Apr 16, 2011

The Little Engine That Couldn’t And The One That Could

FOOD

As much as I love my boatmeals, I have an opened box of oatbran that I’m trying to get through while the mornings are still cold. Lately, I’ve been combining 1/3 c oatbran with 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 T crunchy almond butter, and topping it off with Grape Nuts, maple syrup and a chopped-up fudgie. Extremely creamy and filling. And such a nutritional dynamo! (Especially when I remember to add in flaxseed meal and/or chia seeds.)

I also tried tempeh for the first time this past weekend. I read that you should steam and/or marinate it first, so I filled a pan with about 1” water, boiled it, and steamed the tempeh for 10 minutes. In the meantime, I made up some of Freya’s Peanut-Maple-Banana Sauce. zomg so good. I loved the sweetness the sauce added to my meal, since lunch/dinner is usually a savory affair for me. It made for a great first-time tempeh experience. I will probably cover the rest of my tempeh package with this sauce, it was that good.

tempeh_PBMapleBanana2

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LIFE

Even though I haven’t had any pain for two weeks, on Friday my body decided to rebel in spades. It started at work when I just had a little pain. I ignored it at first and ate a snack anyway. Then, when I stood up, a huge wave of nausea hit. However, I couldn’t go home because participation in my class was required that day. I took the meds that my doctor gave me for those rare occasions that nausea hits, which ended up helping about 45-60 minutes later, but left me light-headed and dizzy for the rest of the day. Not really a very good thing to be happening when you have to drive yourself home and then drive back to puck your mom up from work.

Because of all this, I decided not to push my luck with the all-nighter for Relay for Life. I feel terrible; like I let my team down by not being there. I had to bail early last year for medical reasons as well. I had already scheduled Friday as my rest day from working out, so at least that worked out okay. At least I didn’t waste my recuperation time. I finished a 10-page (13-page if you count cover page and references) Honors Anthropology paper and got caught up on Physiology and I even got the chance to watch Harry Potter (the most recent one) for the first time. SO LONG, but good. I had forgotten a bunch of stuff that happened since I read the book so long ago.

Saturday, I got a really awesome surprise in the mail:

SunWarrior_shirts

2 free T-shirts from Sunwarrior! I had forgotten that I entered their protein naming contest, but apparently all participants got free shirts. I’m not complaining!

Tonight I’m going out for a friend’s 20th birthday. I actually get to dress up and look pretty for something for a change! It should be pretty low-key though, because she has some pretty serious medical issues and so kind of has to stay at home or the hospital. I’m okay with low-key! I can only stand being rambunctious every once in a while. Most of the time I think rowdiness is just plain annoying (MAN does that make me sound old).

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FITNESS

Like I said above, with my IBS acting up, I was afraid that I was sabotaged for my schedule long run this weekend. Luckily, as you can see below, that was not the case.

Mile 1: 9:10
Mile 2: 8:38
Mile 3: 8:20
Mile 4: 8:16 <--- woah, what!?
Mile 5: 8:28 <--- stopped to glug water and pop a gel chew
Mile 6: 8:28
Mile 7: 8:20
Total: 59:43

I was literally almost in tears at the end I was so proud of myself. This is a Personal Distance Record for me. I had originally planned to only do 4 or 5, but I just felt so good that I decided to keep going and I am so glad that I did. My body is so strong and I really don’t give it enough credit most of the time. I even pampered it a bit once I got back home with some frozen vegetables on my knees. They weren’t hurting during the actual run, but after I got cooled down a bit they were getting a little achy and I didn’t want to risk just waiting it out.

Have you tried tempeh before? What did you make with it?

4 comments:

  1. Nice job on the miles and the times! I know I shouldn't be jealous, but I wish I had the desire and motivation to run that far, haha.

    I usually have tempeh raw in a sandwich with avocado and onion, but I've crumbled it to make sloppy joes and I've used this recipe which was by far the most delicious tempeh I've ever had: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/orange-panglazed-tempeh-recipe.html

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  2. Hi, i just found your blog and LOVE the photos! they're so bright and cheery. what camera do you use? and what settings? and do you use lightroom or photoshop? sorry for all the questions, but my photos are so ugly in comparison!

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  3. thingstoinspire:
    I use a Canon Powershot A610. Nothing fancy and I've had it for YEARS, but I honestly love this camera so much I actually gave my mother newer cameras of mine in exchange for this clunker.
    I've been experimenting a lot with the Manual (M) setting and, while I don't really understand what I'm doing, as long as it looks nice I don't really question it.
    I actually don't edit my photos AT ALL. What you see is literally the picture that I took and shows up on the camera screen. I don't even own any photo-editing software.

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  4. Haha I only just saw this..but YAY for the tempeh! :D I'm glad you liked it :)

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