A couple of big things have happened to me in the past couple of months, so here’s a brief recap.

On November 6, I ran my first half marathon. I’d had to defer my registration from 2010 due to issues with my foot being made of biomechanical fail, but I was determined to do the City of Oaks/Rex Healthcare Half Marathon in 2011. I got sick a few weeks before the race and wasn’t as trained as I wanted to be, and I’m also slow as all get out, but after 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 19 seconds, I managed to run across the finish line.

And promptly almost threw up on my mom, dad, and boyfriend.

After inhaling a piece of pizza, a banana, and half a bottle of water, I was recovered enough to take the obligatory medal photo.

I wish I’d written a race report after I ran the half, because apart from some issues with some runners not getting their times, it was a lot of fun. Raleigh is beautiful in the fall and we got to run through some gorgeous areas downtown. People were out cheering for us from their front yards and the balconies of their apartments, and during the last three miles, when I was really starting to struggle, the volunteers at the water stops, a nice U.S. Navy veteran, and some other bystanders encouraged me to keep going.

My goal was to finish within the time allotted for the half marathon–3 hours and 30 minutes–and I did that, but I’m definitely going to train harder for my next race. I ran as much of it as I could as fast as I could, but I run SLOW. So slow that people can pass me walking fast. My knee has been hurting off and on since then, though, so I haven’t done any running this winter.

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Another “big” thing in my life: I started the new year in a bigger office at work. The woman who worked in the full-sized office next to my tiny office left, and I got up the courage to ask my boss if I could move after she left and to my surprise, he said yes. It’s a silly thing, but I love having a bigger office–my old one was awesome given how small it was, but I didn’t have any space on which to put down papers and write. My new office doesn’t get as much sunlight as my old one even though it’s right next door, but my orchids seem to be surviving and I’m loving the extra space. Now you’ll know why the setting for future breakfast and lunch pictures has changed…

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And the biggest thing that happened in my life since I last blogged, the one I’m the most excited about: my boyfriend and I got engaged!

We got engaged on New Year’s Eve, so I’ve been referring to him as my fiance for almost two months, and it’s really weird to type the word “boyfriend” again. We’ll be getting married sometime later this year, and he’s moving to a new place that’s much closer to where I live and will BE where I live after we get married. So I’ll be getting married and moving again in 2012…plus one or two other things that I’m not ready to share yet will be happening this year. Exciting times!

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Back to regular blogging business.

After a beautiful, sunny Saturday in the 60s, it rained all day Sunday. Then it started snowing.

In case you’re not familiar with the South and how we roll when it comes to snow, this resulted in a lot of two-hour delays this morning, and even some closings. I was already off work since it’s Presidents Day. Or, as the Federal government officially refers to the holiday, Washington’s Birthday. Which is actually February 22.

Anyway, it was a Federal holiday, so I got to sleep in. I woke up mid-morning for a Diet Sunkist and some mango Chobani Greek yogurt.

For a while I tried to stop drinking caffeine completely, but I couldn’t stand the withdrawal headaches, and you know what? I like caffeine. It’s tasty and while I do have high blood pressure and insomnia, one caffeinated drink a day is unlikely to kill me anytime soon. So I decided to compromise. Most days I drink one Diet Sunkist in the morning, and after that I switch to water. Some days we’ll eat out a lot and I’ll end up getting another soda or two, but I’m surprised at how well I’ve been doing with this most days. (Days that are not most days are days like Sunday, when I drank at least three Diet Sunkists. Maybe four.)

I was in the mood for a BLT wrap for lunch, but I’ve been trying to be better about using up leftovers in the fridge lately and I didn’t want to start on a new head of lettuce while  I still had part of a bag of salad left. Instead, I made a BLT salad with spring mix lettuce, delicious oven-baked bacon, Roma tomatoes, and a package of mayonnaise from Chick-Fil-A that my fiance found in one of my kitchen drawers yesterday.

It was excellent, and now I know that there’s no mayo in my fridge.

For a post-lunch snack, I had some chocolate non-pareils that have been hanging out in my pantry since we hit up A Southern Season a couple of months ago.

These guys were super rich; they remind me why I don’t buy boxes of Sno Caps very often.

For another afternoon snack, I munched on some pistachios.

I don’t ever really remember having a pistachio until late December, when my future in-laws put a bag of them in my stocking. They are delicious. Why did no one tell me about these things? I went through the bag in my stocking, then bought another bag at Aldi, then ordered three pounds of them from Amazon. They came in two separate containers and I left one at my apartment and took the other one to work. I’d subscribe to these pistachios if they’d let me. They are good.

I spent the afternoon cleaning, reading, doing a little recumbent biking, and playing with the dog before making stirfry for dinner.

I chopped up a chicken thigh and cooked it with half a bag of Trader Joe’s Harvest Hodgepodge frozen vegetables, then let it simmer with some TJ’s General Tso’s stirfry sauce. Something about stirfry sauce always tastes a little off to me–maybe it’s the soy sauce? But this was pretty good, since I made sure not to put too much in.

Along with dinner, I had a big glass of water and a little cup of freeze-dried blueberries and walnuts.

After dinner, I went on a short hunt for the most awesome flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ever put into production.

I’ve been looking for some Coffee Heath Bar Crunch for days. Target suddenly didn’t carry it anymore when I tried to get some Saturday. My fiance was going to pick up some for me at the grocery store Saturday night, but they were low on all flavors of B&J’s. I tried again at the same store tonight with no luck, but I was determined to find some before Lent starts and everyone in the blogosphere (including me) gives up eating candy. The next store I tried had a plentiful supply of Ben & Jerry’s. I ate at least half of the pint while sitting on the couch watching first season episodes of How I Met Your Mother. Breyer’s Heath Toffee Blast doesn’t hold a candle to this stuff.

Time to go pack food for the workday tomorrow. I promise to blog again before the week is out!

My half-marathon–the one I had to bow out of last year because my left foot went all pear-shaped–is on November 6, and I’m a little behind on my training, but still feeling confident that I’m going to be able to finish. I had a totally awesome walk/run last Wednesday, totaling about 4.6 miles; I ran for the majority of it and was fine afterward except for some muscle soreness.

This was largely thanks to all the athletic tape I put on my foot beforehand.

Here are some pictures that made their way onto my camera over the past couple of weeks…

Here’s one of the almond butter pumpkin brownies I made.

They were pretty tasteless, but in a non-offensive way, and the texture was fantastic. I plan to mess around with this recipe so that it involves chocolate.

