Over the Hump...day

As you can see, I'm still trying to find a balance between work & play & fitting in some writing here and there! I'm still reading all of yours though, of course... so I can stay caught up at least... And thank you lovelies for all the comments on the last post... it was so sweet to see that you missed my ramblings :) haha... Oh and, of course, I have next to nothing to show for the few days I went absent but there was plenty of eats to be had...


This past weekend was fun.. I worked alot = made alot = spent....some. Not alot but definitely some. (Hey, it was hard earned!) And I've been keeping my word from last time and making sure my increased hours at work aren't affecting my gym time. I'm not using "have to work a double" as an excuse anymore because usually, although I'm up and out the door early in the a.m., I'm still out of work around 8 or 9ish which leaves me enough time to at least get a run in afterwards...


And that's what happened last night. I worked my looong double, and headed out to the gym around 9 and got a quick 2.6 mile run/warm-up walk in... only requiring my overtired legs to work for 30 mins. I felt much better after going and was able to sleep easy last night because of it.... My muscles allll the way up the back of my legs and to my butt are hating me for it this morning though.


Too much work. Not enough stretch-time! Ugh... yoga will be in my schedule today, for sure.


The rest of the past events have been pretty uneventful actually. Just the usual workdays, followed by fun with the co-workers and some of my lovely home girlfriends, a glass of wine here & there, and attempting to get enough sleep each night! I slept a full 12 hours (from 830pm-830am) Monday night!!!!!


I drove down to work (nearly falling asleep at the wheel mind you...and it was 4pm) and even a Venti Americano couldn't keep me going. Luckily the restaurant was dead that night and I practically begged to be able to go home ...seeing as how there was obviously NO need for four people to handle the work that could be done by two (or even one at this point) Soooo I raced home, fell into bed and didnt wake up until the next morning when my alarm was screaming at me to get up and get my lazybones to work a double.... Fortunately the 12 hour rest period made me feel like a million bucks and I was practically buzzzing the entire day :) LOVE how a good night's sleep makes you feel completely rejuvenated....


Eat wise.... there was much, but not much of it was documented...ooooops. I did go out a fair share with friends and such to eat. Yesterdays lunch was with two of my lovelyy friends from work on my hour long break during a double... we went to a local bar/restaurant near work for French Onion & Wild Mushroom soup (uhhh-mazing) & Sauteed Maine crabcakes with a Red Pepper remoulade ahhhh....


Hibachi consisting of chicken & salmon for me was also devoured over the weekend gahhh, I forgot how good (& entertaining) a hibachi dinner is...


On the homecooked side... I discovered this while at Stop & Shop and was feeling a little frigid that day so it was the perfect remedy. Just heat and serve.
Celebrated Cookie Friday like any good bloggie would do with a little oatmeal raisin purchase... These were slightly disappointing... I only say slightly because I thought they would be BIG cookies and they were little bitty bebes. The taste however is awesome!

Oats of course were had as much as possible... I've been switching between oats & cereal with yogurt for most morning depending what I'm craving. Eating because so much better when I actually know what my body wants and I'm not just grabbing the nearest thing for breakfast. Some mornings I want eggs, some times I only want coffee first thing, sometimes my body says NAY to breakfast... whatever it says, I like the fact I can hear it and listen to it.

Granola bars, per usual... I had two Odwallas over the weekend. I'm obsessed with the Strawb-Pom flavor!!! I don't know what it is but it's delish! I tried the Banana Nut before leaving work when I was falling asleep whilest standing and talking to tables.... seriously, I was that useless... I couldn't even remember the specials 2 seconds after hearing them. Gooddd God....

More soup! In the form of MamaBear's homemade tarragon-turkey soup.... soooo yummy and ALSO consumed the day I came home early. Amazing the only thing my exhausted self could do that day was take pictures of food. Oyy!

Long overdue yogurt messes yum yummmm... in the morning light :) It's always nice to switch it up once in a while... I love me some oats but I need some new varieties.... What are some of your best breakfast oat flavors/combos??? I want to try out some new ones to spice it up a bit!

