One More Day

I’m so happy tomorrow is Friday!  I’m sure most of you agree.  I can’t believe there’s only 2 more days of February left, where did this month go?  A week from Saturday we set the clocks ahead which means an extra hour of daylight in the evening, which I am so ready for!  Spring is just around the corner and the idea of that has me smiling from ear to ear. 

I’ve had a hard time getting to sleep lately, I don’t know if I have more energy then I used to from the routine exercising but I used to be able to lay down and within a few minutes be fast asleep.  I’ve had more trouble lately so I want to try to get into bed a little earlier for the next few weeks in the hope I’ll be able to fall asleep earlier too.  We’ll see how that goes, but in order to do that I need to blog quickly tonight and get right into bed.

This morning I had overnight oats with 1/2 a cup oats, 1/2 a cup skim milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.  This morning I added dried cranberries and pb of course.

I still can’t believe how long oats will keep me satisfied.  I used to snack between breakfast and lunch now I can easily hold out for lunch time.

For lunch today I had leftover cavatelli that Andrew had made for his dinner last night. 

I ate this cold, I’m a big fan of cold pasta.

On the side I also had 3 mini sweet peppers.

Even though the package says “sweet” the red were kinda spicey, but they were still really really tasty.  I got a huge bag of these from Costco so except to see these a lot in the next week.

Around 3 I got hungry and had a banana with pb sandwiched in the middle.  The department vp came over to talk to me while I was snacking on this so I didn’t get a picture, here’s an old one I took the last time I had this snack though.

For dinner tonight I didn’t know what I wanted.  So I just had a few different things that sounded good.  I had a toasted ww bagel with light butter, a string cheese, and a romaine lettuce salad with light caesar dressing.

This was a weird but good dinner, it satisfied a few different cravings I was having so it hit the spot for me.

Well as I said I’m going to get into bed early tonight so I’m going to end the post here.  Hope you all have a great night, and that tomorrow goes by quickly.  Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend?

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Weekend Recap

I am a bad weekend blogger.  Wish I could say it was because I was so busy with friends and having fun.  Unfortunately I didn’t do much this weekend, Friday night I crashed early and yesterday I was feeling really sick so I skipped a friends birthday dinner and night out for some time in bed.  Not a productive weekend but definitely needed.  I’m hoping that with all my rest I should feel great this week, I’m also hoping this week flies by as quickly as last week did.    It’s sad the weekend’s over but I’m ready to get this last week of February over and done with.  I can’t believe it’s almost March!  Springtime is just around the corner.  And March is my favorite month, I might be a little biased because my birthday is in March. 

So clearly I have a lot to cover since I have not written anything since Thursday.  So let’s get onto the eats.

Friday for breakfast I had a bowl of oats, I decided to finish off my canister used the 3/4 heart healthy portion.  That was really good but super filling.

With cranberries and PB.  So delicious!

This was seriously stick to your ribs good.  3/4 of a cup is great, but it definitely kept me full for hours.  By lunch I was barely even hungry so I just snacked on a cut up gala apple, 2 clementines, some blueberries, kashi crackers, and about 1 tablespoon of pb.

 

I didn’t eat that z bar until about 3:30.

For dinner that night we made a stir-fry of sorts.  I used black beans, green peppers, onions, baby corn, and salsa.  It was a really yummy combo.

After this we headed to the gym, it felt soooooooo good to be back.  I definitely didn’t have my best workout but it was really good.  I was just happy to be back to working out.

I woke up Saturday morning and had some puffins for breakfast.

I ate about 3/4 of this before I was full.  After breakfast I hit up Costco with my dad, I didn’t buy much just some socks, bananas, a new scale, and some seasonings. 

For lunch later on I was craving some of that Panera LF chicken tortilla soup, so I ran out and bought some and ate it at my parents while I waited for Andrew to be done with work for the day.

I got the soup:

And their Classic Garden Salad:

I also ate a piece of the whole wheat baguette, but somehow I didn’t get a picture of it.

