Realization and supplementation

Hello my sassy little foodie vixens. I hope your day is going well!

Today started off sort of odd for me. I woke up, got dressed and as I walked past the hallway mirror, I stopped dead in my tracks. Why hello there shrinking wonder. I caught a glimpse of my profile and my jaw hit the floor. Where did my ass go? As in my "shelf" ass. The one that forms on top of your actual ass that someone could easily place a bottle of beer on. It was gone! GONE I tell you! As were my back boobs. Come on ladies, we ALL know what that is. I mean, I knew I was melting away but somehow the reality of how much din't hit me until that very moment. My profile has always been scary! I rather like it now and it felt freakin amazing to finally realize the full extent of my progress this morning. :)

I celebrated by changing and wearing a shirt that I haven't worn in well over two years. It was snug (accentuating my now flat and mostly toned back) and short (now showing off my curvy ass) and I felt damn proud strutting around the office in it. I had an extra little sass in my step. Shake yo self girl. SHAKE IT!

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:15am.

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• pinch salt
• Splenda to taste
• (Topped with ground flax, 2 tbs sugar free strawberry preserves, more cinnamon & 1 tbs Better N' Peanut Butter.)

Work was much more subdued today. I enjoyed the silence and kept a low profile. Never go searching for trouble my friends. If you dig long enough, you'll find it. HA!

LUNCH (meal #2) at 12:15pm.

I basically had the exact same thing that I had for dinner last night. Well, almost. I had leftover roasted veggies and a toasted bagel thin with superfruit jam on one side and light laughing cow cheese on the other. I'm addicted to this combo of flavors.


I love mixing laughing cow cheese with jam. It feels like a treat every time I have a sandwich like this! YUM!


On our break today I attempted supplement shopping trip #2. Was I successful? You bet! I'm officially going to start taking the following supplements every day, starting today.

(Fish Oil for my healthy fats and Calcium 600 Plus for healthy bones.)

(Ginkgo Biloba for mental alertness (I NEED THIS, HA), Ginseng for energy, endurance and vitality and Centrum Multivitamins to cover everything else.)


I think I've waited long enough to incorporate some much needed supplements into my life. I have brittle nails, my hair breaks off easily, I yawn a lot and my skin has seen better days. I'm hoping this combo will help. Multivitamins and calcium are, of course, necessary for different reasons!

SNACK (meal #3) at 4:00pm.

I made a quick yogurt mess with plain Yoplait Greek yogurt, cinnamon, a banana and the last of my superfruit jam. Twas delish!


I decided to skip the gym today and get a little workout in at home. I just haven't been feeling the gym this week and today was no exception. Not to mention that my upper body still feels SUPER sore and tight. My muscles needed to rest! My new schedule might not be working out. Though doing different portions of upper body, I still DO upper body three days in a row. I might need to rethink this!

WORKOUT!

I did a 20 minute ab workout. I downloaded a video from the Exercise on Demand channel. It was TOUGH! After that I did 10 minutes on the bike. Aaaaand basically that was it. What can I say. At least I did something. ;) (I only burned 266 calories though...)

SNACK (meal #4) at 7:00pm.

I didn't feel like a protein shake either so I opted for a juicy Fuji apple. It was a good one.


I cleaned my messy self up after my mini snack and relaxed on the couch for a bit with some girlie DVR love. Nick was visiting a friend so I watched some episodes of Say Yes To The Dress. LOVE that show. ;)

DINNER (meal #5) at 9:00pm.

I had NO Idea what to make tonight. NONE! I've been a bit unmotivated in the kitchen as of late. It gets even worse towards the end of the week as I start running out of fresh supplies. I need to (must) work on that ASAP! I gawked at the things I had available to me and decided to have a salad with the last of my leftover roasted veggies and a pan seared chicken breast. Hey, I cooked, a little! HA!

