Real Foods Challenge: Day 14

I know I said I wasn't going to mention my weight until the end of this challenge, but I really must do something to avoid gaining any more. My weight is climbing almost daily, and I'm past my "panic weight" of 137. This morning, I was 139.5. Fucking pistachios. And dates.

I used to snack on a piece of Ezekiel bread with nut butter; now I've been snacking on dates (way more than a serving) and nuts (again, more than one serving). They're just so small and not-filling that it's easy to get carried away. But I'm afraid to take them away, because then what will I eat?!

I know that common sense would tell me to just limit my portions of those foods. I've tried that, and I just seem to be incapable of stopping. I was actually thinking of counting my calories for the next two weeks of this challenge. I was browsing around SparkPeople today, and it made me miss logging my food in the nutrition tracker.

On the other hand, I've been doing really well maintaining my weight range without counting calories that I'm afraid to screw that up. I think I'll try counting tomorrow and see how that goes.

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So today is Valentine's Day. Jerry and I have never really celebrated it, simply because I'm too cheap ;)  I get mad when he wastes money on flowers or cards (on ANY day, not just V-day). When we were watching Grey's Anatomy on Thursday, though, all the characters kept eating chocolates--and I said to Jerry, "I want Valentine's Day chocolates! I'm always on a stupid diet for Valentine's Day, and I've never in my life gotten chocolates like that."

Then this morning, when Jerry got home from work, I said, "Thanks for the chocolates" (teasingly, because I knew he didn't have any).  He said, "What chocolates?" And I replied, "You know, the ones that husbands are supposed to buy their wives for Valentine's Day." So he went into the bedroom and brought out a huge, tacky, heart-shaped box of chocolates and a card. Hahaha, I was surprised--and so disappointed that I couldn't eat any of them!

They are going to sit unopened on my dresser until March 1st, when I'll probably eat all 14 oz. of them for breakfast ;)

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Tomorrow, Jessica isn't able to do our usual interval run, so I think I'll do it alone. It's hard to run fast outside when the ground is covered in snow, so I'm going to use the indoor track at our high school rec center. It's great for sprints, because you have to go around the track 12 times for one mile. So I'll sprint for a lap, then jog for a lap--18 times.

I'm going to bring my Garmin foot pod with me and see how accurate it is. I might even be able to calibrate it--not sure if I need a 1/4 mile track or if any measured track will do.

The last time I used that track was the only time I used it--on the first day of softball tryouts in the tenth grade. I decided to try out for softball, and never would have done that if I realized that we would have to run laps. I was horribly embarrassed, because I was extremely out of shape and couldn't run. After one lap, I made an excuse to the coach that I had a dentist appointment and had to leave. I never went back.

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My food log was all out of whack today, because I was basically snacking all day without real meals. But it's safe to say that the majority of it was dates and nuts. I think I'll go on SparkPeople right now to plan out tomorrow's meals!

I did make a yummy breakfast worth sharing--whole-grain blueberry pancakes. They were so good that I posted the recipe on my recipes blog.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 13 (And a 10 mile long run in the snow)

Wow, what a great day!! I definitely feel my mood improving. I spent the morning kind of dreading my long run today (10 miles) but knew I'd feel better once it was done. I was in the mood for cold oatmeal today, so I made chocolate oatmeal and put it in a peanut butter bowl...

Just smear peanut butter all around the sides of a bowl and freeze for about 15 minutes while you prep the oatmeal.

This combination was 1/2 c oats, 1 Tbsp. chia seeds, 1/2 c milk, 1 tsp. maple syrup, 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

Just mix the oats and throw them in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes to thicken. FYI: It will only thicken that quickly if you use chia seeds--without the seeds, it will still be very liquidy (unless you let it sit overnight). To eat it, you just scrape down the sides of the bowl when you eat the oats, and get a little bit of peanut butter in every bite.

Since I was meeting Jessica at noon for our run, I was debating whether to eat lunch before I left or when I got home. I prefer to run on an empty stomach, so I decided to wait on lunch. I did eat half a banana when I walked out the door, just so my stomach wasn't growling. And I grabbed a couple of medjool dates to take with me.

