WIAW #46: Pre-trip Jitters

WIAW #51

May 222013

First of all, I just want to take a moment to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone who was affected by the tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. I can’t begin to imagine what they must be going through, and it really makes me stop to think about how lucky I am. In case you’re interested, here’s a link with tips for how to help victims.

Hey guys. I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit down today.

Work has just been super, super stressful lately, and then to top it off we just got out of a meeting with the head of our department where we all got yelled at for not working hard enough. Apparently there are some people on our team who are shouldering all the work (read: me) and some people who have been seriously slacking off (enough to gain the attention of our finance department and get us all in trouble).

Even though I know the meeting wasn’t about me, and I know I have been working by butt off at work, it still sucks to be a part of a meeting where you’re disappointing your senior-level management. No one wants to be a disappointment, especially when you are already overworked and stressed.

At least I have an awesome manager, who said the following to me after the meeting:

“Hi – in case I don’t see you before I leave for the doctor, I wanted to let you know that meeting was not about you; they just needed everyone to be there to hear it. You’re wonderful and everyone loves you. I’m happy to talk with you tomorrow about any questions you may have.”

She is amazing. She seemed to know exactly what I was feeling after the stressful meeting and said exactly the thing to cheer me up (at least a little).

I know I usually try not to ~~talk~~ rant about my real job on here, but sometimes it really affects the way I’m feeling and I can’t just brush it off and go on cheerfully like usual. This week has been one of the most difficult weeks I’ve ever had at this job, and I’m having a little trouble staying positive. I know things will slow down again, but it’s hard to keep that in sight when I’m running around like a crazy person.

But you didn’t come here to read about my work life, so let’s get back to today’s regularly-scheduled programming. It’s What I Ate Wednesday, after all!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the link up! Here’s a little peek at what I ate on Monday.

Breakfast

Check that out- new cereal! In addition to my usual Multigrain Cheerios, I recently bought some Oatmeal Squares and have been enjoying them for breakfast this week (I measure out 1/2 cup of each, Cheerios and Oatmeal Squares,) with skim milk, a banana, and blueberries. I love this breakfast. I actually get really excited in the morning when I think about eating it (it’s one thing that helps get me out of bed in the morning – is that weird?).

Lunch

Luch was pretty standard around here on Monday- I had turkey, mustard, and American cheese on a sandwich thin, with carrots & hummus on the side. I also had a mini Babybell cheese. This lunch is definitely my favorite go-to It never gets old!

P.S. I hate when my carrots get like this. Why do they turn all white and gross-looking??? I washed them before putting them in the container…so weird.

Snack

A little later in the afternoon I headed into the kitchen to chop up my apple and make some unsweetened green tea, when I saw there were some pretzel crisps leftover from a meeting. Score!! I had a few pretzel crisps with my apple and tea and was very satisfied with my snack. Yum.

Dinner

My dinner on Monday was pretty good, but admittedly not my favorite. I had a piece of tilapia (seasoned with a few herbs, salt, and pepper), some cilantro-lime quinoa (this actually was really good), and roasted brussels sprouts and yellow squash mixed with some goat cheese. Everything about this meal should have been delicious, but for some reason it just wasn’t doing it for me.

Oh, I still ate every bite, but it just wasn’t my favorite dinner ever.

Dessert

Ahhh, nothing like a bowl of low-fat cookies & cream ice cream to end a hard day

Daily Activity: Now that my half marathon is over, I’ve gone back to running 1 mile every morning with Jack and completing Jillian Michaels workout DVDs in the evening. I’m going to try to do all 90 days of the DVD program as scheduled this time (since I actually have 90 days and am not training for anything), so you know I’ll keep you posted. Right now the DVDs seem too easy and I’m actually missing my runs a lot, so I put a 5 mile run on the schedule for this weekend. I hope I get to it!! I’m missing my running!!

Question of the day: What do you do when you’re stressed at work??

Psst…I was really hoping to get my half marathon recap up for you guys yesterday, but with my work schedule that just didn’t happen. Hopefully I can get it up tomorrow!!

WIAW #50 (holy cow- fifty?!)

WIAW 6 Responses »

May 152013

Hey folks! It’s that time again…

Time for What I Ate Wednesday! In case you’re new to the party, head on over to Jenn’s page to read more about what WIAW is all about

Let’s get right into the good stuff, shall we? Here’s a peek at what I ate on Monday, a typical workday.

Breakfast

Breakfast this week has been pretty typical for me- one cup of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, a banana, and a handful of blueberries. YUM!!

Unfortunately I used up the last of the blueberries yesterday (they were organic and on sale at Trader Joe’s!) so this morning I was stuck with just the banana. Lame. My, how quickly I became spoiled with those blueberries! Last week they were a decadent treat, and now I’m grumpy because they’re gone. #FirstWorldProblems

Lunch

Yesterday’s lunch was a “chic p” salad leftover from this weekend’s trip to SweetGreen. Included in my salad was:

mesclun and baby spinach
baked falafel
chickpeas
cucumbers
fresh peppers
pita chips
lemon hummus tahini dressing

So good! I was worried the salad would be a little wilted since it was leftover from Saturday, but it was surprisingly delicious even two days later.

Clearly.

After finishing my salad I munched on a few raw almonds, which I brought in case the salad didn’t fill me up. The salad did fill me up, but I ate the almonds anyway They are my nemesis.

