Tag Archives: rice cake

WIAW {10-24-2012}

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It’s time for another What I Ate Wednesday and today I’m going to show you my eats from yesterday (Tuesday). For more information and/or to link up, check out Jenn’s blog Peas and Crayons!
Spooky Snacks and Healthy Halloween Treats

Let’s get to it!

{5:10 am} Pre-run Snack

Before heading out for my 10 mile run, I had a medjool date stuffed with mocha peanut butter and sprinkled with salt and a little almond milk (unpictured). I’ve started salting my nut butters before longer runs to counteract the fact that I’m a salty sweater and don’t drink sports drinks while I’m running. I also accidentally bought a jar of unsalted almond butter and in adding salt to make it palatable realized I like my nut butters salty. No shame.

{7:15 am} Breakfast

It’s been really warm and humid in Chicago so after my run all I wanted was something cold, no oats, waffles, or breakfast bakes for me! I ended up making a recovery smoothie with 1 frozen banana, 1 cup frozen berry blend (TJs), 1/2 scoop Life’s Basics Plant Protein, and maybe 3/4-1 cup almond milk. I also had a rice cake with Naturally Nutty Pepita butter and raisins for crunch. This was a perfect post-run breakfast :) .

{11:45 am} Lunch

I really tried to make it to noon to eat lunch but my stomach started growling loudly in my cube around 11 and eventually I gave in and dug into lunch early. I had leftover quinoa taco salad with veganaise and hot sauce and I have to say I think it was better the second time around!

I also had some huge grapes.

{3:30 pm} Snack

Yesterday was a hungry day and by 3:15 I was starting to feel like I needed something to eat. Knowing that I needed to run some errands after work, I snacked on a pear around 3:30.

{7:00 pm} Dinner

Dinner last night was super easy and really tasty. First, I made this roasted brussels sprouts and apples side dish and then I heated up the last of the TJs sweet potato bisque soup. The brussels sprouts were awesome (even Ian had some!) but the soup was just okay, I had to doctor it a bit with spices/hot sauce and I’m not sure I’d buy it again.

It’s hard to take a pretty picture of soup.

After dinner I spent a good chunk of time looking at and eventually booking our hotel for the Goofy Challenge (woohoo). We managed to get a pretty good deal and planning the trip made me realize that it’s actually happening. I’m so excited!

{9:00 pm} Dessert/Snack

I wanted a little something more than just a piece of chocolate or fruit so I attempted to make muesli by mixing oats, sunflower seeds, walnuts, banana slices, chocolate covered walnuts, dried cranberries, cinnamon, and almond milk in a little dish. It wasn’t quite muesli but it was pretty tasty.

After dinner, Ian and I both filled out our absentee ballots and relaxed for a bit before heading to bed. Being productive in the evenings after work is exhausting :P .

Do you normally have a snack after dinner? What do you like to have? 

{Goofy Challenge} Mesocycle 2

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Today marks the start of the second mesocycle of my training for the Goofy Challenge. I discussed the five mesocycles of Advanced Marathoning when I first mentioned I was using the plan but to refresh a bit the first mesocycle focuses on increasing mileage to improve pure endurance, the second on improving lactate threshold, the third on race prep, the fourth on taper and the marathon, and the last on recovery.

The second mesocycle, lactate threshold + endurance, is five weeks long and includes one recovery week of 47 miles. The rest of the weeks vary between 52 and 58 miles which is definitely higher than most plans I’ve previously used. One of the most noticeable differences between the first mesocycle and the second is the increase in lactate threshold runs (tempo run sandwiched between 2-3 miles) and strides. While the first mesocycle only had one speed workout a week, mesocycle two includes two: one lactate threshold and one workout with strides. Similarly, this mesocyle features the first set of VO2 max intervals (600 m – 1,600 m at 5k pace). It should be exciting!

This morning I kicked off the second mesocycle with a 10 mile lactate threshold run with 5 miles at 15k to half marathon pace. It was oddly warm and humid out and I wore shorts and a short sleeved shirt. Isn’t it almost November? My run went well and I finished in 1:16:07 for a 7:35 min/mile pace. For the first time in awhile I was happy with my tempo miles (7:25, 7:21, 7:10, 7:15, 7:16), I felt good pushing the pace, and my legs didn’t feel like lead the last two miles (7:30, 7:50).

