Take That HFCS!

Two things to note:

1) I'm getting better about taking my pictures on time. I only took one bite out of my toast before remembering that I forgot to take a picture. 

2) In my efforts to cut out HFCS, or rather high fructose corn syrup - aka the devil - I went to the store today and replaced my Smuckers brand Strawberry preserves with an organic, wonderful $11.40 jar of preserves. Strawberry raspberry. The ingredients? Strawberries, sugar, raspberries, lemon juice. That's it. 

And although its a bit runnier than I'm used to with the processed stuff it was out of this world. I'm sad that it's Friday and I have to leave my jam behind. 

Summary:

1 slice 100% whole wheat toast, double protein

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp strawberry-raspberry preserves

Hah, Take That Cheerios!

Okay, so this isn't me getting away from the whole cereal thing but since it's not Cheerio's somehow I feel better about it. I polished off the last of the Raisin Bran for lunch and I'm already dreaming of peanut butter toast pre-gym - but GASP there are no preserves! I may need to make an emergency pit stop by the market on my way from the post office. 

No clue what's for dinner tonight but I have some time to think about it. 

Summary:

1 cup Raisin Bran

1 cup nonfat milk

Cure For The Cranky?

I've been excessively tired and cranky this past week and I'm not really sure why. I can only imagine it's because of my change in diet. Yes I'm still eating relatively healthy but two things have changed. 1) I'm not "frontloading" my calories anymore so that I can save room for dinner at night - and dinner usually gets consumed relatively late as opposed to the protein shake on the bus or walking back from the gym. 2) I've been eating a lot less protein in favor of cereal and pastas. My solution, or at least experiment, is to try to get in more protein so instead of cereal (which we're mostly out of save for some crumbs anyway) I went with some egg whites and turkey bacon with some applesauce on the side. It was pretty satisfying and I'm hoping that it stabilizes my mood a bit better. I also need to eat my pre-workout snack a lot closer to actually working out. I ate my snack at 4:30  but didn't get on the treadmill until 7:15 and I was really gassed. Granted I started the week 2 of the C25K so I was expecting it to be slightly harder but I wasn't sure if I was going to make the last run segment. So, here's to trying something different in hopes that it will help me feel better. 

Summary:

1/2 cup egg whites with pepper

2 strips lean turkey bacon

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

Mmm, Beef

I've been craving beef for weeks now. Even if I have a little taste I've been wanting more. I'm actually very much looking forward to going to Bugaboo Creek for T's birthday so I can get a nice NY Strip steak but that will have to wait another month. In any event, Kelly had a coupon for buy a roast, get the onions, carrots and potatoes free so that solved last nights dinner dilemma. She stuck everything in the crockpot the night before so by the time we got in from the gym food was ready (all but the potatoes actually but that's okay). I have to say I'm not a big veggie fan but there's something about roasted carrots that I love. When they're all mushy and hot I just go gaga. This picture was taken about halfway through the meal - so try to imagine maybe a 1/3 more beef and at least triple the carrots on my plate. I know it still doesn't seem like much in the way of veggies but we were kind of limited on carrots. Next time I'll request double carrots! As a treat while watching nonsensical videos on youtube I made us some decaf hazelnut coffee. 

Summary:

1 cup decaf hazelnut coffee

3-4 Tbsp coffeemate

2 packets Splenda

4-5 oz. (?) pot roast, fat trimmed

1/2 cup cooked carrots

I Sense A Trend

Yes, I'm just THAT lazy and uncreative that I'm recycling meals AND photos. Today's PB n' J is brought to you by my tastebuds who have been craving peanut butter allllll day (and a good chunk of last night) after seeing these brownies. I'm a bit of a glutton for punishment I suppose - let me go ahead and look at the tasty brownies that I know I can't have. But it's also good because it's teaching me to resist temptation and live in a real world with real food. I'm also learning to channel my cravings into healthier version of what it is I'm actually craving. So, not the brownie, but the peanut butter. 

Okay the brownie with peanut butter. But I'm going to lie to myself and say that the peanut butter is what I'm craving. Don't tell anyone. 

