TGIF! And a few words about indulging

FINALLY FRIDAY, WHOOOOOP!

Morning Mentions

I would have gotten up at my normal time this morning, but my fiance grumpily told me that after being woken up three times by the dog last night to go outside, he on a mission to sleep in.

And I, being the very concerned and considerate fiance, decided to get back into bed so not to disturb his sleep with my morning business.

Heh.

I’ve been sleeping so much more lately. In addition to sleeping in twice this week, I started taking 20-minute naps in the afternoon (except for today, only because I got too busy). I feel so much better! It is also helping me to endure some of the stress I have going on. Sooo much better than shoving caffeine into my system.

Anyway, when I finally got up at 7:30 am (YIKES!), I poured my morning cup of joe and sipped it in broad daylight – something that doesn’t happen as much anymore.

Spot the cat!

Fitness

Is it possible for muscles to be more sore on Day 2 than Day 1??? Because – oh my thighs! For a few minutes I considered whether or not to workout today, but remembering how amazing it feels after a workout, I overcame my objections, grabbed Bruno and walked out the door…

And walked smack into air so humid and thick, you would have thought you stepped into the biggest steam room in the world.

Wonderful!

On the fitness agenda today:

By some miracle, Bruno and I ROCKED it – even though the humidity! The five minutes didn’t feel like five long minutes anymore (save for the last 30 seconds), my breathing recovered quickly after each interval and we had plenty of energy leftover afterwards (of course this could be because I’m training Bruno not to sprint uphill). We even tacked on an extra two minute interval of running at the end! But best of all, by the time we were done, my sore muscles felt so much better. I was high as a kite from all those beautiful endorphins running through my system.

Can I tell you a quick funny story that happened today? Since Bruno and I use the same beginning route for our workouts for both runs and walks, I noticed that there is a certain intersection when he sort of halts and looks up at me for direction. What he is waiting for is for me to tap my Garmin so that it would BEEP-BEEP-BEEP and then off we would run. On days we just walk, my Garmin doesn’t make a sound and just continue our way.

Well, today, the Garmin had just started its first beep when Bruno got completely excited and sprinted away – without me being ready! You can just imagine what we looked like – an 85 pound dog suddenly taken off dragging me behind him. And of course this had to happen at the busiest intersection in my neighborhood at a time when everyone is leaving for work or coming back from dropping their kids off at school… Oh my ego!

Ha.

Post-workout, I found my muscles warm and flexible, but definitely not as pliable as they were on Wednesday (ah, DOMS). For instance, remember my little news about finally being able to touch the floor with my toes in the plow pose? Pffffft not today! Getting the bottoms of my fingers on the floor took some work and I really had to push to get my left heel down on the floor in the down dog pose. All I can do though is keep working at it and wait out the DOMS. Makes me appreciate my progress so much more now!

Breakfast

A new spin on an old breakfast:

Kashi waffles topped with sweetened peanut butter Greek yogurt and topped with half a banana. BEST EVER!!!!

Into the yogurt mix: 3 oz plain Greek yogurt, 1 tbsp Better n Peanut Butter, 1 tsp sweetener. (Next time, I will add a splash of vanilla and shake some cinnamon into the mix)

After breakfast, I quickly got ready for a hair appointment.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

In my dreams, I am filthy rich with a hairdresser available to do my hair every day. Wishing I had a talent for doing hair…

Lunch

Er … it looks like I can only tell you what I had for lunch today because I totally forgot to take a pic! I was really stressed out when I came back from my hair appointment and was paying only half attention to prepping my food. Before I knew it, I was halfway done when I remembered about snapping a pic. Oops.

Today’s lunch: a boxed salad topped with scrambled egg and salsa. Easy and filling!

Dinner

Whew, what a busy day! Before we knew it, dinner was upon us and with the Dodger game on, we were reluctant to leave the house. Answer? Delivery!

 

I ordered a Cajun grilled salmon, but pulled together the side dishes from food that was already in my fridge: cauliflower rice (seasoned with S+P, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika), steamed green beans and roasted brussels sprouts. I also took a few bites out of some toasted French bread and my fiance’s pizza… all soooooo good.

A Few Words About Indulging

As I mentioned, last weekend was a pretty indulgent one for me. Eating whatever I wanted (except sugar – I learned my lesson with that stuff!), skipping workouts, and sleeping 14 hours a day was so much fun, but on Wednesday, I was so over the calorie and was quite eager to get back on the healthy living wagon. I probably should feel guilty and regretful, but you know what? I don’t feel any of those things right now.

It took the last few days for me to realize that sometimes taking a day or two, a weekend, or even a whole week is good for my sanity. As you already know, losing weight can be so taxing on the mind and stamina. Sometimes, I think I just need some time “off” to remind myself how much better I feel eating mostly healthy rather than eating burgers every night. Sometimes, “falling off the wagon” as we put it, inserts the passion right back into healthy living. It’s almost like living a glimpse of my old life to motivate me to continue with my new path. I don’t schedule these times to happen, but it seems to happen regularly and I’m learning to allow myself to have breaks when I feel “burnt out” by dieting.

So from here on out, I pledge to not feel guilty about splurging – food is to be enjoyed after all! When I splurge, I will enjoy every bite but trust myself that I will get back to eating healthy instead of feeling terrible about it and eating a salad as punishment. The only thing, of course, that I can’t touch is sugar because once that sweet stuff touches my lips, I am done for. But a-ok for everything else.:)

Scenes From Today

On the agenda tomorrow: hike with the dog, a healthy breakfast, a nap in the afternoon, and relaxing in front of the tv. I’m ready!

I hope you had a great Friday. See ya tomorrow!

Surviving the Heat

Happy Friday eve! I hope you had a great (short!) week so far. Feels like the weekend just ended when it’s about to begin again. Can we have this every week please?

P.S. I kept thinking today is Friday. Anyone else make that mistake today as well?

Morning Mentions

Last night was another warm one. Hmm, now I’m starting to think my AC is broken. Of course everything breaks down right when you’re trying to sell your house right? (My wallet is NOT appreciating this.)

That was the temp in our house right before I went to bed (don’t mind the time, as it’s about an hour off). 79! Aye…

Anyway! After running the fan again, the evening was tolerable. I can’t wait to get the AC fixed so I can snuggle down in frigid temps while it remains hot outside. Spoiled much? 😉

As for this morning, I started it with a cup of Vanilla Nut flavored coffee. I’m kind of glad I’m almost done with it, because today I bought a can of Butterscotch Toffee flavored coffee and I can’t wait to get into it already!

Spot the dog. 🙂

Fitness

I woke up SORE from yesterday’s workout. Yeow! It’s a good thing I didn’t schedule anything to do today that was strenuous or required me to pretend to NOT walk funny. Heh.

