Monthly Archives: September 2011

Off the [Diet Coke] Sauce

Posted on September 29, 2011 by inmytummy| 26 Comments

Two of the most popular search terms that direct people to my blog are “Diet Coke addiction” and “Diet Coke Stomachache.” Unlike some of the funnier search terms that lead readers my way, Diet Coke addiction (and stomachache) is something that I’ve actually written about and struggled with.

It’s been five months since I gave up Diet Coke. For full disclosure, I’ve probably had two during that time – one because I was really tired at a family function but wanted to stay awake and the second was in a mixed drink. But aside from those times, I have not had any soda at all, Diet Coke or otherwise.

I have a really sensitive stomach. Unfortunately, “My stomach hurts” is part of my day-to-day vocabulary. Artificial sweeteners and carbonation to do a number on me, in partiuclar. And what is Diet Coke? Carbonated artificial sweetener.

Despite my awful stomachaches, I continued to drink it. This is how I knew that I had a problem. It was really hurting my stomach, yet I couldn’t stop. One day, when the pain was especially bad, I said enough is enough and quit cold turkey. That was back in May and, aside from the two times that I mentioned, that was the end.

It’s been hard. I feel so silly saying that. This is soda, not hard drugs! But it’s true. Diet Coke was sort of my crutch. It was go-to when I wanted a pick me up or when I wanted a snack but I really wasn’t hungry. Sometimes I just craved it.

I have a few things that worked in my favor when it came to quitting though. One of which is the stomachaches, but the second is, like most soda drinkers, I prefer to drink it a certain way. I know a lot of people really like soda out of the fountain. My preference was always the 20 oz or 16.9 oz plastic bottles. It just tasted better to me out of a plastic bottle (but not the 2 liter bottle). I never really liked Diet Coke in the can. There is a soda machine in the break room of my office that sells cans, but that wasn’t quite as tempting as it would have been if there was a machine that sold bottles.

People told me that it would get easier. And in a way it has. I’m used to drinking water when I’m going out to lunch. I drink tea in the middle of the day now. I don’t think about getting a soda anymore. But there are still times when I want one. When I do, I just think about all those days when I was crouched over in the office bathroom feeling like my stomach was going to explode, all the Pepto-Bismol that I was popping and the craving subsides some.

Have my stomach problems gone away? Not entirely, but they are SO MUCH better. It’s been five months and soon it will be six, and then a year and then drinking soda will just be something that I used do a long time ago.

I’d love to say that I gave it up because it was bad for me, that I didn’t want to put chemicals in my body, but the reason I stopped drinking it was simply because it hurt my stomach. Whatever the reason was, I don’t drink soda anymore and consequently, I’m reaping the health benefits of not being a soda drinker, whatever they may be. While the jury is out to whether or not artificial sweeteners are harmful or not, there is no nutritional value in them whatsoever.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Stadium Pretzel

Posted on September 29, 2011 by inmytummy| 23 Comments

I’ve still been feeling burnt out from running. My legs are tired and I’m really looking forward to my race(s), mostly so I can stop running so damn much! Last night, I took a break and went to a baseball game with Jason and our friends Emily and Brian.

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We went directly after work and I didn’t get a chance to eat dinner beforehand. I knew that this would happen and I knew that I’d end up eating something crappy because I don’t think Turner Field really has anything besides crappy food.

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I really like soft pretzels, okay? The game was fun, even though the Braves did terribly. They didn’t even score a run until the last inning.

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Normally, I’d be upset at myself for eating a pretzel for dinner, but last night I wasn’t and I think that is important to note. I am good with moderation. Really good. I run a lot but sometimes I drink a lot too. I never eat fast food, but I do eat processed food. I go to the gym 5-6 days a week, but sometimes I half ass it. But while I’m actually good at moderation and feel like I’m a pretty well-rounded person, what I struggle with is being okay with it.

Even though my behavior isn’t always healthy, instead of enjoying the pretzel or the beer, I beat myself up for it. I strive for some unrealistic goal of being healthy all the time, whatever that means. I think maybe I’m afraid that if I let myself be okay with it (eating stadium food, drinking beer, whatever), then that means I’ll do it all the time and that really isn’t the case. I know what is good for me and what isn’t. I know how I feel when I have certain foods.

So if I’m going to engage in the behavior sometimes, I should just enjoy it, right? Cause what’s life without a soft pretzel and a cheap beer at a baseball game? Did I have another pretzel and beer tonight? No, I went to the gym and ran five miles and ate a healthy dinner.

