Big News!

Good Morning! It's been a relaxing Thursday morning for me. I work at 11 but I decided to take this morning off from exercising. I'm feeling pretty sore from earlier workouts this week. I am hoping to make it to yoga after work and then run, but it all depends on my evening plans. My mom and sister are going to the mall- she's having her high school senior pictures taken tomorrow- and I might tag along. I don't have much desire to go, but it's always nice to shop with moms ;)

For breakfast I had coffee and swiss oats. I made this by soaking the oats overnight with soy milk, cinnamon, dried cherries, and pecans. In the morning I mix it with low fat plain yogurt and banana slices. This is such a great breakfast during the summer. It's filling, yet cool and light.

For lunch I packed leftovers from Monday night's Caramelized Tofu with brown rice, pecans and broccoli. I can't wait to dig-in!

My snacks throughout the day include: baby carrots, plain yogurt, 2 pluots (plum-apricot hybrid), and a banana cookie lara bar. I'm not sure if I'll eat all of the snacks but I want to be prepared if hunger strikes, especially if I go to the mall.

BIG NEWS!

I was offered a full-time job working as a weightloss consultant at a local clinic!!!!! I won't know full details until my training starts August 4th, but after meeting with the director I can say I am excited! This company seems to have a great philosophy on food and weightloss, taking a lifestyle approach to health and wellness as opposed to a quick-fix diet. When I know more, I'll share details with you all! I cannot wait to start!

This has been a very hot and humid week here in Minnesota. Today is no exception. We're expecting storms today and I would guess sooner than later since the sky is already dark. I guess it's a good day to be working inside a coffee shop! Have a wonderful Thursday!

Long Hump Day!

It's been a long hump day- at least the weekend is almost here! I got up at the crack of dawn for work. Despite having to wake up early, I actually prefer working in the morning. It's a fast shift and I like seeing the "world" wake up. I was hungry right away, but I held off eating breakfast until 7:30ish. If I eat breakfast at 5:30, I'm hungry for lunch at like 10! I sipped on coffee with soy for the first few hours though so that helped my hunger. 

Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday's swiss oats. I love this breakfast! I prepared it last night by combining a serving of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of soymilk, dried cranberries, and walnuts in a bowl. I covered it and set it in the fridge overnight. The cinnamon definitely intensified overnight so it's a good thing I love it. I added berry flavored soy yogurt and sliced bananas to the mix right before I ate it. Once again, this breakfast did not fail and filled me up nicely!

I was done with work at 11 and stopped at the grocery store on my way home to pick up milkfor my mom and some other items for myself. By the time I came home, it was almost noon. I knew I needed to eat something before my workout even though I had no appetite. One of the things I bought at the store was an Amy's Tofu and Spinach wrap. Once I remembered this, I was excited to eat it. Yum! I love Amy's products! I highly recommend this brand for quick meals. 

I met with my trainer at 1 and did an hour long of leg and core strength. He usually stretches me out afterwards for a few minutes, but today was extra long to make sure my legs are loose for Saturday! I came home and read The Memory Keeper's Daughter for a little while. I wasn't hungry at all after my workout, I actually felt sick so I didn't eat anything. It's bad, I know, my body needs fuel to recover, but today I just didn't feel right. I finally got hungry around 4ish. I don't really know what to call this, so I'll say my "third mini meal" of the day. It was the last of my Chickpea-Quinoa-Cashew pilaf with grilled veggies. I'm so sad it's gone now, guess I'll have to make some more. 

My friend (who's getting married in 10 days!!!) and I went for a 2 mile run around the lake. It was nice to catch up before the wedding. 

I'll be back with a dinner update!

Pretty in Pink

As soon as I woke up  this morning I went into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. I combined a serving of oats with 1/2 cup soy milk, walnuts, dried cranberries, and cinnamon, covered the bowl, and set it in the fridge. I had 1/3 of a huge banana before my run. My run felt great, I hope I feel this good on Saturday! I was dreaming of breakfast while running, so I didn't waste time! When I was ready to eat, I mixed half of a 6oz container of black cherry soy yogurt and 1/3 of a sliced banana into the chilled oats mixture.  

My oat mixture turned into a pretty pink color with the addition of the cherry yogurt. I ate the pink mixture in a pink bowl while I sat outside on our deck. This is my new favorite summer breakfast! I'm already craving tomorrow morning's breakfast which will be a repeat of today's!