Summary:

1 piece of 100% whole wheat toast (double protein kind)

2 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp jelly

No Really, I Just Like Cheerios

I guess the fact that I haven't HAD Cheerios in ages is now made up for by the fact that 4 of my last 6 meals (snacks not included) were Cheerios and milk. If what they advertise is true my cholesterol should be doing swimmingly by now. And I'm making up for lost time with my dairy. My scale said my bone density went up 0.1%. It's gotta be all that calcium, I swears it. 

I suppose the good news is that we're officially out of Cheerios so until I order a new box that's it for that little rant of cereal. The bad news is that I'M OUT OF CHEERIOS. Not really sure what I'm going to eat now. I'm sure I'll survive but I will sorely miss the tasty tasty grains in the shape of a baby donut. 

Summary:

1 cup of Cheerios

1 cup of nonfat milk

Raise Your Hand If You're Excited

Two awesome things happened this morning. One, I weighed myself and I'm down another 1.6 pounds to 184. That's pretty groovy. Then after talking with Phil last night I thought about getting tickets to see Toad the Wet Sprocket on my birthday assuming that Phil would be able to make it up here. Well, after looking for tickets I saw that Stephen Lynch was playing that same night. I decided that seeing Stephen Lynch with Travis was probably a better avenue, and the tickets can double as a Valentine's day present. (Here's to hoping he never stumbles across this blog before then.) I thought I got pretty awesome seats but after looking more closely they're not that great, kind of off in the corner but that's probably better for him so he's not affronted with people. Regardless I'm pretty excited about getting to do something with my sweetie that we'll both enjoy. Anywho, as I was browsing Ticketmaster I enjoyed yet even more Cheerios and milk. To mix it up, I added in some applesauce. Okay no I didn't actually add the applesauce in because that's gross but I did eat it separately. 

Summary:

1 cup Cheerios

1 cup nonfat milk

1 container all natural no sugar added applesauce

Leftovers Just Hit The Spot

Since I sucked at getting a picture of the awesome ziti and I was having leftover ziti for dinner tonight I figured I'd get a picture of the leftovers. K and I were so hungry post gym, post CVS, post market that we just devoured one of the containers. To be honest I'm glad she was there to split it with me because I'm not sure I would have been able to stop at just half of the container. If anything I gave her a little more than half. I had to have several bites prior to taking the picture to calm my rumbly tummy but you get the idea. It was so, so good - and I'm not just saying that because I was hungry. I also enjoyed a cup of coffee - decaf - not pictured. I added 2 packets of Splenda (I know, substitute sugar sucks but whatever) and an undetermined amount of Coffeemate. 2, maybe 3 tbsp? I like my coffee creamy :P

Summary:

1/2 container leftover Ziti

1 cup decaf hazelnut coffee

2 packets Splenda

2-3 Tbsp Coffeemate (the powder stuff)

Comfort noms

Sometimes certain things just hit the spot. Earlier today it was Cheerios, and this time it was a simple peanut butter on toast with jelly combo. I devoured the thing before I could even upload the image to the blog it was so freakin tasty. I'm starting to feel a little better than I was earlier in terms of crankiness. I'm going to go to the gym and give an A effort on the treadmill (or maybe elliptical? I did the treadmill yesterday because they didn't have other equipment open, but now that throws off my C25K slightly because I didn't do the C25K but rather some bastardized version of it I made up). Hopefully this little guy will be enough to fuel me until I get home. I plan on having leftovers tonight - that ziti was pretty damn good and because I've been super fail on getting in any fruit or veggies today (lol @ veggies) I'll have some blueberries as a snack later. 

What I REALLY want is either a cup of coffee, or a nap. Or both. I've been pretty good about not having coffee lately. Or if I have coffee its decaf. The exception was Sundays Dunkin Donuts adventure. Maybe I'll steal the decaf coffee back from the office (we never made any) and make it at home tonight. Just to satisfy the craving. 