The Tuesday after Contagion came out, the boyfriend and I went to the Cheesecake Factory and then to the IMAX. This was my first time at the Cheesecake Factory and I agree with everyone who said the menu was overwhelming. I finally went with some salmon and broccoli…

…and some fries. Because I couldn’t think of anything else to order.

I did only eat part of the fries. And they were delicious. As was the salmon. I’ve never had salmon with tartar sauce before and it seemed weird to me when they brought it out, but I figured I’d try it anyway. It turned out to be pretty good.

With the exception of some donut binges and the occasional meal out, I’ve been trying to eat pretty primal lately. It’s been fun to try out new dishes, such as buffalo chicken and veggies.

I’m still trying to get the sauce right for the chicken, but it’s pretty good. I’ve also been making blue cheese dip to go with it (out of cream cheese and blue cheese crumbles).

There was even a trip to Golden Corral where I pretty much stuffed myself on veggies, fajita steak, and shrimp.

I also got a piece of cheesecake for shiggles, but I didn’t eat the crust. Oh, and I had some chocolate soft serve. Because I could.

On Saturday, September 17, it was time for BugFest. I volunteered at the USDA-APHIS booth for the fourth time and sampled some of the buggy fare. My boyfriend tried some, too, which made me happy. We had the cricket and crayfish jambalaya…

…and some fried waxworms, and then some chocolate-covered mealworms. I had the orange-chocolate ones. Mmm.

I have recently discovered a love for Chargrill. (It hasn’t supplanted my love for Cook-Out; these two loves can co-exist peacefully.) I like to order their low-carb option–a 1/2 lb hamburger on a bed of lettuce–with cheese, mayo, and tomatoes. And more lettuce. And I split an order of fries with my boyfriend (which is to say, I take some of his fries).

I like Chargrill because you don’t have to talk to anyone to order.  You just check off what you want on a ticket and put it in a slot. It appeals to me in the same way that self-checkouts at the grocery and the library do.

At some point, I made more buffalo chicken, and my boyfriend made garlic Parmesan fries, and their wonder twin powers activated into a totally awesome dinner that I ate way too much of.

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I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before, but I’ve spent the last couple of years growing out my hair with the intention of one day getting it all cut off and donating it. I finally did it this Friday!

I chose to donate my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths because their length requirement is only 8 inches, and because I’ve heard a lot of positive things about their program–the donated hair is actually used for wigs, not sold for profit (as with some other, better known charities), and the wigs are given to women who have lost their hair because of cancer treatments.  Everyone always tells me how beautiful my hair is, so I hope that my donation will help make a kick-ass wig.

I’ve cut my own hair, had friends cut my hair, and gone to some less expensive salons (i.e., Great Clips, JC Penney), but I’ve never gotten my hair cut at a nice salon. I figured that since I was doing a good deed by getting my hair cut, I could splurge a little. I bought a LivingSocial voucher back in May for a nearby salon and I finally used it on Friday. The stylist cut off my ponytail…

…and then gave me an extremely cute haircut that was exactly what I wanted.

And thanks to the LivingSocial voucher, it ended up being about as expensive as getting my hair cut at Great Clips would’ve been. LivingSocial FTW!

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It’s time for an update on both my inability to walk without hurting myself and my insomnia. Now with added Chuck Norris!

So a couple of days before the last time I posted (around January 24, I suppose…it’s been a while), my left foot, which hadn’t really hurt in the few weeks since I’d gotten my custom orthotics, started hurting again. But in a different place than before. So I started doing 800 mgs of ibuprofen and icing it and elevating it (using the recycling bin under my desk at work, because I am that classy), and when it still hurt at the end of the week (like, pretty bad) I decided to give it the weekend to stop hurting or else. I basically much did nothing all weekend, and it still hurt whenever I walked on it. Then I got to work on Monday morning and instead of having to walk around my 1100-sq-foot apartment, I had to walk halfway across a large building to do things like use the restroom and get to the fridge, so my foot started hurting more. I called my doctor’s office and was like, “Hey, have you guys gotten my sleep study results? And also, my foot hurts again. ”

Somewhere between that phone call and the 1:30PM appointment they made me I ended up in my office curled up in my ergonomic chair about to cry because my foot hurt so bad. Not bad enough that I actually did cry, but bad enough that I was seriously thinking about  it. This may have also had something to do with the three hours of sleep I’d gotten that night. On the drive to the doctor’s office I talked myself out of crying by reminding myself that I am supposed to be bad ass and that I don’t approve of people crying at work, and also, Chuck Norris would never cry (at work or anywhere else), therefore I shouldn’t either.

It turns out that I’m incapable of walking without injuring myself through unknown means, and now I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot.  So I got a prescription for some scary NSAID gel and exercises to do for three weeks, and I worked from home for the next two days and bought lots of athletic tape and now, two weeks later, my foot still hurts a tiny bit when I walk on it, but is much, much, much better.

And I did not find out the results of my sleep study that day because apparently the issue I’d had  before with getting my sleep study results from WakeSleep was not an isolated incident. Last time it took over a month for me to find out my results because they told the nurse that they’d talked to me about my sleep study being inconclusive and said I’d agreed to come back for a second study when I’d never had that conversation with them. This time, the nurse told me that she’d called WakeSleep after I’d left the message asking after my results and they faxed over my results from November. Then she tried to get them to fax over the correct results so the PA could talk to me about them that afternoon. As I was leaving she told me they hadn’t sent the results yet.

Three days later I called WakeSleep and asked if they’d sent my results and they were like, “Yeah, we did that late Wednesday afternoon.” That makes me think they hadn’t reviewed my results by the time they were supposed to. But I called my doctor’s office on Monday morning to ask about them again and the PA called me that afternoon, so they either sent them when they said they did or they sent them on Monday after someone called and yelled at them. Which is good, because I was going to call and yell at them myself if they hadn’t sent my results. Since I was once again running off three hours of sleep, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been very intimidating. But my current opinion of WakeSleep after two sleep studies is that the actual sleep study experience is okay, but they are otherwise incompetent and you should avoid them. There are plenty of other sleep labs around Raleigh.

In any case, I slept during my second sleep study for a little while until the Ambien wore off and then was up the rest of the night, so now I’m going to go see a neurologist who specializes in sleep disorders on Tuesday afternoon. I am cautiously hopeful that something will come of this.

