I’m shocked

Well, I jumped on the Ask Me Anything bandwagon :) I’ve been enjoying asking questions and reading all the question/answer posts on other blogs so I thought I’d go ahead and join in. So.. ask me anything if you’d like.

In other news, I have a new reader from my “real” life and wanted to say hello to her. Hi Victoria! She’s the friend I met for lunch on Saturday and she had the absolute nicest things to say about my blog today. It touched my heart.

I’m pretty private about my blog, because a lot of people in my life “don’t get it“. But when someone I’ve known for a long time reads it and likes it, it makes me smile.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Even though it was snowing this morning on the way to work, I still had a Green Monster. I’m just that hardcore guys ;)

Lunch was two servings of Pacific Foods Organic Butternut Squash sopa.

Snacks were:

Craisins

Juicy orange

Mix 1 Mango Protein Smoothie

I’m still feeling a little off, but I somehow shocked myself by heading straight to the gym after work to pump out a full body strength training sesh. I never go straight to the gym, but my gym bag was in my car and I figured it wouldn’t be as busy due to the bad weather.

I copied a workout Lisa did last week, but of course, with far less weight. :) It was great! Went by quick and I worked up a good sweat.

Time to eat some dinner! Have a good night friends.

Don’t forget to ask me anything!

Sunday Night Fever

Good morning! Thank you all for the flattery yesterday. I was certainly not fishing for it or anything, but I’m not one to turn down a few good compliments :)

Yesterday after I posted I finished up a movie, and then realized that I had a bit of a fever. So I nixed my full body workout and just hit up the grocery store instead to make sure I had Green Monsters ingreds for the week.

The fever went down after a few hours and my appetite kicked in. My eats were still pretty random though. I can’t decide what’s going on with my health lately. It seems like maybe my body is trying to fight something off because some days I feel okay and others I feel sick again. It’s strange. Thankfully nothing has been bad enough to keep me from work yet, so I really can’t complain.

Anyways, I had a mug of cereal shortly after getting back from the grocery store.

And later on I had an arugula salad with Annie’s Green Goddess dressing.

And for dessert I had a few spoonfuls of this Pomegranate and Blood Orange sorbet that was to die for.

I watched the Super Bowl in between working and getting ready for work today, but didn’t really pay that close of attention. I’m happy for the Saints though :)

After the game was over I watched an episode of House on the elliptical to make up for the missed workout and then showered and headed to bed.

Busy week ahead! Sorry to keep this so short, but time is of the essence :) Have a good Monday folks!!

CoolGreens

Hey guys! You gearin’ up for the big game? I’m not really doing anything exciting for the Super Bowl. I still have some work to do so I’m going to take it easy and enjoy the last few hours of the weekend.

I had a fun lunch with Lisa today! We went to a place called CoolGreens. It’s a froyo place, but they also have a great selection of wraps, salads and flatbread pizzas. It’s a pretty healthy little joint too!

I had the Jaime’s Greek Salad, with marinated tofu instead of chicken.

It was fresh and delicious. We each posed with our meals.

I was looking a little rough, haha. The salad looked good though, right? Lisa looked much cuter.

She had the Bahamian Jerk salad and the White Chicken Chili. It looked really good too! I will definitely be going back to CoolGreens again!!

I’m about to go get some groceries and maybe do some sort of workout.

Have a great rest of your Sunday folks!

Who are you rooting for tonight?

I think I’m going for the Saints, but I don’t really follow either team.

College Buddies

Hi guys! It’s been a fun Saturday on my end. How about over there? Good, I hope.

I had a terrible, awful sleep last night, I think due to the afternoon coffee yesterday. So, I woke up a little later than I meant to. I had entertained the thought of trying out the 9 a.m. spinning class at the gym, but that did not happen. So I just did some cardio on my own. I was in kind of a rush though, because I had a fun lunch date.

