mexican mash

The dinner I had been envisioning turned out as amazing as I hoped! Just the other day, I had been hatching a plan for a meal for a few hours and then was really disappointed when it wasn’t everything I had built it up to be… but my word this was good!!

I nuked the remainder of my spaghetti squash and scooped out all the stringy innards. While that was going, I heated up some black beans on the stove and added chili powder for a bit of heat. As soon as the microwave was free, I tossed in half a sweet potato and cubed it.

I piled that good stuff together in a bowl, topped with some shredded mexican cheese, heated it to melt the cheese, and topped it all off with a healthy glob of guac and some TJ’s Cilantro dressing.

SO. GOOD. OMG.

I should have made it for 2, since Jacob was looking at it longingly. He had a less exciting dinner of pancakes and fried eggs – as good as it sounds, it was not so beautiful as my wonderful creation. He did make me a little pancake though with chocolate chips for my dessert

It was about 4 inches in diameter and hot off the griddle. Yum!

I hopped on a long,  but VERY productive conference call with leaders after dinner and just got done. It was a great way to end my work day. The parents and teachers I work with are truly inspiring – they work all day, are busy with their kids, but still are able to dedicate time to improving schools, which is sorely needed.

Ok, I think it’s veg time… have a good night!

Hoorah for hump day!

Today is one of those days where I am rushing from one thing to the next – I feel like I am meeting myself coming and going! I planned to eat breakfast at home today, but I decided to cherish an extra 20 minutes of sleep over preparing breakfast and got up at the last minute. I grabbed a Baker and Spice cranberry oat scone and some coffee on my way out to a meeting and gobbled it down in the car. I know, that’s not conscious eating, but sometimes life gets in the way.

That’s an old, unglamorous photo… sorry!!

I did have a good morning though – I recruited another leader for Stand for Children in a chapter that’s rebuilding, so that’s a step in the right direction. That’s especially good because it sounds like we have our work cut out for us getting a couple of candidates reelected to the legislature in November, based on what I heard at the Candidates’ Forum Luncheon I went to today. The local Chamber of Commerce hosted a lunch today with the two local representatives and single senator from the area where they talked about their work in the legislative session that just ended and opened up for questions as well. It was to say the least a hostile environment – as it kind of is with a lot of Dems now from business – and it may be tough to keep a pr0-schools majority. Never a dull moment in this work!

I spent my lunch there and felt it inappropriate to take pictures… sorry I had a simple turkey sandwich that was really unexciting and some coffee.

I rushed from there to a new yoga class at Corepower in NW Portland. Most of Corepower’s classes are heated – not necessarily all Bikram hot or in that style, but heated. This class was called Yoga Sculpt and the room was about 90 degrees – which felt great at first but once we got going I was sweating like crazy! It was interesting because we incorporated light dumbbells into the yoga practice.

The class opened with a lot of vinyasa flows to get us comfortable with the sequence, and then we did the same flow with pauses for weight segments. For instance, we did the chatarunga high to low pushup, to downward dog, to lifting one of our legs to step through to a crescent lunge – and then did shoulder presses while holding crescent lunge. We also held warrior two and did bicep curls. It was cool, but definitely hard! I skipped the yoga/abs this morning since I knew yoga was in the plans.

I worked at a coffee shop after and snacked on some pom Chobani with TJ’s strawberry yogurt O’s and coffee around 3:30pm. The pom Chobani was great! I haven’t found too many places that have Chobani in PDX, and it’s only occasonally on sale at Whole Foods. Otherwise I stick with TJ’s greek since other types are muy expensivo!

I had a personal appt after and now I’m home to eat some dinner before a conference call this evening with leaders to debrief the superintendent mtg yesterday and our game plan going forward.

I think a spaghetti squash, sweet potato, black bean type mix is in my dinner future? Be back later!

Note to self: No Thai before run.

Howdy. I just got home from a good run at the gym – good on the speed and distance, not so good for the belly. We had a later night at the office tonight, so my supervisor Sarah bought us all Thai food. I didn’t eat a ton, just a small plate, but it felt like a ROCK in my belly during my run!

What happened before that, though, you might ask? I knew you were curious about my day!

On the way home from the superintendent meeting – which went just ok, I would say – I snacked on some baby carrots. I now have some answers about the specialists issue, but I don’t think they’re the answers we wanted. I took out my frustration with some carrot crunchin’.

