Table for One

I was up bright and early (well not so much bright as it was still dark) for work today. I had to do a lot of driving today but its only something I have to do every quarter so I cannot complain (too much). The weather was beautiful and I listened to U2 for the entire drive so all was not lost! Although even my poor pup Carrie looked exhausted when I woke her up this morning.

I started my morning with a Green Monster to go. I also grabbed a cranbran vita top to have later in the morning. I have to say these not so scary green monsters are growing on me. I want to get a little more adventurous with the flavor. Do any of you Green Monster drinkers out there have a favorite blend/recipe?

I decided to wear one of my new pairs of shoes that I found at last week’s charity event. Since I did not have to do a ton of walking I thought it would be a great way to break them in. Turns out it did not matter. They were almost as comfy as my running shoes. Had I known this I would have picked them up in black and red!

While my day was mostly driving I did get my work mission completed and then I started thinking about lunch. Every single time I have taken this trip (literally for over 3 years) my lunch as been fast-food of some kind since I was traveling alone. Today I decided to do something I have never done before- sit ALONE in a proper restaurant and have lunch on my own.  Is it really weird that I have never done this before?

I decided to stop at one of the towns I had to pass through to get home. There is a little cafe that I went to with my good friend Liz a couple of months ago and I remembered how fresh and yummy everything was there.  They were about to close up from lunch when I got there but they were really nice and let me come in anyway. YAY!

I had the place to myself.

I decided on an egg white omelet with spinach, mushrooms, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cheese. It came with a side of seasoned baked potato pieces and some dry whole grain toast. It was dry in a good way not a bad way. 🙂

After lunch I ran into Whole Foods for a bottle of water and a Luna Bar for the trip home. I was stuffed from lunch so I didn’t eat it but I was excited to find a flavor I haven’t had before. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. YUM!

I was literally in and out of Whole Foods in five minutes but I also grabbed a jar of black-bean corn salsa and a small piece of organic chocolate. (They were all in the Luna Bar isle so I figured it was meant to be). After my mini stop at Whole Foods I headed home.

My workout tonight was great. I did a hard 60 minutes. When I felt myself getting weak or wanting to stop I bumped up the speed or intensity level. When it was over I felt accomplished and it felt awesome. Getting back to basics with the week of cross training was for sure the right choice.

Dinner was joint effort at our house tonight. Bry made his super secret recipe for turkey tacos. He even remembered the whole grain shells and 2% cheese.  And what goes great with tacos?? My new salsa! YUM!

Messy and Yummy

What is your most favorite “messy” dinner?

Stop by tomorrow and tour my dining room. Have a Happy and Healthy Tuesday!!

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Weigh-Ins and Revolutions

First things first- I dreaded my weigh in after the little incident I had yesterday with the happy meal and my lax calorie counting over the weekend. I am usually much more diligent but today I was prepared to pay the price for my mistake. I am somewhat relieved to say my weight stayed the same. No more, no less than last week. That means that other than a lesson learned I do not have to head into this week with any of last week’s baggage. That is a good thing. I started to have a moment of self doubt where I said “I wonder what I could have lost had I done what I was supposed to..” but I cut that line of thinking off (no negative self talk this week) and decided that onward and upward was where to put my focus.

I started today with a Green Monster. My body was practically begging for fruits and veggies after that little calorie fest last night.

I also made my smoothie with these cute Mickey ice cubes making this my “Mickey’s Not So Scary Green Monster”. Yes I just dropped a Disney joke on you. Smile! 🙂

Work was busy and I snacked on my favorite CLIFF bar mid morning. I love these. Sometimes peanut butter and jelly flavored snacks just taste weird but these are great!

No picture of lunch today simply because I forgot. Bry had made some whole grain spaghetti with lots of veggies and he packed a container for me to take to work. It was really great. Its always great to eat food I didnt have too cook. 😉

After work I headed to the grocery store and I found a new product to try. I am so excited to try this meatless BBQ.  I always have really high hopes for meatless products but they truly are hit or miss. I will make sure to review this brand in the next couple of weeks.  What is your favorite meatless substitute?