On today’s fitness agenda: 40 minute walk on an active rest day

Sheesh was it warm! Bruno needed a drink soon after we started and I was sweating up a storm. I can’t imagine what it’d be like if we started later in the day.

(At this point, I wouldn’t mind if fall came early…)

Breakfast

Remember those dashingly dark bananas from yesterday? I couldn’t resist digging into them and so I made them into Two Ingredient Pancake today. Yum!

I’m now done to one half dark banana. Wonder what I should do with it?

After breakfast, I completed some work projects and then went to the grocery store to grab a couple of things. I finished my last salad yesterday, so it was time to prep some more:

Helloooo healthy bundle! Eight salads ready to grab and eat without a thought. Foolproof.

Lunch

Right after I prepped the salads, it was time for lunch. So of course I grabbed one of the boxes for my meal. Ha

Salad drizzled with balsamic vinegar and topped with two hard boiled eggs with a sprinkle of ground pepper. Healthy and filling. 😀

Dinner

We took advantage of the less sweltering temps this evening and grilled up some steaks:

Filet mignon cooked medium rare (moo!) with a side of cauliflower rice (seasoned with onion and garlic powders, and S+P) and – one of my faves – oven roasted brussels sprouts.

So.Delicious.

And of course I followed it up with frozen grapes.

Meanwhile, Bruno followed up his dinner with some tail-chasing:

Silly dog!

Eating-wise, it was a GREAT day. Fitness? If I remembered to stretch (oops), it would have been better. Stress? A little overwhelmed, but I’m learning to get a handle on it.

I hope you had a great day, see ya tomorrow!

Back on Track!

Hello and Happy Hump Day already!

Aren’t short weeks great? One day in and then – BAM! – it’s already Hump Day. Reminds me of when I used to work 10-4 shifts – every week is a doable week when Friday is *that* close!

And even better: after an indulgent long weekend + Tuesday, I am BACK on the wagon and ready to rock. It was fun eating whatever I pleased and sleeping 14 hours a day, but now it’s back to how I want things to be: healthy, less bloat-y, and ready to take on the world. 🙂

Morning Mentions

Ugh, it’s been hot hot HOT around here.

I know, I know. It’s August, isn’t that normal?

Last night, we thought it was peculiar that we were still a sweaty mess even with the AC on. When I went to look at the thermostat, it showed that the room was still 83 degrees! I ended up dragging a dusty fan to whirl the air around the room a little. It didn’t completely solve our problems, but it at least made it somewhat comfortable enough to sleep. (FYI, it would seem that cats dislike fans, as neither slept with me last night)

Six years ago, I moved from inland LA – where it gets atrociously hot – to the beach and experienced deliciously moderate temps that flowed nicely between 60s in the winter to low-to-mid 70s in the summer, save for the last two weeks in August and first two weeks in September when it would “roast” to the upper 80s. And every year since then, I’d die a little when it’d hit this time of year and I would silently cry a little at how much of an oven it’d feel when I’d step a toe outside.

Kind of crazy considering I went to college in Santa Clarita, where 100+ degrees was considered a day in the life …

After a somewhat uncomfortable night of sleeping, I woke up dark and early and started my day with a cup joe. Spot the cat!

By the way, is this not the thinnest newspaper ever?

You would think that with all that’s going on with the world – Syria, Egypt, India, etc. it would be at least three times thicker. *scratches head*

Fitness

I almost didn’t take the dog with me on my workout because he did this all morning:

But then as I started to gather my things together, he perked up:

Okay, Bruno! It looks like you’re coming with after all.

On the fitness agenda today:

My first run/walk in a week! The dog and I did okay – it was hot. Actually, when I say that it was hot, I mean that Bruno and I are spoiled creatures who do not appreciate running when it’s 72 degrees and humid (at 8 am); we are more … 65 degrees perhaps? At any rate, I was sweating like a pig in the sun and Bruno thankfully didn’t race up every hill and instead trotted along with me. We survived.

I will say though that I sorta missed running, but missed running with Bruno more… And I think he did too! When I went to grab my sneakers, he quickly went towards the front door in “position” for me to put the collar on him. He is usually good about waiting for me to be ready to leave, but today the minute I opened the door, he jetted out with me flying behind – straight out of a comedy. Ah, I love this dog. 🙂

Breakfast

Yesterday’s Two Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies was such a success that I decided to try the original Two Ingredient Cookies: banana + oatmeal.

In the mix: large banana + 1/2 cup oatmeal, chopped + cinnamon + vanilla extract. (No sweetener, being that the banana was already deliciously black) Bake 15 min @ 350.

Verdict: It was good, but it didn’t make me go gaga like yesterday’s cookies. I think it needed something … like nuts or chocolate chips. It was also considerably wetter than the pumpkin cookies, so I could have added a tad bit more oatmeal or baked it for another five minutes.

By the way, check out these babelicious nanners:

Hubba hubba! They are just begging to be made into banana bread, muffins or some sort. I may just have to whip up a Two Ingredient Pancake for brekkie tomorrow just to taste these beauties!

Fitness II

With my new September goal in mind, I fit in a little ST today.

I wasn’t totally prepared on what to do today, so I just pushed a few buttons on my Nike app and did the Sweat + Shape program again. Can I just say that after two weeks of no ST, it kicked my bootay? Not as much as the first time, but I was panting and sweating up a storm! And just to let you know how sweaty crazy I must have looked, the dog came into my little room and started panting just watching me. No joke!

Post ST, I completed a relaxing stretching sesh… And OMG – I am so excited to tell you and show you: After almost a year of working on the plow pose, I can finally touch the floor with my toes! Check it out:

Umm, sorry it’s crooked; I couldn’t exactly turn my head in this pose to take a proper pic, heh. I also promise I look way more graceful and my back looks straighter when I’m not trying to take a pic. Well, actually I’m not so sure, since the position doesn’t allow me to see very well, but it’s just my brilliant deductive reasoning. 😉

Flexibility was always one of my weakest points. I love the craziness and rush of furious aerobic activity that stretching seemed like a waste of time to me. As a result, touching my toes for a long time was a distant reality. Fast-forward a few years and not only can I touch my toes, I can press the flat part of all my fingers on the floor and am now working on getting my palms down there too! The down dog was also one of my nemesis moves and now my left heel can press firmly onto the floor and the right is about half an inch away (maybe 100% by the end of the year?). And now the plow… This is all absolutely breathless to me, breathless.

