Full and relaxed

Blah, today was not a fun day at work.  I was assigned a project that I am not a fan of due to the fact it involves making a lot of calls nearly telemarketer style (at least I am not selling anything, but I didn’t really get a Masters degree for this.)  Anyway, I was very happy to escape over lunch and go work out.

Workout
It was a fairly normal and boring elliptical session.  I did 5 minutes going forward, 2 minutes going backwards, 5 minutes forward, 2 minutes backwards, etc for 40 minutes.  I started at level 5 and kicked it up a few notches throughout the workout. 

Lunch
I wasn’t all the hunger at first for lunch but ended up eating it all.  Afterwards my stomach was KILLING me.  Maybe it was just too heavy for me.  Anyway, I had 1/2 a whole wheat tortilla with about 1/4 cup of last nights ground beef mixture and about 1T of cheese sprinkled on top.

 

I heated it up for about 45 seconds at work. It was good but not as good as last night.  I think it was missing the crunch texture that the toasted tortilla chips gave it.

I also had a salad made up of spinach, sprouts, raisins and zucchini.  I had 1T of Newman’s Light Honey Mustard dressing on top.  It didn’t workout all that well because it seemed like the sprouts got all the dressing and they just clumped together in this kind of gross mound.

And then I had the most amazing thing ever.  I only bought one of these on Saturday because I didn’t know how I would like it.  Well I LOVED it.  I put it in the freezer for most of the morning which made it taste almost like a frozen treat.

After lunch my stomach was really upset though.  I don’t know why.  I didn’t eat all of my afternoon snack.  I ate the peach and a few bites of cottage cheese but then I just threw the rest away.  This just sucked because I think the peach tasted just perfect but I just couldn’t enjoy it.

Left work and I went shopping.  And spent way too much money at grocery stores.  I started at Whole Foods, so I obviously knew it wasn’t going to be cheap.  I wanted to buy this Wholezyme Ultra to help with my Crohn’s/digestion.  It is a blend of Pancreatic Enzymes, Trypsin, Papain, Bromelain, Amylase, Lipase, Lysozyme and Chymotrypsin.  I’ll report back in a few days/weeks and let you guys know if this stuff has worked at all.  I also ended up getting some quinoa, Yogi Tea (Egyptian Licorice Mint), edamame and some blueberries that were on sale.

Then I went to CVS with just the intention of purchasing batteries, hand soap and a multi vitamin.  $40 later I obviously bought a bit more. 

Finally I headed to the normal grocery store to get some food to make dinner tonight.  Ugh, more money spent.

I did snack on a few things at Whole Foods (one California roll, one tiny cube of cheese, a little taste of whole grain bread and a pineapple chunk.  I also munched on edamame while I was making dinner.

Dinner
Well Justin was going to be late getting home tonight because he had a soccer game.  Which meant I was making dinner alone.  When Justin is gone, Asian cuisine comes out to play.  I always manage to make the biggest mess and create the largest quantity of dirty dishes when I am just cooking for me.  This seems impossible though.

After my spinach salad at lunch yesterday and today, I have really been craving a massive spinach salad, so I decided to do that tonight with an asian twist.  I started by breaking out the bamboo steamer and put in about 1/2 head of broccoli, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/4 zucchini, cup of snow peas, 1/2 cup of bamboo shoots, 1/4 cup of bean sprouts, and a handful of edamame in the shell.  I let this steam for about 10 minutes.

In a pot I made 1/2 cup of quinoa, basically because I didn’t feel like making a smaller quantity and assumed I could eat the rest over the next few days (Justin came home from soccer and ended up eating it all.)

Dressing
I basically just threw a bunch of ingredients I thought would go together into the blender (actually the Magic Bullet.  I adore this thing!).  I put 1/4 of a shallot, 1 garlic clove, about 1/2T of fresh ginger, 2tsp of sesame oil, 2T of light soy sauce, 2tsp of brown sugar and a squeeze of Sriracha.  This ended up tasting exactly like the ginger dressing that I love at Asian restaurants.

