A trip down memory lane

Hey guys. Sorry for the late post. I didn't have a whole lot to report this morning so I waited to post both my breakfast and lunch at once.

Breakfast

I was still full from my delicious dinner last night so I wanted something light for breakfast. It was pretty mild out this morning so I had a smoothie. It was berry good! Sorry I couldn't resist ;0)

Berry Good Smoothie

• 1 cup unsweetened, vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• 3/4 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1 scoop Kashi GoLean! Vanilla protein powder

Breakfast totals: 290 calories, 4g fat, 17g fiber,14 g protein

Although this breakfast was a lot less calories than normal, it did a good job of holding my hunger for about 4.5 hours. I got pretty hungry around 11, but I just had a big glass of ice cold water.

Lunch

I didn't bring a lunch today because I had a few errands to run around Grand Ave. during lunch. Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped at Whole Foods for a salad. Amazingly, I came out of WF with just the salad and a new item to try. I wanted to buy a lot more things, but I knew the groceries were going to be sitting in the warm car all afternoon so I refrained. I ate this salad in my car so I could take advantage of the great weather with the sunroof open and windows down.




Salad Ingredients:

• Lettuce Mix
• Shredded red & green cabbage
• Raw cauliflower
• Roasted artichokes
  
• Grilled portabella, corn, and spinach salad
• Marinated mushrooms
  
• Curry chicken and chickpea couscous
  

The highlight of this salad was the curry couscous. It was so delicious, I wish I would have gotten more! I'm going to have to recreate this at home. The roasted artichokes and marinated mushrooms were really really good as well. Usually, I really like grilled portabellas, but something about the texture of these made me want to gag. I hate wasting food but I couldn't eat them. I ate everything else though.

Close up of the plump marinated mushroom.

After my lovely lunch I went to UST to buy a graduation present for my former roomie. She's an accounting major so her degree took an extra year. I forgot just how much parking sucks. After looking for a good 10 minutes for a parking spot on the street I didn't find one so I took a risk and parked in the lot. If I remember correctly, you don't need a parking permit during finals week. I hadn't been on campus since last year at graduation. It felt so weird to be walking across the quad.

I browsed through the bookstore before buying an alumni sweatshirt for my friend and a cute baseball cap for myself. I wanted to buy a couple of t-shirts, but I'm trying to be more mindful of my spending.

Speaking of being mindful with money, I stopped at my favorite coffee shop and bought an iced coffee with a splash of soy and a bran muffin. I am so addicted to these. It's a good thing I don't live close by anymore.





These muffins are fat free and low calorie. But low cal is a subjective thing so I have no idea what to estimate. Two years ago when the coffee shop first opened, they were advertised as 150 calories. Well they have for sure grown in size. I asked the girl at the counter if she had nutrition information and all she had was the ingredients list. I should have asked to see it but I felt bad because she was alone and there were people in line behind me. I know they are freshly made there...but if they are fat free and low calorie, it makes me wonder what the heck are in these. They are so good, but maybe too good to be true?

This afternoon I felt like I was in college again- running around campus, grabbing a salad at Whole Foods, and picking up a coffee and muffin at Coffee Bene. It was a nice trip down memory lane. Sometimes I really miss the life of a college student, minus the stress.


It has taken me 2 hours to finish this post. Insane amount of phone calls are to blame!

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Tacos

Wow, dinner tonight was delicious for being thrown together so quickly. I am completely stuffed but it was so good, I had to go back for more!

But before I get to it...

Afternoon snack + Workout

I had a chocolate chip z bar as my afternoon snack. I was feeling pretty hungry so I wasn't sure this would hold my hunger. But it did. Snack total was 130 calories, 4g fat, 3g fiber, 3g protein.

After being stuck in traffic for over an hour I was so close to driving home instead of going to the gym. The idea of catching up on my tv shows and relaxing on the couch was very appealing. However, I'm glad I made myself to go to the gym. I did a shorter, more intense run today. It was about 4 miles total. I did something today that I haven't done in almost year. I ran without my HRM. I forgot it at home. I kinda freaked out because I am so used to monitoring my heart rate during my runs. But I think by now I know how my zones feel so I felt pretty confident during my run. I need to learn to trust myself more.

I wasn't able to make it to yoga tonight but I'm okay with that because my arms/shoulders/upper back are extremely sore. You should have seen me changing into my workout clothes, it was painful!

