fitness journey

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: New spice obsession!

Just to spare my joints, I’m taking some long walking days. It’s decent cardio and I can catch up on shows everyone keeps telling me I HAVE to watch (I’m working my way through Supernatural) and my never-ending Watch Later list on YouTube. I may even start writing on the walking days on the treadmill because it’s much easier to squeeze in a few words here and there when I’m not intensely running. Maybe some reading as well since I’m caught up with my ARCs but behind on my other reading.

I’m still doing good when it comes to fruit and prepping different lunches for some variety. Dinner had to be smaller since the medication is doing its job and I had some delicious little tomatoes I had to use up. My latest discovery has been Spicy Pink Salt with Crushed Red Chili Pepper. This shit is AMAZING on the fish and the cracked out tuna salad I made for dinner. I have to be careful with it because I’m not supposed to be eating too much salt anyway and the spice isn’t fooling around but wow. I hope they don’t discontinue this anytime soon because I’m gonna stock up.

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Today’s Workout: Different stuff!!

Yup, I’m back at running and found a set of missions I haven’t done yet. I’m running out of those… Ha, puns… Anyway, this is a cute story so far with some honestly low stakes. I haven’t seen how zombies would fit into this if at all but, it’s silly and fun.

This may look like a strange day food wise but, I consider it a success. I always talk about how little fruit I eat and I got two servings in! I had to physically hide them from my child who will see a handful of apples and a box of strawberries and eat ALL of them before I even get a chance. Hell, I should be glad my child will eat fruit and vegetables willingly but, for me to not even get a nibble isn’t fair. The night before, I’d made taco bowls and set some up for lunch. It was so, SO much for my stomach that dinner was a mini bagel and strawberries. I am also aware that the avocado soaking in lemon juice like that probably looks gross but it tasted delicious and packing the cold and hot ingredients separately made everything the right sensory experience; warm meat rice but cool crunchy lettuce (and scallions). It’s a pain in the butt to get it to work and uses a lot of dishes but I was still happy with it.

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Today’s Workout: Sharing is Caring

If anyone works with children in any way, you know the one thing they are guaranteed to share with you is their germs. As a result, I am awaiting the inevitable since my child is sick and has no issue coughing directly on me (the little shit). I do feel more run down, so no running. I’m walking instead to keep moving and if I succumb, I can recover quickly.

I think I’ve been doing pretty good with my eating. Even if I have something like that chocolate rum cake my friend gave me, I’m still active and taking my supplements. A little treat here and there won’t kill me. I’ve been on a basalmic vinegar kick instead of lemon juice or red wine vinegar, but hey, variety is good. Makes sure I don’t get bored. I do look forward to getting back to my running and maybe some biking once in a while. Having the desk bike in my room and not using it is bothering me.

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Today’s Workout: Gross?

Every time the Zombies Run! app updates, I have to adjust my stride length… Which I did not do before this run so my pace is completely off.  I was digging around in the app and adjusted it and also noticed that 2020 was still the year of my highest mileage. I mean, of course. I was in lockdown and doing c210k, running a minimum of 45 minutes 6 days a week. Probably not likely to top that anytime soon. But, this was another really long run with no breaks and while again, the intervals give me water breaks I enjoy, I was able to get through the whole thing. I even did peek at the timing for c210k for the Just Run app and the shortest runs are 50-ish minutes. Doable if I get up early on a day I’m working late or run on a day off. There’s just no time to do a run that long after work but still have time for dinner and get to bed at a decent hour. I’ll have to tweak my schedule and see but I’m not finished with the 5k trainer yet.

These are… Not the most appetizing food pictures I’ve taken. I had a craving for pancakes. I had them after my run mid-morning. For dinner was butter garlic ready rice, salmon with garlic confit and shallots with some corn thrown in there. It looks greasy as fuck because the garlic confit I made had a ton of olive oil. Ugly to look at? Yes. Fucking delicious? Also, yes. This isn’t a food blog. It’s a “whatever random crap I decide to include” blog. And when you’re satisfying a craving, it doesn’t matter if your plate looks pretty. 

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Today’s Workout: Best laid plans?

This was a good run despite it being a bit stuffy in the room. I know it sounds prissy but, the more comfortable I am when I run, the more likely I am to do it. I know the weather is just going to get hotter and I’m not looking forward to that, mostly because of the damn electric bill for the air conditioning.

In my head, I had all these plans for meal prep: throwing out old food, putting the fresh stuff right in the front, making sure the containers were clean… Only to just rely on frozen food and have popcorn for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, the breaded cod is delicious and comes in clutch when I need protein fast and a break from chicken or beef. The Steamfresh veggies are convenient, too. They go very nicely in my Itaki and 20 minutes has all of it warmed up and ready to go. After my run, I’d had it for the day. Popcorn filled me up and I have zero regrets. 

