I had my healthy breakfast first.

But a mid-morning Krispy Kreme donut was calling my name.

I love how S brings home donuts, eats one, and then leaves for work the next morning.  And of course all the rest of them are gone by the time he comes home.  There is a Krispy Kreme ghost in my house, I swear.  Or maybe it’s JB, I dunno.  I plead the 5th.  But somehow, three Krispy Kreme donuts disappeared from the box today.

Speaking of chicken…  well I guess I wasn’t speaking of chicken.  But you know.  This month is National Chicken month.  And I really like chicken.

For lunch, a salad:

• romaine lettuce
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• onions
• egg whites
• Boca mushroom mozzarella patty
• mozzarella cheese
• almonds
• olive oil/balsamic vinegar

Boring snacks today, just my cereal addiction (and Krispy Kremes, of course.)  Work was too busy for me to really think about stopping about something else to have.  I had cereal x 2 throughout the afternoon:

I also didn’t have time to get to the gym, so I made use of my treadmill which I haven’t done in a while.  I actually really like my treadmill – the problem is that it is upstairs and I have no air conditioning in my house.  So on days like today, when it is 95 degrees outside, it is about 105 upstairs in my house… and thus a treadmill is not the most attractive option.  But I did it anyways.  I walked an hour at 4.0 miles per hour (for you non-math all-stars, that’s 4 miles) varying the incline.  I was soaking wet with sweat while I was done, felt like walking in a sauna.

So I was hot for the rest of the day, and making a hot dinner didn’t appeal to me at all.  So I had a huge mush bowl with greek yogurt, dried fruit and granola:

I used up the last of my Greek Gods greek yogurt, and I’m glad it’s gone.  I bought it because it was on sale and was much cheaper than Fage, Chobani, and many of the other greek yogurts I usually get, but it wasn’t nearly as good.  I don’t think I will be buying it again.  It is kind of watery and lumpy, not thick and creamy like the others.  But I still managed to force it all down, of course.

After dinner, S and I drove to downtown San Jose to take a walk, get a drink, and just cool off.  We walked onto the campus of San Jose State University, where was sat and talked and people-watched for a while.  I couldn’t believe it when I was just watching the students walk by.  I know it was a Friday night, but every single girl that walked by had on these teeeeeny tiny booty shorts and half their badonkadonk was hanging out.

Much like this:

Those are nice short’s she’s half-wearing.

Let me just say that I don’t remember college being like that.  Maybe it’s because I went to a small, private school rather than a big state school, or maybe just times have changed a lot in the few years since I graduated… I’m not sure.  But either way, I’m glad I’m out doing my thing and don’t have to be a part of that.

When I got home, I had some (two bowls…. one bowl just wasn’t cutting it tonight) of ice cream before we headed to bed.

This weekend is supposed to be a 12 mile run, but I’m not sure when I’m going to do it.  I would like to do it tomorrow, because it is supposed to be a bit cooler but then the temp is going to go up again on Sunday  But I don’t think that is going to happen because we have rented a U-haul truck and plan to move S’s stuff out of his apartment and into my house tomorrow.  I’m totally not looking forward to that, I hate moving stuff.  And S won’t hire a moving van and movers… he insists on moving out of his fourth floor apartment himself.  Except not really himself, because I have to help.

G’night ya’ll.

Whenever somebody tells me “Oh, it’s simple.  Don’t worry about it.”  I always get suspicious.

Especially if that somebody is:

a.  A family member
b.  My boyfriend
c.  A coworker
d.  An AT&T employee

After a rough night and a semi-rough morning, I self-soothed with:

A few weeks ago, I was notified by my company that the phone service that they pay for and provide to me was going to be shut off on September 18th (aka, tomorrow).  We were told that in the future we had to get our own phone service and then submit the costs for reimbursement.  Fine, no problem.  I already have Internet and TV service through AT&T, so just decided to add phone service into my bundled package.  I called two weeks ago and set up an installation appointment for last week.

