(don't) stand under my umbrella, ella, ella

I HATE rain!!! Ugh. Today's weather makes me want to curl up in a ball under a blanket and never come out again until April/May. This is why I am not meant to be a East Coast-er/New Yorker. My umbrella was inside out 90% of the time, so I arrived to work with scrubs that weighed an extra 5 lbs and an afro (fabulous). There is very little else in the world that is more frustrating than dealing with a non-functional umbrella in a torrential downpour. Okay, enough complaining...on to the food.


I was super excited to try out my brand new purchase (below). Could this be the end of buying AM coffees? Hopefully a green purchase (in both an earth friendly AND wallet friendly way).

Unfortunately, I really f-ed up the coffee this morning. Sure, the thermos was bomb, but I made the coffee unbearably STRONG. Maybe tomorrow...

So, I was inspired by all the bloggies yesterday and I decided to make a SERIOUS effort today to drink water in mass quantities. I had a baby water bottle (240 mL) and I filled it up 8 times! Go me :)

Per usual, I packed my lunch the day before. I had my Berries GoMega odwalla bar around 10:30, which held me over until lunch in the late afternoon.

My sando was smart deli "turkey" with the works.

Also (as usual) I got the vegan soup option from Bruno's, which was a White Bean Tuscan Soup. In the words of VeggieGirl "holy yum!" Vegetarian and dairy free, loaded with white cannellini beans, onions, garlic, celery, leeks, and MUCH more - it was sooooo good. God Bruno's soups are ammmmazing. I'm not sure if it was healthy, and I know it wasn't cheap, but it was beyond worth it.

By the time I got home, I was cold, wet, and not in the best of moods. Let's just say, cooking dinner was the last thing I felt like doing. So I compromised. Half lazy, half chef-y.

Good thing I had fresh zuch and squash on stand by. I steamed one of each, threw in some cherry tomatoes and drizzled on some balsamic vinegar...easy shmeazy!

For the lazy part, I opted for a GN veggie burger on a sesame bun with MAYOOOO (and sprouts, lettuce, and tomato)!

Confucius say: wise man keep Ezekiel products in the freezer at all times (or something along those lines)

How pretty is this little platter.

Add a little wine to the mix...and...perfection!

I'm so tired...work again tomorrow. Time for the zzzz

day 'o grazing

Seriously, meals were kinda a lost cause today...I was doing random errands all day so I was in and out of the apt and grazing (like a cow?) the whole day long. Not that being busy is an excuse, because when it comes down to it, I was just lazy.

I started the day with some java x2. Mmmm...stevia and ff vanilla creamer included.

After coffee I had a bunch of soy bacon (some of which I photographed below) and headed out for a very important mission. Operation denim. I love shopping and hate it at the same time, especially for jeans.

Also, I had some santa cruz organic lemonade this morning. It is tart and sweet but doesn't leave that lemony taste in your mouth. In fact it is quite good, I think next time I'll buy their raspberry lemonade flavor.


After hours of browsing I returned home with less $$ and more clothes, so I guess it was a success? While I was out I snacked on both raisins and yogurt covered raisins :)

I also grabbed a soy latte on the way home (no surprise). Then I polished off the last of the hummus with the end pieces of the Ezekiel bread.

...and here I am mid grub sesh


Next up: gym! Nothing to report here, my work out is just so not interesting...


Dinner was more snacking. Nibble here. Nibble there.

Ok, here is (or what was) a MONSTER bad of yogurt covered pretzels I picked up on the way home from the gym. I literally ate the entire bag of them, which could have been anywhere from 50 to 75...I swear, once I discover something I like, it is only a matter of time before I go and overdose. I am definitely on the fast track for that, I can tell it is only a matter of time before that happens. Now I'm bouncing off the wall.

But still snacking...yes, that's Kyle in the background doing some cooking of his own.