So good!

Snack #1

A few hours later my stomach started to growl, and in order to avoid the chocolate in my office’s candy bowl, I munched on an apple and sipped some unsweetened green tea.

I’ve been keeping my apple slicer at work lately (it’s an awesome gadget I found at Marshall’s for like $5) which makes eating my afternoon snack much more enjoyable. Maybe I’m just lazy, but the idea of cutting up an apple at work without a proper knife or cutting board always seems to difficult. Having my apple slicer handy makes me actually want to eat a healthy afternoon snack, instead of looking at my apple and deciding froyo would be a better option (not that it isn’t of course, but you can’t eat froyo every day at 3:00 pm now can you?).

Anyway, this snack was great

Snack #2

But it didn’t keep me out of the candy bowl, unfortunately.

Sometimes a girl just needs chocolate, especially when there are Reese’s involved. I mean, come on.

Dinner

Fabio brought some good steaks back from New York last weekend, and on Monday he offered to cook them in our new cast iron skillet (a gift that he purchased for “me” – aka, himself – a few weeks ago). I made some brussels sprouts and healthified mashed potatoes to go along with my steaks. The brussels sprouts were sauteed with a little olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar, while the potatoes were boiled and mashed (skins on) with a wedge of laughing cow cheese, skim milk, and Brummel & Brown buttery spread. YUM. This was a fantastic dinner.

Cooking the steaks on the cast iron skillet produced a LOT of smoke at first (I was worried they’d taste burned), but the steaks were perfectly cooked and very flavorful. Fabio did a great job!

Yummm!

Monday was a rest day for me (since my half marathon is on Saturday, this week is pretty low key on the training front) so Fabio and I enjoyed this meal from the comfort of our couch and caught up on a bunch on TV It was a great evening!

Question of the day: How do you cook your steak?

Room to Read Gala

Random 4 Responses »

May 142013

A couple weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a charity event for my work. Things got super busy, and I never got around to telling you guys about it, but it was an awesome experience and is definitely worth talking about.

As a bit of background, I should mention that I work for a large global corporation (which I try to be ambiguous about on here, for obvious reasons), which partners with an organization called Room to Read as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Room to Read is an awesome company, but up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t know too much about it. I knew the company provided books and libraries to children in poverty, but I had no idea the extent of the work that Room to Read does until I volunteered at work to help with the DC chapter’s annual Room to Read gala.

The gala took place on May 2, and I was able to leave work a bit early with a few of my coworkers to help set things up. We were told to dress in business formal attire and where we had to be, but otherwise I had no idea what I was jumping in to. All I knew it was that it was for a good cause, so I blindly signed up to assist.

Good thing I did!

Upon arriving at the venue, it was clear that the location was going to be spectacular. The chic glass elevator should have been my first clue that this was not going to be a normal work function.

Helloooo down there! (I have to be honest, the glass elevator was a little scary and I wouldn’t recommend riding one if you’re afraid of heights!)

As soon as we stepped off the elevator and into the main room, I was blown away by the view. Holy capital building! Just look at that view!

The room was set up beautifully and all we had to do was set up the finishing touches (e.g., make the flower centerpieces, put flyers on all the chairs, make sure each table had enough pens, etc.)

It didn’t take more than hour to set everything up, and then we got to enjoy the event!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous (about 70-75 degrees and sunny) and we were allowed to mingle with the guests and take advantage of the hors’ d’oeuvres and open bar

It was such a beautiful location!

Soon it was time to be seated for dinner, and I was lucky enough to sit at a table in the back (near the windows- and the view!) with my coworkers.

We were served some great food, including salad with balsamic vinaigrette…

Chicken with a creamy risotto and veggies…

And a variety of tasty desserts.

Shout out to Amanda for taking this picture! Hi Amanda!

Delicious!

Once the dinner was over, the gala moved on to a more serious note and we watched a ton of inspirational videos about the good work that Room to Read does.

Here’s an example of the types of videos we saw:

Then we heard from the founder of Room to Read, John Wood. John spoke to us while a slew of pictures flashed on the screen behind him- highlighting families and children whose lives have been changed by Room to Read.

John explained to us that he used to be a senior executive at Microsoft. He worked a busy lifestyle and sat behind his computer all day raking in more money than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. He had everything that a rich business man should want, except that he didn’t feel fulfilled.

Then on a vacation to a remote town in India, he visited a school and realized it had no books. How could the children learn to read and write without any books, he wondered. It was at this moment that John’s life changed forever- he left his big corporate job at Microsoft and founded a nonprofit organization dedicated to building libraries and providing books for children in under-developed nations around the world.

One of Room to Read’s target audiences is young women. So often in these countries, the young girls are married off before they even hit puberty or drop out of school to take care of their families. We were told that the number one killer of children 11 to 15 years old in some of these countries is child birth. Can you even imagine such a thing? Room to Read is striving to educate young women so they can continue with their schooling and become something other than under-educated young mothers. And guess what? It’s working.

To this day Room to Read has helped more than 7.8 million children learn to read, including 21,582 girls.

As if hearing all of this information from the founder wasn’t inspiring enough, next came the live auction.

Now, I realize the attendees of this gala were not necessarily your “average Joe.” In the middle of a Washington DC fundraiser, these people probably had way more money than most of us ever will. I get that. But, their generosity still blew me away.

