Home Sweet Home

Today's title obviously refers to my parents' house in Fenton, Michigan, but to my new Chicago abode as well. Anyhow, I had a fantastic week-long visit (June 27-July 4) with the family and had plans to blog about it daily and log everything at Spark People, but as John Lennon said, life happens when you're making other plans.

Maintaining my diet and a regular exercise schedule wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be when I was with my parents. My Mom has recently started working out again, so she and I exercised together. I completed two miles on the treadmill from Monday through Thursday and also added various dumbell curls and routines for a set of 50 lifts. My Dad's Ab-Lounger also came in handy for crunches.

In addition, my Mom and Dad belong to a community garden, thus we were eating red leaf lettuce every day for both lunch and dinner. My Mom also buys salmon and chicken from the UNFI Co-Op, so having options for meals was much easier than anticipated. I stayed true to my diet except for a few meals out ... like grilled cheese, tomato and bacon from Big Boy. Once my sister arrived home, we got into my Dad's snacks, like vanilla Oreo's or some potato chips. I don't feel like I overindulged too much, but once my Mom brought out the hummus plate it was all over. Grilling burgers (I had a turkey burger with mustard) and hot dogs (Koegel's hell yeah, minus the bun) was delicious. Sadly, my parents also had some leftover pop. I've been pretty religious with my water-drinking and rarely ordering pop when I am out for dinner, but I did have a few Diet Vernors.

Once back in Chicago, Ryan and I got back in gear with our meals last night, taking in some grilled corn on the cob (with parsley from my herb garden), shrimp skewers and sirloin steak. For breakfast this morning, I had an altered version of my Overnight Oats in a Jar. I'm still trying to master a balance between calories versus nutritional value and I'm at 400 calories. I'd like to shave off at least 50 more calories.

Lunch featured Butternut Squash Ravioli and a herb lettuce salad with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, two kalamata olives and balsamic vinegar. Quite satisfying!

Lastly, dinner was absolutely lovely with herb-crusted sesame chili tilapia and a red pepper and zucchini salad. I even topped off my evening with a No Pudge brownie and a few strawberries. (I have been slacking on taking photos of my meals lately.)


I'm quite thrilled with making my calorie cut of 1,320 for Tuesday. I also stayed within my means for fat, carbohydrates and protein. It's 8:02 pm ... still gearing up to work out. I'm on the lazy fence.

Until tomorrow ...