Check out Caitlin’s blog who owns and operates Operational Beautiful today! I am featured in her post today!
Thanks Caitlin for all of your inspiration and support!!
Mar 1, 2012
Going Out to Eat Pros and Cons oh and GBD
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And I also got to thinking today, wow it is one of my best friends birthday and I consider her to be one of the most beautiful women I know both inside and out… So Happy Birthday Erin! I <3 you!
This mornings juice was not so good.
- 2 Mangos
- No apples- even though you see one pictures, I changed my name
- 1/2 Pomegranate (did you know that these things will dye the color of your skin red)
- 1 piece Kale
- 1 Celery Stick
- Almond Butter Almond Milk
- Ice
- Kumquats
Honestly, I think it is the ice that throws this off a little. I like to use the ice because this blender is so fast and so powerful that it actually heats up the juice inside and well, that taste gross. The ice makes it cold but I don’t want to heat it up so I never end up chopping enough and then it comes out chunky.
Chunky juice is just nasty.
Keep trying right? One day I’ll find a mix I like!
So going out to eat has a lot of pros and cons and I know it is hard to find the balance between the 2. So a few people have asked me when I do go out to eat (which has been more than I would like lately) what do I get? Do I make healthy choices? Do I splurge? Do I miss out on things?
Well here is my list of the top 5 pros
- It is a fun social thing to do with friends
- I don’t have to cook
- Tim and I can eat different things without left overs taking over our fridge
- It is usually delicious
- I can eat different foods that I don’t like to/don’t know how to prepare
And here is my list of the top 5 cons
- It is expensive
- In my mind is is not healthy, so mentally I feel bad afterward
- I tend to make excuses for my eating poorly at restaurants
- I don’t have control over what I make and what I put in it
- I can’t wear my yoga pants (most of the time- I still find some places where it is borderline accepted)
So what do I get when I go out to eat? Well, here are a few examples of how I try to make healthier choices
I don’t eat the bun
We had a work dinner at The Rail the other night, one of my favorite places to go, and I love burgers so I knew I what I wanted the moment I walked in. Mr. Mariola please (who is apparently the owner of the place and yes if I owned a restaurant I would name a burger Ms. Laney or Mrs. Stiller). This burger has mozzarella cheese, pesto spread, and tomato and well it is just my kind of burger. So when I realized it is the burger I like and not the bun, I made a choice.
I took the top half of my bun off and just set it aside… it was useless to my taste buds and I dug in with a fork and knife and essentially killed Mr. Mariola. I only ate about a handful of the fries (which were freaking delic by the way) and then sat back and enjoyed a vodka tonic.
Oh, we also had appetizers.
I really wanted to fried jalapeños because I just wanted to taste them and that is exactly what I did. I took just a few off the plate and passed it around the table. The other (fried burger ravioli things) looked delic as well and I wanted a taste so I took one off of the plate didn’t eat the edges that were just empty and not flavoring at all anyway and ate the center ravioli piece.
It wasn’t the healthiest meal I’ve ever had but I was proud of the choices I made when I left.
I skip the pasta
Tim’s family belongs to a Country Club that has AMAZING pasta bar Wednesdays. So when we were invited the other night I was happy to accept the invitation.
So I got to thinking about what I like most about pasta bar and it hit me.. it’s not the pasta. Sure, the fact that it is a free meal is in my top 3 but it was the freshness of the food and how I had the control to pick out what I want. Pasta bar is essentially designed for you to go up and tell the nice Chef man (who has a very deep voice btw) what you would like in your pasta and I always choose…
- Tomatoes
- Green peppers
- Mushrooms
- Shrimp
- Chicken
But there are lots of other options like sausage, onions, mixed veggies, and just goodness all around so I decided to leave out the pasta.. get all of the add ins and just eat it like stir fry. It was delicious! They also had these stuffed shells.. and since I consider myself to be a professional stuffed shell taster I got one but it didn’t compare to Tim’s mom’s shells so I just pushed it aside.
A healthier choice!
Happy GBD (Green Beer Day for you Non-Miami ppl)
Have you ever heard of Green Beer Day? Started in 1952 and is well, it is the Thursday before Spring Break at Miami University (or historically has been, seems a little early this year) and it is a day where the bars open at 4am for green beer, jello shots, and whatever else you can add green food coloring to. The restaurants make green pancakes and green eggs and the students are decked out in green t-shirts made my fellow Miami students. These shirts are usually super creative and are very “in” to what is going on in society at the time.
It truly is an event.
If you want to read more about the history you can do that here.
For the student version of Green Beer Day, here you go. I didn’t participate until my Senior year which made me of legal age to drink and well I had enough seniority that it was OK to skip class. Honestly, I spent the day with my friends laughing and remember the good times we had at that point in our senior year. We sat outside Skippers and drank, we enjoyed jello shots at 45 East, breakfast was at Uptown Café, and we bummed around to Mac and Joe’s, Steinkeller, and even Lottie Moons.