Lunch

Mid-day meal was to be on the road, so I chopped up a hard boiled egg and tossed it onto my last boxed salad:

By the way, my experiment of placing the spinach leaves on top was a success. Even today, a week later, the leaves were still crispy and fresh-tasting. Glad that little problem of soggy spinach was easily solvable!

Dinner

I had plans this evening to have dinner with the girls – so much fun gabbing and catching up with them!

While I waited for them to come over, I snacked on a container of frozen grapes – PERFECT to cool me down on a hot day.

As for my meal, there is no pic, but here are my wins for the night:

1. I skipped the wine! (I was driving anyway)
2. Knowing that my meal was going to be… HUGE, I skipped the appetizer salad.
3. I created my own pasta by sub’g out the noodles for mixed vegetables, adding turkey Italian sausage, and ordering Marinara for my sauce. Delish!
4. I skipped dessert when I noticed that they did not offer any sugar free items or fruit.

I did, however, eat a bunch of bread with butter … But oh was it good. That was my only cheat for the evening!

By the way, I typically do schedule in a cheat meal when I’m out having my monthly dinner with the girls because I’d rather have a great time with them instead of focusing on my calorie counting for the evening and I’m one of those weird people who eats when she’s happy (and these girls make me deliriously happy so…). However, after an indulgent long weekend + Tuesday, I was so over eating all that high caloric food and eager to eat healthy again. I am so proud of myself to not let my good time get away from me and pig out like my usual self!

Scenes From Today

I hope you had a GREAT day today, and if you didn’t, hold on! Tomorrow is Thursday which mean Friday is almost here. See ya tomorrow!

September Goal + Weekend Recap

Howdy! Long time no see. 🙂 How was your weekend?

August Goal – Recap

My one only goal was “NO SUGAR.” Unfortunately, I decided to test the theory about me being addicted to sugar … And failed badly! It’s okay though, because it was just another experience for me to realize the truth about my ability to handle sugar. So I blew the goal, but gained some insight.

September Goal

My one goal for this month will be to do strength training at least once a week. I really need to get in the business of getting stronger! With my busy schedule and amount of additional stress I’ve undertaken with this house selling business, this one goal shouldn’t be too much to ask.

Weekend Recap

I took the entire long weekend off of blogging, activities and dieting to focus on resting. On each of the three days, I took naps  lasting at least an hour and went to sleep at a decent hour for more zzz’s (amazingly, it was never difficult at all to fall asleep at night – that’s how tired I was!). I ate when I felt hungry and what I craved, though I tried to keep it at least somewhat healthy – i.e. eating a turkey burger with a whole wheat bun instead of a regular burger. I shied from socializing and attending festivals in favor of ducking into my cool, air-conditioned house with the television on and falling asleep at my leisure. If I were to describe each day, it would be: eat breakfast, nap, eat lunch, nap, eat dinner, sleep – though I did manage to squeeze in two hikes. But really, no regrets, no guilt – just feeling absolutely refreshed on a Tuesday. Hooray!

Scenes from this past weekend:

In an attempt to somewhat health-ify burger craving, I ordered a turkey burger with veggies and an egg on a whole wheat bun:

Playing with some settings on my new camera:

Morning Mentions

I woke up nice and early, but quickly found out that my man had been up all night caring for our sick dog and a cat. I didn’t want to disturb him while doing my morning business, so I decided to join him for an extra snooze. Sleeping in until six = awesome way to start my short week! 🙂

Sleeping in didn’t detract me from enjoying my morning cup of coffee though. I think I enjoy more of the ritual of coffee than the drink itself, being that I never seem to drink past 1/2 or 3/4 of it. Spot the cat!

Breakfast

Although I was dressed for a workout, I ended up having to skip because of all the work that had piled on my desk over the weekend. I just couldn’t finish it in time to get that workout in! Plus, Bruno still wasn’t feeling too great and seemed to rather stay inside and snooze, so that was another factor. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. 🙂

Today’s breakfast was a new-to-me recipe: Two Ingredient Cookies!

The real two ingredients are 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and 1/2 oatmeal, but I added pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, 1 tsp of sweetener, a splash of vanilla extract and raisins. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes and you got cookies at 275 calories for the entire batch!

If you plan on making this, know that they are not and will not produce the texture of the cookies that you know and we all love. Instead, it’s more of a “healthy cookie” kind of texture. Also, make sure you chop the oatmeal some – I used a vegetable chopper, but a knife to oatmeal on a cutting board should suffice. Lastly, at least for me, 1 tsp of sweetener wasn’t enough, you may need two.

Easy to make and a sugar lover’s fantasy breakfast. This will be a repeat breakfast for sure!

Lunch

As the day continued to get hectic, so did my lunch plans.

Sliced chicken breast on whole wheat sandwich (with mustard of course!) that I grabbed from the local am/pm and one of my boxed salads topped with ground pepper and balsamic vinegar. Filling and delicious!

Dinner

After a hectic day, i was pretty hungry and admittedly not in any mood to eat some low-calorie dinner. I wasn’t about to eat just anything though, and tried to keep it as close to healthy as possible:

Chicken breast burrito with sauteed veggies rolled in a spinach tortilla with a side of black beans. Delicious and so filling that I didn’t even need to follow up with my customary frozen grapes. 🙂

After an indulgent yet restful weekend – and Tuesday too! – I am ready to get back on track, starting first with a run/walk workout with the doggy in the morning (provided he is feeling better).

I hope you had a great weekend, see ya tomorrow!

TGIF! And House Pics

Howdy to you and TGIF on the best TGIF there is – as in the one before a long weekend, yeah!

Morning Mentions

I woke up nice and early again this morning in anticipation of a mid-morning early afternoon showing of our house today.

Spot the cats!

There was no fitness today because I had so much to do … and I was about THIS close to tears from being overstressed. Ergh, it feels so pathetic to be at the end of my rope already!

So I ended up skipping a workout two days in a row in favor of sweeping, mopping, moving, wiping, stashing, and washing. Although I was moving non-stop, I hated that I opted out of my workout, but in the end, I felt better for it and keeping my sanity is what counts.

Breakfast

After this breakfast, I am down to two bananas. Hmm, I wonder if I can do this same recipe but sub the bananas for pumpkin?

Two Ingredient Pancake … again. Three days in a row of the same brekkie and it hasn’t gotten old yet. 🙂

Lunch

After the showing of our house, I started feeling MUCH beter. For one, I was smiling and laughing again – to my fiance’s relief!

Unfortunately, I was also crashing from the adrenaline leaving my system, which lead to a delicious 20 minute nap. Ooooh afternoon naps, I am sooo in love with you right now. I think we should get together for a few minutes every day!