Then, S decided that he wanted to get the NFL channel added to our TV package.  But of course, you can’t just add the NFL channel… you have to upgrade to the next highest cable package.  And of course you can’t just upgrade to the higher package, you also have to get a DVR which comes with it (which I have no need or desire for.)  So I called to add that service, but they couldn’t do it because I already had the telephone service order outstanding and set up for installation, and for some freaking unknown reason they are unable to have two service orders open for someone at the same time.  Yeah, that would be waaaaayyyy too complicated.

So the woman told me she would cancel the telephone service request and create a new service request combining the telephone and TV service.  But she said that the installation date would be reset and pushed out, and scheduled me for today – September 17th.  I emphasized to her that it was imperative that the phone was installed on this date, because my current phone service would be shut off on September 18th and I worked at home so absolutely had to have phone service without interruption.  She said she understood and it would be simple.  Ha.

Lunch wasa beautiful conglomeration:

• romaine lettuce
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• carrots
• onions
• egg whites
• Boca mushroom mozzarella patty
• cheddar cheese
• almonds
• olive oil/balsamic vinegar

To make a long story short, when the AT&T guy arrived this afternoon to install the services – he didn’t have any record of a phone order. He only had papers to do the TV installation.  And I almost had heart failure.

Over 3 hours and 100 gray hairs later, I was finally (supposedly) set up with phone service.  Except, there was an outage in my area at that very time (?!?!?!) so they couldn’t confirm it.  The technician left, telling me that he would call my cell phone first thing in the morning to check status and resolve any outstanding issues.

Upon him leaving my house, I realized I was starving and had cereal:

Arggggh.  I had planned for today to be a rest day, but at that point I felt that if I didn’t get out of my house and go to the gym, my head would explode.  So I went and did 30 minutes of intervals (varying resistance) on the elliptical machine.  I felt better already… and then when I got home, HALLELUJAH! My phone was working!

So not simple, but successful in the end

Before dinner, snacked on a pudding cup:

And some (three) small brownies that I made a few days ago:

And I started to prepare some red potato french fries for when S got home, because I had some potatoes to use up.  I used a recipe that I found on Smart Cookie, and it was delicious.

Roasted Garlic Parmesan Red Potato Fries
2 medium sized red potatoes
1 tsp dried garlic
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the red potatoes, then cut lengthwise into fries. Place on a baking sheet and coat with the olive oil. Make sure you toss the potatoes so that each one is coated, then dust the garlic powder and sprinkle just a bit of cayenne pepper over, this will add just a hint of a kick to the taste. Toss again, the easiest way to do this I found was just using my hands. Try and make sure that all of the fries are evenly coated with the spices and oil. Place in your oven for about 30 minutes. Make sure depending on the size of the potatoes or slices that you make to check on them becasue they could bake up a lot faster if smaller, or take longer if bigger. After about 30 minutes make sure to turn the potatoes so that both sides will crisp up on the baking sheet, then sprinkle kosher salt and Parmesan over the potatoes, place back in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure you don’t leave them in too long after the cheese is added, you just want to heat them with the cheese, and make sure the cheese has stuck to the potatoes by melting slightly.

Before I put them in the oven:

And the glorious after:

With the fries, dinner included carrots and egg whites with hummus:

And greek yogurt with a crumbled Kashi crunchy bar and a dollop of raw almond butter:

When S came home from work, he surprised me with…. drumrolll please…. KRISPY KREMES!!!  My favorites, kreme-filled, of course.  Today is our five-month anniversary, so I thought that was very sweet of him.  I polished one off right after dinner.

Finally, a before-bed snack of ice cream.

Now I leave you to have sweet dreams with some action (or lack thereof) shots of JB.  Am I the only person with a cat who just lays spread eagle in the middle of the carpet???

And some more giveaways:

Imadedinner is giving away a Gourmet Fall Cheese Tasting Party!

Nicci is giving away Dr. Kracker’s crackers and flatbreads!

