I <3 Fridays Off!

I work a ‘compressed’ work schedule, meaning I work 9 hour days and get one day a pay period off.  And today was my day off!  What a fabulous day!

It was about 80 degrees and sunny for most of the day! I started my day with a bit of work, Marshmallow Oaties with coconut shreds and hazelnut milk and a cuppa Mate Latte Tea.

Lovin’ the Mate Latte Tea!  Refreshing change from coffee.  I was pleasantly  surprise with my first foray into dairy alternatives with the Hazelnut milk. LOVE IT! And no soy or saturated fat.

After doing some much needed cleaning in the apt, I went for a run.  I ran 4.14 miles in about 36 minutes. A 9:02 min/mile!! WOO HOOO!!

I’ll blame my good times on my new Skirt Goddess Running Skirt!

I was super excited to try this skirt because of the shorts underneath having a 7 inch inseam.  I have issues with running bottoms riding up…

This skirt was great, no riding up.   The extra inches on the shorts made a difference.  I loved it and may get another one!   I  also rocked my Princess Half Marathon shirt:

Which is a little big, but wicks like a champ!

After my run,  I grabbed a delicious smoked salmon on bagel thin sandwich with capers. Yummy!!

 

Then it was off to Hot Yoga at Charm City Yoga! I love this class with Melissa because its more of a Hatha class than a Vinyasa class.  Meaning the positions are held a bit longer and stretch more.  Felt great after my run. 

Following on the Charm City theme, I headed off to Charm City Run to pick up shoes the boyfriend ordered.

 

The poor sales man… I tried on about 5 different pair of running shoes and the pair I wanted were not in stock in my size :(  At any of their stores.

Ugh, I have such an issue deciding on running shoes.

My evening was pretty much ruined by a soccer game that got rained out, missing the other running store closing by 20 seconds (they turned the Open sign off as I walked up ) and Target being out of pretty much anything I needed.  That was all made up for when I wandered into the liquor store to find one of my favorite brews, Otter Creek Raspberry Brown, on sale for $6!!

I love hanging out, drinking good beer and watching chick flicks!

I have a busy weekend planned, better be getting some rest!!

Blood Donation FAIL

The American Red Cross has  stringent rules for blood donation.  This reduces the risk to both the receiver and donor. Obviously,  the receiver doesn’t want a disease but the donor should not suffer adverse effects from donating.

The process of donation starts with a questionnaire and taking vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, hemoglobin levels).   During the questionnaire,  it asks all sorts of crazy questions like  general health, sexual contact and countries lived in or visited.

For example if you lived in England for more than 6 months during 1980 -1996, you can’t give blood.   Why? Mad Cow Disease…

Last year for spring break, my family went to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. And  because 50 weeks ago I was here…

I can’t give blood until after April 11th because of the risk for malaria. You can’t donate blood for one year after coming back from the topics because malaria can be lurking in your blood.   😦

When they told me this, I was not happy!  After chugging water all day (and visiting the bathroom all day!) and mentally preparing myself to do this, I was disappointed and frustrated.   Maybe a little relieved, though 😉

Again, I know why the regulations are in place.  I understand why they can’t make exceptions, but I was still frustrated.

When I made my appointment,   I specially asked about it, remembering my father couldn’t give blood last summer.  Wasn’t sure if the regulation was for 1 year or 6 months. The person assured me I would be able to donate.

Just to mentally get ready to drain the life force from my body was enough for me, I took them up on the bag of Famous Amos cookie they offered! Then started to re-plan  my night.  I had planned to head, make a larger green monster for the iron and crash for the night.

Instead, I decided to go exploring MOM’s organic market, a place I drive by all the time and never stop at.

From MOM’s About Us page:

MOM’S CULTURE
We are a community of thoughtful, progressive, hard working people. We are diverse. We strive to understand and learn from our differences. We respect different ideas. We value teamwork and take pride in the result of our efforts

An interesting experience! I will be going back!

The produce was very fresh and organic. Unfortunately, there was not a huge selection and no spinach or mushrooms! They did have loose Brussels Sprouts, which was great because I usually can’t go through an entire bag.

And they had Strawberries for $1.99! I picked some right up!

They also had bulk bins.  I love getting things from bulk bins then never use.  Pick up some rolled oats.And some shredded coconut:Then I saw the Tea! I love tea!!  MOM’s had lots of  Republic of Tea loose tea.  Most places only carry the tea bags. 

I picked up loose Yerba Mate Latte, a tea I have been searching forever for it!  Yerba Mate teas have about half of the caffeine of a cup of coffee.  It’s a nice change from coffee in the morning. Mate usually has a grassy taste, but the Latte has vanilla and cocoa flavors added.

Abby was also interested!! Actually, I think she was more interested in the cheese I was eating….

A good store to go to for specialty items, though I don’t think I could do all my weekly  shopping there. Definitely priced better than Whole foods!

Hopefully I don’t develop malaria in the next two weeks  and get the  courage to go back the Red Cross in two weeks!!

Pizza Overload

When does a day become a complete healthy eating FAIL?  How many poor food choices make the day unhealthy?  After the bad lunch choice? Before the midnight snack?  With the extra slice of pizza????

Yesterday, I knew I was going to dinner with my best friend from college.  We were going a local microbrewery/ pizzeria, meaning I wasn’t going to get the healthiest of dinners. So I packed myself a lunch, made a huge Green Monster for breakfast and started my day.

Once I get to work, my routine is to make an iced coffee and catch up on blog reading for about 10 – 15 minutes.  How do I make my iced coffee? With this beauty:

Office sized Keurig! My company provides this with many choices of coffee, tea and hot chocolate. Yes, my company rocks!