With much of the stress gone and exhaustion temporarily taken care of, my appetite returned – so much so that I made a veggie frittata again with one my boxed salads:

The only difference today was that instead of Cholula, I spiced this thing up with Sriracha. Thanks to my Sparkbuddy LADYTARLTON for the inspiration!

Post-lunch was spent at my nail salon getting all my broken nails taken care of. Cleaning house destroyed my hands… 😦

Dinner

I didn’t mean to eat a cheat dinner, but now that I am feeling so much better, my appetite’s become voracious!

We picked up dinner from Thompkins Square, a local bar and grill:

I ordered a Greek salad (amazing!), grilled chicken breast entree topped with goat cheese and mushrooms with a side of honey mustard dressing and grilled veggies. My fiance and I shared a sausage sampler – MUCHO DELISH! – and some slices of bread.

Is that not a crazy spread or what!

And uh, I ate ALL of it minus a few slices of bread. It was delicious and I was stuffed to the max.

I also followed it up with frozen grapes a few hours later because I love ending my days with some kind of sweet.

I know I ingested a lot of calories, but really – this was the first time in a week or so that I felt like eating. At least it was made up of whole and healthy foods for the most part – not like a few weeks ago when I gorged on enchiladas and felt nauseous afterwards.

And I WILL workout tomorrow, which will be fun because hiking with my man and my dog always is! 🙂

House Pics

So I figured, since I’ve done nothing but complain about everything under the sun when it comes to selling this house, I might as well share pictures of the shelter I’ve been slaving over. Heh.

Living Room:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Foyer:

Office/Second Bedroom:

Master Bedroom/Bath/Closet:

Patio:

NOTE: There is one room I completely forgot to photograph, and that is the second bathroom. Whoops!

It’s a little sad leaving our cozy little home, but we’ve outgrown it and there are too many reasons to move that outweigh the reasons to stay. And anyway, as much as I do love our awesome neighborhood, I am excited to move into a new area where there’s more action! I’ve lived in LA for 18 years, but I’ve never actually fulfilled my dream of living in a city. (Well, living at the beach used to be my dream, but now that I can cross that off my list, I’m on to the next dream to fulfill.)

Friday Snippets

Some happenings today:

Well, that’s it for today. I hope you had a great Friday!

See ya tomorrow. 🙂

Weigh-In and Progress Notes, New Camera, and My Pathetic Attempts at De-Stressing

Hello there!

So I was supposed to post yesterday but… sleep happened.

I always feel exhausted these days, but the times that I actually feel like I could fall asleep is so far and few in between that when it started coming on last night, I said “heck with my blog!” and dove for the covers. And slept. For hours.

*bliss*

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Weigh-In

Good news: I definitely lost weight

Kinda bad news: I have no idea how much

You see all those numbers? They were all taken in a span of around ten minutes. It would seem that every time I pick up my scale and weigh myself in a different part of the house – whether it may be my bathroom, kitchen, dining room, foyer – a different number pops up. Hmm.

At the end, though, it really doesn’t matter how much, just that I did, right? Right! Sooo I’m going nail this down as a 1/2 lb loss for now. Yippee!

Progress Notes

What’s been working:

• Trusting my body over my mind. My mind can be so deceiving! While under a lot of stress, my mind continuously told me that I wasn’t hungry and that food makes me nauseous. However, when I noticed my hands shaking, my focus wavering, and my irritable levels rising, I ate despite my mind’s arguments and I actually felt so much better. Same goes with when I want to eat more after I’m done with my meal; I make myself wait ten minutes, and you know what? I can feel that I’m full.
• Forcing myself to be “less” Type A. I could have worked out anyway when I had 1000 things on my to do list, but I opted to skip the workout to accomplish my tasks. I did okay with it here and there, but there is always more to be improved in this area.

I need to work on:

• My caffeine intake. It’s been so hard to get quality sleep around here that I’ve been using coffee and Diet Coke as a crutch to get through my day. About once a year, I tend to switch from coffee to green tea for about half a year before I start to crave coffee again. I may have to make that switch, but until then, I really need to make sure I don’t drink more than one Diet Coke a week.
• Managing stress. Ugh, I am so irritable these days! I wish I could just take off to some island somewhere. I may make it a mission this weekend to do absolutely nothing but hike and spend quality time with my man and my doggy.

Wednesday Morning Mentions

I tried to “sleep in” until about six, but some morning madness concerning my man and our coffeemaker caused me to get up earlier. It’s okay though, because getting up earlier means that much more added time to my day. (Ha, how’s that for thinking positive!)

Vanilla nut coffee with soy creamer. Just what the doctor ordered. Spot the cat and dog!

Fitness

On today’s fitness agenda:

A new week, woo!

Though doable, the five minute runs felt like five hours. Bruno did okay (he did exceptionally well sprinting uphill with me chasing him from behind – ack!), but I was dyin! I was so happy when we were done finally.

It’s so weird: I’ve done the C25k program so many times, yet each time I repeat the program and come upon a new week, it still feels as mentally difficult as it did the first time. Anyone else get this way too?

Breakfast

Those beautiful bananas I bought last week at Costco are turning brown quickly, so you’ll see me repeat the Two Ingredient Pancake a few more times. I can’t believe I went from not being into this breakfast to having it almost every day. Love the protein punch!

In the pancake mix: four egg whites (taken directly from eggs), one small banana, cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla

In the Greek yogurt mix: 4 oz Greek yogurt, 1 tsp sweetener, cinnamon, and a splash of vanilla

Topped with a banana slices from another small banana.

Result: YUM.

New Camera

Sometime after breakfast, I decided to take a break and do something fun: play with my new camera!

We actually bought this Tuesday evening, but I was so tired and stressed that I didn’t even want to think about touching it until my to do list for the day was done. Although did have a ton of things to do today, I was feeling almost at the top of my “can’t take this anymore” and opted for a break.

Some practice pics I took with my new toy (still figuring out the flash – I hate flash!)

So weird on how comfortable I feel not wearing make up or doing my hair in just about every picture I post on here daily…

Lunch

Today quickly became a busy day when we received word that a prospective buyer wanted to see our house Thursday afternoon. Getting the house ready for pictures was one thing (you can always hide dust!), but having people come over and scrutinize your home? Gahhhh!

Thanks to stress, I didn’t feel hungry, but my body told me in its own ways that I needed food. I decided to whip up something with a ton of protein:

I made an impromptu veggie egg white omelette with 1 cup egg substitute + a boxed salad, and topped it with salsa and Cholula. Fantastic!

Hey, you want to see a blooper? Here it is:

Where there’s food, Bruno will always be nearby.

