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Running Towards a Goal

Today I started with a bowl of blueberry oatmeal.

I used left over steel cut oats with blueberries, some Cinnamon Vanilla Sunflower butter, almond milk, and a little Agave.  I love having some left over oatmeal in the fridge, it makes weekday morning breakfasts easy.

So I’m little dazed about signing up for another half-marathon last night!  I had originally planned to take it slow getting back into running after my knee injury and was planning to see how things went before I committed to anything.  But the truth is, I’m totally itching to get back into training mode, and have been for months now.  Running has become a big part of my life.  I am longing for that long distance high again that I had with my first half marathon.  I’m going to the half marathon I signed up for with Kelly, which is the big reason I signed up last night.  She brought up this race a while back, and I’ve been tossing the idea around for a while.  Last night she mentioned the race again, and this time, without over thinking it, I just decided to go for it.  Before I knew it, I was all registered.  Yikes!! 

I have 11 weeks til the race, which is a lot more than I had when I trained for my first half marathon (about 6 weeks).  Although, with that one, I was regularly running 5-6 miles when I started training, so I didn’t have quite as far to go.

I plotted out a training plan on Runner’s World Smart Coach today.  I’m excited to get started!

I thought all day about going for a long run tonight.  The weather is hotter again this week, but my plan was to wait til about 7pm and go then in hopes that it would be a little cooler.

Once home, I decided to make a batch of roasted red pepper hummus while I was killing time.  I used the same basic recipe as the link, except, I couldn’t open a giant jar of artichoke hearts I have from Costco. After about 5 minutes I gave up and made the hummus minus artichoke hearts

I had a couple bites with some plain pita chips.  Still yummy, but it’s better with the artichoke hearts, in my opinion!

 I walked the pup, came back to drop him off, and headed out for my run.  I’ve been saying for a while, that I never know my exact mileage, because I’m without a Garmin Forerunner.  I’ve also had two Amazon credits to use towards one (I dumped a huge container of change into a Coinstar and got credits , but have been waiting til I knew I was good to go with my knee before taking the plunge and making the purchase.  I think I ran between 4 and 5 miles, but don’t know for sure.  It felt good

When I got home from my run, I grabbed my credits, immediately went on Amazon.com, and ordered a Garmin Forerunner 305.

I feel like I can’t really train for another half marathon without this.  Last time I was lucky to have Jen and numerous friends with Garmins run with me a lot and keep track of mileage for me.  Most of my friends are running their own big races this fall and I think I’m going to be on my own a lot more for this race.  I need to know how far I’m going, and if I want to work on speed at some point I will need this.

I’m pretty excited, this is some big stuff happening right here!

After ordering my Garmin, I whipped up a quick dinner.  I’m the queen of turning one leftover thing into something else.  I used the last of my mexican soup as a topping to make a mexican pizza with on a tortilla.  I added spinach and cheese and baked it in my toaster oven. 

Admittedly, this was a little bit of a FAIL.  I didn’t spray my foil with non-stick spray, so my tortilla stuck to it, and I basically had to dump the thing upside down to get it off the foil.  I did a pretty good job salvaging it and topped it off with some cilantro.  It tasted good, and that’s all that counts, right?

Off to dream sweet dreams of a smooth half-marathon…

Take Two

This morning I started my day with a hydrating breakfast after yesterday’s crippling dehydration incident.  A nice smoothie seemed like the best option.

This one was made with:

Chocolate Vega

spinach

banana

ice

chia seeds

and milk

I also chugged a lot of water in an attempt to keep hydrating myself.

After breakfast, I took Clyde for a walk around the hood.

I did some Sunday blog reading and watched a good ol’ 80′s classic:

“Can I borrow your underpants for 10 minutes??”

Do you know this movie?

One more hint:

While drooling over Jake Ryan (ok, he NEVER looked like he was in high school, come on!) I assembled a simple lunch.  Tuna on a sandwich thin with some carrot sticks.

Then it was off to 90 minute hot yoga AGAIN.  Yes, I’m apparently a glutton for punishment.  This time I was armed with no less than two bottles of Gatorade, a big bottle of water, and a coconut water, vowing I would not end up dehydrated again.  Thankfully, take two of 90 minute hot yoga went much better today.  I was able to stay relatively hydrated despite the extreme amount of sweat I lost.  I brought my friend Michelle, who has never done Yoga, and she did AWESOME! 