One of my old college buddies (I like to say that because it makes me sound about 159) was in town so we met to have lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Norman – Cafe Plaid. I had my favorite sandwich from there, the Tomato Provolone.

I also got a cup of Red Pepper and Artichoke soup, which I was kind of disappointed in.

They have incredible salads there, and I should have gone with something more tried and true. Oh well, live and learn. I also had a cup of delicious coffee and a baked apple oatmeal cookie. Fabulous.

After lunch we went to Native Roots Market, a locally owned food market. It was my first time going, and I was super impressed with all the great stuff they had there. They also have a really cool token system set up and every time you use your own bag they give you a token and donate the cost of the bag to the charity of your choice.

I donated to a local Food & Shelter charity. It’s nice to know that just using my own bag can do some kind of good in the community.

It was so fun to hang out with my friend in our old stoming ground, but unfortunately I had to cut it short so I could go back to OKC and do some work. However, halfway to work I realized that I didn’t have my house keys :( Apparently they fell out of my coat pocket at the restaurant. No worries though, I just drove back and got them and then came home and got down to business.

Dinner later on was an egg, cream cheese and fake sausage sammie.

And dessert was an organic apple sauce mixed with cottage cheese. Yummy!

Now I think I’m going to unwind with an episode of House on the elliptical. Wild and crazy Saturday night, huh ;)

Have a fun night!

Coffee Snob had a good day

Wow… how is it really Friday night right now? It feels like I just crawled out of bed five minutes ago and now, here I am, at home again. Woop!

I have no food pictures from today :( Lunch was leftovers from last night, and a protein shake since I didn’t have any other protein source to have with it. It was not attractive, so I didn’t photograph it. I also had a banana for a snack. That was attractive, but I was hungry and furiously working away and forgot.

Have I ever told you that I’m a bit of a coffee snob? It’s actually a very recent development. In college, I only really drank caffiene if I was pulling an all-nighter or if I had a craving for a White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks.

But… since I’ve entered the corporate world, java has become extremely important to me. However, I can never get my coffee fix at work because of the lackluster coffee making materials provided. I’ve got it made at home. I have a Keurig, which I love. And I have plans to get a French Press very, very soon.

Exhibit A:

Nasty coffee pot that, to my knowledge, has never been cleaned (I tried once but it made little impact) and produces that nasty greasy, slimy coffee that you typically get at the Motel 6 or some other sleezy establishment (some Motel 6’s are quite nice though, just using that as a point of reference.

Exhibit B:

Folger’s. I cannot stand Folgers. Blech.

But, when I noticed that we had received a new coffee pot in the breakroom, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I purchased some Fair Trade Sumatra coffee (nothing fancy, but better than Folger’s!) to try out in the new coffee maker.

The Verdict?

Muuuuuch better. I think this is going to vastly improve my work life.

Another thing that’s going to improve it? My big boss coming to me today and apologizing for the big project I’ve been working on. He didn’t know I was working on it alone and he recruited some assistance for me. I thought that was just so nice. I feel lighter than air now! I still have some stuff to do on it over the weekend, but it is so much more manageable now and I don’t feel tears welling up every five minutes any more.

Oh! And I won some MORE Chobani from Kate at A Runner Wife’s Life today! Can a day get much better than that? I think not.

Now, I’m about to head out to dinner with my lovely family and drink some of the. best. coffee. on. the. planet. Sometimes, the day should just revolve around coffee.

(And… in case you can’t tell, I’ve really probably had enough for the day!)

Have yourselves and absolutely fantastic Friday night everyone!!

Dinner Monster

We’ve almost made it through another week! This one felt super fast to me because I’ve been so busy. I’ve even been coming in to work early and staying late and it still feels like it’s flown by. Love that!

Thank you all for you comments on my protein schpeel. I like reading responses to things like that because we’re all so different and I like hearing different opinions.

Last night after I posted I did some cardio and abs. Nothing earth-shattering. I stayed pretty late at work and I was running behind.

