Falafe................wha?

Anyone that REALLY knows me knows I LOVE Greek/Middle-Eastern food. 

My husband's boss is from Israel.  He taught me how to make SOOOOOO many tasty things - though I really wish they weren't so high in fat :(. 

One of my absolute favorites is Falafel.  Falafel is fried chickpeas or fava beans...or sometimes both.  Favas have a richer, less snappy flavor than chickpeas, so would be better for someone who likes a milder taste.  I love them both.  You take them, mash them up, form them into patties, and fry them in olive oil-y goodness - serve them on a pita with tzatziki sauce or in a salad with some tahini (sesame paste) and - absolute bliss.

So, when I went to The Fresh Market yesterday and saw these......

OMG, I could have died.  I think I walked by them like 5 times before I put them in the cart.  Then, I found the baba ghannouj (pronounced baa baa ganoosh) and I was really hooked.    Baba ghannouj is roast eggplant, but this is made kinda like hummus.  I  love hummus (another thing that Othman has taught me how to make on my own) but sometimes I get lazy and buy the store-bought stuff.  Especially when my stomach is eating itself because I skipped my 4pm snack because I decided to skip the gym and go to the Fresh Market to get sushi.

So, while I was driving back to work to drop off Tammy's dinner for her, I ate 10 chips and about 1/8c of the baba ghannouj, lol.  10 chips are not like potato chips...these are big rounds.  Not bad WW points wise at all.  And dinner was tuna and salmon ngiri, california roll and potstickers.

A few other things I got at Fresh Market was spinach artichoke dip, a container of veggie antipasta, crispy bread rounds, a panini that Michael had for dinner, veggie chips, fruit chips, strawberries, corn tortillas, and I think that was it.  I always spend a crap ton in there, which is why I only go about 1x a month, but it's always worth it.  It wasn't as busy as it typically is...I wonder if the addition of Whole Foods to Greensboro has anything to do with it?  I haven't been to Whole Foods yet, basically because I hear they are REALLY expensive. 

I AM going to the gym tonight.  I am doing intervals on the treadmill and weights again.  Then, I am meeting Jody to walk.  I'm going to focus on just getting through the intervals, rather than speed....I think I'll try that, because I want to start going for distance, rather than speed.....does that make sense at all?  My first 5K is in July (bad, bad time to start, I know), and I want to RUN it..the whole thing.  Even if it's at 4.5mph, I want to run it.

Tomorrow I have the Zumbathon, then Michael and I are going to start tackling staining the fence.  I think I just had a flashback to The Karate Kid......**Daniel-san, Paint the Fence......uuuuuup.....doooooown.......uuuuuuupppp......doooooooown**



PSA....Running makes your butt hurt :p

I did intervals for an hour on the treadm ill yesterday for an hour.  I just started the 2nd week of the C25K program.  I've done 5k's before, but I had gotten out of doing it due to 2 bouts of pneumonia in the winter.  I had never FULLY run one, just walked/jogged/stumbled/wheezed thought it. 

I had it set to random/around the world at 3% dificulty max, which had a max incline of 3.5.  Well, the C25K program has intervals like this in the 2nd week -

5 min warm up
90 seconds run
2 min walk
90 seconds run
2 min walk
.......repeat 4 more times
5 min cool down

All I can say is owie!  I need to do intervals on an incline more often! :p

Last night was supposed to be step class night, but since Nellie wasn't going , I did 1 hour on the treadmill, 35 min weights, then went and met my friend Jody for our 45 min walk.

What's on your plate today?  This is what's in my lunch bag:

1c strawberries, 1 jullienned apple and 1 kiwi

1c diced chicken over romaine salad and 1/2 avocado...tomato basil vinegrette on the side

The rest of my day's stash....banana, 100 cal almonds, 100 cal kettle corn, Lentil soup (1 box is to keep here in case I forget lunch one day.

