It's Been a While!

For right now, I think I'm going to be a sporadic blogger. I can't help it. Last week was hell. On Thursday night, I did five hours of work. I had to do an essay and a lab in one night and it was exhausting. Classes were cancelled both today and yesterday because of all the snow and ice, so I'm playing catch up a bit as well as relaxing. I went babysitting last night and we started watching Prince Caspian. The only problem was, their parents came home and I really wanted to find out what was going to happen next! I looked on itunes to see if it was a rental, but it WASN'T. I did random stuff on the internet for a while (read some blogs!!) and then realized, duh, I should check youtube! I stayed up until midnight last night watching Prince Caspian. :]

All I have to say is Peter is a very, very attractive specimen.

Anyway, enough of my creepiness. I was inspired by Caitlin on Monday, so I tried her V sit up things where you put a pillow between your feet. Unfortunately, I had no pillows on hand, so I used....

Mr. Teddy Bear! I actually don't remember if he has a name or not. Oh, and ignore my weird looking stomach please..

Oh, and I guess I'm some weird anomaly because I HATE snow. I honestly can't stand it. On Sunday I was starting to go crazy, so I bundled up in a long sleeved shirt, a HUGE hoodie, a rain jacket, a scarf, gloves, and a hat. Then I walked for a couple miles and came back as an ice cube. Yesterday I went to the gym in my gym clothes and those four blocks were unbelievably painful. My hands were throbbing when I got inside because of the drastic change in temperature. I also failed at the gym. I got on the bike for three minutes, the stair master for two, and the treadmill for five. I felt really weak and sore all over. My abs were also incredibly sore and it hurt to laugh all day yesterday. Thanks, Caitlin! I mean that as a good thing, I LOVE being sore after workouts. It's so satisfying!

I was also inspired by Madison over at Follow My Weigh (in the blogroll) to start counting for 100 days binge free. Emotional stress is really my biggest problem when it comes to binging. I can't figure out how to deal with it and I end up punishing my body. Yesterday was day one and today is day two. I'm going to keep track at the bottom of my blog posts.

I may or may not take some pictures today, we'll see. I had my boring old oatmeal again today, but it is SO good. It is a new batch, though.

Pumpkin-Apple Oatmeal

-1 cup rolled oats
-2 bananas sliced thinly
-1/4 cup wheat germ
-approx. 2/3 cup pumpkin pie FILLING (mine is 100 cal per 1/2 cup)
-cinnamon
-pumpkin pie spice
-2 cups water
-1 chopped apple

It is incredible. I put in extra pumpkin pie filling because there were only a few spoonfulls left, so I just tossed it all in so it wouldn't go to waste. The apple was also a really good addition. You get a bite of apple and it tastes like some delicious pumpkiny apple dessert. Oh my goodness. This was the end of the can of pumpkin pie filling so I have to decide if I want to open a new can next week, or go back to my pb&j oats temporarily. Decisions, decisions...

Have a wonderful day everybody! I am very envious of you who aren't trapped by snow right now!

LBF- one day down :]

A Little Something Different

Okay, so that's kind of a lie. I TRIED to change my breakfast. I was craving cereal, but you've already seen at least four or five pictures of boring Kashi golean. Dun dun dun! Sliced banana saves the day! I had a cup of Kashi (I actually measured today because I thought my servings were getting a little big), about a cup of milk, and half a sliced banana! I'm not sure if I liked the sliced banana with the cereal because I ended up fishing it all out and eating it separately.

This was my oopsie of the morning:

No, the cereal is not supposed to go in the fridge. Hahahah.

I was actually pretty productive last night when I missed gossip girl. I busted out a calc review and did a chem worksheet that I forgot was due tomorrow. I still have the english essay, calc test, and chem lab (forgot about that too!) due this week along with the calc paper due Monday. It's going to be a crazy week!

I didn't take a picture of lunch because you've seen my yogurt and bag of veggies and fruit way too many times. I'll try to be more creative, I promise!

