Running Into Shape » Food Diary

Meatless Monday

Carli — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 06:10:30 +0000

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)

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Joy to the World!

Carli — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:30:11 +0000

Joy To The World! First let me say that my cute little idea to make my blog post title a Christmas themed song was a little more challenging than I thought….Anyway, just a quick post, because I’m excited that I had a great day. I woke up this morning and said today, I will not eat any office treats. Just for today. When I got to work, there was homemade fudge, cupcakes, pretzels, chocolate covered cakey things, and all kinds of flavored popcorn. Oh, and Christmas cookies and little pastries. One of my co-workers said you must try the cinnamon popcorn, and I said nope, not today…… This evening, I worked out at home in my living room to Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred with my best friend. It feels so good not to have to regret eating bad crap or skipping a workout. Yay me! LOL!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Protein Shake (it spilled as I was putting the lid on, and I just made another)

S- No Snack! That’s a first…well I forgot I did have a hot green tea with Splenda so… no calories

L- Half pastrami sandwich and half salad

D- Turkey tenderloin and Broccoli with Cheese

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Risking My Life

Carli — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:34:09 +0000

I’m still working it at work. After we ate steamed veggies with chicken and side salad, we headed outside and power walked for half an hour. I need to calculate the distance, but I’m sure it was over a mile. I’m so loving these results. I’ve lost about 6.5 pounds since I got back started on the right path a couple weeks ago. I had big plans to get back into the boot camp groove tonight, but my little sister called when she got home from school. She told me that she was “taking me to dinner in forest park, that she was driving and that when we got to the restaurant someone would buy our meal.” I’m so Type-A, and this loose plan of letting a brand new 16 year old driver “take” me to dinner and have it “paid for” by some mystery person was a not really specific enough for me. She told me to trust her. I had to drive over my parent’s house because she only has a learners driver’s permit. But check this, she already has a CAR! I had to trudge for miles through the snow on Mizzou’s gigantic campus and maintain a 3.5 GPA for a whole year before I got my 1986 Chevy Celebrity, and this chick is a Junior in High School with a car. Okay, so I’m a little jealous, but she does keep a 3.8 GPA, so I ain’t mad at her. LOL!

Anyway, I held my breath as she drove dangerously close to the cars parked on the street and claimed that the kid on the bike across the street was “too close and in her way.” I told her I had better not be risking my life and skipping boot camp, just so she give me some bootleg turkey sandwich in the park parking lot where everyone goes to practice driving. She assured me it was a real sit down restaurant. I was still nervous, because I just don’t do surprises well….

She actually drove pretty good, until she simultaneously stopped, bowed her head, closed her eyes and sneezed. “What are you doing???!!” I shrieked. “I had to sneeze” she genuinely replied, “I made sure no one was behind me I before I stopped” …. “Child, please don’t stop the car in the middle of the street to sneeze.” Geez… Anyway, we pulled up to a restaurant in Forest park near the golf course that I never even knew existed. It was a dead giveaway then, the mystery money man had to be my Dad. He is a complete golf fanatic. Dad joined us a few minutes later and treated his daughters to dinner. I’m sure if my Big Little Sister reads this she’s gonna be mad we left her out. Well it wasn’t my plan sis, I just rode along, get mad at the teenager. LOL! We had a great time, and I made it home safe and sound. Whew!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Free donut in the kitchen at work, which of course not filling so I ate the banana bread I brought too.
L- Steamed veggies with chicken and a Side Salad
D-Philly cheese steak (took off half of the bread) with a side salad, and shared order of sweet potato fries. Dessert – A little bite of my sisters Apple streusel cheesecake.

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Weekend Review

Carli — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:29:17 +0000

Saturday morning was gorgeous; it was a crisp & breezy 71 degrees outside. Perfect weather for outside activity. Me and Mr. Man decided to go for a walk in Forest Park. My ankles were hurting pretty bad as soon as we got started. I think it’s because I’ve continued to work out every day at work during lunch, and my body is really starting to feel the effects of all the extra activity. There were tons of joggers everywhere taking advantage of the day made for running. I was so jealous, because my heart wanted to run, but my body said otherwise. I probably should have taken a day off from activity, but I like the positive effects of eating less, journaling my food and daily activity. You know the positive effects like losing weight and feeling better mentally and physically. We were only able to finish about a mile and half, because my ankles just wouldn’t let me do more.

