Hi Everyone:

I hope you all had a great long weekend. I had a busy long weekend. I did not get to the grocery store yesterday, so my food today was a bit on a whim. Thankfully I had some Kashi instant oatmeal to throw in my purse as I was leaving the house to catch the train to work. I bought a medium coffee at Au Bon Pain @ South Station this morning ($1.70).

Breakfast:

(Kashi instant oatmeal)

Lunch:

Au Bon Pain bagel sandwich with smoked salmon, cucumbers, veggie cream cheese (which I asked them to go “light” on, I was happy to see that they did) and a wasabi spread. I have never had this combo before, and I have to say that I really liked it a lot! I checked the nutritional information on the sandwich, it is 430 calories (with a normal amount of cream cheese), 23 grams of protein and 10 grams of fat – not too bad when you’re stuck with no lunch from home. The sandwich was $4.23 with tax. I also snacked on a few Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzels.

I got through the afternoon without an official afternoon snack, but I did hit up the horrible candy jar in our lobby at the office. Two pieces – a small Butterfinger and a small Baby Ruth.

Dinner:

An awesome dinner of left overs. Last night my mom made a fantastic dinner of chicken a la king. This is definitely one of my favorite meals, comfort food – thanks mom! Even though chicken a la king is a really rich meal, I felt that my plate was pretty well balanced. I had steamed broccoli and half a pear as my sides. 😀

I felt horribly guilty when I got off the train tonight. Probably because I opted not to eat my Larabar as an afternoon snack, I was soooo hungry at 6:45 when my train pulled into the station tonight. I was fully intending on going to the gym tonight. It was freezing rain, I was tired and hungry. Even though my gym clothes were in the car, I drove home instead of going to the gym 😦 . Tomorrow night I will be staying with my friend Jenn in Brookline (no gym – but hopefully a good deal of walking tomorrow). Thursday I will have to get to the gym. My cold is finally gone. I need to get back into the swing of my weekly routine. It is amazing how a cold can throw your entire exercise routine off. I know that a big part of it is my long commute to work right now. But I need to have the energy and desire to get back to my running. I hope to write to you guys on Thursday with a full report of my eats and my exercise for the day!!

Even though I did not get to the gym last week, I did have three 25 minute (or longer) walks during the work week last week. I also had a great half hour walk in the woods on Saturday in Connecticut, which was wonderful.

A note about not bringing your lunch to work, and not preparing your coffee the night before 😉

I kept my receipts today, so I could post the $$ spent on the blog. Today in food I spent a total of $5.93. I was fortunate in that my lunch was a little less expensive than I was anticipation (the salad bar at ABP can be pricey). If you spent $8 a day in coffee and lunch (that doesn’t even include a muffin or bagel in the morning, and that is not a fancy coffee drink – just a medium drip coffee from ABP) this would add up to 40 dollars a week in lunches and ‘simple’ coffees. Last week I spent $32 in groceries for dinners, lunches and breakfasts and spent a total of FOUR dollars on coffee during the work week. It is a much better deal to go to the grocery store, get fresh produce and make your own meals. Unfortunately, due to the freezing rain (and being kind of tired, I hate to admit it) I did not make it to the grocery store tonight. I came home to a warm house, a cup of tea and an awesome dinner of leftovers. Later I will search the kitchen and grocery store for food to bring for breakfast and lunch.

Well, I am going to sign off for now. Hope your week is off to a good start! See you tomorrow.