It’s a Girl!

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Sorry I randomly disappeared; I’ve been in a strange mood for the last few days.  I’ve gotten a few bits of exciting news, and I’ll let you know more later, but the most exciting piece is

I’m an aunt x2!  My sister-in-law had her baby last night!!!

That happy fact came with on the hour updates since midnight, which is probably why I was such a sleepy mess today.  I actually tripped over nothing this afternoon, spilling soda everywhere and slamming my face into the floor.

But I’ll be back and bright tomorrow, scouts’ honor!

Sheetz Envy

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The weekend is coming to an end, and it’s been a long but fun day.  I have a lot to do before bed so I’m going to try to keep this short and sweet.

As predicted I did some snacking last night; the boys were eating jalopeno poppers and they sounded to good to resist.

It was 1am though and I wasn’t even really hungry.  All of which is yet another testament to why I should stop doing things like staying up until 2:30 in the morning!

This morning I got off to a healthy start with some from-home-food; 1cup Kashi h2h with skim milk.

We slept in, and my almost 5 year old niece of course did not, so lunch came very soon after breakfast.  Her choice was Arby’s, so I went with a turkey bacon ranch sandwich.

I wasn’t all that hungry so I ate half of my food and gave the rest away.

We went out in the yard for a game of catch and some bubble blowing and by the time Adam on I were on the road at 2:30 I was finally feeling my lunch hunger.  I did some nutritional sleuthing online before we left and found that my brunch (cereal + sandwich) had ~400 calories so I aimed for a 500ish calorie car snack.  I do NOT count calories, but I do think they are usefull data for abnormal eating situations.

Can I just say, I am sooooo jealous of anyone who lives near a Sheetz!  I managed to cobble together an amazing, healthy meal for the car.  A Naked coconut juice box.

A Sabra hummus and pretzel pack.

And a small fruit and cheese plate.

I can’t even explain how thrilling it was to find this type of food at a gas station.

By the time we rolled back into Buffalo it was after 7pm so we stopped in at Moe’s to pick up dinner.

Jr sized burrito with pino beans, a smidge of rice, cheese, pico, guacamole, and cilantro.

The texture was good, but this was actually a little bland 😦  I’m feeling hungry still and I’m going to be up late so I’ll almost definitely eat something else later.  My camera needs to charge so no pictures, but I’m eyeing my CF spicy chicken leftovers.  Hope everyone else’s weekends got wrapped up nicely!

Is Your Choice Behind Door A or Door B?

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It’s been a great day of family fun; we played board games, watched the Discovery Channel, and I got to see my niece get her ballet pictures taken.

I brought my own breakfast from home (picked up from the hospital cafeteria at volunteering) so I was sure to have something healthy to start my day.

Quaker Instant Oats Express in Baked Apple.

This was actually seriously delicious.  I tend to avoid instant oats unless I’m traveling because of the added sugar but this ended up being a really nice treat.  And the fiber/protein content led to enough fullness that it was almost a trade-off for the sugar.

Unfortunately I just can’t jive with the waste of packaging or I would make this a regular thing.

Lunch was a 6inch turkey sandwich from Subway.

Topped with pepperjack, lettuce, tomato, green pepper, banana pepper, red onion, pickles, cucumbers, and honey mustard.

The worker was annoyed that I packed so much on but my sandwich ended up being tasty and filling.

I ate part of a small bag of Cheetos with my sandwich.

I only ate half, because I realized that with Cheetos the enjoyment-to-unhealthiness ratio quickly shifts from left to right.  I’m never going to stop eating crap completely, but I’m really trying to make an effort to regularly check-in with myself about whether or not the treat is worth it.  I think it’s (more than) ok to occasionally eat things with no health benefit, but it only makes sense if there is a happiness benefit.

On the way to the mall I sucked on a blow pop.

Why were we at the mall you ask?  Black light mini golf, duh!

They managed to squeeze 18 holes into the course.

I have a dorky child-of-the-80’s obsession with black lights and the aquatic theme was pretty tacky-fabulous.

After we worked up a sweat, of sorts, we headed to dinner. 

The in-laws’ pick was Cici’s Pizza, which was a new experience for the husband and I.  I was excited about the buffet aspect (I loooove choices and small tastes) but pretty disappointed in the lack of veggies.  I genuinely don’t understand only offering iceberg lettuce at a salad bar!  I will admit that I was pleased to see everything small-sized; the pizza pieces were tiny so you could try a bunch without eating too much.  I was super hungry but I didn’t want to go crazy so I decided to do two runs of healthy food first.

Small plate of salad.

Small bowl of chicken soup.

After I filled up a bit on soup and salad, then I got pizza.

Sadly I wasn’t really in love with either of these, the crust was pretty soggy and disappointing.  I ended up picking at 2/3s or so before moving to dessert.

Dessert, however, was pretty darn good.

I skipped the soggy crust but I loved eating the strusel topping and the cinnamon roll was great, super duper cinnamon-y.

Unfortunately I did too good of a job not overeating; I ended up not eating enough!  When I got home I broke out a Fruit and Nut KIND bar from my from-home-snack stash.

Holy yum!  KIND bars are always good but this flavor was socks rocking delicious; I love that the use apricot in addition to dates for stickiness.

There will most likely be some snacking tonight, I’ll recap in the morning.  Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!

Veggies eaten today: ~2cups

What is your thought on “treats” (candy, cookies, chips, extra cheese, or whatever your preference is)?  Should you cut them out completely, enjoy in moderation, or go hog-wild?  What works, or doesn’t work, for you?

On The Road Again

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We had a nice drive to visit the in-laws this afternoon and even made it to Ohio in time for dinner!  We split driving responsibilities 60/40 because I have the best husband in the world.  While he drove I ate some fresh mango,

and part of a cheese stick.

