Snow, waffles, ambience

We got a few inches of snow overnight and into this morning. I had a fun walk with Suzie!

Last night when we were waiting for it to start snowing (we stayed home and cozy), I had decided to make waffles in the morning!

My parents tried this mix recently and didn’t like it. I was bummed for them, but it worked out for me. 🙂

I used 3/4 cup of the mix and then added 1/2 cup soy milk, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup applesauce (for the egg) and 1/4 cup pumpkin (for the oil and flavor).

Plus some pumpkin pie spice, I almost forgot that!

The batch made about 5.5 waffles, so I had two drizzled with peanut butter and syrup and topped with a lovely banana.

Yumalicious!

Coffee was a must have, especially after my frigid trek outside (it’s in the single digits with the wind chill right now).

Just French vanilla coffee and soymilk. The way I like it 🙂

Right now, I’m listening to the “New Age Ambient” station on Pandora and thinking of doing some yoga on my own. It’s quite relaxing, I like to listen to it at work too.

Eventually I’m going to have to venture out for a while to my mom’s and the grocery store. But I’m taking my sweet time!

What are your plans for the day?

R & R

Hello! I hope wherever you are that you are having a great day. It’s rather rainy and cloudy here, perfect day to stay in the house catching up on rest and relaxation!

I’m rather sore today so exercise of any kind is the furthest thing from my mind 😉

Last night for dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate our friend Beth’s birthday. I started off with a couple pieces of bread (no butter) because I was hungry by the time we got there!

For my dinner, I ordered the Fresh Vegetable Salad with no cheese. It came with Asparagus, Green Beans, Tomato, Cucumber, Roasted Beets, Apple, Edamame, Radicchio, Romaine with Pomegranate Vinaigrette.

This was an “appetizer salad” but man it was huge!

Here is a pic of me and some friends at dinner, including the birthday girl on the right 🙂 I look like I have something coming out of my head, no? Check out the huge salad bowl!

I ate the whole thing 🙂 It was delicious and I wasn’t too full when we left either. Lots of friends ordered some amazing looking cheesecake, but I am just not a fan, even before I stopped eating dairy.

We had another birthday party to get to, but I managed to stop at Starbucks to pick up a tall soy pumpkin spice latte! This is only my second one so I think I am doing okay at moderation!

While hanging out with friends and watching the UFC (which was so disappointing-yet another guy I like lost) I snacked on some tortilla chips.

I was proud of myself for passing up dessert at the restaurant and not eating any birthday cake either. But honestly, I did not want it and the pumpkin spice latte helped too I’m sure!

I also had some peppermint tea before bed. It’s my favorite!

~~~

This morning, I woke up and made some hot cereal with peanut butter and sliced pears.

Now that I’ve had a day or two to think about it…I do prefer almond butter! I never thought I’d say that in my life. But MaraNatha did it for me. I’ve heard Barney Butter is good too but I can’t afford it (the one place in town I can find it has it selling for $9 a jar)!

I drank some coffee with Almond Breeze and a second cup black. I got a bit hungry at the end of Sunday School and I forgot to bring a snack so I had a blueberry muffin to hold me over.

I have no idea if it contained dairy but I’m almost sure it did. Oh well.

For lunch, Josh, Mom, Dad and I went to Zaytun’s Mediterranean Grill, which was so exciting to me as this is my favorite type of food. This was my third time visiting, as I have been once with my friend Aleta and another time with Mom.

I ordered a vegetarian platter that came with hummus, Baba Ghanouj and falafel. Doesn’t get much better than this!

I ate all the hummus (with 4 pita slices) and 2.5 of the falafel balls (I made Mom try some). Josh got this really huge meaty gyro, which he said was okay. I was proud of him for trying it though. He’s just not as into it as me 😉

When we got home, I ran a couple of quick errands and then had a piece of organic dark chocolate for a snack.

I’m doing my best to stay off my feet today but I think it’s time to switch the laundry around so I’d better at least do that, ha ha. Hope you have a great afternoon, be back later with dinner!

Take a load off

Whew, my dogs are barking! In case you have never heard that expression, it means my feet really hurt, ha ha. My great-grandma used to say it all the time. Sitting down to right this blog post is the first chance I’ve had to take a load off!

I got up early this morning and made myself a delicious breakfast of waffles with peanut butter and a faux sausage patty.

This is the last of the Eggo waffles and Morningstar Farms stuff. I won’t be getting them again since I know they contain dairy ingredients (among other weird ones I can’t pronounce).

I also made myself a big cup of coffee with soymilk but only ended up drinking half of it…who am I?

Then I met up with my aunts at the Zoo for a nice 4 mile walk. I was glad to start my day off this way since most of the evening is going to be spent sitting down at a birthday dinner and the UFC pay per view later on 😉

When I got home, I sorted through some coupons and make a grocery list before hitting the stores. I picked a good time to go too – our big in-state rivalry football game was this afternoon and I try not to get all caught up in the hype. I try to avoid conflict and be peaceful, haha.

I got hungry while at home, so I went ahead and ate lunch since we all know grocery shopping in that condition is not the way to go 🙂

I had Muir Glen organic savory lentil soup and it was delicious! It did not photograph very well though.

This soup had a lot of sodium! But I’m not sensitive and I try to keep products like this to a minimum. As you can see I also had a whole wheat pita pocket on the side.

I spent almost 2 hours grocery shopping! I had lots of coupons and I went to two different places to get the best deals. I only went over my $50 budget by 12 cents, but I think next week I’ll be way under because I got so much today!

When I got everything put away, I was hungry so I had some mixed nuts.

I swear, when I’m really needing a snack, nothing satisfies me like nuts. I don’t know if it is the protein, fat or the combo but they are perfect and I love them.

Can you tell I need a nap now? I’m about to get right on that.

We are having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory tonight for my friend Beth’s birthday! It’s only the second time I have been there and the first time since going vegetarian 🙂

Hope you all have a great Saturday.

Sleepy Saturday

Well, I think we can almost officially call this Fall now! The leaves are turning, the weather is cooler (at least in the morning and evening hours), Starbucks have Pumpkin Spice lattes back…IT IS FALL!!

I’m so excited because I think this is becoming my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of winter but perhaps I can be creative this year and find a way to enjoy that season more too 😉

So, where to begin! Oh yeah, let’s start with how Friday went down…

Breakfast was plain oat bran with banana and almond butter. The jar is almost empty so you know what that means…oats in a jar soon!

Then mid morning I snacked on more banana and PB after a 15 minute walk (this was half, the banana from this morning was huge):

For lunch, I had one of my favorite vegan convenience meals!

I don’t want to become dependent on these but it got me through this time 😉

YUM! Just as good the second time around…

After lunch digested, I went to the gym for a 40 minute treadmill workout with Farrah. We did walking and running intervals until we reached 3 miles…went something like this – 5 min walking warm up (2.5 mph), Run 5 minutes (5.5 mph), Walk 2.5 minutes (3.8 mph) – repeat run/walk sequence 4 times – cool down walking for 5 minutes. In the run sequences I did 6.0 for the last minute a few times.

It was awesome! I felt like I could’ve pushed it more but I didn’t because I want to honor my body and not reach those limits as I’m not a competitive athlete or anything. My body thanked me by not being sore and I wasn’t too tired either.

Snacks were some REAL dark chocolate (no milkfat in this piece):

Some almonds…

For dinner, I convinced Josh to go to Shalimar, a really great Indian restaurant here in town. I ordered what I’ve seen Gina eat several times…Baingan Bartha!

I had mine over some rice with garlic naan on the side. I think this dish was vegan, no? It was just peas, eggplant and sauce I think. Geez, it was so good. I ate most of it, but not all.

Even though I felt pregnant (with a food baby) for the next couple of hours, I still managed to eat a serving of ice cream (not vegan trying to use it up):

Then we watched a couple of bad movies (The Mummy Dragon Emperor something or other, dumb and Valkyrie which wasn’t too bad actually) and I snacked on two sheets of graham crackers (these need to leave my house like now) and a couple of marshmallows.

Then I had some tea and went to bed 🙂 Zzzzz…

