Days 61 - 63

Hello all!  This Saturday I had a huge event for work, which is why I've been exhausted all week and not eating my best.  Here's how the weekend played out, clean eating wise:

DAY 61

For breakfast I had a cup of Blueberry Kefir.  Kefir reminds me of those drinkable yogurts I used to have as a kid.  Gogurt I think it was called. Was there another kind?  Mom feel free to comment if you remember!


I honestly can't remember what I ate for lunch.  I'm 90% sure I had my "go to" snack of almond butter on whole wheat bread, but I can't say for sure.  Sorry :(

For dinner, we had a "kickoff" cocktail hour for the big event.  At the cocktail hour I had some wine, some bites of cheese (I love brie cheese!), 1 beef satay stick, 1 coconut shrimp, 1 mini chicken empanada, and some pita chips with artichoke dip (not very good).  


After the kickoff cocktail hour, we stayed at work until past 11 working to finalize things for the big event.  I ate a twix bar.  It was 100% necessary.  One of those "In case of emergency, break glass" type of things.  You understand, right?  Great, thanks!

DAY 62

Today was the day of the "big event".  In the morning, I wanted my "go to" breakfast, but we didn't have any bananas, so I settled for a whole wheat english muffin with peanut butter only.  I also had a huge coffee.


During the day, I only ate 1 granola bar and 1/4 whole wheat bagel.


Next thing I knew it was 6pm and the event was finally over and I was ravenous!  I had some chips and bean dip, and then we went out for Spanish Tapas to celebrate a successful event. 
I had a few bites of the following items:

 

We also order Sangria, and then we went out drinking.  I allowed myself to have beer.  Partly because I knew I had eaten so few carbs that having beer really wouldn't matter, and partly because I just really wanted to, and I make my own rules!

DAY 63

HOOORAY!  For the first time in a LONG time I could sleep in today!  And then, I had absolutely no plans.  Probably the best day ever.  Mr. Jordan and I decided to start our day with a nice run, and then to end at our favorite bagel place (where the owner knows us by name and has 2 waters ready for us as soon as he sees us!)  The run was great - I surely missed the warm weather and I like spending that quality time with MJ.  When we go to the gym together, MJ is in the "big boy" room with all the weights, while I usually just go to a class.  

For brunch at the bagel place I had a whole wheat bagel scooped out with chicken salad, lettuce, tomatoes and onions.  It was delicious.  They use cranberries in their chicken salad so it reminds me of thanksgiving!  

After we ran/walked back home, I check my FITBIT STATS and found that we had taken over 7,000 steps and traveled about 5 miles.   I didn't look at the exact mileage before we left, so that's an approximate guess. 

In the afternoon, I ate a health valley granola bar and a little bit of thai food leftovers.  


Since it's March Madness, and there are few things in life I enjoy more than March Madness, MJ and I made some homemade guacamole and homemade pita chips as a snack to enjoy the basketball games.  Delish!  

homemade guacamole!

homemade pita chips!

For dinner, I made a quick and easy salmon with cauliflower.  Just broiled in the oven for 10 minutes.  We weren't really hungry, so it was the perfect, light dinner to end our relaxing, pleasant day.

 
Only bad part about today was that my basketball team lost.  Time to start rooting for the underdog!!

Week 3, Friday (Day 26)

Today is my first day trying out my new fitbit and I'm very excited to see how active I really am.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup low fat ricotta cheese pureed with 1/4 cup 1% cottage cheese and 1 tsp Sucanat; top with 1/2 cup fresh cherries and 1/2 tsp sesame seeds

How gross does this sound?  Seriously I can't imagine eating any of these foods together!  I opt to skip this entire gross meal, and instead invite my friend Sophia over for breakfast.  Sophia has been a great influence on me - she's been eating healthy for years and always has great, all-natural snacks with her at work.  I made egg white omelettes with some mozzarella and cheddar cheese, served with sauteed onions, peppers, and mushrooms.  This was much yummier than chunky cottage cheese covered with cherries and sesame seeds!

Snack 1: 1 cup low fat milk, 1 hardboiled egg, 8 whole-wheat crackers

I don't really consider milk a snack, but drinking a whole cup is always enjoyable, so I'm not going to complain.  I only ended up eating 4 whole wheat crackers - 2 of the rykrisp kind and 2 of the yummier shortbread kind.  I was glad to see that we made the hardboiled eggs correctly.  I guess Michael Vick is a good teacher.

