Cookies for breakfast

Today I had cookies for breakfast, and you know what? I'm not going to apologize for it. Sometimes you just need cookies for breakfast, and as long as "sometimes" isn't "every day" I think it is just fine. (Chocolate chip, if you were wondering. Homemade, by my mom. Delicious.)

Have not weighed myself lately so I have no idea where my weight is but my pants are fitting normally, so I'm guessing I'm about the same. Have been eating OK (well not this weekend, when we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday and went out for lunch then had a party at which I consumed many, many beers), but overall pretty well. Monday I ate lunch out because I was at a press check for work and did not bring anything with me. I had greek salad, falafel, and rice. Not the best thing I could have chosen but my options were limited. Yesterday I brought my lunch to work - small loaf of ciabatta bread, pesto, baby spinach, tomato & mozzarella. Delicious. I'm home today and will be eating the same thing again for my lunch (which I will make in a few - starving!). Yesterday I forgot to pack snacks and made breakfast in a rush, so that wasn't good. Breakfast ended up being two slices of whole wheat bread with Whole Foods' version of Nutella, and I scrounged up some pita chips and hummus at work for a snack, then a handful of potato chips. Tomorrow my office is going out for lunch, and then I will try to pack better for Friday.

I have recently discovered Laloo's goat milk ice cream, have you heard of it? They have it at Whole Foods, I'm not sure if it's at regular grocery stores. It's super expensive (about $7.50 and it's the size of a Ben & Jerry's) but is amazing. I bought two while they were on sale - one chocolate, one vanilla. Seriously amazing. And has far fewer calories than B&J's or Haagen Dazs, etc - about 140-160 instead of 280. Huge difference! I'm not saying eat it every day (who could afford to??), but it's a slightly better-for-you alternative to regular ice cream. (Am also obsessed with Magnums, but they have no health benefits.)

Next week my training plan adds a fourth day of running per week, and I am ready for it! Running three days a week doesn't feel like enough. Even if the fourth day is just an easy 2 miler I'll take it. Am trying to run before work, which is tough during summer hours b/c it means getting up by 4:45 am, so I have only done it once so far (yesterday).

Pack it up, pack it in

This is my second week of packing breakfast and lunch to take to work, and already I feel like I am doing better with my eating. They serve pretty healthy food in the dining hall, but I always end up eating too much. When I'm packing my lunch I do much better with portion control.

I tried two new recipes this week. On Sunday night I made roasted cauliflower and quinoa salad and took the leftovers for lunch on Monday. The salad also had raisins and slivered almonds, a little olive oil and a bit of red wine vinegar. It was pretty good - the cauliflower was the best part! - and the leftovers were also tasty. Monday night I made lemon couscous, with whole wheat couscous, raisins, slivered almonds, chickpeas. The couscous came out pretty dry, so I added an extra drizzle of olive oil at the end and that helped. It also packed well for lunch on Tuesday. The flavors were all good.

I'm planning to make panzanella again for dinner tonight and take leftovers for lunch one day. I'm loving the fresh basil in my garden, and can't wait until my tomatoes are ready. I have one teeny tiny one so far! Speaking of my garden, this year I have two tomato plants (both full-size, one yellow), cucumber, lettuce, basil, rosemary, chives, and parsley. I may try to find an eggplant or something else to plant in the small space I have left. I think I have room for maybe 2-3 more plants. I'm really hoping the lettuce does well, and my spinach experiment last year was a big FAIL. I wish I had room for a large garden, as I love to eat fresh, home-grown veggies!

I brought Siggi's icelandic yogurt again this week, but I had picked up some frozen fruit instead of fresh strawberries this week. It was OK, but definitely not as good. I did use a fresh banana, which helped. I think I am getting sick of this breakfast so I am looking for something new to try next week.

Last week I went back to running before work, since the heat makes it unpleasant to run after work (not that it has been warm so far this week - it's been really cool actually! - but last week was very hot). I haven't actually run before work this week because I just switched to summer hours, so I would have to get up at 4:45 am to run before work and I haven't worked up to that yet. I'm off today and will be running with Joel when he gets home. I had planned to run during the morning but Joel didn't run last night (it was raining) and asked if I would run with him. 

My plan for dealing with running during summer hours will be to run on my day off (Wednesdays) and then on Fridays, when I will be going in to work at normal time (I work 7:30 am - 6 pm Mon/Tue/Thu and 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Fri). This week that didn't work out because I had to leave work at 5 last night to go to my sister-in-law's birthday dinner, so I am going in again on Friday. That's fine. I'll make it work.

Off to look for inspiration for next week's meals!

