It would be a lot easier if I didn’t have a husband who snored (I can’t fall asleep when he’s snoring) and a mind that raced. Seems like no matter how tired I am at night, as soon as I lay my head on the the pillow my mind is wide awake and thinking of a million different things.

Thank God my body is happily accepting coffee again.

A mug of stevia-sweetened brown brew was very much needed to get my body moving this morning. I felt a lot better after the caffeine hit my system. Addict much?

And then I proceeded to have the best run of 2012 so far! By all means this run should have sucked: I wasn’t hungry, so I didn’t eat beforehand, the wind was working against me, and I still wasn’t quite awake.

But I managed to pull off 2.75 miles at an average of 9:51. The pace was nice, but the best part was how natural running in the Vibram Five Fingers felt. Lately I’ve been really getting the hang of “barefoot” running, especially working into a good stride toward the end of runs. Today my stride felt good from the beginning! It’s taken almost two months of Vibram running and a lot of patience, but I’m getting there.

Clearly my ridiculous running gear and cheesy grin can take all the credit.

I was also really surprised at how energized I felt even though I hadn’t ate… I was literally running on empty, but I didn’t feel like it caught up to me until almost the end of the run.

Every time I wear these running tights I think “elephant legs.” Apparently grey + wrinkles at the bottom = elephant.

Post-run I came home and foam rolled/stretched while breakfast cooked in the microwave.

Breakfast

Microwave oats are still going strong for the time being. They are just too easy to not love. Today’s mix was the usual banana, cinnamon, peanut butter, and chia seeds. I can’t eat chia seeds before running (too much fiber), but I can certainly enjoy them after. They really help keep me full for a lot longer.

Lunch

Now that the weather is getting a little warmer—emphasis on little—my body seems to be more tolerable of the idea of lunch salads again. I love salads in the summer, but the thought of them in the winter makes me gag.

I threw together some spinach, shredded cabbage, cucumber, carrot, cheese, and sunflower kernels. Topped it off with some salsa as dressing.

That alone would only keep me full for about an hour max., so I threw a yogurt container in on the side.

The two still didn’t quite cut it, and I found myself rummaging through the kitchen an hour later. I came up with this peanut butter and banana pita, which tasted like heaven to my taste buds.

Note to self: make peanut butter and banana sandwiches more often!

Snack

Between classes at work I had an apple and some almonds.

I was very hungry on my way home from work, so I ended up snacking on some cheese and orange juice while making dinner.

Dinner

Dinner needed to be something quick and meatless (because of Lent).

I boiled some pasta and used a store-bought sauce. Alone that would have been pretty boring.

But I spiced it up—hahahaha, get it?—with some Italian seasoning and pesto sauce. This made for a winning combination.

It was a very laid back day and I’m feeling proud of both my run and my determination to wake up at 7 despite how tough it is.

Tomorrow is Mount Fuji day and Jeremy’s off work, so we’re taking a daytrip. That means I better get ready for bed.

Question of the day:

Today begins the season of Lent. If you’re participating, what are you giving up or doing extra for the next 40 days? I’ve found myself wasting so much time watching videos on Youtube in the last few months. I’m giving them up for Lent and spending that time in prayer and Bible reading instead.

Over the weekend J and I got into a teeny (hah!) argument. You see, I love sleep. I will choose to sleep over a lot of other things—except maybe eating, I love to eat, too.

On Saturday morning J tried to wake me up and I was a total *ahem* meanie to him. No need to go into the details, but suffice it to say that after a really bad Saturday because of my morning rant, I’ve been re-evaluating the role I allow sleep to play in my life.

This week I’ve been waking up at 7 a.m. with an alarm and focusing on getting in my exercise and knocking out my to-do list. Usually I still have enough time for a nap later in the afternoon. A big improvement over my sleeping in until 10 or 11, I must say.

I’ve been really spoiled by our time in Japan and my work schedule. Because I don’t start teaching until 3 p.m. most days, I have a big portion of the day to do whatever I need or want. This definitely will not be the case when we move back to the U.S. in August and I start working full time. Perhaps in a few months I’ll look into cutting back on the naps, but for the time being I don’t see any reason to.

