What I’m eating this week

For the curious, bored, and to remind myself when I need ideas:

Breakfast:

Is probably going to vary. Today I made my take on a breakfast from Dr. Fuhrman’s “Eat for Health” book. It has 1 c frozen mixed berries (from Costco), 1/4c raw old fashioned oats, 2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds, a couple of walnut halves broken up and a splash (around 1 – 1.5 ounces) pomegranate juice for a bit of flavor and liquid. I think it would be fine with water.
When I feel the need for something savory, I’ll have beans & quinoa.

Lunch:

I made a chowder loosely based on Alicia’s. Mine is a pretty basic vegan potato chowder with a few chick peas and butter beans that were left over. It may sound weird, but butter beans are amazing in chowder.

I’m also having a wrap (on a collard leaf) with hummus, sliced cucumber and tomato, sliced olives and banana pepper rings. Awesome!

Snacks:

I’m out of apples so I’ll probably do beans until I get to Costco. Afternoon snack is my old stand-by of peanut butter and prunes. I’m almost out of peanut butter, so I am going to try Alicia’s low fat peanut butter.

Dinner of course varies.

Have a good day!

Nighty Night

Getting ready to go read for a few minutes and then turn in. It was a good weekend - lots of relaxing. Yesterday because I was dead from "Death by Insanity", and then this morning hub and I were bums and sat on the sofa watching the UFC PPV we tivoed last night.

After that we got up and went to the Y. I did a "cardio coach" workout on the elliptical and then sat in the sauna. I'm still stiff and sore from Saturday's class, but the sauna did help.

Christmas decorations are all up - I just need hub to put the last few boxes back up in the garage.

Overall a good weekend. I can't believe I am working every day this week!!! Tomorrow I am taking a yoga dvd to do with lunch buddy and a Jackie Warner weight lifting dvd to do with a co-worker in the afternoon. Work classes are over so we are continuing on our own.

I have learned this week that "total body sculpt" at the Y is okay for me, but cardio sculpt is not. That helps as I plan what I do for the week. I didn't do a spin or an aqua fit class, but even though plans had to change a couple of times, I met my goal of 2 yogas, 2 weight sessions, and 3 cardio sessions. It's a good start.

It's insanity alright

Just a quick check-in. Didn't set the alarm this morning. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and it was 10 till 8 - I never sleep that late! I was really tired when I got home yesterday.

Anyway, I had a quick piece of peanut butter toast then it was off to the gym. I did yoga then stayed for cardio sculpt. The lady that taught it is probably around 30 and looks like she was an athlete in college - I'm guessing lacrosse.

Anyway, the cardio intervals were adapted from that "Insanity" program you see on infomercials. Yes, it was. Oh lordie! 30 minutes in and I felt a bit light headed and wanted to quit. I slowed down my pace but I wasn't sure I'd make it through. I did, but I was wiped out! It was also very high impact which isn't so great for my knees, so I don't think I'll be doing that one again in the future - at least not with that teacher.

I went home, had part 2 of breakfast (green smoothie) and took a long shower. Then I had part 1 of lunch and headed to the grocery store.

I got my Christmas miracle today - W-M was slammed but all the shoppers and the employees were just as nice as could be. I got in & out quickly, came home for part 2 of lunch, and then just vegged for a while.

Not sure what I'm doing this afternoon - I'm still pretty wiped out!

Have a good weekend!

You can keep your holiday meals, your cookie swaps, your homemade treats. But Lord I would seriously like to raid the cheese tray on the back table. My kingdom for a grilled pimento cheese sandwich!

That is all.

Semper Gumby (Always flexible)

So, I ended up having a late afternoon meeting which was not planned, but necessary. That meant by the time I got home, water aerobics (at 5:10) was not happening. So I found a plan B: total body sculpt at 7:15. I needed to do weights anyway since I am doing a weight class Saturday and I can go this afternoon and to the treadmill or elliptical or something.

I enjoyed the class but I used too much weight for the squats and lunges because it was bothering my back instead of working my legs. I talked to the teacher after & she said that was most likely it & to try lighter weights next time. It's depressing how quickly strength can be lost.

Oh well, I'm going now. And the beauty is that strength (for me at least) also comes relatively quickly - bless my good East German genes. No anabolic steroids required. :-)

Hope you have a nice weekend!

Just heard the menu, I'll be packing a lunch.

That wasn't bad at all!

