A plate and a bowl

Posted on June 8, 2010 by lowandbhold

I am off to a slow start this morning. I feel a bit out of it. But, I’m up and surely things will start rollin’ pretty soon.

Yesterday rolled right on by. I love it when Mondays are quick and painless. Well, it wasn’t totally painless, I found out I have to pay $300 for that flat tire I had a while back because my car dealership filed the claim wrong. But whatever. I’m trying to push that out of sight and mind for now.

Lunch yesterday was a salad. Pretty standard fare – there were ‘maters, an entire avocado, radishes and some raspberry hazelnut dressing I jacked from the work fridge. The key to a filling lunch salad is plenty of fat, hence the whole avocado.

Later on I had a snack of some green grapes and a makeshift quesadilla, which was just a tortilla with a 2% cheese stick melted inside.

After work, I watched The Lovely Bones, which I didn’t really care for, while snacking on a Peach Chobani.

I think I may have liked the movie if I hadn’t read the book – but I felt like they took unnecessary liberties with the changes they made and basically changed the entire tone and feel of the story. I know it’s hard to adapt a book into a screenplay, but I think sticking to the original feel is important. But that’s just my two cents.

After I finished up the movie, I headed out to Body Pump. I’m slowly building up my weight, but I have the upper body strength of a cricket so it’s taking awhile. I enjoy the challenge of seeing if I can go up a little and make it through the set. Good stuff.

Dinner was very veggie oriented, one could even say it was very carb oriented if one liked the word carb (which I don’t). It started with a plate. On the plate was a slice of bread, spread with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light and corn on the cob.

Speaking of words I don’t like, “cob” is one of them. It just sounds dirty.

But the actual food is pretty delicious. I love how sweet corn is. The bread was pretty phenom as well.

Next up, I moved on to a bowl of beets, broccoli and feta.

It was my first time ever cooking beets, and they turned out amazingly well. I roughly followed Steph’s beet recipe and they turned out great.

While all that cooking and eating was occurring, I was also watching Up in the Air, which I loved. I don’t even know what to say about it, other than it was great and I completely understand why it received so much Oscar buzz.

After the movie was over, it was bed time. Now it’s time for another day to begin. I think I’m going to be the only one in my department today, so I’d better get busy – lots to do!

What is your favorite movie genre? I like drama and quirky comedies, like I Heart Huckabees, but I’ll watch most genres. I’m least impressed by end-of-the-world dramas and zombie movies, and really terrible rom-coms.

Setting the tone

Posted on June 5, 2010 by lowandbhold

Good Saturday to you all! I am having a terrific day already. I got up early and hit the gym for Body Pump, which I have missed dearly. I actually thought class was cancelled again, but Emily showed up and saved the day.

I love kicking off the weekend with a sweaty workout. It just sets the tone. After working out I hit up Target to get some laundry detergent and they had Pineapple Chobani. If that’s not a surefire sign that it’s going to be a good weekend, I don’t know what is.

Let’s zip through yesterday though, since it was a pretty decent day as well. I didn’t get any pictures of Friday Breakfast, because we had to head straight into a meeting and eat there. It was pretty standard though – egg casserole. I actually think breakfast casseroles might be in my Top 20 Fave Foods, but that list is ever-changing.

Lunch was leftover Chickpea Pesto Pasta.

It was alright. I didn’t really have enough leftover pesto to make that dish a winner though. Next time I’ll know better.

Later on I snacked on some watermelon.

After work I went on a walk downtown with my SIL. It was crazy hot out so we walked through the underground tunnels. One hallway was all kinds of trippy and made us feel like we were on drugs. I felt the need to take a picture.

After walking I FINALLY got to go to the grocery store. I kept myself in check and didn’t buy too much, but it felt good to have a semi-full fridge once again. I took advantage of my co-op and grocery store goodies and made a beast of a salad.

The salad had organic greens, organic tomatoes, roasted organic broccoli, roasted corn off the cob, sliced radishes and feta cheese. Dare I say it was the best salad I’ve made in 2010? Summer veggies make all the difference.

