Category Archives: Oatmeal

Falling Back Into Place

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Happy Monday, All!

I can safely say that I will be glad to put as much time and space between myself and an airplane.  Our flights were smooth, just too many in a 24 hour period.

Flying is for the birds.

What a fantastic way to begin the week: waking up in your childhood-ish bedroom, drinking coffee before the sunrises, and getting in a powerful 6 mile run!

You’ll have to excuse me for a lack of photos; I’ve been taking in all the new stimuli of being back at home in Michigan.  The thought keeps running through my head, “Oh man, I should take a photo of/this belongs in my blog, but I Can’t.Be.Stopped.Must.Eat.More.Fresh.Produce.”  I’m sure you’ll forgive me as time goes by and I am uploading more pictures of mundane food items than the author of 1001 Recipes for Saltines and White Bread.  Please don’t take my cookbook idea from me.

Anyways, what I do have for you is a list of all the wonderful things I’ve been able to experience since returning to Michigan that the average person would rather shove off onto someone else’s shoulders:

  • Rode in a car that was traveling over 30mph AND for over a 5 minute period of time;
  • Answered my cell phone and responded to text messages;
  • Opened and recycled the cardboard from some packages that I received in the mail that I did NOT ship from Alaska;
(My Boilermaker Road Race training shirt arrived in the mail.  Owning the race t-shirt is half the battle of any race.)
  • Made my own coffee this morning, and drank it while watching the local news;
  • Wrote down and purchased all the items on a grocery list in quantities that should last me through the week and not the next month and a half +;
  • Flipped through some curriculum books that I ordered in the Spring:
  • Commented on the price of gas as being “cheap;”
  • Unpacked four suitcases worth of clothing and put 3.5 of the contents into “Winter Clothes” storage;
  • Scanned the isles of a bookstore (or the book section of a super store…whatevs)
  • Made plans to get a pedicure tomorrow afternoon
My thoughts exactly!

Ah, such is the life of a rebel gypsy like me.

Oh!  And since the name of this blog is Fancy OATMEAL, I thought I should share with you a great discovery that I made when looking for a quick, easy breakfast for the bonus morning we spent on the island.

It’s a new line of Quaker Oatmeal called Real Medleys.  I chose the Summer Berry Oatmeal flavor:

I was a little hesitant to purchase a pre-flavored oatmeal, but since it was only going to be one morning without my trusty traditional flare, I decided to give it a shot.  I sure am glad that I did.  It was much easier than adding in my own ingredients; you just add boiling water and in 1,2,3 you’ve got breakfast!

The taste wasn’t overly sweet, and there was no after-taste like you get with some packaged oatmeal, and the nutritional information was pretty pleasing as well:

Quaker offers three more flavors that you might enjoy:

 

I am in no way being compensated for my opinion by Quaker or any other company.  However, I am not too proud to take a free sample or two as a thank you for spreading the word.

Nike + and Protein

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Morning Workout: 3.1 miles @ 23:43

Plus this Legs/Abs modified routine

(Thanks, Julie @ Peanut Butter Fingers)

108.45/1,000 miles in 2012

The Blahs

Happy Thursday, Fancy Oatmeal readers!  I am thrilled that we have plugged through the first half of the week.  I don’t know about you, but I just couldn’t seem to get excited about this week at all.  Maybe it’s the mid-January Blahs, or the fact that I know the end of the NFL season is just around the corner.  I know that for me a big percentage of the blahs has been that I have still felt cruddy.  My antibiotics are helping the cold symptoms that I had, but I cannot seem to get my head out of this fog.  It dawned on me that I may need to analyze what I’ve been eating lately.

The week that Dear Hubby and I returned to the island from Christmas break, a large grocery shipment came in via Bypass mail.  We were thrilled!  I had ordered, what I thought to be, Boca Burgers but instead received these:

I absolutely love the flavor, and have been choosing to eat one about 4 out of the 7 days a week for dinner.  I’ll add in some veggies on the side, some Pop Chips to add a little substance.  It wasn’t until I realized that by replacing my usual chicken breast plus “whatever is lying around the kitchen” dinners and losing some major protein in my diet did I realize there might be a connection between my fatigue and the amount of protein that I was getting in my diet.

Also, I have a naturally low blood-iron level, and there is a lack of dark, leafy greens on the island.  I don’t eat red meat, so my iron levels absolutely plummet while I am here, especially during that wonderful time of the month.  I’m going to have my mom ship up some iron pills to see if that doesn’t help as well.

The one thing that I chose to do was add a scoop of protein powder to my oatmeal.

I had never tried this before; I reserved my Spiru-tein for my smoothies, which I have stopped making due to the fact that our car read -1 degrees this morning.

I’ve been making these changes for the past two days, and I’ll keep you updated on my (hopeful) progress.

Nike Fitness App + Splits

Yesterday, instead of running I chose to walk for an hour/4 miles, and I used the “Walk” setting on my iPod nano.  This morning when I went to sync my 3.1 miles for today, I was sent to two different websites: the usual Nike Running website and Nike + Active.  I had never seen this site before, but it is seems to be a place for people to utilize the Nike App/tracking gear other than simply by running.

My 4 mile walk on Wednesday morning earned me 364 NikeFuel Points.  I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it as Nike’s way of giving me a thumbs up.

Also while dinking around on the Nike Running website, I discovered that they DO provide your mileage splits.  I had never seen this before and was totally thrilled.

Here are my splits from today’s 3.1 miles:

My splits from the 8-Miler on Sunday:

Questions of the Day:

Are you experiencing the “Blahs” lately?  What do you do to kick them out of your life?

Do you ever go in streaks of eat the same thing for a certain meal?

For the runners out there: Do you keep track of your splits?  If so, what do you do with that info?  Does it affect your future runs?

Heat and an Upcoming Races

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Good morning all!  I hope that wherever you’re reading this, you’re away from the heat/humidity demon that has been squating over the midwest for the past week.  I swear to goodness it’s been the energy zapping culprit that I’ve been complaining about since Tuesday.  Remember on Wednesday when I was complaining about feeling like a a wet rag and could only run 2.5 miles?  Yea, that really hasn’t gone away.  Like at all.

I should be doing more of this =)

And because I’ve been running on empty this week, I haven’t been doing much other than catching up on my reading and Harry Potter films.  I was able to make a bargain with myself to complete my 4 mile run yesterday.

“Amanda, if you keep on running until you hit 4 miles, you can have ice cream after!!!!”

DONE!

4 miles in 34:55 – 8:43 avg pace.  And then afterwards I wanted to nap for 3 hours.

I know that you’re supposed to listen to your body and not over do it, but I’m also watching my calendar and it reminds me that Sunday is our next 5k; the Ele’s Place Race.

I am really looking forward to getting back out there and seeing if all this training will pay off in a faster finishing time.  But if I don’t get a PR, you already know I’ll be blaming the heat.  You heard it here first, folks.  Keep me accountable.

Despite complaining about rising temperatures, I felt like I wanted something a little more substantial for breakfast.  When in doubt – OATMEAL!!!!  I’m so glad that I remembered how to make it!

Start with 1/3 C. ooooold fashioned oatmeal + 1/3 C. skim milk.

Heat in a pan over medium/high heat.

Stir in 1 C. frozen blueberries

Stir, stir, stir!  It’s done when the oats look poridgy or about 4 minutes.

Freshly frozen blueberries - a delicious oxymoron.

Add some almond butter and enjoy!

This was just the fuel to get me through my 3 miles @ 8:40 pace!!!!! And my abs/upper body circuits with Ms. Jackie “Ripped Abs” Warner.