It was warm out there this morning so after a cold shower, I made a berry banana protein smoothie for breakfast. I couldn’t think of eating anything hot.

I also had a rice cake with Naturally Nutty pepita butter for some crunch. This definitely hit the spot!

Last night
Ian and I went grocery shopping last night (our fridge was bare!) and I decided to make fannetastic food’s quinoa taco salad for dinner. It was absolutely delicious. I’m so glad I made a ton of it!

I served mine with a dollop of veganaise and some mole hot sauce. I also bought some daiya cheese last week because it was on sale so I threw that in too. I decided that I don’t love it but I don’t hate it and I definitely think it’s better melty.

After dinner we caught up on our DVR and watched Walking Dead and Pitbulls and Parolees (anyone watch that?). We even caught a little bit of the debate and the Lions/Bears game. It was so nice to relax after a busy (but fun!) weekend.

What training plans have you tried? How do you relax after a busy weekend?

WIAW {The Start of Tri Training}

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Happy Wednesday! It’s time for another WIAW and as always thanks to Jenn for hosting  :)

Yesterday marked the start of my tri training so I was up bright and early to knock out both a run and a swim. I snacked on a medjool date with some sunflower butter and a couple sips of kefir and then headed out for my run. I ran four miles along the lakeshore path and it was absolutely beautiful. I kind of love Chicago at 5 a.m! There were hardly any people out and I got to see the sun rise. Gorgeous!

My run took about half an hour and when I was finished I raced up to the apartment, put on my bathing suit, grabbed my bags, and then headed towards my gym. About 20 minutes later I jumped into the pool and swam a mile. Whew! Busy morning!

I managed to pack everything for the day (including breakfast and lunch) but my tumbler was leaking so I couldn’t pack coffee. On my way to work I decided to treat myself to Starbucks and picked up a grande iced americano with soy milk to enjoy on my commute.

I also managed to wrestle open my lunch and eat an Adora disk on the train- I was hungry!

The first thing I did when I got to the office was make breakfast. I had packed 1/3 cup oatmeal, 1 T flax, 1/3 scoop protein powder, and walnuts in a ziploc baggie and I dumped them in a bowl with 1/2 a smushed banana and some hot water. I mixed everything through and then microwaved it. I topped the oatmeal with gluten free granola and the last half of a maple almond butter individual pack.

Not too shabby for office breakfast!

I thought that having a later breakfast would allow me to eat lunch later as well but my workout really revved up my appetite and I was ready for lunch by 11:45. Luckily, I had packed a fairly large lunch that managed to keep away my hunger for awhile, leftover pizza from Sunday night.

Yum!

I also had a small container of melon that I saved for an afternoon snack.

My pizza lunch held me over for a long time so I kept dinner on the light side and had a salad.

The salad has mixed greens, corn, asparagus, and TJ’s battered shrimp (LOVE on salads) with TJ’s ranch dressing. It was fresh tasting and not too heavy.

Because I had a salad for dinner, I wanted to have a larger dessert/evening snack. I spread sunflower butter on a rice cake and then topped it with cottage cheese, banana slices, walnuts, and broken Ghiradelli chocolate. Yum!

I also had a small glass of almond milk with protein powder mixed in ← awesome way to sneak in extra protein later at night!

Do you monitor your intake of a nutrient (or nutrients)? If so which ones and how do you do it? Besides making sure I’m getting enough of each food group, I loosely watch my protein intake but making sure at least two of my three meals involve a heavy source of protein.

Have a great day :)

Another One Bites the Dust

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Yep, that’s right, that would be another almost empty peanut butter jar. Which means that I’ve had two near empty jars in two weeks, I must be a lucky peanut butter-eating fiend girl ;)

Due to the extremely warm temperatures we’ve been having, instead of going the OIAJ route, last night I decided to whip up a batch of my pumpkin overnight oats. I made the recipe in 1/2 cup proportions instead of 1/3 (because I wanted to fill the entire jar) and I also added 2 T raisins.

