11/30/2012

Five for Friday ~ 11/30/12

1.  You've already sold 1 drone.

2.  You went next door so I could do a video in the living room uninterrupted.

3.  You made a special trip to get foods that will fit in my last ditch diet plan.

4.  You didn't hate our dance lesson.

5.  You called me your soon to be wifey.
November 2012

11/28/2012

What I'm Eating Wednesday

As we all know, I haven't posted in a while.  But that doesn't mean I have been taking pictures.  I've actually been doing a halfway decent job of photographing my food lately!  I've had some ups and some downs, more downs if we're being honest...but here's to being accountable!

Friday 11/16 - I was just starting to feel better after my cold so I was doing my absolute best to stay hydrated.  At lunch time we enjoyed a vendor provided lunch with another department.  I'm not usually a lasagna girl but it really hit the spot after a long week!  For dinner Joe whipped up Tuscon Chicken, Bean & Spinach soup, it was a new recipe for us and I think we'll hold onto it, not only was it tasty but very filling.



Saturday 11/17 - We started the day with breakfast at Fitzpatrick's with Rob & Angela before Joe went in to work.  I have been trying to eliminate grains/carbs from my diet to shed a few quick pounds before the wedding but I just can't seem to banish them completely, especially at breakfast.  That evening we invited some friends over for a bonfire & s'mores out back.  My mom & Dawn graciously offered to come over early with dinner, nachos!
Sunday 11/18 - Joe & I went to breakfast before he had to go to work.  I ordered an egg white, spinach & feta omelet but couldn't say no to the toast and a couple of home fries.  Blasted carbs!
Monday 11/19 - I can't remember anything terribly exciting about Monday...I obviously started the day with a green smoothie & coffee.  Lunch was sweet potato and roasted corn soup with a soft pretzel from the cafeteria.  It. Was. Awesome.  I checked the calendar and Joe was closing that night which would explain my ham sandwich for dinner.
Tuesday 11/20 - I managed to fight off the temptation of the cafeteria for lunch and stuck with my go to yogurt, apple & pretzels.  
We were super busy after work that night.  I was meeting the florist for a centerpiece review and Joe was meeting the flood insurance adjuster and a heating/air conditioning contractor at the house.  My dad came over to speak with the adjuster as well and once everyone was gone we decided to get dinner across the street at Presto.  We'd had a couple of bad experiences there in the summer but they totally redeemed themselves that night. 
We split a prosciutto and portobello pizza as an appetizer and I had gnocchi with tomatoes in garlic and oil as my entree.  Everything was delicious but took a long time to come out.  It's to be expected since the gnocchi are homemade but we think the servers should let customers know it takes longer then expected to cook and to relax and enjoy some wine.

Wednesday 11/21 - I was on my own in the office most of the day as my coworkers took time off for the holiday (I'm saving my time for the honeymoon).  When lunch time rolled around I took a walk to the cafeteria and spotted a woman leaving with a personal pizza.  That was all I could think about after that...  
Later that evening we were invited to a friend's house for cocktails.  I may have enjoyed a few glasses of wine...I may have also not eaten anything but cheese & crackers for dinner...and I may have paid for these decisions the next morning...
Thursday 11/22 - Turkey day!  Thanks to my poor decisions the night before I didn't do a whole lot of eating that morning...I think I managed to keep down 1/2 an english muffin and a cup of cereal.  Lucky for me that left plenty of calories for dinner!
Friday 11/23 - Shana and I decided to do some shopping on Black Friday.  We didn't get up at 3am like in previous years but we were out shopping before 10am.  We met Bill for lunch at a local pizza place and I have a new favorite topping combination, garlic & oil instead of red sauce with bacon, tomato & ricotta cheese.
Saturday 11/24 - It's the weekend again which means we're going out for breakfast!  I had eggs benedict with the hollandaise sauce on the side.  It shockingly not nearly as bad for you if you're only using a little bit of sauce :-)
Sunday 11/25 - We had an impromptu family dinner because Shana & Bill invited themselves over to play with Joe's new toy.  I suggested my mom & Dawn come by to work on bridesmaid bouquets and the next thing we knew there was a dinner party underway.  I marinated a couple of london broil steaks and roasted some veggies, Shana brought sweet potatoes and bread...it was delicious.
Tuesday 11/26 - I've been throwing around all kinds of fad diets as the wedding gets closer.  First I wasn't eating carbs and night, then I was going to cut processed foods and now I'm attempting to go dairy & grain free.  Joe & I both decided to give it a shot and I did ok on Monday except for a little cheese on my salad (and a couple of cheese fries at dinner).  