I've never in my life used Gu or any kind of gel like that. Even for my half-marathon, I just had water for my training runs; and during the race, I just had a little Gatorade. So I'm really nervous about fueling during the marathon. I don't want to get an upset stomach, but I know that I will need to have some sort of fuel for my really long runs. Today I chose to try the dates--they're pretty much pure sugar, but they are still a "real" food.

Jessica, Julia, and I headed out on our run, and I immediately wished I had worn my Icespike'd shoes. The sidewalks and trails were covered in snow and ice, which made for very tricky stepping...

Yep, this is what we were running on

We went slowly and carefully, and I was feeling so great that the time went by fast. I brought my camera along to take some pics for fun. I saw all these geese, and of course they startled and flew away when we approached.

We took a pit stop because we felt way overdressed. It was 30 degrees out, but I was really hot about a mile into the run. I was wearing a thermal-like shirt under my fleece, and decided I wanted to ditch the thermal but wear the fleece. So this involved stripping down to my sports bra to make the change. Jessica did the same, and Julia was our "lookout" person. I suggested a picture, but Jessica said no way, sorry ;)

I was getting a little thirsty after about six miles, and I did what any normal runner would do during a long run in the snow...

Mmmm, snow.

Snow never tasted so good!! I ate a couple of snowballs and was good to go again. I was getting a little ahead of Jessica and Julia, so I reached my hand up while I was running and took a pic of them:

Jessica was really not feeling well--her back was hurting, but she pushed on. I ate one of my dates at around mile 8, and while I didn't feel any sort of energy boost, my stomach didn't hurt from it. So I'll probably continue to use the dates for fuel.

When we were done, Julia took a picture of me and Jessica to capture our first double-digit run for marathon training:

That's supposed to be the number 10 ;)

By the time I got home, it was already 2:45--which would mean a very late lunch! We eat dinner at around 4 or 4:30 (because of Jerry's work schedule), so I just decided to eat something very light. I was craving a big, crunchy, juicy apple... enough so that I stopped at Kroger on the way home from Jessica's to buy one. I had that for lunch along with a couple of pieces of cheddar cheese.

Not much of a lunch, but it was delicious and I was still hungry for dinner an hour and a half later. I had put a pork roast in the slow cooker (yes, we just had that for dinner not too long ago, but they were buy one get one free at Kroger last week). So we had the pork, with applesauce, sauteed Brussels sprouts, and mashed sweet potatoes (I just peeled and boiled the potatoes, then mashed them with a little maple syrup). It ended up being a delicious, comfort-food dinner.

I think I've been cooking my Brussels sprouts a little longer each time I make them--I love when they get a little burnt brown and crunchy!

Food log:
Breakfast--chocolate oats in a pb bowl
Lunch--cheese and an apple
Dinner--pork, mashed sweet potatoes, applesauce, Brussels sprouts
Snacks--1/2 banana, popcorn with oil and salt

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 12 (Trying lots of new snacks)

Almost always, after two days off of running, I start to get the urge to run. I don't think my body likes having more than two rest days in a row. Today was technically a rest day, but I really felt like running, so I decided to give the Garmin foot pod another try.

I dressed in my running clothes and took out the foot pod. I crossed my fingers as I turned on the Garmin watch, hoping that it would pick up the signal from the foot pod. No such luck. I had the watch scan for it over and over, and nothing. I changed the battery. Nada.

As a last resort before I put it back in the package, I thought, "What if I need to move around with it for the watch to sense that the foot pod is moving?" Makes no sense, but I was desperate. I gave the foot pod a shake for a second or two in my hand, and viola! The watch picked up the signal.

I decided to set the treadmill at an easy pace and leave it for three miles to see what the discrepancy was between the foot pod and the treadmill readings. I set the treadmill at 5.7 mph (10:31/mi pace) and ran the three miles according to my Garmin, which said I was going faster than the treadmill.

I have NOT calibrated the foot pod, so I'm not going to question the accuracy until I calibrate the foot pod on a track. But I've always wondered how accurate my treadmill is, because I always feel like I'm working much harder than what it reads. A 10:31/mi pace today felt more like a 10:00/mi pace. According to my Garmin, I was running a 9:38/mi pace. I don't think I was going THAT fast. Anyway, here were the results:

2.76 miles; 10:31/mi pace

It will be interesting to see the difference after I calibrate the foot pod. I'll do the same "test run" and compare the numbers then. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere in-between the two... more like a 10:00/mi pace.