It was a fabulous day! A tired and crazy fabulous day!
So in remembrance of Green Beer Day I present you with our “Green Beer Day Family Photo”
And one of my finest moments on GDB!
Questions for you, leave me a comment!
- What is your favorite restaurant and what do you order?
- What is your SPLURGE meal when you go out to eat?
- Did you go to Miami? YES? Tell me about your favorite Green Beer Day memory?
Feb 29, 2012
24 hours of life can make you laugh
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I thought it was only fair to give you a little insight into our mornings at home!
This morning conversation as Tim and I are getting ready to pull out of the garage…
Tim- “Gosh, you have so much junk in my car right now”
Me- “That’s life Tim, your life, for the REST of your life”
(me stopping to think of how awful that sounded)
Me (following-up in my nice voice)- “Sweeeet-thang”
Earlier that morning while we were getting dressed for work…
Me- “Going to work out tonight, to enjoy my leisurely (said with a snarky tone) activity
Tim- “That is a leisure activity!”
Me- “No it is not, it is for your HEALTH”
Tim- “It’s still a leisure activity”
Me- “I’m telling Father Steve you said that”
Yes, I threatened to tell our Priest haha
Necessary background- Tim has a function for work called Bikes and Beer that he is going to attend and that makes me laugh…
Me- “Did you grab your jeans?”
Tim- “Yep, they are in the living room”
Me- “I hope you grabbed the nicer dark ones”
Tim- “I grabbed the darker Target ones, in case they get ruined”
Me- “I think this event will be funny, you riding a bike”
Tim- “I’m not sure why you think I can’ t ride a bike, I can ride a bike better than you can”
Me- “Well I never said I was good at riding bikes”
Yep, we have had quite the morning! These are also realization I have come to in the last 24 hours
- Rain boots are hard to drive in. Like really hard. The rubber doesn’t let you move your foot at all.
- When I am cold and I ask Tim to take off his pajama pants and give them to me (while he is cooking dinner), it’s not gonna happen
- Tim is more indecisive about tennis shoes than I originally thought he was
- Hamburger Helper looks DISGUSTING. Taste delicious.
- Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies taste like Heaven and from what I hear, a person cannot have enough Heaven
I hope you enjoyed your day as much as I have enjoyed mine!
As I usually do with the CrossFit class, I had a great workout last night! We were organized into teams of 4 (on my team we had Angie, Chris, and Ashley) and we had a deck of cards. Up on the white board we had these types of instructions
If you get a card with a (insert card shape here) you must use the following tools to complete the workout of your choice but you cannot repeat a workout twice
- Heart- Body Weight, Cable Systems
- Spade- Medicine Ball
- If you pull any 7, you must do 10 burpees
- If you pull any QUEEN, you must do 2 minutes of cardio
The hardest for me was the 2 minutes of jump rope and the medicine ball push-ups I chose. But it felt great to have a little fun and to chose our own workouts. I had already run 2 miles before class so I knew I really wanted to work on form with arms and legs so I made sure to incorporate those types of workouts.
Then we ended the workout realizing we had forgotten about the “7” rule and had to then do 20 burpees to make up to for! Then as a group we completed 1 minute of each of our favorite workouts so we ended up adding…
- Kettlebell Swings for Angie
- Squats for Ashley
- Sit-ups with the medicine ball for Chris
- Push-ups for Me
Killer workout.
As an additional amazing achievement, my GPS was going all crazy yesterday on my cell phone so RunKeeper must have thought I was some sort of an Olympic Athlete (watch out Olympians- I am coming for you).
So yep, RunKeeper thinks I can 5.5 miles in 21 minutes- averaging a 3.5 min mile… impressive right? I must have been running faster than I thought I was 
So it is official! As of yesterday, I am registered for the 2012 Akron Marathon… well I am doing the half marathon which as you probably remember I refer to as a halfathon. So far only my mom has picked up on that baby.
Now this wasn’t really in my running plan but when my friend Jen IM’d me yesterday and said that she needed a running buddy for the Akron Marathon I volunteered to be that buddy without blinking an eye (hell maybe I should have at least blinked once haha) and before I knew he we were signed up and ready to go! So we will be spending the summer training and probably recruiting as many other people as we can to race with us. Any takers?!
I am super pumped about this for a few reasons….
- I have always wanted one of those 13.1 stickers for my car
- I love races- I just love being surrounded by all of those wonderful people who are positive and full of endorphins and ready to run
- I am looking forward to having Jen as my running buddy this summer (now she is stuck with me)
- I like that it is right after the wedding- will keep me focused on my running and not focused on small details that shouldn’t stress me out
- I have heard a lot about this Marathon and I am just looking forward to being part of it
Another post-it note up today! Just a little something to make life a little brighter!
The other great beautiful thing I had happen to me today was that around 4pm I was feeling like I just needed a little piece of chocolate. Well I opened my Dove peanut butter milk chocolate candy to receive this message inside…
Why thank you Dove! Aren’t you sweet?! And then I popped the chocolate in my mouth and hung up my note in my cubicle!
