9 miles

Today I ran 9 miles.  It didn't really feel any different from the 8.25 miles I ran the past 2 Saturdays.  I was a little tired, but that could be from a variety of things.  I definitely ate last night, so it's possible that I was a little sluggish because of that.  Either way though, I didn't stop unless I paused at a light, and I always jog a bit in place when that happens.

Speaking of food, here's what we had last night:

Whole wheat penne pasta with a homemade pumpkin sauce and hot Italian sausage.  Spinach salad with apple and red onion and a homemade dressing on the side.

Wine.  Part of it went into the sauce.

We also had chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream.  I wonder if that's what made me a bit sluggish... :)

I'm currently still working on my post run food:

PB & J, banana, strawberries.

Iced mocha.

In other news, discovered this morning that when my doctor wrote out my prescription for my birth control, he didn't put a 3 month supply on it and I'm now paying $80 for the one month's worth that is coming in the mail.  If I get a 3 month supply, it will cost $120.  I think I may switch to generic because that only costs $20 for a 2 month supply.  I can't do anything about the $80 cost so I'll try not to think about it right now, but on Monday I definitely need to have a little chat with my doctor about if generic is ok, and if so, have him phone in the new prescription and make sure it's a 3 month supply.  *sigh*  I'm already seeing dollar signs so this does NOT make me happy.

Tonight Mat and I are going to Kelly and Keith's engagement party.  I'm sooooo excited to celebrate with them and to see the Kappas I haven't seen in a long time.  And, I haven't been to a party like this (for someone else - we had our own party back in April but that's different) in forever, so I'm super super excited.  I'm so happy for them and can't wait for their wedding next October.  :)

Maybe I'll get some Save the Dates addressed today.  Or something.  :)

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Oatmeal

Oatmeal.  Add peanut butter.  Add chocolate chips.  Stir.  Consume.

Overnight Oats

Overnight oats is seriously the best discovery I've ever made.  My favorite combo: peanut butter, oats, milk/water, and chocolate chips.

Need I say more?

Ignore the pizza sauce jar.  It's all I had.  And it was washed.
Don't ignore the awesome Yogurtland spoon.

It's my breakfast of choice these days.  Especially on running days.  It's pathetic, but when I wake up and am still groggy and a little nervous about the 5 mile run I have to begin when it's not even 5:00 am yet, and I think about how I get to consume this jar of deliciousness once I get to work, I suddenly have honest-to-goodness motivation.

Maybe it's not pathetic.  Do you think using food as motivation is pathetic?  It's healthy food!

Tomorrow and Things

Tomorrow morning I am tackling an 8 mile run.  I'm excited.

Wednesday I went to ballet for the first time in nearly a month.  My calves are now paying for it.  I hope that my 8 mile run tomorrow is not hampered by this.

Tonight we made spaghetti squash with marinara sauce and vegetarian meatballs for dinner.  And we had bread.  And wine.  Mmm.

Spaghetti squash with marinara and veggie meatballs (and parmesan cheese).

Pinot

BREAD

As we all know, the 10 year anniversary of September 11th is on Sunday.  There are specials on TV all the time now.  It takes me back to that day.  I may have only been 15 but I remember the feeling that I wasn't safe anymore - that the world wasn't safe anymore.  It's very frightening.

What I also remember from that day and from seeing TV specials is the feeling of unity as Americans pulled together.  I'm not generally a big nationalist or anything, but you can't deny the shared feeling and spirit of hope that this country had in the aftermath of such a horrible thing.

We are down to 293 days now.  It's far less than when we started but it still feels like an eternity.

Once again I have a lot of grading to do this weekend.  And it's not a 3 day weekend this time.

Tomorrow afternoon we're going ice skating.  Yes, in September.  Groupon is cool.

I'm reading The Help right now.  It's a good book.  Time to get back to it and get some sleep so I can do that run tomorrow.  Good night!

6 miles

I ran 6 miles today for the second time.  I got up at 7:30 in an attempt to get started before the sun came out.  No such luck.  I made it through all 6, but it was tough.  The hill at the end kills me and I'm more trotting than running.  But, I still did it without walking.

And now, my legs are done.  Just done.

Post run meal:

Peanut butter and jelly on whole grain bread, banana, strawberries.  I think I'll tell Mat we need to hit up Starbucks when we're out and about in a little while.

Tonight is the Taylor Swift concert.  I bought these tickets last fall sometime for my sister's birthday which was in December, and now we're finally going.  This is an expensive birthday present, and I also promised her Vegas this year for her 21st.  Oy.

I need to pray more.  I'm sad and lost these days and I know prayer will help.  It's upsetting that when I'm the most in need of it, I somehow forget.  I suppose it's because I'm so caught up in my thoughts that that's all I can think about.  Mat has been wonderful through it, and has been reminding me to pray.

Another bad thing is when I fall asleep before I can get any real prayers in.  *sigh*

I Don't Have to Be That Skinny. Right?