I'm glad I ended up running because I had forgotten that I signed up to run three miles as part of Lori's Healthy Heart Weekend. I didn't have anyone around to take my picture, so I'll just have to make do with the Garmin picture.

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My food log was all over the place today. I snacked a lot. I tried out a couple of dessert recipes made with "real" foods. One was terrible. The other was good--not great, but definitely better than the first. The first one I made was called Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge. Sounds awesome, right? You all know how much I LOVE the chocolate/peanut butter combo. However, it ended up tasting like banana with the texture of refried beans. Everyone in the family tasted it and agreed to throw it in the trash.

The second one was called Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies--which was basically just a Larabar-like recipe, only it uses raisins instead of dates. I rolled them into balls instead of making them in cookie shapes.

I liked these, but Jerry and the kids did not. I think they would be good for a post-run snack. I used my mini food processor and made half the recipe so that I wouldn't be a pig again and eat them all. (Well, I *did* eat them all, but it only made the four small balls you see above). I don't think I could ever make dough-like balls of anything and not eat it all at once.

I made shrimp for dinner, and it was really good! I sauteed it in a little butter, then added a touch of cream and garlic and parmesan cheese--so it was kind of like an alfredo sauce. But only enough sauce to lightly coat the shrimp. Then I had sauteed Brussels sprouts on the side. You'll be seeing the sprouts a lot, because I bought a huge bag of them at Sam's Club :)

Food log for today:
Breakfast--usual oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch--leftover fajita
Dinner--shrimp with alfredo sauce, sautéed Brussels sprouts
Snacks--dates, pistachios, spoonful of peanut butter, a bite of "fudge", peanut butter/raisin balls shown above

I feel like I've been blogging way too much about food lately--it's only because of this challenge I'm doing. Next month I'll go back to normal stuff.

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My mood is definitely starting to improve, and I actually shared a few belly laughs with Jerry today. However, I'm filled with dread (but maybe a little excitement!) about tomorrow... I have my first double-digit run of marathon training! Ten miles, and it's supposed to be a low of 12 degrees and a high of 34 degrees. Jessica and I decided to wait until noon to run so that it's a little warmer, and it's supposed to be around 30 degrees then.


We got dumped on with snow a couple of days ago, so I hope that the trails are clear. I'm not sure if I should wear my Icespike'd shoes or my regular ones. Oh, and speaking of my running shoes... yesterday, when I was working on my FAQ page, I was going to include a link to my running shoes on Amazon (a lot of people ask what shoes I wear).

So I went to Amazon to include the link, and I noticed that there was only one left in stock of my size. They were only $80 (because they were the 2011 model), so I ended up ordering them instead of linking them ;)  I don't need shoes right now, but I know I'm going to in about a month or two, so I figured I'd just do it and save $20. The 2012 model is even more expensive, at about $110. 

So anyway, with a 10-miler tomorrow, I definitely am going to lay off the wine tonight! I still haven't touched the stuff since last Sunday. I don't even know that I'll be ready to drink wine again at Winers this month! ;) Definitely going to stick to less than 10 ounces from here on out.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 11

Today was much easier than the past couple of days have been on this challenge. I kept super busy all morning, and I think that helped me to not think about food constantly. I spent the entire morning working on revamping my FAQ page and I created a page called 'Directory'. I hope this will make it easier to find things on my blog.

Despite having my FAQ page for the life of the blog, I still get e-mails from people asking me, "Do you have any weight loss tips?" or "How did you lose the weight?" and it makes me want to pull my hair out. I don't mean to offend anyone that may have asked me those questions, but I just felt like I was answering the same thing over and over and over again. The answers are all over my blog. Hopefully with the reorganization, it'll be easier to find answers.

I think that no matter what I say, a lot of people are still looking for me to give a magical answer. The answers I have to give aren't good enough, because they are common sense and not what that person wants to hear.

But all of this led me to consider doing a Q&A post once a week or so. Basically, I will pick a reader question (or two or three) to answer once a week. Is this something that would interest you? The questions can be about anything at all, not just weight loss. If you have a question you'd like me to answer on the blog, just send me an e-mail with the subject "Q&A". I'll just include your first name (unless you ask me not to).

