A 5K and Lots of Green for St. Patrick’s Day

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Did you wear green today?

I slept in until 6:30 again this morning- hey it was 8.5 hours of sleep! And that’s sleeping in for me. It felt great. I try to keep my eyes closed for as long as possible, but hubby has this time and temperature thing that shines on the wall, like this:

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(He’s all about electronics like this, lol) And I noticed it was almost 50 degrees outside! I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to run Vegan Chick Pea’s St. Patrick’s Day 5k. Good thing I didn’t head out when I was planning on it though- because it just randomly started pouring down rain with thunder and lightning! I looked at that radar and it was just this TINY little blip right over where I live. And they issued this weather statement, “GUSTY WINDS MAY CAUSE SMALL OBJECTS SUCH AS TRASH BINS TO BLOW AROUND. STAY AWAY FROM HIGH OBJECTS OUTDOORS SUCH AS TREES. SEEK SHELTER IN A STURDY STRUCTURE UNTIL THIS STORM HAS PASSED.” Well good thing I wasn’t out there running, huh?

For breakfast, I had PB and Banana toast with a cup of 1% milk for 5 points and on a green plate, of course!

I waited for the storm to pass completely and then I headed out for the 5k! It was 1 mile to and from the route- took me 14 minutes total to walk that. I ran the 3.1 miles in 42:06, which is a little faster than what I ran the race in back in July at 42:21. I really want to work on improving my time for this route so I can do better in July. I’d like to get it under 40 minutes. My HR monitor wasn’t tracking right- I think my new sports bra was interfering with where it’s placed. So I’m not sure how many calories I burned, but it said 307 and it has to be more than that because my HR would drop when I went up hills- which obviously wasn’t right.

When I got home, I had to whip up a green smoothie for St. Patrick’s day- of course! I used 2 oranges and 1 cup of spinach for the produce. 1 point.

Like my new smoothie cup? It’s hard to tell in the picture, but it’s pink! I got it while we did a little shopping yesterday. If hubby is reading this, remember the other one broke, so this was a NECESSITY and I NEEDED it.

For lunch, I made blueberry waffles. I ate one of those with a banana sliced on top with a little sugar free syrup and an egg white omelet with turkey and cheese. I also had a cup of a cranberry Crystal Lite type drink. 8 points total.

For dessert, I had the 1 cup of strawberries and 1/3 cup of light vanilla yogurt that I had prepared to take to work with me yesterday. 1 point.

Before signing in to work, I heated up some leftover coffee from yesterday and added from FF Vanilla creamer for 0 points. This was the only green mug I have. lol. It’s hubby’s.

I sure was happy to be back to working in these today:

I also brought 2 Cuties Clementines with me to snack on for 0 points.

So did any of you fill out brackets for March Madness? I do it every year at work because there’s a chance of winning something. We’re all encouraged to do it- even if you’re like me and don’t know ANYTHING about basketball. So far, I’m about 50/50 in my choices.

For supper, I had a salad made up of lettuce, tomato, black beans, cashews, 2% cheddar, and BBQ chicken for 9 points.

I also had a side of Schwan’s Seasoned Potato Curls with ketchup for 4 points.

I had to go back through my points to make sure I had counted everything today. Somehow, I still have 6 points left for the day! That NEVER happens lately!

I have started tracking what I am eating on livestrong.com as well as WW online so that I can see WHAT I am eating as far as the nutrition standpoint goes. I was shocked to see the excessive sodium and carbs especially. With the help of Lori, I have a plan in place that I will work on in the coming weeks to get my carbs, fat and proteins where they need to be. That’s the first step. I think I am ready to start tackling new territory of this weight loss journey for me- and that means paying more attention to my daily nutrition and setting goals that way. It should be interesting!

I’m so happy that tomorrow is Friday and hubby is coming home!! I can’t wait!