I continued the tradition of being fairly lame and staying in for the night. If I go out on Fridays then I don’t wake up for Body Pump. Plus, I’m always worn out by Friday. Still, a little lame but oh well.

I just finished eating a breakfast that was the opposite of lame. It was a badass breakfast.

I had Eggs in a Basket for the first time ever.

I don’t know why it took me so long to try this. I loved it. I also had a Pineapple Chobani. It had to happen.

To top it all off I had some of my co-op cherries.

Now I’m just sitting on the patio, blogging and enjoying the gorgeous summer weather. The remainder of the day will likely be spent by the pool.

Life is good.

My first co-op experience

Posted on June 4, 2010 by lowandbhold

I would like to make a public declaration this morning:

I think protein oats are the gaggiest food on the planet.

I’ve tried to like them, but they turn my stomach every time. Never again will I waste good oatmeal and good protein powder by combining them. Blech.

Because I didn’t eat my breakfast yesterday and had no food backups at work, I was positively hangry by the time lunch rolled around.

I learned from the ever brilliant Lisa that yesterday was National Egg Day, and never one to turn down a food holiday – I celebrated with an egg burrito.

I also satisfied a week-long craving of having a chocolate shake. A friend mentioned having one on Sunday, and I’ve been wanting one ever since.

I’m a firm believer that the only way to get rid of a craving is to satisfy it. I had a small shake and ate it with a spoon. No more craving!

Work kind of dragged by yesterday. I’ve been having a lovely bout of insomnia this week and I felt like I was going to pass out at my desk all day.

The only thing that got me through it was the anticipation of picking up my first ever co-op share after work!

I went with a lesser known co-op in Edmond (email me for more info, they don’t have a website) because they don’t have a membership fee. You just pay a flat rate each time you want to order a share, and everything is supposedly organic (although I’m not sure that’s true).

I was pretty impressed with the haul! My sister-in-law and I split the share because I didn’t think I’d be able to eat it all myself before stuff started going bad.

This is all the stuff we had to split in half. You’ve got carrots, green grapes, half a huge zucchini, cherries, and half a cantalope.

And beets! I’m in love with beets right now, but I’ve never cooked them myself. I’m more than a little scared of the mess, but excited to eat them.

I got to have all the broccoli because my SIL can’t have it. That’s a lot of broccoli. I have an idea for it though.

I also ordered a dozen farm fresh, organic eggs. I’m kind of scared of these too for some reason, but I’m sure they’ll be good.

There were also tomatoes and an avocado. As well as some strawberries and peaches, which I didn’t get a solo shot of and blueberries that I let my SIL have because I’m not a huge lover of blueberries. Oh, and a container of organic spring greens.

I have a lot of eatin’ to do!

After I put away my goodies, I realized that it had been 8 hours since I’d had my last meal. Yikes! Good thing my SIL had sent me home with some lentil curry to have for dinner.

The curry featured eggplant, zucchini and lentils and it was delicious. She told me to top it with feta, so I obliged.

For dessert I had my cantalope half filled with some strawberries.

Like summer in a bowl. I was in heaven.

I had planned on going to Body Pump last night as well, but it was cancelled. Honestly, that was kind of a blessing in disguise. My body was angry yesterday.

Sleep deprivation can really take a toll on a person very quickly. Also, my left foot has been hurting lately and I think I needed to take a day off of vigorous exercise. I did 40 minutes of random OnDemand workouts, but nothing too challenging.

I still didn’t sleep well last night, but I don’t feel as worn out today as I did yesterday so I think the break served me well. Hopefully this weekend I can catch up on some zzz’s.

One thing that makes me fairly certain that I wasn’t built for the 8 to 5 lifestyle is how poorly I sleep during the week.

I go to bed at 10 and don’t fall asleep until well after midnight. And when I do sleep it’s kind of that lucid sleep where I never actually feel like I’m asleep, if that makes any sense. So I wake up the next morning feeling like death.

During the weekends, when the pressure to conform to a certain sleep schedule is off, I sleep like a baby. It’s weird.

Just thought I’d share that because I know a lot of people deal with insomnia, and it sucks. I feel ya.

