Last night was fun once I finally got to Hoboken!  It actually wasn’t that bad getting there, but I’m definitely becoming one of those New Yorkers who gets annoyed when she has to leave the city aka “the center of the universe.”  The PATH train was a tad confusing but I made it there only five minutes later than I should have!  I’m such an idiot, I forgot to bring my camera.  I did snap a pic of my outfit b/c I was excited to be wearing that top- just a week ago it was too tight!  Now it fits fine!  That’s good news because it means that I’m still slowly losing weight even since ending my short detox diet.  It’s a dark pic, that’s what happens when you don’t replace the bulb in the ceiling lamp because you’re trying to create to create a relaxing ambiance too lazy.

I met my friend at Teak on the Hudson for some much-needed sushi!  The atmosphere and decor was gorgeous.  I’m a sucker for giant fishtanks (not sketchy ones full of half-dead fish, but really pretty ones with happy fish!) and Teak has a huge one that spans the length of the bar.  As soon as we sat down we were treated to complimentary edamame.  This is the only form of soy that I can eat without suffering the consequences, and it was seriously the best edamame ever.  I definitely had about a cup of it!  I could have made a meal of it alone, but then the sushi came!  I ordered a sweet potato roll and an avocado roll, both with brown rice of course.  The avocado roll was just eh (I like more than one veggie in my rolls and this was just avocado, rice & nori) but the sweet potato roll was amazing!  I have no idea what was in it besides sweet potato- something in it was crunchy, there may have been carrots but I couldn’t tell because of the sauce they put on top- but I’d definitely get it again.  I enjoyed a glass of Cab with my meal and it was perfect!

Because the PATH train stops running regularly at 11 PM, I had to cut out early rather than party it up in Hoboken   But it was ok because my dog needed to go out by midnight anyway.  I didn’t see much of Hoboken but what I did see looked really cute!  I haven’t been there since I was a kid so I don’t remember it very well except for the AMAZING pizza we ate at Benny Tadino’s or something like that.

After I got home I had a banana with half almond butter, half peanut butter, and crashed at around 12:30.  I woke up super early this morning in need of food, so I had a banana with pb yet again.  When I finally dragged myself out of bed for good, I had TWO MORE bananas, one with raw almond butter and one with pb.  Obsessed much?

I am kind of in love with nut butters this week…and, let’s face it, my whole life.  The dangerous duo:

The storm was apparently a-brewin’ so I took the pup for a quick walk, fed the zoo, and donned running clothes to brave the cold before the sidewalks were too icy to run.  I got in about 5.5 miles at what felt like a normal pace- not too easy, not too hard- ending at the laundry place to pick up my clothes.  I walked the half mile or so back to my apartment, feeling really stupid because I was underdressed for walking, and my clothes were wet with sweat which made me feel about 79 million times colder than I already was.  Brrrr.

After a hot shower I was in need of some dejeuner.  I went for the cauliflower in a big way…

As far as cruciferous veggies go, I don’t mess around.  Of course I ate this with hummus and finished up that bag of baby carrots, too.  I needed something else, so I grabbed half a chocolate coconut Lara Bar.  More veggies than most people eat in a week + hummus + chocolately goodness that’s actually good for you = perfection.

I had a snack soon after- another banana with half raw almond butter & half pb (unpictured).  Then I cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen in preparation of being gone for 5 days.  Apparently that works up an appetite because I dug into an apple & 2 clementines after cleaning, then went back for a second apple (they’re the tiny ones, I usually buy bigger ones but got a good deal on the smallies in bulk!).

apple x2

Um, metabolism, can you please slow down because I can’t afford you.  Thanks.  I really think that detox cleaned a lot of junk out and made my body more efficient.  I feel it when I run, too- like I’m going faster and running more efficiently, but not working as hard as I did before.  It’s awesome and I’ll definitely do it again when I feel the need to!

I braved the snow to go around the corner and see if the itty bitty, franken-food type grocery store near me had sweet potatoes.  They had something called “Southern Yams” on sale for 99 cents/lb!  Score!  I got two since they’re smaller than the sweet potatoes I usually get and I’ll have those babies with ketchup plus a salad with hummus for dinner in a bit.  I just did the feeding frenzy, round two for the day:

Shima, Reese & Gracie doing what they do best: Eating me out of house & home. Or, um, just being cute.

