Morning!!!! How is everyone this HUMP DAY? I am doing well! Yesterday after work I headed to class. We did a simulated exam question in groups today in class. I guess it was just like the ones on the final exam. It made me realize I have a lot of studying to do…A LOT! While freaking out, working with my group I snacked on a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar.

This was my first time trying this flavor. OH.MY.GOSH!!! These taste like dessert!!! So, so chocolaty!!!!!

After class I headed home and made a quick dinner. Amy’s to the rescue!!!

I had this broccoli pot pie that I got with a coupon Amy’s sent me a few weeks ago.

I think it is one of their newer products, I really liked it. I reminded me of the Chicken Pot Pie my mom used to make growing up, but with a cheesy sauce rather than a  gravy. It had broccoli, carrots and potatoes too and I think that the crust was whole wheat! I recommend it, but then again I really love Amy’s so that is no surprise. On the side, I had some steamed green beans.

After dinner I went to my bestie May’s apt. to hang out. I brought some Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies with me for her, my friend Colin and their roommate, Gabe. They loved them!!! YAY! Of course, I had  to have one too

I crashed at 10:30 while talking to Adam in bed, so no blogging…sorry! This morning I hopped out of bed at 6:25am to head out for a run with a reader, Julia. Julia and I have been running together once a week for the last 5 or 6 weeks. She actually ran her first 1/2 marathon last weekend and I was so excited to hear about it. I got suited up and then went out to get in the car. When I got to my car, I realized there was ice on the windshield, it was cold out!!!! I had to do my first ice scrape of the season! UGH! Also, I realized about 1/4 of a mile into our run that my Garmin was set to the bike setting, so I changed it to running ans lost stats for the first 1/4 mile…oh well I guess.

We ran a little over 5 miles, my Garmin recorded 4.74 miles of it. Thanks to Caitlin who  helped me figure out how to get my mile splits on Sunday, after I spend the better part of Sunday afternoon trying to figure it out!

Stats: 4.74 miles (Really 5 miles, but not recorded due to wrong setting) in 43:03

• Mile 1: 8:59
• Mile 2: 8:44
• Mile 3: 9:13
• Mile 4: 905
• Last 3/4 of a mile: 7:00

When I got home from my run I felt great! I love running with Julia because as I said before, she is faster than me and I think running with her has made me faster and has really helped me push myself. Plus she is great company and I loving catching up about our weeks while we run, the time flies! Thanks, Julia for being such a great running partner!!!

Breakfast this morning was a Green Monster!

I made a lot…oops, I drank it all anyways!!!! I also had some coffee, but didn’t take a picture..sorry!

Ingredients:

• 1 Banana
• Two Handfuls of Spinach
• fat Free Milk
• Chocolate Almond Milk
• PB2
• Chocolate PB2
• Green Superfood
• Bee Pollen
• Ice

Here is today outfit…a little on the casual side:

Red V-Neck Sweater (Gap), Corduroys (American Eagle – that I have had since High School), Brown Tooled Danskos. This look is a lot more casual than you guys are used to, huh? When these pants fell out of the closet at me, I realized  I hadn’t worn them in a while and immediately wanted to wear them today, so I did!

I am super casual, I am not even wearing make-up today!

My face is a little dry from my change in meds. So, I want to give it a little breathing room!

In other News:

1. Caitlin’s dog Maggie sprained her hind leg. Even though Oscar and Maggie have never met, they are both wiener dogs and Caitlin and I like to pretend they are friends. So, here is a picture of Oscar sending Get Well Wishes to Maggie!

2. My good friend Wicked Bride has agreed to work with me on a top secret blog project with me I am so excited! Thanks, Erica! Once, this project is done I will let you guys know…Promise!