• Spinach
• Cooked chicken breast (pan seared with S+P, cayenne, rosemary and garlic powder)
• Leftover roasted veggies
• Spray Butter
• Sprinkle of garlic sunflower seeds
• Small handful of dried cranberries

Ahhhhhhh-may-zzzzing! Not bad considering I had no idea what to make less than 30 minutes before devouring this tasty mess. I think it's my love of chicken (which I don't have often by the way) that keeps me from becoming a vegetarian. Just not sure I could give it up!

Nick came home right as I finished eating. We spent a good amount of time discussing where we might want to vacation this Spring/Summer. We keep tossing ideas back and forth but for some reason we keep leaning towards the beach. As far as the when and the where. Still undecided. Maybe NC??? I honestly don't care where we go. I'm just ECSTATIC that we're planning something! ;)


I just made a lovely cup of coconut chai black tea with a splash of milk and cinnamon to sip on. We're about to watch The Office. I love Jim and Pam! ;)

Question: Do you guys take any supplements? If so, what and why? Have you noticed a difference since taking them? Good or bad?

Night-night!
XOXOXO
-Ildie

Embrace Change

It's snowing.... Again.... You're a mean one Mother Nature!

I spent all day trapped in my small, static filled office with my space heater on FULL blast. I swear that thing never gets turned off. It makes the air so stale and dry! It sucks the moisture right out of my eyes and makes them look deranged with a dash of rabid like essence. But wait, that's not all. Every time I get up to file something I get a violent shock from my metal filing cabinets. We're talking sparks here people. It's a very "soothing" and unavoidable occurrence. My clothes spent all day clinging to my lovely lady lumps and my wild hair was flying all over the place. MAN I LOVE Winter. At least I was warm today! ;)

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

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1 1/2 cups water
• tons of cinnamon
• dash apple pie spice
• 1 tbs unsweetened dark cocoa
• dash sea salt
• Splenda to taste
• 1 tbs PB2 (I gave the other to Ann. I was her hero. She forgot hers at home.)
• 1 tbs sugar free cherry preserves

It tasted like a chocolate, peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I love how healthy food can still taste this rich and decadent. Blows my mind when I think back to the way I used to eat in the past. We're talking "secret" trips to Burger King for 2 breakfast sandwiches and some hash browns. All eaten in the car before I even got to work. Yeah, it was THAT bad! I like the new me. I EMBRACE THE CHANGE!

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

I indulged in a delicious egg white wrap today. I used a honey wheat FlatOut and stuffed it with spinach, a wedge of light Laughing Cow swiss cheese and 4 egg whites (cooked last night with Pam and seasoned with S+P).


Accompanied by a handful of sugar snap peas and a sliced carrot. Something about these peas reminds me of being a kid. I remember digging around in our little family garden and stuffing them into my face. I just thought they were the best thing ever!


Since I discussed changes above, let's reflect on what I used to eat for lunch BEFORE I started eating clean and healthy. A typical lunch in the past would have been spent eating any one of the horrific things listed below.

• A GIGANTIC portion of something deep fried, on a big ass platter at a restaurant. Sometimes followed by desert! LIKE I NEEDED IT!
• A fast food burger meal. Sometimes with an extra burger or fries. O.M.G. I TELL NO LIES!!
• Horribly unhealthy Chinese food from the small place down the street.
• An entire foot long sub (not the healthy kind) from Subway. With chips and pop of course.
• A packed lunch of something along the lines of leftover pizza, carb loaded pasta or an unhealthy and non nutritious frozen meal.

My portions used to be massive, high calorie and high fat. We're talking lethargy and food coma inducing insanity!!

Holy crap, I was so out of control. I always overate! I never thought about what I was shoving into my mouth and as soon as I was done eating, I would spend hours HATING myself for it. The vicious cycle of "I'll start eating right tomorrow" took me a long time to get over. Why wait till tomorrow? Why even wait until 3:00pm? Start now. RIGHT NOW! One day I woke up and decided that today would be the day. I think it was a Wednesday. HA! Joining the gym soon followed and everything else just sort of fell into place. And might I add, the foods I now eat every day blow the junk I used to eat right out of the water! Go figure! ;)

We spent our break at Barnes & Nobles today. I sipped on green tea to properly fuel another INTENSE hairstyle hunt. I think I looked through at least 7 hair magazines. I'm out of control!


