Beach Body Day 5

The perfect trifecta. Mimosa, Water, and Coffee. Mhmm.

egg white omelet with chicken, spinach, mushroom, and cream cheese split in half. Plus about 3/4 of a biscuit with a little honey or agave (couldn't tell) plus about 1/4 of the potatoes

We ate breakfast again at Lucky's, the same place I went for the first time a couple weeks ago for a business meeting. For Father's Day I got my dad matinee tickets to see Jersey Boys at the opera house in uptown, so we made  day out of it. Because we couldn't take home leftovers we split our breakfast, except we forgot the meal comes with 2 biscuits and he also got a bagel. Oops. The biscuits weren't too good today anyway.

I felt so dehydrated when we got to the venue, but I didn't want to have to pee 10,000 times at the opera house nor pay like $5 for bottled water and I couldn't find a water fountain. When I realized the restrooms were all clear, I stuck my head under the faucet and went to town. If they have cameras in there they probably thought what a cheap ass, haha. I guess the real problem would be why would they have cameras in a public restroom, but...I digress. Of course, as soon as I came out of the bathrooms my Dad pointed to the water fountains on the wall. Oops. Round two it was!

My Dad loved Jersey Boys and was really glad I took him. We both agreed it seemed extremely long (it was 2.5 hours including intermission, so it was fairly long. But the first half, to me, felt like the entire 2.5 hrs!), but it was enjoyable the entire duration. My Dad is from New York around that time, so it especially brought up nostalgia in him.

Right before it started, they made a joke that if you planned to eat any hard candies or open any throat lozenges you might want to do that now (so it wouldn't be noisy when you fumbled to open the candies). I was like ooh good idea and gave my dad and myself a worther's original. I tried to get my Dad to give me his trash to put in my purse, but he said he was fine. BUT HE KEPT CRINKLING THE CANDY THE ENTIRE FIRST ACT OFF AND ON. It was quiet, so maybe only I noticed, but I wanted to punch him when it happened LOL. I made sure at intermission that beyotch was outta there (the wrapper, not my dad ;)).

That evening, I looked at more houses again. I thought they were all just out of my price range (except one, which I wasn't very excited about anyway), so I thought I was wasting everybody's time, but it turned out not to be a complete bust after all! The first house I want to put an offer in so badly, but it's about $13,000 over my assumed maximum budget. WHYYYYYYY???????? The kitchen counters suck and the kitchen itself is small, but otherwise I want to give the house a big hug. The wood floors downstairs were unbelievable.

 The second (affordable) house turned out to be a duplex. It's currently tenant occupied and you can tell they take no pride in the home since it's not theirs. It was okay and the side courtyard was amazing, but otherwise I wasn't overly impressed. It's not available until January 2013 anyway, which would be okay with me, but my relator said could prove some issues with getting a loan. No biggie.

 The third house was not my taste at all as is, but I could really see the potential there with a few (cheap) cosmetic changes. It's about $5,000 more than I think I should ideally spend at the top (but I'm just now working with a lender, so I may be wrong with the low interest rates out now), but it seems do-able and a great buy. The realtor said people are buying things likethat right now and you have to really jump on a house, but this one has been on the market 80 days (she's claiming houses are generally going in 20-40 days or less now in this area), so maybe I have a thinking period. I guess I won't be devastated if I lose it, but it's a great deal for the area.

 I was supposed to look at a 4th one, but they wouldn't do a Sunday showing. No biggie it was way out of my price anyway, I was just curious about it (no pics online, but the description sounded great and it was in the neighborhood I wanted). It turned out the homeowners association fees with that one were $90 a month! That's equivalent to spending $20,000 more on a house. Sheesh! No viewing for me, thanks.

Dinner was made in a rush at nearly 9 pm and I hadn't eaten or drank since breakfast (or the sink incident...)

lean ground turkey tacos with organic romaine as the shell! Love it. 

