slammed.

Halfway through the week! Thank goodness! It’s a stressful one for me. I have a paper due today, donation letters to send out,  a PR research project to work on, a Persuasion exam Monday, a discussion to lead in class tomorrow,  an internship application to finish, five nights of working until 11 PM, marathon training, and a hurt knee! Whew.

Monday night after work, I went to the gym to run (gotta love a 24-hour gym!) and I must have strained my left knee. I had an ACL reconstruction five years ago and have torn cartilage in it since then, and from time to time it swells up and gets very irritated. It’s painful! Doesn’t my knee know I have a half marathon to run in 11(!!!) days?! I rested it yesterday, and am going to do some cross training on the bike today, followed by some ice. Crossing my fingers that will do the trick! No time for injuries!

I had a pretty specific craving for lunch today: a bagel sandwich! While at Publix last weekend, I bought a bag of whole-wheat mini bagels. I wanted to recreate a veggie bagel sandwich that I had last year in Destin. I think the sandwich had spinach, sprouts, cucumber, tomato, onion, and raspberry vinaigrette. I went to my favorite local restaurant, Sweet Basil Cafe to pick up some of their homemade raspberry vinaigrette dressing, but they only had sesame-poppyseed vinaigrette, so I grabbed that instead. Of course, I didn’t have half of the ingredients needed so I improvised. I toasted the bagel and topped it with spinach, arugula, sliced apple, shredded carrot, and the dressing. YUMMMMM!

It ended up great. I love bagel sandwiches!! I also had a little salad on the side.

The remainder of my day will be spent finishing up my ethics paper, hitting the gym, and getting donation letters together! Have a happy hump day!

back on track…

I woke up this morning MOTIVATED! Thank goodness…finally back on track. I drank a cup of coffee, showered for school, grabbed a big, shiny organic apple & a kids Clif-Z bar and hit the road! At school I made a to-do list (which is pretty lengthy since I have been putting a lot of stuff off–typical) and am now working on checking it off! First up was GYM–45 min. interval workout on the elliptical–CHECK! I forgot a pony-tail holder, so I was sporting the hot, sweaty, fro look by the time I was finished. I sweated out over 300 calories and now am munching on a protein packed lunch.

Several friends who are trying to make healthier eating choices have asked me to share my recipes and go-to meal ideas. I thought about doing so here on the blog, and photographing some of my favorite foods and typing out the recipes. As I looked down at my lunch today however, I realized that it’s not too photogenic sometimes. To be honest, today’s lunch looks like a plate full of dog food. It is anything but!! Yesterday, I made homemade veggie burgers with black beans, broccoli, red and green peppers, onion, egg whites, rolled oats, salt & pepper, chili powder & enchilada sauce. I didn’t measure anything and just threw stuff in the food processor, so the texture is off, but they are pretty delicious! After my workout today, I decided to crumble up one of the burgers and scramble it with two egg whites and a little enchilada sauce. I topped it with nutritional yeast(a vegan complete protein and a good source of B vitamins. It’s in a flake form, kind of like parmesan cheese, and also has a cheesy taste. It’s low in fat and sodium). It turned out to be a delicious lunch and I am completely satisfied! Since it was so gross looking, I decided to take a picture of it! Don’t judge me, this meal is so yummy and nutritionally rockin’!

So whatcha think? Wanna taste?!

Sorry about the bad quality! My camera is still dead…It’s on the to-do list!;)

I am finishing up a cup of ginger green tea and getting back to the list. Have a happy FAT TUESDAY!