All or nothing.

Jun 29, 2015

I’m an all or nothing type of person. I’m specifically like this when it comes to food and exercise. For example, if I’m on a good exercise regimine and start eating super healthy, I tend to not eat enough for my activity and go a little over board with being “healthy”.  On the other hand, on days where I don’t exercise and eat poorly, I tend to just keep eating because “the day is shot anyway…”  

Today was a prime example…

Breakfast:  Think Thin Lean Protein Bar and coffee

Lunch:  chicken, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, and green peppers. 

  
Snack:  dark chocolate covered goji and acai berries (small package)

Dinner:  black bean burger with sour cream and salsa and sweet potato fries

PAUSE. I should have stopped there and went to bed. BUT, since I only took a short yoga class today (hip/glute is on the mend), why not just dive head first into dessert and never stop. 

Dessert:  chocolate cake with ice cream, lots of skinny popcorn, and more ice cream. Not pictured…thank goodness. 

Now I’m sitting here feeling very full and very gross.  The only thing I can do is move on and start over tomorrow.  Here’s to a healthier tomorrow!                                                                 ——————————————————-

Now that I’ve shared way too much (and ate too much), here are pictures of the best part of my day. 

Annabelle’s first baby ballerina class!  She was not a happy dancer and didn’t want to leave mommy’s side. She finally opened up at the end of class, so maybe next week will be better!

   
   

After dance class, Annabelle “helped” me foam roll. ☺️

  
I hope you made better food choices than I did tonight!  

What did you have for dinner?  Dessert?

All Aboard the (mostly) Healthy Train.

Apr 8, 2015

I was SUPER sore after the HAT 50k and I pretty much sat on my behind and ate for an entire week straight.  I know that my body needed a rest and it was nice to not have the “pressure” of fitting in a daily workout.  I also decided to just let go and eat whatever I wanted for a week.  This mostly meant that I snacked on candy and other treats and ate a few meals that I normally wouldn’t (like a chicken sandwich and fries from Chic Fil A).  So, after a week of pretty much doing no activity and eating a bunch of crap food, I was more than ready to get back on the healthy train.

Here are some of the meals I ate to get back on track!

• I actually meal prepped on a Sunday and made enough chicken and veggies for lunches for the week.  It was really nice to just reach in the fridge and grab a container and be on my way.

 

• I also made a batch of “egg muffins”.  Egg muffins are pretty simple…

  

1.  Sautee spinach and a clove of garlic in coconut oil.

2.  Add a spoonful of spinach into the bottom of each muffin.

3.  Spinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the spinach.

4.  Mix together 4 eggs and 2 egg whites, season with salt and pepper, and pour on top of the spinach and cheese.

5.  Bake until set.  🙂

• Love Grown Oats Power O’s .  This cereal is made with beans!  While they don’t taste like Honey Nut Cheerios, they still taste pretty good!

 

•  Sweet potato (cover in coconut oil, wrap in tin foil, and bake until soft…thanks for the tip Janae) topped with turkey, mixed veggies, and cheese.

 

• Chobani Greek Yogurt with Oats

 

• Ground turkey (cooked with some onion, garlic, and taco seasoning) tacos topped with black beans, cheese, and tomatoes.

 

• Mahi Mahi with green beans…and a french baguette from Panera Bread (it would just be wrong to let it go to waste!)

 

• Turkey, string cheese, and raw veggies (carrots, cucumber, and tomato)

I actually went a full 4.75 days without dessert or any other after dinner treats.  I treated myself with fro yo on Friday night and then my healthy train fell off a cliff on Saturday evening through Sunday.  What did this train wreck look like?  It looked like french toast and bacon, robin’s eggs, fish tacos, sangria, Cadbury Mini Eggs, cookies, ice cream, and popcorn.  Wow, that was just gross.  It looks like I have two speeds….uber healthy or just sit me in a pool of chocolate, cookies, and candy.  Something to work on in the future…

Anyway, I hope that you find some of my healthy meal choices helpful!

Chipotle Night!

Feb 18, 2015

Today was a normal Wednesday in the life of a working mama. I got up at 6:00 (after snoozing a few too many times), showered, and headed to my happy place before heading to work. My happy place = Starbucks. I tried the new Tiramasu Latte with nonfat milk and whipped cream. It was good, but I will probably stick to my normal choices.