Dinner was a late-night, more carbified version of a Green Monster.

That would be couscous coated with a spinach and asiago pesto and topped with roasted broccoli.

This meal definitely could have used some sort of red component to liven up the presentation, but taste-wise it was spot on.

The pesto was just 2 cups of spinach, 2 tablespoons shredded asiago, a tablespoon minced garlic and extra virgin olive oil. I topped the roasted broccoli with some red pepper flakes to add some spice to the meal and drizzled some slightly reduced balsamic vinegar over the dish to give it a little bit of pop. It turned out fantastically!

After dinner I did some house cleaning, because my Mom is coming up to the city tonight to have a special dinner with my brother, SIL and I. It was one of her Christmas presents from us. She’s got a lot of health issues and doesn’t really get out of the house too much, so we rented a limo to make the night extra fun for her :)

When I woke up this morning I did a super quick Upper Body workout at home. I’m just having a hard time getting to the gym in the mornings, because I’ve been leaving for work at 7 a.m., and me getting up before 5 just really hasn’t happened yet. It is getting really easy for me to get up around 5:45 though, so I think I’m getting there!

It was Breakfast Friday today at work! It seems like we haven’t had one in a long time due to holidays and last week’s ice storm. The girl who cooked today always makes a huge spread, so I tried to be choosy with my choices.

That would be a mini egg and cheese biscuit, a potato, egg and salsa quesadilla and half a coconut and fruit bar. There were also four different varieties of cinnamon rolls, but I passed on those in lieu of the savory stuff. It was all really yummy!

Today should be another busy and quick one. I can’t complain about that :) Adios amigas!

Protein Ramble

Hey guys! I’ve really enjoyed reading about what you though my carrot resembled today. I’ve decided that I should have saved the carrot and said it looked like Lady Gaga and sold it on ebay! Someone totally would have bought it ;)

Today has been a pretty great day! Even though the weather is lackluster, I have some fun stuff planned for the weekend and I’m excited for it to get here.

I must be psychic, because I packed some homemade bean soup that I had frozen a long time ago for lunch today. And, lo and behold, today is National Homemade Soup Day (according to Janetha B) :)

Along with my soup I had a plate of haphazardly placed veggies. I didn’t eat lunch until around 1 p.m. due to getting in a zone at work (I love when that happens) so I was just concerned with getting the food in my mouth and not so much about presentation.

I also had another organic apple sauce cup. These were an impulse buy at the grocery store, but they’ve been wonderful “lunch desserts” this week. They’re Leroux Creek brand, in case anyone was wondering. And today, I ate it with a spoon like a normal person.

I really need to stop eating lunch at my desk every day, but it’s just so convenient, and it gives me time to catch up on blogs :)

I think once I get this proposal finished, I’m going to have to start forcing myself to get out of the office during my lunch break. The fresh air makes the day a lot more invigorating. I used to go and run and errand or go to Panera and have coffee every day, but since the weather has turned cold I’ve stopped. Next week I’m making it a goal to get out and smell the roses ;)

Later on I had an EAS Myoplex Lite shake.

I got some comments on the Clif Builder’s bar I had the other day that contained 20 grams of protein, so I thought I’d take a second to address them. First of all, I love any and all comments and I can totally relate to any creepiness that someone might feel about 20 grams of protein being stuffed into a little bar. I used to be the exact same way!

There are some people who think protein is extremely important and some that could care less about it. I now fall somewhere in between, but up until recently I was one who just didn’t give a crap about protein.

Back story: About 8 months ago, I “went vegetarian”. I did it for many reasons, but mainly because I just don’t enjoy meat that much. Since then, I’ve removed the vegetarian label from my life and I now eat fish a couple times a month or so and have eaten actual meat a handful of times when I really and truly wanted it. However, I rarely eat it, because I just don’t enjoy it.