Today, I got up and went to church. After church me and my little sister went to Brunch at an upscale little bistro in the Central West End called Scape. The food was delicious. She’s a “vegetarian” ….well she describes herself as “not eating meat” because she’s not sure how long she can go without it. I think it’s just a teenage phase, but we’ll see. Anyway, she had an apple & brie omelet. I tasted it and it was surprisingly good. I would have never thought in a million years to put fruit in an omelet. I had the spinach & feta cheese omelet with chicken sausage. I ate half and got full, and brought the rest home. After doing a little laundry, I turned on Joel Osteen and got on my elliptical machine. Today, was cold (54 degrees) and rainy, I didn’t feel like leaving the house again. The elliptical had gathered a little dust from the lack of use, but I assume with the weather starting to turning cold, I will use it more. Anyway, I multitasked, and instead of sitting and watching Joel for half an hour, I pedaled for half an hour. I worked up a good sweat. Then, I sat down and wrote this post, and now almost it’s time for Dexter on Showtime. OMG, Dexter is one of my absolute favorite shows. It’s so creepy good. I can’t wait for the season premiere.

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Chocolate Protein Shake

L- ½ Spinach Omelet, half breakfast potatoes and cinnamon raisin toast.

D- Left over Omelet and breakfast potatoes

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Working it At Work

Carli — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 04:58:06 +0000

So my girlfriend at work it still helping me stay on plan. We take turns cooking lunch and bring enough to share. And then we workout for the second half of our lunch break. We’ve done it for about 5 days now. It’s so nice to have somebody at work helping me stay focused and encouraged. At get this, I was able to button those pants today!!!! I was so excited. My home scale even shows I’m down a couple of pounds, in just these few short days of eating better and writing down my food. Today, she made ground turkey, spinach and stewed tomatoes over rice. It was raining outside, so we hit the stairs. I brought my extra deodorant, so I was good to go. We walked down 9 flights. Caught the elevator up the 12th floor, walked back down to the 1st floor, and then climbed all the way back up to the 9th floor. We had a great workout. We were sweating for real. I had to go to the bathroom and get a cool towel to wipe my sweat. I felt such a sense of accomplishment.
I went to the grocery store after work since tomorrow is my day to bring lunch. I decided to make whole wheat pasta mixed with green beans and stewed tomatoes. You put the tomatoes, green beans and a cup of chicken broth in a pot to simmer, while the noodles are cooking. I added garlic, pepper and seasoned salt for a little flavor, oh and Italian seasoning. People laugh because I put Italian seasoning on everything…. Then you add a cup of fat-free ricotta cheese to the tomato mixture and warm it together. Then you stir in the tomato ricotta mixture with the noodles. This was my first time making this dish. It’s a recipe I got from this site, that has tons of recipes with the weight watcher points included. The recipe actually called for spinach, which I forgot to get at the grocery store, so I just used the green beans I had at home. Mr. Man said it tasted good, and gave it a thumbs up. But, I almost forgot, to tell y’all when I got home from the grocery store, I still went on my Wednesday walk in the park with my best friend. Then came home and cooked. All and all I can say, good job Carli and pat myself on the back.
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Turkey sausage on eng muffin & an orange
L- My co-worker’s Turkey, spinach, tomato and rice stuff (It was really good too, and filing)
S- She also made “dessert” …Graham crackers filled with cool whip like an ice cream sandwich and put in the freezer. They were also very tasty.
D- Chicken and green beans, oh yeah, a biscut managed to somehow sneak in too.

