After lunch sleepies

I had a lunch date with my BFF, Angela. It was wonderful. We haven't been able to hang out in about 3 or 4 months. We made a pact that we would hang out at least once a month! We met at a local pizza joint.

Before meeting up with Angela, my tummy was talking to me so I had:

• baby Goldfish crackers times two! Addicting.

For lunch, I had:

• gyro and fries

I am not going to lie. I inhaled that gyro! I had about 2/3 of the fries.

And here is a pic of my BFF!

Green is SO her color!

I am thinking I will be checking out of work a little early. Nana picked up the boys from daycare at 100 PM but I am thinking of sneaking in a workout. I thought about getting the 5 miles in that I missed from yesterday but since Nana did me a favor by picking the boys up, I think I'll have a date with Jillian Michaels instead. I purchased her No More Trouble Zones DVD on Monday. I also have her Fitness Ultimatum 2010 Wii game that I received for Christmas to try out. I'll give a review of the DVD tonight!

New Year's Resolutions

I can't believe this year has flown by! I know everyone says that but seriously, it happened so fast. First, my eats of last yesterday afternoon/evening.

My after work snack:

• baby Goldfish crackers times 1.5

Dinner:

• small pork chop. I love these and yes, I do fry them most of the time. I can't help it. They are so yummy fried up. I ate 2/3 of it.
• Red kidney beans. I had all of that times two. I love beans!
• a leftover potato corncake from Christmas. I shared this with Baby Boy. So good!

For dessert:

and

• chocolate covered graham crackers
• peppermin patties. These are like crack. I am ready for them to be GONE!

My breakfast this morning:

• 2/3 cup oatmeal
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 2 heaping teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 heaping teaspoons flaked coconut
• 8 chopped almonds
• herbal peppermint tea

I am really trying to use up what we have in the fridge before we hit the grocery store this weekend. So sorry for the repeats. Though, you guys know I love my morning oatmeal!

So it's the time of year that everyone starts making resolutions. For me, I don't make resolutions because I rarely stick to them. What do I do instead?

Retta's 2009 Resolutions Commitments Recap:

• Commit to getting healthier CHECK!
• Commit to getting to a "normal" BMI (which I still think is a load of crap) CHECK!
• Making a lifestyle change slowly and forgiving myself for unwise health choices CHECK!
• Nursing Baby Boy until he is at least one year old CHECK!
• Making an effort to clean more WORK IN PROGRESS

I had not planned on falling in love with running so participating in races were not on my list but you know they are for 2010!

Retta's 2010 Commitments:

• Participate and finish half-marathon in April
• Find a marathon to train for and participate in either late 2010 or early 2011
• Participate in at least two other races (halfies or less)
• Save money
• More dates with The Lover
• Get rid of some clothes I don't wear
• Work on organization

What are your 2010 resolutions commitments? When do you start? I tend to start in mid-Janaury :0).

Five miler did not happen

My boys are going to be the death of me. They are SO worth it though :0). The daycare called and told me Big Boy was just not himself. After last week's temp, I knew he would have something funky going on. I thought it best to go ahead and take him to the doctor just in case. So my 5 miler didn't happen but again, family first!

My mid-morning snackaroo:

• 1/2 a Clif bar. I am so loving these holiday flavors.
• apple
• herbal tea

Lunch:

This was entirely too much food but it was yummers. It contained:

• sliced tomato
• one slice of leftover Christmas ham. It was pretty sweet so the tomato really balanced it out.
• Arnold sandwich thin
• brown rice. I made the rice w/ vegetable broth instead of water. It was AWESOME.
• black beans. I am quickly becoming a huge fan.

 A little later, for dessert I had:

• chunks of stale gingerbread house.
• two ibuprofen

They were super dry but still good lol. I had a pretty bad headache.

After Big Boy's appointment, we made a pit stop at McDonald's. I had to bribe him. Hey, we mamas have to do what we must! I had:

• mocha iced coffee. My verdict: Ehhhhhhh.
• a chicken nugget MAY have finagled it's way into my mouth.

Time to hit the highway and get Baby Boy. One more day of work! Raise the roof!

Back to reality!

Good morning. I'm back at work and feel somewhat "normal." Unfortunately, a cold sore decided to pop up right before a New Year's party. BOO. I get one once every three years and I guess it decided now was a good time. I don't go out much and I am not too happy that I decided to go and bam!