I'm sipping on iced coffee as I type. It's hard for me to give up coffee, not because of the caffeine, but because I love the taste! I'll take it any way I can, whether it be hot, iced, or cold-pressed. 

It's a stunning day- I'm so thankful I don't have to work until tonight. I plan to read and lay around in the sun for a few hours before heading to the gym to meet with my trainer. I have to go straight to work from the gym so I'll need to prepare snacks and dinner for tonight before I leave. Since I had a later breakfast today, I'm thinking lunch will be something light. Maybe a smoothie? Have a wonderful day :)

Off to a Great Start!

I'm going to apologize if my posts seems a bit sporadic this weekend. I plan on taking full advantage of the nice weather by being outdoors as much as possible. In fact, I'm blogging from my sunny deck right now. Yesterday I wore a sun dress and realized my legs were looking quite pale, so hopefully I get a little color this weekend. Of course, I'll be protected with sunscreen!

Yesterday, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my best friend. Since she is traveling for business this weekend, she had the day off from work yesterday. It was so nice to spend a relaxing day going out to lunch and shopping. Now that we are all graduated and working girls, it's hard to see each other as often as we'd like. (Next weekend will be a blast because we are all going to Chicago for a bachelorette party! ) Anyways, we just picked up sandwiches for lunch, ran a few errands around Woodbury and then headed to the mall. I picked up 2 pairs of sandals that were on sale from Express and a cute dress from Banana Republic that was nowhere near on sale. I had intended on trying it on just for fun. But it was so cute, so I splurged. I'll post a picture of the dress later.

After dropping my friend off at the airport, I had a relaxing evening at home. My dad and sister are in Denver for the weekend, and my mom was picking my brother up from school so Brody and I had the house to ourselves. I caught up on the season finale of Grey's and then made myself a quick dinner. I didn't feel like cooking anything fancy so I made a salad and a quesadilla. For the quesadilla, I just used 2 small corn tortillas, soy cheese, and salsa. After dinner, Chris came over and we watched a movie with my mom and brother once they were home. 

This morning I woke up feeling pretty hungry so I had a light, yet calorie dense breakfast, since I knew I wanted to run before it got too warm. I had a granola-yogurt parfait. I used my last container of honey greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of my homemade granola, 1/4 cup of pb granola, and fresh strawberry slices. 

This is exactly what I was craving and hit the spot. Breakfast was about 320 calories. 

About an hour later, I went for a run. I did a little over 5 miles. About half a mile away from home, I spotted a deer in the woods. She looked at me with big fearful eyes. I slowed down because I didn't want to scare her but she ran into the woods. I looked back and understood. A tiny little baby bambi walked out of the woods. The baby was tiny and so cute. It was a nice reward at the end of my run. 

I'm sorry if there are a lot of typos in this post. The glare of the sun makes it really hard to see my computer screen! I'm about to take a shower and pick my cousin up at the airport. Not sure what the rest of the day's plans are. Have a lovely day!

Strawberry Granola Soup

It felt so nice to get up this morning and not have to rush to get ready and eat breakfast. I'm planing on working out soon, but this morning when I woke up I was really hungry for some reason. So I made a light but filling breakfast.

Fresh strawberries, pb granola, plain yogurt, and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

It tasted pretty good, but maybe next time I won't add the milk. It made the breakfast soupy and I think I prefer it to be thicker. The strawberries were deliciously ripe and sweet. I ate a couple of slices as I was making breakfast.

Breakfast Totals: 260 cals, 9g fat, 6g fiber, 12g protein

After my workout, I have a few errands to run before driving up to Duluth. I'm hoping to leave right after lunch. I don't know what my eating will be like these next few days but hopefully I can stay on track. I'll be posting this weekend but it might be at random times!

Today's weather: Twin Cities = 78, Duluth= 65 :(

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!!

Tired Girl

Sorry for not posting last night, it was a busy afternoon. I was super tired last night, and as the title suggests, I still am.

Yesterday

After Chris picked me up from work, we went to get his hair cut. He was hungry afterwards so we went to Taco Bell. Unfortunately, my healthy eating habits have not rubbed off on him. His diet consists of anything fast food and fried. Slowly but surely I will change him :) By the way, he reads this blog now and think it's amusing that people do this. He kept asking me all afternoon whether I was going to photograph this and that. Sadly, my camera battery died so I wasn't able to take pictures.

