Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Running for Donuts

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Hello friends! This Wednesday started out absolutely perfectly! Well, maybe not started out, but within the first hour it got fabulous. Getting out of bed at 5:45 this morning was no picnic because I stayed up too late working on my running playlist on my ipod. I finally got out of bed, was running late and then my stupid GPS did not give me correct directions and my phone wouldn’t work and blah blah blah. But finally about 10 minutes late, I met up with Kara at Kiwanis Park. Can you believe I actually needed my GPS to drive there? For some reason, I have never actually been the driver when going and I don’t pay attention. Ever.

Kara and I started out on our run around the park and my legs felt tiiiiired. Like lead. Maybe it was my interval run Sunday, followed by Monday’s hike, followed by spin yesterday? Also, there were several small hills throughout the park and this girl is used to flat flat flat. Although our duck filled lake route has some small inclines, these were definitely steeper. Kara and I both acknowledged that today was seeming super challenging, but I gave us a little pep talk (which I needed just as much as her) and realized that we were actually making pretty decent time. I said “I have a surprise for you, but we have to rock the end of our run for you to get it!” When we finished, I showed her this amazingness

My previous (and the only time I had ever actually done 4 miles before) 4 mile time was 40:58. Almost 2 whole minutes off!!!!

And the best part, I didn’t realize until later

We ran our 4th mile in 8:57!!!!!! I don’t think I have EVER run a sub 9 min mile before!!! I almost cried. I know I will most certainly cry when I cross that half marathon finish line. I know I’ve said it over and over again, but I just never imagined that I would be able to do this. I was the kid in PE who walked at the back of the pack when we were supposed to run the mile. I told myself for so many years that I couldn’t do things. I so believe that it is all mental, and that we can do anything if we want it badly enough. I need a shirt for the race that says “I can do anything.” Nothing makes me feel better than those 4 words.

Now onto the super fun part (as much fun as wanting to do at a 9 min pace is, food is much more fun)! On our last long run, we ran by Bosa Donuts.

It smelled so freaking good that we wanted to just stop right there and get a donut before finishing our run, but we knew that if we stopped, we would never stop again that wasn’t a good idea. We did promise ourselves that eventually we would go try a donut though. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I went out for a donut.  We walked in and I was so overwhelmed I didn’t even know where to start.

Today is Mona’s birthday (YAY!!! Happy birthday my amazing friend!! I love you!!!) so we were bringing a box of donuts to Starbucks with us. We carefully selected 12 donuts (who has a hard time choosing 12? Apparently us) including what ended up being my favs: blueberry cake and buttermilk. It smelled so freaking amazing. Kara in all of her excitement exclaimed “We’re going to be consumed by donut air!!!!!” And we were. We left with this

So excited we could hardly contain ourselves

When we finally got to Starbucks, I got an other delicious iced coffee with sf vanilla and sf peppermint. Just like yesterday.

And when the line died down, we dug into the donut box! We wanted to sample lots of them, so we got plastic knives and went to town!

I took pretty small tastes of several of them, probably totaling about a whole donut all together. I was trying to keep it closer to half a donut. Maybe we’ll just pretend it was more like half 😉 After we dug in, the box looked like this

Mona with her birthday (and not just any birthday–21!!!) donut

While I was there, I had an unexpected visit with an old co-worker, as well as getting to see Bekki and Amelia and one of my favorite student mom’s, Beth!! Beth has the three loveliest girls on Earth and it is no surprise because she is totally amazing herself and any time I see her, she always makes me smile! Plus I hardly ever get to see Amelia and she makes my heart happy, and Bekki I just love. Amazing morning.

I also helped Kara set up her new blog!!!! “Ranting and Running” Go check it out!!!

Skinnified Sunday: Pumpkin Raisin Pancakes

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Today has been an almost perfect Sunday. A perfect Sunday would of course involve a day off, which I don’t get until Thanksgiving. Tired of my whining yet? It will continue. I hate to admit it, but it’s only fair to warn you. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around it will have been over 2 months of straight work, so you’ll just have to bear with me and accept that although I love what I do, this Fall has been a challenge mentally.

