Holiday break = time to update blog!

Winter decorations at my grandparents community home: so beautiful

 I got home the Thursday before Christmas (thanks to a cancelled flight on Wednesday night) and will be here in Ohio until January 3rd! It's such a treat to come home for a long period of time where I can get some work I need to finish completed as well as spend quality time with my sibs. 

Happy holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas, and Santa was very generous with his stocking stuffing:

Merry Christmas!

My stocking!

I got a bluetooth headset (for driving), J. Crew slippers, workout clothes, a Pandora snowman charm, and some essential winter clothes. Everyone else loved their gifts too, and we had a great Christmas meal: roast tenderloin drizzled with Bernaise sauce, red potatoes, lots of green beans, and my brother made a cream cheese spice cake for dessert.

Speaking of dessert, Lucy and I made delicious Ghiradelli chocolate espresso cookies and homemade peanut butter banana fudge:

Nom.

We gave a couple to my Dad for Christmas and he loved them! Baking is fun, clean-up? Not so much... We also got our nails done on Friday and mine are red with a candy cane design on the ring finger:

Festive nails!

I've been running SO much since being home. Its nice having so much free time and the unusually warm weather for winter has made outdoor treks much more bearable. Theres a nice 5 mile loop that my mom and i did together 3 times this week. I also signed up for a New Year's Day 5k run with Lucy and Mom (hoping people will be too hungover to run and weíll win the prizes!). Lastly, in terms of fitness, I got a free 7 day trial at the Snap Fitness gym a walk-s away from my house so Iíve been going there every day this week while Lucy's at swim practice. One benefit I'm looking forward to is making use of the free 30 minute personal training session, and I'm meeting with Craig, who used to be an executive chef in New York, to get a handle on some good recipes and food to eat when endurance training.

And since I needed a new fitness goal to start training for in the spring semester, I signed up for the Hyannis half marathon at the end of February. I found out that both my aunt and uncle will be running the half too! 

Food-wise, I went to the doctor to make sure my weight is within a healthy range and just for an annual check up. My BMI is 18.3 so I'm healthy but need to continue eating enough so I don't get a fracture while running. What I've been doing is just eating when I'm hungry, granted I eat mainly lean meats, veggies, lots of fruits, and whole grains, but once I'm back in Boston I'm going to meet with a nutritionist to devise an eating list and make sure that I'm getting the calories I need for the amount I'm working out.

As a final conclusion to this long blog post, I've got some pictures of the meals I've been making since being home, which have all been delicious, healthy and easy to make!

Baked salmon with steamed broccoli and green beans

Standard lunch: Dietz & Watson Cajun turkey with spinach and mustard on a 100% whole wheat Arnold's Sandwich Thin with a pickle, sliced McIntosh apple and Cinnmon Apple Spice tea

Breaded tilapia with steamed green beans

Leftover tilapia with a side salad drizzled with black beans and Mom's black bean soup

Made Lucy an egg & American cheese sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin - made a perfect brunch :)

Blended French Silk frappuchino with chocolate chips

Hope everyone is having a healthy and happy holiday break and I'm looking forward to posting more frequently now!

Letting loose a little

Being so regimented, with my work schedule, to working out, and to what and when I eat, can have it's benefits! For example, I've managed to budget better over the past 6 months (partially thanks to websites like Mint.com - which I recommend for all my friends who want to know exactly where their $$ goes); and I am able to accomplish most of the things I set out to do because I have such a schedule. That being said, constantly being in control has sorttttt of put me in overdrive on how strict I am with sticking to my plan. So, with the required increase in miles as I prepare for the last bit of a climb before we taper off to the half, I'm trying to let myself RELAX a little more and just "go with it" (as Felice would say).

Thursday:
Workout: Jenny taught me how to use the TRX and kettleballs at work and then I finished my workout with a 3-mile treadmill run (thank you, rainy weather).

Fun food:

Lunch: See below, which I also had with a side of grapes!

Leftover stir-fried tofu with edamame, broccoli, carrots, and spinach served over a piece of whole wheat toast 

For dinner I was boring and had a package of Smart Ones (like Lean Cuisine) because I was feeling lazy, but I treated myself to one of their Mocha Fudge Sundaes too :)

MMMM CHOCOLATE!

