The verdict is in

Last night I cooked up something different for dinner. I really love salmon, but buying it fresh and cooking it is expensive and time consuming. Then I saw these guys.

Blue Horizon Salmon Burgers

D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!!! They are made of wild salmon (not farmed,) no preservatives, antibiotics, or chemicals. 157 calories, 8.5g fat, 18.2g protein, 312mg sodium. I'm always kind of cautious about premade/prepackaged things in the frozen foods section. I always think stuff I find there are high in sodium, low in nutrients, because so much of it is! My roommate bought a frozen pasta dish/dinner in a bag thing and it had 1200mg of sodium in one serving! That's half your day's recommended intake of sodium in 1.5 cups of pasta!!! It also has half your day of saturated fat AND half your day of cholesterol, and about 550 calories for one serving, with only 3g fiber and 17g protein. So unhealthy and not worth it!


Anyway, sorry, unhealthy crap like that gets me all worked up. As you can see, these salmon burgers don't have that much sodium. I had my burger on a 100 calorie english muffin with some feta cheese and tons of veggies. I was in love! Plus, one burger has 1,000mg Omega-3s! For dessert, I warmed up a Vitatop and then smothered it in warmed berries. I told ya, I'm addicted to berries!


Are there any healthy foods you can't get enough of right now? Have you found any grocery store gems like my salmon burgers?

Just another manic Sunday/Monday/Tuesday

Wow! Busy, busy weekend! Yesterday I went grocery shopping and I was so proud of the contents of my refrigerator that I took some pictures. *Disclaimer, I did not buy all this at once today. Most of it, I already had. I'm not made of money!*

The door of the freezer - Look at all those veggies! I have salmon burgers that I'm trying tonight, Weight Watchers 100 calorie English toffee bars and Vitatops, of course!

I am addicted to berries. What you can't see is the GIANT bag of raspberries behind the GIANT bag of mixed fruit that also has raspberries in it . . . There was a sale at Target and I love raspberries! There's also some chicken and turkey hiding back there.

Lettuce, spinach, snow peas, behind that are eggs.

Yogurt, my large bag of carrots that I go to when I'm feeling munchy, cheeses, and hot salsa.

I have a lot of food now! I can't wait to start cooking things up. I bought a canister of whipped cream to put of my berries for dessert. I've found that warm berries, or berries that I accidentally defrosted in the microwave for too long, taste really good with a little whipped cream on top. It's like pie minus all the sugar and calories. Mmmmm!


Remember when I was feeling like losing myself in a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos? My salty/spicy craving? Well, I found these:

Jennie-O Spicy Italian Turkey Sausage

They are SO TASTY. 160 calories, 17g protein, but the downside is . . . the sodium. It's up there, but I don't eat that much sodium anyway, so I figure one sausage every once in a while is OK. I had mine in a Flatout Flatbread with some ketchup, a salad, and some fruit. It was really satisfying. I want to get some peppers and make sausage and peppers with a little pasta. Yum!


Back to the manic Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. . . Here was my to-do list for Sunday

Sorry it's so dark! Spyhouse Coffee doesn't have the best lighting.

I got about half of it done at Spyhouse and the rest is for tonight. My life is busy and keeps getting busier! That's OK, I like this kind of busy. At least it's fun!

Running shoe companies: Where are the cute shoes for me?!

I have flat feet and I over-pronate, thus I need motion control shoes. It seems like running shoe companies think over-pronators are under-stylish. Here's what I drool over when it comes to shoes:

Love the blue & orange contrast.

My dream shoe. Black with lime green accents. Sigh.

Purple! 

They are all for neutral runners!!!! ARRRGGHHH!!! And here's what shoe designers have come up with for over-pronators, like me:

Most of the blue accents are on the bottom of the shoe, because that's the part of your shoe you see when you look down... right.

Let's not get TOO crazy with those bright, bold, accent colors.

I can't even come up with something smart-assed and sarcastic for this. It's just UGLY.

See my frustration? I am dying for a stylish running shoe with enough support for me. This is what I'm running on right now, and trust me, it's the most stylish one out there. Asics Gel Foundation 9. At least the blue accents are visible... kind of.

