Ithaca, I hardly knew you.

I am le tired. That was quite a jam-packed 72 hour trip complete with 12 hours of driving.

But I had a great time; I love Kyle's family, everyone is so nice and welcoming :-)

We left DC around 3:30, sure we were going to hit traffic heading out of the metro area since it was almost rush hour on a Friday. We actually hit no real problem areas other than a few quick bottle necks, whew! As we drove, I snacked on some trail mix mixed with granola:

And later on, I had a banana:

We didn't stop for dinner until almost 8... I was DYING! We hardly ever eat that late. Because of where we were, there were very few options of where to eat to begin with, let alone healthy options. However, I knew all week that for both 6 hour drives we would have to stop for meals, and that most likely the food would not be good for me. Luckily keeping that in mind kept me on my toes this week :-)

We wound up at Wendy's, where I had a spicy chicken sandwich (no mayo) and a side salad with balamic vinegar. I was very happy to see that Wendy's actually has nutrition info posters hanging up by the counter. My meal was not bad, ~500 calories and 13 g of fat, but the sodium... yeah, let's not go there.

I ate the whole sandwich and all the veggies dipped in a bit of dressing (it was creamy balsamic, which I don't like).

We went to Starbucks, too, and I got another grande skim awake tea latte. Sorry, no photo!

Once we got to Tom's house, it was 10pm. But nobody knows how to party like Uncle Tom (self-proclaimed), so we found a wine tasting set up for us! Tom makes a lot of his own wine, some from juices he buys locally and others from juice he makes from picking local fruit. YUM. I tasted 4 varietals before settling on a glass of elderberry wine:

This stuff had been fermenting for JUST FOUR DAYS, but it was great! A little sweeter than I normally like, but the complexity and pop of flavor after only 4 days was unbelievable.

The next morning Tom cooked us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs with asparagus in a wrap and Adirondack red potatoes, with OJ and coffee on the side:

Those potatoes were AB FAB. Tom is given seeds to plant from Cornell's Ag school, and always winds up with interesting spuds. One year he gave us all different kinds of potatoes for Christmas! These were dry roasted with no seasoning, and were like a yam, but more flavorful.

I only ate half of my whole breakfast; my body was not hungry and seemed very confused at why I was eating for the first time that day at 10am. It rebelled. Luckily, Kyle took care of it for me.... :-)

The plan for Saturday was to go wine tasting, so we hit up a few places:

• Atwater Estates
• Red Newt
• Chateau Lafayette
• Wagner Winery and Spirits

Honestly, I didn't really like a ton of them. We had 4-5 tastes per place, and nothing really stuck out. Atwater did have a food pairing of chicken chili with their Vidal Blanc:

The chili was good, and the Vidal Blanc was mostly tempting because if you bought one bottle for $10, you got a second one free. We passed.

The Red Newt was much more interesting; it had a young staff and a large,open and modern tasting room. Their wines were also pretty decently priced, so we wound up with two bottles from there, the Blue Newt White and the Red Newt White. Neither Kyle or I care much for whites, but these had a very subtle yet distinct fruit flavor and was just right.

We then went to Wagner, which has wine and beer tastings. Kyle and I hit up the beer tasting, which was really good!

We got to taste 7 of their 9 beers (two were seasonal), and a special .50 taste of their tripplebock:

I liked everything but he IPA, which I don't think I'll ever enjoy. Too hoppy! My favorite was the Mocha porter:

It was just like a cold espresso shot. Mmmmmm......

All afternoon we had the odd cracker or two while tasting, but I had some honey bunnies packed in my bag just in case:

At 3:30, my stomach was seriously p.o.'ed. It was asking when I was planning on feeding it something other than wine and oyster crackers. I kindly asked the group if we could start heading towards lunch, and we began our descent to the southern tip of Lake Cayuga, stopping at Chateau on the way. Blah winery, blah wine.

