Winning Friends with Salad

This morning went from calm and relaxing to crazy and stressful back to calm and relaxing again! Whew! Quite the whirlwind! I woke up early this morning for some gym time. It’s always easier for me to get up early on the weekends than the weekdays, not surprisingly. I meant to try a Z Bar for my Pre Workout Snack, but I forgot it on my way out the door, boo. This did give me an opportunity to analyze whether my Pre Workout Snacks are impacting the quality of my workouts, though. Although I had a wave of hunger hit me in the first 10 min of my workout, after that I was more concerned with exercise than my stomach. But overall I think it’s a positive thing to do, so I’m going to keep with it. But it’s always good to evaluate your methods consistently to make sure what worked a month ago is still working now, because that might not always be the case!

So I did more mixing it up at the gym this AM. 10 minutes on the stepmill, 10 minutes on the treadmill with the free weights, some mat time, AND a new machine, the Cardio Wave. I really liked this machine - it was a fun switch-up. It felt like roller blading or ice skating. And again, I didn’t have to move very fast to get a good sweat going. I’ve really liked exploring the different cardio machines - I’m going to keep switching it up! Cardio and weights = 438 calories burned.

I got home, showered, and dressed - P and I were headed to one of our favorite restaurants, CookShop, for brunch. But as we were just about to walk out the door for our 11:30 reservation - I realized I couldn’t find my wallet. Well, to make a long story short, we tore up the apt, called every police precinct in the city, went to my office, and STILL couldn’t find it. After a good amount of tears, and a phone call to Mommy, I finally went to report it and cancel my cards, and my cell phone died. I pulled out my company blackberry to make the call and found I had a message. An older couple, Ira and Martha, who have a stationary store a few buildings down from me, found my wallet on the street - I dropped it as I was getting out of the cab in the rain yesterday! They went door to door in every building in the street trying to find me, but couldn’t, so they left a message on my company blackberry, the number of which is on my business card which is in my wallet. They were on the way to Massachusetts for the weekend when they left the message yesterday, so after speaking with them this morning, I’m going there first thing Monday to get my wallet. I’m bringing them a huge batch of cookies, and I know where we’ll be getting all of our stationary from now on! Can you believe it???? How nice are they! It just goes to show that even in a big city like NYC, there are good Samaritans out there.

Peter, the poor thing who deals with me in hysterics, was smart and kind enough to push back our reservation, and we made it just in time at 12:30. I was planning on having an iced coffee, but Peter insisted we get cocktails after such a stressful morning - and I had to agree! I had a Mango Ginger Daiquiri, which had fresh mango, ginger, lime and rum. It was really good - very creamy.

I cannot hold my alcohol anymore! I was definitely toasted after this glass, which led to bad decisions later… But for an entree, I had three poached eggs, with a slice of sourdough and 2 strips bacon:

This was great! I also had a bite of P’s fish sandwich and about 8-10 of his french fries.
So combined with a stressful morning and alcohol, here comes my bad decision, which Peter gladly supported: dessert! I got the Lemon-Vanilla cheesecake with Lemon Sorbet and Blueberry Capote:

I also had a bite of P’s milk chocolate bread pudding, which I snapped a photo of for you guys:

Yum-o! Since this is brunch, and essentially two meals in one, I don’t feel too guilty for going overboard. And I don’t feel uncomfortably full or anything, so I’m happy. Brunch was…gulp…estimated at 1100 calories.

No real plans for the rest of Saturday, but a bunch of options! I’ll let you know what we come up with…happy Saturday!