Friday:

Happy that it's almost the weekend! (Yes, I took the picture in my bathroom at work, haha)

Sweater (Old Navy); Shirt (Banana Republic), Jeggings (Guess)

Workout: Quick 3-mile lunch break run with Jenny outside! Finished with a foam roll to stretch out and then Jenny taught me some more core exercises using the stability ball :)

Food:

Went out on a DINNER DATE with... my roommate Felice! It was so nice! I can't believe this is the first time I've gone out to eat in Boston SINCE THE SUMMER! We went to Estragon down in the South End, because Felice wanted Tapas (which I'd never had) and this was highly rated on Yelp:

Roomie love!

We both treated ourselves to drinks, Felice got this Violet red wine, which was fruity but subtle, and I got Effewere (spelling!?) Apple beer, which was also really good! For our tapas, we got Espinacas a la Catalana (Sautéed Spinach, Pine Nuts, Golden Raisins), Pez Espada a la Vasca (Basque-Style Seared Swordfish Fillet, Guindilla Chiles, French Fries) and Mejillones (Steamed Mussels, Chorizo, Tomato,
Tarragon, Spanish White Wine)

Tapas!

For dessert, we went to J.P. Licks and got delicious ice cream!

Coffee chip and oatmeal cookie!

Saturday:

For a brisk Saturday morning, doing the 11-mile run was not on top of my list of things I really wanted to do, but training with Team Challenge made it SO much easier!

Minuteman National Park - 11 mile run!

After the run, Sarah, my mentor, and I went to Nourish, a cute little lunch place in Lexington Center and both got Vegetarian Chili and Sweet Beet and Feta Salad... mmmm

      

Unfortunately, the post turned out to be more pictures than actual "posting" but I promise my next one will be more of an update! Now I have to head off to school to get some homework done before I start procrastinating at my apartment!

Eventful weekend!

So much happened over the weekend that I apologize in advance for the long blog post!

Saturday:

I visited my grandparents for a very nice lunch (and coffee ice cream dessert!) and they gave me a brand new, white 16GB iPad2 as a combined graduation / Christmas present! (see below). I absolutely love it and know that it's going to help me organize & be more productive (and enjoy movies / magazines on plane rides home :) ). I need some good application suggestions though because there are way too many to search through...

My new iPad2 (thank you Gran and Granddad!)

After my big feast of a lunch, I drove down to Quincy to meet Team Challenge for our 10 mile loop on Quincy Shore Drive. It was an afternoon run, so the sun started to set while we were running. It was beautiful to watch but by the end I was glad to throw on some more layers!

Thanks to Coach Jenny for the awesome photo-skills; some of us girls of TC finishing our 10-mile run in Quincy

And, because I felt like I was coming down with a cold, I ended my Saturday night by painting my nails a fresh red glittery holiday color and cozying up to a nice movie & tea on the couch at home :)

Glittery Xmas red: hey, if Starbucks can get in the holiday spirit with their cups, so can I with my nails!

Sunday:
Despite feeling groggy from my cold medicine, and it being pretty chilly, I managed to get myself over to Cambridge for the 5K4Life Race for ALS and I got my fastest 5K time ever: 22:41! I felt so accomplished afterwards for pushing myself, and the extra speed kept me warm and I ended up feeling better post-run! I enjoyed a delicious turkey sandwich, courtesy of the race people, and tried Vita Coco water (which people can't stop raving about) and I didn't like it AT ALL. It's way too sweet and doesn't taste like anything special so I'm not trying that again.

Yummy Turkey sandwich and not-so-enjoyable Vita Coco water post-race in Cambridge

After a productive Sunday of catching up on schoolwork, I went over to Hugh's and cooked my mom's breaded chicken (using Pepperidge Farm Herb Crusted stuffing), steamed broccoli, and a little side salad. We watched "Homeland", which is a new show and is REALLY interesting!

Home-cooked breaded chicken tenderloin, steamed broccoli, and spinach & green pepper with feta cheese salad

Monday:

Pushed myself through a 4 mile run with Jenny from work, which was tough because I think I needed a rest day. My time was still under 9 min/miles but my legs felt like lead and the entire run I was praying it would be over soon... not the most fun feeling!

For dinner: :)

Spinach salad with cooked carrots, mushrooms, and black beans with whole wheat toast!

