If I had to use one word to describe my Spring Break is would be un-motivated. I had a huge list of to-dos for the week, big plans, high hopes, but…I mostly just sat around, relaxed, and watched movies.

I managed to hit my stationary bike a couple days this week, take a 3 mile jog with the boys (hubby & dog),  and did a full body strength workout yesterday.

I have also managed to eat a lot of good food (and a lot of unnecessary snackage…but lets concentrate on the good food part).

Faux cobb salad in my new TJ Maxx salad bowl.  TJ Maxx always has the best kitchen items!

Tilapia with parsnip fries, roasted carrots, and roasted zucchini.

Leftover tilapia and roasted carrots on top of a big bed of lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Breakfast has looked like this every single morning this week.

In the bowl:  2 types of cereal, cinnamon, ground flax, strawberries, banana, and blackberries.

My big goal for the week is to stop eating after dinner.  I pretty much failed massively Monday and Tuesday due to cupcakes and ice cream…oops.  Right now none of my summer clothes fit comfortably and lets be honest…I am cheap and don’t want to go buy new clothes.

Reminder:  Enter the grocery giveaway! Right now there are only 2 entries so your chances of winning are pretty dang good!

Massive dilemma in my house…I can’t find my Saints shirt for the playoff game today.  Ugh.

Last night I had one of my favorite dinners:  leftovers salad.  Basically I just put all the leftovers from the fridge on top of lettuce and call it a salad.  This salad included chickpeas, 1/2 Boca, tomato, steamed veggie mix, mushrooms, and carrots.  I also had half an everything bagel-thin with Laughing Cow.  The everything bagel-thins are great as a mock dinner roll.

This morning I drug myself out of bed and headed out to run.  Run…I am failing at running.  I am so down about school starting that I have literally sat on my couch most of the week watching TV for about 10 hours a day.

Got over to Rice and they are filming some car commercial…ugh!  Traffic was terrible, the road was blocked, I forgot my Garmin, but I ended up running for an hour anyway.  It felt terrible and I have no idea how in the world I am going to run 17 miles tomorrow let alone run 26 in a month!

Anyway I returned home, showered, made a pot of coffee, and ate a bowl of cereal with huge amounts of cereal!

I have crap to do then am going to watch the Saints game with my boys.  Did I mention I woke up with a sore throat???  I just got over being sick so I am not too happy with my immune system right now.

Are you watching the playoffs? Although I love pretty much all football, playoffs of anything tend to be pretty exciting!

Living off pizza and cereal…almost like being in college again.  Almost.

Sunday’s lunch was a big bowl of cereal and iced coffee.  I also ended up snacking on almost half a bag of Synder’s Sourdough nibblers.  I should really buy those in single portion bags.

After a day of cereal and pretzels, pizza makes the perfect dinner.

Tortilla Pizza

1 whole wheat tortilla or Flatout

pasta sauce

toppings of choice

cheese of choice

Preheat oven to 375.  Place tortilla on non-stick sprayed pan.  Lightly toast.  Flip every couple minutes until both sides have crisped up a bit.

Don’t let it get much darker then this or it will burn when you cook the toppings.  After tortilla is crisp spread on pasta sauce.  (Occasionally I put a layer of Laughing Cow on first).  Sprinkle desired seasonings–I use Italian seasoning and black pepper.  Top with vegetables or meat of choice.  Cover with cheese.  Place back in oven for about 5 minutes at 375.  Turn broiler on to finish browning cheese and toppings.  Be careful with the broiler, it does not take long!

Cut into slices and enjoy.  This pizza is topped with spinach, mushrooms, onions, and Parmesan.

M & M Pretzel Chocolate Candies: Almost too good to be be true.  Luckily, it is true and they debut May 2010.  Guess what I will be eating on my birthday!

**Be on the lookout this week for the first ever guest post on Cardio Foodie**

**If you haven’t already, become a fan of Cardio Foodie on Facebook.  I post a lot of links that don’t get mentioned on the blog.**

It appears some other bloggers share my gum addiction!  In honor of my addiction, here is the inside of my pack of gum.  Extra has added these little sayings to their packages, they make me laugh.