I still like the pictures I found online the best. However, we have a NEW contender! ADORABLE!


SNACK (meal #3) at 4:00pm.

I'm going to save my very last Oikos for a "special" day. (probably tomorrow, I can't stand it)

I opted for a strawberry Greek Dannon yogurt instead. I've tried the plain variety before and was hoping that the strawberry would be just as delicious. It didn't disappoint. It was thick and creamy with a nice layer of fruit on the bottom. YUM!


After work it was off to the gym for cardio day, which I hate deeply. Hey, I never said I LOVED cardio. I just like how it's melting the chub suit off of my body. I like strength training MUCH more. Sadly though, you need both.

WORKOUT!

Elliptical Cross Trainer, 42 minutes, 508 calories, 3.6 miles.
1-2 min., (level 5)
3-4 min., (level 6)
5-6 min., (level 7)
7-8 min., (level 8)
9-10 min., (level 9)
11-12 min., (level 10)
13-14 min., (level 11)
15-16 min., (level 12)
17-18 min., (level 13)
19-20 min., (level 10)
21-22 min., (level 11)
23-24 min., (level 10)
25-26 min., (level 11)
27-28 min., (level 10)
29-30 min., (level 11)
31-35 min., (level 9)
36-42 min., (level 8)

I was going to go for an hour but we decided to call it quits a bit earlier. White death was still falling outside and we wanted to get home before it got bad out. For those of you who don't know, I call snow "white death". Fitting no? HATE IT!

SNACK (meal #4) at 7:15pm.

Smoothie time yo...

• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1 packet Jay Robb Chocolate Rice Protein
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 small banana
• Handful of ice
• 1 packet Splenda

Uhm, not a fan of this one but I drank it all anyway. It tasted gritty instead of creamy and smooth. SO SAD! Not a fan of the Rice protein from Jay Robb. Their Whey protein is super delicious though!

It's NO CARB night in Babushka land again tonight. What to have... what to have...

DINNER (meal #5) at 9:00pm.

I decided Mahi-Mahi sounded good. I love seafood! I seasoned the fillets with the usual suspects. Dill, sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper and cayenne. I popped them into a 400 degree oven and cooked them for just 20 minutes or so. I sprayed the pan with Pam first. I try NOT to use oil unless absolutely necessary!


I also roasted some brussel sprouts, mushrooms and broccoli to have on the side. Once again I sprayed the cookie sheet with Pam and tossed the veggies around in salt, pepper and a bit of spray butter. Couldn't be simpler.


And because I needed to feed my veggie addiction even FURTHER, I also boiled an entire bag of Edamame. This way I can pack leftovers for work tomorrow etc... I could just eat veggies all the live long day. ALL DAY!


I drizzled my beloved Sriracha over the fillets and devoured this tastiness. I think I always eat too fast. I need to work on that!


Time to unwind with my Mr. now. We have our choice of TV entertainment this evening. Dexter, Lost, and a DVR FULL of other delectable goodies. YEAH!

Have a great night beautiful people!
HUGS
Ildie

Season spirits sprinkled with sickness

I would like to start today off with a little poem to get you into the SPIRIT of the season. I wrote it about two years ago and I think it's very fitting.

Santa's Bake Shop...

Candy coated confections and lollypops
Sugary smothered treats and gooey gumdrops
Chocolate syrup fountains drip-dripping, oh my
Caramel scented truffle trees bloom near by
The air is full of laughter as I skip
Beside the honey river, my hands I dip
In its rich currants, so smooth and sweet
Magic sprinkled pastries I begin to eat
Decadent coco lava dripping on my chin
Such joy filling my taste buds should be a sin
Ribbons of candy dance about like ruffled lace
Melting into golden wrappers with delicate grace
Fluffy marshmallow rain drops land at my feet
I begin swirl-a-swirling in this decadent treat
Peppermint candy cane arches begin to sprout
Creme covered cupcake mountains all about
I'm feeling all giddy, Fa, la, la, la laa I sing
My sugar mustache shines as I climb a twizler swing
Yummy gummy rope that tastes just like raspberry
Maybe it's cherry, who cares, I'm so MERRY!
Flying back and forth on my super sugar high
I'll never leave this place, where do I apply?

