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

 

Back Track

Oops. Hi.

Here are the pictures from last week. I'm going to work on adding the option where you can subscribe to my blog via e-mail since I've been posting so sporadically.

May 30 (Wednesday)

egg, salsa cream cheese, alternative bagel

banana and coffee...pretty self-explanatory

taco-seasoned organic chicken and a brown rice mix

maple almond butter, organic apple

 chicken, garlic bread, scampi noodles

pizza, broccoli with cheese

sangria leftover from Memorial Day

Exercise: Nada

May 31 (Thursday)

can't remember what was inside besides egg

iced coffee...

Messy looking, but REALLY tasty curry chicken salad sandwich with tomato + strawbs

pork tenderloin, a few baked sweet potato fries, baked red potato, steamed brussels

vitatop with pb-yum.

Exercise: Still none

June 1 (Friday)

english muffin with egg, white american cheese, and jam, strawberries

iced coff

repeat of yesterday's delightful sandwich, but slightly nicer looking without the strawberry-stained paper towel (umm yes that is a foil "plate"...hey, still an upgrade)

clearly these are strawberries

mango marg

cheeseburger and broccoli. Not the best. The margarita was good. Normally I don't particularly care for either, but was randomly hardcore craving both. I've had some unusual (all unhealthy...) cravings lately. Weird.

Exercise: Elliptical. In the MORNING to boot!!! Look at me. 

June 2 (Saturday)

 I forget what this was called, but it had a bed of potatoes, grilled chicken, cheese, I think some green chili sauce, probably more topped with egg and guac. It was really good, but SUPER strange because every bite I took of something (I think the chili..? may have been pork green chili?) tasted just like popcorn. Very strongly too. It was very confusing to my taste buds lol.

self-explanatory

Took off the croutonsand onions post-picture

spicy tortilla soup. Except it wasn't spicy. At all.

red lobster cheddar biscuit

tilapia and brocc that I slathered in every sauce I could get my hands on

key lime pie-- I was extra nice and split it 3-ways. I was sad the crazy delightful sounding desserts (i.e. CHOCOLATE LAVA FILLED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE. KILL ME.  And carrot cake) weren't part of the pick 4 menu, but their key lime pie is pretty amaze.

Exercise: Elliptical again. Normally I do weights on Fri & Sat, but my neck hurt.

June 3 (Sunday)

 duh

 Get this: BBQ pulled pork egg white omelet with cheddar topped with spicy bbq sauce that was also not spicy at all but very good, with the second best breakfast potatoes ever. I barely tasted the egg whites, but this was so so good.

super tasty gingerbread pancake

Reisling with an orange slice

kinda greek salad, but not really it just has feta cheese with olive garden dressing ha and it was really good

filet, bbqed sweet potato pieces, 1 dill white potato, charred green pepper that turned kinda orange for some scary reason. Um, rememberhow I've been overcooking everything on the grill? That filet was so rare it was still mooing. Whoops. I guess that's what microwaves are for. Only, that defeats the whole purpose of grilling. Fail. Kinda. Still pretty good.

Exercise: Elliptical, yet again, and stretching.

Oh boy, sooo while that's it for now, I (sadly?)  still have like 2x as many pics left to do later. Maybe more. I really should just keep up with the consistency and not pile it all up, huh? Or at least not feel the need to post everything I took semi-crappy iPhone pics of.  Uh...Yeah right!!

xo,

Amanda