Okay, enough about napping…

Breakfast

No photo today. Figured you’ve seen oats a million times before. Plus coffee, which I am so thankful is still not bothering my stomach.

Lunch

I’ve been really enjoying simple lunches lately. Things like sandwiches + fruit are so easy to put together, but feel very satisfying without dragging me down the rest of the afternoon.

Today I made a ham & mustard sandwich on a toasted English muffin. Apples leftover from Jeremy’s lunch, a hard-boiled egg, and some Pretz salad crisps on the the side. Having a few different elements to lunch makes it really fun to eat, too.

Snack

I did a bootcamp workout DVD this morning and was so hungry after. I mixed up a quick yogurt bowl to tide me over til lunch.

This was almost a cup of frozen blueberries (that I nuked for a bit to thaw), a small blueberry yogurt container, and 1 tsp. ground flaxseed. Sadly, it did not stave off my hunger for long, but it did taste awesome. I love blueberries, but they are so DANG EXPENSIVE here, even when they are in season. Luckily, I found frozen berries on sale last week and stocked up.

Dinner

J was sweet and cooked tonight!

He asked me if I’d like to switch our dinner plans around and have him make some Hamburger Helper. I was on my way home from work and starving, so that sounded perfect to me.

We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper during our time dating. It was the one meal Jeremy knew how to make with confidence and he often cooked for me when we hung out. Unfortunately, we ate it so often that I got burnt out on it over the years. I can still eat it occasionally, but it would never be something I pick out.

…

My body is still adjusting to waking up at 7, so I’m dragging tonight. Some couch time, hot tea, and my Kindle app sound like the perfect end to this day.

I’m aiming to head to bed a little earlier tonight so I will feel energized for my run tomorrow AM. My last few runs have been so good and I’m already feeling excited just knowing I get to run in the morning. Perhaps I’ll foam roll my legs before bed so they’ll be extra loose and ready to go.

I began my Monday with a quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on our basics for the week and pick up dinner supplies. I filed a video to show you what I typically buy each week. Enjoy!

I do my best to stick with “shopping the perimeter” of the supermarket—that works in Japan, too—but do dip into the middle aisles to grab snacks for J’s lunch.

Question of the Day: What are your supermarket essentials? Any splurges you can’t live without?

It’s been a very, very chill day at my apartment. Lots of laying around on the couch, napping, and TV watching. However, we did make it out for a mid-day walk, which was really nice. I think we did about 1.5 miles.

We’re planning to get puppies once we return home in August, so I’m beginning to add walks into my daily routine to make them a habit. The walks will be necessary for the puppies once we have them, but they are good for me now, too. The summer before we moved to Japan I used to wake up and go for a walk every morning before work. It woke me up and was a refreshing way to begin my day. I miss that.

Breakfast

The usual oatmeal—with chia seeds—and coffee. Yes, that’s right, coffee.

I’ve been off the caffeine and sugarless gum for about a week and I wanted to see if the coffee bothered my stomach. Good news: It didn’t! I’m starting to believe it may be the gum to blame for my upset and bloated stomach.

Lunch

Quick ham & cheese wrap, ridiculously large apple, and green juice.

Snack

Almonds, Pretz salad sticks (they’re like a cracker or chip), and mikan.

Dinner

Jeremy requested bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for dinner tonight. Breakfast for dinner is always a fun option, but I wasn’t feeling biscuit sandwiches. For myself, I scrambled up 2 eggs + 2 egg whites and topped them with salt, pepper, and Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute. With a biscuit on the side and some grape juice.

Time for a little more Prison Break before bed. I’m planning to run in the AM, so I can’t stay up too late.

Last night’s massage was a nice pick-me-up. I went with a 40-minute “body care” course and my back is feeling like new today. I think my masseuse was afraid to touch me, though, because he was being so gentle on my legs (I like it hard—hah!) and didn’t even rub the fronts of my legs. Bummer.

Another thing that’s made this week blah? The next few weeks are going to be more stressful than usual at work, with a new school term beginning in April. If you are a new reader, I work at an eikaiwa (after-school, private English school) for Japanese children. Many new/possible students will be popping in and out of my usual classes as their parents decide what eikaiwa they will attend next year. My teaching and interaction with students can be the difference between gaining or losing a new client. Too much pressure. No wonder my back has been hurting!

