Home Again, Home Again

Finally back in the routine of things and in 12 hours, I will be back out of it for the weekend again. I'm going back up to Penn State to care for the injured reserve. Last time I was ambitious and brought homemade brownies... this time, not so much. I got home late on Tuesday night, had from 7:30-11:00 p.m. to get all my things together Wednesday, and now its bright and early Thursday morning... a few hours away from when I leave again. So it's safe to say things are hectic but that's the way I always live my life, so be it.

The one thing about going home is that I have my normal food selections again. This isn't to say I didn't just loveee paninis and mini wheat's every day, but it's nice to be in a system. Breakfast was Fiber One Honey Clusters with 1/2 a banana and 1% milk. The problem with that meal, and don't get me wrong, I love it, is that there is little fat to keep hunger away. So even though I eat around 8:00 a.m., I'm quite hungry before 11:00. I'm going to have to amp that up a little. So I sat through nutrition hungry for an hour and then left to work out.

I took the whole weekend off other than a lot of walking and the one "run" up to my car. Sometimes a body just needs a break and obviously, my health wasn't of concern last weekend. Unfortunately, it will probably be the same case this weekend. Maybe I can get something light in. Hopefully. I'm just like my mom; she gets antsy anytime she can't work out. As long as I do something, it's okay. Although it's totally mental and I can admit that, I just feel better about the rest of my day's choices if I've worked out. I did the elliptical for 43 minutes. I aimed to burn about 600 calories (or thereabouts). I tried to see if not listening to music on a machine was as beneficial as it was while running outdoors-- I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS! I did some ab work also, but knowing full well I'll get a good ab work out in today (Thursday) I didn't push too too hard.

After the gym I had to go home, eat, shower, and pack up stuff for work. I made another chicken pita. This one had 1/4 an avocado, sliced chicken breast, sour cream, and taco seasoning. Our lettuce looked less than appetizing so I steered clear of it. I also had the other 1/2 banana with half a tablespoon of peanut butter and a couple chocolate chips. This meal has a lot of fat, but a huge majority of it is mono or polyunsaturated fats. Notice, unsaturated. Saturated fat is what leads to high cholesterol, heart problems, and all of those fun things. I convinced Alex to switch from whole to 2%... what an accomplishment! Seriously though, it's got 5 grams of saturated fat. That is 25% of your daily intake in just one cup. So steer clear of it, other than occasionally for cooking. Fortunately, when you do enjoy your saturated fat filled treats, it can be balanced by healthy unsaturated fats: nuts, seeds, avocado, olive oils, etc.

Speaking of almonds, obviously had those for a snack, alongside a cup of coffee from "Starbucks" aka the cafeteria at work.

Dinner was impressive last night. Well, it looked really healthy, at least. We were supposed to grill but it was pouring and cold, so Susie sauteed the chicken in a little bit of olive oil. We've had this chicken before and it's much better on the grill, but it still did the trick. Susie also served a sweet potato (much better than white!) and some frozen veggies. We were also going to grill veggies but again, no thanks to the rain, we were stuck defrosting some instead. Also had a salad...I'm biased, but I think I make them better than Susie. Over all this is a pretty well balanced meal.

This is before I had my sweet tooth craving, and caved as usual. They say it takes 28 days to kick a bad habit... I don't even want to go down that road but I almost feel addicted to sweets and treats after dinner. It's fine to have a few pieces of chocolate, or a half cup of ice cream, but I tend to go overboard, a lot. It's my one major diet pitfall. I try not to feel bad about it but after it's over I wonder why I just HAD to have the fairly lackluster pudding cup.

Well, before I know it, I'll be back to Pennsylvania. I miss it there. It's so pretty and feels like fall. I missed the crispness of every morning and the smell of fire already. No offense, Virginia, it's just that you're not my only home anymore. Til next time...

Alex's Surgery

It's the day of Alex's surgery. 5:30 a.m. meant I had to run up to my car parked about a mile away so I could pick him up and get him to the hospital bright and early. We got things moving, and surprisingly, I passed on the 6:00 a.m. coffee. It was dark and cold and that's probably the mood we were both in. It's never fun to have surgery, and now that I've been on both sides, I think it's just as hard being along for the ride. The hand holder, etc. I got him there and before we had time to sit down they whisked him back alone. I waited for his parents to get there, and they were considered "late" by 6:25. We went back and watched him get ready, shaved, and drugged. Sounds like the life of a hooker. Okay, that was really horrible. He was out like a light real fast and then we just had to wait. Paul and I got coffee (toasted almond for me, regular for him) and breakfast. I got the egg white turkey sausage flat bread. It's pretty good for a "healthy" entree. Although I give it a nice dousing in ketchup. Margie asked me why my eggs were green... so that gives you an idea of what it looks like. IT WAS BECAUSE OF CHIVES! Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that horrible looking. I think it tastes good, and that's what matters