For now I’m going to get a blanket and watch whatever movie Netflix sent me yesterday

My parents are coming to the city tomorrow to hang out for the night and then take me, my sister and my pup home on Monday!  It’s really nice living in a place where they can actually do that.  And going home for Christmas is good, too!  I’m crossing my fingers that the snow doesn’t foil our plans.

This morning I rolled out of bed and took the pup for a short walk.  I think it was the coldest it’s been so far this winter, but the saving grace is that it’s  not windy today!  My dog and I were dying after 15 minutes so we came back in and I geared up for a run.  For me, the key to running in the cold is 1) layers and 2) simply getting through the first 10-15 minutes. The first mile or two are killer because your body is in shock and it’s just freezing and miserable.  After that I start to warm up and get into a groove, and if I’m wearing enough clothes plus a hat and gloves, I’m usually not in danger of becoming hypothermic.  Today I wore a tank top, a long sleeved technical tee, a long sleeved cotton race tee, a fleece zip-up jacket made by Underarmor- they are the best for cold weather clothes- and running tights.

After a breakfast of two bananas and a pb cookie Lara Bar, I set out.

banana x 2!

I had to drop off some laundry to be washed & folded (only in NYC), and after that I was farther from the park than usual AND I had to pee.  I went a little out of my way to stop at Starbucks, where they know me as the runner girl who comes in to pee and never buys anything.  It’s cool though, I don’t think the baristas there like to work so they just smile when they see me come in and keep goofing off behind the counter

By the time I got to the park I was seriously frozen, but I felt like running the full loop, so I went for it.  It ended up being a good run.  The Great Hill felt, well, great, and my legs were really fresh and loose despite never actually warming up.  I passed a ton of people and I wish I had my Garmin to see how fast I was going, because I really think I’m getting faster!  I was running at what seemed like a pretty decent pace, but breathing like it was easy pace.

By the time I headed up the final hill and then left the park to run home, my legs were frozen solid and I could not feel my butt or my toes.  Eh, all in a day’s run!  I ended up with just over 8 miles for the day.  It wasn’t that bad, and when I wanted to die I just focused on the nice, hot shower I was going to take afterwards!

I got home and was absolutely ravenous.  I ate the last few baby carrots with some hummus…

…and then after a hot shower, I made a big salad with red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, the last bit of my red pepper, 2 T. roasted red pepper hummus and balsamic vinegar.  LOVE this!

But the salad barely put a dent in my appetite, so I steamed up a sweet potato and ate it with some organic ketchup from Trader Joe’s.  Mmmm.  I needed a chocolate fix after that, so I grabbed the other half of the chocolate coconut Lara Bar from last night.

Clearly my camera found the stove to be more entertaining than the Lara Bar.

I left to run some errands for work, stop in at the office and then go to Trader Joe’s for some last-minute stuff to get me through the weekend til I go home.  When I got back I was surprisingly really hungry again!  I chopped up two baby gala apples and dipped them in crunchy raw almond butter, which is WAY better than its creamy counterpart BTW.

Then I had a banana with unsalted crunchy peanut butter!  TJ’s pb is the best, and it’s only $2.99!

Now I’m working from home for the rest of the evening before heading out to meet mon amie in Hoboken.  Man, Jersey takes the cake when it comes to cool town names (as well as malls and bagels!).  I shall return with a restaurant review!

But first I have to share a pic of my cute little work buddy…she sleeps up here on my desk every time I’m on the computer!

Aaaaanyway… Last night I had a big salad with hummus and a Lara Bar before I left for work.  Yum, this was sooo good.  I am convinced that Trader Joe’s Classic hummus was made to be a salad topper!

Work was work.  I was running around outside a lot, brrr.  Around 9:30 I was dashing through Grand Central when I realized I was getting light headed.  The only thing I could find that was remotely decent was a small bag of “Food Should Taste Good” sweet potato chips.  I’d wanted to try these anyway, and there was nary a fruit or vegetable in sight, so I grabbed them.  They were good, but they didn’t fill me up one bit.  For just over 200 calories I could have come up with a much more filling, healthier snack.

After work I had half a muffin with peanut butter which is documented, and I think I had a banana and some carrots with hummus, too… It’s sad that I don’t remember, but I got home at midnight and was pretty tired!

This morning I woke up at an ungodly hour to a rumbling tummy.  I hit up the fridge for a banana with peanut butter, but my stomach was still growling so I figured I may as well have an early breakfast!  Enter a TJ’s blueberry & cranberry muffin with pb&j…yum.  Sorry but by now do you really need more pics of muffins?  (Haha that sounds so dirrrty.)

