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!