Goals

It was a late night with friends so I'll recap my food tomorrow. However, a quick recap of my daily goals!

Goal Checklist:
1. Gym √
2. Drink 8 glasses of water starting first thing in the AM √
3. No Alcohol √

4. 7 hours of sleep √ YIPPEE!
5. Maintain SparkPeople - according to SparkPeople I consumed 1547 calories today (I definitely cut it close!) √

2 days down, 19 to go!

Out of Control

I felt very out of control with my food today. I got up late again so I had to stop at Dunkin' Donuts for an egg white turkey sausage flatbread. It's my favorite fast food breakfast because it's surprisingly nutritious and delicious! I still would have preferred to make some oatmeal at home.


When I got to the training room breakfast was waiting for the rest of the class. I was glad I picked up my flatbread because everything at the training was calorie dense, muffins and bagels. I did however help myself to a small plate of fruit. None of the fruit was very ripe so it was lacking some flavor.





We ate lunch late today. In order to make it to our 1:00 meal time I had 3/4 of a package of Nature's Valley Oat's N Honey granola bars. You would think they would be bad for you based on how good they taste but they're not as bad as I guessed they would be. All natural ingredients, a decent calorie count and full of flavor!


Lunch was the same spread as yesterday. On my plate today:


Half of a veggie wrap that had mozzarella cheese, roasted red peppers and spinach
Half of a chicken caesar wrap
A scoop of romaine lettuce
A bag of Garden Salsa SunChips (my favorite SunChip flavor)
I split a coconut, walnut, chocolate chip bar with my co-worker


After I took this picture I re-purposed all of the sandwiches and lettuce into one wrap full of goodies. I took the insides of the veggie wrap out and added it to my caesar wrap along with some more romaine lettuce. It was the best I could do!





After work Matt and I went to the gym. I completed a full strength routine and my HIIT session! Great night in the gym!!


After the gym we stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up dinner ingredients for tonight and tomorrow. Dinner tonight was super simple! Veggie burgers! I had two patties on one of Arnold's whole wheat deli flats along with a slice of american cheese, a squirt of ketchup and a splash of Frank's hot sauce. I tried the Asian Veggie Patties tonight. They were tasty but my favorite is still the Spicy Black Bean which I've had difficulty finding! Matt had two original Veggie Burgers.



The rest of my night was spent getting organized for our dinner with friends tomorrow. Matt recently moved one of our computers onto the island in the kitchen. I wasn't very happy at first because I lost some precious counter space but it was very convenient tonight. I prepared a new beef stew that will sit in the crock pot all day tomorrow. I was able to pull the recipe up on the computer and turn it around so it was like a BIG cook book that plays my favorite music! Shhh... don't tell him he was right about the computer being a great addition in the kitchen!





Now all I have to do tomorrow morning is add the wet ingredients to the stew, start the crock pot and set up the bread machine so we have warm bread by the time our guests arrive!


Now I'm off to bed. I have to get an early start so I can meet my 7 hours of sleep goal!


Goal Checklist:
1. Gym √
2. Drink 8 glasses of water starting first thing in the AM √
3. No Alcohol √
4. 7 hours of sleep - not last night but going to bed now for a head start on tomorrow's goals
5. Maintain SparkPeople - according to SparkPeople I consumed 1495 calories today √

My Goals for the Next 3 Weeks

Three weeks from tomorrow Matt and I will be in the Bahamas with our friends on a fantastic vacation! As a final push before our vacation I decided that I need to set up some goals for myself:

1. Go to the gym at least 5 times a week which will include at a minimum 4 strength training sessions and 2 HIIT sessions.

2. Drink a full glass of water first thing in the morning to jump start my metabolism. Continue to drink water, at least 8 glasses, throughout the day.

3. No alcohol will be consumed during the week (M-Th) with the exception of special events (i.e. Thanksgiving).

4. Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night! *This is going to be very hard for me. I average about 5 hours of sleep a night currently.*

5. Maintain Sparkpeople.com to ensure that I eat no more than 1550 calories a day except on special occasions (i.e. Thanksgiving and birthday celebrations).

Wish me luck! These may seem like some easy goals for most but I break every single one currently. I'll recap each day with a checklist of the goals I succeeded in for the day. Hopefully it will be every single one! I need to be bikini and all-inclusive ready!

The island that you see in the distance is where we're going to be spending most of our time!!

