Cozy bed and the sounds of soft rain

The meeting went….okay.  We walked in and the same lady was there.  I really wished I had some rum or something mixed in with my diet coke when I saw her.  I definitely started out with an attitude and Justin told me to at least be friendly because it wouldn’t get us any where.  I did behave better after that.  It ended up being okay.  We got out of there in a little over two hours and I think we were happy with our selections.  We obviously changed a bunch of things to bring the price down to something reasonable but I think we are still content.  I was sad to lose the hardwood floors in our master bedroom, but if it means that much, I can always add them later.  I did eat the trail mix during the meeting (hey, my stomach was growling and I wasn’t trying to impress this woman in anyway.)

Afterwards we headed over to the house to get a look.

and the most important room–the Kitchen!!!

That middle thing is where the island (with the cooktop) will go and there will be a ledge so bar stools will be on this side.  In between those two long glass block windows will be the sink.  I can’t wait.  I am getting double ovens, tons of countertop and cabinets…and a real pantry.  I won’t know what to do I’ll be so spoiled!!

Dinner
After the house we went and explored the new neighborhood.  Where the Wegmans is there is a Target, Eastern Mountain Sports (where all my money will go!) California Tortilla, Coldstone, Starbucks, Robeks, Cheeburger Cheeburger, Pei Wei and a few other places.  We chose Pei Wei.  Justin had never eaten there (due to his aversion to Asian cuisine) but I talked him into it tonight.  He was sold immediately.

I ordered this as soon as I sat down (I had already decided I needed a glass of wine after the flooring meeting)

Because I didn’t know where we were eating, I was unable to internet search ahead of time.  So I just winged it at Pei Wei’s and went for the Spicy Chicken Salad with the dressing on the side.  It has lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, rice noodles and wok seared chicken.  I avoid most of the rice noodles and didn’t use the dressing on the side because the chicken already had so much flavor.

(sorry for the blurry picture, my camera battery was dying.)

Close up

I went and checked on the nutrition facts when I got home and this apparently was 2 servings (and I enjoyed each and every one of them) and with the dressing on the side, this was a total of 420 (210 per serving) calories.  I didn’t feel guilty at all afterwards!

Because there was a Cold Stone next door and because Justin cannot turn down their Birthday Cake Remix, we ran over there through the rain.  I got mine to go and waited until I got home (25 minutes later) to have any–so hence why it was sort of melted.  I got the blueberry muffin mix with white chocolate chips.  It was INCREDIBLE.  I got the Like It size and there maybe is a third of that dished out into this glass.  I went online and looked up the calories once I got home (I kind of like that I am looking up after I have made my decision, that way I pick what I want not what is the lowest calories, which is what I used to do.)  It turns out that a Like IT had 330 and who knows about the chocolate chips.  I would say there was 1.5T in the whole thing, which should come to about 120 calories.  So the whole thing had probably 450 and I maybe had a third of it tonight.  So about 150 calories.  I don’t know if the amount I had was worth being 150 calories.  That seems a lot of cals for only a few bites. 

Overall a good night.  I am laying in bed right now with the window open and there is a thunderstorm in the distance.  I love falling asleep with a cool breeze, light rain and some distant thunder and lighting.  I also have an ice pack on my knee.  Hopefully it won’t wake me up during the night.

Have a good night!!  My aim was to be in bed and asleep around 10PM again.  It is 9:59.  Success!

Elated!

I got an award!  I never win anything.  *walks around with chest pumped out and arms in the air*  (think Rocky)

Anyway, this is the Brillante Weblog 2008 Award from Chandra over at Eating To Live.  Now I need to nominate seven other blogs to receive this award. 

Nominees, the rules are simple and are as follows:

1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5. Leave a message for your nominee on their blogs.

And here are my seven (I tried to make sure none of these people were already nominated) without any relevance to their order.

1.) Keep Up With Me–Zandria touches upon so many different topics that I love her blog’s variations and she simply has this blogging thing down pat.  She offers intelligent suggestions on various topics and also gives you a little personal insight into her life.  I wish I could mimic her style!

2.) Chandra’s Sehnanigans–She honestly makes me laugh out loud daily.  She reminds me of some of my wild, fun girl friends.  I like to live vicariously through her nights out

3.) For the Love of Oats–I didn’t know anyone could love oats more than I do until I stumbled across this blog.  She is so creative in her cooking that daily I steal ideas from her.  She is getting married soon so I cannot wait to read about all those details!

4.) Meals from the Girl in the Little Black Dress–A gorgeous girl from DC who always seems to have the freshest and most colorful dishes.  I stole my overnight oats from her and have never looked back sense.  They are a new standard.

5.) Around the World in 340 Days–Danielle is studying abroad in multiple counties for nearly a year.  Her experiences are incredible and the photos she takes make your mouth water.  She writes so well you feel like you are there with her (or at least wish you were able to be making these memories!)  She just moved from Ecuador to Chile and I can’t wait to see the new experiences that come along with that!

6.) Does this Blog Make Us Look Fat–The first blog I click on every morning.  There is not a chance you won’t be wow’ ed by these lovely ladies.  Boy are they creative and can they write!!  They often write those thoughts that you never thought anyone else had or were just too embarrassed to ask. My current favorite line “I’m not going to lie. Sometimes I hope for a quick case of stomach flu, a tape worm or possibly even touch of salmonella. It could be just the ticket to jump start my weight loss.”

7.) Carrots and Cake–She just returned from her honeymoon (obviously as a newly wed) and seemed to handle all of the pre-wedding stress with grace…and looked beautiful too!  She has a LOAD of nutritional knowledge and the fact she has seemed to have found the balance between healthy eating and occasional splurges gives me hope that if I just copy everything she does maybe I’ll get there too.

