Happy Halloween!

I’m not usually a “Halloween” person. It’s not one of the holidays that I look forward to the most…not like Thanksgiving or July 4th! But this year, I was feeling the urge to dress up, go dancing and just have fun. I had no idea what I wanted to dress up as or where I wanted to go, but I know that I wanted to do something.

All of my initial costume ideas involved fruits or vegetables At first I wanted to be mashed potatoes and have Jason be gravy. Then he expressed concerns about looking like a turd, so that went out the window. My next idea? Peas and carrots. Then Jason said “How come everything you want to be has to do with food??”

Ummmm…. ? Because I love it?? I didn’t realise that I was only mentioning food items, so I asked him “What do YOU wanna be?” His answer: Zombies!

And so it was.

Whitney sent me an invite for a Halloween party at a restaurant/lounge in Charlotte that very same day! We now had costumes and somewhere to go! Hooray!

Jason got off of work and we set out to get makeup for our zombie faces…Party City was crazy yo. It was packed with kids and parents all over the place!

After that stressful trip, we headed home to get ready!

Zombie makeup is hard to do I watched two YouTube videos on how to do it, but the makeup kept caking up and drying too fast. I had to start over twice! (We don’t really have any pics before we got ready because we both had makeup all over our hands!) Jason was in charge of making our clothes bloody, so I gave him my white shirt and he took it out into the yard to work his magic on it.

Two hours later, and after a fast dinner (where I ate standing up at the kitchen counter) we were finally done! The end result:

Rawrrr…I wanna eat your flesh. (My makeup is done like I have a black eye, but oh well..maybe that’s how I died and became a zombie? )

Zombie pose:

Leave it to a guy to put blood on a shirt and he will always find the perfect spot (Hence the bloody handprints on my boobs)

Time to go! We made the 45 minute drive into Charlotte for a Halloween party at Andrew Blair’s. I was a little nervous when we got there because the people who were going into and coming out of the place weren’t in costume, but inside it was a different story

After getting through the door, we got a beer and looked around for Whitney. Found her!

Can you guess who she is? I’ll give you a hint:

“Blah, blah blah. Zazazaza talkin’bout.”

She did a pretty great job, no?! Can you believe that it didn’t cost her any money?! Cute, very cute. And I LOVED the braid. As the night went on it sort of became a weapon (she kept slinging it around HAHA)

After my second beer (says the girl who can hardly finish one drink on a normal night) it was time to hit the dance flo’ fo’ sho’.

Jason and I danced for a good hour before taking a break. All of the costumes were amazing! It was fun to try to guess who people were. My two favs:

This guy was a one-night stand, haha! And this next one was just plain hilarious:

Tiger Woods! Oh, and I also liked the Semi-Pro dudes…

Hehe

Jason and I were the only people there that were bloody/creepy looking! All of the girls were dressed sort of sexily (not sure if that’s even a word) and most of the guys picked a character to be. There were a surprising amount of Star Trek people there! I didn’t mind that I was the only bloody girl I had fun doing the make up and ripping up an old shirt!

 There was a girl in the bathroom that said: “I can’t believe you wore blood. Blood is never sexy!”

Hmmmmm..my first reaction: HO-BAG! DID ASK YOU?! You won’t be sexy either once I shove your face in the toilet! But I just kind of let it roll off of me and went back to the dance floor where MY BOYFRIEND (that always thinks I’m sexy) was waiting for me

Jason and I grooved on the dance floor some more, while I had my third beer and a mixed drink…I never ever go out drinking or dancing so instead of feeling guilty about all the calories (or money) that was being consumed, I just went along with it and had fun We danced to “Teenage Dream” and “Push It” by Salt-n-Peppa Have I mentioned how much I love music??

Around 1:30 a.m. we decided it would be smart of us to head back home…because after all, I DID have a 5k to be at at 7 in the morning!! Yikes!

And you guessed it: I was feeling totally unreal when my 6 a.m. alarm clock went off….

My head hurt, my body hurt, my mouth tasted disgusting, but there was no way I was going to miss the race! The director of Girls on the Run paid for my registration so that I could be a running buddy for my old team so I HAD to be there, and I wanted to be too! I couldn’t wait to see them!

I drove back to Charlotte, got stuck in traffic near the race and after 30 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, I was finally told to park in a field. The sun was coming up and it was beautiful

The CLT runway 5k race was held at the Charlotte-Douglas airport. The course was mapped out along the runway and it was really neat because as you were running, you could watch planes land and take off on nearby runways!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself:

I felt like pooh:

No reason in wallowing in agony! I put my best attitude forward and proceeded to the registration pick-up table.

After putting on my number, I started to look around for my school.

Nothing.

I checked with the registration table and the woman said that no one from that school had shown up yet.

Okay, so maybe they are all stuck in traffic? The traffic was pretty bad, I heard that a lot of folks missed the race because they didn’t get to park until it was too late.

I waited and waited. I checked back at the table. Nothing. :/

Pretty soon it was time to line up at the starting line. I stayed toward the back so I could keep watch for my school’s sign, but it never showed. I decided to just run the race so the money wouldn’t go to waste, and as I ran, I encouraged any GOTR members that I thought might need it I’d find someone with GOTR shirts and run up beside them and say “You’re doing great! Keep it up!” or if I found some girls that were struggling, I’d say “You can DO this! You’ve got this!”  I’d like to think I encouraged them at least a little!

