Enough Said.

I use myfooddiary.com to track my daily calories and exercise. Last night I realized that I still had the activity setting on "not very active". I set it to this level when I first started this program back in January. At the time I was doing taxes and sat at a cubicle for 12 hours a day, and was maybe moving for 30 minute a day on the eliptical (if I was lucky enough to get out of the office by 10 when my gym closed).

With my current job I am running around all day everyday, and my workouts have significantly increased. I couldnt figure out why my weight loss has plateaued in the first 2 months at my new position. I was taking in the same amount of calories as I had in the begining when I had always racked up a 7 lbs loss per month. The scale was not budging, and when it did budge the number went up!

Last night/this morning when I was reading this post at The Fitnessista a light bulb went on! I am not taking in NEARLY enough calories to support my new VERY active lifestyle. My body was holding onto everything for dear life, and when I had a cheat day I bet I even gained! I adjusted the settings and I need about 500 more calories A DAY to lose weight than I was taking in before. Thank you, Gina! I am so excited to see how my body responds!!!

Fall in New England

Its unofficially official. It is is fall in new england :)

Growing up I always loved summer. Summer meant freedom from school, long days at Kipps Run swim club, and lightning bugs in the evening in the back yard. Both of my parents are teachers so they were always home in the summer. My summers were filled with amazing memories, trips to Ocean City, MD with some of our best family friends, and 4th of July picnics at my God mothers house. Summer ruled.

Now, however, since I have graduated from college and am living in New England my feelings have changed. I no longer have an entire SEASON off from work, and summer no longer means "freedom". In fact, over the last 3 years we have taken a vacation in January instead of July. And with these changes, I have found myself falling in love with FALL.

Fall in New England means VIBRANT colors on all the trees, chilly morning, sweaters, scarfs, and hot apple cider. As you know, as of late I consider myself a pretty avid runner. There is nothing that can compare to a long run on a chilly fall morning, taking in all the colors, and stretching outside in my backyard. Its amazingly peaceful and is a big part of the reason why I now love this time of year.

Happy fall everyone!!!

Amazing Inspiration

Hi blogworld :::warning: long ranting session ahead:::

So for the last week I have had a problem. When I was actively binging and purging I would always respond to my emotions through food. If I had a bad field hockey game I would go though the McDonalds drive through and order 2-3 value meals. I would eat it all and happily purge everything. I couldnt control the other field hockey team that I was playing against, but I could control what went in my mouth and how it came back out.

This past week I have had a big binging problem. Nothing is necessarily wrong, just the little everyday struggles that we all have. The problem is when I start to eat lately I literally cannot stop. If I am alone it is even worse. Last week when my husband fell asleep early I ate and ate and ate. The difference between now and then is that I did not throw up. But I did the same thing two days later. I literally cannot stop eat, and then over compensating this eating by lots of exercise. My body feels horrible and bloated and totally off. In my unending quest for the "perfect" body I am afraid that I have over exercised and under eaten these last few weeks. My body is responding by making e over eat this way. I felt lost these last two days, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with my mind and body. I felt like I was chasing my tail and didnt know how to really stop the cycle. Mostly, I was afriad that the next binge would lead to me purging again. Bingeing and purging is a cycle I have been able to avoid thus far, but I can feel myself slipping and can feel my will power slowly fading.

I felt this way until I read the latest post from the blog Eat, Live, Run. This is the sentence that really got to me...

I challenge each one of you to stop comparing yourself to others, stop aiming for perfection, and just accept what you are and where you are today and help someone else. It’s not all about PRs and calories; it’s about real life and real people.

This touched me so much. I need to STOP my unending quest for the perfect body, flawless legs, and amazing abs. I am never going to be as perfect as I think I should be and need to get back to my regular life. My everyday life that includes food, exercise, and worrying about REAL LIFE things. I need to stop lifting up my shirt and looking at my stomach to see if it looks flat or not EVERYTIME I pass a mirror. I need to eat the food that my body is craving, not deprive myself just because it is past 6:30 PM and I "cant" eat. I do love exercise, but I need to remember that the food I eat fuels the runs that I love to go on. It doesnt matter how fast I run, or how many miles I run per week. I need to start listening to my heart and responding to that rather than using my mind to respond to what my eyes are seeing.

Thank you Eat, live, run! You have no idea how much you have helped :)

"Skinny" French Toast and an emotional day

Hey blogworld,

Today started out well but has slowly become more of an emotional, stressful, and just all around grumpy day.

The one really good thing about today was my breakfast :) oh and my dinner :) haha, basically the only part of my day that was really good was the food. For breakfast I made "skinny" french toast with a whole wheat english muffin. I took the whole wheat english muffin and totally dunked it in egg whites. After grilling this I put some cinnamon on it along with a tbsp of reduced fat peanut butter. DELISH! too bad the rest of the day went downdill (til dinner of course).

Ugh, my day was filled with people and their PROBLEMS. Problems I did NOT want not care about, let alone deal with. I didnt care whose billing got messed up or whose hastring got pulg aed. I was told about a mistake I made on the fitness sales report and almost started to cry. I hate these days. When everything little thing gets to you and you have no idea why. All week I had been planning a special dinner with Stephen for this night, and was just counting down the hours until I was eating a fantastic dinner with my fantastic husband :)

I made parmasean and walnut stuffed pork tenderloin with honey glazed baby carrots and baked sweet potatoes :) My hubs has been working so hard and such long hours at the new job so I wanted to make him a really special dinner. He loved it :)

So, with my re-filled glass of wine I am going to toast to a better tomorrow :) Heres hoping.

