In light of the fact that I don’t have a lot of time to blog, I decided to jump on the wordless Wednesday bandwagon and share some of my day through pictures. I kind of enjoyed doing this because I took pictures of different things than I normally would during the course of a day.
Between yesterday and today, I went to two different doctors for checkups. I am glad I got the appointments over with and I’m all checked up for now. I am going to see a new Gastroenterologist in September and I am looking forward to that appointment, because I heard the new doc I am seeing spends a lot of time with his patients. After being sick a lot with colitis, despite all of the medicine I am on, I want someone to look into my condition a bit further than my current doc has. I even went so far as to request my medical records from my old doctor so I can do my research and read through my history so I can be a better informed patient.
Right now, I am taking a break from packing. I am headed to my parents’ house tonight to stay overnight. Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to Madison for the Farmer’s Market, then to New Glarus, and hopefully to the outlets at the end of the day. I am looking forward to a little day trip and to spending time with my mom!
I tried a new cereal for breakfast. I went to Whole Foods after my doc appt. last night and picked up lots of goodies! I had a coupon for the Yogi brand of granola or cereal, so I tried this one.
I loved the flavor–natural, yet delicious tasting! The cherry flavor was subtle, but blended together beautifully with the almond.
At work, I treated myself to an iced coffee and I snacked on a banana.
Lunch was the rest of the quinoa, chickpeas, and Mmmm sauce. I also had a Strawberry Banana Chobani.
I left work early for the doc. The doctor and I had a funny conversation about my last name. Turns out that she had been saying my name for the last two days. I can’t say why for privacy reasons, but the stories she told me had me cracking up. She always eases my nervousness and makes me laugh. We also had a nice discussion about greek yogurt. She lit up when I said I eat a lot of that and I don’t think I have to worry about my calcium intake because of the amount of dairy I eat.
When my doc appt. was over, I headed to Target. I didn’t grab a basket on purpose. I found too many items, per usual, and I was almost dropping things on my way to the cash register. That was better than throwing things into a cart and spending over $50 like I normally do there. I finally purchased some stainless steel canisters for my flour, sugar, etc. I have been going back and forth for months about the OXO ones and this type. I like how these look and maybe someday when we have a bigger kitchen, they can sit on the counter too.
Dinner was a whole wheat bun with temeph, red onions, provolone cheese, goddess dressing, and some mayo.
I also had some tomatoes on the side from our garden.
Here’s the big bowl of goodies we picked tonight.
Time to get off of here, take a walk with Craig, and then hit the road for my parents’ house!
Have a great start to your weekend!
What a great Wednesday! Ever since I went to yoga last night with my friend Laurie, I have been in such a good mood. I feel like my life is more balanced this week than last week and maybe that is contributing to my good mood too.
I decided to switch things up for breakfast and had a poached egg with provolone cheese and Frank’s Red Hot on whole wheat bread.
Lunch was a small taco, pineapple Chobani yogurt, and a pink lady apple.
After work, I met my friend Angie at the gym for some weights, cardio on the Cybex Arc Trainer, and abs. It was fun to catch up with her and have a buddy to workout with.
On my way back from the gym, all I could think about was making quinoa with Mmmm sauce. I’ve been wanting to make Mmmm sauce for a while now and when I tried to load the recipe online over the weekend, it wasn’t working! So, I finally made it tonight and now I know how it got it’s name!
I added chickpeas and tomatoes to the quinoa. The sauce reminded me of the flavors I love in Indian food!
I did sit there and say “mmmmm” while eating this dinner. I made Craig try some too and he thought it was pretty good.
My mom won six Wisconsin State Fair cream puffs and picked them up today, so we got three of them to enjoy.
I had one and indulged a bit.
I just heard on the news that they will have the world’s largest cream puff at the Wisconsin State Fair this year! Crazy. 
I guess I had a sweet tooth tonight (even though I didn’t have any major cravings for sweets), because I also had a few bites of this addictive ice cream.
Time to read some blogs, a book on my kindle, and then get some zzzz’s.
How was your Monday? Mine was good, especially because I didn’t end up hitting a huge row of backed up cars on the freeway on my way to work this morning. Thankfully, I was following far enough behind to begin with, but I still had to break really hard and turned to the right so I wouldn’t run into the cars if my breaks didn’t do their job properly. Whoa, it was a scary start to my day!
Breakfast
I had a yummy bowl of hot oats (Trader Joe’s maple instant oatmeal) with chia seeds and sunflower seed butter. I love the sunflower seed butter in hot oats–delish!
Lunch was a bit of a bummer.