When the race was over, I tried to wait around so I could find out my finishing time. As soon as I saw how swarmed the results table was, I decided to leave. I needed a shower and my bed.

I drank some Gatorade and a bran muffin, but everything tasted disgusting! During the race I kept burping and acid would come up in my throat (gross!). There were a couple of times when I thought I’d puke up every drink I had the night before, but I managed to keep it down.

The drive back home was fast. I hopped in the shower, threw on some pj’s and went back to bed for 3 hours. Jason came in and woke me up for lunch. He was nice enough to treat me to a greasy, late breakfast (and much-needed coffee!!!!!) at Waffle House

Then we went to the store for milk and he surprised me with a pint of ice cream He sure knows the way to a girl’s heart

It’s been a fun weekend! I think that I’m off of beer for at least a week though, haha. Today I woke up, did Chemistry homework while sitting in my pj’s and watching Spongebob (no judging!). It’s been a good morning, but I think I want to run! Or strength-train at the gym? Who knows!

I’ll post my results as soon as they are online!

See ya!

Did you see any cool costumes this weekend?? I thought the Tiger Woods one was great! Haha

PS. I did end up getting my pumpkin iced coffee on Friday, in case you were wondering! Coffee and me photo:

Cheeeeseeeeee!

Thank goodness it’s finally here! My week has been a little boring, but I still have some random thoughts brewing in my brain, so why not blog about’em??

The most exciting things I’ve done this week include:

Riding the bike while watching “Friday”… (my favorite part is when Smokey gets set up on a blind date with that girl’s friend that supposedly looks like “Janet Jackson”)

..And giving my stinky dog a bath. Does washing a 55 lb. dog count as exercise? No? Well it should. It’s been 2 months since her last bath (I know! I know! I feel terrible..no hate mail please Sometimes things like that just get pushed to the side, but now she is clean and happy)

I think she was ready for one too, she practically jumped into the tub…and she even gave me a few kisses on the face while I was washing her

The worst, most cumbersome part? Grooming her afterwards!

“Rawwwrrrrrrrrrr”

That’s the Hair Monster. He comes around all the time, hiding in sneaky places like under the couch and in corners of the kitchen. And he stays for days. Especially after Trixie-bear has just had a bath. I have to brush and brush and brush her to get all of the fur off! She’s a golden retriever/chow mix…does that give you an idea of the amount of fuzz we have around here??

That’s pretty much all of I’ve done this week except for Chemistry, my internship and working out. I update my Activity Log on a regular basis, be sure to check there if you’re wondering what my workouts have been like!

Exciting things that haven’t happened yet:

• Today is my iced coffee day! I allow myself to get one iced coffee a week, and today is the day! I think I may even add a shot of pumpkin to it
• This afternoon I get to hang out with my preggo friend (she’s due next week!). We are going to the bookstore to look at trashy celebrity gossip magazines!
• Tomorrow (at 7 a.m.) I get to run a 5k with my old Girls on the Run team Can’t wait to see them again!
• I have 2 product reviews coming up for the blog, and one involves a “How-To” tutorial
• My first Vlog is coming soon! You guys will get to hear my sweet southern accent along with my terrible grammar, haha

The other day when I was working the fitness floor at my internship, I had a random thought pop into my head:

What makes a person a runner, and not a jogger? Is there a difference in the two? Is a runner a person that runs at a faster speed on every run? Do you think any person that gets out there and runs is a runner? Should there be a difference in the two?

I’m wondering this because the other day I was on a run (or jog?) and someone asked me “How did your jogging go?” Ummm…my what? I’m a runner, darn it! Just because I run 10:30 minute miles, am I now classified as a jogger? Do “joggers” run two half-marathons in one year? What’s your input?

Anywho, I better get off of here and get to cleaning my house. I have to get ready for school in a little bit…..though, I kind of wish that I was on a boat. With my swim-trunks and my flippie-floppies.

“This boat is REAL!” “F*@# oak trees, I climb buoys motherf***er” Bwhahahahahaha Now that should start your Friday off right!

I’ve missed you these past few days! My to-do list seems to keep getting bigger and bigger but I am determined to take a little time for myself every day.

How was your long weekend? Here is how I spent mine:

• Rolling in the grass with my dog (and becoming very itchy afterwards!)
• Playing with my nephew and niece at the park
• Eating at an outside cafe with Jason (<–and having eggplant for the first time! Wowza )
• Running 4 miles
• Trying out a new mexican recipe
• Watching “Man on Wire” on instant Netflix (BTW, if you haven’t seen it…go see it NOW. Philippe Petit is such an inspiring, lively man.)
• Oh, and buying carpet for our house. <–Fun stuff, I tell ya.
• OH, and I also indulged myself in a serving (medium, being a serving) of french fries from a fast food place

So what did you do? Tell me! Tell me!

Today has been a long day and I feel like posting, but not about food or anything like that. Today, I want to post about my most memorable exercise moments. Nope, not just running, but exercise in general (though a lot of it will be running related  ). There will not be photos for some of the moments-obviously!-but I’ll do my best to create the picture for you

Let’s get started! BTW–I’m all about bullets today for some reason, so I’m going to be boring and use them again

My Most Memorable Exercise Moments

•  Eating a huge bowl of bean chili and tortilla chips the night before my first (ever) 5k. Jason and I spent the first 30 minutes before the race  in the Port-A-Jons that were lined up along starting line. Definitely not my best race. Lesson learned: Bean chili is not the best pre-race meal!