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Puppy Interlude:

My Heathcliff is so photogenic. January 31 was the three-year anniversary of the day I brought Cliffy home from the shelter. He’s ugly, but he’s got heart, and he’s a good dog, so I’ll keep him around. <3

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Last week on a trip to Food Lion I stocked up on Progresso chicken noodle soup and Dole fruit cups, because when I’m too tired in the evening/morning to pack a lunch for work I tend to go for peanut M&Ms. I say they’re a fine mix of protein and carbs, but my friends say I need to eat better. Psh. So now the soup and fruit cups live in my desk at work, waiting for days that I need lunch. I also grabbed three boxes of Lean Pockets from Harris Teeter this week and plan to put them in the freezer at work for the same reason.

I also went to Whole Foods and bought 16 containers of Liberte Yogurt. I’d been taking a break from it for a while because it’s kind of expensive, but I don’t feel like it’s a good trade-off to eat a 25-cent container of pudding or a handful of peanut M&Ms for breakfast instead of a $1.25 container of yogurt.

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This is a lunch from way back on January 27:

China Queen! I estimate I ate about 700 calories’ worth of food–I didn’t eat everything on my plate. I love American Chinese food.

During the next week, I had a small container of ground beef with taco seasoning in my freezer, so when I went to the store and bought a bag of tortillas and some fresh veggies to go with it.

I ended up making two meals out of the taco meat, plus it freed up some freezer space (which I’ve already filled back up).

Also during that week, I decided to get creative with a bag of apples I bought. I combined a cut-up apple with some Brummel and Brown, cinnamon, and Panko bread crumbs, then threw it in the oven for a while.

Fake apple pie! It was pretty good and I think it was below 150 calories? Definitely below 200.

I took advantage of one of the days I was working from home to throw some rice in the food steamer I got for Christmas. During my lunch break, I threw together a quick meal of red beans, rice, onions, and smoked turkey sausage.

The pan of this that I made fed me for like three days. In my attempts to waste less food, I’ve been trying to not cook any new meals until I’ve eaten all of the leftovers from the last meal I made. Unlike some people, I can eat the same thing for dinner a few nights in a row with no problem, so it’s just a matter of not giving into the temptation to make something new.

This next meal I made would have fed me for dinner for several days. Except it was so awful I threw it out.

I tried to make lamb curry. I have no idea what went wrong–if it was the lamb or if my recipe was off–but I only got through half this plate before I gave up, trashed the whole pot, and ate some butterscotch pudding for dinner. Ugh. It tasted like food poisoning.

I had a mean craving for brownies, so during a trip to Target I scoped out their selection. I discovered a new offering by Pillsbury–brownie minis! The package has two packs of mix and two trays; each package of mix makes six mini brownies, so the whole box makes six. If I make brownies, I eat the entire pan, so I immediately threw a box of these in the cart. And last Saturday and yesterday I made a tray of brownies and ate them all the same day.

And you know what? They were good. I love brownies.

Earlier this week I used up some old bananas by making banana pudding.

Homemade banana pudding. Not only can I not walk without hurting myself, but I also can’t cook milk on the stove without burning it.

Friday I left some chili cooking in the slowcooker while I was at work. I’ve been eating chili for lunch and dinner ever since. I finally finished it off this afternoon.

It wasn’t as good as my mom makes, even though it’s the same recipe. But it was still good.

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The holiday calorie challenge we’ve been doing at work ended yesterday. I made back my $100 and will win part of the pot of money that other people lost. But I also lost 9.4 lbs in 10 weeks, which is pretty awesome. We’ve got a break for a week and then we’re starting another challenge with the same rules (earn back $10 every week that you make your calorie goal) and the added difficulty of exercising a certain number of times a week (cardio and strength) and eating 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day. That’s going to be difficult for me, but I am too big awesome to fail…

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Also, I have signed back up for the half marathon I had to drop out of last year. My registration was completely free because I deferred before the deadline. It’s a long way off–November 6–but it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to run. I might have to go make friends with the treadmill in my apartment’s fitness room…

I filled out the paperwork to vacate my apartment and made a note to drop it off in the morning. Oh irony, how it taunts me. Not real irony, of course; I mean the Alanis Morissette kind. I mean, my apartment flooding the day that I signed the paperwork to vacate it–that is so like rain on your wedding day.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I woke up and stepped into this:

You may ask why I stopped to take pictures when my apartment was flooding and dumping water into the apartment below mine. But this was me in crisis mode: since the guy who lives below me had already called maintenance, I searched for the shut-off valve for the water and, failing to find it, couldn’t really do much else. There used to be books stacked between the two bookcases on the right side of the picture; I moved those to safety, then grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the damage in case I should need them later. Then I took all the books off the bookcases and moved them elsewhere; then I moved the bookcases into my bedroom; then, since the water seemed to be creeping toward my bedroom, I moved my TV stand, since it’s right next to me in the picture.

Later, I moved my other hallway bookcase, my dining room table, my exercise bike, my end table, and my sofa. The floor was wet everywhere thanks to our friend humidity.

Maintenance came and shut the water off, then replaced the water heater, and in the process mucked up my kitchen floor and tore holes in the linoleum.

You can see that at this point I’ve moved out of crisis mode and into “Um, my kitchen is a little messy, I should clean it” mode.

I also practiced making frazzled faces.

Shortly after the property manager came to talk to me, the carpet guys came to do bloody murder on my carpet. They vacuumed up the water, then set up a fan to blow under the carpet…

And a dehumidifier in the water heater closet.

At this point, I was staaarving–I’d managed to sneak in my normal breakfast in between bits of mayhem, but I’d been terribly clever on Wednesday and left my lunch leftovers at work so I wouldn’t have to repack them for Thursday (I’d just thrown the bag of carrots and cheese and the containers of hummus and tomatoes directly into my bag Wednesday morning). This meant my lunch was at work. And I had nothing to eat. So I dinked around for an hour or so trying to decide what I wanted and then ordered side items from Papa Johns. Chickenstrips and cheesesticks, which served me well for lunch and dinner.

After lunch, I intended to do some freelance writing so that the day wasn’t a total waste, but exhaustion hit me like a ton of really heavy objects, so I cleared off space on my couch (which was shoved up against all my piles of books) and slept. Later I took a walk around the lake. Or maybe that was Wednesday. I know I took a walk, though.

Friday morning I went to work and had my breakfast, and then finally had my leftover lunch.

I also had some awesome chocolate covered hazelnuts from Oregon. I love it when visiting scientists bring food!

I left work early to see what was going on at my apartment, since despite the property manager’s claim that she would be in touch, no one called to let me know what was going on. Apparently my leasing office is also good in a crisis, but not so much with the aftermath. I got home to find that nothing had happened in my absence–the fan and dehumidifier where still there–so I left to go to Whole Foods and Target for some grocery shopping.

