Shin Splints, Anyone??

Good evening, lovemuffins :) How are we tonight?

I'm fab.. minus some minor crampage (TMI? Prob. Sorry.) But it's not too fun and resulted in a wardrobe change at around 4pm into Anthony's lacrosse sweatpants (aka pants two sizes too big for me), big warm socks, & zero makeup. Moral of the story? I'm a beaut right now, let me tell ya... a real catch.

Prior to the downturn of the day, I "slept in" until 9ish which was perfection. I woke up to Bella-Cat sleeping on my toes (equally perfect & adorable) AND nothing but rain outside (yuck!)... I began my morning with some of the regular breakfast... scrumptious banana-coconut oats:

Oats always seem to be the perfect solution to the rainy day blues :)

Had a cup or two of coffee & lazed around a little more to catch up on blog reading, make a to-do list for the day, AND plan out the rest of my meals for the day (part of my attempt to get more protein and LESS carbs in my diet)

Saddled up to brave the rain and go out to the gym...

I did 50 minutes of cardio - 20 minutes on the treadmill & 30 minutes on the elliptical

449 calories and a major leg workout later, I stopped at the grocery store for a few essentials for the rest of my planned meals of the day...

Where these caught my eye!!!

Seasonal Clif Bars!!!!! I've seen these around the old blog-o-sphere lately but they haven't shown up at any of the grocery stores I go to until now.... Cannot wait to try them :)

Have any of you been able to get your hands on these flavors?

What did you think of them??

I've still only been able to find S'mores Z-bars at one of those grocery stores too! Ughhhh...driving me nuts.

Anyway.. my legs were still sore after leaving the gym and it's starting to cause concern for me... I've had shin splints since high school when I first starting getting extreme pain and tightness during field hockey season. I've been able to keep it under control rather well through icing and wrapping during games over the years but lately the pain has come back full force. What is discouraging is the fact that it has been continually effecting my runs. The duration of my runs have become shorter & shorter due to the pain and even after excessive stretching (and icing) I haven't seen an improvement. IN FACT... it's only gotten worse :(

My concern now is that I won't be able to run the Turkey Trot I have signed up for that takes place in mid-November. It will be here sooner than I think and at the rate I'm going, I feel I'll have trouble even running the first mile!!!

The only positive point in this is the fact that the pain hasn't completely effected my workouts. I'm still able to bust out a good workout on the elliptical to make up for the missed time on the treadmill but, in all honesty, I'm more of a runner at the gym & would like to get my butt back on the treadmill (& kick its' butt!) I miss pounding out a great run and a long workout on the elliptical just doesn't give me the same accomplished feeling :(

Have any of you ever dealt with shin splints or some kind of injury/pain that has caused a drop in your productivity during a workout???

What did you do to solve the problem?

I'm desperate here! I'm not sure what to do next!!! Any advice you darlings could give me would be greatly appreciated!

The rest of the days eats look like so....

Snagged the idea for lunch from Therese for her easy-squeezy frittata... I used mushrooms (a whooole lot of them) rather than broccoli... Pre-poppin into the oven!

Made with 1 egg, 3 egg whites, 1 oz. FF cheddar cheese, BIG handful of chopped mushrooms, sprinkle of parsley, and salt & pepper....

All thrown into a pie plate coated with PAM....

Baked at 500 for 15 minutes & this browned beauty is what came out:

Sooo very good & so simple! Filled me up for quite a while & will definitely be making it again asap!

Just had to have another little sliver ;)

Doing good on the Meal Menu so far!
Oh..and P.S. that Sweet-Potato & Corn Chowder is on the menu for making tomorrow night (if I dont get stuck at work all night *fingers crossed*)

My afternoon snack was a long overdue yogurt...

Vanilla Chobani with 2 crushed graham cracker boards & a spoonful of Teddie PB

Did about 10 loads of laundry... Oyyyy! Very long overdue... and then plopped myself down to watch a Halloween favorite... ITS THE GREAT PUMPKIN CHARLIE BROWN.

Seriously... if C.Brown was a real person, he would be one sad little boy...

"I got a rock...."

Good God, poor child hahaha.

Then came dinnatime once the rumbling in mah bellay began...

Started with a pan of roasted veggies because when am I not craving those?

Roasted up some:

Yellow squash.. Carrots.. Mushrooms.. Eggplant... Onion

Along with a tilapia fillet I seasned with Season-All (a delicious combo of onion, garlic, blah blah) cooked it up in a pan for about 3-4 mins on each side...