Anyway, I woke up at 5:30 to run with Kara. Unfortunately, after I was already dressed, I checked my phone and noticed a text from her saying she didn’t feel so hot. What’s funny is I had hardly slept either and I laid in bed debating canceling, but I figured I was already dressed, I better get my run on. I thought about taking Winston, but I haven’t focused on speed since before the Komen, and I knew I needed to use today to work on it. Unfortunately, my ipod running playlist isn’t finished and my phone isn’t doing so well on my runs so it was just me and the silence of 5:45 am. It was super dark out and I was a little scared, but it was nice to just be by myself in the perevt 65 degree temperature.

I did jogging and speedy run intervals up to Starbucks where I stopped for some water and a chat with some of my fav baristas, then was back on my way to continue. The second half I may or may not have had to take a stop and breathe break or 4. Yes, I paused my garmin so my “speedy” time I don’t feel super impressed with, but it was nice to at least work on speed.

A little while after my run, my appetite came on full force. It always takes a good 30 minutes for me to be able to consider food after a work out. Yesterday at Chompy’s, Hermano ordered pumpkin pancakes that tasted like heaven. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about them, so I woke Steve up to take me to Starbucks and the store. I’m an awesome wife. I got a delicious grande bold coffee with 2 pumps pumpkin spice, 2 pumps sf caramel and steamed soy with cinnamon sprinkled on top. I really miss hot coffee when it’s warm here. It’s still too hot, but if I REALLY want it, I will drink it and sweat. It’s really cute. I am the epitome of class.

Onto the most important part: The most amazing pancakes I have EVER made! Better than chocolate chip, better than any white flour crap. This is the real deal.

Pumpkin Pancakes

(theworldlink.com)

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons. packed brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 3/4 cups milk
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 cup cooking oil

My Swaps:

  • 1/2 recipe (-temptation)
  • Whole wheat pastry flour for all purpose (+fiber, +protein)
  • Molasses and sf maple syrup for brown sugar (-sugar, -calories)
  • Unsweetened vanilla almond milk for reg (-fat, -calories)
  • Egg whites for whole eggs (-fat, -calories, -cholesterol)
  • More pumpkin (+yum)
  • cooking oil who needs it?! Spray works just fine.
  • + chia seeds (+fiber, +protein, +staying power)
  • + protein powder (+protein-duh, +staying power)
  • + raisins (okay, the more I add things,  the less “skinnified” these sound…)
  • + seasonings and extracts (+yum)

Skinnified Fluffy Pumpkin Raisin Pancakes

yielf 3-4 servings

  • 1 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 tbs molasses
  • 1 tbs sf maple syrup
  • 1/2 tbs baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • almost 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 3 egg whites, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 tbs chia seeds
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • dash cloves
  • dash ginger
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • dash maple extract
  • 1/4 cup raisins (optional)

 

Directions:

  1. Combine dry ingredients.
  2. In a separate bowl, combine wet ingredients.
  3. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry until barely combined with some small lumps–DO NOT OVER MIX!
  4. Pour pancakes onto sprayed nonstick pan or skillet.
  5. Top with raisins if desired.
  6. Cook over medium low heat until bottom is set and small bubbles form on top.
  7. Flip, and cook on remaining side for 2-3 minutes until golden.
  8. Enjoy!

Topping ideas:

  • vanilla Greek yogurt
  • sf maple syrup
  • granola
  • fig butter
  • nut butter
  • butter butter

Whiccchhhaaaaa!!!! I am the pancake master!!! No pancake stands a chance!

Ok, ok, I admit it! I am still in my sweaty run clothes. You can judge me if you want. Sometimes I’m lazy. Steve just topped his with sf syrup.

I topped mine with nonfat vanilla Greek, sf syrup, extra chia seeds and granola per usual, but also added a thin layer of TJ’s fig butter which was an excellent choice!