I came back to discover that people had been in my apartment while I was gone, with no notice before or after (other than this missing equipment). I expected that they’d come pick up their stuff, but it still bugs me that I wasn’t told when this would be happening. It reminds me of that time they let the steam-cleaning people into my apartment on the wrong day and majorly freaked me out.

But my carpet was fixed…

And my water heater closet…was still gross.

I made swiss steak for dinner.

…there’s a steak under there, promise.

Then I took pictures of the shambles that were my apartment. Remember how I had the laundry room, the dining room, and the living room all cleaned and organized?

…okay, it’s not that bad. But you also can’t see the other side of the couch. I got a lot of my furniture put back in the correct spot Friday evening, and subsequently had one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, curled up on my sofa.

Saturday morning I woke up and had some yogurt, then got back to work on moving things back into their antediluvian state. Naturally, I got hungry, so I threw together a big lunch.

Spinach artichoke dip (from the prepped section at Whole Foods), a few bits of broccoli, some salad tomatoes, two carrots, a banana, almond butter, and a piece of cotswold cheese. I made two cheese selections this week and picked this one because it had chives and onions in it and therefore had to be awesome. And it was. But very strong–as I move away from plain cheddar, I’m seeing how one ounce of a good, strong cheese can be plenty.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach here, though–I only ate half the banana and left one of the carrots for dinner.

I did have some of my new chocolate bar (Whole Foods brand of dark chocolate peppermint crisp). Not as good as the Lake Champlain kind, but it’ll do.

My bookcases made it back into the hallway, empty–no point in putting the books back on them when I already took them off and can pack them (when I have enough boxes).

Dinner was a repeat of last night, with less potatoes and onions and the addition of the leftover carrot from lunch.

Note the massive prep bowl of Brummel & Brown in the background. Yes, I ate it all. If there are potatoes on my plate, there is almost always a massive dish of butter or B&B just out of the picture. Don’t judge me, y’all.

Post-dinner snackage…a piece of the dark chocolate peppermint bar, and a piece of the dark chocolate hazelnut toffee bar (one of those ones with the endangered species on it). I wasn’t too impressed by the latter–apparently I like my dark chocolate at 54%-55%, not 70%+.

I totally still ate it, though.

Today I slept in again,  thought not so well as I had the night before, and woke up to more yogurt (I’ve stopped taking pictures of my yogurt most days–same old Liberte Mediteranee yogurt every day!). I then hit the lake trail in an attempt to get some running in, but my fitness has (obviously) decreased since I haven’t been able to run the past couple of months, and because it’s hot outside, so I didn’t get much running in before I had to walk. I’m supposed to start training for my half marathon this week and I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a little bit behind, but that’s okay. I came home and immediately threw my ice pack on my foot, which has been hurting a little more than it had been recently since I started walking again, but not enough that I’m willing to go back and have it checked out again (yet).

Lunch was some broccoli, salad tomatoes, and carrot sticks with spinach artichoke dip, a dish of trail mix, and a piece of my other cheese selection, mahon.

Mahon is a hard Spanish cheese that taste delicious when eaten with tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of cheese + tomatoes.

I spent the afternoon going all Operation: Clean Sweep on my kitchen and have now checked it off my list–hurrah! That leaves the balcony (entirely gardening stuff), the bathroom (which I’ve worked on twice throughout the week–shouldn’t take long at all), the bedroom (half okay, half not so much), and the closet (um…yeah). I’m happy that I was able to make progress despite having what other, more dramatic people would call the week from hell. (Remember me griping about Wachovia shutting down my bank account on Monday? Oh, the fun week that lay ahead…!).

Well, now that I’ve snacked on a cranberry orange Pure bar and blogged for an hour, my dinner seems to be done. It’s time to eat again…!

Greetings, all! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I’m having a great weekend because it thunderstormed last night and dropped the temperature way down–when I walked outside this morning it actually felt cool! Of course, then it got up to 86, but that’s so much better than it has been! I wish it would stay this way all summer…

Apparently I wanted to show off my mad cheese portioning skillz, because I took this picture of 1 oz of cheese. First try, baby.

Thursday’s breakfast was Liberte Mediterranee apple crumble yogurt, with which I have utterly fallen in love. I never would’ve suspected that this would be my favorite, but it’s so awesome. (If you’re still eating yogurt with high fructose corn syrup and fake fruit in it, stop and get some Liberte…mmmmm…)

I had a top-secret meeting Thursday morning, to which a co-worker brought Dunkin Donuts. Remember when I said I was trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner? Yeah, well. If the meeting bribe had been cookies or brownies I would’ve been able to resist, but donuts are my kryptonite.

[I'd make a joke here about how I'd sell U.S. secrets to foreign governments for the right amount/flavor of donuts, but I work for the government, so that's not really funny. And I can't say I'd sell out my own mother for donuts, because that would be wrong. Plus, she reads this. So just imagine how much I love donuts. It's a lot.]

Anyway, I was informed of the presence of donuts at the meeting early enough that I put off eating my planned mid-morning snack and ate a donut instead. I had a glazed chocolate cake donut and it was dreeeeaaamy…and then I took one for the road…

Lunch was this gigantor salad.

It had romaine lettuce, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, peas, celery, mushrooms, onions, sunflower seeds, the cheddar cheese that I was weighing in the first picture…maybe more, I don’t remember. And I’m too lazy to get up and find the paper that I wrote down all the weights/ingredients on. (Lest you think I’m weighing things for the wrong reasons–I’ve been weighing all these highly veggie-based meals to make sure that I’m getting enough calories during the day.)

I also mixed up some dressing–dijon mustard and lime juice. I added it to the salad, put on the lid, and shook it like a Polaroid picture. Or an Etch-a-Sketch.

Unfortunately, Gigantor Salad was too big and was taking so long to eat that I gave up after eating about a third of it.

I also had this bowl of grapes.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to eat my other donut.

Oh, it was good. Mmm.

Thursday’s dinner is not on the camera and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I ate. I think I wasn’t very hungry so I just ate a couple of cupcakes late in the evening. That sounds right. I’m out of cupcakes now, by the way!

Friday was supposed to be a Lazy Friday–aka, the Friday that I get off every two weeks in exchange for working 9-hour days instead of 8-hour ones–however, I’m completely swamped at work this month. Several co-workers encouraged me to go ahead and take my day off because the work would still be there when I got back, but I knew that if I took a three-day weekend with so much left on my plate, I’d spend it worrying about the upcoming workweek. So I went in anyway, and I got a lot of work done, and left feeling like next week’s workload would be a little more manageable as a result.