G’night, ya’ll.

Today I made a very important executive decision.  I am going to stop using Fitday to track my food intake/calories.  Maybe most of you are saying, “So…. what’s the big deal?”  Well, to me it is a HUGE deal.  I have used Fitday to track my calories almost every single day for the last five years.  No joke.  On vacations, trips, you name it… every bite was tracked.  Even when I was going through a tough period and was having constant binges of thousands of calories… yep – I entered it all into Fitday.  Don’t ask me why, it was totally an obsessive/compulsive, and I believe a disordered-eating, behavior.

Believe it or not, I actually started using Fitday back when I was trying to gain weight after getting out of the hospital for being underweight.  At the time, I was required to reach a certain calorie level every day so was monitoring it to make sure that I did.  However, as I got up to a healthy weight, it became more of a comfort thing, and eventually reached the point where if I didn’t use it, I got really anxious and nervous.  Was I eating too much?  Too little?  Not enough protein?  Too many carbs?

More recently, although I have continued to use Fitday, I haven’t been quite as obsessed over the numbers as I used to be.  However, I still find myself eating “by the numbers” rather than simply doing what I feel is healthy – eating when I am hungry and when my body needs it.  So I feel that it’s time for me to break free from Fitday.

I’m not sure how long this will last and can’t make any long-term promises.  However, my initial goal and commitment is to not use Fitday for a week.  I will take it one day at a time.  I am hoping that after one week, I will be more comfortable and my goal will be to not use it for another week.  Then maybe two weeks, etc.  until I reach the point where I no longer feel like I need it at all.  I want to eat intuitively – to listen to my body and learn to understand what it is telling me.  It has been so long since I have done that, it really scares me.  I am nervous that I will eat way too much.  I have eaten by the numbers and by the clock for so long that I have lost that connection – but it’s time for me to get it back.  I have come so far in the past year or so, and I’m ready to just be “normal” and healthy.  Normal, healthy eaters do not obsess over every calorie.  I’d like to lose a couple pounds, but weight loss is not my goal anymore – health and happiness in my life is my goal.  So bye bye, Fitday.

Wish me luck.

How did I come to that executive decision today?  Well, after eating my 2:30 snack (yes, I do eat my cereal snack every day at 2:30) I was getting ready to go to the gym.  I opened my freezer to get out some ice for my water bottle and BAM, there was one of my chocolate cheesecakes I made a week or so ago sitting there right in front of me.  I didn’t even think about it – I just pulled it out and ate it.  The whole thing.  All of a sudden, I started obsessing.  How many calories?  I had already eaten my afternoon snack, now what?  I was totally throwing off my routine and my daily number crunching.  For a few minutes, my head was spinning.  And then, all of a sudden, I thought…

This is RIDICULOUS.  Who cares???  It’s a friggin cheesecake!!!  And I was about to go to the gym!

It was so insane, it was almost funny.  And all of a sudden, I didn’t want to record that cheesecake in Fitday.  And then I realized that I didn’t want to record anything in Fitday.  I wanted to break free.  I wanted to not care if I ate a cheesecake in the middle of the day.  If I feel like an unhealthy, sugar-laden cheesecake… I want to eat it!  And enjoy it!  Not every day, for sure, but when I do it I want to be happy about it!  And that’s exactly what I did.  I thought of how good it tasted, and how it didn’t lead me to a binge or cause my all-or-nothing thinking to think in and make me eat everything in my house.  I ate it, and then I went to the gym and did the elliptical for 40 minutes.  And not because I felt that I had to in order to work off the cheesecake I had just eaten, but rather because I was already planning to do that and I just continued with my day completely as planned.  And it felt great.

So for the rest of the day, I didn’t track anything.  So how many calories did I eat today?  I couldn’t tell you.  And this is the first day in five years I can honestly say that.

