Happy Marathon Monday, everyone!! I must tell you all, that I am severely heartbroken to not be taking part in the festivities today (as a spectator, not as a runner). Getting up and driving to work this morning was sort of a bummer – but I did enjoy a very light traffic commute, which is always a gift on a Monday morning (I’m doing my best to look on the bright side of things!).


I wore my Polar heart rate monitor / watch to feel part of the marathon today… weird? Probably.


Yesterday I really got into the Boston Marathon spirit by heading out to the Boston Marathon Expo. As I have written before, it is one of the events I look forward to the most in the year. It’s so great to just walk around, get samples, see the latest products (compression gear was a HUGE hit this year!) and see what the latest buzz is all about. I tried many a Clif bar, I must tell you! I definitely feel like I refueled from my 3 ½ mile run from earlier in the day.

I returned home from Boston at 5:30 last night. I appreciated the fact that the sun was still shining and the weather was still [sort of] warm – I love having the extra day light hours in the spring and summer. I think because of the fact that I did not feel like it was Sunday night yet I had a lot of extra energy to make sure I packed a healthy and well balanced breakfast and lunch for today. (OR maybe it was the Clif bars samples?)

Breakfast was the usual with the super foods incorporated – Stoneyfield low fat blueberry yogurt, chia and flax seeds.

For the first time ever today, I actually glanced at how many calories are in these yogurt containers. The whole time I thought there were 180 calories per serving – I was surprised to see it was only 120 calories. I’m wondering if with my sprinkle of cereal, chia seeds and flax if I am getting it more up to 180 calories. I think the next time I make the mixture, I might try to figure this out.

My morning break was a quick one at 11:30, but my stomach was growling so I decided to have a 100 calorie Clif bar. This helped me get to a later than normal lunch.

Thankfully after a really long day in Boston yesterday, I found the energy to make myself a really great lunch. There is nothing like a killer salad on a Monday.

(I brought my fancy cloth napkin from home in a small effort to use less paper towels and save a tree.) The protein on the salad was two ounces of tuna. I also had a decent piece of a fresh baguette – always my favorite thing! Lunch was at 12:45 today, and I was on my own so I got some quality reading time in. In the salad mix today: spinach, tomato, yellow pepper, red pepper, carrots, cucumbers and red onions. I made a tad bit of dressing with a champagne vinaigrette, a touch of dijon mustard, 1/2 a teaspoon of canola oil and freshly ground pepper – winning combo!

I really thought I had packed a good lunch and snacks to get me through the day. I thought I would have enough energy / calories to make it to the gym. My afternoon snack was four peanut butter crackers. By the time I was heading home from work at 4 o’clock and getting to the gym at 5 o’clock, I was starving.

But I went to the gym. I did 5 1/2 miles on the bike and definitely felt myself hitting the workout wall – of hell. It might have been that I have worked out five days in a row, it might have been that I ran three and a half miles and then walked a bunch of miles yesterday – but my body was having NONE OF IT after my bike workout. No elliptical and I had already promised myself no running today.

I left the gym in a hurry and went straight to the grocery store where I picked up a bit of ground turkey, an onion, four yogurts and an avocado.

I could not get home soon enough. Before showering and changing into my comfy clothes, I had about six ounces of 1% milk and a small handful of almonds because I thought like I was going to scream from hunger. Once I was clean and comfortable, I got to work on dinner. Thankfully I was no longer starving.

Tonight for dinner I diced up a small onion and sautéed it, then I added about 1/3 of a pound of ground turkey and cooked it. I added three chopped up mushrooms, and a cup of steamed broccoli. Then I added 1 1/2 cups of tomato and vegetable sauce (from a jar!). I cooked 2 1/2 half cups of whole wheat pasta. I served myself half of everything and then saved the other half for tomorrow night’s dinner. I did not snap a photo tonight because I was totally starving by the time dinner was ready. (Not that it took all that long to prepare…)

It is nearly 9 o’clock now and I have yet to prep my lunch for tomorrow. Grr. I am really not in the mood to make a salad. But of course I am going to. I’ll have to think of a few other healthy snacks for tomorrow so I do not end up eating a co-worker’s arm or something by the end of the day 😉

OK. Back to the kitchen y’all. I hope you all had a great Marathon Monday!