Monday is normally my rest day but I had to ask myself “Rest from what?” I was a total slacker last week. Even though it was getting late I decided to pop in a DVD- Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred so I could get a little activity in before dinner. I would love nothing more than to have her scream at me in real life (at the gym not at like Macys or something). Who is your favorite Biggest Loser trainer- Bob or Jillian?

After my little mini workout I decided to make dinner. This is a favorite dish in our house Spinach and Feta turkey burgers with baked potato wedges. The burger is a Rachel Ray creation subbing 99% Fat Free Turkey Breast and Reduced Fat Feta. I also use Natures Own Sandwich thins instead of buns. I only use 1lb of meat and make 4 burgers rather than the over sized version called for. Finally I eliminate all unnecessary butter and oil. The less fat the better and the final taste doesnt miss the extra oil at all!   The potatoes are oven baked with olive oil and sea salt. Good stuff! I am attempting to make sweet potato fries later this week. I might need to channel my inner Rachael Ray for that!

I am spending my evening once again researching ½ marathon training programs. I am starting to get super excited for the Disney Wine and Dine ½ this fall!

The hubs and I are settling in to watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Click Here to support Jamie’s quest to get healthy, fresh, unprocessed food into the school system.

Tomorrow is a super long day for me with a work day starting at 5:00am!! Normally on these days that involve 6+ hours of travel time a quick fast food stop for a wrap or grilled chicken sandwich is on the agenda. However as part of my fast food challenge that is not an option this trip. I am going to spend 15 minutes researching healthful food options in Winchester, VA so that I go in prepared!

Have a Happy and Healthy Monday!

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If the Shoe Fits

Today was “Spring Fling” day at work, which I just loved. It brought out my inner former sorority girl! Everyone wore their Springiest outfits and flip-flops were permitted. They are normally forbidden in the office so even though my regular peep-toe heels are much cuter-I still decided on some blue patent leather flip-flops for the occasion.

In honor of Spring I decided on a Green Monster and V8 fusion for breakfast. Loads of fruit and veggies to start my day and it was great. I was full. I felt good and it completely got rid of my sluggishness this morning. Here is me with my “to go” Green Monster.

Going Green~

I also broke out the big sunglasses today. I love accessories in general but I have a soft spot for oversized glasses. I love them!

Work was work. Fridays are always nice. I had a little balsamic onion and roasted red pepper pasta for lunch. It was really good. I also made sure I got down an entire container of water. I drink at least one of those containers a day. Pink makes me smile so even my water bottle is pink.

After work I had oodles of errands to run and it was happy hour time before I knew it. I met some girls from work for pre-charity event cocktails. I ordered a pop-rock pomtini. How cute is that??

I also ordered a little hummus platter to share. LOVE hummus. The roasted red pepper hummus was super good.

After finishing up at Robin Alexander we made our way over to the CASA Heart and Sole event. WOW! There were girls and shoes everywhere. This is always a crazy event but I had no idea the preview night would be so crowded. I was glad to see so many ladies come out to support CASA.

The event works like this: You go in, find the table with your size shoes, and start grabbing cute pairs. There are some gems hidden in there. You just kind of have to fight your way in. Sort of like a sample sale I guess. My little group and I easily tried on over a hundred pair of shoes.

There were light snacks, door prizes, vendors there giving massages etc. It was a really great girls night.

The money goes to a great cause and I even managed to find a couple of cute pairs to bring home with me.

These are maybe the most comfortable wedges ever

Click your heels together 3 times. 😉

Cant go wrong with a flat

My most fave find! Thanks to my tiny feet pal for giving these up (they were too big for her)

I am debating on not getting up at 5:15am for the 5k. I would almost rather just do a 10k run here in town with the hubs. We will see. Either way I will get in a great workout and it will hopefully kick off a great weekend!

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I Heart Thursday (and Spinach Salads)

It was a beautiful Thursday here in Virginia. Even Carrie and Harlow were in great moods this morning!

Happy Thursday!

Someone needs a grooming appointment ASAP!

I started my day off with a Green Monster and a Vita-Top. It was really smooth this morning. (I used a little less ice) and I liked the texture much more than Tuesday’s version. I think I will be making another in the morning. I never knew how awesome almond milk was. YUM!

