hurry August 16, 2008

this will be a hurried post because i don’t want to be late to my mom’s birthday party and i haven’t posted since yesterday lunch because i’ve been super busy. the pictures are taking forever to load so i’m gonna write everything up and then just put the pictures in at the end.

i had a z bar pre-workout and my workout was good. it was real good, i’m still sore. lots of awesome guided strength training. after working out i headed home to freshen up and pack my bag for the night so i could sleep at my parent’s house since the wine bar i was going to is closer to their place. i stopped over there to eat dinner with them before i went to meet the girls for wine. i snacked on a small handful of honey wheat pretzels before dinner was ready. then i had a small serving of the chicken and vegetables with black beans my sister made for everyone. at the bar i started with a glass of white, an Argentinian Torrontes. then we ordered some bruschetta, of which i had two halves. one of prosciutto, brie and fig and one of salami, manchego and pesto. i washed that down with a Malbec Rose. and then we shared a tuxedo chocolate cake for dessert. the girls really wanted to be on my blog so they posed for me

this morning i wasn’t hungry before my workout so i jazzercised without a snack. i got back to my place and made banana oats the same way as yesterday to fuel me for yoga. then i went to yoga!

after yoga i had pb&j on wasa crackers. and the rest of my h2h with soy yogurt and agave nectar with almond slivers. and just now i had the rest of my cucumber, sliced, with tomato quarters and lemon-yogurt hummus. and that’s all i’ve eaten since my last post…

pics!

early breakfast makes for an early lunch May 29, 2008

i’m not used to eating this early but i will have to get used to it while i continue to go swimming in the mornings. lunch today was the leftover tuna-hummus from yesterday on a bed of spinach with half an avocado. remember that’s what i said i wanted to have for dinner last night? but that was before i remembered my alternate dinner plans. it worked out well because it tasted better today as a salad for 485 calories then just plain the way i had it yesterday for way more.

temp check: annoyed with my eyeballs! i am going to buy some goggles immediately after jazzercise tonight, i cannot be having this everyday!

starbucks! May 28, 2008

i added 80 calories to breakfast with a mid-morning pick-me-up of a grande iced skinny vanilla latte from starbucks. it was yummy but since i haven’t been drinking coffee everyday it made me kinda jittery. that’s good, it means i’ve been successfully weaning myself off of coffee. weaning is tough, the baby is currently being weaned off the bottle and he does not like it at all.

so i had my iced coffee and it kept my stomach happily feeling full until 2pm. i remember why i liked coffee so much, it really suppresses my appetite! i concocted a tuna dish for lunch today involving hummus. but first i had steamed carrots.

i think i oversteamed them, some of them were shrivelly. i like them really soft, though, and they still tasted good. i don’t think i’m reaping any of the benefits of the starch because i have to eat them warm, at least i like to. i can’t find the article on the weight-loss benefits of starches but i’ll keep looking for it. potatoes and carrots are going to make a comeback!
so my tuna salad today was 5oz. of canned albacore tuna (which i am going to stop buying because of the mercury levels) and 1/2c. of hummus. again with the the hummus. but i really like it. i also added 1oz. of organic unsalted sunflower kernels for the monounsaturated fat that prevention claims with shrink belly fat. i’ve been incorporating some into every meal so we’ll see if it helps.

it doesn’t look that good but it was delicious. that hummus flavor just agrees with my tastebuds. the tuna packed in the protein and the sunflower seeds added a crunch. i’m super impressed with myself right now. only thing is it was pretty high in calories, 663 for the tuna salad alone. i didn’t finish it all because i got full so i’m saving the rest for dinner. i plan to eat it on a bed of spinach, perhaps with some avocado if i can afford the extra calories.

ruby tuesday May 28, 2008

i never actually ate there yesterday, but it was a gem of a day the way i did eat. i started out with a lovely breakfast of cream of wheat made with 2/3c. of nonfat milk. i topped it with a 1/2c. of blueberries and 1oz. of toasted walnuts. i didn’t have time to make oats on the stove so the cream of wheat was the instant kind. i was really pleased with the result.

it filled me up on minimal calories (290 total) so i was happy.
four hours later i had my hummus, wasa, avocado concoction with two pluots. i rather enjoy this one and i have lots of avocado and hummus so it will definitely be making another comeback.

i chopped the wasa into cracker slices and covered the avocado with the hummus and dug into it like that. lunch was a total of 342 calories.
four hours and lots of water later, i had a snack of chopped apples with almond butter. this is a new fav.

i guess i wasn’t eating enough calories though, because i was beginning to feel lightheaded. i couldn’t be having that with my workout coming up. so i supplemented with an extra protein snack before i hit the gym.

i had three of these roll-ups and it powered me through a very tough boot-camp workout. the snack totaled 271 calories and i burned 363 calories strength training.
i got to this boot-camp class every tuesday evening for an hour. we do 40 minutes of strength/circuit training with spurts of cardio in between, usually. yesterday it was supersets of biceps, triceps, chest, back, squats, lunges, and planks. then we stretch for 20. i can totally feel it today. i also did 30 minutes of light spinning before class. that was an additional 310 calories burned.
after all of that, i realized i hadn’t gotten nearly enough protein for the day. i came up with a protein rich dinner for not many calories. i call it my turkey-spinach-egg white scramble with cheese.

it was 3 scrambled egg whites with 4oz. of grilled turkey, a handful of organic baby spinach and a 1/4c. of fat-free shredded cheddar. i also had the last two pluots before they went bad, they were very ripe and juicy.
here’s a closeup of the yummy goodness that was my inventive scramble.

this was so light calorically (word?) that i treated myself to a glass of the pomegranate wine i bought at whole foods this weekend and a dark chocolate square.

even with the treat, dinner was only 363 calories.
so you see why i felt pretty good about yesterday, i managed to keep my calories low without going hungry and even saving room for that piece of dark chocolate

homemade hummus! May 24, 2008

i’m so proud of myself right now, i actually made edible hummus with my blender and it was good! i used a can of garbanzo beans, juice from 1 lemon, tahini, and garlic. myfitnesspal puts 2 tablespoons of this stuff at 53 calories.

here’s a closeup:

i got the consistency right and everything!

so for lunch, i put 2 tablespoons of my fresh hummus on 2 slices of wasa crispbread and topped each half with avocado slices. i had 2 pluots on the side. the grand total was 342 calories, yum!

from above:

now that i’ve tackled the hummus with great results i can’t wait to make my own pesto!