After Andrew got out of work we headed to the gym.  I felt like complete crap, I got horribly out of breath barely doing anything and my head was pounding we only wound up staying about 45 minutes before I finally couldn’t take it anymore.  We left and came home.  We had a birthday for a friend to go to, we were supposed to go out to dinner and then out to a bar, but I knew I just needed to stay home.  I made myself a comforting dinner, while Andrew headed out for the birthday festivities.

I had 2.5 ounces of whole wheat Angel Hair pasta, with 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce.

I ate this and then moped around the house, frustrated that I was missing out, especially because a friend I rarely see was there.  I took a hot shower, took some medicine and laid down, after about 45 minutes I felt super sick and nauseous.  Unfortunately that spaghetti dinner didn’t stay down very long after that, sorry I know that’s TMI.

I fell fast asleep by 9:15 and only briefly woke up when Andrew got home later that night, other then that I slept right up until this morning.  I felt much better but didn’t have any appetite until close to 12.  I decided to have scrambled eggs with green pepper and 3 turkey sausages. 

Because we ate so late in the day I didn’t wind up eating any lunch.  We went to the gym and the girl I was sad I didn’t get to see last night was actually there, after she gave me some grief for not going out last night we worked out together.  She works at the gym as a trainer (not mine though) so I did 20 minutes on the bike while I waited for her to finish up, then she showed me some new arm exercises to do.  She worked me out hard we were both dripping sweat by the end.  Then we did a quick 15 minutes on the elliptical.  I was so surprised by how much I did the elliptical, I’m not a fan of it, but I might have fallen in love with it today.  I was drenched in sweat when we left.

After the gym we ran to the food store to pick up a few items for the week, sorry I didn’t take any pictures of our purchases.  We made tacos tonight with lean ground beef.

I had 2 tacos on a whole wheat toritilla with lettuce, green peppers, salsa, and mexican blend cheese.

Well I’m off to finish my taxes.  Keep your fingers crossed for a big return!

I’m back!

But not quite better then ever.  I’m still feeling extremely under the weather, but your kind comments have left me smiling so thank you!  This cold is going away pretty quickly and I feel much better, but still extremely fatigued.  I feel so lazy because I haven’t gone to the gym since Sunday and won’t be going again tonight, I was going to go but upon returning home today and walking up the 3 flights of stairs to the apartment I was completely out of breath and was ready for a nap, not exactly prime time for workouts.  I know I’m listening to my body and giving it the rest I need but I feel so worthless.  Not a good feeling.

So I have a lot to post since I didn’t last night.

My appetite was next to non-existent yesterday.  For breakfast I had a peach Chobani and a glass of Emergen-C.  I swear this is what’s making me feel better much faster.

 

Lunch was crap.  I wasn’t hungry so I had something I knew I needed healthy fat, fiber, and protein.  So I had a 1/2 a ww bagel with pb, and clementine for some extra vitamin C.

Doesn’t get more bland huh?

I barely even finished the 1/2 a bagel.

I left work yesterday at 3:30 I just felt like I needed to go home and sleep.  So once I got home I laid on the couch watched some On- Demand Bridezillas and Platinum Weddings, (hint hint Andrew!)  and eventually crawled into bed and fell asleep, until after 9.  Once Andrew came home I woke up zombie walked into the kitchen made another cup of emergen-c and forced myself to eat something.  Nothing was appealing so I had a clif bar.

Those are my sheets in the background I couldn’t stay out of bed long enough to even eat.  I guzzled some Night time cough medicine and was back asleep by 10:30.  I slept right through the night and when my alarm went off this morning I whined about going to work, but Andrew FORCED suggested that I try to make it through the day.

Breakfast this morning was another round of Overnight oats.  Love!

I ate almost all of this.

I needed some fresh veggies so I actually went left the office and got lunch.