I've been having a lot of trouble lately with size and body image.  It's synonymous with the trouble I've been having with ballet.  I know that size is just a number.  I know that after starting the pill (just because my body doesn't like to have it like a regular person good lord it's annoying) I went from the skinny "filled-in" that I had become when I was about 23 to having a little bit of actual hips and bigger boobs.  I wasn't thrilled, but if I wanted my period to be regular and if I wanted to not put my body through hell going off of it and then back on it 6 months later, I would just deal with it.

I know that my body shape changed a bit with doing less ballet and doing more of other kinds of workouts.  I'm slowly, very slowly, learning to accept and embrace this change.

I thought that with the end of the school year I'd get a better handle on my eating because I would be less stressed.  And I did do that, in the sense that I didn't have a nervous anxious craving for chocolate every minute of the day.  But I still ate chocolate.  Plenty of it.  Thankfully this time it was because I simply wanted it.

I hate dressing room mirrors.  I enjoyed buying a new pair of jeans on Thursday night that I feel more comfortable in and I enjoyed buying new functional bras and a super cute new fun bra today.  But I hate dressing room mirrors.  Even in Victoria's Secret.  You'd think that Victoria's Secret would put nice mirrors in there so you don't feel even more depressed that you already did having looked at the pictures of models hanging all over the store.

Maybe all the food and healthy living blogs I've started reading will help.  They started to, and then I got distracted.

School is starting all too soon.  My wedding is still 320 days away.  We looked at furniture today.  I wish we could have bought it now.  I wish we could get our apartment now.

I'm frustrated.

On a more positive note, my future mother-in-law lent me these books a while ago and I'm reading them for the second time right now: Vision in White (The Bride Quartet, Book 1)Bed of Roses (The Bride Quartet, Book 2)Savor the Moment (The Bride Quartet, Book 3)Happy Ever After (Nora Roberts' Bride Quartet Series #4) by Nora Roberts

Could I Be Lactose Intolerant?

I first noticed something weird a few weeks ago, shortly after my parents left for Europe.  I would get an annoying stomach pain, sort of on the left side, which is where I usually get such pains.  It was sort of a combination of so hungry your stomach feels like it's going to eat itself and bloatedness.  I've found that those two symptoms often occur together, particularly when I feel that hungry and can't or am not able to eat right away.  I couldn't figure out why, after eating as much or perhaps even MORE than usual by 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I was feeling so...hungry?  Bloated?  Both?

One theory was that during the school year I was really really stressed and therefore my body was "holding on" to food more.  This theory was based on the common yet depressing knowledge that while stressed, your body retains fat.  Now that it's summer, perhaps my metabolism was going back to what it used to be and burning more calories and therefore I was more hungry.

But the bloated thing just didn't compute.  Then I thought, wait a second, having too much dairy can cause these symptoms.  Even people who aren't technically lactose intolerant can have icky symptoms from too much dairy.

So, on Sunday, I had no dairy at all.  No milk, no cottage cheese with yogurt and berries and granola and honey (tear), no nothing.  Well, unless you count the tiny bit of milk that was in the salad dressing and the tiny bit of milk in the filling of the sliver of cake I had.

And lo and behold: no symptoms!

Yesterday, a repeat of Sunday.  No dairy except for a little bit of cheese in the enchiladas we had for dinner, and that was accidental because I totally forgot that enchiladas have cheese (don't ask).  No real symptoms.

So, we shall see.  At least one more day after today of no dairy and then I'll try it again, probably on Thursday.  I read that it is not uncommon for lactose intolerance to suddenly happen to adults.  Fortunately, if I do find that dairy is what's making me feel icky, it's not a bad case.  That's good, because if I ever had to give up pizza and ice cream and other such delicious items, I would cry.

Oh yeah, and I ran 3 miles for the first time EVER today. :-D

Whale Watching, or Seeing Dolphins as it Turned Out

Yesterday, down in Newport Beach, Mat and I went whale watching.  This was his birthday gift from me (his 26th birthday was on Friday) and he was SOOO excited.  Like little kid excited.  We got down there early because of parking issues and such, and he seriously was like a 5 year old.  It was funny and adorable.

We didn't get to see any big whales, but we saw quite a few common dolphins (that are actually considered whales) on the way back into the harbor.  They were swimming right by the boat and jumping out of the water and everything!  It was amazing.  These dolphins can only be seen in the wild - the ones at Sea World are different.

After our whale watching excursion, we treked 2.5 miles over to Lido Village to Le Bistro Mediterranean, a little restaurant I found on restaurant.com.  It was quite lovely - a quiet, calm atmosphere overlooking the marina.  A little expensive, but a restaurant.com gift certificate helped, and even then it wouldn't have mattered because the food was delicious.  I highly recommend it.

Anxious to get on the boat!

Only 30 minutes to go!

Practicing with the binoculars.

Enjoying the ride.

Aren't we cute?? :)

I think you can see a dolphin in there somewhere.

Pelican.

Bottom right corner: dolphin!

This one, like many of them, was swimming right by our boat!

People in Newport are rich.

Food!!!

Mmmm, pasta!

Rounding out the meal and the day with the best chocolate souffle in Newport Beach.