Tons of people donated $5,000 to build new libraries. One man offered to match each bid, and wound up paying about $50,000 total at the end of the night. Two of my coworkers donated $250 each to help print new books, and I contributed $20 to each of them to help pay for it (if my salary was larger, you can bet I would have helped out even more!).

Me with my beautiful coworkers!

Before the night was over, Room to Read had raised $388,000. Wow. I was incredibly impressed. I felt so honored to be a part of such a great movement (and to think- all I had to do was set up some flowers beforehand. Wow).

Once the event was officially over, my coworkers and I decided we didn’t want the night to end, so we headed to the Board Room in DuPont circle for a few more drinks…but not before snapping a few last silly pictures with the capital building

Heyyyy Amanda! Haha.

We were able to take the flower centerpieces home with us, so we decided to bring them in the cab with us on the way to the bar. Hey, you can’t waste flowers, right?

Note: This cab driver had bad allergies and hated us. Oops! Not sure why you would pick up 5 girls holding flowers if you knew your allergies were that bad…oh well!

We stayed at the bar for quite a while before eventually heading home around midnight. It was a fantastic evening and I felt so honored to be a part of the DC chapter’s Room to Read gala. What a wonderful organization! It was a great opportunity and an evening I will never forget!

Question of the day: Have you ever helped out with a charity event? Did you want to donate?

Also as an FYI, if anyone is interested in donating to Room to Read you can check out their donation page here: https://www.roomtoread.org/Donate. Any amount is welcome!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Random No Responses »

May 122013

Hey everyone! I hope your weekend is going well! I just wanted to pop in to say happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

I have some pretty great moms in my life, including two grandmothers who raised wonderful children (my parents), and definitely spoiled their grandchildren a bit (me). Hi Grandma Chambers and Grandma Clark! I love you both so much and wish you a happy Mother’s Day!

Grandma Clark!

Grandma Chambers!

Then there is my stepmom, who has been a great mother figure in my life. Happy Mother’s Day, Afsaneh!

And now, for my own mom, who is pretty much the best woman I know. She is strong and sure of herself and is an inspiration to me every day. I know she would do anything for me and she loves me unconditionally. I love you so much Mom, and I can’t wait to celebrate with you today!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

TD 5 Boro 40 Mile Bike Tour

Random, Workouts 3 Responses »

May 092013

Hey there folks! Hope your Thursday is going well!

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I had a fantastic weekend in New York filled with a fun brunch date with my aunt, a Yankee game on a beautiful afternoon, and a great time at the bar with my friends. However, the real reason I went up to New York, of course, was to participate in a 40 mile bike ride around New York!

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember when I decided to sign up for the bike ride back in January. It was not initially something I was interested in, since it was pretty expensive (around $90 I believe) and I wouldn’t be able to train for it much since I would be spending so much time on my half marathon training (the bike ride was on May 5 and the half marathon is going to be on May 18, so training for both would have been tough). I also didn’t have a bike, so the idea of doing a 40 mile bike ride so close to my half marathon wasn’t even something I thought about.

Then I got an email from my dad saying he had signed up for the ride. I know I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but my dad is a bit overweight and I am always trying to get him in shape. I have suggested Weight Watchers and told him I would do the program with him, but I know ultimately it has to be something he wants himself. No amount of me pushing (or gently nudging) will do the trick.

That’s why I was so excited to hear that he signed up for the bike ride. I immediately registered myself (goodbye, $90) and asked Fabio if he wanted to join too. Fabio invited his dad along as well, and the four of us planned to ride as a team. Fabio and I each bought bikes (a lengthy process, which I should probably go into detail about sometime) and rode some bike trails around DC. While we were in no way “training” for the bike ride, I think we felt as prepared as we needed to be and were excited for the ride.

Then a couple of weeks before the race, my dad called to say his knees were bothering him. He has always had bad knees, and has had more than 30 surgeries on his knees in his life, including two knee replacements. I have to admit I wasn’t too surprised by this news, but I guess I just thought my dad wouldn’t have signed up unless he was sure he would be able to ride. I thought maybe his knees were doing better and that he’d be fine (which is, I think, what he thought too), but after completing just a few spin classes and riding about 4 miles with Fabio and me on a weekend when we had nice weather, I think it became clear to all of us that the ride wasn’t going to happen for my dad.

So, Fabio and I went up to New York by ourselves last weekend for the race. Of course I missed my dad and wished he’d been able to come, but his safety, of course, came first.

The morning of the race arrived, and Fabio, his dad, and I woke up at 6:00 am. We donned the matching bike jerseys that my dad got us as a good luck gift and got ready for the day!

Sleeeeeeeepy eyes! Jack cheered us on too!

We ate a quick breakfast of toast and eggs, and then piled our bikes onto the back of my car and drove to Citi Field to park and hop on the subway.

Let me just tell you that taking bikes on the subway is not easy! You have to carry your bike up and down different flights of stairs, and try to hold them still while the train is moving. Phew!

Fabio and his dad helped me out

Soon we arrived in Manhattan (the race started all the way downtown) and had to walk quite a distance to the starting point (I think about 1.5 miles). The race had 32,000 people (!!!) and it took us forever just to get where we needed to be.

Here’s my Vine video from the starting point(ish).

