I have a confession.  Sometimes, I totally suck at being a girl.  Not sure if I mentioned this before, but my whole life the same woman has cut my hair.  She is a family friend and an awesome hair stylist, and I trust her implicitly with my locks. 

I moved to California almost four years ago.  Since that time, I have gotten my hair cut twice.  That’s right, twice.  And guess when those two times were?  They were my two trips back to PA – one in 2007, and one in 2008.  And I got them cut by my girl, Lisa.

That’s right…  I haven’t gotten my hair cut since 2008.

Ok, that’s not totally true… I got it cut one time a few months ago at Cost Cutters.  It almost pains me to type that, but my split ends were so bad that I had to do something.  I can’t believe how expensive it is to get a hair cut – let alone to get highlights (which is what I used to get done with Lisa.)  Plus, since the same person has always done my hair, I am nervous walking into a new salon and letting someone else do it.  I know… it makes no sense that, considering that, I went to Cost Cutters.  But I just went there for a trim to get rid of split ends – not for a cut or style.  So cut me some slack, people.

Anyhow, I’m sure you can tell how excited I was to get my hair cut now that I am back in PA again.  In fact, one of the first things that I did when I bought my plane tickets was to call Lisa and set up an appointment! 

Today was the day.  I walked in with a raggedy, orangish brown mane, and walked out with pretty, trimmed, layered locks and a good bit blonder.  I also walked out camera-less (left it at home accidentally) so a blackberry pic will have to do.

Ta-dah! 

Me likey.

On the way to the hair salon, we stopped at a new coffee shop up the street from my mom’s house, called Arefa’s. 

Arefa’s wasn’t there last time I visited Pittsburgh, so this was my first time there.  The coffee was incredibly smooth and delicious… I am not a picky coffee drinker, pretty much love it all, but this was fantastic!

I also snacked on a Nana’s gluten-free cookie bar that I found in my mom’s cupboard.

It was pretty tasty!

Lunch was one of these Buffalo chicken sausages.  Straight up, out of the package, heated in the microwave.

These are sooo good.  They taste just like buffalo chicken wings!

I also had a bowl of roasted chicken, mixed olives and edamame.

And a handful of tea biscuits.

Mid-afternoon I snacked on some roasted almonds from my baggie.

Dinner was some reheated gluten-free pizza from the other night, as well as half an avocado and another chicken sausage.  A bit random.

Dessert?  Biscotti! 

These are addictive.

I miss my family.  Look at this adorable picture S sent me today.  Tessa (my baby) sleeping with her baby – the squeaky pink gorilla.

*Heart melting*

Apparently S and I aren’t the only ones who live in a zoo.

I woke up this morning and poured my cereal in my bowl. 

I got up to get some milk, only to return to this:

My mom’s cat enjoying my Kashi GoLean Crunch.  My first reaction?  Grab my camera, of course.  My second?  Shooing the cat out of my cereal and trying to expunge any visible cat cooties so it was safe for my consumption. 

After breakfast, my mom and I headed to her gym.  She belongs to the JCC, and she got me a weekly pass to work out there.  I started out with a half hour on the treadmill, and then we met up with her trainer. 

He led us through some arm exercises – chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and then ended with abs.  First of all, I was hurting.  Rachel needs to get back into weights.  Second of all, my Mother can lift more than me.  No joke.  I always thought I was pretty strong…. not anymore. 

Does a girl need any more motivation to get her ass in gear?  I think not…  But I am super proud of my SuperMama!!!

Lunch when we got home was a monster bowl of veggies and more.

• romaine
• green peppers
• avocado
• roasted turkey breast
• cherry tomatoes
• black olives
• feta cheese
• edamame
• EVOO and vinegar

This was where the monster snackage began, and the picture-taking stopped.  Sorry, folks, nothing to see here.

My mom’s boyfriend came over for dinner and we made chicken sausages, mixed veggies, and baked potatoes.  Dessert was fruit and yogurt. 