Summary:

1 slice double protein 100% whole wheat bread

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp strawberry preserves

Grumpy

Not sure why but I'm kind of tired and crabby today. Can't be the snow, snow is wonderful. I actually was happy when I woke up and saw it's fluffy white goodness. I also got in plenty of sleep last night. Oh well, everyone is allowed to have a bad day now and then. In any event, I decided to have another bowl of Cheerios and milk as my lunch. There are some days when eating the same food over and over, especially if it's something like cereal, doesn't bother me. I know that eating something mildly nutritious aside from grains and dairy will do me good (where's my fruit? Blueberries are at home, I'll eat those later) but sometimes you just gotta eat what you're craving. 

p.s. Yes, that's the identical picture I took this morning. Yes, I'm too lazy and crabby to take another picture of something that looks exactly the same. 

Summary:

1 cup Cheerios (plain)

1 cup nonfat milk

Starvin Marvin

I had  my mind on my money and my money on my mind or something to that effect this morning - trying to reconcile bank accounts at the office and then handling W2's distracted me from eating when I first got into the office like I originally intended. By the time I got into the kitchen to make some nummies I was again famished, and didn't want to waste time slicing, dicing, or any other icing (mm icing) that would keep me from eating. So I decided that a bowl of Cheerios with milk and banana would be perfect. So I poured the bowl and went to grab the banana and then remembered that the grocery delivery dude totally stiffed us on our bananas this week. Sigh.  Okay, so I'm only having a bowl of Cheerios and milk. You know what though, despite inhaling it I'm actually feeling much better and able to tackle the rest of the mornings (well, almost afternoons) responsibilities. Cheerios are the breakfast of champions. 

Oh no wait isn't that Wheaties?

Summary: 

1 cup Cheerios (plain variety)

1 cup non-fat milk

Another Winner

Not the best picture because I only remembered to take a picture of the masterpiece until AFTER it had been devoured and leftovers were placed into containers. After the success of the Apple Sausage Saute I decided to browse a few more recipes on the same website. I discovered a recipe for a baked ziti type of meal and my stomach cried out to me to make it. The recipe was called simply Baked Pasta with Sausage, Tomatos and Cheese. I followed the instructions pretty closely, although I added a LOT of crushed red pepper because we like things spicy in our house and I added probably only a 1/4 cup or so of mozzarella using 2% pre-shredded cheese. The whole thing got flipped into a casserole and I ate 1/8th of it. If anything I'd like it to have a lot more tomatoes and the spice was a great addition. I'd probably also add a lot more basil - I was pretty conservative with it but it ended up being fantastic so no harm done. The container you see to your right has about 1/4th of the casserole stuffed in it, so if you can imagine me eating half of that, that's what I did. 

Summary:

1 homemade biscuit made from Bisquick while stuffs was cooking (I was famished!)

1/8th of the (amazing) ziti casserole made with:

 2 cans petite diced tomatoes

 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

 1/4-1/2 cup 2% mozzarella cheese 

 fresh basil 

 crushed red pepper

 1 pound of ziti 

 1 pound of hot Italian chicken sausage, casings removed

One Of The Best Snacks Ever

There was a period of time in my life when I ate this meal every single day for weeks on end. It's composition is simple really - a few berries, some yogurt (plain or vanilla if I'm really in the mood for a treat) and some Kashi Go Lean crunch cereal. I don't know why but it's like a little slice of heaven in a bowl. I'm also not sure why it took me so long to make this again when I knew that it would be scrumptious. Of course now that I've resolved to make this a nummy regular I realize that there's only a little bit of Kashi left in the box and I won't order groceries again until next week. Doh. 

Summary:

1 container Yoplait fat free vanilla yogurt

5 strawberries, sliced

1/4 cup Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal

Sweet Or Salty...Or Both?

So the grocery delivery guy actually came on the early side today so I was pretty happy to get some cantaloupe. The cantaloupe is not quite ripe though and therefore is a little hard and not it's usual state of deliciousness. That's okay though, I really needed something sweet and healthy after unpacking boxes of cookies and hot cocoa. 

Yet at the same time I had a huge craving for something salty. And I wanted my usual turkey/laughing cow on toast combo. This is how I ended up with said plate pictured to your right. Little bit of everything to keep my tastebuds happy I suppose. 