In celebration of successfully completing yoga, we went to Pinkberry for fro-yo.  I’ve been DYING to try that place for weeks now, and we finally went!

There were a lot of tempting options, but I knew as soon as I saw coconut, that I was getting that.  I did coconut and chocolate swirl topped with shredded coconut, almonds, dark chocolate crisps, and strawberries.  SO DELICIOUS!

Then I headed home and later had the same dinner as last night, Mexican soup.  This time I topped my soup with some avocado.

The rest of my evening was spent playing with my baby.

“Mom, please throw my tennis ball 3,621 more times, so I can run and get it for you.”

And of course I do, because who can say no to that face…?? 

Oh yeah, AND, I signed up for the Outer Banks Half Marathon tonight.  EEKKKKK!

Another Blogger Brunch and Dehydration

Saturday started off right.  I awoke without my alarm clock, mosied down to the kitchen and decided to make myself some steel cut oats. 

I love steel cut oats because they’re nice and chewy, but they take a lot longer to cook than normal rolled oats, so I don’t make them that often.

Into the pot went 3/4 cup oats and 3 cups water. 

Cooked for about 30 min.

I added maple syrup, almond milk, some Justin’s Maple Almond Butter, and fresh strawberries.  Yum

Then it was off to hot yoga with Katie.

We met Emily there and did 90 minutes.  The place was packed mat to mat.  I can’t remember if I’ve done a 90 minute class there before or not, but wow, I was soaked to the bone after! 

After yoga we hurried to Emily’s as she hosted a brunch.  She and Casey are leaving Charlotte later next week and she wanted to get together one more time for some blogger food and fun.

After a much needed shower, I joined the fun downstairs.

Emily’s dogs really wanted to be involved in the fun.

The bloggers:

Kelly, me, Caitlin, Diana, Katie, Whit, Kate, Emily, and Michelle.

Kelly posed with her scones.

Emily made a giant fruit salad

and millet salad

Diana made roasted chickpeas

Kate made banana bread

I made the blueberry pie.

Also, Whit made an awesome avocado, tomatillo dip, which I somehow didn’t get a picture of!

EVERYTHING was awesome!

Later Katie and I went back to her house so that I could meet her cats, as I’m going to cat sit while she’s away next week.  Stew finished the remainder of the pie.  And since we were on a pet tour, we decided they would stop in at my house and meet Clyde and the bunnies.

Clyde and Stew hit it off.

Even Katie seemed to like him

After hanging with Stew and Katie for a bit, I settled in on the couch to unwind.  And started feeling REALLY crappy.  I knew I was kind of dehydrated from yoga.  I had water at Emily’s, but probably not enough, and never had my Gatorade (I’d packed one, but forgot to have it at brunch).  I got a headache and got really tired.  I took a nap, but still felt crappy when I woke up.  I had planned to go out Saturday night, but it became apparent I was not in good shape to go anywhere and cancelled. 

I made some mexican soup.

In the soup:

one small onion

green chiles

roasted red pepper

1/2 zucchini

can of diced tomatoes

2 cups of water or stock

can of corn

can of blackbeans

a couple shakes of cumin and chili pepper.

Topped with cilantro, cheddar, and non-fat plain yogurt.  Served with tortilla chips.

I sauteed the onion, peppers, and zucchini in a little EVOO for a couple minutes, then added the spices and everything else and simmered about 20 minutes or so.

I felt better after a bowl of soup, but still not right.  Lesson learned- HYDRATE!

Our House Guest

This morning I broke out some more Healthy Living Summit swag.  This time it was this Vega mix:

I used it in a Green Monster, with ice, skim milk, some frozen banana chunks, and spinach. 

Verdict?  Ehhhh, not great. Maybe it was the banana and spinach combined? I’m not sure if it would just be better tasting on it’s own? Anyone else have any good ideas on what to do with this flavor?  I’m more of a vanilla or chocolate smoothie mix person. 

