Breaking My Fast

Boy did I ever! Since I have been devouring the show Spain...On the Road Again, I have been particularly inspired by the European breakfast. It's not heavy and ginormous like the typical American breakfast but it's somehow just enough because of the food combinations. So this morning I wanted something pretty (to reflect the gorgeous weather outside), something delicious and something good for my body. Here is what I had:


Rustic Wheat bread with real salted butter, fresh strawberries (Tis the Season!!) and low fat organic vanilla yogurt poured over the top.


A closer look...

This was heaven. So light and refreshing and I feel really good.

Here's a pic of the bread. Really amazing, especially when used to make the best darn tomato sandwiches ever!

Crushed it!

Tonight I am going to my Mom and Step dad's house to make them a heart healthy dinner. He just got out of the hospital today since having stints put into two veins (there were blockages). Then I may be able to talk them into a easy walk. :)

Hope to have pics for you later.

Ciao!

Lawdy, Lawdy!

I swear, as soon as things start to settle down I will begin posting on more than a weekly basis. A little run down of what's been happening since LAST TUESDAY, Friday and Saturday of last week was very busy massage wise (awesome!) but extremely exhausting. Then Saturday afternoon I went to my mom's for my niece's bday party and to celebrate Mother's Day. I left there around 9pm, went home, took a shower and got gussied up for my friend Mark's bday dinner. Talk about being pooped! I didn't make it to bed until 2am.

Sunday allowed some rest time but not much since I had to get everything in order for a working interview I scored with an awesome chiropractic and spinal injury center. I think it went well but I wont find out until possibly the end of the week whether they want me to work with them or not. *fingers crossed*

Here is just a taste of a few things I have been scarfing down lately:


Oatmeal with skim milk, almonds, butter scotch chips and chunky peanut butter.


Thai veggie spring rolls....Ah Mah Zing!


The best green curry with chicken in town.

Low fat organic vanilla yogurt with almonds and cereal.

Campbell's select tomato basil soup with fat free sour cream, grilled cheese. Comfort all the way baby!

Oh, and I did wind up buying the Core Balance Diet book. I'll let you know my thoughts once I read it. Right now I am concentrating of finding my life's purpose. ;)

Oh, and to those foodies out there I have a super fun dvd recommendation, Spain...On the Road Again with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. So much fun!

Hope your week is fab!

Shock

You know how you can have certain days when you think you look really cute and you think to yourself, "Hey, I am not the beast I thought I was." And you can float on those good feelings for a couple of days, live your life as happy as you can and tra-la-la all over the place. That is until you see something like this:

Yep, that's me in the oh so flattering lime green shirt. Yeah... me.....next to the normal sized people. Then it hits you, I am not okay. I have a problem.....I am NOT healthy. It's funny how certain angles in a mirror or shop window can fool you into thinking that you look smaller than you really are and then WHAM! reality knocks you right on your well padded bottom.

Well this past weekends activities did that for me. Believe me there are many more very unflattering photos of my self and a video or two that left me teary eyed and extremely embarrassed. Then I start thinking to myself, "GOD! No wonder people look at me weird when I say I am a massage therapist who is really into the healing arts and alternative medicine." Then I start to imagine what must be going through my clients heads when I suggest stretches and exercises that will help them manage their pain. Oy.

When blows like this happen it hits my brain into overdrive and I nearly drive myself crazy trying to analyze and reanalyze what I should do. Then I get frustrated and confused because I already have so much useful and useless information stored in there about every diet on the face of the earth. At some point during my over thinking fits I freak, cry and then shut down. Am I alone in this? Do other people feel this way or am I a weirdo?

After much meditation, prayer and silence I decided to see what my intuition (not my ego) would decide was the best course of action. I slept on it, got up the next day did my usual morning routine and checked my email. While I was waiting for my email to load it hit me: I should focus on balancing my body, making sure that all of my systems are in check and healthy. Well, in my inbox was one of the many updates that I get from Louise Hay's Hay House Publications. If you have never heard of Louise Hay, please do yourself a favor and check out her book, YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE. Absolutely wonderful! Anyway in my inbox was an announcement of a new book called THE CORE BALANCE DIET by Marcelle Pick. Has anyone heard of this book or tried it? Please leave a comment if you have. I am very interested in giving it a try. It's all about balancing your body's systems and allowing it to come to a state of harmony, which is what health is really.

I haven't bought it yet because I wanted to see if any of you out there in bloggerland has read the book or tried something similar.

Let's move on to the rest of the day. :)

Yesterday, after the gym, I came home for a very veggie dinner:

Mixed green salad with avocado, almonds, canned tuna, and organic ranch dressing with a little french thrown in for flavor.

A bowl of amazing butternut squash soup by Campbell's.


It was very delicious and very satisfying.

This morning I had my usual for breakie! Lordy how I lurve bananas and peanut butter.

