Fast Food, Healthy Style

Yesterday was an insane day at work! I didn't really have time to make
my lunch or go out to lunch so on my way out the door I grabbed 2 of
my favorite Costco finds- Amys Organic Bean, Rice & Cheese Burrito and
half a serving of Tasty Bite Vegeterian Lentil soup.

Oh. My. Goodness!!!!!! It was SO good!!!!!!!! So good!!! I managed to avoid the candy bowl and instead noshed on a Delish Honeycrisp Apple. Nomm nommmm.  Ideally I would've added some veggies but it was the best I could do with my resources & time. :)

Sorry for the lack of posting and the shortness off this post but today is a VERY special day- my AMAZING husbands birthday!!!!! Happy birthday Scott!!!! I love you. :)

Turkey Trot Running Plan

I made my running goal today! Woo! I did 3.2 miles. Obviously not the best time wise but I am really, really proud of my accomplishment- I only stopped 3 times, for 10 seconds each. I am training for the Turkey Trot, a downtown Dallas run event on Thanksgiving. Scott and I did the 5k last year...I want to do the "long one" this time!! :) I am disappointed that I gave up running for so long- I have only run 5-6 times in the last 5-6 MONTHS. Yikes. My body responds really well once I get into the right groove, but it takes me a bigt to hit it. I don't care how long it takes me to run those 8 miles...I'm going to DO IT!!!! Even if it takes me 5 hours. lol! :)I've got 6 weeks to run the trot, so here's my plan:

This week -3 miles
Oct 18-24- hit a max of 4 miles
Oct 25-31- max of 5 miles
Nov 1-7- max of 6 miles
November 8-14- max of 7 miles
Nov 15-26- stay at 7 miles
November 27- TURKEY TROT!!! RUN 8 MILES!! Run Run Run! :)

Then eat...some thanksigving-y food. I am probably not going to eat a turkey this year- I'm not that huge of a fan and when I read about the poor baby turkeys getting injected with super growth hormones to make us a dinner....it made me sad. :( So I am on the prowl for some yummy cruelty free thanksgiving food! Any suggestions?

Love,

Tania :)



PS- In honor of the OU/tx game this weekend...Sam Bradford & Colt McCoy (the QBs) are second. Worth watching :)

BOOMER SOONER!!!!! :)

My First Spaghetti Squash

Scott & I made our first Spaghetti Squash last week! I had not tried Squash since I was 12 & I did NOT care for it. I was a little hesitant to try again but I decided to give it a shot. Total win in my book!! Yum!!! Recipie:

Cut squash length wise, and remove seeds.  Place face down in baking pan and add 1/4" water. Bake squash for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let squash cool slightly and use a fork to gently scrape the "meat" of the squash- will look like strands of spaghetti (hence the name).
Heat a frying pan and sautee squash strands, 2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp fresh minced garlic, 2 tbsp fresh minced parsley. Optional topping of Parmesan Cheese. ENJOY!!

I went for a run yesterday- it has been raining nonstop for almost a month so it had been a bit. :( I was NOT happy with my time at all. I only ran 2.25 miles and it took me almost 30 minutes. :((((((( that included a lot of stopping, walking, tearing up and rescuing sweet boomer from a huge loose dog. 

It's incredible how much I can tell a difference when I run consistently. I feel energized, fit and happy. I need to be more consistent!!!

I have noticed a lot of health bloggers eat snacks to fuel their run before & during their run. I feel like if I eat and run I will throw up!! Any tips? Scott & I are runinng the 8 mile turkey trot so I need all the help I can get!!!!

Love!

The Common Cold

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. I've been super sick! :( Today has been the first day I've felt well enough to even look at a computer. It all started Tuesday morning, I woke up with a weird lump in my throat. Everyone has some sort of indicator that they are getting sick, and mine happens to be the throat lump. Agh! I tried to ward it off with a 10 mile bike ride (See previous post), but no avail. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling awful. My little sister swears that Theraflu cures all of her ailments, so I decided to give it a try and had a lovely breakfast of double fiber bread, light peanut butter, 100% fruit jelly, 3/4 of a banana and...Theraflu-YUM. :-/



I went to work, made it about 2 hours into my work day and my boss suggested I leave. I must have looked as bad as I felt. I felt really bad- we are in a crunch time at work and I didn't want to let anyone down, but I was no use in my job being sick and not having a voice!!

I called my husband and he immediately came home to take care of me. He is the sweetest, most godly, amazing man ever. :) He stocked up on some sick essentials- soup, corn, thermometer, Advil, etc and made me dinner. My temperature was 102 that night! I was having severe chills, hot flashes, hallucination dreams- you name it! Very scary. I had every symptom of the swine flu. :( I was terrified. We agreed to give it the night and see if I got better. Thursday sweet Scott took the day off work and drove me to the drs. They did tests for Flu and strep- both came back negative thank God! They basically told me they weren't sure what I had, the best guess was a viral infection, or the common cold. How anti climatic! They also noted that I had a fever over 100 still, and very low blood pressure from not eating enough.

Scott drove me home and put me to bed while he ventured out to get my 2 prescriptions. One he found right away. The other, however, apparently isn't as common, and he drove to 4 different stores until he finally located it at Super Target. (Go Target!) When he came back, he came with more then just meds:



So sweet! :) The card was adorable, and he got me a flashing light for my bike so we can ride more safely at night now that it's dark. He also told me part of my "Get well soon" gift included a cushioned bike seat that he was going to let me pick when I felt better. :)

Thursday was almost worse then Wednesday for me. I was hot, out of energy, bored, and sleepy. I wanted to spend time with my husband but all I wanted to do was sleep. :( So that's mostly what I did!

