Hi Everyone:

I am officially on a mini – vacation! Right now I am in Portland, Maine. Ben is at a conference for work, and I went along for the ride. I’m really enjoying my day of leisure!

I woke up a little after 9 o’clock this morning. I enjoyed the Starbucks coffee Ben had left for me (our room has a microwave):

and then went down to the work out room where I cranked out a 2.5 mile run. It was the first day of exercise since I came down with the horrible cold over the weekend, so it felt good to get moving again.  I probably could have (and should have) kept going, but running on the treadmill was a little boring, so I decided 2 and a half miles was good enough – especially since I am on vacation!

I went back to the room and caught up on some blog reading and e-mails while eating a banana…

as well as finishing the rest of the coffee and having an entire Sigg bottle of water.
After showering and getting ready, I went out to explore a little of Portland. I walked around a bit and eventually went into a coffee shop and had a skim milk lattee and read some of my New Yorker.

I met Ben at 12:30 (his lunch hour) to see how his day was going and soon after that I went to Whole Foods for lunch. The WF in Portland is amazing!  I enjoyed a great salad and a small soup in their cafe area while reading…

The soup was a butternut squash soup and it was wonderful. It is very cold here in Portland today (in the forties and super windy!) so this soup really did a great job of warming me up…

My salad was also wonderful:

I tried to get enough protein into my salad to both fill me up and help my muscles out. I think the tofu,grilled chicken and chick peas might have done the trick!

Here is what the salad had in it:

• broccoli
• spinach
• green peppers
• red peppers
• cucumber
• chick peas, tofu, grilled chicken (protein!)
• cous cous
• carrots
• cucumbers

Overall it was a good salad and it was fun to eat.  For a dressing I used the balsamic vinegar they had at the salad bar.

I love having a hotel room that has a refrigerator. I always ask for one when I travel. It helps me eat healthier and plan out some of my simple meals (especially breakfast).  Right now I have Stoneyfield yogurt and Silk soy milk in our fridge. I also brought fruit (apples, bananas and an orange) and protein bars with us on the trip. Today at Whole Foods I picked up a couple of packets of my new favorite travel size peanut butter!

Did you know that Oprah is running a coupon on her website that will give you a free Whole Foods re-usable bag?? Click here for the link (it’s a pdf file) –  the coupon is good until April 26. All you need to do is print it out and bring it to a Whole Foods store and you can get a bag like this:

I love my “small” bag. I bring it to WF when I’m getting a small amount of things, but I also use it on a daily basis as a lunch bag.

Right now I’m sipping on some vanilla soy milk and contemplating my next move.

I might go over and check out the Portland Museum of Art… I’ll be back later with another re-cap of the afternoon and evening. 🙂