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I'm finally over my salad kick! I had a salad almost every single day since Christmas Eve, and I'm finally done. I've mentioned this before, but I go through phases with food sometimes, which is why I tend to eat the same things for breakfast and lunch every day--until I move on to something else.

My food log today:
Breakfast--oatmeal cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch--leftover fajita
Dinner--polenta with parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed Brussels sprouts
Snacks--dates with peanut butter, pistachios, popcorn with oil and salt

Dinner was so good! I never want to make polenta because of the way it smells (I think it smells like a farm while it's cooking); but I always love the way it tastes and I tell myself to make it more often. Even my kids liked it, and they don't like anything!

Notice that my food log didn't include any of the date balls I made yesterday. That's because I ate the last one before bed last night. I ate almost all of them! Jerry had two, Noah had one, and Eli had one. That means I had five. I could feel all that fiber in my belly when I woke up this morning, too.

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I was planning on running three miles on the dreadmill today, and I was actually kind of looking forward to it so that I could try out my Garmin foot pod. I got my running clothes on and read the instructions for the foot pod, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to make it connect. It's *supposed* to be the same as the heart rate monitor, where you just turn on the Garmin and it senses the connection. I never had a problem with the heart rate monitor.

I read the instruction manual for the foot pod and the Garmin itself, and it wasn't helpful. I searched online, but apparently nobody else has had that problem. I got pissed off and put the pod back in the package to return to Amazon. I'm bummed :(  Maybe tomorrow I'll try again. I was so frustrated that I just took off my running clothes and skipped my run altogether. It was an "optional" run this week, so it's not too bad--I ran three days this week.

I've just been so on edge lately, and getting irritated about everything. Jerry even said, "Man, I can't wait until March 1st so you quit being so irritable!" I'm counting the days, too. I'm almost halfway done.

My biggest craving so far has been a Mrs. Fields cookie with frosting, followed closely by a cupcake from Whole Foods. I will be a much happier person when I can have dessert again. "Real" dessert; and by "real", I mean fake. With chemicals and additives and food coloring and all that stuff. ;) 

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 10

I just ate the most amazing dinner! I feel like the Mexican version of Susie Homemaker, because I made fajitas from scratch--and when I say "scratch", I mean I cooked a whole chicken, made my own fajita seasoning, and even made my own flour tortillas. After making those tortillas, I will never buy tortillas again! They were delicious.

I got the recipe here. It was very simple, with just a few ingredients: whole wheat flour, oil, salt, and water.

The recipe makes 12 tortillas (sorry the pic is so dark)

With fajita stuff inside

But let me back up to breakfast. I decided to have something different for breakfast, just to keep my food log a little more interesting. I should have stuck with what I really wanted, which was my usual oatmeal. Instead, I made eggs with mushrooms, peppers, and cheese.

I felt so sick after eating it. I was really nauseous for some reason, and I had heartburn--which I NEVER have. Tomorrow I'll go back to oatmeal.

I was still craving something sweet, and you all have given me so many suggestions! I decided to make a version of homemade Larabars. I have a big bag of dried dates in the fridge from Sam's Club. Inspired by this version, I added chocolate :)  So I put 1/2 pound of dates + 1/2 cup almonds + 1/3 cup coconut + 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder in the food processor and made some chocolatey Larabar-like balls.

And then I proceeded to eat THREE of them. I wish I could be satisfied with one, but it was so good that I had another and then another. Jerry commented that they taste just like an Almond Joy. I told the kids that they were "brownie balls" and that got them to at least taste one. Eli didn't like it, but Noah asked for seconds.

I also kept eating small handfuls of pistachios whenever I'd go into the pantry. So I decided to remedy that problem by portioning out the Sam's Club-sized bag of pistachios into little single-serve cups:

There. Problem solved. I haven't touched the pistachios since I did that this morning.

My food log:
Breakfast--eggs with mushrooms, peppers, and cheese
Lunch--usual salad with chicken, sunflower seeds, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--homemade chicken fajitas
Snacks--pistachios, date balls

Today was a rest day from running. I was supposed to do three miles, but since I ran pretty hard yesterday, I'm just going to do the three miles tomorrow. I'll do it on the dreadmill so I can try out that Garmin foot pod that I bought.