Post-lunch was a little weird. I think between exhaustion, stress, and finally feeding my hunger my body became overwhelmed and shut itself down. I remember feeling like I had to lay down, and before I knew it, I somehow awoke on a pillow that I’d drooled all over? (eh, sorry for the TMI) It was not a nap by my choice, but it managed to supply me with a slight zap of energy to help me continue down my long To Do list.

Dinner

Later in the afternoon, we did a bit of house hunting. The houses we saw were so depressing that I almost asked my fiance to stop by a gas station for me to buy two bags of Gardetto’s. What saved us was the brisket cooking itself pretty in the slower cooker at home – saved by the brisket!

That would be tender, moist brisket with a stewed carrots, steamed green beans and bucketload of cauliflower rice (seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper). Best.Dinner.Everrrrrrrr.

My brisket dinner was promptly followed by frozen grapes and then some good, hard zzzz’s. *happy*

Thursday Morning Mentions

I woke up extra bright and early this a.m. in anticipation for the first showing of our house! I was so anxious about all the things I had to do that I was actually the first one up, i think. Now that never happens around here, at least not in the last couple of years.

(By the way, the term “bright and early” is so deceiving, as the sun was nowhere near up! It was more “dark and early.” Just a thought.)

Coffeeeeeeee, get into meeeeeeee. Spot the cat!

Some happenings around the house this a.m.:

Where there’s fur, there’s action around here. 😉

Thursday Breakfast

There was no fitness today because I was too busy! Plus, my entire morning was spent wiping, mopping, dusting, lifting, stashing, and pushing, so who’s to say that isn’t a workout in itself? 😀

Two Ingredient Pancake … again. Yup. Let’s just say I’m making good progress on those bananas. 😉

Lunch

Lunch didn’t get eaten until very late – like 3 pm late! – because of the noon showing of our house plus some work I had to do. I probably would have went through the day without eating lunch, but I forced myself to eat. I sure am glad I did because it turns out I was pretty hungry!

One of my boxed salads tossed with balsamic vinegar then topped with shredded chicken thigh and ground black pepper. Delish!

And guess who was waiting patiently nearby while I took my food pics?

If it’s not Bruno, it’s ways Zack. Always one or the other with these two.

Some afternoon shenanigans:

That would be about how I look when i’m tired, stressed and anxious. 😦

Dinner

So here I was – 4 pm and alone in the house at last! – with big plans to veg on the couch, eat some dinner, blog and then maybe pass out when I got this text about how someone else wanted to see the house in two hours.

YIKES!

Just when I put my house back together, I flew off the couch to put my house back into showcase condition, wiped down things that I touched, re-swept the floor (three pets shed a TON of fur in just minutes, especially against a dark wood floor), and re-stashed my entire life back into cabinets. I nuked my dinner and flew out the door just in time with the dog. (Kitties stay at home)

That would be my lovely leftover brisket dinner that I would have loved to eat on a plate but instead ate out of a plastic container in the car a block away from my house.

Such a glamorous life.

By the time I finally made it back to my house, fed the dog, and put the house back together, I was BUSHED! And a bit peeved that I’d been going non-stop since 5 am until I sat down at almost 8 pm. I tell ya, when we end up selling this house, I am going to hold my own private dance party with my animals and then pass out for 14 hours. Big fancy plans there, you just wait!

And yes, frozen grapes did follow dinner. 🙂

Well, those are my two days! I hope you are had a happy, healthy day. See ya tomorrow!

P.S. Posting pics of my house tomorrow 😀

Cleaned OUT

Hi! How are you doing?

I am doing SO much better! I finally got some sleep – the kind where you’re all lights out before you head hit the pillow. It was AWESOME. I am probably at 80% of my regular self now, so I probably need just one more good night’s sleep to make myself whole again. It’s a great place to be.

By the way, I learned something today: keeping a house at showcase level is a full-time job in itself. I can’t wait to sell this house finally so that I can leave my socks on the floor sometime! Actually, not really. I have a dog that LOVES to chew on stuff, so that teaches me to never leave anything out, much less on the floor. So I’ll have to settle for something more titillating, like leaving a dirty dish in the sink the entire day and not worry about it. Oh the exciting life I lead. 😉

Morning Mentions

Although I am not yet 100%, I woke up like I was. As it turns out, this whole packing-cleaning-staging the house thing stressed our entire farmily out because my fiance picked sleeping in over working out this morning – something he rarely does. Furthermore, both cats and the dog were simply not interested in lifting even an eyelid as I roamed about. Our house is exhausted.

The house finally stirred about when opened a can of cat food. Like Pavlov, it’s works every time. 😀

Butterscotch Toffee coffee with soy creamer. Mmm!

Fitness

On today’s fitness agenda: active rest day with a 40 minute walk.

The walk felt so good after two straight full days of moving. It loosened up the muscles, got the blood flowing and cleared my mind.

Bruno got to sniff some new areas today, so he had a blast too!

Breakfast

I was really hungry this morning, so as soon as my ten minutes of stretching was done, I was off to the kitchen to make some brekkie. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but I knew that I wanted something a little more substantial than my usual eats:

1 cup of egg sub, 1 tbsp of ketchup, and 1 Ezekiel cinnamon raisin English muffin. Thrown together, but really satisfying!

By the way, those Ezekiel English muffins totally rock. I love how dense and chewy they are. Best.muffins.ever.

Lunch

After a morning of work, cleaning and re-arranging (aggghhh! – I am so over cleaning!), I finally sat down for a late lunch. Once again, the salads and roasted chicken I prepped ahead of time is kicking in nicely.

Not pictured, but I smothered the heck out of my chicken breast with Cholula. Made a nice contrast to the balsamic vinegar I splashed on the greens. 😛

Snack

Okay, so I never snack in the afternoons because I am usually too busy to eat or just don’t feel the need to.

Today? I started obsessing on cakes and pies. It was weird: not matter what I was trying to do, I would start thinking and obsessing on cakey, bready things. I was heading into danger zone! I was even THIS CLOSE to snatching one of these Snickers minis I had laying around – but I didn’t. Clooooose calls, baby.

While rummaging through my pantry, I came across enough cans of pumpkin to bake about 17,000 pies. That’s when I got an idea: what if I added pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and some sweetener to some pumpkin puree?

I tried it … and it hit the spot! I can’t believe I’d say this, but I would totally nibble on this again if I got hit by the snack monster again.

Dinner

After doing a bunch of errands, I got home late and had only a minute to feed my starving self.

Shredded rotisserie chicken thigh, Spanish cauliflower “rice, and steamed green beans (nuked in the microwave). Can you believe my entire dinner was only 340 calories? Huge! And delicious. And filling. And satisfying.