I put about 2 cups of spinach in a large bowl and added about 10 mandarin orange slices.  Then I added the steamed veggies (edamame removed from its shell) and then poured the dressing on top.  Then I sprinkled some mixed nuts on top.

All stirred up:

I didn’t put all the steamed veggies onto the salad because well, there was already a lot of food in that bowl.  But then I went back and had seconds. (no more spinach though, but I did add a bit more soy sauce and nuts)

I also had half of a very small sweet potato with some brown sugar sprinkled on top.

That plate is a salad plate and it still only took up not even a 1/4 of the plate.  Hence why I had seconds of the salad.

I am trying to motivate myself to pack my food for tomorrow, that way I can try and be a bit more original with my choices.  And I have physical therapy tomorrow morning, and I am assuming they will make me run, so I probably will have something light before I head over and then have my actual breakfast once I get into work.

Case of the Mystery Fruit

EDIT:

If you found this page by searching for leg cast, cast, etc–please go read the page I made specifically regarding the lovely cast!

I get into work this morning and those damn grape/plums are in the kitchen again.  Is someone growing funky hybrids at home?  If so, I want a bunch.  So I need you guys input on these little things…what are they??? (sorry about the bad photos, these were taken with my cell phone camera.)

Here it is up close.  It just look like a grape on a little bit of EPO. 

And to help aid in this investigation, I have a photo of one of the seeds.  I know all of you were dying to see something I have spit out of my mouth.

So what grape has a seed that is about 1/4 of its body weight?  These things are very ripe and juicy.  Maybe they are just midget plums.

Anyway, I digress….

I went to the knee doctor this morning (oh how I love you Dr. St. Pierre!)  He told me that my knee is about as good as it will ever get.  After a major accident and 2 subsequent surgeries it will never be perfect but it is as good as a human hand can do.  The graft has taken (yes, I have a dead person’s Achilles heel tendon holding my knee together.  I like to refer to it as George.  George was an 84 year old ex-WWII vet that stormed the beaches of Normandy with this tendon.) and my quads are no longer atrophied.  Here is the main culprit of the atrophy:

I lived in a cast up to my hip for 2 months.  I had to ride the long way in the back seat of the car.

I did ask him about the issues I am having with jogging and the fact my knee keeps hyperextending and he is putting me back in physical therapy 2 times a week for a month.  I have to go for gait training.  I feel a lot like a horse.

Then Dr. St. Pierre told me the worst news of all.  He is leaving me.  After our 17 months together, he is abandoning me for a lucrative position out in sunny Southern California. I think I cried a little.  It is a sad day for Northern Va athletes for losing such a attractive great surgeon.  He is my 50 year-old version of my Paul Newman crush.  He did complement me on my good looking arm muscles.  These high weights are paying off!

Okay, I have to admit that I forgot my camera today.  I must have gotten so flustered leaving the house to go see the doc that I left the camera on the kitchen counter.  I will add photos tonight.

Breakfast
I made some overnight oats using that 4 grain mix from yesterday.  This turned out much better than hot oats.  I took 1/2 cup of the grains and mixed it with 1/4 cup of soy milk and 1/2 cup of water.  This morning the grains had absorbed at least 90% of the liquid.  I mixed in 1/2 a banana, 2T of fage yogurt, 1T of flax seed, about 10 raisins, some cinnamon and some honey to sweeten it up a bit.  Very tasty.

 

AM Snack
Planning on having my kefir (surprising!) with a mix of Kashi Go Lean crunch and some dried fruit.

Oh yeah, and last night I did have a snack after abs.  We ended up doing 20 minutes abs with Cindy.  I definitely broke a sweat and prayed for a power outage so that I could quit early.  Anyway, I had myself a little less than 1/4 cup of fage with some honey, chocolate chips and dried fruit mixed in afterwards.