This marked my first week back to real life after the holidays. The holidays were wonderful, fun and even restful! I ended up having a lot of unscheduled time off the week before. I left work at noon on Tuesday (New Year’s Eve) and did not go back to work until Monday of this week!

Because of the unscheduled mini vacation I felt really prepared and well rested going back to work on Monday. I had a week of healthy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I was really proud of myself for sticking to my meal plans. I ate the butternut squash and red lentil soup for three days (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday). My go to breakfast all week was oatmeal and a tablespoon of peanut butter. I was so busy at work that most days I did not eat again until lunch. Lunch this week was a turkey and spinach combo on a Joseph’s wrap along with carrots & celery sticks and sometimes a clementine or two. Even though I ate the same thing almost all week, I really looked forward to lunch (I thought that was so strange). Unfortunately I never had my camera to snap a photo of my healthy lunch on the go.

On Saturday my family and I celebrated my birthday. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely enjoyed pizza and boneless chicken wing things while we watched the great Patriots game.

I opened a lot of really fun gifts. I received a new camera lens which I am so thrilled about:

I also received two wonderful cookbooks from my sister and I cannot wait to make things out of both of them soon! (I will wait and review the cookbooks once I’ve made some recipes and had more time to go through the books. The photographs in both are beautiful!)

The pizza we had for dinner was also very good!

My mom made the most amazing chocolate cake with her fantastic chocolate frosting – delish. I blew out the candles in one breath, and made a wish.

This morning I went back to my healthy ways. My sister made a smoothie, and I had a small glass:

…and I had a great cup of coffee with steamed milk:

After breakfast, I changed, got my kindle and headed to the gym. I was on the elliptical for just over forty minutes and it really felt great. I also got to the gym three times during the work week – the most I had been to the gym in a long time. I always felt wonderful after workout out. A couple of times it was really hard to get there because I was tired from waking up at 5:30 AM…

After the elliptical machine, I did weights for 15 or 20 minutes. I’m working hard to get some strength training back into my routine. After the weights, I packed up and headed to the grocery store. I shopped around the perimeter of the market (do this! It’s a great way to avoid buying junk food!) and here is what I bought:

Blueberries, hummus, low sodium Boar’s Head turkey, reduced fat swiss cheese, celery (we still have carrots hat home), mustard, soy milk, spinach, and more Joseph’s wraps. I will have to take a break from the Golden Globes tonight to prepare and pack my lunch!

When I got home from a busy day, I ate a big salad – thankfully my mom made it the night before for my party. To me, a lot of times salads taste so much better when someone else makes them!

Ok everyone. The Golden Globes are about to start – so enjoy the evening with some good eats, a drink and have fun! See you soon.