Cold Office

Everyone been having a happy Thursday? Mine’s been okey dokey! I didn’t end up having to head out to the rink this morning…PHEW! DS was back home by 7:30 with just enough time for breakfast #2. He ate some porridge before going to practice and a PB&J sandwich when he got back. Oh, youth…No matter, I made a great bowl of oats;

-1 cup water
-1/3 cup PC 5 grain cereal
-cinnamon
-banana
-PB2
-carob chips
-chopped peanuts

I missed the naners in my breakfast. I’m always amazed at the amount of sweetness they add once I’ve use them again after being off them for a bit. I haven’t been buying them because they weren’t getting eaten and I had overload in the freezer. My fam is funny that way. There are times when I can’t buy enough of food like bananas & yogurt and then all of a sudden no one eats it anymore and it all goes bad. Anyone else have this happen at their house??

Work was slow today and what was even more tedious was the fact that the internet was pretty much down. There went my plan of blog reading all day! **wink wink** Seriously, though….there are legit jobs that I need to be online to complete. I soothed myself with some pretty pink peanut M&M’s;

And then enjoyed the very last piece of apple butter bread.

I had a fantastic run today. I got into my zone early in the game and didn’t look back. AND…Rach had the CUTEST baby animals on the show today! Awww…

Time: 45 minutes
Avg Hr: 160
Max Hr: 178
Calories Torched: 468
Distance: 4.7 miles

For lunch I ate my very last container of FAGE with pear ginger jam and the last of the Nature’s Path PB granola;

Oh la la, dessert for lunch! Then some almonds joined the party;

As well as the internet being down, the heat has not been working for the past 2 weeks. A few mornings this week the office was at 64* when we came in at 8am. I took a picture of myself today to show you the huge sweater I wore to work so as not to freeze.

It’s just like a warm blanket with arm holes!! Taking some self portraits also kept me entertained for a few minutes!! :D

Afternoon snack was a petit tea….

…and a honey crisp apple!

DD had skating lessons tonight so dinner was on the late side. I made a tea to go, packed my book and was set for the next hour. When we got back I whipped up some sautéed bell peppers coated with a little fig balsamic dressing and a WW Arnold Thin with a 1/3 cup of Egg Beaters and some pepper jack cheese;

Then there was some dessert. Oh…dessert! I ate 2 small pieces of pumpkin coconut chocolate chip bar with some warmed up maple cappuccino sauce on top…

Pure decadence. Enough said.

Well, it’s back to TV time tonight. CSI and Vampire Diaries are on the tube. I feel like I just posted about those shows last night! Wonder where the week went. Hmmm…

Bye for now!!

Out of the Dumps

It dawned on me this morning when I woke up in a fabulous mood that I have been down in the dumps a bit this week. Funny thing is, I didn’t even realize it! Upon getting out of bed this morning I felt energetic and ready to take on the day. Wonder if it being FRIDAY has anything to do with it?!

I had a bit of pumpkin that needed to be used so into my breakfast it went!
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup Red River cereal
-goji berries
-pumpkin puree
-cinnamon & pumpkin pie spice
-carob chips (wink, wink Veggie Girl!)
-sweet cinnamon sprinkles
A-MAZING! This was one of those bowls that I was sad to see the end of! And this was the last of my carob chips. Note to self……go buy more this weekend!!

The morning passed quite uneventfully. I snacked on the last 3 prunes. I took a picture of the bag today to avoid photo boredom! :)
With my prunes I enjoyed a latte from the office machine;
And later on I munched on a ½ cup of “granola” that I made last night. I got the recipe from the new Hungry Girl cookbook.
I think the options are endless on this recipe!!!

I hit up the gym today and did 30 minutes on the stationary bike (my ankles were OK with this movement), 10 minutes of ab work, 3 set of 15 tricep dips as per the BBBC and a 5 minute walk on the ‘mill. It felt so nice to just MOVE my body! I even got some magazine reading in while on the bike!

Lunch was a good 2 cups of mixed veggies with this tuna steak on top;
All together now!
I snacked on an orange and some strawberries over the course of the afternoon…
There may have also been a few chocolate eggs consumed. DOH! Just before I left work I drank a chai tea. This is the brand that I used;
I like the idea of the aluminum vs a bag for easy use, but I don’t like that it promotes waste. At least a bag is bio-degradable.

My MIL bought me a cute little mini rose plant for my birthday and it didn’t like any of the spots I put it in at my house so I brought it into work to see if I could keep it alive until planting time. Not only does it LOVE it’s place on my desk, its got a bloom!!!
Too cute, eh?

I had very limited time between leaving work and going to Pilates. I picked up Subway for the kids, then picked up the kids and took them to my parents so they could eat. I had no time for dinner myself so a Z-bar came to the rescue! I knew just the one I wanted to try, too....Honey Graham.

This was every bit as good as I imagined it would be and held me over until I got home at 7pm.

Dinner ended up being a toasted bagel with a LC wedge, ham and egg whites. I had some steamed asparagus on the side.
I ate this so fast I almost didn't taste it. Tsk, tsk! Seven is a bit late for me to be eating dinner. Growing up, we always ate at 4:30...my parents still do. As a rule, we usually eat dinner around 5:30 now. What is a "normal" dinner time for you? My sweet end was a SF creme brulee pudding.
I don't know that this really tasted like creme brulee, but it was still tasty so no complaints out of me!

