Hi there bloggies –

Happy Wednesday evening! I hope you had a good day – I cannot believe there are only two more days in the work week. I am getting so excited for the weekend, and I do not even really have any plans. (Sometimes not having plans is the best – do you know what I mean?)

Last night I set my alarm for 5:30 in the morning. Ugh. I was a little worried about how I would feel when I woke up this morning since I was up until at least 11 o’clock last night reading. Thankfully, when the alarm went off I was able to drag my not too tired butt out of bed at 5:35. Bright and early!!

I managed to leave the house by 6AM and I drove straight to work without any food and without coffee. (What!?) I did drink water on the way to work, it felt good to hydrate so early in the morning. I had breakfast at 7:30 this morning. No photo, but it was a 2% Fage yogurt with strawberry preserves. I used to be able to find a 0% strawberry Fage, but lately I can only find the 2%…. where did it go?

At 10 o’clock I was starving (not too surprising, I guess). I snacked on a Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax granola bar and a lot more water.

For some reason lunch time could not come soon enough today! I was starving by 11 o’clock. I went for a walk down to the campus at lunch and hit up the salad bar. I made a pretty good salad, if I do say so myself 🙂 I made sure to add protein so that Celeste would be happy with me. (I have to redeem myself for eating pizza most of the week!) Here is what the salad looked like:

The protein in the salad came in the form of a hard boiled egg and tuna. The vegetables were tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, grilled zucchini, mushrooms and other things I cannot remember. Croutons and sunflower seeds garnished the top of the salad. I also used 1 tablespoon of their “light Italian” salad dressing.

I was still hungry after eating my salad, but I had more water and tried to wait it out a bit to see if the hunger would eventually subside. It did a bit, but an hour later I had a serving of Trader Joe’s cat cookies. They were a nice little afternoon pick me up.

I left work at 3:30 this afternoon because I got to work at 6:50 this morning! I could not believe that I was able to get out of bed and get in gear early enough to get in to work at that time. I was very pleased with myself! Driving straight to the gym at 3:30 was a little less stressful than driving there at 4:30 or 5 o’clock. I felt like I had a lot more time left in my day. I did get a bit tired as I was driving – probably because I got up so early and was up later than normal the night before. I made it to the gym, closed my eyes in the parking lot for a quick ten minute cat nap (yes, I’m serious!) and then got my act together.

I carried my bags in to the gym and got ready for a 30 minute cardio workout before I met up with my trainer for a conditioning and strength training session. Fun times! I did the elliptical machine for 30 minutes – it did wake me up and I started feeling better.

My session with Celeste was good. We focused on glutes, arms, and back today. I can’t wait to see what we focus on tomorrow. After the session I walked on the treadmill and stretched out for a bit before heading to the market.

At the market I picked up vegetables, soy milk, grilled chicken, low carb wraps and a container of Chobani plain Greek yogurt. I knew exactly what I wanted to make when I got home. But I still had to water our plans and flowers, take a shower and do a few other things around the house. Because I knew it would be at least an hour before I even started on dinner, I opened a bag of Laurel Hill sea salt and lime chips. I love these things! I dipped them in some Trader Joe’s salsa – a great combination!

Once I was done with the house chores and was clean again, I started dinner. A lot of chopping. I chopped onion, mushrooms, snap peas, red peppers and grated ginger. I threw the red pepper and onions in the skillet first with a tablespoon of canola oil and a couple of tablespoons of water that was already heated up. I cooked these two things for a while before I added the mushrooms and snap peas. The ginger was the last to go in. At the same time I heated up some Seeds of Change seven whole grains in another skillet. It was the first time I was trying this Seeds of Change medley, and it turned out to be a good addition to the meal.

Here is what the end result looked like:

There is grilled chicken at the bottom of the bowl. The vegetables were amazing. I seasoned the meal with a teaspoon of soy sauce (reduced sodium of course!) and a little bit of rice wine vinegar. Yum. I had about 1/3 of a cup of the grains to go with dinner (they are under the vegetables) I definitely did not want to load up on the carbs. But I think the meal was a decent balance of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates. (I hope so at least!)

I was still hungry after dinner. I had a cup of Trader Joe’s olive oil pop corn and two dark chocolate covered almonds.

Well, I’m off for the night! Hope you’re having a great night. See you tomorrow!