Two Foods I'm Loving Lately

So for a long time I used to eat Clif Bars or Luna Bars or some kind of bar for an afternoon snack.  As much as I loved doing that, I wanted an alternative snack that was A. lower in calories and B. lower in sugar.  So I started eating nuts instead and been doing so for several months!

Recently I was walking around Target and meandered over to their snack aisle because they usually have good ones, and I found these:

Wow.  These are delicious!  There are 28 almonds in a serving which is 160 calories and only 3 grams of sugar.  The ingredients list does show sugar as the second ingredient and two other forms of sugar right behind it, so I am not sure why there are only 3 grams of sugar?  Regardless, this is a really enjoyable snack and I will continue to buy these.

Moving on...I used to eat a lot of hummus.  Hummus + carrots were part of my daily eats and I couldn't get enough.  Funny how things change because I remember not even trying hummus until college.  I heard someone order a "hummus wrap" and I wrinkled my nose thinking that that did not sound appetizing.  Fortunately my mindset changed!  After not eating hummus for a little bit, I picked some up at Trader Joe's recently and it's my new favorite.

Trader Joe's has some great and interesting hummus varieties, but this classic really knocks it out of the park.  It has great texture and flavor and it tastes fresh!  This will definitely have a spot in my fridge from now on.

So anyway, I feel like I am still struggling a little bit with my eating.  Last Saturday I went out to dinner for a friend's birthday and we had a lot of food.  We ordered Ahi tuna and mussels for appetizers, then I had shrimp, scallops, and broccoli for my entree, then I helped the birthday girl with her creme brulee.  I left the restaurant feeling very full and very guilty for how much food I had eaten.  Even though I ate mostly seafood and I had run 5+ miles earlier so I was starving, I just couldn't stop guilt tripping myself.  So I went home and vacuumed and dusted and did whatever house work I could so I could burn off some calories.  Is that normal?  I feel like I do that often.  I will regret what I eat and go home and clean or do something like jumping jacks so I can feel better about the situation.  Clearly if I just controlled the former then I wouldn't have to bother with the latter.  Is it even a problem though?  It's certainly something to think about.

Where's the Reset Button?

Do you ever have weeks where you feel like everything's off: your eating, your sleeping, your workouts, etc?  I feel like I am having one of those weeks, but it's not necessarily a Monday-Sunday thing.  Lately I've been craving sweets like crazy, I'll have two good nights of sleep and then the third night I get to bed 3-4 hours after I normally do, and I've had at least one alcoholic beverage every night.  At the time I am enjoying myself, but I always end up giving myself a guilt trip later.  In fact, I give myself guilt trips pretty often.  And they're not fun! 

Today's guilt trip was brought on by last night: my eats during the day were good (I made a juice, had eggs, a sandwich, an apple, some almonds, a veggie wrap, etc) but then I met a friend out and had two drinks, a little bit of trout, some onion rings, a small piece of cornbread, collard greens, and a couple bites of potatoes.  And then I didn't get to bed until 2 am!  I woke up this morning feeling obviously tired and also guilty for how much food I ate yesterday. 

It's not fun to feel this way.  I can't take any of it back so there's no use in dwelling in it.  However, I can take steps today to try and counteract anything I did yesterday.  Today I drank a juice a made and had yogurt for breakfast.  At lunchtime I went to the gym and did a 3.5 mile tempo run and then abs, and then I ate a sandwich and some pita chips and will have an apple later.  Tonight I will probably have a salad or stir fry for dinner.  Bedtime will be early!  I feel like I need a few days in a row where I maintain a normal diet, a normal bedtime, and avoid alcohol and sweets. 

Recently I read about some tips for rebounding from those "bad" days or nights.  One really stuck with me and it was to have a go-to healthy meal.  If you ate a huge dinner or drank a lot one night, have a go-to healthy breakfast to have the next morning no matter what, like oatmeal with minimal toppings.  Or if you have an unhealthy breakfast and/or lunch have a go-to dinner like a salad with lean protein, healthy fats, and lots of veggies.  It's a great suggestion and one that I would like to implement into my regimen!

Overall I do eat well and try and do the best I can to take care of myself.  It's frustrating that I make myself feel so guilty about splurging every once in a while.  Something to work on I suppose!

Recognition

How's everyone doing this week?

Last week was hard for me.  I felt like my emotions were out of control.  I knew exactly why I was stressed and upset, and I knew exactly how it was affecting me, but I was struggling to keep it together.  On Wednesday around lunchtime I headed to the gym for a weights class + running and it was like the harder I pushed myself, the angrier I got.  Normally workouts make me feel better as they do for most people, but it was having the opposite effect.  Later on that afternoon I reached out to a friend and asked if she would get dinner with me.  We had a wonderful dinner complete with wonderful conversation and it was a great, last-minute break in routine that was much needed.