Other gems of the day included working, of course, a cupcake from Dozens, and a lot of talking.

I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Only 5 days until the Pittsburgh half-marathon!!! 

PS:  I miss my loves in CA

I pretty much lived all my life in Pittsburgh.  Well, technically in a small suburb outside of Murrysville.  My whole childhood, we lived in the same house – it was a wonderful place to grow up.  At the end of a cul-de-sac, with a huge yard and plenty of neighborhood kids to play with all the time.  That was our house when I graduated high school and went off to college – and since I went to a college close by, I often came home. 

My parents got divorced in 2004, after 23 years of marriage.  That’s when things started to change.  My mom moved out and got her own house about a half-hour away, right outside of the city of Pittsburgh.  My dad stayed in our house in the suburbs.

When I moved to California in 2006, my visits back to Pittsburgh still felt like coming “home”.  The house in the suburbs was my place of comfort – even though it was different since my mom wasn’t there and we weren’t in it as a family.  It was still the place I knew, the town I grew up in.  I would split my time between my mom’s new house and my dad’s house (my old house) but always felt more comfortable at the suburbs house because it was “my house”. 

Two years ago, my dad got remarried.  Little by little, that house became less my house and more “their” house – they remodeled and changed a lot of things.  The kids and friends I knew in that town moved away.  And last year, my dad and stepmom decided to move and sold the house in the suburbs.  They now live in another little suburb outside of Pittsburgh, about 45 minutes from the house I grew up in.

This is the first time I have been back to Pittsburgh in 2 years, and the first time I have been back since they moved to the new house.  My childhood home is gone.  Last night, after I arrived, they took me to the new place for the first time.  They are redoing the kitchen, so a lot of it is under construction. But it’s nice, a pretty area and a good house.  However, it’s not my house.  It’s not my childhood house, the one with all my memories and my comfort. 

I don’t know why I’m all nostalgic over this final ending – the book was really written years ago when my parents got divorced.  The suburbs house was totally different – quiet and empty, unlike the full, loud house that I grew up in.  But it was still there, and was still ours.  Now it’s gone, it’s someone elses.  Now, when I come to California, I don’t have a home.  I have my mom’s house, which I am always welcome in, and my dad’s house which they also open to me.  But those are their houses.  I am a visitor, in the guest room – not in my room. 

For some reason, although I knew it was coming, this actually hit me last night.  As I lay in bed in the guest room, in a rock hard (man, it was hard.  I swear, I was sleeping on a boulder) I felt like a stranger.  And it made me sad.

I guess I’m grown up now.  My mom’s house isn’t my house, my dad’s house isn’t my house.  My house is MY house, in California.  With my family – my man, my dog, and my cats.  And as sad as it makes me that I no longer have my home in PA, it makes me happy to realize that now, I’m a grown up.  I have my own home.  And its mine, my home for me and my family.

After that happy realization, I slept well

This morning I woke up and had a meeting first thing.  It’s tough shifting my work hours… I am used to my meetings being at certain times, and now I need to figure out the time for each one after the three-hour time difference.  This might sound simple, but it is actually proving to be quite difficult.  During my meeting I ate a Kashi bar:

After that, my stepmom drove me over to my Mom’s house.  I will be spending the next few nights at her house.  It’s crazy, this whole time-sharing thing.  And I have to rely on my parents to drive me around, since I don’t have a car while I’m here.  I feel like I’m back in grade school.  Funny how you go into an automatic time warp when you go back to your hometown and stay with your parents – no matter how old you are.

When I pulled up to the house, my mom had this sign on the front door:

Isn’t that cute?

Lunch was a monster salad.

• romaine
• cherry tomatoes
• cucumber
• carrots
• olives
• feta cheese
• roast turkey
• edamame
• olive oil and vinegar

Alongside there was a blueberry bran muffin from Trader Joes.

I was really snacky the whole day.  The fun thing about going to my mom’s house is that she always has new and exciting foods to eat that I don’t have in my house!

