Good morning and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! Are you wearing green today? 
I thought about coloring my oats with green food dye this morning in honor of St. Patty’s Day, but I wasn’t sure how canned pumpkin and green food dye would mesh together– I didn’t want an icky green-brown mess of oats! Instead, I used a green bowl.
In the mix:
- 1/3 cup dry oats
- 1/4 cup wheat berries
- 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed meal
- 1/3 cup vanilla hemp milk
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 of a Quaker Simple Harvest All Natural Trail Mix bar (I ate the other half before my run)
- 2 spoonfuls of Teddie peanut butter
I love SPRING flowers! 
Lunch Preview
For lunch today, I have leftover pasta with marinara and a turkey meatball, Stonyfield yogurt + PB Puffins, and an apple. It’s not a very pretty lunch, but I’m sure it will taste delicious and fill me up.
Workout X 2
This morning’s workout was a 4 mile run (38:59/9:44 pace) + 20 minutes of Power Yoga #2 from YogaDownload.com for Day 17 of the Yoga Challenge.
My run was exhausting this morning! My legs felt like a million pounds, but I made it all 4 miles… just barely! I didn’t have a treadmill workout like I usually do, which may have made the run feel extra tiring. Usually, a treadmill workout with ever-changing speeds and inclines keeps me interested and motivated. I guess I was lacking this “mental focus” during my running this morning. 
My Power Yoga session was a challenging intermediate/advanced class. I liked the intensity of this class. It was more active than my usual Hatha/flow-type classes that I have been doing lately. It made me feel strong while doing some of the poses– almost like I was building muscle at that very moment.
Last night, Basic Training was a hundred times better than the previous week! I’m not sure if the instructor was nervous or what last class, but he got it together this week. He had much more of a “game plan” and worked us hard! It’s still not a non-stop, bootcamp-style class, but it’s slowly moving in that direction. I hope he’s just easing us into it.
The best part of last night’s Basic Training class was finishing with 100 sit-ups with an 8 lb medicine ball and 100 pushups. I have never, ever done 100 push-ups (in one day) in my life! Of course, 90 of them were on my knees and my form was “snake-ish” near the end, but I did it! I was seriously ready to quit around 40, but with a little encouragement from my wonderful partner (Mr. Mal), I did all 100! I’m actually pretty proud of this accomplishment!
Quaker All Natural Goodies
After the gym last night, I arrived home to a lovely box of goodies from Quaker. As a thank you for hosting the Quaker All Natural Giveaway on the blog, Quaker sent me my very own goodie box! Inside was an awesome organic cotton robe, slippers, and a few boxes of their newest Simple Harvest All Natural Trail Mix bars! Thank you, Quaker! I haven’t had a robe since I was a kid, so I am excited to use this one on cold mornings.
The Simple Harvest bars are pretty awesome, too! The bar is made with wholesome grains (oats, wheat, and barley) as well as dried cranberries, chocolate chunks, almonds, and peanuts. For 150 calories, the bar was a tad on the small side, but it was like eating dessert!
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Yoga Challenge: Back on Track
I apologize for slacking with the Yoga Challenge. My weekend was super busy, but I should have been able to squeeze in at least 20 minutes of yoga, right? Oh well, it’s all in the past, and I now am ready to move forward.
For the second half of the Yoga Challenge, my goals are to increase the duration of my yoga practice (most days of the week) and try some in-person classes, including Bikram yoga (aka “hot yoga”). (I might as well finish the Yoga Challenge with a bang! 
) Now that I have been practicing alone for two weeks, I feel much more confident in my physical and mental yoga abilities. Not that I really care about making a fool of myself at a yoga class, but I want to make sure I got as much as I could out of an actual class, especially since I will be paying extra for it! (None of the yoga classes at the Y work with my schedule!)
What is your goal(s) for the second half of the Yoga Challenge?
Question of the Day
What’s your favorite hometown food?
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I love that first photo of your daffodils! Gorg! Yummy lunch too! ((leftovers))
Today was back to some gentle hatha after the power yoga yesterday. My goal for the second half is to be more varied in my practice and incorporate different poses and postures that I may not have done as much.
I would try Baptiste over bikram – both are nice but Baptiste has more variety and you can go at your own pace. Be careful, the heat can you give you a false sense of flexibility which can make you overextend yourself, thus getting injured.
My favorite hometown food isn’t even from my family. It is my friend Laura’s grandmother’s eggplant parmesan. If I had to pick a last meal that would be it.
Tina, I’m interested to see what you think of bikram! I’ve been taking yoga for about a year and a half and first tried bikram in January. I love it!!!! I go several times a week and a friend of mine is also hooked on it now.
A tip – At first, the heat might freak you out…try to get there early – I usually arrive 30 minutes early so I can relax and acclimate to the room…I think this really helps. Also hydrate prior to going. Good luck!!
And thanks for the info on your training plan! My friend and I are starting 4/1!
I’m from long island and I have to say bagels are A-MAZING here. I’m the worst bagel snob, my number 1 indulgence is a soft but crunchy (how DO they accomplish that?!) Everything Bagel w low fat veggie cream cheese from home
My challenge for yoga is to do a Bikram yoga class. I guess my ultimate challenge is to try to fit yoga in everyday. It gets hard though.
Hey Tina! Hope you’re having a great day, I just had to comment on Bikram. I think you’ll like it. I just started taking classes last week to supplement my running both because I never stretch as much as I should and I heard it was an amazing experience. I love it! I definitely recommend water and don’t be afraid if you feel dizzy for a lot of the class, it’s normal. Also, it is true the teachers are typically kind of harsh like an above commenter said, but it’s because they are trying to push you past your comfort zone, which is the point of Bikram. I hope you like it, definitely give it a try, you feel so good after! Oh, and all the poses are very basic poses that you don’t need to be familiar with before you go.
@Lisa: My “usual” incline varies from 1.0 – 2.0. I start at 2.0 and sometimes finish at that incline, but other times, I get tired and switch between 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0.
that last photo with the oatmeal bowl + spring flowers is beaaaaaauuuutiful!
I’d like to take a real live yoga class too! I’d also like to find other yoga DVDs that are strength challenging (as opposed to crazy flexibility challenging).
Today I did ~25 minutes of free flow yoga..planks, downward dog, warriors, half moon, awkward chair…and more! Fun!
My update is a little late – that’s what I get for doing yoga before bed
Tonight I did the Gentle Hatha #1 from Yoga Downloads. Very relaxing and just what my body needed after all the running I’ve been doing. I also had a stomach ache when I started and by the end of my 20 minute session, it was gone!
Beautiful spring flowers!!
I really love the locally grown peanut butters from back home in ‘bama.
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