Today he had to go back into work (my dr told me to stay at home until at LEAST Monday). I took some codeine spiked cough syrup last night (prescribed by the dr!), and I didn't wake up until after noon! Scott left me a voice memo on my phone telling me to head into the kitchen for another surprise. Here is what I saw:



HOW SWEET! He left me all my sick foods, with an encouraging note that detailed the schedule of medicines I was supposed to take (I have to take something every 2 hours). Unfortunately I had slept through most of them. :( I think I'm going to lay of the Codeine because I'm still tired!!!

All in all even though it sucks to be sick, I have been meditating on what I'm thankful for. Here's my list for today:

I'm Thankful for...
~My husband
~My God who never leaves me or forsakes me
~My dog who is a great cuddler. :)
~Living in a country where we have access to medicine, drs, etc.
~A job with paid sick leave and health insurance
~Noodle soup and corn. yum
~A sound mind and body that can eat healthy and exercise (usually). :)


What about you? What are you thankful for?

Balance

Scott & I did a nice 9.7 mile bikeride through Richardson today! It would've been closer to 10.5 miles, but my iPod was dying so I just turned of RunKeeper early. It's pretty much the coolest app on my phone- it lets you track your pace, mileage, incline and calories burned (although I feel that number is way off on mine!). I like it much more then my Nike Plus and it's much more accurate apparently (and cheaper!) :)

We watched the Biggest Loser tonight- made me cry as usual! Agh!! I thought what the one team at the end did was very sweet. (No spoilers here!!) We also ate some pizza-I had my first meat in almost a week- Pepperoni. Probably not the smartest nutritional choice...and I still feel it like a log in my stomach. :( Not a good feeling. I think this week has taught me a lot about myself and what my body responds to. It's always good to know. Was I made to be more of a veggie eater rather then meat? It is starting to maybe seem that way. I need to join Caitlin on her Learn to Luv Veggies Challenge.

There has to be balance in health. I find myself getting a little too hung up on calories and points and miles and fat grams and "don't eat" and "must eat"s. :(

How do you find the balance in nutrition and fitness?

Serious obsession

I'm totally in LOVE with cabbage chopped salad!!!! Yummmm!! I'm on day 6 of no meat. Definitley easier then I thought. I havent really craved meat and my energy level has been great. :) also lost 5 pounds which is always a perk. ;)Last nights dinner was really yummy. Scott & I threw together a quick dinner at 8, we were SO hungry!! We sipped some red wine (it's called America's Favorite Chillian Wine), quite delish!! We made some whole wheat pasta, with broccoli & marinara sauce. :) then we made this nsanely delish Asian cabbage salad!

Asian Chop Salad:
1/2 head red cabbage, chopped
1/2 head white cabbage, chopped
1/4 cup of chopped or sliced almonds
1/4 cup of ground flax ( I ground mine in my blender)
1/4 cup of crispy rice noodles
1/4 cup of Asian sesame Ginger dressing. (store bought).
YUM.

It was sooo good- we enjoyed that while watching the Dallas Cowboys game! Go Cowboys! :) my husband is so amazing. So adorable, so incredibly supportive. :)

What's your favorite chopped salad recipe?

Thursday's Daily Wear

Quick post before I run to work. I wanted to do a daily wear post since I happen to really love my outfit today. I've been spending a lot more time putting together clothing, cleaning out my closet and donating what I don't need. I've gotten pretty creative in the last week. Here's what I put together for today.



Today I have on a skirt from Harold's (ya'll remember them? Went out of business last year sad), a tank top from forever 21, Steve Madden navy silk heels, and my new white cashmire sweater (is that what you call it?). I'm also featuring another new piece, a tres adorable glass strawberry neckalace from forever 21. :)



That's all for now...work is calling...boo! :(

xoxo

It's Fall- Scarves & Flowers! :)

Hello!

Today I had a WONDERFUL day! :) Work was fine, nothing dramatic which is always good. The real fun, though, started post work when I headed to TJ Maxx to find a blue plaid pashmina that I can't get out of my mind. Imagine my delight when I saw- literally- a WALL full of scarves!!!



Isn't it glorious? I've already talked with my sweet husband about a similar concept. We have a spare bedroom that he has so graciously allowed us to convert into a "closet room"...more on that later. Regardless...super excited for my Pashmina display- even though it will be much smaller then The Wall!

I was looking through the Ralph Lauren catalouge today- saw the most beautiful bag! Unfortionatly it's priced right under a mere $17,000. Yes, that's right- $17,000! Like a car. It's beautiful, possibly the most beautiful bag I have ever seen...so I will be searching for a similar one- Hopefully a little closer to my price range. :)

So anyways, after my shopping trip I headed home with some nice fall essentials- white silk sweater, brown plaid pants, a Ralph Lauren cream egyptian cotton button down, teal tights, black tights and 2 blue plaid items- a Pashmina and a ruffled, scrunchy one. J'Adore! I walked in the door and my sweet husband brought me a glorious fall surprise. :)





Thank you Honey! I love you. Happy fall to you too. :)

xoxo,

TTG

This is fun!