Back up to this morning…

I whipped out the french press and made some coffee.

Mhmm.  Doesn’t that look good?  This was actually some Spec’s coffee.  I have found I like it more than Central Markets and it is cheaper.  Latest flavor:  Vermont Maple Crunch.

Mid-morning snack was half a sandwich thin with Laughing Cow and strawberry jam.

Lunch was cereal, strawberries, bananas, protein powder, and Silk.

Also for lunch was half a toasted pita stuffed with strawberries and strawberry jam.  As you can tell I had some strawberries that needed to be used asap.  I also cut a couple of pieces from my hubby’s leftover donuts.

The afternoon involved studying, studying, and more studying.  I snacked on some Melba crackers, carrots, and grapes.

Dinner was a nice big salad with….you guessed it, strawberries.  On the side I had the other half a pita with Laughing Cow.

I haven’t mentioned it on the blog, but the last couple of weeks have been extra stressful because we have been car searching.  We moved to Houston with only one car.  This worked out fine because I walk to school and my hubby was riding a vanpool, so the car was there when I needed it.  The hubby was recently moved to another facility where he must drive.  (His commute is ridiculous-don’t get me started!)  Anyway, on top of studying we have been trying to find a second car.  Anyone that has ever shopped for a used car knows how stressful it can be, especially when are on an extremely tight budge like we are.  Anyway, we spent a lot of time this weekend dealing with it and another couple of hours this evening….and we found a car!  Woo-hoo!  We have put our deposit down, so lets hope everything goes smoothly.  I am so glad to be done looking, researching, and test driving.  It was a giant time suck on my studying!

I am going to attempt to stay up for at least 3 more hours of work, sleep for about 5, then get up and do my briefing for pre-trial.  I need an extra 6 hours or so today to get caught up!

How was your Monday?  Anything spectacular happen?

My hubby just found out that he got a raise today after his annual performance review!  It was like they knew we were about to drop all of our savings on a car!

Sorry I haven’t been here all weekend.  After volunteering at the Tri I was exhausted (more about that in a minute) and have spent most of the time sitting at my desk trying to learn Texas Marital Property law.

Saturday the hubby and I volunteered at a Triathlon down in Kemah.  We  were up at 3:30, out of here by 4ish, and surprisingly made our 4:45 meeting time.  I have never been a race volunteer before so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  My hubby has volunteered at a couple of my races and he was always a course monitor, thus he stood on the course, cheered and watched for cheaters.  Well… lets just say that is NOTHING like what we did.

The hubby and I ended up on the bike course team.  I was the only girl, I now know why.  We worked from before 5am until almost 1pm.  And when I say work, I mean manual labor.  We were in charge of laying all the cones and signs for the 12 mile bike course.  Volunteering thoughts:

• lifting piles of 20+ orange cones at a time is really heavy
• Laying down cones while hanging off the  side of a moving trailer is harder than you would think
• Leaning your body in a contorted form to try and not fall off the trailer  leaves numerous bruises, muscle cramps, and uses some massive core muscles
• Trying to pick up the cones while leaning over the moving trailer is a seriously difficult task.  I was the master.  Wish these NFL receiver hands came with a professional athletes body.
• Putting down and picking up 12 or so miles of cones is a serious arm, ab, back, leg, everything workout–I AM SO SORE!!!!!

If you can’t tell, my triathlon volunteering was absolutely nothing like I thought it would be.  To top it off it started to storm, so I spent the last 7 miles of cone grabbing being blasted with rain and wind.  That said, I really ended up having a good time.  It has been a long time since I have done an honest days worth of manual labor, and it felt good.  It also felt good to help.  There was a team of about 6 of us who did all the setup, maintenance, and tear down of this course, and I definitely did my part.  It was great to feel like I made this event possible for all those athletes after being on the other side for so long.

I did manage to catch a little bit of the race while we waited for the last biker to clear the transition area.  I am not going to lie, I had some serious Tri envy!  I could feel the excitement!  I want to do one!  (I must get a bike first and learn how to swim competitively first).  Anyone a triathlete?  Tips for breaking into the sport?