~~~

Hello Saturday!

For breakfast, I had two very non-vegan Eggo waffles with PB and banana. I decided to have fun and make a waffle-wich!

On a Pokemon plate no less. Haha. Close up of the yummy goodness…

On the way to meet my mom for a nice walk at the park with Suzie, I grabbed a tall soy latte from the ‘Bucks. It was tasty…I think there soy latte feels like a treat even though it’s fairly low in calories! I resisted the pumpkin spice latte for now 😉

At the park, we walked around the track twice which is about 2.4 miles, plus walking to and from the car, we got a good workout in! So did my silly dog.

For lunch, we went to Mimi’s Cafe, which is easily my favorite restaurant. While perusing the menu though, I couldn’t help but think how hard it would be for a vegan to eat there.

I ended up getting the veggie burger with fresh fruit. I only used half the bun as it was huge and not even close to whole grain.

This was pretty good and definitely filled me up. But I can’t eat veggie burgers all the time…

I think I might write to the company…not to complain, but just to find out their suggestions for vegan menu options. Other that a garden salad with no dressing…that’s what I’m finding on the websites out there – that’s not a meal!

I also had some delicious unsweetened raspberry tea 🙂

Before I went grocery shopping, I popped a piece of real dark chocolate. Now that I am back home, I’m thinking it is time for a nap. I’m going out with some girls to Ramsi’s tonight…I see falafel in my future…and it is beautious!

Have a great day friends!

Countdown

We’re watching the countdown to UFC 101 in anticipation for the pay per view tomorrow night! If you are new to SSE, hi I’m Sarah and I’m a HUGE UFC FAN! As far as tomorrow night goes…I am rooting for Forrest Griffin and Kenny Florian 😉

Anyway, let’s talk about food since that’s what you are really here for!

Breakfast this morning was another green monster…I used to think these alone would not fill me up but throw a tbsp of peanut butter in there and I am good to go.

This GM was made with 1 cup 1% milk, 1 banana, 2 cups of spinach (handfuls really), and 1 tbsp peanut butter plus some ice. I tried a fresh banana with ice today instead of a frozen banana, but I think I will stick with the frozen banana from now on, I could tell a difference. Not huge, but if I have a choice, might as well go with what seems better.

This held me amazingly well today. I drank a cup of coffee and water until about 10:00 when I dug into my mid-morning snack.

I stuck to 2 tbsp today instead of my usual 1/4 cup to see if it made a difference and you know what? 2 tbsp actually was enough. More proof that I don’t have to eat an entire serving of something just because that is how it is measured.

Before lunch, I hit the gym for what ended up being an awesome cardio workout. I jumped on the treadmill, set the incline to 2.0% and warmed up with a 5 minute walk (3.0-3.8 mph) and then jogged for 5 minutes @ 5.0mph before I did some intervals.

I did 1 minute hard to 1 minute easy for 10 minutes, hard runs being between 6.0-8.0 (I basically upped it by 0.2 each time) and then recovered at 5.0 mph. At the end, I was hot, sweaty, had blotchy skin, but felt oh so awesome. I can’t believe I ran 8.0, even if it was just for a minute.