We headed back to the hospital and waited and waited. It's funny how stoic the nurses and doctors can be. Every time someone came out my heart stopped because they looked so stiff as if they were carrying bad news. Then, in complete monotone "He's doing great. Everything is going smooth." Thanks for the enthusiasm. We agreed it didn't matter how, but what they said, so I got over the monotone and was just thankful the procedure was going alright. The combination of a torn ACL, two torn meniscus's (menisci?) and a shattered bone called for 3.5 hours of surgery and 1.5 hours of discharge before he woke up. Instead of hanging around to wait the whole time, we ate lunch without him.

Doesn't this look super appetizing? Yeah, my mood was bland, and so was my lunch. I ate a bunch more cheez-its than I let on. All three of us had major munchies. Margie went through cheez-its, a kit kat, orange juice, and chocolate chips before we left again. Paul snacked on the same, plus a banana. Nervous eating much? Finally, surgery was complete and Alex was ready to go which meant I had to drive back home to Virginia.

I set off with almonds and another pumpkin coffee. It's getting absurd how much I love it. I was starving half way home so I downed a mini Luna bar and nature valley peanut bars. I think I was a little stressed out, no? Expecting a dinner on the meal was so naive of me. I helped Susie with the salad and we had an interesting mix of spaghetti with sausage and corn. Strange but alright. I munched on almonds and chocolate chips later.

Finally, caught up with my blog. Back to the grind tomorrow. Ciao

Feasting Day

I couldn't take another mini-wheats shot... so I didn't. Coffee run before the soccer game. Toasted almond... pumpkin was better so another one later? I think so.

Lunch was at the Redifer, and being the creature of habit that I am, I went with the panini for the THIRD time. I'm telling you. This baby is good. Alex got a huge plate of sesame chicken. It's pretty good for campus cuisine. We had lots of little errands to do today. Treatment, moving my car, getting things together for surgery day etc... So there wasn't much down time minus a really nice coffee date...aren't we just adorabl....y annoying? We ran into Vegas, a girl from the team as she was off to dinner. McDonalds. Dinner of a true champion college athelete. Get it, girl.

We picked TGI Fridays for dinner because it's easy and has anything and everything on the menu. We split the cobb salad as an appetizer. It was really good actually but I hate olives and Alex doesn't like blue cheese crumbles so we had a lot of picking to do before we could eat it. It was worth it though. For my meal I got the Jack Daniels chicken with mashed taters and green beans. I really liked the sauce and even though I had the great idea of eating half and saving half, I just ate the whole thing. Once again, brownies and ice cream for dessert. I finally got my own. Turkey Hill caribou tracks. It is pushing up near edy's in my opinion. It's toffee flavored ice cream with caramel swirls and chocolate chunks. It's fantastic. We went to sleep pretty early for a 6:30 check in at the hospital...

I missed Penn State

The weird thing about Penn State is that 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday=drunken debauchery. I finally think I get to sleep in and BAM, tailgaters pass by the windows yelling about kegs. So, I was up a little earlier than I would have liked but it is what it is. No big deal. I had to get up a little early anyway, because I had to be at the game. Penn State Women's Soccer has such a LEGACY of being Big Ten Champs. 11 years strong. It's one of, if not the longest streak of any team in the NCAA. Pretty sweet to be a part of. Once a year, all the teams who won the championship get honored at a football game during half time. Boys don't eat like girls. There was little to eat, so it was mini wheats for breakfast. Mini wheats and percocet (for him, not me)! Alex drinks whole milk... I think it's foul. Hoorah for his roommates drinking 2%. Wow, I sound like such a prima donna. So that was breakfast.


On a side note, It's really awesome to be on the field, even though I can honestly admit I don't care that much about football. It was so good to see all of my former teammates. Nothing has changed. That's comforting. Midway into the experience I was starving. Literally hunger pangs.
Lunch was quiznos... it's been a while since I went there but I got the cantina chicken sammy and split chips wit Alex. The sammy had chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and honey Bourbon mustard. Twas delightful. But really, I just wanted coffee... I converted Alex to a coffee drinker and I'm so excited he's up for it as much as I am. We sat outside Starbucks for about an hour just watching drunk kids from the football game stumbling and cheerleaders still sporting their uniforms.

