Tummy trouble blues

I didn’t sleep good last night because my tummy was hurting all night and the temperature just didn’t seem right. It probably didn’t help that I slept in three days in a row during the long weekend! Did you have the same problems getting up today from sleeping in all weekend? It seems like most blogs I was reading all weekend were mentioning that they were also sleeping in every day.

I had raisin bran and coffee for breakfast. Boring, I know. When I am tired, my breakfasts are simple and easy.

At work, I had a Sprite with some tummy medicine mixed in, which tasted gross. I also noticed the Sprite made me a bit jittery, but I thought it would help my stomach feel better.

I ate lunch early on in the day and I could only get the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and string cheese in my belly. The apple and Chobani will have to wait for another day this week.

I went to an important meeting mid-morning and then did yoga at work, which felt good but made me mindful of my pain. I left work after yoga because I just couldn’t handle feeling sick at work anymore.

I am sorry if this post is whiny, but sometimes it is good for me to document how I am feeling. This whole thing is my fault for letting a medicine run out and not getting more of it. I went to Walgreens after work and picked up a huge bottle of what I needed, so I won’t run out for a while.

Have you been reading Tina from Carrots ‘N’ Cake‘s posts on dealing with her recent diagnosis of colitis? Her posts are similar to mine at times when I have bad days like this one. I feel like it is nice to relate to another blogger who struggles with the same issues I do. I am glad she is getting the word out about Irritable Bowel Disease. Her diet is definitely different than the one my doctor recommended to me. I had never heard of going on a gluten free diet while colitis is active, but maybe I should try it sometime.

When I got home, I found some nice things in my mailbox to cheer me up. Something new to review and giveaway soon, some lentils, and a new Glamour magazine. What is your favorite way to cook with lentils? I have never cooked with them before, but I am excited to try making something with them. My favorite veggie burger is the lentil burger from Cafe Manna in Brookfield. I wish I could recreate that!

The nice folks at the USA Dry Peas, Lentils, and Chickpeas Council sent along some recipes with the lentils sample too. A few looked really good, including one for Lentils, Orecchiette, and Feta Cheese.

I’m going to hit publish and go watch a movie. I need to relax a bit this afternoon. I also may hit up the gym because I think some movement will do me some good, like yoga may have earlier today.

Have a wonderful night!

Noticing a gap in my diet today

Glad Monday is over! It was hard to wake up this morning. I think I hit the snooze button three or four times.

I was in the mood for cereal for breakfast, so I tried Raisin Bran crunch. For some reason, I’ve been having cravings for Raisin Bran and I got a good deal on some with double coupon days on Saturday. I didn’t think the “crunch” was a whole lot different than the regular though.

At work, I had an almond iced coffee and a cinnamon mini bagel just plain and warmed up in the microwave.

Lunch today was thrown together quickly, which is why it lacks veggies. I had a pb & j sandwich, a peach chobani and Stacy’s pita chips. I also had a lovely German chocolate Ritter sport mini bar.

After meditating and “being vocal” about my day (my way of saying complaining), I hit the gym and that made me feel better right away. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and completed some pretty tough intervals while watching House Hunters International. I then lifted weights and did some abs. A pretty normal workout, but I felt energized at the end.

Dinner was some of the spinach I got at the farmer’s market (which seemed unusually dirty compared to spinach I have bought from farmers before. I know veggies and fruit are sometimes going to be dirty, but this was very dirty), red peppers, and I topped it with a Morningstar black bean veggie burger. This was a great & quick meal. You’ll be seeing more of this on the blog!

Enjoyed the meal outside while the hubby watered our plants with fertilizer.

It was pretty nice out this evening, so we went for a walk around the neighborhood. And finally, we read outside together. Craig is reading the sample of the “127 Hours” book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, and is enjoying it so far. I didn’t comment on the movie on any of my weekend posts. It was pretty good. We could not watch the really gross parts! I definitely want to prepare for the worst whenever we go anywhere in nature now or on a long road trip.

