Warmer weather brings more opportunity for being up and active.  Yesterday – I took full advantage of any and all opportunities presented to me! 

I had a snack right before I left work yesterday – Chocolate PB and apples, with a side of fresh blackberries!

I love summer fruits!

When I got home – I took the car up to get an oil change, walked home, walked back up to the car shop to pick it up, took the dog on a walk, then came home to eat!

We are seriously struggling with groceries, so I had a repeat of my salad from the other day – tempeh, chickpea salad:

After I scarfed that down, I walked over to Kristin’s, and we headed out to Crocker Park – to hit up Trader Joe’s and do EVEN more walking.

When everything was said and done, it was all too easy to twist my arm to get ice cream!

When I walked into Mitchell’s – I saw they already had my favorite summer yogurt flavor – Mint Brownie! It’s lower cal than regular ice cream – and the mint, mixed with the chewy brownie chunks – ABSOLUTELY DIVINE!

I’m so sore from bootcamp yesterday morning – but I’m so excited to wake up tomorrow and have them do it to me all over again – bring it on!

Can I get a scoop?

Salt’n'Pepa anyone?

This week is flying by, thanks to my day off on Monday!  I didn’t get pictures of everything on Tuesday due to running around and catching up from the busy weekend – but while there might be gaps in meal photos – I’ve got plenty to catch you up on!

Last night I got to play babysitter with Kristin, for one of our friends from work…  Look at how cute this kid is:

I promise – he’s like this 24 hours a day.  I’ve yet to see this kid actually cry (in his 10 long months on this planet)!!!! Babysitting was hardly a chore. 

It’s a little blurry because this happy little bud is always on the move!  He doesn’t have time to sit still for pictures!

Kristin was also nice enough to cook me dinner!  I had a huge salad with some left over tempeh from last week:

and my own personal pizza:

Delish!  After that – it was home and early to bed…

…because this morning – I joined BOOTCAMP.  As in, Bootcamp Babes.

For the next 4 weeks – I need to be up and ready to get my butt kicked at 5:45 in the morning on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Here’s just some of the things we did today that I can remember:

• crazy hard sit-ups
• ran 1 mile “to warm up” (don’t get me wrong, I loved this…but a mile to “warm up”??)
• ladders/suicides with weights, up the entire football field
• bear walking/crawling back – I.can.not.bear.walk/crawl.
• jump rope – I also apparently forgot this skill

Phew!  It was a darn good work out though!  Kristin wore her HRM, and she burned around 450 calories – not a bad number considering we were finished at 6:45am!

After a nice hard work out – there was only one breakfast that would be the right fit:

Like you didn’t know? 

Such a sad looking bowl of oats though (the egg are hiding underneath)

Even though I started with spicy oats – I was starving by 10:30 (I even chugged two 36oz glasses of water to make sure it wasn’t just thirst).  I checked my “special drawer” – and realized I still had this sucker to test out!

I had tested out the Chocolate/PB last week, so it was only fair I test out the PB & J bar this week!

Based on outward appearances:

Purple!!!  I love it!  I knew I was going to enjoy it!

Side view:

Bottom dipped in PB?  Seriously…it just keeps getting better! 

Overall – I know I keep saying this – but this is up there in the competition for my favorite.  This beats the dipped bar I tried last week.  I will be stock piling these next time I hit up Target!

We had a special lunch outing planned today – and I got to try a new place, on the West Side, that I’d always over looked!  Liquid Planet!

They have smoothies, pitas, salads – just a bunch of really healthy stuff!

I got the hummus pita – hummus, 4 cheeses, tomato, onion, & peppers!

It was folded up almost like an ice cream cone!  This was fabulous!  I’m not sure what they put in their hummus, but I’m pretty sure it’s as addicting as crack (or as addicting as crack would be, being that I’ve never tried crack)! 

Last but not least -  A VERY  BIG THANK YOU to all of you for the wonderful comments you’ve left me about my half marathon – you all really know how to brighten a girl’s day!  Thank you!!!

Talk about “milkin’ it” – I’ve been using the fact that I ran 13.1 miles yesterday to rationalize all my food & drinking choices. 

After I saw my friend Danielle finish her marathon (CONGRATS AGAIN DANI, I AM SO SUPER PROUD OF YOU!!!!!) – we headed home so I could shower really quickly – and then my number 1 super fans – my in-laws – treated us to lunch!

We went to Applebee’s – and Mike and I picked the “2 for $20″ special that they have – you can get to entrees and an appetizer for $20 – not bad!  We started with the boneless buffalo wings:

And since I was parched from the race, I started with a Kiwi Melon Sangria!

This was awesome!  It was really fruity, while not being sickeningly sweet.  Usually I don’t get drinks like this from chain restaurants – for that exact reason – but this was a nice change!

For my meal – I splurged and ordered the Three Cheese Chicken Penne (I can’t remember the last time I ordered pasta at a restaurant!)

This was really great – but I was stuffed from the chicken, and the munchies they had at the finish line – so I took a nice huge portion home for dinner!

So on top of being super fans, and buying me, Mike, and Matt lunch – my in-laws also got me a present for running the race!  Seriously – how thoughtful is that?!?!  There was a great candle set (that smelled amazing) – that I didn’t grab a picture of, and this plaque:

How perfect is that?  I love it – I just need to find the perfect spot for it now!  Thanks so much for everything Dan and June – you are honestly the best in-laws a girl could ever ask for!

After my in-laws headed home – the boys and I continued the party…at a bar of course!  The alcohol indulgence carried on from about noon to 9pm – I figured pictures would sum it up the best:

See?  It was a GREAT DAY!  I was all too happy to hit the sack Sunday night – I felt accomplished, tired, maybe a little (or a lot) drunk, and I had taken the day off work Monday.  Can you think of a better Sunday?

Post race indulgence carried into Monday…

Breakfast:

A truly odd combination of eggs and veggie dogs, turned into a breakfast sammich – but it was all we had, and I figured, hey, why not?  (and maybe it was the residual alcohol from the day before!) 

For lunch – I had been planning for weeks – on finally indulging on the Chinese Buffet right down the street from our house.  Here’s what I got:

• Lo Mein (if I had to pick one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be lo mein)
• “Seafood Bake” – translation – cheesy cheesy delicious crab
• Broccoli
• Two pieces of General Tso’s chicken – that I didn’t end up eating – it grossed me out looking at it (so why did I even put it on my plate? I don’t know!)
• Watermelon!!!!

I’ve been seriously missing watermelon!  Aldi’s started stocking it in early May last year – and I haven’t seen it YET this year!!!  Aldi – what’s the deal?!

Then the rest of the day was spent enjoying the weather, walking the dog, laying around, watching a movie, chowing down on some Salt & Vinegar chips (I was too lazy to get off the couch and take a picture of them), and cuddling with Lando.

Two perfect days in a row! Now 4 days of work, followed by another 3 day weekend with lots of plans.