Holy Yum... Hence why I could never give up seafood :)

My snack-fiend alterego presented herself tonight and I was craving chocolate like no other... luckily I stuck with this baby rather than picking out some tasties from our Halloween stash:

I'm a newbie to the Deeeep Chocolateeee although I do LOVE me that chocolate... I don't discriminate. If you are of the Chocolate Family, I adore you so.

Uhhhh....no brainer what was required to add to this bitty:

Light spread of smooth Teddie PB on top of a warm Vita-top? Yowzaaaah!!! PB & Chocolate at its best bebe...


And that combo, of course, requires a cold glass of this...

Time to devour.... Going....

Going......

Ended too soon if you ask me...

Thank you Sir may I have another?????

The rest of the night will consist of ME. SLEEPING. FOREVER.

I have a double at work tomorrow & want to make sure I get a full night's sleep... doubles have been killing me lately! I'm pretty sure I can blame lack of sleep and being on my feet for 9+ hours straight for this... then I'll be heading to the gym to (hopefully) get in a hard workout.... we'll see if my shins allow that :-/

Looking forward to:

1. The Volunteer Fire Department Benefit tomorrow @ work.... aka glorious firemen will be present at Flatbread and will be assisting the servers (aka yours truly) in serving dinner to customers.... Does anyone else see this as a potentially amaaaazing night? ;) Haha...come on girls. Can I hear a AMEN to FIREMEN.

2. Halloween festivities this weekend with Anthony & some of my college bebes who I've missed sooo very much! Still need to figure out a few minor pieces to my costume though (Ahhhh!) it's coming up fast!!

What are you lovelies looking forward to in the upcoming days???

All over the place....

Helllo pretties!

I've been a terrible person.. absolutely horrible.... and by that I mean I had a wayyy too crazy weekend and didnt even have 5 mins to sit down and blog it out ! I've been racing around running errands, trying to get out and have a tiny bit of time for FUN with friends, and I worked like a mad woman.... not to mention workout time, which is a necessity for me also :)

So lets get right down to it, shall we??

Tina's having a giveaway!! ...I'm personally excited about this one because it's a product I haven't been lucky enough to try cooking with yet but have wanted to for a while. TOFU!

Speaking of Tina... I'm going to backtrack to a very special Friday... one many of you, I hope, participated in...

COOKIE FRIDAY:

Cookie Friday started like any other Friday... got up, had breakfast, had a great workout and then got to thinking about where I was going to get my sweet treat for my first CF.

Lombardi's Bakery just so happens to be in the same town as my gym; leading me to believe it's fate that I wandered in here....

PICTURE THIS: Homade-made cannolis, perfectly fluffy overstuffed cream puffs, coconut macaroons, mini-Napolean cakes....

In the most amazing Italian bakery, how does a girl searching for perfection decide?

I see this out of the corner of my eye. Problem solved.

Gingerbread men in October!? You betcha!!!

Not running so fast NOW are we Mr. GingyPants? ;)

Amazing. I'm a giant gingerbread fan and the second I spotted these I knew they would make me the happiest... the cookie had a crunch around the edges but was soft & chewy in the center with meringue chocolate eyes. YUM.

And the excitement from Cookie Friday left me wanting to bake ohhhh I don't know... MORE cookies?

I'd been promising my co-workers I would bring in a home-baked treat for them ever since I mentioned I'm a baking fiend. No better time than now when I have a Friday off from work to come up with a recipe to satisfy the hunger of numerous waitstaff, bartenders, and kitchen folk!

I made Peanut Butter "Cows" as I like to call them....

Full of oatmeal (my favorite in a cookie), peanut butter, and both chocolate & white chocolate chips... hence the name, COWS.. black & white spots? You got it...

I adjusted the regular recipe just a tad to throw some healthy swaps in there and halved the recipe because Jilly has been threatening me if I don't stop baking because she feels she's gained 10 lbs. from my treats... Jilly-you're gaw-geous!!!! STOP IT! :)

Peanut Butter Cows:

• 1-1/2 c. oats
• 1/2 c. wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temp.
• 1/2 c. Peanut Butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 c. mix of chocolate chips & white chocolate chips

My co-workers loved them... they were devoured hours before my shift ended :)

Friday night's dinner was heaven sent...

I marinated a tilapia filet with lemon, pepper, & some seasonings for about 15 minutes...

Then baked it & served with roasted veggies & red potatoes.

Followed by a sweet treat (as if I haven't had enough on Cookie Friday) I had a scoop of After Dark Chocolate Stonyfield FF froyo with a sprinkle of Bear Naked granola. Perfect!




SATURDAY:


Saturday began the best way: with a yogurt mess, photographed in the morning light :)


Followed by me frantically getting ready for work & packing a few essentials to prevent fainting later in the day...

