Cooking Measurements 1c= * grams

Granulated sugar: 1 cup = 200 grams
Brown sugar: 1 cup, packed = 220 grams
Sifted white flour: 1 cup = 125 grams
White rice, uncooked: 1 cup = 185 grams
White rice, cooked: 1 cup = 175 grams
Butter: 1 cup = 227 grams
Almonds, slivered: 1 cup = 108 grams
Oil: 1 cup = 224 grams
Maple syrup: 1 cup = 322 grams
Milk, non-fat: 1 cup = 245 grams
Milk, sweetened condensed: 306 grams
Broccoli, flowerets: 1 cup = 71 grams
Raisins: 1 cup, packed = 165 grams
Milk, dry: 1 cup = 68 grams
Yogurt: 1 cup = 245 grams
Water: 1 cup = 236 grams
Confectioners sugar: 1 C = 110 g
Cocoa: 1 C = 125 g

Today's life so far...

I never seem to be able to get on or a little under 1,500 calories for the day. Boy am I bushed today was supposed to be like the greatest day for eating; at least I didn't go like 2,800 calories or something. The past week I've been binging and everything and I told myself that for New Years I'm going to watch what I eat. I was close then my mom made some home style pizzas of our culture (Arabic) so yeah I ate like 3 1/2 of the meat pie and 2 of the cheese. I was able to find out how many calories the meat pie had and was shocked it was like 220 calories per pie! The pie was the size of a serving of pancake (3"-4" diameter).

Running today was very... wow it was painful I did dance aerobics the other day and then came out to run and my calves were on fire! I at least got the chance to vindicate myself! I hit Cranbrook and was very confused because our fast runner was going Cranbrook; I was supposed to hit Salem (Salem Drive). So I started running back towards Braintree/ Wise and then I didn't see any big signs so then I ran towards Cranbrook then I still couldn't see Salem so I ran back and forth just trying to see Salem when it hit to me that maybe Salem is past Cranbrook. I figured that maybe it's a five miler because of the bike paths so I ran ahead and found Salem! Yay! So I at least got that down pat. Hopefully I could run that faster.

I found this cool blog called Arabic Bites! It's so cool because lately I've been trying to be in touch with my heritage and everything and learning so many new things of my culture I want to know how to cook some of our foods and I was so happy to come across that blog. I'm thankful for the person who's posting recipes on it and they're doing a real good job with their presentation and how we can understand it.

I seriously need to get going on my homework; I have a Spanish project and English/ biology to study for. Homework is so annoying but I'm going to get going now and become stress free.

Thanks for reading!
-hananabanana

TOTALLY NOT GOOD

Oh... my... gosh! I've been pigging out this whole week and haven't ran for 3 days straight! What am I going to do?

I have to calm down and hopefully on Monday when I meet up with the running gang I'll get back on track but every day I've been sleeping for 12 hours straight. I skipped Friday out of laziness and now I regret that because I need to be in a group to run; it's more motivating.

I need to get more friends on this whole blog thing. I managed to get a lot of friends from calorie-count.com! It's great you get this support for your weight loss and everything and I get to learn my eating habits and what I need to do to eat better/ healthier. I've been on the computer 2 days straight just reading articles. Ughh running on Monday is going to be something!

Has anyone heard of Ambit Energy or something? My dad has joined and people have been making money off the thing. He just started and managed to get one person to join under him. It goes like this:

You join Ambit under someone (visit their website). It's a one time fee of $400 to join and what you do is you get your own website and you have to get people to visit it and join under your name. For every person you gather you get $100. Gather 5 people you get a bonus and upgraded to the next level. The first level is Marketing Consultant. Then Regional, Senior, and then National (I may have skipped one).

Anyone remember how new phone companies broke the phone monopoly during 1990 or something? This Ambit Energy thing is exactly like that. Rather than wasting millions of dollars advertising their product they hire people to do it online. If you read all the stuff and how the program works you'll know it's not a scam or anything; you're working by getting people to join under your name and switch to their company Ambit Electricity has been accepted at your state. If you guys are interested or have any questions visit maquil.energy526.com and if you still have questions post them here and I'll answer them as best as I can.

Thanks for reading!
hananabanana

Ambit... Breaking the Energy Monopoly:

Click here to check out
The Ambit Energy Leaders emPower the Vision!

If you would like to join please visit the site: maquil.energy526.com

One crazy story

Thursday: I had to be one time for Art Awards at Schaumburg Township Library (1st place new artist award)

Today my coach let me run four miles today. FOUR MILES!!!! I was so happy! I was improving and everything but I was so scared too. Everyone else of course was going five miles 'cause that's what they do; they're so good.