Longest work day of my life

Today was day 1 of 3 of the most painful work training. We had a vendor come in to train us on a software system that one of our departments use. This means that I'll be eating mostly cafeteria catering food until Wednesday. Not only did I have to sit through an all day training but I also had an 8AM meeting prior to the training. In order to prepare myself for a full day of brain power I made myself a bowl of banana oats to go. Today's banana oats consisted of:

1/2 cup oats

1 small banana

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons peanut butter

I apparently was in such a hurry this morning that I forgot to take a picture but it looked a lot like last Wednesday's breakfast:

The oatmeal kept me full until lunch arrived at our training. On my lunch plate I had:

A ham sandwich that had provolone, pickles, hot peppers and lettuce on an onion roll

A vegetarian sandwich that I took out of the wrap

A bag of Baked Ruffles

A diet Coke in hopes that the caffeine would propel me through the rest of the day!

I also shared an oat, cranberry and white chocolate chip cookie with a classmate.

In the afternoon I remembered I had brought a Mango Coconut SoyJoy bar with me for an afternoon snack. It's the first time I had ever tried SoyJoy. I appreciate their ingredients all natural, soy and fruit. I also enjoy their nutrition label with only 140 calories, 4g protein, 3g fiber and 11g sugar it's really a great snack, in theory. The problem is that it isn't very tasty.

After my training I went back to my office so that I could meet up with Matt and go to the gym. After my strength training session I had a yogurt. It was another first for me. Rachel's Vanilla Chai yogurt. It was very tasty and I loved how creamy it was! Again the ingredients and nutrition information are great!

When I got home I made an everything but the kitchen sink dinner. Pretty much anything that was in the fridge got mixed into my whole wheat pasta. It ended up including:

1/2 cup Barilla roasted garlic tomato sauce

2 tablespoons of ketchup

1 tablespoon of Frank's hot sauce

1/2 cup of sauteed peas with 1/8 cup of chopped pepperoni and a 1/4 of a red onion

2 small chicken breasts

Topped with part-skim shredded mozzarella

Looking at the ingredients all typed up I'm pretty embarrassed but it actually turned out surprisingly delicious!

As I type this I'm enjoying my dessert! A glass (or two) of Ravens Wood cabernet sauvignon. It's pretty good considering we get it from our City Convenience in our building. It's not a complex wine. The flavor is pretty front loaded, meaning that the flavor hits you pretty quickly but then falls off quickly with little finish. It's a medium bodied wine.... I'm trying to brush up on my wine terminology so bear with me.

I'm off to watch Monday Night Football. I'm rooting against the Baltimore Ravens because it may allow me to win my fantasy football match up this week. Wish me luck!

I need quick and easy recipes!

This week flew by! I've been so busy with the end of the year push at work that I haven't had time to update my blog! Finally at almost midnight on Sunday, after watching the Patriots make one stupid decision that lost them the game, I am finding a moment to update!

Let's go back to the beginning... Monday!

Monday started at 16 Beach Street B&B. My mother-in-law was generous enough to make extra breakfast for Matt and me. Pumpkin pancakes with crispy bacon. My favorite fall breakfast!

After breakfast I started working only remembering to take a break for lunch around 1:00. I made a half of a tuna sandwich and a bowl of crab chowder. I felt it was a delicious appropriate lunch for being so close to the ocean.

I had more work to do when we got home from Maine so we picked up dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant on the way home. I personally think that King and I has the best pad thai in Boston. The perfect combination of spicy, savory and sweet. The picture doesn't do my dinner justice. It tasted so much better than it looks!

When I got into the office on Tuesday I made myself a bowl of banana oats. I love eating oatmeal in the morning! It manages to keep me full until lunch time!

My lunch was my leftover dinner, pad thai, and a salad. I love pad thai!

Before going to the gym on Tuesday I had a quick snack. My pears this week were perfectly ripe and delicious!

On the way home from work we stopped at the Star Market grocery store. I was so hungry from the gym that I decided that I couldn't wait to make dinner so we picked up a rotisserie chicken. It was surprisingly good and not very expensive. The whole chicken was about $7. I've paid close to $14 (if I remember correctly) at Whole Foods for the same size chicken before. I was presently surprised with the Star's chicken! Once we got home I made a quick side of whole wheat pasta with a little mozzarella cheese on top.

Later that night Matt and I had the last of our pumpkin ice cream. I already miss it!

Before heading into work on Wednesday I made a bowl of banana oats for Matt and myself. Matt ended up not being a fan of the oats. To be honest, he was never really a fan of oatmeal but I kept saying how good my oatmeal was, it smells like warm banana nut bread, that he thought he would try some. Oh well, less for him and more for me! =o)

Lunch was a salad and leftover chicken in one of my whole wheat tortilla wraps. I forgot to take a picture but it looked just like all of my other lunch wraps.

For dinner I took the rest of the leftover chicken and made a "BBQ pulled chicken" sandwich. I just cut the remaining chicken into little pieces and simmered it in a little Kraft BBQ sauce, toasted an Arnold deli flat, and then broiled the sandwich to melt the cheese. I served it with some steamed organic broccoli. I was very pleased with my last minute creation however it was the messiest sandwich I have ever made!

