Shake It Up

I thought today seemed like as good of a day as any to change things up. I have been eating a lot of the same foods and doing a lot of the same things for a while now. I started thinking maybe my body needed a wake-up call so I decided to do just that. This morning I decided to break out the Peanut Butter Puffins and Skim Milk. I cannot say enough good things about Peanut Butter Puffins. I heart them. So yummy (and low calorie too).

Today I was invited to a luncheon for a committee I am on at work. It was at a fabulous place called Robin Alexander’s American Bistro in Lynchbug, VA. Remember when I went there a few months ago before the CASA shoe charity event? No awesome pop-rock martinis today though! 😉 I did have a “harvest fruit salad” which was a bed of  clipped baby spinach topped with strawberries, pineapple chunks, cranberries, pears, fugi apples feta and a grilled chicken breast. I opted for a pomegranate vinaigrette which was a perfect pair for this salad. I also got a really tasty vegetarian black bean soup. It was so flavorful. This lunch could have easily been the perfect vegetarian lunch minus the chicken.

Sadly I did not snap a picture of my salad so I am using a stock photo in it's place but trust me the salad was one of the best I have had and I promise to get a picture next time!!

After work I headed right over to the gym. I needed to get some serious cardio done. I registered for The Presbyterian Home 5K for this weekend and due to my heel injury I have been off running for two weeks. Maybe not my greatest plan of all time but I am excited all the same. My workout was good. It was hard and exactly what I needed to start to push myself out of this workout rut I have been in. I am finally getting sick of the waiting. It is time to start trying new
things to push back against this plateau. It is truly no wonder people get discouraged and quit “diets”. Thankfully on a healthy living lifestyle plan you can’t just quit. So it’s Sara versus the Plateau. (it’s on!!) I also decided to do some P90X with my husband when he got home. I made it through a whole 16 minutes. Have you ever tried p90x?

I wanted a simple dinner with carbs, protein, veggies and fruit.  So I made whole grain spaghetti with a ground turkey and oodles of veggies sauce with fruit on the side. Food is so much better when we are really hungry or really craving something. My little spaghetti recipe never tasted so yummy!

Tonight I am making a plan of attack for my closet (more on that next week) and planning tomorrow’s menu and workout. Have a Happy and Healthy Wednesday. I will leave you with a picture of my sweet Corgi Harlow watching the storm. You just HAVE to smile at that!!

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The Yin and The Yang

I was SO looking forward to my full day on Sunday and I am happy to say it did not disappoint. I was meeting a friend really early so I grabbed a super quick breakfast of a Whole Grain English muffin with organic peanut butter and some V8 fusion. I decided my fabulous day warranted a fabulous glass for juice drinking!

After breakfast I got all packed up in the Wonderbug to head to Roanoke, VA to meet my friend Kristen for a girly day of fabulousness.

Our “main event” for the day was seeing Sex and The City 2 but we figured it would be almost against the law to see this movie without some shopping first. Now let me just say on the days that Kristen and I go shopping with no plan we end up just buying a little bit of everything. That is why normally we pick a store or a mission like shoes or dresses but Saturday was a super fantastic day of shopping bliss! Do you prefer to shop with pals or alone? I definitely prefer shopping with friends! Here are some of my favorite finds:

new gray shades

love the side detail

We moved on from sunglasses shopping to housewares and I got some fantastic coffee mugs and a matching serving plate.

Next we moved on to my personal favorite.. Shoe Shopping! I had some Macy’s dollars from an unfortunate run in with a rude sales person a few weeks back so I was looking for some fabulous finds.

Lucky Brand "Birna" flats in dusky citron. I have been stalking these all Spring!

Love the detail!

I also got these vintage collection 9 west flats for 1/2 price. I cant wait to wear these this fall with a fabulous gray dress and some tights!

I also picked up an embellished cardigan…

Finally, I picked up a couple of  dresses. The dark pink is very casual and I have plans to pair it with a black cropped cardigan, some chunky jewelry and some random flats or wedges in a totally different fun color. The second dress is my husband’s fave. I have big plans to wear it with some Steve Madden stilettos that I am currently stalking. I was also stoked that the second dress had 86.00 on the tag but came home with me for 9.99!! It was marked down twice and half off. Its one of my favorite styles. So classic and I ❤ the color combination!