I cooled down walking for 5 minutes and then did a few stretches so my leg muscles wouldn’t tighten up on me. I’m hoping to get in a little yoga either tonight or in the morning.

For lunch, I had another salad and another dilemma with what container to use. Then I remembered this Pampered Chef bowl I bought at a friend’s party a couple of months ago that I hadn’t used yet. But it was a little big…

I was hoping no one would walk by my desk and give me weird looks, ha ha. What I brought didn’t quite fill it up but it gave me plenty of room to maneuver.

This salad contains: romaine, spinach, cucumber, and chick peas. I brought hummus as topping again but after the problem I had yesterday with running out, I went with a new strategy. The same one I use with salad dressing!

Dip your fork in it! By doing it this way, I got hummus with every bite instead of trying to spread it around in the bowl. It worked like a charm, I even had a little bit left over, which I promptly licked right out of the container.

A couple hours later, I was stressing out a bit (you’ve got to love paydays and the bills that suck all your money away!) and I had another cup of coffee with creamer. I love how that was my emotional “treat” of the day, ha ha.

When I got hungry later in the afternoon, I went with the oldest snack in the book, one I used to eat all the time as a kid.

Celery + PB…oh my gosh, look at how creamy that PB looks!

When I got home tonight, Josh was going through all these places we could eat dinner, but I just wasn’t feeling it, so he got a pizza to bring home and bake and I had dinner from home which hit the spot completely.

Veggie burger with 2% cheese, spinach, and ketchup on two slices of whole wheat toast with a side of broccoli. I love the veggie burger + spinach + ketchup combo, it is one of my all-time favorites. 🙂

For accountability’s sake, I had a Coke Zero with dinner. I hate artificial sweeteners but every now and then I need something other than water with some fizzy-ness. I won’t make a habit of it though.

I also had a dark chocolate bar and got a second one out but have already talked myself out of it. I’m thinking peppermint tea is in my future though.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I have been eating less sugar/carbs and I still can’t believe how good I feel. After my workout, I was not tired and didn’t feel tired the rest of the afternoon like I sometimes do. It’s just amazing. I feel that good.

I also used to have really dark circles under my eyes, so bad that I had to wear concealer every day but now you can barely see them, mostly just in the corner of my eye now. I wish I had done before and after pics of that!

Hope you all enjoy your Friday night! Don’t forget, the Musselman’s Applesauce giveaway ends tonight, so hurry!!

I will announce the winner tomorrow morning 🙂

Good night all!

Clean machine

Well, hello there blog readers! Sorry to be completely absent yesterday, but overnight I turned into a cleaning machine, haha. Seriously though, I got so much done yesterday that I couldn’t believe it. And I’m not too exhausted today either!

But let’s catch up on the weekend first, shall we?

Saturday

After my lovely morning of breakfast, coffee, grocery shopping, etc. I spent some time looking at my favorite blogs, wishing Kath a happy birthday!, and then it was finally time for some lunch around 2:00. I’ve learned to start eating when I’m hungry and usually about 4 hours after my previous meal, instead of assuming lunchtime is always at 12 noon. 🙂

I made a big veggie burger, some brussels sprouts, and threw a big Claussen (the best) pickle on the plate, along with some of my new Smart Balance mayonnaise. Let me just say, this stuff was great! I love the way it tastes and it feels good knowing it’s good for me too. I also had a blueberry soy yogurt that had been in my fridge for some time. I was going to give these away because of their high sugar content but I decided that if eaten with a meal, I could do it. I just won’t buy these again for a while.

This lunch was so good and filling, I calculated it around 350 calories.

After I ate and digested a bit, I went to my parents house and cleaned their floors (they pay me to do this twice a week, they hate it and I could use the extra money, win-win situation) and on the way home I got my car washed and made a pit stop at Target 🙂

I picked up some Wasa crackers…I haven’t had any in a while and Target had them on sale 2 for $4.00. I just got the light rye crispbread this time. For 2 crackers, it’s only 60 calories and they are whole grain!

After doing some more things around the home, I was ready for a snack as I was planning a big walk that afternoon!

Two Wasa crackers spread with 1 tbsp Smucker’s Natural PB (165 calories):

My husband was “up the street” at a restaurant/bar watching the Texas vs. Oklahoma St. football game because none of our tv channels were airing it (which is INSANE by the way, the #6 and #1 teams playing each other?!) so I decided I would walk up there to meet him and then we could ride back together.

Whoa. I started off out of my neighborhood and took a few streets to get back to our old neighborhood (which is like a mile away). I walked past our old apartment, which was weird because I miss the old neighborhood, but I love the apartment we live in now sooo much better! Along the way, I decided to make a turn and conquer this hill (pic doesn’t do it justice):

I just kept going and going, I even ran a few times for a minute or so just to make up time (husband was getting worried, haha). Finally, after 45 minutes I had made it to the restaurant in enough time to drink a couple big glasses of water and watch the 4th quarter of the game — Texas won, yeah! So did Louisville, double yeah! 🙂

When we got back home, I got on Mapmyrun.com and calculated that I traveled a total of 3.07 miles on foot! So between that and my various household tasks, plus browsing Target, I got some exercise in that day.

We headed up to BWW for the UFC pay per view that night, which turned out to be a big letdown (note: I don’t think Anderson Silva is a jerk, that’s the author’s commentary). But we still had fun and definitely had some good food. I am a simple person and I love that at Buffalo Wild Wings, I can get the “naked” chicken tenders because they are grilled and you can choose your own sauce and only use however much you want.