I didn't have much time to make breakfast Thursday morning. I decided on having a bowl of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest and an apple.

Cereal never keeps me full for very long so I ended up having a mid-morning snack, Yoplait light yogurt. I haven't had Yoplait in such a long time. It was so sweet and tasted very fake. I now remember why I don't buy these yogurts anymore. I know they're only 100 calories but I would much rather have my brown cow greek yogurt for a couple more calories and far less ingredients that I can't pronounce.

The stop at Star Market didn't last us long at home. For lunch I had to run to the cafeteria. I ended up getting a chicken dijon curry salad in a whole wheat wrap. It was actually very good!

For some reason I was starving all day on Thursday. Nothing seemed to fill me up! I didn't have anymore food in my office but my co-worker was nice enough to share a miso soup packet with me!

After the gym and work we went home for a Project Runway event with our friend. I shouldn't say we, Matt ate dinner with us but then disappeared for the rest of the night. Anyway, for diner I made the Southwestern Stuffed squash again but this time I stuffed delicata squash instead of acorn. It was just as good but delicata squash is smaller than acorn so we ended up with a side of the filling. The salad that I made was a great everything in the fridge combination with lettuce, apples, feta, and onions.

Friday started as a repeat of Thursday, Cinnamon Harvest!

Again, it didn't last me long. I decided that I was going to have my "splurge meal of the week" for lunch. My group went to Dimitrios. I ended up getting a chicken cutlet sub with all the veggies. I can't remember the last time I had a sub like this and I quickly remembered why. I did not feel good for awhile after lunch, my belly hurt and I was sleepy from the spike in sugar. I won't be having that again anytime soon!

My pre-workout snack was a strawberry greek yogurt. It was so much better than the Yoplait.

My post-workout snack was a beer at our company's beer hour. Men's Health actually says that a beer is the perfect post-workout snack based on it's carb to protein ratio. I like that!

For dinner we met up with friends at one of my favorite pizza places in Boston, Joe V's. All of their pizza is on a thin wheat crust. Yum! We started with a mixed greens salad then split a lobster, hearts of palm and parmesan cheese pizza and a sausage, red pepper and carmelized onion pizza between four of us.

Saturday morning we met up with a friend for brunch at Bouchee. We know one of the coolest bartenders there and we wanted to pay him a visit! The three of us split the berry french toast, the egg flatbread and the eggs benedict. Everything was delicious! They freshly squeeze the oranges per mimosa order and my bloody mary was perfect!

After breakfast we went to the gym to burn off our breakfast. After the gym we had a quick smoothie then ran a bunch of errands and cleaned the house. We managed to finish all of our chores just in time to go to Bukowski's to celebrate our friend's birthday. Matt and I split a turkey burger for dinner and a couple bites of the white trash cheese dip. I also had two beers a brown ale and then a Murphy's. Our friend, Matt and I had been in Ireland together drinking lots of Murphy's a couple of months ago so it was a very fitting birthday celebration drink.

This morning I made french toast with some fantastic bread that I got from Whole Foods. It was whole wheat muesli bread. It had nuts, seeds, dried fruit and whole wheat! It made delicious french toast that didn't need a lot of maple syrup.

After breakfast I had to run to Manchester, NH for a baby shower. I wasn't very hungry at lunch but I picked at the food that was at the shower and had a little of the almond raspberry cake. I definitely was not a member of the "Clean Plate Club" this afternoon.

I had to rush home to a bunch of work tonight so I picked up dinner AGAIN! Ugh! I say ugh because I prefer making my own dinners not because it wasn't good. Dinner was tasty. Alaskan maki, chicken katsu and edamame from Zen.

The rest of the night was filled with work while the Patriots game was on mute. Where did the weekend go? Time flies by!

I need some more quick and easy meals for these nights when I have to bring home work! What are your favorite go-to quick recipes?

New York! New York!

Wow-o-wow! The days have flown by! I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and post about my wonderful weekend in New York!

Friday we left during Boston Rush Hour! After forging our way through traffic we finally arrived in NYC at 9:30! Perfect time for dinner! After coordinating with our weekend entourage we ended up at Mama Mexico. Mama's was a ton of fun but the food was not very good. One exception! The guacamole that they made tableside was amazing!

You have to have a Corona with every Mexican meal!

Matt and I shared two disappointing entrees. First, chicken in mole sauce with refried beans and rice:

Second, chicken tamales with black beans and rice:

Even though the food wasn't as great as I wanted it was a great way to start our weekend in New York! After all of our traveling we were exhausted so we called it a night shortly after dinner.

