And I can finally blog!

With trying to play catch up for the weekend, Monday ran away from me and now I must catch up on Monday and today!  It's been a busy time at work for me (the winter semester usually is) and while I'm in this transition time between my house and my apartment, it's going to be a challenge to find the time to post.  But I shall prevail. 

When we last left off, Marcin and I finished our jam pack weekend with yard work!  Surprisingly enough, it was easy to get up on Monday morning for work.

Breakfast:

WW (Whole Wheat) Chocolate Chip Pancake with DCPB (Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter).  Coffee with sugar free creamer.  I definitely think that after discovering the sweet flavor of Agave, everything else pales in comparison. Will need to convince Marcin to convert!

Work was C.R.A.Z.Y.  with lots of meetings and lots of e-mails to set things up.  By the time lunch rolled around, I made a mad dash to the kitchen and threw a sandwhich together.

(Sorry for the bite, I was hungray!)  1 slice of polish bread, 2 slices of salami, a handful of spinach, 2 slices of colby cheese.

Before one of my meetings in the afternoon, I stopped by Bubble Tea to grab a free Tikki tea (Milk tea + coffee).  No picture- had to run straight to the meeting by the time I got back from my trip to Bubble Tea. 

One meeting, countless of e-mails and paper-pushing later, it was time to go home.  My original plan was to work on my guns (motivated by the picture of me on the rope in our backyard), but it was a nice day out yesterday and the forcast for Tuesday called for rain.  So I decided to switch gears and run in Downtown Plymouth.  Stats posted at the end of the post.

After my run, I had a short amount of time to get ready to go grocery shopping with Marcin.  While I was trying to go through my food in the kitchen ala the Eat it Don't Move It Plan, I was in desperate need of some staples and goodies!  Since it's never good to shop while hungry, I grabbed a Michellina's Frozen dinner - Spaghetti Marinara. 

I threw in a tablespoon of milled flax to give this spaghetti some sticking power.

Marcin came over and off we went to Kroger.  I had a boatload of coupons (3 for free stuff!) that I wanted to use up.  I made my list according to the coupons, plus added something that I wanted to enjoy for this week.  When I got to the register, my first total was $72.00 (and this was with the Kroger savings card and basically sticking to the Kroger sales).  After all the coupons . . . wait for it . . . $51.27!!!!  (I wish I had the receipt on hand to give you the exact totals . . but basically I saved $15.00).  I was so excited and literally danced out of the store singing "I rock at grocery shopping!"  Marcin was amazed to see all the savings as well and said, "That's it, you shall be doing the grocery shopping from now on!" 

I'm actually trying to learn more about saving $$ through my friend Brooke's blog (shameless plug, I know, but you got to show the blogger love!).  Lately, she's been able to save anywhere between 30%-80% off of her final bill from places such as Rite Aid to Kroger to Meijers!

What does $51.27 worth of groceries look like?

Three of these items were F.R.E.E.!  Can you guess which ones?

After drooling over my savings, I put all the groceries away and got to work on my real dinner!  I was excited to try the new package of potstickers that I bought.

I found this in the Healthy foods section at Kroger when I was trying to find the Almond Milk.  These puppies boiled in 4 cups chicken stock and 4 cups of water for eight minutes. 

To add to this dish, I threw a bag of frozen vegetables and rice stir fry mix into the microwave.

I love how on the bag, the picture shows more vegetables than rice, but then when you open the bag, it's really more rice than vegetables!  Anyways, this mix included two tablespoons of chicken stock and a couple splasjes of soy sauce.

Put it all together:

All was seasoned with black pepper, sea salt, and red pepper flakes.

Spent the rest of the night watching T.V. Mondays and Thursday are my T.V. days.  Mondays is How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, and Castle (occasionally, like tonight, we will watch CSI: Miami). 

Fast forward to this morning . . .

I actually had the time to pack my breakfast and lunch!  Unfortunately, today was another meeting loaded day.  I ate my breakfast during one meeting and couldn't take a picture of it before hand.  It was delicous - blackberries and cottage cheese!  Trying to get my fruits in as best I can!

Meeting after meeting and by the time I sat for lunch it was 2:00 pm!  One of my co-workers made small cupcakes for one of our meetings.  The 4 [ :( ] that I ate did hold me over, but I knew that I needed something of substance . .and fast! 

Basically a repeat of my dinner.  When I made dinner last night, I automatically placed half of the rice and vegetables and the dumplings into a microwavable container.  Exercising portion control AND planning ahead! 

Whew!  Finally caught up!

On the healthy living front:

I'm excited about the groceries that I bought.  I already have plans for most of the items in my fridge and can't wait to try them out.  I'm glad I bought things like blackberries, cottage cheese and almond milk so that I can get breakfast under control.  Lunch, maybe a bit harder.  I did apply the "seperate groceries" method to snacks.  On my shopping trip, I got 2 bags of Snyder's pretzels on sale and a free box of Nature Valley granola bars.  Those are currently in my snack drawer, along with my peppermint tea!  Now, I don't really have to worry too much about snackage.

On the fashion front:

Monday's outfit:

My new buttoned down long shirt (I guess that is what you call it!?), large black belt, gray dress pants.  I took the original belt for this shirt and made into a make-shift tie sorts.  The more I look at it, the more I may have to buckle down and embrace the legging trend because this shirt would really be more appropriate with leggings for work and no leggings for night time.

Tuesday's Outfit:

Argyle light sweater and a different pair of gray dress pants (this one is actually too big for me, I need to take it to the tailor - STAT!)

Check out My Mantra:  Everything in Moderation!  Quinn is bring back her How to Series and is starting with How to Have a Signature Style!  This tomboy is taking notes!

On the running front:

3 miles in 33:00 mins

For my run, the 5k training schedule called for a 2.25 mile run.  Since I have a set 1 mile, 2 mile, 3 mile paths through Downtown Plymouth, I decided on the 3 mile path that I would run at intervals. 

For my interval run, I depended on music to set the pace:

During the verses of a song, I fast walked

During the chorus of a song, I ran/jogged

During the bridge of a song (vocal or instrumental), I sprinted

Repeat till end of  song. 

Since typically the end of the song is the chorus on repeat, I would slow my jog pace and then walk in the dead air in between each song. 

I actually liked doing this because the chorus gave me a small amount of time to work on my form.  I know that much of my knee pain is due to improper footing on my part.  Once I get pass a mile, I'm just running to get the distance and I forget my form too often.  I think I will continue this interval run until I get my Garmin (HINT HINT!) to work on my pacing and footing at the same time.