Dementors

 LOVE.

Happy weekend!  How was your Friday night? I had a girls night and went to see One Day and bawled my eyes out.  Which can mean one thing and one thing only-froyo.  [If you want to cry and need an excuse to indulge in some ice cream, One Day is your movie.]

This morning started off swell with a cereal bowl, something I’ve gone way too long without.

Multigrain Cheerios, Kashi Crunch, wheat bran, frozen blueberries, and Arrowhead Mills Puffed Rice Cereal thanks to the wonderful people at Swanson Health Products.  Kashi is my homegirl, but sometimes I need something a bit less dense.  The puffed rice cereal added a light and fluffy texture and I was left satisfied for quite a few hours without feeling like a bloated cow.  The taste wasn’t extravagant, but I’m a huge stickler about texture, and these were phenom.

With breakfast under my belt, I was ready to tackle a good day…until my eyes feasted upon some ticks roaming around on the couch.  Swollen, blood-thirsty dementor ticks.  Be thankful no pictures were taken.

1.  I am not a bug person.
2.  I slept on this couch 2 nights ago.
3.  I am not a bug person.

We have 2 labs that I guess tracked them in, so now we’re all on edge and having the fake itches.  If you’ve ever had a tick problem, how do you get rid of them?  I don’t want them sucking out my soul tonight while I sleep.

Speaking of sucking souls, school is slowly sucking my energy already.  Two weeks in and I’m pooped.  Thank God (again) for Starbucks and caffeine.

This is what my day will consist of yet again.  But what would a weekend be in this hicktown without a little country music?  I’m giving the twang one last shot at a country music festival today, and after that we’re officially breaking up.  Not that we were ever together.

And it will also consist of this: good food.

brown rice, sauteed veggies in asian sauce, topped with corn, avocado, tilapia

Cookie dough Ice cream smoothie with Brown Rice Protein powder.  Best. Addition. Ever.  It doesn’t have a funky aftertaste or clump up like whey sometimes does.  I also made my pancakes with this protein powder (sans egg) and I couldn’t get enough of the flavor.  New favorite protein fo sho.

Kettle corn topped with melted dark chocolate and Swanson Organic Coconut Oil.  So long EVOO, I’m loving the sweetness the coconut oil adds to just about everything!

Including roasted green bean fries.  Another new addiction.

Enjoy your Saturday and say a prayer of THANKS for your family and friends, and for the families who lost a loved one on 9/11.  So thankful for the people who choose to devote their life to protecting us and our country!

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HOW DO YOU KILL A TICK!?! These little monsters are immortal.
What does your weekend consist of? 

WIAW surv

Every week I anticipate WIAW (thanks Jenn!) and think I’m going to do something fun and creative.  But alas, it is another Wednesday and that plan failed. Again.

I now have to take all of my pictures on my camera phone.  Shout out to my smartphone, I’m obsessed, thanks for giving me wordswithfriends and sudoku at my fingertips 24/7.  All I want is my camera to show you the AMAZING food I got to indulge in over the weekend.  Oh well, here’s a little survey to spice up my typical boring Tuesday noms.

Mid afternoon snack: protein cake topped with AB & apple with cinnamonnn

3 favorite local restaurants: Madden’s Casual Gourmet, The Corner (for fish tacos-favorite meal ever) and Kyoto Sushi, what else?

Madden's!

3 favorite chain restaurants: CHICKFILA, Jason’s Deli, Subway.

3 least favorite foods: whipped cream, fruit pies, white bread.  And working at a coffee shop slathering that white goop on drinks all day long made me hate whipped cream even more.  Yucckyuckyuck.

Dinner: grilled tilapia, long grain rice, salad, berries, and unpictured home-made WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. delissssshhhh

Favorite version of PBJ: strawberry jelly & crunchy PB.  Adding a piece of muenster cheese doesn’t hurt either.  I wish I still ate PB&J for lunch every day…now I settle for monster salads or some other veggie mush.

Lunch: huge salad with veggies, egg whites, slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese - protein & fats galore

How do you like your eggs:  scrambled, over-easy, microwaved? As long as they’re covered in salsa or mixed with spinach, I’m a happy happy girl.

How do you take your coffee/tea?  BLACK iced americano, extra ice.  Every once in a while I’ll add a little almond milk or skim milk, but that’s on a rare occasion.

Do any foods bring back bad memories?  Kashi Blueberry and Diet Coke!  Those were my staples at my lowest point and caused a severe lack of calories and nutrients.  I could never give up Kashi for real, but it doesn’t taste as delightful as it once did.

What foods bring back good memories? peanut butter & honey sammys and dunkaroos. Oh how I long to be 6 years old again!

[source]

Enjoy your WEDNESDAY & make it a good one!

Do you remember Dunkaroos? 
What foods bring back good memories for you? 

Back to the GYM

I woke up this morning feeling no less than a cereal bowl.  Shocker, I know.  But it wasn’t just a one bowl kind of day…today was one of those days where you leave the box out and have no choice but to go back for seconds.  I kept it simple and chocolatey with Special K Chocolatey Delights.

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Gotta get that sweet tooth fired up bright and early!

After a week away from my beloved gym, it welcomed me with open arms this morning.  My body is still feeling so-so, so I didn’t push it too hard.

I started with an interval workout I love because it incorporates speed and hills.  I added some extra walking because woozy was all up in my head.

Easing Back Into It

Time	Incline	Speed
0-2	0	4.0
2-3	1	6.5
3-4	2	6.5
4-5	3	6.5
5-6	2	6.5
6-7	1	6.5
7-8	0	7.0
8-9	0	7.5
9-10	0	8.0
10-11	0	7.5
11-12	0	7.0
12-17	7	4.0
Repeat once.

 I finished with 20 minutes on the elliptical at an easy pace and then did some ab work.  My goal for tomorrow is to complete a toughie full body workout, because my muscles are basically crying as they deteriorate.

 Never has a smoothie sounded so good as it did this morning.  The whole spinach-in-a-smoothie thing I just cannot seem to get used to, so I combined an overripe banana, 2 Tbsp crunchy peanut butter, ½ cup almond milk, and ¼ cup raw oats.

I toasted a piece of whole wheat bread and topped it with avocado and leftover tilapia and called it lunch.  And I thought I’d never eat fish again…

 

And there you have it for the most random lunch ever.  Not planning meals ahead of time is a new thing for me.  I can’t say I do it often because I still have such a need for control, but it is so freeing when I can do it without worry.  😀

The best part of my day: receiving this bad boy in the mail!

You know where I’ll be the rest of the day!