Anyway. I had a nice run this morning and great afternoon nap before work.

And here’s what I ate today:

Breakfast

The usual oatmeal. No surprises here. Minus the chia seeds because they’re too fiberific before a run.

Lunch

Leftover salmon and corn on the cobb from dinner earlier this week, plus a hard-boiled egg. The hard boiled egg didn’t want to peel for some reason and the corn just wasn’t doing it for me, so I only had about half.

snacks

Blueberry Bagel Thin with peanut butter before work. Banana and almonds between teaching classes.

DINNER

Cheese quesadilla, sunflower kernels, and fresh strawberries. Very random, but surprisingly satisfying.

Tonight’s post was a bit of a drive-by… I’m exhausted, so it’s time to wash my face and head to bed. So excited to have the next three days off!

Besides tackling a few chores, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon catching up on my favorite TV shows and listening to a podcast. It was just the recharge I needed to get me through tomorrow and into the weekend.

I had so much fun posting my meals earlier this week that I decided to do it again. No promises on how long I’ll continue to do this, but as long as it’s fun and not dreadful you may see food popping up more often.

Breakfast

No coffee, as promised. Instead I had a big mug of caffeine-free peppermint tea. Good, but not what my body craves in the morning. I’ll adjust eventually. (Stomach has been feeling MUCH better since cutting the caffeine and sugarless chewing gum, by the way. Thanks for all your suggestions.)

I’m currently going through a “oats in the microwave” phase. So my oatmeal was cooked and ready to eat in less than five minutes.

Do you ever go through oatmeal phases? I tend to go through periods where I only want it cooked on the stove. Then I get tired of cleaning an oatmeal pot everyday, so I’ll switch to the rice cooker for a bit. Then I get tired of waiting on my breakfast to cook (my rice cooker doesn’t have a timing feature), so I’ll switch to the microwave. Eventually I make it back around to the stovetop. Weird, right?

Lunch

I started lunch with a cup of green juice—the kind I’ve been buying is 50/50 veggie/juice. It’s pretty good tasting and an easy way to fit in some vegetables. It’s hard for me to stomach salad in this cold weather, so I’m all for drinking my veggies.

The main part of lunch was my final Everything Bagel Thin (sadness) with ham and cheese, plus a hard-boiled egg and an apple.

I used to HATE hard-boiled eggs. Just the idea made me want to gag. But my tastes have changed over the past few years and this week I’ve been on a huge kick with these guys. I usually make a few at the beginning of the week from any remaining eggs we have. Sprinkle on a little S+P and it’s perfect.

Snack

I really had my heart set on some blueberries and yogurt for today’s snack. But when I reached in the fridge for the yogurt this afternoon, I realized it was expired. Boo…

Improvised with some almonds, frozen blueberries, and mikan instead. Wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the blueberries because I’ve had a chill all day, but they were good. Just the right bit of sweetness mid-day.

Dinner

Eggurritos for dinner!

I was super excited for a second serving of eggs today. I don’t know what it is with me and eggs this week, but I seriously can’t get enough.

Just a super simple dinner, but very satisfying.

Off to get a massage—my back has been very sore lately, so I’m splurging—and do some taxes… ick.

For the past few months I’ve been having stomach issues. Rotating between cramping, bloating, stabbing pains (rare, but they’ve happened a few times), nausea, and lots of gas. I’ve always been very “regular” when it comes to potty time. And I still am—sometimes as much as 3 or 4 times a day. But at least once or twice a week I find myself glued to the toilet in the morning, if you know what I mean. And the gas… I feel sorry for my poor husband is all I can say.

Geez. Writing about your bathroom behavior without being too disgusting or descriptive isn’t easy.

Over the last few weeks my stomach issues seem to have gotten worse. I fought them all weekend while in Hokkaido and didn’t even get to enjoy the group meal out on Friday night because I felt so sick. I skipped ramen last night because my stomach felt so full and bloated it hurt to even imagine eating.

After doing a little symptom checking with webMD, it seems I might have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. My bowels certainly feel irritable… sexy, right? A lot of the symptoms match up with how I’ve been feeling. Obviously I would prefer to not have stomach problems, but since I am having them I want to get to the bottom of the situation and figure out what (if anything) I’m consuming is triggering my stomach pain and discomfort.