I felt so sick all morning and afternoon that I just ended up playing solitare in my pajamas all day. Not very productive. I haven't been sick in probably almost a year, so I really hope I don't get sick now. Especially since I've been eating "real" food this month.

Jerry took the boys to the mall today to see Star Wars in 3D. I was so tempted to have him bring me a Mrs. Fields cookie. I said, "I don't have to tell anyone--then it won't count!"  Haha, I wish. I truly AM curious to see what the effects are from this little experiment with "real" foods, so I'm not going to sabotage it in any way.

I deliberately haven't mentioned my weight at all since the challenge started. I've been documenting it when I weigh myself, though, and I'll write about that at the end of the month. I'm not at all doing this challenge to lose weight, but I thought it would be interesting to see how my weight is effected. Pistachios, date balls, and all!

Jerry is off work tonight, so we're going to watch a movie--I think Saw V. I love scary movies!

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 9

I'm really starting to hate this challenge. I'm dying to eat something sweet--and I mean SWEET like sugar, not sweet like a medjool date or honey. The first six days or so weren't bad at all, but the last few days have been awful.

I'm extremely tired and lacking energy, my skin feels greasy and is breaking out like a teenager, and I've turned into a superbitch. If anything, I was hoping that eating "real" food would make me feel better, not worse. When I was trying to think of something to make for dinner, I kind of flipped out and yelled to Jerry that I was quitting the stupid challenge--but I didn't, of course. I'm going to stick to it for the entire month.

But just for the record, I'm NOT happy about it.

There, tantrum over. I never did think of something decent for dinner, so I had shredded wheat with frozen blueberries. I don't like shredded wheat (unless it's frosted), so I just ate the blueberries and milk. And too many pistachios.

So my food log looks strange, but something like this:
Breakfast--usual oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and maple syrup
Lunch--usual salad with chicken, almonds, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette; piece of homemade cinnamon raisin bread
Dinner--couple bites of shredded wheat, blueberries, milk, pistachios, 3 medjool dates
Snacks--pistachios, and probably something else tonight (not sure what yet)

I'm going to write out a food plan for tomorrow so I don't feel like I'm always scrambling for something to eat when I get hungry.

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On a positive note, I finally get to spill the beans on a project I've been working on for a couple of months. Shortly after my surgery, a man named Rik e-mailed me. He's a reader of my blog that lost 90 pounds and had the same surgery as me. He also became a runner, and he's done a few Ragnar Relays.

I've been wanting to put together a Ragnar team ever since I ran the one in 2010, but I'd be lost as far as being a team captain (it's a lot of work!). Rik said he'd captained a team before, so he would be willing to do the busy work if I could help come up with a team. We thought it would be really fun to put together a Ragnar team of people like us--that had lost a significant amount of weight and become runners along the way. I sent out invites to people that immediately came to mind (people whose blogs you may even read), and after some planning, we are "officially" registered as of today...

We are going to be running the Ragnar Relay Key West in January 2013!!

I am so psyched about this! I'm really excited to meet everyone. We are all strangers to each other from around the country, so this should be really interesting.

We're still waiting for some of our team members to confirm, but so far, here is our list of confirmed runners:
Moi, of course ;)
Rik
Mary from a small loss
Jen from From FAT to FINISH LINE
Andrea (a reader of mine who I "met" via e-mail... she was on Oprah!!)
Allison (an online friend of Rik's)

The course starts in Miami and finishes in Key West. My brother Brian just ran this one last month and said it was awesome. So this is how I'm going to be kicking off 2013!

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Okay, I just took a break from writing this to go for a run, and I feel so much better now. I had a four miler scheduled, but I decided to do intervals. I decided to run (and try to PR) a 5k next month, and I want to get faster before then. (Anyone else doing the Corktown 5k?) So I'll be doing more speed work. Today I did four miles broken up into: warm-up, then 1/2 mile fast, 1/4 mile slow (5 times).

The half-mile intervals were HARD. I wanted to quit so many times and just run slowly, but if I'm going to PR a 5k, I'll have to run about an 8:41/mi (which will give me a sub-27:00 time). But I'm really hoping to get a sub-26:00 time, which would mean a 8:21/mi pace. So I have some serious work to do in the next four weeks!