I'm still trying not to carb-up at night, but since I didn't eat much during the day I figured why not?  Vitamuffin top are always quick, easy, and tasty. It is pretty tough to leave off the slathering of peanut butter, but it still does the trick naked.

xo,
Amanda

Beach Body Day 4

Quick one.

Went to look at houses with a realtor today. The house I've been trying to get a showing of for over a week, maybe two, turned out to be a bust. I got to see it, but it went under contract before I was able to put my offer in. I missed it by 24 hours at the most, maybe even just one or two hours. Ugh. The second place we looked at was gorgeous, but I hated the neighborhood. Guess I may be staying put for awhile. Guess you never know what can go on the market at any given time, though. *fingers crossed*. I don't want to buy something just to buy something and settle, but it would be a shame to miss out on the interest rates going on now.

After looking at the houses, I went out to breakfast. I got my usual at this place: egg white omelet with spinach and cream cheese and a side of potatoes. Nom nom nom. Not the healthiest in the world, but not too bad. Plus black (stevia) coffee.

I ate about a third. Then a few hours later I ate another third or so + the english muffin half (gave the other half away).

I had an organic apple for snack. I was bad about taking pics today, but everyone can picture an apple, yes? This one was green-ish (not granny smith, a sweet one). 

For dinner I made up a delicious salad.

 

organic romaine, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, & leftover apricot chicken from olive garden last night. I tried out a new sun-dried tomato vinaigrette dressing on top that was so good.

I had a chocolate-peanut flour protein cake for dessert.

xo,

Amanda

Beach Body Day 3

Oats for breakfast again, but this time....

Overnight style. Oats, plain (nonfat) Greek yogurt, half a mashed banana, stevia, peanut flour, and a last minute addition of chia seeds all topped off with unsweetened vanilla almond milk

& a mug of hot, black coffee (ok, I put a couple drops of chocolate stevia)

Overnight oats take me awhile to eat for some reason, but today was just ridiculous due to interruptions. I started eating in the car on the way to work, then I was eating off and on at my desk, and didn't finish for like 3 hours or more. I was so busy. Leave me alone, people! I hate days where I finish one phone call and the phone rings again before I can even put it down. Not to mention I left early yesterday and there were piles & messes waiting for me. I can't even imagine how the office would look/run if I wasn't there. Not to toot my own horn, but whoaaa chaos....

Since I was only able to take bites here & there all day I was, in turn, hungry all day. I picked at "lunch" (which happens later and later) all afternoon too.

Stuffed red bell pepper with organic taco-seasoned chicken with a sliver of monterrey jack on top. I had left the rice at work and didn't feel like opening up a new package at home, so I just dumped the rice on top and heated it all up together that way. I ate it all except about 1/4 of the pepper. I love bell peppers, but I have a hard time eating them by themselves. Not sure why. When I was in middle/high school I always found it bizarre when people would bring baggies of cut up green peppers in their lunch bags. Of course, I didn't eat peppers at all then. Hmm. That should be another pointless food goal. Learn to love beets and eat peppers plain! I might need to start an official list.

For my snack I tried to pick the energy bar I had with the least amount of sugar. I'm a nutrition label-reading whore, but when it comes to sugar I don't really care too much as long as it's under like...30 grams. I always think if it's less than a regular soda and it's a food that is at least "sort of healthy," then whatever. But I'm way too much of a sugar addict and need to watch that. The bar that won out coming in at 10 grams:

Lucky me, that was actually what I wanted, but I though it would have higher sugar than some of the others. Interesting. The Odwalla Superfood bar came in at 18 grams (I assumed it would be the highest and it was), while the cookie dough Balance bar came in at 17 (I assumed it would be the lowest. It showed me).

For dinner we ended up at Olive Garden. Not too many healthy choices, especially ones without carb overload. I'm not one to shy away from pasta or buy into a low carb craze, but I'm wanting to TRY to eat less carbs as the day goes on. Since you need less energy closer to bed time...and white carbs=the worst, I stuck with the chicken and veggies. The waiter actually told me when I ordered that this is the healthiest thing you can order at OG (he didn't know that was my intention). My family just laughed it off like "imagine that...Amanda getting comments about ordering healthy." Since I pretty much berate them for their poor choices at every restaurant meal. I'm so sweet.