I also had a side salad (minus croutons) with ranch dressing on the side (dipped my fork in it just a few times)…

The tenders with Carribean jerk sauce (haha, jerk sauce, seriously though, I love Anderson Silva)…

We got home just before 1:00 a.m., but I needed a little hot chocolate for my tummy 🙂 I sprayed a little whipped topping on there and a few drops of sugar free chocolate syrup.

Sunday

Breakfast yesterday morning was a repeat of the pumpkin-peanut butter oatmeal, which was probably even better the second time around. I did everything the same except I did 2 tsp of sugar free syrup this time instead of just 1. It made a huge difference! I also stirred the peanut butter around better, so it would be in almost every bite 🙂 I love this oatmeal! It keeps me going well until lunch! I did have two small styrofoam cups of coffee at church though (with sweet ‘n low and a little bit of powdered non-dairy creamer).

We had lunch with my parents after church at Jimmy John’s. I love this place, it is so close to where we live and it’s light and cheap too! I got the Beach Club unwich this time, which is turkey, provolone, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, bean sprouts and avocado spread (I told them to hold the mayo). I was afraid I would need something else when I got home (this was 233 calories), but once I started digesting, I was plenty full 🙂

We got back home and I had thought I wanted a nap but I couldn’t shut off my mind, so I made some of my new Celestial Seasonings decaf mint green tea with a splash of milk and sugar substitute. It was so good, mint is one of my favorites and this brand did not disappoint!

I did some straightening, dishes, laundry and prepared for a Financial class I am attending at my church. Now that we are consolidating our debt and working on a plan, I am feeling much better about things 🙂

Before I left for class, I needed a snack, so I made a Cranberry smoothie! I used 1/2 cup of plain fat free yogurt, 1/2 cup skim milk and 1/2 cup fresh cranberries with some ice (125 calories).

I also grabbed a mini Luna bar as I walked out the door. I felt okay eating it because it only had 5 grams of sugar and had “low Glycemic” listed on the label 🙂

After class, I stopped by Target again to price some coffee that Lindsay was talking about earlier…Archer Farms Pumpkin pie spice! I must have some! But, I am making myself wait a little while, as it would cost $6.79 and I have three things of coffee at home I need to try and use up first 🙂

One thing I did use that night was a package of Nasoya extra firm tofu! I had never used this specific kind before (just the silken) so I was anxious to try it.

I drained it and cut it up into 10 blocks and calculated that each piece was 40 calories. I marinated 4 pieces if Buffalo Wild Wings spicy garlic sauce and put them on my George Foreman grill (one of the best things Broccoli Hut ever taught me!) for about 5 minutes. I also cooked up some Pictsweet spring vegetables in the microwave:

I forgot to mention I made a tofu wrap! I used one of my Tamxicos whole wheat tortillas (I will need to get more of these!) and spread it with 1 tbsp fat free sour cream, sprinkled some lettuce on and then the tofu pieces. I did want to “wrap” it but I used too much stuff, so I made it more like a taco 😉

Here is the goodness from the inside:

I had so much fun making this and I was proud of myself for being rather creative instead of just making another veggie burger or something!

After dinner, I did a ton more cleaning. Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, toilets, putting laundry away, changing sheets, you name it, I did it! It felt so good to get all that accomplished because that means when I get home today, I can just eat dinner and then sit back and enjoy Monday Night Football (go Colts!).

Before bed, I had some sugar free lime jello (good flavor!) and some spray whipped topping of course. The jello is hiding under there, I promise 🙂

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and is starting the week off right 🙂 Thanks for reading and for your comments, I really appreciate it!

 

Fried chicken weekend

Mornin’, blog-universe! Or blogiverse? Blogverse? Haha, anyway…here’s my weekend update!

Friday

I had dinner at Jimmy John’s (becoming a regular) again on Friday night with my friend before we went to a concert to benefit the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation 🙂 I got a Hunter’s Club (roast beef) unwich with no mayo (added mustard) and a pickle. Thanks to Jimmy John’s handy website, I calculated my meal was 320 calories.

The concert was great, we saw some fantastic artists perform at our local Hard Rock Cafe: Tristan Prettyman, John McLoughlin, Delta Goodrem (my personal fave of the night–she’s also a cancer survivor!), and Thriving Ivory. Between the acts, they did a live auction and the event raised over $10,000!

After we got home, I had myself a little Handi-snacks sugar free chocolate pudding cup. I definitely like this flavor better than the caramel!

Saturday

I woke up Saturday morning knowing I had a full day ahead of me, but totally intending to get some exercise in. I started things off with a protein-ous breakfast:

I went out with my mom for some coffee (grande nonfat cappuccino – just 80 calories), then we got our nails done (sweet!) and I was able to find some really awesome low carb cookbooks and a Sports Nutrition book at Half Price Books. I got 4 books and only spent $9, wow!

When we got back to her house, I had a tbsp of peanut butter to hold me over. We were headed to my cousin’s daughter’s birthday party an hour after this…

My family (both sides of it) are notorious for their love of fried chicken. I think I might be adopted…just kidding. But I’ve never quite appreciated it as much as the rest of them. But since beggars can’t be choosers, I made myself a plate with a breast and a leg and some green beans. I picked ALL the skin off and ate the chicken underneath which was very tender and definitely filled me up (protein, yay)! Take a close look at this photo because it’s the EXACT SAME thing I had for lunch on Sunday at our church conference.

Later in the afternoon when I got home, I had this nice snack of mixed nuts. I have really come to love cashews and brazil nuts. I also love pecans. I think peanuts are slowly becoming my least favorite, which is surprising..those used to be the only nuts I would eat.