Have a wonderful day!

Airborne-ing It Up!

That is what I told my mother when she asked me what I was doing. I'm DETERMINED to KILL MY COLD. DIE COLD DIE! Muwahahah.

Moving on, yes. I have had SO much liquid in the past 48 hours, it's ridiculous. Just to go over my intake today: a cup of milk, 16 oz hot chocolate (made with water because fake hot chocolate is delicious), 16 oz water, 8 oz water, 8 oz airborne. This doesn't include all the liquid in my food (oatmeal, soup, fruit, etc.). Crazy talk! That actually isn't a lot of liquid, but since I stopped running, I've stopped worrying about hydrating myself. When I started getting hardcore about running I drank at LEAST 8-10 glasses of water a day if not more. That's because dehydration leads to crappy runs. I've never had the same problem with gym workouts for some reason.

I didn't take a picture of my breakfast because it's nothing new and exciting. As much as I love my pumpkin oatmeal, I really do need to broaden my horizons occasionally. I'm thinking eggs, maybe? However, I did take a picture of my lunch because it was different today! I'm taking advantage of the large quantities of homemade hummus we have in the fridge! I made a lovely hummus and laughing cow sandwich on whole wheat bread (5 g of protein per slice, woohoo!) along with string cheese (for a snack) and a baggie of pears and carrots.

It was quite yummy, but I was hungry an hour and a half later! I made it until 3:30 and then I had half a clif bar and then the other half at 4 before I skipped off to the gym. The clif bar was Chocolate Chip and it was DELISH! Sayer and I went protein bar shopping because I'm trying to make her as obsessed as I am (all my friends make fun of me for keeping protein bars in my purse). Anyway, we sat down in Fred Meyer's and ate our clif bars (chocolate chip for me, carrot cake for her) and we were both very impressed! When I got home, I microwaved the other half and it was even more yummy! It tasted like a healthy cookie out of the oven! Mmm.
Dinner was quite good, but we had company so I didn't take a picture. We had spanikopita, a BIG salad, hummus, fresh veggies, and hearty winter soup. I had a little piece of 70% dark chocolate for dessert.

Before dinner, as I mentioned earlier, I had a nice workout at the gym. I don't know if I've mentioned my exercise machine ADD before, but it's pretty bad. I did 10 min on the elliptical, 10 min on the stairmaster, 10 min on the bike, random weights for about 15 min, and then stretching/abs (including planks!! thanks for the idea, Caitlin!)

I'm unbelievably stressed right now, but I'm trying to not let it get to me. I thought things were starting to calm down, but this week I have an English paper, a Calc test, and a Calc investigative paper to worry about on top of everything else. I'm not going to be able to watch Gossip Girl tonight either. :[

Off I go to try and learn Calc! Wish me luck! I may or may not have another cup of hot cocoa or milk before I go to bed. In the winter I drink a LOT of hot cocoa because it's delicious, comforting, and it makes everything seem so much better... at least temporarily.

Procrastination

I slept for ten hours last night. It was really lovely. I was unbelievably exhausted last night. During awards, I almost conked out on someone's shoulder at 7:30. Probably from getting five hours of sleep the night before, waking up at 5:30, and then having a really stressful day. I have never been so unhappy with the results of a tournament.

You probably aren't familiar with Speech Tournaments, so I'll give you a general overview. Curb time is anywhere from 5:45 (in the morning) to 10:30 depending on the schedule and ouregistration. Usually it's between 6 and 7, though. This tournament was weird because you could do EITHER debate, IEs (individual events), or Student Congress. Usually the the schedule rotates through Pattern A of IEs, Pattern B of IEs, and debate rounds. Depending on the organization and schedule of the tournament, they can run anywhere from 7 or 7:30 at night (like the one yesterday) or 11 or 11:30 (PSU last year, goodness gracious). There's always a mid-afternoon crash from being awake from some ridiculous hour of the morning and it's really easy to get sick during or after a tournament. I always drink tons of airborne the week before and the week after because you don't get enough sleep, you get really stressed, and you're surrounded by people all day. The overnight tournaments are especially killer, but they're also the most fun.

