Day 18. Grilling Weather!

Today was certainly an early start day.  Alarm went of at 6am.  Up and at em.  Today I got to spend the day Gillette Stadium....  I wish it were to go to Patriot place but no.... it was for a stupid all day conference. But it started at 8am so you know breakfast will be served... and I'm pretty sure breakfast at Gillette is going to be good!!!  Had I mentioned how much I love breakfast!  I had scrambled eggs and bacon and it was gooooood... and you know what the bacon was? .....the maple kind!
My Noom fitness coach tells me that my breakfast was 300 calories.  Not bad at all.  Breakfast was probably the best part of the day, that and getting to stare at the Patriot's field daydreaming while the big wigs did all there self proclaiming.
Finally it was lunch time!!! a lunch buffet for 900 people though...... talk about a long line.  A line in which I was at the verrrrry end of.  Hey, I wasn't hungry or in any rush to eat.  So as I was walking down the line I got to scope out the awesome salad bar.
After about twenty minutes it was finally my turn.  But there were no plates.  So we waited. Yay plates!  Now I have my plate what to put on it... let's start with the..... empty table in front of me.... all the dishes were empty.  No lettuce, no grilled chicken, no CUCUMBERS!?  So I waited. and i waited. and I waited and waited.  Finally the lettuce came so I got ready, and she walked right past my table and put it on the one to the left. I'm patient.  I can wait until she brings out the lettuce for my table... and I waited.... and I waited.... and I SCREW THIS, next table!
Finally lettuce, and tomatoes, and cucumbers, grilled chicken... and a half of a very delicious veggie wrap.
Got out of this meeting and back home around 4:30 so I took the puppies for a walk. It was still 78 degrees at 4:30! 2.5 miles in 32 minutes burning about 250calories. I love this weather! And so do the puppies... look a the little buddies........

Obviously today called for grilling so we had petite sirloin with salad. They were DELICIOUS!  Medium rare... perfectly pink.  My man knows how to grill! Oh how I love grilling weather!  (p.s. Noom tells me my steak and salad was about 500 calories)

Happy Sunny Days!

LB

Day 17. Kick Butt.

Work today was less than desirable. Actually it was one of those days where the second I walked into he place I wanted to turn around and never return. Ever.  I thought that maybe it would get better but it only got worse.  First McDonalds messed up my coffee and I forgot to make my smoothie so I had to settle for a fruit and yogurt parfait.  Second the fog this morning, really people a little fog and we forget how to drive??? So I arrive 10 minutes late and it all went to shit from there.
Lucky for me I bought a box of Clif builder bars because I am an emotional eater!  One Clif bar kept me on the right track.
I was finally able to squeeze lunch in at about 2.... I had this odd craving for alfalfa sprouts so I made a pita with sprouts, salsa, and guacamole. Pita I used was a flax seed and whole wheat pita.
After spending my day as a crazy lady at work I had to get some of this frustration out.  I got home about an hour late, changed, and went straight to the gym.
I kicked my butt of the elliptical.  I ran intervals for an hour.  Sara Barreilles gets me moving then onto Matchbox Twenty... the song  long day came on and that was all I needed to bring it home.  Burnt through 700 calories and I could have kept running.  Today was one of those days where I could have ran FOREVER.  But by now it was 8 o'clock and my gym was closing soon.

I got home and had some peas with ham and FF mozzarella. Strange cravings today.

Can't wait to go to sleep and end this Long Day.

Good Night.
LB

Day 16... South Pacific Shrimp

Another beautiful day today!  This weather just creates ambition.  I just want to be outside doing things! And so I did.  After my morning tea and green smoothie Chris and I took the pups for a walk.  After we got back from that I went out back and played with the dogs.
A lab and water... he doesn't need anything more!  All I had to do was turn on the hose and you would think I just broke out the BEST toy in the whole wide world!!!  Toby chasing the water and Piggy running from the water.  It's great.
For lunch I sautéed spinach and garlic and cooked two eggs over easy... I love spinach! I'm going to be strong like pop eye! No wonder he loved Olive Oil!  Spinach and olive oil, best combo ever.  Top it with fat free mozzarella and viola!