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Argentine Tango

Carli — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:05:50 +0000

Sunday Morning: I am excited about our Tango dance lesson tonight, even though Mr. Man seems really worried about stepping on my feet with his size 15 shoes (not size 14, as I had previously incorrectly remembered..hmmmm). Anyway, I got up this morning not feeling like getting dressed for church and watched Joel Osteen on my DVR instead. I was delightfully surprised that his sermon was about “Not Panicking” when the enemy is bothering us with unexpected troubles…. Was Joel in my mind, did he know that I had been panicking about gaining weight for the last few days? He explained the devil is mad that you’re helping others, making a difference and trying to discourage you! The Bible says no weapon formed against us will prosper, it doesn’t say no weapon will form …you may go thru difficulty, but because you’re a child of God, he will bring you out better than you were before. Your test will become a testimony….I was sitting on my couch waving my hands and clapping like I was in a real church service. Joel always knows how to put things in perspective. He’s coming to St. Louis on Jan 7th, and you know I’m there!
Sunday Evening: Time to Tango. We were dressed and ready to go. My Little sis snapped a quick pic of Me and Mr. Man with the just because rose and bottle of sparkling Moscato he bought for me.

We went to the Ritz, and got there just as the dance lesson was starting. I’ll be the first to admit that the stereotypical “black people got rhythm” gene skipped me. But Mr. Man, my bi-racial teddy bear…… he was like…well….what’s a nice word…ummmm….a concrete block. My sweetie is totally lost when it comes to dancing. The teacher taught us each step to the tango, and we rotated partners. One guy I danced with was a really good leader, it felt like I was actually doing it right. Then there was this older guy, maybe about 60 years old, and I think he was trying to kiss me. He was SO close to my face. I know it’s a sensual and even intimate dance, but I don’t know you dude, I do not need an up close view of your grey nose hairs. Finally, I was back with Mr. Man, we were having a fun time, but so far from dancing the tango. He told me he did step on one lady’s toe, and nervously held another lady too tightly. After the hour long lesson, we watched the 2 teachers, one of which was a 12 year veteran to dancing. All I can say is “WOW!” they were amazing, so in sync with each other. Towards the end it was so sexy that Mr. Man and I looked at each other like, are we even supposed to be watching this?

I have a completely new appreciation for dancing. I took Jazz, tap and even ballet as a little girl, but it was all choreographed. The teacher compared their dance to poetry, they wrote each line as a they went along, he moved and she gracefully followed, it was beautiful. I told Mr. Man, we can do this. As we sat on the fancy little hotel couches, I told him, let’s start back at the beginning. We looked into each other’s eyes, and sort of practiced the moves while sitting down, learning each other’s cues. Once we were ready, we got back on the dance floor. He thanked me for my patience. We were both so much better.

We didn’t do the fancy spins and turns, but we certainly got down the basics. It was a new experience and we both agreed to come again so that we could get better. Afterwards, we took the bottle of bubbly over my parent’s house and shared with them. My Dad gave Mr. Man major cool points for recommending the dance lessons, and for cutting my grass, making it no longer look like “no one lived there” and relieved that he wouldn’t have to “buy me a goat.” My mom was shocked when I explained that my generation did not learn how to “properly” slow dance as they did. Anyway, it was a fantastic ending to wonderful weekend. Before you know it, I’ll be the “Weight loss blogger superstar on Dancing with the Stars!”

What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Bowl of Cereal
L- Salad topped with the steak I made
D- Applebee’s 2 or $20 with Mr. Man – Spinach Dip and Chips and Oriental Chicken salad (Only ate half, stopped when I got full)

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Determined

Carli — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 20:02:05 +0000

I woke up this morning, determined to get in a sweaty nasty funky workout. The kind that makes you burn mega calories and lose weight. Struggling to button my pants really freaked me out…. I realized I hadn’t actually been out running for a while and wanted to get back with the program. I got Miss Nyah and headed to the park. It was definitely a lot warmer than it has been for the past week, but without the extreme humidity we had this summer. Nonetheless, I was sweating before I even got out my car. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I looked at Nyah jumping all around waging her tail, and wished I could share in her excitement about our upcoming routine. I put on my Week 3 podcast and got to it. The first two runs were fine. But the last two runs were pretty tough, I kept thinking to myself how amazing that I used to run for 3 whole miles and wishing I could push myself to run as fast as I ran after that chick that stole my purse. I slowed down to a walk during the last 3 minute run. I thought about those tight pants again, y’all might think I’m joking, but that really traumatized me. It pushed me right into gear as I finished Week 3 again.