My pace for my 1/2 mile splits was: 8:22, 8:44, 8:24, 8:53, 8:45. That's an average of 8:38/mi. pace. It felt so hard that I was thinking, "I really don't need to PR. What does it really matter? This isn't even fun." But it DOES matter, because I wrote it on my 30-in-30 list, and I really want to do it.

Speaking of the list, I got to cross one off today... and it was totally unintentional. I did a nighttime run! I was just about to head out the door at 6:00, when I thought I'd better grab my reflective vest from the Ragnar just in case it got a little dark. Well, it actually got really dark pretty quickly, and I was glad that I grabbed the vest.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 8

Today was, by far, the hardest day I've had on this challenge yet. There weren't temptations in front of me, I didn't go to a party or anything; I just could NOT stop thinking about a Mrs. Fields Cookie with loads of butter cream frosting. But in my determination to see this challenge through to the end, I didn't cave.

I blame Jessica, for talking about cookie cake during our run this morning. If we were still overweight, I think we'd be best food buddies. (I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but Jessica lost about 80 pounds many years ago, and has kept it off). We both adore sugar.

Anyway, we met at the State Park at 8:00 this morning for our interval run. She wasn't feeling too great, so we took it easier than last week. The pace for our fast interval splits were: 8:58, 8:50, 8:57, 8:53, 9:09, 9:08. You can tell that she really started to feel crappy after our fourth interval. She kept apologizing, but I told her that everyone has bad running days!

I've decided not to run the Ragnar Tennessee that I wrote about recently. I just don't feel like that group was the right "fit" for me--it didn't seem very organized, and when I'm spending a lot of money for a race like that, I'd like to know exactly what is going on. I'm kind of bummed, because I'd love to do another Ragnar (the sooner the better). I do have plans for next January, though, that I'll write about once the details are final.

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Anyway, since I was really craving something sweet today, I found this recipe for whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread (a "real food" recipe), and I threw together a loaf of that in the bread machine. It turned out really good, and while it wasn't a Mrs. Fields cookie with butter cream frosting, it helped tame my sweet tooth a little ;)  The texture of it was very light and soft, and at first I was disappointed, but once I tasted the bread, the taste made up for the texture.

My food log for today:
Breakfast--usual oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts and pure maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken, feta cheese, almonds, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--pork roast, unsweetened apple sauce, sauteed Brussels sprouts, homemade cinnamon raisin bread with butter
Snacks--2 (or was it 3?) spoonfuls of peanut butter, cashews, popcorn with oil and salt

My dinner was so good and and the whole family enjoyed the "real food" dinner today...

I love to dip my pork in applesauce... does anyone else do that?

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After dinner, I noticed that the cats didn't have any food in their bowl. We normally have a big bowl of food for them that we keep out all the time for them to graze as they want. Well, Chandler doesn't really understand the definition of the word "graze"--he things it means "gorge":

Chandler definitely fits the phrase "fat and happy", but the vet isn't so happy about his weight. So on the spur of the moment today, I decided that he's going on a diet.

Putting ONE cat on a diet in a house of FOUR cats is not easy. This means I'll have to feed all four cats on a schedule, twice a day.

Paolo, the "temporary" cat (we STILL have not found a home for him, and it's been almost a year) has some quirks, and one of them is that he was completely spoiled by his previous owner. I think he must have been fed only canned food, because he wolfs it down when I give it to him, but he would rather starve for days than eat dry food. I can't open a can of anything without him right at my ankles.

So after dinner today, I portioned out four small bowls of dry food. The cats were really hungry because they hadn't had food probably since this morning. Phoebe, Chandler, and Estelle all went to town as soon as I set the food down. Paolo, who was meowing and right at my ankles waiting for food, looked at me like I was an idiot when I set the food in front of him. If cats could talk, he would have said to me, "What the eff is that?! That's not food!"

So while the other cats ate, Paolo sat next to his bowl and scowled.

The other cats all finished and Paolo just sat there, pissed off. Then I took his food away and cleaned up the kitchen. He kept sitting there, so I decided to try again. I put a little more food in the bowl, and after giving me another scowl, he ate about half of it.

