Summer lovin

Things I loved about this weekend:

A trip to the farmer’s market

Indian food (channa masala from our new favorite Indian restaurant) 

Lunch at Wegman’s

 

Where I had veggie sushi and found matcha green tea lattes. Score!

Our local Asian market where I found ridiculously cheap avocados, fresh spinach, cilantro, and

Kobacha squash which I thought was out of season.

This stuff is going to be the death of me, I know it.

A kick ass salad made with fresh farmer’s market veggies: spinach, romaine, green beans, tomatoes, and fresh homemade salsa…which makes the best salad dressing by the way. I am going to have to start canning salsa so I can have it all year round.

Things I didn’t love as much:

 
It actually got up to 106. Yuck.

This is the bruise that I woke up to after I pulled my quad playing soccer. Awesome.

And we had a really nasty storm Sunday afternoon that knocked out half of our power. Our fridge is not working and neither is our AC. Bad bad bad.

How was your weekend?

Must be I’m getting old

I keep finding new ways to injure myself. You know that soft spot right under your thumb?

During my lunchtime soccer game, I somehow managed to severely bruise this area. So bad that I thought I broke my thumb. I’m still having a hard time holding a pen, but I’m feeling a little better. I iced the crap out of it and took some Mortin but it’s still swollen and bruised.

Can you see what I’m talking about? How do you injure this part of your body when you’re playing soccer??
The other thing I managed to do was pull my quad. At the very end of our game, I was dribbling up the field and I saw a guy wide open right in front of the goal in the middle of the field. So I looked up, took an extra step to get my balance, and perfectly executed the pass, but in mid kick I could feel the quad pull. After my teammate missed the goal (doh!) I hobbled off the field, completely done. By this point, my quad was burning and my hand was throbbing.

I’m still happy I played though, as sick as that sounds.

I know, something is severely wrong with me.

What’s the weirdest injury you’ve ever had?

Fiberlicious!

Yesterday I felt like I had eaten my weight in fiber so I decided to log my eats for the day and tally up my fiber totals. I have to admit, I cheated toward the end of the day only because I didn’t want to overdo it, but for the most part, I ate as I normally would have. However I didn’t think about taking pictures of my food, so bear with me. I will list the amount of fiber in parenthesis. I looked up the fiber contents online if they didn’t come with a label.
And here we go:

Breakfast: Oats.

• 1/4 cup steel cut oats (4 grams)
• 1/2 cup Almond Breeze plain milk (1)
• 1/2 banana (1.2)
• 1 tbsp. ground flax (2)
• 1 tbsp. PB (1)

Green Tea Latte (not from Starbucks. I buy the matcha tea and have my favorite barista make it for me.)

• 1 tsp green matcha (1.1)
• 8 oz. Vanilla Soy (2)

Ok, so this was just breakfast. I consumed 12 grams of fiber just at breakfast. I should have stopped right there.

Lunch #1 (I ate this at around noon and stopped because I wasn’t all that hungry. Then I walked for about 45 minutes and came back to eat my soup)

• 2 slices toasted Bread for Life Almond Meal bread (4)
• 1/4 cup 2% cottage cheese (0)
• 1 tbsp. PB (1)

2 hours later, lunch #2:

• 1 cup Curry Lentil Soup. I’m assuming that this serving had about 1/4 cup of lentils and 1-2 servings of veggies with the tomatoes and zucchini. The lentils alone have 10 grams of fiber. So I’m going to guesstimate at 12.
• 1 really tasty and very ripe peach (1.5)
• 1 package of Alka Seltzer as a precautionary measure (it helped from having to unbutton my pants as I did yesterday)

Dinner: This is when I decided I needed to lay off the fiber. Breakfast tortilla with fresh salsa

• 1 Bread for Life Rice Flour wrap (2)
• 1 egg, 2 egg whites (0)
• 1/4 cup Daiya Mozzarella cheese (2)
• 1/4 freshly made, kick-ass salsa made by yours truly (~2)

I gave myself 2 hours to rest and headed out for a run at around 8.  I ran 4 miles with 4x400 meter sprints. It was hot but it felt good.
When I came back, I took a shower and snacked on the last of my Puffins Cereal. As I was shoving the spoon in my mouth, I read the box and saw “High in Fiber!” right on the box. Awesome. Good thing there was less than a serving size left.

• ~1/2 cup plain Puffins cereal (3ish) One serving size is 3/4 cup, which contains 5 grams of fiber. I’m being very conservative with my guess here
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened soy milk (1)

OK so here are my totals for the day:

Breakfast: 12
Lunch: 13.5
Dinner: 6
Post run snack: 4

For a grand total of: 35.5 grams of fiber.

