The laundry is almost caught up, errands have been run, vacation photos ordered, and I am feeling good.

My Monday started off with my typical pre-run breakfast. I really missed my peanut butter and banana combo while I was away and was thrilled to have it this morning. Such simple pleasures I have.

After breakfast, I hit the pavement and completed a not so friendly 5-mile run. I felt like vacation has kicked my butt. I really think it was all in my head this morning and my brain kept flashing negative talk at me. I tried my best to turn the negative head talk into positive talk, but sometime it’s hard. I had to take a couple of walk breaks but still managed to finish at  a little over a 9-minute mile pace which for me is pretty good. I am hoping that today was just a “bad” run day and that my mileage and endurance progression will pick up again now that I am home and eating normal.

For lunch, I piled my plate high with veggies. In the mix was mixed greens, tomato, onion, chickpeas, feta cheese, broccoli, olives, and Newman’s Own Lite Honey Mustard.

Oh yes, I missed these salads too. I did eat salads while on vacation, but they weren’t the same. I snapped photos of a few of my salads while in D.R.

Not too shabby, right? Almost every day, they offered a salad bar that included cabbage, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, and then they mixed up other toppings from day to day (corn, peas, olives, etc). They had a few choices for dressings but I veered toward one in particular that was some sort of vinegar based mix with diced tomatoes and onions. It was light and refreshing.

The bread in the photos above was total awesomeness. I should probably try to recreate it at home. I am 95% sure that they were rosemary buns and I tried to enjoy at least one daily (along with some other freshly baked breads).

Although I tried to make healthy decisions on the trip, I also indulged in desserts daily. They had some interesting ones that I couldn’t quite figure out but noticed that many of the desserts had white rice baked into them.

**Side note: I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I ate a fish one night called Mori while at the Caribbean themed restaurant at our resort. I googled it and found out it is shark. Eek! I ate shark. That’s about as adventurous I get in the meat department. It WAS very good, though.

Now that I am back home, I am on a mission to get back on track with my healthy eating habits. Around Easter time, I lost a little control over my sweet tooth again. I have noticed that when I incorporate more added sugar into my diet like I have been lately, the energy it takes for me to run becomes greater. The last thing I need is for running to be even more difficult for me, and considering I have a half marathon coming up in less than one month (!), it is time to get back on track.

Project cleanse. I am so pumped and so motivated to get my body back to a clean slate. I’m not talking any colon cleanse; absolutely not. I will never do that and will never recommend a colon cleanse as it is highly dangerous and damaging to your digestive system, but I am going to eat as clean as possible and limit processed foods. Notice I said limit processed foods, not omit completely. These are my intentions at least. We’ll see how I hold up.

I am on a rant, and am probably procrastinating tackling the rest of the laundry. I really should really go do it so that I can finally be done with it. Also, I should go pay some attention to this little one.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday! My positive Monday talk is that I have been very productive this morning and am almost caught up with a week’s worth of laundry. I am so happy to be back and thrilled to be sharing my experiences with you. Muah!