I took a nice nap on the couch after being exhausted from the birthday party. Sometimes just watching kids run around is enough to wear you out 🙂 But I didn’t have any cake or ice cream — because I didn’t want any! I love being in control again.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any formal exercise in, but I did a lot of running around and my eating was pretty good all day so I didn’t feel too bad.

We headed out to dinner with some friends and we chose to go to Jason’s Deli, we hadn’t been there in a long time!

I chose the salad bar because I couldn’t decide on a salad and I knew I could get more veggies in that way. Behold…

My HUGE plate from the salad bar contained the following:

• Romaine lettuce
• Red onion
• Mozzarella cheese
• Cherry tomatoes
• Hard-boiled egg
• Bean salad (kidney, cannelini, chickpeas I think)
• Red pepper hummus (my favorite!)
• Broccoli
• Cucumbers
• Artichoke hearts
• Light ranch dressing

I also got a cup of the veggie soup, but was sad to find carrots, corn and a few pieces of pasta in it, all not approved for Phase 1. But I ate around them.

I made a second trip to the salad bar for some more beans, hummus and cauliflower. Everything was so good and I was definitely full when I left but not uncomfortably.

After all the food excitement, we got in the Halloween spirit and went on the Danger Run! For those of you not familiar, this is where you drive around in your car following clues to find the destination of your haunt (it’s usually a different one every year). We did really well on the first half, but the second half (in Indiana) got us all confused, so we used the ‘cheat sheet’ and headed straight to the 2nd haunt 🙂

Afterwards, we stopped a gas station and I got a decaf coffee (it was cold outside!) with Splenda and a little bit of whole milk (I know, I know, but it’s all I could find).

When we got home, even though it was late, I was still in the spirit, so I watched Friday the 13th (the original, with Mrs. Voorhees) and had a sugar free chocolate pudding cup.

Sunday

Yesterday was another LONG day, but good. I started things off with two poached eggs, turkey sausage and a cup of milk (with sugar free chocolate syrup).

Before leaving home, I also had a cup of regular coffee with skim milk and Equal. At church, we had our annual business conference, and they served KFC. I had two pieces of chicken with the skin peeled off and some green beans (just like Saturday’s lunch). The meeting lasted several hours, so I had some mixed nuts while there too.

When we got home, I was exhausted, so I took a nap…for over an hour! Again, no exercise, kind of disappointed, but I obviously needed to rest. I need to look at my schedule and see if I can schedule my workouts in a way that resting on the weekend won’t be a big deal.

When I woke up, I made myself some dinner. Two veggie burgers with cheese and some sauteed mushrooms and zucchini (in soy sauce). Although calorie-wise, this wasn’t much, I felt a little stuffed after I ate it. I think I could’ve just gone with one veggie burger.

After dinner, we went back to church to attend a financial class, which was very informative. This is an area in my life that I need to become at peace with so I was glad to get started last night.

When I got home, I had a second wind, so I did some laundry, dishes, swept and mopped the floors, and straightened up the house to get ready for our Monday Night Football group.

I had the rest of my sugar free orange jello with a spray of light reddi-whip:

I went to bed around 10:30 and felt very tired and nearly fell asleep but something just kept waking me up. I don’t know whether it was the comfort level or thoughts in my head, but eventually my stomach started growling, so I helped myself to some of my Smucker’s Natural PB:

I need to try more brands, but for natural PB, Smucker’s did a great job. I’ve had this one before but it has been a while. It’s just peanuts and salt and it’s very gritty AND creamy, just the way I like it 😉

This seemed to do the trick because I ate this, drank two glasses of water, went back upstairs and the rest I don’t remember, haha.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

What a weekend!

Let me just say, wow. Weekends have been killer for me since…well, forever. I always eat too much on the weekends, don’t get enough exercise and end up starting over on Monday, hoping those two days can make a difference for my Wednesday weigh ins. Hmm…

I kicked butt this weekend! I had a few treats (in the form of dark chocolate PB and sugar free Werther’s) but I kept my portions and calories WAY in check and I felt great about it. I was never hungry and never too full. Plus, no cravings for sweets or “bad” carbs! My energy has been amazing, even in spite of hormones. I feel freakin’ fantastic! And it could just be all in my head, but I’m pretty sure my pants are already fitting better.

I never thought I could like a “diet” so much (it’s all about discipline and mental preparedness). I’m not stressed out at all, quite the opposite actually.

So let’s take a look at Sunday, shall we?

Well, first, here is what I ended up having as a snack on Saturday night, hehe. I justify this because a) it’s peanut butter which is protein, b) dark chocolate in small amounts is good for you and c) it only has a few grams of sugar for 2 tbsp and I usually only have one (although it was 2 this particular time).

Sunday breakfast – This brings me to Experiment # 3. I bought some skim milk since I had eaten cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese with no lactose-intolerant-like symptoms afterward. I made a smoothie with my no sugar added chocolate breakfast powder, 1 cup of skim milk and some ice. Yep, no symptoms! Hmm…I am pretty much convinced now that me and dairy are okay, as long as I don’t overdo it. I’m going to continue to monitor my reactions to foods and point out any culprits.

Now for the rest of breakfast…two scrambled eggs and 3 links of turkey sausage. This, plus the smoothie, plus a cup of coffee at church kept me going FOREVER. I didn’t even feel the need to eat until after 1:00 when we got home. This never happens! At church, I did savor three sugar free Werther’s candies. I don’t keep a whole bag with me because they still do have calories and some people are sensitive to sugar alcohols. I also chew sugarless gum, I have found these two methods a good way to keep from eating when I’m not hungry, to distract my mouth 🙂

Lunch – Veggie burger with slice of cheddar veggie cheese, green beans and edamame. Oh and a tbsp of habanero ketchup — this claims to have 0 g of sugar, but it’s in the ingredients (and we all know ketchup has it). I will continue to use sparingly.