And that’s with cheating at dinner. I originally planned on having a Southwest Veggie burger with salsa,  a little bit of my leftover potato salad and some warm arugula salad (I just cook it a little with a small bit of olive oil and garlic bc it’s easier for me to digest) but the Sunshine burger has 9 grams of fiber all in itself! So I went with the eggs instead. I would have been at or over 40 grams of fiber had I went that route!

Now here’s the deal. You’d think someone eating this much fiber is running to the bathroom 8 times a day. WRONG! If I go once a day I’m lucky. This is a huge problem. I’m sure this is part of the reason why I’m always so bloated. However I will have to say that I still firmly believe that I feel better after giving up the gluten, even if I’m still dealing with some issues. My constant headaches have gone away, for one. The summer time is prime migraine time for me (the humidity triggers my migraines) and I have yet *knock on wood* to get one. And this has been a HOT and sticky summer. That’s enough to keep me off the gluten.

I’m trying to look back and see if I’m eating more fibrous foods since I’m not eating gluten anymore. I have to do a little more research on that because it honestly could be. I’m wondering what kind of foods vegans eat to keep from eating so much fiber. In my research I saw that meat and dairy products contain very little to no fiber, and the eggs are what saved me today.

Let me know what you think. Is it normal to eat upwards of 40 grams of fiber a day? Do you have any suggestions of lower fiber meals that are gluten free and not necessarily meat or dairy related?

Curry lentil soup and a little experiment

Can I say delicious?

If you like lentil soup, the flagrant taste of curry, and need to make something quick that will last you all week, this soup is for you.

The recipe actually calls for red lentils since they are known to cook faster, but I only had green lentils on hand which was fine. This recipe probably took me 40 minutes total, if that.

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch scallions, chopped
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained (since it’s summer, you could use fresh tomatoes. I didn’t think about it until it was too late)
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 zucchini, sliced however you like
• 1 cup water, as needed
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions and the curry powder and cook until flagrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the lentils, tomatoes, and broth, and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat to low, season to taste with the salt and pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes. While the lentils are simmering, thinly slice the zucchini and add it to the soup. Add up to 1 cup of the water if the soup is too think. Cook until the lentils are soft, about 10 minutes more.

So.Good. You can throw in any veggies you want. My neighbor made some with spinach as well as zucchini and yellow squash and I loved it.

The only problem I had with this soup is that it’s full of fiber, and I’m beginning to think I’m eating way more than I should.

My friend Gina calls me a walking time bomb; implying that I could explode at any minute with the amount of fiber I eat.  I didn’t realize 1/4 cup of lentils had 10 grams of fiber! Coupled with the veggies and I’m looking at around 12-13 grams of fiber just for this one meal. I’ve noticed that this soup made me very very bloated and gassy the past two times I’ve eaten it (sorry folks!) However, I still highly recommend making this soup; it may not affect you like it does me. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I am very sensitive to everything.

Tomorrow I am going to keep a running tally of how much fiber I eat. I will have to guesstimate as much as I can with some items, but anything that is packaged will be counted. I read that the average person should be taking in 25-35 grams of fiber per day (I’m assuming the lower end of that number is geared toward women; the higher end toward men.) I think this will be an interesting experiment.

How much fiber are you eating? Are you a walking time bomb like me? (God I hope not!) Do you like curry?

A little something different

This weekend was HOT. I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot but it’s just been so freaking uncomfortable. I’m hearing that this summer has been unseasonably hot, and according to my favorite coffee shop owner, it’s “Florida hot.” He lived there for 6 years before moving here, so he’s loving it.

I, however, am not.

Saturday morning I slept right through my alarm so I missed a run with my running group. However, after Thursday’s pickup soccer game, I could barely walk until this morning. I had a terrible time sleeping because every time I moved, the pain woke me up. How embarrassing! I haven’t been this sore in a while.

Since I didn’t run, we decided to jump in the car and explore the area. We ended up in the cute little town of Occoquan, VA. We walked around for a bit and had lunch at this cute little place.

I’ll admit-we mostly stopped because of the name.

But the food was good and the beer selection is insane. Too bad I can’t drink any of it! But I had a glass of chardonnay instead, which went well with my summer veggie salad. (Red peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, garlic, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, seasoned with fresh herbs, oil and vinegar and served on a bed of lettuce) Perfect on a hot day. 

Check out some of the pictures we took-this one place looked like Alice in Wonderland-

 

That window just makes me laugh!