FYI I’m saying, “Bike ride!” at the end in case your sound is off

On our way to the starting line, we passed the new building to commemorate the World Trade Center. It’s being finished up right now, but is already quite impressive! The last (and only other) time I did this bike ride was in 2002, and I remember we rode past Ground Zero which was still a big hole in the ground littered with teddy bears, candles, and flowers. It was nice to see that in the 11 years since my last ride, they have progressed so far. It was great to see!

Soon they played the National anthem, the bike ride began, and we were off! [Source]

The first few miles were spent going uptown in Manhattan, and I enjoyed every minute of it. It was cool to be in the middle of the street and not have to stop behind a million cabs. It was smooth sailing and the sights of the city were awesome.

After about three miles, we made it to Central Park, which was lovely. This part of the ride was all pretty familiar to me, as I’ve spent a good amount of time in New York City over the years (including one summer where I lived there!).

Once we started getting further uptown, the familiar sights disappeared and I enjoyed seeing a brand new side to Manhattan (I think we were in Harlem). I was expecting it to be sketchy and dangerous-looking, but we actually went through some really cool neighborhoods.

Then we popped into the Bronx for literally five minutes, and came back out. I thought it would have been cool to explore the Bronx a bit more, but I guess the people who planned the route had other ideas, haha.

At this point we approached the first rest stop, where we decided to take a break to use the restroom and switch bikes (Fabio’s dad had a low-angled mountain bike, which would have been great for trail rides but was not so ideal for the city. They switched bikes periodically so neither of them got too tired).

The rest stop was awesome and had energetic music, water refill stations, bathrooms, and free snacks! Hooray for KIND bars!!

We also made sure to snap a few group photos Hooray!

After our pit stop, it was back on the road; this time to head downtown along a highway on the East River that was pretty familiar to me, on our way into Queens!

My favorite moment of the whole ride was right around this point when we all had to go through a tunnel and everyone started cheering and yelling. I’m not sure who started it, but it was as if everyone was feeling super excited and just couldn’t contain themselves anymore.

Of course I joined in the cheering, and rang the little bell on my bike a few times. It was awesome to hear so many people yelling all around me, while the sounds reverberated off the walls. Awesome!

Shortly after this, our ride came to a crawl and we thought maybe there was a security checkpoint ahead. There had been a few other incidents where we had to slow to an awkward walk-your-bike/try-to-keep-riding-slowly-and-not-fall situations, so we assumed something like that was happening again. Fabio took the time to make another Vine video, obviously.

Haha, I’m convinced Vine is going to be the next Instagram!! They’re just so much fun

Anyway, we eventually came to a complete stop and realized this was not just a random bottleneck congestion issue like before, but something that was causing a serious backup. At first I found this to be pretty annoying, but then I got out my phone and saw a text saying that my good friend Hana was stationed nearby to cheer us on.

Because we were at a complete standstill, she was actually able to come over and chat with us for a bit! This worked out perfectly because if she had been positioned anywhere else along the route, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to say hi to each other.

Yay for spectators!! I was so glad to have a friendly face cheering me on and instantly felt happier Thanks for supporting me, Hana!

While we were waiting around and wondering what the holdup was, Fabio’s phone started ringing. Then my phone rang. Then everyone’s phones rang. We soon realized it was the bike organizers sending an alert that the ride was being suspended due to a medical incident. What a fantastic alert system! I was super impressed.

Unfortunately, we later learned that the medical incident was a 51 year old man who suffered a heart attack on the Queensborough Bridge and died. Apparently this type of thing is pretty common for the ride, especially when there are 32,000 people involved, but it definitely shook me up a bit and left me feeling sad. I was also incredibly grateful that my dad wound up not doing the race, because frankly he’s not in very good shape himself and I’m not sure his heart could have handled it. That’s some scary stuff.

Anyway, eventually the incident cleared up and we were back on our way. Bye, Hana!

When we crossed the Queensborough Bridge, I felt like I was in heaven. We happened to be riding next to a guy with a stereo on his bike, so Bob Marley was blasting just as we were crossing the bridge and gazing over the beautiful view of Manhattan. I wish I had captured a picture, but I wasn’t coordinated enough. Too bad.

Thanks to Fabio, for this photo!

The rest of our ride was pretty uneventful, and we continued on our way through Brooklyn. We passed a ton of cute restaurant and bars, and even went through a neighborhood where all the little kids came out to cheer us on. It was awesome!

We bypassed the next two rest areas before finally stopping at one just 9 miles from the finish line. The views at this stop were incredible.

We’ll have to get some of those framed for sure!

The remaining 9 miles of the ride went by pretty quickly and then, before we knew it, the Verrazano Bridge was in front of us. I remembered from the past that this bridge was incredibly difficult to tackle, but I was determined to bike up the whole thing without stopping.

It was super intimidating when we were at the bottom, but when I focused on making it to the area right in front of me I was able to keep going.

I pedaled and pedaled, and said a little mantra in my head, “Keep going, Keep going, Keep going…” and it worked! Eventually I made it to the top of the hill and I didn’t have to stop to walk! Woohoo!! It felt like such a great accomplishment since I saw tons of other people getting off to walk (just look at that photo above!).

Then I flew down the hill at what felt like lightning speed, and saw the festival and finish line to my right. Awesome!!

We did it!!

It only took us 5 hours and 4 minutes (with the delay from the medical incident) and I burned 1,609 calories. Nice!

