My little mom is a teacher and her school participated in the Relay for Life.

Relay For Life is the American Cancer Society’s signature activity. It offers everyone in a community an opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Relays are an overnight event, up to 24 hours in length.

My mom signed us up for the 12pm to 1pm shift. So after my run I ate some foodies and got to walking. Many of the groups had some kind of baton that you had to be on the track with a walker at all times.

I love the message of the American Cancer Society. They had a bunch of signs up around the track.

Slip, Slop, Slap, Slide!

In other news I did a long run today of 11 miles. This doesn’t seem that long after training for the mary. I want to do one more full before I stick to the halfs. I’m looking at one in November?

After the run I went to WF and tried some scrambled tofu from the food bar.

I also got some tempeh salad for a sandwich for lunch. Amazing stuff. Full of vegan mayo (and fat) so that is part of the reason!

The rest of the day was a lot of random snacking. I never felt full, so I can’t tell if I was really hungry.

They weren’t all pictured, but you get the idea… 

I talked to the RD about paying attention to my hunger and given my current super busy/stressfull/crazy life she said I probably will not be able to tell when I’m hungry. The high stress that I am under is definitely messing with my hunger cues.

So the plan is -

- If I am more active than normal, make sure I am fueling well

- Eat every 3 to 4 hours

- Make sure my meals are balanced! My stress level is telling me all I want is carbs, but then I feel like crap

Today was another snacky carb kind of day, but I stopped myself and made sure the have a balanced lunch and dinner. The snacking was still there, but I am observing myself with out judgement and am learning about how I react to stress/loneliness/boredom and this way I can prevent it going forward

So many people say their life should be a reality show, but really I think mine should be one right now!

There is so much craziness going on with my personal life, friends, fam, wedding, work and more. A lot of this stuff I can’t even talk about because not everyone close to me even knows yet! But, when I finally spill the beans on everything exciting in the world of Monica – you will agree that it’s crazy!

Last night I helped Ben move into his new place until midnight. Oh, and they had already turned the electricity off so we were moving by candle light. Fun stuff.

This morning I took a walk around the new neighborhood. There is major June gloom today – it was misting. It even rained last night!

I found a cute little park nearby with a running trail for next time I’m here

I had to stop at Ralph’s on my walk to pick up some yogurt. Ben doesn’t have a fridge yet. So I took all my frozen goods from his place and they thawed out overnight I’m hoping they are okay and won’t kill me because now they are in my work freezer.

I ate my breakfast in the kitchen…on the floor. We don’t have a table, obviously. We are literally starting from scratch with stuff we need. This is exactly why people register for wedding gifts! We have nothing!

But, we’ll be eating on the floor for a while because there are no immediate plans to buy a kitchen table. Our reasoning for this has to remain a mystery for now

After work I have to drive back to the OC to take Ben to the airport. He’s going to NJ tonight and I’ll meet him out there Monday. His brother is graduating on Tuesday and he has some family out there that I’ve never met Now I need to get to work since I have a ton to do before I leave!!!

I made Matt a Green Monster for breakfast this morning. He liked it, but didn’t finish it, so I don’t know if he was just being nice or the green color weirded him out.

After a 5 miler with hillsI wanted a smoothie and PB toast for breakfast too! I used a scoop of  Amazing Grass, blueberries, frozen naner and almond milk. Plus PB&PB on Ezekiel bread.

Then, my other brother wanted me to make him eggs so I made him fancy style with spinach, green chili, peas and potatoes. I had a bite

Now I must start another crazy day!!!

Vacation Time: I am so ready for my vacation! I have to work today and tomorrow then I have next week off I’m flying out to NJ Monday morning  and I’ll be there till Tuesday. Then, I’ll be in MD and FL for the rest of the week. So I have to make sure all the major wedding things are done before I leave. It’s a long list.

I have to come back and work for a week and then finally… I’ll be off for the wedding!!!

I went out and bought coconut milk for a curry tofu recipe I wanted to make yesterday for dinner…yeah, right. I barely have time to make a sandwich right now!

After the dress fitting I walked the dogs and threw something together quick: A veggie burger in a flat out wrap and kale chips. I love kale chips and bought kale from the farmer’s market specifically for this

 I had a little ice cream and waffle cone for dessert My mom is good and bought a lf ice cream

Then, I read my book and went to sleep.

I don’t have the time to post a full dinner update tonight, but just wanted to say I’ll be back first thing (Pacific Time!) tomorrow

I figured you guys would be okay with me skipping a post since I’m … planning a wedding, going on a trip in 4 days, working full time, blogging, packing for a move and more!

I accomplished a lot today including:

- A dress fitting!

- Calls with florist

- Writing out checks for crazy amounts of money (buyer’s remorse for a wedding?)

- Making more lists of things I have to do!

and that makes me happy

this was my afternoon snackage today. I basically made myself sick from too many cherries yesterday, but still came back for more today! I am messed up.

I was really craving veggies and protien for lunch today. So I mixed up some tuna, hummus and curry powder

and put it on top of a salad with a ton of veggies. plus 2 3 mini ww pitas on the side. And I added extra hummus when the tuna ran out

I made a little lunch dessert too  – a piece of pita with PB and melted chocolate chips. Amazing.

A little later I tried this new find – a bar especially for Runners!

Calories: 200

Fat: 3.5g

Fiber: 4g

Protein: 12g

It has MicroLactin for joint health – that’s what makes it runner worthy I guess.