This morning I woke up at 5 a.m unable to sleep, so I got out of bed and ran. I didn’t use my Garmin, I just went. It was so nice to just run for “feel” again. I think I’ll be leaving the Garmin behind for a while. Sometimes it stresses me out. 

Do you need to keep track of time/distance in order to feel fulfilled?

Oh soccer, glad to have you back

I grew up playing soccer. I played in college as well, so it’s something I take pretty seriously. So whenever the opportunity arises, I’m there.

There’s a group of people who play pick-up games on their lunch hours at work, but since I had been training for my half marathon, I didn’t want to take the chance of getting hurt.  But today was the day that I welcomed soccer back in my life.

Let me tell you, on top of it being close to 100 degrees and really humid, I struggled. I am in BAD soccer shape. I fell a few times and had a hard time getting up because I was so beat! Soccer running is so different than marathon running, and boy am I feeling it. I’m not sore (yet) but I have 2 huge blisters ion the balls of my feet and I’m exhausted. But it was fun and I’m definitely going to be adding this to my weekly routine.

I had been struggling with runner’s rut, so this is the perfect way to change things up a little.  Now if only I could convince my boss that taking 1.5 hour lunch breaks are appropriate!

And now, I leave you with these….

HEAB gave credit to Julie over at Peanut Butter Fingers for flourless peanut butter cookie. Holy cow … you must make these.

The recipe calls for:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg and
• 1 cup of PB.

Period.

However I used

• 1 egg
• 1 cup PB
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/2 cup honey

I would use less honey next time because I felt like it was too overpowering, and I would also use my natural PB rather than Dennis’ Jif because I just found them to bee a little sweeter than I wanted, but they were still really good. Also, I will use crunchy PB because I just think the crunch would make it that much better. I will definitely be making another batch this weekend with the changes.

Here’s to the weekend!

Lights out

We lost power for some reason this evening, which we found strange since we had 2 days of pretty nasty thunderstorms without even a flicker. And usually I’d find this to be annoying but sometimes I think it’s fun to have an excuse to sit by candlelight.

And thank GOD for my Palm Pre. I have Mobile Hot Spot which can get me secured wireless internet access from anywhere. Love it.  However, my battery on both my phone and computer are about to die. Darn.

Stay tuned for an awesome cookie recipe provided by HEAB. All I have to say is peanut butter chewy delight.

How do you pass the time when you lose power and you’re stuck in your house in the dark?

Weekend wrap-up: A Nats game and Tandoori chicken curry salad

I swear I blinked this entire weekend away. Friday I went to the Nationals game to see Stephen Strasburg pitch (he’s doing great things for this team!) I’m not at Nats fan (I’m sure you all know by now that I’m a proud NY Yankees fan and have been since I was born) but I love baseball and had been dying to see him pitch. Nationals Stadium is really nice!

It was a last minute decision so my co workers and I paid $5 for standing room only seats. (Yes that’s granite….at a baseball stadium. Nuts if you ask me) We were kind of far but it really wasn’t that bad. It was a gorgeous night for baseball.

Saturday included shopping and dinner at a new (to us) Indian restaurant. I ordered Tandoori Chicken and brought the leftovers home. When lunchtime came around today, I wasn’t sure I wanted to eat just plain chicken, and I was feeling too lazy to cook up some rice. And thus, tandoori chicken salad was born.

I used:

• 2 pieces of leftover tandoori chicken (one small breast and and small thigh)

• about 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 red onion
• small handful of cashews, chopped
• mustard powder, to taste
• cumin powder, to taste
• sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Mixed it up….

Placed on GF almond bread….

Not too shabby!

Being taken into consideration

I’ve been Gluten free since February now and I’m still trying to see what works for me. So far I’ve been feeling better but I’m still experimenting with it. Knowing that I’ve been working really hard with this, I find it really irritating when people purposefully request going to places where it would be really difficult for me to find something to eat.

A few friends had asked me to hang out with them earlier in the week, and just before I was getting ready to meet them, they texted to say the plan was for pizza.
“We know you can’t eat it, but you can have salad right?”

Well yes I can have salad but that doesn’t mean that was what I wanted. So I decided to turn them down and stay home instead. I figured it was easier than making a big deal out of it.

I kind of felt a little offended that they blatantly chose pizza knowing that I couldn’t eat it. Am I being too sensitive?

Vegan pizza and a ROCKIN spin class

One of my co-workers told me she tried her first spinning class last week. I was so excited for her until I realized how much she suffered. She said she showed up a few minutes after the class had started, and just decided to jump on a bike and go. She said by the end of the class she could barely walk, and that its taken  almost a week to recover.