I went back to bed for a few hours, and when I woke up I was starving yet again.  This time I had a couple carrots with hummus before taking the pup out (unpictured, no time to play with food when the dog needs to pee!), and I made a green smoothie before heading to an hour long hot power vinyasa yoga class.

Yoga was a bit easier today, which was great since I’m feeling a little run down.  We did a lot of stretching, and I felt like the entire class was one big hip opener.  I LOOOOVE hip openers so this was fine by me!  I floated out of class feeling like a million bucks and dashed back uptown to Columbus Circle to get one last present for my mom.  My sister met me there and we got down to business!  After a successful shopping trip, I hit up Whole Foods to satisfy my sushi craving.  I finally got home at 3:30 and had my lovely sushi lunch.  Confession: When I’m not in public, I don’t bother using chopsticks to eat with…I just eat my sushi with my hands.  And I HATE eating things in just one bite, so I take at least 2 bites to eat each roll!

True story, I did not even plate it because I was way behind schedule.  It tastes just as good without dirtying a dish to eat it off of   I don’t eat the miso dressing since I can’t do soy.  This dressing also contains lactic acid which means there’s a 99.9% chance that it’s not vegan.  Reading labels is a necessity!  Mmm, sushi = love.  But for me, it almost never = full tummy.  So I went to town on some cauliflower I bought pre-cut (hey I’m lazy) and Whole Foods’ delish roasted red pepper hummus.  I only saw this flavor pop up in the past month or so, and it’s basically perfection in hummus form.  Sooner or later I had to let the baby carrots join the hummus partay.

Noelle wanted a nibble of cauliflower

By the time I ate lunch and took Cirrus out for a 25-ish minute walk/freeze, it was already 5 PM and getting very dark.  I sort of wanted to run, but mostly wanted to not freeze anymore, so I opted to take today as a rest day (yoga and walking for ~1.5 hours doesn’t really count, haha).  I really, really wanted to hibernate with the furballs and a good movie, so I made the 20 minute round trip trek to Blockbuster and picked up Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio…those two can’t get enough of each other, huh?  Around 7:30 I was actually hungry again- my appetite is out of control lately- so I had the only thing I was craving.  Fruit! I had a banana, an apple and two clementines.

Mickey Mouse!

“Dinner” was light since I ate “lunch” so late.  I gave into another craving- FRUIT with hummus!

Haha, not what you normally think of as fruit, but cucumbers and tomatoes really are fruits.  I had some Chipotle Pepper hummus left after my “fruit bowl” was finished, so I polished it off with some baby carrots.  Soooo good.  I ate hummus for breakfast, lunch and dinner today!  Do I get a prize?  More hummus maybe?

“Dessert” was about half each of a Chocolate Coconut Lara Bar and a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar.

Those chunks are less than half of each bar, but I went back for nibbles!  I thought it’d be genius to combine the two flavors, and they taste pretty darn good together.  If they took the almonds out of the Chocolate Coconut bar, I think they might have the next combo bar flavor!  Hint, hint, Lara…

Revolutionary Road was awesome.  I almost never say that about a movie…much less a Hollywood Blockbuster type movie… but this was the best film I’ve seen in a long time.  Pretty much a “life sucks, then you die” cautionary tale.

I’m feeling pretty sleepy, so I’m going to hit the hay as soon as I clean the litterboxes- one of the cats appears to be having some, ahem, digestive issues.  I’m looking forward to a run tomorrow morning, and dinner with a friend in Hoboken tomorrow night!  I’m dying for more sushi or maybe Mediterranean food!!

Yesterday I was treated to a relatively warm 5.6 miler in Central Park after lunch.  I felt like challenging myself, so I ran the mile to the park, then did fartleks for 2 loops on the Bridle Path and continued my fartleks for half a mile more coming back home.  My last half mile was a cool-down.  My motto for the run was “go hard or go home,” and I really pushed it!  I went hard- then I went home

After the run I may or may not have snacked on some more veggies with hummus before preparing a huge salad with romaine, red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, red pepper, a little EVOO & balsamic vinegar.

It was so big a couple pieces of lettuce fell out of the bowl.  After that I was too full for anything but a banana with a little pb for “dessert.”  Bad picture warning!

I headed to work for a bit- I usually work evenings later into the night- and grabbed an apple when I got home.  I was TIRED and slept like a brick for eight hours, then hopped out of bed this morning craving one thing- HUMMUS.  So, my breakfast was more carrots & cauliflower with both types of hummus that I got yesterday!