I snacked on some dried pineapple,

Some nuts and twigs (is that what they are called??) from Trader Joes:

I have read about these before on other blogs so I was excited to try them but I have to admit… I wasn’t all that impressed.  They were just ok.

For dinner, I prepared a pizza while my mom went out for her tango class.  My mom maintains a gluten-free diet, and she had this gluten-free pizza mix from Whole Foods. 

So pizza it was!  I followed the instructions for the crust to a t.  It required vinegar, olive oil, eggs, and a few other things.  I had to let it sit and rise for about 40 minutes.  When I came back to make the pizza, I thought for sure I had done something wrong.  It was waaaay sticky… I couldn’t shape it at all because it stuck to everything.  It was nowhere near the consistency of a normal pizza dough.

I did the best I could and flattened it out on the pizza stone using a spatula.  It was messy!  Then I put on some toppings… tomatoes, green peppers, onions, olives and feta cheese.

Baked 20 minutes, and voila!  It turned out perfectly! 

I was pretty proud of myself!  And I had this pretty, Mom-diet-safe pizza to present to her when she got home!!! 

Dessert was Trader Joe’s biscotti – two different flavors.

I had two of each flavor:

And then went back for seconds later on. 

My mom has two cats too, one of them kind of looks like Mendy.

My mom Looooooves cats.

I can’t wait for her to come to PA to meet Tessa!      

Before we left for the airport at 4:30am…

I also grabbed a high protein brownie to eat in the car on the way there.  When I saw April’s High Protein Brownies, I knew I had to make them.  I finally got around to it the other day.

Mine turned out ok.  I think that I would like to try it with a different kind of protein powder – they were a little bit dry.  Or maybe next time add some more yogurt or pumpkin?

Here’s a picture I took yesterday, before wrapping it to go.

My first flight took off out of San Jose at 6:20am.  I was exhausted and extremely happy when I found this:

Both the seats next to me were empty.  In fact, almost the whole plane was empty!  I was able to lay down and sleep all the way to Phoenix.  Too bad that was the shorter of my two flights!

I had an hour layover on Phoenix, and then got on my longer flight to Pittsburgh.  That one was PACKED.  In fact, it was overbooked and they asked for volunteers to give up their seat. 

Mid-way through the flight I broke out the lunch I packed at home.  A whole wheat wrap with roast beef, provolone cheese, and seaweed.  Delicious!

Not sure that the other folks on the plane appreciated me unwrapping a seaweed wrap in a confined space… but oh well   I also had a kashi bar.  I hate USAirways, which is what I flew.  They don’t even give you peanuts or pretzels or anything any more!  Geez, people.

When we landed in Pittsburgh, they wouldn’t let us off the plane because there was lightening.  So we had to sit for about another 20 minutes.  We finally got off and my dad, stepmom and stepbrother were there waiting for me.

I was starving when I arrived, so I had a big bag of microwave popcorn.  Totally hit the spot.  I also inhaled a handful of cereal – vanilla almond shredded wheat. 

My stepbrother made a delicious dinner of grilled pork, sweet potato fries, and a salad!

The grilled pork was amazing!  They have a really nice gas grill outside on their deck.  I can’t wait until we have a real house with a real yard and we can have a real grill!

Now I’m off to skype with S.  Probably will sneak an ice cream bar for dessert. 

I miss my S and my fur babies

Tessa is still a puppy, but she is a big dog.  The problem is, she has an identity crisis.  She seems to think she is a small dog. 

Tessa is not a fearful dog.  She’s not really afraid of loud noises or other animals.  She’s certainly not afraid of any people.  There are just two things that she is afraid of:

1. The garage.  Not sure why, but we’re working on that one.
2. Other big dogs

At the foster house she lived at before we adopted her, she had lots of doggie friends that lived there too.  However, they were all small dogs – she was by far the biggest.  Her daily playmates were pugs, Chihuahuas, terriers and teeny puppies.  As far as I know, she was never really around any dogs her size or bigger.  So, understandably, she is not used to them and is scared.