I don’t know about you guys, but I get really stressed out about having house guests.  Which is probably why I so rarely entertain.  I’ll admit it, I’m not the neatest person on the planet.  During the week I tend to pile stuff on my kitchen island and I detest folding and putting away laundry, so I’ve been known to leave my laundry sitting in a laundry basket far longer than it should.  That said, one of the good things about having people over is that it forces me to clean my house.  So that’s what I’ve spent a lot of time doing this week. 

My husband’s friend Dave is here from St. Louis. He is a fellow pilot and they don’t see each other a lot because Dave flies for a different airline and is married with kids. Two pilots + different home bases +conflictings schedules = rare visits, and therefore it’s probably been about a year since we last saw Dave. He and my husband go way back though. They went to college together and worked together flight instructing to kick off their aviation careers.

 My husband doesn’t have the opportunity to meet a lot of people and keep them as friends with his career being so transient in nature.  Almost everyone he knows in Charlotte is through me.  So, it’s kind of special to have a friend like this that he’s known a while.
Dave was in our wedding party.

(Dave on left, Greg, and other groomsman Austin)

So anyway, this was a week of much cleaning and prep for the visit.

I mopped, vaccummed, windexed, put away junk, etc… 

Our house is now pretty clean, and I’m liking it.

When I got home from work, Greg and I took Dave to dinner.  We decided to try something new so we went to The Tilted Kilt.  I’ve heard the low-down on this place from a couple people and pretty much knew what to expect.  The waitresses are dressed in skimpy little plaid kilts with bare middreff showing.  Kinda like a slightly classier Hooters with an Irish/Scottish twist.  The bonus is that the food is actually pretty good and they have a nice beer list.  I was willing to go for the two latter reasons.

The boys with their beers!

And Greg and I

I had some kind of cream ale and it rocked

For dinner I had a grilled chicken club with garlic fries.

I kind of wanted a salad, but none of them sounded that good to me.  The chicken was yummy.

Greg had shephard’s pie.  One of his favs.  I make a mean vegetarian version, but he actually did the meat variety tonight.

How cute is the little pot it came in??

I had a taste and it was good

I had a couple invites out tonight, but didn’t know how late we’d be at dinner.  It was about 8pm by the time we got home AND it was raining.  Plus, I had to get home to do something kind of important…  I made a BLUEBERRY PIE again!  I have a brunch tomorrow and I promised I would bring one. 

Here’s me in pie making action.  The pie is done!

I’m exhausted…  Off to bed!

My Dog is Spoiled

Thursday started with some overnight oats in a jar.  I planned ahead and put the following in a nearly empty peanut butter jar:

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup plain non-fat yogurt

a cut up banana

about 2/3 cup almond milk

chia seeds (like a teaspoon)

I added in the strawberries in the morning.  Mmmmmm.

After work, I was reunited with the pilot!  We did some errands, which included Ross, to get Greg a new shirt, and Costco.  We ended up getting more than planned a both places.  Isn’t this always the case??

We got Greg two dress shirts at Ross and then ended up getting Clyde no less than 4 puppy items.  This after I just got him new food, a new leash, and collar the night before.  Yes our dog is spoiled!  We also went into to Costco for like one or two things and ended up with a shopping cart of stuff.  We also ended up eating Costco hot dogs, which was sort of dinner.  Eeeek!

Here’s Clyde with one of his newly purchased Ross toys.  A turtle!!  I’m pretty sure Clyde will have the stuffing ripped out of this thing within a week, but we shall see. It seems more durable than some of his toys.

The boys!

Once home, I decided to get in a run around the neighborhood.  I just did a short loop, probably about 1-2 miles.  I followed that up with a newly Costco purchased Coconut Water:

I love coconut (as evidenced by my popsicles, and need to throw shredded coconut on stuff), but wasn’t sure about this at first taste.  It tastes like weakly flavored water…  Eh, I’ll give it another try.

The hot dog screwed me up, because I was thinking I’d probably have a salad later, but that never really sounded good to me.  I ended up going with good ol’ banana soft serve.

I had some random white and milk chocolate chips and I’d throw those on top.

It totally hit the spot   Kind of a random dinner/dessert.

Do you ever eat weird stuff for dinner?