Summary:

1 cup cantaloupe

2 slices deli turkey

1 slice double protein 100% whole wheat toast

1 wedge garlic and herb Laughing Cow cheese

10 or so pickles (I kind of started eating them on my way back to the desk)

It's Tuesday

So that means we don't really have much in the way of variety of food in the office. I place our order for groceries on Monday for them to arrive Tuesday - usually they get delivered in the afternoon. That means that Tuesday morning is a "what's left" sort of deal. I was happy to discover that there was milk - and it wasn't sour. Cereal it is, and I was kind of craving cereal anyway so no complaints. The only sad thing is that there really isn't any fruit here and sadly I have a nice fatty tub of blueberries at home. At least I remembered to bring my giant water bottle to the office to hold me over until we get our water delivery today as well. 

Summary:

1 cup Raisin Bran

1 cup non-fat milk

Trust Me, It's Tasty!

I had wanted to make this dish over the weekend but as you  know from reading about my weekend laziness and gluttony prevailed. After talking to my roomie last night we figured it would be a pretty simple thing to make, and we did. Mind you - the picture shown is the one from YumSugar I got it from because I was too tired from the gym and too famished to remember to take a picture. I assure you It looked pretty much the same. I didn't add the parsley, nor did I add any cheese to it. Basically I used 4 chicken/apple sausages sliced way thin (instead of the chunks you see pictured), 2 pink lady apples, 1 bag of pre-diced and pre-cooked red potatoes and one onion. There were lots of short cuts but that make the dish even more enjoyable. K and P both agreed that it was a hit and a "would like to have again" so that's good. I found it to be rather enjoyable albeit a little on the bland side without a bite of everything. I would be tempted to add some sort of spice or heat to it to balance the super sweetness of the sausage. The textures and flavors did go very well together though and I was rather pleased with the outcome. 

Summary:

1/4 of skillet made with:

2 pink lady apples, cored and thinly sliced

1 package (4 links) chicken apple sausage

1 small yellow onion

1 package red potatoes, pre-diced and pre-cooked (about 1 pound)

olive oil for browning sausage and potatoes

The Curious Case of Half Eaten Oatmeal

So, I know that this whole blogging thing is relatively new to me - and seeing as how I also keep another blog about my actual personal life and not just dietary life I forget when I post and when I don't. I was actually writing in my other blog when it dawned on me that a) it's pretty late in the day for me to only be eating my second meal and b) I was so hungry after making said meal that I forgot to take a picture until there was less than half in the bowl. So, my apologies for the foul looking bowl of half eaten oatmeal with add ins, but it was the best I could do on short notice. 

Summary:

1/2 cup quick oats made with 1 cup water

1 scoop EAS Vanilla Protein powder

1 packet equal 

Dash of cinnamon

The Road to Recovery

Coming off of this horrible weekends eating I figured no time like the present to start getting back on track. Unfortunately when I got into the office I also got into my "omg, everyone is back at the office and I have a ton of stuff to do so I won't stop until it's all done" mode and before I knew it I was eating my first meal at noon. Actually, I'm still working on the orange portion of my meal as we speak and its almost 1 pm. Where does the time go some days? I'm very, very lucky that I have a job that I love so much and that I'm devoted to but not eating until 12-1ish isn't good for my metabolism - or blood sugar. At least it's a nice, healthy meal. I did place an order with our grocery delivery service but as I'm sitting here reflecting on my brunch (I refused to acknowledge I flat out skipped breakfast) I've come to the conclusion that some veggies must be ordered for the greater good. 

Summary:

1 navel orange, cut into wedges

1 slice of 100% whole wheat toast

3 slices deli turkey

1 wedge laughing cow French onion cheese

Toot toot - S.S. Failboat

So the weekend started out not so bad - went to the gym on Friday and had a stellar workout. Ran my C25K week 1 program, then biked for 15 minutes on the stationary. I got in some ab work and did some stretching. Then I went to the store and picked up some stuff to make healthy foods with this weekend. T met me there and it seemed like we had an abundance of yummy, healthy food to last us the weekend. 