I warned you that this post would be pic heavy! I am just posting some of the meals since it would take forever otherwise.

• I love these for quick snacks on the go and the chocolate peppermint flavor is awesome!

This lunch was delish! It contained:

• mashed sweet potato
• black beans
• sprinkle of cheddar cheese
• Arnold sandwich thin
• spinach
• apples

And one from our rescheduled Christmas morning:

My sister-in-law and me imbibing in some mimosas! I have never had one but they are quite yummy!

My breakfast this morning:

We are short on fresh fruits and veggies (which is panic inducing for me) so my oatmeal contained:

• 2/3 cup oatmeal
• two heaping teaspoons brown sugar
• 6 chopped almonds
• 2 heaping teaspoons flaked coconut
• herbal peppermint tea

Coffee was not sitting well on the tummy this morning. I had maybe half a cup. It was pretty strange considering I am a coffee fiend. Oh and I also wanted to share a purchase I am pretty excited about:

A super cute motorcyle jacket! I don't ride a motorcycle but I just had to have one when I saw how cute Baby Sis looked in hers. I feel like a bad ass lol.

The morning was hectic as usual. Big Boy is still acting sick though he has no fever. He told me he was tired and that is unlike him. That dude hates naps. It seems like everyone in our family is coughing like crazy. The Lover had to go sleep on the couch. He was coughing so much I couldn't sleep.

I'm doing my taper running this week since last week was a bust. So Monday, I had the 5 miler (in the snow!), Tuesday I had a Shred session with Jillian. She still whoops me. Today I have another 5 miler. I'm pumped! Have a great morning!

Eye of the Tiger

Yes! That is the song I had running through my head while doing a 5 miler today - through the snow and some ice! I had planned on doing 2 miles since I had loggied a big GOOSE EGG last week as far as mileage. But once I got going, I just wanted to keep going. I felt so exhilarhated! Did I spell that correctly? It was an amazing run and I felt awesome. I had the biggest smile on my face. :0)

I still don't have my camera USB cord so Wednesday's post will be super pic heavy. My recap of the holiday week:

12/23 - I rushed out of work at 100 PM to pick up the boys because the school was closing early. Once I arrived, I read the note on the door (which I had read numerous times by that point) and realized the school was closing at 100 PM on Christmas Eve not the 23rd. Geez. So I got some last minute shopping in before hI had to go back to the school to get Baby Boy's 2nd out of 3 antibiotic shots. By the way, the shots caused some heinous diapers. I felt terrible that my boss let me leave early and everything.

12/24 - The Lover had to go in to work super early. I was worried since there was sleet and huge amounts of snow predicted. I packed up the boys to get the to doctor's early for the 3rd shot and sure enough, it was sleeting and the roads were already terribly slick. There were already accidents lining the highway. SCARY. The Lover drives all day and in the country so again, I was terrified. The boys and I got home and it started snowing. The meterologists usually get snow predictions wrong but they were right this time. It snowed well into the evening. The Lover was stuck in the boonies, many of the major highways were closed and it looked likely that he would be spending CHRISTMAS EVE in a shelter. Yes, you read that right. We were so upset. Honestly, we were lucky a church had opened so late to provide shelter for all the stranded people. A local grocery store also opened and donated food for everyone. It was a Christmas miracle and we will be making a donation to that church. It was a possiblilty that The Lover would have had to stay the night in his van. Oh and did I mention his phone battery was dying? Luckily, he went to other cars and someone had a compatible charger.

The boys and I went to bed and SURPRISE! The Lover had made it home by 400 AM on Christmas morning. I almost cried. He slept for 3 hours and woke up in time to see the boys open their gifts from Santa. It had snowed a foot, I believe. That is a lot for Oklahoma standards. We were going to go to the In-Laws' house for dinner but decided it was best to reschedule for Saturday morning instead. And we also canceled my side's dinner on Christmas day for Saturday evening.

12/25- Big Boy developed a fever as Baby Boy was feeling better. Big Boy's fever, at the highest, was 104.3 that day. He didn't eat and he was so lethargic. We thought we would have to brave the weather, dig out the truck and take him to the ER. The pediatrician on call assured us as long as his fever went down with Tylenol, he was drinking plenty of fluids and using the restroom, he would be ok. He is just now snapping out of it but thank goodness he IS better. He looks like he lost tons of weight but no more fever.