After my lovely 1 1/2 hour commute, I checked my email and dug into my overnight oats. I haven’t made this in a long time and it was well overdue.

I worked for a few more hours, answered a dozen of phone calls, and got hung up on once. It was nice little morning. Around noon, Jeanette and I headed outside for a glorious 6.83 mile run. While we had to dodge some snow and ice covered roads and sidewalks, the sun was shining and the temps were balmy (30 degrees!).

Lunch was leftovers from last night’s dinner. I think it actually tasted better today than it did last night. Spoiler alert: This will be my lunch tomorrow too. I also had a Yoplait Greek Whipped Yogurt and it was a nice change from the traditional kind.

While I was slaving away at work, my mom sent me this beauty. How rude! 🙂

My afternoon snack was a banana with a side of almond butter on plates leftover from my baby shower over 2 years ago. I should really quit my day job to be a food photographer.

Dinner was you guessed, Chipotle! Ever since Chris has been off work on Wednesday nights, I’ve been picking up Chipotle for dinner. I’m always excited to eat it, but man does it feel like a rock in my stomach now.

We usually end Chipotle night with fro yo, but it’s going on 9 pm now and they close in a few minutes. Looks like I will have to settle for something from my stash while Chris and I watch some Law and Order: SUV (you Sopranos fans out there will know why we call it SUV instead of SVU). What to choose?? Red velvet oreos, white fudge oreos, Reese’s Hearts, peanut M&Ms, Hershey’s Hugs. I do have ice cream in the fridge, but that is the last thing I ate before I got sick on Saturday night and I may never eat that ice cream again.

What time did you wake up this morning?

What kind of job do you have? Customer Service, cube life, service industry?

Almond butter or peanut butter?

Sentence per picture.

Jan 22, 2015

This is been a very busy work week and I’m so ready for the weekend! Since I’m exhausted, here’s a lazy (but thrilling) post. 🙂

Yesterday’s yummy breakfast.

Last night (and tonight’s) dinner. I really love BBQ chicken pizza.

Last night (and tonight’s and every other night) dessert. I just can’t stop dessert…I need an intervention.

My favorite little girl. ❤

Face mask…I just realized this is still on and it’s been on for way too long.

Snow day for Annabelle and Molly!

Enjoy your Friday!

Body pump and a gross looking dinner.

Jan 20, 2015

Well, the work week is almost half way over. Right? They are calling for snow in my area tomorrow, so I’m doing my snow dance and wearing my pjs inside out.

Once lunch time rolled around today, I went down to my work gym and took a body pump class. I try to run 3-4 days a week and cross/weight train 2-3 days a week. Today’s class was Release 98 (each new release has different music and different choreography) and it was INTENSE! My legs and arms were shaking, my elbows were sweating, and my heart rate was climbing.

I don’t know what it is about strength training, but it makes me so hungry all day long. I was absolutely starving when I got home, so I went with quick and simple for dinner. I had vegetable and barley soup on top of mashed sweet potato and it was amazing. Man, this looks nasty.

(Don’t worry, I won’t quit my job to be a food photographer.)

I’m super tired tonight, so I’ve been on the couch since Annabelle went to bed around 8. I’m enjoying one of my guilty pleasures…Dance Moms. Ok, I might be enjoying two guilty pleasures…

What dessert did I eat tonight?

A. Brownie
B. Cookie
C. Ice cream
D. All of the above 🙂

2015 so far: the ups and downs in food and exercise.

Jan 5, 2015

Happy New Year! Bring back Christmas…I like it so much better than New Years. I’m like that guy in The Breakup who still answers the phone, “Happy Holidays!” even though Christmas was long gone.

So, I’ve been enjoying the healthy train since we got back from Florida and I didn’t even indulge on New Years Eve. (read: Chris got me dinner and Annabelle and I partied hard watching Sesame Street).

The Ups!

A 10 mile run and new running clothes! The shirt is Under Armor and the pants are Oiselle. 🙂 And the finger is Chris’…

Cross training courtesy of Julie. These workouts are so great and can be done pretty much anywhere. 🙂

Healthy Eats

I had a lot of Subway for a few days and then I ate veggie burgers, sandwiches, fruit, and veggies at home. Tonight’s dinner = turkey and cheese panini on whole wheat bread with an apple.