After walking my dog, feeding my “traveling circus” of pets and cleaning up after them, I was ready for another snack before my run.  Enter two bananas with peanut butter (unpictured).

I headed out at 10 AM not really knowing how long I wanted to run for, but with the goal of keeping the run to an easy pace.  After yesterday’s speed workout and Monday’s killer hot vinyasa workout (yes, killer vinyasa…Yoga to the People baby!), I wanted something a bit easier on the bod.   I ended up running the full loop around the park and then running an additional loop on the Bridle Path.  It was very cold, I had to run to Duane Reade first to buy a hat, but once I was properly geared up I felt great and really focused on my breathing and keeping the pace nice and easy.  I never do easy runs, mostly due to my competitive nature- if I see another runner I don’t want them to think I’m a slacker, so I speed up!  This even happened during the “recovery” periods of my fartleks yesterday.  This is ridiculous though, and I am happy to say that today’s easy run was a success.  I added just a little more mileage to the run once I left the park so that I’d have a total of 10 miles.

I came home to a big mess (thanks, pets, I love you too) and immediately cleaned up and then jumped in the shower.  Oops, forgot to stretch again!  I’ll pay for that tomorrow.  After my shower I had a fruit fest with a mango and 2 clementines, followed by a huuuuge sweet potato dipped in Trader Joe’s organic ketchup.  Mmmm, just what I needed to refuel- buckets of carbs!

I’m off to get copies of my keys made, meet with the cat sitter who will be looking after five of my furkids next week, and then go to work.  Tonight will most definitely include another huge salad and either fruit and a Lara Bar on the run or a green smoothie when I get home!

Oh- look who I found cuddling last night!  They grey & whites have to stick together!

They have such a love/hate relationship.  And Cirrus, my dog, has to bring that shark toy all over the apartment with her.  I have woken up many times to “sharkie” in bed next to me!

C'est moi, pre-cleanse

I’m coming off of a 2.5 week raw foods cleanse, and just started introducing some non-raw foods back into my diet.  Hello tummy aches!  I had no idea my body would change so much in such a short time!  Even Lara Bars are hurting right now, but I’m sure if I take it slowly things will be back to normal soon.

So this is my very first food post!  I’m excited, haha.  This morning I had my usual green smoothie, which I make with two or three bananas (this one had three), frozen mango & strawberries, lots of kale, and a little water.

I love the way it looks in the purple cup!  That’s my cat Noelle in the background, probably questioning my sanity for drinking something so swampy-looking.

I also grabbed a chocolate coconut Lara Bar as I headed out the door to run errands!

Lara Bars are my favorite bars ever- even though they are not truly raw (the nuts are pasteurized, and some of the other ingredients in the bars are not raw either), they are a great choice compared to most of the bars out there.  Plus, they taste ahhh-mazing!

I headed to Trader Joe’s, which is usually insane.  I guess Tuesday mornings are the time to go, because today I was actually able to walk around the store leisurely looking for what I needed, without getting shoved, trampled, yelled at or pushed into with a cart.  What a treat!  I decided to try two different hummus varieties since I’m kind of a hummus freak.  I also grabbed unsalted crunchy peanut butter, which I haven’t had in about a month- way too long!  My splurge purchase was a box of blueberry-cranberry muffins which are wheat-free and soooo delicious.  I didn’t know if I wanted them because the ingredients are nothing like you’d see for normal muffins- which is good- but I didn’t know if they’d taste good, or like cardboard!  But then I saw that they were handing out samples of them!  Just my luck So I tried a sample, loved it, and grabbed a box!

Nutrition Facts & Ingredient List- can ya dig it?

Back at home I had a hummus taste-test.  The contenders: Chipotle Pepper vs. Smooth & Creamy Classic.  I tried both with some baby carrots and cauliflower.

The result?  Both winners!  I LOVED the spiciness and red pepper taste in the Chipotle Pepper ad preferred to dip my carrots in this.  But the Classic flavor was just so right, and paired very well with the cauliflower!

After that I needed to eat a muffin, like, yesterday.  Hmmm, definitely a TWSS moment.  I cut one in half and smothered it in peanut butter.

Shortly afterwards I added the other half with pb and some strawberry all-fruit jam to the love-fest… Wow, this was so indulgent.  I never would have even looked at these if I hadn’t decided to cut out wheat, and I never would have known what I was missing!  I will definitely be having this again- soon!

I’m about to go for a run, and I’ll post dinner later!