Breakfast was:

Lunch was:

Snacks were:

And the aforementioned cheesecake.  You might have understood, from my description of the situation, that I didn’t exactly think to take a picture before I ate it.  So here is the incriminating evidence from after the fact:

Dinner was roast beef salad with many veggies, egg whites, cheese, almonds, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar:

And S couldn’t resist putting his “peace” sign in the picture too.

Followed by the rest of the strawberries in the container, because they are on the edge of going bad.  I have one more container to eat tomorrow as they are on their last legs.

And dessert was some caramel ice cream!

And here are a few giveaways:

Rebecca’s Newman’s Own giveaway

Healthy Fit Runner’s first giveaway

Megan’s sweet potato scone giveaway

Love Veggies and Yoga’s NuNaturals giveaway

I am a little too full, but not uncomfortable.  And I’m ok with that.  I will get more and more used to listening to my body every day, and it will get better.  I am so happy and feel at peace.  I will sleep well tonight.  Goodnight, ya’ll.

I wish I was a baller…

Starting today, I am a baller!  Basketball season started again.  For those of you who didn’t know, I play basketball in a women’s community league.  It’s just for fun – we have one game a week (Monday evenings) and no practices or anything.  I really like this league because it’s so diverse.  You have to be over the age of 18, but that’s the only age qualification so there are literally 18 year olds who just graduated from, or are seniors in, high school, playing against women that are definitely in their 60s.  I played in this league two seasons ago, but not last season.  The first few games that I had, I saw a few older women and was completely shocked.  I was a little nervous to really play hard, because I didn’t want to knock around my elders!  But I learned very quickly that I did not have to treat these women with kid gloves.  They are quite impressive – although they tend not to be as fast as us young’uns in the league, they can certainly hold their own.  And many of them have a mean three point shot if you give them space.  So I’m an equal opportunity player – I’m on you like white on rice, no matter what your age!

When I played before, I was on a team that I really liked that had been playing together for quite a while before I joined.  They gave me my own jersey with my number on it (4, baby!) and I got along with the team members well.  This season, when I signed up, I was put on a new team.  It turns out that most of the people on my old team didn’t get in – too many people signed up too quickly and they got put on the waiting list.  So I was sad and a little bit nervous because I didn’t know any of the people on my team.  I almost decided to drop out and not even go to the first game at all, but S convinced me that I should.  And he was right – I’m really glad he made me go.  (He really did make me go… he actually drove me there and watched while I played.)  I really like my new team.  The funny thing is, I am the tallest person on the team! For reference, I am 5’4″ and have NEVER been even CLOSE to being the tallest person on a team.  I always play a guard, never a forward.  But my team is short and so I was the tallest – I even had to jump for the ball!  But what we lack in height we make up for in speed – S called us a team of “Mexican Jumping Beans”, haha.  Also, next week we are getting one more player, since we have one less on our team than all the other teams do, and she is a woman who used to be on my old team.  And she was the tallest person on my old team, and a good player.  So we will have at least one tall person, I’m happy for that.

So all-in-all, I’m excited for this season and felt like I had a good experience last night and learned a lesson.  Don’t just give up on something before it starts out of fear (which sometimes I tend to do.)  You could be missing out on something really fun.

Have you ever quit something before it even started out of fear?  Did you regret it?

Before the bball game, I had a busy day.  I started things off with tea out of my “high voltage” mug from my days working with people in an electric plant lab.  I love that mug!

Breakfast was two hard-boiled eggs and some fresh strawberries.

I stopped by the grocery store during a quick break I had between meetings.  I had a coupon, so picked up this to try:

Although it is still deli meat and thus processed, it is natural with no preservatives and definitely a step up from the sodium and preservative-laden deli meats occupying the shelves.  I made my lunch with it, and also egg whites, onions, olives, cheddar cheese and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar:

It was very good.  I love roast beef!

