A Day in History

Once again, I woke up at 5 to hit the treadmill. So far, it has been pretty easy as my body seems to be adjusting to the time change nicely. Being able to see the sun before AND after work surely must be helping. Though it has been raining here for a couple of days now and I am ready to see that move on out.

I have also settled into a nice routine at work. I love getting there before anyone else, I can get so much accomplished without the ordinary interruptions. Ya know, things like breakfast 🙂 Yesterday, I decided that I really needed to work on fruit and veggie intake so instead of two muffins, I had one with sunflower seed butter and a nice ripe pear. Oddly enough, this breakfast held me over even longer than normal.

I had an apple with hummus around 11. I only ate hummus on the first half of the apple because by the second half, I seemed to be over the hummus. I bought the roasted garlic instead of spicy this time and I really think I like the spicy better.

For lunch, I had a small bowl of 17 bean and bacon soup from my freezer. It was hearty am warm and really kept me satisfied for most of the afternoon. (Booo, I just realized I didn’t take a photo of lunch)

Just before leaving work, I had a few couple of handfuls of black and white trail mix from Target. It has yogurt and chocolate covered peanuts and raisins. I picked out the uncovered raisins because when I was in the fifth grade, a boy told me that raisins were dead flies so I haven’t been able to eat them plain since. Besides that part, I really loved this trail mix!

Dinner was late so I whipped up a really simple meal. I roasted a buttercup squash with butter and garlic and served it along side TJ’s chicken sausages with peppers and onions along with brown rice I pulled from the freezer. Both the dear husband and I really enjoyed the squash, we had never had this variety before. Though, I do have to say, I almost chopped off my arm trying to cut into this thing. I did have a small square of brownie for dessert but was pretty wiped out and skipped the photo.

Thought Provoker: Do you find that your relationship with food ebbs and flows? I find that some days, food, exercise and dessert is all I can think about and others, I just eat what I’m in the mood for and don’t really give it alot of thought.

Feeling Good

Yesterday, I woke up at 5 am again but this time without the help of an alarm! I started the day by hitting the treadmill for a sex and the city episode (30 mins).  I really would like to do this more often because I feel so much better during the day and sleep much better at night when I do this. We will see how it goes, you know me, I am not making any exercise promises.

Though I hate to bore you, I had yet another bowl of shredded wheat n bran for breakfast. I had it with milk, bananas walnuts and lots of cinnamon. As always, it was pretty tasty. I think on my next round, I am going to try a little nutmeg.

I had really been off track with my mini mealing but today I was back on the wagon. Around 9:30, I had a really large apple with a heaping portion of sabra spicy hummus. I loved this combo because the apple was really crisp and sweet which paired nicely with the smooth and spicy hummus.

Around 12:30, I discovered that my bread had mold on it so I had to rely on the kitchen. I was WAY past staff lunch so I asked for a bowl of broccoli and cheese soup and a grilled cheese on wheat. The soup was not even close to that one day so I only ate a few bites. The grilled cheese was fabulous so I ate all of that 🙂

In the late afternoon, I had a greek yogurt with a crumbled honest foods choco p’nut butter bar. It was good but not as good as I remember it. Hate it when that happens.

For dinner, we had Italian as the dear husband wanted to carb load for his 18 miler and who am I to refuse proper fuel? We ended up doing take out because it was pouring rain and he picked it up 🙂 This time, I got beef ravioli and a salad. I actually think the to go portions are a little smaller, which is a good thing. I still only ate about a 1/3 of my portion.

For dessert, we had more of the oat bars from Thursday. We both liked them better cold than warm, so much so that the dear husband polished off most of what was left.

Thought Provoker: Do you believe that you have a healthy relationship with food? In what ways would you like your relationship with food to change.

For me, I believe that I am on my way to a healthy realtionship with food. I still suffer from guilt sometimes if I eat something that I didn’t really enjoy. Even though I don’t count calories, it makes me feel like I have wasted the calories. I also still do not allow nutella in my house, I am afraid old habits might start to surface. I keep saying I am going to just buy 12 jars for the pantry and see what happens.

A Monday Off Work

We had to get up super early yesterday because we had to take my car in to the dealership for some work. Once the car was where it needed to be, we went out for breakfast, something we rarely do. We ended up at IHOP for pancakes. I ordered a spinach, mushroom and ham omelet

with harvest nut and grain pancakes. I put a little dab of syrup on the pancakes but discovered that I actually like them better without!