Yummmmmmm

I’m telling you, I always love every recipe I post, and I almost always at least like every recipe I make, but these pancakes were a different kind of out of this world amazing love. I admit that sometimes whole wheat pancakes are a little brick-like dense, but these are light and fluffy like clouds or pillows. They are the perfect amount of sweet and the right amount of pumpkin. I could eat them again and again and again and I plan to. Do yourself a favor, make these pancakes. You won’t regret it.

My 100th Post!!!

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HOORAY!!!! This is officially my 100th post since I moved on over to wordpress and my own domain. I started the Skinnified blog a long time ago, but it has only been the last 2 months or so that I began to take blogging seriously and told Steve “I want my blog to be something. I want to inspire people and I want to change people’s lives.” I have no idea if anyone other than me actually gets anything out of this thing, but I get a LOT out of it, so that’s something 🙂 Today I got up in the dark again for my long run. Kara met me at my house @ 6:15 and we set off. The first mile, I was really slow. I think I was nervous and trying to pace myself, but seriously I was like a snail, but we picked up on mile 2 and ended up finishing our 6 miles in 1:03.

When I decided to run the Susan G Komen 5K, I remember saying to Steve “By the end of the year, I want to be able to run an hour without stopping.” At this point 30 minutes still felt so hard. He said “It’s going to be hard, but I think you can do it.” Well, friends, today is October 21st and actually with my training schedule, it looks like by the new year I will be running for more like 2 hours. I didn’t just accomplish that goal, I stomped all over it and kicked it to the curb in place of a better one: 13.1. Sure the race is Jan 15, but that is basically the start of the new year and I plan to kick it off with a bang!

Our run ended at The Good Egg where I ordered whole wheat pancakes with oatmeal and blueberries cooked in and 2 scrambled egg whites. I could only finish the eggs and one of the pancakes so now I have a second pancake for later 🙂 We met Bethany and Steve for breakfast. I was feeling a little out of it at this point and desperately in need of iced coffee. After breakfast, I took Bethany to her mom’s because she leaves for her first cruise today! I’m so excited for her. She works so hard and deserves to have some FUN! Then I met Kara at Starbucks for the COFFEE. Most important part of my day, seriously. I started off with my usual sfc iced coffee, but then got a refill that was AMAZING! It’s not officially out yet, but this year sugar free peppermint has arrived!!! I made a skinnified version of a peppermint white mocha

Grande iced coffee

1 pump white mocha

1 pump sf vanilla

1 pump sf peppermint

soy milk

light ice

You’re welcome. All the rich deliciousness of my favorite seasonal treat with about 100 calories. Yes, please

I even got to write my own cup which made me feel super special. Kara and I hung out with Mona on her break and enjoyed out iced coffees, some sunshine, and the accomplishment of being finished with this week’s long run!

My joints are feeling it a little today, but we walked over to the gym for some stretching and foam rolling (I hate you foam roller) and I will spend lots of time icing this evening. I also plan on hitting up the ibuprofen bottle to hopefully knock out any pain that may be coming my way.

I feel pretty great about the way my training is going. I know there will be challenges and times I question why the f I would ever want to do this, but right now it is bringing me so much joy and every week I achieve something that once seemed impossible. Every week I affirm the fact that

I.Can.Do.Anything.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Okay, I promise the next post will include my new cookies and their recipe. But now I have to go to the tmobile store AGAIN because my stupid phone ate the new battery they gave me and now will not come back to life AGAIN. Annoyed.

In happier news, tonight is Opening Night!!!! So excited. Come see Aladdin!!!!

So Much Coffee

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Every time I wake up early, Winston stays in bed and stares at me with the saddest longing eyes like he’s saying “Mom, please don’t go. Come back to bed and snuggle with me.” Yes, I legitimately cuddle with my dog in bed. You are free to judge me. It won’t stop me. I got up at 5:45 to meet Kara for an early morning run around the lake. I love this route. Each lap is almost exactly a mile, slight hills, adventurous travels through the apt complex, nice scenery and of course, the ducks!

This time we must have encountered them 3 or 4 different times and each time they angrily quacked at us like they were pissed that we were interrupting their important waddle time. Those ducks crack me up. We finished 3 miles with a 9:55 average pace. Whoot.

