Happy B-Day RunningIntoShape.com

Wow I can’t believe it!!!  Running Into Shape.com is 2 years old today! 

My Couch to 5K  Week 1 Training podcasts has been downloaded 13,000 times, I’ve had over 343,000 visitors

 and I’m training for my very first half marathon! 

Not bad for a 2nd Birthday!

Meatless Monday

I have a confession, in the past couple months I have become a Huge Oprah fan. Groupie would probably be a more accurate description. Every day I run home and watch episodes of The Oprah Winfrey show  and shows that I have DVR’d on the OWN network.  I have done just about everything except for put posters of her on my wall like a teenage girl!  Which today, I actually considered…. Anyway, last week she had a riveting episode of her show detailing ins and outs of the meat industry.  She took us way too deep into the slaughterhouse.  She encouraged all of her staff to go Vegan for a week or a month I can’t remember which. I knew there was no way in the world that I would attempt to be a vegan. Vegans do not consume any animal products, that means no eggs, no cheese, no meat.  Cheese is perfect with almost every meal for me, so I wasn’t even going to pretend to consider becoming a Vegan.  However, she piqued my interest when she said that you could try a Meatless Monday. I debated it back and forth not mentioning it to you guys until I was sure that was what I wanted to do. Finally, Sunday night I realized I was ready to commit.

Today I had my first Meatless Monday. For breakfast I had a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal and milk. For lunch I made a fantastic pasta that I took to work. I chopped up fresh zucchini and squash and added some red spaghetti sauce. However my big little sister called and threw me for a loop. She’s been experiencing a series of unfortunate events, and asked me to go to lunch with her. How could I say no? I left my veggie lunch at work and went with her to TGI Friday’s restaurant. Everything on the menu had meat in it. I almost gave in and then I asked the waiter for help. He recommended that I get a pasta, add all the veggies, and hold the chicken.  My Big Little Sister on the other hand, ordered the Jack Daniel’s platter with steak and shrimp and french fries.  I wanted one of her shrimps dipped in Jack Daniels sauce so bad!  However, I didn’t want to fail at my very first attempt at a Meatless Monday it’s only one day after all.  The pasta was okay, but not as good as the one I had cooked.

 I didn’t get home from work until almost 7 o’clock and my other sister called and asked “We’re still going to the gym right?” “I’m so excited to workout!” she exclaimed, I’ve been waiting all day for you to get home.  I forced a fake smile and said I’m so excited to go to the gym I can hardly stand it !  I swapped my business clothes for sweat pants and a T-shirt, bundled up against the brutal cold and picked up my little sister, and headed to the gym.  We went to the indoor track and completed 3 miles. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I didn’t want more pasta with veggies. I was too tired to cook as well. So, I made another bowl of cereal and ate some Doritos left over from Super Bowl. It was definitely not the healthiest meatless Monday, but, it was certainly meatless!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal – My fave

L- Pasta with Veggies at Fridays

S- Slim-Fast

D- Cereal & left over Doritos (totally Random and dead wrong, I know)

My Meatless Monday Veggie Pasta

Ingredients:

Pasta of your choice, Zucchini, Squash, chopped onion, Spaghetti sauce, Italian seasoning, And garlic powder, Salt and pepper to taste.  Optional Italian shredded cheese.

Cooking Directions:

1)      Boil noodles and drain.

2)      Slice zucchini and squash. Sauté in skillet with onion and seasonings, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste

3)      Add zucchini and squash to cooked noodles, add spaghetti sauce.

4)      Mix in optional cheese, and Enjoy!

My Samuel L. Jackson Moment

I don’t remember the first time my alarm went off but I do vaguely remember the second time because my clock said 6:29 AM. A few seconds later my backup cell phone alarm sounded. I asked God to give me strength to get out of bed for group training. After all I am doing this to help people with blood cancer. I sleepily strolled down the stairs to let Nyah out to potty.  To my surprise, snow was coming down like a blanket.  My car and the streets were covered. My inner Sam L. Jackson voice from the ridiculous movie “Snakes on a Plane” came out…I angrily exclaimed “I’m so sick of this mofo snow on my mofo car!!!”  There was no way that I was shoveling my sidewalk or scraping snow off of my car again.  Not in the freezing cold and not at 6:30 in the morning.  Plus it was coming down so hard I knew that the streets wouldn’t be safe. I climbed back in bed knowing that I would still have to find time to get in my 8 miles today.  I ran some errands and picked up my little sister and went to the gym. I decided to do 4 miles on the indoor track and 4 miles on the treadmill.  I couldn’t decide what type of music to listen to, so I downloaded a book on tape. I guess they’re not really called the book on tape anymore? I went to audible.com and downloaded the digital version.  As I walked, I listened to African-American fiction king, Eric Jerome Dickey’s book called Sleeping with Strangers. Put the kids to bed before you listen to this one! It’s a sexy little story about the beginnings of a hit man for hire. I had only broken a small sweat after I finished the first 4 miles.

 When I made it down to the workout room I was surprised to see my Dad on the stationary bicycle. We chatted for a quick second and I got on the treadmill. He said, “Daughter, I did not know that you walked that fast.” I was only walking at a 17 min. mile pace, which I thought was pretty slow. I guess it’s a Dad’s job to encourage you…. Not long after my uncle, my Dad’s brother, came in too.  It was a family affair!  Once I started getting towards the end of my routine, my little sister started to get restless. She complained that we were in the gym all day long, since they opened. She said that everyone had come and gone but we were still there. I think there may have been a little bit of truth to that because my Daddy and my uncle were gone by the time that we left.  But you know what?! For the first time in my life, I walked 8 miles! It might have taken me 2 and a half hours, almost all day according to my little sister, but I did it.  And, I have posted my picture from my Nike iPod app to prove it!

My 8 Mile Walk!

Storm of the Century?

Well they said the St. Louis blizzard would be epic and historic.  Everyone was freaking out buying groceries and rock salt.  It kinda just looks like snow to me….  My job at the law firm never closes.  However, after I spent half an hour scraping ice off my windows on my car and was just 1 exit away from the firm, one my lawyers called and said the firm was closed for the first time ever!  I guess it was an epic and historic day after all.   I went back home and made some Mexican Lasagna (I’ll post the recipe later) and played with Nyah.  There’s a whopping 2 inches of snow outside my door, and I just got an email that work is back to usual tomorrow.  I just wanted to let you guys know I survived the very boring storm of the century.