humble pie September 4, 2008

there’s this delicious pizza place literally a hop, skip and jump away from the office. i adore it. i packed the butternut squash soup, the bell pepper slices, salsa, cheese and cookie this morning but i knew when i was planning last night that those items by themselves wouldn’t be a sufficient lunch because it was seriously lacking greens. that’s why i had the idea to takeout a salad from somewhere. then i remembered the last time i ate at humble pie and how much i loved the veggie salad. i ordered a half-size for pickup and drove on over about 2 minutes later. when the weather is nice i will definitely walk. but i will walk nowhere in 100+ degree heat. even for vegetables. the salad itself contains avocado, jicama, green beans, tomatoes and mozzarella on a bed of romaine with an awesome herb vinaigrette. perfect for my lunch side salad, really rounded out the meal.

also, i didn’t eat the string cheese stick because of the cheese in the salad so i still have it on hand in case i want it as part of my snack later. once i finish the cheese that’s left in my fridge i vow not to buy anymore. additionally, the salad came with a slice of sourdough bread which was convenient because i hadn’t packed any grains either. it was good, i tore off pieces of the crust to dip in the soup.

i have decided that i’m not a huge fan of butternut squash soup.

see August 11, 2008

and later (or right now, at least before spin) i’ll have this

dum ditty dum August 11, 2008

ditty dum dum dum… it’s gotta be a good day if i’m humming or singing ANYTHING, yikes. while my pictures upload to photobucket i’d like to muse about how much i’m enjoying the olympics and how much i do not enjoy having to miss the action while sitting in the office all day without a television. i have the prime time events set to record but i can’t be doing that every night or i’ll have no space left on my dvr! it might be necessary to clean it out and record the olympics though because i’m working out EVERYDAY this week in the evenings. tonight is spin, tomorrow bootcamp, wednesday hopefully yoga but if not spin again, thursday yoga, friday a new class kinda like bootcamp called bodyfit and saturday jazzercise, yoga AND swimming. sunday doesn’t count.

that explains why i got snack-happy yesterday (sunday) and also too lazy to take pictures. i can’t help it if i’m hormonal and craving lots of salty and spicy food. though i did way too good for a sunday night dinner with a grilled vegetable salad and NO dessert! not even i could believe it. we went to cpk and i usually order a pizza but clearly, i’m trying to avoid cheese these days so i went with that salad because i couldn’t resist the combination of vegetables. i cheated a little by having 1 piece of my mom’s pizza and 1 piece of my sister’s (cheese and all) and two crusts from my brother’s. i stuck to water and wasn’t tempted by the bread at all so i thought i did a good job, considering the alternative (eating an entire pizza by myself).

filling pancake August 9, 2008

this blueberry oatmeal pancake was way more filling than it had any right to be

i suspect it had something to do with the extra protein the egg whites in the recipe called for. and the cup of vanilla yogurt i had to supplement

the yogurt was a bad idea but i am super impressed with the pancake. i plan to find a recipe that doesn’t call for egg whites so i can make it again vegan-style. i wasn’t hungry again until 2-ish and i ate breakfast between 8 and 830!
between breakfast and lunch i had my movement screening for becoming a jazzercise instructor. it was laughable how easy it was. but i won’t know if i passed until monday. i found out that after i go through the process i will technically be a certified group fitness instructor with a ’specialty’ in jazzercise. i’m pretty excited to learn as much as i can about the human body and become a reliable fitness source for myself and my family!
after the screening i went to whole foods and got a bunch of staples for the fridge, finally. i even managed to stay within the budget i set for myself so that was pretty bomb diggity doo dah.
highlights of my purchases were soy yogurt, morningstar vegan patties, ezekiel english muffins, fresh produce, kashi h2h, and vegan chocolate chip cookies! i had to try one as soon as i got home and they did not disappoint

they’re soft and chewy and chocolate-y which are pretty much my only stipulations for a chocolate chip cookie when i’m craving one. which is often.
the reason i like vegan products has nothing to do with me taking any kind of stance against animal cruelty, political or otherwise. i have found that veganism is just a way to eat whole foods and develop a habit of eating well. when i have choices i will choose vegetable protein over animal protein not only for the lesser calorie content but because i also truly believe my stomach can digest plant products much better.
lunch was a salad of baby spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms and blueberries with annie’s goddess dressing

there was possibly too much dressing on this but that was an accident. as a general rule, i believe in dressed salads.
i also had a morningstar vegan patty on an ezekiel english muffin with barbeque sauce. my meal all together:

also unbelievably filling. i’m still not hungry and i ate this around 2.