It was good, but has a lot of ingredients…

I love everyone’s feedback on what is easy for them and what is hard! It’s so interesting that something that is super difficult for me is a natural habit for others and vice-versa!

Oh, and thanks for letting me rant earlier. There’s a lot going on right now and I’m a little on edge

No matter what other people tell me about my running, clothes, body, etc I have my own opinion on it. And their opinion will never be more important than mine. I appreciate feedback and other’s thoughts, I often ask for opinions on certain things. But I never ask for opinions on my body. It doesn’t matter what other people think. How I feel is the deciding factor.

I am on this rant today because my mom told me this morning that I look thin in my running gear. I should have just said thanks and walked away, but I told her I haven’t lost any weight for the wedding. This comment started a big back and forth discussion where she insisted I look thin and I insisted she should make an appointment with the eye doctor.

Fact: No one that is 5″6 and 158 appears thin. I don’t care if you’re dressed in black and wearing heals – that’s just not “thin”.

It’s super frustrating because I almost take the comment as, “This is as good as it gets for you, so just accept it.” And I don’t want to just accept it. I used to be heavier so this isn’t the worst I can look, but let me have some hope that I can get to my goal weight. I am not giving up over here, and I have a long way to go.

Fact: It could be worse.

I agree that it could be worse. I have been heavier, but I have also been thinner. I am making lifestyle changing and learning about my body’s food needs every day. I am moving in the right direction (down).

W/O: Well, that rant was a workout on it’s own, but I also ran 5  slow miles. I was feeling super sluggish today. Could the carb fest from last night be to blame?

Breakfast: oatbran, almond milk, naner, topped with brown sugar, a few dried berries and a little almond butter.

The almond butter is the same color as the oatbran  I’ve decided this meal is so heavy I feel like I’m going to barf when I’m done. Oatbran is like a brick.

My friend recently commented that she doesn’t know how I am so “good“. Obviously, this is relative because I am very “bad” compared to most bloggers out there. Again, it’s all relative…

But some things are easy for me to do

 - running in the morning (my therapy),

- eating a healthy breakfast (been doing this my whole life)

- eating veggies (love them!)

- not eating meat (never crave it, only eat it if it’s there)

But other things are very hard for me and I’m working on it -

- Not eating after dinner!

- Not eating Ben’s food

- Only eating when I’m hungry

- Learning to stop before I’m stuffed

- Not eating for emotional reasons

Question: What is easy for you? What is hard?

The second principle of Intuitive Eating is “Honor your Hunger”. The book explains it as “keeping your body biologically fed”.

I have been trying to work on this one which is one of the reasons my eating was so random this weekend. But years of ignorning hunger signals because it’s not “time to eat” or I should be on a diet; as well as overeating even when I’m not hungry in reaction to a diet leaves me lost. I can’t tell when I’m hungry. I can’t tell what my body’s craving. And I can’t tell when I’m full. This is quite the dillema!

Let’s just say I tried to Honor my hunger today and failed learned a lot. After lunch and a ton of cherries I was super full and bloated. I started to feel empty around 3:30pm and had more cherries (bad idea) and a few bites of cottage cheese with pineapple. I was full.

 On the way home I ate some of these bunnies. I love these things. But, by the time I was home a little after 7pm I wasn’t hungry.

I had a few bites of the green chile chicken my mom made, but didn’t want it.

This is a cheater recipe. She just cooked up some potatoes and shredded a rotiserie chicken and added some peas and green enchilada sauce to make it. Simple, right.

So after a walk with the dogs I decided to just eat what I wanted…I grabbed a piece of this bread and half a chocolate chip cookie.

But, what I really wanted was some popcorn.

But all those carbs just made me feel bloated full, but not satisfied or healthy.

I had a cup or two of cereal with milk and decided to call it a night.

Lesson learned – a night of carbs, even if that’s what your body says it is craving, can make you feel gross. This is how the IE works – the process lets you learn for yourself that you can’t live off of Challah bread and cereal. Noted.

Howdy – Sorry I’m late! I was setting up my new laptop It has a different mouse pad than I’m used to and I keep messing up!

Blog related – We decided to get one of those internet plans that you can use anywhere so while I’m on vacation I’ll be blogging it up!

Can you see my reflection in the computer? 

My peep wanted to go to the Farmer’s Market for lunch and I never turn that down! The Farmer’s Market here doesn’t just have fruits and veggies. It also has a lot of food vendors! They make it smell so good!

I scored a huge bag of cherries for $9.00. They will be gone by tomorrow. This is an expensive habit. I should take up smoking to save some money.

I also got 2 big bunches of kale for kale chips. I’ve been craving these. One of the co-workers who went with us said she’s never seen someone so excited about kale. I am a dork.

Unfortunately, I had packed my lunch so I had to avoid the vendors and eat my food. Lisa did give me a taste of her Pad Thai and rice though Just a taste makes me happy

My lunch was based on this new find from WFs –

I put it in a Perfect 10 bagel with spinach, mayo and onions. I also had cucumbers and carrots on the side.

I’ve been munching on the cherries and have pretty much made myself sick at this point. Fantastic Monica.

It’s Sandia time!

Here is a quick video on my watermelon cutting technique. I know it’s not rocket science, but I think the way I do it is pretty simple and fast. Also, making the video prevented me from eating all of it as I cut, since I knew you’d be watching

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI_Oua7fKag]

And I guess we’re getting pretty close now since I completely don’t feel the need to dress up/brush my hair/put on makeup when I make videos. Enjoy!