Coffee Time

It’s taken me a bit but I’ve finally realized that getting out of bed has been a little easier this week because it’s not pitch black anymore! Yay for longer days!!! Now, just because it’s been easier to get out of bed, doesn’t mean I’m not still tired when I do! Such was the case this morning so I made some double duty oats!

-3/4 cup brewed coffee
-1/4 unsweetened almond breeze
-1/2 cup Quaker oats
-splash of French Vanilla coffee creamer
-Mocha Hazelnut sprinkles
This bowl did its job of picking me up! Tasted fabulous, too! Nothing like eating your coffee!

Work plodded along again this morning. The afternoons tend to go much quicker! About an hour before hitting the gym I downed 3 medjool dates and ½ of a Weil bar…

The bar (banana manna flavour) was really, really good! To me, it was like eating a banana without the gaggy mushiness. There were also big chunks of almonds in there that offered are real nice crunch!

I decided to do a nice 45 minute, no incline run at the gym today. I’ve been setting the incline to 1% and even though it’s not much, I tend to get shin splints. I thought I’d see if the same thing happened without the incline. So….no pain! For today, anyways! I’ve always been prone to shin splints for some reason or another. Today’s run felt really cleansing somehow. Like icky toxins were banished from my body. I love a run like that! Why don’t I share my stats?

Time: 45 minutes
Avg HR: 166
Max HR: 181
Calories Burned: 474
Distance: 4.8 miles

I should also mention that I tried out the new treadmill that we got in the gym on Monday. Man…that thing is the Cadillac of ‘mills! I just did a straight run and it times you in laps which is really cool! I completed 19 laps in 45 minutes. Another neat feature is that it tells you your pace once you’ve completed 4 laps. I was running at 6.5mph which equaled a 9.14 minutes mile. Gotta give myself a big ole pat on the shoulder for that!! :)

I packed a super easy, but good, lunch today. It was a toasted WW bagel with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and a 1/4 cup of egg beaters. There was also a small salad on the side that was topped with a bit of honey mustard dressing. Lunch "dessert" was some sliced strawberries. Mmmm!!
Simple and delish! This is a lunch I would normally make on the weekend so I thought it would make a good weekday lunch, too. And that it did!

I was so happy to see 4:30 roll around! I was more than ready to leave work and go home at that point! I think it was partly due to the fact that I dreamed up a neat little dinner for myself during the afternoon! Here's my idea!

I cooked up a 4oz chicken breast that I seasoned with cumin, hot peppers, dried oregano, salt and pepper. When it was done I chopped it up into bite size chunks and put it back into the pot with a 1/4 cup WW couscous, a 1/3 cup of V8 tomato soup and a little extra water....maybe an additional 2 tbsp. I gave it a good stir, covered it and let it sit over very low heat for about 10 minutes.After fluffing it up with a fork, I served it with a big helping of steamed veggies...
This turned out to be a bit more than I expected it would, but I still polished it off. The vegetables are what really gave it some heft! I ate 2 more medjool dates as a bit of a sweet end. Now I am stuffed, but this should hold me over pretty darn good.

Tonight is pool night and I'm looking forward to the hour of reading! Next week is the last class...8 weeks goes by quite fast when you think about it! The Biggest Loser is on again at 8 so I will be missing the first half. That's a bit of a bummer but at least I'll get to see the juicy stuff at the end! :) I might munch on a blood orange later on. I bought some and haven't gotten around to trying one yet. This is a new fruit for me as the name has always freaked me out! We'll see it I chicken out again!! Have a great night everybody!!!

Bye for now!!