So, this mostly meat-free lifestyle obviously resulted in me eating a lot less protein than I used to (even though I still eat dairy). A little over a month ago, I started noticing that I had been feeling really off. I couldn’t pin point exactly what it was, but things just didn’t feel right. After examining a lot of factors, I decided to try adding more protein back into my meals just to see if it would make a difference. Plus, it was around this time that I started strength training more regularly, and thought it wouldn’t hurt there either.

(sorry, this just keeps going and going!)

In the past when I have decided to make major adjustments to the way I eat, usually in an effort to lose weight, I have done exactly what typical diet media (books, commerials, etc.) tell you to do.

I remember going on and off of countless diets because I thought I had to eat exactly what every other dieter was eating – i.e. grilled chicken breasts and steamed veggies and maybe a salad with fat free dressing. Or a whole wheat wrap with turkey deli meat. Or whatever else Atkins, or South Beach or the Mayo Clinic was telling me to eat. I was always miserable when doing this because I was stuffing food I didn’t enjoy down my throat and pining for the foods I loved.

It wasn’t until I started this blog that I realized that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, you have to eat the foods that you like. It sounds so simple, but that honestly really never clicked for me until then.

If you eat foods you hate (which for me are mainly meat-centered things), you will not succeed at whatever goal you are trying to accomplish. So, I learned to make foods that I loved in a more healthful way, and I lost weight without all the aggravation.

Now that I’m trying to increase my protein a bit, I dont want to force myself to eat things I hate just to get more protein. I know that if I do that, I will fail. So for now, I’m eating a lot of protein-fortified (read: processed) things to accomplish the goal. It’s not ideal, and I’m constantly trying to find ways to improve it, but it’s where I’m at right now.

Life is just too short to eat things you don’t enjoy.

And, just for the record, since I’ve increased my protein intake I have returned to feeling more or less “normal” and I’ve noticed that I tend to snack a lot less because I feel a greater sense of satiety throughout the day. However, I am absolutely not saying that anyone else out there should increase their protein. It’s just where I’m at right now. Two weeks, two months or two years from now, that could definitely change.

Wow, I am so so sorry for rambling on about that for so long. I hope that made some sort of sense. I really had not intended to really talk about the protein thing on the blog much, but I feel better now that I’ve gotten it out there :) If you made it through that then I owe you my first born. Seriously.

Have a good night guys. Tomorrow’s the big day!

What are your thoughts about protein?

A yoatgurt kind of morning

Goodmorning! I took the night off last night as you may or may not have noticed. I went shopping after work thenstraight to the gym after that, and by the time I got home I was starving and exhausted. So I just ate, showered and went to bed. But don’t worry, I’ll catch you up real quick like :)

Work yesterday was very stressful. The position I’m in now is so much different than what I was hired to do and sometimes I just want to cry because I feel so lost. I’m working on a huge proposal and I have no idea what I’m doing. But a week from today it will have been submitted and put behind me, so I’m trying to just take it day by day.

Lunch yesterday was kind of random. I had no delicious leftovers to work with, due to my crock pot disaster, so I had some more of the Black Soyean and Bulgar Salad I made a while back. It was tasty, but not really what I was in the mood for.

I had it with some carrots and an organic apricot apple sauce for dessert.

Yes I ate it with a fork. I like to make things difficult.

Did you spot that funky carrot on my plate? Well, of course I had to play with it, it was so creepy looking!

From this angle it kind of looks like the front of a turtle. See it?

And from this angle it kind of looks like an elephant’s butt and tail.

I don’t know what it looks like from this angle. Anyone have any ideas?

Okay, that was fun, moving on. Like I said above, I went shopping after work because I had some coupons and I needed to return something. I really, really, really need to stop spending money. Like, really.

After that was over, I headed to the gym. I could have easily talked myself out of going because I was still feeling yucky from my cold and I had a headache. But… I just went without even thinking about it and did some laid-back cardio. I think it was just what I needed.

