It’s the pits May 11, 2009

As in, the bottomless pit that was my stomach today. 

I woke up super tired, with allergies to blame I think.  I should have known I was in for it in the hunger department because of that…

Chris, our other co-tenants, and I did a walkthrough on the new office suite for electrical, lighting, paint, and some other important details, and it took an hour and a half!  Holy shit!  I was hungry before we even left the house, and should’ve just eaten my oats on the drive in to work. 

Finally I got some satisfaction around 10am.  This is the standard mixxxx of steel cut oats, a little 7 grain (almost done!), raisins, cinnamon, almond milk, water, soy protein powder, and a new addition of honey millet granola from Whole Foods. 

When Chris wanted to eat around noon I didn’t object, in fact I was feeling a twinge of hunger already.  I had leftover pizza from last night, and a big carrot.  The pizza was whole wheat crust, steamed broccoli and corn, red bell pepp, tomato, olives, tomato sauce, a sprinkling of nutritional yeast, Italian herbs, and a little bit of each Drunken Goat cheese and smoked gouda.  I ate it cold and it was tasty!  Chris ate my strawbs, so just forget those are in the pic 😦

The apples came in handy like an hour later when my stomach grumbled.  “Sheesh, what is going on in there?” I kept thinking.  I forgot about the allergies.  Do any of you get that same, nagging symptom?

Then again around 3pm I felt that nagging feeling again and ate this yummy snack:

That hit the spot, and I wasn’t hungry again for like 3 hours.  Guess I just needed a bit of fat, fiber, and protein together for satiety.

(Fizzity fiz-uck I’m getting hungry again now. All this damn foodie thought and the pics are making me hungry!)

Surprise, surprise, dinner was a Mexi venture to Si Senor.  It seems that I will have to stick with burritos, and maybe salads, to avoid meat or a cheesy mess.  I had half a veggie burrito filled with black beans (OMG, did she say bean?!?! She doesn’t eat beans!), rice, carrot, celery, onion, and maybe something else.  It was topped with lettuce and a yummy red sauce; I stole Chris’ avocados, too 🙂  I also ate a ton of chips and salsa, and drank a huge Diet Coke.  I wasn’t even that full when I left, but I was satisfied, caffeinated, and ready for my workout with Andrea!

Around 8 we started busting out some chest, back, and biceps, then ended with a foam rolling session and some abs.  I didn’t do much for abs, but rather learned the art of moaning while rolling on a foam tube.  Felt damn painful at times, but like a good pain.  (Think strong, deep massage.) 

After groaning on the roller for 10 minutes, it was cardio time.  The gym was fiz-ull up, so our plan to do cardio together was fouled up by the lack of free machines in working order 😦  The Drizz opted out, and I went for a stair mill.  But first, she gave me this!

Homemade seitan!  It looked like a roll of sausage, and smelled like yummy onion and other savory goodness.  I hope to try it tomorrow for lunch or a snack 🙂

Once home I was in the mood for some crack, and strawberries, so I had a small bowl of honey millet granola with strawbs and almond milk.  MMMMMM!  The granola is really crunchy (like, teeth beware!), and coupled with the strawbs it was great.  The millet adds a sesame-like flavor, and lots of crunch.

But that wasn’t enough, you see, and I went back to the kitchen for the glorious fatty protein that is peanut butter, real peanut butter.  Lily wanted in on the action…she was jealous watching me lick the knife 😉

With that I move on to bed, safely separating the pit from the kitchen.  You may be saying, “if she’s hungry why doesn’t she just eat?” but this ain’t really justified hunger, it’s fueled by some crazy reaction my body has to allergens.  The last week has sucked allergy-wise, so perhaps this is the year to pursue more aggressive, targeted action (read: prescription drugs).  Do any of you take Rx allergy meds?  If so, what symptoms/allergens/meds combo are you lucky enough to have?

The Seinfeld “shrinkage” episode was just on, and now the John Voight Le Baron episode is on.  Funny stuff!  Gotta love the many sayings and -isms that came from that show!

Baking blues April 10, 2009

This bitch wants to bake!  But she does not have the ingredients and/or recipes to throw together the quick almond cookie recipe she was hoping for tonight 😦  Boo.  Reading Gourmet yesterday made me want to create tasty baked goods and cooked items.  After looking through all my recipes (except four years worth of magazines and online reserves) I gave up, and ate a marshmallow in frustration.  That damn bag doesn’t seem to be getting any smaller… I have dreams of creating some naughty peanut butter marshmallow concoction, but I don’t know if that will come to fruition.

Here’s a recap of most eats the last few days; no breakfast from Thursday (pumpkin flax granola, strawberries, almond milk) and some snacks along the way.

Lunch Thursday:  same sando, but no avocado for some silly reason, and the ever popular and satisfying carrot. 