Mile 1: 10:45

Mile 2: 9:50

Mile 3: 9:13

Talk about negative splits! My first mile is always soooo slow. It’s like it takes my body the entire mile to get warmed up and ready to actually run. I need to work on that my next week day run. Tomorrow is a rest day because Friday we are running 6 miles!! Every long run makes me equally nervous and excited. New challenges, new accomplishments! After our run, we headed to Starbucks for water and iced coffee. I got my usual: Grande SF caramel iced coffee with soy, light ice (light ice=MORE room for coffee!) I also ordered Steve a coffee to take back to him, but then I got home and this happened

Second time in a week I’ve tried to surprise him with coffee and he had the EXACT same idea. Ironically there were no days in between where either of us got each other coffee. Steve laughed and said “We need to coordinate or something.” I don’t know, looks like we’re pretty in sync to me! Two iced coffees hanging out in my fridge, soon to become one 🙂

After our I showered and got ready, I met the other Kara (hair Kara) at Forever 21 for some shopping. The new-ish one in AZ Mills is HUGE and I’d been wanting to go. I got a pair of shorts that are about 10 years too young for me, a super cute emerald green shirt that I didn’t even try on because I loved the color so much annnnnnd, the most exciting part, an ALADDIN SWEATSHIRT!!!!! I saw it and new I had to have it since we open on Friday (get your tickets, peeps–these kiddos are amazing!) I will take pictures of the new clothes (including my super awesome pumpkin shirt I bought at Target for $10 to be festive) once I have Steve around to take actually good pictures.

After shopping I had to make a super annoying trip to the tmobile store because my battery full on died–like unable to be brought back to life died. Soon my over heating phone will kill this battery as well and then MAYBE they will give me a new phone that actually works. By the time I got home I was soooo hungry and wanting the fastest lunch possible, so I took out this frozen pizza I bought at TJs a while ago.

I jazzed it up with some crumbled red fat feta cheese and sriracha on top, but I was so hungry I didn’t want to wait for the oven to preheat. My oven seriously takes years. It’s annoying. So I set it to burn broil and cut the cooking time almost in half. Well the burn button did it’s thing and I ended up with a pizza that was cold in the middle and burnt on the outside. I’m an awesome cook, can’t you tell?

Well, like I said, I was ready to gnaw my left arm off hungry, so I put it in the microwave for 40 seconds and then ate it anyway. It was not great my friends, but not awful. It did the trick. I would buy it again for an easy meal, but even cooked correctly, I don’t think it would have been anything too fantastic. Alright, off to get some life errands done that I’ve been neglecting, then off to work. Have a good day everyone!

Technology Fail

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Hi friends, happy Monday! Today is actually pretty fantastic because I thought I didn’t have to work until 2:40, but then I realized I don’t have to work until 5:30! Hooray!! I got up nice and early to start my run at about 6:15, but I had forgotten to charge my phone which meant I would have no music, so I stuck it on the charger, caught up on some blog reading for half an hour and then figured it should be ready. It was, but my Garmin which I had charged yesterday stilllll said low battery >:(

Uggghhh so frustrating. I tried to put it back on for a few minutes, but it was no use. I stared at it dumb founded for a good minute. Derrrrrr. What do I do now? I live in the 21st century and don’t know what to do with out fancy gadgets. Then I had a stroke of genius remembered that I actually am an intelligent human being and that I did actually run a few times before I got good ole Garmie. I remembered the 3 mile route I had been taking around my hood and set out feeling naked with no Garmin to keep track of my time or distance. It was hard to push myself at the end with out it, but I still covered a little over 3 miles in about 30 minutes. It was a good run, I just hate not knowing exactly, you know?

I came home and made the most delicious breakfast sandwich ever. I toasted a sandwich thin, spread 1 tbs almond butter on one half, and 2 tbs pumpkin and a couple drops of sugar free maple syrup on the other, then topped with lots of chia seeds and half a sliced banana. Yum

I always read blogs where they say they ate half a banana and I always wonder what happens to the other half? I tried to wrap mine back in the peel, but ended up eating the rest when I got back from Starbucks anyway haha, I spent a couple hours at Starbucks working on choreography and catching up on blogging. I still have so much more to get done, but honestly can barely find the motivation to do anything other than sit on my butt and eat. Yikes. This girl needs a vacation! Back to work on Fiddler ‘ography. Have a lovely day everyone!

