This week I have to go to work five whole days in a row. What!? It has been a long while since I had to work a five day work week. My body sort of does not remember what that means. Ugh.

Last night, post Downton Abbey, I set my alarm for 5:55 AM. Yuck! When the alarm went off, I hit snooze twice. And then I just totally gave up. I re-set my alarm for 7:20 AM. I knew that I had to work later than normal today, so I figured why push myself to get in to the office super early? I think it actually turned out to be a wise decision. I had an extra hour and twenty minutes of sleep (which is always a beautiful thing) and a good commute both to and from work – which to me is priceless.

Breakfast this morning was a Peppermint Stick Luna bar (great Christmas gift!!). I had a mid-morning snack around 11 AM of carrots and a tablespoon of red pepper hummus.

At lunch I went for a walk on my own because almost all of my walking buddies were not at work today. (There are a few nasty illnesses going around the office. A horrible cold – and even worse, the stomach bug. Yuck.) On my way back from my walk, I ran into one of my work BFFs – Kate! We were both ‘enjoying’ the warm January weather. (I hesitate to say this – while I liked the fact that I was able to talk an amazing walk without being cold today, I really hate this warm weather. Global warming is a disaster – and I truly miss winter weather and temperatures.) Kate and I walked back to the office together.

Lunch for me today was a Kashi frozen meal. Sunday dinner did not work out quite as we were planning (in a good way) but that meant I did not make it to the grocery store and did not have leftovers to pack for my work meals. I survived with the Kashi Coconut Lemongrass Chicken meal:

This looked like a lot of food. But I was hungry, and I ate almost all of it. Maybe not a wise decision..? Later in the afternoon I was hungry again – but I made a healthy snack decision. An apple and I scraped the bottom of my Barney Butter jar.

When I was finished with my jar of BB, it was finished. I do not think you could get another scrape of Barney Butter out of it.

Perhaps I will use part of my Whole Foods gift card (another PERFECT Christmas gift!) for another jar. I will have to think about it. Yum.

At 4:30 I fixed myself a cup of tea, realizing that I was going to be at work until at least 6pm. The tea really helped me get through until I was able to eat dinner at 7:30 tonight.

The deal I had with myself was that if I was able to hit 10,000 steps on my Fitbit by the end of my work day, I would not have to go to the gym. By the end of my work day I was at 12,500 steps! Well past my goal. It felt nice to be able to go straight home and relax, especially after such a busy and fun week last week and even busier weekend.

Dinner was amazing – my mom’s turkey chili with scallions, sour cream and a sprinkle of TJ’s low fat Mexican blend cheese. I also had a piece of Trader Joe’s corn bread. This was all left over from my tasty family birthday dinner on Saturday. I love leftovers, especially when it involves turkey chili.

On tonight’s agenda:

*have a piece of birthday cake

* read

* and go to bed early.

Thus, I am signing off so that I can get the rest of my night started. Good night, bloggies!