The hockey game isn’t until 5 pm, but I’m already dressed and good to go.  I wore my RIT Frozen Four t-shirt to work today to show my support for the Tigers.  They’re facing Wisconsin in the semi-finals.

BC is playing Miami (Ohio) at 8:30 pm and you can bet I’ll be watching that game too.  Tonight will be all about hockey.

I had a bowl of Special K for breakfast.

Not long after waking up, I realized the allergy symptoms I suffered through yesterday probably weren’t allergies at all.  My gross nasal congestion had relocated to my chest.  So I think I actually had a cold.  Now I understand why none of the allergy meds seemed to help!  Mehhhh.  At least I’m feeling like I’m on the road to recovery.

I had a bit of trail mix before Body Pump.

I kept my weights light during today’s Body Pump class.  Being sick made me feel a little weak and woozy.  I didn’t want to over-do it.  Plus the motivation just wasn’t there.

I still feel like I got a good workout.  I kept the lower body tracks really light because I work my legs each time I run.  My limited efforts were devoted to upper body, especially chest, back, and shoulders.  My upper body muscles are pretty tired; love when I can feel the results of my hard work!  I was regretting going to the gym the entire time the class was going on, but now that it’s done, I’m really happy I worked out.

I bought a salad from HealthWorks for lunch.  The Tropical Mango salad featured mixed greens, mango, mozzarella cheese, strawberries, and strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.  It was nice and light yet filling at the same time.  I’m glad I didn’t order a cup of soup on the side because I would’ve been too full to eat both items.

I wanted to take a close up picture of the religious bracelet that I bought in Mexico.  I’ve been wearing it fairly regularly but it’s hard to see in the photos of my outfit.  Not sure why some $5 plastic bracelet fascinates me, but I think it’s kinda cool.

When I was in college, I noticed a guy wearing a bracelet like this and thought he looked so bad ass.  Haha, I know…I’m a dork.  I’ve searched high and low for the bracelet and it’s taken forever for me to find it.  Seriously…years!  But of course, since buying my own in Mexico, I’ve discovered they’re sold in Boston.  Ooops, guess I wasn’t looking hard enough!

Unfortunately my work outfit wasn’t as spectacular as my dress.  Pretty bland and boring, but that’s what you get on a Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, etc. when I’m tired at work.

Though the cardigan’s ruffle detail is cute enough to make the outfit a success in my mind! 

I hit the gym for a speed run on the treadmill.  I ran 2 miles at 7.6 mph.  That’s a 7:53 mile and oh my God was it tough.  But I powered through and finished my 20 minutes on the treadmill with a nice walk to cool down.

My running playlist was the most random mix of songs ever:

1. The Foo Fighters, “My Hero”
2. Lady Gaga, “Just Dance”
3. Hairspray, “You Can’t Stop the Beat” (aka You Can’t Stop to Breathe)
4. No Doubt, “Bath Water”
5. Sugarland, “Gotta Be Something More”
6. Kings of Leon, “Sex is on Fire”

Yup, strange mix but at least I made it through my workout.  “Bath Water” was too slow of a song as I was trying to run through my last few minutes, but I just focused on how awesome Gwen Stefani is instead of looking at the clock and wishing I could slow down.  I took my time stretching and using the foam roller.  I also sat in the sauna for 20 minutes.  My favorite relaxation method! (Unless someone would be willing to scratch my back for hours on end!)

Totally rocking my FitBloggin Thriv t-shirt for the 2nd day in a row.  And the t-shirt still doesn’t stink.  It was damp from sweat but I noticed the baby powder smell that others have also blogged about.  If anyone form Thriv knows the story of how the company logo was chosen, please let me know.  (My guess is the bamboo that’s part of the fabric.)   I’m obsessed with the super cute panda face!

Almonds for an afternoon snack.

We made 3 Cheese Raviolettis for dinner.  I opted to shrink my ravioli portion by adding them to a salad.  I made the salad with spinach, corn, Parmesan cheese, vinaigrette, and of course, raviolettis!  It was really good, as were my 2 glasses of Mark West Pinot Noir wine that I neglected to photograph.

Cheers to the miraculous recovery of my dress!

I had the longest staff meeting this morning/afternoon and ended up eating 2 slices of pizza that my boss provided for the crew.  So my half-ass version of Ants on a Log was a healthy afternoon snack after a greasy lunch.

I didn’t have a lot of time for a “lunch break” so I quickly hit the treadmill for a 20 minute interval run.