And there you have it.  Enjoy!

o0o0o, and look what email I got today.

Washington, DC Restaurant Week
$20.08 3-Course Lunches
$35.08 3-Course Dinners
August 11 – 17

DC’s Restaurant Week list is out! Where will you be dining?

With the capitol’s top restaurants offering specially priced, 3-course prix fixes, reservations do go fast for this delicious event. Be sure to book early so you don’t miss out!

I have to limit it to only 2 meals out because I think I easily could do 6 or 7 and well…my budget nor my waist would appreciate that!  Justin picked Olives (Todd English’s restaurant) and I picked Domaso. MmmmmM!

That is what my rhomboids feel like

I am feeling a bit better this morning.  I just wanted to thank you all for your wonderful comments yesterday.  It was great waking up to them this morning.  They definitely helped lift my mood.  I went to bed at 10PM last night and woke up at 6:30AM.  I easily could have kept sleeping.  That means I slept for almost 9 hours and I still was tired.  I didn’t even hear Justin come to bed.  Maybe I am fighting a little something.  But no matter what, thank you all for your comments.  I am still trying to learn this whole healthy eating and healthy amounts of exercise and when I get stressed or sick, it is tough to listen to my body and not simply ‘pushing through’.  Having some outside input definitely helps keep me sane and not getting too anxious and guilty.  So thanks all of you!!!!

I am going to aim to go to the gym over lunch today.  I am still a bit sore.  I think I probably just over did it lifting (I am totally blaming those up-right rows) and feeling exhausted in general. I will try and take it fairly easy and just try to listen to my body.

Last night we did abs.  We did a new routine with Kathy Smith for core: abs&back.  It definitely started out very hard and included a bunch of crunches, then it sort of fizzled out.  I would have liked it to maintain at that level.

When I headed down to sleep, I really wanted some of my diet hot chocolate (Swiss Miss) but it was simply too hot to drink that.  So I mixed about 1T of hot water in with the packet to help it dissolve and then added ice and cold water.  I put in a splash of soy milk.  It was tasty and fulfilled my chocolate craving (for only about 35 calories!).  I also had a single salt water taffy kiss.

Breakfast
I made overnight oats last night, but I changed it up a bit.  I used 1/2 cup of oats with 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of light soy milk.  This morning I added about 1T of fage, 1T of flax seed, 1tsp of honey, cinnamon, handful of blueberries and some raisins.  It just was bland.  It missed being soaked in milk and having a banana.

Because I didn’t have my eggs mixed into my oats or have the protein from soaking it in milk, I decided to have 1/4 cup of liquid eggs on the side.  I simply microwaved for 1 minute and topped with about 1.5T of Polaner no-sugar added strawberry jelly.

I guess the eggs filled me up quickly because I didn’t finish my oats.  I ate probably 3/4 of the oats.  This never happens.  My body typically never knows when it is full that early in the morning (and also I eat in less than 10 minutes) so I was happy that I recognized the feeling.  The fact the oats were bland definitely helped in me just throw the remaining amount away.

AM Snack
I grabbed 1 and 1/2 sheets of graham crackers (hope these haven’t gotten soft from the humidity in my house!) and then added about 1T of fat free cream cheese and 1/2T of natural peanut butter as a side of dip.

(sorry about the bad picture.  My countertops are white and the cream cheese simply disappeared in the photo)

I will get to the gym over lunch and hopefully do the elliptical. 

Lunch
I was craving a big veggie wrap for lunch today.  I chopped up about 1/4 of a carrot, 1/4 of a cucumbers, 1 slice of onion, about 2T of hummus, 1/8 of a red bell pepper, 1/4 of a tomato and some mint.  I am interested to see how the mint adds to this mix.  Then I topped with some spinach and sprouts.  It was a hearty wrap!

(you know that looks tasty!!!)

Because this wrap was so big (looks like a massive Chipotle burrito!) I just added a banana and no-sugar added rice pudding for my sides.  Hopefully this will keep me feeling less ’snacky and weak’ than my lunch yesterday did.

PM Snack
Figured I could use a little dairy in my day, so I went for the typical cottage chese even though I have been pretty bored by cottage cheese lately (I stirred in about 1/2T of apple butter in after this photo because I knew how bored I was with C.C. lately)

Then I added a no-sugar added container of dole mandarin oranges for the side.  I do love mandarin oranges with cottage cheese.  It sort of reminds me of the 80’s when restaurants started offering cottage cheese and fruit as the diet food/entree.  Always a trusty go to.  I sort of wish restaurants still offered that more often.

I have an Adora chocolate and some Yogi tea to consume some time during the day.

Tonight at 5, Justin and I have a meeting to go back to the flooring/cabinet place to reselect everything.  We are not too thrilled.  Last time we went, the lady was a total idiot and did not guide us at all (or give us prices for anything) so when our choices came back, the cost was OUTRAGEOUS.  So we are going back and starting all over (we requested a different person).  Hopefully tonight will go MUCH smoother than last time (and hopefully quicker).  Last time it took over 3 hours.  Knowing this, I planned ahead.

I packed a little container of trail mix.  There is about 3T of Kashi go Lean crunch, a few golden grahams (I couldn’t hold myself back!), some dried fruit, some nuts, some dried edamame and some chocolate chips in there.  I am sure Justin will help me snack on this.

After the meeting we are planning on going out to our house to see how construction is going.  I haven’t been out since the Fourth of July so I am excited to see what has happened in the past 3 weeks.  Hopefully I will have a picture or two to show you guys.  I am assuming we will eat out tonight if we have all these errands planned.  Maybe just run into Wegman’s and get something off their yummy hot bar/salad bar.

Have a great day!!

And this cartoon completely matches my mood yesterday (and my reason for motivating to the gym today)