Got hungry... made my go-to of graham crackers and peanut butter. Alex loves chunky so that's what I had but I definitely prefer smooth... most of the time. Sorry this post is so short by the way... I've been swamped.

Later, we had to change Alex's ace bandage and put him back into the brace... An hour and a half later, around 9:15 p.m. pizza and couch sounded like a perfect harmony so we retired early and did a whole lotta nothin. Pineapple pizza... obviously.



Pretty sure I gorged on my brownies and Ben and Jerry's Half Baked. Pretty sure I forgot the picture. Not on purpose of course....

Back to schoooool....

Finally back to school. This week seemed to be the longest ever. It was so nice to finally be done and heading up to PSU. Penn State in the fall is probably the best thing ever. If you've never been, I strongly suggest you try it. Driving up solo isn't even bad because it's so pretty up here. (Yes, I'm still here. Lonnggg weekend.)

To prepare for my weekend of laziness I decided to get one last run in on Friday morning. Something about sitting in a car all day without doing something active is just not appealing to me. I think I ran about 4.5 miles... something like that. It's the same loop I've done so many times, but I'm not totally sick of it yet. Again, I ran without headphones, and again, it was a lot better of an experience. I might be onto something. Something weird about this particular run is that the last half mile or so scares me to death. Last year...December 30th to be exact, my dad got hit by a car when he was on a walk. He was crossing the street (Guinea for you Northern Virginians) and halfway through, a car neglected to stop at the crosswalk. Thank God he has lighting speed and superior athleticism (ok, Dick is 65...) because he was able to escape a much darker fate and only break nine ribs etc. etc. Anyway, I cross this point almost every time I run and it never fails, my heart races. So far, so good, but one can never be too careful.

After my run, I rushed around trying to shower, pack a lunch, and eat breakfast. I was in such a hurry to get up here and wasn't trying to take my time. For breakfast, I made a breakfast burrito. Salsa today, sick of ketchup. It was mighty fine, and I had strawberries to kill them off before they went bad.

All I really wanted was my coffee, so I sped off to Caribou Coffee. Last time I went there, my car got backed into. Full of good stories this post, huh? But, my luck was better this time, and I actually got a nice little upgrade because someone mis ordered, so instead of a small, I got a medium (minus the 30 cent price difference, hollllerrrr). I finally hit the open road. Caffeinated, and jamming to Sugarland. Life can be sweet.


Halfway in, my hunger baby came back and although I tried to wait to eat lunch with girls at school, I knew I wouldn't make it, so I packed my own lunch. I made another pita with sliced chicken, avocado, sour cream with taco seasoning, and lettuce. It was a nice little concoction. Apples and almonds on the side. Yum.


I finally got to PSU, only to tell my lunch dates I had already eaten, ooopsies. Still, it was fun to be filled in on everything I had been missing. I miss it here so much. They had a game, but the weather was awful, and I was being nurse Jessie over at the mustard mansion. Alex and I had a lovely date at Redifer Dining Commons. Let me tell you, their paninis are legitimate. So good. I also had some fries, and tried Alex's chicken cheese steak made mistakenly without onions. Whoops, again. That was my fault. He, on the other hand, had two chicken cheese steaks and fries. Dinner of a champion.


Of course, we had treats later. Brownies that I made (and were average) and Ben and Jerry's. Ahhh... such bliss. I'm a sucker for sweets, have you learned that yet? It's so good to be back...

Happy Birthday Susie!

I'm going to try to get this post halfway done before I go out tonight. We're going to Austin Grill (tex-mex) for mama's birthday. I'm so excited... I love their fajitas. It's inevitable I am going to get a stomach ache because I already sort-of have one from making brownies...and eating some batter... and then I actually ruined them! I either baked them too long, at too high of a temp, or added too much oil. I never make baking errors! It was so sad, but I got to eat the gooey center that wasn't completely ruined.. thus, the stomach ache. Amie and Kristen, if you're reading this, these brownies would have been beaten down completely by the ones we made a few weeks ago... to die for. I'm such a chocoholic. It's absurd. Anyway...

Work on Thursdays is 5:00 a.m. So early, but by 2:00 I'm done for the day and it's weekend! Which is lovely. I'm going to PSU this weekend because Alex is really injured and I gotta go be a supportive girlfriend. Right...? So I'm packing up and leaving in the morning and hopefully I'll be able to blog there too. For breakfast this morning, I had oatmeal with almonds and an apple.

