I'm BACKKK

Hi everyone!  I'm back!!!  I took a brief hiatus from blogging and am happy to be back :)

I decided to take a few days (which turned into weeks) off. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that was going on in the blog world...I felt like I couldn't keep up!  I admire all the bloggers who do challenge after challenge and I felt like my blog wasn't really offering anything.  I wasn't doing give aways, I wasn't capturing every meal on camera, I wasn't doing raw this or vegan that.  I think those other blogs are AMAZING and  I WISH I had the dedication those women do.  However, I also realized that this is my blog and I can do WHATEVER I want with it.  

So, I'm back.  I won't be photographing every single thing I put into my mouth, but rather, the really good things :) or interesting ones, it just works better for me.

So!  What have I been up to?  Well, my roommate moved out before going to Phoenix for real life :(, I took my after school program to the water park (and didn't go crazy) and my eating has been...less than stellar to say the least.  

I've seen major changes due to my diet changes.  My skin isn't lookin' ::oh so radiant:: to put it nicely, my jeans are ::tight:: and my running has been ::affected::.  Not a happy camper over here, but it's my own doing so time to fix it.

So, this week, I decided to follow the Clean Eating Magazine 14 day (make that 7 for me) meal plan.  Today is day 3!

I did cheat some yesterday and had sushi for dinner.   I actually had an AMAZING roll...without rice, which I never thought i'd like...but it was incredible.  It had wakame salad, greens, tilapia, tuna, crab, carrots and seaweed.  I also had some tart yogurt from this new place that opened in gville...right next to the Bento on Archer.  They serve a zillion flavors of tart, natural yogurt.  I got original and Taro flavored...it sorta had a sugar cookie taste..fine by me...

Things I like about this meal plan:

1. variety.  They offer up a ton of different meals, such as a pork fajita casserole, strawberry smoothies, veggie burgers, tofu scrambles....
2. it's a reasonable amount of cals...about 1,500-1,600 per day.  On long run days, I can always add a few hundred more
3. they give you a shopping list you can cut out...how perfect.
4. it's all clean eating

Not the biggest fan of...

1. 5 meals a day is a bit much for me.  I don't get up at 7am..so trying to squeeze bfast, snack and lunch into a 5 hour time frame is a bit stressful.  I prefer four meals, bfast, lunch, snack, dinner..and then dessert :) 
2. no dessert factored in.  um excuse me. a girl needs her chocolate. and cookies. and cake. oh wait...that's why I'm doing this..to not eat those things everyday..whoops...
3. it's a little hard to eat out when you have it all planned like this.  I'm still going to eat out...and do the meal plan for the other meals of that day

Exercise wise, I am TRYING to get refocused on running.  I am still running 4-5 days a week...I've just cut back on my distance ever since my IT band issue.  So, generally I've been running about 12-13 miles per week.  But...I want to get back to doing a legit long run on sundays.  

So here are some pics of what I've been up to all of May :)

My roommate graduated with her BA in May!  Here we are at lunch :)

My friend Moira turned 23!  Can you tell what her favorite color is?

XOXO, Healthy Girl.