Needless to say, I was glad for Monday morning. I am off until Wednesday but The Lover and I were able to run errands together today and it was nice. I am so glad the holidays are over! Too much drama for me! I think I mentioned it before but I was unable to run or even do work outs at home last week and I didn't pay attention to eating healthy. I could tell I wasn't feeling myself and just all bloaty and lazy.

So, I declare that it is BACK ON TRACK time starting today! How was your holiday? Hopefully much better than mine!

Yay! Christmas is over.

I'll fill you in on the deets tomorrow, I promise! It's been drama filled and luckily I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday. I'll get two lovely days all to myself. WHOOP! I have been taking pics of the eats but will probably post the "main" ones. I'll be honest, I have not been paying much attention to the health factor and also haven't been able to work out or run in a week. I AM DYING FOR A RUN.

I gotta feeling

that today is gonna be a GREAT day despite the inclement weather Oklahoma is getting hit with right now. You never know what the weather will do here. The meterologists predict sleet and snow. We shall see! I am excited that my boys may get to see a white Christmas this year. It's going to be busy, busy, busy and the "bah humbug" feeling I have been bitten with is actually gone and I feel pretty pumped about the holidays. Christmas is my favorite holiday but for some reason, I haven't been as jazzed this year. No worries though since I'm feeling the Happy Juice creeping in.

I made a rookie mistake and left my camera cord at work so I'm not sure how I'll upload pics. I'm still taking them but it may be one mondo post that is laden with pics. I bet one of my sisters has something that will work. Or Big Sis' husband. He's pretty tech savvy.

OR I can run up to work and grab my cord. Hmmmm . . . Time to get started! Have a Merry Christmas Eve and if you're traveling, please be careful! I'll post ASAP.

Healthy eating during the holidays

It is so tough to eat healthy this time of year. I tend to go into the day thinking, "One meal isn't going to kill me." However, I have learned that I just eat what I want in moderation. If I want cookies, don't eat the whole tray. Just eat one. I also plan on resuming my regular running/work out schedule once Baby Boy feels better. My legs are itching for a run!

For lunch I had this lovely salad:

It contained:

• spinach
• chicken breast
• half an apple
• baby carrots
• mushrooms
• and the other half of the apple for a side

Doesn't it look HUGE? It was delish. Guess what I discovered at the bottom.

A lid to another container. No wonder it looked so big lol. The boys play in the cabinet where we keep all the plastic containers and I didn't notice it when I made lunch this morning. It did make me smile. I may be hitting the box o' chocolates before heading out.

How do you stay on track during this time of year?

Mad Hatter has nothing on me

I am totally slacking at posting! It's been ridiculously busy and there is still much to do! It's like I have "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date" just running through my head. I feel very psycho right now. Add sick Baby Boy to the mix and it's just been insane.

My eats of yesterday -

• chocolate almond toffee times three. This was DIVINE.
• herbal peppermint tea

• Healthy Choice Zesty Gumbo soup. Ate almost all of this.
• Wheat Thins. Ate all of this.

I also cracked into this huge box of chocolates. I had three very yummy, chocolatey pieces.

My dinner was major lame and early. I had a couple hot dogs. I just threw the package away. They are so high in sodium - even though they were turkey - and little nutritonal value. If they stayed in the fridge, I would have eaten them so see ya never! Since I had "dinner" so early, I had a later snack:

 

 

• non-fat plain yogurt
• pumpkin seed flax granola
• sliced banana

I am quickly becoming an addict of this stuff.  It is so delish.  Nom nom nom.

This morning was one of those mornings that you are just relieved to get to work for a different kind of stress. I have a lot of admiration for stay-at-home moms. I was fortunate enough to do it for a period of time after each Boy was born but I am not cut out for it. There was much guilt at first but why feel guilty about it? Being away from them for 8 hours a day makes me appreciate my children so much more and it does make me a better mother.

Once I got to work, I tore into the old faithful breakfast.

My breakfast contained:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• a sprinkle of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon flaked coconut
• 4 chopped almonds
• 1 sliced banana

I must have had too much coffee because I could not finish the oatmeal.

A few hours later, I had:

• a cup full o' apples!