What Happened Wednesday

Once again the week has escaped me!  I was insanely busy and found myself without much time to blog.  When I did have time, I worked on my About Me page.  I actually named it “The Condensed Version of My Life Story” (in case there’s any confusion).  It’s something I never did when I first started my blog, and have been meaning to do for a while.  When I go to a new blog, one of the first things I do is click on the little About Me link to learn more about the blogger so I have a sense of who they are and where they are from.  Especially since my first post was NOT really an “about me” kind of post, I felt like I needed to put this type of info somewhere accessible to readers so they know who the heck I am.  Anyway, hopefully you guys like it! 

  So, now to recap on Wednesday now that I have a minute of downtime!

For breakfast I had some kiwi, strawberries, and blueberries assembled in a bowl and a half of sandwich thin with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter (I seriously can’t get enough) and banana. 

I only ate a little of the fruit, before dumping it into a Rubbermaid container and bringing with me to work for a mid-morning snack.

When I got home, I had a bowl of popcorn. Recipe here.

I took a moment or two to decompress, then Clyde and I headed off to Petsmart for some pet supplies.  I’ve been thinking about trying a new dog food for Clyde.  He’s been eating Eukenuba since we got him but never really seems that excited about it.  Not that I can say I blame him it is DOG FOOD…lol!  But, I want to make sure he’s eating something healthy without too much by-product (ewww) in there.  I did a little research and decided to give this Blue stuff a try.  He hasn’t had any yet, but pretty soon I will try integrating into his other food and see if he likes it.  

Anyone have any dog food brands they love??  I’m still kinda new at this dog thing!

 

In addition to the doggie food, I also got Clyde a new collar and leash, as his were getting worn and I felt like he was about due.

I went with this black and red collar.  What do you think?  Pretty studly, huh?

Later on, when my popcorn snack had worn off, I made some dinner.  I decided to try Emily’s Zucchini Pasta with Mushroom Sauce.  Very cool, because you peel the zucchini into “pasta” strips.  Love this idea.

I modified the sauce a little because I had some tomato sauce in a jar and about 1/4 can of chopped tomatoes I wanted to use up, so I threw those in instead of fresh tomato, but otherwise, I pretty much stuck to the recipe.  I opted for the “light saute” option on the pasta.

I topped it with a little Parmesan.  It was very delicious!!

I highly recommend giving this a try if you are looking for a new, healthy, and also vegetarian dinner recipe.

About Me

Hi!  I’m Brittney!

Let’s start at the beginning…

Where I’m From

I grew up in New Hampshire, and still consider myself to be a New Englander (Go Red Sox!), even though I’ve lived south of the Mason Dixon Line for about ten years now!  I had a GREAT childhood in NH! 

(Me in my NH yard!)

I pretty much grew up in the middle of nowhere (my husband teases me because he’s seen my home town) in a VERY small town.  I literally drove a half hour to get to the nearest movie theater/grocery store/etc..!  I couldn’t wait to grow up and live near a big city!  Even so, I loved growing up there.  I was near lakes, mountains, and endless forests.  I spent most of my childhood running around outside in the years before electronics took over kids lives.

I went to boarding school for high school in Massachusetts, but didn’t live on campus, I was a day student.  I credit my high school with largely shaping the person I am today.  My high school had an extremely diverse student body from all over the country and world that attended school there.  I was exposed to so much culture I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.  It was pretty life changing and also made me want to see more of the country and the world (still kinda working on that…)

(That’s me on the left.  Prom pic…  I had bangs til I was 20 years old!)

I lived in the state of  New Hampshire til I was 20 years old.  I went to University of New Hampshire for a couple years but got antsy in New Hampshire and decided to look into transferring so I could experience life outside New England.  This ended up being a major cross road in my life because I felt like I had to choose to live in the state where I grew up forever or leave forever.

(I’m on the bottom far left)

I went for it and transferred to THE Ohio State University!  Ohio State ended up being a great place for me.  I met several life long friends, I loved Columbus, and I finally figured out my major and what I wanted to do after graduation.  I graduated in 2000 with a BA in Sociology and Criminology.