The stuffed portabella was excellent. It had a light breading type stuffing and had a tomato sauce. No cheese so yay! Sometimes vegetarian entree means 3 pounds of cheese, so it was a very pleasant surprise. For sides I got double green beans. I got a small serving of mashed potatoes, but they weren't good so I didn't eat them. I passed on the salad (blah iceberg lettuce & no good dressings), stuffing, rolls, and dessert. I am not overly full but feel like I had "enough".

I hate being at the mercy of someone's elses food with few options, I'm glad it worked out this time. The next potential land mine is our team building offsite next Thursday. I haven't heard a menu yet, but if I have to I will pack a lunch.

Wow.

Can I just say I had a stressful day at work yesterday? I wasn't able to leave it at the door, the more I thought about it the more I stewed. But I relied on Calgon to take me away, and kept my post dinner noshing down to a Weight Watcher ice cream bar. Jordan (the terrier) has a serious thing for coffee ice cream. Who knew?

We watched "Predators" which my son disliked and hub and I both thought was cool. Tonight I have "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", so I suspect I'll be watching alone. :-)

Tonight is water aerobics, which I am very much looking forward to, just not the bit about leaving the gym with wet hair! (I'm too lazy to dry it.) This morning I put soup in the crock pot and told hub to feel free & make cornbread and go ahead & eat whenever they wanted. I also made him a quart of miso broth to take in his thermos. I have to go to Super G Mart after work today as I am practically out of the ingredients - we love some miso in winter!

Lunch this week has been good: miso soup with spinach and mushrooms alongside a collard wrap containing chickpea salad. Very satisfying and loaded in veggies & nutrients. I like the idea of using the collard leaf in place of a bread wrap - it lets me eat more volume of food! ;-)

Today is our employee appreciation luncheon. Lordie! Luckily they have a veggie option (stuffed portobella mushroom) - I'll get 2 veggies alongside, pass on the dessert, and count that as "dinner", having a lighter meal this evening. Glad I made that soup! Again, lots of volume for my caloric buck, as it were.

It's gonna be a busy day - hope you have a good one!

How many days until spring?

I hate cold weather! It's down in the teens at night and the high today is supposed to be 34. Argh!

Everything was fine with the heat pump - it just needed a couple of minor adjustments. I'm glad that's taken care of. I put my electric blanket on my bed last night.

I was considering going to water aerobics last night, but the guy got there so late to look at the heat pump that I ended up just taking a quick walk in the neighborhood. Thank heavens for silk long underwear from LL Bean!

Last night we did a bit of decorating on the tree and watched "The Expendables." IMO it's the guy equivalent of a chick flick. To say I thought it was dumb is an understatement. I'm bitter I can't get those 2 hours of my life back! :-)

What else? Today is yoga and tone & sculpt at work. I made the chick pea cutlets out of "Veganomicon" Monday. Very good! The guys were having pork tenderloin and I didn't really want that, so I thought I'd give that recipe a go. A nice quick sub for meat when I want something "meaty."

Home again

I hope you all had a nice weekend! I did but it was tiring. Friday I spent the night at my mom's so we could get a very early start - we were on the road by 6. With minimal stops and making good time we were at the La Grange exit (roughly 1.5 hours past Atlanta on I-85) at 12:30.

We picked up Alma, took her to lunch, then went to the cemetary. We put flowers on everyone's stones, including both sets of my mom's grandparents. After that we wandered around an antique store downtown. I found a really nice abstract oil painting for $25. (No frame, which is prob why it was so cheap). It's signed and dated 1948. I saw (but did not purchase) a set of cast iron pink poodle book ends!

Then we checked into the hotel for a bit of a break. Then Wal-Mart for a few items (including fresh fruit for Alma, which she doesn't get a lot of). We gassed up, drove around looking at Christmas lights and then went to dinner. After that it was back to the hotel for some tv watching and a nice shower!

The next morning we were on the road by 8:30. Alma had a few small gifts to open, but we went ahead & gave her the big stuff: a nice pair of shoes & a gift card.

It's a good thing we got an early start. My cousin & his family purchased a new home (it's a horse farm) and it's much further out of the way than their old place. Since there had been snow at home, that stop was basically a drive by to drop off gifts, then we were back on the road.

The drive home was uneventful but we were both tired so it felt long.

The guys had done some chores around the house, but there was still a fair bit left for me. Yesterday was picking up, finishing the grocery shopping, and food prep for the week.