Venetian chicken. Clearly not my photo. I could have sworn I took one of my entree, but it turns out I didn't. Thanks google. I couldn't find the direct source, but I'm pretty sure it was olivegarden.com at one point :-P.

I only ate one chicken and about 3/4 of the veggies. I wasn't completely full, but even though the whole meal is about 400 calories, it just felt gluttonous for some reason to eat both. *shrug* I probably didn't need both anyway....

Alongside....

 salad x 2.

No breadsticks for me (not really my thing even if I'm not trying to be extra "good"), but I'm not a total wet blanket...it is the weekend after all. And I had a pretty stressful week.

Yum.

A little while later I was hungry again for a snack, but was too lazy to make up a protein cake or some other healthy dessert. Finally, close to midnight, I finally caved. I hate going to bed hungry. I finished off some of the taco-seasoned organic chicken topped with a little greek yogurt. Finishing off leftovers and curing a grumbling belly is a win-win in my book.

Hopefully that will sit well with me so I can wake up nice and early. I thought it would be my ONE DAY to sleep in for the week (I have fun plans for Sunday that also require an earlyish wake time), but alas...no. For good reason, at least. I've been relentlessly trying to get the listing agent for a house that's for sale to contact me to arrange a showing to no avail. So finally today I said screw it and found a realtor who actually called me back within 2 minutes of my request. I have 2 viewings set up for tomorrow, including the one I've been desperately trying to see. My first actual house viewings! Up until now I'd just looked online and driven by.

Wish me luck!

xo,
Amanda

Beach Body Day 2

I woke up this morning and decided to start my day with 20 minutes on the treadmill. It woke me right up and set my day right.

I had oats for breakfast again, but this time only about 1/4 a cup. I heated the banana with the oats, which is 10,000 times more delicious than mixing it in after. For toppings, I just put a tiny bit of cranberry peanut butter with a drizzle of honey and a few drops of chocolate stevia. Yum.

 

I probably should have stuck with closer to the 1/2 cup. This only kept me full about an hour and a half, but I was able to make it 3.5 hours before digging into lunch, so it was okay.

 I grabbed random stuff from the fridge and freezer and threw it together. A frozen salmon burger and brown rice (both covered in hot sauce) + straws. It was good, I should be random more often.

I left work early to go with my Mom to get mani-pedi's. I LOVE my pedicure, but I made a mistake getting bright yellow nail polish. I'm too pale for it to work, but oh well. I kind of ruined it already, so I covered it up with pink glitter. When all else fails, go for sparkles? Sure.

Mom wanted to go to eat after and suggested on this casual Greek cafe I actually tried on Monday for the first time and told her she'd love. Turns out I was right. It was a little early, so I kept it light-ish with soup and salad.

 

 

I'm still learning to love cooked beets, but I'm getting closer. I'm still a bit put off by the texture, but I'm neutral to the taste now. Progress! I don't know why I want to like them so much, but it's just one of those pointless personal goals. 

And also as I did Monday, the meal was followed up with fro-yo! (Only this time it wasn't my idea, but who am I to turn down my favorite frozen treat? Exactly....). 

I felt like working out again all afternoon. I tried to find a fun, new workout on demand, but nothing was piquing my interest so instead I ate 2 clif block shots (not my faves, but I wanted the quick energy) and convinced my brother to go to the gym with me where we did 35 (well I think I did 37, but who's counting?) minutes on the elliptical and some light stretching. Love when I sneak in two workouts. 

I came home and cooked what I had planned for dinner for lunch tomorrow instead, prepped breakfast, and finished up the leftovers from my above salad + added half a piece of leftover fish from the other night.

