It Felt Good...

Despite a rough start to the day - I accidentally turned off the alarm instead of hitting the snooze button - by 12:45pm I was headed out the door to the gym. As I was puttering around the house - getting my shoes on, water bottle filled, post workout snack packed - I realized that I was already feeling energized. It felt good to go through the steps to prepare for a workout. It felt good to walk into the gym and see familiar faces. It felt good to climb on an elliptical machine and get moving. It felt good to have sweat running down my back (and I hate sweat, lol). It felt good to peddle on the bike. It felt unbelievably good to get in there and do a solid workout - not my best and not the most intense- but solid nonetheless... 30 minutes elliptical and 35 minutes on the bike.



Today was the first day in way too many days that I ate NOTHING from a restaurant or convenience store. Breakfast was a bagel thin with laughing cow cheese & some blueberries. I had some trex mix for a post workout snack. Lunch wasn't the best... a quesadilla with white tortillas and too much full fat cheese... but at least it didn't come from a restaurant. Dinner was grilled chicken salad with turkey bacon & 2% cheddar. Then after dinner I made some lemon poppy-seed muffins... which I proceeded to eat way too many of... the good news they are only about 40 calories each. Still, I'm pleased with the day overall... I avoided restaurants, sugary soda and was pretty healthy for two of my three meals.

I felt more like "me" than I have in a long time today. It felt good to make & execute a plan... It felt good to put healthy foods into my body (if we ignore the quesadilla). It feels good to get to the end of the day and not be beating myself up over caving into the temptation of a drive-thru on my way home from the gym. And high on the list of things that felt good today... all of the warm welcome backs I received from you... those comments mean so much.

Thursday is a busy day with therapy for The Boy One and Margatini night with my BFF. I don't know if I've explained margatini night before... we go to Applebees 3-4 times a month, she drinks a martini, I drink a margarita... so we named it margatini night. I generally try to eat one of their "healthier" options. I've had the steak and chicken from their 550 calorie menu.... any other ideas on tasty meals there? I'm kind of in the mood to try something new & definitely want to stick to a healthier choice.

And just for Draz... because I adore her so much... I'm finally writing my Victoria Secret post. :)

IHOPpin' to Trader Joe's

Write.

Delete.

Write.

Delete.

That is what I've been doing for the last five minutes, trying to figure out how to start this post. All day I've been thinking about what I wanted to follow up my last post with... and now that I finally have time to sit down and write I am so tired I don't feel up to tackling that tonight... so you get this (and I apologize in advance for how boring it will be).

This was a LONG day... with lots miles on the road for me. My Mom had a legal appointment this afternoon, so I was out the door as soon as The Boy One was off to school. She wanted to go to IHOP before her appointment. Let me stop right here and say that this was her fourth trip there in less than a week. And the other three were with members of her TOPS group. WTH???

I looked over the menu & was pleased to see that the whole back was filled with reasonably low calorie restaurant options (under 600). I was quickly frustrated when I hopped on my phone and discovered that I couldn't find nutritional info for their other menu items. After coming home, I dug a little deeper and discovered that the rats apparently have an aversion to sharing their nutritional info. That's gotta say something about the damage eating there can do if you're not careful.

Despite the "healthful" menu options, I finally settled on something else. The Sirloin Tips & Eggs breakfast meal... except this is me who hates eggs... so they let me substitute a fruit cup for the eggs.

My best guess on this meal is that it was somewhere between 609-1000 calories. I was able to find individual calorie counts for the fruit, pancakes and whipped butter. Myplate says that the meal is 609 calories, but I'm wondering if that is strictly for the steak & egg part (not including the hash browns or pancakes). While I'm still a bit frustrated I can't pinpoint the exact calorie content for the meal, I have to say I'm glad I chose this meal. Everything tasted delicious. The steak was tender, the mushrooms and onions flavorful, the fruit juicy ripe and the pancakes to die for fluffy.

