So I had an 8 miler on my training schedule for Saturday, and I was actually really looking forward to it. When I was in San Antonio, I didn’t have/make time to do my long run, but I just decided that my shorter and speed training runs around the weekend run would be enough, and Saturday’s 8 miler was a test to make sure I was really on track with training.

I slept pretty late since I am still recovering on sleep from working 27 hours between last Saturday and Sunday, and after eating a quick pre-run breakfast, I set out. I mapped out an 8 mile route from my apartment running mostly through the city, and off I went. The first mile was a little tough, but as I got into miles 2 and 3 I got in my groove and was feeling really good.

I had picked a pretty hilly route because, as I mentioned before, I’m really trying to incorporate more hills into my training runs. Miles 3 and 4 were quite hilly, but after the 4 mile mark things evened out and I was feeling great (and not to mention, half way done). During that part of the run, I was running down M Street in Georgetown, which is probably the worst choice for a running route because it’s super crowded and pretty poorly paved on the sidewalks. That said, I’ve run it many, many times and never had a problem, until Saturday.

Just as I passed the 4.25 mile mark, I must have stepped directly into a hole where a brick should have been, and I went FLYING. I landed hard on my knees and used my hands to break my fall, and it was so sudden that it really caught me off guard. I jumped right up and there were several people around me asking if I was OK, and I told them thanks but yes I’m fine, and started running again.

As I took those first few steps, my knees just did NOT feel right, especially my left knee. I didn’t want to pull my pants up to look, but I knew I was feeling super emotional and that I should probably just call it quits, so I called my friend Amber to see if there was any way she could come get me. She sent her fiancé Mike, who is also a good friend, and he ended up coming to scoop me and driving me the rest of the way home.

When I got home, I took a look at my knee, and it wasn’t bad scrape wise, but it definitely felt bruised underneath.

Very attractive photo, I know.

I ended up icing it for a while before hoping in the shower, which was probably the most painful part of the whole experience because it stung so bad! After icing it though, I was walking around and it didn’t feel quite so bad, so I knew nothing was terribly wrong.

When I woke up yesterday, it felt fine, so I decided to give Yoga for Runners a go to see how it felt. Many of the postures have you on your knees, and so after just 10 minutes, I decided to abort the mission and go to the gym to test it out instead. I ended up doing 30 minutes on the Stairmaster before getting on the treadmill and knocking out 2 miles. It hurt to have my running pants over the knee, so I just pulled it up, but other than that it felt fine. I don’t know if I did the right thing by stopping, because I think it was more that the experience shook me up than anything, and I’m pretty bummed I missed my long run, again.

My plan to get back into it is to follow the training plan to a T this week, busting out 4.5 miles today, intervals on Wednesday, strength on Thursday, and then a 9 miler on Friday since I’m out of town this coming weekend. I think that if all goes well this week I’ll be fine for the half, but I’m not going to push it if 9 feels too long on Friday and will scale back to 8 if need be.

Have you ever taken a spill during a run? How did you respond?

In case you couldn’t gather from yesterday’s post, San Antonio was not the healthiest of trips. I always go with the best of intentions and end up failing miserably and overdoing it while I am away for work. While I know it’s not the end of the world, it’s frustrating that I can’t seem to master eating healthy on a business trip…

One good move I did make was on Saturday I decided to order a box of fruits and vegetables from Washington’s Green Grocer. I ordered a box from them one other time which you can read about here, and while I was overall satisfied, I wasn’t impressed enough to order it again since then, which was about a year ago.

When I placed the order from my iPhone, I think I misread something because I was under the impression it was coming Monday. My thought was that I wouldn’t have time to grocery shop and when I got home from my trip, I’d have a box of fruits and veggies waiting. After I placed the order though, I totally forgot that I did and there was no box waiting at home on Monday.

Yesterday, however, was a different story.

When I saw the box sitting up against my door like that when I got home, I had NO idea what it was until I took a closer look and realized it was a box full of fresh fruits and veggies!

This time, I was REALLY impressed with the value of the box. Everything was in excellent condition, and it cost $31.25 with delivery including all fees. I ordered a small mixed box, which includes some organic, some transitional, and some conventional produce.

