Treadmill workout and clean trail mix

It was raining and yucky last night (much like it is this morning) so I took to the treadmill for my 4 mile run. I know I just wrote a post about running in the elements but I’m just not ready to run in the rain yet. Lay off! Also, I saw a treadmill workout I wanted to try on Peanut Butter Fingers and figured yesterday was as good a day as any to try it out.

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I knew the middle of this workout would get sketch for me. When I sprint for 1 minute during my personal training sessions, I usually sprint at level 8 and it really gets my heart a racin'. So when I saw this was level 6.5, then 7, then 8, then 6, then 8 (again?!) then 7 (really?!), and then finally 6.5, I was prepared to alter it. However, I only had to take two 30-second breaks, so I only stopped for a total of 1 minute for the whole thing. And I made up for it at the end when I ran a final quarter mile at 6.5 to round out 4 miles. My time was about 42 minutes so not too bad for a pretty challenging workout.

I haven’t cooked much lately because I’m pissed about my lack of weight loss and have lost my will to cook. No really, I’m legit pissed and ready to rumble. However, I still want to share a recipe I found for clean trail mix. I haven't made it yet but I will just as soon as I have enough money to buy groceries. Sad, but true.

Healthy, Hearty Trail Mix

serving size: 1/4 cup

Choose 1/4 cup of 8 of the below ingredients. Use unsweetened dried fruit and unsalted, unroasted nuts.

mini pretzels

sunflower seeds

dried cranberries

dried apricots

raisins

dried pineapple

Kashi Go-Lean cereal or other high-protein, no-fat, no-sugar-added cereal

dried cherries

almonds

walnuts

cashews

mini dark chocolate chips

Coating

1 1/2 tbsp melted do-it-yourself olive-butter spread (see below)

1 tsp / 5 ml Worcestershire sauce
dash of seasoning salt (optional)
dash of garlic powder
dash hot pepper sauce

If using the coating:

1. Preheat oven to 250°F. 

2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

3. In a large bowl, combine ¼ cup each of eight ingredients of your choice. 

4. In a small bowl, whisk melted olive butter spread and seasonings. Pour the liquid mixture over the ingredients in the large bowl. Toss until all ingredients are well coated. 

5. Bake for 25 minutes, tossing every 8 minutes to ensure your trail mix is toasted evenly.

If not using the coating:

Combine 1/4 cup each of the 8 ingredients of your choice.

Do-it-yourself olive-butter spread

Ingredients
½ cup low-salt butter at room temperature
 ½ cup extra virgin olive oil

Preparation
1. Place both ingredients in a food processor. Process until well combined. The mixture should resemble thick yogurt.



I can't wait to make multiple varieties of this stuff and eat it with my daily Greek yogurt.