All I wanna do, is go for a run...I gotta feeling, I'm not the only one!

This week is going poorly. After my 14+ mile run on Saturday, I didn't have it in me to work out on Sunday. Yesterday I got sick, and my eyes and throat were bothering me enough that I simply went home. Now it's Tuesday afternoon and while I still feel miserable, I can't put off going to the gym any longer.

My diet over the weekend was a mess also. Eating bad stuff and good things at weird times. No organization to it, which I suspect lead to an unhealthy variety of foods and consumption. I'm giving myself a quick snap-to-it today, recording what I've consumed. If I'm not exercising and I'm sick, I have to be especially careful.

Breakfast: (495/15.5/62/16.5/23)
4 oz nonfat plain colombo yogurt with 1 tbsp agave (110 cal/5g protein)
1 cup of Optimum Slim cereal (180cal/2.5g fat/11g fiber/9g protein)
10 almonds (80 cal/7g fat/1.5g fiber/3g protein)
2 tbsp ground flax (80 cal/6g fat/4g fiber/2g protein)
1/2 cup of nonfat milk (45 cal/62 mg sod/4g protein)

4-16 oz cups of herbal tea

Lunch:
3 cups of homemade vegetable soup (veggie broth, herbs, carrots, beet leaves, onion)

3-16oz cups of tea

Snack:
4 oz plain nonfat yogurt with 1 Tbsp agave (110 cal/5g protein)

Dinner: (315/24/126/10/19.9)
2 slices of pear-banana bread
2 eggs (150cal/10g fat/13.4 g protein)
1/2 cup spinach (20cal/126 sod/4g fiber/5g protein)
1/2 avocado (145 cal/14g fat/6g fiber/1.5g protein)


Totals (- soup/bread): (920 calories/ 39.5g fat/ 26.5 fiber /83.9g protein)
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Post-Work Workout:

I ran 7.8 miles around the esplanade in a double loop today. I ended up with an average mileage of 8:41min/mile. Not bad! I felt good when I was done, although my legs were starting to feel it near the end. The last mile involved an adorable floppy-eared German Shepherd running with his long-legged older owner. So I spent the last mile trying to keep up with them. The puppy was totally motivational. That's the kind of dog I want to run with! But two of them. Two sweet German Shepherds!

After the run, I went back to the gym, I busted through upper body fast. The one thing I really dislike about my gym are the old ladies on the weight machines. So I'm doing a superset between the lat pull-down and shoulder press. The room is nearly empty, so my hogging of two machines isn't really an issue. I left my towel on the LPD while I did a shoulder set, fast, when this lady comes up and stares in angry confusion at the towel on the seat. I finish my set and take a step over to remove the towel, since I figure I won't be a bitch a make her wait. But she asks me "Oh, are you using this?" And so, hey, I'm honest. I say "Yes, I only have one more set, it'll be super quick, then it's all yours." But instead of okaying that, she instead looks confused and points at the shoulder machine "Then are you using that?" And I'm like "Yes, I'm doing a superset, going back and forth between them, but I only have one set left, so this LPD is yours in under 20 seconds." She gives me a dirty look, still confused, and then goes over to the chest press. Ooooookay. So clearly I was speaking a foreign language. But literally, like 20 seconds. It would take her 20 seconds just to lower her ass onto the seat and contemplate starting.

The old ladies don't understand sharing or trading off on the machines either. So if I had more than one set left, I could just say "Oh, you want to just trade off between sets?" because she wouldn't get it. Then I'd spend 5 minutes explaining what I meant, which is five times more time than it would take for me to finish my workout on that machine. But these ladies just sit down on a machine and do wicked slow sets, and then sit there....for like five minutes between sets. And for women who are only doing two sets, this is ridiculous! I just wish they would observe gym etiquette, that's all.

No training, but food and running

Review of the Last Week

I spent most of the week in Las Vegas on a business trip, which wasn't very good for the working out business. The hotel's fitness center cost $25/day to use, which was bullshit, imo, but what can you do? Plus I was running around so much that I managed to get only one mini-workout in on my first day when I did some in-room stuff before my talk. That's about it.

You could possibly count lugging around my laptop for a couple of days and balancing in painful high heels for the week a "workout" but it was more like injury-provoking than actual fitness. Sore shoulders, cramped shins and knees, six different blisters.

I flew home on a redeye Thursday morning and slept most of the day. My sleep schedule is still off and getting worse. I just need to force myself to get up early one morning (namely tomorrow) in order to get back on track.

Friday I went for a light run to get back into things. I got a little lost and ended up adding a couple of extras miles. Saturday I ran again, this time 7.5 miles. I had every intention of getting up Sunday morning for a long run, but it was already snowing by the time I dragged myself out of bed. No exercise today as a result.

Cooking for the Week Ahead

I did, however, spend the afternoon cooking. First an attempt to make my own whole wheat bread which is still proving to be a disaster - 8 hours later. I moved onto a quinoa entree - something I had been researching recipes for the past couple of days. I ended up going with a recipe from the NPR article: Quinoa: A Sacred, Super Crop called Garlic-Toasted Quinoa with Vegetables. I adjusted the recipe to involve asparagus, red peppers and almonds. I also added a couple of tablespoons of ground flaxseed to boost its nutritional value. This made 3-4 1-cup servings. I put two servings aside for lunch this upcoming week. It came out delicious, by the way.

I'm trying to get back into the original plan from my nutritionist which I'll post in a separate thread. I tossed together the breakfast cereal mix, using a new product from Nature's Path called Optimum Power Breakfast (soy-flax-blueberry) instead of the Optimum Slim that I had previously been eating per her recommendation. The Power cereal contains 1/3 of the sodium and is only one gram less or equal otherwise in terms of protein/fiber/fat/calories. It's also tastier, so I'm on board. So this week I put together several of those (plus almonds and ground flaxseed) for the my AM run mornings. Additionally I set up a couple of 4 oz nonfat plain yogurts with agave nectar and flaxseed for my pre-workout breakfast on gym days.

This week I have pears for snacking, but I still need to work on finding a protein source to go with them. Her suggestions included laughing cow, nuts, hard-boiled egg, ff cottage cheese, string cheese or natural peanut butter - all to pair with a serving-size fruit. Unfortunately, I have very few of the above. I'll likely end up with a hard-boiled egg or pistachios. The catch is that you can't eat nuts if you already have eaten nuts with breakfast cereal today. I should have been more thoughtful with my grocery shopping. I may just have some milk in a cup of tea to go with the fruit - its some sort of protein at least! Maybe chew on some lentils? Ew.

Anyway, tomorrow night I'll head back to the gym for lower body. Pilates, as I stated a couple of weeks ago, has been cancelled at 6:15. If I want to attend I need to leave work early to catch it in the fit box. I'm crossing my fingers that it will be changed back. Until then I might just do the routine in the studio at 6:15p since nothing is scheduled in place of the former class. I would optimistically say I was going to go running in the morning, but with my sleep schedule so messed up, I'm not going to lie to you or myself.