Expect a full report (featuring last night too), later this afternoon!

Wish me luck!

I’m sorry about dropping off the earth for a bit - you have no idea how guilty I feel when I miss a post! I’ve been overloaded with work so I haven’t had a second of time for myself to blog, relax or even work out! I feel so all over the place not blogging and exercising, but at the same time so bogged down with work I can’t move. But it’s Friday, I’m in the home stretch…I just need to power through and then it’s the weekend!

Wednesday afternoon, I left work around 5:45 to get to the bookstore to pick up the reading for my class. Class started at 6:45 downtown. I think it should be a good experience - I realized how much I enjoy advertising during the class discussion. It’s so interesting. Before the class started, I had an apple (unpictured) around 6:30; during the class break at 8:30, I had 1/2c cottage cheese:

I really enjoying being in ’school’ again - I was much more prepared and involved this time around. I definitely slept through class when I was a kid!

When class ended at 9:45, I walked the 2 miles home. I could have subbed it, but since I’ve been unable to get to the gym, this seemed like the best option to get in some exercise.

At home, my amazing and supportive boyfriend made me dinner while I sat down to get more work done. A few min later, we ate his creation:

Turkey sandwich on toasted double fiber bread with mustard, tomatoes, and spinach; carrots; and grapes:

and then he made me hot chocolate made with water, took a picture, and brought it to me while I worked:

In our coffee cup from our Maine trip, no less! What a sweetheart!

I got to bed L.A.T.E. but managed to get up around 7:40 AM on Thursday. A workout was out, but I decided to act on Keri’s advice and make breakfast at home. I made one egg and two egg whiles in a double fiber bread sandwich, along with sliced banana and ketchup for dipping. (Love ketchup on eggs.)

When I ran errands after my meeting with Keri on Wednesday, I picked up some candles from Whole Foods. I’ve never been big on candles, but since I’ve been having trouble sleeping AND waking up, I figured some olfactory influence might help. This one was Rosemary, to help me wake up.

I have to admit, it was nice to go about my morning with a full stomach. Although, it was almost too filling! Those egg whites are intense!

I had a morning snack around 11 of some blueberries and 1/2c cottage cheese:

It felt kind of weird, eating again after breakfast and before lunch, but I don’t remember being hungry at all yesterday, so maybe there is something to this whole ‘breakfast at home’ thing.

For lunch, I had packed again (hooray!). Double fiber bread sandwich with 2 oz smoked salmon, spinach and sprouts, with watermelon slices:

See all the work on my desk?

And carrots on the side:

I decided to head home early and work from home. It’s so much easier for me to write in my jammies at my empty, clean desk at home (compared to my messy and paperstacked work desk), with some soft classical playing - not to mention P sitting outside the door telling me to focus and stop messing around on YouTube.

Being at home gave me chance to make dinner. I decided on a Mexican Quinoa Casserole I saw on someone’s blog - I forget who…let me know if it’s yours! I cooked quinoa and grilled some spinach, CSA corn, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, celery, and yellow peppers. I layered it in a casserole dish, added salsa, sprinkled cheese on top, and popped it in the over for 10 min. Here’s my portion with a dollap of 0% Fage:

When I sat down at the table, I realized I was going to need some more protein - which is when I realized I forgot an important ingredient - black beans! Grr…it was still good though. I had two slices of turkey afterwards to get my protein in.

Since we still had a good portion of the casserole left, I cooked up some black beans and added them to the dish for future meals.

I spent the rest of the night writing. P left for a bit and came back with a surprise to cheer me up and spur me on - a little brownie! Unpictured because I was so excited he was so thoughtful. I also had two mugs of hot chocolate made with water over the course of a looooong night of writing

Friday I woke up waay behind schedule - a long night will do that to you! I FINALLY got to breakfast around 11 AM:

After delivering a presentation (which went well, thank goodness), I have been working every since. I stopped for lunch around 2: leftover casserole with black beans.

How colorful! The black beans added so much to both flavor and fillingness - I was happy to have them!

And an apple:

I’m going to have a snack around 6, then I’m meeting up with MaryBeth for a training session at 8.

Tonight I’m meeting up with Eva for dinner and drinks (perhaps more drinks than dinner after THIS week). Not too many though, because the Fitness 4 mi race is tomorrow! I can’t believe I’m running a race tomorrow - and I haven’t even worked out in 3 or 4 days…yikes.

I’m definitely going to have to work a bit this weekend, but I’m planning to buckle down Saturday afternoon so I can have a relaxing Saturday night out with Peter and a quiet Sunday. Monday is our 1 yr! Man, where has the time gone?? Happy FRIDAY!!

Since my meeting was at 1:30, I had a snack around 12:45 before I left the office:

My meeting with Keri went well! I came in discouraged with my still-plateauing self. After looking at my food journal, Keri pointed out the reasons I wasn’t losing (too much sugar, poor food planning) and we talked about taking control of my weight loss. Together we decided that I need to make a couple of key changes:

• eating breakfast at home before work
• adding a mid-morning snack around 10ish when I get to work
• adding more side salads to meal

Overall, I just need to get better at meal planning. It’s like a puzzle. You have to put all the right foods in - but in the right way. I’ll get there.