Check out how much they packed into the box!

First up, the fruit.

• 2 grapefruit
• 3 naval oranges
• 3 red pears
• 6 fuji apples

*Note: This time I requested NO bananas, because last time they were a little bruised up and I am super particular about my bananas for some reason, so I’m not sure what they gave in place, but there was definitely a ton in the box!

Next up, the veggies:

• 2 portabella mushrooms (already gone)
• 1 bunch of carrots w/the greens
• 1 head cauliflower
• 2 avocado
• 2 cucumber
• green beans (in the bag)
• green leaf lettuce

Quite a lot of produce for just $31.25 including delivery! While I don’t think this will be a weekly thing by any means, I do think I’m going to try to make use of it during particularly busy weeks. I also love the idea of having it delivered when I’m just getting back to a trip and won’t have time to head to the store so that I have no excuses to get back on track immediately.

Have you ever used a delivery service for produce and/or groceries? Would you?

So I just have to say first, I LOVE San Antonio. Since I was there for work, I didn’t get to do too too much, but I managed to eat a ton of tex-mex food and walk along the riverwalk quite a bit. There were two major margarita highlights worth mentioning, and I am not normally a big margarita drinker so you know they had to be good.

The drink that blew my mind the most was an avocado margarita.

I couldn’t really get my head around it but I love avocado, and though I don’t have them often, love margaritas too. The avocado was really subtle and just added a smoothness to the drink that is so hard to articulate. When I asked the server about it, he said each (huge) margarita only had about 1/10 of an avocado in it, so it was definitely more background flavor and texture than anything. So good.

A close second was a prickly pear margarita.

How pretty is that!? It had cactus juice (the pink part) throughout the margarita and after the picture I ended up mixing it all together so the drink was nauseatingly pink, but it was completely delicious. The one good part was that I limited myself to one margarita max anywhere we went, since they are so sugary and do not make for the most productive morning after for my body…

Now that I am back from my San Antonio induced food and drink coma, I am ready to get to it and really focus for the month of February. Without further ado, here’s what I need to do:

February Goals:

1.) Get back into the 160’s.

I lost 1.6lbs my first week back following WW to a T (yay!!!) so I have 6.8 more pounds to lose until I’m off probation (and back within 2 lbs of my goal weight). I want to stay focused and lose about 1 lb/week for the month, which will put me back into the 160s.

2.) Track Consistently Monday through Friday.

This will help with goal #1 tremendously and I know it’s what I need to do to get myself to where I need to be. Ideally I’d track on the weekends too, but I want to be realistic and make the weekdays mandatory for tracking.

3.) Stretch after every run.

I have been really bad about this, though last night I did do the entire Yoga for Runners: Intermediate DVD (which was an intense 80 minutes!) and it involved a lot of stretching and strengthening postures. Even if I just stretch for 5 minutes, I want to make this a priority.

4.) Build up my long runs from 8 to 10 miles.

The long runs are always the most intimidating for me of my training plan, and I haven’t done a double digit run since I was training for (and consequently dropped out of) the marathon back in September. I want to focus on these and make them a priority, and am thinking about implementing a Friday night Movie Night so I do something, but it doesn’t involve alcohol and still has me in bed early.

5.) Limit Drinking Alcohol.

Being single and social is a tough balance if you’re trying to be healthy, and as I’ve watched the pounds creep back on, I know a good amount of that has to do with drinking too much and the careless eating that often follows. My goal is to go out only one night of the weekend for the month (Friday movie night should help!), and do at most one happy hour per week, hopefully less.

6.) Post at least 4 step-by-step recipes on here.

I haven’t been consistent about posting recipes, and I know that it’s one of people’s favorite parts about this blog, so I want to deliver! One recipe per week seems reasonable to me!

Six seems like a good number… here’s to a great February!

Are you a margarita fan? What kind is your favorite – flavor, frozen, on the rocks? Or, share your biggest goal for the month!

I’m a Weight Watchers Leader!!

I’ve now led my third meeting as a legit leader (and not a trainee) and feel like I am getting more comfortable and confident each time. The meeting I’m working is actually one that I led my second time ever leading a meeting as a trainee, which you can read all about here. It’s super early in the morning (7:45am – yikes!) but I get pretty excited about it so haven’t had a hard time waking up yet, which is a small miracle.