• The first time I was able to do 30 consecutive push-ups, and the feeling of strength and accomplishment that washed over me afterwards! (This was actually only a few weeks ago!)
•  When I was coaching a Girls on the Run team last spring, we were running our first race. Some of the girls were having a hard time, so I stopped to walk with them or help encourage them. As we rounded a corner that led to the finish line, there was a boy (probably about 10 years old) out on his lawn with an electric guitar playing “More Than a Feelin” by Boston! He had these huge speakers set up next to him! The music made us want to finish strong, plus, he was extremely talented. Wish you guys could’ve seen him playing! It looked sort of like this:

Except the kid wasn’t that skinny, and he also had a little more color to him as well

• The first time I tried out Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred–I quit. My muscles were aching, every part of my body was screaming and it just wasn’t what I had expected! But, the week after that episode, I popped the DVD back in and decided to just do it. Change is never comfortable…just get it over with! (I was sore for 3 days after doing Level 1) I can now do Level 3 without crying or cussing out Jillian under my breath

• During my first half-marathon, I ran beside a woman who had been diagnosed with brain cancer a few weeks earlier. She is in her 30′s and a mother of two. Her friends formed a team that would run the race, in order to raise money to help with her medical bills. And I ask you: How freaking awesome is that? It almost brings tears to my eyes! She was such a nice lady. She chit-chatted with Jason and I for a few miles before speeding up to find her friends, but I think I’ll be forever touched by her story. To have brain cancer and be running a half-marathon is just amazing. You go girl.

I also admired her for wearing pink and white tube socks to the race Not only is she a strong woman, but she is fashion-forward too!

•  My second half-marathon (oh where to being with this one!) was a trail race. We were basically put in the woods and told to look for pink and black flags, or “markers”-as they called them- that would tell us if we were going the right way. Yep, I wasn’t going the right way. In fact, I ended up running 16 miles instead of 13.1 because I got lost about 5 dozen times. I ran out of fuel (food), but luckily, I did not run out of water. It was the most confusing race of my life. I managed to win 3rd place in my age group, but I’m thinking that’s because there weren’t a lot of people in my age group to being with! Oh well, I’m not complainin’

• Also, in said race, around mile 3..a girl was running behind me and she stopped for a second. Naturally, I turn around to make sure she’s okay. She says “Yeah, I think I just need to stop for a sec.” And then she proceeds to puke everywhere. Lovely. Hopefully it wasn’t because she ate a bowl of chili for breakfast that morning!  I felt so bad for the girl, but her friend was coming up behind her, so I kept on going. (Yeah, I’m thinking a pic is not needed for this memory–>moving on)
• I also remember how muddy I got during that race too! My shoes, legs and arms were covered in dirt. My running shoes were also soaking wet There was a part of the race that required us to jump over a pond, and of course, instead of jumping over it, I ended up jumping into it. Booo. Stupid water. Running the rest of race with wet socks and shoes totally sucked–and the blisters that came afterward weren’t that great either!

• Jason is big into cycling so in 2009 he decided to buy me a bike so that he could share his passion with me

Our first ride was a hilly 20 miles through Kings Mountain State Park. When we got home, I crashed on the couch, next to the space heater, and slept for 3 hours straight

• I finished my first 10k trail race winning second place in my age group! It was definitely a surprise when they called out my name because I hadn’t been trying to place at all! I also won a watch in one of their raffles

(Again with the tomato-face!) The part that I would like to forget happened when I was about to cross the finish line! I was about 30 feet away and this guy that comes running up from behind me accidentally spits on my leg!!!!!! EWWWWWWWW. I had to finish the race with it making its way down my leg. It was disgusting!  Once I crossed the finish line, I found a bathroom so that I could wash it off. Major yuck-o

• Not all of my memories come from running.  A lot of them come from hikes that I have been on. Specifically, the 7 mile hike that Jason and I went on when we were camping last month! The scenery was so beautiful! The air was crisp and fresh, like only mountain air can be

Ahhh, I love it.

• Experiencing FitBloggin! ‘Nuf said
• Being able to hold side Crow’s Pose for about 5 seconds last week! Woo hoo! That’s five seconds longer than usual, haha. I’m still working on it!

Now I want to know your most memorable exercise moments   Time to get cookin’ in the kitchen. Have a wonderful week you guys!

I’ve had a week from hell. Exam preparation, rough days at work, and a few sleepless nights…my heart wasn’t into anything I did this week (except for my runs, of course). Friday evening, once I was off work, I took it upon myself to find the loudest, rock-iest (excuse my incorrect grammar) music in my car and just blast it. And sing along, and look like a weirdo to a quite a few people, but I seriously did not care. I needed that.

I’m the type of person that gets annoyed when I can hear other people’s music in their car, but Friday, I was that person. I got a few bad looks from the older folks, but oh well. Sometimes a girl just needs to rock-out without caring about offending someone.

I also went home to a beer and japanese takeout Yum Yum!