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I’ve mentioned that I’m going to start trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner on weekdays, but I keep forgetting to explain why I’m trying this out. There are a couple of completely random reasons.

1.) I feel like I don’t eat enough vegetables and especially fruit, and if you eat raw, that’s what you eat. And since fruits and veggies are so low in calories, you eat a lot of them.

2.) I’ve grown to really like bringing in meals of carrots/tomatoes/assorted veggies and hummus and fruit–I always feel better after eating something like that than if I went and got a hamburger or even if I brought dinner leftovers.

3.) When I bring leftovers, I have to reheat them. My laboratory has about 45 employees/cooperators and we share our floor with a couple of other groups that have probably 20+ employees between them. We used to have four microwaves on our floor; now we have two, and they’re both in the break room, and since most of us take our lunch between 11AM and 1PM, lines tend to form. If my lunch doesn’t need to be re-heated, I don’t have to spend time waiting for a microwave or heating up food.

4.) I almost always eat at my desk, either while I’m working (if I used my lunch break for a walk or if I’m eating a snack) or while I’m checking news or blogs. Finger-food type meals–carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, etc.–are really easy to eat while I’m working at my computer, and then I don’t have to wash any utensils or use any disposable ones.

5.) I like meat, but let’s face it–it’s higher in calories and easier to overeat on than fruits and veggies. By reserving it for dinners and weekend meals, I’m helping to keep my calorie intake in check.

There are other reasons, but those are the ones I can think of right now. Of course, I’m new to this all-veggies-most-of-the-time experiment, and it was Friday, and I was stressed, so I had yogurt for breakfast and then acquired a bag of peanut butter M&Ms that I munched on all day. I may also have had some Cheetos and a KitKat. But that’s okay–Fridays have always tended to be my “cheat day” and I did much better this week at eating well than I expected to.

And then for dinner, I made sure to eat well.

I steamed some tuna and the last of one of my containers of broccoli, then served it with some mixed beans and grapes. I went back for a similar-sized piece of tuna and more beans afterward. Tasty dinner!

Heath loves to sleep on my couch, curled up in a ball with his nose tucked into his paws.

Unfortunately, he heard the camera turn on and uncurled from the cuteness. Sigh.

I’ve been wanting to find a cute, not-sleeveless dress to wear to church, because when I wear a skirt and shirt to church I feel like I’m going to work. I’ve also been trying to find a new bra, because the one I wear the most is getting worn out and the hooks are starting to rust. And I remember that episode of House where the lady died because she scratched herself with her bra hook and got a staph infection. It could happen…anyway, I’ve bought and worn several different brands of bras over the past few years and I keep coming back to one in particular that just fits better than the rest. And since it’s practically the only one I wear, it’s definitely in need of replacing at this point.

I decided to take an evening trip to Ross on Friday night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything–none of the dresses were doing anything for me, and they seem not to carry my bra size (a common problem when I go bra shopping).

This morning I had some yogurt for breakfast, then headed to the Cameron Village shopping center so I could finally go to The Athlete’s Foot and get my new shoes and orthotics. I’ve been dreading going to Cameron Village because there’s always so much construction in the area, and because I’ve never been and I perceive it as a very crowded place. I don’t like to go to crowded places. I knew there was construction on one of the streets I would’ve needed to take to get to Cameron Village, so I tried a different route–and ended up sitting in one spot for 10 minutes while I waited for a flagman to tell me and the mile of other cars that were stopped that we could drive in the one lane of traffic that was open.

In fact, I spent more time sitting in traffic than I did in the store. My experience buying shoes at The Athlete’s Foot was much better than my previous experience buying running shoes at another local shop. At that store, I got the impression that the employee who helped me wasn’t really trained in how to fit shoes. And I felt like when he asked me to walk for him, he was staring at something other than my shoes (if you get my drift). I ended up with my Nikes, which have been good shoes, but I wasn’t really eager to return to that store in the future.

However, today, I was the only customer in the store for most of the time I was in there and the associate who helped me was very nice. I handed him the recommendation form I got from my doctor’s office and after he measured my feet and had me walk (and pointed out that I was walking on my left foot differently than my right one, so I know he was paying attention!), he went into the back and came out with four or five pairs of shoes for me to try on. I tried them on without the orthotic inserts in first, and it turned out that the first pair I tried on was the pair I felt the most comfortable in. And I was happy, because they were purple!

Shopping for running shoes is such an aesthetic crapshoot…you don’t go with what’s pretty; you go with what’s comfortable, and if you end up with ugly shoes, well, that’s life.

I’m very  happy with these and their purple accents, though!

And after I got home, I discovered this little clear window in the bottom, backed with lime green, and I laughed, because while the insoles that came with the shoes were purple…

…the pair of orthotics that the associate felt were the best for me were lime green!

He had me try on the shoes with these green Superfeet insoles (this was the brand that the PA said he liked best), and they felt really weird. Instead of hitting along the middle of your arch, where you’d expect them to hit, they hit toward the back of your arch, more towards your heel. I walked around in them for a minute or so and the sales associate said he could tell I was walking better in them, but he had me try on the “less aggressive” blue insert in my right shoe to see how it worked. I could barely feel it and he thought the green ones would be better, so I went with those.

Now I have this cool purple/green running shoe thing going. Awesomeness! My recommendation form came with a 10% discount and I ended up paying about $135 for the shoes and the orthotics. I hope this helps with my foot issues! Honestly, I’m not feeling very hopeful at the moment, just because this has been going on now for over two months and seems like it will never end. But I will try to be more optimistic…

I stopped in at Marshalls on the way home and checked for dresses and bras, but had no luck. I didn’t even look at the box my shoes came in until I got back to my apartment, where I discovered that my new shoes have the coolest name ever.

Defyance. Bwhaha.

After I got back, I made nachos for lunch.

Then, in the cool dim light of my living room, I took a wonderful afternoon nap. And then I woke up all hot and sweaty. Bah.

I made dinner–a leftover piece of tuna, leftover beans, peas, and grapes.

I headed to Crabtree Valley Mall in a final attempt to find a cute dress. I decided to wear my new running shoes, because I was warned that I needed to break in the orthotics slowly by wearing them for a couple of hours the first day, then a little more the next day, etc. And sure enough, by the time I got done wandering around the mall for an hour and a half, my feet were tired and kind of hurt…

I went to the lower level of Macy’s and while I did find a cute dress that fit (and even fit in a size 8), the neckline was very weird–it looked like it was supposed to be an off the shoulder dress with a cowl neckline, but the neckline didn’t fall right in either of the sizes I tried on. I decided it was the dress and not me. I did see lots of cute sleeveless dresses with cardigans, but I’m not willing to spend $128 on a dress and $49 on a sweater, so I didn’t even try them on.