After tons of cleaning, shopping, laundry and running around, I had 1/4 cup of Planter’s unsalted mixed nuts (including almonds, brazil nuts, cashews and peanuts). This has got to be one of my all-time favorite mixes! The jar was on sale at CVS for $2.99, regularly more than $5, so I am very glad I snagged it. May have to go back and get more before the sale ends! Sorry no pic, I’m not sure what happened there.

I did some work on the computer, balanced the checkbook (always fun, right? hah) and then got ready for dinner. I made this salad with romaine lettuce, portobello mushroom slices, cucumber, a sprinkle of parmesan and balsamic vinaigrette mist. It was a little bland, I’m sorry to say. I will seek improvement for next time (maybe some nuts?).

Main course – Salmon, seasoned with Mrs. Dash lemon pepper (one of my favorites) and baked in the oven; served with steamed cauliflower (with S + P). It tasted good, but I still think the whole dinner lacked a lot in flavor. I will have to improve upon my cooking methods. Any suggestions?

Almost immediately after dinner, I ate this sugar free caramel pudding cup!

Then I got to work big time on cleaning the house and diving into the heap of laundry I had to do. I did no formal exercise this weekend, but I hardly sat around! By the time I was done with my tasks, my legs were tired and I was ready for bed, but feeling quite accomplished. I even changed the sheets and everything on the bed!

I had one last snack for the day, 2.5 tbsp of dark chocolate PB. I have to put the jar away because if it’s just sitting there, it is way too tempting. I still have the cinnamon raisin PB in the pantry, but raisins are a big no-no right now, so I will have to save that for later. I drank two huge glasses of water with this because I’m sure part of my ‘hunger’ was really thirst.

I am so pleased with this weekend. I forgot to mention, when I weighed in last Thursday with my health assessment, I was down 2 lbs. Sweet!

Happy Monday blogland!

Breakfast for dinner!

Happy Monday blogland!

I always get into a better mood on Monday when I reflect back on my choices over the weekend and realize I did a pretty good job 🙂 Even weeks where I made some errors or overindulged a bit, that just motivates me to start the next week off right! A lovely thing, these here blog is…

So here is my weekend in a (large) nutshell!

Friday

Breakfast – Banana/soymilk/chocolate instant breakfast smoothie, English muffin with real blueberry preserves, turkey sausage

Mid-morning snack – honey roasted peanuts (also a decaf coffee with Silk french vanilla creamer).

I was headed to the gym at lunch time and the peanuts burned right through me, so I had to eat half of my Muscle Milk Light bar (won’t be buying these anymore, can’t justify the trans fat when there are so many other good for you bars out there)…

Went to the gym…our aerobics instructor cancelled, so I decided to do a 40 minute walk/run on the treadmill. I warmed up for 5 minutes, walking between 3.0 and 3.8 mph; then I alternated 3 minutes of running at 6.0 mph with 3 minutes of walking at 4.0 for 30 minutes; cooled down for 5 minutes, gradually decreasing from 3.8 back down to 3.0 mph.

It wasn’t cardio kickboxing, but it was a great workout if the amount that I sweat was any proof 🙂

Lunch was on the fly…I decided to stop at Subway because I hadn’t been in a LONG time. I got a oven roasted chicken breast sub on honey oat bread with spinach, tomato, green peppers, banana peppers and some yellow mustard. It was awesome and just what I needed to recover from that workout!

I can’t get a sub without Sun Chips (most of the time), so I had these and saved the apple for later…Sun Chips are great because they have a very short ingredients list and they are made with whole grains. Plus they taste GREAT! I cannot stand to eat anything (chips wise) but these, seriously.

Before I left work I ended up eating the apple and a Whole Soy & Co yogurt, can’t remember which flavor…

When I got home, we immediately went to the store and then I spent some time on the phone with a friend and didn’t have dinner until really late. I was so hungry by the time I made and ate it, that I totally forgot to take a pic!

And it’s a sad thing too…because I made beautiful french toast with scrambled eggs. 😦 Oh well, next time.

Dessert was the last bit of my Edy’s light pumpkin ice cream and some chocolate graham goldfish (the last of those as well — I’m excited to try the other flavors)…I was pleased with this ice cream because it’s one of my favorite flavors (having had it for the first time two years ago) and it doesn’t contain partially hydrogenated oils OR high fructose corn syrup. Hooray!

Saturday

After a somewhat rough Friday night, I woke up Saturday re-energized and ready to face the day!

I started things off with a nice bowl of oats (made with water), a banana and a heaping spoon of Peanut Butter & Co’s Cinnamon Raisin PB, probably about 1.5 tablespoons worth. I also had a multi-vitamin (not pictured) and an Adora calcium + Vitamin D supplement. Dark chocolate rules!

After this breakfast, I had some intense energy! So I decided to ‘pretend’ I was in cardio kickboxing class, since it had been cancelled the day before. I remembered most of the moves, so I set my watch and didn’t stop for over an hour. I got a full body workout and lots of cardio. I told my husband when I got down to the floor to do some abs, the carpet was wet from the sweat pouring off 🙂 Gross to some, incredible to me!