My hubby came home from work early tonight, so I'm gonna go spent some time with the fam as a whole. He's back on day's next week....YIPEE!! Life should be back to normal and I can't wait! I hope everyone enjoys their Friday night!

Bye for now!!

New Product, CousCous Review & Intervals

I decided to eat my second favourite breakfast this morning – OAT BRAN! I need to remember to slide oat bran into my morning “oat” rotation. Normally, I switch between Quaker oats, Old Wessex 5-Grain cereal and flax seed porridge. I think I forget about the oat bran because the box always manages to get stuffed into the corner of the cupboard!

-1/2 cup oat milk
-1/2 cup water
-1/3 cup oat bran
-1 Tbsp coconut spread

I scraped the bottom of the pot when it was done cooking because there was quite a bit still in there (and I need it ALL out) and I noticed when I licked the spoon that the oat milk is on the sweet side. Nothing wrong with that….just an observation. By the time I tried yesterday’s bowl, I had already mixed everything in so I didn’t catch the sweetness. Still wishing I bought more than one carton!

I tried this new tea out this morning by Petit Tea.

They are actually tea sticks! Pretty cool little things, I must say. The box claims that they’re recyclable, too! Here’s what one looks like…

This is Chai, but they had a few different flavours. No more fishing the tea bag out of the cup with these babies!! Some (evil) person brought a box of chocolates into the office today so I felt it my duty to eat 2 pieces. :) I’m such a sucker!!

Here at last is my dinner from last night…..

Chicken with mango chutney, sautéed kale and Israeli couscous. It’s no coincidence that my lunch just so happens to be the exact same as my dinner! I won’t bore you with a repeat photo! Instead, I’ll let you know what I think of the couscous!

Israeli couscous is a lot more pasta like than regular couscous. It reminds me of the little “bullet” noodles that my Mom used to put in her soup when I was a kid. This is the first time that I’ve ever tried/made it, so I just left it plain. Because of this, I found it very bland. I think it would be fabulous cooked up in any kind of broth with lots of Moroccan type spice…..cumin, coriander & cinnamon. A ¼ cup dry (which yields a good cup cooked) is only 190 calories, with 2.5g of fat and 2g of fibre. Not bad! I’m definitely going to have fun playing with the rest of my container.

I snacked on an apple with almond butter last night, too…

I switched things up a bit on the treadmill today. I read and interesting analogy in a magazine the other day that really put things in perspective for me. It compared cardio to you car. Weird, I know, but follow along! We all know that cruising a the same speed down the highway doesn’t do much damage to our gas tank, but as soon as we are in stop-go traffic, the gas needle falls alarmingly fast. Same goes for our body. Running at the same speed for the same time everyday means that you burn pretty much the same amount of calories each day, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the more your body becomes accustomed to the routine, the less you will burn. Introduce intervals and/or inclines a few times a week, though, and suddenly your body is a calorie burning machine. Now, I always knew this to be true on some level, but comparing my body to a car really brought it home for me. So, that being said, here’s what I did today;

-3 min walking/jogging warm up
-2 minutes of sprinting
-3 minutes walking at a fast pace
-repeat 1 & 2 five times
-3 minutes slow jog
-2 minute cool down walk

Distance:3.35 miles
Time: 35:16
Time in Zone: 34:12
Avg Hr:162
Max Hr:186
Calories Burned: 321

Not bad! I certainly felt the burn much more than what I’ve been doing and I think it stayed with me much longer through the afternoon. I was PUMPED UP!! Hehe!!

I had a snack attack later in the afternoon and was glad that I packed the last of my 0% Fage with some pumpkin butter for a snack so I was able to stay away from the chocolate box!


I’m pretty bummed that I’m out of Fage! I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and get a passport done up so I can cross the border. The things are just so darn expensive!!

I heard on the radio on my way home from work that it's suppose to get REAL cold tonight. Like -30* Celsius with the wind chill. CRAP! I'm all for the environment, but I think I'll be starting the van a good ten minutes before I leave in the morning!

For dinner tonight I roasted a pork tenderloin, potatoes (for the fam) and carrots. I also steamed up some edamame for moi.

Here's the meal hot out of the oven...

I used my oil mister to finely spray the pork, then I rubbed it with coriander, cumin, oregano, S & P. The veggies got the same treatment minus the rub! This cooked for 20 minutes at 500*. I'm told the potatoes could've used a few more minutes, but they must not have been too bad because there's none left! :) Here's my plate with a dollop of honey mustard for dipping.

For my sweet end I ate a slice of WW bread with about a tablespoon of coconut spread on it. I tried to get a good picture, but this camera just wouldn't do it. Didn't matter what I did, it looked like a big white square! Oh, how I miss my camera!!

Tonight is Biggest Loser night! WAHOO! I have to run out at 8 and grab DD from her friends house, but I don't think I'll miss much....just last week's review. I promised myself that if I felt snacky, I would nosh on carrots. Seems wrong to eat anything else while watching that show! Catch ya all tomorrow!!

Bye for now!!