I don't have very many pictures from yesterday and I'm really angry because I wanted to take lots of pictures. However, I felt weird taking pictures of my food around the team, so I didn't. I'm not quite ready to tell them about the blog. Only Sayer knows right now. I had the worst luck in the kitchen yesterday, though. My oatmeal exploded in the microwave, so I had to throw it out and eat a bowl of Kashi golean instead. Then I toasted a piece of bread for my lunch, but when I toasted it the second time, it turned completely black. I had approximately thirteen minutes left before I had to leave and I still had to do my makeup, pack my bag, and finish packing my food for the day, so I decided to screw it because I had picked up a few clif bars the night before. I ended up packing a baggie of almonds, a greek yogurt/honey/fruit combination, a Builder's bar, a blueberry crisp Clif bar, and a baggie of pear slices and carrots. I didn't end up eating the Builder's bar or half of my baggie of almonds. I had a quick dinner of two scrambled eggs, laughing cow, a few tortilla chips, and an apple when I got home. I also had a cup of hot cocoa (teehee) before bed because our house is freezing!

This morning I had another bowl of Kashi golean because we didn't have any bananas for oatmeal. I was really unsatisfied because I had been craving oatmeal and it's that time of the month (TMI, I know), so I dug into the Builder's bar a while afterwareds. It was cookies and cream flavor, but it tasted more like caramel to me. It was delicious and totally helped. The time of the month thing also explains the lack of self control I've had in the past week. I'm absolutely ravenous and my cravings are out of control for a few days leading up to it and for the first day or two during. Hormones are awful.

Lunch was delicious and thrown together randomly. I'm trying to kill the cold I have (it seems like a lot of people in blogworld are sick!), so the things that sound good are the things I eat most often. I had half a piece of lavash bread with about a tablespoon of peanut butter and maybe half a tablespoon of jam. It didn't seem like a lot of jam, but it tasted a little bit too sweet. On the side I had my leftover yogurt from yesterday with honey and granola (for crunch). I opened up the "sandwich" so you could see the peanut butter and jam in their melted glory. Doesn't look as appetizing in the picture as it did on the plate.

I don't eat candy on a regular basis, but when I'm sick, Jolly Ranchers sound so good! I had to babysit for an hour because of a semi-emergency and they had a HUGE bowl of Halloween and Christmas candy out. I snagged the Jolly Rancher because it sounded good and it was my favorite flavor. :]

Yes, those are my chem notes in the background. I love molecular bonding.

I'm off to actually get some work done. Maybe. We'll see.

Memories and Frustration

Oh my goodness. I have had such a weird day. I don't have pictures from today, but there are several reasons why. I don't have a picture for breakfast because I hated it! I know Kath tried this and I know other people in blogland have too, so I decided to heat up my milk before I put it in my cereal. EWWWW! The cereal got soggy and it was just plain gross. I ate it of course because wasting food is not okay, but it totally started my morning off badly.

I hate Thursdays because I have to go four and a half hours without eating and that's really hard for me. After four, my stomach was grumbling like crazy. I had my string cheese and half an apple to hold me over until lunch. Then I dug into my lunch around one which was the amazing combination of honey, greek yogurt, and chopped apples. Then Sayer and I went to Starbucks after school (eggnog latte for her, nonfat hot chocolate without whipped cream for me) and then I went home. I was starving during my walk home and I had no idea why. I then completely carbo loaded and ate a ridiculous amount and I had no idea why. It wasn't binging or emotional eating, for some reason I just couldn't feel full. I did some quick calculations and realized that my amazing and filling lunch had LESS THAN 200 CALORIES. DOY! No wonder I was starving! So I had too many calories, but it was totally an oversight on my part. I'm always calorie conscious, but I've never worried about getting too few calories! I'm so frustrated with myself because adding a piece of toast and a laughing cow could have completely avoided that ridiculous eating session.