After I showered and dressed (and chugged some water), I went to my parents’ house for a while and ate this Larabar as a snack. I think Peanut Butter Cookie is my favorite, but I also think I say that about all of them. You just can’t go wrong with Larabars. You can find one to fit your mood or craving any day 🙂 I have almost tried every flavor!

When I got back home, I had lunch late (almost 3:00!) because breakfast, all the water and the Larabar held me really well. I’m trying to get better about not sticking to a schedule and eating when I’m hungry only.

I made a Boca original vegan burger (the best, no frills) on whole wheat bread with a slice of cheddar flavored veggie cheese, lettuce, and ketchup; also a leftover sweet potato with Smart Balance and cinnamon:

Then I did some stuff around the house and sat down for a while to watch tv. But my mind was racing, so I walked to Barnes & Noble and enjoyed an iced soy latte (tall) while I read some books to explore career options…

I came back home to eat some dinner before going out with the girls! I sort of had breakfast again: English muffin with Sun Butter and the last of the blueberry preserves; a V8 juice; soy yogurt with Kashi Go Lean crunch cereal. It was very filling and definitely kept me going the rest of the night…

Over the course of the evening, I had exactly 1 beer, a Bud Light. I was quite proud of myself. Check out this psychedelic picture!

When I got home, I thought I was ‘starving’ and thought about making a bowl of cereal. But knowing my propensity to eat too much of a good thing, I just kept the snack simple with a serving of peanut butter filled pretzels (the last of these too!). I had lots of peanut butter that day!

Sunday

Breakfast – Strawberry/soymilk/chocolate instant breakfast smoothie (again); whole wheat toast with pumpkin butter; scrambled eggs.

Coffee with non-dairy (powdered) creamer at church…

Lunch – Jimmy John’s Turkey Tom sub with no cheese and no mayo; bowl of cheddar Sun Chips (had those at home)…

Did you know? Jimmy John’s vegetables are from local sources and delivered on a daily basis. Unlike at Subway, nothing is delivered pre-sliced. Meat and vegetables are cut fresh in-house every day. (from the amazing book “Eat This, Not That” by David Zinczenko)

AIDS walk!

My friend Courtney and I before the walk

Thanks to those of you who contributed to this year’s Louisville AIDS walk. There was a huge turnout and the walk alone raised $178,000, which they said was $8k more than last year’s walk. Amazing!

The walk was great too, 3.1 miles downtown in our lovely city, plus we crossed the bridge over to Indiana and walked back. That was cool. It was a nice temperature but the sun made it a little warm. We definitely got a good workout in, I felt it!

Afterward, we decided to relax and chat for a bit at Barnes & Noble cafe. I swear, I go to this place a lot. It helps having one close 😉

Tall decaf soy latte, hot this time…

After I got home, it took me a while to decide what I wanted for breakfast. I mean dinner. Haha. I wasn’t in the mood for meat or vegetables or anything dinner-like for some reason. So I made buckwheat chocolate chip pancakes, turkey sausage and had a double serving of V8 juice to at least get some liquid veggies in!

Until recently, I hadn’t had V8 juice in a long time but I bought some recently and now I am finding it tastes great and is a great way to get a veggie serving in if you’re feeling particularly picky somedays 🙂

This worked! It was an amazingly filling dinner and I didn’t crave anything sweet afterward because I had already had it!

Later in the night, after catching up on some cleaning, household chores, and blog reading, I had this banana and a nice cup of water.

I noticed Sunday, I mostly stuck with big meals and not a lot of snacks. Sometimes this works for me because I sleep later on the weekends and as long as I keep myself occupied with stuff to do, I don’t go ‘grazing’ in my kitchen (or anyone else’s). So in my eyes, this weekend went really well.

Hope yours did too! See you next time.

Whirwind weekend…

Sorry for the long hiatus guys! It was a wild and crazy weekend once again. Today I have been so tired and unable to focus for very long, I definitely wore myself out yesterday. Looking forward to an easy relaxing night at home…

Friday

Breakfast – Blackberry-blueberry-soymilk smoothie; toast with PB & PB (peanut butter and pumpkin butter)

Mid-morning I had some decaf coffee with Silk creamer (French Vanilla this time, much better!) and later headed to Cardio Kickboxing, love this class! Sweat up a storm and came back ready for lunch…

I’m not big on frozen dinners these days, but I was in a hurry this morning and didn’t have much food at home (Friday is usually grocery day in our house) so I grabbed this Amy’s Veggie Loaf meal since it was on sale and sounded pretty good…

It tasted good too! The only thing ‘weird’ was the texture of the loaf but the taste was amazing and the meal itself really filled me up…I also had a peach (later) and a Snapple diet green tea…

This green tea rocked! Yes, it has artificial sweetener, which I don’t care for, but it tasted so refreshing and made a nice break from water 🙂

There was a meeting at work in the afternoon with some leftover fruit kabobs…this picture came out so crappy! But this is strawberries, grapes and pineapple!

Then I had my last dark chocolate caramel Werther’s…

I stayed late at work and when I got home it was time to hit the store, so I grabbed a quick snack of a mini Luna bar, these things are so nifty, I just wish they came in more flavors than the chocolately ones…believe it or not, I do get sick of chocolate after awhile 😉

When we got home, my husband went to go pick up the pizza we had ordered ahead of time, but he was gone for nearly an hour! The place we went to doesn’t have great service and quite frankly their pizza is overpriced, but my husband loves it and I sucked it up so he could enjoy it for one night…I won’t say where it is because I’d feel bad, I’m such a softie.

I made myself a salad of romaine, raisins, sunflower kernels and Newman’s Own Balsamic mist (like the other kind I had only without the nasty ingredients)! Love it!

