Category Archives: Books

Holy moly it’s cold outside! I left the house this morning and the temperature gauge was reading a chilly 23 degrees. Yikes. And I couldn’t find my hat, so it was not a very pleasant commute.

I also stepped out the door and found myself walking onto a t.v. set pretty much. There were Gossip Girl trailers everywhere! I didn’t have my point and shoot camera on me (left it at work), so I asked Hubby if he wouldn’t mind taking some shots before he left for work. I also saw the t.v. studio’s “snack caravan” set up just up the street. Must be nice!

As far as my snacks go, here are yesterday’s eats:

Breakfast was rather boring – Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with Almond Milk. Yes, you read that right, I gave almond milk a whirl and have to say that I really liked it. I used it again today and it was so good. I’m not vegan or opposed to drinking cow’s milk, I would just like to cut back my dairy intake wherever I can. I don’t think it’s entirely necessary and my stomach tends to feel better with less of it.

What kind of “milk” drinker are you? Dairy, soy, rice, almond?

I’ve been eating Heart to Heart for a while. But after visiting Tina’s new NuVal blog and exploring the “Trading Up” section, I might try the Kashi 7 Whole Grain Cereal Puffs. It received such a high NuVal score!

Lunch yesterday was some Reduced Fat Triscuits, Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss Flavor cheese and carrots.

And my afternoon snacks were supposed to be Greek yogurt, a few Rice Works chips and two clementines. But it ended up that I ate two helpings of the chippers and then didn’t want the clementines later. Oops.

I came across this NY Times article yesterday and found it pretty interesting: 

Ready to Exercise? Check Your Watch

It talks about how the different times you workout (morning vs. evening) can affect how “good” your workout is. I always feel like I’m stronger and faster in the evening, which apparently is the norm for many people. Although I do also feel very proud after completing a morning workout – not so much because it was fast or hard, but just because I actually got through it!

When do you feel at your best as far as running or working out goes?

After work I had an appointment to go to, so I ended up skipping the gym. This week hasn’t been as great as I wanted as far as running and the gym are concerned, but I’m slowly getting back into it.

The past few days have been filled with lots of grains, so I was really craving some veggies for dinner. Bill was at a work happy hour, so I was solo. I made myself a nice big salad with romaine lettuce, asparagus shavings, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and goat cheese. 🙂 And I had some leftover couscous on the side.

I actually stopped and got cranberries to make the cranberry dessert, but then lost motivation and had this instead.

I might have had it times two actually.

I’m ashamed to say that I also watched a bit of Jersey Shore last night as well. It’s just so God awful that I couldn’t turn away. Thankfully, I got sidetracked and eventually moved on, but I’ve heard from a bunch of people that they find themselves watching in horror as well.

I was toying around with my Rebel camera settings a little later and caught this picture of Murphy with a  litter nose.

I read a little bit of my new book Ahab’s Wife and am getting into it. It’s historical fiction, which I typically really enjoy (like The Other Boleyn Girl). So far the main character “Una” has been through a lot and has grown up tremendously. You start out with her as an adult, married to Captain Ahab (yes, the one from Moby Dick) and she is giving birth to his child, and then the story flashes back to her childhood and we learn where she came from and how she ended up with Ahab. At least that’s where I’m assuming it’s going. Right now she’s only 16 years old at the point I’m at.

I swear, I’m going to write my David Copperfield review this weekend! I’m looking forward to tonight – Happy Hour with Rachael – and then a weekend of relaxation and running. Hope I don’t freeze!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I can’t believe it’s already here. I’m writing this post bright and early before my race (the Turkey Trot) at 9:30 a.m. I’m actually a little nervous. I haven’t run a 5k race in a long time. I’m hoping I can work up enough speed – I’m so used to longer runs now. Wish me luck!

I’ll get into my eats from yesterday in a minute, but first I just want to share some fun news. I recently started writing for Examiner.com as the NY Health and Happiness Examiner! I’m pretty pumped about this new prospect.

Those of you who know me, know that in my former life I was an aspiring journalist and freelance writer. But sadly, journalism wasn’t exactly paying the bills, if you know what I mean. Seriously, it’s the most difficult profession to get into and the most underpaid.