Andddd, my sweet boyfriend also surprised me with flowers too! That made my Friday night even better

You like my Bertolli vase?? Fancy, isn’t it? Came all the way from the grocery store shelf Italy…it doubles as a jar for pasta sauce as well

This morning I woke up to get ready for the last 5k with my Girls on the Run! Only 5 members were able to make it to this race, but we still had fun. They did much better than the last 5k and I’m sooooo proud of them.

That’s the closest semi-good picture you are gonna get. Try calming down 5 excited girls that are ready to run their cute little hearts out and see what kind of pic ya get

The race went great! It was very hot and very crowded, so as soon as we were done I got outta there, grabbed myself an iced coffee and took off my sweat-soaked t-shirt, only to drive home in my sports bra…HA. Lately I haven’t really been caring what people think. Perhaps it’ s the rebellious phase that I never went through in my teens that is sneaking up on me??

After arriving home, taking a much needed shower and fixing myself a snack, I began to notice that Trix was practically falling all over herself trying to get my attention. She probably was laying in the position above for a good five minutes before I took the time to notice!

I wanted some time with my pup! I gave her a nice, long belly rub and leashed her up for a walk.

It was just what we both needed. Guess what?!

As of Monday, I will be done with this semester! Only one more until I graduate (woot woot!). Jason and I are rewarding ourselves with a trip to Charleston, SC this coming weekend and I’m so freakin’ excited!! I shall take pics and I shall do a bloggie recap of course. You will see me before then though, now that I will have more free time in my schedule (again, woot woot).

Okay, okay! Let’s get down to the Subway gift card winners!

The winners are:                                                

 True Random Number Generator

Min:1

Max: 19

Result: 5

Min: 1

Max: 19

Result: 16

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Comment #5 and #16! Congrats Meghan and Lauren! Shoot me an email and I’ll get those giftcards to ya!

Okay ladies (and gents??? nah, probably not) there is a bowl of ice cream and some comfy cotton pj’s calling my name. Better get going!

Oh, and ah hem…little did I know that the half-marathon that I signed up for in June is a trail half-marathon. YIKES! Too late to back out now, only makes me want to train harder

Love ya bloggies <3

SO sorry about my absence…it’s been crunchtime at school, which translates into me not having any time for crunches…or blogging for that matter!

During these last couple of weeks, I’ve had cute lunch dates:

..Anddddd Jason even celebrated a birthday! The big 2-5

…even the animals got into it a little….

…..or not.

I even was successful at making an upside-down pineapple cake! It was the “easy kind”, but still

‘Twas good and fun!

Yesterday was the last day of class, so I decided that my friends and I should go out to breakfast to celebrate (and maybe load up on coffee for our study session). Where to go? Where to go?

Subway!

The lovely folks at Subway sent me a giftcard so that I could try out their new breakfast menu, let me be the first to say that I think the ‘breakfast menu’ idea is freakin awesome. Subway is always my go-to place if I’m in a hurry and don’t have a lunch. And I’m not just saying that because they sent me a giftcard! I’m saying that becuase it’s true! It’s a quick, healthy meal when you are out and about.

So, we walked in and took a look over the menu. They offer a:

•  steak/cheese/egg sandwich
• western egg white muffin melt (with only 4g of fat) 
• a variety of toppings (think loads of veggies!!!!!!)
• a choice of a wheat english muffin, a flatbread sandwich or you may have it on a sub.
• A lot of these sandwiches are under 300 calories!

I ordered the egg white and cheese english muffin with spicy mustard, a little mayo and tons and tons of veggies:

 loved the chewiness of the english muffin (and the fact that it was wheat!). I also loved the fact that I could pick any toppings that I want, and that they gave me a choice between egg whites or regular egg. They really do let you build your own breakfast! The coffee was hot and delicious.

My lovely friends ordered the western egg white muffin and loooovveeeeddd it. Not to mention that all of us ate their for under $10! How awesome is that?! They have apple slices, hashbrowns and yogurt as a choice for sides. But I pulled out my handy-dandy naner that was stashed in my purse. The sandwich kept me full until half past 12, and I ate at 8 in the morning. Hello, protein I will definitely be going back.

And now you can have a chance to experience a Subway breakfast too! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post! I’ll announce TWO winners (choosing by random interger) after my last Girls On the Run race on Saturday!

See ya soon bloggies!

PS. Guess who has another half-marathon on June 5th?? 

Happy Monday not.

Is it terrible to say that I’m already ready for the weekend to get here??

This weekend went pretty well! Of course you know about Saturday…on Sunday, I woke up at 7 A.M. to start on some unfinished dietetic projects. Jason woke up and did the same, and we were diligent in our work until 3 [which was when I felt like I was going to pull my hair out!]. I needed fresh air and sunshine before I went freakin’crazy! Those of you that are in school, do you ever just feel like crying after doing a bunch of homework?! It begins to feel like my brain is short-circuiting and is gonna blow any minute.

For a break, we drove to Cramerton to do a hilly 4 mile run. That helped bunches Running always seems to help!

This morning I woke up and turned in more homework and read the news online before school. Breakfast was a simple wheat cinnamon/raisin english muffin with pb and apricot jam and a naner. (Do I even need to state that I had a coffee with it?? )

Just a smile to start my day

There are only 3 weeks (!!) left of school and it’s getting pretty intense in class. Our breaks are getting shorter because we are trying to get everything we need done before summer break. Mid-morning I broke into my brownie Cliff bar (ate half) and then got right back to work on a Portion Control project.

