10K day

Not like a 10K is anything to name a whole day after, but still… So I started the day off with mega coffee loading, and then I caved and ate the entire granola bar that I bought from whole foods 2 days ago. Plus a banana, and dried cherries, and the last of the yogurt covered raisins. Oh, and another glass of milk.
I have already had an entire days worth of kcals! Wtf! Looks like I am ready for a bomb ass race with all that food energy.



I was fuller than I wanted to be before I left for the race, but I guess that kind of punishment is the only way I am going to learn to keep my shit in check.

The race was AMAZING. I felt like a super star, I ran it (6.2 miles) in 46 minutes, which is averaging 7 ½ minute miles. Way better than I expected. Plus the rush of excitement and intense emotions that overwhelmed me as I crossed the finish line were better than any high I have ever had. Hooray for natural endorphins!

Dinner was soup. I didn’t feel like anything, but I knew I had to eat something after such a work out…I had to wait forever because my stomach was acting up, but even after eating such a safe thing like soup I felt weird all night. I had 2 of these Progresso cans of veggie lentil soup, which normally I wouldn’t because I don’t think they are very healthy because of all that sodium. After sweating like crazy though and running forever, I think salt was just what I needed to keep my fluids – I also had about 6 bottled waters and propels before going to bed. I just couldn’t get enough liquids! (it makes sense)

3 days of catch up

Ok well I have had a streak of over eating, which might soon become a problem. So now let me write it all out, expose my shameful behavior so I can be freed of my guilt and turn over a new leaf. DAYAM! It will be brief though since I can’t even remember what kind of shit went down.
I worked on Wednesday the 27th, and as far as I remember I had coffee from Bruno’s and then ate the lunch I packed (consisting of the usual sandwich). It was also made on the new kind of bread I got (a different live sprouted grain bread than the Ezekiel) shown below.

I went to the gym after work for a decent work out as I recall. I think it was most likely an elliptical day. Then I had another dinner extravaganza…dinners have been my problem area lately, ESPECIALLY after work. I hate it because I eat SO late and often feel full as I head to bed, which is one of my biggest pet peeves.

For dinner, I ended up having the sesame ginger tofu pieces on bread (open faced sandos). I had way more than I should have. I wasn’t even that hungry and yet I ended up eating 6 of the 8 chunks. That’s not bad on its own, but I also had 5 pieces of bread too. I also had a bite of this dip that I made the day before (just to taste it), but I didn’t have much.

I made the dip with ff sour cream, ff ricotta, ff Fage, spinach, and garlic salt. It is a good dip for crackers and veggies. I may try to liven up the recipe next time I make it because it was a little on the boring side.

As if that weren’t bad enough, then I decided to have a dessert consisting of pizza dough. This is one of the things I bought the other day and have been eyeing in the fridge and resisting over and over again. I knew it was only a matter of time before I caved and binged…as per my rule of “no finishing a container upon its opening” I had 1 full mini crust and then half of the 2nd. SO bad. (I had the remaining half the next night).

I was falling asleep as I was eating the last few bites and ended up falling asleep at 10 while Kyle finished the laundry. I was dead tired and planned on waking up early before work on Thursday.


I DID wake up early on 8/28/08…which ended up being POINTLESS (I think we all know why I woke up early to down 2 cups of coffee).

Here’s me at 4 am in my scrubs before work. I had 2 cups of coffee AND a Snapple lemon iced tea. Oddly enough, despite my early early wake up call to fill up with caffeine, throughout the early hours of my shift I was so hungry, I don’t even know how or why…I ended up nibbling on grapes (brought in for everyone by my patient’s family the day before). I must have had a freaking pound of grapes!! Needless to say that did the trick, system cleared – check! I didn't bring my work out gear today because Kyle wanted me to take a day off and get home early(er), but then it turned out he forgot he had a Spanish lesson. Ugh. Normally I wouldn’t care, but I have the 10K run this weekend and I need to keep my training on track or I am gonna get my ass handed to me. I don’t want to be embarrassed at this run. In the end I walked home so I had a lame half ass active day off of the gym. Unfortunately, I ate my way through the day though, so it completely negated any self control I had the previous week.

Since I didn't pack my lunch the day before, on my lunch break I walked to whole foods and bought this granola bar thing. Let me just say, I am in love. The ingredients are not even things that I would have thought I would like, but it just looked so TASTY, I decided to give it a shot. Initially I went to whole foods to get granola planks for my race day meal, but they didn’t have them (boo!) so I ended up getting this massive granola cube.