Food is prepped, house is largely cleaned, and I am ready for the week. I had planned to go to the Y last night, but my feet were singing Ave Maria after a hard day running around & on my feet, so I bailed. However, I have my guidelines the nutritionist gave me around exercise and I am meeting with her next week to check up on me, so I have already made a plan for the remainder of the week.

I hate that taking care of the house is like a second full time job. honestly, it's no wonder so many people say they can't find the time to exercise. Oh well, that's life so suck it up! ;-) I am lucky to have a lovely home to be OCD about!

Today I am working from home while waiting for the guy to come & service the heat pump. It's due anyway, but it seemed to be making an odd noise last night, so better safe than sorry!

Hope you have a great day!

Happy happy joy joy

MIL came over last night - it was her birthday and she had requested a special meal and a banana split. I made chicken adobo, rice, and steamed broccoli, then the family headed off to the ice cream parlor so she could have her sundae. I think we were all a little on the quiet side, but it was thankfully drama and crazy free.

Our little town has 2 ice cream parlors - one is where the guys go for ice cream, and the other is where the guys go for burgers/hot dogs. So we went to the ice cream place last night and one thing I'd forgotten is one of the reasons I don't like to eat ice cream there (well, besides the fact that I'd rather have mango sorbet at home): they have all these clown pictures on the walls. Hate. Clowns.

After that I plopped down on the sofa to watch "The Wolfman" with Anthony Hopkins (okay, nothing great). Then off to bed so I could get up early this morning to pick up the house (MIL is coming over to clean).

Meals for next week are planned and the grocery list is made. I'm sure some adjustments/ additions will need to occur to accomodate the fact I'm not eating the same as the rest of the family, but the general list is there. Most of the shopping will be done Monday morning - today I'm stopping at the farm stand for eggs & breakfast sausage and Costco (the guys want pizza for dinner tomorrow night).

I am spending tonight at my mom's house so we can get up early and get on the road by 6. It's a 7 hour drive and we take Alma out for lunch when we get there, so it makes for an early morning!

I'm sure we will have a lovely weekend, and I'm sure the trip home (lengthened by the fact that we make a stop at my cousin's in Atlanta) will seem to take time and all eternity. But seeing my great aunt and knowing how much these visits mean to her makes it all worthwhile.

I hope you have a great weekend!

The case of the vanishing lights

Last night I made a fairly quick dinner (big salad, shrimp cocktail) then onto steak for the guys with more veg, and then asked the guys to clean the kitchen. After that we'd put the lights on the tree.

Blip 1 occurred when they realized the washer had been loaded but never run, so we now had a backlog of dirty dishes. I do all the meal planning, shopping, and food prep, so the dishes are their job. I reminded them we had company coming and that I needed the kitchen caught up.

Load 1 running and hub was off to dig out the Christmas lights. We dug and dug and dug, and never found the darn lights!!! I have NO idea what happened to them. The boy and I ran to W-M for lights while hub vacuumed, another task that belongs to them which had been sorely neglected. To add insult to injury, the dog had brought in a stick and chewed it up on the living room rug. Butch has the nickname "stick boy" for a reason! ;-)

By the end of the evening, the tree was lit (and looked wonderful), the kitchen was nearly reclaimed, the house vacuumed.

Tonight MIL is coming over for her birthday dinner. Hopefully she'll be off the crazy and the evening will be okay. I need to plan next week's meals and make the grocery list. I'm going to do some of the shopping tomorrow after work since we won't be getting back until Sunday evening.

Have a good day!

Excellent article on the vitamin d craze

http://refusetoregain.com/refusetoregain/2010/11/vitamin-d-mania-panic-without-purpose.html

Men! grumble grumble

The hub thoughtfully offered to clean the kitchen last night while I had a nice soak in the tub. Sadly, he threw out the leftovers (which were going to be my lunch). Grr! I guess I'll let him live. Luckily I was able to find something rather healthy in the cafeteria, although overpriced IMO.

Work is still very crazy this week, plus we are trying to get some holiday decorating done in the evenings. Next week should be a bit calmer. I am going to use the lull in the proverbial action to try out a couple of different classes at the Y. I also met with the on site nutritionist this morning to help me prioritize workouts - what's a minimum baseline, and how to prioritize what sort of cardio & that sort of thing. So now I want to test out a few more options and see what I think of them.