Recently I've been thinking about the concept of recognition and how it relates to feelings or a state of mind.  Many people tend to act on feelings or emotions which can end in disaster.  I try to remember to act rationally instead of emotionally.  With email and text these days, it is so easy to put your feelings into a computer or mobile phone screen and send away without considering that you aren't just sending them to another screen, you're sending them to another person.  Acting on emotion is so easy that you might do it before you realize that you're doing it.  Where recognition comes into play is that you make yourself stop for a second and get a quick reality check.  Here's the thing though: recognition isn't really a solution for a problem.  However, it's still an important step because you're making yourself more aware of your surroundings.

Here's an example:  you're at the office, the phone is ringing off the hook, you're getting emails left and right, and people are barging into your office every five minutes.  You feel like you're going to lose it and you're about to let out some frustration by selecting one of your emails at random and responding to the sender with a heated reply.  But you stop yourself.  And you take a breath.  And you realize that you're stressed out.  And you say to yourself, "I'm stressed out.  And it's making me go crazy."  Do you necessarily have a solution for that moment?  Maybe not.  But you've acknowledged that you're stressed and you can see how it's affecting you.  In a matter of seconds you've become more self-aware.

My point is that the concept of recognition is important.  You may or may not know why you feel the way you do, but you know that you're feeling something.  A friend recently called me for advice because she is feeling frustrated about a situation, and that she knows exactly why she's frustrated, and I  told her that her recognition of the problem was a big step in itself.  She sounded a lot better at the end of the conversation so I think it helped.

Our emotions can take over very easily, but we cannot let them consume us.  We are not our anger.  We are not our sadness.  There is more than one side to us all, and it would be unfair to let an emotion define you to the rest of the world.  In our society that is constantly on the go, it's worth taking a moment to be a little more self-aware.  Those emails can wait.

Top 10 Workout Songs for March

Here are some more tunes for your running/workout playlist c/o Run Hundred:

Flux Pavilion & Childish Gambino - Do or Die 

Cee Lo Green & Lauriana Mae - Only You

Baauer - Harlem Shake

DJ Pauly D & Jay Sean - Back to Love

Olly Murs & Flo Rida - Troublemaker 

Bignic - Down 

ASAP Rocky, Skrillex & Birdy Nam Nam - Wild for the Night 

Fall Out Boy - My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) 

Will.I.Am, Britney Spears, Hit-Boy, Waka Flocka Flame, Lil Wayne, Nelly & Diddy - Scream & Shout (Remix)

Swedish House Mafia - Don't You Worry Child (Promise Land Remix) 

My iPod desperately needs to be updated.  If I put it on Shuffle Songs I find that I am skipping most of the songs because I'm tired of hearing them.  Although we have sprung forward for Daylight Savings and it's a little warmer outside, most of my running is still taking place on the treadmill.  And we all know it's pretty damn hard to get through a treadmill run without music!

March

Whenever March rolls around, everyone seems to perk up a bit.  Winter's end and Spring's beginning are just around the corner and with that comes sunshine, warmth, more time spent outside, et cetera.

February was a pretty good month for me.  Work has been busy in a good way, my workouts have been great, and I spent a weekend in Nashville with two of my best friends.  February also brought a personal challenge into my life which I am still battling.  Without getting into too much detail, the challenge involves a relationship.  Relationships are tough, whether they are friendship-based, romantically-based, family-based, work-based, or whatever.  They take work and they have their ups and downs just like any other aspect of life.  I think the most important thing that we need to remember is that we cannot lose our self in a relationship.  We must remember that as ourselves, we are great beings and capable of a lot, and to lose our sense of self is detrimental.  Our happiness cannot be centered around one other person.  This is something I am telling myself every day while things sort themselves out.  In the end, everything will be OK.  I am healthy, I have a great job, I have a loving family, I have lots of friends...you get it.  Anyway, for anyone out there who is reading this and going through any kind of struggle, read this:

"What is the key to untie the knot of your mind's suffering?  Act great.  My dear, always act great" - Hafez

That quote says to me that in times of uncertainty and vulnerability, don't wait for the changes to happen.  Make the change.  Be the change.  Better to act than sit and wonder.

Moving onto happier things, my weight continues to drop.  I am 5-6 lbs lighter than I was two months ago which is unbelievable yet amazing!  I am feeling great about my body right now which is not something I've said for at least a year and a half.  My lighter frame is making my running a lot better.  I've read that for every pound you lose, that takes four pounds of pressure off your knees.  So I've taken 20-24 lbs of pressure off my knees?  That's a lot!  I'm doing the Cooper River Bridge Run (10k) in Charleston in about a month and three days so I'm hoping for a solid race.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend - Happy March!