You Can Win Friends With Salad!

Well, my protein-rich yogurt snack didn’t hold me over today, which is weird because it usually keeps me satisfied for a couple hours. By the time I got back from Lolita (last minute location change), I was starving! I was too hungry to put much time into dinner – I just needed to get something in my stomach quick! Luckily I had one last leftover serving of Spicy Tempeh with Broccoli and Rotelle I made from Veganomicon for a dinner party we had last week. Boy, was I happy I had this on hand!

Dinner was 422 calories, 51g carbs, 16g fat, 21g protein.

I think I ate a bit too fast because I’m feeling a little sickly now.  I definitely could have a little bit more dinner (or dessert), but I’m at my max kcal for the day and I actually went over for fat grams for the day, whoops!  That almost never happens, so I’m not too worried about it.  I guess it’s a cup of tea and bed for me!  Night!

During lunch today, Sarah and I ventured to Rockefeller Center to pick up the last pair of size 8 navy with white piping flats that Banana Republic carries in the city. I don’t usually leave the office during lunch, so this was quite the adventure, especially because:

1) I live across the street from a BR. I spotted these shoes yesterday and wanted to buy them then, but for some reason their 9 was HUGE – and they didn’t have any smaller sizes. So having to travel 35 blocks and 2 avenues to go to a store that is across the street is annoying.

2) I don’t really like crowded tight spaces. Good idea to move to New York, right? Rockefeller Center gives me the heebie jeebies. Times Square is a nightmare. Macy’s at Christmas gives me a straight up panic attack. (not really.)

2) I have been a size 9 in shoes since the 8th grade and suddenly I’m down an entire size? Either my feet shrunk from losing weight OR Banana Republic shoes run large. Has anyone had any experience with this?

Despite this, we managed there and back and I even got the shoes at a huge discount. Score!

Anyway, somehow I made it through to the end of the day without breaking into my afternoon snack. When I got home, I had my planned snack: vanilla yogurt with a tablespoon of almond butter and one of the billion magazines I subscribe to:

Snack is 185 calories, 20 grams carbs, 9 grams fat, 4 grams protein.

Tonight the plan is to head to the Gallery Bar with Rita, Bryan, and Sabrina to look at art. There will also be free booze, but I think I’ll stick to a mocktail. Pilates on the reformer at 7:30 tomorrow morning!

In the past six months~plus of my avid food blog reading, there are (in my opinion) three qualities that the most enjoyable ones all contain:

1) Consistency. You have to post. Often. This is especially tough for a food blog, seeing as there are 3 meals in a day. 3 meals=3 posts a day=21 posts a week=84 posts a month…you get my point. It’s alot of work – and a lot of dedication. Not to mention you have to make sure the posts are interesting, so you can’t eat the same foods every day. This requires recipies, new ingredients, and broadening your horizons – and who likes that?

2) Responsiveness. If you can manage to keep up the consistency and people begin to read, they begin to ask questions. Which is great, but you need to answer them. So for those 3 meals a day, say you have 5 comments to respond to for each post, 15 responses a day=105 responses a week=420 responses a month. Again, tons of commitment.

Now you may say, well, hold on just a minute there! If blogs are so much work – why are you starting one??

Which brings me to the third quality of successful food blogs:

3) Positivity. This is the reason why I’m starting Winning Friends with Salad. Because a good blog can be an amazing source of information, inspiration, and community. I’ve definitely found this on other blogs and I feel like starting my own is the next logical step in my journey for health.

So, with that being said, so begins Winning Friends with Salad. I promise to do my best to be consistent, responsive and positive.  Thanks for visiting, and come back soon!