By the time I got into the office, it was 4:45 and it felt like my day had been going on forever… but we still had a state conference call and lots of membership renewal calls to make! The best way to get through those few hours? An apple! It was juicy, tart and crisp – everything a perfect apple is supposed to be. Mmmm – my mouth is watering thinking back to it!

Like my bit of PR there?

The reason we were in the office until 8:30 tonight was that organizers had to make membership renewal calls to people whose memberships had expired in our chapters. Now, I normally hate doing this, but it actually was both fun and productive tonight! Stand is made up of volunteers, so it may seem strange that we ask people to give us money in order to volunteer with us, but it’s the list of dues paying members – along with bodies in a room – that give us the political weight to get things done in this state.

It didn’t hurt that Sarah ordered us Thai to put a smile on my face for the evening as well. I had a small plate of about 1/3 c rice, some drunken noodles, about 1/2 cup veggie red curry, and a tofu salad roll. I have no idea how many cals it was but I don’t think that many, and it was quite filling! And that’s just a 6 inch plate, BTW.

While delicious, it proved a little heavy for my run later. I ran about 6.15 mi in 50 minutes on the treadmill at the gym for a 620 cal burn (including warmdown walk) and it was bouncing around the whole time. Ick. Also I forgot my water bottle which was less than stellar. I finished off my workout with today’s abs, since I forgot this morning. I did 2 sets of 15 plank to pikes on the stability ball, 2 x 50 stability ball crunches, and 2 x 15 back exercises on the ball.

Finally I’m home… I LOVE being gone from 8:15 am to 10:30 pm! Sikkeeeeee.

See you tomorrow! I have plans to yoga it up mid day which I’m really excited for.

At the hitchin’ post

I’m blogging now from the most amazing place… it’s a general store! Yup, the old-fashioned kind with a hitchin’ post! Ok, maybe it doesn’t have a hitchin’ post anymore, but a) I really like saying that phrase, and b) it seems like it would They have all sorts of kitschy signs hanging on the walls that are for sale, buckets of candy like taffy and root beer barrels, embroidered blankets, etc. I love places like this! Feels like I should be watchin’ out fer varmints!

I will definitely be back here! I just got my lunch, which is a half veggie sandwich on multigrain with a small side salad. It looks less promising/satiety-inducing than hoped but tastes good! I estimate this meal has about 340 cals total, since the sandwich has provolone and a schmear of avocado.

Oh yeah, and breakfast! I had some pumpkin overnight oats before heading out to a principal meeting this morning. Last night, I mixed up:

• 1/3 c oats
• 1/3 c nonfat plain yog
• 1/3 c skim milk
• 1/4 c pumpkin
• cinnamon
• few pinches brown sugar

And added 2 tbsp granola and half a banana this morning, to equal about 350 cals with my coffee.

It was tasty and kept me going from 8 am to about 11, at which point I had a couple of bites of my supervisor’s super flaky biscuit with some jam. She comes out to observe me in meetings on Tuesdays and is as enthralled with this place as I am! The biscuit held me over until 1 pm when my stomach alerted me it was finally quittin’ time fer lunch. I really like speaking in Western lingo if you haven’t noticed

Okey doke, off to meet with the Reynolds superintendent shortly to talk about exciting things like the budget. No, seriously, it will be exciting – we will find out how possible it really will be to get music, library and PE back in the Reynolds district during the upcoming budget process! If Stand for Children can win on this issue, it will be monumental for kids, and for community confidence. I don’t think I’ve talked too much about how downtrodden, distrustful, and frustrated the community is of the district right now, but they really are and something has to change.

Wish me luck on this conversation!

Show me how the piggies eat…

I am both eating pig (in pork form) and shoveling it in like a pig, since I got home at 8pm and still had to make dinner!!

I did make it to cycle this afternoon and even had time for a few more ab exercises before class. The class was great – definitely was 55 minutes of butt kicking, for a total of 490 cals burned. It was hard though – we did two EXTREMELY long hills. We’re talking like 14 minute climbs here. Whew! I probably will feel that tomorrow.

TJ’s is across the street, so I stopped in for a few things before heading back out to do my presentation to charter school parents. One of the best parts of TJ’s is of course samples, and today they had corned beef brisket, chocolate truffles, AND Outrageous Chewy Oatmeal Cookies! Had one of each Unpictured though since I had my hands pretty full. Total about 180 cals.

I also snacked on a Kashi bar to tide me over until I got home from the presentation. It was 120 cals.

