Moving Friday

Happy Saturday guys, are you all as excited as I am that its FINALLY the weekend? Also, thanks for everyone for leaving thoughtful comments on my last post, I know health insurance and the health industry in general can be pretty polarizing but given all of the reform being discussed and underway, I think its important to talk about.

Yesterday was a work out day of epic proportions. Not because I ran 20 miles or biked for 3 hours but because I used so many different muscles! I started the morning with a four mile run. My legs felt heavy (as they should after an increase in activity) so I decided to bring my phone, run slow, and take some pictures.

Chicago is really beautiful at 5:30 in the morning.

City shot.

I ended up running a little over an 8 min/mile but given my sore legs, the fact that I was stopping for pictures, and that many roads/pathways were closed for the NATO summit, the pace was reasonable.

When I got home, I threw on my swimsuit, grabbed my gym bag, and headed over to the gym. I know this is going to sound ridiculous but I realized yesterday that I have no idea what the length of my pool is. I’ve been thinking it was meters but typing yards on here and now I’m all confused. I’ll have to check next time I stop in! Either way, I swam 1,650 whatever and felt speedier than usual. I love feeling stronger 😀

After swimming, I walked home, dropped my gym bag off, grabbed my lunch, and biked to work. I fit in a lot of activity before 8:15 a.m!

At work, I enjoyed a breakfast of cottage cheese oats with cookie butter on top

The mix has 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, > 1/2 cup almond milk, banana slices, strawberries, and a drizzle of maple syrup. Cottage cheese overnight oats have so much more texture than the yogurt kind, I think I’m starting to like them more too!

Lunchtime came quickly and entailed a salad of mixed greens, roasted tempeh, blackberries, walnuts, and sun-dried tomatoes with strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.

I also munched on some unpictured dried figs and peanut butter pretzels and some Annie’s gf bunnies (don’t buy these unless you want to be HOOKED!)

Dinner was leftover squid ink pasta with extra sun-dried tomatoes and some mustard kale that I heated up on the stove.

I still have another serving of squid ink pasta left, if I turn into a noodle you know why!

For dessert I tried this chocolate chip cookie greek yogurt that popped up on twitter the other day. I used 2% greek because that’s all we had and I substituted chopped speculoos chocolate for chocolate chips (we didn’t have any).

It was really good. It didn’t taste exactly like a chocolate chip cookie, but maybe a healthier version? I also had half of a mini cannoli I’ve been stealing bites from all week.

Ian and I watched a Mad Men and I got the itch to bake and made him some rice pudding (I make amazing rice pudding by the way) and then we headed out to Happy Village, a neighborhood bar about 5 miles from us to meet some friends from Michigan who have just moved to the city.

I enjoyed a Blue Moon and an Oberon (ick, I don’t like it this year!) and then like the geriatrics we are, Ian and I called it a night. Being in bed by 11:15 on a Friday night is what all the cool kids are doing now ;).

The furbaby woke me up at 7 this morning with some scratchy kisses so I got out of bed and played with him for a while. I have a bike + run on the schedule this morning before Ian and I grab brunch so I snacked on some banana bread with sunflower butter, bananas, and walnuts and a little sidecar of cereal because I knew I would never make it until noon without needing a little something.

The banana bread was on the dry side so the sunflower butter really helped moisten it up. Yum!

I’m off to get my ride on- have a wonderful Saturday!

Back in the Groove

Getting back into the groove after a vacation weekend is tough. I always feel like I need a  week day to recover from a weekend away but it’s always incredibly worth it to go out of town, especially when you can celebrate Mother’s Day with your absolutely fabulous mom 🙂

My bed felt so nice Monday morning that I did not want to get out of it. Yesterday was a workout off-day so I let myself sleep in and then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast with the furball (Ian slept in even later than I did).

I had cottage cheese overnight oats made with 1/3 cup Holly’s Oats, 1/3 cup cottage cheese (1/2 normal and 1/2 whipped), 1/2 cup almond milk, handful of walnuts, 1/2 sliced banana, blackberries, and 1 tsp maple syrup. I know that sounds complex (so many ingredients!) but its really not. Dump them all into a bowl/glass/jar, stir, and place in fridge overnight. Nice and easy 🙂

I topped mine with sunflower seed butter and some gluten-free cereal. It was awesome.

I liked the whipped cottage cheese but it was hard to really tell what its consistency is like mixed with almond milk and oats. I think I’ll get a better impression spreading it on bread or rice cakes.

I’ve been riding my bike to work each morning which saves both time and $$ and is a great way to squeeze in some extra biking. I figure the more I bike, the more comfortable I will be on a bike. To be honest, I’m really just enjoying the extra time in the morning, a 20 minute commute is so much better than a 40-60 minute one even if I have to deal with honking cars and annoying bus lanes.

I worked steadily until about 10:00 when my stomach started to growl. It was waaay too early for lunch so I dug into two pieces of leftover TJs sushi from Ian’s dinner Sunday night that I just happened to throw into my packed lunch as I was running out the door.

Spicy California roll at 10 in the morning? Don’t mind if I do!

My snack held me over incredibly well, which was perfect considering I didn’t get to break for lunch until almost 1 p.m.

I had a mix of kale, pizza sauce, tempeh crumbles, and mozzarella cheese. Totally random but so easy to throw together when you’re running late in the morning and out of ideas of what to make for lunch. I’m so used to having leftovers that I can just grab-and-go that I’ve lost all lunch-creativity.

I also snacked on an apple and some iced coffee in the afternoon. The Dunkin Donuts next door to my office was calling me!

Ian picked up a late lunch/early dinner so I was on my own last night and decided to try Ashley‘s avocado strawberry & goat cheese sandwiches (she has a vegan-ized version as well- so check it out!). I made the cold version on Udi’s bread and then broiled it for 2 minutes to melt the goat cheese. It was delicious.

I also had some zucchini fries on the side. They were just okay but I was craving something dipped in ketchup so they did the trick :P.

Dessert was some hemp ice cream and a mini cannoli.

I enjoyed the ice cream but it wasn’t eathy enough for me. I really loved the hemp ice cream I had at J.P. Licks in Harvard Square and was hoping this brand’s flavor would be similar. Does anyone know of a hemp-ier ice cream substitute?

I spent the rest of my Monday night preparing for my busy Tuesday. I have a swim + run (may switch it out for just a run due to the hectic-ness of my day), followed by a doctors appointment, work, and grabbing a drink with this lovely lady.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

How do you commute to work?

Do you pack lunch? If so how do you change up your lunches? Any ideas?