5 miles? Yup, I can run that!

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Whooohoooo!!!! 12 hour day work week is over and I survived! Last night in rehearsal, I started to feel it really catching up to me, but I came home, went to bed early, and feel much more ready to take on today! Let’s back track to Thursday morning. Up until Thursday, I had been doing all my training runs by myself, which I actually don’t mind, and I wasn’t expecting to enjoy running with anyone else to be honest. I was afraid one of us would slow the other down or I would feel self conscious, and it also seemed pointless being that I am not someone who really talks while I run. Regardless, I met Kara bright and early Thursday morning at a lake in Chandler to go for a run together.

The sun was just barely coming up and it was beautiful outside. I was surprised to REALLY enjoy the company! The route ended up being kind of an adventure. We were running, then all of the sudden the trail ended and we had to jump a couple low fences and run through this apartment complex. It was different, but it kept things interesting, that’s for sure! We discovered that 1 lap around the lake was about a mile, so we made three laps with all negative splits! Whoot! I believe it was something like 10:47 (it takes these legs about a mile to warm up, and I find that taking that first mile nice and slow makes a HUGE difference to me!), 10:20, 9:53. I could actually look it up in my Garmin for something more exact, but that takes actually getting up off my butt which is totally not happening right now haha. Our last lap, we encountered a flock of ducks just hangin out in our pathway that for some reason totally cracked us up. It is so nice to have someone to share the experience with and LAUGH with! Luckily, Kara and I are really at the same place fitness wise, which makes sense considering we have pretty much the same work out routine. I discovered that I don’t actually have to be a hermit with my running, and company is an amazing thing!

Yesterday, I grudgingly took the day off from working out. It’s been helping so much with my energy level and overall happiness to wake up early and get it finished. I feel more accomplished and productive during the rest of the day! But I knew that since I was running a new distance today, I needed the break. So yesterday, I slept in (well until 6:45 haha), went to work, had an amazing dinner break at True Foods with my assistant choreographer Tasha, and returned to the theater for our final rehearsal before tech. We had a great rehearsal and I am so excited for this show.

If you live in the Phoenix area, please please please, come see Aladdin Jr @ Greasepaint! We open this coming Friday and run for 2 weekends with Friday shows @ 7pm and Sat/Sun matinees @ 2pm. I’m really proud of the work the kids, and all of the artistic staff has put into this show. My harem dancers are rock stars and they impress me every single night!

Okay, onto this morning’s excitingness!!! So now that I am full on in half marathon training mode, it means that my long run every week is a distance I have never run before. Up until I began my training, the farthest I had gone EVER was 3 miles and it was NOT easy. 2 weeks ago it was 4 miles, last week was the 5K (not a new distance, but my first race!) and today was 5 MILES!! Kara arrived at my house at 6:30 this morning. I had planned our run to end at Great Harvest Bread Company which is right across the street from Seattle Espresso (best coffee EVER) and a cute little farmers market. I LOVE having something fun as the end destination of my run. It makes it all worth it!

I was pleasantly surprised at how great I felt during most of the run. We took it slow and steady and I didn’t start to really feel tired until about 4.5 miles. We are not the fastest runners out there, but today Kara and I ran 5 miles for the very first time!

We got close to negative splits, but no cigar. We did do mile 5 in 9:33, however! I am still so amazed by things I never thought I could do. It makes me wonder how many other things in life I perceive as unachievable, or out of reach, that I could actually accomplish. I am a very goal oriented person, and there is almost nothing that makes me feel better than meeting my goals. Today I feel awesome. After we finished, we enjoyed a delicious sample of pumpkin chocolate chip bread (OMG AMAZING!!!) and egg white and turkey sandwiches. I could only eat half–I just don’t have much of an appetite RIGHT after I run. Of course, now I’m hungry again. Then we walked across the street and I did something I have not done in a LONG time.

