Puppy Chow Ruins Appetites

I wasn’t actually hungry around lunchtime due to the Foodie Friday goodie that one of my coworkers brought into the office today…

Puppy chow!!!

Puppy Chow

This stuff is unbelievably addicting. I probably ate a whole solo cup (aka the token beer cups from college) full of it throughout the morning.

Even though my tummy wasn’t grumbling for lunch, I still ate what I packed because I figured my body needed some nutrients after ingesting all the sugar, chocolate and peanut butter from the puppy chow.

I made myself a salad topped with homemade tuna salad that contained tuna, light Miracle whip, mustard, celery and sweet relish.

Deconstructed Tuna Salad

The tuna salad topped a bed of baby greens, served with red pepper slices.

Tuna Salad Topped Salad

Lunch

A lil’ more nutritious than puppy chow, no? 😉

Bachelorette Party Round Two!

Some of you may remember a while back I mentioned that I was going to have a two-part bachelorette party.

My first bachelorette party weekend occurred at the beginning of the month.

I had a great time with my friends from college in Chicago singing and dancing at a dueling piano bar, attending a drag show and running a half marathon in matching pink tank tops. It was a crazy and super-fun time!

Bachelorette Party: Take One!

Tonight I’m heading back to Chicago for Round Two of bachelorette fun… This time with my high school gang and my sister!

Once again, I am completely in the dark with what the weekend will entail, but I know that as long as I’m with my best friends and sister it’ll be a blast!

See ya from the Windy City!

Plantar Fasciitis

Lunch!

Friday Lunch

Lunch today was a simple spread.

I enjoyed homemade tuna salad on top of a toasted bagel with green peppers and smoked almonds on the side.

Tuna Salad

Fishy Bagelwich

Good-for-Me Fats

I followed this yummy lunch up with a quick trip to Mochi.

Ryan was downtown visiting the DMV and when I received his text requesting a Mochi meet up, I jumped at the chance to join him for a quick 15-minute fro yo date!

I opted for cake batter/cheesecake swirl frozen yogurt, topped with mango, strawberries, rainbow sprinkles and cheesecake bits.

Mooooochi

Ryan and I also swung by Starbucks to share a grande Tazo Chai Créme Frappuccino because we’re sweet-tooth soul mates.

Chai Tea Frapp

Those of you non-coffee lovers should give this lil’ baby a try. It’s delish!

I enjoyed most all of the whipped cream and about a third of the Frapp.

Yum!

Now on to some less-than-exciting news…

Plantar Fasciitis

This just in: I may have plantar fasciitis. 😦

Yesterday around noon, I started to experience pain in my left heel.

I thought it was kind of odd and figured it would probably dissipate by the evening.

Unfortunately that was not the case.

I went to bed thinking it might feel better in the morning… Not so.

It doesn’t hurt at all when I am sitting, and the pain is pretty dull when I’m standing, but when I walk or run, the pain becomes fairly intense.

After BodyPump this morning, I approached the instructor (who is a personal trainer, marathon runner and knowledgeable about muscles and sports-related injuries) to ask for her insight about my pain.

After explaining where I felt pain and when the pain started (several hours after my morning run), she said it sounded a lot like plantar fasciitis, a condition characterized by inflammation of the band of tissue that connects the heel to the toes.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition is “particularly common in runners.”

• The good news: Ninety percent of people recover from plantar fasciitis.
• The bad news: Recovery usually takes several months.

This doesn’t exactly mesh well with my half marathon training plan.

I am really, really bummed. I am supposed to do a long run (10 miles) in the morning and I don’t see how that’s going to be possible if my heel still feels this pained.

I really want to run the half marathon in Chicago on August 1. I am hoping with all of my heart that the pain will be a passing pain that goes away soon. Cross your fingers!

In the mean time, I plan to ice my heel, stretch it and massage it.

I want to keep my cardiovascular strength up just in case the pain goes away in time for the half, so I will follow the advice of several orthopedic and running articles I read and supplement my running with cross training (swimming, biking, elliptical) until I feel like my heel is healed (Gotta love a good pun!).

I am trying not to be too dramatic about this injury, but I cannot help but remember when I had bursitis in my hip and literally couldn’t walk without pain for an entire summer. It was miserable and I was so upset. I don’t like not being able to walk without discomfort since walking is such a huge part of daily life and poor Sadie needs her morning walks!

"What am I supposed to do? Walk MYSELF!?"

I’m trying my best to look at this as simply an obstacle I must overcome.

It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, though it’s really upsetting to me right now. I’m mostly upset because I’m supposed to be running the half marathon with my girlfriends at the conclusion of my bachelorette party in Chicago and I was really looking forward to doing something so neat with all of them.

Bummer!

I am injured, injured bad. 😉 (<– Click that link for a flippin’ adorable video that you’ve probably seen 5 billion times already.)

Question of the Afternoon?

Have you ever been sidelined from a sport or athletic training plan due to an injury? How did you cope?

(If any of you out there have experienced plantar fasciitis, please, please let me know how long it took for you to heal and how you recovered!)

Tuna Salad Remix

First things first, I am in the market for a new food processor since my Cuisinart food processor decided to stop working after less than 10 uses. Fun!

Please let me know if you have a food processor that you love because I want to get one with a longer lifespan this time around.