Today was extra busy at work, which means the day went by extra quick for this girl. I like to go in early so I can leave a little early on Thursdays. Today I just wanted to beat the 5:00 crowd to the gym (turns out that wasnt going to matter). Lunch today was veggie casserole and berries. I am sure everyone is sick of seeing this picture but I cannot help it. This veggie casserole is great. I love that it has both spinach AND broccoli (and onions and mushrooms co-starring!). If you would like the recipe click here.

I am ALL out of leftovers so this is the last time you will have to see this picture!! 🙂

My workout did not happen. I had big plans for the gym but the hubs and I have not had much time to hang out and talk this week so we decided to forgo the working out tonight and spend some time together. I always feel a little guilty about skipping a workout but I will choose to look at this as some extra time to get ready for my 5k on Saturday. I am also going to make committing to some hard work outs one of my hill goals for next week. More on that later this weekend.

Tonight I made one of my most favorite salads on the entire planet. It is a wink and a nudge to the salad I get at Mosaic. I guess I need to take this time to confess: Hello my name is Sara and I am a meat eater. I purposely limit my meat intake for both health and moral reasons but I cannot seem to go veg. I have tried. I have even tried just going red meat free. Now, I have accepted that this is part of who I am and I limit my intake as much as possible. I LOVE all of the great meatless products out there. Maybe one day I will find enough to give up meat- who knows? Anyway, this salad is a bed of spinach with fresh tomato, red onion, feta, dried cranberries, and some thinly sliced steak that has been marinated in my own special balsamic marinade and grilled. I top it with a little balsamic vinaigrette. YUM! It looks decadent but it is very low calorie. I love this dish.

After some quality time with the hubs I have big plans to go through some mail  later.  He will retire to the man room, ie: his home office to save the word ie: play video games and I will go through magazines. I also got a coupon for Bath and Body Works in the mail today. YAY! I get both of these magazines every month and I did not ever sign up for or pay for either one. Weird but also cool. 🙂

I am already looking forward to my jam packed weekend. Tomorrow night is the charity shoe event that I talked about last week. I will be sure to blog about any fantastic shoe finds. Fingers crossed that I find a cute pair or two or at the very least win a door prize! Saturday I will be up bright and early for the Race for Autism 5K in Charlottesville, VA followed by a trip to Whole Foods (Yippee!). We have no Whole Foods in our town so this is a little treat for me (I know this makes me a touch lame). Do you have a product to recommend that I just must buy and try out? Bryan and I will get back just in time to get changed and head out to a Birthday dinner for one of our friends. I think after my cake/cupcake spree last weekend I will be staying clear of all Birthday cake! Finally, on Sunday for my fun workout day Bryan and I are thinking of hiking The Peaks of Otter here in Virginia. It certainly beats the yard work from last Sunday. What are your weekend plans?

You should go check out blogger Leslie’s giveaway on her blog. Glass straws- How cool is that??

I think I might live on the edge and top my night off with a couple of these little fab m&m chocolates. Yum!

Have a Happy and Healthy Thursday Friends!

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Two for One!

I am doing two posts in one today-A normal post plus a little tour of my kitchen. 🙂

Today started off with my very first Green Monster. I used

• 3 cups organic baby spinach

• 1 banana

• 1 cup organic frozen blueberries

• 1 cup of vanilla almond Silk

• Some ice (and then BLEND!)

I was really surprised that you actually cannot taste the spinach. Of course I had read in several blogs that this was the case and that they tasted great but I guess tasting is believing.  All I could really taste was the almond milk and the banana. It was good. I took this in my Disney travel mug along with a cran-bran Vitatop to have at work.

I liked the monster but I think it would be better on mornings where I am not up so early. The smoothie texture is difficult for me to stomach super early. However, I am making another on Thursday and it is definitely going to become part of the breakfast rotation.

Lunch was left over veggie casserole and yogurt (no granola). I am taking something different tomorrow but I feel bad for the veggie casserole leftovers because Bryan wont take them to work with him. I don’t want to waste them. Maybe next time I will cut the recipe in half.

Later in the afternoon I had some crasins and broke into the littlesample pack of olive-oil and rosemary pretzel thins they gave out at the meeting last night. They were really good. They were a little high in sodium for my taste but yummy.