While during said blog reading, I learned it was Free Cone day at Ben & Jerry’s.  And with a store within walking distance from the office, I was in!  I normally don’t eat ice cream,  free ice cream is a different story!

Then I got the following email:

I’m working at Silver Spring today, so I will be hosting an impromptu pizza lunch in Conference Room A starting at 11:30am.  No agenda, just lunch.

Thanks,
President of my Company

Yay, Free Pizza and lunch with the president!! (Again my company rocks!)

I had the pizza for a  lunch. This including a veggie slice… and 2 buffalo chicken slices.    Then I got my free ice cream cone –  Chocolate Therapy.  The whole office went, it was team bonding, right?

Got a 10% off key tag, good for the next year!

And then I went out to dinner, where I ate MORE pizza and beer.  Oh and Garlic Cheese Sticks… I probably ate close to a whole pizza yesterday…

By the time I got home after 9pm,  I wanted a snack.  I stood in my kitchen thinking about my unfortunate food choices over the day.  I could have eaten my packed lunch or eaten all veggie pizza or not gone to free cone day or gotten a frozen yogurt or went to a different restaurant for dinner or not have had a beer.  The choices went on and on.

My next 2 thoughts were:

1. This is why I am gaining weight
2. I already destroyed ANY healthy eating today, I may as well  have a chocolate bar.

I KNOW the choices I make are not great.  I have always heard if you have a binge or an unfortunate food choice,  you should get right back on the wagon.  Not to continue to binge!

But how do I get motivated to stop making the changes?  Something that I need to work on.

(Just a note: Last night,  I did decide that I wasn’t actually hungry but thirsty.  I had a big glass of water and called it a night! WIN!)

Friday? So Soon?

I can’t believe its FRIDAY!  This week has flown by, especially since it’s the first full week I have worked since early January. And the next week and a half are going to be crazy! This time next week I will be in warm, sunny Florida, riding rides at Disney World!

First,  breakfast: (try this food blogging thing again!)

Starbucks Grande Americano with Whole Milk.  Thanks to a gift card I received for Valentine’s Day 🙂

An Americano is a shot of Espresso with hot water added.  I am not a fan of sugary or $5 drinks and I think Starbucks regular coffee is brunt tasting,  so this$2.60 50 Calories drink is perfect!

Up next was a hard-boiled egg! It had a perfect yolk!

The egg is also sitting atop my shiny, brand new work laptop! I got it on Tuesday and have been trying to set it up ever since.  Its running Windows 7 , which I have never used.  I either use a Mac OSX or XP.  What I’ve seen, I’ve liked!

I also opened this Greek Yogurt from TJ’s.  I liked the blueberry flavor and I love Fage Greek Yogurt with honey. But this was not what I was expecting, the taste was off. Didn’t taste like honey nor yogurt.   BLEGH! I took 2 bites and threw the rest out.

And soon it will be time for one of these! 🙂 Banana with AB and Nutella.

Back to Work and Studying! More later on what I am studying for 😉

Trying the Food Blogging Thing

First and foremost, Food Blogging is not for me. Why?

1. I am not a good photographer, most of my food photos turn out yellow and unappetizing.
2. Most of the food I make looks unappetizing anyway, as I am not a great cook.
3. I am forgetful and tend to forget things like cameras, cables and taking pictures.

But as a trial, I am going to use the blog as my food diary to really visualize what I am eating.  I have been have been trying to take off some poundage for a few months now and  have actually gained!  I know I am not working as hard as I could be but it is starting to get discouraging.

To start off today, I forgot my camera (remembered the cable!) and to take a picture of the hard boiled egg I ate first…

For Breakfast: (Pictures thanks to my Blackberry!)

****Insert picture of perfect hard boiled egg here!! *****

A large cup of iced coffee with Half &Half for the caffeine jolt!

And what I have termed the ‘Anti-Boyfriend’.  This is a banana with 1 tbsp each  TJ’s Raw Almond Butter and Nutella stuffed inside.

So named because my boyfriend is allergic to everyone of those ingredients (bananas and tree nuts!)

I usually end up eating breakfast at my desk or in the car because I am perpetually running late.  And I am not hungry until I have been up for an hour or so.  I once read that you should try to eat within the first hour of waking up.  I NEVER want to eat then but maybe I will try this the rest of the week.  A small meal may stabilize the blood sugar. and not make me so snacky in the morning…

Monday Night Football == Pizza

This is the  kind of meals I want should avoid…

In celebration of the kick off of this blog, I went out last night! Well,mainly because the Ravens were on Monday Night Football.  Boyfriend and I went to our favorite pub where beer and pizza is the menu.  They brew their own beer and I had my favorite, half raspberry and half dark… Yummy! Like a chocolate covered cherry!

They serve the beer in 2 little glasses that equal about one pint

Then I had an atomic pizza: hots, mozzarella, pepperoni, bacon and red onions. Delicious and NOT at all healthy. 😛 Not something to eat everyday but a great treat! And the kind of food I need learn to eat as a treat. One of the thing I need to work on is my food choices at restaurants.

Atomic Pizza- Hot Hot Hot!!

And it did make my day! Especially since the game was so ugly, we only stayed through the first quarter. But, there were about 4 turnovers just in that quarter and then Ravens ended up losing.  😦

Monday is my rest day and I did some light stretching/ yoga to recover from my long run on Sunday.  I did about 7 miles, but it felt so much harder.  I was running on the C&O canal trail and jumping over the snow and ice really tired me out!