And while I drove Adam shared a few of his Pretzel M&M’s with me.

These are new variety and they are go-oood!  I love chocolate pretzel confections and this might be the best kind I’ve ever tried.  The consistency was like a whopper and it was a good balance of salty and sweet.

Once we got to Ohio we met the in-laws for dinner at Adam’s favorite Mexican place.  I went with an order of veggie fajitas.

Astonishingly my meal was pretty healthy; lots of veggies.  I wrapped 4 tortillas around broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, and onions and beans and guacamole.

It’s likely I’ll do some snacking this evening, but I’ll update later if when that happens.

Veggies eaten today: 2.5cups.

What is your order from the local Mexican joint?  I adore chile relanos but they aren’t the healthiest, I try to at least always get something with lots of veggies.

P.S. Iowa Girl is giving away some Cascadian Farms goodies.

Boo Hoo Hoo

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The husband got up extra early for school today so I decided to get up too ….. and watch some tv!  Seriously though, I watched the season finales for “Mercy” and “Private Practice” and sobbed at both.  I am not even much of a crier but for some reason these both really got to me!

Between tears I ate a nice juicy breakfast.

0% Oikos with blackberries, a bit of honey, and fresh mango.

This combination was perfect, my berries are a bit under-ripe and very tart but the sweetness of the mango helped to balance it out.

Breakfast also helped fuel me for another treadmill visit.  10minutes walking + 5minutes jogging + 10minutes walking = 1.64miles and 25minutes.

Afterwards I headed home and put lunch into the oven before I did 25minutes of strength training and final packing.  While I continued sweating, some fresh green beans with salt and a portobello mushroom cap with balsamic vinegar were roasting up in the 450* oven.

The green bean fries made a great side,

and my ‘shroom was served sandwich style on a ww bun with miracle whip and a sprinkle of 2% Colby cheese.

Now I’ve got to hurry up and shower before I make us late!

Veggies eaten so far today: ~1.5cups

What was the last tv show or movie that got you teary eyed?

Beans and Bloggers

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Lunch and dinner today had a lot in common; both involved beans and both were inspired by some of my favorite bloggers.  I think my favorite thing about blog-land is all the fun things I’ve been inspired to try.  Green monsters, running a half marathon, Greek yogurt, nut-butter crusted parsnip fries……

Lunch came from Caitlin at Healthy Tipping Point.

I love sweet potatoes and I love baked beans, but I don’t think I would have come up with pairing them all on my own.  I used one big sweet potato (13oz) and 1/2 cup of baked beans.

The flavor combination was perfect, I prefer sweet potatoes sweet to savory (i.e. with butter and brown sugar to ketchup or salsa) and this was the perfect blend.  Plus I loved how much it looked like a papaya 😉

I spent my afternoon cleaning, confirming that I don’t have skin cancer, and running errands; all whilst listening to Regina Spektor, who(m?) I’m obsessed with.  I did not get ready for our trip tomorrow, but that’s what tomorrow is for, right?

Dinner was supposed to be a bean burger recipe that Allison of Green Dog Wine raved about.  But one of the reasons I’m obsessed with Allison is that she does cool things like go out to restaurants in the middle of the week, so when the husband begged for suggested Cheesecake Factory I wasn’t too hard to convince.

The best thing about CF is the bread.

I had one slice of each type.  As well as one of the husband’s avocado eggrolls.

For dinner I went with the spicy cashew chicken.

This meal is sooooooo unhealthy but we got to CF like once a year so I’d rather get my favorite thing.

I only ate half of my meal though, because I knew we were ordering dessert.

White chocolate caramel macadamia cheesecake.

The husband and I split it, minus the whip cream.

It was great to go on the mid-week date with the husband!  And my food was delicious, but honestly when it was all said and done I wished I had just ordered a salad.  I’m finding it’s harder to enjoy “splurges” when everything I eat is unhealthy (duh!).  I am so ready to get back to the old me!

Veggies eaten today: 1.5cups, not exactly killing this goal

What is your favorite item from the Cheesecake Factory?

Better News

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Good morning, good morning, good morning!!  I am in a blissfully good mood today.  The good news from the other day can’t even touch this morning’s.

  • You know that thing I’ve been worrying about but can’t really blog about?  It’s been dealt with, finally, and I can stop freaking out.
  • THIS MORNING I DROPPED OFF OUR SECURITY DEPOSIT FOR OUR NEW APARTMENT!!!!  I didn’t want to blog about it until it was a sure thing, but in July we are going to flee this hell-hole and move into a fabulous new spot that just happens to be walking distance from my new school! 

The not so good news is that my leg (where the fracture was/is) has been hurting so I had to cancel my run.  But there’s nothing that’s going to get me down today; I threw on a 20minute playlist and did strength/stretch moves on my yoga mat.

It feels so good to get the lead out!

Breakfast didn’t get eaten until after 10:45.  I was starving and it was satisfying.

0% Oikos Greek Yogurt with a chopped plum and a drizzle of maple syrup. 

Plums are actually my very favorite Greek yogurt mix-in.

On the agenda for today?

  • a shower, duh!
  • trip to the post office
  • doctor’s appointment for a skin check
  • eat 2.5cups of veggies!

How often do you get a skin check?  Why do you (or don’t you) think it’s important?  Everyone should get a skin check yearly, but since I have a history of skin cancer in my family, and a lot of sun damage from my island childhood, I try to go every 6months.

I Take It Back

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Please disregard my pumpkin yogurt advice from this morning.  I’ll certainly never be eating it again.  I appears I have food poisoning.  Good times today, good times.  No real post, obviously, but I hope to be back tomorrow.

What was the last food that made you sick?  Any plans on eating it ever again?  I don’t really want to see canned pumpkin for a looooong time.