Before I knew it, it was already eight o’clock… That’s frozen grapes time for me! 🙂

By the way, did you know that Monday is Labor Day? Wha???  I didn’t know this until this morning, when my fiance mentioned it to me. Where did the time go? Before you know it, Christmas will be next week. Just don’t blink or it will happen.

I hope you had a great day! I’ll see ya tomorrow… For Weigh-In Wednesday!

A Week of Not Sleeping

I haven’t slept – like really slept – in about a week.

As a result, I’ve been ultra irritable, incapable of focusing on any task, and, of course, exhausted.

What is going on you ask?

We are currently selling our house – and by dog – it is one of the most stressful things I have ever dealt with in my life. And here I thought buying was stressful – selling is 10x so! (At least with buying a house, you are fueled by excitement. Selling, you are filled with fright and nerves.)

After spending days packing and hours staging my house today, I am mostly done with Part I of the stressful stuff. The realtor came by today and took some fabulous pictures – of which I’ll post when our house closes! – which means I can now at least live in my house with the things I need, instead of stashing things away to make counters look larger, the living room look more spacious, and the patio area picturesque for a potential buyer to fantasize entertaining a group of close friends for an evening.

Although my stress level is the lowest it’s been in about a week, the craziness is just beginning. There is still the matter of making a quick scram outta the house when we get the call for a showing, figuring out what new area to move to, looking for a new house to live in, decide what to do with the animals when we are moving, budget and plan for the move (ew! I hate moving.), and then changing my address with 10,000 different companies. I wish I could snap my fingers and be in my new house already. Siiiigh.

Any advice for me about moving two senior cats and a bat crazy dog?

Morning Mentions

COFFEE! Oh how I needed it this morning. You always know how tired you are based on how long it takes to feel the wonderful effects of caffeine. It took me probably a good hour for these eyelids to finally open more than its halfway point. Spot the dog!

Fitness

With the fantastic effects of caffeine flowing smoothly through my veins, it was time for Bruno and I to workout.

On today’s fitness agenda:

Just last Friday I was mentioning about how I may need another week of this program, but you know what? I think I may be ready for Week 4! Isn’t it incredible how quickly the body adapts?

There was no Strength Training today because I was too crazy busy! However, I was incredibly active from the time I woke up until the minute right before I started typing this blog. With all the lifting I had to do, it might as well be considered ST, right?

Breakfast

Today’s delicious brekkie was a repeat from Friday:

Kashi waffles topped with sweetened Greek yogurt mix and topped with baked peaches. YUM!

Into the Greek yogurt mix: 4 oz plain Greek yogurt, sweetener, cinnamon, a splash of vanilla extract, and the juices from the peaches after it was microwaved (for 1 min).

In irrelevant news, as I was photographing my breakfast, I noticed these on-goings:

This is a BIG deal, folks, because Bruno and Zacky are usually harassing each other, but here they are NAPPING together! And they are *this* close to spooning. Finally, my two furbabies are getting along! Squeeee!

Lunch

Starting right after breakfast, I was heinously busy packing, cleaning and re-arranging. All that moving around made me HUNGRY!

Today’s lunch was awesomely fast yet tasty because of all the salads I prepped on Friday. I drizzled some balsamic vinegar on the salad, then topped it with a chicken thigh last night from the rotisserie chicken I bought last Thursday. (I froze them last week and defrost them in the fridge the night before the day I plan on eating the chicken).

Dinner

Have you staged a house before? It’s time-consuming and a bit harrowing if it’s your own house, but actually a lot of fun. One of my favorite things I did with my house was dress up my patio as if I was expecting company for dinner and some wine. In another part of my patio, I set up two chairs and small table, then added a tray containing two cups and saucer and a newspaper. While it looked pretty amazing, I immediately felt regretful that we never used our lovey patio more than a few times in the six year we’ve lived in this house. Hmm, we may have to plan a dinner outside this week sometime!

Dinner tonight: carnitas, cauliflower Spanish “rice,” and steamed green beans. Easy, quick and delicious!

For the Spanish rice, I just mixed the cauliflower with some chunky salsa. I purposely omitted the garlic and onion powders, and I think I like it better this way.

Thankfully, I used only one of the two pouches of carnitas that it came with (Costco), so you won’t be seeing me repeat carnitas meals for days on end as I did in the past.

Post supper, my customary frozen grapes. 😀

Well, that was my day! I hope you had a day that as wonderful and a whoooole lot less stressful as mine. I’ll be catching up on some blogs tonight then hitting the hay. I have a feeling i’ll be able to sleep tonight!

See ya tomorrow,

Friday Food Prep + Weekend Indulgence + Packing!

Happy Sunday! I hope you’ve had a wonderful weekend.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Friday Morning Mentions

Since I had a huge day ahead of me, I woke up bright and early:

Nothing like a hot cup of Butterscotch Toffee coffee to start a busy day. Spot the dog and cat!

It was a good thing we have a little bit of a run scheduled for today, because Bruno woke up full of energy – the cats’ dismay… Ha.

Friday Morning Fitness

On today’s fitness agenda:

Few thing about today’s run:

1. Maybe it was that today’s temperatures were slightly warmer, but Bruno seemed more subdued. What I mean by subdued, by the way, is that he was actually running next to me versus me chasing him uphill. So this is what it’s like to run with my dog!
2. My usual route this morning was populated by students that had just moved in to the local university. Of course when those young ladies with fabulous-looking six-packs, I had to run a little faster with my shoulders held up a little straighter. When they passed, it was such a relief to let my belleh hang out, shoulders sag a bit and stumble into the walk break. Ha!
3. Bruno may have mastered this run, but I think I need another week. Just when I think my heart just about recovered when the walking bit is over, my heart gets a jumpstart when I start the run again. I really should rename this workout to “A Defibrillator Run”!

Post-workout, Bruno had a good time taking down his ice cubes:

Haha, silly dog.

Friday Breakfast

Today’s healthy breakfast tasted decadent:

Vans waffle topped with sweetened Greek Yogurt and topped with baked peaches. WOW!

It easy to put together: toast the waffle, stir plain Greek yogurt with sweetener of your choice + cinnamon + vanilla extract, slice peaces and cook in the microwave for one minute. Smear the yogurt on the waffle and then top with the cooked peaches.

Friday Fitness II

Two reasons why I worked out again:

1. I skipped out on ST on Wednesday because I was so tired and sore, and
2. Because I had a cheat meal in my plans, it seemed like a great idea. 😀

On today’s ST agenda: Nike app, Sweat + Shape

Done-zo! I can’t believe how quickly I’m adapting to the program. I am definitely taking down those burpees and push ups!

Halfway through, Bruno decided to take a nap on the far end of my yoga mat:

It was so cute that he decided to visit me that I couldn’t turn him away. I found ways to workaround him. That’s what you do when your dog has you wrapped around his paw, ha!