By the time we got home I had scrapped the idea that I was going to make a meal - I needed to shower, I REALLY needed to eat after gymming and then the market (and then subsequently waiting for a cab) so I figured we'd eat our pizza on Friday and I'd make my

 Chicken/Apple/Potato scramble Saturday. 

The pizza came out pretty good. I used a whole Boboli crust, some pizza sauce, 2% mozzarella and grilled chicken. Throw

 on some extra basil and oregano plus some crushed red pepper and I daresay it was a very satisfying meal indeed. I had 1/4 of the pizza (2 yummy slices) and we saved the rest for lunch the next day.

Summary:

2 slices of homemade pizza made with: 

1 Boboli crust cut into 8 slices

Jarred pizza sauce (about 1/2 cup for the whole pizza) 

2% mozzarella (about 1/2 cup for the whole pizza) 

Perdue grilled chicken short-cuts, Italian style (approximately half a package for the whole pizza) 

In the morning we woke up pretty hungry and I couldn't really decide what to eat so I figured I'd eat some of T's Oh's! cereal and milk but that instead of pouring a massive bowl and drown it in milk (it wasn't even my tried and true fat free milk but rather 2%) that I'd be a good girl and

 measure out portions. To make sure I got in some yummies I added a small bowl of blueberries that were quite tasty-licious. I have to say it was a pretty delicious breakfast - it had been SO long since I had had Oh's! and the crunchy sweetness was just wonderful. Not the best choice of breakfasts, but still not too bad. 

Summary:

1/3 cup blueberries

3/4 cup Oh's! cereal

3/4 cup 2% milk 

Lunch consisted of two slices of the same pizza from the night prior. No need to post the picture because well...I didn't take any more pictures of any of the food I ate for the rest of the weekend. Most likely out of shame. Here's why:

Saturday night I came to the conclusion that I wanted wings. Juicy, spicy wings. We ordered from a place down the street for delivery and got an order of 25 wings, mixed and matched with Ultra mega hot types for me and garlic parmesan and honey BBQ for T. We also ordered a large fry and ranch. I at least got a diet Coke. I probably ate...I dunno, easily half the fries, my container of ranch and about 7-8 wings. To be honest the wings were good but the sauce wasn't my favorite - but food is food and I love wings in general so there you have it. 

The next day (Sunday) I had a little bit of what cereal was left and milk - I didn't measure but it was probably less than what I had had the day before, especially the milk. We decided to get our asses in gear and head out to the mall for a stroll and to check to see if they had my speakers anywhere but no, they didn't (I did however make a pit stop at Sephora for some under-eye corrector so the whole trip wasn't a waste). At this point we were hungry so T wanted some Taco Bell, and I followed. I ordered a chicken quesadilla, soft taco with no lettuce but with sour cream (a fair trade right? okay...) and a diet Pepsi. I also ate one of T's nachos. 

The really bad part about the whole thing was that as we were eating we started to look at the bus schedule and realized we wouldn't be able to make it to the skating rink in time, especially since we had to stop back at the house to get my skates. So not only had I eaten like a piggy, I wasn't getting any exercise either. Oops. 

To crown the weekend, I decided to get a large coffee from Dunkin Donuts with cream and sugar (something I haven't done in a month) and the caffeine had me cracked out for the rest of the night. I haven't had much in the way of caffeine at all over the past few weeks save for the treat soda every so often so this was a mega shock to my system. When we got back to the house T took a nap and my roommates came home. Instead of making a nice, healthy meal for all of us (remember that I bought healthy nummies on Friday? Yeah I forgot about that too) I reheated the rest of the wings for T and I - I had 5, he had 6 - and then I made a package of Pillsbury crescent rolls. I ate 3.5 of them. 

Needless today I need to figure out something to do about my weekend insanity. I can't blame T - the wings were my idea and I had plenty of things to make at home. Plus at the mall I could have gone to Au Bon Pain and gotten a salad or something. I have no one to blame but myself for the scale being up this morning (although to be fair it was up all weekend) and my tummy being relatively upset this morning is kind of a lesson learned. 

