Happy Wednesday everyone! I had a fairly good day sticking to my ‘plan’ today. Breakfast and lunch were the same as they have been for the past seven work days (somehow I have not gotten sick of oats and turkey wraps yet!).

In the afternoon I attended a reception at work. I snacked on a piece of grilled chicken, hummus, a piece of pita bread and a mini stuffed grape leaf. I also had several bites of chocolate cake. I knew I should not be eating the cake – mostly because I had cake the night before. I really intended not to have cake at the reception, but someone put the plate right in front of me and it looked amazing – a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and coconut flakes. So hard to refuse – and I’m not a huge sweets fan.

I feel that now I am being very serious about eating well and living healthy again (just a post holiday need to get back into a routine) I feel that there is very little leeway in my day. Not much room to have a non-healthy treat (I try to allow myself one little treat a day, otherwise I might go crazy!) and not much room in my schedule when I try to get everything done. I’ve been thinking of living the 85 / 15 life. When you eat healthy 85% of the time and 15% of the time you let yourself relax a little bit. I did the math, and if you are counting 21 meals a week, you are allowed to relax a little bit for five meals a week. My meals this week have been very healthy – but I have had a dessert a couple of times, so I am subtracting that from my five meals for the week. I hope that two pieces of cake this week will not break the bank!

After the reception, there was obviously no need for an afternoon snack. I eventually packed up my bags and drove to the gym. At the gym I did 35 minutes on the elliptical machine. I also had time to take a 15 minute walk during the day – it was in the 50s in Boston today, a nice January thaw.

Once I was finished with my workout I came up with a plan for dinner. I went to our little neighborhood Whole Foods for some healthy prepared food. I was so happy when I walked into Whole Foods – my favorite neighborhood grocery store has recently had a face lift! There was so much more in the salad bar area and in the prepared food bar. What a great discovery – now it will be even more tempting to go to the gym after work when I know that I can pick up some healthy dinner food when I don’t have time to cook.

I picked out some great food. Sautéed spinach with garlic, nutty orzo salad, a slice of turkey breast for me and two thin slices of sirloin for mom. (She is much more into red meat than I am!) When I got home I was starving. I went straight to the shower and couldn’t wait until dinner time. After I was changed (I love sweat pants in the winter – what a treat!) I plated our meals.

I added some hot sauce to my meal! Dinner was wonderful, but I was still hungry after I slowly ate my dinner. Last night I had the last piece of birthday cake:

I’m signing off to go and prepare a big cup of tea! I hope you are having a cozy evening – see you soon!