It is suggested that people with IBS avoid:

• caffeine
• alcohol
• milk products
• foods high in sugar
• fatty foods
• gas-producing foods (such as beans, cabbage, and broccoli)
• artificial sweeteners sorbitol and xylitol (often used in sugarless gum and candy)

Though I rarely drink alcohol, I do consume caffeine, milk, and sugar daily. I also have a BIG thing for chewing gum. My goal this week is to cut out the caffeine and artificial sweeteners to see how my stomach reacts. It’s going to be tough—I love my coffee—but it will be worth it to feel better. If the stomach issues still persist I will look into cutting out dairy and sugar next week.

So, why I am telling you this? I’m hoping if any of you have had similar issues you could give me some tips or point me in the right direction.

I took photos of my food today, since I’m being more careful with what I’m eating. Enjoy.

This morning I replaced my coffee with some caffeine-free peppermint tea. I love tea and I drink it throughout most days, but it just isn’t the same as my beloved morning coffee.

I was feeling very lazy after breakfast, but I finally coaxed myself into the Vibrams and out for a 2 mile run.

Lunch was some ham and mustard on a Bagel Thin, an apple, and a hard-boiled egg. I know I swore off the “thins” in an old post, but I found some Everything Bagel Thins when we were home in December and I couldn’t stop myself. They are so good. Dammit.

As a snack I had a mikan and some goldfish before work and a peanut butter granola bar.

On my way home from work Jeremy let me know that he was cooking dinner tonight as a Valentine’s Day surprise for me. If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you probably realize this is a big deal because Jeremy does not like to cook. But he’s been trying harder to learn lately and put his skills to use tonight by making dinner all by himself.

We’re currently reading The Five Love Languages together and it was interesting to me that Jeremy chose to cook for me. I definitely think he shows his love/appreciation through acts of service. Personally, I lean more toward showing love with words or gifts, I guess.

The night ended with chocolate cake!

Okay ,not totally caffeine-free, I know… but it’s Valentine’s Day. A little chocolate is necessary, right?

Happy Valentine’s Day friends!

(Oh, and let me know if you have any IBS advice!!!)

Hokkaido, as you can see on the map above, is the Northern-most part of Japan and is not connected to the rest of the country by land. You either have to take an underwater tunnel, a ferry, or a plane to reach the prefecture.

Each year the city of Sapporo is the site for a Yuki Matsuri (literally, snow festival) where snow and ice sculptures are built specifically for the event. There were a lot of other things going on, too, like snowboard jumping contests, ice skating, etc.

Jeremy and I went up to Hokkaido with a big group of fellow English teachers. I think there were 17 of us total. We spent the weekend gallivanting around the Frozen Tundra (it was so cold!) and exploring new-to-us cities.

Here are a few of the photos we took.

So. Much. Snow. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this much snow in my life.

Historical village in Sapporo. It was beautiful, but a little hard to enjoy because of the weather. Would love to come back again in the summer, but (sadly) I don’t think we’ll have time.

More snow up to my hips. This wasn’t collected and piled, either, it was just what was to each side after clearing a walk way.

We took a quick trip up to Otaru from Sapporo to see the famous warehouse district. Very disappointing and kind of lame. But, it looked pretty.

Our plane for the flight back to Tokyo. Only in Japan do you find Pokémon planes.

We had a good time, but I’m pretty happy to be back to temperatures above 0 Celsius. I honestly don’t understand how people could possibly live in such a cold and snowy place. The snow was magnificent. The festival was a lot less spectacular than we had imagined. But the company was excellent.

Jeremy and I are hoping to take another vacation next month (if time and money permits) to a much warmer climate!

It’s rained the last two days straight, with crazy intense winds all night last night.

It wouldn’t have been so bad except I needed to bike to the supermarket yesterday (which didn’t happen) and I wanted to wake up early today to knock out my Body Rock workout and run. Jeremy and I both slept very poorly last night because of the wind—it was SO loud–so we postponed Body Rock until after work.

