Potluck Lunch and Mile Reps

Good morning! I don’t know about you, but I had a really tough time getting out of bed today. I was so warm and cozy. Not to mention, I went to bed pretty early last night and enjoyed a good night’s sleep. I never want to leave a really good night of sleep.

But the day goes on right. So I forced myself up and out of the house.

Let me do a quick recap of yesterday’s eats and activities.

Breakfast was lazy – Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with almond milk and light cranberry juice.

I had my usual unphotographed mid-morning snack of a granola bar and then waited ever so patiently for our department potluck lunch…which didn’t actually happen until 2:00! Eeks. Hence, when we finally got to the food, my plate ended up looking like this:

Lots of food: green beans, roasted potatoes, eggplant parm, pasta salad, rice and low mein. It was a lot, but I was ravenous. I managed to steer clear of most of the fried things, but I’m pretty sure the rice was fried. Oh well.

After the main meal, I put together this dessert plate filled with a sugar cookie (I made), a carrot cake cupcake (love carrot cake with cream cheese frosting), and a chocolate chip butterscotch cookie.

I feel it’s important to note that I only ate half of my sugar cookie.

I didn’t snack for the rest of the day after that enormous lunch (I might have had seconds of the pasta salad and eggplant parm – shhh). By the time the potluck lunch was over, it was 3:00 p.m. anyway!

Around 4:00 p.m. the tempting ideas of skipping the gym and potential excuses I could use started popping into my head. But, I brushed them away and forced myself to go.

How do you squash those excuses and avoidance techniques and force yourself to hit the gym?

I felt much, much better after going to the gym. My body thanked me for it. Here was my workout:

.5 miles at 6.3
1 mile at 7.5
.5 miles at 6.3
1 mile at 7.6
.5 mile at 6.3
.5 mile at 7.7
Total: 4 miles in 34.25 minutes

That was my version of mile reps! Oh I remember my cross-country days and how much I hated mile rep practices. I would dread them all week. That’s probably why most of the time our coach wouldn’t tell us what kind of practice we were doing until we got there. Now I’m willingly doing them – ha!

Have you ever tried running mile repetitions? It’s great for your speed. (But much better when run outside)

After my quick run I did some ab stuff as well:

75 crunches
30 alternating leg crunches

I was kind of an ab slacker. Oh well.

I got home from the gym and wanted an easy and quick dinner. I remembered I had a pilaf package in the cabinet that I wanted to try.

I also threw in some sautéed green peppers and onions, and  some grape tomatoes. Clearing out the fridge.

I added some chicken to Bill’s version of the dinner (no photo). I wasn’t in the mood for meat – especially chicken. The pilaf had a bit of a kick. I enjoyed the addition of soybeans to the mix though. I’d buy it again. Bill ate it, but I’m not sure how he felt about the soybeans. 🙂

After dinner, I finished up the remaining half of my grapefruit with a packet of Truvia sprinkled on top.

It was yummy, but my weekend sugar kick left me wanting more sweets. Second dessert was a teaspoon of peanut butter with some semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Finally my sweets-craving was satiated.

Some interesting health headlines:

REGIMENS: Click Off the TV, and Burn More Calories

Hangover impairs judgment in young adults – funny because of my recent terrible hangover. Good thing I wasn’t making big decisions that day or operating dangerous equipment.

Fake sugar may alter how the body handles real sugar – this one doesn’t say much other than further studies need to be conducted to determine more conclusive results. I’ve started using Truvia and Stevia, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.  What kind of sweeteners do you use?

Have a great Tuesday everyone – we’re inching closer to a nice holiday break – hang in there!