Thank you for the kind words I've received about my Dad.  It's been a long couple of weeks and the road ahead is sure to be a little uncertain but I'm feeling very hopeful and thinking positive thoughts.  We are still awaiting opinions and things continue to change day to day but I feel good about where he is and how things are going.

Having said all that, obviously things have been a bit off around here lately.  I've spent my days on the phone and on the internet (sometimes too much research can be a very bad thing!) and as a result, my kids are going a bit bat shit crazy.  Yesterday I finally stepped away from the desk and got them out of the house.  We drove out to White Flint Mall in Rockville, MD to check out Dave & Busters.  Have you heard of this place?  Holy mother of all video games.  I've been a stress ball and I'm exhausted and I'm upset about San Francisco, in other words, I'm not in the best mental state and let me tell you, Dave & Busters was not the place to be.  It was so loud and crazy.  But the boys loved it and had a really great time and that is all that matters right now.  I've felt so guilty that I haven't done anything with them in two weeks so it was good to see them so happy.  We didn't leave White Flint until 4:00 which, for those of you who live anywhere near the DC metro area know was a huge mistake.  The traffic on 270 and 495 was totally unbearable.  Makes me glad I don't live over there anymore and am way out in the 'burbs. 

I haven't run (or done any kind of workout) since my 10 miler on Sunday and I'm feeling it.  I mentioned before that I have learned that stress makes me eat.  And eat.  And eat.  I've been grabbing anything I can get my hands on and feel so bloated and just plain nasty.  I did take a major leap in the green smoothie arena though that I wanted to tell you about.  I tried kale!  Yes!  Kale!!  I know!  Crazy woman I am.  I have heard that kale is very bitter (no, I've never tasted it before) and so I was a bit aprehensive to try it. 

Here is the mixture I used:

3/4 cup Light and Fit vanilla yogurt
2 cups baby spinach
2 kale leaves (kale leaves are big suckers! I pulled the leaf from the tough stalk in the middle)
2 celery stalks
1 pear
1 small banana
1 scoop protein powder

This was really good.  I could taste a bit of the kale but didn't find it a bad taste.  I can see though that if you were new to green smoothies, you might not like it.  Next time I'll add carrots and some cucumber just to up the veggie factor.  As for the protein powder, I've been researching several different brands and finally decided on Solgar Whey to Go (I used the natural vanilla bean flavor).  It hasn't changed the taste or texture of any of the smoothies I've used it in so far and so I'm happy with it.  I got it at Wegmans but it's on Amazon as well.

Life on Hold

I've been a bit m.i.a.  Things around here have been thrown around a bit and life is officially on hold.  There is a health concern happening in my immediate family and as a result, everything else has stopped.  Including anything having anything to do with running.  In other words, I wont be on that plane to San Francisco on Wednesday and wont be running the marathon.  I'm hopeful that things will return to some kind of normal soon though.  Think well thoughts.

Missed My Long Run....Kinda Freaking

My Dad went in for a knee replacement last week and due to a bout of pneumonia, has had a bit of a set back in his recovery.  I have been trying to hang out with him as much as possible because he's been a bit bummed out.  The good news is that this weekend, he was finally able to get in some much needed PT and is getting around better on crutches, not the walker...yay!  The bad news is that I've missed quite a few training runs.  Obviously my Dad's health comes first but this morning, I had three emails from my running friends chatting about what a great 21.5 mile run they had on Sunday.  Including my friend who is running San Francisco with me in, oh, I dunno, TWO WEEKS!  Holy mother of all crap balls.  I know, I know, San Fran is "just for fun, not time..." but still!  Sure would feel a bit better if I had that 21.5 under my belt.  They are dropping down to 12 this Sunday which I'll be able to join them for but I still feel pretty shaky for missing the super long one.  I'm hoping that I can get out one morning this week, like Wednesday, and get in a 15 miler.  So hard to do during the week though.

My weekend was spent either with my Dad or on the phone with my step-mother talking about my Dad so I have absolutly nothing of interest to talk about today.  I did learn, however, that I respond to stress/worry by eating.  And by eating crap.  I've had either ice cream or cookies every night since he went into the hospital.  And wine.  Lots of freakin' ass building, stomach bloating wine.  Awesome.  He better get out soon or I'm going to explode.

I did get myself a new coffee mug though.  Check it out:

I know what you are thinking: "I didn't realize I was reading a blog written by a 16 year old." I promise, you are not.  I realize it's totally immature, but I can't help it.  I love it.  Oh, and it's sitting on my other favorite thing, my mouse pad with the best photo ever taken: me and Santana Moss.  Sigh.  Love me some Redskins and Santana Moss.