Anyway – I learned about Examiner.com and liked that I could write about what I wanted and do so within my timeframe. As of right now, I have two articles posted, but am sure I’ll be churning out some more soon. Feel free to check out my page and articles:

Finding holiday balance
Happiness: on a budget

I’m very excited about this opportunity to write creatively and I really welcome your feedback and ideas! You can subscribe to get notifications about my latest articles (subscription is free).

So now back to the blog. My eats yesterday began with a breakfast of oatmeal, 1 tsp. of pumpkin butter, 1 tsp. of peanut butter and a handful of raisins.

Lunch was eaten early because I was soo hunnggry! I usually wait till about 1:00, but 12:30 hit and I lunged for my food. Reduced fat triscuits, Laughing Cow Original Flavor Light Swiss Cheese, and some carrots.

Our office closed yesterday at 3:00 for the holiday, so I ate my afternoon snack right before I left. I had Greek yogurt with Flax Plus Granola and oats mixed in.

After our “early dismissal” I headed to Penn Station (the bain of my existence – hate it soo much) and waited eagerly for my train. As I expected, it was PACKED with holiday travellers and worse – an HOUR late! I found a seat, settled in and proceeded to read David Copperfield for a while.  I am happy to say I really and truly am almost done!!

What are you currently reading?!

I was raveous after my trip and was thrilled to see that Momma B (that’s my mom’s nickname) had a nice little dinner all ready for me.

I am getting this recipe – it was delicious. Pasta, chicken, grape tomatoes, chicken broth, artichoke, roasted red peppers. I gobbled (giggle) it up and then had some banana pudding that my mom “had made too much of.” Yeah right. I ended up only eating about 2/3 of this.

Then I set to work making some homemade apple sauce for today! YUM.

I drank water throughout the night in preparation for the race today. Although it’s a very short race, I’m a big believer in proper hydration! Then I went to bed super early because I was exhausted. 🙂

Oh and here’s a picture of my big bully kitty attacking one of my parent’s cats. Murphy is the mean looking tabby about to attack. They look vicious, but they never actually hurt each other. It’s apparently how they “play.”

And now it’s almost  race time and then lots of good eating with the Callahans!  Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

What was your favorite dish of T-Day?!

My final, final note: I came across this article yesterday about The Biggest Loser and it got me thinking. Take a look:

On ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Health Can Take Back Seat

Then I saw part of the Biggest Loser special and decided that I think the show does more good than harm. What do you think?

Happy Friday – Finally!! To be honest, this week went by pretty fast for me. Except now today is dragging. But first, my Thursday night recap.

When I left you in my Thursday afternoon post, I was getting pumped up to go running with my co-worker after work. Alas, it did not happen – sadness. The skies were threatening rain and she didn’t seem too eager about the idea in general, so we postponed.

That can mean only one thing – a date with the dreaded treadmill. Boo. But I survived. On Wednesday night I actually forgot my iPod and had to run sans music. Thank goodness for TVs with closed captioning. Last night I remembered my iPod – so I was golden. My workout:

4 miles on the treadmill in 35:05
1/2 mile cool down
85 crunches
15 leg lowers
stretching

Then I headed home and threw in a load of wash and made some dinner – by which I mean I reheated my leftovers from the night before. I LOVE leftovers! And I added a pinch more curry to the dish – yum.

Do you plan ahead and make extra food so you’ll have leftovers or are you not a leftovers fan?

I promise I took a new pic, it’s not just a repost from the previous night.

And then I needed some dessert. I threw together a glob of plain Chobani Greek yogurt, dollop of peanut butter, a little granola and crumbled up the remaining two pieces of chocolate from the night before to make this mess:

It was yummy!

Then I packed for my trip upstate this weekend and watched Grey’s Anatomy. Was anyone else thrown by the jump from Thanksgiving to Christmas in a span of 5 minutes?! All of a sudden Mark’s daughter had been living there a month and there’s a Christmas tree? What?

Again, I got to bed later than I wanted, but made some progress on David Copperfield – I’ve surpassed page 600! My “To Read” List is soo long, I really need Copperfield to end soon. But I will admit, the story has gotten a little more captivating.

I woke up this morning in a flurry to gather all my odds and ends for my trip and made a lazy breakfast of Kashi Cereal with blueberries and skim milk.

I got to work, realized I forgot my ID card to get in, and decided that I was going to need some coffee. So my morning snack was coffee and a granola bar.

