Coming Out of the Fog

Hiya dear blog friends! Well, here I am, back after a few weeks away. I promise you, I had every intention of blogging at least every other day. But as soon as I got back into it, the mother of all sinus infections took over my life. I am telling you, dudes, it was ridic! I felt pretty much out of it for two weeks, which means I did absolutely no working out. All I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket and sleep. And that I did, but toward the end, I was restless. But I did keep up with my healthy eating and here are some highlights.

Freshly-squeeze grapefruit-orange juice with turkey bacon and one egg:

Chef Meg's Tomato Soup (Spark People) with country bread and a mixed greens salad:

Sausage, Tomato, and Arugula Fettuccine (Cooking Light):

Spiced Cod with Broccoli-Quinoa Pilaf (Real Simple)

Shrimp Panzenella (Eating Well):

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili (Eating Well):

But here we are, it's another week and I'm finally getting my butt back into gear. so let's get to the present, shall well? Since getting sick, I've religiously made my own juice every week. I typically stay away from store bought juice due to the high sugar. But lately, I've only had a craving for citrus, so I've stuck with my grapefruit-orange recipe. I LOVE IT! Any juice fans out there? If so, what are your favorites?

Anyhow, for breakfast today, I had a small glass of grapefruit-orange juice and my usual iced skim latte. For the main entree, I cooked up Banana, Wheat Germ, and Oats, as featured in the January/February 2010 issue of Cooking Light. Lately, too, all I want for breakfast is something made with oats. I have always been a huge oatmeal fan, but I am super into finding new oatmeal-like recipes. This one was super easy. Top with bananas, a teaspoon of butter (I used ghee) and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Pretty yummy, although I might switch up the banana.

For lunch, Ryan and I resorted to one of our favorite cookbooks, Ellie Krieger's So Easy for her Tortellini-Spinach Soup. Love love love this one. Her recipe includes carrots, onion, celery and diced tomatoes and it's pretty hearty and filling. On the side, we had a mixed greens salad with cranberries, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, and fresh parmesan with a small dabble of Kraft's light balsamic vinaigrette.

I stuck to my regular water intake for the entire day and had zero cravings for snacks. The only thing I reached for was a dark chocolate calcium disc from Adora. This is huge, as I've been in a super-snack mood lately. When I was sick, I have to say I gave in to some of those cravings on occasion. But today was a success!

This post obviously includes a ton of magazine recipes and tonight's dinner also went that route with Real Simple's Grilled Lemon Chicken With Cabbage-Corn Slaw. Awesomely tasty! Chicken kind of bores me sometimes, but this particular recipe was zip-friendly.

Woo! I am really pleased with today's results. I even topped my evening off with 35 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of weights. Woo! It felt great pushing through some of that ... I needed that feeling, especially after my lame sinus infection. Woo! (again!) A FAB start to my week and a FAB return to my weight-loss journey... thanks so much for all your kind words and for always reading Fighting the Pudge. May you have a fantastic evening! Time for Conan! xx