It was weird though, because I never felt full while I was eating, but then about half an hour later I felt really awful. Probably because my blood sugar was going crazy. Anyway, lesson learned. I won't make that mistake again. Because of how much I ate when I got home, dinner never really happened. I had a pear, but I never really got hungry. Therefore, the eats weren't worth posting. I did decide to take some random pictures to tell a bit about myself, though! Hopefully they're mildly entertaining.

1. I am the official product junkie in my family. I used to LOVE buying different conditioners, body washes, etc. until I realized I had enough to last me for years. This is the current state of my shower, although the bottles aren't usually all on the bottom of the tub! It doesn't actually look too bad like that, but there are four bottles of shampoo, six kinds of conditioner, a big bottle of body wash, a face wash, and shaving cream that seems to be exploding.

2. I'm also a lotion and chapstick addict. All of my friends and family make fun of me for it, but I really can't help it. I always have chapstick and lotion in my bag no matter where I am. My favorite lotion and chapstick are in the picture. As you can see, the chapstick has had some rough times. *cough* washing machine! *cough*

3. My sheer volume of my hair is frightening. This pictures is a terrible representation because I showered about five hours ago (my hair retains water like crazy) and it's still pretty wet. I easily have enough hair for about three people and it's pretty ridiculous. The boy (I'll have to get around to talking about him eventually) also has a lot of hair, so a good friend of mine always jokes that our children's hair will defy gravity. That particular friend is also the sister of the boy. It's kind of awkward, I know. We've all gotten used to it pretty much, but it's still weird sometimes. Apparently my hand is doing something really funny in this picture.

4. I have an underwear buying obsession. I counted how many pairs of underwear I had once and it was in the 50s. I didn't take a picture of them (haha, I'm not that risque), but I did take a picture of the drawer they're in. It's incredibly sexy, I know.

5. I love fake hot chocolate. By fake, I mean the Nestle kind with mini marshmallows. Yes, I know it probably has HFCS and all sorts of bad things, but it's so incredibly good. I was actually disappointed with the real hot chocolate I got at Starbucks today. I keep a stash of hot chocolate packets at home although I really should start carrying them around with me. I currently have three different kinds and about 30 packets. Mmmm.

Those are five random fun facts about me! Whee. So exciting. Something that really isn't exciting- my chem test tomorrow. Eeeek! Wish me luck!

However, thoughts of the upcoming speech and debate tournament are keeping me going. I'm going to take lots of pictures there and make sure I get one about Sayer because I talk about her so much. She's my partner, so she's basically my life. That sounds like an exaggeration, but it really isn't. We're finish each other's sentences, we have full conversations using incomplete sentences and hand motions, and we're usually thinking the same things at the same times. We do argue, but it's like the line in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants- we can get mad at each other because we love each other so much and we know that an argument won't come between us. It's really sweet actually. She's become my best friend and I really depend on her. I'll make sure I get a pictures of us with our matchy outfits and matching travel mugs of hot chocolate. :]

Night! I'll have pictures tomorrow, I promise!

STRESS!

The computer just deleted my entire post. I'm not thrilled to write it out again and I have a ton of chem studying to do. I'm just going to post pictures. My workout was lovely and I had this before:

A small bowl of Kashi golean crunch.

Salad, a small portion of eggs with veggies and reduced fat cheese, and a piece of whole wheat toast with a laughing cow. Afterwards I dug into a chocolate Builder's bar. I don't know why I was so unsatisfied.

Off I go to study chem. :[

A Fresh Start

I decided to try something a little different for breakfast today and it turns out I wasn't the only one in blogland who did! There were wayyy too many carbs consumed yesterday, so I decided to tone the carb consumption down today. Breakfast was about half a persimmon, a piece of toast with peanut butter and apple butter, and a cup of skim. If I'm eating some kind of sandwich that involves peanut butter, I always put it in the microwave before I eat it. Something about warm bread and melty peanut butter is absolutely mind bogglingly good.

