Christmas Party Time!

Yesterday was a very busy day! I started off with my now usual breakfast of oatmeal with craisins and walnuts. During lunch, I ran errands, and then picked up Wendy’s to eat at my desk. I got their “you pick two” deal with half a Baja salad (with chili) and a baked potato. Since the salad has chili, it didn’t need dressing, so I used the dressing on my potato! For a snack I had a handful of trail mix during my afternoon meetings.

After work, we had our work Christmas party! I really wanted to be sure I didn’t overeat, or eat unhealthy food, and I think I ended up UNDER eating (mark it on the calendar haha). I had 2 drinks, and I picked something super sweet so I didn’t drink too much (I had a 45 minute drive home!) I had 2 Bacardi peach drinks, one with sprite, and one with DIET sprite! I knew I should have asked for diet from the start! For food, I got a small plate (like a dessert plate size) and filled half with salad, and the other half with penne vodka, a small piece of garlic bread, and a small slice of turkey. I also ate a stuffed mushroom and a steak skewer. And that’s it. No dessert (there was a lot), no other apps, no cheese and crackers, nothing! When I got home I was starving though, so I put myself to bed.

This morning I broke out my new water bottle!

I keep hearing good things about Contigo, and my old water bottle needed to be retired a looooong time ago. So far I really like this water bottle! It has oz. measurements on the bottle, so you can keep track of how much you’ve drank (I am at 36 for the day so far!) You have to push this button in the back to open the mouth so you can drink, which prevents leaking. It just keeps spitting water in my face lol. I think I just need to get used to using it.

Right now I have a work call from 11-1, so I grabbed a snack from the vending machine to hold me over until lunch: 

I was pleased to see that 3 slots in the vending machine had pretzels – there is usually nothing healthy in there. I picked these Honey Wheat Braids. That’s it for me for now – going to listen to the rest of this call, and try to find something healthy for lunch at 1, since I forgot to bring something today. Have a great day!

Oatmeal...the Saga Continues

Every day this week I have had oatmeal for breakfast, and every day it seems to be a new experience. That's a good thing, because I am not getting bored with it. Earlier this week, I compared my weight control maple and brown sugar (on the left) with the plain stuff (on the right). And I was very surprised...

 

The weight control only has 20 more calories, 0.5 more grams of fat, 3 more carbs, and 2 more grams of protein (!). But quickly i noticed where the plain oatmeal has the edge. It has 0 sodium and sugars compared to the 290 sodium and 1 sugars of the "good" oatmeal. Now does the 2 splendas I add to the plain oatmeal make it a more even match? :)


On Wednesday I made oatmeal and t came out like cereal. It was very mushy and watery. Kind of gross. I added craisins (a BIG fan), and bananas (not so much) to the oatmeal. 

And today... well it came out hard as a rock.

OK, it wasn' a ROCK, I still enjoyed it, but as you can see i was able to hold it sideways AND upside down without it budging! I added craisins and walnuts and it was very good! I think tomorrow I am going to strive for a happy medium between the two. :)

So for breakfast I had the oatmeal above and a coffee. 

Snack - whole wheat pretzels

Lunch - Salad with grilled chicken, roasted peppers, olives, prosciutto, mozzarella, and balsamic vinaigrette. So good!

Snack - coffee and soy crisps

I think dinner will be a salad with quinoa and other goodies, but since it's FREEZING out, who knows.

In other news, Molly is going to get to see her best friend tomorrow morning and ALL weekend! Barkley is coming to town!

Weigh In #1

One week in and one pound lost! I didn't do as well as I would have liked the first week, but i suspect it had partly to do with all of the sodium I ate this week. One thing I am glad about is that I really started to gain control of my eating - bringing my lunch and cooking my meals.


Week One: 1 pound lost
49 pounds to go!


Today I did something i thought I would NEVER do... that's right I went to the gym!!!

Just in case you were confused, I didn't go to the gym after work today. This photo was taken at 5:45AM, and the little white lines you see on the right of the photo is SNOW. I packed a gym bag, went to the gym, and got ready for work there. I built in extra time this morning because I haven't developed my routine, but it went okay.

I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, and burned about 280 calories! (This pic was taken during the cool down). Needless to say, I am glad I went, and am planning on going back tomorrow!

For breakfast, I ate oatmeal with 2 splendas. I threw a handful of trail mix I found on top, which ended up being interesting (not in a good way). There were chocolate chips in the trail mix that i was unaware of. Oops. I also had a coffee.

For lunch, I had a ham sandwich and pretzels. 

Snack was BBQ soy crisps

Dinner was made by Walter's dad - A mini Salisbury Steak (sort of like a mini meatloaf the size of my palm), grilled veggies and mashed potatoes. 