Tuesday:

Work outfit: Not my favorite, but it's supposed to be up to 67 today so I thought I'd celebrate with a skirt! I'm also wearing my new jewelry that I got from NY when I visited Jade w/ Ashley.

Also, spotted THIS at Walmart this morning and couldn't resist:

Yum... that's all for now folks!

Hello Mr. Nice Watch

I didn't have a good title for this morning's blog, so I just chose the first song title on my "Running" playlist! Speaking of my iPod and songs, I need a wider variety of songs (or just more of them!) because I find that I quickly get bored on my runs when I can anticipate the next song or have heard it too many times.

By the way, despite Boston being notoriously known for bad weather and snow, we've been BLESSED (knock on wood that I'm not jinxing this) with beautiful sunshine for a looooonng time lately. Granted, I was in California in 80 degree sunny weather during the snowstorm last weekend, but still!

Beautiful Brighton!

P.S. Recently have been discovering that a lot more people than I expected actually read my blog and I feel honored but at the same time, now more pressure to make these posts interesting and worthwhile! I hope they are! In future blogs, I'll incorporate more details about cool recipes I try or outfits (that are cheap!)

Workouts

Thursday: I was crunched for time because I got outside half an hour later than I'd hoped, but this didn't deter my plans to get in 7 miles, and I did it in exactly 1 hour and 1 minute! Hooray! At the time it didn't feel this way, but afterwards I felt great and accomplished for not being overwhelmed by lack of time or the fact that it was chilly outside.

Friday: Pretty tired from the week's workouts and knowing I have a 10-mile training run today (Saturday) and a 5K tomorrow (Sunday), so I took it easy and did 30 minutes on the elliptical. Nothing big :)

Outfit for work on Friday:

Sweater: H&M $12.95

Shirt: Banana Republic Outlet $8ish

Boots: Forever 21 $35

Fundraising

Had a few more people both at work and peers of mine donate to my Active site, which is AWESOME! I'm inching towards that $3700 goal and I know that if I really push for reminding people and contacting as many people as possible, I can get there. It's a little intimidating to know that the deadline is November 16th and that I'll be responsible for the missing difference between what I've raised now and my goal; but fortunately, I can get refunded up until January 4th for any last-minute donations and late matching gifts that come in - so that leaves me with some more time.

Food

Thursday: Did the normal banana & Chobani with Uncle Sam Original Whole Grain cereal breakfast (it's become my staple - so easy to prepare; healthy, cheap and filling!); and it was SUSHI THURSDAY at work!!! Sushi Thursday only happens every first Thursday of the month, where they have chef's come in and prepare "fresh sushi." I purposely saved up my "Lunch on Me"'s (I had 3 of them, worth $5 each) just for this occasion! So I used two ($10) and got a big bowl of soup (Sweet and Sour Vegetable - it was incredibly spicy; tasted like a soup you'd get at an Asian restaurant -- so delicious), an apple, a bottle of Sprite Zero, and one roll (6 pieces) of Salmon and Avocado Sushi... all for $10! The other rolls were more mixes of sushi and sashimi, which still looked great, but were really expensive. I had the soup / apple for lunch and the sushi for dinner (see below for the remains... forgot to snap a photo before I ate it!)

Friday: Same breakfast (shocking!), and had a turkey with spinach, mushroom, and cucumber sandwich on whole wheat bread for lunch. Now... DINNER! I met up with Ana Sofia at BU and she treated me to the most fabulous feast of a guest meal at Warren Towers!!! Oh, thank goodness I don't live on campus (and never really actually had a dining plan as a BU undergrad), because I'm pretty sure I'd gain 30lbs from just the quantity of food I'd consume. Picture 5 different, equally delicious stations of prepared foods, ranging from pizzas and calzones, to the vegan/vegetarian option, to omelettes, quesadillas, salads, sandwiches and a "comfort food" station. To go along with all of this, they have unlimited fruit, cereal, coffee, soda, and frozen yogurt. I. Was. In. HEAVEN. To make this a proper dining experience, we got there at 6:30pm, and didn't leave until 9:30pm. Yup, and, oh yeah, dining closes at 9pm... See below for detailed pictures of the delectable food I devoured and felt so completely ecstatic about eating :)

Fruit of the Vine and Polenta Vegan dish (Meal #1)

Mmm Cinnamon Toast Crunch! (x2 bowls... oops!) a nice finish to the wonderful feast

Tofu salad with chick peas, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, spinach, italian dressing AND salsa :) (Meal #2)

Needless to say, I underestimated the value of BU Dining. THANK YOU ANA SOFIA FOR THE NICE TREAT!