My first successful attempt at not eating grains & dairy was Tuesday.  I had a shake for breakfast, chicken salad with lettuce & tomato for lunch and Joe whipped up a Bratwurst bowl for dinner.  Yay us!

11/27/2012

34 days to go

Oh, hi, you're still out there...  Sorry for going all MIA the last week or so, things have been busy.  In case you haven't been keeping track, we're getting married in 34 days!  Since I've been missing for over a week now I decided to compile a couple of posts with lots of pictures and updates...starting with the wedding!

Back at the beginning of November I got a lovely card in the mail asking me to save the date for my bachelorette party!  YAY!  In celebration I purchased a pair of gold sequined faux uggs from Old Navy to party in...  That is assuming we're not going somewhere that gold sequined faux uggs are unwelcome...though I can't imagine such a place.
I've been running lots of errands and picking up all kinds of fun treats.

I got really lucky that glitter and sequins are very in this holiday season.  Everywhere I look find more sparkly things that I've just got to have!  I've had to cut myself off from shopping because it's getting out of control, I have 5 of those giant bows...
I picked up lots of snacks for our welcome bags.  Which are coincidentally one of the only items we have left to finish!
Even the cats are getting in on the wedding excitement!  Don't they look thrilled about their snazzy formal wear?
Joe is still knocking out projects left and right.  I barely mention something needing to be worked on and when I get home that night it's finished!  Seriously, I've hardly lifted a finger towards 1/2 the items on the to do list.  I've deemed myself the "idea woman."
We had our centerpiece trial with the florist.  I've never been big on flowers so I really didn't want to pay a ton of money for lavish arrangements that would die within a few days of the wedding.  When I found pictures of babies breath arrangements I knew we were in business.  Not only are they inexpensive but I think they look a little bit like fireworks.
My mom & Dawn have been working on finalizing all of the bridesmaid bouquets and even put together a little pomander for Alayna to carry!
I know the month of December is going to fly by!  I just said to Joe the other night that it feels like we're getting married tomorrow!

11/16/2012

the joys of working in a hospital

I am normally a pretty healthy person, I rarely get sick.  I think that all of my exercise and mostly healthy eating keeps the germs away, plus I believe a little dirt is good for you.  Unfortunately what has worked for me the majority of my life doesn't stand a chance against working in a hospital.  I've been in my new office for almost 5 months and I've been sick twice.  I woke up Thursday with a scratchy throat and it didn't get any better from there.  

I had little desire to eat solid food.  I started the day with a shake and packed yogurt, etc for lunch.  I spent the morning drinking lots of water and tea at my desk, at lunch all I wanted was soup so I used a meal out and bought myself some Italian wedding soup and a soft pretzel (for dipping) from the cafeteria.  It was pretty low calorie so I didn't do any damage to my goals, always a plus.  Sometime in the afternoon, I found some DayQuil in my purse and took one.  It really helped and I considered going to the gym but my trainer told me absolutely not, he wasn't getting sick...so...I skipped the gym.

I came home, curled up on the couch and when Joe got home and asked what we should do for dinner I told him I wanted more soup.  Because he's the greatest fiance on the planet, he made me grilled cheese and soup, my favorite!  I spent the rest of the evening on the couch watching TV and drinking more tea.

Goals ~ Thursday: 
  • Water: only got 48 oz but I drank a ton of tea but I'm not sure it counts.
  • Healthy Eats: 65 calories left!
  • Exercise: nope
  • Weekly Focus - 10 Minutes A Day: nope
  • Daily Challenge - Posture: I thought about it once or twice but I mostly wanted to lay down all day so I'm sure I was slouching.
Plus my other goals:
  • meals out = one
  • steps = 6,813

PS - For any local ladies looking for a night out...if I can find a friend to join me I'm going to check it out!  Who doesn't like free drinks, cupcakes & shopping?!?!

Five for Friday ~ 11/16/12

1.  Whenever you have a day off you ask if you can take care of anything for me.

2.  You suggested we used the photo booth at the networking event.

3.  You want to take dance lessons with me.

4.  You offered to take me to Twilight on opening night.  Lucky for you I'm willing to wait.

5.  You're mailing Sarah's dress.

November 2012

11/15/2012

HHC ~ W2D2 & D3

I was so busy on Wednesday...hence no blog about Tuesday which means you get a double dose of recap today!