I had leftover spoon hamburger on a bun with provolone cheese, a bit of leftover taco salad, some pb cookies and my other source of protein–chobani raspberry yogurt, was gross. I didn’t end up eating the vita top yet and will have it as a snack or for dessert tomorrow.
The Chobani yogurt was super sour and the first thing I noticed when I opened the package was that the consistency/texture was off than the normal texture in Chobani yogurt. I think I just got a bad batch of it. There wasn’t any mold in the container, so it’s a mystery to me as to why it was way off in flavor.
It was so disgusting tasting that I could not eat it and I e-mailed and twitter messaged Chobani right away. When paying over $1.00 each for yogurt, I figure I better give feedback and see what can be done about it. I knew I had more of this flavor that I purchased at Woodman’s in my fridge, so those will probably have to be thrown out too. 
Oh well, won’t stop me from buying my beloved Chobani!
Craig made us dinner using some ingredients from the garden–cherry tomatoes & hot peppers and he heated up some rice. It was a burrito bowl of sorts without the beans or meat. I added some pepper jack cheese, Northwoods Penzey’s seasoning, and Frank’s Red Hot sauce to my bowl.
My tummy is still full from this simple but tasty meal, so I need just a bit more resting on the couch and then it’s time to hit the gym for some cardio. My body is pretty sore all over from lifting weights yesterday, so I decided I would do strictly cardio and maybe some abs tonight.
Night!
Do you ever have those weeks where you just feel too tired to do anything, especially after a long day at work? Yeah, that was my week. I have been feeling tired, but also just not motivated to fit blogging into my schedule. I have to remind myself to just go with it when I feel the need to just unplug and read books, workout, and relax in general after work.
Here’s what I have been eating, doing, etc. this week.
Food
My meals weren’t really that interesting, except for when I ate out with Karis on Thursday.
I did try Trader Joe’s Sunflower Seed Butter for the first time! It had been sitting in our cabinet for about a month, so I decided to open the jar up and just dig in. I liked it, but maybe not as much as peanut butter. It is very creamy, so I think it would be wonderful on hot oats.
I don’t really love overnight oats in a jar (I prefer hot oats), but it is a convenient and healthy breakfast for when I feel rushed in the morning. I had a Trader Joe’s unsalted peanut butter jar that had just about an inch of pb left in it, so I went with making OIAJ. I added skim milk, chia seeds, and some Brown Cow maple yogurt.
I had lots of plain chobani with blueberry preserves, fresh fruit, and granola this week.
Indulged in a yummy cupcake at work. The frosting on this was perfect–not too sweet and sickening!
Lunch on Thursday–a big salad, mango Chobani, and I tried Pop Chips for the first time! They tasted great! I had the sea salt and vinegar. Thanks to Pop Chips for sending me some chips to try out! Can’t wait to try the other flavors now.
Miscellaneous
Our garden is producing more tomatoes now! The romas still don’t look great, but the cherry tomatoes keep on coming and I love having them around for salads or snacking in general.
We also have been getting more strawberries–some big and some tiny and ripe.
I ordered these items from iHerb. I have never tried Nutritional Yeast, so I hope I like it. I plan to make some of Mama Pea’s Mmmm sauce with it this weekend.
Averie had a coupon for iHerb on her blog, so I got $5 off my order and free shipping!
We enjoyed having the windows open for only a couple of hours one cool evening. I miss fresh, cool air flowing through our house.
Karma enjoyed the fresh air too!
Now we’re off to get Craig’s free Starbucks drink (b-day coupon) and maybe look around at toasters. Ours has been funky for a while, but we both aren’t satisfied with the reviews we find on Amazon of most of the models out there. Anyone have a toaster model they recommend?
Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Can’t believe the weekend is almost over! Where did it go?
Breakfast was non-fat plain Chobani with raspberries and blueberries. It was a little too bland for me, so I added some Bonne Maman jam too. Is it just me or does Chobani seem thicker than it used to be? I was so full after this big bowl!
Lunch was a spinach salad with mushrooms, grape tomatoes, herbed tofu, and feta cheese.
Then it was time for us to head out of the house. We took a drive by the house that my sister-in-law bought last week! It was cute and in a nice area. I’m excited to see the inside now.
After that, we went to Mayfair Mall to check out the laptops.
I’ll definitely be getting one of these very soon. The reason that I didn’t buy it today was because I want to clean some items off of my current iBook a bit more before having the Apple store transfer items to the new computer.
I played with Photobooth for a while.
Then it was ice cream/frozen yogurt time in Wauwatosa!
