Happy Monday to you all! After one entire week of a successful structured eating plan, I am on a roll. My new favorite breakfast is still a piece of Arnold’s Double Protein Bread, a tablespoon of Barney Butter and a teaspoon of raspberry jam. I do not know HOW this gets me through until lunch time, but it does! I am truly amazed. On Friday I stuck to my “plan” and had oatmeal for breakfast (low sugar Quaker instant oats) and I was hungry an hour after. I think that my new breakfast works well because of the combo of protein, healthy fat and carbs. It’s perfect!

The perfect breakfast:

215 calories, 10 1/2 grams of protein.

Lunch today made use of the chicken I cooked over the weekend. While my mom, Mark and friends of ours enjoyed a traditional Irish dinner (we are actually not Irish, but members of the family do love corned beef and cabbage… I’m not one of them) I enjoyed chicken and sauteed green beans!

Salad with vegetables and chicken:

All mixed together:

With the salad I also enjoyed a circle of Laughing Cow light babybel cheese and two whole wheat crackers:

This was a perfect lunch combo of veggies, protein and whole grains… very satisfying. After lunch I enjoyed a piping hot cup of black tea – I was simply freezing most of the day. I actually never took my jacket off at the office, too bad it was a light weight rain jacket – I would have been much happier if I had been wearing a comfy fleece. (Lesson learned – never leave the house without my trusty LL Bean fleece in my tote!)

Afternoon snack was the rest of my 32 ounce Chobani Greek yogurt, vanilla flavor:

There was not too much left, but it was a great snack. After work I had a long drive home in the rain, wind, hail and snow. It was quite a drive! I was glad that I had a few almonds and raisins to snack on.

Tonight it was my mom’s turn to host her monthly book group. I made sure to be available to help out if / when needed, so decided to skip the gym. There were seven lovely women in our house for most of the night, all arriving with either wine or some sort of amazing food. Dinner was quite fun! Beef stroganoff, grilled asparagus, and a small piece of chocolate cake for dessert. (Thankfully I missed the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that went with the cake!)

After cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, I made sure to force myself to prepare lunch and snacks for Tuesday. Instead of my usual double protein bread, almond butter and jam, I am going to try one of the Luna protein bars I picked up over the weekend. I’ll be sure to let you all know how it is.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a good start of the week today. I think the rest of the week promises to bring better weather – and more light in the evenings, so go out and get your run or walk on!

😀