Today is a short day for me. The boys' daycare is closing early so I'll be ch-ch-checking out soon. I will be posting lunch pics in a few though!

I'm bluffin' with my muffin

top, that is! I crack myself up sometimes. I broke one of my fashion rules: Just because you can button it, doesn't mean it looks good. Yes, I am totally rockin' the muffin top today. Baby Sis gave me some jeans and I couldn't resist wearing them. I did some squats in hopes of stretching them out somewhat but really, I had to do some strategic camouflage.

Sorry for the lack of post last night. It was pretty stressful. Baby Boy is still sick and I am only at work for a short time today. My eats from yesterday:

• Triscuts
• hummus

• 
  
  hot dogs (tried to get Baby Boy to eat but no luck so I ate them)
  
  
  

Lunch was super late - left over cheese pizza. To bulk it up, I added:

• 
  
  fresh mushrooms
  
  
  
• 
  
  spinach
  
  
  
• 
  
  black beans
  
  
  

While working my way very slowly through my list, I had:

• 
  
  peanut M&Ms
  
  
  

Another snack:

• 
  
  non-fat plain yogurt
  
  
  
• 
  
  pumpkin seed flax granola
  
  
  

I didn't take a pic of my dinner but it was super lame. Peanut butter and honey sandwich. As you can see with all my snacking, I pretty much ruined my dinner so I went with the sammie instead of "real" food. Also, I did not get my Shred session in.

I am in a hurry this morning since I will be taking Baby Boy to the doctor soon. My breakfast was my usual, delicious oatmeal:

• 1/2 oatmeal
• 1 cup water
  
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
  
• 1 teaspoon coconut
  
• 1 sliced banana
  
• 6 chopped almonds for crunch
  
• sprinkle of cinnamon
  
• glucosamine chondroitin
  

Being at work makes me feel more "normal" and it is easier for me to stay on track food-wise. When I'm home, I tend to do emotional snacking. How do you keep from boredom/emotional snacking?

Have a Happy Tuesday!!

Finally! Sweet Potato Pancakes

Better late than never! These were the pancakes I had yesterday. YUMMMMMY.

Sick Baby, Tapering & Competition

Baby Boy is still sick so I am home with him today. I took Big Boy to daycare and by the time we got back to the house, my tummy was growling for eats! I had to wait though since Baby Boy decided to throw up all over himself and Mama. He got a nice warm bath and then I nursed the poor guy to sleep. While doing that I snacked on:

• 5 Wheat Thins
• Mandatory Coffee

Also, that is my To Do list for the day. I'm hoping I will be able to take Baby Boy in to work for a few hours to get things done but honestly, I don't think that will happen. After I got him down for a nap, I whipped up a batch of WW pancakes:

Ingredients:

• Aunt Jemima WW pancake/waffle mix
• sliced banana
• frozen black berries
• a drizzle of honey
• glucosamine chondroitin (not pictured)

There were quite a few made so I will freeze the rest for later use. I am not a huge fan of syrup so the bananas and black berries are so great on pancakes. The drizzle of honey on top just adds that something extra. DELISH.

While making the pancakes, I got two things crossed off the list. WHOOP. This is a taper week for me according to my training plan. However, family is first so my goal is to get a session of Shredding in during Baby Boy's afternoon nap. I'll move my 5 miler to another day. The weather man predicted some snow/ice later this week so that is something else I will have to work around. I am all for running in the cold (not so much under 32 degrees haha) but I haven't done snow/ice before. Maybe it's time I try something new??

Also, after my post-run update last night, I started thinking about competition. I'm all for friendly competition and running with someone can really push you to run harder, longer and faster than normal. I love running with Baby Sis because I feel we have a "good" kind of sisterly competition. However, it's more motivational for us. We cheer each other on and encourage each other to keep going. I love that! Knowing your body and what it is capable of is so important. Pushing yourself to extremes will cause injury and preventing them is so much easier than recovering from them. The number one cause of running injuries: Increasing mileage too soon.

Though, I have to admit, I do love solo runs as well!

Quickie!

I woke Baby Boy up from a nap so I could go meet with Baby Sis. He felt warm so I took his temp. It was 100 degrees. Boo. We went down to Baby Sis' side of town - and my mom's - anyway. Mom agreed to watch Baby Boy while we went on our run. Because I was pretty worried about him, we did 4.5 miles instead of the planned 8. I was early so out of boredom, I had half Clif Bar. I am so in love with the Spiced Pumpkin flavor.