Anyways I was craving frozen yogurt so we went to Marble Slab and had a cup of their nonfat frozen vanilla yogurt with crushed heath bar. Some weeks I really need to indulge, you know what I mean? Oh, I had a few enzyme pills to help digest the frozen yogurt. These aren't a complete cure, but they do help.

Workout

I ran with the group indoors because we were doing time trials. For the time trail, we run for 30 minutes straight at AT (anaerobic threshold). We do this every 6 weeks to see how much we've improved. The first 12 weeks, I improved SO much. I ran the Twin Cities 5K in October in 27 minutes. But for some reason, these last 12 weeks I've stayed pretty consistent. I only improved slightly. I was disappointed with my time trial because I feel like my hard work hasn't paid off. After thinking about it, I felt strong during my run and could've kept going so I think I didn't push myself hard enough. Honestly, I think I started out too slow- I didn't want to fatigue too quickly. There's always next time...


Dinner last night was tofu teriyaki stir fry. Since my camera batter died I couldn't take a picture, but I'm having leftovers for dinner tonight so you'll be able to see it then. Chris came over and we were going to watch a movie but I was exhausted so I kept falling asleep. Poor kid, I always fall asleep during movies.



This Morning

I could not get out of bed this morning. I had to drive separately this morning since my mom had to be at work earlier than usual, so I was able to sleep in and take my time getting ready.

As soon as I got out of bed I went upstairs for a big mug of coffee.




I didn't want something heavy so I remembered my love, PB Granola.

Peanut butter Granola Parfait.

1/2 c plain, lowfat yogurt + 1/2 c pb granola + banana + blackberries

When I finally made it out of the house, I stopped at Starbucks on my way into work for a Grande dark roast. (I really need extra caffeine today.) They had samples of a raspberry scone so of course I grabbed one.





Today is one of those days when you feel like there aren't enough hours in the day. There's a lot of things I need to get done today like finish my nutrition lesson ASAP. My nutrition course is an independent learning class. Basically I have until November to finish a semester's worth of lessons. I received the material in the middle of February so 8 months seems long enough, right? Well it is, but unfortunately I'm not as far along as I was hoping to be. I think I need to "schedule in" my study time so I can finish a lesson each week.

Alright, it's crunch time. Lots to do!

Spring Breakfast

May = Spring in my mind. April is too much of a rollercoaster weather month. But May, is usually more pleasant. I've been daydreaming about wearing sundresses and open-toed shoes that show off my painted toenails, and feeling the warm sun on my face...

This morning we started off in a good direction with May sunshine.

Since my breakfast yesterday was such a nice change, I decided to have it again. Plus, a cold yogurt parfait seemed more appealing than a hot bowl of oats. Hmm...It's not even that warm out but my body is already thinking oatmeal is too heavy.

1/2 c plain yogurt + 1/2 c pb granola + sliced banana = yumminess

Mixed together with my hot cup of coffee

Unfortunately, today I only had half a serving of yogurt so I'm already starting to get hungry again. It's been three hours since breakfast so I might need a snack to hold me over until lunch.

Happy First Day of May!

Where did April go?

Whoa this month has flown by. In general, I feel like this last year has disappeared right before my eyes. Nonetheless, I'm happy it's the last day of April because maybe now we'll have nicer weather. I'll gladly be done with rain/snow/cold.

This morning I changed up my usual oatmeal breakfast. I woke up still full from last night's dinner so I didn't want anything too heavy. I decided on a yogurt granola parfait. Basically, I layered a cup of lowfat plain yogurt, 1/2 cup peanut butter granola, and a sliced banana in a bowl. This breakfast had about the same amount of calories as my usual oats, about 400, but since it doesn't have as much volume I thought I would need a mid-morning snack. Suprisingly, the granola-yogurt combo kept me full until I had my lunch at 1. It must have been the right ratio of carbs-protein-fat. Love it when that happens!

I bought a veggie-hummus wrap for lunch. It was pretty good but I wish it had more hummus, I couldn't really taste it.

I also had a large cold press coffee with a splash of milk.



I brought an apple but I'm satisfied right now so I'll probably have that as a snack this afternoon IF I need it. But I might not because...

Today is my dad's 50th birthday! (Happy Birthday Dad!) So that means, this afternoon is going to be filled with lots of cake. We are having marble cake here at the office, and then carrot cake at home. I never turn down cake ;)

*EDIT* I did have the apple at around 4 because I was getting hungry and I thought it would prevent me from overeating cake...it didn't work.