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!

halfmarathon

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:

CIMG0710

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:

CIMG0716

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

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

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