Thursday, October 23, 2008

Opening up

I'm being a good blogger tonight and posting even though I'm slightly tipsy, so please forgive me if I don't make much sense :)

Last night after work, my husband picked me up and we stopped by the grocery store on the way home. The only fruit we had in the house were apples that I picked a few weeks ago, but as delicious as they are, I started going a little crazy without bananas, berries and peaches (apparently I am addicted to these... what am I going to do this winter?). Lucky for me, they had all 3 at the super market last night so today was a delicious day filled of fruit again:)

Breakfast starred some awesome strawberries! I had my "same old" yogurt parfait - I missed it, it's been days :) This combo included about 3/4 cups of TJ's European style nonfat yogurt, a serving of TJ's nutty american trek mix, a healthy spoonful of wheat berries, a whole bunch of cut up strawberries and some multi-grain cheerios.



I ate it while catching up on blogging and it was gone way too fast! The cheerios were also a little too airy for my taste - I need a more substantial crunch next time. I considered eating a piece of chocolate or something else out of my desk drawer, but decided to just get a cup of coffee and let myself digest the breakfast before I make myself too full. It worked! I got busy at work and didn't need a snack until hours later! Today's pre-workout snack was a whole wheat banana pancake with 2/3 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk - super sweet to power my long-ish run.



Yum! I had some decaf tea with it...

I decided today that the best way to have a good workout is to get really pumped up for it! I had a 50 minute tempo run "scheduled" today. This kind of run can be more mental than physical, so getting really excited for it was really key. My yummy snack was the perfect fuel too. I kicked butt on that treadmill today :)

After an awesome workout, I needed some food! Lunch was another bunch of leftovers that was super satisfying: 2 slices of Arnold double fiber bread, one topped with extra sharp cheddar cheese and melted in the toaster oven and another topped with Sabra hummus. I ate those with the rest of the Pacific Natural Foods organic butternut squash (no toppings this time) and a side of grape tomatoes.



This was super filling. I coudln't even end it with another Adora disk today. I was done! Here is a better picture of the soup box. This stuff is awesome and is 100% natural. All the ingredients can be pronounced! (Note the bowl/mug is empty - that's because I practically licked it clean ;O It was that good!)



Let's move on to tonight's activities and eats! Tonight was a lot of fun! We have this Thirsty Thursday thing at work (yes it's exactly like it sounds... we go out drinking after work, every Thursday). I skip them once in a while to keep a healthy balance but tonight was also an early celebration of a co-worker's birthday so I couldn't miss that! The last few times I was trying to be responsible and left after one or two glasses of wine, came home and cooked a healthy dinner. But tonight I told my husband he was on his own - my plan was to grab something healthy for dinner at a local burger joint right next to the bar.

On the way to the bar I had 1/2 peach. I already gave up on having peaches for the rest of the season, but last night at a grocery store I saw this baby and I had to buy it! It was the last "decent" looking one, but it tasted great! It was HUGE (you can't tell from the picture) so I only ate half at first so I wouldn't get too full. I ate the rest at the bar (oh yeah, my co-workers definitely made fun of me for that!... oh well!).



Sorry for the blurry photo, it was taken mid-stride.

At the bar I had 2 glasses of red wine until my stomach started to growl. I don't drink that much these days so I was definitely feeling tipsy and I needed food asap! The rest of the peach just got me hungrier so I said my good byes and planned to go to B.Good. (As a side note, B.Good is a really great local healthy burger place. The owners have a real passion for natural foods and everything is hand made. If you are ever in the Boston area, definitely check out this place! You can read more about their burger "philosophy" on their website). As I was leaving the bar (I had my coat on and all) a few other co-workers walked in and made me promise I'll be back. I couldn't resist! I did want to catch up with them.

As I said, I was definitely feeling the effects of alcohol (what happened to me, I've become such a light weight! hehe). I knew I was going back to the bar at which I would consume more drinks (read: more calories) so I wanted something light. I stared at the menu and couldn't make up my mind, so I went with my stand-by: the "El-guapo" turkey burger. The el-guapo comes with "lean, all-natural bacon, jalapeno-ranch, lettuce, tomato and onion". I ordered mine sans the onions of course!...with a diet coke for a drink (I am trying to eliminate artificial sweetners from my diet, but diet coke is still the drink of choice once in a while... it could have been worse!).



Here is the burger up close:



These are really really good! Perfectly grilled, with the perfect amount of spice! The bacon looked greasy, but it tasted great! I cut this up and ate exactly 3/4 of the burger + maybe 1/2 of the soda. It was time to get back to the bar :)

Sorry, there were no pictures of me at the bar... we all know what a glass of wine looks like, right? I ended up chatting so much that I actually didn't drink anything else after that.
Honestly, I still feel the wine. So if anyone is counting, that's 2 glasses tonight. I'd say they were generous 2 glasses :D

That's it for today. I think I may have a new reader (hi Katie!). She's my co-worker's girlfriend and apparently likes food blogs. This particular co-worker I believe thinks I'm a weirdo for taking pictures of my food. Maybe Katie will change his mind... or maybe she'll join him too! I'm trying to be less shy about telling people about this blog. It's still a work in progress, but I really enjoy writing it. Tomorrow is Friday and also happens to be my all-bets-are-off-day because my husband and I are going out to a fancy dinner. Tomorrow's post should be more "picture-esque" since I won't be eating leftovers :) All right, enough of my blabbering. Good night!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

banana pancake as a snack? you just blew my mind lady

Elina said...

Haha, they were leftover pancakes. I didn't make a whole pancake just for a snack :)

Unknown said...

Hi Elina!! I love the blog and the shoutout too! Have already been picking up some of your recipes to make so dont be surprised if you see Mike coming in with familiar leftovers...

Elina said...

Thanks, Katie! That would be pretty funny... :D