Ok, ok, time for a picture…

Dinner was a roast parmesan peppercorn pork loin, and sauteed zucchini and spaghetti squash with TJ’s masala curry simmer sauce. It is super good! The sauce is perfectly spicy, and the pork quite tender.

Dinner was only about 280, since I had that Kashi bar only about an hour and a half ago.

I’m feeling good about my game plan today! Did I do abs this morning? Check! Get a good quality amount of exercise in? Check! Eat healthy foods and do so when I was hungry? Check, check!

See you manana!

Manic Monday!!

After the Oscars last night, J and I ended up going out for fro yo. I needed some more cals (nice when that happens ) and was craving some ice cream, so we went to Swirl. It’s one of the trendy pay-by-the-oz froyo bars that are cropping up everywhere nowadays and it does not disappoint!

I got about 6 oz of chocolate, vanilla, and PB yogurts, topped with a small scoop of strawberries, PB chips, granola, and coconut. Delicious! Estimated about 350 cals? Not great for a dessert but it’s hard not to go crazy at a dessert bar.

I was still annoyed about my long run when I got home, so I did a 20 minute Power Yoga from yogadownload and felt infinitely better about… everything. I hadn’t done yoga in quite a while so it felt great to loosen up before bed. I guess that makes yesterday my “active rest” day because of a short run/walk and yoga?

My original plan was to get up and to the gym this morning, but for some reason I can never sleep on Sun nights when I plan to go to the gym early! I tossed and turned for awhile so I snoozed this morning. I still did my abs this morning though! I did 2 sets of 50 crunches, 2 of 50 bicycles, 2 of 20 leg lifts, and 1 set of 25 side crunches on each side. Way to set the tone for the week!

Today has been a busy, busy day at work! I ate breakfast at my desk per usual while checking my email. In the vein of trying to eat a lighter breakfast to make room for more eating later in the day – since no matter how much or little I eat early on I still get ravenous in the afternoon/evening – I had 1/2 c oatmeal and 1 cup blueberries with a smidge of brown sugar. It was about 275 cals, including my coffee w/ milk.

A staff meeting and taking care of a gazillion things occupied my morning, and I was ready for lunch, if not just a distraction from work, by 12:30. I ate a salad of spinach, 1/4 chopped apple, and 1 tbsp almonds with a smidge of Goddess dressing, and also brought a container of TJ’s lowfat black cherry yogurt to mix with 1 c of blueberries and some TJ’s high fiber cereal. Yum! Very filling. It was about 325 cals.

I also enjoyed two Hershey’s milk chocolate with toffee nuggets a little while later to round out my meal, and make me feel better about avoiding the tiramisu in the kitchen If you can’t have total willpower, fake it! The two chocs were 95 cals.

I just got out of a super long meeting and am snacking on carrots and 2 tbsp Sabra hummus, and the other 3/4 of my apple (175 cals) before heading to the gym. I have a presentation at a charter school tonight, so I’m hoping to make it to a cycle class before that. Hope it’s not full when I get there!

Is your Monday whizzing by as fast as mine??? Stay sane guys!

(I wrote this at 3pm but the internet was too slow at Borders to upload photos! Sorry so late!!)

Every weekend should be three days.

I can’t believe it’s Sunday night already! Where did the weekend go???

Jacob and I headed to the Woodburn Factory Stores for an afternoon of much-needed shopping, and I made out pretty well! I really needed some new work clothes and new jeans, and I actually stuck to buying that stuff. I bought a new lightweight sweater, cardigan, and skinny jeans at J Crew and a denim pencil skirt at Banana, all for $120! Love the outlets!

We were there until almost 4pm, so we grabbed lunch at Subway – which has been making quite a few appearances this week! We split a footlong turkey breast sub and diet Coke. Exciting, huh? Lunch cals = 280.

We didn’t get home until 5ish and I felt like I needed some exercise, so I laced up my sneakers for a planned 3 mi run to be followed by some weights and yoga at home during the Oscars. I literally had the most crappy run of my life. I NEVER stop and walk, and I kept getting super tired, and then frustrated, the whole time. I only ended up doing 2 mi and it was the slowest and most awful 2 mi ever. Sorry to be such a whiner, but that’s the most amazing thing about exercise – it has the ability to make you feel awesome or totally crappy.