The rest of the day will be filled with errands seeing as how it's my day off.... I love the feeling when you first wake up in bed and realize you don't have work that day. Is there anything better? Although I always seem to jolt out of sleep thinking "I'm late!!!!" almost every morning which puts a bit of a damper on it... So the plan is:

~Gym time + yoga session with Dawnelle....the girl gives my abs a run for their money

~Bake Thanksgiving inspired cookies for work! Any ideas???

~Shopping - just a tad, for something I've already picked out online :)

~Sushi tonight!

Did you know theres...ONE WEEK TIL THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Speaking of which... what's your favorite Turkey Day fixing on the dinner table???

I think mine would be my Mom's twice baked potatoes... they're so creamy and melt in your mouth amazing. I cant wait to reunite with them...

Back on Track

Ummmm I definitely went M.I.A. alll week this week... but don't worry, I have been slacking horribly with the picture taking sooo, you haven't missed much! I've been working like a crazy person (doubles galore at the restaurant), I went out to eat alot this week so because I was surrounded by friends, good convos, & of course, good drinks... it slipped my mind to whip out my camera and snap pictures but I can assure you, I ate some wicked good foodage... and I can safely say my running this week has been....eh.


I definitely don't agree with it. It's lame. BUT....I enjoyed myself alll week with lovely people and (besides drinks) I never went anywhere close to overboard with my choices. I ate good, balanced meals but unfortunately, at times, was soo busy I didn't even have time to eat what I would consider full meals... ENTER: Clif bars, an orchard size amount of apples, Chobani w. cereal, and several salads from work...


OH...and the rest of the week was spent remaining obsessed with Lady GaGa.... and am now in the process of buying tickets to see her in January (well worth the $200+ right??) Ohhh boy...

I won't even try to recap each day since the last time I posted was Monday and my mind can't even handle attempting to remember every little detail but I worked everyday minus Wednesday which I originally wasn't even scheduled for but they needed help so when Lauren at work asked if she could cover it I of course said YES... which at first seemed awesome, until I used the idea of no work the next day as a reason to drink a 6-pack of Shocktops to my dome at a bonfire with my coworkers. Ummmmm, pooor form.....

Holy Hangover Batman! Blahhh... and also enjoyed a glass of organic Bonterra wine (or tres!) at a birthday dinner at this amazing Hibachi & Sushi restaurant that just opened in the same plaza as work. Feng is phenom. End of story.

I had the Glazed Chilean Sea Bass entree with orzo and had the Tomyum Clam Soup as an appetizer... both were out of this woooorld good! The soup was a tad spicy (lots of ginger in there) but it was a party of goodies in the bowl: peas, cilantro, oyster mushrooms, peapods, big meaty pieces of clam, and a veryyy yummy broth. My sea bass was amazing and the orzo was cooked perfectly... moist and perfect! Ew..moist.. that word is so weird.

I also joined my brother and nephew for Thursday night musica & staffer pizza at work last night which was fun and as always, delicious. But it may be time by the end of this week to do a little more grocery shopping and get back to cooking at home... my oats this morning were long overdue since I haven't had a good relaxing breakfast more than once this week... I'm usually grabbing coffee & a Clif bar on the way to work (Poor form once again)

I'm also going to be getting back on track with running. The road race is coming up soon and my ankle has had plenty of rest time since my gym trips have been short and sweet (and/or nonexistent...yikes) sooo minus the epic sized heels I've been sporting to dinners out, they should be feeling pretty good for my long run planned for today!

Okay..soo foodage... there was a lot of it, most went unpictured, but here's some of the eats from the week:

MorningStar Mushrooms Lovers burger in WW wrap with avocado, lettuce, & tomato

Amy's Organic Cream of Tomato Soup


All together for lunchtime

My Mom's Tarragon Turkey and Barley soup

Ohhh Hello empty Teddie, I have a brill idea!

Delectable per usual

Hated every minute of it...

1 egg, 1 egg white scrambled with All Natural cheddar on 9-grain...

with lots of organic ketchup...