Friday Food Prep – Part II

Since I ran out of time on Thursday, I had to finish prepping the rest of my haul today.

First thing to prep: boxed salads!

I did things a little differently this time. First, I reversed the order of my salad: raisins on the very bottom, followed by tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, and then leafy greens (spinach for me) on top. I think this may help the leafy greens from getting too wilted too soon. To ensure this process, I topped it off with a paper towel before closing the lid to help take in the moisture. I’ll let you know how this goes!

Since I’ve been eating a lot frozen grapes lately, I had to replenish my supply and prepped those too:

Two 4-lb packages of grapes from Costco became 19 separate containers of grapes ready to be frozen for consumption later.

End result: check out my fridge now stocked to its brim with healthy noms!

Friday Lunch

After the workout and food prep, I was ready to EAT.

One of my boxed salads I put together today drizzled with balsamic vinegar, then topped with rotisserie chicken and a small serving of grapes.  Healthy and delish.

Friday Dinner

Ohh this is where the cheat meals came in.

With some family in from out of town going to the Dodger game with us, of course we had to take the to an LA tradition: Phillipe’s Original.

I had an entire Beef French dipped sandwich:

(Recycled photo)

I also added a side of pickled beets – fantastic!

Later at the game, my fiance and I shared an order of nachos (I didn’t eat it all myself – yes!!!) and ate half a bag of peanuts:

The hilarious part is that the game was over so fast – a quick 2 hours – that I had time to only eat half  the bag. I can’t believe how well it worked out, ha!

All in all, it wasn’t too bad of an indulgent night. It felt great to let loose yet I didn’t get so out of control that I felt sick afterwards. I think I am improving in this department. 🙂

Saturday Fitness

Apparently Bruno didn’t get the memo about us not doing a hike today, because he woke up really hyper!

Which of course means there was no way I could skip out on a workout without the dog running bat crazy around the house. So…

On the fitness agenda today: 40 minute walk

First of all, I don’t know how people can roll out of bed and workout right when they get up, because walking with Bruno this a.m. WITHOUT caffeine was like walking the continent underwater. Ugh. I think if next weekend I need to walk Bruno, I will make a small cup of joe before I go. 43 minutes felt like 10,000 years.

On the bright side, Bruno met and played with another dog today named Coleslaw! She was an adorable Jack white Russel-Beagle mix. So many people in my neighborhood are afraid of letting their dogs intermingle with others in the neighborhood, it was refreshing to meet finally meet someone who lets their dog socialize. Bruno may look kinda mean, but when you meet him, you will quickly discover that he’s friendly and a terrific flirt!

Saturday Breakfast

When we got home from our walk, there was a steaming cup of flavored drip from our favorite coffee shop waiting for me:

It’s a recycled photo because I forgot to take a pic. Oops.

After chugging my go-juice, my fiance and I left the dog at home and went to our favorite local diner, Pepy’s Galley.

Egg white omelette with spinach, bell peppers, and mushrooms with a side of sliced tomatoes. I ended up taking my wheat toast home (Bruno LOVES toast!) and munched on the crusts of my fiance’s buttered toast.

Saturday Dinner

No, I didn’t forget lunch. I didn’t eat it because I was entirely too stressed out and worried to eat! Sometimes when I become overwhelmed with anxiety, my appetite is severely repressed. But I knew I had to eat, so I made sure I ate dinner at the very least.

My fiance and I’ve been craving shabu shabu soooo badly lately, so we jetted for a local place in the late afternoon:

 

In case you’ve never heard of shabu shabu before, it’s a Japanese style of eating where you are served raw vegetables and very thin slices of meat, and you cook it yourself in boiling water or broth. After the food is cooked, you pick it out with your chopsticks and dip it in one of the two available dips: Ponzu sauce or peanut sauce. Not only is it super healthy because it’s cooked in water, but incredibly filling because cooking it yourself forces you to eat it slower. And at some restaurants such as this one, you can actually drink the soup afterwards – especially delicious!

We shared: two large orders of thinly sliced ribeye, and one large order of thinly sliced pork. I also had mine and my fiance’s servings of vegetables, about 1/2 cup of brown rice, pickled cucumbers and one egg. Mmm, totally hit the spot,

Post shabu, our evening was busy with what felt like hours upon hours of errands. When we finally got home, I plopped on the couch with a serving of grapes to end the night.

Or so I thought …

Because I was totally wired from worries and couldn’t sleep. I started working on my blog, but I had to shut it down when the Mister kindly mentioned that the tap-tap-tap of my keyboard was keeping him up. Whooops!

With that, I went to bed. What a day!

Sunday Morning Mentions

I started my morning with some kind of flavored drip from our local coffee shop:

Er … We were supposed to hike at Runyon Canyon this morning with the dog, but 1) I was exhausted! and 2) my ankles were complaining.

After hemming and hawing, we decided to skip the workout. Besides, we had too much to do today!

Poor Bruno. He is so fit now that he wakes up hyper no matter what kind of workout he had the day before, so me skipping out on a workout with him meant he couldn’t help but be a pest all day. I hate depriving him of a hike, but at least he is never really alone and besides, he can humiliate me during our run tomorrow! Ha.

Spot the cats AND dog! 🙂

Sunday Breakfast

We decided to stay close for breakfast today, so we dropped in at another favorite local joint: S&W Diner.

Egg white scramble with zucchini, bell pepper, and mushrooms with a side of sliced tomatoes. Again, I took my wheat toast home for my doggy and munched on the crusts of my fiance’s buttered white toast. I know I get this breakfast like EVERY weekend, but I swear some places make it taste different than others. Like this place for example! Their egg whites taste different from other places… and I have no idea why?

Sunday Packing

I’ve never mentioned this before, but here it is: we are selling our house. This is the very reason why I can’t sleep at night, I get pretty darn irritable and sometimes can’t eat. It’s such a stressful experience!

On the bright side, even though I skipped a workout today, I was super duper active today doing this:

Packing! And moving. And cleaning… From around 11 am until 6 pm. Talk about strength training!

So now I sit in my empty-ish living room, a little misty about how much less personality the room now holds, but should help us be more successful in selling when our realtor comes over tomorrow to take pictures.

P.S. Bruno “helped.” If you have a dog, then you now what I mean, ha!

Sunday Lunch/Dinner

When 3 o’clock it, I was starving! We headed out to a local restaurant for a sammich: Roll n Rye.

I started with a small green salad with some rye croutons and balsamic vinegar, the followed it up with a cheese-less turkey pastrami Reuben (minus Russian dressing) – YUM! I was soooo hungry that I ate the entire sandwich plus mine and my fiance’s coleslaw. I probably would have gone for dessert, but I reminded me only 10,000 time exactly what would happen if I indulged in some sugary dish. Win!