I was in a totally snacky mood, although I am well aware that most of it was emotional snacking – not hunger snacking.  I was nervous about my bball game that evening, and work was kind of stressful.  I had four creamsicles:

my usual cereal x 2:

a pudding cup:

And an EAS bar:

Since I was unsure as to whether or not I was going to actually go to basketball, I decided to go for a run.  Since I hadn’t planned it ahead of time, I hadn’t charge my garmin.  So the battery was already low when I stepped out the door.  It ended up dying almost exactly halfway through my run.  Bummer, but at least I have the stats for the first half!  I was just doing four miles, so I really wanted to concentrate on a bit of a faster pace than my longer runs.  My average pace was 8:26 per mile, which made me happy.  Especially because it was midday so it was really hot and sunny, and I was still a little sore from my 19-miler on Saturday.

Dinner was eating pretty quickly before bball.  Carrots and hummus, a CLIF Builder bar, and strawberries with cottage cheese cheesecake:

Then the aforementioned basketball game!  We got home at about 9:30, and I was hungry again!  I hit up a nectarine and some mint-chocolate chip ice cream.

Now I’m off to do a little bit of reading before bed.  I finally got “The Hour I First Believed” by Wally Lamb from the library.  I have been trying to get it for a while, but it was always checked out!  I know that I won’t be able to renew it because it is already on request by someone else, so I have to read all 768 pages very quickly.  G’night, ya’ll.

It’s amazing how you can end a day tired, grumpy, and feeling completely unsure about so many things in your life – then you get 9 hours of sleep and when you wake up, the world looks completely different.  By the time I went to bed yesterday, I was feeling so frustrated.  I had just about had it.  I was frustrated with family drama, frustrated with boyfriends who sleep the whole day, frustrated with being frustrated.

But this morning I woke up and felt like it was completely a new day and anything was possible.  First of all, I was really happy that my long run was done for the weekend and that I could just completely relax.  In a way, that worries me because I see how nervous and stressed I get about my training runs.  Sometimes I wonder if my fear of failure mentality and my preoccupation with preparing for the marathon and achieving a certain goal make me forget about why I love running and why I started it in the first place.  I know that’s what happened when I was training for Boston two years ago.  I got so caught up in the training aspect – having to run a specific amount of mileage each weekend, knowing that if I didn’t get the training runs done, I wouldn’t be able to do as I would like in Boston.  It became something I had to do rather than something I wanted to do.  And so I dropped out of Boston and didn’t do it.  And instantly, the second I canceled my registration, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  In a way, I’m afraid that is happening again.

The other night, when we were having dinner with S’s coworkers, he was telling them how I had to run 19 miles the following morning.  They are not runners, and they do not enjoy exercise of any kind.  They asked me, innocently, how long it would take for me to run that far.  I told them a little over three hours, and I was completely embarrassed.  Now, I had absolutely no reason to be embarrassed in front of these people.  First of all, as a runner when someone tells me how long it takes them to run a certain amount of mileage, my first instinct is to figure out their mile time and thus calculate their pace.  It’s just instinct.  So the first thing I thought of when I said it would take me a little over three hours is “Man, they are going to calculate my pace and realize how freaking slow I am.”  But I realized immediately that was completely irrational.  There was no way these people were going to be calculating my pace.  They were probably just impressed overall, or surprised, about the fact that I would be running for three hours straight.  Second of all, even if they did calculate my pace and realize that I had a little under 10 minute miles, that probably wouldn’t even mean anything to them as non-runners and non-exercisers.  Third of all, even if it did mean something to them…. why would I care? If I run for me (as I say I do) and I am proud of what my body can do (as I say I am) why should this matter?  So the fact that I was so ashamed to admit it would take me over 3 hours indicated that there was probably a problem with my situation.

So that is something I need to mentally work on.  Set goals with my running, and work to achieve them.  But still don’t forget the underlying reason why I run and the importance it has played and does play in my life.

