbreviations in that title.

It was 54 degrees here in Baltimore when I woke up this morning, and I couldn’t help but be a bit sad when I walked outside with a fleece on and realized that I was almost too warm. Warm is nice in summer spring and even fall, but come winter, this girl wants some snow.

Before I give you my WIAW info, let’s do a quick Elf for Health update shall we? Yesterday the challenge was to go makeup free, and due to already being late to work as it was, I nailed it.

perdy.

Today the challenge is to work out with a partner which is possibly my least favorite thing in the entire world. Maybe I can grab Andrew for some partnered abs? I already plan on doing this 15(ish) minute workout at the gym after work…

It’s one of my newly made-up favorites. If you don’t have a row machine, substitute about 3 – 3:30 mins of some other form of cardio.

I was a bit more successful this time around at tracking my ‘What I ate Wednesday’ as far as pictures go… not perfect, but better. Here we go.

Breakfast was plantain pancakes topped with almond butter and my apple/cranberry sauce that I made another batch of this past weekend.

When will I get sick of plantain pancakes? Probably never. Oh and I had coffee of course.

Mid-morning snack was these guys:

Not the ‘cleanest’ when it comes to almonds – they have some flavoring crap thrown in there – but I still love them. Lunch was a fail as I got back from getting gas and shoved my face, forgetting to take pictures. I ate an apple, a sweet potato with chicken sausage, and a small side salad.

A little later I got hungry again (weird) and ate some carrots which were boring because I ran out of hummus. And in case you were wondering, 2 pm in my cube is always tea time for me. Always.

The good/bad news? It was a coworker’s birthday yesterday, and an amazing homemade chocolate chip cookie cheesecake was being passed around the office. I couldn’t say no, there was no way. In the midst of my intoxicated sugar high I realized on my very last bite that I should snap a picture of the delicious concoction – it doesn’t do it justice. Not even close.

From work it was straight to the gym, and on the trip from gym to home (about a 20 minute drive) I snacked on this marvelous combination:

I’ve found that the later in the day that I work out, the less hungry I typically am for dinner. When I got home I munched on some celery and tuna (weird combo I know) while I cooked my plantain pancakes for the next morning.

And of course, throughout the day, as much water as I could remember to drink.

Exciting stuff huh? If you’re in search of new paleo recipes, I found this awesome looking meatloaf recipe over on Jessi’s blog – I hope to whip it up within the next week, it looks simple enough. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty ready for the weekend. Here’s to an awesome one-

Cheers –

K

Trying it out - WIAW

For awhile now my pretend publicist and longtime friend Danielle, has been pestering me to throw together a What I Ate Wednesday post for you all. It's a popular Wednesday topic on the Healthy Blogosphere, and while I don't fully consider myself a Healthy Living Blogger, well, I try sometimes.

So I woke up this morning and said heck, I'll give it a shot.

You want to see what I ate today? Here we go.

Every morning starts with these little guys. And while they aren't food, I personally find them important. Calcium, vitamin C and Biotin (for beautiful, luscious hair).

Next up is my favorite breakfast that I discovered while trying the 21 day sugar detox - Plantain Pancakes. I prepare them almost every night before bed by blending two eggs, a plantain and cinnamon, and then frying those bad boys up in coconut oil.

Smother with almond butter and enjoy.

And of course, this is always a staple. Black coffee.

Here's where things get tricky. When my day got crazy and I started running around from work to errands to meetings to home to working out (that was my day in a nutshell) I stopped taking pictures. Hunger overtook my brain, and I stuffed my face before I could snap a beautiful shot of my lunch. So for the rest of the day, you get a list:

-Mid-morning snack: almonds and a banana
-Lunch: one of those Naked Vegetable Smoothies (it was a tomato blend and I didn't love it) and are you ready for this? - a cold acorn squash stuffed with tuna salad.

WHAT?

I know, it sounds gross, but I actually LOVED it. The tuna salad was simply a packet of tuna mixed with mustard, hot sauce, and chopped up carrots. I'm pretty sure most people would think this is the grossest combo in the world but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I'm not sorry.

-Mid-afternoon snack: chocolate animal crackers, an apple, and peppermint tea.
-Dinner: A sweet potato with an egg and a side of veggies.

As you can see, I try to stay fairly paleo, but don't kill myself over it. I would call this a fairly normal day of food for me, outside of the of the odd squash/tuna combo. Not the most exciting blog post, but hey maybe next time I try a WIAW I can slow myself down and take some more pics?

I also wrapped up the end of the October Challenges (cannot believe that November is on Friday) that I committed myself to - today I achieved this:

250 squats - never thought I could do it. It definitely gave me more of a respect for air squats, if nothing else. And a little more toneage in the arm department, thank you pushups.

I have a slight feeling I'm being chased by one of those fall colds that seems to nail everyone at some point, and am going to take a shot of airbourne and head to bed. Let me know thoughts on my first WIAW, if you think I'm off my rocker, or if you never want to see one again.

Hope Wednesday was fabulous, cheers my friends!

K

something that never happens

Sometimes I forgot how hungry running makes me. And then I run 20 miles on a Tuesday night, and find myself eating everything in sight come Wednesday.

No joke, if I would have participated in What I Ate Wednesday (should I? thoughts?) you would all most likely be appalled yet hopefully impressed.

I have something to show you guys:

I reset my watch after the first 10 mile loop for sanity reasons.

Comes out to a 7:59 pace.

This was surprising to me. Not necessarily the pace, I knew I had that pace in me, but the consistency. I’m still not the best at holding a pace, and holding a pace for 20 miles in row… that’s just mind-blowing to me.

I definitely can't say that I felt great. I felt good the first half, decent the next 5 miles, and defeated the last 5. When my watch hit 20 miles I’m not sure I had one more mile left in me.

I definitely have a stress fracture in my right foot. It’s not as bad as the one in my left foot that I had back in January, but it’s there, and I certainly felt it at times. Yet my concern at this point isn’t necessarily the stress fracture – I’ll ice the crap out of that bad boy and continue to stay away from high heels, etc. My concern is the way that I'm subconsciously compensating because of the stress fracture.

Let’s just say that my right hamstring is far from happy with me. Time to invest in a compression wrap. Any suggestions? In the meantime, I shall wear these guys to work:

I have 2.5 weeks to hold a low mileage and pamper the sh*t out of my body, excuse my French. I’m talking stretching/foam rolling/icing/compressing/lay by the pool on the cruise ship to the max. 

this pool may just be the key to my healing.

The plan is to do that, toe the start line in DC on 10/27, and hope we can make it all 26.2.

Anyways, there’s your run-date. Outside of running, my plank/squat/push-up challenges have been going well, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this on pinterest last night….

Let's be honest, no one looks sexy doing a plank...

One last thing. Starbucks is doing something pretty cool through tomorrow, and I wanted to share:

It's amazing what a free cup of coffee can do to lift someone's spirits. You never know what the person behind you in line may have going on in their life - it could be something as large as being part of the Government furlough, or as small as their fantasy team having a bad week. Regardless, spread the good, come together, love each other.

Cheers, and Go Bears!

Kait