Then I went to Sears and they had nothing. I took the escalator up, then walked back over to the top level of Macy’s to see if they had bras in my size. Clothes shopping is such a hassle for me–I have a short torso, an hourglass figure, and a small ribcage but a large bust–and bra shopping is the worst because most stores don’t carry my size, and if they do carry it, it’s the lowest band size and the highest cup size they stock and is therefore very hard to find. I’d almost given up at Macy’s when I turned around and found myself staring at the very bra I was wearing. Except, of course, it was a few years newer. I went through the racks and managed to find a bra (seriously, a single bra) in four different styles of that brand, then tried them on and decided to buy the two that fit the best. One was $30 and one was $32, and they were on sale for 30% off, so I was shocked when I paid for them and they cost $36.95 together.

Turns out one of them rang up at $16.99 retail, so it ended up costing less than $12. I’m not sure if that was an accident or not, and quite frankly I don’t care, because I’m a few pounds away from having to special order bras that cost more than a week’s worth of groceries off the Internet and I’ll take what I can get now.

But I still don’t have a cute dress to wear to church.

Fortunately, I did not encounter any elephants in the road on Friday (Lazy Friday!). I started the day off with some Liberte yogurt and then, knowing that I was going to a food-heavy party later in the evening, I opted for a mostly fresh, raw lunch.

Grapes, cherries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, roasted garlic hummus, and a piece of provolone.

I had a PA appointment in the afternoon and ate half of a Pure cranberry orange bar leftover from Thursday right before I left. I couldn’t find the cranberry orange flavor locally, so I went ahead an ordered a box of them when I ordered my MP3 player. I was a little hesitant because some of the Amazon reviews mentioned the flavor being off, but I love love love them.  Taaasty.

And then I headed to CFPSM because my left foot? Not better. The first time I went to have it checked out the PA told to come back if it wasn’t significantly better in three weeks. After hurting for a couple of days, it went to just hurting intermittently. And then there were a couple of days when it stopped hurting completely, probably because I ran a mile after not running for a couple of months and then everything else hurt. Naturally, this was around the time I had an appointment with my doctor about my blood pressure and since I thought it had stopped hurting I didn’t say anything about it.

Then a couple of days later it started hurting on and off again, and earlier this week it started hurting pretty much all the time, worse than before, to the point that I was limping in the evenings and icing my foot before bed. (If I’m icing something, it hurts pretty bad. ‘Cause I’m stubborn hardcore.) Also, it was radiating to other parts of my foot and my ankle. This is extremely uncool! Especially since I stopped walking/running in hopes that it would get better and it got worse instead. So yesterday, four and a half weeks after my first visit, I went back. The good news is that I had three x-rays and there is nothing structurally wrong with my foot. The bad news is that my feet are made of biomechanical fail, ’cause I walk too much on the outsides of them. I can’t help it, it’s the way I’ve been walking for 24 years.

So now I have a list of exercises to do in an attempt to strengthen my foot muscles and sometime this week I’m going to go to The Athlete’s Foot to get fitted for a new pair of running shoes that address the specific problems that I have. I was given the option of buying some high-quality pre-made orthotics or having custom ones made and decided to try the pre-made ones first. Then I’m going to try that for another month and hopefully it will solve the problem and I can get back to running…November 7 is inching ever closer!

Oh, also, when I was having my vital signs taken, my pulse shot up to 135 and my BP was around 145/95 (don’t remember the exact numbers). Awwwesome. I was actually shocked enough when I was told the numbers that I said, “Damn!” and then hastily added that I-swear-my-numbers-aren’t-that-high-at-home-anymore-really-honest. I did end up with a headache from my BP getting that high, though, which was annoying because I had to rush home after my appointment, grab a couple of things, and then run to the store to pick up the last of the ingredients I needed to bring to the party I was going to…

One of my co-workers decided to invite our female colleagues over for a cooking and eating party. There were about 15 of us total but I ended up being one of the first ones there (after I rushed! bah!). That was good, because I got to eat half of this by myself…

…I lost track of  how many cream-cheese-salsa-and-cracker sandwiches I ate. I could not stop putting them into my mouth.

I also joined another co-worker in breaking into this lemon tart from Trader Joe’s early. I am always a willing accomplice in such matters. Plus she brought the tart and told me I could have some early.

Man, that thing was tart. But tasty.

I also had some Advil. Apparently I looked unwell, what with my headache and my foot that decided to start hurting after being prodded earlier in the afternoon.

Our hostess had made a concoction of lemonade, lime juice, and pineapple juice to drink. I don’t like pineapple juice, but I tried some anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. I could barely taste the pineapple, which is a very good thing.

The aim of the party was that we were supposed to break into teams and come up with a dish–pizza, salad, or dessert–and then bring the ingredients to the party and cook there. We ended up with four or five different pizzas, a couple of salads, and some Chinese dishes courtesy of a researcher who is visiting from Beijing.

We all loaded up our plates in an attempt to try everything, and I was not the only one who couldn’t clean her plate. Too much food!

Let’s see if I can remember what was on my plate…I ate (or tried to eat) a piece of vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, onions, and peppers; a piece of pizza made with pesto sauce, mozzarella, and tomatoes; a salad made with beans, tomatoes, and sage (from the hostess’s garden!)…

…seven-or-eight-layer salad, a cabbage-filled crepe…

…and some dim sum and sweet Chinese rice balls (which I adventurously decided to try even though they reminded me somewhat of eyeballs).

Jamie and I teamed up to make a blackberry, pear, and goat cheese tart for dessert…

…and I also tried some of the giant cookie that someone made with honey instead of sugar.

There were also banana and Nutella crepes, but there was no way I could eat anymore–I was stuffed by the time I left after two and a half hours. I went home to nurse my headache, which never quite went away, and my poor gimpy foot. I sacked out on the couch with some cherry limeade, yogurt, and Six Feet Under.

I woke up on my own before 9AM, had some more yogurt, and noted that my foot, which typically hasn’t been hurting in the morning, still hurt from the night before. Also, I have this half-dollar-sized bruise on my wrist and no idea where it came from. Hmph!

I spent the morning cleaning and being sucked in by America’s Next Top Model, then broke for a thrown-together lunch of nachos, sans ground beef.