Dear running shoe, I love you. You fit so well, you support my feet, help my knee, keep me injury free, but could you at least try to be cute? No?

What's the deal? Why don't running shoe companies put any design effort into their motion control shoes? I envy those girls at the gym with neutral arches and the cute shoes. I'm considering writing to every shoe company and begging them to put more effort into the motion control designs. We over-pronators like style too!

Sigh. Maybe someday.

What kind of feet do you have? What brand of running shoe do you own? Does style affect what shoes you buy? Are you one of those lucky girls who have neutral feet and can buy stylish shoes?

This week has been...

Lazy in every way possible. After my meltdown on Sunday, I've been taking it easy. I'm still committed to losing weight, but I needed a break from the continuous focus on counting calories and fitting in workouts. I needed a mental breather from it for a week. I've been pretty good with eating and I still worked out, but I didn't count calories, I didn't worry about going over my limit. 


Tomorrow, I'm starting again, refreshed and refocused. I still want the goal, it's embedded deep within me and I am still committed to it. I just needed to give myself a break and relax my hold on myself. But tomorrow, I'm going back on my plan of 1,500-1,600 calories a day, 4-5 days of running, and 3 days of strength.


I am super excited about my life right now though. I have numerous career opportunities that have come my way. I'm applying for an internship at a design firm in Minneapolis. My name was offered for a marketing/design internship at the club where I tend bar that I could do on top of my duties as a bartender and still get paid. Wedding season is also coming up, so I'll be making tons of money tending bar there. I also have work to do for a friend who needs a promotional flyer done for an event, a friend needs branding work done for herself as an interior designer, and my mom needs corporate identity work done for her new business. I'm a busy gal and getting busier!


Hitting rock bottom last weekend, part of my worries was my career. I felt like I wasn't going to be successful out of college. It felt like everyone I knew in my classes had internships under their belts and I was really worried about not being able to get a job when I finish my degree. The Universe must have been paying attention to me and POOF numerous opportunities. Good things do happen.


Tomorrow I will wake refreshed and ready to take on the world including continuing my weight loss journey. 

I've got the munchies

I have been so munchy today! Honestly, anything crunchy and salty gets my mouth watering. My biggest craving right now, as weird as it sounds, are Flaming Hot Cheetos. I have not had Flaming Hot Cheetos in years and I have no idea why I'm craving them right now! The spice, the crunch, the salt. I want it all! No worries, I will not be stopping by any gas stations to pick some up, ever. That's one thing that my body does not need.


I've been really trying to listen to my body and figure out what it needs. I've been making a plan for the day and then sticking with it for a few months and, while it's been working, I've also found myself not loving it so much. This week I've been trying to tune into my cravings and figure out where they're coming from, indulging the reasonable ones and breathing through the unreasonable ones. Last night, I got home pretty late and all I wanted were berries, lots and lots of berries. I thought about it and I was surprised that of all the things I could be craving, I wanted berries. I figured, this is a reasonable craving, so I had some berries before bed. Today, I am craving crunchy and salty. This is a craving I will not be giving into, but where is it coming from? Why does my body want salt and crunch?


I'm watching television right now and someone mentioned pineapple... Mmm, pineapple. Pineapple season starts in March and goes through July. Maybe I'll head over to the grocery store and get some pineapple... That sound better than Flaming Hot Cheetos!


Another part about listening to my body is paying attention to exercise cravings. These, believe it or not, happen to me. I'll be driving and see someone running, or watching television and see an Asics commercial about running, and I'll be hit with this desire to run. This happened to me this morning and I went with it. I had a great run! I can't believe that my body actually craves running. A year ago, I never would have craved anything active. It's amazing. I've changed so much in the past few months and I'm really starting to feel like I'm no longer forcing myself to live a healthy lifestyle. I'm just living it and craving it and loving it.


What do you do when you get intense cravings? Have you started to crave healthy foods more and more? What about unhealthy foods like Flaming Hot Cheetos, how do you deal with those kinds of cravings? Do you have a little bit and feel satisfied, do you give in and have a ton, or do you fight it off and have none?

