Whens The Marathon?

Hi friends! Happy Friday!!

I hope everyone is having a great day. I think just knowing that is Friday is sometimes enough no matter what happens at work (or school). Work today was rather disastrous…..NOTHING turned out right and I stayed late cleaning and cranking out pitas. Bread is so weird…we do all the same things every single day and sometimes it works and sometimes it flops!

This morning I had 2 egg white fluffies

And a delicious new bar!

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant trying this (I even brought a back-up in case it was gross), but I’m so glad I did because it was very delightful indeed! The chocolate flavor did not have that “fake chocolate” taste at all to it, and rather, it tasted like really good dark chocolate! Inside the bar was coconut and crispies and it made me think of a Mounds bar. The stats aren’t too bad either…190 calories and 8 grams of protein. I definitely will be on the hunt for more of these bars in the future—they seem rather difficult to find! Since it was Friday, I also treated myself to a delicious grape Kombucha! I enjoyed every expensive sip. That’s why I only buy it once a week…..but oh, it is SO worth it!!! 🙂

Breakfast was a huge breakfast cookie made with 3/4 cup oats, 1/2 banana, 1/2 scoop protein, 1 tbsp almond butter (before I scraped the jar clean last night!) and 3 tbsp reduced fat milk….oh, and chocolate chips ’cause its Friday!

On Fridays a really nice breakfast spread is always set up for all of us associates in the break room. Mostly it is the usual continental fare—-mini muffins (probably made by me, actually), bagels, fruit, juice and coffee. I always steer clear of the muffins and bagels because they wouldn’t fill me up like oats, but they always have a really great fruit selection! I was very pleased to see delicious berries today and they made a very yummy breakfast cookie topper!

Despite our flop day, we decided to still do something fun…..make pizza!!! We used some of the leftover french bread dough and topped it with rosemary olive oil, pizza sauce, caramelized onions, six cheese blend, feta cheese and black olives—

It was DIVINE!!!

I had two brick style slices but may have gone back for a tiny third 😉 It was a truly delicious treat! However, it really didn’t get me that full!

After work, I raced to my appointment with the sports medicine doctor. I was very impressed…I liked this guy much better than the doctor I previously saw in Orlando regarding my shin splints when they were at their worst (um his advice was to just run through the pain). This guy seemed a lot more knowledgeable and after talking a bit with me about my history with the injury, he did some x-rays on the spot (they all came back perfect!) and requested that I do another bone scan early next week to actually see the shin splints on my legs. Then he thinks I should work a little bit with a physical therapist to strengthen my shins.

He said he has worked with athletes for years and has never seen someone have to quit a sport they love because of shin splints. He was very confident that I got in the habit about two years ago running improperly (bad shoes really messed me up) and then since I really never stopped running, the injury just kept coming back. After my bone scan on Tuesday and a follow-up appointment, what I really need to work on is strengthening the muscles again. I left the appointment feeling really good….it was interested to hear the root cause of the problem and see on different models the actual joint that was weak and how that effects the whole lower leg and bone.

On the way home, I stopped at my local health food store to pick up some goodies for next week and got a smoothie at the smoothie and juice bar, because at this point I was starving again!!! I chose the Banana Smoothie that was on sale for $1.99—

This smoothie is my absolute FAVORITE and is sooo creamy and delicious. Its a mix of frozen banana, coconut milk and pineapple juice. Except I asked for half juice and half water to cut down on the sugar a little bit. It was still creamy and delicious!

Here’s my loot:

I went to the boy’s house to see him before he heads out to the great outdoors for the weekend. He is going on a hunting trip with a couple of his old fraternity brothers. One of the guys has a lake house up in the middle of nowhere (they don’t even get cell phone service) and he is doing lots of fun guy bonding all weekend. I happened to look into one of his bags and it was filled with slim jims, cigars, rum and a big thing of coke. Yep, that’s a guy trip all right!!!!! =)

And then I picked up my long awaited Indian dinner—

(sketchy drive by shot)

I decided to branch out tonight and order the dahl curry instead of my usual channa masala. I LOVE this place and the owner is the awesome. Its so cute and clean inside with a little bookshelf and comfy couches to sit on. I asked for my dahl to be “kicked up a notch” on the spiciness and got it accompanied with their delicious garlic naan bread

All the stress of my week just went out the window….

Especially when served with this:

I love me some organic (and $8.99) syrah!

I sat and ate in front of Entertainment Tonight. I kid you not, it was the FIRST TIME I have turned on the tv in three months. No joke. It actually felt weird. I felt like I should be doing something else like blogging or reading. Actually I much prefer blogging or reading to watching tv!

Looking back on my meals today, it looks like I am carbo-loading for a marathon tomorrow!!!!!!! All this pizza, oatmeal and naan bread. Nope, no marathon. Probably only 4 miles! I do love some serious carbs though….today I was just very bread-happy I suppose!

I’m off to take a bath and hit the sack!!! Plan for the morning is to wake up and crank out a wonderful 4 miles before the sun rises……I can’t wait!

***Thank you, thank you, thank you to all those that sent me their delicious sounding dessert recipes today!!!!! I got a thrill every time at work when my blackberry vibrated to alert me of an email. I can’t wait to put together the cookbook! Remember, you have only four days left to send me yours. I have got some great ones but still need some more to make the cookbook awesome! Thank you for your participation!