21 degrees...

...feels like 6. According to the weather.com, that is the current temperature in New York City. Sounds like someone should have checked the weather before walking to the gym in shorts. Smart move, Gabriela, smart move. Anyway, thank you so much for all your birthday wishes- you really know how to make a girl smile! I loved hearing about all your favorite cakes and celebrations!

Breakfast yesterday was a bowl of Nature's Path SmartBran cereal, topped with Himalania Antioxidant Goji berry mix and unsweetened Almond Dream, eaten while catching up on all of your glorious lives:

My tummy was already starting to rumble when I left for class, so I munched on my last, sad brown banana  topped with cashew butter while walking out the door. From the lobby of my building, I was greeted with what seemed like a blizzard...it was a chilly walk to class! For some reason, walking in the snow always reminds me of My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music: "Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes/ Silver white winters that melt into springs/ these are a few of my favorite things!" No kidding. As Anna posted about yesterday, nothing gets me through winter besides the promise of warm weather in a few months!

Between classes, I dashed home to make a lunch from my dwindling fridge supplies. Lo and behold, it had stopped snowing within just an hour and a half, and the sun was even peeking out (by noon, there wasn't a cloud in the sky). Weird.

  

Gardenburger GardenVegan patty, Ezekiel english muffin with yellow mustard and hot sauce, giant sliced tomato, carrots and Fuji.

Today was one of those "bottomless pit" days, which I seem to have had in common with a certain hungry hippie. This feast didn't quite fill be up, so I also munched a huge Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip protein bar (Averie's recipe). These bad boys are dangerous...I only have a few left, and I promised some to Mike. Gotta practice some self control if I want to get them to him!

In my second class, I was hungry again (less than two hours after lunch!), so I munched a Clif Banana Nut Bread bar to fuel me through my workout:

At the gym, I did an easy hour on the elliptical while watching trashy E! specials. It's been forever since I've caught up on my gossip :)

I came home to a post-workout snackage of Cranberry Synergy, half a box of Mary's Crack and a mini cashew cookie Lara:

 
Kombucha + crack handful (x3) + baby Lara

I relaxed for a bit before meeting Jillian at Eva's for an early dinner. It's a health food restaurant attached to a store that sells exclusively protein powder. The walls are plastered with pictures of bodybuilders. Ironically, they make some of the best vegetarian meals around. Seriously. I have dreams about this salad:

Non-dairy vegetarian combination salad: Falafel, eggplant salad, hummus, brown rice, olives, sliced lemon and tossed greens. Eaten with a whole wheat pita and hot sauce.

The best part is that this sucker costs less than nine bucks and is so huge that it keeps you full for hours. This was the first time I'd been satisfied all day! After dinner, I headed to my friend Zoe's apartment to hang out and have a low-key night. Between the two of us, an entire Lindt 85% Dark Chocolate bar and half a container of dried prunes were consumed. We're bizarre, I know. I came home hungry yet again, taming the beast with another of Averie's bars. Last one, I promise...the remaining three are for the boy! Looking back on today, I'm realizing the fruit and veg intake was pretty low....maybe it's the hunger culprit?

This morning, I made a breakfast identical to yesterday's before taking my very chilly walk to the gym. I don't think my legs could have hated me any more. As per Gina's plan, I did:

15 minute warmup on the elliptical
10 overhead presses (20 lb)
12 wall push ups
20 second plank
12 bicep curls (10 lb)
10 tricep dips
15 reverse medicine ball crunches (10 lb ball)
20 second reverse plank
50 regular crunches
   Repeated x3

After the gym, I headed to Health and Harmony in the West Village to restock my dwindling food supplies. It was a pretty large trip, and while I left the store quite a bit poorer, I'm happy with my finds. Among the goods are some new cereal, hummus, Ezekiel, tempeh, Amy's soups, and Dr. Praeger's burgers. Yum! I also snagged some goods for my secret bloggie Valentine...yay :)

Lunch was an oldie but goodie:

 

Peanut Butter & Co. Mighty Maple on Ezekiel bread with a sliced banana and cinnamon; Fuji apple, baby carrots and the rest of the banana on the side

For dessert, I broke into this dark chocolate bar Mike gave me:

Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate

In other news, the April 25 half marathon I signed up for is 12 weeks away from Sunday! I've been looking for a training plan and a lot of blogs seem to recommend Hal Higdon's schedule. I'm capable of running pretty long as is, so I'm looking at the intermediate schedule...any thoughts/advice? I'd love to hear what experienced runners think! Thanks everyone!

Have you ever run a race? What kind/distance?