Right, so, Tuesday.  My HHC daily goal was to eat all natural.  I kept confusing myself with all natural vs paleo.  As you may know, Angela tries to keep as paleo as possible and I found myself trying to eat the "caveman" way which I guess could also be construed as all natural.  Anyway...for breakfast I skipped the shake (ingredients I couldn't pronounce) and the bagel thin (more ingredients I couldn't pronounce) in favor of  2 eggs scrambled with 2 slices of deli ham (probably doesn't count because of the preservatives) and swiss cheese.  This is why I could never handle that lifestyle, I'd drive myself crazy trying to figure out what to eat.

When lunch came around I was faced with a dilemma.  Did I eat my pretzels & yogurt (not all natural) or go to the cafeteria and buy something all natural (use another meal out).  I decided that the lesser of the 2 evils was to eat my food from home.
After work I had plans to meet Mandy at the gym for a kick boxing class.  She was running a little late so I did 15 minutes on the elliptical while I waited for her.  The class was awesome!  I really enjoy the instructor and plan on making it to her Tuesday class as often as possible.
On the way home from the gym I was starving so I called Joe to see what our dinner plans were...he had already eaten...without me...the nerve!  I debated picking up a salad on the way home but again thought about those 6 meals out left for the month and decided to raid the fridge at home.  I ended up putting together a delightful treat, rosemary and olive oil triscuit crackers with vermont white cheddar cheese slices and deli sliced london broil.  IT WAS SO GOOD!
Goals ~ Tuesday: 

  • Water: 64 oz check!
  • Healthy Eats: 810 calories left!
  • Exercise: 15 minutes on the elliptical & 55 minutes of kickboxing!
  • Weekly Focus - 10 Minutes A Day: check
  • Daily Challenge - All Natural Eats: just not my thing
Plus my other goals:
  • meals out = zero!
  • steps = 12,102!

I knew Wednesday was going to be a busy day and it really flew by for me.  Seriously, I didn't even take any pictures!  I started the day with a dark chocolate shake, it looked really gross but tasted good.  We had a staff meeting and pot luck lunch scheduled at our main office that afternoon.  I did a decent job of keeping my calories low, only eating 2 soft tacos and skipping the delicious cake & cupcakes.  After work Joe & I attended a networking event at the Revel.  It was really a good time.  I knew a lot of people there but still got to spend time talking to new contacts.  The only picture from the evening was this strip from the photo booth:
Goals ~ Wednesday (not great): 
  • Water: only got 48 oz
  • Healthy Eats: 134 calories left!  I was pleasantly surprised when I totaled everything up, I drank a few glasses of wine at the event but didn't eat much so things evened out.  Not the healthiest plan but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...
  • Exercise: does walking in high heels count?
  • Weekly Focus - 10 Minutes A Day: nope
  • Daily Challenge - mini circuit: nope
Plus my other goals:
  • meals out = zero!
  • steps = 7,517

11/13/2012

throwing in the towel

As of yesterday morning I was ready to quit the Health Holidays Challenge.  After week 1 of the challenge I had gained .4 pounds.  This really had my panties in a bunch since I am down to the wire when it comes to getting in shape for the wedding.  While I enjoyed taking part in Angela's challenge I felt like it wasn't challenging me enough.  I already log my food everyday and I need more then 10 minutes of exercise if I'm going to lose 10 pounds.  I felt like the challenge was giving me an excuse to slack off, as in "oh, I only need to do the mini circuit today, I'll skip the gym and do it at home."

I went as far as to create a new spreadsheet with goals for the month like I'm used to.  The plan was to have less then 20 meals out this month (which I'm already at 14), 64oz of water a day, meet myfitness pal calorie goal each day, 305 fitness minutes for the month (approximately 45 min a day 5 days a week) and 250,000 steps for the month (10,000 steps a day for 25 days).  This is how I'm doing in relation to this plan:
But as the day wore on and I got updates on my phone from the Facebook group I decided I didn't want to bail.  I like having this group of people that are attempting to achieve similar goals to mine.  Now I know there's a lot of other people out there on the same/similar journeys but these people are talking to me about it.  So, I've changed my tune.  I'm not quitting Angela's challenge but I'm not giving up my new goals either.  I'm going to make them work together!


As for W2D1, I did well!
  • Water: 64 oz check!
  • Healthy Eats: 746 calories left!
  • Exercise: 20 minutes on the elliptical & 35 minutes with my trainer!
  • Weekly Focus - 10 Minutes A Day: check
  • Daily Challenge - Flush the Sodium: 76 total oz drank!
Plus my other goals:
  • meals out = zero!
  • steps = 10,022!
Even though I'm not posting a recap of my day I had to share the pork roast Joe made for dinner!  It had pears & oranges, so yummy!

