WIAW: Unexpected Wins

Hello guys, hope the week is treating you well! Of course I am back today for another WIAW!

These are my eats and goings on from yesterday. I had a work meeting mid morning and was working from home around that, so I thought I’d get a run in first thing with having a bit more time. As I missed my long run at the weekend I had considered running it yesterday, but I just really did not have the motivation. I am struggling a bit with my long runs at the moment, especially when the weather has been so poor! Before I left I had my warm water and lemon and half a banana for some fuel:

I managed to do just under 6.5 miles which I was really pleased with. I have no problem doing shorter distances like 3 or 4 miles but when it comes to the longer ones I’m finding it very difficult to get motivated.

I am going to try and power through, but I’m also considering taking a little long distance running break as well as taking some of my own motivation advice! I am well prepared in terms of training for the Great North Run Half Marathon and that’s not until September so I can afford to relax things a bit. Last thing I want to do is burn out mentally or physically. Any way, I did cheer myself up with an amazing breakfast:

I made a thick socca pancake using 1/3 cup of gram flour, cinnamon, vanilla stevia, a pinch of baking powder and 1/2 cup of water. I fried that in my little pan and it turned out brilliantly. I topped it with a tbsp of almond butter and the other half of the banana. I also made a smoothie with 1 cup of unsweetened soy milk, 2 peaches and some frozen blueberries which was absolutely lovely. Of course there was also coffee!

Then I got ready to head out for my meeting, OOTD:

Trench style coat: Warehouse, basic tee: H&M, necklaces: Warehouse, ring: Topshop, black ankle length trousers: Zara, cream flats: Next, bag: Accessorize

I’m so in love with that coat! Its a really flattering fit and is good for the unfortunate rainy weather we’ve been having.

I got home at lunch time and made myself a tasty salad:

This contained romaine, cucumber, red pepper, red onion, black beans and half an avocado. After that I got settled down with my laptop but not long after I was starting to get hungry again so I made a Mocha Protein Frappe:

The best thing about working from home is having access to my blender! I just whipped up some ice, chocolate protein powder, instant coffee, cocoa powder, water and a pinch of xanthan gum with some stevia to sweeten. It turned out so creamy and give me a great afternoon lift!

Even though I’d worked out in the morning I was registered for my Body Pump class and since I was feeling pretty good I didn’t want to miss it. I made sure I had a decent late afternoon snack to fuel me up:

2 wholegrain rice cakes topped with 2 tbsp Peanut Butter & Co Smooth Operator (i.e. the best peanut butter in the world) and a sliced pink lady apple. Then I was off to Body Pump and surprisingly I was full of energy – perhaps thanks to that mocha! I had expected the class to be a killer but I was ok and only dropped my weights for the back track, although when I actually did it I think I could have easily managed my normal weights, win! Still loving the new squat and lunge track too :-)

I’ve been having a serious craving for a good bean burger recently so while I was making my lunch earlier I’d decided to make some ready for dinner. When I’d actually made them I thought they were a total recipe fail, they were very ‘wet’ and I didn’t think they’d hold together at all. I baked them before I left for body pump thinking they would need quite a while in the oven to be edible but they actually turned out fantastically!

I had one in a Food Doctor seeded pitta with spinach and ketchup along side half a baked sweet potato. Talk about hitting the spot, this was so good!

After dinner I had a little sweet snack of some raw chocolate covered goji berries and a sliced persimmon:

A little later, as is my normal eating pattern now, I had a big Cherry Vanilla Sea Salt Protein Smoothie in a bowl!

Yes I’m still enjoying these, but sans Popchips topping as unfortunately I have ran out!

I also had a big mug of Kuricha tea:

Enjoyed while I crashed out on the sofa and the day caught up with me! Throughout the day there was also lots of water and plain green tea of course :-)

I was really surprised at the level of energy I had considering how much I’d worked out, and equally surprised at how well those bean burgers turned out, a couple of unexpected wins! As for the running motivation, well I’m trying not to be too negative about it all. I think I’ll be seeing how I go and keep my fingers crossed for some sunshine!

When did you last have an ‘unexpected win’? How do you deal with lost motivation?