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Posted in Atlanta, Beer, Friends

Slowly Making the House a Home

Posted on September 26, 2011 by inmytummy| 17 Comments

Slowly but surely, we’re making progress on our home renovations and redecorations and making the house feel more like ours. We used to have a pass through between our kitchen and our living room.

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Now we don’t.

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The white balance wasn’t off in one of those pictures; the kitchen is now a different color too. It’s more of a greenish yellow now. While the pass through was something that Jason really hated, my main concern was the lack of cabinets. Honestly, this is what we were working with:

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Those black cabinets are the only upper cabinets that we have. The former owners redid the kitchen at some point with all Ikea stuff. I actually asked them why they didn’t put more cabinets in and they said that they didn’t want to make the kitchen too dark. Fair enough, but why do black cabinets in the first place if you’re worried about that?

On Saturday morning we took a trip to Ikea. While Ikea might not be my first choice for new cabinets, we figured it would be easier (and cheaper) to add to what we have rather than getting rid of everything and starting over. As luck would have it, they were having some sort of promotion where if you spent more than $100 dollars, you’d get a free lunch. I’d never eaten in the Ikea cafeteria before and I probably never will again. Meatballs and tilapia floating in butter sauce aren’t for me. I had a salad and a bowl of tomato basil soup.

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Doesn’t look like much, but look what it is:

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Obviously, they still need to be hung, but definite progress. I also went to World Market to make a return. Here’s an FYI: if you don’t know what a jute rug is or what it feels like, don’t order one online; you’ll be surprised and not in a good way. I was too lazy to return the rug for a few weeks but I’m glad I finally did because I got the coolest jars there to store my grains. They have little chalkboard ovals so you can label them. No more, “Is this barley or millet?”

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Only not as cute as I thought because some of the lids don’t stay on very well.

The cabinet side of the kitchen was out of commission tonight, but the stove side wasn’t so I made a nice dinner – dairy-free spinach stuffed shells.

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For some reason, I had a ton of shells leftover. I don’t know if I bought a big box or I was overstuffing what I had or too much of the stuffing was making it’s way into my mouth instead of the shells, but I had big bowl full of leftover shells. Pasta salad, maybe?

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This was delicious and tasted exactly like ricotta cheese stuffed shells. I didn’t tell Jason that they were vegan until after he’d finished and he was shocked.

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Posted in Home, Vegetarian

Key Fail

Posted on September 25, 2011 by inmytummy| 19 Comments

Because of Jason’s work schedule (I feel like I use that sentence a lot and I probably do because Jason’s odd work hours make doing normal things much more difficult. It’s something that we’re used to; he’s had hours like this since I’ve known him, but it’s still hard), Friday night is the only weekend night that we can actually spend together. The problem is, I’m usually tired and would rather decompress than go out.

But sometimes I do get the urge to spend Friday night with my husband out at a bar or restaurant instead of carbo-loading in front of the tv, prepping for my long run and that’s what happened this past Friday. I decided to take two days off – both from working out and blogging – to kind of get my running mojo back and do my ten mile run today instead.

I made some muffins last night to test out as pre-run fuel. I’m sure you’re jealous of my happening social life that allows me to go to the grocery store and bake muffins on a Saturday night. My college self would be appalled. The muffins were good at least, so there’s that.

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Carrot Banana Muffins
(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

1/6 cup grapeseed oil
1/6 cup applesauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 bananas, mashed
4 carrots, grated
raw oats for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, combine oil, applesauce, brown sugar and banana.
3. In a separate large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine contents of both bowls together and add grated carrots.
4. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray and fill 3/4th of the way full with batter. Top with sprinkling of oats.
5. Cook for 30 minutes or until muffins are done.

Makes 12 muffins, approximately 200 calories each

Jason liked them, so that’s always a good sign. I have trouble telling if “normal” people will like something that I think is good. This is why I’ll never be a chef.

I ate a muffin for breakfast this morning before I drove to Midtown to meet my friend Joan. My plan was to run three miles with Joan and then leave my car at her place and run the additional seven to make ten miles. I brought a water bottle and Gu but figured I wouldn’t need it for the first three miles, so I left it in my car. When we finished our three miles, I went back to my car to get my water bottle and realized that I’d left something else in my car: my keys.

