No Pudge Fudge Brownies

If you love chocolate, brownies, or chocolate yogurt then you have got to try No Pudge Fudge Brownies (if you haven't already). They are beyond delicious. They aren't sold at very many grocery stores because they are considered a special request item. When I first heard about them about 2 years ago, they were only sold at Albertson's. I never shop at Albertson's, but I would make a special trip there just to get a box of this brownie mix. I had to run to United Supermarket on Tuesday and I decided to check and see if they carry it now. Yep! They do! They only have 2 out of the 4 flavors, but it's the 2 flavors I wanted, lol. So I bought a box of Original and a box of Cappuccino. They also have Mint and Raspberry. So what are they? They are fat free brownies made with nonfat vanilla yogurt. You can make the whole box or make single servings. The calories to make them as single servings is less than if you were to make the pan then divide it up (unless I guess you divided them really small). I just mix 2 tbsp brownie mix with 1 tbsp vanilla yogurt in a bowl then microwave for 1 minute. It's so fudgy and gooey. I should have taken a picture last night when I made...TWO. (Hey, I had the calories for them, lol) Anyway, try them out! They're delicious. The website also has lots of different types of recipes.

Now my breakfast is not so delicious. :( I forgot that I didn't have enough milk left at school to make my banana bread oatmeal so I didn't grab any milk from home. I don't have anything else at school to make for breakfast so I had to make the oatmeal with only 1/3 cup milk. It is SO dry, clumpy, and hard to get down. I know I need to get breakfast in or I will have a headache, be sluggish, and just need a nap. So I am forcing myself to eat it, but it is definitely a challenge. Just to show you, here's what my delicious disgusting oatmeal looks like. Yuck!

I used my Garmin Forerunner yesterday. I like it! My wrists are tiny though so the watch is way too big and ends up practically on my hand when I work out. I decided to go to the trail at the lake near my house instead of running on the trail outside of school. You see, I'm still a fatty. So my belly jiggles a ton when I run. When I was loading my car and turning on my watch, there were a lot of students still outside of the school so I decided against letting the toughest critics see me run. I can only imagine the things they would say to me the next day. Middle school kids are brutual. So I drove to the trail. It was hot and windy outside. I turned on the Garmin, waited for it to load, and got ready to run. I always start with a warm up walk. So I'm walking and I take a look at the watch. It's telling me my pace, but not telling me the distance or the time. Both said a big fat 0! So I had to stop to figure out what I did wrong. Turns out, I pressed the lap button instead of the start button. So I was walking and it wasn't even started! Ugh. So then I figure it out and take off again. I'm about to start running so I look down and realize that I don't care what my heart rate is, I want to see calories burned! So I had to stop again and fix that. Now I'm good to go!

Now that I did my warm up walk (even though some of it wasn't even recorded!) I began to run. I only ran 0.25 miles before my right leg was burning so bad. This is the one I always get shin splints in. I don't know what to do. I've rested, I do the stretches and strength routines I've found online for shin splints, I bought new shoes, and a shin guard that was highly recommended. If my leg keeps acting up, I feel like I'll always be a walker and never get to run a race like I want. It really makes me sad, but I am going to keep trying. So I stopped running, but kept up the speed walking. I kept looking at my pace to make sure I was going at least a certain speed. I think I'll set alerts for that today. I set the Garmin to alert me when I hit 1.5 miles so that I could turn around and head back the other way to total 3 miles. Well, the 1.5 mark (which was not my starting point since I kept messing up the watch) was in a weird place. I saw this neat bridge ahead of me so I decided to walk to that then turn around. It was about 1.65 miles so I got to the bridge thing, paused my Garmin and stretched my leg for 30 seconds, then took off again. There's benches a long the path so that people can stop and take a break. I don't know how far apart they are, but every time a bench was near, I'd tell myself to make it to that bench and then I could take a break. Well, every time I got to that bench, I would tell myself to just keep going to the next bench. I'm pretty good mentally when it comes to working out. I really motivate myself and push myself. I kept walking faster and if my pace dropped lower than I wanted it to, I could easily motivate myself to pick it back up.

I was hot, I was tired, I was breathing hard (but correctly), but I could have ran more if it weren't for my leg. I think that's why I get SO disappointed about my leg. It just feels like a big block of burning cement holding me back. :( I continued to speed walk. When I hit the 3 mile mark, I was still a good ways from my car since I had walked to the 1.65 mile mark instead of just 1.5 and since I had started the clock a good ways away from my car. Whoops. So I ended up back at my car at 3.35 miles. Then I saw that I may as well just finish a complete 1 hour work out. So I walked passed my car to the road and then turned around. I ended up doing 3.73 miles in 60 minutes. I know that's s...l...o...w, but normally I walk/jog 3 miles on the treadmill at the gym in 50 minutes and my pace is much slower! So I beat  my 3 mile time and I was WALKING!

I can't decide where I want to do my work out today. I don't want to drive all the way to the lake again because I didn't end up picking Brynlee up until 5pm and that's so late! Normally I work out and then pick her up by 4:30 because the sitter is near the gym. Hmm. I'll have to find a place that's in the middle.

Are you good at motivating yourself when you work out? Do you talk to yourself to pump yourself up?