This week is FLYING

Who would have thought that catching up on work would make the days go by so quickly! First off, November is here – unbelievable how fast Fall is here and soon it’ll be winter (Starbucks holiday cups are out, makes me excited for egg nog and Christmas morning!). Along with the festive holidays comes the brisk and chilly weather – which, I was anxious about because I didn’t think I’d be motivated to run outside (and running more than 5 miles on the treadmill is depressing), but it turns out that the cold air is nice when you’re rushing through back roads. It’s actually really nice.

I did runs on Monday and Tuesday, and then switched it up and did Power Yoga at work yesterday with a 2-mile cool down. The yoga was great because I got some good stretching and breathing practicing in, which was perfect for a mid-week relaxation. Today I’m hoping to do between 6-8 miles with Jenny!

Got some quality time with friends this week too, which was great: Sassy and I had our Dexter ritual on Sunday, Hugh and I watched a new TV show Homeland and made pesto pasta (see below) 

Pesto pasta and a side salad with feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette dressing!

and I had some sour skittles J and then Tricia and I FINALLY got to catch up and have a delicious chicken and black bean with veggie mixture over a bed of spinach salad mix topped with fresh avocado! (see below)

Picture doesn't do it justice! (Disclaimer: It looked better before being half eaten!!!)

We, naturally being sweet-toothed people, followed that up with equally tasty Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie Froyo.

It’s so nice to spend time with the people who matter!

I’m looking for some tips on fundraising because I’m still a little ways away from my goal but I don’t know what other tools are out there to utilize to try and reach peers and colleagues who haven’t yet given. I think I’m going to try and put out flyers at the gym at my work and at Ingalls at BU. If anyone has any advice though, please leave a comment on this post – I’d really appreciate it! I only have 2 weeks left and could really use the donation-boost!

Also, I soooo badly wanted to wear this outfit to work (and so I did!) but they would have gone PERFECTLY with these shoes:

Comfort is much more important!

...I also would have died trying to walk anywhere in them :( 

Quick weekend update!

I am definitely a creature of habit, which is exactly why traveling (especially work trips) can derail any attempt at a regimented meal schedule or set of foods to eat!

Just got back from a weekend at the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers National Conference in Anaheim, CA, where our SHPE Boston Professional chapter got 2nd place for the Business Plan Proposal and brought back $2000 for our chapter!

Me, Clara, and Jeizel after our presentation to the National Board of SHPE Directors and BOEING 

As exciting as it’s been to visit New York, Texas, and California over the course of the last 3 weekends,
it’s nice having all of the travel behind me. I warded off airport munchies temptations by bringing along books to read, but failed at portion-sizes when it came to meals: I think I was so excited to not have to be paying for the food that I would grab as much as I could fit on my plate! Haha, whoops.

Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed some delicious food over the past 3 weeks: from copious seafood appetizers
and a huge bowl of Red Mango frozen yogurt in Texas to Rainbow & Spicy Tuna rolls (see above!) with Tutti Fruti frozen yogurt and Coldstone Creamery Coffee Ice Cream in California. I've certainly enjoyed it!

Fortunately, my majority of travel is over for 2011. I have my trip home in 3 weeks for Thanksgiving,
which I couldn’t be more excited for (and of course I will be allowing myself to splurge because it’s a holiday and Pumpkin Pie & stuffing are DELICIOUS), then Las Vegas in December for my half marathon, and then finally home again for Christmas.

On a better note, I still managed to make my required runs for training for the half marathon. In New York, while visiting Jade in Brooklyn, I did a 7.5 mile long run around Prospect Park, while in Texas, I did a 4 mile Plano run (super-hot 80 degree weather!) and did an 11-mile run (in an hour and 40 minutes!!!!!!!!) in Boston the day after getting back from the trip. To finish it off, while in California, I did two 5 mile runs on
Thursday and Friday morning, around Disneyland park, and then yesterday morning I did a 10 mile loop by
doubling the 5-mile run. This was especially difficult because after one loop, I was already feeling it on my legs and it was a mental challenge to push myself to start a second loop when the left turn back into my hotel and to the Starbucks was a million times more tempting... but I did it! What worked for me was putting the thought of stopping my run early out of my mind for just long enough to distract myself and before I knew it, I was back in the zone.