It was awesome breakfast! Of course, it was enough food to feed an army so I barely even finished a quarter of it. After breakfast, we ran some errands and then headed back home. We spent most of the day doing house and yard work. It was early afternoon before I was even remotely hungry, probably due to my well balanced breakfast 😉 For lunch, I made a repeat of Saturdays lunch. A hummus, havarty cheese, ham, lettuce and tomato sandwich of local 9 grain bread. It was just as good as the first time.

Just before it was time to pick up my car, I had a small bowl of greek yogurt with walnuts and agave. It was pretty good and held me over until dinner time.

For dinner, I made baked tofu. First, I drained it all day in the fridge and then cut it into large cubes. I tossed it with olive oil, agave and Penzy’s BBQ 3000 seasoning. Then,  I baked it at 400* for 40 minutes until nice and brown. Along side, we had a baked sweet potato with smart balance and sauteed kale. The kale was sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, onion, crushed red pepper and a dash of nutmeg. This was a delicious dinner!

After dinner, we both read a little and watched some tv. For dessert, I had a vitamuffin.

This was a great birthday weekend, too bad it isn’t just a few days longer!

QOTD: What sort of meals seem to hold you over for hours at a time?

Tired Tuesday

I decided after the rushed morning I had on Monday to get up even earlier yesterday. What is it with getting up earlier that makes the morning routine longer?  By getting up 30 minutes earlier, I made it to work right on time rather than a few minutes past 7:30. Breakfast was the same ole same ole. Can you tell yet that I am big into batch cooking? Anyway, it was half a serving of hot grain cereal (wheatberries, oats, bulgur) topped with an almost perfectly ripe banana, flax seed and some almond butter. I also had a cold glass of milk and a tall drink of ice water. I guess the reason I stick with this breakfast is because it really holds me over, sometimes even for six hours! 

hot grain cereal…again

Today, Golf World was a madhouse. My phone rang at least 100 times before 10 am. I have multiple projects going on all at once and it makes for a pretty hectic day. But, I stay focused and keep in mind that in November things will settle down. Today both my snack and my lunch were eaten out of “I  need a break” instead of actual hunger. Well, I take that back, the snack was eaten in as an avoidance tactic against garlic bread. The staff lunch is held in The Pro’s office which is right next to mine and the smell of garlic and butter was really getting to me. So, I noshed on some cukes and hummus, my favorite go to snack.

 

 

I will not eat the garlic bread

Lunch came about an hour and a half after the snack and I really was in “I need a break” mode then. I had just finished the work I had anticipated being done with my 10 am, it was almost 1. I had and egg salad sandwich on 100% whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato. I made the egg salad on Sunday with olive oil mayo, yellow mustard, salt and pepper. Is there a different way to make it in the south? I also had a stoneyfield farm low fat strawberry yogurt. I had plan to have the peach you see pictured but I was full and didn’t want it.

have lunch, will travel

For my afternoon snack..er..pick me up..I had a cinnamon latte I made at home with espresso, milk and a couple sprinkles of cinnamon. 

wake me up

This is my favorite way to have a flavored latte without all the added sweeteners (fake or not) of the syrups. I do like to have those every now and then but I really try to keep the sugar monster at bay.

     The rest of the afternoon was busy, as per usual, but T and I did get a fun little lesson about pin sheets from PVV. I think it is so funny to work in an industry that I know absolutely nothing about. Did you know that they move the hole…EVERY DAY… in golf? Every day. Seriously, who knew. Anyway, it was nice to get out onto the nice soft grass and get some sunshine. By the time the lesson was finished it was time to go. I was wiped out.