I’m not a fan of evening workouts… but I also knew I NEEDED the sleep. Plus, my body was sore from running on Sunday and Body Rockin’ yesterday. Once I woke up, I debated whether or not I even wanted to face the rain and run. But I have goals and I want to meet them.

One of my goals for this week is to get in 3 runs. Not a huge deal, but it’s important to me. The thing is, if I didn’t run today, I couldn’t hit my goal because we’re going out of town for the weekend and I don’t run two days in a row.

So, I ran! And boy was I glad I did. Not only was the temperature awesomely spring-like, but…

I hit my 2-mile mark in the Vibrams!

At first, I felt so slow running in these “shoes,” but I think I’ve hit a comfortable barefoot-running stride because my last two runs have been speedy.

Felt so good to get outside and enjoy some fresh air. I’m so glad I didn’t let a few raindrops kill that run.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about whether Body Rock would actually happen tonight, though. But, it did.

We did a modified version of the 30 Day Challenge’s Week 1, Day 2 workout. For some reason they made this workout unnecessarily complicated—you would literally need to stop after each interval and look up the next set of moves because there were so many. So, I simplified things.

Here’s what we did: (each set as many times as possible for 50 seconds)

It was a good workout and the clean & press, squat & press, pushups were hard.

I saw on Body Rock’s website that a new 30 Day Challenge is starting for February, if any of you are looking to join in.

*P.S. Anyone know how to kindly get rid of a cat? A stray cat that hangs out around our apartment has been in heat for like two weeks. We are losing our minds over its incessant howling and moaning…

As you may have noticed, I changed up the look of Chasing the Now again. I’ve had the hardest time finding a theme I like and sticking with it. As lame as it sounds, that’s one of the biggest reasons I haven’t been blogging much—a nice-looking blog is more appealing to post to than a crappy-looking blog.

BUT… I finally found a theme I love. It’s basically everything I have been looking for—simple, but stylish, modern-looking, and easy to modify. (Feel free to click over from your reader to see the new look and let me know what you think!)

This morning J and I began Body Rock’s 30 Day Challenge. I’ve mentioned many times on the blog that 1) J is not much of an exerciser and 2) strength training is not my favorite.

Jeremy is hoping to climb Mount Fuji before we leave Japan permanently in August so he’s enlisted my help to get himself into shape. This is a great challenge for me, too, because I need some strength training accountability. We were up and Rockin’ at 6:30 a.m. after a quick breakfast. Today’s workout was a fitness test—it was only 7 minutes, but we were both coughing and sweating by the end. Whew!

That quick workout must have really fired up my metabolism because I was hungry all day long afterward. I was also sore.

I’m fairly certain the soreness was from yesterday’s run. I’m still plugging away in my Vibrams and I’ve worked my way up to 1.8 miles. I’m hoping to hit 2 miles later this week and begin training for an unofficial spring half marathon once 5K becomes easy running.

Some of you have asked me talk a little more about running in the Vibrams:

I’m really enjoying my Vibrams so far and I am very happy to have gotten them for Christmas. I’m not sure if I would have spent the money on them myself (without knowing whether I’d like them), but I am 100% satisfied with my experience in them so far. I’ve been running in them for a little over a month (started out very slowly with 0.5 mile) and my feet and legs feel so strong!

Initially I experienced some foot soreness after running in Vibrams, but I have not had any of that soreness after my last few runs. In fact, I ran my longest run to date in them yesterday and my legs are sore today, but my feet feel fine.

Will I ever go back to running shoes? Not as long as I continue having fun and running injury-free in the Vibrams. I feel like a little kid playing outside again and rediscovering the fun in running. It’s awesome.

A few more “catching up” points before I go:

• I made a January 2012 favorites video:

• I’m finally doing something about the marathon/holiday weight I gained. I jumped on the scale two weeks ago and realized I’d gained 10 pounds since August 2011. Ouch. It’s really not as huge of a deal to me as it might sound. (A few years ago, this would have totally broke me!) I’ve already lost one pound just from cleaning up my diet and making regular workouts a priority.

• I pulled down my “favorites” and “training” pages. I haven’t been updating my blogroll or my Daily Mile lately, so there’s not much point in leaving the pages up. Just in case you go looking for it…

I think that’s all for today.