Speed work!

Since it was 20 degrees and WINDY today, I hit the treadmill for a run.

20 minute warmup

10 x 1 minute fast (6:58 pace) followed by 1 minute recovery (8:20 pace)

10 minute cool down

6 miles total and guess what???? It felt good!!! Finally!

The Downs…

I’ve been pretty good with workouts and worked out everyday except for yesterday. Guess what I do instead of working out? I EAT! After dinner, I consumed:

– 2 donuts (one chocolate cake and one glazed)

– 2 Twix Santas (they were $ .49 and I couldn’t resist)

– 1 Milky Way Snowman (see Twix)

– 1 bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup

Sad but true :-(. Needless to say, I woke up feeling pretty gross this morning. But I rallied with a healthy oatmeal breakfast and went to the gym at lunch and I feel much better.

I just started using My Fitness Pal again and since I had lots of extra calories today, I did just eat dessert. The struggle is real. If you want to friend me and see how much dessert I really eat, my name is LMelz. 🙂

So tell me…

How is your new year going?

Best thing that happened today?

I almost forgot…

Annabelle loves to turn the phone around, hold it out, and say “selfie!”. We took about 10 today. 🙂

Happy Thanksgiving and my mom’s first 5k!!!

Dec 1, 2014

Hi everyone! I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate :-)) with family and friends and I hope you ate lots of great good! We had a super fun time over here with my family.

We had a mini snow storm on Wednesday, so I decided to stay home from work and use my extra time to prep for Thanksgiving. This was my first year actually cooking, so it was nice to get a head start.

I made sweet potato casserole, a chocolate mousse trifle, cookie bars, and dressing. It was so nice to have all of this done prior to Thursday.

A white Thanksgiving Eve.


My parents flew in on Wednesday evening and I was SO HAPPY to see them. By the time we got home and got Annabelle settled down, it was after 1 am and we were exhausted.

We didn’t let sleep deprivation and freezing temps keep us from the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. My mom and I woke up and headed down the road to run a chilly 5k. The original plan was for me to run it and then back track to find my mom (who would be walking) once I finished. Well, she sure surprised me! I finished in about 24 minutes and headed back out to find her. It didn’t take long before I found her. She had decided to run instead of walk and she was already in her third mile! Since she had planned on walking, she was wearing a big winter hat and a long down coat AND carrying our packets! Even with all of that weighing her down, she ran her first 5k and finished in about 41 minutes. I am beyond proud. 🙂

After a stop for Starbucks and donuts, we headed home to shower and get the turkey in the oven. The day was made extra special because my Aunt Janice and Uncle Gren came over for a visit and it was sooo nice to see them. 🙂

We finally ate around 5 pm and it turned out very well for my first attempt at cooking. The menu included:

-Turkey and gravy
-Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows
-Corn
-Mashed potatoes
-Dressing
-Croissants
-Cranberry Sauce

After letting our dinner settle, we dug into dessert (my favorite part of most meals)!

-Pumpkin Pie
-Chocolate Mousse Trifle (French vanilla cake layered with a cool whip and pudding mixture and topped with crushed Oreos…and repeat)
-Cookie bars

I made enough food for an army, so I’ve been eating leftovers everyday. I think I’ve had enough now.

I’m sad that I didn’t take a full family photo, but I did get a few good ones.

AB just couldn’t hang. 🙂 (Don’t worry, she was not really drinking beer or wine)

Grandses, Annabelle, and Me ❤

It was a great day and I’m now looking forward to a whole lot of Christmas fun.

If it wasn’t for the camera on my phone…

Nov 20, 2014

…I would have no idea what I did or ate yesterday. I don’t know about you guys, but with so much going on I find it hard to remember the minor details day to day. Thank goodness for smartphones with cameras that allow me to share all of my very exciting activities with you all. 🙂

Chris and I decided to take Annabelle to a bounce house on Monday. What’s a bounce house? It’s a huge room with about 8 huge bounce houses in it. AB was a little hesitant at first and she didn’t like the constant humming sound from the air keeping the houses blown up, but she started having fun in no time.