As I suspected yesterday, after sleeping all day S stayed up most of the night.  The good news is that he didn’t wake me up at all and that he got a lot of his work done for school.  I think that I was so tired that a mack truck wouldn’t have woken me up – but I’ll give S the credit for being quiet and considerate

When I woke up, he was wimpering because he was starving.  You would think that the boy didn’t have two perfectly good hands and an entire kitchen full of food at his disposal – he would starve to death waiting for me to wake up and make him something.  I made him his favorite, chocolate chip pancakes.  I had a few bites of his, and cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with strawberries and flax seeds.

And then, it was football time.  Oh NFL, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

Other eats of the day:

Marinara “pizza” with whole wheat pita, laughing cow cheese, lean ground turkey and marinara sauce:

A couple of holey donut holes:

Dinner was veggies and hummus, and an omelette with laughing cow cheese and Jennie-O turkey sausage:

Followed by more strawberries and cottage cheese cheesecake pudding:

And dessert was some mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Now, for your giveaway enjoyment, check these out:

Maggie from MyBreakfastBlog.com is giving away healthy cookies!

LoveVeggiesAndYoga is giving away chia seeds!

I have more to post too, don’t worry!  But for now… g’night ya’ll.

Yesterday, I decided to do my long run on Saturday rather than on Sunday this week.  There were a few reasons for this, but the main one was to get it out of the way and allow me to relax and enjoy the rest of my weekend without being nervous, being very concerned about what I ate so my stomach was ok for the run, being stressed that I wouldn’t be able to finish, etc.  I tend to get really on-edge the day and night before a really long run ( > 16 miles) right now because it has been so long since I have trained for a marathon and run these distances and have been through a lot physically and mentally since that time.

I am so afraid of failure when I am running.  But really, what is failure?  What’s the worst that can happen?  The very worst is that I can’t run it all, I can’t finish.  Is that the end of the world?  The second worst thing that can happen is that I can’t run it all – that I have to walk some.  Once again, maybe a little disappointing but not the end of the world.  So why am I so afraid of these long runs?  That is something I have yet to understand, but I know it is all mental and has a lot to do with me feeling like I need to redeem or prove myself after not running for so long and starting over after my surgery.

So in order to not stress all day on Saturday, I decided just to get the long run done on Saturday morning to enjoy the weekend.  It was a good decision.

Unfortunately, I didn’t go to sleep until after 1:30 last night, so when the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I was reaaaaally close to just turning it off, going back to sleep, and pushing the run until Sunday.  But I forced myself out of bed and went downstairs to get my stuff together and have breakfast.  When I came back up a half hour later, S was still in bed, asleep (no surprise there, of course.)  I physically pulled him out of bed, and after a few jumbled minutes, we made our way out the door to get the bike in the car and head to San Francisco.

We had a bit of trouble fitting the bike in the Mustang this morning.  We couldn’t remember how we made it fit last time… we tried every which way and couldn’t seem to do it again.  Eventually we made it work, with the front wheel sticking out and tying down the trunk.  I think the fact that we were so incredibly tired and half asleep was the main reason we had such difficulty.

I should probably invest in a bike rack for the car.  But the truth is, that bike is so old and was so cheap, a bike rack would cost a LOT more than the bike is actually worth.  So it’s unlikely I will look into it unless I invest in a new bike.

We finally left at around 6:15, as evidenced by my Garmin:

On the way to SF, I had a pre-run snack of a Pure Protein bar:

Yesterday, I checked weather.com to make sure that the weather in San Francisco would be ok this morning.  It said high of 65 degrees and sunny.  Well… as we started our drive, we soon headed straight into thunderstorms.  I have lived in the bay area for over three years, and have never seen a single thunderstorm.  So of course, on the morning of my 19 mile run, that is when I run into one.  Of course.

It wasn’t raining when we got to SF, so I thought we were ok.  But then about 2 minutes after I started running, the sky opened up and it started chucking it down with rain.  They were huge rain drops, and they were falling so hard that they actually were hurting my face and my head as they landed on me.  I just kept running.  Luckily, the rain only lasted about 10 minutes or so, and then cleared up.