I’m still a little awkward in front of the group, and sometimes my mind goes completely blank while I’m up there even though I have a good idea how I want the meeting to go from the start. I think that will get easier with time, but one thing I’ve started doing that is helping is not over thinking it. The topics are generally pretty self explanatory for someone like me who knows the program inside and out, and while there are loose guidelines of how the meeting can go, it’s largely pulled along by what the members have to say.

One thing that a lot of people might not know is that as a Leader, you are only supposed to talk about 1/4 of the time and are much more a facilitator than a lecturer. Most of the meeting should be filled with members sharing ideas with each other and the Leader asking thought provoking questions and pushing the conversation along as needed. One of the reasons for this is that a lot of people assume that the Leader has “figured it out” (which clearly I have not) so it’s more beneficial for many of them to get ideas from other members who are in the same boat.

So though I definitely feel like I am getting better, more comfortable, and less awkward as the meetings go on, there are certainly several areas for improvement.

Source.

To name a few:

Figure out what to do with my hands! One of the things I’ve gotten better about is moving around the room a little bit so that I’m not standing glued to one spot on the floor. That said, I always awkwardly hold my hands in front of my body and though I’m completely conscious of it, I don’t know what to do with them to make me look more natural. I think I need to practice in front of a mirror!

Get more comfortable with silence. Since the goal is to have the members talk for most of the time, it’s important that I leave enough time for members to process and think about the questions I ask. While 8 seconds sounds like it would go by in the blink of an eye, when you’re in front of a room of people with all eyes on you, it can sometimes feel like an eternity.

Get more comfortable/confident in general. I think this one will only come with time and I’ve already seen a big improvement in myself since my first meeting, but I definitely need to keep working on it. I am very confident in social situations/in real life, so it still baffles me a little bit that I get so self conscious in front of the group, but I am confident this will improve with each meeting I lead.

Do you have any questions about being a leader that you’re curious about? If you are/were a WW-er at any point in time, what were some of the characteristics of your favorite leader(s)?

I’ve seen this survey all over the blog world so thought I would take a stab and let in you learn a little bit about me! I’m in San Antonio currently and will be heading back tonight… back to the grind tomorrow!

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday?

I love to get a workout first thing like a run outside when the weather is nice or a killer session on the stairmaster at the gym, and then spend the day hanging out with friends and/or getting my nails done. After laying low for most of the day, I love a nice meal out and possibly a night on the town if I’m feeling up for it.

2) List your top three favorite TV shows.

• Breaking Bad
• Mad Men
• Parenthood

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them?

Half and half. I love taking pictures, but I also loving getting good pictures that I am in so I can remember fun times with family and friends!

4) Why do you blog?

I blog because it’s a creative outlet for me and I really like to have something in my life where I can regularly talk about weight loss, healthy living, and my struggles with weight maintenance. I’ve met some incredible people, both readers and other bloggers alike, and it’s helped me be more committed than ever to leading a healthy life and setting a good example.

5) Share five websites you visit regularly…

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Gmail
• DontEvenReply.com
• DamnYouAutocorrect.com

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be?

Louis CK. I feel like that would be the best lunch ever.

7) List a few of your favorite snacks.

Cottage cheese or greek yogurt with fruit, banana with peanut butter, black bean dip or hummus with veggies, and popcorn. If I’m not being particularly healthy, I can eat my weight in cheese and french bread.

8 ) Do you have a pet? If so, what kind?

Nope! Funny story – my friends in college and I decided it would be a good idea to get a cat my senior year and we named her Chloe. When we got her, my parents were asking who was going to take her when the year was over, and I assured there would be a fight over who got to keep her. Take one guess where she lives now… with my parents.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without?

• iPhone (I somehow made it 27 years, but now…)
• A good chef’s knife
• My laptop

10) What’s your favorite drink?

Non-alcoholic is coffee, alcoholic is a tie between vodka soda with a splash of cran or a nice glass of wine!

11) Do you enjoy cooking?