Then we hit the trail. It is so very motivational to run with the Baby Sis. She takes off and her pace is pretty fast. This is the view I usually have of Baby Sis:

I'll be honest. I am usually bitching and moaning for the first 2 miles while I work the kinks out of my knees and hips. I'm an old lday lol. Here we are goofing around after the run:

Since it was a short run, I didn't take any goo but when I got home, I was dying to try this (times 1.5):

• non-fat plain yogurt
• pumpkin seed flax granola! I love all things pumpkin.

Huge thumbs up! That was so delish!

For dinner, I made chicken fried steak, green beans, biscuts and corn. Instead of frying mine, I breaded it and seasoned like the others but I baked it at 350 degrees in the toaster oven. It still gave it a crispy but not greasy texture. Yummy!

Time to take care of my sick baby. Good night!

Sunday = Fun Day!

We got to sleep in just a tad. I had forgotten what that feels like. Anything beyond 700 AM feels like sleeping in to us! Especially to The Lover since his work days typically begin at 445 AM or so. Yikes. After the mandatory coffee, we hit up a local breakfast joint. I decided to be adventurous and try their sweet potato pancakes! For some reason, The Lover's phone has not emailed the photo to me yet so I'll post it later. I still forget my camera but I'm sure it's the Newbie Blogger thing ha! I had 1.5 of the pancakes. They were delish! No syrup or butter required. I also had one scrambled egg. Oh and half of a biscut with a smidegeon of apple butter. I have never had apple butter before and my verdict: YUMMY.

We then went to Sam's to purchase a ham for Christmas dinner. I also sampled a bit of red velvet cake - always reminds me of Big Sis' wedding - and a bite of the ham. I'm meeting up with Baby Sis in a bit for an 8 miler. 

My pre-run snack was:

• slice WW toast
• about 1 tablespoon PB
• sliced banana

My necessities for a longer run:

• my well-loved shoes
• a couple packets o' goo (I'll probably just take one)
• MP3 player
• super cool shades LOL
• sunblock (can't forget that!)
• H2O of course

See you later for my post-run update!

Peace the fork out!

While waiting for my mom to get Big Boy, I had:

 

• Wheat Thins
• blob o' hummus
• lovely bunch o' grapes

We ventured out again and finished up the boys' gifts and we have (YAY) two more people and we are freaking finished. RAISE THE ROOF. Do people still say that? Because we eat fairly late on the weekends, I needed more snacks!

 

 

 

Finally, we had dinner:

 

   

 

 

 

• 
  
  Pizza & bread sticks times two
  
• half of a brew
  

And for dessert:

 

•  three chocolate cookies (filled w/ PB - YUM)
• 
  
  glass of milk
  
  
  

 Time to catch up on the maxed out DVR!! Good night!

Power Shopping & Naked Burritos

Four hours later, we are back home and are almost finished. I have tons of wrapping to do . . . yuck. Luckily, Big Boy is staying the night with my mom tonight. That will give me an opportunity to wrap with little interruption.

Last night, I made a pasta dish. I planned on doing a tiny bit of carb loading for a long run today. It was a fail as far as being a "pretty" dish but I promise, it was tasty :).

It contained:

• elbow pasta (why do they not make a wheat version of this?)
• ground beef
• fresh sliced mushrooms
• a can of cream of mushroom and garlic soup
• a can of spinach

I should have opted for fresh spinach instead of canned. Baby Boy and I shared two servings. Then I promptly passed out for the night.

Baby Sis and I will probalby not do a long run today. Tomorrow will be much nicer out so tomorrow it is! Nothing like wearing shorts in December. Yay!

Before striking out on our shopping trip, I had good ol' toast, PB and mandatory coffee (times 2.5).

I also anticipated the unhealthy snack options while out shopping so I packed:

I had half of the crunchy peanut butter while out and about. By the time lunch rolled around, I was quite hungry. We stopped at Qdoba. It's my new favorite place! I went with the Naked Pesto Burrito:

DELISH. I ate half and also had a handful of chips and some salsa (not pictured). The chips were super salty. The Lover finished off my Naked Burrito.

It feels great to be home but we'll be venturing out again soon. I still have to shop for The Lover. Eeek.