So I'm running Schaumburg to Braintree then Braintree past Duxbury to Wise. I've been on Wise for a while then I see Salem Drive. I know they told me to go Salem but I thought since it said Salem Drive that it's not it and I go further.

I see Roselle and I ask a guy and he says if you take a left to Roselle then you hit Schaumburg Rd. And well from past experiences Schaumburg Rd. has always been shorter than Salem so I go further.

I past Jewels Osco and everything and I'm passing Plum Grove now. I'm still running and tired and so freaked out because I don't want to be late for the art show or anything and I DEFINITLEY don't want my parents to get the police calling or anything and right now I'm just running for my life... literally.

I hit Michigan lane and the minute I see "Welcome to Elk Grove" I know I went WAY too far. I stop and ask a guy for directions and he says to go back to Plum Grove and take a right to Schaumburg. I listen to him and when he says "You're this far?" I just got even scared and started to run back knowing that my coach will get soo angry because I've done this before during the summer. I start running back then I walk. I walk because I'm too tired and not talented enough to run this much all at once. At Plum Grove I see a lady in a white truck with her friend. And I ask her if she can give me a ride. She says no and I just take a right to Schaumburg. When you see how far that was though; like the sight of that down hill slope and how never ending it was I was just terrified.

So I'm actually TRYING to get running 'cause I was sooo scared and I was like "If I don't get back the police will be searching for me" and as I'm running that same lady that I talked to just before honked her horn and let me inside. No words can describe how RELIEVED I was. This was like a Christmas miracle I swear; I cried to her for two minutes saying I'm sorry if I troubled her.

She told me the reason she didn't pick me up earlier was that she thought I was a hitch hiker and didn't want me to kill her or anything. That's highly understandable I didn't hold a grudge on her in the first place. She was telling me "when I saw you I knew you weren't a hitch hiker and after dropping my friend I had to come back. But never get into a car with anyone and never ever pick anyone up because you never know they could kill you." She and I were saying how it was sad we have to be paranoid about helping people and then she dropped me off the Schaumburg High School. Her name was Michelle. I hope I never forget her because she's like a saint to me and she didn't steal me or anything. It was 4:30 and we started running at 3:10.

Yeah and I call my mom to pick me up and thankfully she didn't know I was lost. She picks me up and right before we're home I tell her 'cause I feel guilty for hiding this from her and she was shocked and angry but yeah I guess the award cermony thing for getting 1st place in the new artist category at Schaumburg Township Library sort of balances it out. At least I still get to run.


Friday

The next day I told two people and when I was talking to the assistant coach (Mari who's also my geometry teacher) everyone found out and this kid named Paul Brewer who also runs was like "How could you be so stupid, has anyone ever taught you to never get into a car with a stranger?" I wasn't thinking at the time when I was lost! Geeze I didn't want my parents having to pick me up because they'd probably never let me run again.

The whole day I put up with the criticism and I confront Mac. Mac says "Hanan getting lost and getting into a stranger's car; you did everything wrong. Didn't you read the street signs, you've ran on Salem before. If you do this again we'll have to make you run laps around the school." He says some more things I didn't catch but I go to the trainer to stretch my hip and go to the bathroom to wash up.

I come to the group with tears in my eyes and Mac's like "don't cry you'll make me cry" and I just sit down crying with my face covered and say "You're right Mac, I should've known this. People my age know how can't I? I'm an idiot" and he's just like "Well good... at least you learned your lesson" and yeah they're trying to give me "easy" road runs so I don't get lost because as everyone can see I can't handle a complicated one. I do four miles going Knollwood.

I feel stupid and after I run I find out that on Thursday (when I got lost) I ran five miles. I was impressed but angry because I was an idiot. My brother who's a year younger knows streets and this sort of things and I don't; I'm going to have to study maps.

That's my story and yeah I don't know what to say except again I feel stupid.

Conference gave me the cold

Stupid cold and the fact that you could get sick.

I'm soo annoyed because I made an idiot of myself at Conference; I cheered real loud for Schaumburg which made my throat hurt in the end and that I was cheering for other teams too and one of our runners heard me and got mad. Yeah as always mistakes are made and that's the last time I'm cheering much during a meet.

Frosh/ Soph came 7 out of 12

Junior/Varsity came 7 out of 12

and Varsity came in like higher than 7 maybe I forgot anyway Hoffman Estates Varsity girls get 1st place in Conference after 20 years! Wow congrats to them! Still wish Schaumburg was up there though; oh well hopefully we're better next year. Paletine varsity boys get 1st place (of course this is THEIR running coarse) but whatever and Hersey had top runners across the board and Conant was up there and so was Prospect but Kally Daltin was hurting but if she felt good she would've won the race easily.

All I have to say about that now time to finish Biology homework.