Time to shower & make a chocolate protein cake & do my best to get to bed before 2 am. I'm SO tired, but can't seem to make myself sleep! Story of my life.

xo,

Amanda

One Month 'Til Beach Body 2012

In exactly one month I'll be in Florida aka going to the beach. One month is certainly not long enough to make any real physical changes, but it's good motivation to get back into better habits and hopefully tone up (even a little).

Day 1.

Breakfast had to be quick, easy, and something I was able to eat in the car.

Oatmeal! I haven't had oatmeal in forEVER. This was 1/2 a cup made with water then mixed with 1/2 a banana, a small scoop of sunwarrior vanilla protein powder, and topped with about 1 tbsp of peanut butter + huckleberry jam. It wasn't very good for some reason and I didn't quite finish it, but it kept me full for hours and hours. I got caught up in work and didn't even eat again until after 4 pm.

By then I was pretty hungry, but I tried to keep it light since dinner would be coming soonish.

 I had about 3 of these organic lettuce wraps filled with tuna salad (tuna, vegenaise, diced dill pickle, a sprinkle of salt-free greek seasoning and a sprinkle of sea salt).

For dinner I was grilling, so that meant prep work. While I did that, I ate a small handful of veggie chips from Aldi. They really hit the spot, surprisingly.

Then, for the actual meal...

 

Grilled extra-lean beef burger on a hawaiian bun topped with half a slice of white american cheese, dijon, organic ketchup, and avocado, baked beans with onion, leftover mixed veggies from last night's dinner, & grilled "french fries" (just diced red potatoes & sweet potatoes cut into fry shapes) with.....

I was pretty stuffed from dinner, but felt like something sweet, so I tried this out for "dessert"

I figured I'd still want something else, but this actually did the trick. Who knew?

Probably not quite enough food overall, but dinner was bigger than necessary and I didn't exert much energy today (I'm a little sick and had a killer headache), so it's fine.

So far, not too bad.

xo,
Amanda

Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon

Before catching you up on last week, let's start with the fun part. The weekend!

Friday:

whole grain waffles with egg, white american cheese, and jam

usually I don't eat a mid-morning snack, but for two days in a row I needed to and had pretzel crisps dipped in really delicious tomato basil hummus

I absolutely love illy brand coffee, but this overpriced (even on sale) crap in a can was no bueno. I barely choked this down. I'll have to hide the other 3 cans in a protein shake or something.

 no bueno take two. Very dry and not appealing. Filling though, so there's that.

 Umm chalk this up to being starving, picking chinese up for someone else, and knowing I was about to workout and not eat dinner for hours. Oops.

Cheeseburger with a ridiculous amount of poppy seeds, cheese I couldn't taste, lettuce, tomato, and thousand island that tasted like nothing. I was still craving a cheeseburger after last week's mediocre attempt. Yep, still craving one. I went to try this one after RAVES for years from my Dad. Not impressed, sorry pops. I also had a few french fries, 2 onion rings, and a then later a vanilla cone from Mickey D's. All of which were tasty.

Exercise: Arms & Legs

Saturday:

I finally tried a new breakfast place my chiro recommended a few months ago, Coffee House Cafe. I wish I got a better shot of the juicer. See those oranges in the far right corner? They had a HUGE HUGE juicer that juiced the entire fruit, peel and all x 100000 oranges at once.

More of the lobby/bar/coffee bar areas. Kinda cool. 

After seeing the juicer + juice on people's tables this was just a duh. In retrospect for a couple bucks more I should have turned it into a mimosa. But then again I wouldn't have gotten to try the unadulterated (literally ha) version, which was pretty darn good.

They serve organic, fair trade coffee. Black, it was too weak for my liking, but with a little cream & stevia it was GREAT. They also had the option of serving it out of a french press (no refills), but I stuck with the original drip. They also make lattes, etc. and I hear they do latte art. Next time, maybe :).And it looks normal in the pic, but the spoon was really tiny and cute.