a smoothie before swimming June 10, 2008

but first, last night.
pre-workout snack was CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES. i know, so fancy. i would never buy these for myself but they were a gift so i had to eat them (only because i knew it wouldn’t put me over the edge, i got all three for less than 150 calories). and they totally hit the spot.

to be fair, i also had a taste of a new bar but only a small piece and no picture.

post-workout i didn’t have a snack handy except for the rest of the bar and i wasn’t feeling it so i decided to wait ’til dinner. dad grilled chicken with honey chipotle barbecue sauce and it was yummy. i had maybe 2 or 3oz. cut into strips and rolled in a whole wheat tortilla with avocado slices and salsa with a side salad.

i didn’t add up the calories for this one but i do know that i burned about 450 more at spin class and when i woke up this morning i had lost 0.2lbs! haha, it’s a tiny consolation that i’m moving in the right direction.

this morning i went swimming. i pushed myself to go faster than yesterday and i managed to squeeze in two extra lengths in the same amount of time. i beat my 10 lap time by two minutes. i logged 15 minutes and 22 lengths (11 laps). if i could only get there earlier i would have more time to swim… i’m working on it.

pre-workout i had the purple power smoothie. i redid the recipe and now it’s like this:

-1/2c. light vanilla soymilk
-1/4c. egg whites
-1/4c. liquid mangosteen supplement
-1c. frozen cherries
-1tbsp. powdered greens
-1/2tbsp. flax oil

awesome. this is officially my pre-morning workout breakfast/snack. it has 290 calories, 26g carbs, 9g protein and 8g of fat. power smoothie indeed.

and it tastes good, i swear! post-workout i had a flax waffle and a light string cheese to round out breakfast at 450 calories.

great start to a great day! this is totally the calm before the storm but i’m in a great mood about the rest of the week and the adventures it will bring anyway!

weekend June 2, 2008

saturday morning i had a smoothie before working out. i put a cup of nonfat milk with half a frozen banana and a cup of frozen peaches. it was so think and frozen, like a milkshake! of course i added the customary 1/2tbsp. of flax oil, too. total was 253 calories. i drank it on the way to my saturday morning jazzercise super-workout.

the rest of my food choices were kind of a blur because i just grazed a lot. i tend to do that on weekends… i’m not super proud of it but i’ll be reevaluating my habits and tweaking what i can for maximum energy and weight loss until the big beach vacation (BBV) in july. i really want to look my very best, of course, but i also want to win the $100
here are some food highlights from the weekend so i can catch up:
i made the hungry girl peanut butter fudge with pumpkin and it was delicious! i’ll definitely make it again. it was a big hit at home with the fam, too. i had three squares with coffee and toast.

salad for lunch before we hit the road to grandma’s:

at my cousin’s baby shower i had a lot of fruit and some bites of pretty much everything else except the pasta salad and the slaw dishes.
this tuna salad was my favorite and i paired it with some cantaloupe wedges:

really yummy cake for dessert (loaded with sugar, i’m sure):

an artfully sliced strawberry:

breakfast sunday: an over-easy egg on toast with some laughing cow spread.

chicken taco for lunch with grandma’s highly caloric cheesy frijoles

some more baby shower cake :/

and i’m spent.

yesterday May 30, 2008

i want to put it behind me. i managed to workout twice so i’ll count that as a victory BUT my food choices set me back significantly. after work i went to jazzercise and had a good time sweating it out with some dancing. but i felt odd all day because of my eyes. my energy levels were fine but i couldn’t keep my eyes open very long, they just hurt. so basically i was tired but i wasn’t. it made as much sense to me yesterday as it does now in writing. here’s the kicker, I WENT TO MY PARENT’S HOUSE FOR DINNER. i know i shouldn’t do that. i’m the one who even suggested the pizza. i was only planning on having the one slice, i even cut it into two pieces in order to enjoy it longer. the side salad was really good, too. i wasn’t hungry after my first serving. but it was there and i kept eating…
bottom line, i know how to avoid that situation and i blew it. i needed some comfort and my sister invited me over for dinner and i caved because i really wanted to go home. and my dad always has wine with dinner but i got there earlier than the food did so my dad and i hung out and watched some games (wcws, nba playoffs, dbacks) with a hearty glass of wine. luckily, there wasn’t any dessert to tempt me.
anyway, i was also very tired by the end of the night because i had woken up so early to swim. that in combination with my eyes just wanting to be closed for a long long time had me playing a game of “how fast can i get in bed” once i got home from the long drive. that’s why i didn’t even open the computer to blog last night. i’ll post the offending pictures but no comments, no calorie counts. i don’t think it would be good for my focus. today is a new day!
correction, i was going to post the pictures but photobucket doesn’t want to work again so i’ll have to try again later. i can’t make any promises, i’ll be busy socializing tonight
6-2-08 PICS FINALLY UP!