When I got home I felt like having breakfast, so I went with it. Foodbuzz sent me a coupon for a dozen Eggland’s Best eggs

so I made scrambled eggs and toast.

The scrambled eggs had chopped red pepper, one whole egg, two egg whites and a splash of fat free half and half. I was surprised how much this yielded. Normally I just do plain egg whites and get a puny amount of end product.  I also had a whole wheat and flax english muffin toasted and topped with some apricot preserves. It was a delicious and quick dinner.

Shortly after that I went to bed and slept like a rock. I always wake up at least one time in the night and think I’ve overslept my alarm, but I didn’t wake up once until my alarm started ringing. It was glorious.

I stepped outside of my breakfast box this morning, and ate yoatgurt at home as opposed to a smoothie at my desk at work (which makes for even worse than usual picture, apologies in advance). Mainly I was just curious to try this new product.

I grew up with Yoplait yogurt, and even though I’ve now upgraded to less sugar-induced varieties, I was curious to see how their Greek yogurt would taste. And since it was only $.99 for a container, I went for it.

I was surprised at how thick the yogurt was. I was expecting it to be more of an Oikos consistency, since the regular Yoplait yogurts were always so runny, but it was incredibly thick!

The taste wasn’t quite as good as Chobani of Fage, but for the price tag, I wasn’t mad at it. I may even buy it again, but not very often since all they had was the full fat version and it only packs 7 grams of protein.

As far as yoatgurt in the morning goes, it’s just way too much food for me that early. It was a delicious start to the day, but I had a hard time finishing it. Smoothies are really my perfect week day breakfast.

Do you have a good appetite in the morning?

I wish I did, because I love breakfast food, but I don’t usually want anything that substantial until around 10 or 11 a.m.

Alright, back to work I go. The weather is profoundly gross in Oklahoma right now, and this proposal is breathing down my neck. Oh joy… At least tomorrow is Friday! Have a good one guys :)

Crock Pot Vendetta

My crock pot caused me a lot of grief yesterday. I worried all day long that it was going to catch fire and burn down my apartment complex. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. But burning did happen, that’s for sure.

I drove up to my apartment, and upon seeing that it was still standing I felt relieved and walked through the front door expecting to smell the delicious aroma of chili.

Instead… I smelled burning :( Not life-threatening burning but nasty food burning. I was not happy to say the least.

You can’t really tell from that picture how badly it was burnt, but trust me – it was not appetizing. I used this recipe and followed it to the T, since I’ve never really done the whole crock pot thing before (despite having one for like 5 years now).

I guess the most annoying revelation to come out of this whole experience was my discovery of just how long I’m at work every day. The recipe said to leave the crock pot on low for 8 hours. So, I got everything ready and turned it on low and left for work at 7 a.m. Since I did not return to the apartment until 5:30 p.m. that meant that I actually left it cooking for 10.5 hours.

WTF?! I spend 10.5 hours of my day at work?! How had I never realized this before?

As sad as this newfound knowledge made me, (granted I realize that many people work much longer days than that and I could have it much, much worse – at least I have a job, right?) I still thought that crock pot recipes gave you a little wiggle room in the time you could leave it cooking. Anyone have any wisdom here? Should I have just added some more liquid?

I did try to eat it, because I hate wasting food. I prettied up a bowl with some cheddar cheese and a dollop of Greek yogurt.

But, sadly, it just tasted like burnt beans :( I ate about half that portion and had to toss the rest of it. Which was not only wasteful but quite messy.

So, to sum it all up, my first experience with crockery ended quite badly. Still, I’m not giving up! The good news was that it didn’t catch fire, right? Now all I have to do is find a way to make a delicious crock pot meal that won’t turn into what you see up there ^. If you have any good crock pot recipes, please send them my way, I’m on a mission now!

Oh, and I almost forgot, in the midst of all this commotion, I did go to the gym to do some strength training. I did this lower-body workout from Women’s Health. I loved that the moves were different from your typical squats/lunges/etc. and it was seriously hard! For me anyways.