I’ve visited many websites searching for a good one, including the CSN stores site (that literally has everything from twin beds to blenders) because the company has offered to let me pick out a product for $60 or less, and I’m thinking this Hamilton Beach Chef Prep 10 Cup food processor seems right up my alley. Anyone out there have this model? I hope it’s a good one!

Lunch

Onto the food fun!

Today’s lunch included tuna salad that was a bit different from the tuna salad I usually make.

Tuna Salad Remix

I combined a packet of StarKist Tuna Creations sweet & spicy tuna with a large squirt of light Miracle Whip.

StarKist Tuna Creations

I topped a whole wheat Pepperidge Farms deli flat with the tuna salad and a large handful of spinach to complete my tuna sandwich.

On the side I enjoyed fresh cucumber slices that were nice and cool (…as a cucumber 😉 ) and grape tomatoes for some added nutrition.

Tomaters

Sadie was more than a little intrigued…

"That Tuna Smells Deeelightful!"

The Whole She-Bang

Cucumbers + tomatoes = Perfect summer produce

Question of the Afternoon

What kitchen appliance do you use most often?

I use my blender the most, but my griddle is definitely a close second! Let’s hope that once I get a decent food processor, that’ll be high on my list, too!

Makes My Mouth Water

I know the thought of tuna salad is enough to make some people want to hurl, but when I think of tuna salad, my mouth starts watering and I get really excited!

Just knowing I had this beastly salad waiting for me to enjoy around noon today made me anxious for lunchtime to arrive.

Big Ol' Salad

I made my tuna salad with:

• 1 can tuna
• 1 tbsp. Miracle Whip (light)
• 1/2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. Sweet relish
• 1 large stalk of celery, chopped

I combined everything and served it on top of a bed of fresh spinach along with a sprinkling of broccoli and grape tomatoes.

Tuna Salad

Something's Fishy

This was the perfect summer salad. Cold, veggie-packed and colorful.

Of Possible Interest

• How Giada De Laurentiis Stays Slim (FitSugar.com)
• The Short Shorts Workout (FitnessMagazine.com)
• The Best and Worst Fast Food Salads (WomansDay.com)

Tonight

Tonight Ryan and I have plans to attend a special dinner in honor of the graduates from his work’s leadership development program. We’ve attended this event for a couple of years now, and this year Ryan will be honored as one of the graduates!

The dinner is being held at quite a cool location this year so I’m pumped!

See ya after dinner!

Wedding Ring Effect

Wedding ring talk in un momento…

Lunch

One of the best (and worst) parts about having people over is all the food that remains once the party is over. Of course I’m more than excited about the leftover goodies, but having lots of cookies, chips and dip around the house makes our apartment a very tempting place to live.

Today I brought a lot of the remaining goodies from our weekend BBQ into work for the freegans to enjoy.

I did not, however, relinquish certain dishes, such as the light Italian pasta salad (made with Mueller’s rotini twists) which I enjoyed for lunch today.

Light Italian Pasta Salad

Along with the pasta salad, I enjoyed tuna salad for a punch of protein.

Tuna Salad

My tuna salad contained:

• 1 can tuna
• 1 tbsp. light Miracle Whip
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• Chopped celery
• Chopped green pepper
• Cherry tomatoes

The two salads complimented each other perfectly and I am satisfied but not overly stuffed… Just the way I like to feel after a yummy lunch.

Mid-Day Monday Meal

Now for the wedding ring talk…

Wedding Ring Effect

In an article I read on PsychologyToday.com, the author discusses the “wedding ring effect,” which refers to the belief that married men who wear a wedding ring are more desirable to women.

The belief says that this effect occurs because:

• A man who is married has already demonstrated the ability to commit to a long-term relationship
• Another woman has found him desirable enough to make him her long-term mate, making him appear all the more desirable

To be honest, this makes me really sad. I hope that women (and men) can respect the sanctity of marriage and the relationship a married man has with his wife (and possibly his children) enough to lay off the lovin’ on those who are committed.

This got me thinking…

Two Questions:

1. Do you find men who are in a relationship more attractive?

2. If you are married or engaged, do you feel like men started treating you differently once you had a ring on your finger?

To be honest, I think a lot of men don’t even notice a ring on a woman’s finger.

This past weekend at Beer Fest, I was approached by a guy who romantically referred to me as “Yellow Dress” (How sweet! 😉 ) and struck up a conversation about his friend who was talking about “the girl in the yellow dress.” I was nice but told him that I was engaged and pointed to my ring. I don’t think he (or his friend, apparently) even realized I had a ring on my finger.

Me & Ryan (After all the Engagement Craziness On the Night of Our Engagement)

On the other hand, I have had a guy (who I honestly thought was really interested in Sadie!) stop mid-conversation and say, “Oh, you have a ring,” and move along his merry way. (Sadie gave this particular guy the bob-and-weave treatment and didn’t let him pet her… I think she knew his intentions and stayed loyal to her daddy).

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the “wedding ring effect!” For some reason I find it so interesting because I’ve always been the kind of girl who immediately puts guys who are married (or even in a relationship) in an “off limits” category, though I can see how they might appear more attractive if a woman hears about how wonderful they are to their wife or girlfriend.

Feel free to weigh in! 😀

(I have to admit, while writing this post I’ve been singing “If you like it than you shoulda put a ring on it!” in my head over and over again.)