I do! I generally like to cook bigger meals 1-2 nights a week and then have quick meals the rest of the week that I can whip together in just a few minutes so I can embrace some downtime.

12) Do you have children?

Nope! Definitely want a few in my future, though.

13) What are your favorite hobbies?

Running, blogging, experimenting in the kitchen, finding awesome happy hours,

14) Would you consider yourself shy or outgoing?

Outgoing, hands down. I do get a little shy if I no no one in social situations.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change?

I would love to be a little less impulsive. I tend to get REALLY into things quickly and want to drop everything to make things happen without fully thinking it through. I’d love to be a bit more moderate in my approaches to decision making/life in general.

16) Who is your favorite actor/ actress?

I love Will Ferrell, Jonah Hill, Natalie Portman, and Mila Kunis.

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week?

Visited San Antonio for the first time ever!

18) Do you live near your family or far from them?

I’m lucky that all my family is within driving distance. My one sister Heather lives in NYC (4 hours by car from DC) with her two kiddos, Ben and Claire (and her husband). My other sister Wendy lives with her husband Justin and their son Harper in Philly (2.5 hours by car from DC), and my parents live near Atlantic City, NJ (3 hours by car). I feel fortunate to have them within driving distance, but sometimes wish they were a little closer so I could just meet up for dinner sometime!

19) List three of your talents.

• I am really good at making people laugh.
• I am really good at finding bargains with food, clothes, restaurants, and household items.
• I type extremely fast – over 100 words per minute.

20) What is your greatest attribute?

I am really good at achieving goals that I set myself to and doing what I need to do to make them happen.

What three material things do you think you’d struggle to live without? If you can’t think of three, share one or two!

The inspiration for this recipe came from the fact that I was able to purchase wonton skins at Whole Foods for 75 cents! They were on sale for $2, and then with a coupon from Whole Foods for $1.25 off any Nasoya Product, I easily found room for them in my cart. I was planning on holding onto them for a while, but then when I realized they expired today, I knew I had to come up with something fast!

The best part of this recipe besides that it’s so simple and delicious is that it requires just three ingredients, and is totally customizable based on what you have in your kitchen! I wanted to go super simple and just used refried beans and cheese for the filling, but you could easily add corn, ground beef, pepper, onions, or anything else you can think of. The technique remains the same, just make sure whatever you put in them is cooked and/or thawed so everything heats up evenly. Here goes!

Mexican Wonton Bites

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Entire recipe yields 12 pts+, or 1pt+ per wonton bite

Ingredients:

• 12 wonton skins
• 1 cup fat-free refried beans
• 1 oz. shredded part-skim mozzarella
• Optional: Salsa + Avocado for garnish

Directions:

First, preheat your oven to 350º. While that is heating, spray a mini-muffin tin with nonstick spray.

Next, press one wonton skin into each muffin cup so that it’s flat on the bottom with the edges poking out.

Place them in the preheated oven for 5 minutes so they get slightly baked and hold their shape. They’ll look something like this after 5 minutes:

Next, spread the 1 cup of refried beans evenly between the shells, which works out to about 1.5 tbsp per wonton.

Then, sprinkle the shredded cheese evenly between the wonton bites.

Last step, pop them back in the oven for 10 more minutes. They are done when the cheese is melted and the edges are browned.

Garnish as desired. I put a dollop of salsa on each one plus spread 30 grams (1 pt+ worth) of avocado among 6 of them.

That plus a nice bowl of veggie soup was a very satisfying 8 pt+ dinner! These heat up nicely the next day too in the toaster, so I had the leftovers at work yesterday with more veggie soup and an orange – so good!

These wonton bites are crispy, creamy, and cheesy, and literally melt in your mouth. So simple and yet so delicious. I’ll definitely be making them again!

As part of being an ambassador for Attune Foods, I’ll be writing one blog post a month in the “Weight Loss Wednesdays” column on the Attune Foods Blog.

The theme for January is Real Change, so click over to the blog to read about how I transitioned from mostly processed foods to whole foods and how this led to real change for me. I’ll be checking frequently and responding to comments as they come in over on the Attune Foods Blog, so please chime in over there!

Happy Thursday!!

