VICTORIOUS!

It's been such gorgeous day today! It's warm, sunny and breezy. Oh, and it's FRIDAY! WIN-WIN! As predicted, I had an uneasy nights sleep but woke up feeling much better. I can't let some stupid random encounter with a shady stranger dampen my spirit. Not all things are in our control. In a way you just have to accept that and live your life. I like to think that most people are good. You can't let paranoia run your life!! (I say that now because the sun is shining. Ask me about this again at midnight when I think I "hear" something outside...HA!)

****Drum roll please**** I WON the scale battle this morning. Sweet victory was mine! I lost another 3.4 pounds. This officially puts me over the 50lb mark. To be exact, I've lost 50.2. GO ME!

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:00am.

To celebrate, I had a tasty bowl of chocolate PB&J oatmeal, with a special little addition. I crumbled half of a Nature's Path Chococonut bar into the mix as well. It was like a sweet decadent breakfast concoction of LOVE! So good!

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tbs unsweetened dark cocoa
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash apple pie spice
• pinch salt
• Splenda to taste
• (Microwaved and topped with 1 tbs ground flax, 2 tbs sugar free cherry preserves, 1 tbs Better N' Peanut Butter, 1/2 Chococonut bar.)

Pure bowl bliss my friends! BLISS!

My day was a little different today. Breakfast had me so full that I decided to take a break first and then come back and have my lunch later. I just wasn't hungry at 12:30. I ran around and got all of my grocery shopping done first instead. I loaded up on all of the ususals (veggies, fruit, lean meat, low fat dairy etc...) and then headed back to work. Weeeeeeeeeeeee! I got back to work at about 1:30 and decided to have my lunch!

LUNCH (meal #2) at 1:45pm.

I had the best salad today. Simple yet flavorful. I love non fussy meals!

• Spinach
• Tomato
• Leftover roasted brussel sprouts
• Morning Star Farms black bean burger
• Garlic favored sunflower seeds (Kaia Foods brand..YUM)
• Spray butter

I inhaled this. It was magnificent!

While I was devouring my lunch, I came across the sexiest little email ever. It was the "big guys" letting us know that we can leave at 3:00 today. SWEET! It was already 2:00. :)

MINI SNACK (meal #3) at 3:00pm.

To celebrate our early freedom, Ann and I indulged a bit. I busted out the second sample that I received from Emmy's Organics. Dark Cacao Macaroon's. OMG! I shouldn't have shared with Ann! THEY ARE THAT GOOD! They remind me of a Mounds bar (everything reminds me of a Mounds bar lol) if it were made with dark chocolate! TO DIE FOR! GO GET SOME NOW!!!!!!!! I am in LOVE with them. Not sure I can share the last one with Nick like I did with the Chip Mint flavor. MUWAHAHAHA! It gets an 1365 out of 10. I actually moaned while I ate it. Baby bites at a time to savor the decadence!


DROOL!

I left work in a fury of excitement at 3:00 and hustled home. The air was whizzing through the sunroof and the sun was shinning. I LOVE FRIDAY'S SO MUCH! I got home, put the groceries away, opened some windows and started some early prep work on dinner. I was attempting stuffed pork loin for the first time.

I butterflied the loin and seasoned it with sea salt & black pepper. I then mashed some light swiss Laughing Cow cheese, dried dill, dried rosemary, golden raisins, regular raisins, dried apricots and black pepper in a bowl. I smeared it over the loin and then topped that with chopped fresh spinach. THIS IS WHEN I REALIZED THAT I HAD NO TWINE! BAH! I remedied the situation with roughly 20 toothpicks and some strategically placed foil. :)


I celebrated my brilliance with a lovely glass of wine. Again, I LOVE FRIDAYS!


With dinner basically good to go, I decided to unwind in a hot bath before Nick got home from work. I'm loving this day so far.

SNACK (meal #4) at 6:30.

Nick and I decided to play some board games tonight. We haven't done that in quite some time.


I poured myself another glass of wine (naturally!!) and made a quick snack of fresh strawberries, butter pretzels and a second decadent dark cocoa macaroon from Emmy's Organics. YEP, that's right. Nick didn't want it. I gladly "took care" of the problem by devouring the second piece. LOVE IT!


DINNER (meal #5) at 9:30pm.

After 3 grueling hours of strategic moves and conniving backstabbing, the game was over and we were both ready to feast. I actually popped the loin into the oven at 9:00 so it would be done by the time we were done playing. Perfect timing. We enjoyed the pork with a side of green beans (seasoned with S+P, spray butter and garlic sunflower seeds). I thought it turned out REALLY GOOD! The pork was moist and tender and the filing was a mix of creamy melty goodness. ;)

Of course I also had some magical Sriracha on the side. I love HEAT!


Time for round two of game wars! I SHALL BE VICTORIOUS!

XOXO
Ildie

Snow hater

I am drowning in snow. PLEASE HELP ME! Perhaps I should start a "let's move to AZ" fund and add (magic) money to it every month? I can't stand this frozen whiteness anymore. Did you know that Cleveland, Ohio is #1 on the worst weather City list? That would be for the ENTIRE country, not just Ohio! Yeah, I found this out yesterday. I live just South of this curse! I find this to be highly disturbing!