I have to tell you about my dinner last night.  I was in panic mode because I hadn't planned anything specific.  After standing in front of an open fridge and freezer for a good 10 minutes (I now pay the bills so I'm totally aloud to do this) I located a bag of frozen shrimp and decided to make stir fry.  First, I sauteed garlic and green onions in some olive oil.  Then I added a red pepper, green pepper and some frozen mushrooms.  I splashed on some soy sauce and pepper and of course, crushed red pepper flakes.  After a bit,  I added the shrimp and a little more soy sauce.  I served it over brown rice with broccoli and a salad.  Yum, yum, yum.  My husband even loved it.  And I have to mention, in the salad, I tossed in some dried cranberries and just loved the sweet little punch they gave.

Also, I finally recieved a super cute t-shirt I ordered a little while back.  I got it from toLIVEby Apparel and I just love it.  I had a hard time making a decision, love all the slogans.  Check out their site.

Haven't been doing much running this week, only 10 miles total, but on both of those runs, I added some good interval training so I feel like even though it's only 10 miles, it's 10 quality miles!  Technically I'm supposed to be tapering since The San Francisco Marathon is only three weeks away.  I think I mentioned though that my friend Amy and I are planning on run/walking this marathon.  She hasn't done a ton of training since Boston and I haven't gotten more than an 18 mile long run in since The Delaware Marathon six weeks ago so we both feel very unprepared.  No worries though.  Neither one of us feel any stress about time for this race since we both have our BQ's in hand for 2012 (I still can't believe I can say that!!) so our plan is to bring out cameras and enjoy the sites.  Should be a really fun time.

And speaking of San Francisco, I just found out that Luluemon is going to be at the expo on both Saturday and Sunday doing sessions of Runners Yoga!  I'm super excited to check that out!

Trying to Please Everyone IS Possible!

The other night, I was thinking about how hard it is to make a major lifestyle change when you are the only one in your family making that change.  My husband, while he isn't a couch potato, isn't the addicted to the gym and run every possible minute kind of freak that I am.  He also has no interest in changing the way he eats.  He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and loves, loves, loves to go out to dinner and order things that sometimes make me cringe.  That's fine.  I don't have any desire to change him.  I do find, however, that the fact that he eats the way he does is making my switch to a mostly plant based diet rather difficult.  I feel guilty trying to put fish in front of him every night.  And while I'd be more then happy with a salad and some kind of rice or quinoa or cous cous, that isn't going to fly with him.   Then there are my boys.  My 10-year-old is about the pickiest eater ever.  He is a pasta man and would just assume eat it every night.  I have managed to sway him over to the fish side though.  He loves salmon which is great.  My 7-year-old is my husband's mini-me....he requests steak every night.  Anyway, back to dinner on Monday night.  We wanted to cook out so off to Wegmans I went.  Here is what I came home with:
1 steak (little kid)
1 chicken breast (husband had a burger the night before so he requested "white meat")
1 piece of salmon (me)
1 container of Wegmans' mac & cheese (big kid)
potato salad (husband - the more mayo, the better)
brown rice with veggies (me)
corn on the cob (big kid)
watermelon (little kid)
Seriously.  It's kind of insane.  I know I shouldn't treat my kitchen like a cafeteria and I should just put dinner down and in front of my kids and say, "This is dinner, eat it or go to bed hungry"....or at least that's what I've read and been told countless times.  But why?  I don't want my husband to declare every night steak or burger night and expect me to eat it.  I'd like for him to respect the fact that I want fish or just a vegetarian meal.  So why should I do that to my kids?  While it felt kind of crazy at first, bringing home all that food, it actually worked out really well.  My husband loves to grill and has no issue with me tossing 3 different things at him.  So maybe I've been making it too hard by simply thinking it's too hard.  No one in my family is rolling their eyes at me and telling me I'm being too difficult.  The kids ate every bite of their food, including some of my fish, and we all went to bed happy....and full.

 Hope you all had a great 4th of July!  I had a really fantastic weekend.  Started it off by getting my long run out of the way on Saturday rather than waiting until Sunday morning.  We ran 18 miles and thanks to the incredibly cool temperatures early in the morning, we had a fantastic run.  All went really well.  although I did have stomach issues (had to stop at the bathroom twice) for the second week in a row.  I'm getting a little concerned about it.  It has to be something I'm eating.  The issues begin as soon as the run starts and doesn't go away until the next day.  Basically, the rest of the day on Saturday, I didn't stray far from home.  Fortunately, by the time we had a party to go to at 7:00, I was starting to get some relief.  Although I still couldn't eat.  Same thing happened last week.  The common denominator was that the night before both runs (poor choice of words), I had plain white pasta.  And on Friday this week, I had quite a bit of bread (small pita rounds my husband and I were dipping in hummus) which I don't normally eat.  I've no clue what is going on.  But I wont be having pasta before a run any time soon!