Typical picture of my work/gym bag before leaving in the a.m....

Honeycrisp, Clif bar, and a wrap...

With a side of really cute & warm yellow scarf & running shoes :)

Long overdue oats with 1 cup water, 1/2 cup oats, 1 naner, 1 tbsp PB, crushed grahams, lots of cinnamon...

Today is my day off *Thank youuuu Lord!* and it will be spent doing the things I couldnt do most of the week because I had zero energy or extra time... including GYM first and foremost, tons of laundry, maybe a little clothes shopping & definitely some food shopping (we're out of coffee in this house and it's about to cause a tantrum... for some of us), picking up my paycheck!, and some much needed yoga & good eats will be had!

Hope you're all as happy as me that this week is coming to an end...phew! Happy Friday lovepies!!!!! :)

Reunited & It Feels Sooo Good!

Good Morning Muffins :) Hope you all had an exciting weekend (especially those of you who went to FoodBuzz!! I'm extreeeemely jealous) So it's Monday once again.. oyyy. It came so fast. I'm doing okay accepting that fact because I had plenty of time this weekend to relax for a change which I don't feel like I get the time to do very often.


I also got to reunite last night (Sunday) for a dinner date with one of my best friends & roommate of 3 years during college! That was definitely the highlight of my weekend... Alyssa & I became friends during school and just clicked. We have the same sense of humor and can be, at times, children...which we do much more often when we're together (lucky for our waiter) But we've both progressed past the time of power-houring at 8pm to pregame for the bar, get overdressed, go to the bar to consume even MORE beer, and then order pizza very late night only to wake up with a booze & food hangover, vow to never do it again, and then proceed to reenact the night a few days later. Ehhhh.... yes, luckily, I can safely say we've progressed far past this.

Alys & I during my last semester at school

So when she told me she was coming home for the night I was beyond excited :) :) We made plans to go to my place of employment for dinner:

Reason #1-the pizza portion of the meal is free.

Reason #2-Alys is quite the daredevil when it comes to eating hot & spicey things and she's obsessed with our hot sauce which you can buy whole bottles of in house and she HAD to do it....

Reason #3-GOOD, quality local brewed beer on tap. That'll do.

We had such a great time catching up, laughing, talking about old times at school, and eating some phenom food & drink! I slacked, per usual, and didn't take pictures. Apologies but I was too busy chatting with my daaaahling :) But I started with the Goat cheese organic salad (which you've seen countless times since I eat it every chance I get while at work) followed by a pizza that Alyssa & I split...

I got my 1/2 with no tomato sauce, mozz, parm & herbs, free-range chicken, roasted red peppers and lots and lots of mushrooms...

Alys ordered her 1/2 with our homemade tomato sauce, olives, Roma tomatoes, & roasted red pepers... then obvi dumped her entire pizza with Amigo hot sauce. Gotta love her.

I also had 2 (we'll say two... but it was 3-oooops) Blue Point Toasted Lagers on draft. Sooo delicious... and since my beloved Magic Hat was unavailable, this has to do and you'll hear no complaints from me on that! ;)

Since Alys had never had dessert there, I ordered us a 1/2 dessert (since we were basically full to the brim) and asked for 1/2 a brownie sundae with the Graham Central Station ice cream. Holyyy Bajeeeez, I could go on forever about this ice cream. It's BOMB ahhh! And, of course, because we have such great employees, my "half" dessert came out with a whole brownie, 2 scoops of the graham, and a tower of maple syrup sweetened whipped cream (Thanks Evelynnn you're my girl! ;) haha) we couldn't even finish half of it but IT. WAS. UH-MAZING.

Such a fun time with my biotch who I've missed sooo much :) And we're planning on getting together before I head into work tonight for a coffee or something along those lines. Yayyyy!!!! More time with the Lysssybear :)

Nowww...I suppose it's time to backtrack. Bear with me, I had a pretty uneventful and relaxing weekend which you would think would make it easier to recap my eats & acts but... it's not. Plain and simple. Apparently I'm still a scatterbrain.... hense why I've downed about 5 glasses of this already today..