I hope to post lunch and dinner pics tonight but I have a busy afternoon and evening scheduled. Plus Biggest Loser is on tonight.

Check ya later!

Whew!!! Time Is Messing With Me!

I am so sorry for the time lapse. The past two weeks have been B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Work was super busy and so was my social life. Plays, bday parties, friends, wine, food and a pinata. And it doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. This weekend I have two birthdays to celebrate and Mother's day. Then the next weekend is free as a bird...YAY! Then it's Memorial Day weekend and after that BABYSHOWER TIME! :)

So let's get to it. I took yet another inspired cue from KERF and had butterscotch oatmeal for breakfast.

1 cup of cooked oats
2 tbls of skim milk
2 tbls sliced almonds
1 tbls butterscotch chips
1 tbls peanut butter


Vitamins and flowers.

Went to work, kicked some patootie and then had lunchie lunch.

Roast chicken, cheddar and mayo on multi grain with a side of organic blue corn chips and the organic salsa I love.


Ohhh, and this lovely glass of strawberry jarrito.

Delish and filling enough to see me through a lovely gym session. The first one in two weeks. (read: embarrassed face)

Consistency Is Key

Unfortunately I am not very consistent...... yet. I have breakfast, snack and dinner pics for you but since I went to lunch with my mom and Aunt I totally forgot my camera. It was a delicious and portion correct lunch. I drank lemon water. Had a small cup of crab bisque and a small garden salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side. It was quite tasty.
But before that I had a very filling breakfast:

My favorite. :) Kath at KERF loves oatmeal. I love peanut butter and bananas.


Don't you just want a little taste?


Because my lunch was a little on the light side I was definitely ready for an afternoon snack around 3pm. I had to have my Babybels again and some more of those amazing sesame sticks and some good ole sweat tea.

Here's a closer look.

Once I finished with my afternoon clients and redecorating my office a little I was oh so looking forward to dinner. I picked up a new steamer veggie and couldn't wait to try it.

Here it is on top of my ugly Formica kitchen counters. I have to say that they weren't bad but I may have over steamed them cause they were kinda mushy. But boy were they sweet.

I also baked a small chicken breast in a tbls of olive oil and a tsp of herbs de provence. I have been trying to eat most of my meals on salad plates to fool my over eager eyeballs. Seems to be working.

I was craving a baked potato (must need more potassium) so that wound up on the menu as well. I added a little butter, some fat free sour cream, sea salt and pepper.

I didn't make it to the gym today but did manage to stay busy with clients and plenty of apartment cleaning and organizing. I must have slept really well last night because I had tons of energy today.

Tomorrow is a day full of clients and more cleaning. I have some friends coming into town to see a play that my roommate and good friend, Adrienne is in. It should be a weekend of fun, wine and lots of laughter. I may not have time to update until Sunday night but I sure will try.

Tootle-loo!

Gym, Chix-fil-a and LOST

Whew!! Bodyjam was so much fun tonight. They had all these new dance routines and I had the best time. My ears are still ringing because of the loud music. Good lord, do I feel old saying that. Those darn whippersnappers and their high falutin rock-n roll music!
Anywho, since the class was so intense and so good I quickly became a sweat beast and was in desperate need of a shower. So dinner had to wait until 8:45pm. Never fear, Chix-fil-a was there!


Their amazing chix-n-strips garden salad with croutons, sunflower seeds and fat free honey mustard dressing. Soooo filling.


And of course I had to have some sweet tea with it. :) What's Chix-fil-a without sweat tea? Only instead of ordering theirs I had some that I had made two days ago. I feel I can control the sugar better that way.


Now it's time for my favorite show on earth! I was hoping this episode would be about the survivors that they haven't covered this season like Rose and Bernard but nooooo... it's a dang recap show... AGAIN! Ahh well, I'm still getting my fix. :0)

Good night!

There's a Wicked Nor' Easta Blowin In

I don't know what happened to spring but it got awful blustery out today. Which started me thinking about colder climates like Massachusetts which led me to think about Boston which in turn led me to think about hot southie boys and WHAM I had to have some wicked awesome chowda!


Campbell's wicked awesome 98% fat free chowda to be precise.


Yeah, my pouring skills are not the best (look at the splatter.)


Of course I had to have some more of those delicious Triscuits and sweet tea.

To round it all up an amazingly lovely orange.

So sweet and juicy. Slurp!

The lunch, although delicious in every way, did not last as long as I had hoped and by 5pm (during the middle of a massage) my stomach began to seriously growl. Embarrassing!

So once I got home I immediately set to getting my snack on.

I had to answer the siren song of those amazing chips and salsa. I managed to not dig into them since that day I had them for lunch.... no small feat mind you. I also added to low fat Babybel cheeses for protein.

I think I am ready for my Bodyjam class now. :)