After breakfast, I had to throw my lunch together while keeping in mind the amount of carbs. I don't really consider fruit to be a carb even though it is. I guess I mean processed carbs? I don't know exactly what my definition is. Anyway, I was SO happy with this lunch. It was incredibly good. I cut up about a fourth of an apple into little chunks and threw them in a tupperware. Then I added the other half of an 8 oz Voskos nonfat greek yogurt container, but that wasn't enough yogurt, so I added a big spoonful of Nancy's nonfat plain yogurt. I know I'm not the only one who does this. Greek yogurt is so terribly expensive that I always mix it with nonfat plain yogurt. It's still super creamy and delicious, even six hours after I pack my lunch! Then I added a little less than a tablespoon of melted creamed honey and stirred that all together. In the ziplock are some carrots and the rest of the apple and I packed a reduced fat string cheese to eat as a snack.

My day was kind of crazy. I'm very involved in Speech and Debate and I found out today that my partner won't be able to come to two of the biggest tournaments we go to. I was really upset for a while because one of those tournaments is the first tournament we ever went to together, so it's going to be really sad going without her. I managed to find another partner, but it's still not the ideal situation. I also have a Chem test coming up on Friday that I don't feel prepared for in the least. I'm going to go to the gym shortly to get rid of some of the stress that's been piling on. Hopefully it works!

Unfortunate Circumstances

This is going to be quick because I can't deal with posting pictures. In one of my posts just a few days ago, I said I was committed to dealing with the stress I've been under in a healthy way. That didn't really happen today. I'm not going into details, but I don't feel so hot right now. Does anyone have any recommendations for ways to stop before things get bad? Sometimes I'm unbelievably strong and I have willpower of steel. Other times, my willpower is better compared to marshmallows. I hate letting the stress get to me, but there's just so much of it right now. I had no idea this year was going to be so difficult both academically and emotionally.

I'll post the pictures I did take from today sometime tomorrow.

Any tips, stories, or inspiration will be much appreciated.

Dinner in Three Parts

The workout wasn't as successful as I thought it would be. I worked out four days in a row over the break and I even went running for the first time in two months (more on that later), so my legs were like, "nuh-uh, not happening". I managed twenty minutes on the elliptical and then did abs and stretching. To pass time at the gym, I always read trashy romance novels. The one I'm reading right now is really good and it's not actually trashy in the least. It's by Johanna Edwards if you have time for pleasure reading. This is the third book by her that I've read and all of them have been very original and entertaining.

Dinner was a multi-step process and it even had a fourth part, but that was more like dessert. To start off with, I had some veggies and a little puddle of one of my mom's homemade salad dressings. We had a huge baggie of veggies from the break and I think this was the last of them.

Then I had a boca burger (protein!!) and some organic ketchup for dipping followed by just a few pieces of spinach and cheese ravioli.

I may or may not have had the other half of my Builder's bar for dessert... okay, I did. Lately I've been craving something sweet after my meals. I'll have to pick up some diet hot cocoa and see if that works. I'd rather have a protein bar than chocolate or something like that because of the nutritional value. I will never turn down extra protein!

I mentioned running earlier and because this blog is called The Running Veggie, I should probably address that particular topic. I was a hardcore runner this past summer. At the most, my weekly mileage was thirty miles a week. I got up to nine mile runs and then I stopped liking it. I was forcing myself to go on runs and they didn't feel good anymore. I decided that a break was necessary and I started going to the gym again. I ran for the first time in two months on Saturday and it was really nice. I'm definitely not going to switch over to running as my sole form of exercise because it's just not practical in Portland during the winter. I will try to go out once or twice a week for short runs, but probably not more than three or four miles at a time.

Have a wonderful night everyone!

Failure!

I fail at blogging. I said I was going to take pictures of lunch, but I totally spaced. It wasn't too exciting, just a really good bowl of soup from Elephant's Deli. It was orange tomato and it was incredible. I order the same thing every time I go. I also had a bite of Sayer's quesadilla. It was good, but not as good as the soup. Unfortunately, I was starving two hours later because the lack of protein.