Tonight I tried a new recipe for dinner, raspberry chicken. I LOVE all things raspberry so as you can imagine I really enjoyed this. I made some whole grain rice and green beans to go along with it. Again, it’s a really simple recipe: You just take some boneless skinless chicken breasts and season them however you like, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil on top and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. While they are baking take 1 cup of raspberry jam or preserves (seedless), 2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (low sodium) and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. After the chicken has baked 30 minutes pour on this sauce and bake another 15 minutes basting every 5 minutes. YUM!

Today was a running day. Bryan and I went down to the trail to get our 4 miles in. I wanted to go off road since the pavement running I have been doing is starting to take a toll on my hips. I am thinking of starting yoga to help with the stiffness and improve my flexibility. The run went okay-not good or bad. My allergies were killing but tomorrow is a cross training day so I will be in a climate controlled gym! I am pretty thankful for that this week.

Now, on to the little tour of my kitchen I have been talking about this week.  In my “forever” house I want a huge kitchen with all of the bells and whistles but I will say that here in our first home, the kitchen is still one of my favorite places. I have enough counter space and I love the color scheme. It was already done in hues of gray and red when we moved in. I wanted a café theme (subtle not over-the-top) so that is what we have gone with. I hope you enjoy this
little peek at my home!

When you walk in all you see is curtains and counter. To the left is my stove, to the right my kitchen-aid mixer in the corner.

Plenty of fruits and veggies!

This is to the left. (the coffee maker is no longer with us). 😉

And to the right (those curtains also no longer with us).

That counter has had some upgrades with our K-cup coffee maker. I do not know how we ever lived without it!

To the right of this is a wall with some photos and an Audrey pic. I have an Audrey in almost every room.

Further to the right is the exit to the kitchen and this vinyl wall print that took the hubs AGES to put up. 🙂

Further to the right is the fridge and the exit into the breezeway.

Now to the fridge…. I saw on Jamie Oliver’s Facebook page that he was talking about views inside of people’s refrigerators. I thought it was really interesting so I decided to post my own!

Do we have any products in common? Let me know!

The Fridge

That is several packs of ground turkey on the bottom shelf. Also,  the beer isnt mine. 😉

The freezer (lots of meat free products and some WW ice cream)

organic frozen veggies

Sorry about the different sizes of the pictures. I am still learning a little about this whole blogging thing. I am spending the rest of my night catching up on some tween TV (90210, Melrose Place, and Glee)- YAY and watching my sweet little fuzzy monster pup sleep.

Have a happy and healthy Tuesday friends!

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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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Cake for Dinner??

Ok so first things first. Here are the pictures of the cutest (and yummiest) cupcakes that I promised you yesterday. Bubblecake is pretty much the “cats meow” when it comes to cupcakes! 😉

Tiffany Cupcake (Isnt it cute! Have to love that Tiffany Blue)

Bry's Toffee Crunch Cupcake

Black and White Cupcake Mmmmm

So they look pretty fantastic don’t they? Bryan ate his immediately while I cut mine into smaller servings to eat during the week. I think its important to still have things we love while we are on an eating plan and I do love cupcakes. Ive said before that cupcakes and baklava are my kryptonite! So you might be thinking “But Sara, Saturday is your splurge day. Why didn’t you have one of these most fabulous cupcakes??” Well I will tell you. I am somewhat ashamed to say I had cake for dinner last night. Ahem. Yes. That was not the intention. I had my healthy breakfast and lunch and did my run. I was geared up to cook for Bryan and I but he had already eaten. Soooo I had a slice of cake. I had the points for it so it was not a huge  issue but of course it was not the healthiest of choices. The cake does have a back story. (Not that this makes it any better). But, my friend Kristen and I have been going to Wildflour to have lunch together for ages. The first time we went I was so excited to see they had a vanilla cream cake with raspberry. I was even more excited when I learned they called it “Marie Antoinette Cake”.  I have a weird little obsession with Marie Antoinette and her time in history so I thought this was really cool. Well the problem is every single time we went to eat at this restaurant they never had this particular cake offered on that day.  So it became a little joke where I would go check in the bakery section and come back laughing because yet AGAIN they did not have it. Yesterday was the first time I ever set foot in this restaurant without my friend Kristen and I am explaining this story to my running pal who tells me “You should go see” and it was there.  So last night I had a slice of cake that I have waited TWO years for and it was worth every calorie. What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten for dinner?