By the way, me taking this picture for you all to see my meal prompted another round of my Mom's bewilderment over my decision to blog and talk to "strangers on the Internet." I think she still didn't believe I was really blogging because she was like "are you REALLY doing that?" in that tone of total disbelief.

The legal appointment happened to be in a city where they have a Trader Joe's; yay for me! You people that have them in your backyards are sooooo lucky... this driving over an hour to get to one is crazy, lol.

I picked up all of these goodies...

plus a few other things. I'm particularly excited about the fresh blueberries (my FAVORITE fruit) and some white balsamic vinegar that someone in the store suggested trying.

My "treat" of the shopping trip were these chips...

Holy crap! These things are soooooo tasty. I opened the bag in the car on the way home because I was dying for a snack and figured they were a better option than a drive-thru. Driving home, in pounding rain, I counted each and every chip that I put in my mouth - the bag says 20 is approximately a 1 oz serving - and stopped at 20. The rest of the bag sat on the seat next to me for the rest of the hour long drive home and I didn't touch it again! Amazing because these are truly crazy good!

Because I'm curious - and because I bought a bunch of it - what's your favorite thing to stir into yogurt?

Safeway Loves Me, The Conspiracy & Convenience Food

They really do! Look at that beautiful grocery ad for the week! Chicken breasts are on sale & we are literally down to our last three pieces of chicken in the freezer... so its perfect timing. Honestly chicken is almost always on sale at one store another so that's not such a BIG deal. But, look right next to the chicken & see BLUEBERRIES. They are buy one get one free!!!!!! I am soooooo happy about this. Blueberries are my absolute favorite fruit, but they are just too expensive for me to buy fresh during the winter unless they are on sale. Needless to say, I haven't had any in a LONG time. Frozen ones just don't do it for me... so I wait patiently for the fresh and now it appears my wait is over! Yay!



This is what I took along to kids group for my dinner last night...





And, its what I was thinking of as my Mom was munching away on her Doritos. I packed it in one of those Fit & Fresh bowls I picked up at Ross a couple weeks ago. It worked out perfectly, other than the included spoon that kept wanting to fold, lol. Breakfast for Dinner... but until I get to the grocery store again its all about getting creative in this house.

Update on the alliance/conspiracy: To be crystal clear, I have NO (well almost no) interest in what my Mom and The Husband choose to eat as long as they don't push it on me. If they want to gorge themselves on cheeseburgers & pizza more power to em. Selfish perhaps, but my main concern is making sure I'm putting mostly healthy things in my body... cuz lets be real here, I still LOVE all of those indulgent foods... but I CHOOSE to limit them. And, naturally I want to help my son learn to eat a healthy diet... I'm pretty lucky there, as he is usually happier with an apple than candy.

The best way to manage the conspiracy: To go back to the basics of what I did to lose the first 45 pounds. Novel idea right? Do what was working and put it on repeat! That means healthy foods only in the house, unless I plan for an indulgence. Restaurants limited to 1-2 times a week. Being firm about my gym time & dietary needs. And perhaps most importantly, saying a big fat NOOOOOOOO!!!!! when the time calls for it.


I took the day off from the gym... and did this with the time...






I prepared some "convenience" food... which was desperately needed. Lettuce & celery chopped... waiting eagerly to be mixed with other ingredients for tasty salads. Measured Bare Naked Fit granola, almonds and chicken & beef jerky (high in sodium... but its a weakness that I allow for once in awhile). All of the bags are labeled with the amount, calorie & fat content...so I'm reminded of EXACTLY what I'm putting in my body when I reach for a bag. Taking the couple extra minutes to do that helps immensely as I go through the week. Often, I will mix and match with the bags to get the calories I'm allotting myself for a snack; so it makes it really easy to adapt to whatever I'm craving at any given time.

Random question: What kitchen appliance do you find the most helpful in your healthy lifestyle?