Finally, however, at about 4:15 we got to our dinner destination, Jerlando's Pizza in Watkin's Glen!! We have gone here almost every time we've been to Ithaca together, and it is fabulous! I am not a big pizza fan, but I love me some pasta, and meat tortellini with alfredo sauce is my weakness. I could NOT wait!

Sadly, we pulled up to see all the windows boarded up. Nooooooo! Upon further inspection, however, we found that the back part was still open for pick up; the front was only closed for renovations. We all began to breathe easier.

Haha, for dinner we ordered garlic knots, BBQ wings, medium-hot wings, tortellini with alfredo sauce, and a pepperoni pizza to go.

However, it would be about 20 minutes until everything was ready, so Tom thought we should head over to a bar nearby. You know, why not?

So off we went to the Crooked Rooster Brewpub. There we had one of the best beer samplers ever!

The IPA and the Hop Warrior were the very first IPA's that I found drinkable.... every single one of those guys was great! I highly recommend Rooster Fish brews if you ever find them. I had a sip or two of each, letting Kyle and Tom finish the rest.

When we got home, this was our yummy dinner spread:

I had no pizza, 3 wings, and a TON of tortellini. Yuuuuummmmy! I love alfredo sauce, but not if it's oily. This sauce was nice and creamy, delicious!

After dinner we digested for a while before heading to the moe. show. I love moe.; I've only seen them once before and was happy to see them again. If you like jam bands, you'll like moe. If you are new to jam bands, you'd like to start with moe. because they are very easy to listen to and great live.

I have to say I preferred my first experience from 6 years ago, but the State Theater in Ithaca was a fantastic venue. The best part was that it was open admission so you could move around and stand as you wanted to. It was fun, mostly because it was Tom's first time seeing/hearing them :-).

When we got home from the show, I crashed because I was tired after drinking and having little nutritious food all day. Also, I knew we had a long drive Sunday and that we would be on the road by 10am. Sigh.

Luckily, we woke up to yet another great breakfast a la Uncle Tom:

Blueberry waffles and sausage with some OJ on the side. The waffles were from scratch, and good road fuel! I think the blueberries made me want more, so when we stopped for coffee a little into the drive I opted for a smoothie:

I also wanted this because I had ZERO fruit on Saturday, so by drinking 2/3s of this I got about 2 servings of fruit right there (each Naked has two portions in it). This was okay, but a little too sweet. I kind of want to try the green one, now.

For lunch we went to Friendly's. There was no point in trying to be healthy; all of the salad dressings are atrocious and the lettuce is iceberg (no nutritional value there!). So, it was one of the fried or greasy options. I had chicken tenders and a chocolate sundae:

It was bad, but oh so good.

We didn't eat until 2pm, so once again, my stomach was about ready to pack up and leave it was so mad at me. It's so mad, that now, at 7pm it still is refusing food. It has no interest in further nourishment as punishment to my body for my mistreating it all weekend. Oops.

I am happy to be home; I really missed having control over my diet for two whole days. But now I am happy relaxing in my ratty old UConn sweatshirt, admiring my new artwork:

Road trip!!

Hey guys! Happy weekend!

Today is a busy one, I am trying to clean and pack-up for a mini-break to Ithaca, NY this weekend.

But first, what did I eat last night?

I packed some trail mix mixed honey bunnies and a banana for my 4:30 class:

I only picked out the trail mix during class... I wasn't feeling very hungry.

After class, I did something, something BAD. I went to.... MCDONALDS :-)

I had a mighty kids double cheeseburger meal, and passed on the soda. Was cheaply delicious, and I don't feel bad about it. I have eaten really well all week, and I wanted a burger for dinner. So, I went for my quickest, cheapest option (McDonalds > a sit down place) and instead of getting a huge quarter pounder or a big mac, I got the kids meal. By doing that I got my burger craving taken care of in a smaller portion. And for less fat/calories than Noodles :-)

I think that a lot of diet problems have to do with people cutting themselves off from certain foods. Think about it; you try to eat nothing but fruits and veggies, minimal carbs, and lean meats. You don't have a lot of sugar, cheese, sodium, white carbs, etc. And when a craving hits for ice cream or mac and cheese, you suppress it. You suppress it and suppress it until you give in and go OVER-BOARD. Next thing you know, you have eaten 1/2 gallon of ice cream or a box of kraft. I think that is incredibly unhealthy; and not because of what is being consumed. It's unhealthy to keep your body from getting things it wants and you deserve. That's why I want to practice smart cravings, where I get better at tracking what I want to eat, and allowing myself a small portion of it. I know that if I keep telling myself no, I'll regret it when I finally do give in and binge.