After we finished tear down Satuday the hubby and I were starving (we hadn’t eaten since 3am) and could already tell we were going to be in some pain.  I have bailed hay in my day, but I was sooooo much more sore today when I woke up!  Not to mention my legs are bruised and swollen from where I had to lean my body weight and balance on the side of the trailer.  I also plan on skipping upper body strength for a few days because my biceps burn trying to life a water bottle.

After all my achy whining, my body hurts, but it feels good to push it sometimes.

I took my bruised and battered self for a 6 mile run this morning.  The weather was perfect and I couldn’t pass it up!  I popped some ibuprofen and headed out.  I am now taking it easy and studying until I pass out on the desk and the hubs moves me to bed.

Weekend Food Recap in Photos

Thank goodness I made this to eat at 3am before the Tri.

Once we made it home, we collapsed on the couch and I ate the biggest wrap I could make!  I put a whole Boca patty in there.  I also munched on Wheat Thins and cocoa roasted almonds.

Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch were both a GIANT bowl of cereal.  The millet and kamut puffs I bought the other day only have 50 calories/cup so I fill my bowl to the max!  Topped with bananas, strawberries, protein powder, and small dollop of AB.

On the side both meals I had half a toasted pita full of jelly and bananas.

Tonight I made a giant salad monster.  This thing was huge and I ate every last bite!

Today I have snacked on some Wheat Thins (my hubby better never buy these again) and a doughnut.  The hubs also bought a box of donuts this morning–clearly he doesn’t realize sugar is dangerous around me during finals.  These were massive donuts so throughout the day I have been cutting little pieces as sugary rewards.

Okay, time to study!  Anyone do anything fun this weekend?  Let me know, I need to live vicariously through people who aren’t permanently glued to their desks.

Good morning bloggers.  It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL morning here in Houston.  Cool, low humidity.  Perfect for a long run.  Clearly I am sitting inside writing this post and studying, but I hope someone out there is enjoying this weather!

Guess who dominated Jillian Level 2 before sunrise this morning?  Oh yeah, that is right:  me!  I probably wouldn’t say that I dominated Level 2, but I did it.  It was a nice change from Level 1, but holy moly my shoulders are going to be sore!

I am not going to lie, my food is going to be boring.  As much as I would love to be in the kitchen relaxing with a glass of wine and my apron–this girl has got to get serious.

After 12 hours of school and hours more of studying to do, dinner looks like this.

You know you’re in finals when…all of your meals look like breakfast.  This was a tasty brinner though.  2 kinds of ceral, strawberries, almonds, and some protein powder.  I also snacked on a few crackers and carrots at some point in the evening.

After Jillian this morning my stomach was growling!  I had the last of my overnight oats from the week topped with pieces of chia bar, strawberries, protein powder, AB, and some cheerios for crunch.  Anyone else put a million toppings on their oats?

Learning TX marital property laws at 7:30 in the morning means I needed some iced coffee and H2O as well.

Since my food and life is going to brutally boring the next few weeks, I thought I would spice the blog up a bit.  Starting now, every Friday will feature 5 Friday Fun Facts Oh yes, I just used that much alliteration.  These will be 5 completely random facts about myself that will allow my readers to get to know more about me than just what I eat.  I would eventually like to feature 5 Friday Fun Facts about some of my other favorite bloggers because I think there are a lot of cool bloggers out there!  So here we go…

5 Friday Fun Facts

1. I didn’t take my husband’s last name when we got married. I am working my butt off in school and when I get that degree I want it to have my name.  And a bunch of women’s rights reasons too.
2. My first car was a 93 Honda Accord. That thing was a beast, it had a million miles and still ran.
3. I absolutely hate the color pink.
4. I cannot whistle.  I have tried, I can’t.
5. I was in choir for 2 years in high school. I don’t know why, I have the worst voice ever.  Seriously, I feel bad for people that hear me sing.

Happy Friday everyone!

So I fell asleep on the couch last night about 7pm, slept until 6 this morning, and woke up exhausted.  Looks like the joke is on me this morning.

