Checking In

Sheesh! It has been so busy today at work, and I have a feeling it will get much worse before it gets better. I wanted to mention quickly (well, about as "quickly" as I get- by know you know my tendency to ramble- but don't say I didn't warn you- ha ha) that the weekend ended up quite nice. Saturday afternoon was nice and leisurely. Hubby was on the computer all afternoon, so I read my book, loaded the dishwasher, and even dozed off for a little bit. We attended a wedding reception that evening of one of my good friends at work. Before going, I was just under 1000 calories for the day. I wasn't aware that she was going to have a full dinner spread (but I should have guessed since her fiance/hubby's family owns a Mexican restaurant and that's where the reception was). So I ended up eating part of my burrito, and a little bit of Spanish rice and some beans. Overall, it was great for both exercise and food.

Sunday we planned to head to my parents' house to celebrate a late Father's Day (since my brother was out of town last weekend). So we had BBQ hamburgers and giant (seriously, the fattest I've ever seen) hot dogs, with other random side dishes. I was good and didn't put any mayo on my burger (just a little ketchup and some lettuce- there was no tomato, and I hate onions). I did eat a bunch of fruit with fruit dip, and had some of the weird salad that my sister makes, and some baked beans (yes, I admit, I brought the baked beans, and I ate more than I should have). The weird salad is really good, but it has an interesting combo of ingredients. It's bagged salad (with lettuce, shredded carrots and cabbage- the basic stuff), plus kidney beans and Fritos mixed with Catalina dressing. I didn't eat a lot of it, though. I also had some veggies (broccoli, carrots and cucumber) with ranch dip. I did not partake of the gigantic hot dogs.

Not too bad, until you get to the brownies, and the popsicle. Oops. I tell ya- those brownies are the devil. They looked so good, and were covered with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. I shouldn't have had one. Or more like I should have only had one. I ended up eating half of a second brownie, but it was covered with gooey chocolate frosting. Then I ate half of a cherry-mango popsicle. I threw the rest away because my stomach was full- this is huge for me. I rarely throw food away. I'm the president of the Clean Plate Club, and I'm really trying to work on eating until I'm comfortably full (internal cues instead of external). So, that is my victory for the day.

Today I went back to eating oatmeal for breakfast (all last week I made homemade egg mcmuffin's with english muffins and scrambled egg patties). I used to eat 1/2 c. oatmeal (1 c. cooked), but it really was a little bit too much, so I cut back to 1/3 c. I add 1 Tb. ground flax seed, cinnamon and a little brown sugar and a packet of splenda. Then after it cooks and sits for a minute, I mix in a little soymilk. This morning I added a light string cheese for extra protein.

Lunch was a little shaky. We had hotels visiting today, and they catered Blimpie box lunches. I had a turkey sub, with a tiny bit of mayo and some mustard, and a little shake of oil and vinegar. I did drink a bottle of water instead of a can of pop, and didn't eat the chips/Cheetos that came with it. However, I did give in and eat the Oatmeal Raisin Walnut cookie. I savored every bite, but I will definitely have to make up for that by eating less at dinner. Yikes! I do not want to lose the progress I've made so far, so the rest of this week I will be extra diligent with both food and exercise. I will be super busy getting things ready for our camping trip this weekend (we leave Friday morning), but hopefully I can keep up on reading my blogs. Life just isn't the same without it. 

I'm leaving work in just a minute, but tonight I plan to do a short run, then maybe head home and do some strength training (not BL Cardio Max, just in case you were wondering- ha ha). I actually have this crazy DVD that I got free from McDonald's a few years ago when they were promoting their healthy adult Happy Meals. They did a series of them, and I have 3- Strength, Cardio and Core. The strength one is really good, because you do a ton of upper body exercises with (or without) dumbbells, while you do a plie squat for every one. So it works upper and lower body in less than 15 minutes. So maybe I'll bust that out.