After giving her some pointers about how to make her next class successful (i.e. going early enough to have her teacher show her how to properly set up her bike) I decided it had been long enough. I signed up for a 6:30 class and made it a point to go straight after work.

And I’m so glad I did.

I rocked this spin class. Seriously-it was one of the best spin experiences I’ve had…well, ever. I don’t know if it’s because I just got done running a half marathon, but I felt great. It was an hour long class with lots of hills and a crazy cadence session. Do you find the cadences to be harder than climbing hills? Because I sure do.

Anyway, I was so excited about this class that I will definitely be making an appearance more often. I liked the music and the teacher was cool, and that always makes or breaks a class.

When I got home, I tried something I’d been meaning to try for a while:

Last week I read Lisa’s blog  last week and saw was having a pizza party. I’ve been wanting to make some  for a few days, but I didn’t have any GF crust on hand and honestly, the thought of making it was too exhausting for me. I’ve seen other people make pizzas with just tortillas (HEAB) so I thought, why not give it a try?

I took one Food for Life Brown Rice Flour tortilla

  

and pan fried it on a dry pan for about 2 minutes each side.

Then I cut up a green zucchini and some arugula and  topped the tortilla with:

• 1/4 cup tomato basil pasta sauce
• 1/4 of the zucchini
• Daiya mozzerella cheese

OK, so I read about this cheese on HEAB’s blog and I’ll be honest-I’ve never really been a big fan of “fake” things. For some reason, this interested me so I decided to give it a shot.

I can’t believe how good this stuff is. And there is nothing fake about this ingredient list. Their website states:

Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds are made entirely from plant-based ingredients and are:

• Cholesterol free
• Trans Fat free
• Dairy free
• Free of all animal products (Vegan)
• Free of common allergens including:
• Soy, Casein, Lactose, Gluten, Egg, Wheat, Barley, Whey, Rice, and Nuts
• Free of Artificial Ingredients
• Free of Preservatives
• Free of Hormones & Antibiotics

The full list of ingredients are as follows:

Filtered water, tapioca and/or arrowroot flours, non-GMO expeller pressed canola and /or non-GMO expeller pressed safflower oil, coconut oil, pea protein, salt, vegan natural flavours, inactive yeast, vegetable glycerin, xanthan gum, citric acid (for flavor).

I’m trying to be cautious of how much dairy and soy I eat, as I tend to eat  a lot of both. I drink soy milk (down to only one serving a day) but I love cheese and Greek yogurt, so I figured this would be a good way to sub both. So good. It almost tastes like butter. You have to try it.

So after the cheese, I put the pizza back on the pan for another few minutes and covered it to let the cheese melt. The closest to a pizza alternative that I could find that actually satisfied me. Yum. It was the perfect compliment to my kick ass spin class.

How would I be sure not to lose where I am “shape” wise if I’m not planning on running as much? Would spinning, a yoga class, the occasional swim and a run once or twice a week be enough to maintain where I am in my training?

11 miles of lead

Thanks so much for all of your support! Everyone has been awesome about responding to my first half marathon last weekend. I feel so great about it and have had a very interesting recovery week.

After taking two full days off, I ran a really nice and easy 3 mile recovery on Wednesday.  I felt good, but still a little off, so I took it easy Thursday and Friday with just walking and easy stretching.

Since I took it pretty easy all week, I decided to run with my running group on Saturday morning. My intentions were to run 6 miles-3 miles out to the first water station and back. But then I met up with two wonderful ladies who were running at a good pace for me. The conversation was flowing and the next thing I knew, we ran 5.5 miles….out. Meaning, I had to run another 5.5 back.

What was I thinking?

I was OK until about mile 6. That’s when I realized I probably should have listened to my gut and turned around at mile 3. My legs felt like lead. I was trying to push myself but I couldn’t seem to go very fast. I must have been running at an 11 minute mile pace, but I couldn’t go any faster.

I spoke to a friend about it and she thinks I need to take time off completely – like 2 weeks or so. However, I’ve said I was going to give myself a break before and I always end back back on the pavement. I can’t help it. And now that the stress of training is finally over, I actually want to run again.

I can’t stick to schedules, so I am just going to take this week easy and see how I feel. Maybe I’ll throw in a couple of spin classes and a yoga class or something to change things up. It’s times like this where I really wish I had a bike!

PS my two new obsessions are watermelon

and homemade popcorn

Dennis makes it for me at least twice a week (since I somehow can’t keep from burning the pot)

What have you been craving?