At my office, it’s kind of a hassle to enter the building if you don’t have your ID card. You pretty much feel like a criminal. You have to wait to be “escorted” up by another employee. I didn’t really bring much food with me today because of all the other junk I had with me, so lunch became a desperate situation. And I didn’t want to leave the building and have to go through the whole “escorting” thing all over again.

This is what I managed for lunch (forgive me). Some Progresso’s Chicken and Wild Rice soup that was in my food drawer (yes, holy MSG, but desperate times people…), Chobani peach yogurt with oats, and a few Rice chippers.

So the soup is really the only less-than-good food on my lunch list, but it was just such a disappointment. I used to eat these cans of soup for lunch ALL THE TIME, but since trying to eat “cleaner” and cut out unnecessary chemicals, I’ve been avoiding them. Oh well.

And lord help me, but my only snack for the afternoon is a banana (no pic).

I’m a little scared to see how ravenous I’ll be by the time I get to Albany at 7pm. Or to see if I can hold off buying something terrible at the train station. I’m out of here at 3:30!!

Dinner tonight will be with my good friends Stephanie and Rachael at my uncle and cousin’s restaurant Beff’s. They have the best nachos in the world… my restraint will be tested – I make no promises.

Some interesting headlines:

Phys Ed: Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious

U.S. Food Safety Likely to Get Overhaul in 2010

Have a great weekend all! I’ll try to post as much as I can – I am pretty sure some delicious food will be had this weekend. 🙂

It’s Sunday and I didn’t get any  blogging in yesterday. But I did get something else in… a nice run!! I woke up to a light drizzle yesterday, but checked weather.com and it said no “real” rain was in the forecast until later on. Ever since marathon-training, I’m an eat-before-I-run-runner, so I had a multi-grain English muffin with peanut butter and banana before I headed out.

Then I went for my much-needed run. I did probably around 5 miles on the East River Esplanade. I tried to figure out the exact distance on mapmyrun, but the site doesn’t show the esplanade, so it’s hard to estimate. That’s why I really want a Garmin!! I ran what I guess to be 5 miles in 46 minutes, not my fastest, but not my slowest. Then I did some stretching afterwards.

About an hour later I was hungry again, so I had some Greek yogurt with Flax Plus Granola.

The rest of my afternoon consisted of two loads of laundry, a little boob tube and this (yes, I’m STILL reading it):

And I may have napped for 3o minutes by accident. Oh well! Then it was time to eat some food and get ready for my friend Alexondra’s apartment-warming party on the West Side. For dinner I finished up the lettuce and some veggies and fruit in the fridge: lettuce, cheddar cheese, apple, grape tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, raisins – balsamic vinegar on top.

I’m a bad blogger – I forgot to bring my camera with me to the party! But I can tell you that her apartment is gorgeous – what a great find. And there was some tasty homemade humus which I nibbled on, along with a glass of red wine and 2 beers. Then I called it a night. I knew I wanted to get up and try to run again today.

Today’s weather was even better for a run! Again, I had some breakfast first: oatmeal with pumpkin butter, flax seed and blueberries.

Then I set out for Central Park – it was 60 degrees outside! It’s 1 mile from our apartment to Central Park, so that serves as my warm-up and cool down. If I hit the lights right I can fly there non-stop, which happened this morning and helped set my pace. Here are my times:

1 mile warm-up there: 9:13
6.1 mile CP Loop: 51:30
1 mile cool down home: 8:30

I calculated my average mile time for the loop and I was averaging an 8:26 minute mile! That’s almost exactly where I need to be to qualify for Boston. However, I felt like I was pushing it and was pretty tired after the loop, so I don’t know if I’d be able to sustain that speed for 26.2 miles. It’s something to work on.

I also feel like I tend to run faster in Central Park because there are soo many runners and I’m the kind of runner that doesn’t like to be behind people or too close to other runners, so it seems like I’m constantly focusing on passing the next runner.

Do you have certain running routes that push you to run faster or harder than others? What helps you increase your speed?

After my fantastic run I came home, stretched, showered and had a snack. Chobani Greek peach yogurt with more blueberries, apple, and Flax Plus Granola with Pumpkin. The pumpkin bread is finally gone – sadness!

Murphy also stretched a bit:

Now it’s time for the not fun part of my weekend…CLEANING. Our apartment needs a really good once over. So that is my plan for the remainder of the day. I’m thinking dinner tonight will have to be quick and easy, because I’ll probably be exhausted. Have a nice Sunday!