And seriously needed THIS more than ever this morning...

1 cup water, 1/2 cup oats, 1 small naner, 1 tbsp. Teddie PB, 1 tbsp. chopped almonds, lots and lots of cinnamon...

Saturday morning I woke up and made oats ASAP along with making my regular coffee with the LAST of the coffee grounds (Breathe Allison. Don't Panic)

Oats with 1 tbsp Teddie PB, chopped naner, and 1 crushed graham cracker board

I headed to the gym soon after breakfast to get a quick workout in before I had to head off to my Grandma's house with brother & nephew to see some of the family coming up from Maryland to visit for the weekend.

I did 35 minutes on the treadmill... 10 minute warm up followed by 3 sets of speed intervals for 5 minutes each, did a quick cooldown and got in about 15 minutes of leg & ab work before having to race outta there in order to get back to my house, shower, get ready, AND eat lunch before brother got there!

I whipped up the quickest lunch I could come up with while in the kitchen, which actually turned out to be pretty delish!

WW wrap, peppercorn turkey, lettuce, dijon mustard, & chopped avocado

Along with a piece of perfection; yummy Honeycrisp

All wrapped up and ready to roll!

So I ate lunch on the go while in the car and brother & I made the half hour drive to my Grandma's house... My aunt, uncle, and two of my cousins had yet to see Baby Jakey so the rest of the afternoon was spent ooooh-ing and ahhhh-ing at every little thing he did :) They just couldn't stop taking pictures and each wanting to hold him and talking about how adorable he was. It was nice to catch up with the fam (my younger cousin Amy just started college.. Whaat!?) and discuss what everyone had been doing lately...

A few hours after my lunch my stomach was getting cranky again so my Grandma made me a cinnamon raisin mini bagel with some peanut butter (along with a cup of coffee because I was turning into a zombie before everyone's eyes - oops) and then brother and I had to leave so he could make it to band practice on time...

When I got home it was dark out but was only 5:30!!! Holyyy moly... I could have gone to sleep for the rest of the night I was so tired! So I made a cup of tea & just spent the rest of the night relaxing... read a few blogs... caught up on The Hills for the majority of the night (Ummmm Kristin really turned into a biotch, huh???)

This little munchkin cuddled with me for most of my Hills watching :)

Then a few hours later it was time for dinner and I wanted something warm & easy... So soup it was! I had a can of Amy's Cream of Tomato soup (which is awesome, just FYI...give it a try) so I warmed some up...


And what's tomato soup without a grilled cheese on the side? It's nothing is what it is. Pointless. HA! So I made a much yummier version to go alongside it...

Grilled Chez a la Allio - Goat cheese, sliced tomatoes, chicken (seasoned with s&p and cooked in a pan) with 9-grain bread...

Looooved ittttt :)

The goat cheese was soooo creamy & delicious, the tomatoes were perfectly ripe, and the chicken wasn't overpowering since the seasonings were so simple... This sandwich & soup combo was pure comfort food and warmed me up right away. It kept me full for quite a while but in the middle of a mini-Always Sunny in Philadelphia marathon I was having I needed a little dessert.

Plain Chobani with lots of cinnamon, a teaspoon of Dark Chocolate Dreams mixed in, and a tablespoon of white chocolate chips... holy decadence in a yogy-dessert!

Now the plan is to rush off to the gym... get showered up and ready to go to work... stop & have my coffee date with Alys on the way down to work.. and then serving the night away at worky :) What's your plan for this lovely Monday?

Friday Night In

Tonight turned into a pretty low-key night... I'm already in yoga pants, sipping a glass of white wine, and putting on some good movies.. beginning with Kill Bill Volume 1 (such classic Quentin). And I'm loving every minute of it :) Sometimes a relaxing night at home is the perfect idea...


Not to say I haven't run around like a crazy person for the majority of the day, because I did... but at this point it's barely 10:30pm and I'm ready to snuggle up in bed with the Bella-Cat and get some shut eye! Not until doing a little high-quality blogging, of course ;)


My day started off with a delicious yogurt mess... complete with Vanilla Nature's Promise FF yogurt, 1/4 cup of Kashi Warm Cinnamon, 1/4 cup of Kashi Honey Almond Flax, lots of pumpkin pie spice, & a melted tablespoon of Teddie PB...

