MOVED - *New & Improved*

I wanted to give a little shout out ;-P to the loyal Why Dontcha Run blog followers. :o)

'WHY DONTCHA RUN' HAS MOVED to...

******* http://www.whydontcharun.wordpress.com/ *******

Please visit the new site, save it to your 'favorites' and come back often. ;-)

The new site features an 'About Me' section as well as a whole page dedicated to good-for-you recipes and all kinds of other fun, informative links/pages/info.

See ya there!

Hang In There

Evening, all.

I wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned the blog. I've been busy updating/re-designing it and will be back tomorrow with hopefully a link to the *new and improved* blog with loads of new facts and information.

AND.... let us not forget that I am entering the ninth and FINAL WEEK OF C25K TRAINING! :o) Eeeee!! I am so thrilled and looking forward to my runs this week.

I'll report back tomorrow about how my outdoor run went yesterday morning, as well as how the week 9/session 1 goes tomorrow.

Talk to ya'll tomorrow! ;-)

Dinner Date

Happy Friday! :o) *grins*

I absolutely love Friday nights. The start of a weekend, time with the hubby and two mornings to sleep in. :o) Ah, yes.

The husband and I went to dinner tonight at a new local Greek restaurant. It was a small, family owned establishment with authentic Greek food.

Everything was really yummy! The husband got fried calamari as an appetizer and a gyro for his entree. He said both were fantastic!

Fried Calamari

(excuse the poor quality food pictures... they were taken with my cell phone)

For my meal, I ordered a platter of four different Greek "salads" with warm pita to scoop them up with and a small greek salad.

The salads on the platter included:
Tzatziki Sauce-  Yogurt, garlic, cucumber and extra virgin olive oil (Fresh and light - oh so good)
Melitzano-Salata- Roasted Eggplant Salad (Good, but not my cup of tea)
Kopanisti- Spicy Feta Spread (Favorite!!)
Hummus- Chickpeas with garlic (Classic and yummy)

This little Greek salad packed a serious punch! It was full of flavor and lots of bright, fresh veggies. :o)

We wrapped up the evening with a trip to Barnies where the hubby ordered a frozen mocha chiller with whipped cream and I chose a small soy cappuccino with (very little) sugar free vanilla syrup to add just a hint of sweetness. I guess I'm going to have to start carrying around a small bottle of agave nectar in my purse so I have a healthy, all natural alternative to sweeten my coffee drinks. I hate adding syrups, but it's pretty much all they offer at Barnies. :-/

I feel refreshed after a healthy dinner, especially since I'm still recovering from my cookie attack last night.  I told the hubs to pleeeease eat the cookies or give them to his friends. haha. Just get them out of the house!!!

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The C25K schedule has been changed up a little bit this week. Monday and Wednesday runs were right on schedule, but session 3 for this week is being moved from today, to tomorrow. I'm meeting Erin in the morning for a run outside so we can both get a feel for running outdoors instead of on a treadmill. This way, we'll be prepared for our first 5k on February 6th. :o) We're both a little nervous about tomorrow's run, but we agreed to keep it simple and to just get a feel for each others running style and pace. We're gonna have fun!

On tomorrows C25K week 8/session 3 schedule:

.25 mile warm up walk

2.75 mile run

.25 mile cool down

I'm not sure if I'm going to follow that exactly since I'll be in a different running environment and with someone else, but we'll see.

I'll be back tomorrow with running results. :o)

Owned

These little guys owned tempted me tonight.

Let me explain.

The husband had a rough day at work, so I wanted to have dinner and homemade chocolate chip cookies ready for him when he got home.

My intentions were innocent. Then I made a mistake. I tasted the cookie dough. What was I thinking?! I lost all control and began eating little pieces of dough with chocolate and peanut butter chips and that was it, I was done. Done as in throw all control out the window and shovel warm cookies in my mouth just about as quick as they were coming off of the cookie sheet and being placed on the cooling rack.  *blushes*

At least I balanced my little cookie indulgence with a good-for-me dinner.

I prepared Quinoa, sauteed mixed veggies (peas, lima beans, carrots, green beans and corn) in olive oil, garlic and pepper and topped it all off with crumbled goat cheese.

I got the idea from 'SELF' magazine. In each issue, they feature one of their readers with their real-life health and fitness tips for getting through each day. This month's featured reader, Callie Joy Palma, prepares a large batch of quinoa at the beginning of the week and refrigerates it for use throughout the week.

I'm really excited about this new good-for-me recipe and have already added it to my normal rotation for go-to meals. :o) Yeah!

You all know my theory, moderation and a healthy balance. I may have gone a little over board with the cookies this evening, (Hey! I'm human!) but I've jumped right back on track and plan to stay the path from my healthy dinner, right through breakfast and on from there.  :o)

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! - Yeah!!  

Sweet dreams my blog readers. ;-)

P.S. Today marked over 1,000 hits/visits on the Why Dontcha Run blog! Ya-hoo!! 

Thank you for your support as I work through the C25K challenge and make it to and (hopefully through) my first 5k in February. I thoroughly enjoy blogging about my up's and down's of everyday challenges (cookies!) with health and fitness and find that this blog holds me accountable to my training schedule and choices. So..... Thank YOU!

Work Space

Evening, all.