After shopping the rain came. Fast and furious and out of nowhere. Thankfully Kristen had a huge golf umbrella and the only casualties were her soaked jeans and our hair. We managed to fight the storm and made it over to Panera for a quick lunch. The storm made me want something cozy so I got some potato soup and 1/2 chicken panini.

We loaded up the car and headed over to see Carrie and the gang in Sex and The City 2!!

Having always loved the show I of course loved the movie. I thought it was really fun. Some of my favorite parts without giving anything away….

• The “take a sip” conversation
• The gold sparkly shoes
• The “Single Ladies”
• The Dior T-shirt outfit
• Aiden (helloooo the hotness)
• A dog in a top hat
• The “Jude Law”

What was your favorite part?

After the movie it was back to the house for an absolute flip-flop for a night of urban camping.The hubs wanted to have the guys over for some camp fire/drinking/smores kind of night. I of course did not want hot dogs cooked on a stick so I had sushi and martinis.  I thought the sitting in nature thing warranted a martini!

Our make shift camp site

Carrie was jazzed for camping!

The hubs making a fire

My kind of camping dinner!

Harlow keeping us all safe!

smores -yum!

NIght Night! (No we didnt sleep outside after all but I gave it a good try)

Weight Watchers was closed today so next Monday will have to be the May wrap up. I think after the weekend of slightly overeating, having too much salt and too much alcohol this is probably a good thing. I have been drinking water today like it’s my job.  It’s funny how things have changed. I am actually looking forward to getting back to working out and clean eating tomorrow. I can tell a HUGE difference in my body when I overindulge. I like the person Im becoming. 🙂 I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!!

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Lost= One Corgi

No worries-little Harlow is fine. I had my weigh in this morning and had a total loss of 1.8lbs this week. I feel like I worked a little harder than that truthfully but I was already prepared for this as my stress level was off the charts last week. So now my weight loss total is (drum roll please)…. 35.4 lbs. YAY! My weight watchers book shows this is weigh in 12. I know I skipped a week or 3 somewhere so I am more accurately at week 15 but I am just going by the book from this point forward since the latter is too confusing to keep track of.  What does this weigh in mean? Well I will tell you. It means:

• I am 2.6 lbs away from my May mini challenge
• I am 4.6 lbs away from reaching 40lbs
• I am 7.2 lbs away from reaching my first personal mile stone

and

• I lost a Corgi!

Yes my little sweet chunk of a corgi Harlow is 35 sturdy lbs. I picked her up today to get a little idea of the weight I used to be carrying around everyday.

Shes heavy and I am certainly glad to be rid of my own extra 35 lbs. However, I think that furry 35 lbs of Corgi can stick around. 😉

I also stayed smiling at the office today because my husband sent me a text of the most random graffiti he found while walking around downtown. Way to bust out the mid 90’s Friends reference there vandals. Heheheh! Plus this is a little bit of a joke at my house so this definitely made me giggle.

My last noteworthy bit for the day is that I have been obsessed with milk and eggs lately. I had some skim milk with my lunch today and it was SO good. Do you ever have a craving you can’t kick?

Tomorrow is a 3 mile run and body pump. I am psyched to get back out on the trail after my awesome run over the weekend. I also left Bryan in charge of celebrating me hitting my first major milestone hopefully sometime in the next 3 weeks. Be sure to check in and see what he comes up with. He’s a creative guy so I am looking forward to it! 🙂

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Play On!