The festival was really fun for a while and they had a live band and free samples of tons of goodies. We planned to stay to grab something to eat, but the lines were so long that we decided to wait until we got home.

I guess that’s what 32,000 people looks like?

Once we decided we had enough of the festival, we left, hopped back on our bikes, and rode three more miles to the Staten Island ferry (I would like to point out that no one told me we had to get back on our bikes after the finish line. UGH!).

The lines for the ferry were ridiculous…

And we waited for about an hour to get on. Ugh x2.

It was quite the scene once everyone boarded.

Back to Manhattan we go!

Luckily we were seated by a window and saw some awesome views.

(The windows were filthy…)

But it’s a great view, right?

After we got off the ferry, we headed to another subway station and took the train back into Queens. Then we hopped in my car and immediately grabbed a celebratory dinner. It was an awesome day, and I’m so proud we were able to finish! Woohoo!

Question of the day: What makes you feel proud?

WIAW #49 Wine Time

WIAW 5 Responses »

May 082013

Hey there friends! My day is slightly less busy than yesterday (emphasis on slightly) and I’m feeling a bit better about the week ahead. Phew! I think my body was exhausted from the weekend activities and a good night’s sleep has left me feeling rejuvenated. Love when that happens!

Since I’m feeling well-rested and have been able to get some real foods back into my diet after too much beer and fried food over the weekend (what can ‘ya do), I think I might skip the bar after kickball tonight.

Every week, my friends and I play kickball on the National Mall and then head to the bar for a few fun drinking games afterword. Having kickball to look forward to every Wednesday has been a blessing, and I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is hanging out with your best friends in the middle of the week, but going to the bar afterword is just something I should skip today. I think I spent enough money and calories on beer over the weekend, thankyouverymuch. Yep, so I’ve decided that today I’m going to go for the kickball game only, no matter how hard my friends try to pressure me to go to the bar after. I need my rest!

What would you guys do, go to the bar with all your friends, or take a week off to save money, detox, and rest?

WIAW

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so let’s get into today’s What I Ate Wednesday post! Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup

I tried to eat pretty healthily yesterday since I ate a lot of garbage over the weekend (actually it wasn’t that bad- it just seemed like it), so let’s see how I did!

Breakfast

I had a deeeelicious bowl of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, half a banana, and blueberries. I absolutely love when we have fresh berries in the house, which unfortunately isn’t very often since they are expensive out of season. These blueberries are so good and I have been enjoying them all week! Yumm

Lunch

While we were in New York this weekend, we stopped at our favorite Greek restaurant, Gyro World, for dinner. While there, I decided to order a Greek salad to eat at work during the week. I finally dove into it yesterday, and man, was it good!

When I first opened the salad, I was a bit overwhelmed by the lettuce, green peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese, grape leaves, and olives that were totally stuffed to the brim of the bowl. However, once I chopped up the ingredients, drizzled on some dressing, and tossed things around a bit, I was able to tackle the giant salad. Yum!! (BTW- I tossed the olives. I’m just not a fan).

I wound up only being able to finish about 2/3 of the salad and took the rest home for later. Score!

Snack #1

At work yesterday, I helped my coworker, Mary, with a project (hi Mary!). To thank me, she gave me a few of her Junior Mints (her favorite candy!) to snack on. The minty chocolaty bites were exactly what I needed after my big salad (plus the minty flavor was definitely necessary after those onions. I also ate a ton of gum yesterday afternoon. Raw onions = stinky breath. Yikes!).

These were totally delicious and reminded me of being in a movie theater, since that’s the only time I would usually eat Junior Mints. So good!

Snack #2

Fabio and I had another three mile run on the agenda yesterday afternoon, so I knew I wouldn’t get around to making dinner until somewhat late (I also got out of work late yesterday, giving me an even later start). To hold my hunger at bay, I snacked on a handful of raw almonds and Mini Babybel cheese. Perfect after-work snack!

Dinner

When we finally got home from our run, I decided to make something quick and easy for dinner. I wound up sauteing some onions and garlic in olive oil before tossing in brussels sprouts and chicken sausage that we picked up recently at Trader Joe’s. Once they were cooked through, I tossed in some tomatoes, spinach, and whole wheat pasta. I made a sort of cheese sauce out of a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, fat free Greek yogurt, and tons of fresh Parmesan. It was deeeelicious! I love meals like this On the side I had the rest of my Greek salad from lunch.

Dinner Drink

To make last night’s dinner a little more “special” than a regular old Tuesday, Fabio decided to open up a bottle of red wine to enjoy with our pasta. This is something we used to do quite frequently, as it makes a normal weekday a little more fun, but we haven’t had much wine in the house lately and have therefore been slacking. Fabio and I talked about how much we like having wine with dinner (it feels so much fancier!) and we decided we’re going to buy a case of some cheap, but good, wine next time we go shopping. Please let me know if you have any recommendations- we aren’t picky!

Snack #3

I mentioned last week that Fabio recently signed us up for the Graze boxes, which sends you healthy snacks once every two weeks. This week’s box arrived last night, and after dinner we decided to try out the “honeycomb crunch” snacks. The “crunch” was quite delicious and Fabio and I really enjoyed trying out this snack (especially with the red wine! It was quite fun!).