Craig and I are signed up to get a free scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins for our birthdays. He picked out cherry and it was tasty!
Right near Baskin Robbins, there is a new frozen yogurt place! It just opened in June of this year. After becoming a bit obsessed with frozen yogurt in Florida, we longed to have a place like Menchie’s or Pinkberry in Wisconsin. We finally have it with Yo Mama!
Here’s how it works:
Craig always goes for the fruity combinations and I go for chocolate, caramel, etc. Today, I chose Dulce de Leche and Cake Batter swirl. I topped it with heath bar crumble, brownie bites, & cookie dough. Fantastic combination!
Our total for two came to $8.31, which this numbers freak got excited about because my birthday is 8/31 and I love when it pops up unexpectedly at a cash register like that. I know, I am a dork. The yogurts were 45 cents per ounce.
The interior is cute and reminded us of Menchie’s in Orlando, Florida.
Love the wood on the exterior.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I could open up my own frozen yogurt place and just eat it all the time that way.
We walked down the street and I was reminded that I still need to check out the French Cafe Le Reve and the olive oil place next door sometime.
What a great afternoon with Craig!
I needed to burn off some of the frozen yogurt, so after a little cat nap with Karma sprawled out on my lap, I hit the gym. I biked for 25 minutes (my ankle is not in tip top shape again, so biking is mainly what I have been doing lately) and lifted weights. I even went to the “men’s weight” area and used the barbells in there to do some Body Pump moves. I was so proud that I broke through my fear of going in that area. Now I’ll never be scared again (I hope).
This is so wrong, but while I meditated, I started craving a BLT. Well, we didn’t have any bacon, so I was imagining a tempeh BLT sandwich and that’s what I made!
Like frozen yogurt, tempeh reminds me of Florida because the first and only other time I tried it was while we were there in February. I had it in my Whole Foods salad bar creation and I liked it then.
I cooked it up on the stove and topped it with spinach, mayo, and roma tomatoes.
Time to go watch a movie, since I have been half ignoring it and half paying attention.
How was your weekend?
Posted in Fitness, Food, Product Reviews
Tagged Apple, Baskin Robbins, chobani non-fat, Coffee, feta, free birthday scoop Baskin Robbins, frozen yogurt, Mac store, MacBook Pro, salad with mushrooms, Sesame Garlic tempeh, tempeh, tofu, Tosa, Wauwatosa, yo mama! frozen yogurt, yo mama! goodness Wauwatosa, yogurt and berries
We’re back from our trip up north! It was nice to relax, unplug a bit, nap, sleep in, and read without distractions. I did miss home and our cats especially, so it feels good to be back!
While I enjoy getting away from the city, I am definitely not a country girl. I guess I take after my mom! I told Craig that we’ll probably never go camping together. I feel bad, but in all seriousness, if I can’t handle spiders in the cottage bathroom, how could I ever camp?
Here’s a recap:
Some of the food I/we ate:
Trader Joe’s maple oatmeal with Justin’s maple almond butter (so good).
A big salad from the Pick N’ Save salad bar. By yesterday afternoon, I was just craving tons of veggies.
We went out to eat on Friday night and had fry bread and cheese for our appetizer.
For fear of strange looks, I didn’t take a picture of my main meal. I got a delicious veggie burger with swiss cheese and mushrooms on it.
I was sent an Erin Baker sample pack of products before we left, so I tried Erin Baker’s Organic Brownie Bite. It was unexpectedly a bit minty and tasted so good!
We brought two bags of the Food Should Taste Good chips up north and tried those. Let’s just say my husband loved the White Cheddar and that bag is already gone. Glad I got to try more than a couple of handfuls of that flavor!
I munched on some jalapeno chips during our car ride home. Not that we needed any more “heat” added to our drive. You’ll hear more about that in a bit.
Entertainment
We went out to eat and walked around town on Friday night. We enjoy one particular restaurant in town, so we always return back there.
Restaurant interior
Typical main street in any Wisconsin small town.
We played Uno a couple of times. Craig was declared the winner far more often than I was .
I finished reading The Hunger Games! It was so addictive to read. Craig also was reading it on his kindle and he claimed I was being competitive, trying to finish before him. The truth is, it was just so good that I had to get to the ending! I can’t wait to read the other two books!
Only “up north” would you see this:
Workouts:
I actually did not workout a lot and I missed it. I did a walk/run with Craig one morning before the humidity set in.
And I did yoga this morning using the Hot Body Yoga app from Women’s Health. It was my first time using the app and I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to try it more often.
It felt amazing to do some yoga! My body needed it.