I cleaned some more, then decided it was time for an afternoon nap. I fell asleep for a couple hours before some thunderstorms that were passing nearby woke me up. After determining that they weren’t headed where I wanted to go, I drove away to Cook-Out for some fried deliciousness.

But I’m not made of the stuff I used to be. I ended up saving some of my chicken strips for later…

…and also part of my milkshake.

My plans for tomorrow include going to church in the morning and going for a walk-and-or-run, depending on the weather. I’ve decided that I’d rather my foot hurt while I’m exercising than hurt while I’m sitting around watching TV, since for now it’s just going to hurt no matter what. Might as well hurt while I’m improving my physical and mental health. I’m hovering around 151-152 lbs right now (though the scale at the doctor’s office was 155 lbs even) which is great considering that I haven’t been exercising, but I really want to get back below 150 in the next couple of weeks.

I’m headed to bed soon, but first I need to the exercises the ATC gave me for my foot…sigh…

I decided last night that I needed a break from posting, so I took one. But I still took pictures!

Yesterday’s breakfast!

Blurry in the light of my dying camera battery…

Speaking of dying electronics…I decided that it would be a good idea to try another run yesterday morning. This resulted in epic fail, because it was way. too. hot. for that nonsense. I ran a little ways and then trudged walked back. It was awful. But before I left I tried to charge my MP3 player–the Creative Zen Microphoto that I’ve had for several years now–and it wouldn’t move past the Microphoto screen! It’s been acting weird lately and I was expecting it to die soon, but I thought I’d have more time.

I’ve already researched and ordered a new player–a Creative Zen Mozaic–that should be here whenever Amazon’s Super Saver shipping allows. I almost paid for real shipping (but didn’t because the free shipping is usually very fast). I’m always about five seconds from bursting into song at any given moment and part of the reason I’ve enjoyed taking these two hour walks every evening is that it gives me a chance to “relax” and listen to music. I’ve also used my MP3 player to time my running/walking for the Couch to 5K program and (when I get to where I can run again) will be using it for the One Hour Runner program and amusing myself with it while training for November’s half marathon. I also take it with me to work every day so I can listen to it when my work area gets too loud or just when I need some music.

I will miss you, Microphoto–you were a fine MP3 player, and now you shall be a fine storage device…

Annnnyway. After all my rejoicing about how great my foot has felt for the past couple of days, naturally yesterday when I was out walking it started hurting again. I think at one point I took about 20 steps straight where it hurt every time I put my foot down or picked it up. And then it stopped again.

I ran out of clean cups (where do they all go?) so I had some very fancy-looking Crystal Light.

And then I accidentally had a pink-themed lunch.

Smoked salmon, red grapes, and bing cherries. On a red plate. Completely unintentional.

I spent the afternoon doing laundry and watching episodes of Six Feet Under. I could do with a lot less cursing and way fewer gratuitous sex scenes, but so far I’m really loving the show.

I snacked on some Potato Flyers while I watched.

Also, I brushed Heath. This dog sheds like mad.

At least he goes with my carpet.

I’ve decided to use my oven as little as possible this summer. Not because it caught fire a few weeks ago, but because when I was using it after that incident, I realized just how much hotter it makes my little apartment. I don’t like it when my AC has to run all the time (well, I like it, but my bank account does not), so this summer I’m going to try to focus on using my George Foreman Grill, my food steamer, my slowcooker, and my rangetop.

Yesterday I cooked up some delicious black bean, salsa, and chicken soup in the slowcooker!

This stuff is so good and so easy to make. Four cups of water, two frozen chicken breasts, two cans of black beans (drained and rinsed), a jar of salsa (I use a 24-oz jar), and a handful of sliced mushrooms…cook on high for about four hours, then take out the chicken, cut it up, and add it back in. Stir some sour cream into each serving and you will have awesome soup.

I had two bowls. It took restraint not to eat more…

And then I went for a 4+ mile walk. After eating two bowls of soup and drinking two glasses of Crystal Light. I had to pee for the whole freakin’ walk, man. I took Heath with me because whenever I tell people I don’t take him walking with me they make sad faces, so he ended up getting too hot and then spent the night on his bed in the living room.

I felt bad for him, so I slept next to him in the living room floor. Okay, usually on the weekends I sleep in the living room floor anyway, but last night I did it out of guilt.

This morning I did not go to church. I slept in and it was marvelous.

For breakfast I had yogurt and M&Ms.

And for lunch I had smoked salmon, cherries, and Potato Flyers.

Heath spent much of the day in his bed. Again.

Meanwhile, I listened to music and cleaned.

I took a break for some leftover soup…

Managed to only eat one bowl this time. I’m saving the rest for dinner tomorrow night!

I started to go for a walk around 5PM and ended up unable to because it started thunderstorming. Instead, I ran out to Target and Harris Teeter to do a little shopping. I picked up some cookies for my cookie jar at work, then came back and did my 3.3 mile walk. And guess what? My ankle hurt the entire time. Great. Fantastic.

I came back and needed to take my medication, so I had more cookies than I should have.

Dude, I love E.L.Fudges. Haven’t had any in a long time. Did you know that one E.L.Fudge cookie has 90 calories? That’s insane! I had two, and two fake Target-brand Oreos, so I ate like 300+ calories in cookies right there. And that is how America got fat. Delicious cookies.

Speaking of being fat: I’m back down to 151.2 lbs. Whoo-hoo! I’m hoping that by next Saturday I’ll have managed to lose enough to be under 150 lbs, and after that, I don’t ever want to see a 5 in the tens place on a scale again! You hear me, scale? I’m serious. I’ll take your batteries out…

I’m pretty sure that 3/4 of my calories today came from M&Ms.

I feel like I slept well last night (haven’t checked the GoWear Fit today), but I was so tired when my alarm went off at 5:30AM that I shut it off and went back to bed. Bah. Need to stop doing that.

Breakfast was some Liberte and peanut butter M&Ms…

I started snacking on this big bowl of grapes before I took a picture…it was full when I started!

During lunch I took a walk. A shorter than normal walk. Because while I was walking by the marsh, I saw the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild and not in a web. It was just walking across the path…I almost stepped on it! It squicked me out for the rest of the day. Also, I saw a snake that was folded up like an accordion and taking a nap in this hole!

Yes, I went back later with my camera in hopes that he would still be there…he was not.

Lunch was some leftover pasta from Monday’s dinner.

Here’s where things went bad…I knew I hadn’t brought enough to eat for the day, so I went to the vending machine and bought a giant bag of peanut M&Ms. But the machine gave me two bags.

