Monthly Archives: August 2008
What’s up?!
It’s only Wednesday?
Last night I was really hoping today was Thursday, for some reason this week has felt really loooooonnnngggg…
After my 15 minute DVD this morning (hooray!), I made some breakfast: two slices of whole wheat toast with strawberry and blueberry preserves, a serving of turkey sausage (brown ‘n serve brand) and a cup of low sodium V8 juice…
On the way to work, I sipped some Folgers gourmet coffee (that I got for like 66% off) and some chocolate soymilk, which is a nice treat
Before a morning walk (about 30 minutes), I had a snack of a banana with some PB…
Happy Wednesday!
My contribution this week
Every week on Wednesday nights, we have an all-girls potluck at my best friend’s house. This week we decided on a Mexican theme, so I decided to make some homemade salsa and tortilla chips! Two things I had never done before…
First, I got some whole wheat soft taco size tortillas and cut them in 8th’s, they were still pretty big pieces
This is the cinnamon sugar (3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp cinnamon, which I think was too much) I made for the sweet chips, the others just had salt sprinkled on them before they went into the oven…I was out of cooking spray and don’t yet have an oil mister, so I just used some spray butter to coat the chips lightly.
The first batch baking in the oven, I love how it looks neon…
The cinnamon sugar chips about to go in the oven…
And here is the one and only pic of the salsa…I used a packaged mix (chipotle) with two chopped fresh tomatoes and a little bit of chopped red onion. I haven’t tasted it yet but it sure does look good!
Success!
Another 15 minutes…
Even though I had trouble going to sleep last night, I still managed to jump up at 5:30 today and do a strength training DVD for 15 minutes! The only thing is, I can’t find my 5 lb weights (which are too light anyway) and I had to do some of the moves without them 
I need to go buy some 10′s!
Here’s a quick (yeah right!) wrap up of yesterday…
Midmorning banana bread oatmeal…went for about a 45-minute walk before lunch!
Lunch – Salmon with tomato & onion in a pita pocket; banana; broccoli
“Dessert”…I tried to be creative with this picture and stood one on it’s top 
Seriously some of the best yogurt ever, just look at the creaminess and chunks of peach below…
In the afternoon, I was seriously cold and in the mood for some tea, so I got some Tazo organic black chai…good choice!
Nectarine before leaving work…
Dinner!
I also had a sweet potato with Smart Balance and cinnamon…
Hot chocolate while I was making some homemade salsa and tortilla chips (separate post coming later)…
I tried one of the regular chips with just salt…pretty tasty!
One of the cinnamon sugar chips, good, but not as sweet as I had hoped it would be…
Finally, my last snack of the night, 1/2 cup of Kashi Heart to Heart cereal with about a tbsp of Nutella…
That’s it, then it was to bed!
Starting off on the right foot
Woo hoo! This morning, I managed to get up at 5:30 and do 15 minutes of yoga before making breakfast! I used a McDonald’s DVD that I got a while back when they were passing them out free with their salads. I liked it and it definitely invigorated me, I just found that the ‘virtual trainer’ went a little faster than I would like, especially when I’m trying to stretch and increase my flexibility. So I may look for a different yoga tape next time, I think I have a few lurking about… I calculated that I burned 43 calories doing this exercise, which isn’t much, but I reminded myself that 43 a day can add up to 300 a week, or 1200 a month, and 14,000 a year, which is the equivalent of 4 pounds! I love thinking of it that way…
Breakfast this morning was two pieces of whole wheat toast with preserves (one blueberry, one strawberry), two poached eggs and 1/2 cup of V8 juice. It felt good to get a vegetable serving in at breakfast, I have been struggling to meet the recommended servings per day so I thought I would give this a try
Whoa mama!
Last night, I got really hungry and I was afraid that I was going to eat the whole contents of the pantry before the night was over! But I felt genuine hunger and I stopped eating when I finally felt full, so I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world, it just scared me a bit.
But let’s backtrack…yesterday I completely skipped over a morning snack because my breakfast was awesome and I went for a 50 minute walk before lunch. Lunch was some Smart Deli turkey on whole wheat with mustard, applesauce and carrots:
I got the new applesauce that has added calcium, it tastes really good, just like regular unsweetened applesauce!
I had a mini Luna bar after for ‘dessert’:
About 4 hours later, I had some raspberry soy yogurt and a nectarine (which I have found I think I like better than peaches, even though they are similar):
But then the hunger struck again, so I dug into my stash of peanut butter filled pretzels. I started out with one serving and then felt hungry again so I went ahead and ate another 1/2 serving…
When I got home, I wasn’t starving, so I made a light dinner of a veggie burger with onion, tomato and ketchup in a pita pocket and a side of broccoli…
Close up, this tasted so good!
I went to a discussion group with some friends at Border’s last night and by the time I got home (about 3.5 hours after dinner) I was completely famished! I made myself a bowl of Barbara’s cinnamon puffins with some light soymilk:
This tasted good but I still had the hunger pangs! I waited a few minutes, then went ahead and made another bowl of cereal with 1 tbsp of Nutella…
But even after this, I still wasn’t full! I waited a few more minutes, decided I could go to bed and try to ignore it but I went ahead and finished myself off with 1/2 cup of Kashi Heart to Heart and about another 1/2 tbsp of Nutella…I have no idea how I invented this snack, but the Nutella seems to strike around a certain time of the month if you know what I mean
Luckily after this, I was comfortably full, went upstairs and brushed my teeth and went to bed. I’m not proud, but it could’ve been worse and at least it was genuine hunger, like I said. But hopefully today and the rest of the time this won’t happen
Shopping trip and an exercise plan
I just remembered I took some pics from my grocery shopping this weekend! I should’ve taken one of the stuff I bought at the farmer’s markets but I forgot, oh well, next time
- Semisweet chocolate chips
- Mott’s applesauce plus (with calcium)
- Chicken of the sea salmon (3 oz pack)
- Microwaveable sweet potato
- Light brown sugar (for possible baking!)