I’m not sure how long we’ll continue to get the Graze boxes, but for now they are reasonably priced and fun for us to receive

So there you have it- everything I ate yesterday! Not a bad day all things considered; at least I got a lot of variety and colors going on! Some healthy fats too. Not too shabby.

Daily Activity

As I mentioned earlier, Fabio and I completed a quick three mile run yesterday. I was trying to pick up my pace a bit, but in the end it wasn’t too different than usual. Oh well, next time. It was still a great run!

Question of the day: Do you drink wine? Do you know a lot about it?

WIAW #48

WIAW 10 Responses »

May 012013

Just a reminder, there’s still time to enter my giveaway for the free Bestowed Box! I will choose a winner tomorrow morning. Good luck!

Helllloooo! Happy May! As I mentioned yesterday, May is probably my favorite month. The weather is usually really nice and it’s not quite as hot as the summer. Something about the sunshine and blue sky outside today just makes me positively giddy!

Alright so it’s Wednesday which means it’s time for my favorite weekly tradition- What I Ate Wednesday! Thank you to Jenn for hosting the linkup, as usual!

Since I showed you so many unhealthy things last week for my What I Ate Wednesday in Punta Cana post, I’m hoping this week I can get back on track with eating some of my “normal” foods. The challenge is that Fabio and I are seriously low on groceries at the moment, so we’ve had to get a little creative with our meals. Let’s see how we did yesterday, shall we?

Breakfast

We are out of bananas (wahhh) so in addition to my usual 1 cup of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk, I had half a whole wheat English muffin toasted with peanut butter and chia seeds. I’d like to think the Cheerios would have been enough to fill me up by themselves, but knowing me and my stomach, I probably would have been hungry again by about 10:30 am. Oh well, the English muffin did the trick Plus it’s never a bad thing to get a few chia seeds sprinkled in my food.

Lunch

For dinner on Monday night, I made chicken tortilla soup loosely based off of this recipe (I say loosely because I changed at least half of the recipe- oops!). For Monday night’s dinner, I topped the soup with all sorts of cute garnishes like nonfat Greek yogurt, avocado slices, and bits of Trader Joe’s Flax seed tortilla chips. For lunch yesterday though? I skipped all the fancy toppings and stuck with the chips haha. There’s just no time for garnishes when you are slopping soup from a plastic bowl to a tiny plastic spoon while trying to send emails. AmIright? Anyway, the soup was just as good the second day and this made a fabulous (and surprisingly filling) lunch. Yummmm. I will definitely be making this soup again!

Snack #1

At around 3:00, my tummy started rumbling again, so I dug into one of the snacks I brought from my Bestowed box! I chose the Nature’s Bakery Fig Bar in the whole wheat raspberry flavor. I was expecting it to be similar to a Luna bar, but was pleasantly surprised to see that it was more like a Fig Newton! I had only planned to eat half of the bar, but it was so delicious that I ate the whole thing. Yummmm. I also had a big cup of unsweetened green tea from the Kurig in my office. This was a great snack! (Wish I had another one of those bars right about now…)

Snack #2

After work I had a three mile run on the agenda, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to get around to making dinner for a while. To hold me over until dinner time, I had a mini Babybel Light cheese. I just love these little guys. They’re so tasty!

Dinner

For dinner I tried a new recipe: spicy sweet potato burgers with garlic crema. It came out pretty good, and I especially liked the garlic crema! My only concerns were that the recipe wasn’t very clear (at one point it mentions flour but that’s not one of the ingredients listed) and that it was a bit too “mushy” for my taste (I think it would have been good to have a bit more crunch in the burger). Otherwise, it was really tasty! I served my sweet potato burger and garlic crema on a sandwich thin with lettuce. On the side I had roasted egg plant and brussels sprouts. Great dinner!

Snack #3

A little while later my sweet tooth started calling to me, so Fabio and I finished off the dark chocolate that came in my Bestowed box. I’m not usually a fan of dark chocolate, but this one was really decadent and delicious. It was the perfect after-dinner snack!

So there you have it, everything I ate yesterday! Now that we used up the brussels sprouts and eggplant, we are completely out of veggies (except for onions and garlic – oh joy). We also have one lonely apple sitting in the fruit basket which looks pretty pathetic. I guess it’s ok though, since we have kickball tonight (and will probably grab Subway or something), I have a charity event tomorrow evening for work, and Friday evening we will be driving up to New York. Looks like we will be void of any fresh produce for quite a while! Yikes!

Question of the day: What do you eat when you are out of fresh produce?

A great dinner and lunch option for us was the chicken tortilla soup, which used a lot of canned veggies like tomatoes and beans. It also allowed us to use up some of the chopped mixed peppers in the freezer Win!

Bestowed Box Giveaway!

Blogging, Random 48 Responses »

Apr 302013

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered.

My coworker texted me this picture this morning and I just had to share it with you all…

Haha isn’t that just the best? I love this picture so much because 1. I am soooo excited for May (it’s my favorite month!) and 2. I love a little old school JT in the morning

Yep, judging by those blonde curly locks on his head, I’m thinking this photo is probably from the Justin-dating-Britney era, no?

You know, back in the days when they walked around together sporting outfits like this…

[Source]

Denim fabulous.

Also, can we take a moment to talk about Britney’s metal belt? I totally had some of those. I think they were probably from Limited Too or something equally awful, and I remember sporting them (awkwardly) in middle school. Sheesh. Middle school was a bad time in my life for fashion.