I use one of those shoe wallet things and I guess I’ve been used to taking my house key off my keyring and sticking it in the wallet because when I went to get my car key out, that’s exactly what I had done. My phone was in my car too, of course.

It was about 9 am at this point and I knew that Jason was still sleeping and I didn’t want to wake him. I also knew that if I didn’t finish the run, it would get too hot out so Joan sent me on my way with her debit card to buy something to drink.

I ran up Peachtree into Buckhead and back. The run wasn’t bad – mostly uphill going out which made for a nice downhill coming back (except for Cardiac Hill, which I walked). I was seriously so flustered about my keys that I didn’t really pay attention to the fact that I was running. That’s not a bad thing, I guess. I was feeling good until about mile 8, when I started to get hot and tired. Fall has not yet arrived in Atlanta, last weekend was a tease, and it was over 80 degrees.

Slowly but surely, I finished and went back to Joan’s house to call Jason to come rescue me. Fortunately, I have a spare set of keys in my nightstand. All in all, not the best run, but shit happens and I got it done, right?

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Posted in Atlanta, Baking, Recipe, Running

Dealing with Burnout

Posted on September 22, 2011 by inmytummy| 19 Comments

Last weekend was somewhat of a running high for me. I ran nine miles on Saturday morning – seven by myself and then two with Jason. I’ve always wanted to be that couple that runs together and we did and I was happy. On Sunday morning, I wasn’t sore and took advantage of cooler temperatures and ran another four miles. On Monday, I did weights.

Then Tuesday came. I was supposed to run five miles. Honestly, the thought of going to the gym made me want to cry. My legs were tired. I was tired. I had two freelance writing assignments and a guest post to write after I got home. I had dinner to make. I didn’t want to run.

I dragged myself to the gym anyway. I told myself that all I had to do was three miles. After three miles, I could stop if I wanted to. I often do this type of bargaining with myself and more often than not, I’ll get to three miles and feel like I can do the other two. But on Tuesday, I stopped at three.

I’m following a training plan that’s based off of Hal Higdon’s intermediate half-marathon program. In the past, I’ve used Hal’s beginner program and the Runner’s World Smart Coach program, both of which are more conservative than this one. I’m running more. I’m already up to 20+ miles a week and I’m still a month out from the race. I realize that 20 miles a week is no big deal for some people. I am not those people. Every time I’ve ever trained for a half and started running this amount, I’ve started to burn out. Previously, the burnout was closer to the race, so it was easier to ignore.

It’s frustrating in a way. I am an intermediate half-marathoner. This will be my 9th half. I’m not a beginner, so why can’t I follow an intermediate plan without modifying it? The answer is I don’t know. Maybe I could. I’m sure I could, actually. But do I want to? Listening to my body is more important than following a program to the T. I’ve done this before. I know that I can skip runs or run slower and I’ll be fine.

I didn’t work out at all yesterday. I planned to lift weights at lunch but ended up stuck at the office with a rush project. I had dinner plans with some former co-workers at night, so the gym didn’t happen. And I think that was the best thing that I did all week.

It was raining when I left work tonight. It was a nice rain – the kind that makes you feel cozy and want to curl up with a big bowl of soup in comfortable pajamas. But instead of going home, I went to the gym. I didn’t want to go, really I never do, but the thought of it didn’t make me want to cry either. I went, I ran five slow miles and I came home. And now I feel better which is good because I’m running ten on Saturday and I feel ready again.

(I just updated my About Me page if you’d like to have a look.)

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Posted in Running

What I’ve Been Eating

Posted on September 22, 2011 by inmytummy| 11 Comments

I’ve been participating in What I Eat Wednesday on and off for a while now, but I’ve realized that I really don’t enjoy taking pictures of one day of eats. My food at work is unappealing and I don’t feel comfortable taking pictures with anything other than my iphone at work and they never come out well.

So, instead of showing you one day of food, I’m going to show you what I’ve been eating for the past couple of days. I don’t know if this counts as a true What I Ate Wednesday, but we’ll go with it.

If I cook something, I pretty much always take a picture of it, but it doesn’t always make it to the blog. So, it’s sort of nice to do a What I’ve Been Eating post because some of this food was good and deserves to be shown.

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I bought a big carton of mushrooms and really needed to use them up. For some reason, Cream of Mushroom soup came to mind. Sort of odd because I’m not much for cream based soups. I’d love to say that I changed my mind, but I’m still not one for cream based soups. I guess that’s probably for the best, although this one used light cream and had okay nutritionals. I used this recipe.