Of course I say this every weekend and nothing changes. Something will have to give sooner or later because weekends of girly gluttony are only going to hurt me in the long run. 

Summary:

Saturday Night:

1/2 large order of French Fries 

1 container ranch dipping sauce

7-8 buffalo wings (Extra meaty)

Sunday Morning:

3/4 cup Oh's! cereal

3/4 cup 2% milk

Sunday Afternoon:

1 large coffee, cream and sugar

1 large diet Pepsi

1 chicken quesadilla from Taco Bell

1 nacho with cheese from Taco Bell (I stoles it from T!) 

1 soft taco with no lettuce, plus sour cream from Taco Bell

Sunday Night:

5 buffalo wings

3.5 crescent rolls

Weekend time!

Headed into the weekend I leave you with my final meal before the gym - yogurt and that other half of a banana. Yummy. 

I plan to make a sausage, apple, potato sauté thing I found on YumSugar tonight for me and T. I'll grab some healthy stuffs for making homemade pizza tomorrow (well, sort of homemade I suppose) and some yummy breakfast noshies. 

So unless I get a hair up my bum I won't be back until Monday morning but I'll have a spectacular spectacular of pictures to show, hopefully having maintained or lost a little bit more over the weekend. 

Salty

Apparently I'm craving salt. Not sure what that's an indication of but I'm going with it because well...whatever. Todays lunch consists of an approximated cup of Progresso French Onion soup, half a turkey sandwich and some pickles. Does French Onion soup count as a vegetable? I guess about only as much as pickles do - which then the answer to my question is no. I suppose since I'm the one that does the grocery ordering for the office that I could find it within me to order some real veggies.  I do pretty well with ordering fruit because who doesn't like fruit? The veggies will probably get nommed on if they're available in some sort of single serving size - if anyone in this office has to like, open up a package and portion stuff for themselves they most likely won't eat it (unless it's Kelly who eats all kinds of vegetables and I know for a fact is in dire need of non fried food - baby I lived in Georgia, where do you think I got so fat?).

In any event, it's already 2 pm so I'll nom on this some and then have a light snack before I head off to the gym to do my second day of C25K. Before I leave the office though I need to make a grocery list so we're stocked with stuffs at the house to eat. Unless anyone wants to eat the 3 week old marinated cheese. I should probably just throw that out. 

Summary:

1 cup (estimated half a can) of Progresso French Onion Soup

1 slice 100% whole wheat bread, toasted

8 hamburger pickle slices

1 wedge Laughing Cow cheese, garlic and herb

3 slices oven roasted turkey breast, deli 

Deja Vu?

No, you're not seeing things. That's the exact breakfast that I had yesterday. You'll know it's a different day because it's a different glass used to hold the milk. I know that they say that eating a variety of food so you don't get bored is the key to stopping cravings but I can't figure out how people do that. I buy a quart of milk, a box of cereal and I want to finish them before they go bad. Even if I ate this meal every other day it would take a bit of time to get to finish a box of cereal and certainly there's a good chance the milk would spoil before I finished it. If anyone has any ideas on how to keep variety in diet and not throw away tons of food let me know, I'd be very interested in hearing how you do it. That's my big problem with a lot of the pre-planned diets on Sparkpeople or Self - they're great for variety but I always end up with wasted food. I'm pretty bad about letting things rot away in the fridge as it is, I don't want to encourage it. In any event, I actually happen to love cereal and I think that this is a perfectly healthy, good option for a breakfast at work. The only "not so good" thing about this morning is that I had to wait until about 10:45 to eat because silly me got involved in a project at work that I needed to finish before I could tear myself away to go make some stuff in the kitchen. So the rest of my meals may be a little "off" today but that's okay. T is coming to stay with me this weekend and I'll make sure we eat very well tonight. 

