This is turning out to be quite the busy week, and it’s only Tuesday!
Heading down the road right now, munching on organic carrots and mini peppers with E. My dad and stepmom are landing in Charleston in 40 minutes or so, and we’re seeing Chicago with them tomorrow night. I haven’t seen them since October, so this is quite the treat!
I’ll keep this short and sweet, so look for the recaps of days 2-3 of 26 to 27 later tonight.
What are you up to this week?
Happy Friday!
I’m writing this en-route to St. Louis, where I’ll be playing bridesmaid for the first time for my dear friend Amanda. The wedding’s taking place at Busch Stadium, home of the Cardinals – so excited!
Started the day off with an early morning wake-up call, heading off to Huntington Tri-State Airport, with a quick coffee stop along the way. I don’t know who was more in need of the have – me or E!
The leg to Cincinnati was uneventful, except for two things: the Luna Chocolate Cherry Almond protein bar I munched on, and this, the most awkward thing I’ve ever posted online.
No seat belt extenders for this gal! Despite it being unflattering to the mac, pictures like this remind me how far I’ve come. Not only can I fit comfortably in the seats, but folks chat me up when I sit down next to them instead of running away in horror. It’s all about the little things, folks!
I was still hungry when I landed in Cinci, so I grabbed a quick breakfast at Moe’s Bar & Grill. Sitting there and listening to Celine Dion, I felt like I’d been teleported back home to La Belle Province. It was a nice reminder of home.
I ordered a cheese-less veggie omelet that was stuffed with roasted red pepper, broccoli, onions and tomatoes, with sides of dry rye toast, home fries and black coffee. I had 2/3 of the egg, all the veg, half of the potatoes and 1 slice of toast with strawberry jam. It hit the spot!
Now I’m listening to Green Day, and enjoying a Fresca and staring down some Biscoff that I intend to save for tomorrow’s oatmeal – I feel like Kath!
I have some posts I’m working on which will hopefully get uploaded this weekend. Have a great weekend, and enjoy your Fist Bump Friday!
What a long day – really great, but really long!
I’m proud to say I reached my goals for the day, which means no cheddar biscuits for me! I also resisted taking nibbles off of anyone else, which is quite a feat between 2 restaurants and 11 people. I almost took a taste of E’s pasta tonight, but caught myself, and gave our server my cutlery instead. After all, no cutlery, no nibbles!
We ate lunch at Red Lobster, and it was pretty good. Wood-grilled Rainbow Trout, steamed unseasoned broccoli and a baked tater with pico de gallo. The potato came smothered in salt, so it took me a few minutes to brush it all off. There was at least 2 tablespoons poured on top of it, and for the life of me, I can’t understand who’d want to eat that. With unsweet tea, lunch came out to 456 calories.
We headed straight from lunch to the School of Nursing reception – tons of food and tons of people. Normally, I’d take the opportunity to do a ton of grazing, but I resisted. I had my eye on a giant piece of carrot cake – thankfully, the university provided an awesome tea bar, so I had a Bigelow Vanilla Chai with nondairy creamer instead. The nutmeg, cardamom and other spices totally filled the cap, and at 15 calories was such a better choice! I loved the disposable mugs they had – not environmentally-friendly, but super cute.
The proud graduate! Even though he’s not officially done until mid-August, we’re so proud of him.
The ceremony took forever, or at least felt that way. By the time we were seated at Outback for dinner, it’d been 6 or 7 hours since lunch, and I was starving. My original plan was to bring some carrots for during the commencement, but I completely forgot! After a sip of E’s Yuengling and my mother-in-law’s Pinot Grigio, I settled for the best drink of all, a giant bottle of San Pellegrino with lemon. I nursed this all night, and it hit the spot – having the wine glass was just part of the effect.
I had a teensy slice of bread (probably 1/20th of the loaf), and decided on my starter. I could’ve totally gone for a bite (or 5) of this:
But instead, I chose this!
House salad, no cheese, with Tangy Tomato dressing on the side. I ate everything other than one crouton that mysteriously ended up in E’s mouth, and 4 or 5 fork dips of the dressing. I feel like I always get the same thing whenever I go out to eat: chicken or fish, baked potato, steamed veg. It’s been getting kind of boring, so I decided to mix it up! Grilled chicken and shrimp with grilled veggies, grilled pineapple and a huge sweet potato with cinnamon. Other than half the potato, everything ended up in my belly! Really good and a nice change, the night out ended at 520 calories.
I had a carrot when we got back to our room, which brings the daily total to 1465 calories. I’m actually really excited and proud, because I dodged some major personal landmines. Red Lobster and Outback are both well-known to be calorie-busters, and buffet service and I are the best of friends. Today could’ve been a total nightmare, and it was completely within range! It was a great test, and has given me that much more confidence. I know I can do this!
Happy Friday!
Today’s been a great day – my mom came with me to the gym, and it was really fun. I’m so proud of her! She hasn’t exercised in at least a decade, and boy, was she ever a trooper. Not only did she come to Weighted Workout with me, but she did all 45 minutes of it! It wasn’t easy, but she did it, and I don’t know too many people that would’ve. She seemed to enjoy aqua aerobics a little more, and it was easier on her joints, so she’s pledged to do that all of next week. It may be baby steps, but they’re pretty big ones to me.