Dinner I decided to experiment.  I found this recipe for South Pacific Shrimp.  Lemmie tell ya, you need to cook this!  It was phenomenal.  I almost went in for seconds but I promised my love I would save him some......  I found this new website eatingwell.com and I will always turn to that place first when looking for a new recipe!  I'm always up for a challenge, here's what this challenge turned out:

LOOK AT THAT!!!!! SO GOOD! And it's pretty! Here's what you need:

MARINADE & SHRIMP

• 1/3 cup “lite” coconut milk, (see Tips)
• 2 serrano chiles, or jalapeno peppers, preferably red, seeded and minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 pound medium shrimp, (30-40 per pound), peeled and deveined (see Tips)

SAUCE

• 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup diced seeded tomato
• 4 cups baby spinach

And here's what you do:

1. Combine coconut milk, chiles, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, lime juice and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes, tossing occasionally. Drain well, reserving marinade.
2. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and cook, turning once, until barely pink, about 30 seconds per side; transfer to a plate. Add tomato and spinach to the pan; cook, stirring, until the spinach starts to wilt, about 30 seconds. Add the reserved marinade; simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 2 minutes. Return the shrimp and any accumulated juices to the pan; heat through. Serve immediately.

I left the legs and shell on my shrimp when I cooked them.  The shell holds the marinade and helps infuse the shrimp with the flavor.  Make sure you use raw shrimp, and the bigger the better!!  Keep in mind, when you cook with shrimp, the shrimp always shrinks... A lot.  So the size you start with is not the size you end with.

Here's the BEST part about this dish: Dish makes 4 servings and each serving is 176 calories; 5 g fat ( 2 g sat , 1 g mono ); 172 mg cholesterol; 9 g carbohydrates; 3 g added sugars; 24 g protein; 1 g fiber; 282 mg sodium; 300 mg potassium.

Yum yum yum!  Perfect meal for fish Friday!

Catch ya later!

LB

Day 15 week three

So I really need to kick it into gear.  I slacked off big time last weekend and that was only week 2!!!!  I decided to download NOOM weight loss coach to my phone.  Tis lil guy helps me track my caloric intake and also logs my workouts whether it be the walking I do at work or the walking I do at home with the dogs.  I had this program before and it gets annoying real fast with the notifications but at least it'll yell at me when I don't workout when I said I was going to unlike a blog :X

This morning it is so beautiful outside!!! I am so glad to have tomorrow off just so I will have a full day to enjoy the gorgeousness that is upon us.   As for today, I soaked up as much sun as possible!!

I had my spinach smoothie sans the oranges.  I think I need to cut down the calories I put in that big green monster.  From now on it will be two bananas, two handfuls of spinach, one cup of chobani, and a pour of flax seed.  The oranges don't really smooth out well in the blender anyways and I'm sick of getting the white rind in each gulp.

After that I tried to get the dogs inside so I could take them for a W.A.L.K.  Toby came right in but Piggy sat there looking at me with the "No Mommy I'm not ready to come in yet" look.  SO I said the magical words, "Come on Piggy time for a walk!" Bingo!  Works every time.  I suppose you could call what I did a walk/jog. Is that what power walking is?? Anyway I was game to go the full loop which is about 3.5 miles but after the second mile and right before the point of no return I realized I was leading the dogs.  They were lagging behind, tongues hanging out, profusely panting.  So it was either left back to the house or right for another mile and a half.... They chose for me! Left all the way.  Bee line  to the house and straight to the water dish.  Ah, I forgot to bring the water bottle.  *Note to self*

So I came back in the house, put on Adele and did some crunches.  She's got some great crunch rhythm songs.
NOw I sit outside typing away swigging on my water with lemon.  Lemon is very good at detoxing your organs so I'm gonna try to add it every time I have a bottle if water.

Read all about the perks of adding lemon to your water.

I have to work tonight so lunch consists of cucumber slices with tuna.  Dinner will be a salad.

I'm thinking rosemary chicken for dinner tomorrow night... but then again it will be grilling weather again so perhaps I'll try my hand at some new grill recipes...

Until then!
LB

Day 13 and 14 Key Lime Cupcakes

Yesterday I had mainly nothing to write about.  I woke up had Belvita crackers then moved on to cleaning the house.   I dusted everything then attacked the floors.  Mop n Glo is a Godsend.

Then the beast named Piggy came in and ruined everything.......

The plan was to get the dogs in the back door and into the bedroom so I could let the floors dry all the way.  Toby went straight to the bedroom but Piggy decided to take a detour across all the nice clean mopped shiny glossy beautiful floors.  It seemed like the more I tried to get her off the floors the more she ran in muddy circles on the floors.  There's no fixing it now... floors ruined. Thanks Piggy.  

That was my exercise for the day, well that and all the laps I did at work.  Food was decent, just had a lean cuisine for dinner and a bowl of salad when I got home. 

Today was a different story, today is my REAL cheat day.  Chris and I had a brunch to go to this morning.  I indulged in eggs benny, hash browns, and bacon!!!  Then I came home and made key lime cheesecake stuffed cupcakes.... You GOTTA check out this recipe.  It may not be diet friendly but my goodness do I know how to cheat right!!!!!