Cats crack me up with their personalities. I usually talk about Estelle on the blog, because she's the most entertaining. But all four of my cats have funny quirks, and this happens to be Paolo's. He's spoiled rotten. And he LOVES to be groomed. If I even go near where we keep the cat brush, he's rubbing all over my legs until I brush him.

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This next picture is completely disgusting, but I must show someone. This morning, I was packing lunches for the boys, and I couldn't find Eli's lunchbox. I got out an older one that we had in the pantry to let him use instead. When I opened it up, I found this:

I have no clue what it is!! My best guess is that it was a banana (or banana peel). I have no idea how long it sat in there. I didn't even want to clean this out, so I just threw it away.

I don't know why I feel the need to share with everyone all the disgusting things I find in my house or on my body... a mouse, a moldy sweet potato, fish flies, blisters on my feet, bug guts on my arm... the list goes on. Enjoy!

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RECIPE: Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

A reader sent me a link to this recipe, thinking I might like it. I'm glad she did, because it was great! I made a few modifications, so I'll post those below. It sounds like a strange combination of ingredients, but it worked really well together.

Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
(modified to make 1 serving)

1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup coleslaw mix (just plain shredded green cabbage and carrots)
3-4 slices of cucumber, julienned

For the sauce:

1.5 Tbsp. smooth natural peanut butter
1.5 Tbsp. rice vinegar
1 tsp. maple syrup or honey
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Bring the water to a boil in a small sauce pan, and add the quinoa. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer until water is absorbed (about 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl until smooth. Add the coleslaw mix and cucumber, and toss to coat. When the quinoa is done cooking, add it to the bowl and toss again until everything is coated.  Makes 1 serving.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 7

I felt much better waking up this morning than I did yesterday. But even the thought of wine makes me feel nauseous!

I was so happy that I didn't have to run or be anywhere today. After the kids got on the bus, I sat down with my oatmeal in front of the TV and watched a Lifetime movie (Sexting in Suburbia). It was awesome not to have any interruptions!

I went to Kroger and bought a few groceries. There was a recipe that a reader told me I might like, and she sent me a link to it, so I wanted to try it. It called for a cucumber (which I never have on hand) so I wanted to get that. I made the recipe for dinner, and it turned out so good! It's called Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing.  I made a few modifications, so I posted my version on the recipes blog. It certainly wasn't much to look at, but it tasted great!

I was very skeptical that I was going to like it, and I even made something different for my family for dinner, but I thought it was great and I'll definitely make it again. I've really been on a vinegar kick this past week--I love having it in my salad for lunch.

I played solitare for a little while this afternoon, and came SO CLOSE to winning a game that I've never won before. My mom taught me to play it when I was young--probably 10? She said she only won it one time, when she was pregnant with my older brother. I've been playing it for about 20 years, and to this day, I've never won.

I don't know what the name of the game is, but the object is to get all the cards (two decks) into eight piles--Ace up to King of each suit, and then King down to Ace of each suit. Today, I got down to just FIVE CARDS remaining:

The 3 of Spades was buried under the Ace of Spades, so I couldn't finish. I guess this isn't very impressive unless you've played this game before ;)  But I was so bummed. That's the closest I've ever come to winning the game.

I'm pretty impressed with myself that I managed to get through an entire week of eating only "real" food. I'm 1/4 of the way through my challenge already! Cutting out all refined sugar definitely curbed my cravings for sugar--I don't have many cravings at all, and if I do, it's more out of habit than anything else.

Food log for today:
Breakfast--usual oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken, feta cheese, raw sunflower seeds, and raisins, with red wine vinaigrette
Dinner--Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
Snacks--2 spoonfuls of peanut butter, pistachios, string cheese, popcorn with oil and salt, tea

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting Jessica for an interval run--my favorite kind of run! Oh, and speaking of running, I got something in the mail yesterday that I bought on Amazon.

It's the foot pod thing that goes to the Garmin Forerunner--you put it on your shoe when running on the dreadmill so that the Garmin will be able to record your distance, pace, calories burned, foot turnover rate, etc. Just more numbers for me to get excited about! I will probably test it out on Friday.