Garmin for my 19 miler

When I had about 3 miles left, I was totally hurting.  I didn’t take enough Gu – I only ate a packet of Luna Moons at around mile 13.  I’m not really sure why I did that… I had other things packed with me but just didn’t feel like eating or drinking on the run.  My stomach was bothering me a little bit, and the route made it feel worse.  It was cold, very wet, and very hilly.  I think the hills are another reason I was so completely beat at the end.  But getting 19 miles of hill work in is good, because I don’t really know what the terrain will be at the Lausanne marathon.  Also, there was a bike race, farmers market, and at least two festivals that we saw going on in San Francisco today, so there were crowds everywhere.  I was dodging pedestrians, bikes, cars and dogs the whole way.

After the run, we loaded the bike back in the car and headed to Borders for some breakfast, coffee and magazine reading.  I looked at what they had but didn’t feel like any pastries after my long run, so I just ate a Detour protein bar I had brought with me and drank my coffee and an iced green tea.

Then, in the car stuck in traffic on the way home, I had a Clif bar as a snack.

When we got home, S pretty much immediately fell asleep for a nap.  I tried to take a nap – I felt exhausted but for some reason couldn’t sleep a wink.  I’m not a very good nap taker, I hate that!  I wish I could just fall asleep in the middle of the day like everybody else seems to be able to :/

I had a snack of scrambled eggs mixed together with lean ground turkey breast, laughing cow cheese, and some potato chips crushed on top while I waited for him to wake up:

Doesn’t look that good… but sure tasted good.  And gave me some quick and easy protein.  Followed it up with a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

One hour passed… S no wakey.  Two hours… nope.  Three hours… still sleeping.  After four hours I started getting frustrated.  If I would have known he was going to sleep for over four hours, I would have gone and done something that I wanted to do (that he didn’t want to do.)  Instead, I watched two episodes of The Tudors on my laptop (I love that show!!!)

I tried one of my Coconut Creme Holey Donuts – DELICIOUS!

Finally S came downstairs at 8.  Literally when I was about to have dinner and go to bed.  What a champ.  Now he will be up all night, and that means he will keep me up all night.  And that means I will kill him.

Dinner for me was an omelette with laughing cow cheese, broccoli and turkey sausage:

And finished with two desserts.  Some Rice Dream ice cream that I picked up on sale from Safeway yesterday – I never had Rice Dream before, and it was great!

And one of my Oreo Boston Creme Holey Donuts:

Now I’m off to bed before I plotz.  G’night y’all.

Today is a happy day… the beginning of football season.  One of my favorite days of the year.  Although I started off with a little bit of grumpy pants on…  S insists on setting the alarm for early, and then hits snooze a zillion times.  I am one of those people who, as soon as the alarm goes off, I am up.  Period.  I can’t fall back to sleep once I have been woken up.  S, on the other hand, hits snooze and is immediately asleep again.  Then 10 minutes later, the alarm goes off again.  Hits snooze, sleeps again.  This cycle continues for approximately an hour.  Every morning.  Meanwhile, I’m awake the first time the alarm goes off, and grumpy as hell because I could have slept a whole extra hour by the time we actually get out of bed.

Do you hit the snooze button when your alarm goes off in the morning?

My grumpiness dissipated when I remembered that the Steelers game was this evening.  So of course I had to start of the day right:

Representing!!!

Snacked on a nectarine:

Lunch was a salad with egg whites, shrimp, onions (too many onions… luckily I work at home and nobody could smell my onion breath over the phone…), cheese, olives, and olive oil and vinegar:

And afternoon snackies included Arctic Zero peanut butter chocolate (the whole pint, unfortunately.  But only 128 calories!)

And then I tried what I have been hearing so many people rave about… overnight oats!  I put the oats in milk to soak last night, and then added the other ingredients today.  And… it’s just as good as everybody says it is.  Mine was made up of:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese cheesecake pudding
• sliced nectarine
• flax seeds
• a spoonful of Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter

So… apparently the oats are camera shy because you can’t see them in my picture.  But trust me… they’re in there

I had to do the world’s speediest gym trip, because I was short on time between work and football.  I went early and did 30 minutes on the elliptical (leve 11, hills).  Luckily, since I was earlier than usual, “The Clapper” was MIA.  Whew!  I don’t think I could have handled three days in a row….