Sunny Anaheim, California (on my long run!)

Now I'm back to a busy week at work - catching up on things from the past few weeks, getting ready for the end of the semester with school (can't believe it's almost over!) and trying to stay on top of SHPE and fundraising! Speaking of, I'm still a little ways away from my goal and have about $1000 left to raise (though I am waiting for some matching gifts from my company to come in so I'm not sure of the exact number) so if you haven't donated, pleaseeeee consider giving to: http://www.active.com/donate/NE11TCVEGAS/MFowler33

I'll try to update more frequently! It'll probably just be less detailed than ones like this!!

Anddddd I'm back!

Don't worry! My lack of blogging has not meant that I've been missing out on training for the half marathon.... Just that things got really hectic for a while trying to get used to balancing work, school, my budget, and training (especially as the mileage has been increasing, and outdoor temperatures steadily dropping). I finally feel like I have a great routine going on, and this past weekend I was even able to find some time to do social and fun things with some of my favorite people, (despite being so busy!)

To start, let me update you all on what I've been up to! The apartment move in is still not fully complete - I'm in need of finding a slip cover for our living room couch and buying a bigger flat screen TV- but it's so difficult researching and buying in the little time I have after work... I'm looking for a 40-46" flat screen LCD HDTV if anyone has any suggestions.... at this point, it might be better just to wait until Black Friday for some super deals!

Work and school has been going great! I love being busy and I feel like things are going in a positive direction in both respects. This upcoming weekend I'm going to Plano, TX for an Adult Deformity case, which I'm excited for but I know I'll be super busy and have no time for anything but lots of surgeon talks and cadaver labs.

This past weekend I took my first vacation since starting work and traveled to New York with Ashley to visit Jade!!!! I hadn't seen Jade since Ashley's birthday in April, so it was really nice catching up with her, seeing her apartment, and shopping / eating out / going out in NY! We had such amazing food (pictures below) and lucked out with amazing fall weather! It was so nice to break from the "catch up on errands" normal weekend and actually enjoy my time off!


Jade and I (with curled hair thanks to Ashley!) before our night out in NY Saturday night!


Prospect Park on Sunday - couldn't imagine a better fall day

Fundraising:


Well I'm officially at $2428 thanks to everyone who continues to donate!!! I'm only $1200 away from reaching my goal so I really need to push for support in these next few weeks! Every dollar counts and the more money I can raise, the more money can be provided for research and improving the quality of life of patients suffering from Chron's and Colitis! So if you gave to my fund already, THANK YOU, and if you know other people who would be able to support me, please forward along my fundraising page!

I'll be raffling off some Museum of Science tickets and most likely having a bake sale in early November to get some more $$ so keep an eye out for that!


Workouts:

I'm not going to go into ALL of the workouts I've done since my last post (which I realize is a month ago!) but I will say that in the month of September alone, I logged 99 miles of training in over 16 hours :)! And last week was my longest week of running, as I tracked 40 miles in a mix of long runs, sprints, and some recovery runs too. On my off (non-running) days, I'll do the elliptical mixed with some abs. I still need to try out my new running shoes:



Also, I managed to do the Samaritan's 5K in Brighton on 10/1 and set a new PR (24:38)



Food:

Again, not going to go through the daily list of items for all the days I've missed, but I will mention some fun items I've had (especially this past weekend!)

Vegan Cookies 'n' Creme & Butter Pecan Ice Cream


Spinach and Goat Cheese pizza and Roasted Carrots and Avocado Salad @ ABC Kitchen in NY


Delicious Bircher Muesli: Oats soaked in fruit juice with cream, dried fruit, almonds, and greek yogurt and a diced apple @ Milk Bar


Yum! Homemade asparagus & mushrooms, with chicken and tomatoes and a side of whole wheat pasta


Sauteed veggies and black beans :)


Chubby Hubby ice cream :) ... thank you Ben & Jerry's