I used to be awful about my coffee drinks. I had no idea just how bad they were for me, and my very favorite was always Seattle Espresso’s White Russian Mocha. I haven’t one in well over a year, but today I treated myself to a 12 oz double shot non fat hot white russian mocha. It was like heaven.

Then, we walked around the farmers market a bit, I bought some cilantro and a butternut squash. Random, right? Well I ran into Dani and she mentioned a recipe for butternut squash cupcakes which sounded amazing so I had to buy one. After, you know, dancing around with it like a total freak. Can’t take me anywhere 🙂 Now I desperately need a shower and a snack, then I’m off to 6 hour tech rehearsal! Happy Saturday everyone!

Early run & long day

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Today I worked literally 12 hours straight. When I wasn’t actually teaching, I was driving between jobs, which I can assure you, feels nothing like time off. The funny thing is that today was one of the best days I’ve had in a long time. I started the day with a nice, slow run. Nice and slow? Yeah, I’m weird. After my experience during the Komen, I wanted to take things nice and slowly this morning. I am new to running. I need to take my time and be patient. Today, that is exactly what I did. Nothing spectacular, amazing or impressive, but I felt good the entire time, and felt like I could have gone further which makes me feel a little less scared for my 5 mile run I am planning for Saturday.

After my run, I got ready, made a smoothie to go and had a super productive day at work.  I love when I finish everything I need to do and can add MORE! It never happens in my real life to do lists, so it’s a nice feeling of accomplishment when it can happen at work. Then, I went to job #2, and after a class at job 2, moved on to job #3 for the day–rehearsal! I had left my Wednesday rehearsal last week feeling slightly discouraged. Things just were not coming together the way they normally do and I felt like I had to spend a lot of time being the bad guy. I HATE that. I’m a pretty fun and silly teacher/director/choreographer and when I have to play tough guy, it makes me grumpy. BUT, and this is why I LOVE working with kids, today everything was different! It all finally came together and we felt like a team, a family, and I wanted to cry I was so happy. I put every single thing I have into my work and when my kiddos succeed, I feel like a success. When things go wrong, I take it to heart. Good or bad, I care immensely about what I do.

It’s funny, yesterday I said to John “I just want to quit. I want to choose a different career.” I was frustrated. I’ve been having a lot of frustrations that are more situational than anything else. But every time I start to feel exasperated and begin to think of other careers I could possibly pursue and still be happy–well first of all, I can never think of a single one, but second of all, something always happens that reminds me that I DON’T want to quit and that I absolutely love what I do. I just care so much that bad days are BAD days. Maybe one day I will chill the F out. Then again, this is me.

Well I have to be up in 7 hours to meet Kara for an other training one, so I guess that means it’s my bed time. I haven’t been sleeping well at all, and I’m not tired because I just got home less than an hour ago and I’m still all wound up from work, but maybe once I lay in bed, magic will happen and sleep will occur. Have a great night everyone!

PS: If you haven’t gotten a chance to read about my Whisked Away experience yet, it was pretty amazing and there are about a million pictures 🙂

Negative Nancy

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If you’ve spent any time with me the last couple of days…well…ummm…I’m sorry. I kind of really suck lately. Yesterday was like the terrible horrible no good very bad day. A day where I should have locked myself in my house with Winston, Clementine and ANMT reruns, but the thing about being a grown up is you can’t really take mental health days anymore. You just have to push through. I started off the day feeling no motivation, skipped the gym and went for a walk to try to convince myself I wasn’t being a lazy bum and the day just went down hill from there. Nothing exceptionally bad happened, but when you are exhausted and over worked, everything seems amplified.

Luckily, today I woke up feeling slightly better, and I had a run to the gym + a yoga class on the agenda. I set out and was feeling great at first, but then I started feeling icky at about the mile point. My stomach was pissed for some reason and I thought I might have to turn around, but I stopped and breathed for a little bit, started to feel better and was back on my way. I stopped again once I was almost there to take a picture of this awesome moment!

