Leftovers

Well here it is hump day Wednesday and I'm working through the third or so serving in several of my bulk meals for the week. I stayed with the bananas today for a repeat of Monday's breakfast: Nutri-Grain waffles with apricot preserves and bananas. A couple of hours later prior to hitting the elliptical machine for my required 45-minutes, I snacked on a snack-size Breakstone cottage cheese and a pickle.


Today's work out was GREAT! I'm finding it a little easier each day to make it through those 45 minutes. Lately, I've been struggling through the last 15, but today it didn't seem so bad. In fact, I really enjoyed sweating buckets. It feels great to be doing this! Oh yeah, I also completed 10 sets of 10 dumbbell routines.

Lunchtime saw my final helping for cool cucumber soup, and to change things up a bit I added a turkey and greens flatbread sandwich with mustard and 10 cherries. As my Mom always says, cherries have loads of antioxidants.



Dinner also saw my final helping of my turkey chili with black beans and corn (and a nectarine about an hour later). Again, I forgot to photograph it, but tomorrow I'll be making shrimp gazpacho with tomatoes and it is SO SO GOOD! I already prepped some quinoa tabbouleh as a side (ended up having a quarter cup tonight after all the prepping and tasting) and some kale chips tonight (will share soon!). I'll have related photos and links tomorrow, and maybe even a dessert.

Drum roll please ... and here are today's totals. Let me not forget to mention that I had some of Jane's low-carb popcorn after lunch. I have to get into a better routine of including my snacks on each blog post AND sharing my daily totals.

Calorie goal 1,210-1,560: 1,343
Fat goal 32-57: 32
Carbohydrates goal 164-237: 205
Protein goal 60-128: 82

By the way, Siggi's grapefruit yogurt is a bit tart. I don't think it's one of my favorites. Vanilla is still number one, but I think it's me and blueberry tonight.

Cheers!

Go Green!

This morning I had a job interview, so I decided to load up at breakfast. Can anyone tell me if it's appropriate to have 608 calories at breakfast. Anyhow, it was tasty and well worth. I didn't want to be starving after my 11am interview, forcing me to scrounge for something at a nearby fast food place. So I had my usual Cheerios with fresh blueberries, but indulged in a multi-grain flatbread with Ghee and bananas. I felt really full afterward and ready to take on the day.


Working out would have to wait, since I left at 9:45am this morning to make sure I made it to my location well in advance. It's funny, it always took at least an hour to go anywhere in New York City. It's a bit different in Chicago, traffic post-rush hour is much more easy breezy and I almost always find myself with an extra 30 minutes on my hands. Once the interview was over, I headed over to Starbucks for an iced tall skinny vanilla latte, my favorite. Since I had my meals plan ready for the day, I figured 70 calories wouldn't hurt me.

Lunchtime featured a repeat of yesterday's (July 12) with cool cucumber soup with avocado, but this time I added a herb-lettuce salad, cherry tomatoes, carrots and two tablespoons of roasted red pepper hummus. Totally yummy and satisfying. Green must be the color of the day ... just check out my meal with my placemat. Gotta give a shout out to my beloved alma mater, Michigan State University, too.


Today's workout arrived before dinner, as I headed downtown for *FREE* yoga courtesy of Whole Foods. The hour-long class was first-come first-serve and it filled up pretty quickly. The view, WOW! AMAZING! Doing yoga outside, let alone on a roof of a high-rise with the blue sky completely wide open, it was really lovely. While I didn't burn as many calories as I would with the elliptical trainer, this yoga session was a good break. I will definitely be going back next week!


Dinner also included a repeat of yesterday's dish: turkey chili with corn and black beans. Since Ryan is away in NYC all week for week, I prepared meals that would last me all week. Turkey chili is really tasty and filling. Add in some summer fruit salad and voila, a yummmmy dinner.



And Siggi's Icelandic Yogurt will be joining me again as a late night snack ... last's night vanilla was absolutely perfect. Tonight it's just me and grapefruit.

.. and I don't have to feel too guilty. I did go over three points in my carbs, but met all of my calorie, protein and fat goals for today. WOO!

Challenges

My Mom and sister came to visit Ryan and I last weekend and it was a blast! Definitely one of the best times I've had in Chicago so far. But when it comes to the weekend, juggling different plans with my calorie count can be a bit challenging to say the least. I wuss out.

It's not that I go totally gorge out on junk food or that I ignore my diet altogether. It's just that I struggle with keeping up with logging in (and blogging about) my fitness and nutrition accomplishments. Most weekends I don't work out and I don't chart my meal plans. This isn't good. When my Mom and sister were here, Ryan and I did make a pretty tasty meal plan for Friday lunch (chicken panini sandwiches with prosciutto and roasted red pepper, pasta salad and fruit salad), but we ate out three times: Friday night dinner, Saturday lunch and Saturday dinner. Saturday lunch was a bit special, as our neighborhood of Roscoe Village was hosting the first annual Burger Fest. It was AWESOME! And to my surprise, the burgers served were mini burgers, so I didn't feel guilty about indulging in a margherita burger (mozzarella, basil and tomato) and sweet potato fries.



Saturday night also got away from us, as we were both tuckered out from the day at Navy Pier, plus the humidity and summer heat, to grill out for dinner. Plus it started raining. We opted for some tasty thin crust pizza from Frasca.

But here we are again, and it's Monday! I rocked the elliptical for 45 minutes this morning and completed 10 sets of 10-count dumbbell exercises. For breakfast, I had two Nutri-Grain Eggo waffles with one tablespoon of apricot preserves and slices of from one banana.


Lunchtime included cool cucumber with avocado soup, a cup of pasta salad and multi-grain flatbread with a fourth cup part-skim mozzarella cheese. Really tasty and satisfying. I almost didn't add the cheese sandwich, but I was struggling with my protein intake since the soup was so low in calories.


After some errands and a stop at Whole Foods for some more kale, dinner featured one and one-fourth cups of turkey chili with corn and black beans (forgot to take a photo). I originally thought I had logged this on my sparkpeople profile ahead of time, so when I went to check my daily totals (protein, fat, carbs and calories), I thought I was way under for what was required, so I ended up noshing on two over roasted turkey slices, seven cherries, and a small bit of chocolate. To me, it was kind of mish-mash, even though I tried going for things that were healthy and heavy on the protein.

I still might top my night off with some vanilla Siggi's yogurt and a nectarine. I'm such a dessert fanatic. Anyhow, with that, I will make all required totals for today!

Job interview tomorrow! Wish me luck!

ps... I almost forgot! I was showing my Mom how Wii Fit works on Saturday morning and I went through a bunch of exercises and showed her the Body Test. I LOST TWO POUNDS!!!! My first sign that all of this stuff is actually starting to pay off. I'm in between 149 and 150 pounds. Go me!