On Monday evening, I hit the dreadmill treadmill for a 6 mile tempo run.

1 mile warm up – 8:35 pace
2 miles – 7:35 pace
2 miles – 7:24 pace
1 mile – 8:35 pace

While I can’t say it felt good, I am happy to have done it. I sure hope I have some speed for this marathon coming up in a week…eek!

Am I the only one who sweats like crazy and likes to remove all sweaty clothing before leaving the gym?

Don’t worry, I wore sweats home. 🙂

Wednesday was another run day. Jeanette and I went out for a lunch time run (it was FREEZING) and ended up with a nice progression run.

I had to make a very important decision yesterday afternoon. Donut or granola bar???

I did end up choosing the granola bar, but I took that donut home with me…and ate it at 9 pm while watching Red Band Society. 🙂 I did eat a nice healthy dinner first.

Speaking of dessert, I really want to have this when we go to Florida next month. Mom and Dad, please take note. 🙂

Tonight’s dessert looks gross, but it was delicious…one container of chocolate pudding, some redi whip, and two crushed Oreos. Stir and eat.

I am now trying to drink lots of water and talk myself into taking a 5:30 am yoga class tomorrow morning. Who wants to join me???

How many pictures do you have on your phone? Umm, I had 2,000 at one point.

Favorite donut?

18 miles, baking, chili, and yoga.

Nov 17, 2014

The weekend started with a chilly 18 miles on Saturday morning. They were slow easy miles but I felt great the whole time.

The rest of the day was spent eating breakfast and hanging with this little one. She actually took a nap in her crib and this NEVER happens anymore.

I spent Saturday evening with my friends Amber and Justin and their two kiddos. We had a great Shepard’s Pie for dinner and the kids ran around like crazy for a few hours. 🙂

When I got home, I decided to eat a whole bag of popcorn.

On Sunday morning, I made pancakes, eggs, and sweet potatoes. Yum!

A little while later, I decided to make Tina’s pancake cookies. I used regular pancake mix, French vanilla creamer, almond butter, and peanut butter filled chocolate chips. These are really good…even Chris likes them.

I’m not sure what made me want to go, but I went to a late afternoon Bikram yoga class. This was my first class in over a year. It felt AMAZING and I was able to jump right back into proper form, but man is my flexibility gone…and I am sore today. But I can’t wait to go back for more. 🙂

The best way to refuel after 90 minutes of intense yoga = crockpot turkey chili with pumpkin cornbread.

This chili is super easy!

Crockpot Turkey Chili

1. Cook ground turkey and season with salt and pepper and transfer to crockpot.
2. Chop one onion, one green pepper, one red pepper, and one orange pepper and add to crockpot.
3. Add one can of black beans and one can of white kidney beans to crockpot.
4. Add one packet of chili seasoning.
5. Add enough vegetable stock to cover the veggies, beans, and turkey.
6. Stir and cook on high for 4:30 hours.
7. When there is 10 minutes left of cooking time, add a 1/2 cup of cous cous and stir and recover.
8. Serve with cheese, sour cream, and cornbread. 🙂

A Sunday night is not complete without watching Homeland and The Affair with lots of ice cream.

Did you see Homeland last night? OMG, so good!

Favorite crockpot recipe?

When is the last time you took a yoga class?

A few words per picture.

Nov 14, 2014

Happy Friday! It’s been a long week and I’m happy to welcome in the weekend. 🙂

I can’t get enough pancakes…

Oatmeal…

and this loaded sweet potato meal. It really is sooo good.

Last night’s dinner…do you like Brussels sprouts? Annabelle does not.

Our first snowfall of the season.

First hot chocolate and marshmallows of the season. 🙂

It’s been 2 weeks since Halloween and I had my first piece of candy this afternoon. It started with a mini Twix and a mini Milky Way. Next up were these babies…

I ended the candy eating binge with a full size Twix bar. Ugh.

Once I was done working for the day, I spent an hour with Jillian Michaels to balance everything out. Maybe all of that candy will be good fuel for my 20 mile run tomorrow morning???

What’s the best thing you ate today?

Who else is getting up to run in the freezing cold tomorrow? Please come run with me!