Dessert (aka more snacks) included coconut date rolls (the most decadent things EVER) and half a bag of dried salty edamame. Since I am a lazy ass, I have no pictures, but let me just say, these coconut date rolls are like rich dense pieces of heaven. In the words of Ms. Ray, YUM-O!

Ok, off to pack my lunch for tomorrow and watch heidi klum (project runway).

2-a-day...not so much

So, I don’t know about this weather…it may prevent me from doing the work out that I know I should do today. I ate a mega dessert last night, so I was thinking I should be good today and have a two a day work out. Unfortunately, that was not what ended up happening.
I had 3 ff lattes in the AM. Way more than I needed. Then I went to the gym and had a mega workout. So far so good, right?

Well lunch hit and then I unraveled a bit from there. I had vegan “turkey” spread with 4 pieces of Ezekiel 4:9 bread. I opened AND finished the "turkey" spread in one sitting (bad news bears).

I was full after that, but for some unknown reason I decided to hit up the Garden of Eatin' guacamole chips (even though they are Skinny Bitch approved I don't think that counts for much when you have as many as I did). I finished the bag! :( damn...now I really have to be good.

(worthless photo)

So I have the option of going to a spinning class at 7:15 but I don’t really want to go all the way downtown in the yuck weather. We will see.

Ok so clearly, spinning didn’t happen.
Dinner was fruit (assorted melons = watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew) and an apple, and a sf jello.

The picture of the bowl of fruit is very misleading. It was quite large.

3 days of catch up

Ok well I have had a streak of over eating, which might soon become a problem. So now let me write it all out, expose my shameful behavior so I can be freed of my guilt and turn over a new leaf. DAYAM! It will be brief though since I can’t even remember what kind of shit went down.
I worked on Wednesday the 27th, and as far as I remember I had coffee from Bruno’s and then ate the lunch I packed (consisting of the usual sandwich). It was also made on the new kind of bread I got (a different live sprouted grain bread than the Ezekiel) shown below.

I went to the gym after work for a decent work out as I recall. I think it was most likely an elliptical day. Then I had another dinner extravaganza…dinners have been my problem area lately, ESPECIALLY after work. I hate it because I eat SO late and often feel full as I head to bed, which is one of my biggest pet peeves.

For dinner, I ended up having the sesame ginger tofu pieces on bread (open faced sandos). I had way more than I should have. I wasn’t even that hungry and yet I ended up eating 6 of the 8 chunks. That’s not bad on its own, but I also had 5 pieces of bread too. I also had a bite of this dip that I made the day before (just to taste it), but I didn’t have much.

I made the dip with ff sour cream, ff ricotta, ff Fage, spinach, and garlic salt. It is a good dip for crackers and veggies. I may try to liven up the recipe next time I make it because it was a little on the boring side.

As if that weren’t bad enough, then I decided to have a dessert consisting of pizza dough. This is one of the things I bought the other day and have been eyeing in the fridge and resisting over and over again. I knew it was only a matter of time before I caved and binged…as per my rule of “no finishing a container upon its opening” I had 1 full mini crust and then half of the 2nd. SO bad. (I had the remaining half the next night).

I was falling asleep as I was eating the last few bites and ended up falling asleep at 10 while Kyle finished the laundry. I was dead tired and planned on waking up early before work on Thursday.


I DID wake up early on 8/28/08…which ended up being POINTLESS (I think we all know why I woke up early to down 2 cups of coffee).

Here’s me at 4 am in my scrubs before work. I had 2 cups of coffee AND a Snapple lemon iced tea. Oddly enough, despite my early early wake up call to fill up with caffeine, throughout the early hours of my shift I was so hungry, I don’t even know how or why…I ended up nibbling on grapes (brought in for everyone by my patient’s family the day before). I must have had a freaking pound of grapes!! Needless to say that did the trick, system cleared – check! I didn't bring my work out gear today because Kyle wanted me to take a day off and get home early(er), but then it turned out he forgot he had a Spanish lesson. Ugh. Normally I wouldn’t care, but I have the 10K run this weekend and I need to keep my training on track or I am gonna get my ass handed to me. I don’t want to be embarrassed at this run. In the end I walked home so I had a lame half ass active day off of the gym. Unfortunately, I ate my way through the day though, so it completely negated any self control I had the previous week.