It had raisins, dried cranberries and cherries, rolled oats, honey, brown rice syrup, canola oil, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, almonds, coconut, wheat germ, brown sugar, apricot and vanilla. And yes, you read that right I ate NUTS!!! (It is WAY bigger than it looks btw - it was seriously like a freaking tray)

Who would have thought I would consume bomb-bitters and not immediately hurl! I also bought a s’more flavored luna bar (NOT good btw), but I still ate the whole thing. I don’t know why. I also had an apple at lunch and then an iced coffee. I was pretty full, and only nibbled on the luna bar throughout the rest of the day. Since I was going to walk home I couldn’t help but get a snack for the road. So I got ANOTHER granola bar from whole foods…I swear, once I discover something I like I cant help but overdose. What is my f-ing problem. I also had 2, not one, but 2 iced ff lattes from the bucks on the walk home.

I was full by now. So of course I decided to eat more. Stupid elise.
I didn’t take pictures because it wouldn’t have been pretty. I had the rest of the “Health is Wealth” chik’n nuggets. Also I had the rest of a tub of vegan “chicken” spread. Also I had the rest of the pizza dough. What’s wrong with me you may ask. Where to begin is my answer.
I may or may not have eaten more this night too, I just can’t be bothered to remember.

8/29/08 I worked my 3rd shift in a row. Lord knows I hate these days. I definitely didn’t want to go to the gym after work, but since I took yesterday off (by accident), I had to force myself to make it to the gym after my horribly long and exhausting day of work. Ok, but first back to the morning. I don’t know what I ate in the morning, I think I had another ff iced latte from starbucks on my walk to work. That makes 3 in less than 10 hours…

At lunch I walked to whole foods and got that same delicious granola bar again. I also had yogurt covered raisins and regular raisins and another iced ff latte. After work I went to the gym, kicked some ass, and headed to whole foods to stock up.

Here is the BOMB ass salad I made myself from the WF salad bar. It was delish so I had 2 bowls full. There was lettuce, peas, corn, cucumber, cranberries and tofu in it.

For dessert, which I did not need, I had a LOT of yogurt covered raisins.


Today I slept in because I wanted to get a good rest to start the weekend off right. I had 2 cups of coffee when I got up, and then went to the gym. I had a great work out. I only had an apple for lunch because I had to bolt off to midtown to get my race day packet from niketown before 5. I had lots of time to spare so I walked home stopping at starbucks on the way to get a ff iced latte and also pick up some groceries. I ate an early dinner since it was already 530 and I had only had an apple.

vegan "chick'n" salad from WF

PLUS

pre-made WF salad

EQUALS

What an amazing salad! The vegan “chicken” spread combined with the salad and an entire avocado was so YUMMY!

The rest of the spread I put on 2 pieces of toasted 7 grain live sprouted bread with avocado spread on top. Now I am REALLY full. I think I will try to do some yoga and stretching a little later.

So I hate to say this, BUT yoga sucks btw. I got about 5 minutes into some bullshit yoga for runners thing and got bored. If I want to deep breathe I will stretch and go to sleep, in the sheets - that’s where I do my yoga. So anyways, I made a delish sundae for dessert. Chocolate sorbet, plus an over ripe nanner, plus milk and vanilla creamer. Heaven. A little sweet, but that’s never stopped me before.

TA-DA!

back to the grind?

Well, today was a good work day, and a good eating day UNTIL 10 pm…then I got the late night hunger pangs that wouldn’t release me. As strong as I tried to be, I failed. I was a bad girl - I opened and finished a few different containers in the same sitting. UGH! And I was doing so well, too. Damn it damn it damn it.

So, here’s how the day started. I had a coffee at Bruno’s (4 stars for today’s brew). I packed my lunch the night before (see the sando pictured below), and didn’t have anything after the coffee until lunch at 2:15 pm (yeah, kinda a late one, but that’s how it goes when I am working with Queen B…). I actually only ate the sandwich and some raisins, apparently my appetite just went into hiding? (not that I mind) Oh, and I had an iced coffee from Bruno’s at lunch. SO good. I made it with about a cup of ff milk and fake sugar (guilty pleasure).