We had to get up early Saturday morning so we could get our rush tickets to Finian's Rainbow. After procuring our box seat tickets we headed to brunch at the Cupping Room. I was so hungry by the time we all got breakfast that I completely forgot to take pictures until after everything was in my belly! You can tell by the empty plates and bowls that breakfast hit the spot!

First was a large side of perfectly cooked bacon. It was so big that we couldn't finish it between all 8 of us!

Next were the two breakfasts that Matt and I split. Yogurt with granola and berries (my pick) and a ham, green peppers and onion omelette (Matt's pick). Both were delicious and perfect!

The rest of our day was packed with walking and shopping skipping food. There was a Starbuck's stop during the day for a caffeine kick. The Chai tea latte that hit the spot. We also made sure to find the time to stand in line for twenty-minutes in order to pick up Magnolia's cupcakes and banana pudding. Both were intended to be our after late-night snacks.

Before we knew it we were running late for our dinner date! Before running out the door and sometime during the frantic wardrobe change I managed to shove some of the banana pudding into my mouth. I almost forgot to enjoy and savor it's deliciousness! If you've never experience Magnolia's banana pudding make a detour the next time your in NYC. No matter where you are! It's worth it!

For dinner we ended up at the Film Center Cafe. I started with a Stoli vanilla cosmo that was awful. Too much cranberry juice and not enough vodka. I had a chopped salad with chicken, corn, tomatoes, onions, black beans, chihuahua cheese, avocado, tortilla strips with goat cheese buttermilk dressing. Sounds good doesn't it?! I thought so! There were hardly any black beans or vegetables other than lettuce and the pile of tortilla strips had to be removed in order to eat the salad. What you see in the picture is what I left. Thank God for the heavenly banana pudding that I gulped down before dinner!

After dinner we went to Robert Emmet's pub to have a drink and to avoid waiting in line to get into the theatre. Funny thing is that there is an Emmet's pub across the street from our house in Boston. I can tell you that the Smithwicks taste perfect at both pubs!

The rest of the evening was so much fun! We watched our amazingly talented friend in Finian's Rainbow, then went to Kemia for some dancing and finally to Chelsea Grill for our late night snack. After not finishing dinner and burning calories while dancing we decided Magnolia's cupcakes could wait. Matt and I shared a cheesesteak with pepper jack cheese and waffle fries. Although it doesn't look too pretty it was sinfully delicious!

Sunday breakfast at Midnight Express was the perfect way to end our meals in Manhattan. Midnight Express had a brunch special for $13 you got tea or coffee, a bloody mary or a mimosa, a side of fruit and a breakfast entree. Matt and I went all out for our last Manhattan meal. I had a bloody mary, an Earl Grey, fruit and then split (surprise, surprise) the breakfast entrees. The Billy Bob omelette (ham, mozzarella, peppers and onion) and nutella banana pancakes. Both were delicious but probably not the most nutritious?! The best part about the pancakes is that with the yummy natural sugars from the nutella spread and the bananas I didn't need any of the high fructose corn syrup (aka fake maple syrup)! I hate the fake stuff!

We had such a great time in NYC! It was hard to leave our friends but we had to get to JFK for our Jet Blue flight back to Boston. After a nice long train ride we had the speediest trip through security. On the other side of the security walls?! The prettiest, newest terminal I have ever seen in all of my travels! If you ever get the chance fly through JFK on JetBlue! You'll see what I mean!! We had to try one of the cool restaurants for a snack and to catch some football time! We ended up at FiveSteak. The awesome pictures that follow will tell our snack story... and show you the lesson my husband was giving me on how to take cool pictures with my new camera!!

Zinfandel:

Yum!

On my favorite plane ever (E190) we had our JetBlue snack. Water, Diet Coke and a little pack of chocolate chip cookies.

Right after we arrived in Boston we left. Heading north to pick up Bailey from Matt's parents in Ogunquit. On the way we stopped in Portsmouth for dinner at the new Common Man restaurant location. We both started with a bowl of the butternut squash. I am very picky about my butternut squash soup. This was one of the best I have ever had! Perfect for the cold night!

For our entree we split the filet mignon. It was perfectly cooked. Tender and flavorful. It came with sweet potato string on top, garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed brussel sprouts.

Now, if you've been paying attention you may be able to figure out what we had for dessert.... Magnolia's cupcakes! We didn't find a chance to eat them in NYC so they traveled with us, through security, on the plane, and all the way in the car up to Ogunquit! We arrived pretty late so we quickly cute them into quarters and shared them all! There was one red velvet, one chocolate/chocolate, one chocolate/vanilla and one vanilla/vanilla. They were all good but not as good as they would have been if we ate them Saturday night. Mom and dad were happy we waited to share though!

I leave you with a video of the "grander" days of New York city. The days of Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Jules Munchin. They definitely saw more in a day then we did in the whole weekend! Cute and corny. Enjoy!