Just a quick update

I'm still here, I'm still alive and this week I am going to ROCK IT at the gym.

Nellie is back from vacation.  We are going back to the gym tonight.  I kinda blew it off last week.  See, I'm stuck in my same cycle again.

Ugh.

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 :)