So, after writing this post and reviewing the preview, I noticed something. I didn’t eat any fruit today and I am not happy about that. I mean, I have lots of it in my fridge, but I just didn’t incorporate fruit into my meals. I guess you could sort of count the raisins in my cereal and the peaches in my chobani yogurt. This is why I like to blog my meals because I see what I am lacking and also what may be affecting my tummy troubles. I better go eat a bowl of raspberries!

That’s all folks. It’s already 9 p.m. and almost time for me to hit the hay.

Trying new fitness classes

One of my new goals is to try various fitness classes at my YMCA more often. I usually just attend yoga and I really enjoy doing my own thing on the cardio and weight machines. I like Zumba and Body Pump, so I should get back into those. Tonight, I tried H.A.B.I.T which stands for “Hips, Abs, Butt, Intense Thighs.” It was a 45 minute class and the time just flew by. I really enjoyed the exercises and the teacher was good. I felt like I got a good workout for all of those areas of my body, which in my opinion, are my weakest and most fatty areas. We used the ball a lot and now I even have some new exercises to try out on my own. Too bad that the class may be going away for the summer months, but I will probably try to make it on Tuesday nights through June.

After class, my legs were killing me from the wall sit with the ball we had just done, but I biked for 20 minutes and logged 7.19 miles (which made me smile because this is my husband’s birthday).

To top it off, when I got home, I still had an incredible amount of energy, especially after eating, and Craig and I then took a 20 minute walk in our neighborhood because the weather is so nice. Guess I couldn’t get enough exercise today because I did something physical for two hours straight!

I had a really good day. I took breaks to manage my stress and listened to my iPod while working in the afternoon, which kept me happy and also made me less sleepy during my afternoon slump. I also got a bit carried away with listening to the German language lessons in between music because at one point, I yelled “scheisse” really loud and my co-worker laughed. I had just made a maddening mistake and the German swear word came out naturally.

Ok enough about fitness and enough text! Onto my eats and some photos!

Breakfast was Crunchy Nut cereal with skim milk and coffee. I am finding this cereal to be too sweet for me, but sometimes all I want is cereal in the morning, so I am eating it up and dealing with the sweet taste.

Lunch was a pb and j sandwich on Trader Joe’s wheat bread, pita chips, a strawberry Chobani and a few dark chocolate covered almonds. I didn’t end up eating the apple, so I’ll save it for tomorrow.

Dinner was much needed after all of that working out! I knew what I wanted and was craving it at the gym. A green monster smoothie! I added almond milk, skim milk, chia seeds, frozen banana and of course, spinach to it. This was my first time adding chia seeds to it and I loved their addition! It was my husband’s first time trying chia seeds. He always laughs at them because he thinks of the chia pet.

While reading Amazon Daily on the kindle during my lunch break, I found an article about chia seeds and they showed pictures of chia pets, which made me laugh and think of my husband’s comments. I can’t link to the article, but the content was all stuff you probably know–how filling chia seeds are because of the protein and fiber, etc.

The unpictured aspects of my dinner were a small bowl of Chobani plain with preserves and two pieces of jack cheese.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution–for the last couple of weeks, I have been excitedly turning on the TV at 7 p.m. on Tuesday nights and expecting Food Revolution to be on. I thought something weird was going on, that or Dancing with the Stars was concluding and those finales were taking more precedence over the food crisis we are having in our nation. Well, I finally googled it today and found out it will return to Friday nights starting on June 3rd. Phew! Anyone else miss watching it? I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I really looked forward to that show each week. Can’t wait until it’s back!

Well, it’s early for once and I am off to get some reading done, per usual. Night!

Digestive Health

Last week, Anne posted a question on her blog asking “what does digestive health mean to you?” Having Ulcerative Colitis, I thought it was important for me to share my experience and comment.

Today, I saw that my comment was posted as one of seven on the attune foods blog. I am so honored to have my comment posted! Check it out! Thanks for including me and my digestive health story Anne.

