A Taste of Sparkle

I broke my cereal + raisins + soy milk rut today!

Oats! I tried “It’s Not Just Oatmeal” by Cait’s Kitchen. The mix included (all organic) rolled oats, goji berries, cranberries, flaxseed meal, raw wheat germ, shelled hemp seeds, and cinnamon. Yum! I added a scoop of White Chocolate Wonder PB and an Adora chocolate calcium disk. It wasn’t my favorite cereal, but it was really good! The PB added a little bit of needed sweetness, as did the chocolate. The dried fruits were a great addition, and the hemp, flax, and wheat germ added protein to an otherwise carb-y meal. I would buy this again!

It took me almost two hours to fall asleep last night; I was extremely tired, but my head was spinning from my cold (?). Luckily, I slept in a bit and I feel much better today, just in time to spend the day studying for my upcoming midterms.

On the agenda today is some yoga and a Half-Marathon Week 4 re-cap post

My dad, my brother and I tonight, with my bag of farmer’s market goodies!

For under $10, I got:

• 2 fresh baby cucumbers
• a huge bag of snow peas
• a quart of baby new potatoes
• a spring of chocolate mint

I can’t wait to try the chocolate mint in a smoothie! And going along with my Mix up your meals challenge, I got cucumbers (with some falafel combo in mind), snow peas to munch to mix up my usual side of carrots, and potatoes to incorporate into dinner!

Speaking of dinner, we went to a great trattoria and ate outside in the breeze. I brought this delicious crepe that I got at the market for an “appetizer“! I split it with my mom. It was topped with berries and a tiny bit of powdered sugar, and was absolutely delicious!

For dinner, I got the Insalata Mista with balsamic vinaigrette. I topped with with some of the crushed garlic from the olive oil dipping plate, and it was yum. I enjoyed it because I usually don’t take the time to make up a beautiful salad like this, so having it was a bit of a treat.

For the meal, my mom and I split a Margherita thin crust pizza. Now the pizza from this place is just delicious. The mozzarella is fresh, there’s just the right amount of basil, and the crust is paper thin and crunchy. I had two and a half slices, which was just right. Since the crust is so thin, they don’t fill you up as quickly as the doughy, bready crusted pizzas, and you get more of the good stuff!

After dinner, my brother wanted to look around in a sporting goods/bike store and so I browsed around in there too. I’m so glad I did, because I had some good finds! First up are these Brooks sneakers, which were 30% off. I got them for only $80, and they’re purple! They are a neutral cushioning shoe and are a little bit lighter than my current pair of Brooks, but more structured and cushioned than my current Mizunos. I’ve taken to wearing my Brooks on long runs for the cushioning and my Mizunos for shorter runs, or else I end up pretty sore afterwards.

Lastly, I got something I’ve been needing for a while. I brought my bike up to school in April, but I couldn’t find my helmet and I don’t feel safe riding without one. So my poor bike has sat in the bike rack alone for three months. But luckily this bike store had some rockin‘ helmets:

What do you think? That’s right, you know I look super cool!

Check back tomorrow for a new meal/recipe and more great stuff! I’m thinking about having a contest/giveaway soon, but I think I need to build the blog up a tiny bit more first. But it’s coming soon, and I already have the perfect idea!

Sleep tight,

I’m glad today was an easy day, because I was in no mood to run. It was the most humid it’s been all summer here and that combined with my lack of sleep/not drinking enough water made for a tough run! I managed a little over two miles, which is fine. I might do some yoga later to stretch out a bit.

When I got back from my run, I was in no mood for a hot meal! In fact, I was craving this combo:

Yum! Since this isn’t one of my typical meals, I’ll count it for my Mix-up your meals challenge, even though it’s not that creative. I’ll have to make up for it tomorrow!

Here it is, crunchy PB & strawberry preserves on a pita, with a carrot on the side with some almond butter, and 3 tiny squares of Green & Black’s for dessert.

After work, I snacked on half a Larabar and guzzled water to rehydrate myself.

I’m going to the Farmer’s Market today and I plan on picking up some fresh produce to create new meals with. I’m also going out to dinner tonight with my family at a place that has great salads and thin crust pizzas. I’ll update later with my Farmer’s Market goodies!

I am almost recovered from my night of no sleep! It was worth it though, I’m glad I went to the midnight showing.