That little tiny thing cost $44, can you believe it?! But my brother Brian gave me an Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I used that to justify the cost. I love that I'll be able to just upload the info from the Garmin for my dreadmill runs instead of typing it all in manually.

Well, I'm going to a seminar on bullying at the kids' school tonight. This should be interesting!

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Real Foods Challenge: Days 5-6

Today has been a super rough day.

But before I get to that, check out what I had for dinner last night!

That would be a peanut butter-chocolate-coconut butter-banana pizza on a whole wheat crust ;)  I made the whole wheat crust in order to have regular pizza, but forgot that I can't have canned tomato sauce (because of the challenge) this month. And I despise fresh tomatoes. So instead, I got a little creative and made this. I love the combo of the peanut butter and the chocolate coconut butter.

Last night, Renee and her husband Dave and their three boys came over for the Super Bowl. I don't watch football (I hate football, actually!) but it's a lot of fun when you have friends over ;)  All five boys in the house were surprisingly really well-behaved. They were a little rowdy, but that's to be expected!

I made loaded potato skins, and I was actually able to eat them--I just made a few without bacon for me (the only non-real-food item on the skins). They turned out really good, and I think I'll make them more often. I didn't get a great picture (do I ever get great pictures of food?!)

Skins ready to be loaded (this was only one of the two trays!)

Extra sharp cheddar cheese, jack cheese, bacon, green onions, and jalapeno

So yummy!

 At the beginning of the challenge this month, I told myself that wine is okay to drink (because it's a "real" food), but I decided that I would only drink wine if it was a social situation. Enter Renee. With a bottle of Bordeaux.

We sat and chatted on the couch for the whole game, and went through two bottles of wine--by ourselves (her husband was driving). I don't know how that happened! lol  I used to be able to drink a bottle of wine and not feel much, but that certainly wasn't the case last night. It also slipped my mind that I had a long run on the schedule today--9 miles at 8:30 in the morning.

I woke up and felt horrible--my head was pounding and my stomach was queasy. I really wanted to cancel on the girls that I was running with, but I thought maybe the exercise would do me some good. And I am training for a marathon, so I can't skip runs.

We headed out, and the first six miles actually went by really fast. I wasn't feeling TOO sick--just a little icky in my stomach (I hadn't eaten anything yet). At mile seven, I started to get some stomach cramps. Mile eight was pretty rough. And the ninth mile felt like an eternity! I started to feel a little dizzy and just really wanted to the run to be over. Finally finished the run...

Our splits

As soon as I got in the car to drive home, I felt SO nauseous. I was willing myself all the way home not to throw up (not that I had anything in my stomach to throw up). Eli had a doctor's appointment, and Noah didn't have school today, so I didn't even have a chance to run in the house and shower--I just picked up Noah and Eli and left again. I took Noah to my parents' house, and when I got out of the car, I was sure I was going to vomit. Still didn't do it.

I took Eli to the doctor and FINALLY, his blood work came back normal and the flu virus is completely gone! I was very happy to hear that. He can go back to school tomorrow. He still has a cough, but with breathing treatments, it should go away.

As soon as I got home, I decided to eat a banana. My stomach was feeling horrible and I thought maybe a little food would help. I got in the shower and was doubled over with nausea. Hurried through the shower and talked to Jerry for a minute, then ran to the sink.

Finally, I puked.

I threw up the banana, and it was awful. But at least the nausea wasn't nearly as bad after that. I just laid on the couch and watched TV for a little while, then I had my usual salad for lunch (which stayed down, thankfully).

Ugh, I am going to remind myself of this day every time I want to have more than 2 drinks. I've never felt this bad from a hangover before--maybe it was a combo of the wine and the running. Either way, lesson learned!!

Food log from Day 5:
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk, with dates, walnuts, and maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--peanut butter pizza
Snacks--orange, three potato skins, way too much wine

Food log from Day 6:
Breakfast--1/2 a banana
Lunch--salad with chicken, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--scrambled eggs with cheese, cauliflower, and creamed peas (weird combo, I know! I was craving comfort food)
Snacks--pistachios, spoonful of peanut butter, orange, popcorn with oil and salt

My strange dinner combo tonight

To make the creamed peas, I had to make a roux--which I normally do with white four. I've never used whole wheat flour before. But I tried it and it turned out just fine!

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