I drove through the funk this morning and crawled my way slowly into work. I made a nice cup of coffee and soon as I arrived and started prepping some comfort food.

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:00am.

Dark Chocolate Cocoa Oats

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup wheat bran
• 1 tbs ground flax
• 2 tbs unsweetened dark cocoa (Hershey's)
• tons of cinnamon
• dash salt
• 2 tbs PB2
• Splenda to taste
• Love

This was so incredible. The dark chocolate cocoa is SO much better than the regular variety. It looked like mud. Delicious, nutritious, decadent, rich, ooey-gooey mud. My coworkers think I'm crazy sometimes. They see my food and cringe in disgust. Go away, (vigorously flapping hands in their direction) you bother me!

LUNCH (meal #2) at 12:30pm.

I made the whole kitchen stink like hot spinach and eggs. Like I care. Twas delicious! It was a spinach and egg explosion on a plate. SO GOOD!

• 4 egg whites
• chopped spinach
• S+P

Cooked in a frying pan (sprayed with Pam) last night before I went to bed so I could enjoy it today. Eggy lunches make me feel special. I like feeling special. HA! To fuel my spinach addiction, I also tossed some fresh leaves into the Honey Wheat FlatOut wrap along with Sriracha and Trader Joe's cilantro and jalapeno hummus. I'VE DIED AND WENT TO SPICY HEAVEN.


That orange blob in the background is a Tanjelo, which I never ate. I got too full from the wrap.

One again our lameness and hatred of all things cold, wet, snowy and Winter-esque kept us confined to the office for our break today. I had no desire to venture outside. Instead I opted for green tea sippage while perusing blog land. This was the highlight of my day up to this point. Lame? HOW DARE YOU! It was magnificent. I love cathching up with all of you lovely ladies! ;)

The most glorious email was circulated at 4:00pm. The "big boys" said we could leave for the day if we wanted to since the roads were getting crappy. This made me both happy and nervous. EEEK! Of course I immediately put on my coat and got the hot heck out of there. Once second I was there, the next second I was goooooooooone! Swoooooosh!

The roads were crappy but only in certain areas. However, I still thought it best to skip the gym and drove straight home. This would make it two days in a row now that I didn't make it. UGH! Don't you worry though. I still got a workout in.

WORKOUT! (without a snack first, THE HORROR!)

1 SOLID pissed off hour spent shoveling my long driveway. We're talking 5-6 fresh inches out there just waiting on me. Seriously disgusting! I may or may not have been seen BEATING massively tall piles of snow with the shovel, while cursing, profusely!! I may or may not have thrown snowballs... at actual piles of snow. Ha! The hate runs deep. It was so windy, cold and miserable out!

After this freezing torture session I came in and warmed up with some green tea. CURSE YOU WINTER! Once I felt okay, I dug out the dumbbells and did the following exercises in living room. I didn't want to skip upper body day all together so I did what I could.

Superset #1 (3 full sets)

• Dumbbell Bicep Curls, 8lb x 15
• Dumbbell Hammer Curls, 8lb x 15
• Tricep Extension, 8lb x 15

Superset #2 (3 full sets)

• Two Handed Bent Over Tricep Extensions, 8lb x 15
• Dumbbell Lying Tricep Press (skull crushers??), 8lb (each hand) x 15
• Tricep Extensions, 8lb x 15

Concentration Curls (3 sets)

• 8lb x 15

Superset #3 (3 full sets)

• Dumbbell Shoulder Press, 8lb x 15
• Front Dumbbell Raise, 8lb x 15
• See-Saw Dumbell Raise, 8lb x 15

Upright Dumbbell Row (3 sets)

• 8lb x 15

Shoulder Shrugs (3 sets)

• 8lb x 15

It felt good to get a workout in, even it wasn't at the gym. It's like sweat therapy for the soul!

SNACK (meal #3) at 7:30pm.

You know the drill. As soon as I was done with my workout I made my new fave smoothie. The Mighty Green Goddess.

• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1 scoop vanilla whey protein
• 2 cups baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1/2 cup frozen pineapple
• 5 drops orange creamsickle Capella Flavor Drops
• 1 packet Splenda

Enjoyed on the couch with a quick episode of What Not To Wear. Nick was CLEARLY not at home!! He was visiting a friend after work for dinner and some MAN TIME (AKA video game session). As always, I took full advantage of the alone time. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Cheers!


After some serious girlie couch time, I was starting to get hungry. Super fast dinner to the rescue.

DINNER (meal #4) at 9:00pm.

I decided to make a quick and fresh open faced veggie sandwich.

• Ezekiel wheat bun
• Wedge light laughing cow cheese
• Spinach
• 1/2 Avocado
• Green bell pepper slices
• Roasted red peppers
• Bread & Butter pickles

On the side I had the leftover veggies from last night's dinner. VEGGIE OVERLOAD! The sandwich was..... was..... amazing! Everything was good! I enjoyed this very much!


I think I'll call it a night now and curl up with another cup of tea and my DVR. Nick is home now and we have a new exciting Lost episode to watch! Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night. The week is more than halfway over. YAY!

HUGS!!
Ildie