Pumpkin – FueledByLOLZ

Wicked 10k (39:28)

I have been dying to do the Wicked 10k in Virginia Beach for quite some time. J&A racing puts on five races a year (all being themed and I love dressing up). So when the possibility of being able to run this race rose up, I immediately took it. Then I realized that since it was a week before the marathon it would be a perfect last high effort run (or really only high effort run). Though it’s a solid minute per mile faster than my marathon goal pace…I think the marathon is a little longer…

A local runner, Kris and I decided to dress up as pumpkins. It would be a dirty lie if I didn’t tell you that Kris has always been one of my running idols since she moved to VA.

We warmed up around the Convention center and it honestly went by really quickly. As much as I love running with Tim, it’s not the same as running with females and gossiping. We quickly made it back and put our stuff away in the car. Since it was a 10,000 person 10k the lines for the bathroom were so long. We quickly went to the porta potty and hauled butt to the starting line.

When the race went off, I immediately fell into my groove. I wasn’t sure how my skirt would hold up or if the socks would give me blisters but in proper running technique, I didn’t test any beforehand and just winged it. If I got massive blisters on my feet before the marathon…that would have been my fault and I probably would have stopped to take the socks off.

The first mile I felt I was in a solid groove. It was pretty crowded and I got boxed in several times but I managed to pass a few females and settle in by myself. I was weaving a lot during this first mile and with the turns I managed to take out every turn way to wide. (5:52)

The second mile went right down where I got hit by the cyclist and onto the boardwalk. The point of interest was the creepy construction workers who had stopped working and decided to yell at the males running near me, “damn I wish I was chasing that”. To that I yelled, excuse me sir I’m only 16. When I stop getting ID for lotto tickets I’ll stop using that phrase. (6:10)

Mile three was along the boardwalk and I was all alone. The closest person in front of me was a female (about a quarter of a mile up). I wanted to catch her so badly, but couldn’t and never did. (6:14).

I hit the 5k at exactly 19:30.

Mile four I drew on the crowds from other corrals passing the other way. It kept my mind off running and I was high fiven’, cheering and looking at other people passing the other way. I wanted to speed up but my legs would not turn over any faster. This is just a product of not doing speed workouts and focusing on longer runs as well as high mileage. (6:14)

Mile five was exactly the same way but there was no one cheering and I was all by myself. I was passed by some males somewhere along there and I tried to keep up but they powered way by me. This was the hardest mile mentally but just kept reminding myself…that’s probably how I’ll feel for 10 miles in the marathon. (6:30)

Mile 6 was motivating because we were heading back to the convention center and it was almost over. I didn’t feel like I was dying but I certainly wasn’t getting any faster. I just gave it everything I had and went to the end. (6:14).

The final .4, you could see the finish line. I hate those finishes because they never seem like they are getting any closer and there are people at the .4 telling you that you are almost there…when in reality you still have 2-3 more minutes. In my mind, “almost there” means I have about 5 strides to the finish line…not 2 more minutes going into cardiac arrest. Then after a few minutes (but not before being outkicked by someone), I crossed the finish line, begged for some water, coffee mug and medal and headed into the post race party with Kris.

Thoughts on the race:

This was a great confidence booster going into the marathon. I had made the executive decision throughout training to forgo speed workouts and focus on building high mileage instead. Since it is my first marathon and my goal is to FINISH (with a secondary goal around 3:10), I took away all speed and just focused on high mileage. It was great to only be 8 seconds off my 10k PR without any speed and not feeling the greatest. The weather was beautiful and it was a flat, fast course so I cannot complain about that. Overall it was a great race and I had a lot of fun. I was 4^th female overall and Kris got first! It’s also a minute faster then last month’s Zero Prostate Cancer Run (and 40 degrees cooler!)

Questions for you:

Do you like themed races?

What are your plans for Halloween?

Mine are to whine and complain that I have to wait till Sunday to eat all the candy.

Festive Pancake Roundup

As promised and since it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I would gather all the festive pancake recipes for the month and put them here. Maybe your family is into Holiday Pancakes like mine (erg…me…erg…) but anyways. Does that sound like we are going to the rodeo? I don’t know the title continues to amuse me.

First Merry Christmas Eve.

From the Thanksgiving spectrum we have pumpkin pancakes.

Then my personal favorites: Eggnog Pancakes.

Gingerbread were also delicious.

As well as mom’s favorites peppermint.

