Weigh-in Saturday

I wasn't able to weigh-in at my weight watchers meeting today because we are about to leave for San Diego to celebrate Andy's grandpa's birthday! Both of my grandfathers passed away when I was young so Andy's grandpa is definitely my honorary grandpa.

I weighed myself on my home scale and was down 5 lbs. Honestly I know that my scale and the WW scale differ (about a 3 lb difference) so lets just say I'm down another 2 making for a total weight loss of 7.8 lbs. Next Saturday is my birthday so I probably won't make it to Weight Watchers then either. But soon enough I'll weigh in on their scale and see exactly what it is.

I'm happy that the number on the scale isn't defining me. I only weigh in once a week and try not to obsess over it.

I ran a few times this week and can feel myself getting stronger and faster. My goal is to run a 13 min/mile at my next 5k race. Eventually I want to build back up and run a 10 min/mile pace but that will take time. Hopefully losing some weight will speed me up.

I've been drinking detox-green smoothies lately and I swear it gives me tons of energy. And for once I'm getting an appropriate amount of leafy greens in.

I'll update about San Diego soon! And BEER MONDAY.

How are you guys doing on your goals (weight loss related or not!)?

Knee taping and recovery smoothie

Most likely, I'll be graduating physical therapy tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about this as physical therapy is incredibly time-consuming and painful. I do feel like my knee is slowly healing and my lower body is getting tons stronger.

Yesterday I ran with my knees taped for the first time.



I plan on posting a how-to video on this soon but please see a professional before you start knee-taping. It looks weird but the tightness of the tape nudges my kneecap into the correct place. My quads are nudging my patella out of place when I run. (Gross!)



Here's the tape that I bought. Not a ton but I don't plan on running with my knees taped forever. Eventually my body will be stronger and I will be able to prevent injury better. I might look into knee sleeves at some point, not sure yet.

I ran 2 miles in 27 minutes which I know it's breaking any records but it's the fastest I've got since my injury. I was STOKED! I would be happier than a fangirl at a Justin Bieber concert if I could finish the 5k in October running a 13 minute/mile pace. No shame in my slower-paced game.

The fastest mile I've ever ran is a 10 min/mile but that was before I injured my knee and developed plantar fasciitis. (The PF has disappeared! Knock on wood.)



Jay Robb's protein powder is amazing. I tried a scoop of pina colada in a green recovery smoothie today and it was magnificant.



And it was GREEN!



(ignore my dirty dishes, gah.) I mixed in one frozen banana, 2 frozen strawberries, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 huge handful spinach, 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup P.O.G. juice. (Passion, Orange, Guava)

So good!

Have you tried knee taping before? How did you like it?

How Amanda does salad.

I'm weird about apples. I admitted it yesterday. But I'm even weirder with lettuce. Seriously.



I love romaine and pretty much romaine lettuce only. Other leafy greens are too "leafy" for my taste. I have to mix the leafier greens with the crunchy romaine in order to enjoy it. (Read: spinach)



Or cover the salad in these. I love them but I'm sure crispy onions are terrible for me. (As is terrible kitchen photography but you don't see me stopping that!)



Last night I made a huge salad without the crunchy stuff. (No croutons, tortilla strips, crispy onions or candied pecans) And dare I say it? I enjoyed it.

The ingredients:

Goat cheese
one whole sliced avocado
cherry tomatoes
shredded carrots
red leaf & romaine lettuce



And roasted figs topped with honey.



Delicious.



For the dressing, I spritzed the salad with olive oil and drizzled on some pear balsamic vinegar. It was so good! (Andy prefers vinegarettes but I love ranch dressing. I'm terrible. I know.)

Do any of you have this weird aversion to salads? I found that adding it tons of toppings and crunch helps me a ton. But God help me if someone offers me a spinach salad. I can't deal.

How do you get your leafy greens in? Any suggestions to help me learn to love greens?

(Would you guys be interested in reading about my (Amanda's) weight loss? I keep going back and forth on sharing that with the blog. But if you are interested I'll start a weekly segment.)