xo, Amanda: French Food & Extreme Coconut

March 4

-slice of brown rice toast topped with 1 egg, a kraft single, & grey poupon

Still hungry shortly after, so...

-a banana

The problem with taking off 2 days? Lots of work to catch up on. I was having multiple mini panic attacks until my second, MUCH needed massage of the week...

Lunch =

-leftover pad thai from the nite before

Everyone in the office kept commenting on how good it smelled. Oh yeah.

-sliver of banana bread a patient's mom dropped off

My Mom felt like going with my Dad and I to a fancy dinner, so we all decided on Lavendou, a french place. My Dad and I couldn't decide what to order, so after MUCH deliberation we shared...

-a bite of bread with tapenade (well, I ate all of that bite on my own LOL)
-shrimp, scallops, spinach, and mushrooms in a cream sauce topped with puff pastry
-dover sole topped with crab in a lemon chardonnay cream sauce (I keep typing cream cheese...you can tell what I love!)

And we all 3 shared (but mostly my dad and I...)

-chocolate souffle with chocolate sauce and vanilla whipped cream (that my Dad, Mr. "I may have ONE bite," douseddddd in the chocolate sauce....pretty sure there was more sauce than souffle, no joke, and pretty much licked the bowl clean, haha).

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March 5

For breakfast my Dad and I agreed to try Panera's egg souffles, only to get there and find out they were out. Ughhh. Instead, we left and headed for Corner Bakery, but my Dad got into the wrong lane & instead of turning allll around, I suggested La Madeleine, right by where we ended up. GOOD CALL. Again, I ordered another creamy french dish, probably loaded with fat and calories, but I turned a blind eye. And said "mmm" a lot. Yeah, it was reallll good. The french know their stuff.

-1 scrambled egg & mushroom crepe doused in mushroom cream sauce
-strawberries romanoff
-whole grain bread with jam
-amazing french coffee with vanilla stevia

Hey, I did order the petite versions of both items. That helps, right? And I *gasp* actually ate scrambled egg, not just egg white. I think they only had egg beater, so I decided to go with the real thing. Normally it makes me feel sick to my stomach & kinda grossed out, but not this time! Yay.

And yeah, we WILL be going back. Often.

Workout:

It was scheduled to be a shoulders & abs day, but I wasn't feeling it on a still pretty full stomach, so...

-chest & back

(iso lateral incline press @ 50 lbs, seated row @ 50 lbs, chest press @ 45 lbs, cable cross incline-decline press @ 30 lbs, an embarrassingly low amount of weight on the cable seated fly....25 lbs for first set and 20 lbs for last 2, & back extension @ 115 lbs....as usual 3 sets of 10 reps each)

Went up weight-wise on a couple, but significantly down on one or two, too. Just goes to show how important it is to exercise REGULARLY. I only worked out about 3 times this week instead of the usual 6 and I already feel flabbier and less fit. Ridic!

Thennnn, I went to the chiro. Thank God. Supposedly my main is caused by my poor piriformis muscle :(. Ouch. I was in AGONY when my friends were here, especially since we sat in the car a lot of the time.

-1/2 a strawberry orange juice

I really wanted a fruit/veg juice combo, but they only had veg-veg or fruit-fruit. Lame-o's!

Then, the horror, but for the second Saturday in a row I had to work! Only 2 hours this time, but still! OK, OK so I took 2 full days off. It was more than fair. But! Work! Saturday! OK, you get it.

But I was rewarded with yet ANOTHER dinner out. This time, Celebration Restaurant. We THOUGHT they were doing anniversary special pricing, but apparantly that ended the day before. Oops. But we still got a gift bag out of it, so there's that.

And delicious food to boot.

-iced tea w/ vanilla stevia (actually pretty good together, I kept forgetting it wasn't "real" sweet tea)
-tons of side salad with ranch & homemade croutons
-2 mini muffins (1 gingerbread, 1 blueberry muffin)
-cajun catfish with some kind of rice
-kale, mashed potatoes, & black eyed peas (lots of kale)
-a few bites of veggie lasagna (you can have as many helpings of food as you want here, so my Dad and I ordered a second entree of lasagna to share, but he ate most of it...)

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March 6

-coconut cream pie larabar
-about 1/2 a slice of nitrite free applewood turkey bacon

I know, I know, I HATE bacon. But this was alright I guess. Still not my thang. But I wasn't gagging! LOL

Forgot how good that larabar was, though! Best flavor by FAR.

-coffee with vanilla coconut milk creamer (brought from home & made a mess of at Denny's lol)
-2 eggs over medium
-side of fruit
-most of an order of blueberry whole wheat pancakes with a little syrup

I traded my Dad my nasty turkey bacon for his extra side of fruit. Only I couldn't eat more than 1 fruit. I tried.

Workout:

-25 min treadmill (intervals of walking, jogging, walking, jogging, walking....5 min each)
-20 minute yoga for shoulders dvd workout
-15 minute yoga for hips dvd workout

I kind of wish the yoga had given deeper stretches, but it's a start. It was labeled for inflexible people, after all. I NEED to do yoga more regularly. NEED. I think it will help me, if even a little (but *fingers crossed* a lot!)

-2 oz multi-grain, gluten free penne (made with amaranth, quinoa, brown rice, etc) with mushroom marinara mixed with alfredo & topped with a gardein "chicken" scallopini and black pepper
-side salad (organic mixed greens, red cabbage, diced tomato, organic olive oil, organic balsamic, black pepper, garlic gold nuggets)