YAY!!!!!

Wonder of wonders! I finally got to the gym today!!!!

We slept in (of course), but Kyle said that even though campus was closed he was going in to the office for a while. I naturally begged to tag along so I could go the gym for the first time since last Friday. I was soooo happy!

This means the snow is clearing up, which further means that:

1. I will stop sleeping until 11 every day
2. I will have three square meals a day again instead of only two and then snacking in excess
3. I can do some real cardio 4-5 times a week
4. No more sitting allllllll day!
5. My blog posts wont be so boring and a pain to write

In the past week I have gone on two 2 mile walks, and had two lengthy shoveling sessions. That's all well and good, but when you spend the rest of the day sitting on the couch that doesn't amount to much. Even before I exercised I still walked around campus, went to the grocery store, ran errands, etc.... all of that does make a difference. But I have been a lump, trapped in my house for SEVEN days.

I needed some fuel before my first workout in a week, so we headed to Atlanta Bread Co. I have never looked up their nutrition, but I know that most of their sandwiches and salads come pre-prepared, so I am confident they are full of sodium up to wazoo.

I had half a greek salad and half a california avocado sandwich:

The sandwich was okay, I liked the tomato/onion focaccia it came on, and that there was a lot of avocado. However, the avocado did not have a ton of flavor. Since I had no idea what the salad dressing was made of or how bad it was for me, I dipped my fork into it before spearing the salad:

That way you get a lot less dressing, but what you need more or less tastewise. This salad was disapointing; it had three tomato chunks on it and 1/2 cup of olives and a ton of feta. It wasn't very balanced. Oh, well!

I didn't care, because I was finally out of the house and one my way to break a sweat.

When I got the gym, I settled into my regular routine. I figured I would be slow because I had not worked out in a while, but I actually had my fastest time ever.... 2 miles in 17:55! I was pumped!!

• 20 minutes on the elliptical at level 9, random setting
• 20 minutes on the stationary bike, level 6, weight-loss interval setting
• 30 minutes on the treadmill, 3.5 mph on a 3.0 incline

Yeah, I worked out a lot today. I think it was because I was SO excited and happy to be doing something good for my body again. This week was rough in terms of being so lazy and not having quality food and too much booze; it was a relief to be back at the gym!

Look how crazy the snow is on campus! This mound is as high as the third floor of the parking deck!

Crazy, huh?

After my awesome workout, Ky and I headed to our local neighborhood grocery store, which is also an organic grocery store... My Organic Market, or MOM's.

Perishable:

• Odwalla superfood!
• Amy's breakfast burrito... my favorite frozen item ever!

Pantry:

• 3 Lunas (ONLY $.95 here!)
• Annie's cheddar bunnies
• Annie's organic 4 cheese mac and cheese
• pasta sauce
• whole wheat pasta (I have been using the dregs of our white pasta supply, so happy to have whole wheat again!)
• channa masala mixes
• Chocolate superfood packet, just to try!
• whole wheat bread (bye-bye, sour dough!)
• capers

Produce:

• bananas
• spinach
• mixed baby greens.... yesss! Salads are back!

For a snack I had 1/2 of my Odwalla, and trail mix:

For dinner, we wanted a very filling pasta sauce. I got everything ready to go, cutting up our last two jalapeno chicken sausages, 1 green pepper, half a large onion, and 3/4 tub of baby bellas:

I also measured out two 3oz servings of pasta:

In college, I used to overload on carbs all the time. Back then, I was walking a few miles to and from campus every day, and didn't spend my days sitting behind a desk. Now, however, I recognize that I can't just eat half a bag of pasta for dinner because I missed lunch.

I started to weigh it out a year or so ago, when I really started paying attention to how the serving sizes are presented in ounces instead of cups:

I know, I know. You can just divide the weight of the package by the weight of the serving size to see how many servings per bag of pasta, but I actually found it pretty eye-opening to start weighing my food and seeing just how much (or how little) a serving size can be.

I honestly thought 2-3 oz of pasta would be nothing, but it is a lot more plentiful than I thought it was... in terms of visually speaking and hunger satisfaction. My weigher was about $6 from wal-mart, and I use it frequently.

Back to dinner...

As I started the pasta to boil, I heated a skillet with 1 turn of the pan of evoo:

Once it was heated through, we put in the peppers, onions, and chicken sausages for about 5 minutes, and then added in the mushrooms, a tbsp of minced garlic, and splash of white wine:

Once the onions become translucent, and the peppers are no longer crunchy we knew it was just about done:

If this gets done before your pasta is cooked and drained, turn the heat to low so the veggies don't over cook and get soggy.

When the pasta is ready, mix in a jar of sauce:

And heat through.

Voila!

Because it was basil tomato sauce, it was a little sweeter than I would like, but still amazing because of the volume of veggies and the pasta. I mean, if you look at my plate 3 oz is a lot of pasta, it covered half the plate! This was a nutrient packed dinner because of the whole wheat pasta, the chicken sausage protein, and the fresh tomatoes and greens. Delish!

Alright guys, it is only 7pm, but I am le tired. I am gonna hit the hay early tonight, and do my best to enjoy this weekend before I am back to the grind!