Alright, getting off my soapbox.

After my burger run, I went to pick up part of Ky's birthday present. He turns 25 (+3) next week, so I went to pick him up a variety of beers at Corridor. Last night he started with his current fave, Rogue American Amber Ale, and I split a bottle with him before bed.

It was rough getting up this morning, but I really wanted to hit up the gym so I had a total of 5 workouts this week. I snacked on a Luna bar for breakfast:

I did 40 blissful minutes on the bike while reading... I left my iPod in the car and knew I would have trouble doing top speeds without a fast beat so no elliptical today.

When I got home, I had my leftover banana from yesterday:

See all that laundry in the background? Fun, fun! ;-)

For lunch was another delicious soy chorizo bowl:

This was foreman grilled 2 tbsp soy chorizo and onion mixed with black lentils and leftover green beans. This was GREAT. It had such a great flavor, and was filling because of the lentils!

Alright guys, signing off for a few days. I won't have internet access in Ithaca, so there will be a MEGA POST on Sunday.

Have a great weekend!

Thirsty Thursday....

I have been dying of thirst ever since I woke up this morning! It's really funny, because when I am really thirsty the thing I want most is MILK, not H2O. Interesting...

So, for breakfast I munched on a Luna bar (yay peppermint!) and had a 12 oz pour of milk.

I decided not to go to the gym today; my body was just not feeling it today. I think it might be because I worked out really hard for three days in a row, and my body just needs a rest day so I don't burn out. Therefore, I decided to run a few errands on foot. I went on a 2.5 mile walk to the post-office and to get some coffee this morning. My pace was just brisk enough to get my heart pumping, and feel a slight burn on my thighs.

When I got to 7-11, I was warmed-up enough from my walk that I didn't want hot coffee, so I went for an alternative:

I heart these! It's a starbucks double-shot vanilla flavored coffee. The can does have two servings, at 220 calories and 2.5 g of fat per can. They are also a great source of Vitamin C (50%) and calcium(40%).

I also had the water x2 when I got home for hydration purposes :-)

When I got back from my walk, I wanted to find some exercise to do on my mat. So, I went to one of my favorite sites, self! I used to get the magazine all the time, but I have found that the website is pretty comprehensive, and puts most of the magazine articles online asap.

My favorite part of the site is actually the recipe section! One great resource is searching for recipes by ingredients, so if you have a minimal pantry, there is something out there to try that is healthy!

When I went to the fitness section I went through a few pages of recent articles, and found something I wanted to try, a set of Jillian Michaels' (Biggest Loser) exercises.

Um, wow! I loved this set of exercises! This morning all I did was watch the accompanying video so I could see exactly how each move was to be performed. I did 3-5 reps of all 9 moves as the video went through them just to see how I did. Haha, some require good balance... yeah, I'll have to work extra hard to get those! There are options for "cardio bursts" in between sets, but I would probably just work through the sets sans cardio.

I plan to give these a more in depth try tonight when I get home from class.

I forced myself to eat lunch at 12; I really was not hungry but knew I needed to eat throughout the day due to my inopportune class tonight. The class is 4:30-7:15, and I usually eat dinner by 6:30 (yeah, old person in a young body!), so I need to be sure I have a solid lunch and snack leading up to that.