I went to the same place I went to my second day of blogging, Green Leafs.  My salad included romaine, balsamic vinaigrette, chicken, fresh mozz balls, onions, and cucs.

I ate almost all of it.  This was all that was left:

It’s a big hefty salad though.

Since my appetite has been so off this held me over until dinner.  I was craving pizza, real pizzeria pizza.  So Andrew took me to a local pizza place and for the first time this year I had a pizza that I didn’t make myself.

A slice of plain

And a slice of white.

Super thin crust, super delicious.  Oh pizza I certainly have missed you.

Here’s how bored I was tonight.  Sorry Wolfgang.  I may be deliriously sick, you decide.

Hope you all have a great night!  I can’t believe it’s almost Thursday, this week is flying on by!  Thanks again for your sweet comments yesterday and today!

I Got It

Well I finally caught the cold that’s been going around the office.  It hit me around 3 today so I’m going to do a really quick post, I’m drinking a hot glass of theraflu and then have some emergen-c that I’m going to drink.  I’m not going to let this cold get me down.

My eats were extremely boring, probably because I didn’t have much of an appetite.

For breakfast I had overnight oats with blueberries, dried crans, and pb.

I swear there’s oats under there.

I didn’t have much of an appetite but felt a little tired so I had 3 of my cappachino coated coffee beans!

I can not describe just how amazing these taste!

For lunch I brought my left over raviloli from V-day dinner, as well as several of the penne Andrew had left over from that dinner as well.

Messy but oh so good, I ate about 3/4’s of this.

Around 3 I got that sicky, achey, tired feeling so I didn’t snack on anything.  Once I got home I had some Wolfgang Puck Organic French Onion Soup.

I put a little less then an ounce of part skim mozzarella on top.  And popped it in the broiler.

 

Perhaps my tastebuds are screwy from feeling sick but seriously this soup was nasty, it tasted super sweet, like a fake sugary taste and you could totally tell it came out of a can, I ate maybe a 1/4 of this before I chucked it.  Thanks, but no Thanks creepy Wolfgang Puck, keep your french onion soup to yourself.  I just tried to draw a pervy mustache on him but I don’t have the energy to put it into paint and repost it.  Just picture it yourself, funny right?

Since I wasn’t hungry at all I decided to have 1/2 an arnold sandwich thin with pb.

This tasted great and although I wasn’t hungry I’m glad I ate something. 

Well I’m off to bed, sorry for such a crappy post, I’m hoping this Theraflu and emergen-c as well as plenty of rest will knock this cold right out of me.  Although working from home is always an option, I know that I have a lot of work to do that can’t be done from home so I’m planning on going in for at least a little while, if not the whole day.

I hope you are all having a better Monday then me!  Although I’m glad it’s not another sinus head ache at least when it is I know it, and can take some sinus medication, a cold is so hard to shake sometimes.

Friday Night Slumbey

Hey I wanted to do a quick post, my sister is here for a sleep over.  So I’m just quickly going to post my eats so I can get back to hanging out with my sister.

For breakfast I had vanilla chobani, cranberries, and granola.

This stayed with me right until lunch.

As I was getting my lunch together to eat I got a call from the receptionist to come up to the lobby.  When I walked in Andrew was there with flowers!!!  He had the day off for President’s day and came down to visit me for lunch and bring me the flowers.  How sweet is that?

For lunch I had pb and banana on a ww bagel.

A few hours later I was hungry so I had some grapes and 2 clementines.

For dinner Andrew made Crock Pot Chicken parm.  He just pounded out 2 chicken breasts until they were about 1/2 and inch thick put it in the crock pot with a jar of marinara sauce and let it cook on high for 3 hours.  After it was completely cooked he sprinkled on some part skim mozzarella cheese.  It was unbeleviably delicious!  Definitely didn’t miss the breading at all, cooking chicken in the crockpot makes it so tender!

On the side I had a serving on ww penne.

Sooooo good!  Can’t wait to make this again, Chicken parm is my ultimate favorite food so finding a much healthier version is exciting. 

