Workin’ hard Wednesday

Phew — today was a LONG day!  Let’s start with the eats:

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have breakfast this morning, save for 3 cups of coffee.  I was starving by lunchtime, so I had a HUGE mix of whole wheat penne with tomatoes, spinach, chicken, onions, mushrooms, peas, tomato basil sauce and some cheese:

YUM!  This hit the spot perfectly.  I polished off most of it but didn’t feel overstuffed when I was done, and the combo of protein, carbs and veggies kept me full all day 🙂

 

I did snack on the most ridiculous banana ever.  I included my iPod Touch in the picture for size comparison (coughthat’swhatshesaidcough):

After work — early dismissal at 4:00, yay! — I walked over to the gym and ran a quick 2.69 miles in 30 minutes, an 11:09/pace!  Yes, I know I’m slow, but I’m proud that I’m getting faster!  My marathon goal is to finish in under 5 hours, which means I’m going to have to maintain an 11:26/mile pace for the whole race.  Once I build up my short distance speed a little bit more I’m going to start adding in some longer runs to increase my endurance so I can meet my goal 🙂

I also did 15 minutes on the elliptical (crossramp 8, resistance 3) before walking home.  As part of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge, I calculated my total roundtrip walk from work –> gym –> home: 1.8 miles!  I was met at the door by a VERY happy Barkley:

Who can resist that face?  I took my guy for a quick walk, then made myself dinner:

Roasted sweet taters!  I was still pretty satisfied from lunch, so this hit the spot.  After dinner I hopped in the shower, then started my Thanksgiving baking projects!!  While I was doing my prep I snacked on a Fruit2Day and Clif bar, partially to keep myself from snacking on batter, and partially because I was still a little hungry 😉

 

Project #1 was pumpkin bread: round 2:

I used the same recipe as last time, but split the batter in half and added chocolate chips to one loaf.  Our apartment smells AMAZING right now; here’s hoping they taste as good as they look and smell!

Baking project #2 was sugar cookies!  Here’s the before:

 

And the delicious after:

One of these cookies may or may not have found its way into my tummy… 🙂

I use a cookie scoop (sort of like a tiny ice cream scoop) to make sure all my cookies are the same size and bake evenly.  I can’t believe I used to try and roll out dough balls by hand; I would NEVER get them even!

Matt and I each had a few of these guys while my baking projects were in the oven:

Here’s hoping I do a better job at keeping them in the house this time around!

 

Alright, it’s time to hit the sack.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

I’ll be back later tonight with my eats and exercise for the day 🙂