The result was a heaping portion of OOIAJ. Not that I’m complaining or anything :P

This morning I topped the oats with walnuts. Why do walnuts taste so good with pumpkin?

Yum, it’s always pumpkin season in my book!

Workout
This morning I ellipticalled for 50 minutes (about 6.4 miles) and then biked for another 10 minutes. I’m getting really bored of biking at the gym but have been way too lazy to get my bike out of the storage unit and ride outside. With the weather we’ve been having, this should needs to happen soon!

Last Night
I had a snacky afternoon so I wasn’t hungry for a big dinner. I did want to get in some greens so I had a salad with the last bit of tempeh, a small amount of TJ’s baked tofu, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, wasabi peas, mozzerella cheese, and cilantro dressing.

It tasted fresh and was light, pefect!

I actually started to feel nauseous a couple of hours later and I think it had something to do with the cilantro dressing + a lot of veggies and no carbs, so I had a rice cake with sunflower seed butter, cottage cheese, and fig jam.

I felt much better afterwards!

I was also in a baking mood and made these egg muffins for Ian to take to work this week.

They have bacon in them so I won’t be eating any, but they did smell amazing!

Happy Tuesday!

Are you experiencing strange weather where you live?
Do you have certain foods (like pumpkin) that you only eat during one season?

Boston Marathon: Cut-back Week 3 {13 miles}

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Good morning! This week was another cut-back training week which means I had 13 miles on my schedule this morning instead of a longer run.

I woke up bright and early and fueled with a brown rice cake with peanut butter, raisins, and chia seeds.

The left half is Bee’s Knee’s pb and the right is Cinnamon Raisin. I couldn’t decide so I went with both!

It was a chilly but beautiful morning. The sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I love running when it’s pretty out, it puts me in such a good mood!

Unfortunately, my legs were really stiff again today. If you’re a regular reader, I’m sure you’ve noticed me mentioning my stiff legs the past few posts. Well, usually when I start out stiff my legs loosen up within a few miles and I feel better, but today they would not cooperate. I decided to complete my run but keep my pace a little under an 8:00 min/mile. My body is definitely sending me signals that it’s tired and I didn’t want to push too hard. No injuries before Boston!

I ended up finishing right around where I wanted to (given the stiffness). So now it’s time to recover, foam roll, stretch, and rest so that next training week is better!

There are also a few other things in my day-to-day life that I think are contributing to the extra stiffness. For one, I’m not sleeping as much. Less sleep means less time for my muscles to recover so I’m going to try to get more sleep during the week to see if that helps. Also, I tend to study at our kitchen counter which means I’m sitting on a bar stool for hours at a time. I’m wondering if having my legs dangling for a long time is affecting me as well? I’m going to make a better effort to sit other places while studying and also take more breaks when studying to move around and see if my legs are less stiff as a result.

Does anyone have any other suggestons?

Breakfast after my run was super creamy oats.

I cooked 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup almond milk, 1/3 cup water, raisins, and 2 egg whites over medium heat until they started to thicken. Then I added in 1/2 a banana, cinnamon, and 1/2 scoop of protein powder. When the oats were done, I topped them with a spoonful of peanut butter and Carrot Cake Love Crunch Granola.

Yum!

Last Night
Ian had some car trouble yesterday afternoon, so dinner wasn’t until a little bit later and we kept it super simple.

I made a veggie stirfry with broccoli slaw, mushrooms, and terriyaki tofu (topped with siracha).

And Ian ended up having chips and cheese which is exactly what it sounds like. Honestly, I offered to make him something else but he refused, I guess the thought of microwaved chips and cheese was too enticing. (Note: they are really tasty but I wouldn’t consider them dinner on its own!)

After dinner, we had a low-key night on the couch. We watched Michigan beat OSU in basketball (Go Blue!) and then we watched an episode of Friday Night Lights. We’ve almost finished the entire series, I don’t want it to end!

I’m off to do some homework before celebrating Restaurant Week at Le Colonial, have a great Sunday!