My heart is hurting for Haiti. :o( I feel so useless and wish there was something I could do to help. When I see those children on the television, crying out in pain (both physical and emotional), I just want to scoop them up and hold them.  *sigh* My prayers will have to do, which is a lot more powerful than anything I could ever physically do for the people of Haiti.

When I got home from work today, I ran around with my Sultan for a little bit and then jumped on the treadmill for Week 8/Session 2 of C25k. This helped me release some tension and overall stress. Running always helps clear my mind, focus and think more clearly.

I ran my scheduled 2.75 miles straight through with no walking, followed by 1/2 mile of walking to cool down. this evening's run went well and has me more pumped for the February 6th 5k. :o)

You know what? I realized today that I've never shared my "work space" with you, my blog follower. Trust me, it's nothing interesting, (at all) but I thought it would bring you more into my little world of running and training. :o)

Come upstairs, take your shoes off and stay awhile.

See the aluminum foil? That's how I cover up the stats (time/distance/pace/etc.), to keep my from getting disheartened. Like I've said in the past, I do better when all that "stuff" is covered up.

 Please take note of the blank, neutral-colored wall in front of the treadmill. This, my friends, is what I stare at for 45 minutes at a time. Oh yeah, dedication. Pure dedication right there. ;-P Oh, and I can't forget about the spare mattress that is leaning against the wall... again, not the most interesting thing to focus on.

Today's run burned 520 calories (I'm not actually running to burn calories and lose weight, but it comes with the territory, ya know?) and covered 3.51 miles.  When I feel like I'm close to my goal, I peek under the fancy screen cover aluminum foil to see how far I've come.

And last but not least, a silly picture of me in action. :o) Oh yeah, I'm workin' it. haha.

Well folks, my warm bed is calling my name.  I've gotta pack up the leftover chicken n dumplin's from dinner, for lunch tomorrow and then I'm gonna be out like a light bulb! Evening exercise always knocks me out. Whew!

Does exercising at night keep you awake or help you sleep?

Green "Monster" Smoothie

Evening, all.

I'm still on my "runners high" from last nights 3.5 mile run. :o) *grins*

I slept so, so, so good last night. Would you believe that I think I run better in the afternoon/evening than in the morning? I'm not 100% sure if I'm convinced of this yet, but it's definitely something I'm going to keep an eye on and compare my morning runs with my afternoon/evening runs. Interesting....

Anywho, I made the most fantastic green smoothie for breakfast. Look at this beauty!

The husband walked into the kitchen this morning, saw the blender and exclaimed, "What the heck is that?!" haha. The concoction actually looked like Nickelodeon Slime but tasted oh so good! 

Here's the recipe of this morning's green smoothie (from Angela at "Oh She Glows")

Virgin Green Monster

Ingredients:

2 cups spinach

1-1.25 cups milk (cow’s milk, soy, hemp, almond, rice, etc)

1 tablespoon flax (optional)

1 banana

ice

Directions:

Hi there, Are you a Green Monster first-timer? Have no fear! This recipe is fool proof. Even the biggest skeptic will love this one. Place the ingredients into the blender in the following order: 1) Flax, 2) spinach, 3) banana, 4) milk. The reason for this order is so the heavier ingredients weigh down the flax and spinach and keep it from flying up around the blender and sticking to the side. Blend everything on the highest setting for 1 minute or so. Finally, add ice and blend on the ice setting. Pour into a large, fancy glass. Sit back, gulp it down, and be prepared to have endless energy!

I thouroughly enjoyed my first real green smoothie and plan to add it to my regular breakfast routine at least a few times a week. I'll be trying all kinds of new recipes off of the green monster website. Yay for new good-for-you recipes! ;-)

GOOGLE THE BENEFITS OF GREEN SMOOTHIES - YOU'LL BE IMPRESSED!

Ooops.... I ran 3.5 miles!!!

*drum roll please*

I JUST RAN THREE AND A HALF (3.5) MILES!!!!!!

That's MORE than a 5k and it was a total accident! Ha, let me explain...

As I've mentioned in past posts, I've recently started covering up the screen on my treadmill during runs. This way, I can't look at the statistics and get frustrated/disheartened with time, distance, pace, etc. I kept running and running and running and running without checking my time/distance for fear that I wouldn't  be as far as I thought. I didn't want to lose heart and feel defeated, so I just kept running until I thought I would be close to the scheduled 2.75 miles.

Soooo..... I was running my little heart out , with the screen covered, awesome music streaming through my Ipod and "Health" magazine in front of me, when I finally lifted the piece of aluminum foil (yes, I use aluminium foil because light won't show through from the screen.) from the screen, and saw my distance was "3.56". I literally shook my head and had to repeat the number over and over in my head until it registered that I had run just over 3.25 miles straight through without walking. (Note: I always run the first and last quarter mile of all my runs.)

I pushed through to 3.75 miles with a gigantic smile on my face and walked the final quarter miles for a total of 4 miles. I HAD JUST RUN 3.5 MILES!!!.... When the schedule only called for 2.75. HECK YEAH! ;-)

I'm absolutely exhausted and in need of some sleep, so that's just what this girl's gonna do. :o) I've got a man that is sure to snuggle me up on this cold night, so I'm outta here!

P.S. I JUST RAN 3.5 MILES!! ;-) Tehe