Me and one of my best friends Melanie!  We were assigned as roommate as OSU and have been friends ever since.  We were in each other’s weddings

After graduation, I moved to the greater DC area and lived mainly in Northern Virginia for 6 years.  During that time I met my husband.

We got married in May of 2006.

Right after we got married, we moved to Charlotte, NC.  I loved DC, but we were kind of ready to live somewhere more low-key with a lower cost of living.  My hubby’s airline went out of business and he no longer needed to be in DC.  To read his story, click here.  Charlotte came up on our radar as a possible place to live and after a bunch of trips to check it out, we decided to move here in fall of 2006.  Charlotte is where I currently live with my husband, my dog (Clyde), and our two rabbits (Cinnamon and Baxter).  

My Family
I have awesome parents that live in Hilton Head, SC, which is about 3 hours from Charlotte.  I also have a younger brother who still lives up in the northeast.

 Some Other Fun Facts About Me

I was once a police officer (for two years).

 My husband and I met in a chat room online.

I have never had a cavity.

I make awesome blueberry pie.

I got married in Hilton Head.

Clyde is my first dog!

I’ve known one of my best friends since I was a year old!

 Jen and I grew up across the street from each other   We were also in each other’s weddings!  She still lives in NH and we try to visit each other at least once a year.

Why I Started Blogging

I started my blog to explain my life as a furloughed pilot’s wife. When I started the blog, my husband had been furloughed from a commercial airline for a year and we were both pretty depressed about the state of the commercial airline industry and how it had affected our lives.  We had big dreams to start a family and keep things moving forward/upward, but the furlough put a huge wrench in our well-oiled machine.  In case you don’t know- when a pilot is furloughed, it means they are laid off with out pay, but are still affiliated with the company.  They may still get some benefits such as the ability to fly free (stand-by) on the airline.  They also may get called back to fly for the company again when and if the staffing needs increase again.  We’re basically waiting to see what happens with the industry and my husband’s career.  I regularly frequented forums on JetGirls.Net and The Pilot Wives Club looking for other people going through furlough and how they were coping.  I did not find a lot of resources anywhere on this specific topic, but did see a lot of Pilot’s Wives blogs about the life style.  I decided to create a blog so I could at tell our story.

What The Blog Became

As I mentioned in the story of why I started blogging, I was kind of depressed when the blog began (hence the name of my blog “Life in a Holding Pattern”.  I wanted an outlet to deal with all the stress our situation was putting on me.  Blogging became my journal and outlet.  I also found Healthy Living Blogs- which is quite a huge niche, and started reading and relating to these blogs.  I found myself blogging more and more about the healthy living aspects of my life.  It felt kind of therapeutic to channel my negativity about the airline industry into a healthy appetite for life.  I have always been a relatively healthy person.  I love to eat (and can put it away!), but thanks to my mom, I was brought up eating nutritious healthy food before it was really popular.  We didn’t have sugary cereal in our house (oh how I longed for Lucky Charms as a kid!), and I always liked broccoli from an early age, even when my friends thought it was gross.  I was also lucky enough to be brought up in an active family.  We actually went through “fads” of biking, sailing, golfing, etc… as a family.  I was always active in sports, and later in life I chose to run, bike, hike, do yoga, play tennis, etc…  I don’t have a profound story of weight loss, or an epiphany of all the sudden changing my eating habits, but I think the way I’ve always eaten and stayed active has helped me to always maintain a pretty consistent weight and overall healthy body.  But- I have pushed myself to become even healthier in my eating habits and working out.  I signed up for and ran my first half marathon in June 2010.  

I’ve incorporated even more healthy food into my diet (hello Green Monsters and Chia seeds!).  I eat much less meat than I used to.  I regularly run, do yoga, and try new fitness activities.  I also found an AWESOME network of Healthy Living Blogger friends, in Charlotte and beyond.  In August 2010, I attended the 2nd Healthy Living Summit.  It was AMAZING!  I met a ton of great people and love being a small part of the network.

Basically the blog has is still about what my life as a furloughed pilot’s wife is like, but it’s taken a turn for the positive.

Cross Train Will Make Ya…Run! Run!

LOL!  Remember these punks with the backwards jeans??  Haha!  Flashback! 