We went shopping to get Sayer some gray and navy clothes because we have a tournament coming up this weekend. It was lovely and we're not ready to go back to school tomorrow.

I'm planning on going to the gym in half an hour or so, so I had to have a snack:

I had the apple and half the Builder's bar. It was my first time trying this bar and I really liked it. As tasty as Luna and Clif bars are, they just don't fill me up properly, so I feel like I could eat several more of them. Not so with the Builder's bar! I really want to try the Cookies and Cream flavor, though.

New Camera and Pumpkin Oats!

I made a wonderful pot of oatmeal last night. I haven't managed to make it as amazing as it was the first time, but I finally have wheat germ again!

Recipe (makes four servings for me):

-1 cup rolled oats

-1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling (the kind we buy is organic and it's 100 cal for 1/2 cup)

-2 small/medium bananas

-1/4 cup wheat germ

-1/2 tsp cinnamon

-1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

-dash of salt

-dribble of vanilla extract

-3 cups of water

Each serving has approximately 175 calories. I rehydrate it with skim milk while microwaving. I like liquidy oats for some reason, maybe because they're more voluminous?

One of the reasons I came back to blogging was I got a new camera! No more crappy and blurry pictures! If only I could figure out how to use it.. hmm.

Breakfast of course was my pumpkin pie oatmeal with a sprinkle of brown sugar on top (about half a tsp) and a glass of skim. Delicious! I didn't really need the brown sugar, but my oatmeal looks sad and naked if there's nothing on the top.

Yes, that is a plastic cup from my youth. It has a dinosaur on it.

I'm going out to lunch with my best friend today. We're also going shopping. I'll bring the camera and post pictures when I get back. Have a wonderful Monday!

Returning?

I've been gone for a while, and there is a legitimate reason for that. I love nutrition and I really enjoyed food blogging, but it seems like the past couple months have been packed with one bad thing after another. It's been very stressful and worrying about posting everything I was eating just got to me. I may or may not start posting regularly again, I'm not sure yet.

I can't comfortably go into a lot of detail, but it involved a lot of family drama and some problems with relationships and friendships. I thought everything was finally calming down when things got about a million times more complicated than they were before. I'm giving myself this week to recover with my family and give myself some time to move on. The days have been filled with nothing but hanging out, doing homework, going to the gym, and eating good food. It's been really nice and I don't think I'm quite ready to get back in the regular swing of things.

As much as I'd like to start blogging right away again, I'm not quite ready to tell my extended family about the food blog, so I'll wait until I'm back home. I'm always committed to exercising, but keeping a hold on the emotional eating has been really difficult because of all the things going on. I'm definitely ready to get back on track, so I hope to be posting again shortly. Thanks!

More of the Same

That was my pre-gym snack. I also had about a half cup of Kashi golean. I didn't eat it for lunch, so I was craving it all day. It was a pretty big snack, but yesterday I definitely lost steam about half way through my workout. I really like this new yogurt! It's sweetened with fruit juiceI and it tastes amazing. I hopped over to the gym (it's only four or five blocks away from my house) and did 40 minutes on the elliptical and a few mintues of weights.

We had leftover pizza for dinner, but I remembered to take a picture this time!

On the side are carrots and walnuts. I took off a couple huge blobs of cheese because they just didn't look appetizing. Eating the pizza with a fork was much more fun than biting into it. Is it weird to like microwaved pizza more than baked? Before this pizza, I hadn't had white bread in a very long time. The chewyness was a nice treat.

I have to do a lab that I've been putting off since last week and I really don't want to do it. I ate dinner later than usual, so I'm going to try not to eat a snack. Night all!