We rushed around most of today, so not too many food pics. Breakfast was a pumpernickel bagel with a little Smart Balance with Flax for 228 calories, and in between classes, I munched on a string cheese and a handful of almonds for 122 calories. Since my mom has never been to Panera Bread, we had lunch there. The Fuji Apple Salad with chicken sounded amazing, so I ordered that with a side of the french baguette. Boy, was I in for a shock! Without any changes, the salad alone was 520 calories and 30 grams of fat, which is absolutely nuts for a salad! I only used 4 forkdips of dressing, and they forgot the pecans, so that brought it down to 357 calories and 12 grams of fat. Not great, but definitely better! Between the salad, the baguette, and a teensy sample of a cinnamon crunch bagel, lunch came out to 518 calories.
E’s little brother is graduating from WVU’s school of nursing tomorrow, so we made the drive to Morgantown earlier this evening. For some reason, I get super munchy anytime a road trip comes into play, and today was no exception! Even though it only took us about 3 hours, it felt like we were driving for-e-ver. I ate dinner pretty early on, which was probably my first mistake. Since we took home some of last night’s picnic leftovers, I took sliced up some of the jerk grilled chicken and grilled zucchini and squash, and mixed it up with some fresh pineapple salsa and pasta salad (whole wheat penne, a few pine nuts and broccoli). It came out to 370 calories, and even though it was definitely tasty, it wasn’t filling at all!
I found organic carrots on sale the other day for $0.19/lb, so I peeled some up this afternoon. Good thing, too – by the time we’d gotten to our hotel, I’d eaten 4 of them, and they were the best carrots I’ve ever had, hands down.
Once we got to the hotel, I had some orange sections and some of the biggest cherries I’ve ever seen – imagine this x2. My fruit and veggie snackout came out to 208 calories.
Which means the total for today was 1447 calories – perfect! Tomorrow I may not be so lucky – we’re having lunch with the fam at Red Lobster, and my goal is to avoid the Cheddar Bay biscuits at all costs. They’re total Kryptonite, and I can never stop at one. I’ll report back, and let you know what happened.
When is one never enough for you? I can’t be alone in this!
Apparently I hit 100 posts yesterday and didn’t even notice.
I wish I had made some kind of fanfare, but I’m not really a fanfare kind of gal. I don’t like birthday cakes because of the singing, I can’t take compliments very well, and I panic when I’m the center of attention.
I’m growing as I’m shrinking, or at least trying to, so happy freaking 100th to me.
It’s a learning process, people!
Now onto the food!
Today was the first day of easing back into ‘normal’ life after a week off and also having my mom in town, so we were kind of all over the place. Thanks to Mom, I got to start off my day with an amazing, fresh Montreal pumpernickel bagel, half spread with Smart Balance with Flax and half spread with the greatest butter known to man, a.k.a almond butter. I’m absolutely addicted to the stuff, and so far, MaraNatha Natural is my drug of choice.
Went to the gym and did an awesome workout. It just felt nice to be back, youknowwhatimean? I never thought I’d say this, but man, not working out was killing me, along with Mr. Sickey. I can’t imagine how I never got into the gym before. Well, no, that’s a lie, I do know – I never wanted to get into the gym before. Amazing what just a few months can do, huh?
I was pretty hungry after the gym but was running off to an almost-forgotten doctor’s appointment, so I grabbed some almonds to tide me over for 55 calories. By the time we were done, Mom and I were in the mood for food! With the beautiful weather we’ve been having, fresh seafood seemed like the perfect choice so we headed over to Jewel City, a local gem.
I grabbed a few of Mom’s fried pickle chips and a clam strip. Fried food is definitely not the healthiest option, but it was nice to have to munch on – you’ve got to try a fried pickle once in your life!
I decided to live on the edge, so I got the daily special – SHARK! It was pretty darn good, perfectly grilled and really meaty. One of my favorite things about Jewel City is that they don’t add any animal products or grease to their vegetable sides, making them healthier and just as tasty! I had the fish (aside from a bite to the mom), a hush puppy, the collard greens and half of the potato salad, along with the juice from the lemon. Super satisfying, the entire meal comes in at about 583 calories.
For dinner, we were invited to the park for a grilled picnic by the show‘s staff. I was a little worried about what we’d be eating, but I shouldn’t have been! It was really nice to have so much fresh food available, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
My plate, with jerk grilled chicken, a couple of whole wheat pita wedges, cilantro hummus, tabbouleh, fresh pineapple salsa, cucumber and red onion salad and grilled asparagus, zucchini, squash and red peppers. I wasn’t a fan of the tabbouleh or cucumber salad, but I ate everything else, aside from a small piece of chicken to Mom. It’s so much fun being able to share meat with her!
I also had dessert:
A little piece of angel food cake with fresh strawberries and (I’m assuming) Cool Whip. This wasn’t more than 3 or 4 bites, but it was the perfect size, and was so summery. Including dessert, dinner clocked in at about 452 calories.
That means the grand total for the day is 1358. I have a little wiggle room left, but since I’m not hungry, I won’t use it! I’m glad I avoided the healthy food trap – like so many others, I tend to overeat on ‘healthy’ foods. The healthier it is, the worse I get. I’m really proud of dinner especially; no bites off anyone’s plate, no nibbles on the side, and no seconds!
Do you fall into the trap? How do you deal with buffet-style meals?
P.S. check out Junghwa’s giveaway!
Tastes Like Happiness 
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