At 5:30 on the dot, I went over to my friends house for Steeler time!  I was so excited… decked out in my Polamalu jersey and ready to rumble.  I took over pizzas and some other snackies because she is going on vacation this weekend so she said she didn’t have any food in the house.  Dinner for me was:

Microwave mac and cheese, baby carrots and chex mix:

Sorry for the poor lighting, but you can see some Stillers in the background of the carrot pic!!!

After going into OT, the Steelers pulled off a victory with a field goal.  Great start to the season.  Superbowl win #7, here we come!!!

I went home to S for dessert, a masterpiece of chocolate ice cream, cottage cheese cream cheese pudding, angel food cake and hot fudge:

Twas a good day.  And tomorrow is Friday, woo hoo!  Unfortunately, we have to host a dinner at S’s apartment for a couple friends of his.  And by “we host” basically I mean that I have to go to the store, buy everything, and prepare it.  Great.

I’m going to sleep now so that I can wake up an hour before I actually have to tomorrow and lay in bed while S presses the snooze button a gazillion times.

Well ya’ll, today’s the day.  My initial public offering… of Eat, Write, Run.  For those of you who might be readers of my old blog, thank you for following me to my new home.  For those of you who might be new readers, welcome and thanks for reading!!

I woke up this morning and hurried downstairs for my 8am meeting, only to find that it had been cancelled at 7:58am.  I love it when that happens.    But since I was up and had the time slot free, I got a lot of work done while I sipped my coffee.

Lunch was a turkey salad.  I’m going to start mixing my lunch up tomorrow, I swear.

For snacks throughout the afternoon, I had two bowls of cottage cheese cream cheese pudding with sliced nectarine and flax seeds:

I had to spend a freaking hour on the phone with AT&T today.  Who knew that getting the NFL channel could be so complicated?!?!  Turns out that I can’t just get the extra channel, I have to upgrade my entire television package and get the next highest one (with a million other channels that I don’t want) in order to get it.  And not only that, but I also have to get a DVR.  It’s “part of the package”.  Great hoogley moogley.

So I was later than usual for the gym and guess what?  For the second day in a row I was there at the same time as “The Clapper“.  Grrrrrrrr.  Luckily, I charged my iPod so I could at least partially drown him out.  But still.  I am going to print out a sign and if I see him again, post it on his freaking forehead:

Yeah, that’s right.  No clapping allowed at the gym.  Clap at your own risk.  Penalty of some big meathead coming over from the free weights and pounding your clap-happy face in.

I did, however, have a great workout.  40 sweaty minutes on the stepmill, fat burning routine, level 13.  I <3 the stepmill!

When S got home from work, it was TACO NIGHT!  S had his with ground beef, and I made ground turkey breast for mine (on my sponge bob plate, of course…)

Then I took some additional ground turkey breast and mixed it together with some steamed broccoli, cheese and salsa to get my veggies in:

For dessert was another Picasso masterpiece.  Vanilla frozen yogurt, angel food cake, a golden oreo and caramel sauce and cottage cheese cheesecake pudding on top.

The bad news is that I used up all of my vanilla maple Arctic Zero.  The good news is that my Holey Donuts will be coming on Friday!

Oh, and the best news is that the Steelers first regular season game is tomorrow night!  I am going to my friend’s house to watch it – I really need some time with a girlfriend.  Not that I don’t love spending time with S, but I need some serious girl time.

You know what’s up….

Time for my before-bed snack.  Melted fudgesicles, topped with a vanilla pudding cup, angel food cake, and hot fudge.  Um….. yum.

Good night.  And don’t forget to tell as many people as possible about my blog!!!