Then a new (to me) and staple fig pancakes.

Hope you have enjoyed this months Holiday editions. Any recommendations and ideas for new pancakes are always welcome.

Now that the Holiday series is done…my blog has so many different options and directions to go…obviously…

Have a Happy Holidays.

Lightening up Pancakes

So as part of the Monday pancake series, instead of a recipe this week I am actually posting a few helpful hints of how to make recipes healthier. Let’s face it-pancakes are not always the healthiest recipes but that doesn’t mean you can’t make them that way. While I’m not saying diner pancakes are made in this regard…you can! While I realize not everyone wants to lighten up their pancakes, many people do.

Instead of adding oil you can substitute a half cup of pumpkin, applesauce or greek yogurt. All three make the pancakes especially moist and delicious.

lemonzestpancakes — Greek yogurt pancakes

If you don’t want to consume a lot of carbohydrates, think about using a high protein flour such as peanut flour.

Instead of using high sugary maple syrup top your pancakes with sugar free syrup, peanut butter, greek yogurt, Nutella (well…that is just me), jam and jellies, fruit.

chocolatepeanutflourpancakes — topped with basically an entire container of greek yogurt…maybe there is pancakes in there? maybe…

chocolatepancakes1 — greek yogurt sandwich pancakes.

Another thing you can do (disclaimer…I personally don’t prefer the taste) is switch an egg to egg whites saving fat cholesterol. You need something to bind the pancake together and make it fluffy but if you would prefer egg whites to egg that is for you.

Questions for you:

How do you lighten up pancakes?
How do you lighten up any recipe?

Pumpkin Pancakes

I’ve blogged about this recipe before, so if you have followed my blog for over 2 years now…you’ve probably seen it. Seeing that covers about 2 people and both are far better cooks then me…I figured it wasn’t a big deal. Upon searching through my archives however, I can’t find this recipe so I’ll just make this a staple post to link back too. This recipe is worth ten repeats in my mind at least.

As bloggers, we are all obsessed with pumpkin. Am I right?

I feel that way…I don’t make it through a full day without reading about how someone enjoys pumpkin. I don’t say I mind though. Next month is gingerbread…I personally like hard egg nog…

Pumpkin Pancakes

½ cup flour
1 egg
½ cup pumpkin
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
Sweetener to taste

Cook at roughly 350 degrees.

This recipe is relatively easy. Mix all the wet ingredients (including pumpkin) then add the flour…flip and cook. It also works with peanut flour for a high protein breakfast. I’ve made it with both.

The pumpkin replaces the oil and makes these quite moist and quite delicious. I try and make them once a week so I can get my vitamin K and turn orange…therefore not having to go fake tanning (I kid).

Question for you:

1. Do you like pumpkin?

2. What is your favorite way to use it (feel free to link a recipe).

Food Staples

Food de Hollie
After my WIAW rage, (ha) I got a few emails about what I stock at my house to cook. I can assure you some of it is probably weird, some is strange I guess not all of it so whatever.
Breakfast Foods:
1. Greek yogurt

greekyogurt — I like to hoard the containers like no big deal…

2. Peanut flour (I have at least 1 serving daily normally…my “odd food”)
3. Eggs (I go through a dozen eggs once a week)
4. Liquid egg whites
5. Sugar Free syrup (for waffles/pancakes)
6. Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder (once you try this stuff you’ll never go back)
7. Stevia and truvia (depending on my mood)
8. Peanut butter
9. pumpkin
10. skim milk
Lunch foods: (While I normally have lunch on campus, I occasionally pack my lunch)
Which is normally a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a greek yogurt. Well actually it’s two because I have one at 11 and one at 2.

Dinner:
1. Lots of frozen vegetable steamers (broccoli, asparagus, brussel sprouts!)

salmonmushroomsbrusselsprouts — My favorite dinner ever. Salmon, brussel sprouts and mushrooms

2. Fresh vegetables include onions, garlic, kale and mushrooms
3. Frozen steak and chicken to grill on my george foreman
4. Fresh fish normally bought day of from the supermarket to grill

Snacks:
1. Quest protein bars (these are my current favorites).
2. Greek yogurt+ pumpkin
3. Protein shakes made of Xanthem gum, pumpkin, skim milk and greek yogurt
4. Hard boiled eggs

Random other things I like:

1. I always have hot cocoa stocked
2. and ice cream

3. Coffee creamer (I am in a Baileys Irish Cream mood lately)

But other then that I have dessert at restaurants because they are clearly better then anything I could make
Question for you: Name your top five staple foods.