Today it was back to business with the eating plan. After a breakfast of eggs and toast my “fun” Sunday workout ended up being yard work.  There was nothing fun about it but I feel certain I got my workout in. Yard work is tough! I came in for lunch and decided to have some peach Greek yogurt and some Bear Naked granola and a banana (not pictured). I heart the Bear Naked products. Its good stuff.

Bry and I had planned to see a movie but I decided to spend the day getting organized. It also gave me time to think of my “hill” goals for this week.

• Switch up the breakfast routine. Starting on Tuesday I am going to try a couple of new things for breakfast. The meat in the mornings is making me feel sluggish but I still need the protein. I’ll be making my first Green Monster this week. Do you eat anything with the monster or is it a stand alone meal?
• Increase my run to walk intervals as well as bump up our Saturday running distance from 4 to 6 miles.
• Find 4 new songs to add to my “running” play list. Any suggestions?

I was craving veggies tonight so I decided to make a casserole packed with them. The recipe is simple. You cook up 1lb of super lean beef or turkey or soy crumbles with 1/2 lb mushrooms, a medium diced onion, a ton of chopped broccoli, and a ton of chopped spinach (with salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes, and garlic). Then you drain this mixture and pour back into the pan. To this you add 1/2 cup of minute whole grain rice-uncooked (the 10 minute version), 1 can of cream of whatever soup (I used celery) and 3/4 cup of fat free sour cream (or whatever kind you like). You mix this all together and pour into a casserole dish. Sprinkle a little cheese on top (I used 2% mozzarella). I baked it on 350 for 30 minutes. If its still a little “soupy” then bake another 5-10 minutes. Then serve. You get tons of veggies and its really a quick dish in terms of prep.

All of my pretty veggies cooking up.

Pre-baking

1 yummy serving of casserole

Since my day has been spent happily working my night will be spent happily looking through the magazines and catalogs that came this week.

I just love getting catalogs. Do you have a favorite catalog that you LOVE to look through? Visit my blog later this week when I am giving tours of my kitchen (and fridge!)

Have a happy and healthy Sunday friends!

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Good Health Guidelines

Thursday is one of my favorite days of the week. By this time I have always hit my stride at work and that light at the end of the work week tunnel is getting brighter and brighter. This morning I decided to sparkle my day up a little with a bracelet I found on sale around the holidays. I am a huge fan of over-sized pieces when it comes to costume jewelry/accessories. Something over the top can make a boring outfit suddenly have personality.

Speaking of accessories here is a better picture of my yellow bag I talked about yesterday. I do accessorize my accessories especially when they are 50% off! What’s better than a sale? A sale at COACH!

I can now proudly say that my shopping addiction will not only serve me- Next weekend I am shopping for a cause. I made my $25.00 donation and scored a ticket to the preview night for the Heart and Sole campaign sponsored by CASA. This is a really cool event where companies (brands youd recognize) donate overstock shoes, last season’s styles shoes, etc to this event. Then shopping savvy girls such as myself go in and purchase shoes ranging in price from 5-25 dollars (most are around 10). All of the money goes to CASA since the event is run 100% by volunteers. Even if I only buy a pair or two its totally worth it for the fun experience. I will make sure to post any fabulous finds after the event next Friday.  For those not wanting to make the donation you can shop for free next Saturday and Sunday and all of the proceeds from sales will go to CASA. Local girls you should definitely go out and show your support!

Today I made a little promise with myself to get back to the good health guidelines outlined in my Weight Watchers plan. They do this so that people don’t eat an entire day’s worth of points in bread or Easter Peeps or something. The idea is to learn healthful eating.

This morning I started off with my Vitatop, turkey sausage and V8 fusion. This meal is a little drab but quick. I am thinking I HAVE to try something new next week. Maybe I will be brave enough to make my first green monster.

After a couple of hours I was hungry so I snacked on berries (blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries). They were just what I needed to perk up for the afternoon.

Lunch was some of our left over “slim pigs”, green beans, and yes more berries. I cant stop with the berries. A pretty yummy lunch although while I was eating I could not help thinking that the presentation was a little sad. I think I am going to be on the lookout for some bright and fun plastic dishes/bowls that I can keep at work and just wash daily. I might even get extra fancy with a place mat.  I can say it will definitely be more zen than eating out of mismatched Tupperware. Do you have a cute lunch bag that you like to take to work?