Dinner tonight was so good. I had been craving sweet potatoes and black beans this afternoon so I knew that's what I wanted for dinner. My usual fix is a baked sweet potato topped with black beans or chili. I wanted to try something different tonight so I made sweet potato and black bean tacos.

I started off by peeling and cutting a big sweet potato into cubes. I threw them in the microwave for about 5 minutes to speed up the cooking process. In a skillet, I sautéed garlic in olive oil for a minute. Then I added the par-cooked sweet potatoes and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and red pepper. Once the potatoes were crusty, I added the black beans and cooked just until everything was heated through.

In a separate skillet, I warmed up a couple of corn tortillas. I like my corn tortillas to be crispy, but still foldable. To assemble: top the tortillas with the potato/bean mixture and salsa. And viola! Sweet potato and black bean tacos.

These were so so good! I started with two on my plate, but I had to go back for a third. As Rachel Ray would say, yum-o!

It is hard to say what the exact calorie count is for this meal because I didn't measure any of the ingredients. From experience, I'm guessing that my 3 tacos had about 1 cup of sweet potatoes and 1/2 cup of black beans,(plus a few tablespoons of salsa and tsp of oil). Based on this rough estimate, dinner totals were about 500 calories, 4g fat, 13g fiber, 12g protein.

Daily Total: 1421 calories, 38g fat, 41g fiber, 60g protein.

Calorie Counting

I'm starting to include calorie/fat/fiber/protein counts with the food because a) I need to do it for my nutrition class; and b) I am trying to lose a few pounds for my friend's wedding next month. I feel pretty comfortable with my eating habits to know how much I need to eat on a regular basis to maintain my weight. I naturally keep a rough estimate in my head due to years of calorie counting. I don't think I will ever be able to completely stop because I know the calorie content for everything! So even if I don't want to count, I automatically do it. But in order for me to lose weight, I have to make sure I create a calorie deficiency. Nothing too extreme, I'm not looking to lose a lot of weight, just 5 pounds or so.

I'm not going to let this become obsessive like in the past. I want to lose weight, but at the same time I am training for a half marathon so I need to make sure I am eating enough to keep my body fueled. I will probably keep my intake at around 1500 calories..but if I truly feel hungry, I will eat more. Also, I tend to round up because I would rather overestimate than underestimate. So bare with me.

I'm Spoiled

My mom is the greatest. She made my lunch last night. She makes lunch for herself, my dad and sister every night but I usually prefer to make my own. What she was making last night looked good, so she offered to make one for me as well. Yes, I am spoiled.

Smoked salmon, cream cheese, and spinach sandwich on hemp bread.

I didn't bring a plate with me today so I had to use the baggie as a plate.

I also had leftover salad from last night: spinach, shredded carrots, and few pieces of pear. I made a simple dressing this weekend using a fig infused white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. It has a really nice light, fresh, slightly sweet flavor.




Last Friday I posted about my love for Fit & Fresh salad containers. Em, from Gliding Calm, asked if I could take a picture of the lid. So here you go!

A shot of the whole thing

View from top, when you turn the dial the dressing spills out.

Underside of the lid

I highly recommend this investment if you eat a lot of salads!

I'm feeling pretty sluggish this afternoon. It's raining so the weather isn't exactly lifting my mood. I have no desire to run this afternoon, but with the Half coming up in a couple of weeks, I can't afford to take too many days off. Hopefully my snack will energize me and get me through the workout.

*EDIT: I completely forgot to add that I had half of a grapefruit for a midmorning snack. Lunch and snack combined came out to about 492 calories, 16g fat, 15g fiber, and 31g protein. Whoa, the hemp bread adds 10g of fiber and 14g of protein alone!

Productive Morning

I'm already feeling like today is a productive day. I was up early and refreshed thanks to last night's yoga and early bed time. And as soon as I got to the office this morning, I got to work on my nutrition lesson and finally finished the second lesson. Especially since I won't have a job as of next week, I hope to finish the course up within the next month. I think it's possible as long as I focus on getting it done.

This morning I had my usual cuppa joe (x 2)...




This morning I had a little bit of extra time so I made the multigrain cereal again, but this time I cooked it on the stove and only used 1/3 cup portion. Today's combo was made with 1/3 cup vanilla almond milk, 2/3 cup of water, 1/2 of a banana and cinnamon.




I couldn't decided what else I wanted to add. I ended up topping it with sliced almonds, coconut and "vanilla icing" (plain yogurt + vanilla extract).