A convergence of events

As I've mentioned, we have a "maintain don't gain" challenge type thing going on at work. Allan over at almostgastricbypass.blogspot has continued to lose through the holidays and wants others to join his challenge going until 1 Jan. Fat Cyclist wants peeps to support him in losing weight, and is offering some great (biking related) prizes for those that join him in losing 10 pounds.

So, while there are many food temptations, there are also folks wanting to maintain focus on healthy eating and weight loss.

I know I haven't written a lot about that lately. The holidays have been hectic, with a certain amount of stress. Was there a full moon on T-day, because my MIL achieved a level of bat-sh&^-crazy that was quite remarkable. My emails have been piling up as I've been spending time cooking, shopping, and getting out the Christmas decorations instead of emailing or posting.

Things haven't been bad. I have maintained. Yesterday I made time for yoga. It's going to be a busy week and we're headed to Georgia for the weekend, but my healthy food is prepped and ready to be tossed into my lunch box. My gym bag is at the office under my desk.

As we cleaned the kitchen yesterday, son and I had a good laugh over MIL's T-day shenanigans. Cause really? I could be pissed about the fact that she showed up 3 hours late, with an appetizer that wasn't done, "mashed potatoes" that were still raw potatoes, and a burnt pecan pie. But what's the point? It's not like she's going to change. I can be angry about her crappy behaviour, or I can laugh about it. (On the list of top stupid things she did on T-day, that only ranks #3 people).

Back to the regular stuff

Hope you had a nice holiday. We had a very relaxing weekend - I took lots of naps. :-) T-day was good, despite my MIL. Hub and I agreed our major triumph of the weekend was not killing her. Ugh.

Saw Harry Potter - good movie. I think they did a good job adapting the books, although a lot is left out of course.

We took the Christmas decorations down and began decorating. We aren't in a frantic rush - just doing a bit at a time.

Mom and I are going to Georgia this weekend to bust my great aunt out of the retirement home. No firm plans other than that and dropping gifts by my cousin's on the way back through Hotlanta.

Have a good day!

T-day minus 1

Happy Thanksgiving, if tomorrow is that day for you! Overall I'm in decent shape - house is largely tidied and pre-cooking is on schedule. I have farmed out items to be brought as well, so really tomorrow should be fairly low key.

Getting my house (and yard) picked back up from the 95% done bathroom renovation today will require more effort than the cooking, especially given that hub had his toenail off yesterday and probably won't be up for doing much.

I pulled a muscle in my back last night. When you're 20, if you pull a muscle it's because you went bungee jumping or something. At 40(something) all you have to do is go to bed! Not fair!

Work is very hectic as everyone tries to wrap stuff up before huge chunks of folks go missing on vacation. Next month will be quieter.

Looking forward to wrapping up around lunch today.

Take care!

Hard thing 2

Yesterday our team volunteered at Urban Ministries food & clothing bank and soup kitchen. That wasn't the hard thing - lunch afterwards was the challenge! We went to Mellow Mushroom (a pizza place). Luckily they had LOTS of choices - I got a small mega-veggie with tofu. It was yummy! I had 2 slices and too the other 2 to my mom (which she had for dinner).

I maintained my weight this week - not totally happy, but given how hectic the week was, that was a bit of a victory.

Have a good weekend!

One thing down

We had our potluck at lunch today here in the department. I ate small portions and made pretty good choices. I had a snack before I went (an organic apple) so I wasn't ravenous.

My co-workers are complaining about how stuffed they feel, but I feel normal! Woot!

Baby steps

Okay, I've picked myself up out of my funk. This weekend I got a lot done around the house - an organized and tidy house always makes me feel better.

I have NOT been to the gym (sheesh!) but I did make yoga yesterday. Work is very busy right now - it's the rush before people go out for the holidays. I am going to go to spin tonight.

I didn't make my faux pho - I had two types of leftover soup post weekend and I only need lunch for 3 days: one day is our department pot luck and one day we are working at the food bank and going out for lunch.

I made the brussel sprout and mushroom soup from fatfreevegan.com which both my mom & I enjoyed very much and the guys weren't wild about. Oh well - more for us! :-)

Tonight I have lentil soup in the crock pot and I'll make some cornbread to go alongside.

Hub isn't working today or yesterday - he has a toenail that's gotten infected and the dr. wants him to soak it and take antibiotics - he has an appt with a podiatrist next week to get the nail removed (yuck!). Poor guy.

We watched Toy Story 3 last night and I bawled at the end. Be warned - it's not a sad ending in the tragic sense, but a total tear jerker.