     The drive home was spent in a trance of “I want pizza, I want to go to sleep, do I really have to make dinner, will I work out, will I just bail on working out”. Luckily, when I got home I already had a plan for dinner so I could do it without really thinking or giving myself time to give in to the thoughts of cheesy gooey italian food. The plan was pork tenderloin stir fry, I know stir fry twice in just a couple days but it comes together so quickly and it makes such a nice balanced meal I make it alot. Today, it was sliced pork tenderloin, broccoli, snow peas, peppers, zucchini and carrots stir fried in sesame oil/olive oil and then mixed with a sweet and sour stir fry sauce and a dash of rooster sauce. I added some sesame seeds on top to make it pretty and served it over brown rice.

yumma

After dinner, the decision was made to bail on a workout. I had got in about 4 hours of exercise in the previous three days and a rest seemed like a great idea. It was almost time for Monica’s teleclass when I decided to have an after dinner snack. After dinner I was feeling like I wasn’t quite full but by 7:45 I was sure. I had a deep chocolate vitatop with a squirt of low fat whipped cream and a dark chocolate covered walnut.

dessert

Now that was a satisfying treat! After the snack, I dialed into the call with Monica, my holistic health counselor friend. There were about 6 participants total, myself included. Monica told us about the 8 reasons why the body will start to crave thing, the number one being dehydration. She also talked about the yin and yang balance and primary foods and secondary foods. Primary foods being things that fufill ours souls, like family life, work and social activities. We deconstructed one of the cravings that I have often, greasy pizza after a stressfull day, and determined this was probably a mix of a yin/yang craving and a primary foods/secondary foods balance. It was all very interesting and now I am armed with a list of things I can do when those types of cravings arise.

After the call, it was off to bed I went. It had been a long day and another one was right around the corner.

A Super Saturday

Yesterday was a great day, the perfect kind of Saturday. I started the day with a nice cup of black coffee and a phone converstaion with my mom.  For some reason, the coffee made me feel more jazzed up than a typical morning so I was ready to go. Dear Husband and I normally eat the same thing on Saturdays as we do during the week, so, I had my ususal. I reheated some hot grain cereal I made last weekend, it is mainly wheatberries, oats and bulgur that I added the last of some Bob’s Red Mill 5 grain cereal to. I added a spalsh of milk for some creaminess then I stirred in some ground flax seed and finally topped it with fresh blueberries and a tbsp of almond butter.

Breakfast was followed by a trip to the local veggie stand for some of those fantastic hanover tomatoes, some cukes, squash, zucchini and peaches. Then we went to the regular groceries store for some of the standard stuff, salad mix, milk, soymilk, yogurts, etc. When we came out of the grocery store it was HOT, I mean HOT. The car said it was only 90* out but it really felt like 115*. Of course, I don’t really know what 115* feels like but I imagine it would be like that. We took the groceries home and unpacked them and then headed to Target. Normally, we would have done a one stop shop but Target has some amazing pizzas and we wanted to stock up and we didn’t want the groceries to go bad in the heat.

When we got to Target, we got our obligatory starbucks. I got a tall soy latte and dear husband had a tall caramel soy latte. There is something about those lattes that make our Target trips seem so fun. I have to say that Target is one of our favorite places, sentimental in a way. When we first starting dating, I told him that we should just go to Target to see if we can function in the real world as a couple instead of doind the same ole same ole date thing. We had a great time and we still do. Anyway, we got the standard $100 worth of crap that we needed and headed home.

Once home, I made us some lunch. I decided to do a little healthy twist on my favorite summertime lunch from back in the day. Instead of tomato, duke’s mayonaise,salt, pepper and white bread, I did 100% whole wheat bread, hummus, tomato and spring mix and I had the rest of the tomato on the side.

mmmm....lunch

After lunch, we decided to hang out on the back deck and bask in the rays of the sun. I know, I know, it is my vice, I must admit. After our fun in the sun we went upstairs and posted some of our crap on ebay. I started to get hungry so I decided to have a target brand granola bar, they are the knock off of fiber one bars but they don’t contain HFCS. While I munched on that, I sliced my very well drained tofu and then threw it in the oven, at Kath had suggested. I took about 50 minutes to get nice and crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Once we were finished with the ebay stuff, I cut the tofu into smaller cudes and made a veggie stir fry. It had green beans, broccoli, mushroom and onions and I topped it with some Joe’s Market stir fry sauce. I served my portion over less than half a cup of brown rice and topped it with sesame seeds. It was quite tasty.

bright green stir fry

After dinner, we went for a walk around our neighborhood, twice. It ended up being a little more than 3.5 miles. It was nice to get out and see the neighbors. After the walk, we settled in for the evening and since dinner was so early, about 5pm, I was hungry again about 9. So, before bed I had a small bowl of cocoa bumpers, the organic version of cocoa puffs, topped with some milk. A few more minutes of television and I was out like a light. I just love Saturdays like these.