Today I opted to end my crazy day without a trip to the gym. Normally this irks me more than I can tell you. If it is a night I can go to the gym, I do my very best to get to the gym. Not so tonight, I guess.

Last week I had a few good conversations with my friend Thom about life and stress. (He’s sort of an expert on this sort of stuff, according to me at least!) We talked about how over scheduling can lead to stress and stress does a lot more damage than missing a day at the gym occasionally. Thom is a runner, too so he understands my love of running and overall mental need for exercise. But I really tried to listen to him and think about how I schedule my life.

Tonight I walked in the door at 6:30 and said to my mom, “Hey, I didn’t go to the gym and I’m ok with it…” (and then I added a joking line, “sort of” but I didn’t really mean that part). My mom was very proud of me and could tell that I came in the door happy – which is pretty amazing since it was a tough drive back and forth to work today thanks to rain, early darkness and so on.

I figured for the most part I ate well today (oatmeal for breakfast, a really healthy salad for lunch and a small piece of birthday cake that I shouldn’t have had, but I did anyway) and I knew that I was having soup for dinner. Yesterday I had a great workout at the gym. 45 minutes of intense elliptical and 25 minutes of weight training.

Tonight I am working on relaxation. I might stretch a bit and I might do a bit of yoga. I am doing laundry, I will be meditating, and I will enjoy my book.

Here is a brief recap of today in food:

First off, breakfast at 8:30 this morning. Trader Joe’s Complete Oatmeal (plain, no extra sugar added) with a small spoon of Barney Butter (less than a tablespoon). I had lunch a little after 12 o’clock. It was a great salad that I made myself make last night:

In the mix:

Spinach & lettuce

carrots, tomato, cucumber & yellow pepper

Tuna (1 serving)

Whole wheat croutons

A light caesar dressing (that had the lowest sodium I could find – it still tastes great. If you are concerned about sodium – look at your salad dressing. It might be low in fat and / or calories but it might be loaded with sodium!!!)

Along with the salad I had a non fat Greek yogurt.

At 2 o’clock this afternoon we had an all staff meeting – at 3 o’clock we had a birthday cake for our director who was celebrating a big birthday at the end of the week. I had a small piece of vanilla birthday cake with vanilla frosting and it was lovely!

Dinner tonight is one of the creations I cooked up this weekend. A twist on the traditional chicken noodle soup:

In the mix:

Low sodium chicken broth

Carrots, chopped (about a cup)

1 red pepper, chopped

2 celery stalks

1/2 a yellow onion chopped

1 can of cannellini beans

roasted chicken (about one cup, chopped into bite size pieces)

2 chicken sausages (cooked separately, cut up into bite sized pieces)

I started cooking the onion first in two tablespoons of olive oil. After 3 minutes I added the celery. Once these two veggies were cooked (onion was translucent) I added the red pepper and waited about a minute or two. Then I added the broth and more water and carrots. After stirring the broth, water and other ingredients, I added the chicken and chicken sausage. I seasoned the soup with a lot of freshly ground pepper and cumin! I cooked the whole wheat pasta separately, a few minutes before I was ready to eat the soup – I opened and drained the beans and threw them into the soup to warm them up. I added the whole wheat pasta to the bowls. Personally I like to keep pasta or noodles in soup separate – especially when I am going to be eating the soup for a couple of days. The pasta (or noodles) stay less soggy if stored separately – but to each their own. 🙂

The red pepper really gave this soup a special flavor – as did the chicken sausage and the white beans. I really liked this take on Chicken Soup. Oh – and for even more of a twist (and spice!) I added a couple of splashes of hot sauce!

Well, that does it for me tonight. I hope you all had a productive day and night. Do you ever feel guilty for not getting everything you have on your to do list accomplished?