I've Been Bad...

 

I've been so bad!  This was my breakfast...two raspberry pancakes with butter and powdered sugar.  Oh my gosh, they were SO good, but I was miserable after I ate them.  To make matters worse, I will admit that I also at two of these last night.  Horrible...

At lunch today, I went to my favorite place - Whole Foods - and just walked around and browsed.  I ended up getting a very good chicken salad sandwich, some more coconut water, and some new yogurt that you'll probably read about next week. 

 

Coconut water, chia seeds, banana, cherries, spinach, and asparagus.

I ate my sandwich and washed it down with a Green Monster.  The GM was really good today, I made it this morning and kept it in the fridge at work.   

I've really been in a funk lately and it has been affecting my exercise in a negative way.  I was about to back out of running after work today, but I finally settled on a short run and I'm glad I did.  It's much better than not doing it at all.

Overall, I would say my motivation today was just average.  I got some points for my short run and I did some things at work today that I had been putting off earlier in the week, but I do still have these things waiting for me...

Green Hummus and a Motivation Update

Many days I decide what's for dinner as I'm driving home from work.  In my head I go through the ingredients I have on hand and try to think of something halfway creative and tasty.  Tonight I remembered the cilantro I have in the veggie drawer and since I've been on a hummus kick lately, I put the two together. 

 

Cannellini beans, tahini, lime juice, cilantro, evoo, and salt.

I have been so busy this week that I totally forgot to mention my motivation for the past couple of posts.  For me, busy is best because I don't even have time to think about whether or not I'm motivated.  I've had a lot of things going on at work and then shuttling the kids to some appointments and some evening activities gave me little time for anything else.

One thing I'm NOT motivated for lately, and I'm NOT happy about it either, is running or working out.  The scale is really starting to show it too and that puts me in a super bad mood.  Running has been my passion for the past 7 or 8 months and I'm beginning to wonder if I've lost that.  I am holding out hope that after the time changes back and we "spring forward", I'll spring right back into running.  

Have you ever lost the passion for doing something you love?  What did you do to get it back?

Let's Talk Coffee...

I gave you a teaser last week that I would post soon about coffee "my way".  Well, the time has come.

I'm no coffee snob, I don't grind my coffee beans fresh daily, and I'm not even extremely picky about the type of coffee I drink.  I buy various brands of coffee.  Sometimes whatever is on sale or whatever sounds good at the time.  Matt dictates that it can't be a flavored coffee.  He hates those and I'm fine with that.  Usually we pick a medium to dark roast.

I AM, however, concerned about what goes IN my coffee!  There are 3 things I put in my coffee that make me happy.

I mentioned coconut oil once before.  I've started sneaking adding about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to the coffee grounds (Matt still hasn't realized it!).  The coconut oil (unrefined, cold pressed, "extra virgin", etc.) is so good for you and putting it in coffee is a good way to get that oil into your daily diet. 

When I was on my "Coconut Kick", I decided to try replacing the cream in my coffee with coconut milk.  When you look at the calorie and fat content it's about half that of cream (yes, I used full fat heavy cream) and, although I do not claim to be an expert by any means, I believe the type of fat in the coconut milk is much better for you than what you get from heavy cream (and if I'm wrong, please allow me to remain blissfully ignorant).  I've been drinking my coffee with coconut milk for about 2 months now and I'm totally hooked.  I don't want it any other way!

Several years ago, Matt started topping off his coffee with some Reddi Whip we had leftover from some dessert (when he wasn't squirting it directly into his mouth!).  It caught on and I started adding it to my cup of coffee...now we buy Reddi Whip for the sole purpose of topping our coffee!

And that's coffee..."my way"!

I've Created a Monster!

This morning I just wasn't in the mood for my oatmeal (I know, shocking!), but I had some Strawberry Papaya left over from the Exotic Fruit Plate the other day and I got an idea...

 

I made a Green Monster!  I believe I first read about Green Monsters on Healthy Tipping Point (she writes a great blog - check it out!).  Since then though, they seem to be popping up in lots of things I'm reading.  Everyone raves about them, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I used a Zico passion fruit flavored coconut water, 1 scoop of chia seeds, 1 banana, 1/2 strawberry papaya, and a bowl full of spinach.  Here's how it came out:

It was REALLY green and REALLY yummy!  Totally sweet with no spinach-y taste whatsoever!  It kept me satisfied most of the morning and it felt good to have such a healthy breakfast.

I had some errands to run at lunch, so just grabbed a half sandwich with a side of mac 'n' cheese at Panera.

 

Thier mac 'n' cheese is really good, but it just tasted so rich to me today that I couldn't finish it.  I didn't eat any more of it after I took this picture.  

Later, I wanted a snack and I had these to choose from:

The choice seemed obvious until I looked at the nutritional info.

 

Wow...not at all what I expected.  I have never been one to count calories, but I was shocked that this yogurt has so many calories and so much fat!  I'm typically a "full fat" type of person but I think I will have to check out the lower fat version of this yogurt if I'm going to keep eating it. 

I still chose the yogurt because, even though it was chock full of calories and fat, it still seemed like it would be more healthy and it just sounded better to me.  

I didn't make it home in time to run, so I have been bummed all evening!  I'm going to begin my countdown to the beginning of Daylight Saving Time!!  After March 15, it will be so much easier to get home in time to run before the sun goes down and I'll just be a happier person in general! :)

Dinner tonight was pretty simple, but still yummy.  We grilled chicken, roasted veggies, and served it with couscous.  The couscous was for my son who decided he really likes that stuff!

I covered my chicken with Texafrance Cilantro Pesto.  I don't know if anyplace other than Texas carries this brand of pesto, but it is fabulous!  They have several different variations such as Cilantro, Poblano, Chipotle, regular, etc.  I've tried the Poblano and now the Cilantro and seriously I could have eaten them with a spoon!

 

I have a big day tomorrow since I'm facilitating an all day meeting.  Off to bed I go!

Happy Birthday!

We had a little celebration last night, but today is actually Matt's birthday.  Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

 

For his birthday dinner tonight, we had one of his favorite dishes - Mussels in Saffron White Wine Sauce.  He's a seafood lover, so he usually requests some sort of seafood.  Here's how it all started...

 

...and here's how it ended up...

While I prepared dinner tonight, I was admiring how pretty my veggie drawer looks after a couple of trips to the store this weekend.  It's so nice and colorful, I just had to take a picture!

For the past few months, I've been trying really hard to incorporate more vegetables into our meals.  There are very few vegetables that Matt will eat (and actually enjoy) and the kids aren't much better, so I'm trying to get creative (read: sneaky).  

Hopefully you'll be seeing more of these beauties later in the week!  I can't wait to dig into them!

Did you know it's National Procrastination Week?  Cool!  That means I can procrastinate all week and not feel guilty?  :)  Well, I would say I started off pretty good then because I really didn't do anything productive other than work and make dinner.  I also had a really bad headache all day, so I wasn't extremely motivated to do much else.  There's always tomorrow, right?