A Taste of Sparkle

I slept until 11 this morning! It probably had something to do with my staying up until 2 a.m. delivering bids for the co-ed fraternity I’m involved with…but it was fun! As long as I get my 8 hours of sleep, I’m happy.

College Tip:

Go ahead, stay up late and party! But not every night. Make sure to get your sleep schedule back on track as soon as possible by going to bed at your normal bed time the next night, even if you aren’t able to fall right asleep. Resist the urge to sleep in the next morning and wake up at your normal weekday time. This is what I do to get my sleep schedule back on track so it doesn’t become a cycle of going to bed and waking up later and later!

I started off the morning with a giant green smoothie.

In the mix:

• 2 leaves kale
• 4 frozen strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 Flax Pak
• 1/2 c almond milk
• 1/2 c soy milk
• 8 ice cubes (I like my smoothies cold and icy!)

Per my nutritionist, I’m trying to sub out some of my soy milk consumption for another kind of milk – I chose almond milk. As you can see, I started slowly by doing half and half in my smoothie, but I really can’t taste the difference. I think for my next GM, I’m going to try a whole cup of almond milk.

On the agenda today is a long run and/or some yoga. I took the day off yesterday, but made sure to get in lots of fruits and veggies. I think it was a success!

I had:

• 4 kale leaves (smoothies)
• 1 cup strawberries
• 2 bananas
• 1/2 cup green peppers
• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1 c sliced carrots
• 1 cup grapes
• 2 cherries (my first time trying them!)

I can’t believe it’s Saturday already!

After class, I walked to the post office to check my mail, and guess what arrived? I’ll give you a hint: as soon as I opened it, I immediately made a smoothie!

That’s right, my new blender! We have two cheap ones in the house I live in, but they get abused often and aren’t for the serious Green Monster making that I have in mind! I couldn’t get it open and washed out fast enough before I was throwing in ingredients

Lunch-time smoothie:

• 6 frozen strawberries
• 1 kale leaf
• 2 c baby spinach
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 c soy milk
• 1 Flax Pak (to be reviewed soon!)
• 8 ice cubes

With a July-4th-themed straw from a package that my mom sent me!

The rest of lunch consisted of a plate of carrots and Mary’s Gone crackers with a scoop of almond butter and 2 tablespoons of garlic hummus for dipping, with a cup of cantaloupe on the side.

I didn’t get back from classes until 2 p.m., so I was hungry and ate my lunch right up. I’m still deciding what I’m going to do for exercise today. I have a 3.5 mile run scheduled for my half-marathon training, but my knees and legs are pretty sore from yesterday’s run, so I’m thinking that I will either run on a very soft surface (park trails) or do some cross-training on the elliptical, especially since I have a speedwork day tomorrow.

****************************************

Truly “Calci-YUM”

While talking with my new nutritionist about calcium intake, she said, “I have the greatest calcium supplement that will make sure you never miss a dose!” and pulled out this bag:

Now, I have tried Viactiv and assumed that this would be similar – some fake chocolate, powdery tasting chew. I’d rather just swallow a pill! I reached in to pull out a dark chocolate “disk” and was surprised – it actually looked like a piece of chocolate!

I still wasn’t convinced. Sure, it might look like a piece of chocolate, but I’ve learned, especially from Green Monsters, that you should never judge taste by appearance! I flipped over the package and saw that for one disk, I would get 30 calories, 2 grams of fat, 100 IU of Vitamin D, 40 mcg of Vitamin K, and 500 mg of Calcium. Now, I was pretty impressed by those stats, so I decided to give it a nibble…

YUM!! It tastes just like my Green & Black’s dark chocolate bar that I have a few squares of after dinner! I am picky about dark chocolate, and I give this 4.5/5 stars for chocolate, and 5/5 stars for a supplement! These are made by Adora and can be found at selected stores including Whole Foods and GNC. They also make a milk chocolate disk.

Because the body can only absorb so much calcium at one time, it is important to stay aware of when you are taking calcium supplements. For example, after my meal from last night (tofu, broccoli, pasta, cheese) would not be a good time to take a supplement because my meal was fairly high in calcium, so my body wouldn’t be able to absorb the extra calcium from the supplement. A good time to take these might be with an afternoon snack or an evening dessert. I’m putting them on my list to pick up next time I go to the Co-op!

