Arch's and My Pup

So I may have discovered one of life's great treasures...actually, I'm quite certain I did. And the good news is, you can buy it for yourself (if you live in Charlottesville and have $3) at Arch's frozen yogurt. It is reeses wow cow fro-yo with half baked brownie batter topping. If there is such thing as death by chocolate- God, save my soul because I've had this every day the past three days.

So yes, dessert is good, but a lot of the time it isn't good enough to sabatoge your diet for- well this doesn't have to. Wow cow fro-yo is 12 calories per oz, and the half baked brownie topping (which they actually bake and scoop out gooey brownie batter goodness) is super low-fat and also low calorie- WIN.

Beyond celebrating the discovery of heaven on earth, Matt and I also celebrated the birthday of our favorite canine on the planet today. Little Bear turned two today! (Meaning I need to make him a vet appointment, among other things.) We celebrated with a nice long 3 mile walk with his lady friend, Harley. I'm breaking in my new vibrams too!

Komodo Sport Vibrams

My eating today was sub par- I had bodos for breakfast for about 500 calories, Lean Cuisine for a late lunch for around 270 calories, some Arch's fro-yo for 90 calories, some poatato chips for 150, taco soup for 120, and chips and salsa for ~350. Calorie-wise, it's not terrible, but the quality of food and the amount of sodium I had wasn't great. Fortunately, the 3 miles bought about 150 calories off my day's total of ~1,350, netting 1,200. I'm going to try and write down all of the food I eat this week even if its not on plan.

Have a great Tuesday!

Update

So far so good on getting back into the swing of dieting- I'm down 2 lbs from last Monday- putting me at 166.8. Hopefully, I'm able to maintain the slow and steady pace.

Last week was pretty eventful. Wednesday night, I went to see the Decemberists at the downtown pavilion which was awesome- as expected. It was crazy hot outside and I was sopping wet by the end of the concert, but it was so much fun. We got box tickets through advertising where I work, which was sweet. Basically, box tix allot you a waiter and give you a table to buy drinks from. There's more space, but we still migrated into the crowd to get the full concert experience. PS- when did dancing at concerts become uncool? It made me sad how little motion there was in this crowd.

Here are some of my eats for the week:

Southwestern chicken salad:
Spring Mix, Avocado, Chicken, Tomato, Dressing

Beer Butt Chicken, bbq chips, pamesean broccoli

cracked pepper kettle chips and dip

taco soup

chex mix

lean cuisine

arch's wow cow yogurt w/ fat free brownie topping- more on this later

more chex

Starbucks frappuccino and a crazy lady who talked to us outside

more chips and dip

Slices, artichoke, pesto pizza

biscuit

Raising Cane's

  

Racquetball...3, 2, 1 Duck

Like most universities, UVa comes well equipped with about 14 gyms around campus. During my graduate career, I mostly hit up the weights and aerobics areas, occasioning the aquatics center and some Zoomba classes. One thing I have avoided like the plague is racquetball. I tried it once in undergrad.

<-- It went something like this. I was shamed by my husband's (then boyfriend) poking fun at my less than stellar skills- aka, me cowering in the corner. Well, now I'm learning. I had my first tutoring session today with Matt. It was actually a lot of fun and a pretty good workout, especially in my new vibrams. I still can't consistently hit shots that hit the back wall after bouncing, but compared to my first experience, wishing I had a bunker to hide behind, I thought it was much better. The UVa gym at the lawschool only charges $7 for guest passes.

Other than racquetball, Tuesday was pretty laid back. I got off work early, around 3:30 since I'll be working late Wed and Thursday. We hit the pool, made dinner, and played racquetball in the afternoon and evening. I made my low weight watchers points taco soup Monday night so we got to have that as an easy dinner.

Daily Nosh: Pillsbury Biscuit with Jam and Light Butter
Greek salad with feta, spring mix, tomatoes, cucumber, and turkey
Lays kettle chips (1 serving) with french onion dip (1 Tbsp)
7 On the Border tortilla chips
1/2 cup chex mix
1 1/2 cups Taco Soup
Total Calories: 1,150

Do the rain gods not know it's Grilling Season?

One thing I love about summer in Charlottesville is that nearly the whole city smells like a big cookout. Everyone is outside with friends, family, and beer cooking- all of the time. Yesterday was gorgeous and when I got off work, and per the usual, Matt and I pulled out some steaks and scavenged some veggies from the bottom of the fridge and got to work.

Maybe I need one of these?

About the time I finished prepping the red potatoes and Matt had finished marinating the steak, it started a downpour- full out monsoon. Having already invested 20 minutes and a grocery run into my grilled potato recipe, I decided to embrace it and grill anyway. We grabbed umbrellas to protect the food and grilled in the rain until we were sopping wet.

Of course around the time we finished grilling, the sun came out and it stopped raining. We got in a nice walk and enjoyed the rest of the evening outside. As I said in yesterday's post, I am trying to find a healthy way to lose weight that works with my lifestyle/schedule. Currently, I'm moving toward old-fashioned calorie counting. We'll see how it goes. I weighed in Monday morning at 168.8 lbs. Definitely up from my low around 155.

Daily Nosh: English muffin with Philly Cream cheese and Jam,
Greek Salad with brined turkey, tomatoes, feta, and cucumber
Kettle Chips
3 oz. Grilled steak and red potatoes
Total Calories: 1,255

A Better Fit

As many of you have pointed out- I haven't been around lately. My last post was at the beginning of June, but to be honest, my mind hadn't been here for a long time before that. In the last few months of posting and trying to get back to a diet after my thesis, I felt like I was going through the motions, both with my diet, and with my posts. What had been a pleasure to write felt like an obligation, and the theme of my blog seemed stale to me. Blogging felt a little like wearing some one else's underwear- intimately uncomfortable. I spent a lot of time in those panties squirming around trying to make them fit until I realized- they just didn't- and weren't going to anytime soon. 

I continued for a while thinking that was a bad thing- thinking I was going back to my previous habits before starting my healthy living journey.  I changed my lifestyle a year ago to become healthy, and obviously I was changing back. I struggled to "get back" to the health conscious, calorie counter I was. At some point, after counting points and calories, taking pictures and not having time to post them, and putting on a few pounds, I realized that "going back" wasn't really an option- at least not in the way I got there the first time. My lifestyle had changed, and I learned the hard way that my diet and journey to health had to change with my lifestyle. 

I've been thinking about how my lifestyle has changed and what it means moving forward. I know that I still want to lose weight. I know that I still want to push myself physically. I know that I want to learn new things and share them with others through my blog. I also know that I have a full time job plus now where I don't set my own schedule or ever have down time. Some days I work 12+ hours without notice and without a second to calculate what's going in my mouth. By the time I get off work, its a choice between dinner out and enough sleep after cooking because its around 9pm. (Can you guess which wins?)

So now, I need to learn how to manage my new lifestyle and make it work with the other things I want. I've redirected the theme from running to food since that's the first thing I'm going to try and manage. I live in Charlottesville, VA, one of the greatest places on earth (WAHOOWA!), and want to incorporate the flavor of my life here into my blog. Charlottesville and its surrounding landscape provide so much of my inspiration for food and fitness which I love, but haven't tapped into expressing here. I'm hoping to include more local zest and reviews, as well as my general progress on my fitness journey. The theme will likely evolve as I go- but this is a start on something I can be excited about and keep me motivated to focus on Running Out of Me.

I hope you stick around and see where this takes me!