11/12/2012

HHC ~ D5, 6 & 7

Those of you that have been following my blog for any length of time know that weekends are really hard for me.  I know they're hard for most people which makes me feel better but they are definitely my biggest issue.  I was hoping that weighing in on Monday for the challenge would help me behave over the weekend and it did to an extent, just not enough.  Here's what happened...

Friday morning I had a bagel thin with a laughing cow cream cheese wedge and a scrambled egg for breakfast, I also added my requisite coffee back in.  For lunch I went to the cafeteria, something I will not be doing this new week.  I ordered a grilled turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese, tomato and a little bit of honey mustard.
After work I met Mandy at the gym for kickboxing.  It was so nice to see her and we are determined to meet more often for classes on days I'm not with my trainer.  It was also good to work some other body parts.  I've been concentrating so much on my arms, chest and back; this class worked my legs and got my cardio up, it was great!
After class I met my mom and Dawn at a local bar for dinner.  I ordered an open faced tuna melt and only ate 1/2, go me!
I spent the rest of my Friday night partying like a rock star on the couch with Joe & the cats.  We stayed up a little later then usual watching TV since I wasn't watching Jack the next morning.
Friday Challenge wrap up:
  • Water: completed.
  • Healthy Eats: 413 calories to spare, wahoo!
  • Exercise: 30 minutes total.
  • Weekly Focus - Food Log: completed.
  • Daily Challenge - Body Confidence: completed on Facebook.
  • Extra Torture I'm Inflicting Upon Myself - I was "perfect," I didn't do the circuit, I did not get 5 servings, I did not do HIIT

We went out for breakfast on Saturday morning before Joe had to go into work.  I had 2 eggs over medium with, sliced tomato, pork roll and rye toast.  I ran some wedding related errands in the late morning then got a manicure in the early afternoon before meeting Anne for coffee at Starbucks.  I was starving by the time we met up at 2pm so I got a cheese & fruit box along with my Grande Skinny Gingerbread latte.
I spent close to 3 hours catching up with Anne and we probably could have gone all night except that I needed to get home and shower because Joe & I had plans to meet Chris & Carol for sushi at Tokoyo Mandarin.  We had such a nice time joking around with them while enjoying delicious food.  They were super busy and ran out of regular wine glasses so when it was time to open our bottle they offered 3 regular sized and 1 "baby" glass.  Guess who got the baby glass?  I actually didn't mind too much since it kept me from drinking more then I should.
I also did a pretty good job of controlling my portions during dinner.  I only ate 5 pieces of maki and about a 1/2 cup the seafood yaki udon.  We were out until after 10pm which is a late night for us.  Needless to say we went straight to bed when we got home and I slept like a champ after 3 baby glasses of wine!
Challenge wrap up:
  • Water: completed.
  • Healthy Eats: I went over by 244 calories, no good.
  • Exercise: I didn't work out.
  • Weekly Focus - Food Log: completed.
  • Daily Challenge - Yoga: didn't do it.
  • Extra Torture I'm Inflicting Upon Myself - I was not "perfect," I did not do the circuit, I did not get 5 servings, I did not do HIIT and I didn't post anything I like about my body.
Sunday was all about wedding projects, which I will get to in another post.  Joe brought me an egg & cheese french toast bagel for breakfast before going to work which was so good!  I spent most of the morning on the computer working on wedding stuff then took a trip out to The Christmas Tree Shop and BJ's with Nicole.  After all the excitement of the morning I vegged on the couch with Ian most of the afternoon.  He was obviously exhausted as well...



When Joe came home from work we decided to take a walk over to ShopRite for some essentials.  There was a woman taking a picture in the lobby when we got there and I thought it was odd until we were on our way out.  She was taking a picture of the giant Pepsi turkey!
I made myself a sandwich when we got home and spent the rest of the evening on the couch with Joe watching TV.
Challenge wrap up:
  • Water: only got 7 glasses.
  • Healthy Eats: 246 calories to spare, wahoo!
  • Exercise: didn't work out.
  • Weekly Focus - Food Log: completed.
  • Daily Challenge - recipe: nope
  • Extra Torture I'm Inflicting Upon Myself - I was not "perfect," I did not do the circuit, I did not get 5 servings, I did not do HIIT, I did not post about body confidence and I did not do yoga.