>30 minutes!!!!! Okay, so maybe I took an untimed 5 min breather break when I started to feel icky, but I think it still counts! My goal for Sunday has been to finish in under 30, and after today I am pretty sure that I can! I ended up finishing at just under 3.5 miles

Average pace of 9:40!!! I was so stoked when I saw that! I hadn’t gone through my history yet and looked at things like average pace and calories burned, but I did today and saw my average pace steadily getting faster–YES! I’m feeling good about where I am in my training. I have the 5K this weekend and 5 miles scheduled for next weekend which I am nervous about to say the least.

After my run, I stopped into the Starbucks, chugged some water, walked over to the gym and met with the dreaded foam roller. I hate it. It hurts. I think I’m going to buy one for my house because apparently I’m some kind of masochist. Then I went in for a relaxing yoga class. I was able to use the class for my own benefit much more than normal and get what I wanted out of it without worrying what anyone else was doing which was a nice step for me!

After Yoga I wanted to eat my arm off (I just cannot eat before I run). Hank picked me up at the gym–I’m so lucky to have such a helpful family!–and I came home and made basically the most delicious bowl of oatmeal ever. I don’t know–I always make it almost the exact same way: oats, almond milk, chia seeds, banana (cooked in the whole time–trust me!), blueberries, fig butter, sunflower seed butter, cinnamon and some sort of extract (today it was almond). I know, my oats are COMPLICATED! And they are always delicious, but today they were extra amazing–probably because I was so hungry!

I love blueberries in my oatmeal, but it always makes the color of the bowl look funky to me. Like greyish. I wish they were prettier. Oh well, my tummy couldn’t care less! Okay, I need a shower and coffee. Then off to lunch with Hank and Charlie, work and then drinks with my soon to be sister in law! Happy Friday everyone!!

Motivation

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Good morning friends! Today I slept until 8:00 which is so unusual for me! I’ve been feeling really tired and a little worn down and I guess my body just really needed a good 9 hours of sleep. I totally could have laid there longer, but I knew I wanted to get my run done and over with. Yesterday I woke up super sore. I hadn’t really felt any pain from my long (for me) run on Sunday, but then I think yesterday the combination of left over tiredness from the run and soreness from jumping lunges and one legged squats in bodyworks finally caught up to me and in spin class, my legs felt like lead. I had to drop my flat road gear down to an 8 and even still I just could not get my cadence up to where we were supposed to the entire class. It’s not that I wasn’t trying, I was dripping sweat all over my bike (cute, right?) and my legs were on fire!

About 2/3 the way through class I started to feel really frustrated that I wasn’t able to give the kind of power and energy I expected of myself and I kind of wanted to quit. I had this whole battle in my mind about how I was failing and I should just give up, and I knew it was counter productive, so I tried playing the devil’s advocate with myself–reminding myself that I did just start training for a half marathon after what? a month of running? And not only that, I added it on top of my gym schedule, not instead of. Then I remembered some things I’ve read on other blogs about how I don’t HAVE to be there exercising, I get to. Then I thought of Ashley’s bike accident and how she is now struggling to even walk and I am acting like a bad class is the end of the world and worth quitting over.

So then I started thinking about all the people who don’t get to do what I do. People who can’t afford a gym membership, or want/need desperately to make a change in their healthy, but haven’t found that spark in them to be ready to conquer their fears and make a change. I stopped thinking about all the people in better shape than me and how I have so far to go and I realized that somewhere in the world there is probably someone who wishes they can do what I can do. That is something that’s really hard to imagine for me, but I’m hoping that it does exist and that maybe I am an inspiration for someone out there the way so many are for me.

I ended class not super fast, but knowing that I tried my hardest and focusing my energy on being okay with that.