• 0-1 minute: Run at 6.5 mph
• 1-2: Run at 6.6 mph
• 2-3: Run at 6.7 mph
• 3-4: Run at 6.8 mph
• 4-5: Run at 6.9 mph
• 5-6: Run at 7.0 mph
• 6-7: Run at 6.9 mph
• 7-8: Run at 6.8 mph
• 8-9: Run at 6.7 mph
• 9-10: Run at 6.6 mph
• 10-11: Run at 6.5 mph
• 11-12: Run at 6.6 mph
• 12-13: Run at 6.7 mph
• 13-14: Run at 6.8 mph
• 14-15: Run at 6.9 mph
• 15-16: Run at 7.0 mph
• 16-17: Run at 6.9 mph
• 17-18: Run at 6.8 mph
• 18-19: Run at 6.7 mph
• 19-20: Run at 6.6 mph
• 20-23: Walk at 4.0 mph

The funny thing about this interval run was that the slower speeds were actually more difficult for me.  I felt better when I was running a little bit faster.  I think 6.8 mph was my ideal speed.  Combing all of the running and walking, I covered just about 2 1/2 miles in 23 minutes.

Not knowing we’d be getting lunch, I had packed the most delicious salad.  I couldn’t force myself to save it for tomorrow so I ate it for dinner tonight.  I mixed spinach, cucumbers, corn and carrots with salsa as dressing.  I topped the salad with some pulled pork from Don Otto’s.

It’s the End of the Beginning…

I ate my last Vitalicious Vitatop, slathered with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter.  Vitalicious sent my first food sample several months ago when I was just getting into blogging.  I was so grateful that a company believed in my blog enough to let me try their products.  I’ve loved trying lots of flavors of Vitatops and now I need to make a trip to the grocery store.

The perfect Tuesday night?  Snuggled on the couch with a bottle of Crios!  Crios is a great value brand and I love their Malbec.

Someone is ready for some serous TV watching.

I loved having lots of fresh fruit leftover from dessert yesterday.  I added blueberries and strawberries to an otherwise boring bowl of cereal.

Plus ate more fruit when I got to work.

I made a salad with the only leftover piece of BBQ chicken from yesterday’s lunch.  Plus I used greens, carrots, red peppers, grape tomatoes, and baby carrots.  And for the first time in a while, I didn’t overdo it with the salad dressing!

I spread Laughing Cow cheese on a leftover corn bread muffin.  Corn bread can be really dry so the creamy cheese was a great topping.

I hit the gym and chose to run 2 miles for speed.  I remembered my plan to run a bit faster so this time I completed my miles at 7.5 mph.  Yay for 8 minute miles!  I was breathing heavy and had to push myself to make it through.  I think I’ll stick with this pace for a little while until I get more comfortable.  I had enough time to use the foam roller and then sit in the sauna for 5 minutes before getting ready to go back to the office.

Late afternoon snack.  I get so hungry during the last 2 hours of my workday.  A snack is essential!

I made a black bean burger for dinner and topped with with shredded cheese and pieces of celery.  I didn’t end up liking the celery on the sandwich so I took it off and replaced it with some of the cucumbers I was eating on the side.

Someone had to eat the last piece of pound cake.  I topped with with mixed berries and FROZEN Cool Whip.

So my Ask Me Anything post wasn’t very successful. 

Q:  Do you really think you’re “fashionable”? Half the clothes you wear make you look like a grandmother or a little girl. It’s very odd…

A:  Bahahaha!  I like clothes, I like to read fashion magazines.  So I do have knowledge of fashion and style.  But do I always dress my best?  Hell no!  I’m really lazy, I hate to iron, and I like to be comfortable.  Most of the photos of my outfits are what I wear to work.  So while I prefer to be called a librarian rather than a grandma, I know I don’t look amazing.  It’s just fun to share what I wore w/ everyone who reads my blog.  I’m not expecting everyone to love everything…though I do get compliments and I always appreciate them!

Okkk, I’m off to watch Food Inc. (finally!!!) and gather my thought to write about my 5 days as a vegetarian.  Oh and I might just have to see who Jake gives his final rose too.  Gotta stay on top of the important news…

I sampled Chobani’s new strawberry banana flavor of Greek yogurt for breakfast this morning.  Since I’m not normally drawn to strawberry banana, I added a spoonful of peanut butter to peak my interest.  I tried to take one bite of the yogurt without PB; tasted good to me.  But with the PB it was even better.  Definitely would purchase this flavor if I was going to be using it for a yogurt blend.  Plus adding peanut butter helped me stay full for longer.  Thank you protein!

I packed a salad for lunch: lettuce, cucumbers, baby carrots, and feta cheese…and added a leftover pesto Parmesan turkey burger.

