What I Ate Wednesday – Blinded By Oatmeal Love

 

It’s been a while since my last What I Ate Wednesday post, hasn’t it?

I am popping in quick this morning because I have to be out the door super super early for a family event in Manhattan.

Remember last week when my cousin had a baby? Today is the bris.

For my local readers, I picked up the gift at Spoiled Rotten – LOVE this store and I do believe you can order online!

Anyway, I wanted to talk to you today about what I ate on Monday because I made a really bad decision blinded by love.

I shall explain:

Breakfast:

More often than not these days, I am back on the two-ingredient pancake topped with peanut butter and cranberry apple butter.

I usually make a second pancake after my workout or at least have some form of a snack with protein.

I was in a hurry to get out the door and get into the city early on Monday so right before I left the house, I think I grabbed a few apples slices and some peanut butter.

LUNCH MEETING:

Here’s where the problem occurred.

My meeting took place at Sarabeth’s.

If you aren’t familiar with the restaurant, you may be familiar with Sarabeth jellies and preserves available around the world.

I have this little issue – if oatmeal is listed on the menu, I can’t resist it. So many lovely things were available to be eaten but my heart goes out to the warm bowl of oats.

Love is blind. It really is. This beautiful bowl of oats was A BIG MISTAKE.

Plain oats, as delicious as they are, even topped off with fresh fruit, aren’t going to do a thing for anyone’s appetite. At least not mine.

Oatmeal served without yogurt or peanut butter OR SOME FORM OF PROTEIN is a recipe for crazy hunger just waiting to happen.

Who was I fooling ordering an extra bowl of berries on the side? What I needed was a bowl of protein in order to not only be satisfied, but remain conscious during a meeting.

Telling you ravenous to the point of nausea about an hour later is an understatement.

The fact that I was nibbling on a Quest bar while still in a lunch meeting is just not OK.

The truth is, I know better. I know a meal needs protein. Especially at lunch when I am in a meeting and need brain fuel as well as energy to get me home for dinner.

And most importantly, as I sit here and think about that lunch, I needed protein to simply be full and not distracted by a growling stomach and the overall feeling of needing to eat before I hurt someone.

I am pretty confident I will never order “wrong” again. I have learned my lesson.

I also learned to not get all excited about the waiter offering to keep refilling my cup of coffee before driving home from the city. Not only are we lucky I made it home without wetting my pants, we are lucky my friend gave me watermelon when I dropped her off because I was completely dehydrated from the caffeine overload.

DINNER:

By the time I got home to make dinner, all I wanted was a giant bowl of roasted vegetables (broccoli, brussels sprouts and tons of butternut squash) along side a large omelette made with peppers and onions… topped off with lots of avocado.

I do want to mention though those meatless meatballs I said I was going to attempt to make a few weeks ago using the kidney beans.

I made them earlier this week and totally love them – just need to figure out the exact recipe in order to share it with you.

 

DESSERT:

Peanut butter cup apples are still winning as my nightly dessert of choice. They don’t photograph that well but really, consider yourself lucky that I even manage to take a picture without eating them first.

If you haven’t made these apples yet, you need to. You really really need to.

Warm and gooey, coated with peanut butter and chocolate? Yeah, you really need to.

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I NEED TO KNOW:

Do you feel sick when you get too hungry?

Do you get ravenous if you don’t eat “right” – as in not enough protein to satisfy?

What emergency snack is in your bag right now?

 

 

 

Start of Hockey Season and Birthday Weekend

Happy Friday! I am quite excited for the weekend to begin. Not only because tonight is the start of the Islanders season, but because Sunday is the little boy’s 10th birthday.

After my fabulous 8 mile run yesterday morning, I spent the day running errands, ordering the perfect birthday cake and picking up presents and goodies.

The runner’s high I experienced from my run powered me through easily 5 hours of shopping.

I don’t always experience the runner’s high feeling and the more I think about it, I haven’t had the feeling in a while. Yesterday was just a great run. The kind where you are going pretty fast, feeling comfortable yet challenging yourself at the same time.

While I ran, I thought about how I never dreamed in a million years that I would ever have a boy.

Seriously. It never occurred to me while growing up or even when I found out that I was pregnant that I could possibly give birth to a boy. I always assumed I would have a girl.

I will never forget that on the way to my 20-week sonogram appointment where they tell you the sex of the baby, I stopped at a maternity store for new clothes.

The shirt that I wanted came in pink and blue. I asked the cashier to find the pink shirt for me in my size.

All that was left in my size was the shirt in blue. I knew in that moment I was about to find out I was having a boy.

Look – he still has the same little face.

That little boy instantly became my best little friend. And he knows it too.

He may say that I am just some runner who likes ice cream but I am pretty sure deep down he knows I am the coolest mom there is, who loves him unconditionally no matter how many balls he throws at me in any given week or how often he informs me that cooking quinoa is weird.

Where the time went I haven’t a clue. There are so many days where we spend our minutes waiting for time to pass, for the workday to end, for bedtime to come, for Friday to arrive. And then suddenly, ten years have flown by in what feels like a week.

A lot of life has occurred between the time he wore those sweet little Robeez.

And lots of great cakes have occurred too.

This weekend will be no exception. I have strategically planned out all of our meals and desserts and will share it all with you on Monday.

I am hoping to squeeze in my long run tomorrow morning. Where there is a will there is a way.

It’s funny – when I was planning out my fall race calendar a few months ago, a majority of the races I wanted to run all fell over this weekend.

Especially the Diva Half Marathon this Sunday.

But I just couldn’t register for it. Even before I lost my strong desire for racing.

Sunday is his day. He tells me turning double digits is quite the big deal. And it is.

Doesn’t matter how fast I could run the 13.1 – the preparation, time spent getting to/from race as well as recovering would just not be fair to him and would absolutely take some of the focus off of his special day.

I can run 13.1 miles any day, any where. There will always be another race. The moments spent with your kids on their special days, those mornings where you make birthday pancakes and watch them open gifts are few and far between.

Yes, I will be making a giant stack of birthday pancakes possibly with sprinkles in the batter, chocolate chips, whipped cream topped off with candles.

You wouldn’t want to miss it either, admit it.

Have a great weekend!

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I NEED TO KNOW:

Are you running in a race this weekend?

Ever give up a race you wanted to run in order to spend time with someone special?

Do you remember your 10th birthday? I do, I had my birthday part at the roller rink!