Packing lunch

This will be the first week without meals this summer. Well, actually we will have meals Tuesday and Wednesday (when there are faculty meetings), but not the rest of the week. So tomorrow I have to pack breakfast and lunch (because I never get up early enough to eat breakfast at home - I love sleeping too much).

Here is my plan for tomorrow:

Breakfast: Siggi's yogurt (it's Icelandic yogurt - similar to Greek but different texture) with 1 sliced banana, sliced strawberries, & slivered almonds

Lunch: salad - arugula w/dried cranberries, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette, 1 apple

I've been on an iced tea kick, so I made sun tea this weekend (my neighbor didn't know what that was, so I will explain in case you are unfamiliar - put several teabags in a glass jar, fill with water, and leave in the sun all day for it to steep). I will have that with lemon, and water for my drinks for the day.

My normal afternoon snack is one small Dove dark chocolate piece (the really small ones - six to a serving), but we will be celebrating my boss's birthday tomorrow and I am making sour cream chocolate chip coffee cake, so I will have a slice of that, hopefully a small one if I have any willpower.

I'm a little worried my lunch isn't substantial enough. If I have time I might heat up some chik'n to put on top, or I may add some pecans or walnuts, but just a few as they are high in calories. In the future I may bring a tablespoon of peanut butter to eat with the apple, but I forgot to get more of the unsweetened all-natural peanut butter I like when I was at Whole Foods the other day, so that will have to wait. Ooh, or maybe I will get almond butter for a change. We'll see.

Lunch ideas?

In a week or two, food service at school ends and I have to bring my own lunch again. Which, as I mentioned earlier, will be good for my waistline, but I tend to have few ideas for healthy lunches that transport well - and I end up getting a bit bored eating the same things over and over again. It's not as easy to just pack a sandwich when you don't eat meat!

I'm wondering if you have any healthy, vegetarian lunch ideas? I like salads but I get bored eating the same toppings over and over again, so if there are any yummy salad creations you like that would be great. I'd also love healthy snack ideas if you can think of any, and/or breakfasts, too, as I rarely have time to eat before I come in so I pack that up, too.

I have access to a small refrigerator and I have ice packs, so keeping stuff cold is not an issue. I do sometimes bring my pre-made soups, pastas, etc, but in the middle of summer a hot, heavy meal is sometimes the last thing I want.

Baked goods and boredom

I have realized my two biggest weaknesses when it comes to weight loss: baked goods and boredom. Boredom especially. I eat when bored, and that tends to be when I reach for crap - ice cream, chips, crackers, etc. And I don't pay attention to portion control. I can do well all day at work when I am in a structured environment and then totally blow it when I get home. I think I need to make a "no eating in front of the TV" rule. (Although we rarely eat at the dining room table, so this will take time to get used to.)

When at work, I tend to fall victim to the temptation of baked goods. The mom of one of our students is a baker and likes to bring us delicious baked goods - cupcakes, cookies, chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake - and they are all amazing. I can never seem to limit myself to just one small taste - I have to have a couple large pieces. This is true if there are baked items elsewhere as well. They are just too tempting.

My other big diet downfall is the dining hall at school. The food is really good and fairly healthy, but it's all-you-can-eat, so I have portion control problems. The temptation of going up for seconds and/or dessert is always a challenge. Luckily this is the last week of school so starting next week I will be bringing my own lunch for the summer, so that will help as I almost always eat smaller, healthier meals when I prepare them myself. It will suck to have to pay for groceries again (I usually eat breakfast and lunch at work), but my waistline will thank me.

I've been doing pretty well with running, 3-4 times per week. We ran a 4 mile race this weekend and I did an extra mile when I got home (we are training for a fall half marathon and our plan called for 5 miles on Saturday), then I did an extra 4 miles yesterday because I felt like it (Joel did 7 so I felt like a slacker even though I was doing extra). I have not been doing anything else, though, like strength training, abs, or walking, so I need to get back into that routine. Well, I did walk once, when I ended a 4 miler at the library, took out some books, and walked the mile home, but that was only the one time lately. I need to do stuff like that more - literally "run" my errands. I need to get a little backpack to make that easier.

I have an easy pork recipe I could share with you. You can roast the pork or cook it in a slow cooker, and then it has a sauce with apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. It's really easy to make and my friend's 2-year-old liked it, too. (I obviously have not tried it myself, but everyone tells me it's really good.) I also have a recipe for pork roast w/cherries that I ate before becoming vegetarian and that is really easy and good, too - also in the slow cooker. Joel and I almost never eat the same thing (me = vegetarian, he = picky), so I like to make big recipes and freeze them in individually-sized containers. That way I can just grab an already portioned meal, thaw and re-heat it, and I'm good to go. If you take a weekend and cook say 4-5 recipes and freeze them this way, it will last you a while before you have to cook again. I know you don't like soup but I will try to go through my recipes and send you any I think you'd like. Do you like mac & cheese?

