Phew, I am so excited for a day of rest tomorrow!

I’ve enjoyed some awesome workouts with Sara this week including a return to spinning and a focus on a constant date with the weight training area. But, after a week of tough classes, runs, and lifting I am looking forward to sleeping in until 7:45 tomorrow morning!

This morning I enjoyed a breakfast treat from Energy Kitchen! It’s been ages since I last tried Energy Kitchen so I thought it was worth another try; especially since I’m trying to incorporate more protein into my diet.

While their food is not the most flavorful, I do love the ingredients, cooking process, and final product. You get exactly what you order and their are really no surprises. For example, this mornings veggie egg wrap didn’t disappoint since it was 3 veggies (spinach, tomato, mushrooms) with five egg whites wrapped in a low carbohydrate whole wheat wrap!

This wrap kept me energized and satiated until nearly 2pm! I couldn’t believe I forgot to eat lunch at my normal 12:30 time since my stomach wasn’t growling!

I really need to remember that there are two locations conveniently located near my office and home. This would make a perfect dinner option on busy nights or on my way to Junior League meetings!

In other exciting news, the first two days of Lent have gone well thus far and I’m already feeling energized. For those of you who didn’t see, I chose to give up processed sweets for the fourth year in a row. I say processed sweets because I am not giving up sugar. I will still eat fruit on a daily basis and am primarily focused on cookies, candies, etc that have been haunting me in my office.

Luckily, I don’t feel like these women yet.

Since a couple of readers have asked how I plan to do this without feeling deprived I thought I’d share a few of my tips:

• Focus on drinking a lot of water the first few days, especially during times when I normally munched on office treats
• Avoid the office kitchen area when possible as this is where all the cookies are kept
• Bring plenty of fruit to work each day and have it displayed on my desk so I can reach for a banana, apple, or orange when I’m craving sugar
• Focus on how much better I feel since I’m not experiencing constant sugar highs and lows

I know I’m only two days in but so far so good!

Last but not least, I finally made it official today! I’ll be running the Seattle Half Marathon with my friend Amy this June!

Amy and I actually started running races together back in 2006 when we lived in Philadelphia and DC. We loved training “virtually” and would talk about our weekly runs during our phone dates and then run races every few months together.  In fact, we ran our first half marathon together back in November of 2007! I can’t believe we’ve run so many races together and yet let so much time pass since our last race! 

• Philadelphia Marathon 8k (11/06)
• NYRR Holiday 5 Miler (12/06)
• Valley Forge Revolutionary Run 5 miler (4/07)
• Jefferson Hospital Distance Run Half Marathon (9/07)
• Thunder Road Half Marathon (12/07)
• Broad Street Run (5/08)
• ING Philadelphia Distance Run (9/08)
• Philadelphia Half Marathon (11/08)
• Thunder Road Half Marathon (12/08)

It’s been a while since we ran a race together so I can’t wait for this half! In fact, seeing this list and talking with Bo tonight, I think I’d love to make it a goal to run a race in every state. While running a half or full in every state would be pretty tough, I think running a race is far more attainable. In fact, I have a pretty good start so far:

• Georgia
• Pennsylvania
• New York
• Washington, DC (Cherry Blossom and National Half)
• North Carolina 
• Washington (Seattle Half Marathon)

Question: In which state would you most like to run a race?