Sorry for the blurry image; the sandwich was peppercorn turkey, hummus, hot sauce, and greens on whole grain wheat bread, an apple, and blueberries with a yo Crunch cheesecake yogurt on top. I ate it all, and the only thing I would change is MORE HOT SAUCE :-)

Alright, well I'm off to read some for my seminar paper, then off to class. Check ya later!

Happy Humpday!

Hello, hello!

I had a pretty big breakfast today compared to my usual pre-workout meals:

One egg + one egg white and splash of milk microwaved and topped with tomatoes and cholula, and a cut up banana with ketchup + hot sauce. The eggs were eh. The chorizo really helps out the lack of butter and frypan action!

At the gym today I did my usual 20 minutes on the elliptical followed by 20 on the bike. I kind of want to change that up, but those machines are ALWAYS free, so maybe I should just keep a good thing going?

I hit up Marshalls and Target after the gym to find a few things for the house, and in Marshalls I did great... well, great for me, not in terms of things for the house ;-).

I have a yoga mat, but it is really cheap and thin and not great for stretching or doing any floor exercise when I'm at home (we have hardwood floors). So, I saw a nice, thick, exercise mat for cheap that I picked up:

Empower!!! I did a couple of light excercise when I got home to try it out :-)

I also got a pair of shoes...

I do a lot of walking around, and wanted to get something more practical/comfortable for my feet than my usual flats. So, I started shopping for ballerina sneakers, but couldn't find any stylish enough or that fit into my price range. Tucked away at Marshall's were those... from J-41 ecodesign. They were only $15 (waaay marked down), and had only one pair left in exactly my size. Not too shabby!

After my successful shopping, I headed home for lunch. Even though it had been almost 4 hours since breakfast, and I had worked out hard today, I was not super hungry when I got home. But, I had a craving!!

I wanted meat. In the past few weeks I have noticed two things 1) I really crave meat, and 2) I can track my cravings much more easily. You know when you are super hungry, but you can't tell if you are really hungry or bored, or even what you really want to eat? I am now pretty good at figuring out what I am craving and hungry for, and today, again, it was for meat.

But alas, we had no meat. Just chicken and soy chorizo. So, I got creative for lunch. First I mixed 2 tbsp of chorizo+juices, a chunk of diced onion, and my leftover veggies from yesterday:

I then put the mix into a little tinfoil pouch and put in the foreman for about 10 minutes.

When it was all done, I dumped my chorizo-veggies on top of a bed of greens and tomatoes:

I had some hummus + cholula on the side, but I didn't need it. The juices from my chorizo topping were more than enough for a salad dressing.

This was really, really good. I loved it. And it was super healthy; all veggies and soy with no extras! I highly recommend this. Maybe the foreman isn't so bad, or is it?

This lunch also held me over for a long time, about 4 hours! It was so filling, I only needed a small handful of trail mix:

For dinner I grilled some chicken tenders that had been marinating in Italian salad dressing all day. I made Kyle a salad with it, and myself a plate of brown rice, steamed green beans and cut up chicken tenders:

The chicken didn't turn out so good, it was almost sour. I wonder if the chicken or dressing was bad? Gross!

So, I had a brat for my dinner protein:

Twas great!

And some yummy vino:

I really like this (I am sipping as I blog!), it is very light but still has a nice flavor to it. I goes right from the tip of your tongue to the back of your mouth.

So, I'm off to continue sipping and watch a movie!

It's been a loooong day!

Let's rewind back to yesterday afternoon! As predicted, lunch did not hold me over well, so at 1pm I made a snack:

It was a jazz apple sliced thinly with 2 tbsp of crunchy PB. I tossed it in the microwave for 30 seconds because the PB had been in the fridge, and it was delish! I really like it, and the PB was filling enough that I only ate half of my plate

For dinner we went to Hard Times Cafe, yuuuumm! Espescially because today was $5 burger night, where any burger was up for grabs at a great deal! I got the peppercorn bacon burger with jack cheese. I ate it sans bun, and substituted a salad for fries. The burger was SO GOOD, it came with two strips of bacon on top and onion rings. I gave the rings to Kyle, but otherwise ate it all :-). I was too full to eat my salad. I also had a specialty draft (it was happy hour, and all pours were half-off... there is something to be said for being an early bird diner at times!).

