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.

It's Friiiiiday!

Happy Friday!

Today I slept in a bit and had a late breakfast of half a whole wheat bagel, 1 tbsp of cream cheese, and Cholua hot sauce with a small glass of OJ:

Then I went to gym... I did 30 minutes on a stationary bike and read :-) After a quick shower, I walked all the way from NE campus to "town." Just a few blocks from the UMD main campus is a strip of restaurants, and Kyle and I decided to hit one up for lunch. And there was only one thing we wanted.

Chipotle! Ever since Kyle and I have started eating out less, Chipotle has not been as plentiful in our lives as it once was.

I got a burrito bol (I always make a mess with the burrito; I honestly don't get the bol to cut carbs!) with rice, black beans, steak, tomatoes, corn, and a side of sour cream:

I used less than a tbsp of the sour cream... I just like a bit to mix everything all together! I was really hungry and ate just about all of it, since I had biked 5+ miles at the gym and then walked a mile to get to the restaurant.

I also had a diet coke, mmm mmm good!

After lunch, Kyle went back to his office and I walked the mile back to my car so I could head off to run some errands. One of them was to get double hot plate in lieu of a stove, but apparently we are getting a stove in the next few days! Aside from that, I went to Kohls (no luck), and then Corridor, a wine super store.

Corridor is great, Kyle and I found it by accident one day and go there every few weeks. While it does not have that same, quaint feeling that a local neighborhood wine store has, there are great deals and plenty of tastings. I didn't taste today; I wasn't in the mood and felt uncomfortably full from lunch. But I did grab a few bottles (to be seen later!), as well as a housewarming gift for our friends, Jamie and Holly.

I had a tall skim latte and a butter cookie for a snack (and yes, I ate the WHOLE COOKIE):

I'm off to do some odds and ends around the house. Tonight we are grilling salmon steaks and jumbo shrimp on the grill before going to a housewarming dessert party!