Summary: 

1/2 Banana

1 cup non-fat milk

1 cup Raisin Bran cereal 

A Simply Satisfying Meal

Now I know what you're thinking - that's not dinner. Shouldn't dinner be a giant bowl of pasta with bread and meatballs and a salad and then some pie for dessert? Mmm, maybe on a different day, but post gym workouts I go home, take a shower and find myself unable to stomach a heavy meal. A sliced up apple is pretty satisfying in itself, but the Chocolate Protein drink from Odwalla is super tasty and relatively nutritious. Since I'm trying to lose weight and I only had to worry about feeding myself. I got in a good 300 or so calories without overfeeding myself. Is it the best strategy? I doubt it - a real nutritionist would a) ask where my food groups are in this meal and b) chastise me for drinking my meal. Whatever though, it works for me yanno? I felt as if I ate pretty well yesterday, save for the not having any veggies thing but really - that's just something we're all going to have to get over because in all honesty I can't see myself turning vegetarian overnight. I like the idea behind it and I'm working on it - believe me I am. 

I never made it to Urban Rebounding - the subway here was delayed a good 10-15 minutes and when I got to the gym they were having their "member appreciation" day which resulted in them setting up booths with some healthy snacks (cheese, crackers, veggies, fruit) and then some wine tasting (wine tasting...at a gym? I couldn't figure it out either) and a hair/makeup consultation area. Needless to say it was a bit crowded. I hopped on the crosstrainer and did a "performance" workout and followed up with an upper body workout. I felt pretty good, although I was a bit sad I didn't get to bounce on a trampoline. Next week I suppose. I was quite happy I had that yogurt and other half of a banana before I left though. That workout killed and it took every ounce of energy I had to keep a good pace. 

Summary:

Snack pre-workout

1/2 Banana

1 container Yoplait fat free very vanilla

Dinner post-workout

15.2 oz Odwalla Chocolate Protein 

1 Pink Lady apple, cored and sliced

All that talk about breakfast...

...made me want to have breakfast for lunch! I'm hoping to work up the nerve to take an Urban Rebounding class tonight at the gym. It's only a 30 minute class but seeing as how I've never done Urban Rebounding before and I'm still grossly out of shape the 30 minute express class seems up my alley. I also plan on doing some upper body lifting tonight so I figured now is a good time to start fueling my body for tonight. 

Lately this combo has become one of my favorite lunch meals - mostly because it contains a little protein, some whole grains, some fruit and dairy. It's probably not the "ultimate" meal (I mean hey, where are the veggies? You'll find that they go missing quite often in my diet, something I need to work on) but it's very filling and satisfying. Pictured on the plate is some lean turkey bacon (nuked the hell out of it so it's extra crispy), a slice of 100% stone ground toast with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, some egg whites (and LOTS of pepper) and some cantaloupe. What you don't see pictured here is a bottle of water - a staple these days. Need to stay hydrated right?

Summary:

1/2 cup egg whites seasoned with pepper

1 slice 100% whole wheat toast

1 wedge Laughing Cow Light Cheese in Garlic and Herb

2 slices lean turkey bacon

1 cup cubed cantaloupe

Mmm, breakfast

I love breakfast. I'm one of those that can't function without it. Beyond that I just love breakfast food. Pancakes for dinner? Sure. Eggs for lunch? Mmm that sounds good. Cereal as a snack? Yeah buddy. Getting to the office after walking to and riding the subway, un-bundling up from the rather frigid weather (21 degrees this morning in fact) and then settling into my day at work I could think of nothing better than a big, fat bowl of Raisin Bran. 

Okay so the bowl is actually on the smaller side but that helps control portions better. You will notice I didn't include the milk IN my cereal right away because who likes soggy Raisin Bran? Not I. For good measure I threw in half of a banana figuring I'd want to eat the other half later before heading to the gym anyway. 

Summary:

1 cup Raisin Bran

1 cup skim/non-fat milk

1/2 Large banana

The Beginning

I stumbled across a blog in my daily internet travels called Eat Like Me and couldn't tear myself away. I decided to start a blog of my own, and maybe pepper in some other added features as I saw fit. You know. Philosophy. Art. Music. All that Jazz. Above all I look at this as an experiment of sorts - supposedly tracking your food is supposed to encourage you to not eat horribly...I can only assume that adding visuals boosts the potential encouragement factor. I think it will also be interesting to see if, after blogging regularly, my eating habits change over time being faced with my food after I eat it.