Apparently I'm in Kindergarten....

PB & J sandwich on Arnold thin aka MaraNatha smooth PB & Pear Hazelnut spread

A very crunchy organic Gala apple

Caramel Nut Brownie Luna bar

Work was beyond busy... all I could think about was the day being over.

Not that I don't LOVE my job!!! I do... and I love busy days because by the end of the night when I leave work with hard earned money in hand, it is all worth it... not to mention my job allows me to socialize with people... get to know them... our customers are very talkative and love to chit-chat with you even when you're racing around and don't have a single second to talk! But they're all great :)


Once I was finally cut, I realized it was Saturday.

What does Saturday mean to Allison you might ask?

Staffer Beer Day, OF COURSE!

On Fridays & Saturdays all employees get a free beer at the bar after their shift... so I bee-lined it for an open chair and told the bartender "Get Mama a #9" ;)... which I thoroughly enjoyed and savored until an epic thunderstorm came and left me shaking (I'm absolutely terrified of storms!) and waiting out the rain for about an hour and 1/2....

One more Magic Hat... a half order of our Gingerbread sundae with all-natural pumpkin ice cream.... & a lovely somewhat tipsy convo with my lovely coworkers later... and I was outta there!

Brought home a Staffer Pizza for the fam....

(yes we get free pizza too..)

;)

Our Special BBQ Chicken pizza ( I definitely snagged a small slice or two... a girl's gotta eat with all those Magic Hats making themselves comfy in her belly )

• Free-range chicken
• Organic carmelized onions
• Oven-roasted red bell peppers
• Organic corn
• & a homemade BBQ sauce drizzled on top.
  
  Oh yeah... you know how we do.
  
  The night then ended with a night at Cambridge Brewhouse a couple towns over that I had yet to check out but my lovely friend Angelica had been working at for months now. So a few of the coworkers and I met for a few home-brewed brewnanas & some live music... plus a fight outside the building, which was MUCHO fun to watch. Oh yay. Boys need to learn to control their anger, for serious.

I chose the Kona Longboard Lager... the Hawaiian brewing company aced this.. it had great flavor and was light enough for girls like me to enjoy who don't go any darker than... oh yeah, Magic Hat. Two of those and I had MORE than exceeded my alcohol intake for the day... It's very rare I have more than one or two glasses of wine anytime I drink so this was a nice little change for once... I had fun, enjoyed the company and the drinks, & still got home at a decent hour without dreading a morning hangover.

SUNDAY:
I woke up to this on Sunday morning outside my front door....

Beautiful Fall weather at it's finest :)

...And it was warm! Almost 65 degrees when I woke up: gorgeous!


Beautiful Fall days call for Beautiful Warm breakfast :)

And what's this??? A seemingly yummy jar of my beloved Teddie PB? But it's so much more than that....

*GASP!*

EMPTY JAR OF MY BELOVED TEDDIE PB!!!!

And as all of you genious foodies know.... that means only one thing:

Oats in a Jar!

it's what's for breaky :)

In the "empty" jar:

1/2 c. Oats

1 c. water

1 naner sliced (1/2 cooked in the oats, the other 1/2 on top)

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Sprinkle of Almonds

I loved it down to the veryy last bite...

Then it was Off to the Gym I went...

4 miles on the treadmill - 471 calories schooled

25 mins. elliptical - 200 calories sucka-punched

Plus some intense leg & ab work and I finally felt I'd redeemed myself for my excessive Cookie Friday ;) I felt really good after this workout... I was practically buzzing the rest of the day.

Don't you love when a workout leaves you feeling motivated and inspired to continue an ultra-productive day?

So I did just that and ran some errands... including going to the grocery store:

Picked up these bad boys and gave them a shot for lunch...

All I can say is... I love hotdogs once again! :)

These have a mere 45 calories/ZERO fat calories per dog...

And they're great with some spicy mustard...just FYI ;)


I made a yummy salad to go alongside it...

Lettuce mix

Chopped tomatoes

1/2 an Avocado cubed

Sprinkle of almonds

Sliced baby carrots

Chopped celery

Drizzle with Annie's HM Dressing

I headed off to work the dinner shift and was bombarded with tables the whole time... like I said, I LOVE MY JOB haha... but it was a successful night (minus a headache that lasted the entire day with NO help from my friend Advil)

It felt so so good to come home and just rest last night.. I got a great night sleep and gave my legs the break they deserved.

Today's plan? Make some phenom breakfast (I still can't decide on something!) and get a killer workout in at the gym! Everything else is up in the air...