In case you don’t want to click ahead, here is what I wrote on her site in response to her question:

“I have ulcerative colitis, so I think about digestive health every day (especially on days like today when I feel bloated and constipated). Up until a couple of years ago, I really ate whatever I wanted and started realizing what my “trigger” foods were, such as dark meat and soda. I cut those out of my diet and felt better. Then, I transitioned to eating more whole foods, made exercise a priority in my life and I instantly felt better. Also, digestive health for me means eating lots of yogurt for the probiotics! I tried the attune bars and they work well too!”

So I will now pose it back to my readers, what does digestive health mean to you? Anyone else out there deal with an Irritable Bowel Disease like I do?

Eek! Meditation this morning got moved to another room in our house because of a centipede lurking in our spare bedroom. I love spring but I hate the centipedes that invade our house with the warmer temps! I seriously scream at the top of my lungs when I see them. I have a big fear of bugs (spider and centipedes) and snakes. Any bugs that you fear?

Breakfast was a mini bagel with an egg white, cheddar cheese and Frank’s red hot. It’s kind of killing me to eat these white bread bagels instead of wheat, but I figure they are mini and they have to eaten up! I also paired it with some strawberries on the side.

No snack at work (I am trying to cut back on morning snacks), unless you count an almond latte.

Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a lemon Chobani, some pita chips and another halva. I think I spelled the name wrong yesterday, oops. Sorry about that!

Dinner was a Morningstar black bean burger on an Arnold’s Thin with some provolone cheese and then some brussell sprouts on the side.

After dinner, Craig and I went to vote in a local election and the polls were dead. I always feel like I have to exercise my right to vote because of all of the women who fought for this right and won it!

Then I quickly changed and got to yoga class. It felt good to practice, per usual.

My goal was to get this post out there and done early so I could go read my book, so that’s what I am sticking to. Night!

Cravings

Happy Wednesday! I failed to blog last night because I took a nap on the couch and then we watched the movie Salt (which was really good).

I started my day with some Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble Go Lean Crisp cereal. This flavor is growing on me now.

At work, I snacked on some donut holes and had a latte. The volunteer that helped me all day brought in the donut holes and while I usually resist such temptations, I couldn’t today due to that time of the month. Sorry if it’s TMI, but that will explain the rest of my eats today and probably my need to nap so much over the last week.

Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, carrots, and an athenos honey flavored greek yogurt.

After work, I went to a store to use up some coupons that expired today. On the way there, I knew I would have to go to Kopps custard for a big cheeseburger to get some iron in my body. Blame that time of the month again.

We had no chocolate in the house and I had to resort to eating chocolate chips. I was desperate!

I went to the gym later at night, but it felt good to get my body moving anyway. I ran on the treadmill, then walked when I got a side ache and managed to fit in a full circuit of weights.

Well, it’s late and I better get ready for bed soon.

But, I can’t end without saying Happy Birthday to my favorite cat children! They are the big 5 years old today! I know, I am a crazy cat lady, but I don’t really care.

Waiting for food in the morning.

Night all!

Busy Friday afternoon off

Breakfast today started out with more free food, courtesy of work leftovers. I had an orange and a chocolate chip mini bagel topped with butter.

I had lunch pretty early, around 11 a.m., because I was hungry and because I had to leave work around 12:15, otherwise I would be over on my hours for the two weeks. I had the pb & j sandwich, blueberry chobani and strawberries that I packed for lunch yesterday. I added the strawberries to the yogurt and it was really excellent tasting.

There IS such a thing as a free lunch

It’s almost the weekend! Happy Veteran’s day!

Breakfast today was Total cereal-Blueberry and Pomegranate flavor. It was very yummy!

Review of Lose It!

I was a bad blogger today and didn’t take many pictures of my food. Honestly though, lunch and dinner were the same meals I ate the last couple of days because we are seriously out of food, so I keep eating the same things. Taking pictures of all of my meals and snacks (and blogging about it) does hold me accountable, for example, when I looked at the picture I uploaded for today’s breakfast, I realized that I need to eat more fruit in the morning. I love fruit, so I should be cutting up strawberries or popping grapes for breakfast more often.

Today’s breakfast was a cornbread muffin and a fried egg. I got a little too happy with the Frank’s Red Hot!