Today we had 15 minutes for lunch…

That wasn’t enough time for me today! I brought sugar snap peas with hummus, a grapefruit, vegetable flaxseed tortilla chips and pudding cup..I only got through the chips, peas and hummus before having to pack back up

The good thing is, is that we had to be back in time for a celebration! One of the students in the program won an award from the Honor’s Society in Raleigh, NC. She was chosen to respresent our school for her outstanding grades and academic achievement.

 Congrats Susan! She was so surprised when she came in the door! Total shock We threw rose petals at her, they crowned her and gave her a sash and even had a cake too! I love my teachers and my director, they are so great.

There was cake to be had….

..and also some fun to be had with the icing too [I like to find ways to entertain myself]

After the celebration, it was back to class! Then, an hour later, it was off to coach Girls on the Run. Luckily, I had time to eat my grapefruit while they played running games.  One of the girls thought I was eating a lemon!! I can’t believe she didn’t know what a grapefruit was! Hehe.

Once Jason got home later on, we went to the gym for an intense workout that consisted of:

• 50 scissor crunches
• 50 regular crunches
• 50 oblique crunches
• 3 sets of 10- V-pulldowns (55 lbs)
• 3 sets of 12 chest press (55 lbs)
• 3 sets of 8  lat pulldowns (62.5 lbs)
• 15 minutes elliptical (hill setting)
• 15 minutes speed walking with5 lb. weights

Holy moly. I have to admit that I was running on pure adrenaline..and I didn’t feel like I was even doing anything during that workout, but oh boy is it starting to hurt now. But it’s a good sort of pain though, and I’m not feeling the stress of school as bad as I was before walking in there!

Dinner was an easy pick: Beer Italian Potato Torta!

You can find the recipe here. Of course, I used a rectangle pan instead of a circle one because that’s all I had. I don’t think it makes a difference either way.

I may have pictured it coming out of the oven, but I totally forgot to take a picture of my plate! I had to servings, served with mixed greens salad…

…and it seems a beer did make it in there somehow

And that was dinner. Now my sweet tooth is in over-drive…wonder if we have any dark chocolate left???

Okay, time for me to stop rambling and announce the Thriv winner!

The winner is……………..

[Drumroll please]

Emily, who said:

Congrats on the successful GOTR 5K, that’s great.

My funniest race story is when I somehow missed the start (I was still stretching by my car and thought it started 15 minutes later than it did) and had to run from my car all the way to the start and then somehow get to the pack of runners. Hehe, it was a bit embarrassing.

Emily, shoot me an email so I can get that Thriv shirt to ya!

And, for the rest of you, do not get discouraged! Guess what? Just by signing up for the Thriv companys monthly newsletter, you will have a chance at winning a free shirt! They give out 50 free shirts a month!! If you are interested in signing up for their newsletter, click here.

Also, I shall be having yet another giveaway coming up reeeallll soon! So make sure you check back sometime this week (wink wink)

Other great things coming up this week:

Jason’s 25th birthday on Sunday. He has politely asked for a pineapple upside-down cake and my mother says she has never been able to make one successfully. Hopefully those genes weren’t passed down to me. I’ll be blogging the whole thing though!

Have a great week! See ya in a few days bloggies

P.S. If anyone knows of a faster way of blogging, please enlighten me…this post just took wayyyyy too long!

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes for Trixie, each one brought a smile to my face She is doing better, hasn’t had a seizure since Thursday morning…if anything, she is a bit slower than usual, but she is still up for her daily walks, so that’s a good thing!

I’ve been giving her lots of these lately:

Well, as you know, today was my Girls on the Run groups first 5k! We have been training them since February for this day, and let me tell you: my girls did NOT dissapoint

I was up and at’em at 5:15 this morning so I could meet the girls at 6:45 to get them ready to run! I had a quick cup of unpictured  coffee and a boring ol’ peanut butter Cliff bar. Then it was off to the race!

This is the 8th annual Run for the Money 5k in Gastonia. The fastest runners are allowed to donate their winning money to the organization of their choice (there were even a few to donate to Girls on the Run!!). It’s really a great community run, such a friendly vibe going around.

I helped the girls get their numbers and chips on and then we headed to the starting line. About 10 minutes later, we were off! At first we stuck together as a group, but the girls that don’t really need pushing and encouragement took off with a few other girls. I, and the assistant coach, stayed behind with the one’s who were struggling. We did a walk/run combo and the time seemed to fly by..maybe because I was being so chatty??

When one of my girls saw the finish line, she completely bolted outta there! I had to catch up! The few I was with finished in 48 minutes, but some of the faster runners finished in 23!!!!!! They all did so awesome and I could not be more proud I almost feel like a mother watching her children graduate, haha

Then, at the end, everyone had a chance to get onstage and sing kareoke. Well, all the girls in the GOTR program in Gaston County got on stage and did an adorable rendition of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. But instead of singing it that way, they chose to sing it: “Girls Just Wanna Go Run” How freakin cute is that?!

