can I just get some veggies? + my favorite snacks

Let me start off by sharing a huge accomplishment for me.  I ran 10 miles straight Sunday morning without stopping.  Not even for a teeny tiny bit.  I ended up completing 10.96 miles in 1:43:36.  The KC Half is less than a week away, bring on the 13.1!  I'm incredibly nervous, but so excited.  Hopefully I can have a great race.

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Alright, onto the veggie portion of my title.  Ryann and I traveled to Georgia with my parents for a little vacation, since Chris is working, oh, all the time.  We have been going out to dinner every night, of course.  My question, seriously, where the heck are the veggies??  Almost every restaurant we've been to has maybe one real vegetable option (usually green beans, generally the canned variety, gag me) or a lame little side salad.  The rest of the food is great, but some of us don't want to eat fried everything!  I know there are ways to solve this problem (not eat out all the time, of course) but really.  I'm surprised that there are so few even remotely healthy side options available.  I asked at one restaurant if I could sub fruit or corn for the fries in the kids meal for Ryann, they had neither.  Lame.

On to my favorite snacks.  A reader e-mailed asking me to share a weeks worth of my food diary for the most part so they could get some healthy snack ideas.  Honestly?  I haven't been doing a great job of actually tracking everything I'm eating.  Or I give up around 3pm and don't write stuff down.  Meaning my food log is pretty sporadic, and not all that helpful.  So instead I decided to share a list of relatively healthy snacks that are my go to during those between meal fillers.

• 1 medium apple and a stick of light string cheese
• a handful of red grapes plus 10 raw almonds
• carrot 'chips' and guacamole
• carrot 'chips' with a mix of salsa and a Chipolte Laughing Cow cheese wedge
• carrot sticks and sunflower seed butter
• Dannon Light & Fit Strawberry Yogurt with 1/2 cup Quaker Oatmeal Squares
• air popped popcorn with a serving of dark chocolate chips
• Trader Joe's Tomato Basil Hummus with homemade Tortilla Chips (from a La Tortilla Factory tortilla)
• 3 hard boiled egg whites and half a banana
• a small muffin or slice of whatever baked good we have on hand

For me, keeping in my snacks in check means keeping only healthy things in the house.  If we have junk food in the house I crave it, no matter how hungry (or not hungry) I am.  So even if I try to be good and eat my healthy snack, I'll grab a handful of chips later anyway.  Also drinking water really does help curb my cravings and feelings of hunger.  Obviously if I truly am hungry I am going to eat something, but most of the time I'm just bored and thirsty, so if I feel my stomach rumbling when I think it shouldn't be, I'll drink a bottle of water and give it 15 minutes.  It usually helps.

Sorry this post is short and lame (you're probably sick of my long run recaps anyway).  It's 11:52 Sunday night, and we have to be out the door by 7:30 AM to catch our flight back to KC.  I'm not thinking clearly and need to get some sleep!   

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