Low… and behold!’s Blog Finding the “high” road.

Hey hey! How tired are you of me telling you that my day was busy? I’m guessing pretty tired, so I will refrain.

In the midst of my busy or not busy day (I’ll never tell!) I ate some food. Beginning with a non-smoothie kind of morning. Yep, I drink smoothies when there is ice falling from the sky and don’t drink them when the sun is shining. Don’t ask questions… it will get you no where.

I bought some very intriguing granola at Tarjay t’other day, and couldn’t wait a second longer to try it out. You know you want to try this…

I had 1/3 cup of the granola with some Quaker Oatmeal Squares and a sliced up banana.

I have a much easier time eating cold cereal (and cold food in general) than hot oats in the morning. The hotness makes me feel super full I think. I think that’s why I like eating oats for dinner, when my hunger is in full force.

I clearly did not have my thinking cap on when I packed my food for today. I usually bring leftovers for lunch, but I didn’t have any today so I brought a salad. I planned to pack a pear and some fake meat to put on top of the salad, but I forgot it. It was still extremely tasty, just not as filling as it could have been.

I finished off the container of arugula and mixed in some shredded asiago cheese, craisins, baby carrots and balsamic vinegar. The flavors of the asiago + arugula + dried cranberries was delightful.

I had a protein shake for a snack, but it wasn’t anything you haven’t seen before.

After work I once again headed straight to the gym (who am I?) and did something I haven’t done in a hot minute. I ran. Only 2.0 miles, but I’ve been meaning to get back on the horse, and coincidentally, Lisa reminded me today of our plans to run a 5K i the spring. So I had the motivation I needed

I have a long way to go to get back to where I was with running, and an even longer way to get to where I’d like to be. But… one day at a time.

Plans for the rest of the night include: dinner, some stretching/light yoga, and then a whole lotta nothing. Looking forward to it

More Questions!! Favorites and Least Favorites:

Kbtwood asked: Whats your favorite meal and why!

I have a very hard time picking favorites. Favorite song, favorite color, favorite movie… I never really know the answers. Usually I just go with what sounds good in the moment. Picking a favorite meal might just be the most difficult thing in the world, so instead I shall list a Top 5 6 :)

1. Pizza! Specifically, a veggie pizza with tomatoes, bell peppers, artichokes, black olives and feta cheese.

2. Pad Thai. Either veggie or tofu, spiciness at a 4.

3. Sushi. With edamame to start and a Sapporo beer to wash it all down.

4. Veggie burger and sweet potato fries.

5. My homemade chana masala.

6. Soup!

What is your least favourite thing about blogging?

This question was really hard to answer because I LOVE blogging. But… I guess my least favorite thing about it is the design aspect, because I don’t have a clue how to do it. I purchased my domain, but have yet to do anything cool with the design because I’m so clueless in that regard. I think I’ll eventually pay someone to do it. I’d really like to at least figure out how to do a custom header, but again clueless

Other than that I pretty much love it all – taking pictures, coming up with meals, posting, reading other blogs, commenting on other blogs. I truly look forward to it every day!

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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?