I am also unprepared for class, therefore, might have to skip this class for the first time this semester!  Ahhh!  That is one of the things I hate about law school most.  You pretty much have to skip class if you are unprepared or you risk being drilled and pissing off your instructor.  Even though I am not 100% prepared for class, I would still get lots out of the class; however, the risk is usually too high.

Let me give you a quick recap of yesterday:

Started my Wednesday off with a GM, 30 mins on the elliptical, and 30 mins of strength training.  Not too shabby.

Lunch was indeed cereal.  1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios, Silk Light (Yum, I don’t taste a difference), banana, few almonds, tsp of AB.

On the side half a sandwich thin, toasted with AB and jelly.  Also, a few more almonds.  These cocoa roasted almonds are so addicting!

I then laid by the pool for an hour and read TX PreTrial.  Exciting…I know.

Dinner was homemade chicken nuggets!  Yes, I made these myself.  I am pretty impressed considering the oven and I don’t usually get along real well.

Flax crusted Chicken Nuggets

4 chicken breast, no skin

4 scoops Flax meal

Morton’s Seasoning

Kroger Zesty Blend-Garlic & Herb

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Thaw chicken breast.  I let them get softened a bit, but still icy. Cut chicken breasts  into desired nugget size.  (When they are still partially frozen it is SO much easier to cut).  Finish thawing.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

On paper plate, or small dish, mix together flax meal and desired seasoning.  See above for seasonings I used.  Take thawed nuggets and roll them into flax mixture until completely coated.

Line baking sheet with foil and spray heavily with non-stick spray.  Place coated nuggets on covered baking sheet.  Make sure nuggets do not touch each other.  Bake for 35-40 minutes.  Turn once after 20 minutes.  Adjust baking time if you want nuggets more or less crispy.

Enjoy!

I got my hands on a few nuggets before the hubby devoured the entire plate.  They were delicious!!!!

I will be back later today with a post on new goals for April and tips for surviving finals with your waistline in tact!

Until then…check out these links:

• Running?  Cheap.  Marathoning?  Not so Much. You may only need a pair of shoes to run, but racing is a whole other story.  I totally admit that my family chips in to pay for most of my racing.  We just couldn’t afford it on one income.
• Different Shoes for Different Feet. I will be the first to tell you that you NEED the right shoes!

On Day 2 post race the legs are feeling much better.  They are still a tad bit achy (like tired achy) and my left IT band  needs some serious stretching.  I think another day or two and I will be ready to get some cardio back into my life!  One slight problem is that a toe on my left foot is pretty swollen and really, really sore!  My hubby looked up stuff online (professional) and said it looks like I have a severely bruised toe.  Bruised toe?  What?  Oh well.  Better than broken.

This morning was a cereal morning.  I am cleaning out the pantry.  1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios, half a banana, 1 diced strawberry, sprinkled on some protein powder, and Silk.  My stomach was growling by 9 in my first class.  Perfect.  I also got called on for recitation.  Even better.  Nothing like being drilled with questions in front of everyone while your stomach is growling.

I think cereal makes a better snack than meal for me.  Unless it has a lot of fiber (like Fiber One original) I am always hungry within an hour or two.

Anyway, lunch:

All packed up.  Baked sweet potato, half an apple, and mini Larabar.  This Larabar was peanut butter cookie–yummy!

During my break, I decided to take a walk in the sun rather than get coffee.  Did the trick.  Back to work!

This morning I had the first of my long runs for my next half marathon (the double half Pelican Challenge).  It took me 40 mins of running until my body felt like running.  I probably should have taken another rest day this week, but we cut about 20 minutes of the run instead.  My big toe also really started hurting! I felt like the thing was broken it was in so much pain every time my foot hit the ground.  My husband told me I had turf toe.  I told him only football players get that.  Neither of us know what we are talking about, but I am staying off my feet the rest of the day and hoping it gets better!

Pre-run food was a piece of toast with AB and cinnamon.

This nearly empty jar makes me so sad and so happy at the same time!

The hubby and I then went forth and did 1 hr 22mins for a total of 8.33 miles.  It was slow and I don’t care.  Tomorrow is a 5 mile tempo run, so I wanted the energy.