Delayed post

More to come now that I've figured out how to email posts.

Written Monday May 23:

I haven't been doing great either Jen. I'll workout once in a week and then not again for another week, or just not at all. I am doing more stuff around the house so at least I'm being somewhat active. Last week was horrible with all the rain and I wanted to take Sam for a walk but it was too gross outside.

 

I also haven't bothered to weigh myself in about two weeks. I know I haven't been doing horribly, although there was a pint of Ben & Jerrys in there somewhere. Mostly I'm finding that I don't get enough calories in a day. I seem to max out around 800, or I go way over to about 2000 calories. Not good to flip flop like that at all. Scott and I never really have dinner together and I'm also not much of a cook. I can follow a recipe and have things turn out right but there are a lot of things I just don't know how to make at all, like pork tenderloin or a whole chicken. I'm a big wuss about making stuff like that, but I need to bite the bullet and start b/c Sam is starting to eat real food and I can blend up anything I make for us and give it to him. I want him to have a good diet and not be picky, or at least not as picky as I was when I was a kid.

 

So that's my story for now. I will update this more, and I mean that. It seems I always have a lot of stress and the past few weeks have not been an exception to that.

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There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.
Charles M. Schulz

Wow, that was horrifically bad.

I was doing really well, but then the last week was bad. Really, really bad. Birthday distractions led to bad choices that spiraled a bit out of control. I'll explain...

Last Wednesday was my husband Joel's birthday. That meant that Tuesday night was the family celebration at his parents' house. I ate well at work, but then had too much at dinner. Not terrible, but not good. Wednesday presented many delicious lunch options (I work at a private school that has amazing dining services that are oh-so-tempting, and free), and I ate many of them. And then had seconds of one (but the gnocchi with wild mushrooms was so delicious!). And then had dessert. All this knowing that Joel and I would be going out to dinner. I thought we'd be going to Pizza Hut, where I would not eat well but wouldn't go completely overboard.

Joel decided he wanted to go to Plan B after all. You'd think that a burger place where meat hooks are the decor would not appear to a vegetarian, but quite the contrary. I LOVE Plan B and have been wanting to go there again for a while. They have the BEST portobella burger in the world. It is truly amazing. So I had that. And we shared portobella fries and fried mozzarella for apps. And I had a beer, and french fries. And then I ordered dessert - the B Cup, a flourless chocolate cake filled with white chocolate mousse. Heaven. But way overload on calories. I ate half the burger and brought the rest home along with the dessert to go. And then proceeded to finish the burger and fries and eat half the dessert.

The following day I ate OK, not great but nothing catastrophic, but I knew I'd be going out to Wood-n-Tap with a friend that night. I studied the menu and decided I'd order the hummus plate (hummus, veggies, flatbread) app for dinner. Then I got there, and saw someone's pizza (which I didn't know they had) and ended up ordering a spinach and artichoke pizza. Oops. I ate 3 pieces (of 8) and then a 4th when I got home. Clearly too much. Then I finished my B Cup.

I haven't eaten quite as terribly since then, but I have not eaten well. I've been eating a lot, and for lunch this week I had chik'n nuggets and tator tots. Oh yeah, I broke down and got tator tots, one of my favorites and something I rarely allow myself, and for good reason - Joel does not eat them, so I end up eating them all myself. I had them again tonight, by the way (the tator tots, but sadly no chik'n nuggets - finished those), and the bag is almost empty. Oh yeah I also had a Reese's big cup and I think there was a York peppermint patty at some point, too. Also I haven't been doing any strength training, walking, or ab work lately, either. Blah.

I am very frustrated with myself. I made a few bad choices and instead of getting back on track I have just made more and more bad choices. This week I am going to concentrate on trying to get back into tracking on Sparkpeople, which not surprisingly I've been terrible about lately. Then I'll work on my diet again. I can do it, I just need to get back to my routine.

Also last week I didn't run much, which was not my fault, it was what the training plan called for, but that means I feel gross because that's what happens when I don't run enough. We ran a 5K yesterday and it was a lot of fun, although I ran my worst time ever for a 5K. But whatever, we had a good time and that's all that matters! This week we start officially training for a fall half marathon, so that will be incentive to get back on track with eating and working out. I just need to practice some self-control.