The party Saturday night was really great.  A neighborhood bash with about 120 people there and no less then a million kids.  They put off a great fireworks show too.  Then on Sunday, we had another BBQ to attend with more fireworks.  My boys had the best weekend ever and as a result, slept until 10:00am yesterday!  I don't think my 7-year-old has ever slept until 10:00 in his entire life!

I took Monday off because my husband was home and we all just felt like chillin' but this morning, it was back to the routine!  Got a good 5 miles in and I'll be leaving for Body Pump in about 30 minutes. 

After my run this morning, I was excited to try out a new product in my smoothie.  At Wegmans this weekend, I had about 5 different types of cacao powder in my hands stressing about which would be the best one.  I ended up purchasing the one pictured.  Then yesterday, I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Kristen's Raw, and saw that she swears by the stuff...even has it listed on her other blog, Green Mommy Blog in the store Woot! Confirmation that I made the right choice (yes, I know I shouldn't believe everything I read but I really love this woman's blogs and I choose to believe her so there.)!  The results:  the most unflavorful smoothie ever.  I bought the cacao powder so that I wouldn't have to put the dreaded chocolate syrup in my banana peanut butter chocolate smoothies that I love after a run and while I think the powder is going to be good, I can't quite figure out what went wrong.  I put a cup of almond milk, 1 banana, 2 tablespoons of cacao powder and a cup of ice in the vitamix.  After a few seconds, it kind of locked up on me (which I find odd because there wasn't peanut butter in this one) so I added a bit of water.  Then had to add more and more water just to keep it blending.  Once it was done, it was still really chunky.  I tasted it and it tasted like slushy water!  What the hell??  So maybe I need more almond milk?  Less ice?  I ended up dumping it out.  Totally annoying.   I'm not giving up though!  I know eventually, I can replicate Starbucks Vivanno drink perfectly!

Eggs for Lunch....Why Not?!

Today I went to Body Pump and had about the worst instructor ever.  Really awful.  Totally off beat the entire time and didn't call any of the exercises by their actual names.  For example, bent over rows were called "knees and squeezes" and dead lifts were called "hip hinges".  Seriously.  Beyond irritating.

When I got home, I decided to try and recreate my new favorite Starbucks drink, the chocolate banana Vivanno.  I don't have any protein powder though (still trying to decide what brand to go with) so I subbed a scoop of peanut butter for it.  I know, probably not quite as much protein, but what the hell.
1/2 cup almond milk
1 banana
1 tsp chocolate syrup (need to get a semi-healthy version of chocolate!)
1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 cup of ice
During the blending, I poured a bit of water in because it was quite thick. It was fantastic!!  Really, really good.  I would have liked more chocolate but since I was using the super crappy processed stuff, I went with only 1 teaspoon.  Even my 7-year-old liked this which is saying something because he saw that banana go in.

I am desperate to get to the grocery store because my fridge is totally empty - not a leaf of spinach or any greens to be found - so I had to get a bit creative for lunch.  I haven't had eggs in forever so I decided to go with that.

1 egg
1 whole wheat english muffin
2 tablespoons Guiltless Gourmet Spicy Black Bean Dip

I sprayed a small bowl with non-stick spray, beat the egg and microwaved it for 1:30.  Toasted the English muffin.  Smeared the bean dip on and popped on the egg.  Lunch served in about 2 minutes.  It may sound and look (maybe I shouldn't have posted a picture!) like a strange lunch but it was super good and really satisfying!  Next time, I'll add some spinach for sure.  And maybe fresh salsa!


Totally unrelated to anything, I was watching a recording of Cougar Town last night - I think it was last weeks episode - and at the end they were playing this song that I just loved but had never heard before.  Google to the rescue!  The song, Leave Your Boyfriends Behind is by Leona Naess.  I pulled it up on iTunes and ended up downloading a bunch of her songs.  Some of her stuff is really slow and mellow but I did find some catchy songs that I bought.  I love finding a new artist.  Here is the Boyfriend song from YouTube. The sound is a little odd in the very beginning.  Just give it a minute.