I proceeded to eat them both. That was bad. It did keep me full for a very long time, though…

After work, I came home and decided to try out a run. I did my 3.2 mile route and started out with a walk, then manage to run about a mile before my left ankle started hurting badly enough that I felt it unwise to run through the pain. So I walked most of the rest of the way–did throw in some running on a downhill slope to see if that helped, and while my ankle didn’t hurt while I was running, it did hurt for a while after I stopped.

Also, I was attacked by mosquitoes while taking Heath out and now now my arm is swelling up. Awesome.

I actually wasn’t hungry when I got back from my walk, but I needed to take my medication so I had to eat something. I opted for a half cup of Peanut Butter Panda Puffs.

Gluten-free kid’s cereal…expensive but tasty.

Well, I’m going to crawl into bed and try to stay up for the finale of Top Chef Masters…I’m pulling for Susur, but I think Marcus has it in the bag…

I’ll probably find the actual CD sometime this week.

This post is pretty much a testament to how little I eat on the weekends. Friday I had peanut M&Ms for breakfast, peanut butter M&Ms for lunch, strawberries and whipped cream for a snack at a meeting, and this for dinner:

A hot Italian sausage I found in my freezer and some grilled onions. Cooked on the George Foreman Grill. Don’t marvel at my cooking skills or anything.

Saturday I slept in–ahhhh!–and when I got up  I decided to eat the last of my wheat-free lemon poppyseed muffins. Taaasty.

And then I pretty much didn’t eat anything else until dinnertime. I did take Heath on a short run–my first run in weeks! We jogged for about 15 minutes probably, which tuckered the poor doggle out and set him sleeping the rest of the evening.

I made some sausage, spinach, and lentil soup for dinner, except instead of sausage I used ground pork and seasoned it myself.

It was different than last time–I didn’t have any onion left, and the lentils were different than the kind I used last time. But still good.

Something about springtime makes me crave Cook-Out milkshakes, and since I really hadn’t had much to eat, I took Heath with me and got a Reese’s milkshake. Mmmmm…

This morning–oh, this is bad–I didn’t get out of bed until a totally unreasonable time (I went to bed laaate and then got up at 5AM and did my state taxes and goofed off for two hours). Then I went to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Harris Teeter–remind me to NEVER do that again on a weekend. Oy vey. When I came home at 4PM, I had my first food of the day. Seriously. Some peanut butter M&Ms I picked up at Harris Teeter. I could live off M&Ms. But I won’t.

Hey, while I was at Trader Joe’s, I bought me a potato! Since I am a potato hog, I stopped eating them on January 1 and pledged not to have them again until April 1. Well, that’s this Thursday, and there’s gonna be a baked potato with Greek yogurt and butter and bacon and salt and it’s gonna be freakin’ awesome, baby.

I did eat real food today, promise.

I had a little steak, some hummus and carrots, and some grapes.

Also, to encourage myself to eat actual food instead of M&Ms for lunch (I’m sure you’ve noticed my tendency to eat them for at least two meals a day during the past two weeks), I went ahead and prepped my lunch for all four days that I’m working this week. Awesomesauce! Plus, I bought a box of Pure bars and lots of Liberte yogurt, so there’s breakfast for the next couple of weeks, and I bought some grapes and washed them and put them in the fridge for easy access. Cleaned out the fridge so I can see what’s in there, too.

Less than an hour until bedtime…yikes…

Last night I pedaled away on my recumbent bike for a half an hour while eating a homemade peanut butter cup and reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I was a bad child and never read the Chronicles of Narnia, although I’ve enjoyed the first two movies. I got about a third of the way through it before I went to bed at 10PM. Then, for some reason, I woke up at around 4:15AM, with my alarm not set to go off for another hour. After about fifteen minutes I realized I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I jumped out of bed and set about doing stuff…including unloading my dishwasher and putting away my clothes drying rack. It was so so so so nice to  come home to a clean apartment on a Monday afternoon…

…so anyway, I decided to go to work early, ’cause I was up. I got there at 6AM and ate my breakfast while reading e-mail and doing the sorts of things one can do while eating a Pure bar, a Chobani peach Greek yogurt, and three-quarters of a cup of Leapin’ Lemurs cereal.

Why so much for breakfast, you ask? I didn’t go to Whole Foods for my beloved Liberte yogurt over the weekend, so I grabbed some Chobani to eat for breakfast. But Chobani has about 100 calories less than Liberte. So I ate some delicious gluten-free peanut butter and chocolate cereal to add some more calories.

Speaking of peanut butter and chocolate…I started getting hungry around 10AM, since I’d eaten breakfast early. Look what was hiding in my bag…

Protein! In the form of a chocolate peanut butter cup! Yum.

I went for a lunchtime walk on a crazy convoluted path through campus because of some construction that’s being done on the trail. Afterward, I had some sausage, lentil, and spinach soup.

It doesn’t take the light too well, does it? Still good, though. I will add this to my potato-free soup file.

A little while before I left work, I started feeling hungry, so I got two little mini Snickers out of a coworker’s candy bowl. I checked the ingredients list to make sure they didn’t have wheat in them, and then double-checked online–hey, they’re gluten-free! So are M&Ms…mmm…

It somehow came about that I haven’t had wheat since last Tuesday, when I ate those four Girl Scout Cookies, and while I’m not necessarily trying  to embark on my I-Will-Eat-No-Wheat-For-Two-Weeks experiment…well, if it’s already been almost a week, why ruin it with some candy? I’ve noticed that my eczema doesn’t look as bad as it did, but I have no objective way of measuring that unless it clears up completely.

Also, one day I’m going to eat the rest of the Girl Scout Cookies.

After I got home from work I changed into my running clothes, threw my chef’s jacket on over top, set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes, and set about putting away the dishes I’d washed last night and washing the ones that were in my sink. Then I ran away! For 32 minutes! That was One Hour Runner Week 5, Day 2, if you’re counting.

My legs were tiiiiired after that. Still are. But I found the strength to make tacos…

…and I will confess here and now that I usually put a picture of three tacos up, but I generally eat five at a time (half the box). However, tonight I ate only the three you see here, and they were scrumptious. I was in taco heaven. Perfect tacos!

I also had a side of grapes.

And now, because I don’t have to clean my kitchen or my living room or my bathroom, I am going to take this glass of Crystal Light and this peanut butter cup and go sit on my exercise bike in the living room, with my lilies in bloom, and ride my bike while reading my book. Because I can.