When we got home from dinner and the grocery store, I had fruit serving #2:

A 100 calorie yo Crunch yogurt with some blueberries mixed in (yes, my fruits today were little servings, but I'm doing my best!!). I snacked on that while I unpacked the groceries. We had a very small trip because we are going out of town this weekend, and since I have two night classes it'll be hard to cook at home.

Produce:

• spring mix
• grape tomatoes
• blueberries
• apples
• bananas

See? I'm really trying with the fruit thing ;-)

Poultry/Deli:

• cracked pepper turkey breast (we'll see if it is as good as the fresh sliced stuff!)
• plain hummus
• chicken tenders

Dry goods:

• Trail mix
• Luna Bars
• Balance protein bar

On to today...

I have been up and at 'em since early, and did a ton of stuff today!

I hit up the gym first, and had another great workout. I love how after only three weeks (as of yesterday!) of going to the gym, I can feel how much stronger I am. Today I did elliptical sprint intervals:

• 5 minute warm-up (I was at about 6.0 mph)
• 5-5:30 sprint as fast as you can! (9.2 mph was my high, it fluctuated)
• 5:30-7 return to normal speed
• 7-7:30 sprint!
• etc, etc until you reach 20 min or however long you want

As you get used to sprints, you can adjust the sprint time to be longer, and the rest intervals to be shorter.

After 20 minutes of that, I enjoyed 20 more on the stationary bike. I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Yes, after over a decade, I am finally trying them out. They really aren't so bad; not entirely my thing, but I can dig parts of the plot!

Today was a work day on campus, so I packed a ton of food to have with me throughout the day:

• spring mix salad with goat cheese, tomatoes, one piece of pepper turkey, balsamic vin
• 3 tbsp of trail mix
• fiber one bar (the last one!)
• balance bare trail mix bar
• apple
• banana

I had the fiber one bar on our way to campus, happy to be done with those! I then ate my apple on my walk across campus after the gym.

Lunch was my salad... the pepper turkey is GREAT! unlike the freshly sliced deli kind, this has pepper throughout the meat. I loved it! Must check out nutritional info and see how much it varies from the deli kind though... might be too good to be true!

At about 1pm I broke into my snacks while I was in the library (shhh! don't tell!). I loved the dried fruit and nut mix, very tasty! It also helped that I didn't bring the entire bag, because otherwise I would have pounded it.

Then at 3:30, I decided to eat part of the Balance bar as I walked to a meeting. BAD IDEA. I nearly threw up this thing tasted to bad! I don't even know what it tasted like, but it sure wasn't granola or trail mix! I tossed it, and ate my banana instead.

Two days with two servings of fruit :-)

For dinner I was craving pasta, but SINCE WE ARE ON DAY 24 WITHOUT AN OVEN, we headed to Noodles & Co. My favorite thing to get is the Wisconsin Mac & Cheese, but I had to turn it down. If you go to the site, they have very detailed nutritional information, and even though it is not surprising, the Mac & Cheese is bad news. I know, I know, I had a really healthy day, but since we are going out of town this weekend I know I will have very little control over what I eat and drink, so I want to be very calorie conscious up until the weekend so that I can enjoy without over-indulging myself.

So, I went for my second favorite:

The Bangcock Curry. I love this stuff... lots of veggies and a very flavorful sauce. On the side I also had a Cucumber and Tomato Salad (otherwise known as a Greek salad):

It was all great, I ate every last bite! Not bad for ~600 calories, 13 g of fat... the only problem again is sodium... 1000mg for one meal is A LOT. According to health.gov, the average person should only consume 1500mg of sodium per day.... luckily I had a low sodium day all around. If you think 1000mg sounds like a lot, check out what your favorite Noodle bowl might be hiding...