Breakfast was the usual ooey gooey hot mess of goodness.

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 cup water
• dash cinnamon
• dash salt
• 1 banana, sliced
• splenda to taste
• 2 tbs boysenberry preserves

I enjoyed this with a cup of coffee and an entire bottle of water. I CAN DO THIS GALLON ON WATER A DAY THING DANG IT! Once again I had a very productive morning at work and I got a lot of things done. I think the end of the year deadlines are pushing me to get things done and off of my desk faster than usual. I would hate to come back from my lovely 11 day break to piles of insanity! I'm on vacation from the 24th - 3rd. YEAH! OHHHHH I CAN'T WAIT! I'm just GIDDY with anticipation!! I'll just apologize now because my giddy level WILL intensify with each passing day. This is fact! :)

Lunch was awesome and super simple to throw together. I had a nice little salad with the following.

• Spring mix lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes
• Red bell pepper slices
• Morning Star Farms Black Bean Burger, crumbled
• Spray butter "dressing"

SO GOOOOOOOOD! I had to resist the urge to lick my plate clean! It got me super full too but not to that GROSS full level. Win-win! Tasty, good for you and filling!

At lunch Ann and I parted ways and I went shopping on my own. We wept a little and hugged a bit before we parted. Lunches spent apart TEAR at our souls I tell ya! HA. Just kidding. I had to get rid of her for a day so I could actually get some Christmas shopping done FOR her! Sort of hard to do when we spend every single lunch break together. Yes... We are IN FACT inseparable! DEAL WITH IT! This will be us when we are older. HAHAHAHA!!


I got her a LOT of nice things at great prices and I have yet to even reach half of our Christmas spending limit. Yeah, that's right, I'm an AMAZING, deal finding, thrifty little machine of a shopper! Hey Ann, only 17 more days until you can RIP into your packages. Can you handle it? I THINK NOT!

My afternoon snack was a VERY delicious peach Chobani yogurt cup. I STILL have like 4 more varieties left from my lovely package of samples that I received over a month ago form these fantastic folks. I better get on with eating them before they go bad because that would be a disaster!! So far my very favorite flavor has been the pineapple, HOWEVER, this is my second favorite! It was so fresh and peachy without being overly sweet or "fake" tasting. It was excellent. This gets a 10 out of 10!


After work it was off to the gym! We had a GREAT session of cardio today. I still can't get on any of the machines or handle any free weights. My arm needs more time to heal.

Elliptical
30 min., uphill challenge, 346 calories
Bike
15 min., random setting, Level 5, 5.2 miles, 100 calories
Treadmill
10 min., 3.2 speed,0.52 miles

And.....
5-10 minute stretching session (THIS FELT SO GOOD!)

When I got home I found poor Nick curled up on the couch in a comforter like a burrito. He actually left work an hour and a half early today because he's getting sick. He was already feeling it yesterday and was up most of the night because of it. Of course the lack of sleep only made the symptoms that much worse for him at work today. Poor guy looked so tired and miserable. :(

I let him sleep on the couch for a bit and took a nice little bubble bath to warm up. Then I started on dinner. I was craving roasted veggies. I cleaned up some brussel sprouts, mushrooms and carrots and tossed them on a cookie sheet. I sprayed them with Pam and seasoned them up with salt and pepper. I baked them at 425 for 40 minutes.


Nick had his with some pan seared smoked hot sausage. I had mine with a black bean burger from Morning Star Farms on an english muffin with a slice of fat free cheese, tomatoes and lettuce. I realize that this is my second black bean burger today but I don't care! I LOVE THESE THINGS!


