Fish Fry Friday

Hi everyone! Hope you had a good week. Mine flew by and I am so glad it’s the weekend!

I started my lactose free diet yesterday and it has been tough, but I love a challenge like this, especially when it means I may feel better if I watch my lactose intake in the future.

It’s only been about 40 hours lactose free, but I have noticed lots of positives. I’ll mention one–I am a lot less bloated after eating! Of course, I am eating fairly small meals overall, but my stomach not sticking out and feeling so full is a wonderful thing.

The main negative yesterday was that I almost fainted! I left work feeling fine, but as I got close to my car, I started to feel all fuzzy headed and then the world looked crooked and I almost fell to the sidewalk. I would have hit my head. I caught myself and got all composed. I had to eat a protein bar, which unfortunately, I didn’t realize until almost finished with it, had milk in it and was chocolate based. Oh well. I didn’t have much of a choice!

It was time to pull out the Libby’s Pumpkin can for pumpkin oatmeal this morning. My bananas weren’t ripe enough, so I didn’t put any in. That made the oatmeal a bit plain. I added some blueberries to get a bit of fruit into my diet instead.

I left work early today and went to a “business” lunch. It was the first time my workplace paid for me to eat lunch somewhere and attend something business oriented! That is crazy after 3.5 years there. Anyway, it was nice to eat lunch at the place we went to because it’s sort of famous in Milwaukee. I won’t say where it was because that sort of gives away my work, but I will say that we had a nice classic Milwaukee fish fry.

source

I was honestly a bit nervous before going because I don’t like fish and never eat it. I sucked it up and had a piece and surprisingly, I liked it. Maybe it was all of the tartar sauce I put on the fish! We also had coleslaw, rye bread, french fries, and lemon bars. Maybe I will eat fish more often now.

After the lunch, I came home to work on my work goals for the year, which is always fun. Nah, they’re really not that bad in the end. I was just happy to be able to work at home this afternoon instead of in my grey cubicle.

Just have a few things planned for this weekend–going to the Y for three hours of programming with my mom tomorrow, to look at cell phones with her, and then on Sunday I am meeting up with fellow bloggers Karis and Jessica! A pretty quiet weekend and a lot less busy than the last, which is what I prefer! I have a lot of household cleaning to get done and just want to relax in general.

It’s movie time in our household so time for me to end this post!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wicked and wild wind

Driving to the grocery store tonight, I heard Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and this line was perfect for today: “it was a wicked and wild wind.” Whoa, today we are the windy city! What a crazy storm with high winds and rains.

Breakfast was the rest of the pumpkin oatmeal that I couldn’t finish for breakfast yesterday. I added a big chunk of greek yogurt for some protein and sweetened up a little more than yesterday’s bowl with some maple syrup.

Lunch was a whole wheat tortilla with pinto beans, shredded cheese and topped with Frank’s Red Hot sauce (I swear, I never get sick of this meal). I also had an apple and a Strawberry Chobani yogurt. Oh yeah and a Reese’s PB cup, which I learned scores a 3 according to the Nuval system on Trading Up Downtown today. Oh well, good thing I only eat them during Halloween time!

Dinner was fresh European baguette with deli ham, cucumbers, tomato, Swiss rye cheese, mayo, Frank’s Red Hot sauce, and oregano. Red grapes were my dessert. Oh and maybe another Reese’s PB cup.

Mmm…European baguettes bring me back to eating in Europe. Love them!

Mini sub and red grapes

Before dinner, I relaxed, put my feet up on the couch and looked through my new Fitness magazine.

Off to watch The Biggest Loser and rest some more. My legs aren’t as sore as they were yesterday, but I think I have a good night’s sleep and Burt’s Bees Muscle Mend to thank for that.

Speaking of The Biggest Loser, I was reading this FitSugar article featuring Jillian Michael’s Fitness Ultimatums while blow drying my hair this morning. Thought you would enjoy!

Feeling pampered

I spent my morning getting pampered. Don’t you just love spa treatments and haircuts? I had a free “balancing treatment” for pre-booking my haircut today and it was so nice. The Aveda salons always have Chakra treatments and my husband says true Chakras cannot be achieved until you do years of meditation and yoga. I honestly don’t know anything about chakras, but the subject does interest me. I chose my Chakra based on the colors, design or words I liked on these flash cards. I picked three and then my stylist had me smell the three with my eyes closed. My final selection was Wisdom. She said I seemed happy and the card told her I could either be feeling very wise and at peace today (which she could tell I was) or I could be seeking wisdom. She then sprayed the smell around my head and did a scalp, neck and shoulder massage. Aaah, it was so nice!

Then it was haircut time! I never realized I had so much hair until it started to get thick in the back of my head over the last couple of weeks. When I went to see her in August, my stylist had asked me if I normally get it thinned out. Well I didn’t know, because no stylist ever told me they did that, but I guess I normally do, because she didn’t thin it in August and it got thick! This time, she got the back nice and thin and just updated my layers with a small 1/2 inch trim. I love a fresh haircut and style!

When I woke up this morning, I still felt full from the pizza and breadsticks we had last night! I still was craving pumpkin oatmeal and made myself a nice bowl before heading out for the spa. This was the first time I used Pumpkin Pie spice in my oatmeal and it definitely was the flavor I wanted to taste! I added Libby’s pumpkin, half of a banana, oats and then raisins, a spoonful of greek yogurt and nutella on top.

Craig has a friend over this afternoon, so when I got back, we cleaned as much as possible. I vacuumed, did the dishes in the morning, cleaned glass on windows and then so did Craig. Like a nice spa morning, I also love a clean house!

All of that cleaning left me hungry for some veggies! I made myself a nice spinach salad with fresh mushrooms, tomatoes, red peppers, cucumbers, hummus, sharp cheddar cheese, broccoli, and the last of Annie’s Asiago cheese salad dressing.

I’m indecisive about whether I want to go to the mall to check out the Banana Republic sale or if I just want to stay home to read, get caught up on things and organize in general. We’ll see…I am leaning towards shopping so Craig can hang with his friend all alone. But, then again, shopping can wear me out and I still want to get to the Y today.

Hope you are having a good Saturday!