-Bananas

passion and sincerity calls for support

Yesterday something happened to me and it was at Cross Country practice.

Mac was reviewing how we all did in the Lake Park invite. We applauded Emily Gallop for running 45 seconds better and being 4th out of god knows how many and Angela for running about 2 minutes better than last year. I was happy for them and applauded and all of a sudden Mac says "But you know what you guys, I make fun of Hanan a lot."....OK?
"I don't mean to make fun of her but I do because I make fun of people I like. She was sad on the bus on Saturday for I don't know why. It's people like her that inspires me to run. She comes to practice everyday with a smile, well so does Emily, and is always eager to improve. She's come a long way since the summer and I'm very proud of her." This is the part when I started getting tears in my eyes. He said some more things in it but I wasn't able to catch it all. I didn't expect this but Mac really gave me credit and all I wanted to say was "What about the other girls?" but after the whole scene he just said "Enough of this mushiness. Let's get to crunches"

I always liked Mac. Well during the summer I was kind of not used to how hard he can be on athletes but I realized he's only that way because he believes in you. When Mac sets a goal for you he thought it out through and believes that if you the runner practice you'll get there in no time. Mac taught me to never cut myself short and always try hard. Don't ever give up.

I feel sort of spoiled at the moment because I'm getting so much support. Passion and sincerity calls for some support I guess but yea Mac really made my day and I told him thank you and said "I have a goal of being able to run like Emily one day." He replies. "Well work hard and hopefully you'll get there."

my inspiration

If anyone cares to read about this, here it is.

My inspiration as a runner.

Well during the end of 7th grade a girl asked if I would like to join track. I accept the challenge knowing that I've never really done sports and that I'm really bad at them, especially running.

So during that time my coach had be run just half a mile for races, which was OK since I was scared of running half a mile and a mile. I really stunk for the half mile always ending up last and walking some of it.

8th grade comes and I join Cross Country. I wanted to start loosing weight and feeling great and just getting active. The reaction that most of the guys had anyway was "Are you kidding me?" While we would just run laps in the back of Keller Junior High where we have "the hill" a guy tells me "No one likes you." Just like that. I was hurt and struggling of course until I come across a teacher named Mrs. Naaf. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have improved so much. She's in her fifties but still pretty good. She got me through the tough times and we helped each other out. After the Cross Country season we started running twice a week together. I was happy and felt proud. B

But as weeks past by she got busy and we sort of stopped the twice a week running thing until Track and Field came into season. That's when I really kicked the ball. This girl named Lauren was really fast and played travel soccer but was doing only the high jump so she decided to run with me before she had to practice. That's when I ran my first two miles with her. I was really tired but she kept me going and she slowed down for me and everything. I was so happy and then for three weeks I stop running after school ends.

I see a summer school list for Schuamburg High School and I decide to take Cross Country training for the whole summer. Hey like I had anything better to do. My first few weeks running with Mac was difficult. I got lost two times and yea Macnider wasn't really pleased with me and I don't think he saw strong potential in me. As the rest of the months pass by I was getting better but still nothing special happened.

Until school begins.

My first meet against Buffalo Grove at Hoover, Mac only has me run a mile. A mile?!?!?! I spend the whole summer running 2 and then 3 mile road runs and working on the track and everything and all I have to show for is a stupid mile? I didn't even know when the mile ended so I wasn't going as fast as I should have. I was so upset and I don't know it got to me real hard and I just was down in the dumps. I knew I had to show Mac that I could do better.

Then the next meet against Hoffman Estates comes and well the weather was crummy. Mac saw how much harder I worked ever since he only had me do a mile and since I was trying to show him I can do it he let me do 2 miles and a half. Well I still ended last, not to far from the girl ahead of me, with about 25:14 time. Not the best but I hopefully will improve.

Then we had the Lake Park invitational today and well it was exciting and I ran an 18:30 2 miles (the coarse was farely flat) and I came in 259 out of 282. Mac saw I was upset and well I kind of was because I felt like I didn't try hard enough and I was so afraid of trying too hard and slowing down and everything and I should have sprinted harder instead of just increasing my pace but negativity will not get me anywhere.

I met a muslim girl there and I cheered for her on the JV race and although she got last place out of like 200 people, I felt like she deserved something for trying. She hugged me and said "Thank you" and I told her "No problem. I know how it feels just keep working at it and you'll do great." I don't care if your fast or slow or black or white or from a competing school. I just want you to... well to try harder but most importantly to do your best and even if you didn't try your best it's alright just don't quit. "There's no Elevator to Success, You have to take the Stairs."

Oh and by the way Janeth Salazar!!!! Even though It's been about 20 years since you ran at Schuamburg High School I am still a fan of yours and would like to know all your secrets on running and everything!!!!!