Nope, still not a yogi

Today, I woke up determined to do some yoga. After reading about all the good it’s done for Jenna at Eat, Live, Run and about Meghann’s success with the 20-minute sessions from yogadownload.com at The Inner Workings of a College Graduate, I came to the conclusion that yoga would be an excellent complement to my half marathon training. Sure, yoga and I have had a bit of a spotty past, but I’m not one to hold a grudge, and today’s a new day, right?

When my computer finally managed to download the Morning Flow #1 and the Yoga for Runners #1, I cheerily unrolled roommate’s pilates mat, enlarged the yoga pose guide on my computer screen, and settled in for a life-altering experience. The Morning Flow class started with child’s pose, soothing music, and a pleasant-voiced instructor. I thought to myself, Oh, this is lovely. Yoga and I are going to be fast friends.

Very quickly, however, I started to feel like the instructor was speaking Spanish — I could sort of understand her words, but by the time I deciphered them and the pose I was supposed to be doing, I was five steps behind. I started to look something like this:

This photo may or may not be from a less-than-sober moment in my younger days ...

This photo may or may not be from a less-than-sober moment in my younger days ...

Not one to be discouraged easily, I switched over to the Yoga for Runners class. But the same thing happened. After seven total minutes of yoga practice, I decided I’d had my fill for the day. Yoga, please don’t take offense. Maybe we just weren’t meant to be. We can try again another day when we’ve both had time and space to think.

With the yoga disappointment behind me, my next task was clear: BREAKFAST! Another slice of carrot cake (I cut this slice into 3 so it would look like more) and Nutcracker Sweet tea with unsweetened Silk (so excited to have my soy milk back!):

img_23901

This was even better today — the cream cheese frosting was super thick because the cake had absorbed a lot of the moisture:

img_2382

I’m such an artiste:

img_2399

I spent the morning finishing up some homework for my internship and dreading the re-start of classes tomorrow night.

I got my work done a little after 2:00 and dove into a yummy yummy lunch. My roommate Tara was making butternut squash soup the other night, so I had her save the seeds for me:

img_2241

I topped the seeds with coarse sea salt, sugar in the raw, cayenne pepper, and cinnamon:

img_2242

I put them in the oven at 425 and proceeded to forget about them completely until I realized that the weird popping sound I kept hearing was the seeds exploding in the oven. Whoops:

img_2256

But I’m not going to let a little bit of char stop me! I heated the rest of my red lentil-peanut soup with 1/2 cup of sofrito rice/barley/cabbage combo (that I’ve been eating all week) and sprinkled some of the still-delicious seeds on top with a dollop of Greek yogurt and two basil leaves for color:

img_2403

So pretty I can’t stand it!

img_2415

For dessert, I had 1/2 cup of zucchini-lime cheesecake oatmeal and more tea:

img_2424

With more cream cheese frosting and squash seeds, of course:img_2425

And now I’m off to brave the outside for the first time today. Girl needs some fresh air!

Addendum

Why stop eating, really?

Tonight, I made Zucchini-Lime Cheesecake Oatmeal for this week’s BSI contest. I did not know that I was making this until it was already made … which is usually what happens when I cook. Obviously, I had to taste test the oats when I finished, so I set myself up with a half-portion:

img_2358

It was deeeeeeeeeeeeelicious, if I do say so myself!

img_2362

And as if that wasn’t desserty enough, I followed up with a Godiva dark chocolate:

img_2367

Filled with chocolate-raspberry cream!

img_2381

And now, I’m done for real. I promise.

A mile here, a mile there

img_2336

But first, I inadvertently “improvised” a bit during our run, so Kate and I ended up squeezing out an extra mile. I don’t know where it happened, but go us! Running stats: 6.94 miles; 1 hour, 10 minutes; 624 calories; 157 average heart rate; 171 highest heart rate. That’s the farthest I’ve ever run in one go! Again, I so wish I’d had my camera so that I could have taken some pictures of the gorgeous houses with giant White House-esque columns — so out of place in the city! Near the end, Kate and I had to maneuver around some flag footballers, a game of cricket (the park was buzzing with activity today despite the windy 30 degrees — must have been sunshine excitement), and a home stretch covered in ice, but we survived without incident.

I got home, drank lots of water, and starting preparing a big ol’ lunch, because what’s the point of running if you don’t follow it with a huge meal?

img_2316

On the side, I had the last 1/3 plantain, browned in 1 tsp canola oil and then steamed for a minute or two in 1/4 cup boiling water (until the water sizzled away). My main course “Mexican” pile included a bed of salad (from the office food I brought home yesterday), 3/4 cup black beans, the other egg yolk from blondie night, sofrito rice/barley and the rice from yesterday’s office food, 1/3 cup Wholly Guacamole, and 1/4 cup Fage 0 %.

img_2315

I literally licked the plate clean. Although, when do I not?

After lunch, I flew in and out of the shower and into bed for a glorious, clean hour-long nap! I woke up ready for food again (surprise). I was potentially going to meet some friends at a restaurant tonight, but after careful review of my financial situation, I had to conclude that it was not in the cards :-/.