I tried the apple and I literally had one bite and the apple was mush and bruised inside, so I chucked it.
I went to the gym after work and did a nice 60 minutes of cardio on the elliptical. Stretching and ab work was minimal because I just wanted to get home. I wasn’t even hungry (actually I really just didn’t know what I wanted). So I went to our whole foods and got a bunch of crap. I’m actually pissed about what followed, so I will be brief because the memories sting. How about I just use the photos as evidence with the preface: this is only half of what I actually consumed. (bad elise bad elise)

First of all, I started with dates (I had about 25 in all honesty)…

Then I moved on to a tofu and bell pepper salad (pictured above), which was actually quite light and nice. I'm not typically the biggest fan of onions and peppers because they make me burp which is why I tend to avoid them (I got that weird thing from my mom). Notice my camera is getting worse and worse…

Then I moved on to the plain bread (ALWAYS a bad sign). Bread is a dangerous territory and one I can rarely navigate my way out of safely. I had just bought a new type of bread (Food For Life 7 grain). I had 2 ½ pieces (I am counting the end piece of the new loaf as a half because it was small). On the 2 Food for Life pieces I spread the vegan “chicken spread” - and yes, I finished the spread. I really love that stuff, but at 11 pm, after 4 other dinners, it is just excessive....this is when I really should have called it quits.

But I didn’t.

This horrible picture is one of a couple bowls (oatmeal, raisins, bananas, syrup)...there was WAY more trust me, but it is not pictured because I was going at a rate that couldn’t be reckoned with. I had celery sticks still left over which I finished dipping into the “chicken” spread, thus polishing off 2 things in the fridge. And now I am sitting here, with a full stomach, and yet what am I doing – craving the rest of the freaking yogurt covered raisins that are hiding in the fruit bowl across the room. Nooooo! I would say I need to practice self control and this is my test, but clearly I have already failed that test. So the game starts again tomorrow. I think it is fair to say my string of attempting moderation ended.

Let me prepare a game plan for tomorrow so I feel like I am taking a big step back in the direction I was originally going.
1) Sleep in (I mean hella sleep in)
2) Coffee
3) Gym
That’s all I got…
4) Cycling class at night? (union square gym)

Gym day

I slept in big time today. It was really nice since I stayed up so late last night after my pm eating sesh. So I had 2 full cups of coffee today, which I made nearly latte-like with ff Lactaid that Kyle picked up for me on his way back from the gym (since I left him a million different notes). For some reason the other milk smells funky. No pictures because its not exciting, just coffee. Then I went to the gym and did 60 minutes on the elliptical followed by abs and stretching. I came home for a super late lunch (if you can even call it that since it was 4 pm).

I used the tofu that I made last week (baked with sesame seeds and soy sauce). It was good, but maybe not meant to be part of a sandwich.

I halved the tofu on the last (almost) of the Ezekiel bread.

Then I added some ff Fage.

Then I added some sprouts, and voila – done!

Of course that wasn’t quite enough, so I had some yogurt covered raisins/carob covered raisins.

I didn’t like the chocolate ones, so I decided to instead have a few more handfuls of the yogurt raisins…maybe too many? I wasn’t full, but I definitely was NOT in the mood to exercise AGAIN. But I swore to myself after I ate all that food last night that I would make today a two-a-day work out day. So I decided to leave early and walk some of it off on the way to spinning class in union square. I made it to 55th street and then hopped on the subway for the rest of the way there. Since I was early I did a few minutes of cardio warm up, followed by some more abs and stretching. The class didn’t disappoint. It was a male instructor this time and he did some of the work out with us, he also sang to some of the songs (even the techno stuff) which was quite amusing, otherwise he was good at pumping me up and keeping me motivated. Once I got home I wasn’t really hungry but I also knew that I should eat before it got too late and then I did a repeat late night binging sesh. That was no good. I was stumped on what I wanted, mostly because I wasn’t really in the mood for anything at all. Weird, I know.

I decided on some vegan chik’n nuggets made by Health is Wealth and a Gary Null’s veggie burger (those things are starting to become a major part of my life it seems!!).

I was still hungry for a carb type thing, but resisted my temptations for the following (pizza dough, dates, more yogurt raisins, etc.) and had an apple instead.

It worked. I love it when I trick myself. Ok, off to bed, Kyle is in there getting antsy waiting for me. Work tomorrow, ugh.

Sunday sunday sunday

So after starting out the day looking at my favorite food blogs, I have decided I NEED to try this new restaurant called Candle Café (on East 79th and Lexington). I could order the entire menu in a heartbeat. Looks like I have another thing for my to-do list.

I am including this photo because I had a couple handfuls on the late night as a snack. I think I only got hungry because Kyle was making a monstrous ice cream chocolate peanut butter milkshake. So even though I was on my 8th Snapple I decided something salty would be the perfect way to end the evening.