This salad was decent, nothing overly exciting.  What made me happy was that it took 30 minutes to eat.  So much munching and crunching!  I hate it when I eat my foods too quickly and don’t take time to appreciate the flavors and textures.

I have a meeting at 1 pm so I actually straightened my hair today.  Woohoo, no ponytail!  I’m wearing a cashmere sweater from J. Crew.  Heaven!

Ok, wait wait…the cashmere sweater is from the J. Crew outlet, from an after-Christmas sale, from my mom.  So after major savings and someone else paying, it’s the only cashmere item I own.  A girl can dream though…cuz cashmere is so warm and soft.  Much preferred over itchy wool sweaters, but I’ll deal.

My necklace makes me smile.  Sterling silver with gold bows!  When I cheered in college, I wore a a bow in my hair to EVERY cheerleading practice.  I felt that wearing a  bow was cute and added a little bit extra so that practices seemed more fun.  Now I’ve retired my collection of cheering bows, but I’m glad I found a way to keep them in my wardrobe.

The lineup for this morning’s bowl of stove top oats.

• 1 teaspoon of flax seed
• 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
• 1 heaping spoonful of canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of water

Close up of my oatmeal extravaganza.

Sealed with a kiss, awww!

The boyfriend and I had a really lazy Saturday.  The only things that got accomplished were that a load of clean laundry was picked up and 2 huge bags of dirty clothes were dropped off, and the dog got walked.

Jared and I met our friends Matt and Natalie at Picco for lunch.  Jared and I split a garden salad to start things off.

I got some excited about my pizza and stealing bites of Jared’s mac and cheese that I forgot to take meal photos.  Also ate a scoop of caramel swirl ice cream!

I went to Legacy Place in Dedham, MA to meet some of my Boston-area blog buddies.

Food first!  I ate a random mix of items from the salad bar:  cranberry couscous, 3 bean quinoa, cucumbers with dressing, BBQ tofu, and spicy noodles.  I also did some grocery shopping and picked up a few fun items that will be on the blog very soon!

New friends!  It was great to meet Melissa and Heather.

We toured Whole Foods and grabbed dinner, all while chatting nonstop!  It’s funny how many things we all have in common.  Can’t wait to plan a holiday get together with these lovely ladies (and any other bloggies who are interested)

Heather and Melissa, great to meet you two in person.  Can’t wait for FitBloggin

Last night, I dedicated a large portion of my time to decorating my Halloween-themed gingerbread house.  I accidentally added too much water to the icing so it was too runny.  I had a hard time preventing it from dripping down the front of the house.  Eventually, I just went nuts and drizzled orange and purple icing all over the place.  The house looks like it’s melting.  Reminds me of the “Drip Castles” I used to make at the beach.

(And FYI, the house came pre-assembled.  I have tried to construct my own gingerbread house in the past and it was a disaster!  I need all of the help I can get!)

I love the ghost and all of the little bats.  So cute!  I tried not to lick my fingers too often so I wouldn’t go to bed with a  sugar high.  Even though my decorating was a little sloppy, I had fun being creative and making a mess.   I managed to spill orange icing all over the rug in the living room and by the kitchen.  Oops, looks like I’ll need to borrow my aunt’s carpet steamer sooner rather than later.

I made a whole grain mini-bagel for breakfast this morning.  I topped it with black raspberry jam and almond butter.

Today was the first day I tried truvia in my coffee.  I didn’t notice a taste difference.  I thought my cup of “Jamaican Me Crazy” tasted delicious!

I snacked on some strawberries, mmmm!

I created a lunchtime fiesta:  a salad made with lettuce, cucumbers, baby carrots, shredded cheddar cheese, Ranch dressing, salsa, and tortilla chip crumbles.  It was delicious and really filling!  I liked the crunch from the tortilla chips best!

Here’s my afternoon/evening in a nutshell!

Barlean’s sent some samples to me.  I’m excited to get Omega benefits without having to consume any fish oil!

I snacked on a Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip VitaMuffin.  Besides burning my mouth because I heated it for too long, this was soooo tasty!  It seems like a sinful indulgence, but it’s only 100 calories.  It actually filled me up for a trip to the grocery store.

We bought groceries.  My highlights were 2 cans of pumpkin and Truvia packets.  Hopefully I’ll like this healthier sweetening option.

I wasn’t very hungry when we got back from Shaws but I felt like I needed to eat something.  I made a salad with lettuce, carrots, cheddar cheese, a few artichokes, and Ranch dressing.

Then I snacked on some tortilla chips and fresh salsa.  I think I might use the rest of the salsa as salad topping.