Italian Grilled Chicken Salad

This has been my favorite lately!! 

Italian Grilled Chicken Salad

1 serving = 180-200cal

 1 C Baby Spinach 

1 C Iceberg or Romaine Lettuce

3 oz Grilled Chicken --good for using up leftovers!

1/2 C Low Fat Cottage Cheese

1/4 C Feta Cheese Crumbles

1-2 Tbsp Fat Free Italian Dressing (I use Lonzerottis)

I love love love this salad. I feel like putting cottage cheese on a salad is a secret trick. It doesn't give it a different flavor, but it adds moisture and texture to the salad. I usually use less dressing if I have cottage cheese on it. I love spinach, but I like the crunch of lettuce, so I usually mix them.  

Battle of the Inserts.

I have terrible feet. Completely terrible. And I have been battling them for years. The latest issue is actually my knees, which I am told is because of my feet. I have flat feet and plantar fasciitis, which I believe is a pretty common combo, but it's also a double blow. Because of my flat feet, shoes with high arch supports are highly uncomfortable for me. They give me blisters in my arches. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but it's a terrible place to have blisters. There's not really a way to walk ... in any shoe... without stepping on the arch of your foot. So I have found my savior, my Nike Free running shoes. I have never had blisters from them, I haven't had any heel pain, I haven't worn holes in the back like shoes in the past, etc etc. They have been wonderful... so I thought. My heel pain was gone, but I had a new pain, and it wasn't just an annoying pain, it was an ice/heat/advil/by a knee brace/rest/rub/sit on the couch pain. Nothing worked to make it go away, so I finally went to the doctor. Turns out my knees are aligned and fine, but I am possibly missing some cartilage underneath my kneecap. For the record, there's not much you can do for that. I also found out that it's probably being caused by my terrible feet and "terrible shoes" (says a few PTs and runner friends I spoke with). I was told I needed shoes with good arch support (Wahh!!) to help correct it.

Let me just start this by saying I AM GETTING NEW SHOES THIS WEEK! I am going to The Running Center to get fitted (or whatever they call it).

In the mean time, I have been trying to figure out a temporary solution. I was given arch support inserts back during the heel pain days, so I have been slowly trying to put those in my shoes. As I said before, it is painful to wear them too long, and I get blisters in my arches, so it has been a slow process. I've gone on a few walks with them, but it feels like I'm walking on tennis balls, so I haven't dared run with them in. It's beginning to feel like more of a golf ball now, so I guess I'm making progress. My Nike Frees are very lightweight, so as expected, the sole is paper thin. They have virtually no cushion, so I decided to try another trick today. When I bought the shoes, I was talked into buying some really expensive, really cushy inserts as well. I thought, hey, they don't have huge arches, but they would provide a lot of cushion.... maybe I should run in these today!!!! I only had a 3 mile run scheduled, so even if it sucked, it wouldn't be that far to go in them.

Boy, was I wrong!!! My knees felt completely fine through the entire run (Hoorayyy!!!!! I can't remember the last time I said that!) BUT I GOT BLISTERS IN MY ARCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOO!! I'm still not sure how this happened, because they really don't have a lot of arch in them, but regardless, I'm back at square one.  I have also realized that it's much harder to run through blister pain that my awful awful knee pain. I am hoping that the new shoes help the knee situation, but I have a bad feeling I'm in for some blisters in the process.

New Record!!!!

Sunday came, which meant one thing --LONG RUN!! I hadn't ran Friday or Saturday, so it couldn't be put off any longer. I looked at the schedule to see how long the run would be this week and almost cried - 9 miles!!! AH! I somehow skipped the 8 mile weekend (I have been slacking on my training unfortunately), but I decided to go for the 9 miles anyway. The furthest I had ran up to this point was 7 miles. I have been slowly trying to wear my arch support inserts to help with my knee pain, but they are still very uncomfortable so I didn't even try it for this run. I am on the hunt for some new shoes also! I was very nervous about this run, because lets face it, I just finished eating and drinking all weekend, I felt fat and out of shape. 

I was also terrified about the knee pain. It usually kicks in around mile 3 or 4, so I just knew I was in for it on this run. Thank God Craig was there to run with me or I never would have made it. I also decided I needed to pick a new trail. The trails I usually run on are very familiar now and I didn't want to psych myself out the whole time knowing how much further I had the whole way. We took it pretty slow the whole time, mainly because I was nervous about making it through the whole thing!

We mapped it out ahead of time, and since the trail only went 4.25 in the direction we were running, we would only run 8.5. I mentioned that if I felt good enough at the end we could stretch it out to make it 9, but of course that wasn't the case. My knees started throbbing about mile 3, as usual, and it just kept getting worse. The last 2 miles were pretty miserable, but I had gone so far, I had to finish! I could barely walk at the end it felt so bad, but I'm not mad that I did it! 8.5 miles is officially the furthest I have ever run in my life. Next weekend I'm up to a 10 mile run, so I guess the excitement for 8.5 will seem silly after that! We celebrated by having a picnic in the park and then having a summery drink on the patio at my parents house later that day. Oh, we also had some target practice with the BB guns with my dad. :) It was an amazing, busy, busy weekend!!