Today’s car ride felt like our own version of 127 Hours. We weren’t stuck in the desert and we didn’t have to cut our arms off, but we were in extreme heat the whole way home and Craig’s air conditioning was not working.
Did I mention that I hate bugs of any kind, especially spiders? There was a black spider crawling around our pillows and food in the back seat. When I got the opportunity to, I killed the bugger. I know, it’s not very nice, but hunching forward in my car seat to avoid him wasn’t so pleasant either.
Besides the bugs and extreme temps, we faced a nice highway backup. Why oh why Dept. of Transportation of WI, would you have a popular two lane highway going from north to south cut down to one lane on a weekend when no one was doing any construction work? I am sure they have their reasons, but we and the other 100 something cars in the backup were not happy!
I actually feel sick when I am in that kind of heat with the sun blaring down on me. I was so happy to get home to our air conditioning blasting and the happy faces of our kitties.
Time to go change the laundry, unpack some more, and find something to eat.
I’ll be back tomorrow with the Food Should Taste Good chips giveaway!
Have you entered my B.I.C. bands giveaway yet? I’ll pick a winner tonight! I may not post the winner until 9 p.m. CST because I am getting my hair cut and highlighted after work.
For breakfast this morning, I had the Double Coconut Granola I made last night and it was delicious!
Currently, I am taking a morning break at work to enjoy an iced coffee and a pink lady apple.
Lunch today is going to be a Pomegranate Chobani yogurt and a pb & j sandwich.
Well, my break is almost up, so I am signing off. Have a good Wednesday! Be back later tonight with the winner.
Hooray for TGIF! I can’t believe I never used “TGIF” as a title before now!
Breakfast was Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt with strawberries and blueberries. Never seems to get old.
Snack at work was an iced coffee and chocolate chip scone. I treated myself because it was Friday and because my belly was hungry.
Lunch was a ham sandwich with spinach on whole wheat and a mango Chobani yogurt.
I ate outside and listened to Jillian Michaels’ podcast, which was excellent! Obviously from this picture, you can see I also listened to it on the way to work this morning! I loved the topics she got into and I found the information really useful. I actually may listen to the beginning of the podcast again and take notes. Thanks for the suggestion to download this podcast Denise!
Unfortunately, I kept getting interrupted while eating and listening to my iPod. I had to tell a guy to leave me alone and back off. Everyone was asking me for money (three separate people did).
Right before I left work, I ate a pink lady apple. I’d have to say this is my favorite type of apple. I had no clue they existed until I lived in Switzerland. Is it weird that I remember where I started eating certain types of food?
After work, I napped on the couch. It was glorious! Craig and I went for a walk around the neighborhood too.
Dinner was just Stacy’s pita chips and an electrolyte drink. I didn’t think my stomach could handle anything else.
We’re watching The Social Network for the second time tonight. I liked the movie the first time and it’s fun to re-watch it.
Hope you are having a great start to your weekend!
Sorry to be a whiner, but because I didn’t feel so great today and my eats were just ok, I’ll make this post a pictureless one. I had a really good day, except for the fact that my stomach was aching all day and just feels awful in general.
My food:
Breakfast: raisin bran cereal and coffee
Snack at work: irresistible carrot cake and coffee
Lunch: spinach salad with green peppers, broccoli, feta cheese, and Newman’s Tutto Naturale Parmesan and Garlic dressing. I made a little fruit salad of blueberries, strawberries, and bananas and it was perfect.
Dinner: Haven’t had yet and it’s 8:25. I have no appetite, which is understandable with the condition I am in. I may go eat a Chobani after this since I didn’t get any yogurt in my diet today.
My workout:
Despite feeling sick, I had a productive workout. I logged 30 minutes on the elliptical doing the Cross Country intervals. I read Fitness magazine and was inspired by Jillian Michael’s article. After the elliptical, I started lifting weights and I didn’t think I would complete a full circuit, but I pushed through and did. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I guess the endorphins kicked in. I also added weight to each machine again and I am enjoying the challenge of lifting a little more.
Other than that, I am working on a giveaway post and since I haven’t done a giveaway since last fall, I am finding myself being all picky about my review and the post in general. I promise, it will be up soon and you’ll have plenty of time to enter.
So happy it’s Friday tomorrow! I have the 10k coming up this Sunday, but now that I am sick, I am not sure it’s a smart idea to even attempt to walk/run it. We’ll see how I feel–maybe I’ll be ready for it by Sunday morning!
Tagged carrot cake, Coffee, colitis, ellipitical, fitness magazine, fruit salad, Raisin Bran, salad, stomach ache