Dessert was a cup of hot chocolate.

Now, back to the ham sandwich. I am a mustard fan. Mustard is, in fact, my favorite condiment. When Walter and I moved I discovered we had 5 (!) DIFFERENT types of mustard in the fridge. 

• Yellow (my least favorite)
• Spicy
• Whole seed Dijon (I use in my salad dressings)
• Honey 
• Honey Dijon (MY FAVORITE!!!!!)

I really don't think I truly knew how awesome mustard was until I tried the Honey Dijon mustard from Wegman's (thats a grocery store in NJ, I compare it to Publix. No other grocery store up here even comes close to Publix's awesomeness)

It has a little kick to it, and its just awesome. It actually makes me look forward to eating a boring sandwich for lunch. Sadly, I used the last of it on today's sandwich, so I will have to go back to Wegmans ASAP to buy more!!!

Alright, I should go and get my gym bag ready for tomorrow! Night!

Oatmeal... Part 2

So Walter has been trying to get me to try his plain oatmeal that he eats every morning for breakfast. After much procrastinating and "forgetting" to bring it to work, I finally gave in and tried it this morning. I made it in the work microwave (it didn't explode, which was a good thing!), dumped 2 splendas in, and tried a bite...

and it was good! (I think the 2 splendas helped!) I can totally see myself eating this every morning and actually enjoying it. I tried to add some cinnamon to a bite, and I was not a fan. The good news is, its healthier and cheaper then most other oatmeals out there. I was thinking of toppings i could add (fresh berries were all I could come up with so far). Any ideas? 

Snack: 1/2 a Kashi Go Lean Bar

Lunch: Some of the Quinoa with Black Beans, Corn, and Cilantro that I made last night, and some hummus with multigrain chips and red peppers.

Snack #2: Coffee and the other half of the Kashi Bar

Dinner: A can of Italian wedding soup with a slice of provolone cheese melted in, and 2 of the mini artichokes I made (one with stuffing, one without). They were SO GOOD! 

Walter was nice enough to make this for me because I still don't feel good. He brought my dinner AND Molly's dinner right up to us 2 sick girls!

I also drank my 64 oz of water (crystal light iced tea, if we need to get technical), and had no soda! Now only if I could get to the gym....


Awwww look! Molly is helping me write this blog as we speak!

She is too cutie. Annnnnnnd now she's sleeping... it must've been all that typing she did!

I think I am going to follow Molly's lead and get some rest. Night all!

Oatmeal...

This was the weather on my drive into work this morning...

Nice day out right?? (At least it's warm...in the high 50's!)

I got to work this morning and I was starving. I pulled out my trusty box of oatmeal packets, and decided to try a new kind of oatmeal a co-worker gave me. It should be noted that I am not the biggest fan of oatmeal, and it took me many tries and fails until I found the ONLY oatmeal I actually like: Weight Control Maple and Brown Sugar. I don’t always like to make it at work, because it makes the whole place smell like syrup and everyone that walks by has to exclaim… “Ohhhhhhhhh! That smells so good! Who made pancakes?! Or Waffles?!” or “Next time bring enough for all of us!”Too much attention pointed my way if you ask me. So I tried this new kind: Kashi GoLean Honey and Cinnamon. After exploding the first one in the work microwave, and half of the second one, I finally sat down to try it:

And after one bite I knew it wasn’t for me (not a fan of honey… at all). So I gave my last packet away to a co-worker, dumped a packet of splenda in, and ate it. Boooo. Here’s hoping to a better lunch!

Diet Day ONE!

So, I think day one of the diet went rather well. Here's what I ate:

Breakfast: Diet sprite and a weight control oatmeal packet.
Snack: Kashi Go Lean Bar
Lunch: Can of Chickarina soup, some crackers and hummus
Dinner: Salad and Sushi :)

Thats right, of course the day I start dieting is the day of Walter and my anniversary, so we went out to dinner. (4 years - can you BELIEVE it?!?!?!?)

The sushi was great, but I am stuffed! There are some things that I know I am going to have trouble with in my diet, so I am going to set a few goals for myself this week:

1. Drink 3 bottles (64 oz) of water a day. I have had a lot of trouble drinking water lately, and i need to drink enough to stay hydrated.
2. Give up soda! That diet Sprite today will be my last soda for awhile...
3. Go to the gym at least 3 times this week. Starting tomorrow :)

During my lunch break today, i went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of foods to make for lunch and dinner. I got ground turkey, lettuce, peppers, cilantro, lunchmeat, cheese, whole wheat wraps, hummus, and grilled chicken. I have some meals in mind, stay tuned to see what I end up making!