I left feeling empowered, but still kinda bummed. After running a few errands, I headed back to work. I sat down to lunch close to 3 PM (where is the day going???). I had a can of solid albacore on an Ezekiel cinnamon raisin english muffin, and two slices of watermelon:

and the other half of last night’s salad:

Alright, I’ve got to get back to it. I’m heading straight from here to Staples for class supplies, then to the bookstore to pick up the reading, and then to class from 6:45 to 9:45. I’ve got a snack planned for somewhere in there too. Bye guys!

I decided to make the best of it and spent a leisurely morning getting ready for the day. I showered, took time to sit down and apply moisturizer, made my lunch for the day, checked my email, looked at the newly posted syllabus for my writing class (which starts tonight) and…made eggs!

Talk about making things happen. I grilled up 2 eggs and an egg’s worth of egg whites, and threw some whole wheat bread and a slice of 2% American in a baggie. At work, I toasted the bread and threw the eggs and cheese in the microwave for 45 sec. Combined, and voila! Egg sandwich at work:

Served with a banana.

And iced coffee:

I really have to crack down this morning and make some serious headway on my writing. I’m going to turn off my email and maybe even the blog (tear*). I have a meeting with Keri at 1:30 PM this afternoon, and I realized this morning I can’t stay late at work tonight to finish things up because I have to go to my writing class tonight at 6:45 PM. Yikes. Better get crackin’ - see you for lunch!

PS. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond to comments, but I am reading them and really appreciate you all chiming in!  I’ll respond in the next day or so.

On to food.  Since I had to delay dinner and resist the office temptation of free takeout, compliments of the boss, I added an extra snack to my day.  Around 5 PM, I had a nectarine and 1/2c Fage spiked with honey:

This nectarine was too stringy inside.  I’ve decided I only like the red-insided nectarines, rather than the white-insided nectarines.  Does anyone know the proper names so I can distinguish between the two during grocery shops?

Around 8 PM, I had a Larabar.  Who knew I would grow to like these guys so much?  This one was Cinnamon Roll:

Back at home, I sat down to dinner at 10 PM.  I started with a huge salad:

Spinach salad, carrots, sprouts, tomatoes, fig goat cheese, blueberries, walnuts and snap peas.  This was WAY too big.  I finished half and saved the rest for tomorrow’s lunch.

And an Amy’s veggie burger on a Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel muffin with ketchup for dipping:

All together:

With o% Fage/mustard dressing in my little flower cup for dipping.

Before bed, I have to prep for my meeting with Keri tomorrow (I’ve been slacking on my meal log!).  I’m hoping to get to bed early so I can wake up for a morning workout.  I should have to stay even later at work tomorrow night and I’ll really need the adrenalin to keep me going through the day.

Smoked salmon, Laughing Cow, and Spinach on Whole Wheat Double Fiber bread, with a pickle:

Grain, Vegetable, Protein/Meat, Dairy

Carrots:

Vegetable

And watermelon! My first pieces of the summer, can you believe it? I just had a craving for some, and luckily the grocery store had 1/2 watermelons pre-sliced. P thought I was such a nut searching for watermelon last night! He kept calling me Little Miss Watermelon - as in, ‘Little Miss Watermelon over here is dragging me around New York City at 11 PM on Labor Day.’ Bless him.

5 slices total, but 3 were super small/thin.

Fruit

Today’s flowers:

So a bit of a less crazy day than I was expecting, which is nice but slightly disappointing. Looks like I will have time for an afternoon workout. Good one!

I’m about to head into a meeting and then I’ve got to crack down. I’ve either got to deep clean my desk and organize all these random papers OR I’ve got to write big time. I’m tempted to organize, it’s hard for me to work in a messy space, but I don’t want to get in too deep with that and forget about my real assignments…hmm…

PS. Sorry if you tried to check the site earlier and it was down! I was on the phone with BlueHost and WFWS.com should be good to go from here on out.

I did somehow pull together an awesome lunch and snacks for today from my bounty from a huge grocery shop last night (at 10:30 PM - are you starting to feel my state of mind last night?). Every time I get back from vacation, I go into a tailspin trying to get a sense of order back to my world. Fortunately, we left the apt a mess, but it was cleaned while we were gone. There is nothing like coming home to a clean apt. Swoon. I was lucky it was cleaned or I’m sure I would have been Magic Eraser-ing long into the night.

I do want to start eating egg sandwiches for breakfast though. I read in Women’s Health about all the benefits of eating eggs for breakfast consistently. As far as I know (correct me if I’m wrong), there’s no way to keep eggs over night, so I’ll have to wake up early to make my own eggs (I don’t trust the deli peoples to make an egg sandwich without lots of butter/oil).