3. As you all know I am a huge fan of the Green Monster. I was so interested it trying it out once I saw it on Angela’s blog for the first time! Well, my friend Ibelis has been trying them out and sent me an e-mail with her thoughts about the Green Monster that I thought I would share with you guys:

“First,I have been going 2-3 weeks drinking the green monster 3-4 times a week!  I have def felt a difference in my energy and when I was sick…I recovered so much faster! I am obsessed with it and even though when you look at it (its green and looks kinda gross) it is sooooo tasty and so good for you.

And you can freeze any extra. Last night I got over zealous and had a bunch left over. I froze some and then took it out in the morning…about 5:30.  By 9am it had thawed out (the bottom was still a tad solid but i ran it under hot water and it melted in a jiffy!) I just left it on my desk and let it thaw and by 9am I was feeling the hunger so it was THE PERFECT SNACK! Of course everyone asked me what it was and how it looked gross but I responded with “don’t knock it till you try it!” And actually 2 girls in my clinical group are gonna start making it as I forwarded the recipe to them.  I love that you can freeze it because I get up at 4:30 am for school and often, even though its simple to make, don’t have the time to make it.  Plus I never realized how loud a blender is and I don’t want to wake up Dan.

So tonight when I got home from school, I made a large batch and am freezing 2 blender cups to take “to go” tomorrow.  One for around a 9am snack and the other for my drive home as I am staying late in school and wont be home till maybe 9pm.  Oh and I noticed that I don’t have the urge to snack anymore!!!  It really fills you for a long time and helps with my hypglycemia!! (yay complex carbs).

What I am most excited about is: Dan and I went to donate blood a few months back.  I was denied due to my iron level being to low.  We are going back to donate on Monday the 23rd and I am eager to see how my iron is doing since I’ve started drinking the GM.  Plus it would be great to be able to donate…donate life!  “

So glad you love it, Ibelis!!!! Thanks for sharing your experience:) YAY FOR GM’S!!!

4. As you all know, in Honor of Thanksgiving being right around the corner, I will be posting something I am thankful for in every post. PLEASE feel free to join in in the comments section! So for this post:

I AM THANKFUL FOR:The resiliency of my lungs!

A little History: I was a smoker for 11 years. I touch on this briefly on my Meet Ali page, as quitting smoking is a really important part of my journey to live a healthy lifestyle. So, let’s back up!!!

A few months after this picture was taken, I started smoking!

If I look like a baby here it is because I am…I started smoking when I was 14 years old!!! Why?! Well, for the same reason most teenagers do stupid stuff: everyone else was doing it and I wanted to fit in. I started High School at a school where I knew no one but my bestie May and we wanted to fit in, so we started smoking. The sadder thing is I remember not even liking it at first, but I kept forcing myself to smoke and after a few months I was hooked.

After a few months of dating Adam (about a year after I started smoking), he asked me to quit. I told him that he knew I smoked when we started dating and that I was not going to change for him. For years and years Adam would beg me to quit. When we got a little older his reasons changed from him hating the smell to the fact that he knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me and didn’t want to loose me to smoking in our 50′s or 60′s. I still was unwilling to do the work to quit. My dad would also beg me to quit. He constantly pointed out how odd it was that I smoked it was so out of character for me, and he was right too! But, I was addicted and also the idea of gaining weight was SCARY AS HELL TO ME (which is  a whole other issue that I touch on in this post).

I continued to smoke all through high school, college and post graduation!

That is my friend Keri and I…attractive picture huh?

I smoked even after Adam’s mom suffered a stroke that the doctors said was not helped by her smoking. She stopped after smoking for over 30 years and I still smoked. It was like I learned NOTHING from her experience or how scary the thought of loosing her was to me.

Finally, one morning, I woke up (2/23/07- to be exact)  and said to myself : “Today I change my life!” The threw out the Marlboro Lights and put on the running shoes and the rest is history!!!!

I have been smoke free for 1 year, 9 months and 18  days!!!!! So today I am thankful for my resilient lungs! I have abused them so bad, yet they still find a way to carry me through hard runs! My lungs are still very black, which makes breathing with running hard sometimes, the the more I work my lungs the better then get.