Bucket List Completion: Moolah Theater

The day after the Spring Fling was a very busy day! Craig had been wanting to go shopping in STL while we were there, and some of his friends were all meeting at Dave and Busters for one of their birthdays. So we got up early, got ready at the hotel, and headed out. We did some major damage shopping...but good damage!! Craig spent a little under $200 on new dress clothes, but here's the shocker -- he saved almost $300!!! I have to take credit for part of this, because I was hitting up every sale rack to find hidden treasures, plus I gave him a coupon. :) We grabbed lunch and headed to Dave and Busters.
It was a pretty fun afternoon, but I can't say I was overly excited about his choice in games. I wasn't surprised by it either. He was definitely in his element with this hunting game. I think I sat and watched him play this at least 3 times, and each game lasts 5-10 minutes. Whatever makes him happy, I guess!!! We ended up with almost 2,000 tickets at the end, but most of the stuff in the "winner's circle" was junk, so we ended up giving our tickets to the birthday boy and his girlfriend. Hopefully they compiled them with their tickets and got something good! We had to ditch out early to make it to our next event -- The Moolah theather!!
We had planned to go to the Moolah that night a few weeks prior, and ended up finding out that they were playing the Hunger Games that night!!! I was SO excited! I just finished reading the second book, so of course I have to see each movie when they come out. :) The Moolah Theater is actually an old building that was originally built for shriners. They remodeled it and made it into a bowling alley, movie theater with couches, and a bar/food area. It was really fun to see the movie there, and it was VERY comfortable, however, the temperature was not ideal. IT. WAS. FREEZING. I was miserable the entire time. At one point, I placed napkins over my legs to try and keep warm. Craig was trying to keep me warm, but I could feel him shivering the whole time, too. Thank God the movie was good, because I probabaly would have left!
Updated Bucket List:

1. Outdoor ice skating at Steinberg Ice Rink
2. Grant's Farm
3. Anheuser-Busch BreweryTour
4. Schlafly Tour
5. Go to the City Museum
6. Endless Cardinals games!!
7. Go to a Blues game
8. Go to the Zoo
9. Go up in the Arch (I went once when I was a kid, but don't remember it)
10. Go to Six Flags (I've been plenty of times, but Craig and I have been trying to plan a trip)
11. Go to Citygarden
12. Go to the Botanical Garden
13. Run a race in Forest Park
14. See a show at the Fox Theatre
15. See a movie at the Moolah Theatre

Spring Fling

It seems like weddings are the only things I have to get all dressed up for, except for one other thing. Every year, my school has something called "Winter Ball". It's pretty much prom all over again, except a lot more cocktails. This year, no one volunteered to plan it until it was too late, so it became Spring Fling. It almost worked out better, because the weather was much more pleasant!! :) It always consists of a DJ, banquet hall, amazing dinner, cocktails (this year was OPEN BAR!), and lots of dancing. In the past, we have all stayed at the hotel we had the event at, but this year we went to a banquet hall, so we all stayed in the hotel across the street. It usually gets pretty messy by the time people get back to the room, but this year we ordered pizza and were ready for bed! Here are some pictures from the night -

On the shuttle from the hotel - I didn't get a seat :(

Couples pic!

pre-dinner girls pic (more to come!)

My lovely date <3

Class of 2013 PharmD girls!

Beautiful fountain outside - hard to see.

Getting a little shiny!

After dinner!

St. Patty's Day 3K

So for the second year in a row, I have ran the Run to LSB 3K in Decatur on St. Patrick's Day. This year, Craig and I did some recruiting! There were 10 of us all together (5 couples). It is a pretty fun event. The race starts off the parade, and it runs to a local bar, LSB. Once you finish, you get free lunch and free green beer for a few hours. It's cheap and you get a T-shirt, too! The winners get actual prizes, but needless to say, I'm never going to be fast enough to even worry about what they are. Later in the day we all headed back to Craig's and hung out the rest of the day. All of the couple live in different towns, so it was a good excuse to get together! the Three of us in green all have March birthdays, so this was also a semi birthday weekend celebration for us :)

we had to do some posing :)

Here's our green beer (oh, and free mugs!)

I also made some goodies for the day! They didn't turn out as planned; I had never made them before, but they all got eaten and they tasted realllllllyyyy good!

first time making cake pops!

festive pretzel/chocolate combo

10K.......Check!

After two successful weeks of NOT running, the Celebrate Fitness 10K I had signed up for had crept up on me. My first thought was "@%@#$@!!!  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!?!?", so, I decided to run a measly mile the day before the race. That has to help somehow, right?

It did!! Somehow, I completed it and had a decent time. I think it had to do with my wingman for the race - Nikki. We magically have the same pace and I don't know what I would have done without her! The route was out and back instead of a loop, which really stunk, and the first 1/2 mile was pretty much downhill......which means the last 1/2 mile was uphill. NOT. GOOD. I had an awesome time before that, and completely died up the last hill.  I finished at 1:00:10 ish... I could see the clock go past 1 hour and I was SO CLOSE, but I sadly didn't make it. I was still happy with my time (especially for not running for 2 previous weeks)!

My first race bib!

The girls after the run!

I forgot to take a picture with him at the race, so I tried to snap one in the truck :)

Updated Bucket List:

1. Outdoor ice skating at Steinberg Ice Rink
2. Grant's Farm
3. Anheuser-Busch BreweryTour
4. Schlafly Tour
5. Go to the City Museum
6. Endless Cardinals games!!
7. Go to a Blues game
8. Go to the Zoo
9. Go up in the Arch (I went once when I was a kid, but don't remember it)
10. Go to Six Flags (I've been plenty of times, but Craig and I have been trying to plan a trip)
11. Go to Citygarden
12. Go to the Botanical Garden
13. Run a race in Forest Park
14. See a show at the Fox Theatre
15. See a movie at the Moolah Theatre