Lucky for me, I have looooooads of food in the fridge from this past week. For dinner, I heated two chicken tamale halves and one cup of Belkis’ beans from my work lunch on Thursday:

img_2327

Mmmm, love those tamales:

img_23281

For dessert, I topped yesterday’s corn tortilla with a tbsp of peanut butter, half a sliced banana, a tbsp of chocolate chips, and a sprinkle of cinnamon … and heated it in the oven for five minutes to get it all melty. With a side of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea:

img_2332

Have you ever laid eyes on a more appetizing combination?

img_2334

Transformation

Thanks to a week of unexpected food donations to the Sarah cause, I have hardly made a dent in the food I prepped last weekend! Today, rather than making a new breakfast before I finished the old, I decided to get creative with the remaining two servings of my carrot cake crockpot oats. They used to look like this:

img_19151

I mixed the two cups of oats with 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and two tbsp whole wheat flour and poured it into a canola-ed baking dish:

img_2263

The dish went into the oven for 40 minutes at 375 and came out looking like this:

img_2271

I slid a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the dish and tried unsuccessfully to wait for it to cool. But I was hungry, so I inverted it onto a plate after about 30 seconds. Because I didn’t let it cool, the bottom got a bit messy, but that’s beside the point:

img_2277

img_2279

I cut myself 1/3 of the cake for breakfast and made a cream cheese frosting for it from 2 tbsp part-skim ricotta, 2 tbsp 0% fage (yay, free food!), 1/2 tsp maple cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and a sprinkle of cinnamon:

img_22941

Then I went wild and drew a carrot with cake decorating gel:

img_22801

Ahh, this was so good that I just went ahead and frosted the rest of the cake while I had everything handy:

img_2312

So, needless to say, I’m having a successful morning :-). And the productive streak is only going to continue since Kate’s meeting me at 1:00 for our six mile run (!!!) through Prospect Park and a nearby neighborhood that is surprisingly full of Victorian mansions (yes, in Brooklyn!). I wish I had some sort of camera arm band so I could take pictures as we run through. It’s gorgeous over there! Be back later …

My eyelids are drooping …

Ahhhhh it’s finally the weekend!! I’m planning on crashing just as soon as I’m done with this post — I feel like I could sleep for a year (though my body always wakes me up after eight hours, grrr).

Myrna and I had lunch together today before we started our group. I ate everything I packed (of course) plus a bit extra. Yesterday, a mom brought Myrna a big Mexican steak platter with homemade corn tortillas, steak (obv), salad, and rice:

img_2191

After the potluck lunch we’d already had, Myrna could not even consider starting on this then, so she stuck it in the fridge for today and shared it with me while we ate and planned for our group. She gave me all the sauteed veggies (hidden amongst the steak in the picture) and this tortilla with fixings:

img_2212

And she also gave me half of her banana that I topped with office peanut butter:

img_2217

And since I spend so much time with this guy, here’s a shot of the candy jar that plagues me all day:

img_2223

I think I had five mints and two fruity tootsies today …

Now that I’m constantly taking pictures of all the food I see, my coworkers can’t seem to stop offering me bites of what they have! A bunch of others ordered a different steak meal that they couldn’t finish, so the leftovers were sitting on my desk when I came back up after we finished the group. I’m not complaining! Here’s everything unpacked for display purposes tonight:

corn tortilla, steak, little rice, pork, salad, and two banana pieces (leftover from the group)

corn tortilla, steak, little rice, pork, salad, and two banana pieces (leftover from the group)

The salad, tortilla, banana, and rice went into the fridge for use this weekend. I chopped the meat into little pieces and put it in a snack baggie for freezing:

img_2233

On my way home from work, I stopped into Whole Foods for a few items that are miraculously cheaper there. In the process, I ate a dinner of samples:

– 3 small pieces of chocolate from Azure Chocolat: Beauty Bark (“70% Belgian dark chocolate, dried wild blueberries, cacao nibs, fresh walnuts, golden flax, and grey sea salt” – phenomenal!), S’mores d’Azure (“fresh marshmallow and creamy chocolate ganache sandwiched between two Azure grahams smothered in Belgian milk chocolate”), and chocolate covered-graham (“freshly baked crispy graham laced with cinnamon and honey and smothered in Belgian milk chocolate”)

– 1 bite of each of the 4 flavors of Gnu Flavor & Fiber bars

– 2 pieces of baked seasoned tofu

– several teeny pieces of 3-year-aged gouda with flatbread crackers

– 4 cucumber slices with ginger miso dressing

– a sample cup of black bean loaf

Definitely a successful outing! Here’s what I bought:

unsweetened Silk, 2 packs extra firm tofu, whole wheat pastry flour, crunchy natural pb

unsweetened Silk, 2 packs extra firm tofu, whole wheat pastry flour, crunchy natural pb

Total cost: $12.

Once home, I made a little snack of the rest of last week’s yogurt batch (approx. 1/4 cup), half an apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom:

img_2240

And now it is time to relax and hopefully catch up on lots and lots of sleep!