When I got home I ate my gross dinner and then had some cottage cheese and apricot preserves for dessert.

This totally redeemed the burnt chili. I forgot how much I loved cottage cheese and preserves together. Yum!

Okay, that’s enough about the crock pot. But please do enlighten me with any wisdom you may have here, I am determined to get it right!

Have a wondeful day :)

This/That

THIS

Hey guys! How’d your Tuesday treat you? I found today to be much more pleasant than yesterday. As far as my eats go, however, it would appear that it was quite similar. I’m okay with that though.

Lunch was round two of the Indian spiced lentils/steamed sweet potato mixture.

That bowl was stacked! I don’t know if eating that much fiber in one meal is advisable in an office setting, but I couldn’t help myself. Soooo good. I’m sad that my lentils are all gone. I will have to make another batch soon.

Snackage was another Chobani/fruit combo again. This time it was a delectable orange

and a strawbz Chobz.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when my Chobani case runs dry :( Parting with good food is like saying goodbye to a dear friend, yes?

I also had this bar right before leaving work to fuel my strength training session I’m about to pump out :)

After work I zipped on home to make sure the apartment was still standing/turn my crock pot to “keep warm”/change into my workout clothes.

Speaking of said workout, I need to get to it! But before I go… some things I’ve been meaning to discuss. And if you’re wondering how my crock pot creation turned out… you’ll just have to wait until morning to find out ;)

THAT

So, I’ve kind of been avoiding the whole “Whoa it’s already February/I need some new goals” convo/post for some reason.

The establishing/keeping of old/new goals doesn’t bother me as much as the extremly rapid passing of time.

In many ways, I feel that my life is taking lots of new/exciting turns lately. But in other ways, I feel like I’m standing still. And, to be quite honest, I don’t really feel like thinking/talking/writing about all that currently.

What I can write about is an update on my New Year’s Resolution/Challenges from 2010 thus far. Those challenges have been:

Become an early riser: This is coming along quite well. I have been getting to work between 15/30 minutes early each day. The morning workouts don’t always happen, but the main reason I like getting up earlier is feeling like more of the day belongs to me/not my work life. That extra 45 minutes to an hour of me time really does make all the difference in the world. Sure, there are some mornings that I slip up/only rise early enough to make it to work on time, but for the most part I’m doing well here. Grade: A-

Focus more on strength training. While I have definitely improved in this area, my consistency isn’t really there yet. Some weeks I really kick my butt and feel like I’m getting stronger, and other weeks I just do enough to get by. What seems to work best right now is doing one lower body day (preferably early on in the week since it’s my least favorite), one upper body day and one full body day. Lisa has definitely helped me with this goal too. Yay for workout buddies :) Still, there is room for improvement here. Grade: B

So… now for a new challenge. I had a really hard time coming up with one, because I didn’t want to just give myself a goal for the sake of having a goal. I wanted it to have true meaning and not create any added stress, since work is giving me enough of that right now. But I managed to think of one thing that I know I really need to do.

Write more – creatively. Between my job (which is writing stuff that bores me to tears all day) and this blog (which I love immensely and would be lost without) I tend to get “written out” by the end of the day. That’s why I zone out with TV or get lost in books/in a good cardio sesh. But, writing is what I went to school for. It’s one thing that gives me a sense of peace and contentment, even though I’m not that great at it.

It’s not realistic for me to say that I’m going to spend X hours a day working on creative writing projects. I wish it was, but putting a set amount of time to it will only make it feel like a chore. So, I’m just going to start out by aiming to do just a little something each week – most likely on the weekend.

I’ll check in on this with you guys as I go along, but rest assured that I won’t be posting these projects for you to read. I’m not that mean ;)

I know that goal has nothing to do with food/health/fitness, but it has to do with my soul, and souls are pretty important.

What’s one thing you do your your soul?

Besides writing, my soul also likes eating chocolate and shopping :)