Let me recap dinner last night:

Greek yogurt, banana, blueberries, tons of cinnamon, and Kashi.

On the side sandwich thin with Laughing Cow and strawberry jam.  The BEST combo ever, if you haven’t tried this- YOU NEED TO!  No joke.

Dinner was fairly small because I mindlessly snacked soooooo much last night.  The hubby wasn’t getting home until late and I just sat in front of the TV and munched.  It was relaxing.  I also watched Lifetime Movie Network for a good couple hours while the hubby was gone.

My snacks are unpictured but I had a few handfuls of tortilla chips, lots of handfuls of Special K cereal (cereal is deadly around me!), 2 of my truffles, and then a late dessert of vanilla frozen yogurt.  Somehow I still managed to wake up hungry this morning so my body must have been hungrier than I thought!

The hubby and I are going to check out a rumored gumbo cookoff and then watch the Boilers!

What are your plans this lovely Saturday?  Lovely because I saw the sun peak its little face out!

Is it just me or is 2010 flying by without me even noticing?  I am one of those people that NEEDS to slow down and smell the roses.  I have actually been pretty angry with myself lately for not enjoying life more.  I use law school as an excuse all the time (and trust me it is a pretty darn good excuse), but law school is NOT my life.  In 20 years my life may have absolutely nothing to do with practicing law and I don’t want to look back wishing I had done all these things or enjoyed where I am right now in life.

That being said, I don’t want to fail out of law school either!  I will straight up admit that I don’t get straight As in law school, which was really hard to accept when I had only gotten 2 B’s my entire life until this point.  But I am glad.  I don’t want my life to be nothing but work, those people aren’t happy, they burn out, and in the field of law there are many horror stories of addictions and falls from grace.

I need to work on my life balance.  These are the things that are important to me (in no particular order):  School, Husband, Dog, Running,  Friends, Developing Life outside of Work/School, blogging.  Right now I wake up, blog quickly, try to hit the gym (usually doesn’t happen), work on reading, go to class, come home, usually get in the workout I missed, and do homework until it is time for bed.  I need to spend more time with my husband and our dog (my little family), I need to spend time being young and going out with friends, enjoying the things that Houston has to offer (even though it isn’t a lot), and I need to find time for myself.  To give you a little glimpse of how long it has been since I have actually done something for myself:  I haven’t had my nails painted in well over  year because I feel I shouldn’t waste time doing that when I have reading to do!

Anyway all my ranting is just me being angry that I don’t have a life or more fun.  I fear that I am wasting my youth (this girl is a young 23) and missing out on life around me.

Do you “stop and smell the roses”?  Do you ever feel like you’re missing out on life?  If not, give me some tips on how I can have more fun and enjoy my time now

Okay, enough ranting.  Food time:

Hump Day’s lunch was yogurt topped with blueberries and Kashi, sandwich thin with Laughing Cow and jam (a little smidge of AB too)!.  Unpictured snacks included some white cheddar rice cakes and an apple.

Dinner was packed up so we could watch the game with fellow Purdue Alum across the street.  I packed a salad and half a tortilla stuffed with hummus and mushrooms

Dessert (unpictured) was hot chocolate with whipped cream and one of my Godiva truffles. I think the hubby has eaten more the my Valentine’s gift than I have- the box is halfway gone!

Workout: Wednesday morning I got up and did 10 mins on treadmill (ouch my leg hurt!) and then 30 minutes of strength moves!  After the hubby got home from work we did a very slow 3.5 mile jog.

Thursday: Woke up, briefed my cases as fast as possible while enjoying this big bowl of cereal:

1 cup Special K Vanilla Almond, 1/2 cup Kashi, blueberries and banana.  So good!  I also sprinkled a little vanilla protein powder on because I think I need to add a little extra with my new training program.  (Soon to debut my training schedule)

I also got to use my lunch gear again!  Makes lunch much better I think:

Excuse the phone photo, didn’t have time to photograph before leaving.  Today included a AB and banana sandwich with a bag of apple slices and side of greek yogurt with blueberries and banana.