Do Not Do This At Home

Remember those stupid commercial taglines? Maybe it's an early 90s thing, but I remember hearing that on TV all the time!

Today was a better day at work. I decided to even (gasp!) leave the office. I took a walk and somehow ended up in a frozen yogurt shop. I was a little heavy-handed with the carob chip crank and thus lunch was made:

Tart original yogurt, blueberry tart, a little chocolate, blackberries, mangoes, lychee, a tbsp of granola and probably 2-3 tbsp of carob chips. Am I guilty, a little...but it was sooo good!



Bakery on Main

I got to try two products from Bakery on Main today!

The products offer a lot of options for people with any food allergies and special dietary needs:
"At Bakery on Main, our dedicated artisan bakers take the highest quality natural ingredients and craft them into unique and healthy culinary marvels. We use no artificial colors, GMOs, artificial flavors, trans-fats or refined sugars. Whether you follow a gluten free diet or a heart healthy high fiber diet, we offer you great tasting products."

I tried the Cranberry Maple Almond Granola (picture from website):



And here is my serving of it:

Now you know my dirty secret- I eat out of the container...but only because I'm the only one who eats it and there was almost nothing left!



The granola was perfectly crunchy, a little chewy, and not too sweet. The calorie content was 240 cals and worked great as a topping over yogurt. I would definitely buy this product again, but I would rather find it in a retail location near me instead of ordering it online. Thanks again for letting me sample this product. Look for my next product sample soon!

So remember that yogurt lunch? Well, it did nothing to keep me full. I had a mini apple and a cucumber later and by 7:00 my stomach was screaming for dinner. To make matters worse, some lady had a bag full of takeout food on the train, right next to me. I wanted to steal her food, but refrained. When I got home, I plowed through the kitchen, washed my hands and made this:


This is about 2 oz of baked salmon with 2 tbsp cottage cheese and salsa, all nuked together. I also had grilled brussel sprouts and a single asparagus:




Workout:

My knees were screaming again today, so I didn't push it. I did 15 minutes on the evil stairclimber and 20 minutes of hill intervals on the treadmill, mostly walking after the jogging did not feel well. I burned about 200 cals.

I'm off to take a shower and get to bed. The heat has been making me an insomniac. Peace out ladies!

Cowgirl Chocolates and Other Fabulous Things

Cowgirl Chocolates!

Last week I was fortunate enough to get a sample from Cowgirl Chocolates! The chocolates came in this adorable little box:



And inside was another adorable package:



My intern and I were hard at work trying to diligently sample the treats. The sad part is it took me nearly a week to get through everything and I still have one left. I must say that I really enjoyed these chocolates!

Here is the description from the site:

	Cowgirl Chocolates are sweet and spicy gourmet chocolates for adventurous chocolate lovers and packaged as unique beautiful gifts for any and all occasions.

Though I received samples of the spicy chocolates, I leaned more toward the mild truffles.

Here are the flavors I tried:

Mild truffles:

Pure Milk Chocolate -
milk chocolate plain and simple

Double Dark Chocolate -
pure dark chocolate plain and simple

Ivory Orange -
white chocolate with a creamy milk chocolate orange infused center

Raspberry lemonade dark chocolate -
an old cowgirl recipe blended to perfection with raspberry, lemon and deep dark chocolate

Here is the Raspberry lemonade dark chocolate:



The flavor was so rich and complex, it knocked me off my chocolate lovin feet!

Other Fabulous Things:

I have taken care of some of that stress stuff by letting it go. There's nothing I can really do about being busy, so I'm trying to be more efficient during the day and look forward to the weekends!

• I had an awesome workout today:

2-mile run and 15 minutes on the elliptical- holy cardio goodness. I'm getting a little sore in my knees again, so I'm mixing up the impact on my knees!

• I have been eating some (lots) of Maranatha Almond Butter. While I have been devoted to TJ's brand of almond butter, I loved the $6 something price at costco and it has lasted forever! Yay for buying in bulk!

• I have a bit of an obsession with theknot.com. It tells me that there are only 111 days until my wedding and makes me giddy and paranoid- a happy combination! I look at stuff like this on there (image courtesy of theknot.com):
  

• I have rediscovered cottage cheese, flat out wraps, and Better n' Peanut Butter (all together). Check out my buffet...also tonight's dinner:

Well now that I have finished my ramblings, I'm off to shower and watch my other obsession, How I Met Your Mother. If you haven't seen it, you haven't lived. Seriously.

MIA

Hey Guys!

I just wanted to quickly post and let you know I'm still alive, just trying to balance some things and unfortunately blog time is being eaten up by:

• Psychotic work hours


• A marketing product on Nantucket Nectars (without any samples- so rude!)