After waking up with terrible searing pain in my foot I realized that saving my old Asics running shoes for “gross muddy days” or other outdoor activity was a bad plan. I noticed it was uncomfortable during my run yesterday but really did not think too much of it until I woke up to a lot of pain in my foot. So after thinking fond thoughts of the training and Princess ½ Marathon I was a little sad to throw them out. I mentioned this to my boss (who is a marathon runner and is currently a mentor for Team In Training which I find very cool) and she suggested a recycle program for old sneakers. After doing a little research I found I liked the Nike Play On program. Just stop by a drop off location and Nike will take your old sneakers and recycle them for materials to use in playground/play spaces for kids, gym floors, etc. How cool is that? Your sneakers don’t have to die in vain, you get to help out some kids or create some other fun space where people will workout and get fit, and you get to be green. Its win-win-win. The only drawback for me is the nearest drop off location to me is about three hours away. However, I will be passing through Williamsburg, VA in the next few months so I can just hang on to them until then. There are drop off centers in all 50 states so go for it!

I slept unusually late this morning. I slept through my alarm and Bryan’s alarm and he came in to wake me up just in time for me to rush out of the house. I grabbed a princess sized cup of coffee and raced to the office.

Once I got there I had an Ezekiel English muffin with White Chocolate Peanut Butter (Im out of regular), a banana, and V8 fusion.

Work was busy, not crazy busy, just normal busy and some co-workers and I went to Roly Poly for lunch. I have not been there in ages and it’s one of my favorite lunch spots. I had a small cup of potato soup and a “hot honey” wrap that contained turkey, spinach, sun dried tomato, mushrooms, onion, and pepper jack cheese on a whole grain wrap- hot pressed and served with a side of spicy mustard. YUM!

Wednesday is cross training day, which worked out great since my foot was still really sore when I headed to the gym. Luckily there are a lot of things you can do that don’t really put stress on your feet. Right before my workout I had snacked on a CLIFF mountain mix bar. So good!

I wanted to make sure I fixed something tonight for dinner that Bryan and I could take as leftovers for lunch so I made some Spinach and Onion whole grain pasta with Italian turkey sausage and parmesan. YUM!

I am trying to be better about not snacking in the evenings so I am planning to read some blogs, finish watching Glee and 90210, sit in the floor for a bit with the pups (they love that), stretch, and do a little bit with my “Caring In Pink Project”. I am sending out a card to my first best guy (my Grandpa) and a card to a friend who has been having some difficulty.  Stop by tomorrow to check in on my run and my very first day of Body Pump!

Have A Happy and Healthy Wednesday.

Be Thankful Each Day In The Month Of May: Today I am thankful for my puppies. I have two sweet and spoiled rotten pups that always make me smile. I love how Carrie will always leave a toy near where she makes a mess getting into the trash or hamper. It’s like a little shihtzu bandit calling card.

I also love how Harlow can say, “I love you” (yes yes I did train my Corgi to say I love you) and how she will nudge her head under my hand when she wants attention.

I love how when I say “Uh Oh there is a monster at the door” they run to the door barking and looking for monsters. They are the best!

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How To Make The World’s Best Sandwich

Once not too long ago there was a restaurant here in Lynchburg called Vines.  Vines was really fantastic because not only was the food great, but it was also a specialty wine and beer store. Not only was it also a specialty wine and beer store but they also brought in awesome truffles from a chocolatier in Charlottesville. All in all it was a very cool place. Unfortunately, they switched locations and even more unfortunately they changed their menu from fun and different to boring and mediocre and then the most unfortunate thing of all happened- they closed, someone bought the space and put in yet another Italian place. How does this matter? Well, they might be closed but I have replicated some of my favorites from Vines and tonight’s masterpiece was from the lunch menu.  It is my all time most favorite sandwich.  I am going to share the “recipe” with you.

Step 1: Turn your stove on to 350 degrees, cut ciabatta rolls in 1/2, drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven.

Step 2: Make your own light cranberry mayo by mixing light or fat free mayo with canned cranberry sauce-whole berry. (You can reserve the rest of the cranberry sauce to make cranberry BBQ chicken later in the week. I am a HUGE cranberry fan so I LOVE this!)

Step 3: Slice some beautiful tomatoes and 2% cheddar from the block

Step 4: Remove rolls from the oven

Step 5: Assemble your sandwich as follows: bottom bun, fresh shaved deli turkey, cheese, LOTS of arugula, tomato, and your top bun smothered in cranberry mayo.

