Bloggers Take Over Charlotte

Ok, let's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack up a little!  It's been an exhausting, but fun couple days, and I've seen almost every blogger in Charlotte I know!  It's pretty much a guaranteed good time and good food every time we meet up though, so I am all over that!

Tuesday
Tuesday morning started with a blueberry smoothie.  Blueberries, bananas, spinach, ice, a little vanilla whey protein, and milk.  Not pretty, but yummy and full of good stuff.

Fueled for the day it was off to work!

After work I had a date with some bloggie friends.  Andrea, Jessie, and I met at Noodles and Company in Dilworth.  Andrea and I met last month at a Charlotte Blogger meet-up and asked if I wanted to get together.  I invited other Charlotte bloggers, but most were busy.  Jessie came though :) 

It was a little warm out, but we opted to sit outside on the patio.  I love dining outside! 

I had an Chinese Chop salad, which I AGAIN forgot to order the dressing on the side of!  Very weird for me, because it's usually the first thing out of my mouth when I order a salad.  It was a little over dressed, but could have been worse ;)

We had a great conversation going about blogs, and it caused me to run home and experiment with some things after they shared their technical knowledge with me.  I kind of just stick with the basics with my blog, but it got me wondering if I should start getting a little more crazy.  Food for thought!

Wednesday

My Wednesday morning started with a bowl of strawberry oats:

In the bowl:

steel cut oats

walnuts

macadamia nut butter

almond milk

strawberries

Agave

Love that combo in oatmeal!  It's so light and fruity, which is cool because oatmeal can feel like a really warm heavy breakfast sometimes.

I rarely document a work day lunch, but Wednesday I actually met Tiffany for lunch at Eggheads, and she brought her camera and got some shots of our food!  I had a veggie omelet, potatoes, and wheat toast.

Tiffany had a Groupon and treated me to lunch, so it's on me next time we meet up!

Upon arrival at home, I really wanted to run, but the temps were in the upper 90's!!  Um, hello fall?  It's SEPTEMBER now, why not try making an appearance here???  *Sigh* sometimes I REALLY miss the northeast!  I really didn't want to get completely drenched in sweat and have it take me an hour to cool down, since I had plans, so instead I squeezed in a Jillian Michaels workout.

Like my action shot??

(that would be the camera self timer in action)

Still sweaty, but less hot than I would have been on a run.  Plus I got strength training in, so that was good.

My post workout dinner was some leftover tuna salad, carrot sticks, and some sweet potato chips, which I gobbled down while getting ready.

Then it was off to meet more Charlotte bloggers for a fro-yo meetup at TCBY.  It was Emily's last hurrah before her big move to DC :(  Her moving truck is nearly packed and she's leaving Friday.

I opted for peanut butter and banana yogurt, Reeses pieces, coconut, nuts, peanut butter sauce and a glob of marshmellow.  I strategically avoided chocolate, because Mr. Clyde joined me and I knew he'd want to lick my bowl.

Also in attendance was Diana's dog, Bailey!  I had been wanting them to meet because Clyde has very few small doggie friends.  Clyde may have been a little hyper for Bailey, but Bailey was a good sport about it!  It was nearly impossible to get a good picture of them together, because they just would not sit still!

Our crew!  

Top L to R: Me (and Clyde), Ann, Jen, Kelly, Jen, Lori, and Emily

Bottom:  Brittany, Michelle, Diana, Caitlin

It was a fun send off get together and I know we're all sad to see Emily go.  I get up to DC pretty frequently though, so I think I'll see her again.  I wish her lots of luck and happiness in her new adventure there!

Cross Train Will Make Ya...Run! Run!

LOL!  Remember these punks with the backwards jeans??  Haha!  Flashback! 

Anyway, now that the knee is better and I'm getting back in to running again, I'm vowing to be better about cross training this time around.  I think it might help me to strengthen my legs and body in general and I'm hoping that'll help me stay injury free.  That's the goal!

Before my workout last night I gobbled a banana and mini Lara Bar.

Then I popped in my old friend Jillian Michaels to let her kick my butt for a while. 

She was a little mean and snarky to me, but I just ignored her and did my thing.  After a sweaty workout, I took Clyde for a long walk so he could burn off annoying puppy energy get his workout on too.  Clyde really pushed himself and I see some speedwork in his near future ;).

Post work-out, we had a little left over action for dinner.

Basically a mexican salad with my leftovers from Sunday night.

Later, while watching Bachelor Pad (how crazy is that show??), I tore into this for dessert:

This would be a Whole Fruit Coconut Fruit Bar.  OMG...  so delicious.  It's a coconut popiscle.  It's awesome....

Tonight I got home and got ready for a run.

I ate a small bowl of banana soft serve with Justin's Maple Almond Butter in it for my pre-run snack.

 

 I headed out on my longest run since June- 4.5 miles on the Greenway. I met my friend Michelle and the run felt GREAT! I easily could have done more, but didn't push it. We excitedly talked about races we want to do this fall. We are going to try and find another trail run to do together and maybe a 10K too.

Can't wait!!  I also may or may not have made a half-marathon training plan on Runner's World Smart Coach...  Eeeeek!  I'm looking at half's in November, so I've got 10 weeks right now.

After my run, it was back to the hacienda.  I took Clyde out for his nightly walk and came back for dinner.  (My night's are eerily the same almost every night, I know).

Tonight I actually had some fancied up Kraft mac and cheese (yes, it's the devil, but I couldn't resist). I basically added peas and a little shredded cheddar.

Clyde begged me to try it and I let him lick the bowl with a couple saved elbows...

I'm off to shower and read this

My new read now that I've finally finished Eat Pray Love.

Night in with the Boys

Greg got in to Charlotte yesterday to enjoy a couple short days off.  I was really happy to have him home and looked forward to spending the evening with him all day.  The other man I was excited to see, was this one...

Seriously, could he be any cuter??  This was after a walk around the neighborhood.  Greg and I love it when he sticks his tongue out.  Too cute :)

Since I was already sweaty from our walk, I did a round of Jillian Michaels' No More Trouble Zones.  Still avoiding the knee related stuff.  I usually just go to the workout menu and pick like 4-5 circuits that don't involve much leg.  If they do involve leg exercises I just do the arm part instead of the lunge/arms.  And I do ALL the abs circuits.  Yes, Jillian, I'm DYING right now, don't worry!

Clyde has to be right next to me when I'm on the floor.

And sometimes he needs to be on top of me!  Come dude, I'm trying to do crunches here!!

Greg was craving pizza for dinner, but we have tons of food in the house, so I didn't want to order out.  I checked out the freezer and found a couple sub-sized french rolls, and suggested some french bread pizza and salad.  I really wanted pesto on my pizza, but I have no basil!  So I made spinach pesto.  Here's the players:

Spinach, EVOO, garlic, sunflower seeds, and some artichoke heart.  I actually sauteed the spinach and sunflower seeds in EVOO and garlic first.

Then put it in the food processor with a couple spoonfuls of artichoke heart oil (I like the flavor infused in there).

I actually forgot Parmesan cheese!  Oops!

Slathered it on the bread, and topped mine with a couple artichoke hearts and roasted red pepper.  Greg doesn't really like artichoke hearts, so his just had roasted red pepper, and he wanted a couple plain ones with just Ragu on them.  I topped each with provolone (I'm out of mozzarella).

Baked for like 10 minutes maybe?  At about 400 degrees.

.

Finished product.

My plate, plus a salad with lettuce, olives, artichoke hearts, tomato, and feta, tossed with balsamic, lemon, and EVOO.

Also drank this margarita made by the husband. 

Then we stayed in and watched The Blindside.