As always, it was delicious and filled me right up. Breakfast totals: 362 cal, 12g fat, 13g fiber, 14g protein.


I am definitely feeling the yoga burn today in my upper back. I'm hoping to make it to another class tonight, an intermediate yoga flow in a heated studio.

See you all for lunch!

Feelin' Fresh

Sorry for the late dinner post, I had a busy evening and got caught up watching tv. Monday nights are my new favorite t.v. night. There are 4 shows I like! I rarely get a chance to watch them all. Usually, I just watch Medium with my parents and tivo the rest to watch throughout the week. I really want to watch some of the other shows now...but I should get to bed.

My snack today was a Cherry Pie Lara bar. Really, really bad picture.

This flavor was good, but not as good as the Cashew Cookie. It was kinda of tart and really sticky! It did wonders on my hunger because I ate it at 4:30 and didn't eat dinner until 8:30. This little bar fueled me through a short run and sweaty yoga session. I wasn't even that hungry for dinner.

As soon as I got home I ran into my room and changed into my workout clothes. I didn't want to get too comfortable and not workout.

I had made up my mind that I was finally going to try the new yoga studio by my house. YogaFresh offers a free week pass to new students. I'm not meeting with my running group this week because we are in between sessions so this is the perfect week to take advantage of the free classes.

I had about half an hour to kill before class and I knew if I stayed at home I would get lazy. Since the yoga studio is next to a lake, I warmed up by running around it. Even though, I live pretty close by, I had never been around this lake. It took me about 16 minutes to get around it. According to Map My Run, it's about 1.65 miles around.

Yoga was AWESOME. Tonight's class was called Yoga Sculpt. The instructor incorporated resistance bands into some of the poses for a stronger upper body workout. The studio was heated to a balmy 90 degrees. It got super hot in there, by the end of class my clothes were soaking wet (gross, I know). But I loved it and felt so great afterwards.

I am so happy I finally gave this studio a try. The instructor was great and walked around class adjusting our positions to make sure we were doing it right. Some people might not like this, but I actually like the instructor correcting my posture. I want to be sure I am doing the poses the right way. This was my first experience at a real yoga studio. I've been practicing yoga on and off since high school, but usually I take classes at my gym or do DVDs at home. I loved the atmosphere and coziness of this studio. I will definitely be taking advantage of the free week.

I jumped in the shower as soon as I got home since I was so sweaty. I wanted to be fresh and clean while enjoying my dinner.

My mom made a spinach, carrot and feta salad, brown rice, and a Mexican dish called Picadillo. Basically, it's lean ground beef with potatoes, green peppers, onions, beans, and some spices. I don't care for red meat but this is one of the only beef dishes I can eat because of all the flavors in it. I like the big potato chunks the best.

Instead of watching tv, I think I'm going to read in bed before falling asleep. It's much more relaxing and I have lots of good books waiting to be read! Night everyone!

Better Start Looking!

My breakfast kept me full for over 4 hours! Since my stomach was content and I was busy, time passed quickly this morning. I glanced up and noticed it was almost 1! I wasn't hungry but I decided it would be smart to eat since it had been 4 hours.

I made a great sandwich last night to bring for lunch. I used healthy hemp bread to make a delicious roasted red pepper and veggie sandwich. This sandwich was especially good because I could taste a thick layer of hummus. I think it helped that I only added a little bit of baby spinach and broccoli slaw. I tend to over stuff sandwiches/wraps/tacos so sometimes the hummus gets lost with everything else. Not today.




I had some baby carrots and half of a grapefruit along the side to round out my lunch.




As a kid, I would always eat grapefruit the traditional way. Cut in half and sprinkled with sugar. I grew up in Texas so we always had plenty of Ruby Reds. Only recently have I gotten back into grapefruit. I love it now and can't get enough. I think I actually prefer it over oranges and other citrus. My favorite way to eat it is like an orange.

Big News

The office found a new receptionist! My last day is Thursday. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I am excited because that means my days will be free to work on my nutrition class, bake, read, exercise when I want, etc. But on the other hand, no job equals no income. I know I can still help my parents out at the sales office, but I need to find something else. It's hard because I want to start school full-time in the fall, so I don't want a full-time job. But all of the part-time, summer jobs are either in the food industry or retail. Eh, I wish I could find something in the nutrition field, but so far everything I've found requires a R.D. status. Guess I better start looking for a new job...