For the past five days, we have taken her to the dog park near our house every day.  The park has two sides – a side for the BIG dogs and a side for the little dogs.  Guess which one Tessa always wants to go into?  The first time we took her, I expected her to go crazy.  All the free space to run around and play!  She has so much energy, I thought she would love being with the other dogs. 

But she’s scared.  She wanders around the outer edges of the park, watching the other dogs but afraid to approach them.

And she always gravitates towards the bench where the people sit.  She loooooves people.  Plus, the bench is right next to the small dog park, so she can look at all the small dogs she wishes she could play with.

When I make her get off the bench, she usually just goes underneath it.

A few times she has been approached by some other dogs, and has played a little bit.

But so far, she mostly keeps to herself.

I hope this is just nerves since she is new to the dog park.  Hopefully if we continue to take her and she gets more used to it, she will love it and learn to have big dog friends!  After all, she still has a lot of growing to do and she is going to be BIG!

But look… training class is paying off!

JB and Mendy are closer than ever and enjoy watching Tessa do her tricks.

Enough animal talk.  Be back in a little with some other topics!

Where do the weekends go? 

Since S is still using my car, I am still stranded at home during the week.  So no gym for me.  Instead, Friday I made a date with Jillian.

That girl kicks my butt.  I did level 1 of the 30-day shred.  Those strength moves make my arms feel like jello!

The good part about S driving my car each day?

He has to fill up the gas tank

I was looking forward to getting to the gym this weekend.  I haven’t been for a week, and am in withdrawal.  However, I decided a long run was necessary instead.  The Pittsburgh half-marathon is less than two weeks away, and I have barely done any running the past couple of months.  Pretty much just those two trail races, and both of those were just 7 miles.  I wanted to run 10 miles so that I have confidence that the half marathon won’t be a problem.

I decided to do the run on Sunday, so I took a rest day on Saturday.  One of the coolest things about having a dog?  Even rest days aren’t completely lazy, because I have to take puppy for a walk!  Walks are getting much more enjoyable, too.  Tess isn’t pulling nearly as much as she used to.  She is getting much better behaved on walks!

Saturday night, S said he was going to do the long run with me – on the bike.  I love it when he does that… it makes the long runs go by so much faster when he is with me! 

But… Sunday morning when the alarm went off at 7am and I hopped out of bed… S promptly rolled over and fell back asleep.  I didn’t have the heart to force him out of bed, so I just went by myself.  I fueled pre-run with a Luna protein bar.

These are pretty good!  I still want to try the cookie dough flavor, though.  They only had the other two flavors at the store when I bought them.

I did a six mile loop and stopped back at home for some water and a mini clif bar.

Then I headed out for the second, four-mile loop. 

Overall, the run went well.  The first six miles were a lot harder than the last four – I think the main reason was because I was wearing my new water belt.  Which technically isn’t that new anymore… but… I still haven’t used it since I haven’t done any long runs since I got it! 

I was wearing it too high – more around my waist than around my hips, so it was bouncing and moving a little and was uncomfortable and made the first six miles kinda crappy.  I dropped it off at the house when I stopped there, and I felt much better after that.  I think that the belt will be ok once I adjust it and put it properly on my hips… I just didn’t want to take the time to do it while I was running.

When I finished the 10 miles (10.35, to be exact) and returned to the house, I found…

S still asleep.  Surprise, surprise.

The good news, checking out the stats on my Garmin – I did the first six miles and the last four miles at almost exactly the same pace.  My averages:

• First six miles:  8:44 avg pace
• Last four miles:  8:45 avg pace

I’m pretty content with that pace too – especially considering that I haven’t been running much lately (or going to the gym.)

Pittsburgh half…. here I come!