Step 6: get a side of fruit, fat free chips or tortilla chips, cut in 1/2 and enjoy!

For all of my veggie friends out there this is still a great method subbing some veggies, tofu, or protein of your choice for the turkey.  Let me know if you give it a try!

Now off to spend some quality time with the pups.  Harlow is expressing her boredom with my writing tonight. 😉

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Shining Stars (and rings and meals)

There is so much that I am excited to share with you today. First, I want to share that I have 2 new stars to add to my growing collection. I lost 7 pounds at this week’s weigh in earning me a 25lb star and a 30lb star. My 8 week total is 30 pounds! To put that in perspective I have lost 3 1/2 gallons of milk.

My Stars!

That was not the only exciting thing that happened at the meeting tonight. I also learned that Weight Watchers is sponsoring a “Walk-It 5k” Challenge. Weight Watchers participants were given a little booklet with a training program and tips on training. I LOVE doing 5ks so I was really excited to learn that Weight Watchers was trying to get others on board. It is such a self-esteem booster to finish one. I cant wait to see other people experience that for the first time. (There are a lot of first time 5k-ers participating) Its strictly walking but I am definitely going to be there! I might even take the pups.  This one needs some cardio!

The weight loss was exciting and I did sit back and re-cap my week to see what changes might have helped with this loss. I think the main three are:

• Changing up my calories with slightly more intake on Wednesdays and Saturdays

• Running in intervals

• Paying closer attention to the Good Health Guidelines

I am going to stick with those things in the upcoming weeks. I also think its reasonable to believe that staying positive and less stressed might have been a factor as well. This is one of the main reasons I would discourage someone from making tons of changes at once. You want to be able to narrow down what caused a push forward or a setback.

I also wanted to share a little more “Spring Bling” with you. Spring accessories make me happy so here is another Fossil ring that I scored super cheap from Dillards in Orlando. I do love a big sparkly ring! It made me happy all day. Its the little things sometimes, you know?

My last bit of exciting news is the hubs and I have decided for sure to participate in the Wine and Dine ½ Marathon at Disney in October! We are registering later this week. More details on our training to come. I think we are even going to be cheesy with matching shirts from One More Mile Running Apparel (one of my most favorite vendors!). Ok maybe not matching but perhaps a theme of some kind. My husband is a patient man. 🙂

This morning I had my last breakfast featuring meat (at least for the time being). Tomorrow morning is my first attempt at a Green Monster. Im using this recipe. (The blueberry banana) If I am not a fan I am going to give it another try or two before coming up with another plan.

Lunch today was left over veggie casserole and berries. Those strawberries are ginormous. You could almost eat them like an apple. 😉 Also, yummy were the raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

My late afternoon snack was  yogurt and granola. Yum!

Tonight’s dinner was a balsamic onion and roasted red pepper whole grain pasta. This is a really simple dish. You make an entire box of whole grain pasta (leaving it pretty firm and set aside), in a skillet you can brown some Italian turkey sausage or soy crumbles with fennel seeds and set aside.  Next, thinly slice around a pound of onions (or more) and then saute them in some olive oil or butter (whatever you prefer) until they are very caramelized (20-25 min). My Rachael Ray knife was working overtime tonight! Eventually I want to have a whole set of her cookware but for now I just have 2 knives and about a million cookbooks. 🙂

Next you will add in some thinly sliced roasted red peppers. You can make your own if you have time but I just picked a jar up on the way home and sliced the entire jar for my pasta. After 5 minutes of cooking with the onions you will add 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1 cup of organic chicken stock (or veggie stock).

Finally, add in the meat and let this all cook up for about 4 minutes, whisk in 1/2 tablespoon of butter and dump it over the whole grain pasta. Mix well, sprinkle on a pinch of fresh Parmesan and enjoy! You could easily sub mushrooms for the meat or toss in any of your favorite veggies.

What is your favorite non-tomato based pasta dish?

I am giving a tour of my kitchen tomorrow night. Don’t forget to stop by! Have a happy and healthy Monday friends.

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