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Today’s Workout: Gettin’ the steps.

After spending the weekend taking some really great walks (actually outside where other people are) I’m starting my week with a slightly longer run as I get into the latter weeks of c25k. I hit my goal of about 7k steps but I did notice that my feet are aching. Maybe I need a just walk day and not a walk and run type of day like today. Since I needed peppers for dinner and they were on sale, I walked up to the store on my lunch break to get them and perhaps my work shoes were not the best for this? It’s not terrible pain, just more than average soreness.

For lunch I had leftovers from the dinner I made for the kid. I ate pasta instead (trying to use up all the sauce I made and free up more fridge space) and as I didn’t want to have actual tacos for Cinco de Mayo, I had a taco salad that was 90% vegetables. I portioned out some for tomorrow and some for the kid. One pack of ground beef went pretty far when I measured it out. But just for my share. The child eats what he wants since he’s not the one dieting. I am. There’s some avocado in there, too. I managed to use it just in time. One more day and it would have been rotten. It was a really filling salad. I could have probably halved it and it would have been fine but I did enjoy it. Even with only a small portion of meat.

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Today’s Workout: Success!

While I enjoy the intervals because I can take a drink of water more often, I was able to complete the 20 minute run! It wasn’t that bad and remember; I don’t go very fast. I run at only 3.5 mph. It’s just enough to get my heartrate up and I can keep that pace for long periods of time.

Since I got up early-ish, I had a protein shake before my run. I have no idea if that impacted my performance but I doubt it. Lunch was more of that chicken and rice I made and dinner was my Itaki. All in all, a damn successful day! My macros were decent, I topped 7,000 steps, and I got a bit of writing done around my work. I’ll take any win I can get these days.

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Today’s Workout: Imma just do the thing

I decided to do the 20 minute run workout on Thursday since that’ll be my last run for the week and the weekend will be body weight workouts and walking. I do hope to make it so every run is just a warm up, run, cool down, without the intervals but the intervals may be good for training? I dunno. This is the kind of thing that when I look it up, there are benefits and downsides to both methods. I guess as long as I’m moving, it doesn’t matter?

Whelp, Kind bars were on sale again and making an appearance in my rotation. As I was making dinner last night, I packed some of it for lunch today and for dinner, I threw some rice and chicken in the rice cooker while I was on the treadmill and by the time I was all finished, I added some veggies and chili crisp for some lazy chicken and rice. Putting everything together in the evening did result in me eating later than I’d like. I try to be done by 8pm and have nothing but water or tea after that (maybe some CBD seltzer to help me sleep). I don’t like going to bed with that full feeling. But, there’s not much to be done about it unless I start batch cooking again.

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Today’s Workout: Confidence

Despite the fact I’ve done it before, I still balk at a full 20 minute run. I still haven’t finished the latest week of C25k because of that even though I know I can do it. I just need to DO it and stop questioning myself. Not today, though. I’m still sleepy but wanted to get running again. Also, I really hope this app survives because I would LOVE a part two to this Atlantis mission series.

As I’d predicted, making fries as a weeknight dinner results in me eating it later than I’d hoped. I got a bag of panko breaded cod in my last Butcher Box order and the fries soaked while I was running. I let them dry while I was in the shower and after I was all lotioned and potioned; I fried them up. They weren’t as crispy as I would have hoped but that’s probably because they didn’t have time to dry enough before frying. Not a big deal! It was still a satisfying meal.

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Today’s Workout: You’re lucky you’re cute

I had every intention of running after work but best laid plans and all that… I was completely derailed by this adorable asshole.

She decided at 3am that she HAD to leave my room and would not stop meowing until I let her out. The last thing either of us wanted was for her to piss or shit on the floor so, I dragged my ass up, let her out, and never really got back to sleep. If I’m tired enough during the day that a prolonged blink feels like a nap, I don’t trust myself to run on a treadmill. I didn’t think the desk peddler would be enough and opted for a 40-minute walk. And yeah, I was not steady on my feet at all. I made the right call.

For breakfast, I had Vanilla Cardamom Cold Brew Coffee with almond milk in the best cup ever. Lunch was beef and broccoli in my Itaki and dinner was turkey, avocado and onion on a low-carb spinach and herb wrap. I threw in some pretty tomatoes and a mini cucumber. I think it would have tasted better if I’d picked the onions. It wasn’t bad, I just think it would have been a little more interesting.

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