Haha, sorry to be such a sodium bandit, but it is EVERYWHERE, and is very good at hiding. I know that sodium is bad, yet is very popular in frozen dinners, chain restaurants, and in daily seasonings. Therefore, when I have a little more time to breathe sodium will be one of the first health issues I look into see why it is bad, why it is good, and what the best course of action is to deal with it.

Well, I am pooped. I just got out of a class that ended at 9:45 and I am ready to call it quits for the night.

See ya!

Somebody has a case of the Monday's...

But it's not me!

I had a great start to my day with a good workout; I felt really strong today. I got on the elliptical and tore it up, barely dropping below 6.5 mph as my speed for my 20 minutes :-) It felt great!

When I use the elliptical, I opt for one with moving arms on it, even though these seem to be the most popular at my gym:

I don't really like them because I like to have my arms pumping when I work out. Also, I have noticed that it is not very good for form. I see a lot of people grabbing onto the bars, and hunching over as they work out. I can see the bracing as helpful for speed, but what about your back? Out of the 20 or so people on those guys today, only an handful were either standing/leaning with their backs straightened out.

I prefer something like this guy right here:

I have noticed in the past three weeks that my back feels better after using this machine 4-5 times a week. When I use it, I feel my body needing to be straight and tall because as I am working my lower body, I am also pulling back on the moveable arms. I feel my shoulder blades opening as I work out now, and I also notice my overall posture to be improving.

After my usual 20 minutes on the elliptical, I turn to the bike for another 20 (sans TV):

I really like stationary bikes, mostly because I can't read while I'm on any other gym equipment! The constant bouncing paired with needing to turn pages while trying to hold on is too much. So, I usually rock out the iPod and then switch to a book or magazine on the bike.

So, after my GREAT workout, I took a nice, long, hot shower and headed home. I was RAVENOUS because I only had one of these pre-work out:

We have an almost bare fridge and cupboard, so I had to break into frozen stuff for lunch!

I had a lean cuisine quesadilla with steamed veggies for lunch. I do NOT advocate eating frozen "healthy" dinners often, but this was an emergency!

Sure, the packaging LOOKS nice, but check out the nutrition. They lure you in with 280 calories, and 8 grams of fat only. However, this is a tiny little guy of a quesadilla, so you'll be begging for more when you're done. ALSO, look at the sodium content: 29% of your daily value. This is exactly why these meals are a bad idea; despite being low in fat and calories, they are still loaded with preservatives because they are cheap, frozen food products that need to be preserved and flavored as cheaply as possible. Hello, salt!

I honestly hardly eat these things, but when it's all you got, it's all you got! It would seriously be healthier to make your own quesadilla with fresh veggies, part-skim cheese, and a whole wheat tortilla. Your cholesterol levels will thank you.

In addition to my sodium full lunch, I had a side of steamed veggies. They were plain veggies, as in no sauce and no seasoning. I bought those instead of the tempting asian seasoned veggies, or the lightly sauced ones because it is the same problem as the lean cuisine dinners... sodium, sodium, sodium!

But, I didn't want them to be bland, so I mixed up my own asian dressing of 2 tsp Mirin, 1 tsp low sodium soy sauce, and 2 tsp rice wine vinegar:

I love this simple little sauce; to make it sweeter add more mirin, to sour it add more rice wine vinegar. I added a little soy sauce, but once again, we know that is a sodium gold mine!

Considering my long, sweaty workout this am, this is a tiny little lunch. That is a salad size plate, which shows just how tiny that quesadilla is! After 30 minutes, I can already tell I'll need a snack soon. Definitely not a satisfying lunch :-(

New Thing--> WEEKLY CHALLENGE!

I've decided that every week I am going to give myself a weekly diet-based challenge.

This week, I have decided to:

Eat Two Servings of Fruit a Day

I hate fruit, but I can't deny that it's good for you. This past week I had a banana or apple a day, so now I'm ready to try and go for two.

Wish me luck!

Alright, well I am off to get a ton of reading done before I pick up Kyle and head to the store.