Speed Trials

Breakfast was more Rice Pudding:

It was tasty, but a little dry. Luckily I had a side of juice cantaloupe:

It was good and held me over while I ran some errands, but I certainly needed a little snack before my long run. I had a banana with almond butter, and it was so damn good.

Here are my running stats: (I ran pretty hard, and pushed it despite the wind and the cold)

Length: 6.27km
Time: 33.8 min
Max HR: 174 bpm
Calories burned: 262

I was hungry when I got home, and so served myself a helping of the lentil casserole from Thursday:

I had a little dessert I concocted out of puffed rice, almond butter, and honey:

Yum Yum. I actually made these yesterday, and they were really crunchy then, but today, the crunch from the rice was all gone today. Sigh. So much for making a big batch to snack on during the week…

I also tried my hand at making some Larabars. Thanks to the comments from oftheearth I decided to give it a shot. I bought this stuff from the Bulk Barn this morning:

Now, most of these date bar recipes call for a food processor. But this is my food processor:

So I needed to help the dates along before throwing them in there. I heated them slightly on the stove:

And then was able to get a pretty good consistency in the processor:
Next were the almonds. In they went:

And this is how they turned out:

Hmm… This was after about 6 minutes of blending, and my arm felt like it was about to fall off. So I just went with it. Into the bowl they go:

Then I added some coconut, and some pepitas:

And mixed together:

Flattened into a pan:

And the result??

Well… Too gooey. I think I added too many dates, and with the almonds so coarsely chopped, it turned into more of a pan of goo than a bar. So I’m letting it go back to room temperature, and I’m going to add some more ingredients and see if I can’t get a better consistency.

All in all, it’s a pretty easy concept, but it sure needs some tweaking (and cinnamon).

I washed everything, and started on dinner. I went super simple again. Raw beet and carrot salad.

Shredded beets and carrots mixed with coconut milk, some herbs (cilantro would have been best, but I didn’t have any, so I settled for some savory and thyme) and the star ingredient, roasted nuts. I just put 1/4 cup nuts in the microwave for 1 min. and they were nice and roasted. So easy!!

So tomorrow the work week begins again… I’m a little worried about eating enough, and eating well at work. Especially since I have some meetings and other things planned in the evenings this week… aheirygaogahga;fdfgshdks (thanks Angelo for that contribution… Hm, maybe that’s my cue to stop blogging and enjoy the rest of my Sunday evening…)

Yesterday was a SUPER lazy day. I did a lot of reading, watching tv, and ate… It was super chill.
It started with breakfast, which was delicious! Much better than Friday’s yucky meal.

Brown rice pudding (with coconut milk). Mmm m. I sweetened it with a touch of maple syrup, which you’re not supposed to use in elimination diets, so today I’m going out to buy some brown rice syrup… I don’t care, though, because this was SOOOOO good.

Topped with nuts. I also had a banana an hour later.

Lunch was good too, and super simple.

I boiled some brown rice pasta (1/2 cup uncooked, on the right), and set some veggies to steam (on the left). While I waited for the stove to do its thing, I prepped an avocado:

Veggies steaming:

Once my pasta was drained and rinsed, I sliced my avocado:

And turned it inside out into the bowl:

Then I added some balsamic vinegar and nutritional yeast:

Added the veggies, and stirred:

It was great. I’m a huge fan of balsamic vinegar. It’s so sweet and tangy, and I could eat it on anything. This meal filled me up and was really colourful and super tasty.

Throughout the afternoon, I snacked on some almonds and another pear, and one of these juices boxes:

Then I got ready to head out to the Rideau Valley Riot.

I was refereeing again for the Slaughter Daughters, and it was, of course, an amazing time! They were playing the Tri-City Thunder, and after the first period, I was sure the SD’s were going to pack it away. Unfortunately, they lost a little steam in the second, and the Tri-City was able to surpass them in points. The third showed the Daughters fighting back somewhat, but the Tri were in their element, and swept the game something like 56 to 85 (I’m not sure the exact score… Check the RVRG site for more info).

It was a great game, and the intermission shows were the Mallets of Mayhem playing an exhibition Polo game. It was super fun.

By the time I got home, it was 11:30pm, though, and I wasn’t super hungry, so I just had some water and went to bed.

Again, no bloating today, and the caffeine withdrawal headache only sprang at about 2pm, for about an hour. I was dehydrated after the game though (despite having a water bottle with me the whole time) and I went to bed with a headache too…

Plans for this morning: Grocery store for a few staples, return the pylons to the Bike Polo Court, and a 6.4km run. I didn’t run on Friday (headache and haziness precluding) so I want to get back on track. The situps, however, are going well, and Angelo and I are up to 48 situps at a time. Though we’ve started to incorporate different situps into the regime, just to get those obliques and lower abdominals. It’s super nice to have a partner do this with me; it definitely makes it more fun.