1. Eggs
2. Greek yogurt
3. Peanut flour and cocoa powder (for pancakes…it counts as one)
4. Salmon
5. Xanthem gum for smoothies

WIAW Real Talk

I haven’t done a WIAW blog in a while. I was reading blogs the other day, maybe last week…sometime ago and I was thinking about how a good portion of the time I just find WIAW blog posts annoying.

Breakfast today was a waffle with greek yogurt and jam

I can only have 12 ounces of coffee daily. This picture does not justice for the amount of cream I add.

I will be completely honest and I don’t really believe 95% of bloggers posting what they have eaten throughout the day. Especially posting a “full day” of eats. It’s like the less you eat, the better your blog looks, the more people will read your blog. I understand you want to showcase yourselves in good light, but damn I want to know some people eat pizza or some people find regular peanut butter good versus sweet chocolate double stuffed with a splash of vanilla super specialized almond butter.

Really, I just want to know other people shop at Walmart for 90% of their groceries and I can relate to what they are eating. I understand a lot of bloggers are vega, have some sort of GI tract issue or some other thing that justifies their need for such intricate food…but most of my groceries come from Walmart.

chocolatepeanutbutterfrenchtoast — Lunch today was 2 bagels with nutella. I had one at 11 and one at 2. That is normally how my lunches are. I forgot my greek yogurts for some odd reason…oh well.

I am all for eating weird foods but there comes a point that I can’t even try some recipes because it takes such specialized food that I don’t stock. When the hell did we start thinking milking almonds was a good idea?

pumpkinsmoothie — So instead I had a pumpkin protein shake when I got home. 1 cup of greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of pumpkin, cinnamon, ice cubes and xanthen gum to thicken it

As we all know, I’m not a chef. I’m terrible at cooking (also cleaning and don’t care for babies…can you I’ll be a great stay at home housewife?).

salmonbroccali — My quick and staple dinner is always fish+kale+ Brussel sprouts. Maybe I’ll get adventurous one day.

I want to say, I’m not trying to call anyone out. The only thing I’m saying is that if you participate in WIAW and post 500 calories worth of extreme healthy food and that’s it…It doesn’t make me want to read your blog.

Incase you are wondering this ended up being about 2300 calories. If I could have more gas station coffee (the doctor told me the amount of caffeine I intake could affect bone growth) then it would be 2600 because I know my coffees have about 300 calories. I’ll run 4 miles for that any day.

Question for you: What do you think of WIAW posts?

Foodie Pen Pals

Foodie pen pals has become one of my favorite monthly topics (so if you are tired of them..well it’s once a month-stop that and come back tomorrow). With that being said, this package was def awesome and Amy even was able to take into account that I am eating a high protein diet and have a couple of medical problems (is she not the bomb?!).

Because I like to give rhetorical questions in my blogs, I’ll answer and say-no duh.

Right then.

First she sent me sugar free chocolate covered nuts. I tried one of them and then decided I wanted to eat all of them. Literally within 30 minutes of opening the box they were all gone. They were really good!

After devouring the nuts, I decided to hold off on the cookies for some time later in the week. These were a perfect work snack for me. Work has been really busy and stressful and having cookies at work…well it makes it a little better.

Next up was the mustard. I have never been a mustard fan but decided to try it anyways. It was so weird-because I really enjoyed it. I added it to some chicken we were having that night and it didn’t disappoint. My parents were shocked that I eating it, and then my mom decided she wanted some too (to which she fully enjoyed it).

Hiding back there is the edamame, which is one of my favorite work snacks. I buy this on the regular so it was nice not having too LOL. I also ate it at work.

The steel cut oats I used to make pumpkin oatmeal. I haven’t had pumpkin oatmeal in ages and this was the perfect occasion. Quite delicious per usual.

Then last (but not least), I’ve been sipping on the herb tea all week. My mom is a big tea drinker and absolutely loves this stuff as well. Me personally, I like coffee but tea is good every once in a while. This tea is certainly at the top of my list though so I’ll be taking it back to college.

In general, another awesome box! If you want to go participate in foodie pen pals-go right over to the lovely Lindsay’s blog.

Question for you:

1. Tea or coffee? (iced/hot)?
2. Have you ever participated in Foodie Pen Pals?

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