A few hours later, I followed it up with TWO servings of frozen grapes. Divine.

So that is my weekend! I hope you had a great one. See ya tomorrow!

Cheat Meal Strategies + Food Prep Part I

Whew, I am so grateful that Friday is practically here. I am sooo done with this week.

Today was a particularly difficult day for me:

1. First, I woke up to my fiance asking about the coffee machine because apparently I forgot to put water in it last night for this morning’s program. Whoops!
2. Almost immediately after, the sprinklers for our front lawn came on mysteriously as he was leaving, which turned out to be because of that nutty screw we need to replace in the sprinkler system. I spent a few minutes cursing at my failed attempts to turn the screw with a flathead screwdriver in the dark, since the sun hasn’t come up yet. These problems are AWESOME at dawn!
3. My laptop decided that it wanted to go to computer heaven. AHHH! I just love computer problems. I spent the rest of the day fretting about spending who-knows-how-much on a new computer and trying in vain to save it all while trying to figure out how to complete work in between.
4. Because I was so darn busy, I didn’t make it Costco until the afternoon. LATE afternoon. As in when all the samples are out and the casual shoppers are moseying about (versus right when Costco opens, which are when the pros shop; they are no nonsense and all business – love them!). I was so stressed out that I broke down and took down two or three samples and was *this* close to swiping a sample of some chocolate or other. Bleh.

Despite all the challenged I faced today, I admit that the day did end well. Looking back, I was pretty darn productive today! I got a ton of work done, prepped a bunch of food, and … RESUSCITATED MY COMPUTER. Hallelujah, says my wallet! Whew.

Cheat Meal Strategies

After last Saturday’s 3000 calorie day (plus all the extra sugar I consumed in the days after), it’s become evident that I need a strategy when eating my cheat meals. Whatever the plan may be, it has to be sustainable over my lifetime, because I don’t plan on pigging out on a daily basis when I achieve my goal weight – after all, isn’t the weight loss process practice for the maintenance phase? 😉

1. Drink an entire glass of water first. Actually, I should be doing this before each meal, anyway.
2. Eat a salad FIRST. Fill up some of that tummy space BEFORE I eat the cheat meal.
3. If it’s particularly high-caloric, split the serving in half. I will help this along by bringing a tupperware with me (hidden in my GINORMOUS purse!) so I can do this immediately. I may eat the other half later in the day or night, but the important thing for me is that I don’t eat it in one sitting.
4. CHEW! Namely, enjoy each luscious bite. Not only will chewing slowly take up more of the 20 minutes it takes to fill up, but I should really be savoring and appreciating each taste I take.
5. NO DESSERT, that is, unless it’s fruit or something sugar-free. I don’t mind eating dessert, it’s the sugar that creates that crazy binging cycle.every.time. No, no, NO!
6. Try my best to fit in a workout that morning. They say it helps you make better nutrition decisions throughout the day, and for me, it works probably 85% of the time.

Do you have any suggestions on cheat meals? I’d love to hear them!

Morning Mentions

I managed to beat the sun this morning. Is it me or is the sun rising later now?

After I got the coffeemaker going, I enjoyed myself a mug:

Spot the dog!

Some furry action from this a.m.:

The dog looks huge next to the cats!

Fitness

On today’s fitness agenda: active rest day – 40 minute walk

After a super stressful morning, I absolutely needed this walk. There’s nothing like a stroll around the neighborhood with Bruno to relieve that stress!

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast was easy and fast:

Overnight oats with peaches. MMMM. Into the mix: 1/3 cup oatmeal, 4 oz plain unsweetened Greek yogurt, 1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1 tsp sweetener, a drop of vanilla extract, cinnamon, 1/2 tbsp chia seeds, and microwaved peaches (with juice that oozed after cooking – yum!).

I’ve never been a lover of peaches, but my peach tree bore me fruit this year (hooray!!), lending myself an opportunity to make better friends with the fruit. I’ve found that they are especially yummy when microwaved for one minute; they come out tasting just like the peaches that come in cans and jars, but without added sugary and syrup. Look out for more peachy breakfasts coming up!

Lunch

I used the last of the taco meat on top of my salad today, along with a few shakes of hot sauce. Easy, fast,delicious, and filling.

Food Prep

After lunch, I went to Costco for another food haul and started prepping food when I got back. Since I started so late, I was only able to do half, with the rest to do tomorrow. Here’s what I did today:

Rotisserie chicken is always sooo good, but at $4.99 per entire chicken at Costo? It tastes even more delicious! Haha.

I peeled the skin off the entire chicken and broke it into several pieces for easy grabs later. I have one breast in the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch and the rest in the freezer for next week’s meals.

Cauliflower rice, heya! Costco actually sold cauliflower by the bags today, so I had to snag two – so much easier than cutting the heads myself. By the way, if you use a food processor, I recommend that you use the shredding disc/blade. The texture of the shredding disc will actually make the “rice” texture resemble uncannily close to real rice. I think standard blades are better for making cauliflower mashed potatoes. Anyway, found that out today and thought I’d pass it on. 😀

Trimmed green bean, perfect for a two minute steam in the microwave or a quick saute. (FYI, Bruno got some for dinner night and he approves!)

Dinner

I had the house to myself tonight, so I had the pleasure of a night off from cooking – yippee!

Dinner came from today’s bounty: rotisserie chicken breast, steamed green beans and cauliflower “rice (seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper).

I closed up the evening with a serving of frozen grapes. Mmm!

Positive Wrap-Up

When I’ve had a difficult day, I like to end it by listing a few positive things before I got to bed. It’s something I like to do sometimes so I can actually wrap up the day in a good note so that I can wake up tomorrow like it truly is a new day.

Since I listed four challenges I faced in the beginning of this post, I will match it by listing four positive things that happened today:

1. The cashier at Costco gave me all my discounts even though I forgot to show her my coupon book.
2. My dog was extremely good today and went bat-crazy only a handful of times.
3. Our dog’s daycare/kennel told my fiance that Bruno was their favorite dog!
4. I fixed my laptop! I know I mentioned this already, but since our entire business relies on my laptop, it is such a relief that I won’t be sidelined at all for the sake of buying a new computer then spending all that time installing my programs and such. WHEW.

By the way, I’ll be attending a baseball game tomorrow night, so there’s a slight chance that I won’t post tomorrow. Wish me luck on making good food decisions – because I’m gonna need it!

I hope your day was better than mine. If not, then hold on – it’s almost Friday. 🙂

See ya tomorrow!