• Insomnia


• The notion of wedding planning- No, I don't do it all the time, but I am constantly being asked questions and planning little parts of it, so the anxiety is still there

One thing I have posted about before and am still struggling with is managing stress among my mix of activities. I start out each day with a plan but often get blown out of the water and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that comes my way. I am hoping to change some things around but I have recognized the following things:

• I don't do well without taking a break- I am one of those people who NEVER takes lunch because I am too overwhelmed at the amount of work I have- this results in inhaling my lunch.
  


• I can't go 10-11 full hours of work and concentrate


• I can't steady my mind to go to sleep after a long day at work and school
• I miss exercise and I get anxious without it
  

I haven't talked about this before (or maybe I have) but my restrictive and/or poor food habits come out under stress. I was a cross between hormonal/tired/stressed on Monday night and that involved 3 cookies and some chocolate- no big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it doesn't match my goals and it was not a wise choice- it was stress-induced. Today, I felt so angry that I felt nauseated, and only had yogurt for lunch, which left me unsatisfied and led to several snacks instead of a healthy dinner.

I am going to figure out a way to resolve this. There are some obvious solutions:

• Leave the office for even 15 minutes each day
• Make a list of absolute Must Do items to prioritize
• Breathe, breathe, breath
• Plan and consume normal meals and snacks
  

Phew- ok, done with my rant. I hope to resume regular posting soon. I have 2 product review that I would like to share with you:

• Cowgirl Chocolates
• Peeled Snacks

My intern is helping me and he needs to hurry up and finish his chocolate!

I leave you with one of our favorite pictures:



What, normal people don't dress up like Flava Flave for Halloween?

Bob Would be Soooo Mad at Me!

It's been a marathon day and I'm just about ready to pass out in bed! I started with a workout bright and early. By the time I got packed and out the door (even after packing everything last night) it was 6:20 and I was left with 30 solid minutes of cardio. I went crazy on the stairmill and elliptical for 12 minutes and 18 minutes, respectively. I am having a little HRM malfunction (ok...I lost the watch part...but it's around somewhere) and I don't know how many cals I burned. But I was sweaty and my legs were shaky, so I'm good.


On my way to work I tried the Quaker Oats True Delights bar in Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond. It did the job but I was not too impressed with it. The raspberry flavor is a little too fake for me and it was a little crumbly. I appreciated the chocolate chunks and the almonds...but even the almonds tasted funny. I don't think I'll be buying them in the near future as there are many other bars that taste better. I love bars, but I try to eat more real foods.
How often do you eat bars?

When I came home from my leisurely 10.5-hour workday, all I wanted was to eat and couch...in that order, or at the same time. Now I love the concept of mindful eating- slowly savoring a good meal while paying attention to only the task at hand. Tonight was not one of those night. Here is what my tablescape looked like tonight:




Notice the glow of the TV, the ENORMOUS bag of chips, and awesome lighting. I'm definitely available for party planning.


Here is a close-up of my dinner:



This is Orowheat 100% Whole Wheat bread topped with homemade tuna salad (tuna, eggs, relish, spicy mustard) and one slice of jalapeno jack cheese shredded and broiled for 5 minutes. While this toasted up, I had a serving of chips and hummus.


Finally, I sat down to work on a report I was helping Mike with. Biggest Loser was on TV and I decided it was time for a cookie (ok, 2 cookies). Just as I took my picture, I looked at the camera and completely cracked up. Do you see Bob's angry face in the background? Not only do I feel guilty eating dessert while watching Biggest Loser, even Bob is yelling at me. What will I do next, swear inside a church? Oy.

He Loves Me!

After a horrendous day at work (stayed from 9:00 till 6:50...almost 10 hours, no lunch break) I got a call asking if I wanted anything at Trader Joe's. Um...the answer is always yes. I had to think on the spot (always a dangerous decision) and decided I wanted TJ's Greek yogurt and Oat Bran. This is what I got:







What I love about my future hubby is that he will do most things in the world to make me happy. I also love that he buys in bulk! I am sooo set for my snacks, breakfasts, dinners, and evening snacks for the next week...or probably a few days.


We came home and ate some dinner. I ate some quinoa salad topped with baked tilapia, mango salsa, and some corn/bean mixture. I mixed it all together and it was good! I got to more food prep for the week and almost forgot about dessert- no worries! I had some fresh blackberries that rocked my face off!




Here is also a preview of tomorrow's lunch of more quinoa salad topped with lots of veggies:




Finally, I got a sample in the mail! It's the Quaker True Delight...in 'blurry' flavor as I can't even read what kind it is in this picture:




Now I am going to pack all my junk to get to the gym tomorrow morning. I am going to try to get sleepy and be asleep by 10:30 so that I can get in a nice workout tomorrow morning...maybe if I type it I will go!

P.S. Jillian is not my friend. My arms are sore! I think that will teach me to attempt to do The Shred with 10 pound weights.

Peace out!

Getting My Mojo Back- Just in Time for Cake!

Now that I have finished being sick (um hello- who else gets sick for 5 frieken weeks!) I have had plenty of energy and excitement over the last few days.