Usually I just have oatmeal and fruit, or maybe a yogurt, but a few hours later, I'm starving. Naturally, it's because oatmeal is so low fat, so it doesn't keep you satisfied. I tried adding flax seeds one morning but it didn't really help enough, plus it wasn't a home run in the taste department. I just threw almonds in once it was cooked and I wasn't hungry until about 10:00.... I eat at 5:00 so it's a success. Most of the morning I spend planning my J&P class, but you know at 7:00, it's time for my moment of happiness. I got my starbucks with cinnamon on top... it was just delightful.

After this, I only have a few hours to my class. I didn't like it today. We went outside and it's much harder to control the class, and "own" it, if you will. People straggle in and getting everyone from one place to the next is a drag. Plus, I have no music, so I can't find my beat. We started with a big lap around the complex and then did some dynamic stretching. Next, I tried to do resistant band side steps but I had so many complaints about it rubbing their ankles so I thought screw this and just made them do lunges, lunges, more lunges etc. I also had them do a few suicides, about 10 yards, back, 20 yards, back. Then we went to the stairs and alternated foot on every step and skipping a step. Then we did more resistance work and calf raises and moved back up for upper body resistance work. We did bicep curls, triceps, lateral raises and squats, packed up our stuff, and moved inside for weights. Usually I do dumbbells but I felt like using barbells for weights today. We did 1 minute intervals of bicep curls, chest press, triceps curls, dead lifts, squats, lunges and then ended with some stretching and core. Once we were inside, things came back to me and I did better, but I really felt like the beginning of class was not successful.

Following my class, I did the elliptical for 40 minutes and got the heck out of the gym. I went to Wegmans (third time in two days) and got pitas, chicken, brownie mix and some yogurt. For lunch I made a really good stuffed pita with sliced chicken, avocado, muenster cheese, lettuce and a tiny itty bit of blue cheese dressing. I grilled it on the foreman and it was superb. I love the pita... I think it's called Kontos smart carb. I probably should have gotten a whole wheat version but I wasn't too concerned. It was just an impulse buy. I also had a FUZE drink... gogi and mixed berries. It was good but really tart. I liked it, but I'm not sure if I will buy it again. The rest of lunch was good though, so I can't complain.

I then set out BACK to the grocery store because, of course I forgot eggs. And when I finally made these brownies, like I said, they came out horribly. So this was a bust in every sense of the word. You know the best solution? Baskin Robbins. She loves the pralines and cream pie, and that is what she shall get. I do have another brownie mix, so that's a possibility too.... Anyway, my snack was brownie batter out of the bowl and some of the trail mix combo I made earlier in the week. Now I'm just waiting for dinner.... and here is the birthday girl; it's time to go!!



Anddd I'm back from dinner... Holy FULL. So good though. I had my share of chips and we got nachos, carnitas fajitas and enchiladas. So delicious. I'm so full. My pictures are horrible but I'll add them anyway. We went with turtle pie from Baskin Robbins and I only had a tiny slice because I cannot stand nuts in dessert. It was still tasty though. I have a really bad headache, I think from sugar. That's not good. I'm going to bed.... So. Full. Wow.

Superfoods

Wow, just watched a clip from Self.com and it turns out that the following foods are really good for burning fat, and I was really pleased that I ate almost all of these:

1. Almonds- even though they are a high fat food, it helps increase metabolism of fat.
2. Berries- contain high vitamin C, helps you burn up to 30% more fat during exercise
3. Sweet Potatoes- less of a spike of insulin, so we store less fat here.
4. Mustard- contains turmeric, which slows the growth of fat tissue.
5. Soy Beans- complete protein without saturated fat, helps block fat absorption and breaks down fat deposit in the diet.
6. Cinnamon- helps block the spike of insulin, which signals the body to store fat, so you'll store less.
7. Oranges- flavones have a lower rise in BMI, helps us burn more fat.
8. Swiss cheese- very rich in calcium, lower in fat, and cause more fat breakdown.

It's really easy to swap these foods... almonds instead of peanuts,sweet potatoes instead of white, mustard instead of mayo, and swiss cheese instead of higher fat american, chedder, etc.

I use cinnamon in my coffee, on my apples, and in my oatmeal. Berries add flavor to cereal and yogurt. I don't eat many soy beans but I'll give them a try. And oranges are great. Try them instead of orange juice. The whole fruit will help you feel full, and they're around all year.

Try these tips to boost your fat loss!