Lunch: 4 ounces cooked tilipia topped with 1 boiled potato, 1 cup cooked green beans, 3/4 cup cooked artichoke hearts, 1 tbls chopped onion, 2 tsp red wine vinegar and 1 tsp evoo

I changed up this lunch a little just based on what was easy and convenient.  I ended up eating the tilapia, 1/2 a potato, and 6 ounces of broccoli that I had leftover.  I probably made this meal healthier (and definitely made this meal easier) than the editors suggested.  

Snack 2: 1 low-fat string cheese, 8 carrot sticks

I only had the cheese stick.  Good as usual.

Dinner: Roasted sliced eggplant (6 ounces), 1 tbsp broken walnuts, 1 small diced tomato and 1 crushed clove of garlic with 1 cup cooked whole wheat spaghetti and 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

Delicious dinner!  It's supposed to come with 3 cups of sauteed spinach, but we didn't have any left and I don't think the meal needed any for more substance.  It was great and very easy to make.  I will probably repeat the walnut/tomato sauce often.

The best part of my day was checking my active status on my fitbit!  My fitbit told me that today I ate 1440 calories and burned 2441 calories.  I walked 11,650 steps, which equates to 5.43 miles.  I attribute most of my steps to an African dance class that I took at the gym.  It feels great getting such high numbers on my first day of using the fitbit!  I hope I can keep it up!

Week 1, Wednesday (Day 2)

Because I only did half my shopping on day 1, I realize I don't have enough ingredients to eat my Tuesday meal, so I make the executive decision to go out of order.  


Breakfast: Breakfast Wrap (egg whites, 2 oz swiss cheese, diced scallion, diced tomatoes in a whole wheat tortilla), 1/2 cup red grapes


Yum!  The breakfast wrap was great and very filling.  I felt really pathetic only eating 10 grapes.  My stupid boyfriend bought grapes with seeds so I had to cut those out too.  Note to self: never let him do the shopping.


Snack 1: 1 slice whole wheat toast, 1 tbl almond butter


Seriously?  How am I supposed to bring toast to work?  I opt not to toast the bread and pre-spread it with the almond butter to make it easier to travel.  I've never had almond butter before and I have to say that I am a huge fan.  No complaints here.


Lunch: Tomato-Tuna Salad (tomato, arugula, red onion, basil, chickpeas, 3 ounces tuna, oil and balsamic vinegar); 1/2 cup sliced strawberries; 3 Ryvita crackers


This was a pretty great salad and much bigger than a salad I would typically make for myself.  I used to only eat tuna if it was swimming in mayo, but it still tasted good with the dressing.  The basil was a nice touch.  Well done, cookbook authors.  Again, I felt silly with my half-cup up fruit that takes up 1/8 of the baggy.  No one seems to notice.  


What is a Ryvita cracker?  Add this to my list of ridiculous foods that I have never heard of.  #1 Kefir, #2 Ryvita crackers.


Snack 2: 8 carrot sticks, 1/4 cup hummus, 4 whole wheat crackers


1/4 of a cup of hummus is actually way more hummus than I thought it would be.  The authors don't specify what kind of hummus, so I go with the pine-nut flavor.  I don't have enough carrots to consume all the hummus so I resort to double dipping.  Good thing I'm not sharing with my coworker today.


I eat some more of those shortbread cookie-like crackers.  I really need to get other ones.


Dinner: Sauteed Halibut with Artichoke Hearts, Cherry Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans; Mixed Berry Crisp with Date Oat Streusel


This is actually the dinner listed for Tuesday but I make up my own rules.  The bean/artichoke/tomato mixture was pretty good.  The grocery store doesn't carry halibut, so we made tilapia instead.  The recipe says I'm supposed to have 4 ounces of fish.  When purchasing the fish, I requested 4 ounce filets from the fishman behind the counter.  He informed me that the fish only come in one size and the scale was only in pounds.  I did the conversion for him and silently cursed stupid people.  


Tonight was supposed to come with dessert, but you can add dried dates to the list of foods I despise.  I was going to make the almond butter chocolate chip cookie recipe from the cookbook, but I got inspired to write this blog instead.  Maybe tomorrow I will finally satisfy my cookie craving.


Today I consumed around 1500 calories.  I went to the gym, so I probably should have eaten more.  I guess if I wake up starving in the middle of the night I can have a grape or two.