Heaven in my favorite bowl...
All mixed up & with a couple bites of the remaining apple crisp from last night's dessert...

After breakfast I did an excessive amount of stretching because I've been feeling tight all over, ALL of the time. My legs constantly feel like they need a gooood loooong stretch. But once I got tothe gym I was ready to kick itttt....

I did an awesome 45 minute workout chock full of alternating sprints & runs ... 30 seconds & 1 minute respectively, and felt amazing! I even upped my speed during my running sessions.. I don't know what gave me so much energy and helped me keep up a consistent pace but I was loving it. (Could have been Matthew Fox's twin weight lifting in front of methe majority of that time... who knows)

My total time was:

45 minutes / 4.0 miles / 470 cal

Followed by a 20 min core strengthening yoga class from yogadownload...

Immediately after leaving the gym I had to rush off to meet Mamabear at her office to go down to the DMV and switch my car registration over from her to me (thumbs down)

1. I hate the DMV... I hate the lines, hate waiting, and it always seems to be full of the weirdest characters, seriously.

2. This means no more Mamabear paying my monthly car insurance bill (major thumbs down)

3. I guess this means I"m officially an adult (EW)

4. I was absolute staaaahvin mahvin the entire time & quickly turning into a brat...

So after what seemed like an eternity of waiting in one line, switching to another, getting a ticket with a rando number on it and waiting for that numberto come up, we FINALLY left and after getting back to Ma's office, I was sooo happy when she offered to give me her apple she had brought to go with the rest of her lunch. Which I happily ate within 5 minutes of it being offered to me...

I remembered from all the bloggies I saw this morning that the holiday cups are now out at Starbucks!!! (along with the holiday inspired lattes) soo I of course had to stop for a Grande Nonfat Gingerbread on my way home..

My belly was still yelling at me when I got home so I whipped up the most rando lunch plate ever... just a combo of a bunch of things I found in the kitchen. A "snack plate" if you will; very GC of me :)

...1/4 of a sweet potato microwaved with a bit of cinnamon

...Baby carrots & 1/4 of a yellow bell pepper w. Annie's Honey Mustard

...3/4 of a can of tuna mixed w. Dijon mustard, s&p, atop a bed of lettuce

Then it was time to get crackin on making a batch of cookies for Mama because she told me Grandma I would for tomorrow's family get together... My aunt & uncle (and maybe my two cousins!) are coming up from Maryland for the weekend so the fam has planned a little dinner & dessert event at Gram's house. Luckily, Mama remembered to tell me that she signed me up for the responsibility while we were growing gray hair (what?) at the DMV today... so I stopped and grabbed white chocolate & semi-sweet chocolate chips on the way home to make my Chocolate Almond Cookies....

Mixin it up....

I added 1 cup chopped almonds and 1-1/2 cups of a mixture of white chocolate & semi-sweet chocolate chips...

I dont know how I restrained from digging into this amaaaazing cookie dough...

Popped into the oven at 350 for about 11 minutes and they are golden & perfect!

This recipe is, by no means, a dieter's cookie recipe... I won't lie- it's got 2 whole sticks of butter, 2 cups of sugar (a mixture of light brown & regular granulated sugar) and, as you can see, has loads of chocolate in it...but I know these will get eaten and because I wasn't planning on digging in myself, I took the easy way and followed an old recipe for these I had laying around...

The whole batch came out awesome and the 1/4 or so of the cookies that I saved to keep around the house are ALREADY GONE if you can believe it... My parents had a tad too much wine and consumed what was left of the stash haha. I also remembered after dinner that it was, indeed, Cookie Friday so I indulged in one of these babies and I can safely say... I'm not a horrible baker ;) I'm sure the rest of the family will love them tomorrow...

