Re-starting half marathon training tomorrow. (yay! - slow and steady this time.)
Getting my haircut tomorrow.
Doing work training for a few hours tomorrow. ($$$)
Going out with friends/the guy I’m dating tomorrow night. :)

Tomorrow will be a good freakin’ day.

Today is my 24th birthday! I’m excited to be 24 and to see the excitement that this age will bring.

Since today is my birthday, I’m going to take a deep breath and forget: how badly I’ve been eating the past 5-6 days and enjoy myself on my birthday (cheese fondue, a few drinks and those blondie desserts I posted the other day) and not beat myself up about it and get back on it tomorrow, that I’m working 37 hours at my new job from Thursday-Monday and that I have two exams next week that I need to 4.0 and have no time to study for.

That’s right, I’m going to forget all that stress and enjoy myself today because it’s my motherfreakin’ birthday, y’all! You don’t turn 24 everyday, now do you? No! So cheers to that.

(I guess this is one big excuse post, but I don’t care because it’s my birfday!)

Oh, hell yeah. I’m totally making these for my birthday dessert (Wednesday). Look at them! Aren’t they beautiful? They are flour-free, egg-free, gluten-free, low calorie, rich in omega-3, and from the comments on the site, absolutely delicious. AND MADE WITH CHICKPEAS! What?!

OK, here is the recipe (from the site)…

Genius Blondies

(makes 15-20 squares)

• 1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained and rinsed) (250g)
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• heaping 1/8 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup ground flax (20g)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (or other fat source)
• optional: 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth. Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased (or tinfoil-lined) 8×8 pan. Bake for 38-40 minutes. You want the blondies to look a little undercooked when you take them out, because they’ll firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard.

And…the best part: The Nutritional Info [one serving]…

• Calories: 74
• Fat: 2 grams
• Sugar: 6 grams
• Protein: 2 grams

I’ll let you know how it goes! I’m so excited. And the best part is they are healthy enough to not be considered cheats! I’m not telling my fam that they are made with chickpeas until after they eat them. muuahaha.

(The source is listed below - her site an a bajillion healthy, delicious-looking recipes! Check it out!)

yeah grrl

After putting some distance between myself and my overzealous half marathon training program, I’m realizing my stupidity at attempting to up myself from running 30 minutes (maximum) 3-4 times per week to 5 times per week. Really, over Christmas break I hadn’t run much at all, so my shins/calves really took a beating. 

I’ve been working out on the recumbent bike for the past week to relax my shins. Because it’s so low impact (like, no impact), I went 5 times last week and my calves still had time to relax. There is still a sore point in my right calf (which is funny because my left had been more sore at first, but that subsided). If it continues through this week, I’ll definitely make an appointment with a sports medicine doc, (like I said I was going to last week…). 

I’m going to give myself a little more time before I start running again. I want to do this right. I still want to run my half marathon this year! (As it is my New Year’s resolution.) First, I need to make sure my shins/calves have fully healed and I also want to lose a little weight before I start running again. But this time, I’ll ease myself into it, with cross training (bike or elliptical) on my off days. My goal date to start training again is March 1st, but we’ll see where I’m at when the day comes.

To be honest, last week was a mixed bag. I had a great week - eating well, exercising, drinking water…and then the weekend hit.

I knew the weekend would be tough, because of my gram’s birthday, my birthday “party,” and the Superbowl, but I guess those are just excuses. My brain is trying to write off the overindulging I did this weekend (with excuses), but I know there really aren’t any. Some things I overindulged in: pizza, lemon bars, beer, Chinese food, and homemade pretzels.

The only thing I can do now is 1) look at my success from last week, and 2) stay on track all this week (except for Wednesday, my birthday, and ONE cheat meal this week - cheese fondue! and I’m thinking the clean Peanut Butter Cups, thanks to The Fame of Health and Fitness, for dessert so that only the meal is the cheat).

Successes

• Ate clean and within my calorie bracket (+/- 150-200) each day, with scheduled, healthy snacks/meals, limited my grains and ate more protein and fruits/veg.
• Worked out 5 of 7 days for 45 minutes. 
• Drank 4 liters of water each day, M-F.
• Drank 2-3 cups of green tea each day, M-F.

I know I can stay on track during the week, and I know the weekends are always the hardest, but this weekend I vow to keep up all my goals, no matter where the weekend takes me, (and that is my goal for this week).

This weekend is going to be interesting. I think I’m up for the challenge, and have an outlined plan in my head, but…here are the challenges ahead…

• Friday (Today!): (a) Today is my gram’s birthday. There will be pizza, alcohol, cupcakes and other snack-y things at her “party.” I think there will be salad there, so I’ll just have a salad, and then eat more of a dinner after, at home. (b) Today is also a friend’s birthday and I’m going out to celebrate, but already offered to be the designated driver so I have an “excuse” for not drinking. And, I plan to eat enough of a dinner before so I won’t be tempted to order something out. Soda water and lime for me, plz!
• Saturday: Saturday is going to be a tricky day. My birthday is next week, so I’m celebrating this Saturday. It is going to be my one time per week to consume alcohol. Also, Saturday dinner is going to be my one cheat meal for the week. The key here is going to be moderation. However, one of my friends has already threatened to continually buy me shots, but I told her I didn’t want that and she started giving me crap…
• Sunday: Sunday, as most Americans know, is Superbowl Sunday. I don’t care about football or the Superbowl, but my friend invited me over to her place for “beer and snacks.” I’m not really keen on the idea, but I’m getting better at saying no to alcohol/cheats/treats, so I don’t foresee it being too much of a problem.

The thing about this weekend is that I know I could easily blow the progress I’ve made. And, especially because the progress I’ve made isn’t extremely measurable (mostly that I simply feel healthier/thinner/better), I know I need to keep up my work to get some tangible results. I will be hitting the gym everyday this weekend to work off those cheats/alcohol!

TGIF, everyone! Hope you enjoy the weekend. :)