This was one of the first things I saw on the menu and knew I could stop looking. Herb and goat cheese omelet made with cage free eggs (just whites for moi) and potatoes. The toast came as a surprise.

Plus I had to add a lemon ricotta pancake. It was good, but not too special. Needed more lemon. That was one expensive breakfast. 

It really bothers me that the sticker is uneven lol. This was really gross. I've only had about 1/3 of it. I'll finish it, but def. not going to be a rebuy. It tastes like some kind of herb that ruins it all, I can't put my finger on it.

I know this looks kinda yuck, but I liked it a lot. The bottom layer is a slice of pre-made garlic bread topped with a slice of white american cheese,  a mahi mahi burger, half a tub of sauteed organic spinach with garlic, tomato, and vegenaise. Good combo.

Kinda-sorta healthy banana milkshake made with a few tbsp vanilla rice milk ice cream, 1.5 frozen bananas, stevia, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, with cinnamon on top. It was super thick and tasty. I keep using the word tasty too much. I guess that's better than saying gross a lot?

Exercise: Elliptical

Sunday:

 

Another unusual craving for me. I normally hate or at least feel neutral towards donuts, but I wanted one so badly for the past week. I found a place that had amazing reviews online about 20 minutes away...eh, they were really good, but nothing special? I also hate sausages, but was SUPER tempted to try the jalapeno cheese kolache. Now I kinda wish I did since I probably won't be back, but oh well. I had about 3/4 of the blueberry cake (bottom far left) which I LOVED, but I've always really liked blueberry cake donuts. I also ordered the lemon filled (top right). It was too tart for me, so I gave my brother most of it and he gave me half of the chocolate frosted cake (not that good). What I really wanted, especially weird for me, was a hot, plain glazed (or frosted of some sort), but they didn't have any non-cake ones besides the jelly filled. I guess the (unhealthy) search continues. The funny part was, after finding this (at the time) coveted donut shop, we almost accidentally pulled into the one across the street. Then...ended up in the country. I live nowhere near the country. Or many trees.

WHAT trees exist around here? Who knew! It's practically our very own forest. Ha.

We put away the donuts and went out for a slightly more nutritious breakfast: lox on whole grain bagels. I took off half the pictured onion before eating. Plus coffee (hot and iced).

The heat is making me permanently thirsty. I had only heard about these the day before and wanted to try one and it suddenly appeared. This flavor was pretty good, but way too sweet. I wouldn't buy it again.

Pre-workout snack: cottage cheese mixed with jam and a little stevia on top of a brown rice rice cake

Only drank about half

BBQ chicken legs, cole slaw, potato salad, sweet potato salad (meh)

Exercise: Elliptical & Stretching

I worked from home today, so I'll also add today as a weekend. Why not?

Monday:

 

Brunch!

gingerbread protein pancakes topped with biscoff spread and a drizzle of maple syrup + an egg white omelet with greens, turkey, pinch of veggie cream cheese. I make the best breakfast foods ever.

hazelnut iced coffee with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and chocolate stevia 

I actually had 2 iced coffees....the second one with this sample of dark chocolate honeycomb my dad gave me the other day

repeat of pre-workout snack mentioned earlier

I didn't eat dinner 'til after 9 pm. Good thing I wasn't that hungry. Whole grain toast with a saute of olive oil/vegan butter/garlic. I burned the garlic twice before actually paying attention to what I was doing. Anyway, the toast was topped with a greek-seasoned white fish (swai? tastes like tilapia to me) filet with greens, tomato off the vine, vegenaise, and dijon mustard, alongside steamed broccoli with cheese and coleslaw. Mmm. I also poured half a glass of wine, but spilled it out after one sip. Guess I didn't drink that bottle fast enough. Bleh.

I also had an unpictured mug of vanilla peppermint hot tea 

Exercise: Chest and Back

Back to the office tomorrow. It's going to be a 12+ hour day, ughhh....at least it's a 4 day week...kinda.

xo,

Amanda