Either the salad filled me up or we ate so late that I wasn’t as hungry anymore (?) but I just had one piece of mushroom pizza and a piece of cheesebread (I don’t usually but the hub insisted). Of course, I had to take a Lactaid pill beforehand…the things you do for love 😉

Later on, while watching “Be Kind Rewind” (which kinda sucked, I’m sad to say), I had some pumpkin ice cream with semisweet chocolate chips 🙂

Saturday

My favorite has returned! Banana-chocolate smoothie using soymilk, 1 whole banana, no sugar added chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast (generic), and some ice, woo hoo!

Simply the best…I also had an English muffin with PB & preserves…

After breakfast, I went out for a walk-run: 5 minute warm up, alternating 3 minutes running with 3 minutes walking, then 5 minute cooldown. It was great! I definitely felt like I got a good workout in. It’s always good to do that early in the day too.

I can’t remember eating a snack Saturday morning or drinking coffee for that matter. I went to Whole Foods and got some sushi for lunch, I had been craving it all week!

This is avocado-cucumber vegetable roll with some soy sauce and wasabi on the side. This was all I ate for lunch because it filled me up fantastically!

Then I felt a huge nap coming on, so I took advantage! When I woke up, I had one of these bad boys that I also picked up at WF…thanks to Jenna from Eat Live Run for the recommendation, she was right, these things are heavenly!

After my nap and snack, me and my guy went to my parents house to work on our cars. Him and my dad did some under the hood stuff and I cleaned the interiors of both cars: windows, seats, dash, etc. I have to say, our cars are lookin’ pretty good. Unfortunately, my husband’s car battery decided to die the same day 😦 Stuff happens!

When we got done, I was starving! We went to eat at Brownie’s The Shed, a local German bar & grill…I got a chef salad with no cheese or croutons…it tasted very good and I was glad to get some good protein with veggies in. I had light italian dressing on the side, I didn’t have to use much 🙂

After we got back home, I didn’t feel full and I was craving something sweet, so I had some chocolate graham goldfish…I love that these are made with whole grains!

Couple hours later, I went with my best girlfriend to Barnes & Noble, one of our favorite past times and I enjoyed a grande coffee light frappuccino but almost forgot to take a pic, hah:

I also had a bite of her spinach pretzel which had real spinach in it, I was impressed! When we got back to my place to watch SNL (way better than last week’s James Franco ain’t bad), I had some 94% fat free popcorn (2 of the bowls pictured)…

And two dark chocolate kisses 🙂

Sunday

Breakfast – Even though I was in bed a little after 1, my body still woke me up at 7 for some reason. I made some buckwheat pancakes (omitted oil, they tasted drier this time, perhaps because of no chocolate chips or blueberries?) and topped them with dark chocolate PB and a banana — as good as this looks, it didn’t hit the spot the way I’d hoped it would. Next time I’m just going to make chocolate chip pancakes again!

Also had a few links of turkey sausage…

Went out for another walk-run! Same as Saturday, I made sure to sprint the last minute, it felt really good to get the heart rate up…

Stopped at “The Bucks” (aka, well, you know) on the way to church…got a tall decaf soy latte! Breakfast held up really well and with this, I wasn’t hungry until much later…

We went to a fellowship with our Sunday school class at someone’s house and I forgot to take my phone in for pics. I had a small roll with a scoop of chicken salad, a little spoonful of ramen noodle slaw, and probably about a cup of some other kind of slaw that had green beans, red peppers and some kind of oil or dressing — it was cold, which threw me off, but it tasted good. I also had a cup of (regular) coffee with a ‘pod’ of french vanilla creamer.

When I got back home, my husband went out to get a new battery for his car (meh) and I started cleaning our apartment like a crazy woman! I was working so hard and that added in with my morning run, took a toll on my knees and feet. I had to make myself sit down for a bit. Then mom came over and I took a break over to B&N (I live really close to one in case you were wondering, haha).

While there I decided to try the other Vivanno smoothie, Orange Banana Mango. It was actually really good! I got mine made with soy milk and it was really creamy and fruity, perfect if that is what you are craving. Since I had only had a banana with breakfast, I knew I needed some more fruit for the day, this worked out perfectly!

Went back home and got to work again! I basically cleaned and scrubbed an entire floor of our apartment (we live in a townhome) including vacuuming, sweeping/mopping, dusting, plus the dishes and laundry. I don’t know what got in to me!

By the time I was done, I was so worn out that I sat in my husband’s recliner and watched a few episodes of Season One of “The Ultimate Fighter”…they had a marathon last weekend and I recorded the whole thing, haha…I heart Forrest Griffin! Plus, Chuck Liddell, who was his coach 🙂

A few hours later, I was ready for some dinner but nothing sounded good. I actually wanted to try to make up for my non-impressive breakfast. So I made a spinach-peppers omelette with mozzarella veggie cheese and ketchup, plus a piece of whole wheat toast with Smart Balance. It was pretty much great!

Close-up…yum-yum!

Later, I had 1/2 cup (measured this time!) of pumpkin ice cream with a fun size packet of M&M’s…so far, I think this is my favorite combo, don’t know why I can’t just eat it plain, haha…

I was up watching the Emmy’s (boring, but how funny was Josh Groban?) and felt some hunger coming on, so I had 1/2 cup of Kashi Go Lean crunch cereal, that did the trick.

You know what’s amazing? When I was reflecting on the weekend, I thought I had slipped up a bit but when I posted it here and included my exercise and everything I did moving around, I don’t feel bad at all. I think I did great actually. Weird how that happens…

Hope everyone else had a great weekend! See ya tomorrow 🙂