See you tonight for my Week 2 Half-Marathon training re-cap

1. Here’s what was hiding in the corner of my grocery goods:

Gerbera daisies! Settled in their vase atop of my desk. Every Sunday when I go grocery shopping, I treat myself to a couple of flowers. They always sit on my desk and whenever I’m stressed and swamped with work, I can always look up at them and smile. They just make me happy.

Q: What are the small things in life that make you happy?

**********************************************

2. Easy-peasy-yummy-vegan PASTA time!

Ingredients:

• pre-marinated tofu (I buy mine already marinated, but you can marinate your own too)
• whole wheat rotini pasta
• crushed garlic (1-2 cloves)
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 c broccoli or other vegetables
• 1 tbsp EVOO
• mozzarella cheese (I use SoySations)

1. Boil water on the stove with a touch of salt. When boiling, add the pasta and boil for 8-10 minutes until tender.

DORM TIP: If you don’t have a stove, but have a microwave, you can still make pasta! Using a ratio of 1 c pasta to 1 quart water, cook on high power for about 20 minutes, checking every 5 minutes. More information here. This would have been helpful to know when I was living in the dorms!

2. While pasta is boiling, cut tofu into cubes and saute in a pan until light brown.

3. After tofu cooks for about 4-5 minutes, add a big handful of spinach to the pan to wilt.

4. A huge handful shrinks to this!

5. When pasta is cooked, drain and rinse, then pour back in the pot you cooked it in. Add 1 tbsp olive oil and 1-2 cloves crushed garlic, then mix in the tofu/spinach mixture. Add broccoli/other veggies and stir mixture for 3-5 minutes until veggies warm. Serve on a plate topped with mozzarella cheese!

That was my yummy dinner for tonight. Before dinner I snacked on a gala apple and a handful of Mary’s cracker with hummus. After dinner I snacked on 1/2 c of my chocolate coconut milk ice cream with the other half of my Vegan Nirvana cookie.

Now it’s off to bed because I have to be up early tomorrow – I have an appointment with a new nutritionist! I’m very nervous about it because I haven’t seen a nutritionist in a few weeks and I’ve never seen this particular nutritionist, but I’m trying to keep an open mind and breathe through the stress. Adi of this week’s free YogaToday video would be proud!

Have a lovely Sunday night!

Today was my scheduled 6 mile long run. Luckily, when I woke up this morning, the rain had cleared and it was sunny and breezy outside! By the time I finally got out to run, it was about 72 degrees – a bit warm for my taste, but the breeze helped keep me cool.

For pre-run fuel, I had a bowl of Nature’s Path Flax Plus Multibran Cereal with organic jumbo raisins and about a cup of soy milk.

I ate around 10 and went for my run around 12, and I was hungry! I thought about eating a small snack before heading out, but decided against it and I forgot to bring my Luna Sport Moons that I was going to try out. A lesson for next time. I think I’m going to look into getting one of those belts that holds water or a CamelBak, because as my long runs start increasing in miles, I know that I need to stay hydrated.

Running Stats:

• Time: 1:07:12
• Distance: 5.8 miles
• Pace: 11:35 per mile

Needless to say, when I got back, I was starving! I fixed up a green smoothie:

It contained:

• one leaf of organic-grown kale
• 2 cups organic spinach
• 5 frozen strawberries
• 1 ripe banana
• 1 c soy milk
• 2 c ice (I wanted it cold with lots of volume!)

Alongside, I had a cashew butter & strawberry jam sandwich on an Arnold’s sandwich thin and a side of honeydew melon.

For dessert, I had half of a “Vegan Nirvana” cookie from the bakery in town, Lou’s. They are made with pumpkin, dark chocolate chips, walnuts, and cranberries. Delicious! I had a spoonful of white chocolate pb on top.

******************************************************************

Later on today:

1. Results of grocery shopping Sunday!

2. Research on hydration methods during a run

3. An easy, yummy, vegan pasta recipe!