Later that evening, Me and Mr. Man went to my friend’s BBQ. As soon as I arrived, I got a text from my girl at work that read “Eat vegetables!” I laughed and thanked her for her support and encouragement. Man, I’ve got good friends! I ate light early in the day so that I could eat a little more at the BBQ. I probably still ate a little too much, and decided I wasn’t going to post “What Did Carli Eat Today?” But, avoiding writing down what I ate doesn’t avoid weight gain. And unfortunately, there were no veggies at the party. But we had a good time, and I laughed every time my friend who reads my blog called him “Mr. Man”.

What Did Carli Eat Today? ( I was a total carnivore today)

B- Bowl of Cinnamon toast Crunch mixed with Fiber One

L- Piece of steak (random, but I had to cook it before it went bad)

D- At the BBQ – A Cheeseburger with lettuce pickle & onion, a couple bbq chix party wings, a handful of Doritos, 3 meatballs, about ½ cup of pasta salad. Not too bad, but then came the devil food. A little slice of both kinds of cake AND a caramel apple to go.

*Overall, I feel good because I good because I got in a great run and regardless of whether it was a perfect food day , I WROTE IT DOWN!

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Gold Star Day

Carli — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:57:34 +0000

I woke up this morning and got on the scale, and I was floored, shocked, amazed and disappointed. I saw a number that I haven’t seen in a really long time. I started praying to God to help me. This weight loss thing can be so hard sometimes. I know that I have a gift of helping people with their journey, but its so frustrating that my progress made a U-turn and is running in the wrong direction. I started panicking, telling myself; I’ll never be able to make my fitness DVD, will my blog readers and runners start to think I’m a fraud? And then I had to catch myself. That downward spiral only goes down and nothing good comes from it. I prayed God just help me with today. I started remembering what my weight watcher leader and my Hollywood Aunt always say, just take it ONE DAY AT TIME. I realized, that no, Running Into Shape is not a disaster because I gained a couple pounds and yes, they will still read your blog and yes your family still loves you because you’re human, and we make mistakes. I prayed again “Okay God, I’m serious, help a sista out, I can’t do it by myself.” Instead of hitting up the deli shop at my job for a quick muffin, I took a vitamuffin top (100 cal) and a weightwatcher yogurt….(amaretto flavor, so delicious)…. Then I told my co-worker first thing, I’m eating a salad & water for lunch, nothing else, not negotiable. She’s working on her weight too, and she signed up Lyle’s Boot Camp class with me! I am so excited to have another workout buddy. You know I live for a plan, so I found my next 5K. It’s called the Sista Strut to help bring awareness to the startling number of women of color with breast cancer in my area. It’s a walk, but it’s not until October, so I hope to run the whole thing.

After work, I came home to let Nyah out and get dressed for class. I picked up my co-worker friend and we were on our way. We were just about 3 minutes late and already missed 3 exercises. Lyle is serious about his class. We joined in the jumping jacks and squat thrusts. Then, he had us lay the mats on an incline and do sit ups and pushups and repeat. That little hill made it that much harder. But thank GOD, for a cool day, it was only in the 80′s with a cool breeze. I’ll take that over ridiculously hot days we’ve been having. Class was so nice to do with a friend, and have that extra encouragement during the suicide runs and planks. I guess God was listening this morning, because I had a Gold Star day!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B-Vita Muffin Top, WW Amaretto Yogurt (actually quite filling combo), Green Tea w/ Splenda

L- Fried Chicken Salad w/Fat Free Italian Dressing, Small breadstick & Water

D- Subway Sandwich & 13 animal crackers (I counted a serving)

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My Bucket List

Carli — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:11:16 +0000

This morning I woke up and saw an article about former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s bucket list. You know what a bucket list is, just like that cute little movie “The Bucket List“ with Morgan Freeman. It’s a list of all the stuff you want to do before you die or in other words, “Kick the Bucket.” I have a list of short term goals like, make my 5K to 10K podcast, make my Fitness DVD, pay off a credit card etc, etc. But I’ve never made a list of cool stuff I want to experience. So I started one….here are a few…

Experience Zero Gravity

Run a Marathon (Hopefully sooner rather than later)

Go to Egypt and see the Pyramids and ride a camel…(any of my runners in Egypt? I’m coming to visit!)