Some of the weekend’s eats included a vast amount of Fage greek yogurt with crumbled Kashi crunchy granola bars:

Muchas homemade Figgy Date Protein Bars:

Multiple Hugh Jass salads with the works:

Additionally, I ate more than my weight in Jelly Beans, ice cream sandwiches, kashi bars and swiss chocolate.

I see a limited-sugar week (or two?  or three?) sometime in my near future.  Maybe after the trip to Pittsburgh???

Isn’t it funny how now, after not running or gymming much the past few months, 10 miles is a long run for me?  Just a few months ago, 12 miles was a rest week!

Soon I will be picking my next marathon and the training will begin again!  I can’t wait!  (kinda.)

And the rain continues.  I know this is rainy season in California, but COME ON!! 

For breakfast this morning, I made banana almond flax seed pudding.  I modified a recipe that I found in Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Diet Cookbook.  LOVE that book.

The ingredients:

In the past, I have only made this recipe with soy milk or skim milk.  I have this Almond Dream to use up (which I don’t really like, and won’t be buying again) so I decided to try it out.

First I ground up 3 tbsp flax seeds.  Then I brought 1 cup of the milk to a boil on the stove.  After it was boiling, I added the ground flax seed and let the mixture boil for a minute.  Then I removed it from the heat and poured it in a glass bowl to cool.  As it cools, it becomes pudding-like.  Then I added in chopped apple, mashed banana, chopped apple and a spoonful of honey.

Voila!

The consistency wasn’t as good in this batch as it usually is for me.  It must have been the almond milk.  This particular brand of milk is really watery and not thick and creamy like the Almond Breeze I usually get

I really want to try coconut milk.  I used to hate all things coconut when I was younger, so I didn’t try anything coconut for years.  But recently, I retried a few things (some coconut bars, Coconut Cream Pie Larabar, etc.) and discovered that now I really like it! Time to do some new recipe experimenting.

For lunch, I made and olive oil and vinegar coleslaw and topped with edamame, almonds, peanuts and smoked salmon.

I LOOOOOVE smoked salmon.  I just wish it wasn’t so darn expensive! 

Mid-afternoon, I snacked on some peanut butter pretzels.  I took a huge baggie from the trail race on Saturday, so I have enough to last me for the week

I had this x 2.

After my fuel-up, I hit the gym where I did 35 min on the stepmill.  My quads are still a little sore from Saturday’s trail race, so it was tough.  And I reclaimed my title of Sweaty Betty.

After gym, I had a Kind bar I got from the race.  I had never had one before, it was tasty.  Sweeter than I expected, which is a-ok with me!

Dinner was the quick and easy route.  Shrimp and veggies piled on top of some quinoa and topped with cheese.

I picked up these at a quick trip to the store today.  They were on sale!

It has become clear to me, through extensive research and trial-and-error, that I am unable to keep large containers of ice cream in the house because I am likely to dig in with a spoon and eat the entire container at any given moment.  So I am always looking for good, single-serve options… especially ones that are individually wrapped like these (I have also been known to eat entire containers of single-sized portions, when they are not individually wrapped and thus are just as accessible as large containers of ice cream).  Somehow, that little wrapper does manage to slow me down a little…. most of the time.

They are small, though.  I guess I should have known… for 90 calories, what did I expect? 

Tessa lurked under the table.  She wanted a bite.

Now I have a date with Jelly Belly’s and The Biggest Loser.

Just 11 days until I get to go to Pittsburgh!

My puppy is snoring.

Poor Tessa.  It must be very boring to be a big dog in a little townhouse on a rainy day.  And yes, she really does snore.

Playing with Mendy made it a little more interesting…

For a little while.

Then it got old.

I woke up around 9:30 this morning, and was nervous because it was later than I had expected.  I never know what I am going to find now when I come downstairs late.  But Tessa was sitting like a little angel in her crate.

I grabbed a clif bar and headed out for a quick walk with her.  By the time we got back, S was awake and it was lunch time. 

String beans sauteed in flax seed oil, two Hebrew National hot dogs, edamame and goat cheese.

