Weekend Warrior

So happy it is Saturday! Oddly, I wake up earlier on Saturdays and Sundays than I do during the week.

Back to yesterday... I had a walnut and black cherry cliff bar for pre/post workout fuel:

These bars are way calorie-dense; 250 in each one! So, I split it up, and it held me over very well.

The gym:

• 30 minutes arc trainer, weight loss intervals level 8 (LOVE this thing!)
• 20 minutes stationary bike, level 13

After the gym I ran some errands, and picked up some pre-packaged foods I used to LOVE before I became more sodium conscious. At Target they have really good gnocchi and pastas from Archer Farms that taste great, and aren't that bad in terms of fat and calories. Sodium is a completely different story, however. Most of those boxes have 2-3 servings, with about 40-60% of your daily sodium intake PER SERVING. Way too much considering A) carbs are not going to fill you up on their own, and B) the portions are so tiny, you'll probably eat more than just one serving.

So, I decided to get some tweak them to be more low sodium. My first experiment:

The skinny:

1. 2 servings per box (it actually turned out to be a LOT of gnocchi!)
2. 300 calories, 2.5 grams of fat per serving, so only 600 cals and 5 grams of fat per box
3. 34% of your daily sodium, or 68% per box

What I decided to do to make this healthier in terms of nutrients and lower sodium was to

1. Use only HALF the seasoning packet (where all the salt was)
2. Use REAL mushrooms

I know what you're thinking, without the seasoning there will be no flavor. Wrong! I added fresh mushrooms to add a pop of flavor, and I knew that adding a little real salt and pepper would be healthier than the preservative laden seasonings.

I followed the directions exactly on the box, except halved the seasonings and tossed in my chopped mushrooms at the very end to steam and spread some flavor. Plus some fresh ground pepper!

It was a success! I had about 1.5 servings, and found it be really flavorful. I expect I only got about 1/4 of the sodium in the box (17% of my daily value) because I wound up with only about half the sauce I made:

I didn't get hungry for a snack before I picked up Kyle at 3. He had great news when I got him... his advisor gave him the go ahead to write his thesis! So he'll write for about 2 weeks and start looking for a committee, and he'll be wrapped up in May!

We celebrated with some beer and sushi :-) I had a HUGE red stripe and some Killian's Irish Red, yum! Dinner was ordered in from Hanami in town... not the most amazing sushi, but they deliver and are very fast.

We split the spicy maki combo:

A spicy salmon roll, a spicy california roll, and a spicy tuna roll

The Yaki Udon noodles with chicken:

My plate:

I had 1/3 the udon, 3 pcs. of each roll, and a seaweed salad for some greenery. YUMMY!

This morning I woke up at 8am and hit the gym. I thought about doing a light workout of walking on the treadmill because my legs are sore (in a good way!) from the arc trainer. But I decided I would rather walk outside in our gorgeous weather. So I took a shower and headed home and here I am!

For breakfast I had risotto. I know, I know. Not exactly the breakfast of champions, but we are completely out of food!

I had half of this, and now I am hoping Kyle will get up soon and we can go have an adventure!