This morning, I’ve been doing some research on the Alzheimer’s Association’s Run for the Memory campaign. It sounds like I will most likely be running my half-marathon as an individual effort for the cause. While I would love to run one of the ALZ’s sponsored races, I’m already signed up for my half in September and none of theirs really fit my schedule. Luckily, this program allows me to still make a difference by running my individual race!

I think I’ve gotten myself into a rut with meal variety. It’s great to have some go-to options for meals, but eating the same thing every day is already getting a little old. It’s time for a challenge!

Mix Up Your Meal Challenge!

Every day, I’m going to try a new meal for either breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I would love to try some oats at breakfast, cook up the tempeh I have sitting in my fridge, and try out some new recipes from my cookbooks. Anyone else?

Today I don’t have much time to spend on meal preparation, so I’m going to just do a simple switch-up. I’m planning on a quesadilla with one Joseph’s Flax wheat wrap, some soy cheese, and some kind of mix of veggies. I’ll let you know how it turns out this afternoon!

On the schedule today is an easy 3 mile run, because I took yesterday off due to lack of sleep. A nap was just far more tempting

See you this afternoon!

Wahoo! – it’s my first post at my new domain, http://atasteofsparkle.com! I’ve begun the sloowww process of transferring my wordpress.com account over here – and I don’t even have very many posts! I’m glad I’m doing the transferring now. It’s tricky because I’m still figuring out the basics of the internet, haha!

Tonight, the new Harry Potter movie comes out! My boyfriend and his friend are coming up to my school to take me to the midnight showing. Guilty pleasure, what can I say? I’m excited Of course, this means it’s going to be quite a late night. I hope I can stay awake through the movie!

I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, with what are probably the beginnings of a cold. Sigh. I rolled myself out of bed, had a big bowl of cereal, and skipped on to my doctor’s appointment, where I got some labs drawn that my nutritionist wanted to see. Because I am vegetarian/90%vegan, she wants to make sure that my iron and B-12 levels are on track, because I have a history of low iron levels. I should hear back in about a week.

After I got back, I made myself a GM with spinach, a banana, frozen strawberries, flax, and almond milk. Afterward, I felt well enough to get my run on!

On today’s schedule was a 35 minute tempo run. I knew that was going to be a stretch, so I decided to do some intervals, kind of like several mini tempo runs

I did:

• 10 minutes warm-up jog
• 4 minutes fast run
• 2 minute recovery
• 3 minutes fast run
• 1 minute recovery
• repeat intervals once
• 10 minute warm-down jog/walk

By the end, I really wasn’t feeling that great, but I’m glad I went. Now I just have my easy 3 miler tomorrow and I think I’ll be feeling better by then anyway.

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The Nutritionist “Experiment”

As per yesterday’s N appointment, I am experimenting with eating smaller lunches that contain a fruit OR a vegetable, instead of both – the fiber was filling me up way too much to a point where it was uncomfortable.

Today’s lunch was another Gardenburger-hummus wrap, this time with a cup of melon on the side. I also had about a tablespoon of White Chocolate Wonder PB for “dessert”. Again, I was full for about 3.5 hours afterward, which is perfect!

This experiment is really interesting to me because it is giving me an idea of how long my meals will last me, and what to add if I need to make a meal last longer (like when I have labs on Wednesday from 5-9 p.m.!). While we should of course observe our hunger/fullness signals, sometimes it isn’t always possible to follow them completely. For example, when I wake up, I know I need to eat breakfast before I go to class, even if I’m not hungry, because my opportunity to eat is now. I also know that if I’m going to be in lab through dinner, I need to eat a substantial snack. I might feel too full afterward, but I need to remember that I’m not going to have the opportunity to eat dinner for another 5 hours. So, my hunger/fullness cues + my intellect and foresight allow me to develop the best eating schedule for me.

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For dinner today, I tried a new pasta – spinach fettaccini that I bought in the bulk foods section of the Co-op. I’m going to be honest here, I did pick it up at first mostly because it was green

Here it is cooked up with some tofu, broccoli, garlic and olive oil, with some soy cheese on top, and of course, some Green & Black’s dark chocolate for after:

It was yummy, although I think I prefer my usual whole wheat spirals. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit!

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It’s my boyfriend’s birthday on Saturday, and since I won’t be seeing him then, I’m giving him his present today – and I’m excited! Since he won’t see this until after he opens it, I’ll tell you what it is:

Shh! It’s an i-Pod touch! (with some creative wrapping paper )

Talk to you all tomorrow, when I’ll be very, very tired!