- 4 containers of Whole Soy & Co yogurt (blueberry, raspberry, strawberry and peach)
- Organic chocolate soymilk (Kroger private selection)
- Boca garden vegetable burgers
- Nectarines
- Low Sodium V8 juice
- Brown ‘n serve turkey sausage links
- Carrots
- Tofu (extra firm and silken)
- Smart Deli “turkey” slices
Later on, I decided to take a pic of my refrigerator while it is fully stocked, this doesn’t happen often, haha…thanks for humoring me!
It came to me this afternoon that I really need an exercise plan. Not a routine per se, but a plan. So I will be working on that over the next couple of days, hopefully I will get something worked out. Anyone have an ideas or tips?
Time has been an issue as has energy, so I’m going to try and work it in where I can. I have been walking at work every day and did again today for 50 minutes! So I’m still moving just not as much as I would like and there are activities I would like to do that I’m neglecting (ahem, strength training).
One idea I have is these 15-minute DVDs that I have…I thought about doing those in the morning before breakfast. Not only would I get some exercise but it would probably help wake me up too. Hopefully I can try this out tomorrow, I will set my alarm a little earlier!
Maroon Monday
And finally, Sunday!
Sunday morning I woke up feeling like something special, so I made some french toast with whole wheat bread (I never use challah, don’t see the point) and sugar free syrup. I also had a nectarine and some chocolate soymilk…
Coffee (with a splash of soymilk) on the way to church…
Muscle Milk bar during my friend’s sermon, haha…
Lunch was Sun Butter and preserves on a whole wheat bagel with 1/2 a sweet potato (with Smart Balance and cinnamon) and some applesauce…
I got busy working around the house and before I knew it, I had been on my feet well over 2 hours! So I had a well deserved rest and a snack of my trail mix
Then when dinner time finally rolled around a few hours later, after even more work, I made a salad of mixed greens, tomatoes, red onion, and some balsamic vinaigrette ‘spray’ dressing. I didn’t buy it, someone gave it to me, and it doesn’t taste bad, is very low in calories, but it has high fructose corn syrup in it
I will use it up though and just not get it again…
Then for my main course, I had left over veggie pizza from the night before…
During and after dinner, I watched another DVD with my husband. We are big wrestling fans, so we watched the first disc of “The Shawn Michaels story: Heartbreak and Triumph” which pretty much told his life (and career) story from beginning until last year. It was a cool thing to see, especially as a fan…
I spent at least two more hours doing housework stuff and I wasn’t starving but I could use a snack, so I decided on a small banana with 1/2 tbsp of caramel peanut butter…
Another good day! For once, I feel like I survived the weekend with minimal damage
Saturday night’s alright
I can’t get over how many pictures I took this weekend! That’s why I decided to do each day in it’s own post, otherwise it could’ve been really lengthy, haha…
Saturday morning, I started things off with a peanut butter-banana-soymilk smoothie and then made a pita pocket with 1 scrambled egg stuffed in (after I learned 2 don’t fit!). Afterwards, I was still kind of hungry, so I had another pita pocket with some blueberry preserves….
Here are the pita pockets I use, I found them in the deli section of my grocery store…
I went to some farmer’s markets with my parents Saturday morning. This is actually supposed to be an ‘orange’ piece of watermelon, but the pic makes it look yellow. It really tasted just like ‘red’ watermelon, I’m not sure what the difference is…
We had lunch at Great Harvest Bread Co. I got half a veggie sandwich with Sun Chips and a fruit cup. It was so tasty and light, plus I feel like I got a lot of food groups in at once, which is always a good thing…
When I got back home, my husband was ready to go out, so I spent most of the day away from home! He wanted to go to Best Buy, which I don’t really care much for only because I really don’t shop there, so as a bribe, he got me a grande light caramel frappuccino from Starbucks:
When I got home, I felt a little hungry, so I had some trail mix that I bought at one of the markets. My favorites are the ones with nuts, chocolate and raisins, this one did not disappoint…
After eating a snack, I took a long nap on the couch while watching the coverage of Barack Obama and Joe Biden!
Once I got to my friend’s house, we ordered some pizza for dinner. I usually don’t like to eat pizza because it makes me ill (do to my apparent lactose intolerance), but I took some Lactaid this time when I started eating and everything went fine! So I guess I’ll be okay eating pizza every once in a while. This is from Little Caesar’s, the first two pieces are veggie and the last (smaller) one is just plain cheese…
Later on, we enjoyed some vegan chocolate cupcakes that my friend made. The first one is sprinkled with some powdered sugar and the second has chocolate lightly dripped on top. I loved these because they were very dense and yet small and not overwhelmingly sweet. Yum!
It was a busy day and a fun night and I was proud that I was able to enjoy pizza and dessert, but didn’t overdo it again and certainly did not feel guilty!