Dinner was stress-free, mostly because Mamabear aka Jillybean whipped it up herself! It was a pretty nice change of pace because I'm usually searching through the kitchen forever, sooo indecisive about what to make.. It helps when Mama lets me know she's already on it :)

She made a recipe she found online for Chicken Scarpiello... It's a lot like a stew of some kind. It's an easy one skillet dinner that combines chicken, veggies like bell peppers & mushrooms (my favs!), potatoes, sausage, white wine & chicken broth... I can't explain how good this dinner made the entire house smell as it was cooking. I kept wandering into the kitchen and peering into the skillet to see if it was done, only for Mama to slap my hand like I was a child and tell me to "keep your fingers outta there" Fun times.

The end result? Phenom! I didn't eat more than one bite or two of the sausage, but I ate my fair share of chicken, mushrooms, and the other veggies...

Yumalicioussss!

What's a meal that reminds you of home or your parents' cooking??

Spaghetti & meatballs always reminds me of being home.. Sunday night was always Italian night as I was growing up and we would always have my Mom's homemade meatballs with some kind of pasta.. salad... garlic bread... & a dessert was always a necessity. Ahhh, those were the days... when I ate countless carbs & never gave it a second thought haha :)

Happy Friday!!

Boundless Energy

Do you ever have those days where one little thing happens during the day and sticks with you for hours afterward?? I had one of those moments today in one of the most random places from the most random person and it has kept my attitude upbeat and energetic all day from that moment on... I love random acts of kindness.. although this was more of a random act of motivation. Definitely a fan of this, also :)


But let's jump back to yesterday (my day off!) I love having days off from work that turn into uber-productive ones rather than the "lay around the house and do nothing with myself" days.. although those aren't too bad on occasion.


After my oats.. scratch that; DELICIOUS oats.. I headed off to the gym and got in a fab workout:

50 minutes treadmill / 4.1 miles / 486 cal

I felt awesome after this one... I had more energy than I thought originally and although I had to take a few walking breaks I killed plenty of calories and was good & sweaty afterward. After the gym I stopped at the grocery store to pick up essentials for "Date Night" planned for later that night. I told my parents I would make my vegetarian chili recipe (along with all-natural corn muffins.. thanks Hodgson Mills, you're a lifesaver) so once I got home it was time to get down to cookin...

Snacked on a few of these while I cooked because I didn't end up eating lunch today (oops) I didn't mean to "miss" lunch but I had a late breakfast and wasn't particularly hungry the rest of the day until I got home around 5pm and started cooking... A small handful of these cured the hungry beast that I had become...

For about 20 minutes of course... but thankfully I was able to enjoy a glass of Chardonnay while the chili simmered a little while longer & it was sooo worth the wait...
I had a bowl with 1/4 of an avocado chopped on top..yum!


The recipe is simple as pie....

Although I originally began making this chili following a specific recipe, overtime I've learned to just "wing it" and base the cook time on how it tastes, how the vegetables have softened, etc. I sometimes alter the original ingredients, depending what we have in the kitchen at the time & whether or not I'm planning on adding meat of any kind... Wednesday's chili was pretty close to the original.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic - minced (I usually add more.. love me some garlic)

1 large red bell pepper - diced

1 large white onion - diced (I used 2 medium yellow onions for this batch)

28 oz. crushed tomatoes

1 cup chicken broth (or any other kind on hand.. I used veggie this time)

Cumin, Chili powder, Cayenne pepper (I don't measure these, I just add & taste test until I get something delicious)

Salt & Pepper

1 small can sliced black olives

15 oz. red beans

15 oz. white beans

Cilantro

1. Heat the olive oil on medium-high in a large pot then add red bell pepper & onion - sautee until soft

2. Add garlic & cook about 5 mins

3. Add crushed tomatoes, cumin, chili powder, s&p, and a dash of cayenne pepper, depending how SPICY you like it... bring to a boil

4. Pour in chicken broth, stir, reduce heat, cover & simmer 30 minutes

5. Add beans & olives & cook for another 10 minutes or so

6. Remove from heat, add cilantro, stir.. serve.. consume... and love everyyyy bite :)

I whipped up a batch of quick & easy apple crisp for dessert using my stash from my apple picking adventure with my biotches....

