Yesterday, I was in a seriously chocolate mood. Don’t ask why. Let’s just say it was necessary. To start off my morning, I made a delicious mocha!
Coffee Mocha
1 cup coffee (I poured out a bit so my milk would fit)
1 tsp cocoa powder mixed into the coffee
Then add 1/2 cup frothed unsweetened Chocolate Almond Milk (of course you can use whatever kind of milk you have, but I found this by Almond Breeze, only 45 calories a cup!)
Also, if you don’t have a frother, you can either whisk up the milk to get some froth, or use a blender! Not quite the same, but it helps.
It totally hit the spot, and was perfect since it was a chilly 38 degrees outside! I needed this after my walk back from the gym! (don’t worry, I showered first…)
After I had my chocolate fix and packed up my lunch and snacks for the day, it was time for breakfast. The chilly weather really had me in the mood for pumpkin, so I decided to try out my protein powder with pumpkin! It worked really well in my Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal, so I thought maybe it would give the same muffin-like quality to the pumpkin!
Pumpkin Bread Protein Oats
Ingredients
1/3 cup oatmeal
1/3 cup almond milk
1/3 cup water added at beginning
1/3 cup water added with protein powder
1 scoop Vanilla Sunwarrior Protein powder
1/2 T flax
1/2 T dried cranberries
1/2 T peanut butter
Directions
Heat oatmeal, water and milk on the stove until the oats are almost cooked. Add in protein powder and the rest of the water (you might not need the whole 1/3 cup, depends on your protein powder). Mix in thoroughly, then add in pumpkin and mix in as well.
Serve oats and top with peanut butter and cranberries.
They turned out delicious!!! The cranberry/pumpkin/peanut butter mixture worked out really well, and the protein powder gave these oats the same bread-like quality. Definitely give these a try! You can also make Pumpkin Pie Oats, which have an egg rather than protein powder, or just plain pumpkin oats!
My workout for the morning was to hit the elliptical at an easy resistance for 20 minutes, 10 minutes incline walking, and then about 30 minutes of upper body weights. Part of my upper body workout included my pushups for the 100 pushup challenge! I had to do a total of 50, in various sets. So far it’s going pretty well! Okay… so I’ve done 2 workouts (your supposed to do 3 a week) but still.
I tried to make sure my workout was easy on my legs because I’ve got my race coming up on Saturday morning:
I’ve been having a lot of problems with my legs (basically everywhere: knees, ankles, achilles tendon) which was clearly demonstrated on my mess of a long run last weekend.
To be honest, I’m pretty scared. I’ve been training for this race for months and to not be at my best is pretty upsetting. I’m not trying to set any records or anything, but I was hoping to run it well and without much pain! I’m still hoping for that, but it would be so disappointing to have to walk because of an injury.
I’m just trying not to think about what could go wrong, but to appreciate the fact that I CAN run that far, and just take in the experience. If you had told me 2 years ago that I’d be running a 10 mile race, I would have told you to see a doctor because you were clearly delusional.
I’ve learned to love running: the way it makes me feel strong and accomplished; how I’m proud of every run that I finish; the running community; and that amazing, stress-free “runners high” on my long runs.
So my goal for Saturday’s race is to push the fear aside and just run for fun, because that’s why I’m there in the first place!
Oh p.s. can we please note that they changed the race START time from 8am to 7am!?!?? Not okay. Early and very cold wake up call for me…
Do you ever put a lot of pressure on yourself?
What do you use to calm yourself down before a big event?