Today is supposed to be my heavy day at the gym.  Thursday's are typically 2 in a row class days.  But, they changed the schedule for May.  Now, Power (weight lifting) is at 5:30 :(  Boohiss!!!  That means, I have to do something until my belly dance class at 7:40.  Soooooooooo, they added a Core class in between.  So, I guess I will try that.  That may help me with my running.  Megan is going back to GTCC this afternoon, though, so I may not get to Power....as long as I don't miss belly dance, I don't care :p

Now, as far at this weekend...I am doing a Zumbathon on Saturday.  I LOVE Zumba and this is for a good cause :)

So, if you're in the Peidmont region of NC and need something to do, come on out!!  I guarantee you'll get hooked on Zumba too :)

I fought CookOut .... and WON!

Yesterday I had a REALLY bad craving for CookOut.  If you have ever been to one, you know what I am talking about.  They have over 30 kinds of shakes....the BEST burgers and awesome seasoned fries.  And it always smells WONDERFUL when we drive by.

Working in the flavor industry, I always compare smells to the products we work with.....CookOut always smells like charsol to me...which is a grilled flavoring they use in Burger King (anyone who tellls you they don't artificially flavor their meat is on crack....), vegetarian meat substitute, and a few other things.  I love the smell.  Yes, it does smell kinda sorta like a grill.  But not really. 

I had to take Megan to GTCC for her visit with one of the school counselors yesterday, and we passed CookOut.  At the time, my stomach was eating itself, because it was well past my 4pm snack time (about an hour before I typically go to the gym), and well, being a bit stressed about Megan's school and what I needed to catch up on at work, and on and on, I REALLY wanted CookOut.

But then, I weighed the pros and cons.....

Did I really want to splurge like that, when I had been doing so well??  I mean, on Saturday, Outback screwed up my carry out order by giving me the Alice Springs Chicken Sandwich (chicken, sauce, cheese, bacon) instead of the plain grilled chicken sandwich and steamed brocoli that I ordered, and by golly I pulled off the cheese and bacon before I ate it!

Did I want just a shake and fries that I would have to count as my dinner because of all the calories, when I could go home and have 2 eggs, 5 slices of turkey bacon, one sausage link and 2 slices of toast???  Come on now....what's more food/better calories??

So, instead, I drove right by CookOut and brought Meg back to her car at my work and ate my celery sticks and my granola thin.

And I never felt so empowered as I did last night :)

New name, new week :)

I really hate when my browser flips out and deletes everything.  I had this HUGE post typed and something happened and POOF everything is gone!

So, let's try this again....

I decided to change the name of my blog to Running Stitches because I want to combine my seweing blog and my fitness/exercise blog.  It just makes more sense to me to do that, since I can't sem to keep up with both of them.  Not only do I really enjoy working out and fitness, but I also enjoy cross-stitch/crochet/knitting.  These things keep my hands busy when I think that I am hungry, but no :p.

Some of my most recent creations:

I do these mostly for Christmas and Birthday presents.  I love doing thigs like this because it has SO much more meaning than something bought from a store or a gift card.  Plus, it's relaxing to me.

Another favorite thing of mine to do is run/walk in 5k's.  I like collecting the shirts, lol.  Plus, I want to eventually RUN in one.  I've recently re-started the couch to 5K program.  I did this last year and was doing really well, until I had 2 bouts with pneumonia earlier this year.  That really set me back. 

Shirt for the Greensboro Gobbler last Thanksgiving

My placing at the Run to Victory last September 269 overall and 18th in my age group!

My runners number from the Women's Only 5k

Not-so-flattering picture at the Run to Victory

After a 5k Benefit for a lady that survived breast cancer, hence the pink

Lastly, here are some comparison shots from last year....these are from last July to September...this is when I first got heavy into fitness and lifting and working with a personal trainer.  I was doing REALLY well, then life got in the way.  5 weeks ago, I seriously got back on track and am back to losing again.  I've lost 17 pounds so far and am doing weight watchers again and LOVING it!





These were taken in the mirror at work.  You can see a *little* difference, but not a lot.  I wasn't happy with the diet I was doing (just counting calories) because it didn't seem to be working.  I could never  get that "happy balance" and I always either ate too much or not enough.  I am seeing a HUGE difference with being back on Weight Watchers.  Yes, my calories vary every day, but at least I have a set range where I still lose.  I know with my body, as long as I stay within my daily points and only go into about 5-10 of my weekly points, I still lose.  Any thing over that and I stall. 

Plus, now I have an AMAZING support system here at work with my workout buddies!!!!

Ok, I think that's enough for one day....until next time!