Have you ever joined a co-op or a CSA program? Did you like it?

Any tips on how to make protein oatmeal less disgusting?

Worse than a bachelor

Posted on June 3, 2010 by lowandbhold

Good morning all!

Thank you so much for assuring me that I am not doomed to seven years of bad luck. I am definitely not a believer in those things, but the mirror thing was so wierd that I got a little spazzy.

Also, I am going to choose to believe that the mirror fell off (why it fell off I still cannot justify) at a really strange angle, which is why it shattered on the carpet. Completely normal.

And lastly, thank you for your kind words regarding my running story. That post was really fun to write and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Lunch yesterday was a salad purchased from a coffee shop and deli I often frequent. I’ve never bought food there before, and now I see why. This was pretty lackluster.

I get my co-op delivery tonight and I get paid at midnight, so I will finally be able to stock up on food soon. Very soon.

Lunch dessert was a Crunchy Peanut Butter Mini Clif bar.

Work was okay yesterday. Nothing exciting. It went by fairly quickly. Yada yada.

Dinner was literally the cleaning out of the last remaining food items I own. I made Chickpea Pesto Pasta.

Just some pasta, a can of chickpeas, grape tomatoes and pesto topped with feta cheese. Not too shabby.

I had to make something that would produce leftovers for today, otherwise I would have been eating my shoes for lunch. No one wants that.

But now I’m seriously out of food. I do not exaggerate when I say this either. Behold:

I’m pretty sure both the Fage and the hummus you see there are expired and will have to be thrown out tomorrow morning when I take out the trash.

Other than that I have my leftovers for today, two eggs, some protein shakes, apple sauce, a ginger ale and two random mismatched beers. Oh, and probably a third of a cup of milk. Sad. I’m worse than a bachelor.

The fridge door offerings are not very exciting either.

Sad, sad, sad. The next trip to the grocery store is going to set me back a pretty penny, that’s for sure.

What’s not sad is the fact that even though I fell asleep on the couch after dinner, I still got up and went for a 45-minute run.

I have no idea how far I ran, because I won’t be tracking that until I start my marathon training. I didn’t even wear a watch so I had no idea how long I had ran until I got home. It’s so mentally freeing to just run without any concern about the technical stuff. I love it.

Do you wear a lot of gear when you workout? I have to have music, but other than that I don’t like to have a lot of stuff on. I find it distracting. I do want a Garmin though. Badly.

Incoming search terms:

clif bar crunchy peanut butter

8-5 advantages

Posted on April 29, 2010 by lowandbhold

Ah, how quickly we forget. I’ll be the first to admit that I was being a tad silly last night. Indeed, a mandatory summer break for all would be nice, but college had its downfalls also.

Back then, I woke up stressed out every single morning, for so many different reasons. Now, I still stress, but a lot less frequently.

Then, I had such an unpredictable schedule that I didn’t eat incredibly well. Now, I eat gorgeous salads and other homemade foods in the evenings.I did not prepare myself feta, avocado and clementine salads tossed in a homemade Asian-inspired dressing while attending university. Instead, I ate mass quantities of Sonic hamburgers and Lean Cuisines. Not that I’m knocking either of those things, but you know…

I’m honestly amazed at some of the college bloggers I follow who actually eat healthfully on the regular. I did not.

I tried, but it didn’t go very well. And all I really knew how to cook was spaghetti, grilled cheese, and eggs. Oh, and sloppy joes. I make a mean sloppy joe. Not the kind from a can either.

Another advantage to the whole 8-5 thing? You can afford to buy yourself pretty things.Or, you can at least pretend you can afford it and buy it anyways. This was my “congratulations for running a half marathon” gift to myself. I love it.

So, even though my legs are as pasty white as all get out and a wild night these days means staying up past 10 p.m., I’m glad to have moved on to the post-graduate life.

It’s hard to believe that I only graduated a year ago. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been living this life forever.

I think it’s good to reflect on the past, and not forget who you were at each stage of your life. And then, when you’re done reflecting, be thankful for the present. And respectful of the future. Each day will be what it’s supposed to be.

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