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I’m not sure how this happened, but I somehow promised my co-worker that I’d bake her cookies. Her daughter is deathly allergic to peanuts, so she can never have peanut butter or peanuts in her house. So, when I asked her what kind of cookies she wanted me to bring into the office, she quickly said peanut butter. I went with a Mama Pea recipe, always a crowd pleaser. My white sugar was all dried up so I ended up using all brown sugar. It made the cookies very moist, almost too so, but delicious nonetheless.

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I don’t know when I got obsessed with curry dishes, but I’ve been cooking them pretty much all year. I usually just throw together a bunch of stuff, but this time I used an actual recipe. It was pretty similar to the curry that I always make, only it used veggie broth and soy sauce instead of water and miso paste. Curry is always best with a side of warm naan, Trader Joe’s Garlic Naan to be exact.

And that’s what I’ve been eating. Posted on Wednesday.

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Posted in WIAW

The Local No. 7

Posted on September 20, 2011 by inmytummy| 19 Comments

While I talk about living in Atlanta, technically, I live in a suburb called Tucker. Tucker is literally 3 miles from the Atlanta border, but it feels like a small town in some ways. We moved here because we could get a larger house for a more affordable price. I’d love to one day move back into the city, but for now we’re in Tucker and have been for over a year.

We always say that Tucker is a great place for living and not such a great place for anything else. We have some chain restaurants nearby (Applebee’s, Mellow Mushroom, Panera, Starbucks, Jason’s Deli), but it’s not exactly a foodie haven. Downtown Tucker, if you could call it that, consists of a Main Street and some little side streets. I’ve always thought it had the potential to be cute.

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I mean, it looks a little run down, but couldn’t you see this area with some nice stores and a coffee shop and some restaurants? I could. The problem, at least with the restaurants, is that there is (or was, I’m not sure) some law that says you can’t serve alcohol within a certain number of feet from a church. You can’t see from this picture, but there is a big church on the corner. There was a BYOB cajun restaurant that used to be here, but it didn’t do well and closed.

However, something new opened. Far enough away from the church that they could have a liquor license.

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A restaurant/pub called The Local No. 7 just opened last week. It’s owned by the same guys that own Mexican Matador Cantina in Oakhurst. This is about a mile from our house, so we decided to check it out last night. The place was small, with a patio but it was busy.

The menu was typical pub fare. I was pleased to see that they not only had a black bean burger, but also a veggie sandwich. Two vegetarian options is a major plus in my book. We started off with some hummus. I’m kind of on a quest to find the best hummus in Atlanta and this was actually really, really good.

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I wish it came with more vegetables and less bread though. For my entree, I got the Garden Veggie Sandwich. It was on the same pita that the hummus was served with, which was a little bit of overkill but my fault for ordering them both. I had it with a salad.

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I ended up taking the veggies out of the sandwich and putting them on the salad because I was starting to go into a pita coma! The food was good. The service was good. Our server chatted with us for a bit and the owner came over and introduced himself. The only negative was that they were out of a lot of beers. I guess they were busier than they thought over the weekend and pretty much only had one beer on tap (out of 6 or 7) but I’m thinking that can be overlooked as long as it doesn’t happen regularly. The other thing is that they don’t seem to have a website yet. (Do you need someone to manage your social media, Local 7? Because I’m kind of good at that.)

We’re happy that a new place came into our area and hopefully it will start to revitalize Main Street.

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Posted in Atlanta Restaurants, Healthy Choices at Restaurants, Vegetarian

Drinks in Decatur

Posted on September 18, 2011 by inmytummy| 27 Comments

Yesterday, I had an appointment to get my hair cut in downtown Decatur.

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It was a beautiful day out so I called my friend Joan and asked her if she wanted to meet me afterward for a drink. Despite the fact that I had my hairdresser straighten my hair, it took less time than I thought, so I walked around for a while before meeting Joan.

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I’m not sure what’s up with my jazz hand.

Decatur is so cute. When Jason and I were first looking at houses, we wanted to move here, but we couldn’t find anything that we liked in our price range. The only negative to the area, aside from high taxes, is that it’s not particularly close to the interstate. But it’s really cute.

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And there are pirates. Don’t ask. I have no idea.