I hung out for a bit and congratulated all of them, talked to some parents, and stuff like that. Then it was time for me to go home and eat! On the way I stopped and purchased my second coffee of the day:

[In my defense, it was half-decaf! No judging ladies ]

And for a late breakfast, I had a quick bowl of Cheerios with banana and almond milk.

Breakfast was followed by a walk with Trixie, some strength training and some house cleaning. (I guess you could say that I had a lot of pent up energy…or too much caffeine…your choice.) I lay down on the couch for a while once I was finished with all that, read a few pages of my book and proceeded to fall asleep. Ten minutes later, I’m woken up by Jason making lunch.

Lunch for me:

A smart dog, leftover mexican chili and half of a grapefruit (<—totally obsessed with grapefruit lately).

Jas and I set out to Charlotte so I could go walk my boss’ dog while they are out of town. We also ended up going to Target (somehow I always end up at a Target, no matter what city I’m in….strange, huh?), Trader Joes, the park and then Brixx for dinner!

‘Twas starving like crazy around 4 pm. I really tried to wait until an “appropriate” dinner time, but I couldn’t. Oh well!

The dinner started with a very spicy spinach/artichoke dip with crostini bread:

Don’t think I’ll order it again, it was a little too spicy for my liking. However, the plate was clear when the waiter came to take our orders

I ordered the wood roasted veggie pizza…

…and only had room for 3 slices. I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow!!

On the drive back home, I broke into my favorite frozen fruit bars from Trader Joes (and I may have had a small cookie too )

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Okay! Enough with my boring food!

It’s giveaway tiiiimmmmeeee! I never break a promise

So, I’ve mentioned that I’ve worn my Thriv shirt a couple of times and am totally in love with it. But now it’s time to give more details!

I received this Thriv shirt at FitBloggin10 and waited until I was home to try it out. The first time I wore it was to the gym. And bloggies, let me tell ya….I am a pretty sweaty girl when working out. It almost embarrases me how sweaty and red I get.

I wore the shirt biking, weight lifting and then on the elliptical and guess what? The only sign of sweat on the shirt were just a few dots around my stomach! Totally not as much as there would usually be on any other shirt!

And the shirt is made of mostly bamboo and cotton. That combo helps give your body breathability, and it also helps prevent odor and wicking! It’s the softest exercise shirt I have ever had the pleasure of wearing

Here is your chance to win one!

The lovely folks at Thriv are offering this tee to one lucky reader:

All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me about your funniest racing experience! If you don’t have a funny one, then feel free to tell a gross one!

I’ll start: When I was doing my first 10k trail race, I was running up behind a guy that was slowing down, so I decided to go to his left and pass him, and when I did, he totally spit on my leg! UCK. I had nothing to wipe it off with, so I just had to keep running. He said he didn’t see me there…I guess sometimes spit happens, haha.  Now it’s your turn

I’ll pick the winner on Monday night! Have a great weekend lovies

You guys, these past two days have been the most emotional days ever..and if you are in a good mood, don’t read! Because I would hate to rain on anyone’s parade. Lot’s of stuff going on in the world of Stacey and I need to write.

Let me back up to yestereday:

I started my morning with 2 smooshed blueberry muffins with jam:

and a semi green smoothie that consisted of: 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, one HUGE naner, almond milk, pb and 2 handfuls of spinach. I only drank 3/4 and gave the rest to Jason, who had been eyeballin’ it ever since he stumbled out of bed.

On my way to school I stopped and got a water and a half-caf iced coffee:

In class, we are working on management formulas for a dietary staff in a kitchen, and I’m so lost. That’s when all of the emotional upheavel started. My nerves were torn up after trying to understand budget analysis and blah blah blah, we had a speaker coming so we were alloted 15 minutes to inhale our lunches.

[I seem to have misplaced the pic of my lunch. 'Twas leftover sweet potato casserole and a veggie salad with goat cheese. ] My teacher actually found us after only 10 minutes and told us the speaker was early and to come back to class. Good thing I had a small lunch

After class, it was off to coach Girls on the Run. Before going in, I had half of a Cliff Carrot Cake bar:

Practice went very well. They ran better than they have all semester. Perhaps it’s because their first 5k is this weekend?!

When leaving, things took a turn for the worse. I was on my way to go to the gym to do a 5-miler and while driving there I see a cat get hit by a car The jerkoff driver didn’t even stop! He just kept driving and the cat was still alive, so I turned my car around and found a place to park.

I jumped out and ran over to it. I’m not gonna go into detail because it was pretty horrible…I didn’t want to touch it and scare it, it kept trying to pick itself up and then just collapsing…I was freakin hysterical. How can you hit an animal and not stop?! After trying to get itself out of the road, it just kind of gave up It was dead when I left.

I could not stop crying. For some reason, I’m super sensitive to things like that. I drove to the gym thinking maybe I could stop blubbering enough to do something to get my mind off of what I just saw, but I never even made it out of the car.

I spent the rest of the night crying out of nowhere. I cried because dinner was brown. I cried because I was tired, I cried when the rice didn’t boil all the way..every little things was setting me off…when really, I was just crying because of humanity. I don’t understand how the world can be so thoughtless sometimes.

I gobbled down a plate of veggie/bean spicy stir-fry and called it a night.

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And what happened this morning before work just threw me into a whole other heart-wrenching day.