J saw I was upset when I got home though, and said something so true – that I was going because I felt like I had to, not because I wanted to. True – I still felt gross from the various sicknesses, I was tired, and underfueled. I totally had the wrong mindset and was worried the whole time about how I would suck on my half marathon in a few weeks and not burning off last night’s calories. Instead, I should have focused on the fact that I was moving my butt and not been so hard on myself. He’s so right!! I should be happy that I at least ran/walked 2 mi when I didn’t feel like it.

I got back just in time for the Oscars, and I’m multi-tasking watching and finishing up work. I just heated up dinner, which was leftover quiche from last night and some broccoli with mustard sauce. I had a small piece plus another sliver for about 400 cals, so total dinner = 450. Cal targets are off today because of weird meal times.

Sorry to be such a butt today. I just want more of a weekend, even though we did a lot! I got great exercise twice, went out both nights and socialized one of them, shopped, and slept in both days. Still, weekends should be three days

Cals consumed today: 1160. Maybe some hot chocolate and baked apple later to bump up cals and live up to the name of this blog??

Have a good night!

nachos, take 2

Good morning! I’m sorry I’m so late posting a recap of dinner and events last night, and my breakfast! I woke up this morning around 10:30 with a TERRIBLE stomachache! I got out of bed for a few minutes and watched tv, but decided to drink some water and get back in bed until it passed.

Anyway, root cause of stomachache? I’m guessing all the nachos I ate last night. Either that or perhaps my quiche wasn’t cooked all the way, but Jacob didn’t have an issue. Speaking of quiche, it was delicious and easy! You can literally throw anything you want in a quiche and it’ll be great.

I rolled out a Pillsbury pie crust (found in the refrigerated section) and baked it for about 10 minutes to firm it up. I forgot to poke fork holes in it though, so that it wouldn’t puff up and it turned into a big poof. I was able to pat it down but it kind of shrunk down the sides of the pie tin.

While the crust was precooking, I sauteed two Al Fresco Sweet Apple Chicken Sausages, a small zucchini, 1/2 sweet yellow onion, and some mushrooms.

I also beat together 5 eggs and 1 c skim milk with some salt and pepper. When the crust was done, I piled the sausage + veg mix in the bottom and poured the eggs over the top. I added about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the top. I baked it at 400 for about 35 minutes, or until set.

The finished product:

I should have taken a photo before I scooped our servings out. Looks like it probably needed another 5 minutes to set or a few more to cool. In any case, it was really yummy! The sweetness of the chicken sausage – which has maple syrup in it – really came out and actually complemented it well. Definitely tasted like brunch for dinner! I had mine with some spinach for extra staying power.

This was about 1/6 of the pie and totaled around 355 cals. The downside was that it was quite high in fat, between the processed pie crust, fatty cheese, eggs, sausage. Maybe next time I’ll make my own crust, use a lowerfat cheese, and do half egg whites, half eggs.

I also had a Ghiradelli Pecan Pie chocolate square to end my meal.

Then, J’s friend Alex came over and we headed to the Casa Del Matador on Burnside to meet Lindsey. I have posted about this place before, but it has really cool decor – lots of ironwrought detailing, a firepit, and a cozy atmosphere. Sadly it was really too dark in there for me to capture on my crappy camera. If you are in Portland or Seattle, though, definitely go! Check out this guy who was staring down at us all night! Creeper!!

I ordered a glass of the Menage A Trois red, which was GINORMOUS, and snacked on some chips.

Sorry so dark! You get the idea though. When happy hour rolled around, J and Lindsey both ordered the nachos, which is literally the biggest plate of loaded chips I have ever seen for $4. I went to town on J’s, which we ordered with chorizo on top as well. I had way more than I should have but they were so good!!

Good thing I was planning to start my kick butt plan on Sunday!

I did wake up this morning with a tummy ache though, so I didn’t start my ab/yoga routine today. I thought a smoothie might soothe the belly a bit better than oats, as much as I love them. I’m still battling some chunks in my throat (sorry, nasty) from my sickness too so bring on the OJ!

I blended up:

• 1 c OJ
• 2 scoops Aria protein powder
• 1/2 banana
• 3/4 blueberries
• 2 c spinach

It didn’t make as much as usual, which disappoints my volume eater side! And no, that’s not a tiny glass  it’s just in front of a huge flower pot J’s mom dropped off for me yesterday to make me feel better about sickness! What a nice thing to do.

My smoothie + coffee = 360 cals.