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Joan and I met at Leon’s which I chose primarily for their patio. Also my grandpa’s name was Leon.

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I’m not usually a big beer drinker (I prefer wine), but sometimes after running a long distance, a beer really hits the spot. I went with an ayinger brau weisse. I mostly only order wheat beers if I’m drinking beer.

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We got a little hungry, so we ordered some hummus. Beet hummus to be exact. Even though the menu said beets, it didn’t expect it to be so beety.

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That’s the thing about Leon’s. I really like the atmosphere there, but I just am not in love with the food. I’ve been there maybe 3-4 times and every time, I think the food is not so great. Other people love it, so maybe it’s just me. We also had some unpictured mussels. And more beer. And then frozen yogurt. Because that goes well with beer, right?

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Posted in Atlanta, Atlanta Restaurants, Beer

Lazy Friday. Long Run Saturday.

Posted on September 17, 2011 by inmytummy| 10 Comments

I’m always exhausted on Friday nights. I don’t know why, really. I mean, my job has it’s moment, sure, but generally it’s not really high-stress. Maybe I’m not getting enough sleep during the week, but for whatever reason, I was extremely tired last night. You have to know this about me, when I’m tired or hungry, I get kind of cranky. I’m sort of like a 5-year old in that way. I got home from work and did not feel like making an elaborate dinner nor did I feel like going out to eat. So that left one option: frozen pizza.

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Trader Joe’s has the most veggie filled pizza out of any frozen vegetable pizza that I’ve ever had. Take that, Kashi.

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After dinner, we started a DVD. After finishing the latest DVDs of both Dexter and True Blood, we needed a new series to watch. So many people have recommended The Wire and when my boss offered to lend me the entire thing on DVD, it was decided that it would be the next series that we watch. We only watched one episode and were kind of confused during it (not to mention that I was struggling to keep my eyes open) but I’m sure it’ll get better.

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I made it until about 10:15 before heading off to bed. I know, I know. I had a long run in the morning though so I used that to justify my lameness. I used to go out at 10:15 back in the day. I had 9 miles on the plan and what was nice was that, like most of the east coast, the weather changed significantly yesterday. We went from temperatures in the 90s to temperatures in the 60s. It was a little sudden, and I’m sure it’ll get hot again, but it was nice because I didn’t have to set my alarm to get up at the buttcrack of dawn to get my run in before it got too hot.

I ended up getting up at around 7:30 and then farting around until 9 before I left for my run. My plan was to do the 7-mile loop that I really like, stop at home and get Jason and then do 2 miles with him. I’ve never really broken up my run like that before and it was really nice mentally. Instead of thinking that I had to run 9 miles, I just told myself that I had to run 7.

The run itself was uneventful and fine. It was nice to run with Jason. I always have these images of us being one of those couples that run together and I liked actually doing that. And now I need a nap. I think I sleep more than the average person.

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Posted in Running, Vegetarian

Running and Weekend Trips

Posted on September 16, 2011 by inmytummy| 17 Comments

Jason recently found out that he was an additional eight days that he needs to take off before the end of the year. Because he often works on holidays, he gets comp days for those in addition to his normal three weeks off. That’s the reason why he has so much. Because of his normal work schedule, we rarely go on weekend trips. So, when he realized that he had all these days that he needed to take off, he immediately thought we should go somewhere. We discussed Seneca (where his parents live, basically right next to Clemson, SC), Athens, Asheville. At first these all sounded great to me and I readily agreed. But then I remembered that I have to run.

I’m doing the Rocktoberfest Half-Marathon in Charlotte on October 22nd. I’m also doing a local 15K (with Tina) the weekend before. My long run this weekend is 9 miles, then I have some 10s, then an 11 before those races. So if we went away, I would have to do my runs in a city that I wasn’t familiar with and the thought of that scares me.

I am pretty meticulous about planning out my running routes. My dad tells me that he loves exploring new neighborhoods when he runs. I do not. I like to know exactly where I’m going and what the conditions are. Are there sidewalks? Are there hills? Are there places to make a pit stop if I need? Even if I drove my route in a different city beforehand to scope it out, it would still make me a little anxious to run it by myself.

I feel bad. Like running is dictating my life. But I guess it sort of does when you sign up for long distance races. I know that a lot of people run in cities that aren’t familiar to them, but I’ve just never done it.

I realize that this is a total #firstworldproblems post, but it’s just something that was on my mind.