I hope you are all having a fun Friday night I’m off to hang out with Andrew and my sister.

Creature of Habit

Hey bloggies!  I am in such a better mood then I have been the past few days.  This weather today was just ridiculous.  Hard to believe last week we had 6 inches of snow here and now it was close to 70 today!  Oh my gosh it was gorgeous, I wish I wasn’t at work the whole day but I know that weather like that for everyday life is just around the corner.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be colder and rainy but now that I have a taste of springtime weather I can’t wait for it!!!

I’m glad so many of you have a favorite color M&M you like to eat.  I typically get made fun of if someone is eating M&M’s and I ask for an orange one, good to know that many of you have a color preference.

Thank Goodness for the nice weather because my eats were seriously bland and boring today.  I really need to mix things up soon.

Breakfast was my “old reliable” vanilla Chobani, with Bear Naked Granola, and dried cranberries.

Big Surprise right?

Well get ready for some real excitement, I had another ww bagel with pb today, but it wasn’t toasted like yesterdays.  Just trying to mix it up.   I’m in lunch time rut.  I also had 2 clementines today.  So at least there’s some color there.

 

Later in the afternoon I had a braeburn apple.

I was starving when I got home, I couldn’t wait for dinner to cook, so I had a string cheese while I got everything ready.

For dinner we had grilled chicken, with brown rice, broccoli, and a side salad.

I ate all the chicken, all the broccoli, and most of the salad and rice. 

I need to redeem myself tomorrow.  I already made lunch for tomorrow and it’s not a bagel but it’s nothing exciting either.  After dinner we went to the gym another good session but my arms are already sore, I can’t imagine what they are going to be like tomorrow!

So Valentine’s day is coming up this Saturday, we’re really late making plans but I believe we’re going to go to Baltimore for the night to hit up the aquarium, does anyone live in or near Inner Harbor Baltimore and have a good suggestion for some great places to eat? 

Well I’m off to read and go to sleep, if it was warm where you are today I hope you enjoyed the weather! 

Lazy Friday Night

Oh my gosh I’m so happy it’s the weekend!  We had another round of layoffs today at work.  I knew who was going to be laid off ahead of time so I knew I was safe but it’s hard to see co-workers go.  I had a meeting with my boss’s boss today, he reassured me that I was not going anywhere and that they are actually spending a ton of money to get me some more training next month.  I was also told I will be getting a nice raise next month because right now I’m doing the work of 4 different people who were previously laid off.  I was also told I have to write my own review next month.  Has anyone ever done this?  I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty hard.

This morning I remembered my breakfast and had my usual 0% Fage the last of my peak protein granola, and some dried cranberries.  I don’t know that I’ll ever tire of this combination.

I had some carrot sticks a little later.

I ate about 1/2 of this baggie.

Lunch today was something I was really excited about.  I had 2 servings of brown rice and 4, 1 ounce meatballs, I made the Monday night.  I was afraid these meatballs weren’t going to taste that good because I had started making them when I realized I didn’t have an egg to mix in.  So I poured a teaspoon of olive oil to bind them and that did the trick.  I baked them in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they came out really moist and delicious,  I definitely didn’t taste a difference without the eggs.

I think I actually liked the meatballs and sauce better over rice then pasta.  Weird.

This held me over until 4 and then I had some grapes.

For dinner tonight we made turkey burgers using the same recipe as last time.

I topped it with a mozzarella string cheese. 

I topped it with some organic ketchup, pickles, and lettuce.

On the side I had some steamed French Cut Green Beans.

I had another serving of the green beans after this.  I love steamed green beans they are so yummy.

I feel like I had a definite lack of veggies today so I’ll be making up for that tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I plan on making Oatmeal again, do any of you have a favorite combination you think I might like?  I’m going to make myself eat oatmeal until I love it.   I’m kidding of course, but I know how filling, and how good it is for you I definitely think I’m only doing myself a favor by trying it over and over again.