Ok, wrapping up this very long post! I’m still not feeling great, so I may do my “active rest” today through yogadownload, walking, and abs later. I did my weigh in to start my plan off but I don’t feel like reporting it today. I think it’s skewed by my nachos, or crossing my fingers anyway!

We’re going to go shopping for a bit and then I have work to finish up while watching the OSCARS!!!! Ciao.

Finally getting my butt in gear!

We just got back from a GREAT bike ride! Somehow the wind was in our faces the majority of the time?? How is that possible?

First, though, lunch! I worked up a bit of an appetite picking up around our house (cross that one off today’s list!) and sat down for lunch about 2:30. A crunchy salad sounded like it would do just the trick.

On top of a king-sized bed of spinach, I piled cuke, sprouts, 2-3 oz Boar’s Head turkey, 2 tbsp feta, and 2 tbsp hummus, which took the place of dressing. I had about a cup of grapes and some Crystal Light raspberry lemonade on the side. Yum!

These guys look like fish eggs or eyeballs or something, not grapes! Tasted grapey though! Lunch cals = 270.

I may have also had a very small sliver of the cake… 100 cals adds up fast with that stuff!

While I was eating lunch, I thought through my game plan for re-dedicating myself to health, a sound diet, and fitness. You can see it on the page labeled “Game Plan.” There are a couple of things in each category – diet, fitness, and lifestyle/stress management – that I want to focus on, and besides mentally checking in with myself each day, I plan to do an all around check in each Sunday. I will do an official weigh in tomorrow and then each Sunday after that, and see where we go from here. The necessity of my plan is reinforced since I just put on jeans and they’re a bit tight :\

As I said earlier though our bike ride was GREAT! It was a beautiful 63 degrees out and it was perfect riding weather. We rode from our house in SW PDX to the St. John’s Bridge, which is the northernmost bridge in our bridge city and about 13 mi as the bike rides (vs crow flies) from here. I’m sorry I didn’t take my camera because the view atop the bridge was breathtaking. Our ride totalled about 26 mi in around an hour and a half. That’s a pretty good clip, considering we had two big hills to contend with, downtown Portland traffic lights, and the wind! Cals burned = estimated 800.

It was 5:15 by the time we got home and I was ready for a snack! I plopped a container of TJ’s European chocolate, 1/2 banana, and a couple of tbsp of Kashi GoLean in a bowl. Snack cals = 200.

We’re talking about dinner and I think we’re going to make a quiche, which is one of my favorite meals, and then head to a movie. I haven’t seen like ANY of the Oscar movies this year and I feel like we should make some attempt before the awards tomorrow. So excited, by the way – even if I don’t see the movies, I love the show!! The glitz, the glamour… loves it.

What movies were your favorite this year?

I like to oat, oat, oat ayples and banaynays

Anyone know that song? Anyone? *crickets* Ok. It seemed fitting for a post about oats and banana!

Jacob has been having major back problems, like seizing spasms in his lower back muscles every morning from about 5 – 7 am, for the last couple of weeks, so we woke up for a few hours in the wee part of the morning. Poor boy I ended up being able to go back to sleep until about 10, though he couldn’t. I came out of our room about 10:30 – I really needed the rest! – ready for some oats and coffee.

Into the pot went:

• 1/2 c oats
• 1 c water
• dashes of cinnamon
• 1/2 small banana, sliced
• 1/2 c frozen blueberries (not prethawed, just threw em in there!

I topped the mix with a spoonful Maranatha AB and a few tbsps of granola we got at a little village market when we were vacationing in Mexico in December.

Voila! (Check out Google, J’s betta fish, in the background!)

Perf, if I do say so myself. Breakfast cals: 402.

Today’s plans include:

• bike ride with J – hoping for 30 mi or so since it’s gorgeous outside!
• finishing up some work
• cleaning the kitchen and picking up in our room
• a little shopping – it’s been far too long!
• movie tonight?

Also… I talked yesterday about taking personal responsibility for your body and what you put into it. I really would like to stop saying I want to cut the junk, close the kitchen, get more sleep, etc, and actually do it!! That’s what makes the difference, right?

It will be hard to do with a hectic schedule each week, but I think with dedication I can be where I want. I saw some other blogs talking about measureable and nonmeasurable goals, and I plan to set some of those this weekend and make a game plan for losing a couple of pounds, running two great half marathons in April and May, and feel overall better about myself!

Have a great Saturday and stay tuned!