Somehow, I am already in week five of training for my third half marathon!! It seems like just yesterday I was starting the plan, but now I’m gearing up for an 8 miler this coming weekend! I have to say, I really enjoy being on a training plan because it takes the guess work out of exercising for me. When I have a plan in place, I feel obligated to make the time for working out, and definitely push myself harder than I do otherwise.

Overall, training is going quite well. I’ve been sticking with almost all of my planned runs and have moved from 5 to 7.3 miles for my long runs so far. My weeks have been looking something like this workout-wise with 3-5 workouts per week (mostly 3-4):

• 1 easy run, starting with 3 miles and now up to 4
• 1 day of speed work, alternating between tempo runs and intervals
• 1 long run, starting with 5 miles and working up to 8 this coming weekend
• 1-2 days of strength training
• 2-3 days of rest

You can see the actual by clicking here for my workout spreadsheet.

That said, there are definitely some areas for improvement so that I’m ready to rock on 3-17-2012.

When I wrote my initial post with my training plan for my third half marathon, I said I wanted to make sure to incorporate hill training, and that has not been something I’ve been focusing on enough. One good thing is I’ve been doing all of my runs outside except for the speed work, whereas with previous training I was doing almost all of them on the treadmill except for the long runs. The areas around me are pretty hilly, though I have been choosing flatter courses than I can and I want to make sure to step up the hill training for the rest of training.

Going forward: My goal is to do at least 1 hilly run a week.

Besides that, I’ve definitely been trending towards 1 day of strength training a week and while 1 is more than I’ve done any other time, I’d like to move that towards two per week for the rest of training. Based on recommendations from yesterday’s post, I went ahead and ordered Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism, and also found a Yoga for Runners: Intermediate Program that I ordered as well. I want to try to do the Yoga DVD on some Sundays after my Saturday long runs and will count it as strength training as well even though it’s not strictly strength. Having a bunch of options at home for strength training will give me less excuses to not get my two-a-week in!

Going forward: My goal is to trend towards two days of strength training per week.

Finally, I need to stretch more! Last night I did 4 miles after work and stretched because I was SO sore from No More Trouble Zones the day before. I realized while I was stretching that it was the first time in weeks that I actually stretched after a run. I have to change that!

Going forward: Stretch for at least a few minutes after every run!

Overall, I’m pleased with my progress so far and can definitely feel myself getting faster. I ran a 5k on the treadmill the weekend before last because my plan called for a 5k, but I wasn’t signed up for one. I ran it in 27:49, which is an 8:55 pace and by far the fastest I’ve ever run a 5k on the treadmill, and while it was challenging, I felt great! My runs have been trending in the mid 9:00s overall, and my pace at my last half marathon was 9:59, so I really want to keep my eyes on the prize and make a PR happen come March 17th! I think if I continue to focus, I can definitely make that happen.

Do you have any races coming up that you’re training for? Do you tend to readjust your training plan/goals as you go?

Happy Monday! I had a really awesome weekend because two of my best friends from Connecticut came to visit me that I hadn’t seen in a loooong time! Even though I grew up in CT, my parents moved away when I graduated from college, so I never go back there during holidays or anything and it was SO great to see them. My other best friend from Connecticut, Erika, lives here in the area, but lives out in Arlington, so we ended up doing Friday night in Arlington and Saturday night in DC.

Here’s me and Allison on Friday night:

And Jaci and Erika on Saturday night:

We had two awesome dinners – one at Boulevard Woodgrill on Friday night, and one at Zatinya on Saturday evening. Both dinners evolved into nights out on the town, but you have to go big when friends are visiting, right?

After they get on the road yesterday morning, I had the most productive day Sunday ever. I did laundry, cleaned my entire apartment top to bottom, went through my closet and got rid of a bunch of clothes, did a new-to-me workout DVD, and cooked up a storm. I went grocery shopping on Friday night before they got here to pick up a few things, and decided to try to make it through the week without another trip. I need to work through everything in my fridge before I leave Friday morning for San Antonio and I think I can make it through the week with what I have, so I’m going to try!