This mornings juice was more adventurous than yesterdays but by no means like the first day! It was filed with both fruits and veggies and I found a decent tasting one that incorporates things I wouldn’t usually eat…
- Strawberries
- Kale
- Celery
- Almond Breeze Almond Milk
- Kumquats
I also got asked a great question at work today “Why put it in a smoothie, why not just eat it?” Well, that is a great question. I have read (and been told) that putting vegetables in a blender breaks down some of those good for your fibers and stuff and well that may be true but for me, these are a lot of items I would not get in my regular diet because I don’t like how they taste or I don’t like the texture of them. So for me it works if you love to eat kale for fun I say… keep chewing but I would just ask you think about it… at 9am this morning how many fruits and vegetables had you had? Me- I have about 4-5 servings!
Questions for you- leave me a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at engagedandrunning@gmail.com
- Have you ever done CrossFit? What is your favorite workout?
- What does your morning conversations sound like?
- Have you ever run a marathon or a half?
Feb 28, 2012
Killer Grapefruit and what the heck do I eat for lunch?!
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haha, nice title right? Well for a while now (probably last year or so) people have been telling me not to consume grapefruit because it it interacts poorly with some medicines. As some of you know, I am on a cholesterol medicine so I this warning from family and friends was something I took very seriously!
Then this morning which I got to work an article in nutritional outlook about the adverse affects grapefruit can have on some individuals bodies that are taking certain medicines. Since this is something that has been waying on my mind for a while now, I thought I would share.
From what I gather it is the statin cholesterol drugs that it interacts with poorly so I may be OK but I’m gonna be honest… I’m not going to risk it! I think I’ll stick to my other fruits and vegetables!
So a few people have been wondering what I eat for lunch (and since today is tasty Tuesday it is appropriate) and well I don’t put too many lunch pictures up here for one primary reason…
Typically it looks funny to be sitting in our cafeteria snapping pictures of my food.
Not everyone understands.
But I have managed so be sneaky enough to snag a few.
Generally speaking, I would say, lunch if where I get the bulk of my grains. Since I try to stay away from too many complex carbs in the evening and I am usually content with juicing in the morning, lunch is where I sneak those grains in because well sometimes it is just easier!
I am fortunate enough to have a cafeteria at my office… where the food is fresh and cheap! We have a few different stations which include a deli where you can get sandwiches wraps and soups, a fiesta type station with tacos, quesadillas, and burritos, a grill where you can get burgers, chicken, or even egg sandwiches, a pizza station, a “special station” which is usually a salad or pasta salad type thing, and then a “good for you station” which has like a balanced meal (you know a veggie with a piece of chicken) and it also has soup there. I frequent the deli station most often for a few different reason…
- The line just goes faster
- All of the food there I have had before or can recognize it
- I feel like I have control on everything that goes on it (although I think this is true at almost all of the stations)
- It just feels right to me
- They have tuna haha
So yes, my lunches typically look something like this…
But sometimes I splurge and they look like this…
And then if I have a lunch meeting I usually get a faster meal which is also catered in house by our cafeteria. My favorite is the taco bar where you go to make your own tacos! *this is especially my favorite when they remember to bring the guacamole*
Now what I do try to do is make healthier choices where I can. So for that taco salad bar for examples, I opted not to get a tortilla or the chips and just do a taco salad because I needed to make room for the delicious angel food cake I am just healthy like that 
And sometimes we are out and about for lunch whether I am traveling for work or just wanting to get out of the office. So when we were in Chicago and needed a lunch/dinner because our flight times were a little goofy I eat at fun places like Zoup! In this case I knew there would be a “boxed” dinner on the plan from Mustard Seed Café (I was fortunate enough to be flying the corporate jet this day) but again I don’t like to cram those complex carbs in at night so I thought the Zoup! a little earlier in the day was a better way for me to go. So I chose this tomato and spinach one that was delicious!
Today for example I am having some egg salad but instead of bread I brought my Garden Select Veggie chips as mostly a transporter for the egg salad to get to my mouth. Plus, I love those chips! I also put some cucumber slices, and grapes on the side for today’s lunch and of yea… a have a pack of fruit snacks (Thank you Ocean Spray)as a sweet treat!
Operation Beautiful
My commitment during the Lent season continues but I did leave the house today without writing a post-it note so it had to wait until I got home from workout class! Operation Beautiful post-it note today said…
Juice-Day 4
This morning I wanted a juice that I knew I would love so I played it VERY safe! Don’t want to repeat my first juicing experience!
- Frozen strawberries
- Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt
- Vanilla Protein Powder
- Flax Seed
- Blackberries
All items I know and love! Plus, the color was finally normal! Tomorrow I promise to be a little more adventurous!
Leave me a comment on the following questions…
- What do you like to eat for lunch?
- What is your favorite afternoon snack?
- If you could put anything on a post-it note today to make yourself feel good about who you are, what would you write?