Anyway, now that the knee is better and I’m getting back in to running again, I’m vowing to be better about cross training this time around.  I think it might help me to strengthen my legs and body in general and I’m hoping that’ll help me stay injury free.  That’s the goal!

Before my workout last night I gobbled a banana and mini Lara Bar.

Then I popped in my old friend Jillian Michaels to let her kick my butt for a while. 

She was a little mean and snarky to me, but I just ignored her and did my thing.  After a sweaty workout, I took Clyde for a long walk so he could burn off annoying puppy energy get his workout on too.  Clyde really pushed himself and I see some speedwork in his near future .

Post work-out, we had a little left over action for dinner.

Basically a mexican salad with my leftovers from Sunday night.

Later, while watching Bachelor Pad (how crazy is that show??), I tore into this for dessert:

This would be a Whole Fruit Coconut Fruit Bar.  OMG…  so delicious.  It’s a coconut popiscle.  It’s awesome….

Tonight I got home and got ready for a run.

I ate a small bowl of banana soft serve with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter in it for my pre-run snack.

 

 I headed out on my longest run since June- 4.5 miles on the Greenway. I met my friend Michelle and the run felt GREAT! I easily could have done more, but didn’t push it. We excitedly talked about races we want to do this fall. We are going to try and find another trail run to do together and maybe a 10K too.

Can’t wait!!  I also may or may not have made a half-marathon training plan on Runner’s World Smart Coach…  Eeeeek!  I’m looking at half’s in November, so I’ve got 10 weeks right now.

After my run, it was back to the hacienda.  I took Clyde out for his nightly walk and came back for dinner.  (My night’s are eerily the same almost every night, I know).

Tonight I actually had some fancied up Kraft mac and cheese (yes, it’s the devil, but I couldn’t resist). I basically added peas and a little shredded cheddar.

Clyde begged me to try it and I let him lick the bowl with a couple saved elbows…

I’m off to shower and read this

My new read now that I’ve finally finished Eat Pray Love.

An Introspective Day

Today I got up and decided to have an egg sandwich for breakfast.  I cooked two eggs with dill and then topped them with a slice of muenster cheese on a sandwich thin.  I also had a banana with some Justin’s Maple Almond Butter.  This was my first time trying this and OMG, I know understand what all the hype about Justin’s butters is about!  So YUMMY!

I headed out to the greenway to meet Emily, Michelle, and Diana for a run.  Emily did about 12 miles because she’s training for a marathon, half of which was with Michelle.  Diana and I just met them for the last couple miles.  Diana is just getting into her running grove, but I applaud her effort in getting out there and doing it!  I didn’t really feel any pressure to run long distance today since I’m still coming back from my injury and just ran about 4 miles yesterday, so any distance was fine me with me today. 

Post run sweatiness…

After our run, Diana and I decided to grab some lunch at Panera. 

I am sometimes a creature of habit at certain restaurants and Panera is one place where I LOVE to get the greek salad, because it’s so friggin good, so I rarely branch out. 

Got this with the whole grain baggette on the side and some water.

Nom nom…

Do you order the same thing at certain restaurants or mix it up?

I then headed home, showered, finished Eat Love Pray and decided to do something I’ve never done before in my 32 years on earth.  I WENT TO THE MOVIES BY MYSELF!

I know, I know, I’m weird.  I just like going to the movies as a social activity and never really felt a strong urge to go alone.  But if there was any movie to see alone, I felt like this was it.  The story is largely about one woman’s journey alone to find herself.

Have you ever been to a movie by yourself?

I liked both the book and movie.  The movie definitely was a little different from the book, but I felt that the overall message translated.  Both left me a very introspective mood for the rest of today.  Between yesterday’s fight/talk with my husband, conversation with Diana at lunch, and the overall theme of the book and movie, it really had me thinking a lot about life and what I want in life.

I don’t know that I’ve completely answered that question.  I think I’m still kind of a work in progress.

I took Clyde for a long walk, still thinking a lot, then went home and made myself dinner.

I had yellow rice with black beans, garlic, onion, tomato, mushrooms, salsa, cilantro, olives, avocado and a bit of plain non-fat yogurt.

I got kind of artsy with the presentation… 

I may not have my life all figured out yet, but I’m pretty happy in general.