Yesterday’s cooking involved whipping up a batch of veggie soup, brown rice, and un-pictured steel cut oats:

I made the simple soup by cooking onion, garlic, celery, and carrots over low heat for 10-15 minutes, then adding spices and water and letting it simmer for 45 minutes. When it was done, I stirred in a few handfuls of fresh spinach and that was it. I had a bowl last night and ended up adding some brown rice to bulk it up a bit and it was delicious! I plan to use the brown rice throughout the week for the taco salads, to add to the soup, and to make veggie fried brown rice later in the week.

Here’s what I came up with for a menu plan:

And here’s the plan for workouts, aiming for 5 days of working out and 2 days of rest:

• Sunday: No More Trouble Zones (check!)
• Monday: 4 miles
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Speed Work – 7x400s
• Thursday: Cross-Training
• Friday: 8 miles in San Antonio
• Saturday: Rest

This week, I want to really focus on sticking with the plan so I can work my way through everything in my fridge and make some progress on the scale. I have a lot to do before I leave for San Antonio on Friday, so I’m aiming to get most of my workouts done in the morning before work, which is my main goal for the week – get to the gym first thing!

Do you ever do workout DVDs at home? What is your favorite one?

I “love” Jillian Michael’s workout DVDs – they are built on a circuit system and really make me sweat! I have The Shred which is 3 20-minute workouts, and just got No More Trouble Zones on Friday, which is a 40 minute circuit plus warm-up and cool down, and it is INTENSE. It’s a total body workout and the equivalent of doing two levels of the Shred at once in my opinion, but I’m looking for more suggestions!

I’ve alluded to it many times on here, but I am officially back up several pounds over my goal weight and am not happy about it. I am extremely gifted at coming up with excuses and blaming the stresses in my life as reasons for why I’m struggling, but I can feel myself slipping back into my old habits and to be honest, I feel like I’m finally waking up. I knew that maintenance was going to be hard, but I didn’t realize just how easy it was going to be to slip into the old mentality of using food for comfort and finding ways to justifying overeating.

Besides wanting to get back to my goal weight for personal reasons, I have to be there in order to work for Weight Watchers, and for good reason. I am supposed to be a role model to the members who come to my meeting and be a “real life success story” to show that the plan works, so it makes sense to me that it’s a requirement. While I still weigh drastically less than I did when I first started Weight Watchers, my weight has been slowly creeping up over the last few months and I’ve been back burner-ing and ignoring the issue, as if that is going to help.

One of the things you have to do as a WW employee is weigh in monthly to show that you’re within 2 lbs of your goal weight, and I’ve been barely been squeezing along with a few extra pounds for the last several weigh ins. This month, I couldn’t squeeze by anymore. I’m honestly not sure exactly where I am and will be weighing in later today and then weekly going forward, but I need to get back to my goal weight to stay in good standing for Weight Watchers in addition to the fact that I just want to be back there. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the 10 pound range, but I am not certain.

I can blame it on the fact that my grandmother just passed away, that I’m single and have been struggling with being social and keeping my drinking/eating under control when I’m out, or that the holidays just passed and everyone overdoes it during the holidays. But those are just excuses undermining the real problem: my eating has been out of control.

The one good thing I’ve been doing is consistently exercising. I’ve continued to workout 3-5 times a week and have been doing a great job sticking with my half marathon training plan, so for that I am proud and know that I’m still in good shape athletically.

Outside of that, though, I’ve been eating like crap, and I know that weight loss and weight maintenance is much more about what I’m eating than how much I’m moving, so working out 3-5 times a week isn’t going to cut it.

In order to get my weight back in control, I am going to be doing weekly employee weigh ins starting today. I know exactly what I need to do – track EVERYTHING I eat even if it’s not pretty, take advantage of the accountability that weighing in once a week gives me, up my water intake, and drink less alcohol. For my own sake, I’m going to be doing weekly menu plans every week until I am back at goal, and will report on my progress each week on here as well.

While I am pretty disappointed that I let myself gain back some weight, I also feel pretty relieved that it’s finally out there and that I feel ready to do something about it. I do have a lot of things coming up in the next several weeks that are going to make it a struggle, including friends visiting from out of town and a work trip to San Antonio, but I am 100% committed to making it happen.

Who’s with me?