It was a pretty basic recipe....


3-4 apples sliced
2 tsp lemon juice
Cinnamon
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup Quaker Oats
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp vegetable oil


Basically, just toss the apples with a little extra lemon juice, sprinkle with cinnamon, and place them in glass pan sprayed with nonstick baking spray...
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl until crumbly (is that the right word? haha) and then top the apples with the mixture, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, serve warm with Vanilla Froyo... if you're me. YUM!
Ohhh and an extra sprinkle of cinnamon if you're feelin sauce-ay... Heyyyyy ;)

I went to sleep with a very full (but happy) food-baby and awoke absolutely craving my Vanilla Caramel tea (say what!?) I'm usually a zombie until I've "attached" my coffee IV... so this was a change, fo sho. Enjoyed my steaming cup while Facebooking... no need to lie, the picture just outted me anyway...

And I strayed from the oats for a day because I really wanted eggs.. no lie.. I HAD to have them. And seeing as how I just bought a bottle of organic ketchup yesterday, it seemed only fitting to try it out in my fav way possible: atop of me lovely eggies.

With a side of 9-grain toast & Raspberry All-Fruit spread...

Delicious. And perfect pre-work fuel... I stayed full for most of the day. I packed lunch, per usual...

A WW wrap spread with 2 tbsp Teddie PB & banana slices, sprinkled with cinnamon...

Along with one of my beloved fruit friends...

And a Luna for my mid-morning snack...

Got to work and had a mere 2 tables before being "cut" Yeah.. thanks.. after making the 40 minute drive down to work this wasn't exactly making me too happy but I made the best of it and thought...

"More time for running"

Got dressed & headed to the gym..

30 minutes treadmill / 2.7 miles / 318 cal

30 minutes elliptical / 3.3 miles / 250 cal

Now.. this is where my happy moment of the day occured... While on the treadmill, going through my intervals aka me being the sweaty beast that I tend to be switching between 1 minute sprints and 1 minute runs & blasting David Guetta into my ears... I noticed an elderly woman in front of me on the stationary bike...

After she was done & cleaned up her bike she walked up to the front of my treadmill so I took my headphones off and she says to me "I could see you in mirror running. You have such boundless energy. Keep it up honey!"

After smiling & thanking the lady I couldn't stop smiling... OH and you bet I pumped up the speed for the last 5 minutes with those two words in my head. You have BOUNDLESS ENERGY I told myself.... now prove it. It felt amazing and I'm pretty sure I owe that lady another thank you for being my motivation today.

What do you tell yourself to keep your motivation up during a workout??

I usually repeat "You're strong and fast as hell" in my head (cliche, I know but it works!) and as long as I have some good tunes in my ears, I'm able to find hidden energy and keep going ...

After getting home, I stretched out for a looooong time... today required a lot of work from my ever-so-tired legs but it was well worth it. They're still feeling it right now. I'm thinking a yoga session will be my first priority tomorrow morning since I don't have work and will have plenty of time for it... my body is definitely asking for it at this point!

I snacked on a few more Pita chips while pondering what to make for dinner... hence the vegetarian cookbook (Thanks to my lovely boyfriend!)

Then I went searching through the vegetable options in the house which are seriously dwindling (me no like) but I did find a perfect sweet potato.... perfect for FRIES that is!

Sprinkled with paprika, salt & pepper, cinnamon & a drizzle of EVOO

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes, turning the fries every 10 minutes or so and they came out sooo delish! Crunchy & browned on the outside, warm & soft on the inside...

I served them alongside my LAST MorningStar black bean burger (R.I.P).. all rolled up in a WW wrap with lettuce, red onion, FF all natural cheddar cheese, and a drizzle of medium taco sauce...

Uhhhhh-mazing combo!

Now I'm contemplating what to have for a little dessert... already stressing about having to make a dreaded trip to the DMV tomorrow (ew)... and then planning to hit the hay early tonight!

What's one errand you really dislike having to do??