Ryan’s Big Buy

As I was walking to my car after work today, I called Ryan to let him know I was on my way home.

“Okay, I’ll be home soon,” he said. “I’m at the store.”

The store? Hmm. Ryan isn’t the type of guy who just goes to a store to browse around. I knew he’d been eyeing televisions for several weeks now, so I immediately asked him whether or not he was buying anything.

“Yesss,” he said.

“Something big?” I asked.

“Yesss.”

Oh Lord. “How big?”

“The perfect size.”

When Ryan and I have looked at televisions together in the past he leaned toward TVs that were between 45 and 5,000 inches. I liked 42” and under.

As I pulled into our driveway, I saw a huge box in the back of his SUV with two large numbers on the side: 46”.

I helped Ryan haul it into our house and set it up on our TV stand.

It’s definitely a lot larger than our old TV, but it does look pretty sharp. Plus, I have one happy fiance, who immediately proclaimed “I can’t wait for the World Cup!” Oh joy. 😉

Here are before and after shots of our TVs:

Before

After

After the TV was set up, we turned it on to Cash Cab. It was like we were in the cab!

Dog Park

With all the excitement of our new TV, we had to let Sadie in on some fun, so we hopped in the car to spend an hour or so running around at the dog park.

Sadie and Her Dad

 

Me and Ryan

As always, Sadie found a ball right away, so many rounds of fetch ensued.

"Gotcha!"

Peek-a-Boo

Since it was pretty warm outside, Sadie also enjoyed play time in the lake.

Water Dog

You’d think she’d be a pooped puppy by the end of this trip, but I’m sitting here blogging in our backyard while she’s running around chasing lizards. (Also, please don’t forget that she also went on a 55 minute run/walk with me this morning!) This dog doesn’t stop!

Dinner

After the park, we swung by McDonald’s for a snack-size Oreo McFlurry.

Oreo McFlurry

It was a nice little appetizer. 😉

The cold, creaminess of the McFlurry made me want more of the same for dinner.

Of course an actual McFlurry wouldn’t make a very nutritious meal, so I settled for another green monster (my second of the day!).

I made this one a “double” and it was so stinkin’ good.

I think I’m officially obsessed with these bad boys.

Green Monster in a Bowl

I poured my green monster into a bowl and ate it with sliced strawberries and granola on top… Both of which sunk into the thick smoothie really quickly!

I had to be a fast photographer!

Sinking Strawberries

This was also Ryan’s first taste of a green monster and he was impressed!

Something about a green monster makes me feel energetic and rejuvenated. I don’t know what it is, but I love ’em.

Hope you’re having a great night!

8 Worst Snacks

After work yesterday I ran to the grocery store to pick up some Viactiv calcium chews since I was all out (I take one of these every morning).

While I was there, I nabbed a small spaghetti squash… Kinda like a personal pan pizza, but a personal puny spaghetti squash. 😉

I cooked it up last night to enjoy for lunch today.

Friday's Lunch

I topped the spaghetti squash with marinara meat sauce, Parmesan and ricotta cheese and stirred it up until the sauce coated every last strand of squash.

Friday's Lunch

Though there’s a lot of volume in this lunch, I knew I would probably feel hungry in no time without some additional protein.

For dessert, I had overnight oats prepared with old fashioned oats, Greek yogurt, strawberries and instant chocolate pudding mix.

This concoction was suuuuper tasty!

Chocolate and Strawberry Yogurt Pudding

8 Worst Snacks

Today WebMD compiled a list of the 8 worst snacks. Check ’em out and see if anything you eat made the list!

8 Worst Snacks:

1. Chocolate-coated doughnuts and mini doughnuts (Entenmann’s Pop’ems)
2. Snack pies (Hostess fruit pies)
3. Movie-theater butter microwavable popcorn (Pop-Secret Extra Butter)
4. Lunchables by Oscar Mayer
5. Regular chips and Cheetos
6. Packaged frozen snacks (Jimmy Dean biscuits, Hot Pockets)
7. Tyson Fun Nuggets
8. Cheese crackers (Ritz Bits, Cheez-Its)

Though I wasn’t shocked, I was sad to see Cheez-Its on the list.

They’re just so darn delicious!

Free TCBY Waffle Cone

If you sign up for TCBY’s email club, you will receive a free waffle cone! Click here to get yours!

Free 8×10 Print from Walgreens

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You can also order online and use the code BIG8X10 to receive the offer.

Cramping + Critters

This morning when the alarm went off at 5:30 a.m., I made the executive decision to go back to sleep and skip BodyPump this morning.

Sleep = Good

There’s an 8:30 a.m. BodyPump class on Saturdays at my gym, so I figured I’d flip flop my Friday and Saturday workouts in favor of a little extra sleep time this morning. (Stay tuned for a BodyPump overview post tomorrow!)

Instead of the ‘Pump, I leashed up the pup for a run outside.

I intended to do a large loop that typically takes about 50 minutes to complete.

About 10 minutes into my run, as I was breathing in and out, a BUG flew in my MOUTH! Ick. After hacking and spitting for a good minute, our run resumed.

Not long after the creepy crawly incident, I had to stop again, this time due to some serious cramping. 😦

Do you ever get cramps when you work out?

I usually run without cramps unless I eat something too soon before a run. That was not the case today, so I couldn’t understand why I kept cramping up!

I think my water intake was much lower than normal yesterday, so that may have been a contributor.

The cramping was really strong in my left side, so I took a long walking break and finished the run by alternating running and walking. Surprisingly Sadie and I finished the whole loop in 55 minutes, only 5 minutes slower than we usually do when we run the whole thing.

Preventing the Side Stitch

After my cramping incident, I looked up ways to prevent future side stitches and found the following tips (source):

• Take even, deep breaths while running.
• Time your eating. Having food in your stomach during a workout may increase cramping by creating more force on the ligaments (Avoid eating one to two hours before a workout).
• Stretching may prevent or relieve a cramp. Raise your right arm straight up and lean toward the left. Hold for 30 seconds, release, then stretch the other side.
• Slow down your pace until pain lessens.
• Breathe deep to stretch the diaphragm.
• Drink before exercise. Dehydration can increase muscle cramps.
• Massage or press on the area with pain. Bend forward to stretch the diaphragm and ease the pain.

Breakfast

Even though my run wasn’t exactly amazing, it still felt good to get outside and sweat with Sadie.

I came home and made myself a cold and super-thick green monster.

Blend Me Up!

Check out all that spinach!

My smoothie included:

• 1.5 scoops chocolate protein powder
• 1.5 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 frozen banana
• An entire salad’s worth of spinach
• Water
• Pinch of Bob’s Red Mill xanthan gum

Two things surprised me about this smoothie:

1. It still tasted really creamy when I used water instead of milk
2. Xanthan gum is no joke! That stuff really thickened up my smoothie! Love it.

Green Monster

Delish

Because I feel the need to eat something, not just drink something, in the morning, I also had a piece of lightly buttered toast.

Toast

I’m so happy it’s Friday!!! 😀