Dinner:  a creative mix of leftover chicken, 1/2 a can of tomatoes with green chiles, more green chiles, and some microwave-steamed broc on the side.  Pretty tasty after all 🙂

Snack after a good weight workout and 45 of stair climbing: vanilla Light’n’Fit yogurt, pumpkin flax granola, and two HUGE strawberries.  I was pissed the strawberries I picked were too ripe, and getting soft 😦

By the way, my workout came from bodybuilding.com, thanks to Miss Erin’s referral to that website!  Thanks, girl!  I used their workout database to put in my criteria and came up with a good 4 day per week weight workout.  Thurs. night was biceps, chest, back, and abs.

Breakfast Friday:  steel cut oats, cinnamon, raisins, pb, and pumpkin flax granola (yes, I’m obsessed with it!).  Tasty goodness!

Lunch:  Same damn sando and carrot!  When slicing the avocado this morning I was a bit generous… making up for yesterday’s lack of it, I guess 🙂  My TMJ seems to be acting up a tad; is it because I insist on eating crunchy hard things like carrots??

I snacked on my Fuji eventually, but was still a hungry girl this afternoon.  I think it was allergies throwing my system off.  Do you get odd, seemingly unrelated symptoms like that?  I get hungry feeling, and flu-like symptoms sometimes related to allergies.

Dinner:  Maria!  We visited Si Senor, and I switched it up a bit.  One tamale and one chicken taco, and the huge Diet Coke, of course.  I justify the DC by saying it means I have to go workout to burn off the caffeine, or else I’ll be up all night.  Good tactic!

Chris was kind enough to give me his avocados 🙂

A post dinner workout followed, which included legs, shoulders, back, and triceps.  I also did 30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by 15 minutes on the stair mill while watching the last 5 minutes of the Blazer Game.  They beat the Lakers again and have secured a place in the Playoffs!!  That was my Friday night excitement…a fun night at the gym 🙂

My snack tonight was the same as last night, but with some sliced almonds on top for shits and giggles.  Yummy!

Tomorrow is going to be busy–pilates (first time in forever!), work, and an early Easter dinner with the fam.  I hate going to work on Saturdays/for a 6th day, but sometimes it’s just gotta be done.

Ciao!

One year in! April 8, 2009

One year ago I moved out of the employee realm of my company, and into the franchise side with my honey, Chris.   It has been a great year, and the freedom is amazing.  Yippee!  Chris was really sweet–he emailed lots of the people we do business with to tell them it had been a year, and many of them called me to say congratulations.  I had no idea how these people knew, until one of them mentioned his email.  Thanks, honey!

I only photographed part of my eats today; it just didn’t seem right to take pics of the same boring stuff.

Breakfast was picture worthy!  I’m really diggin’ this granola, and must buy more soon.  My bowl is about 3/4 cup pumpkin flax granola, 3 strawberries, and lots of almond milk–I like my cereal mostly flooded 🙂

My day didn’t start off too bad, but for some reason I felt kind of nervous and ill-at-ease.  Must have been anticipating that a client would call and irk me!

Lunch was the same thing I’ve eaten every day for like two weeks:  sammie with whole wheat, avocado, romaine, pickle, and peppered turkey; carrot sticks on the side.

When my snacky urges came around this afternoon I first ate a serving of Kashi TLC 7-grain crackers, and then later a Fuji. 

I felt like I was spinning my wheels for awhile this afternoon, but that disappeared eventually and the end of my day was quite productive and positive 🙂 Yay!

Dinner tonight was a mini-celebration of the one-year landmark, so we went to Si Senor and ordered the Si Senor Special:  Grilled steak and chicken breast, shrimp and mushrooms in garlic butter, rice, a cabbage slaw of some sort, flour tortillas, avocado, pico de gallo, and some roasted jalapenos on the side.  Oh yeah!  It was all so yummy!

MMM!

If you like spice, you must ask for some jalapenos fritos the next time you visit a Mexican restaurant.  Holey moley, they are so tasty and spicy.  I should have photographed them for you… when they come out they look all bubbly and almost burned, but they are incredible. 

I was feeling quite full upon leaving, but mostly because I drank a giant Diet Coke, and a glass of water.  I don’t think I ate too much at least.

Once home I decided I had to snack on 3 marshmallows…I mean, that bag can’t go to waste, right?  And I was just gonna burn them off, right?  Right.

Just before I left I kind of had a revelation–maybe I’m not so motivated to do weight training and work out hard now because I feel kind of like I reached my goal of losing 15-20 lbs. by the time I went to Mexico.  I think I need to set a new goal, and tell you about it, so I have something to motivate me and some people to share my journey with.  So here it is!

New and improved goal:  Significantly improve tone and lose 5-10 pounds more by July 11 for my 10 year high school reunion!  I plan to do more concentrated weight workouts to build definition and strength, and continue with cardio sessions of 45 minutes in length to promote further fat burning.  Sound like a plan!? Let’s go!  Alrighty then.

Did you see the Real Housewives of New Jersey preview?  Whoa!  Looks like it’ll be a pretty intense season.  Hopefully I can catch some of the drama during the season.

With that I leave you, faithful readers.  It is after midnight and I’m shopping on Overstock.com for office furniture, per Miss Caroline’s great suggestion.  Thanks, girl!