For a bit of a snack later I decided to try one of the bars I received yesterday from 18Rabbits. Oh my damn!!! It was super YUMMY people. I had the Funky Figs and Cherries (LOVE the name) variety and knew that I would love it as soon as I opened the package. It was moist, dense, rich, bursting with figs, cherries, walnuts, hazelnuts, coconut, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, maple syrup and honey (& probably some other stuff I forgot).


This was seriously one of the best granolas I've ever had. I loved how moist and chewy it was!! This gets an 11+ out 10. :)

Well, I'm going to check on Nick now. Poor guy. Goodnight everyone!!

Play it again Sam.

Well hello there. How goes it? Well I hope. My day was not too shabby. I did sleep like poop again though and I was having CRAZY dreams! I dreamed that Ann and I were at work and for some odd reason, we decided to go a bar at 11:00 AM because we were upset about something at work! We ended up at some tiny little hole in the wall and before you know it, Ann was drunk. Then her boyfriend called and she disappeared into the bathroom to talk. She left me to guard her purse which seemed unnaturally MASSIVE. I got super angry and kept waiting, and waiting, and guarding our purses and our seats. It was almost as if I was TRAPPED there with the purse. The purse and Ann were EVIL in some way and I was sad and annoyed. I actually got so angry that it woke me up pissed off at Ann. HAHAHAHA! I have the strangest dreams.

When I got to work I decided to have cracked wheat for breakfast instead of oats. BIG MISTAKE!

• They overflowed in the microwave.
• They refused to soak up all the water, even though I didn't add too much.
• They were somewhat chewy.
• Flavor was just okay. Sort of bland even with cinnamon.

I do like them mixed with oats, but no so much alone. DULY NOTED!

Oh well. Moving on. Look at what my awesome friend and coworker Lum brought in to work for me and Ann today!!! The bag was so full and heavy with delectable Asian pears that it ripped her bag. She visited the orchard she just discovered again this past weekend and Ann and I asked her to pick us up a bag. THIS IS SO EXCITING! I love these round little bundles of juicy joy.


For lunch I had a salad again. I'm obsessed with them anymore. I made it with organic spring mix, chick peas, melba bagel crisps, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes and spray butter. Yep, I still love it!


I finally tried a flavored Chobani. I had it as my afternoon snack. I tried the strawberry and I thought it was yummy! Clean and fresh. Just lovely.


UPDATE: I got my mp3 player back. It was placed inside a white envelope after it was turned in and no one thought to look inside of it. I played the heck out of it at the gym to make up for last Thursday. I find it hard to do cardio without music! :)

After an hour long cardio induced sweat session at the gym, I came home and was STARVING! I cleaned myself up real quick and started on dinner. I decided to make turkey burgers and roasted veggies. The veggies would take a while and I was starving so I grabbed an Asian pear to nibble on while I waited. I sprinkled some cinnamon on it and devoured it very excitedly in a matter of minutes. YEAH! I felt COMPELLED to have one. I mean look at them all. So pretty. :)


About 30 minutes later the kitchen smelled amazing. I love roasted veggies SO much!


I started cooking the burgers because I knew the veggies would be done soon. They only took a few minutes on each side.


Everything turned out fantastic. I ate mine on an english muffin and topped it with spring mix, onion, fat free cheese, ketchup and mustard. SO GOOD!


I also enjoyed this diet juice from Welch's. Tasty! I love anything cherry flavored.


Nick kept jumping around telling me that he had something exciting for us to watch later. OHHH WHAT IS IT? TELL ME... TELL ME NOW!!! He made me wait till dinner was done though, and then VERY excitedly pressed play. OMG! OMG! OMG! It was (BSG, The Plan). For you non super nerds, BSG stands for Battlestar Galactica. Soon after I met Nick we started watching the entire show from the older seasons till the very last episode. I was completely addicted! We watched it EVERY SINGLE day till there was nothing left to watch. We were both very sad when it was all over with so this new "tie it all together", "fill in a few of the blanks" type movie was PURE JOY OVERLOAD!

It ended at 11:30, thus explaining my super late blog post. And now I'm very tired and my eyes feel heavy. I'm out of here. Goodnight! I'm going to regret this. It's 12:30 now. :-O