Hi All –

Happy almost spring! The first day of spring is actually on Friday, but I’m celebrating a few days early.

Today after work I went for a great walk in my hiking boots. I walked for just over an hour and burned 436 calories (who would have thought you could burn that many calories walking up hill, down hill at a good pace??) and it was wonderful. On my walk I saw my first crocus of the year! I had my cell phone so I took a picture…

I have been seriously slacking on posting… on Friday night Ben, Lara and I decided to go to Cape Cod for the weekend… and the computer was left behind.  So, I’m starting with a recap of Monday’s food!

On Monday morning I had one of my awesome egg white sandwiches for breakfast on a Light whole wheat English muffin. I seriously love these sandwiches in the morning! They keep me full for so long, it is amazing.

After the sandwich, I was set until lunch time. I ate around 12:30 in the afternoon. Before lunch I went for a 25 minute walk… it was really cold by the water… but I was so excited to get out and walk at lunch – it gives me so much more energy to get through the rest of the afternoon.
Lunch was another turkey sandwich on Arnold sandwich thins, with lettuce, and hummus. Along with the sandwich I enjoyed some slices of cantaloupe that Ben sliced up on Monday morning… it was soooo good!

About an hour after lunch, I enjoyed this oatmeal and raisin cookie from Trader Joe’s. This cookie was great and only 120 calories!

The entire lunch was about 365 calories.

I went on a small walk before dinner, about 15 minutes. For dinner I met my friend Ann Marie at one of our favorite places – Anna’s Taqueria. If you live in Boston and you’re a fan of burritos, I am pretty sure you’ve been to Anna’s and probably think it is just as wonderful as I do. I love Anna’s.  Last night for dinner I made a couple of different decisions when I was ordering my dinner.  Instead of ordering my usual super burrito, I ordered a “regular” burrito. Instead of getting cheese on the burrito, I told them to hold the cheese. Sigh. My burrito consisted of chicken, beans, a small amount of rice, lettuce, hot sauce, salsa, guacamole, and a small amount of sour cream (about a tablespoon).  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in my lunch bag, which was in the car.  But I have to tell you – even if I had my camera, I don’t think it would have been a really nice picture. 🙂 Consider yourself lucky that you’re missing out!

I was a bit disturbed that after eating my burrito I was still hungry. How is that possible!?  Oh well. I am not going to dwell on it. All I have to say is that Anna’s was fantastic and I hope to be back soon!

Tuesday started out with be being tired!! Ben made coffee, so I enjoyed two cups of coffee at home while I was getting ready for work.  I had a different breakfast this morning… and I’m not sure what to say about it yet!  This morning I made oat bran for breakfast.  A cup of cooked oat bran is only 88 calories… 7 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and 6 grams of fiber!  I need to experiment a little more with the right consistency to make them “fantastic” because today they were ok.  But I’m going to try it again tomorrow, I think.  Tomorrow I’ll take a photo!

At lunch today I took a twenty minute walk to Au Bon Pain. (It’s about ten minutes each way.)  I was only going along for the walk, but I thought a cup of soup would go well with my sandwich today.  I was soo happy to see that ABP had some reduced sodium, low fat soup on the menu today – I was also super surprised!!  Today I had a 12 ounce cup of Tomato and Rice soup. It was only 120 calories, 10% of my daily sodium and it also only had 1 gram of fat.  I really liked this soup a lot, because there were other veggies in it.  The soup had yellow squash, zucchini, celery, carrots and onions along with chucks of tomato and long grain rice. Yum!

I also enjoyed my usual sandwich. Turkey, lettuce, sandwich thin, yellow mustard, pickles and low fat jalapeno jack cheese. The sandwich was 200 calories for a total lunch of 320.

At 3:30 this afternoon I had another TJ’s oatmeal raisin cookie for my afternoon snack.

I left work at 4:30 this aftenroon and went straight home to get my hiking boots on. Ben and I are planning a summer of hiking, backpacking and camping. I needed to start walking in my boots again! I did an hour of walking in my hilly neighborhood. I think it’s a good start to getting my hike on. Ben and I are hoping to be able to get a hike in over the weekend… I will keep you posted!

I hope you’re all having a great start to your week!  I’ll be posting again soon!