The streak continues

Streak day 4, 7 days 'till NYC...

Another excellent day today. Sorry if I keep starting these last few posts the same way, but I'm just always so excited about my good food choices and I feel great! Work is busy, but it doesn't matter because I just feel good about myself which translates into feeling good about everything else. Ok, onto food... :D

Breakfast



'Nuff said? Jk! This breakfast is not only extremely photogenic but is also extremely delicious! In this cup was about 3/4 cups of nonfat yogurt, 1/2 banana, a serving of TJ's american trek mix, some kashi golean and Erin's double chocolate granola. I definitely wanted more when I finished, but that's because there was chocolate involved and I always want more chocolate :D This breakfast was slightly more calories than my typical breakfasts (the addition of granola was the extra) because I was planning on doing an 8 mile run during lunch and wanted to increase my calorie intake a little bit to fuel this workout.

Pre-workout Snack
Again, this one was a little bit on the larger size for a snack for me. Last night I made this little sandwich and photographed it before packing it up...



Whole wheat "british muffin" (from TJ's) with a tablespoon of spreadable fruit and a little over 1/2 tablespoon of natural pb (mix of chunky and smooth). The spreadable fruit made the muffin slightly soggy, but it was still pretty yummy and was definitely good fuel for later :)

Workout
I've been meaning to do this 8 mile run since last Friday, but things just kept coming up. I've never run longer than 7 miles before, but the 7 miles didn't feel like my limit, so I figured I should be able to do the 8. I still get nervous almost every time before I run. I don't know why. I always do well. In fact, let me fastward to my workout today... I kicked butt! At mile 7 I kept on increasing speed at which point I actually had to slow down on purpose so as to not injure myself. I didn't want to regret this run, but yeah, I definitely could have done this faster or run longer. Awesome! I actually forgot to look at the clock on the treadmill (yes I ran 8 miles on the treadmill! It was no problem for me, I was just watching tv the entire time)... but I averaged 6.4 mph, so maybe it took like 73 minutes or so?? I also did 0.15 mile walk for warmup and 0.15 mile walk for a cooldown... and I stretched after my run. I really wanted to make sure I wake up tomorrow and am able to walk :D

Do you ever slow down on purpose or do you just give it your all?

LunchLunch today was leftovers from last night: hamburger stroganoff. It was still super delicious!!!



I also had a pear for "dessert." It was super juicy and delicious!



Afternoon snack
I had a hair appointment after work so I decided to have a quick snack so I wouldn't be starving when I finally got home. I tried a new kind of KIND bar: walnut & date.



OMG, I am seriously in love with kind bars!!!! This is the second kind I've had one (well actually I tried another kind at a little tasting they had at Whole Foods and loved it too) and I love love loved it! Here is the picture of the bar up-close:



See how there are huge chunks of dates?! You can actually taste the ingredients, which are basically dates, walnuts and honey (there are a few others in there but these are the main ones). Awesome! I can't wait to dig into my next one (I kind of bought every kind they had in the store :P )

Dinner
My husband went out while I was getting my hair done so I was on my own for dinner. He doesn't really like salads and I seriously crave them, so this was definitely a salad night! I put the salad together but then realized it was too low-cal, so I made little polenta stacks, inspired by Caitlin. For the salad dressing I wanted a nice balsamic vinegrette (I think it goes perfect with spinach) but we didn't have any at home because I can't stand any of the low fat kinds and I never bought the full fat version until my recent goddess dressing purchase. I brought the goddess dressing to work, so I couldn't use it tonight, but it actually inspired me to make my own. I remembered the tahini in it and thought that's maybe the ingredient that makes the balsamic vinegrettes that I've liked before cloudy. I started putting a bunch of stuff together and it came out really well! I was super inpressed with myself :)

So here is dinner altogether:



The salad had spinach, some grape tomatoes, 1/3 oz of dried cranberries, 1/4 oz of pecans, and 1/2 oz of goat cheese. This is a really great combo!



My dressing consisted of (I think):
- 1 teaspoon of EVOO
- 1 teaspoon of tahini
- 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon of honey
- S&P to taste

And then the polenta stacks... I cut up 1/4 of a polenta log into 4 circles, baked them in the toaster oven for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees, topped them with 1/2 oz of cheddar cheese (I was going to use fresh mozzarella but it went bad :( ) and broiled it for a few more minutes. Here they are out of the oven:



And put together, on the side of my large salad:



And ouf course I couldn't end the meal without dessert so I had 1/4 serving of TJ's chocolate covered edamames. Yum!



And that brought me to 1650 calories exactly for the day. Funny how that worked out!

So here are my goal results for today:

NYC streaking challenge - day 4:
Calories (1200 - 1650) - DONE - 1650 exactly
Fitness - DONE- 8 mile run + 0.3 mile walk
Water - DONE - 8 cups
F/V - DONE - banana, mushrooms, pear, kind bar (dates), spinach, grape tomatoes, slices tomato, cranberries

And that's it for today. Do you like the new format (breaking it up into sections)?