I woke up at 5:30 and sat down at the computer to look at the weather..Trixie did her usual routine of following me, but when she stood up to come to me she convulsed and fell back down to the floor.

My first thought: That’s odd. What are you doing, Trixer?

Then she did it again….and again…the poor thing couldn’t even stand up without convulsing terribly and then having her body go stiff, and just lay back down.

Jason heard me get upset and came in there and suggested we take her to the vet. We spent an hour in an emergency clinic. Apparantly, my dog was having seizures. They said it’s either because of poisoning (which is highly unlikely) or because of her age (12).

I know she isn’t as young as she used to be, but I never thought I’d have to deal with this sort of thing. I was naive in thinking she’d always be around. I just feel so sad.

He says if the seizures are starting, then it’s likely to expect more, but there is no telling when…could be later on today, next year, or month or whenever. I’ve had all of the emotions I can handle in a 48 hour period..no more..please, no more.

I know I promised two giveaways and they are coming. Perhaps even this weekend? We will see how things go. Sorry to be such a downer, but writing typing helps, so that’s what I shall do. See ya in a few days!

I’ve had such a fun weekend, so I thought I’d hop on and tell ya bout it.  

My college was hosting a health fair on Saturday and I was in charge of running the metabolic testing room!  

We were extremely slow when the fair first started, but after an hour of standing around, I finally got some takers! And the list kept growing from there on out :) Allow me to demonstrate what exactly metabolic testing is….  

You lie back on a chair in a relaxed, comfy position. You then place a breathing tube in your mouth and seal off your nose with a very uncomfortable nose clamp. At first, your body sort of goes into this “OH NO! I can’t breathe!” -mode but you just have to try and relax and regulate your breathing through your mouth.  

Next, the opposite end of the breathing tube is hooked to the metabolic testing machine (as seen below). The person doing the testing starts the machine, turns on zen-like music, turns off the lights and leaves you in there breathing into the machine for about 10 minutes (for women, that is. It takes a longer amount of time for men!)  

The machine will beep when it is done. The test administrator keys in the persons age, height, weight and gender and then like magic, it prints out a ton of information, including:  

• Whether or not the person has a slow, normal or fast metabolism
• How many calories a day the person burns just sitting and doing nothing (otherwise known as your Resting Energy Expenditure)
• How many calories a day the person can burn with 30 minutes of exercise
• How many calories a day the person can burn with normal daily activities
• What calorie range to stay in if the person wishes to maintain their weight
• What calorie range to stay in if the person wants to lose weight
• What calorie range to stay in if the person wants to gain weight
• BMI
• Factors that can increase the persons metabolism

I’d have to say, it’s freakin’ awesome!  Every person I tested responded with: “I can’t believe my body burns that much when I’m not doing anything!” or “This is so useful!!”. And I probably tested about 12 people, and even 1 man! The first ever to do the metabolic testing   

Men typically have higher metabolisms (and higher calorie expenditure), which is why, I’m assuming,  the machine takes longer to calculate their statistics. If you have a metabolic testing site near you, seriously, GO DO IT. I’ve done the test twice: once last year and then again on Saturday.  

I learned that I have a fast metabolism, I burn around 1900 kcals a day without physical activity or daily activity added in, I have a healthy BMI and that I also need to be consuming over 2,000 calories a day. Compared to last year when I had a slightly above normal metabolism, was burning around 1400 a day and needed to be consuming 1900 kcals a day. I guess all this exercise and training is making a difference!  

After my last “customer” I headed back into my classroom and stole a couple of cookies for a snack before heading home ;)  

 Jas and I ended up at the gym a bit later for an 30 minute strength training session. I was pooped after that! After all, I had gotten up at 6:30 for the health fair and my body was really feeling tired and worn out. I took the rest of the day easy…and spent my Sunday like this: 

Not one of my prettiest moments as you can see. I literally spent all day in my pj’s, vegging out on the couch and mumbling under my breath at the Food Network cooks Sometimes a girl just needs a day like that! There was a run that had been planned but I gave up all hope as soon as I saw the dark, stormy sky. Didn’t try to fight it. It was meant for me to spend all day in my pj’s  

It was up-an-at’em Monday morning for school! I knew I’d be working all morning in the kitchen at the hospital so I cooked up a mean breakfast that would keep me full: 

 Eggs in a basket is that the name?? with hotsauce, and grapes on the side. Along with coffee of course. Then it was off to school for me! I spent the next four hours up to my elbows in meat. We prepared all kinds of meat including meatloaf, pureed chicken, hamburger steaks and fried chicken.

As I was coating the chicken with a crunchy topping, I made a pouty face and said “Poor chicken.”

The cook replied: “What are you? A vegetarian?”

Me: “Yep.”

Him: “Those poor soybeans.” HA. Very funny

After school it was time to go home for a quick lunch before coaching Girls on the Run. I heated leftover chili in the microwave, topped it with cheese and sour cream and dipped a few blue corn tortilla chips in there for a little crunch.

Time to leave again! (I stay busy on Monday and Wednesdays!) Girls on the Run practice went great! I can’t wait to see them accomplish their first 5k

When practice was over, I drove home, gave Trixie a quick walk, worked on some homework and waited on Jas to get home so we could go for a 5 mile run. The sky was kinda dark and thunder-y but we still went. I’m glad we did because my body felt totally re-energized after a weekend of rest!