This morning I grabbed an iced coffee (unpictured) on the way to work. Last night I got a new cereal to try:

I am usually fundamentally opposed to any sort of item that has weight loss themes in the title - as I feel no need to broadcast my personal goals to Sally Jane down the street (unless she’s a blog reader, I guess) - but the fiber/sugar ratio was right so I thought I’d give it a try. I wasn’t even thinking properly last night, because if I was, I would have remembered my issues with ‘Optimum Mush’, but whatev.

Here’s 1c with 1c nonfat milk and a banana:

It was great, I liked it alot. Definitely not mushy - it stayed crunchy for a while. Not too sweet, but it had a nice flavor.

Alright, so BUSY day today. I better get to it. Glad to be back!

Sorry, sorry, sorry for the blog hiatus!

Due to a bunch of family events, I wasn’t able to blog - or even take pictures of my meals!  There were so many gaps in photography that it would just be a mess to try to sort through it all (and totally confusing to you guys!) - so I’m just going to chalk it up to a loss.  I’m sorry guys!  I can tell you that I got as much workouts and unscheduled walking, running, swimming, etc in as possible - and I made the best choices I could - focusing on veggies and fruits, and whole wheat grains.  Taking it easy on the bread basket and alcohol.  I would rate this trip a B-, health wise.  Could have been better, could have been way worse.Here are some pictures of trip highlights:

Beach!

Palm trees!

Cool girl in shades:

Beautiful!

Huntington Library in the Chinese Garden:

Japanese Garden at the Huntington Library:

Bendy tree in Huntington Library:

I’ll be back tomorrow with your regularly scheduled blogging - during one of the craziest weeks of this year!  I’m trying to keep the stress low so I can make it through.  I have a ton of personal and work projects coming to a head at the same time - so it should be interesting.

Happy Labor Day!

Yesterday was a total cluster**** at work. Everything was so crazy busy all day long. Some exciting news though: I got my first writing assignment for the company! It will be the first big piece for my portfolio - exciting, but definitely nerve racking and overwhelming. It’s due on Wednesday of next week (ironically the first day of my writing class) and I have to have a sample ready today, so my vacay won’t be much of a vacay! It’s a huge opportunity though, so I’m really grateful!

Anyway, seeing as how I was getting my assignment for most of the morning, and had a meeting in the afternoon - I had no time for a proper lunch. My boss gave me 1/2 a roast beef sandwich with jalepenos around 1:30 during our meeting, so I had that. Then, around 3 PM, I had the most disgusting fruit and yogurt parfait in the world. It was from Guy and Gallard and must have been sitting around since the AM. I had a few bites and tossed the rest. Barf.

I met up with Peter around 4 PM, and we took the LIRR out to JFK. Checking in and all that stuff was a breeze, and our plane boarded on time. I was hungry though. While waiting for the plane to take off, I had a Luna bar in the flavor of the moment:

The rest of the flight turned into a snackathon.  Between episodes of Project Runway and Jon and Kate Plus 8, I had: a new type of granola I found in the Organic Market called Meteorbites:

This was Maple Pecan Quinoa flavor.  Personally, this was the first time I’d ever seen Quinoa in a snack!  I thought it was a great use of a underutilized grain!  These little bites were filling and tasty…I’d definitely get these guys again.

And this was the main snack of the flight:

Ryvita Fruit & Seed Crunch Crispbread.  Peter and I split this box through the 6 hr flight.  I LOVED THIS CRISPBREAD!!! Sweet, salty, nutty, crunchy - it had everything.  The only problem was, 2g fiber per serving X 1/2 box X 6 hr flight = unhappy tummy.  Wasn’t the best planning on my part.  That fiber really was not sitting well after a while.  Peter partook in the flight snacks too.  Here were lime cookies and biscotti:

I had a bit of each.

We landed early, but it was 1 AM my time, and I had been up at 6:45.  After meeting up with Peter’s parents, we went back to their house and I went RIGHT to bed.  I was conked out.

This morning, I woke at 9 AM Cali time.  I called my parents and talked to them for a bit before I decided to go for a run.  Before I left, I had a little snack.  Another Meteorbites, this time in Blueberry Yogurt Flax flavor:

Oh, do you know what’s great about these things too?  They’re called fruit baked because rather than being cooked in oil, they’re cooked in apple purree.  Neat, right?

So I set out on my run.  I didn’t have to go far before I bumped into Peter’s high school.  I did some sit-ups, push-ups, and ab work in one of their huge fields while watching the marching band practice.  Totally fun!  Then I started my real run.  I really was having trouble keeping pace.  I know it was mostly mental, because I wasn’t that tired, I just didn’t want to do it.  I compromised by alternating running, walking, and skipping - never staying with one thing for longer than 2 min or so.  I finally screwed up my resolve and finished off with 5 min of straight running.  Cardio and mat work = 711 calories burned.

Back at the house, I got cleaned up and had breakfast.  1c Cheerios, 1c nonfat milk, and strawberries:

Delicious strawberries!  It was a nice change.  I also snacked on two pieces of nectarine.

Now I’m off to hit the advertising books!  Bye guys!