I again relaxed and watched TV and drank coffee with my baby cakes this morning. I had one cup and 2 sips from the second cup. I was MASSIVELY soar from yesterday’s run. I simply couldn’t stretch enough to ever feel normal. Every single muscle in my legs (including new ones I never knew I had before) was agonizingly unable to function. So I decided the gym trip would be short and sweet. I stretched for the first 15 minutes and did some ab work, and then did reverse elliptical work for a little over 3.5 miles (maybe 40 minutes). I’m still totally soar.

For lunch I got fresh fruit from the market on the way home from the gym. I also had some activia light vanilla yogurt with dried cherries from our whole foods. The dried cherries were SO delish I had a few more handfuls plain on their own. SO good. Basically it was a fruity lunch, so now I am all sugared up for the day.

After lunch we went to the Natural History Museum for a couple hours of educated wandering. Nice Sunday afternoon activity. I had a snack of more of the dried salty edamame before dinner. For dinner I had a veggie soufflé (Healthy Delites’ roasted vegetable soufflé is all natural and fat free and a good source of fiber). Also, I had a vegan sushi roll from whole foods. I love the yummy texturized vegetable protein!

I had all 6 pieces in the roll. SO great. Plus the veggies soufflé is so healthy and is only 120 kcals! I still wanted a little bit of something, so I had another handful of edamame.

It looks as good as it tasted. Plus it is so colorful J I also stole some of Kyle’s corn that he made for himself.

Of course I needed some dessert later on in the evening, because I needed a pick-me-up before the work week. I have an intense schedule this week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) so I am getting myself all geared up. I figured 50 yogurt raisins and a cup of chocolate sorbet was the way to go.

Yogurt covered chocolate raisin deliciousness!!! Mmmmm…although I am kinda rocking a mega sugar high now.

fake anniversary - 4 years and still going…

We slept in forever today. Seriously, it was 11 am when we finally dragged ourselves from the bedroom to the couch. It was nice and relaxing to just veg out with coffee and my baby. I had one and a half cups, and then we decided to hit up the gym. But then we had a change of plans, the weather was so fabulous outside that we had to go for a run in the park. I charted the run on mapmyrun.com and it was a little over a 10K and I ran it in less than an hour. So now I am feeling pretty good about the nike 10K coming up. When I got back I stretched a bit, downed propel water, and showered.

Lunch was a Gary Null’s veggies burger on a slice of wheat bread with honey mustard. I ate the edges of the veggie burger off so it was a rectangle and thus fit the bread that I cut in half, so that’s how I got the left picture into the pretty sandwich on the right.

It wasn’t quite enough to fill me up, but I just wanted a little something sweet, so I had the sf watermelon jello and then an organic yellow apple.
Time to get ready to go to Brooklyn!

For dinner we took the subway down to Park Place (bottom tip of Manhattan) to walk across the Brooklyn bridge and then hit up our fav Thai restaurant, Joya. Happy anniversary to us! There was a concert in City Hall park when we got out of the subway that happened to be Ashanti performing. We stayed for maybe 35 seconds and then headed across. The views were as beautiful as always, Manhattan is such a pretty island, and I just love getting out and about in the city on nice days. The weather was great, not unbearably hot, but not yet cold, like goldilocks it was “just right” – plus there was a nice breeze from the water.

We arrived at Joya around 630 pm and were seated right away. Kyle ordered diet coke and I stuck with water (but stole the lemon from his DC and squeezed it into my water). Look how good and healthy I am (no soda for me!!). We got the Fresh Thai Summer Roll as an appetizer to share. The picture of it is HORRIBLE but the lighting and my camera were not cooperating.

Needless to say it was delish. It was filled with tofu, shrimp and fresh veggies with a tamarind sauce. Kyle removed the tiny cucumber slivers so I had extra doses of those.

Next was dinner, I got the Tofu Pad Khing, which was sautéed tofu with mushrooms, peppers, cabbage, carrots and onions in a fresh ginger sauce. WOW!!

It was borderline amazing. The tofu chunks were so savory and full of flavor. The veggies were sautéed to perfection and the sauce was so light and yet so good, with subtle ginger flavor that occasionally burst through in certain bites, but never in a way that was too powerful. The rice was a nice sauce-soaker-upper. I thought there was no way I could eat it all when they set the plate down, but lets be real, I cleaned house! (see below)

Kyle got the Kang Panang Gai, which was sliced chicken with peppers and crushed kaffir leaves in a panang coconut curry sauce. He was also in love with his. I think he could have drank the leftover sauce and would have if it were socially acceptable!

After dinner we went to the Brooklyn promenade and watched the sunset over the Manhattan skyline. Also we saw the waterfall from the backside, then it was back home!