I decided on a day of cross training since the pollen here is out of control. I hope this choice does not hinder my performance Saturday in the Susan G Komen race for the cure 5K. I am really excited about it. Post workout I was starved so I opted for an Ezekiel English Muffin with a touch of organic strawberry preserves Mmmm and a serving of skim milk (I need at least 2 dairy servings a day according to my guidelines). Also, I cannot say enough good things about this brand of English muffins. They are so filling and yummy!

Dinner was some tandori style chicken. It is a somewhat modified Rachael Ray creation since I used all boneless skinless chicken breasts. I paired it with some organic wheat mac and cheese and some organic green beans. YUM! Normally I make my own Mac and cheese but this “Back to Nature” brand is for sure my favorite boxed version.

At the end of the day my guidelines broke down like this:

Fruit and Veggies: 7 (possibly more since my second serving of berries was HUGE)

• Whole Grain: 3

• Protein: 4/5

• Oil/Fat: 2

• Dairy: 2

Points: Came in 100% on target

Without REALLY paying attention it is so easy for me to get off track and start lacking in an area. How do you keep up with your calories/diet/food consumption? I literally just headed out with my husband to pick up the desert that I will not be partaking in (banana cream pie). On the up side he did buy me a box of WW ice cream bars for the weekend. 3 little points of heaven! 🙂

I am off to organize for 20 minutes. Tonight’s project the little “catch all” area where the unwanted mail, receipts, coupons etc all go. Do you have a “catch all closet/drawer/or even room at your house?

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To Quote the Great Ms. Spears…

“Im a slave for you” and by “you” I of course mean the scale. This week has been frustrating. Ive hopped on the scale every morning (which I know is a huge no no) and it hasnt moved an inch or even a smidge of an inch. The scale and I were so tight for the first 6 weeks of this journey. He’d inch down and down and Id do my part to keep things going. But now, apparently we are at that part of the relationship where before we would part ways and I would go back to my old bad habits. This time though things are going to be different. It stands to reason that after 6 weeks my body is used to the routine so I am going to switch things up a bit. On my cross training days which are Wednesdays I am going to eat a few of my weekly points (just a few. Not going to get crazy) and allow myself a few (as needed) on Saturdays. I am hoping the extra calories will encourage my body to stop holding onto the weight so the scale and I can get back on good terms. I am also challenging myself to get back on track with my good health guidelines outlined in the weight watchers program so that I am getting the veggies, fruits, grains, and dairy I need daily. I will talk more about that soon.

I started out my morning with my normal Vitatop, turkey sausage, and V8 fusion. I am really wanting to get my protein in some other way. Like I mentioned last week I am toying with the idea of a breakfast smoothie called a “Green Monster” (click the link to learn more about them). Tons of bloggers swear by them for making a healthful and filling breakfast choice. I have never actually made a smoothie so this intimidates me a little. Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe? Maybe giving these a try will be a hill goal for next week.

At lunch I had some fabulous left over stir fry. (Arent all those peppers pretty??) and a cup of fresh berries. I usually dont buy the pre-washed/pre-cut berries but these were just calling out to me!

Work was busy today but good busy. I have converted another girl into the yellow hand-bag posse. Im starting a revolution! 🙂 When I was in Orlando for the Disney Princess 1/2 marathon I went shopping and might have stopped in Coach. Ahem. I have been carrying this bag ever since (the photo doesnt do it justice. Its all buttery yellow in real life). From then on I have watched one co-worker friend at a time start sporting a yellow bag for Spring. I love it! I want to convert as many people as I can before the summer is over. 🙂 Its like carrying a little bit of sunshine on my arm.

I was starved when I got home so I snacked on some All Bran Crackers and hummus. I love hummus and this flavor did not disappoint. Although, I might have called it pretty spicy and supremely tasty instead of supremely spicy.What is your favorite flavor hummus? How do you eat your hummus-on veggies, on crackers, in a wrap etc?

Now I am headed out for some cross training and stretching. I am holding so much tension in my neck and back a nice long stretch is just what I need. Have you ever done yoga? Did you find it helpful?

Happy Wednesday night friends!

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