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday night!  Andrew and I were supposed to go out for a friend’s birthday but it was canceled, so we decided to stay in.  I love lazy Friday nights after a long week of work.

See you tomorrow!

Bottomless Pit

My goodness I have been so hungry all day!  I know days like this will happen from time to time, and I hope I get better dealing with those days where all I want to do is eat and eat and eat!

Breakfast this morning was Fage 0% yogurt with granola and cranberries.

So good, although Chobani is definitely my favorite this is not far behind.   I love the tart cranberries mixed into the yogurt.  One of my favorite combinations.

My hunger attacks didn’t start until later in the day so this held me over until lunch.

Lunch was a pb and banana sandwich on an Arnold Sandwich Thin.

And 2 of my beloved clementines!!!

That’s what my stomach became a bottomless pit.

At 3 I ate peanuts.

I made it home for dinner without gnawing off my arm somehow.

For dinner I made a stir fry.

It contained

• a green pepper
• some onion
• broccoli stalks
• carrots
• chicken
• & brown rice

This held me over for about 10 minutes.

Then I ate about 8 Quaker Oatmeal mini rice cakes.  Then I drank some water.  Then while I was on the phone with my friend Michelle, I mindlessly grabbed a spoon and my jar of peanut butter and took a big spoonful and ate it right out of the jar.  It was heavenly, but so not needed.    I feel satisfied finally!  But seriously that was a lot of eats in just a couple hours.  Sorry there are no pictures of my snacks they were in my mouth faster then any camera could have snapped a pic of them.

So on days like this where I just can’t get enough food, what’s something I can do?  Does anyone have any tips on squishing that feeling, or a snack that almost always knocks out the hunger?

Hope you all have a good night, I’m hoping for another snow day but I’m not holding my breath.

Constant Chill

I have been cold since I got out of bed this morning.  No amount of hot food or liquid could warm me up. I’m looking forward to posting this and then getting into bed.  I hope you all were able to stay warm today!

Breakfast was the same old, same old.  A vanilla Chobani, with peak protein granola, and dried cranberries.  It’s such a good combo I can’t get enough.

Along with my yogurt I had 2 prunes.

That sweater you see is my big emergency work sweater, when I’m really cold it’s big enough to fit over no matter what I’m wearing.  Even that sweater couldn’t warm me up today.

Around 10:30 I got super hungry, and my planned orange was not going to hold me over until lunch so I had 15 Kashi crackers.

That did a good job of filling me up until lunch time.  I was super excited about my lunch because I had packed a pb and banana sandwich on an Arnold Sandwich Thin.

This was the first time I had ever had a pb and banana sandwich, I’ve put pb on bananas though and loved it, so it’s no surprise this was a really great combo.

I also brought a kiwi!

I have not had a kiwi in such a long time, this was delicious warm weather treat, it made me wish for summer and warmer weather so badly!!

Around 3:30 I had 1/2 a green pepper all cut up.

After work I had plans to go to the gym, but tomorrow is my first session of personal training so I decided to take it easy with Andrew tonight before all hell breaks loose tomorrow.  I’m really excited but also really nervous about the training.  I can’t wait to see how it goes.

So for dinner we decided to make our favorite dinner of tacos but with a twist.  We picked up a rotisserie chicken on the way home from work and took all the white meat off, removed the skin, and shredded the meat. We found a seasoning mix with the least amount of sodium and all natural ingredients and used that to create our first batch of chicken tacos.

I put mine on a flat out wrap with lots of lettuce, onions, brown rice, 3 ounces of chicken, salsa, and about 1/2 an ounce of Mexican cheese blend.

I wound up overloading on the lettuce and had to take some off and I ate that on the side.

This was really good!  I thought it was almost as good if not better as when we make it with the extra lean ground beef.  I feel like the chicken just carried the flavor so much better.

This was a delicious meal! 

