Lack of motivation

Bonsoir mes belles! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend! Whenever I miss a day of posting, I feel like I have so much to catch up on. It was a pretty productive weekend, so I’ll give you the speed version!

My friend’s 21^st birthday party Friday night was a lot of fun! I saw a bunch of people haven’t seen since graduating nearly two years ago, which is always nice.

 

My vegan dream bars were a hit! I got the original recipe from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, but made plenty of modifications:

Chocolatey Vegan Seven Layer Bars

(adapted from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch)

16 crushed vegan sandwich cookies (I used Newman’s Os)

¼ cup melted coconut oil

1/3 c turbinado sugar

¾ c natural peanut butter (I used Trader Joe’s

12 oz package vegan chocolate chips, divided (I used Trader Joe’s)

½ c slivered almonds

½ c chopped walnuts

1 c shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, depending on preference)

1 can light coconut milk

¼ c agave nectar

2 T arrowroot powder

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Thoroughly combine cookie crumbs, coconut oil and turbinado sugar and press into the bottom of an 8x8 inch pan. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes.
• Melt peanut butter by heating in microwave for 45 seconds at 50% power. Drizzle over cookie crumb mixture.
• Melt half of the chocolate chips (I used the microwave on 50% power again, stirring frequently), and drizzle over peanut butter.
• Sprinkle slivered almonds, then coconut, then walnuts, then remaining chocolate chips over base.
• In a separate bowl, combine coconut milk, agave and arrowroot powder. Pour evenly over other ingredients.
• Bake at 350 for 40 minutes, or until coconut milk is set.
• Wait until completely cooled before cutting, and store in freezer for best results.

On Saturday, I spent an easy hour on the elliptical (resistance level 1) while catching up on my reality TV, then spent the rest of the day addressing my brother’s wedding invitations and organizing my room (yes, still). Eats included:

TJ’s High Fiber cereal, fresh raspberries, almond milk

Crack wrap with Daiya, Sabra spinach artichoke hummus and tomato, plus a cinnamon topped apple and some almonds

Millet puffs in almond milk

I went to Mike’s house for dinner, where we had grilled pizza, roasted veggies and salad. For dessert, we experimented with his mom’s Vitamix to make an amazing smoothie of green apple, mango, pineapple, spinach and raspberries:

 

After seeing this thing in action, I finally understand the obsession! Our blender is actually on its last legs, but when I mentioned a Vita to my dad, he just laughed at me. In my dreams, I guess.

Breakfast was something different this morning, since my blueberry almond loaf needed to be finished:

With Naturally More vanilla almond butter, TJ’s strawberry preserves, and a banana

It was raining when I went to church, but by the time I got home it was starting to clear up. I headed out in hopes of accomplishing ten miles, but returned after a mere three because my bad knee was bothering me. It didn’t hurt, it just didn’t feel right...I felt like my body was just begging me to stop pushing it, so I did. To be completely honest, I’m having serious second thoughts about my half this coming Saturday. I’ve completely under prepared for it, skipping runs because of sickness, weather and general lack of motivation, and I don’t want to get discouraged halfway through when I realize that I’ve gotten slower, not faster in the last month. It’s my own doing, but I feel like I was overzealous in signing up for another race so soon after my first, without any breaks from training in between. I want to be excited for a race, not dread it, and in retrospect I definitely should have given myself a more time to get motivated again.

Lunch was a huge salad with lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, heaps of Daiya cheese and salsa. I also had a huge bowl of strawberries with chocolate sauce:

This afternoon I went to a tasting for my brother’s fiance’s bridal shower, where I nibbled on some fruit, green salad and a cannoli. Most of the dishes were meat or egg based, so when I got home I ate an unpictured apple with peanut butter while cooking up a storm.

First, I got adventurous and improvised a batch of coconut butter cookies, which turned out delicious but way too crumbly. I’m going to see if I can tweak the recipe a bit before sharing it, but they definitely lived up to the coconut butter name!

I also whipped up some homemade babaghanouj and pita chips from The Candle Café Cookbook as a dinner appetizer:

And roasted some veggies in EVOO and sea salt to serve as a side dish:

My parents had a Kashi pizza with meat on it, so I opted for some TJ’s black bean soup instead, which I doctored up with tomatoes, hummus and salsa:

And dessert was a coconut butter cookie, an apple and a Trader Joe’s dark chocolate stick:

Tonight’s agenda includes sitting on the couch with tea, Google reader, and some mindless TV. Perfect way to end a week. Have a wonderful Monday, loves!

Have you ever lacked motivation before a race? What did you end up doing- pushing yourself through, or withdrawing? I don’t really want to bow out, but at the same time I don’t want to dread something that’s supposed to be fun!

PS- Several of you asked where I got the sundress in my last post. I bought it at Ralph Lauren Rugby last year, and while it’s not still available, there’s a similar one here.