When I woke up this morning, I just didn’t want to. I felt totally unmotivated, and contemplated laying around and then just going to yoga at 11. This is where having something to train for comes in really handy. I am not a great runner. Yet. The longest I have ever run is 4 miles, and January 15th, I have to run 13.1 and that scares the crap out of me. I definitely do not have time to be lazy and skimp out on my run days especially considering I am only planning on running 3-4 times a week. So I thought about it and decided I would go out and try the Galloway Method. I’ve heard other bloggers talk about using it, and that is actually where I found what I’m using as the base for my training plan. So I ran for 3 min, walked for 1, repeat. I was really surprised that it didn’t totally kill my time! I actually found knowing I had a walk break coming, I was way speedier during the run sections. I saw my pace down in the 8’s a few times and at the end when I went to finish strong even dip into the high 7’s (for like 2 seconds haha, but still exciting!) I ended up finishing in about the same amount of time as if I were to have run the entire time, and I felt better. This guy knows what he’s talking about! I think it’s a really good tool for me to use to help with speed, and with motivation when I’m not feeling it, but I definitely still want to have runs where I just run the whole time.

Now I’m going to make some breakfast, and head to yoga! Have a great day everyone!

PS: What helps you get on the wagon when you’re just not feeling it? I feel like this has been a pretty popular topic lately, and I’m curious to see how others deal with the motivational dips we all experience!

Blogger meet up & PDR!

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First I just need to say that my Salted Caramel Mocha Brownie Cupcakes were a huge hit! Hooray!! Kara even told me she liked them better than the pumpkin canolis that Riga Tony’s brought out 🙂 I really love being the designated birthday baker and I love it so much more now that I am embracing the way I want to make food and not putting myself in a situation where I feel like I “can’t” eat what I’ve made. It’s so interesting discovering that when I embrace who I am and what I need, other people openly embrace it as well. I feel like so many things we do to try to please others could be so easily avoided, because honestly, people just like the real us better anyway.

Anyyyywayyy, moving on 🙂 Yesterday I got the amazing opportunity to meet some other bloggers in the area! I was so excited when I started to find other Phoenix bloggers and even more so when everyone was so nice and welcoming! I was totally nervous about going–would you believe that I actually tend to get pretty significant social anxiety? I have a pretty outgoing personality, so it’s something people are often pretty surprised by, but I nerd out about wanting people to like me. Maybe it’s an actor thing 🙂 Anyway, I met up with the group at Four Peaks after I got done with rehearsal. It was so nice to talk to other people who are as passionate as I am about health and food. These ladies are fabulous and I left feeling inspired by every one of them 🙂

I brought my camera, but then never took it out for some reason, so I’m stealing pictures from Nicole and Emily! For some reason, I look pissed in the first one. What’s up with that? I’m just not a good camera smiler! 🙂

L-R Raya, Carolyn, Dani, Nicole, Me, Emily, Heather

I’m so glad I went and thank you guys so much for making me feel so welcome!

This morning I got up and decided it was time to make this idea that Kara and I have been discussing a reality. The idea being half marathon training. The PF Chang’s Rock and Roll half marathon happening Jan 15th to be precise. I’d been really nervous to announce it in fear that I wouldn’t be able to make it happen. Up until this morning, 5K was my PDR and it is not an easy distance for me by any means. How the hell am I going to add an extra 10 miles to that by January?! So this morning I got up and I new today I had to run 4. So I headed out for a run to Starbucks (what is a better ending location than iced coffee?!) and proved to myself that I will be able to continue to run longer and longer distances because I can do anything I set my mind to.

I even did better time wise than I was expecting! Not that a 10:15 average is exactly fast, but considering it’s my first time and it was just a couple of weeks ago that I decided to get serious about this running thing, I’ll take it! In fact I will take it with excitement and happiness and make this face

F you short achilles tendons!! You just try to keep me from running a half marathon! Actually, please don’t try because the last thing I need is something to make this HARDER. I promise to spend lots of time like this trying to keep you happy

Winston and Clementine don’t mind. They ♥ the lap time 🙂

4 miles in 40:58. I am a happy girl, and I feel ready to take on this new challenge! I am so thankful that Kara is going to be doing it with me! The only thing better than accomplishing life goals is having great friends along the way doing it with you. This has been something I’ve wanted to do since the first day I ever ran a mile a little over 2 years ago and I just always believed that I couldn’t. I can’t wait to prove myself wrong! 🙂

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