I’m sure some of you remember this gem from my birthday post last year:

The horror!! Haha! Ok so I think that picture is technically from before middle school, but close enough lol.

Anyyyyway, enough with the nineties flashbacks lol. Let’s jump into the meat of today’s post, which includes a fun giveaway!!

Bestowed Box

Last week I was contacted by the kind people over at Bestowed Box, who offered to send me a sample of one of their boxes to review. The Bestowed Box is similar to other boxes you’ve probably heard of (e.g., Birch Box, which I love!) only this one is filled with healthy snacks!

I actually reviewed a box subscription service for snacks before, but it was geared more towards gourmet foodies, and didn’t focus as much on the healthy food aspect. I love trying new healthy foods, but sometimes I get stuck in a rut with foods that I know I like. This box seemed right up my alley!

According to their website, Bestowed was created by the nationally recognized nutritionist and author Heather Bauer, who works with a team of health and diet experts to select healthy products that catch their attention. The boxes include products like nutrition bars, snacks, breakfast cereals, supplements, and whatever else they think their customers will like. I love the idea that nutritionists and diet experts are putting the boxes together, so you know whatever they pick will be good for you

When the box arrived yesterday, Fabio, Jack, and I were so excited to see what was inside (Jack was mostly just excited because we were haha)! There was a nice little instruction sheet explaining what all the products were, and then all the goodies were displayed inside the box.

As soon as I glanced at the products, I knew this box was going to be good. I saw a few name brands that I recognized instantly and was so happy to see the box wasn’t filled with a bunch of obscure products I would never buy (maybe that’s just me, but I like trying new things that aren’t too out of the norm).

I then proceeded to take everything out of the box and examine the goodies. First I saw a huge bag of KIND granola (looove) and then examined a “Happy Squeeze” packet of pomegranate, strawberry, and pear juice (I’m having this later today as my snack!). One of my coworkers drinks Happy Squeeze all the time, so I can’t wait to try it out! There was also a bag of “Hemp Hearts” which I’ve never heard of, but am excited to try (they’re supposed to be sprinkled over yogurt or cereal, FYI).

Then I saw this awesome $25 gift card for iTRAIN. I had never heard of iTRAIN either, but after checking out the website this morning I am super excited to use this gift card to purchase workout videos and playlists. Such a great idea!

The rest of the box included more goodies like pink lemonade energy packets, dark chocolate, a fig fruit bar, oatmeal, and chicken jerky.

At this point Fabio and I had just returned home from work and decided we could use a little snack, so we broke into the chicken jerky. Jack wanted some too, of course.

Sorry, Jack! It’s not for dogs!

Fabio and I really liked it!

It was very flavorful and made an excellent pre-dinner snack. I’m not usually a jerky person (it sorta freaks me out) but this one was really good.

Then I checked out the nutrition stats and liked it even more!

With only 60 calories, 0g of fat, and 10g of protein, I was definitely impressed with this jerky! This would make a great pre- or post-workout snack!! I will definitely be on the lookout for these from now on.

After dinner we snacked on some of the dark chocolate which was also delicious, and I have a few of the other items packed in my lunch box for later on today. So far, I have been loving this Bestowed Box!

And the best part? Bestowed will be offering one lucky Chelsea Eats Treats reader a free box of their own! Simply comment on this post telling me why you would like to receive a Bestowed Box, and I will pick a winner on Thursday morning. You can also enter by liking my facebook page or tweeting something like the following:

“I entered the @bstowed #giveaway at @ChelsEatsTreats and you can too! http://wp.me/p2H4qV-1gR”

Just leave another comment telling me you liked my page or tweeted

And if you don’t win, don’t sweat it. Bestowed is also offering Chelsea Eats Treats readers $5 off their monthly or annual subscriptions when they use the code 5OFFBSTOWED01 at checkout. The boxes are typically $19 a month so this is a good deal!! I think I’m going to sign up myself!

Good luck!

WIAW #47: In Punta Cana!

WIAW 6 Responses »

Apr 242013

Hi friends! Happy hump day! After getting back from vacation late Monday night and spending all last night unpacking, doing laundry, and rubbing aloe lotion all over my sunburned legs (oh yes), I’m starting to get back into the swing of things. Thank goodness!

I don’t know about you, but there is something nice about getting back into your routine. Vacation is always so fun and leaving is always awful, but coming home, seeing Fabio and Jack, and sleeping in my own bed has been really nice as well. It’s called vacation for a reason after all!

For this week’s What I Ate Wednesday post, allow me to show you all the great things I ate/drank on vacation in Punta Cana!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup, as usual!

Alriiiight, let’s get this party started (Pink, anyone?).

I want to preface this post by explaining that my friends and I stayed in an all-inclusive resort. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this type of hotel, everything, including all our food and drinks, was free. We literally did not spend one dime on food, except for the night we went to the Italian restaurant and wanted a nicer bottle of wine. But otherwise, it was all free. Woohoo!

The only downside to this type of resort is that usually the food is not all that great. Although this resort had better food than most all-inclusive places I’ve stayed at, it still relied heavily on a buffet and had very few healthy options. Bummer.

I generally tried to eat as healthy as I could, while still enjoying a few treats along the way (pretty much my motto in life). I think I was pretty successful!

