running: the dawn

Today I had an original Hershey’s miniature.  Didn’t satisfy and frankly made my stomach a little upset.  The remedy?

Dark Chocolate!!!

source

I used to HATE dark chocolate.  I couldn’t imagine passing up creamy milk chocolate for its bitter-less attractive-step-cousin.  Now?  I bit into a dark chocolate and felt right at home.    Yummm!  Don’t really care if I ever have “regular” chocolate ever again.  It’s dark or “no thank you!”  I think I’m officially grown up.

Yesterday was not enough time to recover from Thanksgiving!  Today I have been dragging…  We spent the holiday in a different time zone, which really messes with my internal clock.  I’m amazed how much my body rejects my normal routine even when I’ve been off it for just a few days.  I can’t sleep in and stay up late on the weekends because then I’m dragging all week long.  So I tried to get myself up at 8am yesterday (to try to ease back into reality) but it was not pretty.

Sunday, I had a super long to-do list: unpack, laundry, run 12, Christmas shopping, grocery shopping.  But the most important thing was watching football.  Everything else gets moved around based on when my beloved Kansas City Chiefs are playing.  With that in mind and my crazy long list of food I needed to buy I decided to tackle the shopping first.  Ugh.  Our fridge was completely empty so it took forever to get everything we need.  Then ran around to four different places trying to find the perfect Christmas gifts.  The trip took WAY longer than I thought it would and didn’t get back in time to finish my run before football.

Solution: treadmill!  Mr. Dawn had his Bears on the TV and I had my Chiefs on my computer.  Between the two games I always had something to entertain me.  I didn’t realize how distracting watching football can be.  The run just flew by!  Touchdowns and interceptions.  It was so fun!  I wasn’t very fast.  For some reason I always run slower on the treadmill than I do outside…sigh…oh well.

We now find ourselves in those strange weeks “in between” Thanksgiving and Christmas.  While Mr. Dawn and I were driving home on Saturday we were bemoaning all the nutrition-less food we’d eaten in just a few short days.  Our bodies were craving good nutrient dense food.  So we have stocked up on veggies (thanks to my epically long grocery trip) and have committed to eating at least one vegetable per every meal for the next two weeks.  48 hours in and I’m feeling great!  Kale and cucumbers for breakfast–delish!  Bell peppers and celery at lunch–yum!  Tonight we had some stir fry cauliflower and a lime-cilantro coleslaw w/tomatoes and jalapeno.  Now I just need to get my sleep system back on track.

Yay for surviving the holiday season with one’s health in tact!

I hate grocery shopping.  From the list that I never make (or forget to bring) to the shopping cart traffic jam and the long check out lines.  Then I get home and realize that I’ve forgotten at least half of what I needed to make the recipe that prompted the trip in the first place.  I never plan the trip well and end up circling the aisle haphazardly in search of quinoa, or spelt four, or some other obscure ingredient that is never listed on signs.  My heart rate increases just thinking about it.

Because of this disdain for the grocery-merry-go-round, I have developed the bad habit of rewarding myself for making the trip.  For a long time, this meant I was allowed to purchase a dark chocolate something at check-out to release those happy chemicals in my brain as soon as I set foot outside.  However, now that I’m not burning an exorbitant amount of calories while running I should probably cut back on the candy bars.

So the past couple times I’ve gone to the store I have bought an Alo drink in lieu of chocolate.  What is an Alo drink you ask?

yum

It is a slightly sweet aloe-infused drink.  The different flavors are called Exposed (just aloe), Awaken (aloe and wheatgrass), Allure (aloe, mangosteen, and mango), Enrich (aloe, pomegranate, and cranberry), and Appeal (aloe, grapfruit, and lemon).  Here are some of the claimed Health Benefits:

1. Aids Dental Health and Hygiene
2. Provides Rapid Soothing & Cooling
3. Aids in Healthy Digestion
4. Immune Support and Function
5. Regulates Weight and Energy Levels
6. Collagen and Elastin Repair
7. Packed full off minerals including calcium, sodium, iron, potassium, chromium, magnesium, manganese, copper, and zinc.
8. Packed full of Vitamins including B1, B2, B6, B12, C and E, Folic Acid and Niacin.
9. Anti-inflammatory Properties
10. Body-Building Blocks contains eight of the essential amino acids

Seriously.  I am in love with this drink.  And anything that can take the place of my Herseys Special Dark bar must be something special.  Now, be warned.  There are chunks of aloe actually floating in the drink.  This is my favorite part, but if you’re not used to chewing-whilst-drinking it may be a little strange.

I’ve tried several of the different flavors and the Awaken (with wheat grass) is my hands-down favorite.  Dee-Lish!

I don’t know what has gotten into me lately.  I am usually an ice-cream girl.  Lately however, I have been dying for cupcakes.  Mainly, I’m pretty sure that it’s about the frosting.  I’m currently resisting the desire to run out and buy a tub of butter cream frosting to eat directly from the container.  In Jazzercise yesterday, the instructor started talking about the cupcakes at Cold Stone.  Did we all know that there are cupcakes there?!?!  Cause I don’t believe that anyone told me…

check it:

Are you kidding me?  Chocolate shell, red velvet cake, fudge and cake batter ice cream, pink icing and sprinkles.  Seriously.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  Right now I’m fighting the urge by reminding myself that it will not be as good as my imagination is telling me it will be.

I guess today is a reminder that eating healthy is not as easy as I wish it would be…