Break a Guinness Book World Record (Doing what? Who knows?)

Write a Book

Get Married

Shake hands with President Obama

Go to culinary school (I love cooking)

Be on a National Talk Show (Not Maury LOL!)

Tons more, but too much to list here.

Anyway, writing out my bucket list gave me a whole list of reasons to keep living life to the fullest, because there’s so many things I haven’t experienced yet. Today was a good day to make my list, because in my weight watcher meeting yesterday, we talked about setting attainable goals so that you have something to look forward to. I told the leader about my recent frustrations, and she told me the simplest phrase that everyone has heard a million times. “Take it one day at a time.” I’ve always been a Big picture person (Egypt? Guinness Book?) But, with this whole weight loss thing, I can’t just say, I want to lose 100 lbs. I have to make smaller goals like, I want to track my points/calories TODAY, I want to work out TODAY. And that’s just what I did. I followed the weight watcher motto “Bite it, Write it.” I wrote down everything that went in my mouth. AND I went to boot camp class. It was so hot and humid, just being outside breathing in the thick muggy air was workout. Feeling a cool breeze was just a silly thought and far from reality. We started out the class with Lyle’s favorite, the suicide runs. Then jumping jacks, and push-ups and planks. Then he asked, “are you ready for the workout the start?” right before he told us to run a lap around the field. Let me tell y’all out of all the times I’ve worked out, I’ve never sweated this much…ever. There was literally sweat on my eyelashes, that’s how much was pouring down my face. I kept swatting at my shoulders, at what I thought was a gnat or a mosquito, but was really just sweat beads rolling down. It was so gross, I mean my hair looked like I just got out the shower…. The running lap was followed by all kinds of leg lifts and ab exercises and at least 3 more laps. I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes at him a couple times. I didn’t care if I was the last around the track today, my main goal was not to pass to out. Well, I finally finished my “victory lap” which was more like a crawl, and came home feeling like a champ!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Oatmeal, yogurt, half of an apple

L-Turkey Sandwich and side salad

S- Weight Watcher Multi-grain Ranch Chips (delicious) & 2 twizzlers from a co-worker

D-Turkey Leg, Cream Style Corn, and Green Beans that Mama made & left over Birthday cake

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So Much for an Easy Day

Carli — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:03:19 +0000

Today was supposed to be my day for an easy workout between boot camp classes. My friend and I have been taking our Weekly stroll in the park for about a month. However, today she invited her co-worker to join us. My girl warned me that her co-worker was a “real walker.” And she said it was okay for us to walk ahead of her since she’s a newbie. It turned out to be much more than a lesuire stroll in the park. Her co-worker was indeed a real walker, this lady didn’t even slow down for the big hills, she kept the same quick pace the whole time. She walks much faster than I ever walk by myself. Several times I had to jog just to keep up with her. It was good though. I welcomed the challenge. After the 3 mile journey, my Big Little Sister called and asked me to join her at the gym. I totally didn’t feel like it, but I was going to go to support her. Then she had to leave to go pick up my niece. Whew, thank God. I know I’ve done 2 workouts in one day on several occasions, but I was so glad that today wasn’t one of them….Don’t forget that today is the last day to leave a comment and enter My Biggest Loser give away. I’ve already got some awesome quotes and tips. Check it out!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Vita Muffin Top and Low-fat yogurt

L- Mexican burritos, rice and beans, the fresh salsa was so good!

S- Pack of Peanut butter snack crackers

D- Left overs from lunch

* I Only drank water all day, Yay!