So, without further ado, here’s what I ate on vacation!

Breakfasts

The breakfast buffet at the resort had a ton of choices, but my standard breakfast looked something like this:

An omelet with tomatoes, cheese, onions, green peppers, and ham
Fresh fruit
Whole wheat toast
Some type of “treat” (e.g., small waffle, chocolate muffin, croissant, hash brown, etc.)

There were some cereal and yogurt options that probably would have been fine, but I really liked the omelet station where you could choose your ingredients. Yummmm.

Lunches

The lunch buffet was really good and in addition to a ton of delicious pre-made options, it had a grill where a chef made ready-to-order chicken or pork. The chicken was perfectly marinated and I had it each day for lunch. There was one day where I opted for fresh paella instead of the chicken, which was really good as well.

For my sides I usually chose beans and rice (SO good!) and some combo of veggies. On the particular day pictured above, I had roasted potatoes, carrots, green beans, and cucumbers and tomatoes with balsamic. Sorta random, but that tends to happen to me at buffets. I go a little crazy!

Dinners

The resort had a ton of different restaurants to choose from, and during our stay we ate at the International restaurant (mixed variety of foods), the Mexican restaurant, the Dominican restaurant, and the Italian restaurant.

Up first: International.

This night I ordered a lobster bisque to start (more like lobster soup- it wasn’t very good) and then ordered chicken breast stuffed with shrimp and spinach for my entree. It was served on a bed of mashed potatoes with a few carrots and string beans on the side. It was delicious but rather large and I only ate half of the chicken. You can bet there wasn’t a smidge of mashed potatoes left on my plate though. They were awesome.

Second night: Mexican.

The Mexican restaurant started us out with delicious hot chips served with queso, guacamole, and salsa. YUM!!

For my entree I chose the fajitas which came with a combination of steak, pork, and chicken. I shared this meal with my friend Catrina who ordered the chicken tacos. Everything was delicious!

Third night: Dominican.

I honestly can’t really remember what I ate this night, except that it was grilled chicken on a bed of brown rice. I think there was some seafood in the rice as well. I guess this is what happens when you start off dinner with too many cocktails and some really delicious bread…the appetite for your entree sort of dwindles.

Case in point…

Yep. The bread was that good.

Fourth/last night: Italian.

The food at the Italian restaurant was probably the best we ate all week. Everything tasted phenomenal and I’m so glad we saved it for last. We wound up ordering a plate of fettuccine carbonara for the table to share, and then I ordered shrimp risotto for my appetizer (unpictured- oops!).

For my main meal I chose chicken in sun-dried tomatoes which tasted more like chicken parmesan with regular tomato sauce to me. It was really good, but not as good as the two pastas were.

Sorry for the awful picture!!

Finally, on our last day, we had lunch at the airport and I chose Wendy’s. It was a hungover-sunburned-sad-that-we-have-to-go-home kind of day, and Wendy’s seemed like the only solution.

At least it tasted good!

What we drank

At the beginning of our trip, we mostly drank gin & tonics. While they’re not my favorite drinks, they got the job done. After the first day we switched to rum and cokes since (duh) the Caribbean is known for its rum.

We also drank a lot of Mama Juana shots, which are made up of honey, red wine, and rum (woah). During the day we’d sip on a few beers or daiquiri drinks, but we didn’t go too wild and mostly just had a ton of water. We were saving our strength for the evening! Haha!

Question of the day: What do you eat at buffets?

WIAW #46: Pre-trip Jitters

WIAW 6 Responses »

Apr 172013

Hey kiddos! I am super busy today trying to get everything ready for my trip to Punta Cana tomorrow, so let’s make today’s What I Ate Wednesday quick!

Thanks to Jenn for hosting the linkup

Here’s a little snapshot of what I ate yesterday!

Breakfast

Nothin’ new here. Just a bowl of Multigrain Cheerios with skim milk and a banana. I’m sure one of these days I’ll get tired of this breakfast, but seeing how I just bought a box of this cereal from Costco (!) it might be a while haha.

Lunch

For lunch yesterday I had a taco salad leftover from Monday night’s dinner. On Monday evening I made two huge taco salads for dinner, and when I was assembling them I just made two more for Tuesday’s lunch! Super easy! The salads had ground turkey, onions, black beans, tomatoes, cheese, tortilla chips, and a “dressing” that I made by combining plain nonfat Greek yogurt with some salsa. Yummmm! Oh, and of course there was spinach and romaine lettuce, but I bet you could have guessed that

Snack

Ugh someone refilled the candy bowl at work and I couldn’t resist. Yum.

Dinner

Last night I had to run a few more errands before my trip tomorrow (you know, important things like getting a pedicure and a spray tan) so I didn’t get home until somewhat late. Fabio was a gem and offered to cook me dinner, which came at the price of not being super healthy. Oh well, I’ll take the opportunity not to cook any time! Fabio made us cheeseburgers (mine was on a sandwich thin), homemade french fries, and sauteed spinach. Yummm!

And there you have it folks, everything I ate yesterday! Woohoo! Not a bad day of eats if you ask me And now I’m off to finish some things up before I leave. Hoooorayyyy! I’ll be back on Tuesday but I have a couple posts lined up to keep you guys occupied Have a good rest of your week!

Question of the day: What candy tempts you the most? Chocolate is my nemesis!