The run went great! We chit-chatted and once home, I made a quick dinner because there was a math test that needed to be completed before 12 AM and I take forever on a math test.

We feasted on spicy roasted red potatoes, roasted garlic asparagus and black bean burgers. Nom nom nom. There may have been a beer in there at some point too

Like my smileys?? Twas good and filling.

Before testing, I decided to take a few moments to enjoy my latest dessert fetish:  

  PB&Co. the Bee’s Knee’s with dark chocolate for dipping..mmmm…sooo good. It’s just the bee’s knees, I tell ya what <—HAR HAR

Then it was test time! It took me 3.5 hours to take a 30 question test told you that I take forever!! but I made a 95 on it!!! Woot woot! I think it’s funny that Jason was getting impatient with my computer-hogging lol. What a nerd

 Now, seeing as how it is Tuesday..and we’ve gotten through the case of Mondays already..why not do a little daydreaming to get you through today?? The question is: What would you do with a million dollars?

I’ll go first!

If I had a million dollars I would first pay off my car and school expenses.

Then I would donate money to the NC school physical education to help fund them and keep the programs going! I would also donate money to a local treasure, Holy Angels. They are an awesome, awesome establishment in our community.

I’d save a lot of it for a house.

And treat myself (and Jason and Trixie) to a much needed getaway, probably somewhere tropical  That’s what I would do!

What would you do?

I am sooo glad to be able to actually sit down at a computer for something other than homework! This past week was the busiest school week I’ve had all year. There were hospital clinicals for school, coaching for Girls on the Run, working out and a field trip to Queens University for the Charlotte Dietetic Association meeting this past Thursday. Phew. It’s exhausts me just typing all of that!

I love, love, love going to the CDA meeting. It’s so interesting (and educational at the same time )!

Some of the topics were the latest trends in bariatric surgery..

….what we need to know about Vitamin D deficiency…

..the other topics included: Battling growth of childhood obesity, RD public policy and Nutrigenomics (the science of the future) <—still trying to wrap my brain around the last one! I feel like I learned so much..or maybe it is just because it lasted from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon??

Friday seemed to fly by and here is Saturday I shall start my day here:

This morning I slid out of bed and started a pot of Breakfast Blend coffee for Jas and I. While that was trickling, I grabbed my recipe book out of the desk to see if any would catch my eye for our pre-run breakfast.

Peanut Butter Pancakes!

I used the recipe for a base and modified most of it to my liking Here is what I used:

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup Bee’s Knees (PB&Co.) PB

These came out a little different than I expected. Jason declared his love for them right off the bat, but I think it could use a little tweeking. Next time I would probably use chunky peanut butter, and the almond milk definitely made a difference in consistancy and thickness…but that’s not something I think I’d change, just the pb

But anything is good with hot blackberry jam and strawberries on top!!

And coffee of course

Yummmm. ‘Twas good And very filling.

Jason and I waited an hour or so for our food to settle, then we set out to our starting point for a 10-11 mile run! We took a banana, raisins, Cliff bar and fig newtons for fuel. (I like to have choices!)

And look! I got to wear the Camelbak! Not sure why that excites me .

I had a run mapped out that went through Cramerton, into downtown Belmont (a neighboring town), through a park and back up through Cramerton. I wish I could have taken pics to show you guys! The scenery was great. And the weather was just perfect  The pack of raisins came out about mid-run and I’m not sure how long it took us, but we did between 10.5-11 miles!! Yay I was so proud of us that when we got back to the car I did a little jump for joy…

I felt a-mazing after our run. Like the strongest woman in the world or something I think long runs are starting to become my “thing”

We stretched, hobbled to the car and started the drive back to the house. On the way, I stopped for one of these:

Since the rain was holding off, I suggested that we do a picnic lunch in the park with Trixie…and he agreed! As long as I could pack lunch really, really fast because we were hungry

We came home and I threw together some sandwiches, fruit and chips with hummus for us and then we headed off with the dog in tow. My “lunch” (it was already 4 o’clock at this point) consisted of a banana, a sandwich made with hummus, pickle, tomato, mixed greens, colby jack cheese and spicy mustard…nom nom nom.

Please use your imagination and add about 2 tablespoons of pb and a couple handful of wheat thins too I was a hungry gal.

To let our food digest, we took Trixie for a slow, leisurely walk around the park…and then went for ice cream at Bruesters!

They have an item called a “Doggy Sundae”. The put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a bowl with a Milkbone stuck in the middle It’s free if you bring your dog up there! How cute is that?!

She hated it. I pretty much had to force-feed it to her

I got a small scoop of the Oreo:

..mmmmmmmmm….it was creamy and delicious just like an Oreo is.

It’s strange, but my leg muscles felt better after eating the ice cream. I think my body is trying to tell me that I need more ice cream in my life Yep, that’s what it’s doing.

Looks like we finished just in time! It’s pouring outside and I think I even saw a lightening bolt or two, yikes! Jas and I are going to finish up the 5th season of LOST and maybe rock out with some Guitar Hero

There is pizza dough thawing on the counter…I’m thinking a vegetarian bbq pizza?? We shall see! Hope you guys are having a great weekend! See ya later taters

P.S. Next week is FitBloggin! Can I getta ‘woot woot’ if you are going?? Woot woot.