A Different Spin

I didn't have PB&J oats this morning! I decided to switch it up and take a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, so my oats only had reduced sugar jam and a little squeeze of honey. I was stingy again and ended up with a huge blob of jam at the bottom. While the oats were still tasty, I definitely missed the peanut butter. Here's a picture:



I had a glass of milk for more protein. Today is my only sleep in day of the week. I don't have to leave the house until 7:45. Unfortunately, I woke up around 4:24 this morning. That's probably because I went to bed at nine last night. I really like this going to bed early and waking up early thing. I just didn't think I'd wake up THAT early. While I waited for my oats to cool, I made my lunch:

Pretty simple and self explanatory. A peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat toast, light string cheese, and an apple from the Farmer's Market. Peanut butter sandwiches always bring back memories of elementary school when my mom used to make my lunch. She'd toast the bread and then put tons of peanut butter on (I was a skinny minnie when I was little, she was always trying to get me to eat more) and the peanut butter would melt and leak out of the sandwich. I'd end up with a ziploc baggie full of peanut butter. No wonder I never ate my lunch.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Oops

First of all, I'm a terrible terrible blogger. I'll get to that later. I just had to apologize first.

This is what I ate when I got home (blurry warning):

The peanut butter ones are SOOO much better, but we're out of them. My stomach was rumbling and I had to go to the gym, so I made do. After finally getting my membership, I did half an hour on the bike and then ten minutes of weights. It was marvelous! The bike totally kicked my butt! I haven't used those muscles in months because I've been running. The weights were also lots of fun. I used eight pound weights for the first time. There were these two buff guys using their huge weights and I just stood there and used the six and eight pound weights. It was just a little bit embarrassing. :]

I jumped in the shower when I got home and then we had dinner! Unfortunately, I was eating my second plate of salad when I realized the camera was upstairs. Then I decided I didn't care because I was starved from my workout. Just pretend I have pictures, okay? I had two plates of salad and two small pieces of pizza from Costco. The pizza was okay, but I eat pizza so rarely that I don't really know what good pizza is anymore. Oh well. My bed time snack was a yummy pear. My camera is being stubborn, but I'm sure you all know what a pear looks like! I am exhausted, so I'm off to bed soon. Night!

Bright and Early

My sleep schedule has changed so much in the past few weeks! I've been going to bed between nine and ten and waking up around 5 or 5:30. Today I woke up at 4:46, but I didn't want to go back to sleep. I love having this much time in the mornings to read blogs and listen to music. Breakfast was my wonderful oats from last night. Something was off about them and I'm not sure what it was. Maybe too much pumpkin pie spice? Anyway, I realized that it didn't taste as good as usual and I even added a teaspoon of honey because it wasn't sweet enough. When I reached near the bottom of the bowl, I figured out what happened! I was being stingy with my toppings! I had a whole huge dollop of peanut butter left at the bottom! Oops. I'll try not to do that tomorrow.

It's so pretty! The peanut butter is from Costco and it's just regular organic smooth peanut butter. The jam is spreadable fruit from Whole Foods. We've been going crazy trying different kinds of reduced sugar jam. I don't know which one I like best!

I packed my lunch while I waited for my oatmeal to cool down. That's about a cup of Kashi Go Lean, a Wallaby lowfat yogurt (banana vanilla, I think?), a small apple, a baggie of snap peas, and a light string cheese. I eat my lunch all day because I'm at school from 7 until 3:30, usually.

I procrastinated quite a bit this weekend, so I have a lot of work this week. The Speech and Debate tournament was part of the procrastination because I was gone ALL of Saturday, but we got first, so it was definitely worth it! Have a fabulous Monday!

Surprises and lots of pictures!

That was the snack I had between lunch and dinner. It's "Australian Style Yogurt", but the only thing I've noticed is that it's runnier than most yogurt. Does Australian style mean runny? I guess it doesn't matter because it's still delicious. I had eaten half of it when I realized I hadn't taken a picture! I finished it and then took a picture of the empty container. Oops. :]

I decided to take pictures while I made oatmeal, so I have a few pictures of the process.

This was right after all the fruit was dumped in the pot. The bananas all melted down, though.