Since I didn't pack my lunch the day before, on my lunch break I walked to whole foods and bought this granola bar thing. Let me just say, I am in love. The ingredients are not even things that I would have thought I would like, but it just looked so TASTY, I decided to give it a shot. Initially I went to whole foods to get granola planks for my race day meal, but they didn’t have them (boo!) so I ended up getting this massive granola cube.

It had raisins, dried cranberries and cherries, rolled oats, honey, brown rice syrup, canola oil, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews, almonds, coconut, wheat germ, brown sugar, apricot and vanilla. And yes, you read that right I ate NUTS!!! (It is WAY bigger than it looks btw - it was seriously like a freaking tray)

Who would have thought I would consume bomb-bitters and not immediately hurl! I also bought a s’more flavored luna bar (NOT good btw), but I still ate the whole thing. I don’t know why. I also had an apple at lunch and then an iced coffee. I was pretty full, and only nibbled on the luna bar throughout the rest of the day. Since I was going to walk home I couldn’t help but get a snack for the road. So I got ANOTHER granola bar from whole foods…I swear, once I discover something I like I cant help but overdose. What is my f-ing problem. I also had 2, not one, but 2 iced ff lattes from the bucks on the walk home.

I was full by now. So of course I decided to eat more. Stupid elise.
I didn’t take pictures because it wouldn’t have been pretty. I had the rest of the “Health is Wealth” chik’n nuggets. Also I had the rest of a tub of vegan “chicken” spread. Also I had the rest of the pizza dough. What’s wrong with me you may ask. Where to begin is my answer.
I may or may not have eaten more this night too, I just can’t be bothered to remember.

8/29/08 I worked my 3rd shift in a row. Lord knows I hate these days. I definitely didn’t want to go to the gym after work, but since I took yesterday off (by accident), I had to force myself to make it to the gym after my horribly long and exhausting day of work. Ok, but first back to the morning. I don’t know what I ate in the morning, I think I had another ff iced latte from starbucks on my walk to work. That makes 3 in less than 10 hours…

At lunch I walked to whole foods and got that same delicious granola bar again. I also had yogurt covered raisins and regular raisins and another iced ff latte. After work I went to the gym, kicked some ass, and headed to whole foods to stock up.

Here is the BOMB ass salad I made myself from the WF salad bar. It was delish so I had 2 bowls full. There was lettuce, peas, corn, cucumber, cranberries and tofu in it.

For dessert, which I did not need, I had a LOT of yogurt covered raisins.


Today I slept in because I wanted to get a good rest to start the weekend off right. I had 2 cups of coffee when I got up, and then went to the gym. I had a great work out. I only had an apple for lunch because I had to bolt off to midtown to get my race day packet from niketown before 5. I had lots of time to spare so I walked home stopping at starbucks on the way to get a ff iced latte and also pick up some groceries. I ate an early dinner since it was already 530 and I had only had an apple.

vegan "chick'n" salad from WF

PLUS

pre-made WF salad

EQUALS

What an amazing salad! The vegan “chicken” spread combined with the salad and an entire avocado was so YUMMY!

The rest of the spread I put on 2 pieces of toasted 7 grain live sprouted bread with avocado spread on top. Now I am REALLY full. I think I will try to do some yoga and stretching a little later.

So I hate to say this, BUT yoga sucks btw. I got about 5 minutes into some bullshit yoga for runners thing and got bored. If I want to deep breathe I will stretch and go to sleep, in the sheets - that’s where I do my yoga. So anyways, I made a delish sundae for dessert. Chocolate sorbet, plus an over ripe nanner, plus milk and vanilla creamer. Heaven. A little sweet, but that’s never stopped me before.

TA-DA!