Well I hope you all had a great Wednesday, and have a wonderful Thursday.

A PSA regarding PB

Just a reminder that Clif Bar, Luna Bars, and Larabars (which include the Jamfrakas) are doing a voluntary recall on some of the products that contain peanuts and peanut butter, due to the traces of Salmonella found in peanut butter over the past few weeks.   Please check the list on each site to make sure none of your bars are included in this.  Better to be safe then sorry, and I wouldn’t want any of you getting sick.

I just bought a whole bought a whole box of the pb z bars that fell into the category of products being recalled (they are doing so by expiration date) luckily I only ate one of them.  But I won’t be eating anymore.

Hey Everybody!  Well I went back to work today, and I remembered how much I hate calling out for a day.  I felt completely bombarded when I got in the office this morning.  I much rather pick a day and request it off.  But, oh well, the day’s over and it felt like a Monday all day to me, so I’m so excited tomorrow is already Wednesday!

My breakfast was the usual.  Vanilla Chobani, Peak Protein Granola, with extra dried cranberries.

Around 11 I snacked on an orange.

This was the juiciest orange I’ve had in a while, made me miss my clementines even more.

Lunch was a left over eggplant sandwich.  To keep the eggplant from drying out in the fridge I put a small amount of sauce over each piece and stacked them in a Tupperware container.  I love how almost any leftover with sauce just keeps getting better, and this sandwich was no exception.  I had a big and small piece of eggplant on an Arnold Sandwich Thin.

I know it doesn’t look that appetizing but it was amazing!  If you always bread or flour your eggplant in some way give this a try it really makes the flavor of the eggplant stand out.  And I still have quite a few days worth of leftovers, I see a lot of yummy meals involving eggplant in my future.  Maybe for the sake of the blog I’ll freeze a few pieces for sometime in the future so as not to bore you all.

With my lunch I had another honeycrisp apple.

 

The weird angle of my thumb is really grossing me out.

Around 3:30 I was hungry!  So I had a lot of grapes and a little less then 1/2 of an Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif bar.

After yet another chiropractic appointment it was time to come home and make dinner.  I decided to make a huge batch of brown rice for Andrew and I to share over the week, along with that, I made another piece of grilled chicken, and some steamed broccoli.

I know that chicken looks breaded but it’s not.  I put the raw chicken breast if a plastic bag and put in some chili powder, Mrs. Dash and a few dashes of Franks Red Hot sauce, and then shook it all up Shake and Bake style, this was the most tender, juicy, flavorful, piece of grilled chicken I have ever had at home.  And I ate almost all of it!

I realized today I never really take pictures of my drinks, usually my water bottle can be seen in the background of my eats from work, but I never mention what I’m drinking.  I drink water 99% of the time.  Occasionally when I go out I do get a diet soda, but that’s rare.  I used to drink all sorts of diet soda a couple years ago, pretty much a couple cans daily.  I wish I could say I cut it out because it was unhealthy, but the truth is, I live in a 3rd floor walk up, and last year when I lived here without Andrew, (but with a terrible horrible roommate), I just didn’t want to carry soda up here. It kind of stuck with me and now soda is a rare occurrence.  I definitely get my 8 glasses of water a day.  I use water as my excuse to get up at work and get away from my desk, to refill my water bottle.  And at home we have a Brita filter pitcher that we fill up a few times a day.

Also during the week I have a cup coffee every morning.   I use skim milk (or fat free 1/2 and 1/2) in it and Splenda.  Please don’t warn me about the artificial sweeteners, I’ve already heard plenty but the unhealthy me of last year bought a box of 5 gajillion Splenda packets from Costco and that’s what I’ve got.  Next time I won’t be buying Splenda, and I will hopefully wean myself off of sweeteners, all together, but baby steps people.  A month ago I was eating fast food, I think I’ve already come a long way from where I started, and thanks again for all the support and sweet comments along the way.  This is seriously an awesome community and I feel blessed to be a part of it.