Veggie Fritata

Happy Monday :)

This morning I made a veggie fritata that was losely based on a recipe I found on runners world.
It had asparagus, mushrooms, red onion, parm cheese, egg whites and one egg. It was also delish.


Unfortunatly, my camera is on the fritz and I cannot share photos. My husband got a fantastic camera for his bday, and I'm trying to convince him to help me out and take some food pics :)

Now I am out for a short 3-4 mile jaunt around the apartment complex.

have a happy monday :)

Healthy Food?

I found this article today on the Cooking Light website. I found it pretty imformative. I never thought to check the nutrional labels of whole wheat bread before. I will definately know to be more cautious next time...

10 Foods That Sound Healthy But Aren't

Farmington River Trail

Today I ran the Farmington River Trail. It is an 8.5 mile trail that goes along the Farmington River. It was absolutely gorgeous and I loved ::almost:: every minute of it. I, unfortunately, did not run the entire trail. I ended walking/jogging very slowly for about a mile and a half. I dressed a little too warmly for a day like today, and did not bring water. I know, very dumb. I had water in my car, but not with me on the run. I am now on the market for a belt to hold water bottles during long runs. Does anyone out there have on that they like?

Here are some pics from the trail! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!

:::EPIPHANY:::

During my run this morning I had an epiphany...

My goal for this week was to eat only whole foods. I wasnt going to eat anything processed or that would not do SOMETHING for my body. I have been gearing up for this goal for the past few weeks by adding fiber, limiting caffeine, only eating whole grain instead of white flour, etc. I started Sunday and have been very successful. I also had VERY limited animal protein. In fact, outside of the flounder I had Sunday night, I have had no animal proteain. Only beans, soy, and nuts.

Yesterday I was rather grumpy and could not shake a slight headache all day long. I took yoga last night and felt MUCH better are some cleansing deep breaths and some much needed stretching. And today? Today I feel amazing. I woke up before my alarm (still getting 7.5 hours of sleep) and felt alert and rested. My body felt ready to take on the world, and my mind was incredibly sharp.

I was scheduled to do a 5 mile tempo run this morning (or an "easy hard run"). My tempo runs normally look like this....

1600 yards (1 mile) Warm Up 3.5-5.0 mph

800 yards (1/2 mile) Sprint 6.2 mph

400 yards (1/4 mile) Recover 5.5 mph

x4

1600 yards (1 mile) Cool Down 5.2 mph

These runs are supposed to push you just outside your comfort zone for a small period of time in order to increase speed and endurance. I started out doing this pace and it felt way too slow. My tempo run ended up looking like this...

1600 yards (1 mile) Warm up 5.2 mph

800 yards (1/2 mile) Sprint 6.5 mph

400 yards (1/4 mile) Recover 6.0 mph

1600 yards (1 mile) Cool down 5.2-5.5 mph

I couldn't believe it. It felt amazing and empowering and I wanted to hold on to that feeling forever. I truly believe I felt this way because of the slow revamp to my diet. I am definately going to continue eating only whole foods, nothing processed, limited animal protein, and no white flour for as long as I can.

I hope you all have a great day!!!

Begining Of September Stats

Weight on September 1: 162
Body Fat Percentage: 31.2%
Chest: 36 in
Waist: 34 in
Hips: 42 in

I am going to begin recording all these stats at the begining of the month. According to my trainer, I need to lose some body fat so I am starting a new strength program for losing body fat. I will be sure to post it here :)

Bad blogger and Mexican Egg-White Omelette.

Yes, I have been a very bad blogger lately. The good news is I have a lot of pictures of the food I have eaten over the past 2 weeks and it has (for the most part) been on track with a healthy life style :)

I have noticed lately that a lot of bloggers who post healthy recipes have ingredients that are only available at places like Whole Foods and other specialty stores. Frankly, I really cant afford Whole Foods or anything really fancy right now, so I have been sticking to the basics. Some of it isnt particularly exciting, but the food I have been eating and the recipes I have been coming up with are fun, easy, fresh, and clean. I have decided to post a lot of them here :)

My first masterpiece....
(pics to come soon)

Mexican Egg White Omelette:

Ingredients:

.25 cups egg whites
1 egg
1 small tomatoe diced
1 tbsp red onion diced
smidge shredded cheddar cheese
.25 avacado sliced
small amount of hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Grease a frying pan using fat free cooking spray (not butter!!!). Combine egg whites and egg and scramble. Put into frying pan, add the tomatoes on top. Allow egg combination and tomatoe to cook for about 2-3 minutes. When the eggs resemble a pancake fold each side into the center. Place cheese on top and cover. When cheese is melted remove from pan onto plate. Add avacado slices on top of the omelette along with hot sauce. Enjoy :)

The skinny...
Calories: 244
Fat: 18g
Carbs 6.9 g
Protein 14.9 g

Note: although this meal is slightly higher on the fat content than I would normally like, it is mostly healthy fats. Also, the amount of protein in the meal keeps me from wanting to snack a lot throughout the morning. Also, this is a great breakfast on a day with a long run planned!!!