That's the finished product! It doesn't look all that exciting, but it's delicious. I used:

-Three tiny bananas

-One medium apple

-A cup and a half of Multigrain Hot Cereal (from Trader Joe's)

-A little bit less than a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice

-A splash of vanilla

That makes about five servings for me. I add about a tablespoon of peanut butter and a tablespoon of reduced sugar jam on top.

I was half dressed for running when my phone rang, so my run got delayed for about an hour. I had been expecting the call, but I thought they were going to call earlier. It was a rather exciting phone call, and maybe I'll have details later. For right now I'm going to be vague. I went on a quickie three mile run without my ipod and it was kind of nice. I've never gone running without it before.

It's kind of hard to see, but that was a yummy veggie stir fry (kale, carrots, green pepper, mushrooms, and onion) on top of brown rice mixed with black beans. I sprinkled some slivered almonds on top for extra crunch. Dinner was late, so I'm probably not going to have a snack tonight. Just more homework and then bed. Night all!

Dreary Day and a Marathon

This morning we kept hearing really loud cheering and clapping, so we finally looked outside and saw people doing the Portland marathon running down the street! It's been drizzling constantly and I've been waiting for an opportunity to go run, but I really don't want to get wet. I would have gone this morning, but I was actually afraid of running into the marathon, so I didn't go. I've had the misfortune of accidentally crashing a race and it's really embarrassing.

I charged the camera batteries, so I have pictures of snacks and lunch!

The first Granny Smith apple I've had in a looong time. I was so surprised when I bit into it. I've been eating red apples lately and the tartness wasn't really expected. Granny Smiths used to be my favorite kind of apple, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually enjoy apples. Then about an hour later I was hungry again, so I had to have a small handful of nuts and dried fruit to tide me over. Is it possible to put the pictures side by side? I tried to do that, but it didn't work.

These did the trick and I buckled down for more homework until it was time to eat lunch. I don't know why the picture is so blurry! I messed around with the different camera settings and this was the best I could do. The trail mix is from Trader Joe's and it has cranberries, almonds, and cashews. For lunch I had a little over a cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal with about a cup of milk. I'm eating small meals because I don't quite know when I'm going to go running.


Yes, I eat cereal for lunch. I love cereal, but for some reason, I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually do. Again, the picture is really blurry. I don't know how to fix it!

I still have quite a bit of homework, but I was excited to install all the camera software and upload the pictures, so I took a little break. I was also really excited because the Ministry of Magic released a new album and it's good! Any other Wizard Rock fans out there?

The Beginning?

My name is Leada and I'm a vegetarian runner. My about me went over the basics, but I'll do a proper introduction here just for fun.

I don't remember exactly when I got interested in nutrition and general health, but I started reading articles on health websites for fun about a year ago. Instead of doing normal things to procrastinate (not that I know what normal things are), I read health articles. I found everything so fascinating and I wanted to make changes right away. Now I'm much more conscious of what I eat and while I've always exercised, I hadn't known why it was so important. I'm very passionate about exercise and eating healthfully, but I started to take it to the extreme. I realized that and now I'm trying to worry less about calories and focusing more on fueling my body and treating it right.

When I was younger, I had some problems with disordered eating and it makes me really upset because I hadn't known what I was doing to myself. I've worked very hard to separate eating from emotions and I've definitely seen improvements. Of course, no one is perfect and I slip up every now and then just like everyone else. When I discovered food blogs, I really liked the idea of being held accontable while having support from readers. So here I am today writing my first post.

The first blog I read was Kath Eats and I still read it everyday. She was the one who made me consider oatmeal and now I make big batches on the weekend and eat it all week long! My friends and family make fun of my PB&J oatmeal all the time, actually.

Hopefully this turns out as well as the other blogs I know and love. Comments would also be wonderful so I can see what people think.

I don't have a picture of breakfast because the camera batteries didn't get charged, but I'll definitely start off with a picture of lunch.