I have had three great workouts:

Friday Morning: 2 Mile Run
Satuday: 60 minute weight/cardio circuit and a 20-minute walk in the afternoon
Sunday: Crazy Jillian Michael's Shred Level 1

I also had some great meals- though none as exciting as our Sunday snack: Wedding Cake Tasting!

We went to a Schubert's Bakery in San Francisco. They were voted on of The Knot's best in 2008/2009. This is also the place that did my brother's cake as well as my best friend's cake and I knew I would want my cake from there. It is small, family-owned, and the desserts there are out of this world. We started out with our tasting plates. All the descriptions below are from the website:


Opera Cake: Hazelnut sponge with chocolate truffle and mocha-praline filling topped with toasted almonds.




Vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and passion fruit filling:




Mocha torte: White cake with mocha buttercream filling




Chocolate Truffle Torte: A wonderfully rich chocolate cake; chocolate sponge filled with a superb chocolate filling, made only from cream and bittersweet chocolate.




We LOVED the opera cake. The mocha was a little too overwhelming, as was the chocolate torte. We loved the simplicity of the vanilla and the kick of the passionfruit. We ended up selecting Opera Cake for our bottom and top layer and the vanilla/passionfruit for our middle layer. I am soooo excited! Did I mention I LOVE cake?


When we looked at designs, they had a bunch of really nice classic designs and then we got to this one:


(Picture Source)

I kept going back and staring at it. We don't really have one cohesive theme for our wedding, but we are going to be naming our tables for places that we have visited together and are special to both of us. Since we are both immigrants from the former Soviet Union, traveling and culture is important to both of us and we wanted to incorporate this into our wedding. When we saw this suitcase concept, I was all over it and Mike was excited to not have a pink fluffy thing- sold! We are still going to be working with them to tweak the colors and provide the tags but we are excited that they have the creativity and we can now make things work!


Now that the wedding is 5 months away, it's time to get into the smaller details. We also finalized our DJ this weekend. He gave us a good deal and has been really nice to work with so far. Now we have to start thinking music. Any favorites?


Well....it's 7:30 and I don't have much else to babble about. I'm hoping to go back to daily posts this week- we shall see!

Toodles!

Lots to Talk About

Catching Up

I seem to be getting busier and busier as the days go by. I guess that's ok- it means I'm getting somewhere. We had a great weekend doing some gardening (I did the project management), going grocery shopping, and watching a How I Met Your Mother marathon. I frieken love that show. It's...wait for it....AWESOME! The rest of the days since then have been spent in my dungeon (work) coming in early and leaving late. Oh well- at least they let me leave :)


The boy going at it with the lawnmower:



The veggies I will hopefully be eating from our garden:



Oikos Organic Greek Yogurt Review




Now I have to say- this stuff was amazing! I have always been a fan of greek yogurt, but this has truly been one of my best experiences with it. I have tried all of the flavors and they were all good. Here is my quick overview of each one:

You can also read more about the yogurt on their website:

http://www.oikosorganic.com

Plain Greek Yogurt:

This yogurt was perfectly tangy and thick. It was perfect mixed in with fruit and had a great consistency. Plain yogurt was my favorite since I am not much of a flavored yogurt girl.

Vanilla Greek Yogurt:

Though the vanilla was very subtle, it was a nice, natural vanilla flavor. I have probably gotten too used to fake vanilla products. This one was my second favorite.
Blueberry Greek Yogurt:

I was pleasantly surprised by the real blueberries as I mixed this yogurt. The taste was like real blueberries but it was a little too sweet for my taste. I stretched this yogurt out over 2 servings and even topped my toast with it one morning.
Honey Greek Yogurt:

I mixed this in with my yogurt cereal mess this morning and it was amazing- perfectly creaming and the honey was decadent. I am not a huge fan of putting honey in Greek yogurt, but I would definitely buy this flavor again.

And there ya have it. I enjoyed this amazing yogurt over the last few days and will definitely be using the coupone Kristina sent me as well as the cute lunch tote. Thanks again!


In Her Fridge

Maybe I'm a stalker, but I always like to see what people have in their fridge, just like MTV Cribs! Here is what we have in our fridge this week:

Condiments:



Almond butter, better n' pb, juices, and more canned things:



Juice and yogurt for the boy's smoothies:



Lots of spinach and brussel sprouts:



Finally, here are some of my more exciting meals over the last few days:

Lunches (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday):








Breakfasts:






And my only presentable dinner:


Otherwise, dinner is eaten in this fashion (yogurt mixed with strawberries, protein powder and almond butter)



We also went on a walk tonight because sometimes I just have too much energy and need to be walked. We took pictures of us and the view was pretty too.







If you have finished reading this post, I shall offer you a finisher's medal. This is why people post daily, huh?

Have a great rest of your week! We are almost at Friday!

P.S. I think I officially quit the Drab to Fab Challenge. It wasn't for me- I heart my coffee!