Happy Monday lovahs!

I'll leave you with a workout question...

Do you find it better to eat breakfast prior to a workout or make your workout the first thing you do in the A.M. followed by a hearty breakfast?

...I've always been a first thing in the morning runner followed by a good solid breakfast but ever since I started working more often and have to drive to the gym, I find it easier to have breakfast while it's still early since I won't get back from the gym until lunchtime...

Tilapia Salad & New Product Taste Test

Good Evening Darlings!

Hope none of you had a case of the Mondays today and had a good start to the new week... I can't believe today was the last Monday in September! October came so fast... I'm hoping Fall sticks around longer than summer seemed to.

I always try to designate Mondays for errands & other productive activities.

So I went to the bank, the grocery store, did some laundry, paid some bills, caught up on what all of you out there have been doing with yo damn-selves ;), and spent a good 2 hours at the gym.

40 mins. on the treadmill + a 5 min. cooldown

430 calories burned / 3.6 miles

20 mins. on the elliptical (Cardio setting) + a 5 min. cooldown

approx. 200 calories burned

I pushed myself (especially my legs) today in the weight room and feel GREAT even now! :)

Made sure to stretch really well today since I've been slacking in that area *slap on the wrist* To be honest, I'm usually a stickler for excessive stretching out before & after even minor workouts.. but it slips my mind when I drive 15 mins. to the gym and then run errands for about an hour afterward. Once I finally get back home I'm SO ready for a shower that I've just gone about my day without realizing it.

Moving On.....

Munched on a juicy pear after leaving the gym:

It helped keep me from gnawing my own arm off from hunger until I finished my food shopping (where I picked up these two snack-a-roos seen below) and got home...
I haven't tried the Mojo bars yet !
Is this a thumbs up or thumbs down flavor??


Lunch was heaven sent as I was ready to fall over, no lie...
BBQ Pulled "Pork" sandwich on Arnolds sammy-thin


AND made a batch of Sweet Potato fries to go alongside it....
Annie's Lite Honey Mustard dressing for dipping..

450 degrees for 1/2 an hour with a little paprika, salt, EVOO, and loooooove and these babies came out muy perfecto!

So I finally got to try this out. I'd been meaning to for a while but just wasn't craving it until today... on the way home from my errands I could see a picture of it dancing in my head practically.

MY Review:

Very good!!!

-- I honestly couldn't tell the difference between this meat-free version and the real thing...

-- It wasn't lacking in flavor what-so-ever which made me happy because that's what originally made me nervous when purchasing it....

-- There's about 2 servings in one box so I had enough to save another sandwich-worth portion for leftovers! (Be prepared to see those tomorrow :) Holy yum!)

-- Didn't even need any extra toppings!!

I definitely recommend it to all - meat-free eaters & meat-lovers alike!

Snacktime! #1

Nature's Promise version of Triscuits with a Lite French Onion Laughing Cow cheese


Dinner was just kinda thrown together but ended up being a success... I had bought a tilapia filet on sale and still hadn't been able to find a good, simple recipe to use.

SO...using my instincts... I threw together a bunch of veggies (can't go wrong here) and sauteed them with a little EVOO

Tomatoes

Black olives

Sweet corn

Garlic

Chopped Mushrooms


Sprinkled the tilapia with salt & pepper and then added it to the skillet... topped with the veggies and served it on a bed of baby spinach with a sprinkle of almonds, parmesan cheese, & shredded basil

With a drizzle of lemon juice on top it was a QUICK & delish dinner fix.

What's white fish without white wine? ;)

Andddd ONE more time.... for your viewing pleasure

I swear there's fish under all that mess!


Skip ahead an hour later and my trusty sweet tooth kicked in, per usual...

So I headed to the kitchen to find something and found this perched on the counter:

Billie giving me that "Are you REALLY going for dessert right now?" look.... ahhh, maybe she's right...



OH WELL!!!! ;) haha

Sorry to disappoint Billie-kins!

Snack #2 (a bangin one at that!)

Naner stuffed with Dark Chocolate Dreams? Yes, please!



And now here I am... becoming more and more convinced everyday that I am indeed, an old lady on the inside.... My proof? Exhibit A:

Family Circle??? Really? REALLY?

I can't lie... it's a good read.. especially with a bowl of Honey Sunshine.. can you say SNACK FIEND???? That's numba 3 people...

Question for you lovahs:
What do you tend to grab when your craving for a late night snack kicks in??


I wanna mix it up a bit - I'm a cereal or fruit kinda gal but it can actually get kinda boring after a while!! Any good ideas for healthy, quick fixes?