Check these bad Larrys out! Cheesecake stuffed key lime cupcakes!

  Yea that's right I said it twice, they are just that good!

I had one of those... then we cooked the rest of the steak tips (I had them marinading in Italian dressing since Thursday) with turnips and carrots.  I was going to make corned beef and cabbage but it was way too nice outside today to not cook on the grill. 

Then I had a bowl of ice cream. 

Hey I said it was cheat day!!!!! And super PMS day ta boot!  

I'm looking for a life style not a diet....... life needs cupcakes and ice cream.

Back on track tomorrow!  

LB

Accidental Cheat day 12! Garlic Scallops

So today was my day off... I crawled out of bed at about 10am and had a glass of cranberry juice.  After that I got wrapped up in my pinterest and lost track of time.  My cousin texted me at about 1pm to see if we were still on for lunch so I got dressed and went to go visit her at her florist shop.
We ordered out and I got a caprese panini,  it came with onion rings................ who can turn down onion rings when they're already on your plate!!!!  And on top of that it came with a spicy dipping sauce....  I ate some of them.  I did, I accidentally deliberately cheated! And it tasted so good!
I ended up staying with her all day and helping her close up shop.  So I got home at about 5:30pm.  This is just an all in all bad week for the gym!  I'm going to kick myself when I step on that scale on Monday but I just don't have it in me this week.

It's fish Friday!  No steak tips tonight, it's going to be hard to match those delicious chunks of meat.

I decided to cook scallops.  The recipe I settled on was Garlic Scallops.  Easy enough.

2 tbsps margarine in a skillet with a big spoonful of minced garlic.  Let the garlic heat up and get that flavor infused in the margarine.  Mix 3 tbsps flour with salt and pepper to taste.  I added crushed red pepper as well.  Coat the scallops with the flour and put in skillet.  Let cook for about 5 minutes then turn and repeat.  Done.  Piece of cake!
While I was cooking the scallops Mr. Fantastic made a wonderful salad.  He brought home two crab cakes to go with dinner so I just stuck them in the microwave for 3 minutes.

Here's what I got!

I had 6 scallops, the crab cake, and a little salad.  I was still very stuffed from lunch.  I feel like I major over ate!

Oh well.  Better luck next week!

LB

Lucky number 11 Steak tips!

I had to wake up extra early this morning to get to work.  I grabbed my spinach smoothie, got my $1.06 McDonald's coffee and headed out!  When I arrived at work my boss had bought me some oatmeal from McDonald's as well.  I had mentioned yesterday to him that I wanted to try it while he was bragging about how great it is.... Not really that impressed with it, but hey it's oatmeal what's impressive about it?? Anyway I finished about 1/3 of it and I felt very full so I went to meet my boss.  He asked me how it was so I told him I couldn't finish it I was too stuffed and he looked at me like I had ten heads and stated he had already eaten four of them!  Ok, I'll take that as a good sign that not even one half of one filled me up!

That's all I had the opportunity to eat all day at work, well that and my smoothie.  By the time I left work I was pretty darn hungry, and hungry for GOOD food.  I picked up sliced portabella mushrooms, a giant onion, and steak tips.

THIS DINNER IS SO FRIGGIN DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HEALTHY STEAK TIPS:

I look two tbsp olive oil, a tbsp of minced garlic, the portabella mushrooms, and half the onion and sautéed them all.  I added some crushed red pepper to spice it up.  Then I look two steak tips and cut them into small pieces, about 5 pieces per tip.  Then I lightly coated the tips with my new favorite adobo spice.  After that I put them in the pan with the mushrooms and onions.  That didn't seem like enough for me so I grabbed a handful of my spinach and threw that in with everything else.
Tips cooked to medium rare... spinach and mushrooms on the plate topped with the tips topped with fat free mozzarella cheese.

 Ooooooh so good.  Melts in your mouth good. Who knew life could taste so good! ( I have mentioned that I love food, right?)

Just look at it! 

Before I even started in on the tips I was feeling satisfied with the mushrooms.  I probably had 4 of the steak tip pieces. I DEFINITELY recommend this! You will never look at spinach and mushrooms the same way! But that's coming from a spinach and mushroom lover.

Think this is unhealthy? Think again! 4 pieces was only 120 calories! Here's the nutrition facts for one piece of my tips :)

Don't forget to add in the spinach and mushrooms, I consider those veggie power so I'm not even going to count them :b  Olive oil 2tbsps should be remembered though. 

You'd think that after 11 days of drinking my spinach I would be sick of it... I was actually CRAVING it yesterday and today.  After today I may crave it every day of my life going forward!

You can thank me later ;)

Enjoy

LB