Hi All –

Monday got my week off to a decent start. I was well prepared and was able to get up when my alarm went off even though I got no sleep on Sunday night. There is something wrong with my mind or body – I can never sleep on Sunday nights… and I’m serious – I get about two or three hours of sleep on these nights and it is horrible.  I’m really glad that I had enough energy to make my lunch and lay out my clothes the night before because it made my morning faster.

Here is what I look like at 6:30 in the morning after about two and a half hours of sleep:

Yikes!!
Yes – that is a green smoothie in my hand, and it got me through my drive and to the office on Monday morning! In the liquid mix was 1/2 a cup of skim milk, about a cup of water, 1 scoop of Jay Robb’s vanilla protein powder and 1/2 a packet of chocolate infused Amazing Meal. This smoothie was awesomeand I was able to drink it while I drove to work!

Bravo Green Smoothie!!! It also kept me full until 11:30 – amazing! At 11:30 I had a small handful of almonds and at 12 o’clock Katherine and I went for a really slow half hour walk at lunch. It was amazingly hot outside and sooo humid – thus the really slow pace. I think we walked just over a mile, and I was impressed with our effort! 🙂
Here is what my lunch looked like on Monday:

In my mind, I pictured a healthy picnic when I was preparing and packing this stuff on Sunday night! I really loved this lunch.  I had a few Trader Joe’s crackers, one light Laughing Cow cheese, one carrot cut up into snack sticks, about 1/3 or 1/4 cup of tuna – plain and a refreshing can of Polar Pomegranate seltzer (that was promptly recycled once I finished it!).  What a great lunch. It was nice and light for the super hot day.

Shockingly (just kidding – I think lunch was about 350 calories!) I was hungry at around 3:30 on Monday afternoon.  Because I knew I was going right to the gym after work and wouldn’t be getting home until late, I had an afternoon snack of yogurt, granola and flax:

I finished about 2/3 of the bowl – it was supposed to be breakfast but I never needed it due to the awesome smoothie!

I left work and started the long drive home… I had to eat a TJ’s strawberry fruit leather to keep myself awake 😦  I was really feeling the effect of my lack of sleep by 4:30 in the afternoon.  But somehow I got to the gym.

It’s really hard to get your energy levels up to go to the gym after an hour drive home…  But my Monday mini-goal was to get to the gym – and I am happy to report that I did. I ran 1.2 miles in 12 minutes (I was slow) for a warm up. I then did a half hour of weights and then “rowed” 2500 meters on the ERG (rowing machine).  So, I was at the gym for about an hour.

Have you ever heard the saying, “don’t go to the grocery store when you’re hungry?” Well, add to that “Don’t go to the grocery store when you’ve been to the gym, haven’t had any sleep and haven’t eaten in 5 hours!”  But I couldn’t resist going in to my favorite place, East Side Market. I got out without buying too much – yogurt for the week, a couple of Amy’s burritos to use in a pinch for dinner or lunch, and some Almond Sunset Tea by Celestial Seasonings which has been really hard to find.

For dinner I had another serving of my Ratatouille over whole wheat pasta. I didn’t bother to take a picture, since it was basically the same as this (sans the cheese tonight):

Yum. I also had a piece of Italian bread toasted with Earth balance.  It was great!

That about wraps up the day… see you soon!