I'm going to post twice to toot my own horn.

I had a great day of great tasting/great for me food. I had my usual breakfast of whole wheat toast, peanut butter, coffee and a banana. For lunch I reheated a turkey burger and had it with some blackberries (my new favorite) and yogurt. My snacks were all fruits and vegetables: carrots, an apple, and some raspberries (my other new addiction.) And for dinner I tried a new recipe! Well, it's not really new and I've made it before, but not for a long time. This time I made it Fit Erin Friendly. 

 Chicken Fajitas:

    1 lb natural boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch pieces
    1 green bell pepper
    1/2 medium white onion (You can use a whole onion, but I only had half of one left over from my burgers.)

    3 tbsp cornstarch
    2 tbsp chili powder
    1 tbsp salt
    1 tbsp paprika
    1/2 tbsp sugar
    2-1/2 tsp ground up chicken boullion cube
    1-1/2 tsp onion
    1/2 tsp garlic powder
    1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
    1/2 tsp cumin
    1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

    1/3 cup water

    Mix up seasoning in a small bowl. Spray pan with cooking spray and heat over medium flame. Cook chicken pieces until golden brown, add peppers and onions, stir for about 3 minutes until onions start to turn translucent. Add seasoning mixture and water. Stir until well mixed and heated through.

Makes 4 cups.

Nutrition per cup: 186 calories. 1.5g fat. 8.3g carbohydrates. 1g fiber. 34g protein. 

I had mine with a FlatOut Flatbread cut in half (80 calories,) 1/4 cup 2% Milk Shredded Mexican Style Cheese from Market Pantry (80 calories,) and 2 tablespoons of hot salsa (10 calories.) Grand total for a healthy and satisfying dinner: 366 calories. Yum! My camera is dead but I'll take a picture tomorrow when I reheat another serving! I had this with some more berries and yogurt for dessert. What can I say, I'm addicted to berries and yogurt!


And on the peanut butter front, I've only had my 2 tablespoons for breakfast today. Doing well on the goal so far!

Winter is back

Boo! Yeah, that's right, I boo you, Winter! One run outside and then winter comes roaring back, keeping me cooped up in the gym. Speaking of the gym, LA Fitness tracks your check-ins and you can see the dates and times online. So far in March, I've gone to the gyms more times than February! That was a goal of mine that I came up with last week, but when I checked my check-in history I was already 2 sessions away from tying February. I was rockin' it without even knowing it. Sometimes, I even amaze myself.


I haven't stepped on the scale since Sunday, and I don't think I'll be weighing myself this Sunday either. I'm putting way too much pressure on that number right now. I was getting too deep into needing to see a decrease in order to be happy. So, I'm continuing my plan, but I'm skipping the weigh in part. I had a goal of losing the last 3 pounds by the end of March, but I'm going to cancel that goal and make a new one that doesn't put unhealthy pressure on me. My new goal is to go to the gym 5 more times in March than I did in February and to kick my stupid nighttime peanut butter habit by April 1. I usually put a little peanut butter on my Vitatop for dessert at the end of the day, but a little has turned into a lot which is turning into spoonfuls of peanut butter. Not OK! I'm going to say no to peanut butter all together after breakfast. It's just how it has to be.


All this snow is making me more and more excited for Twins baseball season!!!

I want to be here right now!

My mom has a 20 game season ticket package, plus 2 tickets to opening day and I am so excited! Baseball soothes me. And for those of you who don't live in Minnesota, or haven't been to Target Field, maybe it's time for a trip? You're missing out on one of the most amazing experiences.
It's snowing and it's the heavy stuff with a layer of ice underneath. I left class at 8:30 last night and it was raining ice pellets. I couldn't even look up as I walked because those pellets would sting as the hit me in the eyes, so I stared at my boots which were getting soaked, and shuffled the 4 or 5 blocks to my car. It was miserable! I want to go running OUTSIDE! I guess I'll have to settle for a treadmill workout. :-(