Hebrew National hot dogs are soooo good.  Nothing beats a kosher dog.

S and Tessa chilled on the couch.  S is sporting the t-shirt from our trail run yesterday!

Afternoon was errands.  We went to Petco (which seems to be where we spend our life now…) and bought some doggie shampoo.  We have a bit of a smelly doggy   And the rain makes it worse.  Wet dog = smelly dog. We also hit Kohls, where S finally got a new watch.  He accidentally lost his on the train on the way to work a few months ago.  He took it off on the ride and set it down next to him… and forgot to pick it back up!  He loved that watch and was very sad about it.  But he absolutely LOVES his new one.  It’s really nice – and it’s kinetic. 

I love the gold.  Still doesn’t compare to my watch, though. 

Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan.  With parmesan garlic bread on the side.

Post-dinner:  Put baby to bed.

Post put baby to bed?

Eat chocolate.

And just for the record, it’s still raining

Hold on to your seats, ladies and gentlemen.  S, who hates running, enjoyed the trail run last weekend so much that he requested that we sign up for one that was scheduled for this weekend!

So we signed up for the Muir Woods 7-miler.

We had an hour and a half drive to Stinson Beach, so we had a 6am wakeup call.  I had a pre-run breakfast of two pieces of toast with cream cheese and protein powder.

I also had a protein bar in the car on the way.  I knew I would need to fuel up majorly for this run!  It might just be 7 miles, but I knew it would be a HARD 7 miles.

And hard it was.  We did really well, though!  Especially S.  I was a little worried about him in the beginning, because it was mostly uphill (and VERY uphill) for the first three miles and he was really struggling.  I kept slowing down and waiting up for him, because I wanted to stay together, and he kept saying he was exhausted.

At mile 3, there was a water stop.  We stopped for a minute or two and rested.  And I swear, it was like I was running with a new man.  We took off from the water stop and walked for a couple yards, and then S took off like a bat out of hell!  I swear, I am not exaggerating.  We ran at a good speed for a couple of miles, and then he pretty much sprinted the last two miles.  It was unbelievable!  We did the first three miles of the race in about an hour, and the last four miles in forty minutes!  And that was after the rain started.

I almost took my camera with me, but decided against it right before the race started.  And I’m glad that I didn’t… because mid-way through the race it started pouring.  It was soooo cold and muddy.  The race went in and out of the forest, and most of the points in the forest were ok because the thick trees and brush protected us from most of the rain.  But the points in between, out in the hills, were a bit miserable.  It was a beautiful trail, though, and I do wish I had some pictures of it.

After the race I wolfed down some post-race goodies.  Once again they had peanut butter-filled pretzels. I also scarfed some trail mix, a Think Thin bar and a Kind bar.  And got my tshirt, of course.  I heart post-race swag!

When we got home, I needed some protein to help repair my muscles.  I made a shrimp salad with egg, corn, peas, edamame, cheese, and shrimp.  All tossed in EVOO and balsamic vinegar.

Followed by a big bowl of strawberries.

Just an hour later, I was starving again.  That’s what a trail race will do to you!  It was time for a Clif bar.

Tessa was lurking under the table… she wanted to be in the picture, too!

Throughout the afternoon, I also snacked on a swiss chocolate marzipan bar:

And some dried dates and figs.

For dinner, we went to Outback Steak House.  I didn’t take a picture of my meal, but I had the Ahi Tuna salad.  That is my all-time favorite there… Sooo good!  And for dessert, we got an incredible piece of chocolate cake.  Layers upon layers of chocolatey heaven, with raspberry sauce on top!  We only ate half there, we were so stuffed.

About an hour and a half after we got home, I dug in to the other half.  This time, I had my camera ready.

Just look at this cake!

No words necessary.

Now I’m off to bed.  I hope to sleep in tomorrow, although sleeping in has now been defined to:  sleeping until 9am.  Thanks, Tess.