Here is a little information about the recovery process:

20 minutes	Your blood pressure, pulse rate, and the temperature of your hands and feet will all return to normal.
8 hours	Remaining nicotine in your bloodstream will have fallen to 6.25% of normal peak daily levels, a 93.25% reduction.
12 hours	Your blood oxygen level will have increased to normal and carbon monoxide levels will have dropped to normal.
24 hours	Anxieties peak and within two weeks should return to near pre-cessation levels.
48 hours	Damaged nerve endings have started to regrow and your sense of smell and taste are beginning to return to normal. Cessation anger and irritability peaks.
72 hours	Your entire body will test 100% nicotine-free and over 90% of all nicotine metabolites (the chemicals it breaks down into) will now have passed from your body via your urine.  Symptoms of chemical withdrawal have peaked in intensity, including restlessness. The number of cue induced crave episodes will peak for the “average” ex-user. Lung bronchial tubes leading to air sacs (alveoli) are beginning to relax in recovering smokers. Breathing is becoming easier and the lungs functional abilities are starting to increase.
5 – 8 days	The “average” ex-smoker will encounter an “average” of three cue induced crave episodes per day. Although we may not be “average” and although serious cessation time distortion can make minutes feel like hours, it is unlikely that any single episode will last longer than 3 minutes. Keep a clock handy and time them.
10 days	10 days – The “average ex-user is down to encountering less than two crave episodes per day, each less than 3 minutes.
10 days to 2 weeks	Recovery has likely progressed to the point where your addiction is no longer doing the talking. Blood circulation in our gums and teeth are now similar to that of a non-user.
2 to 4 weeks	Cessation related anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, impatience, insomnia, restlessness and depression have ended. If still experiencing any of these symptoms get seen and evaluated by your physician.
21 days	Brain acetylcholine receptor counts up-regulated in response to nicotine’s presence have now down-regulated and receptor binding has returned to levels seen in the brains of non-smokers.
2 weeks to 3 months	Your heart attack risk has started to drop. Your lung function is beginning to improve.
3 weeks to 3 months	Your circulation has substantially improved. Walking has become easier. Your chronic cough, if any, has likely disappeared.
1 to 9 months	Any smoking related sinus congestion, fatigue or shortness of breath have decreased. Cilia have regrown in your lungs thereby increasing their ability to handle mucus, keep your lungs clean, and reduce infections. Your body’s overall energy has increased.
1 year	Your excess risk of coronary heart disease has dropped to less than half that of a smoker.
5 to 15 years	Your risk of stroke has declined to that of a non-smoker.
10 years	Your risk of death from lung cancer has declined by almost half if you were an average smoker (one pack per day).  Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus has now decreased.
15 years	Your risk of coronary heart disease is now that of a person who has never smoked.

Whew!!!! That was a long post huh?!!!

Reminders:

1. Don’t forget about my blogger interviews!

For Bloggers: Please let me know if you are interested in being interviewed and highlighted in these interviews/ get ready for an e-mail from me asking you to be involved All of you that have contacted me so far have been added to the list.

For Readers and Bloggers: Let me know what questions you think should be asked it can be about their blog (for example: Why did you start blogging) or about them personally (For example: How do you take your coffee). If you want to submit a question(s) shoot me an e-mail (foodfitnessfashion@gmail.com) or comment on this post. I have already gotten some great questions!!! This is super important, if you want specific questions asked get them to me!!! You have until Thursday at 5pm!!!

2. Don’t forget about the Athena Cup. I donated 18 BRAS !!!! They are accepting bra and cash donations…it’s a great cause! .

3. Vote for me for the Wellsphere People’s HealthBlogger Awards 2009! Click here to Vote!!!

Tags: Coffee, Cookies, Frozen Meal, Smoothies, Veggies