Some of My Favorite Things

Happy Friday, y’all!

Today was a good day!   I got a lot accomplished, despite having gone out with my husband on “date night” last night. (We had a babysitter watch all the kids).

Today we found out that our boat is ready, (it needed some work after the winter) and since it’s hotter then the devil here in Georgia, we are extremely happy about this.  Tomorrow I am lake bound! Can’t wait!!  I’m the type of person who needs instant gratification, everything needs to be done yesterday. I’m fairly impatient, as you can tell at times.

Today I want to share some of my favorite foods with you.  I eat a lot of them on a regular basis, but try to switch them up by adding different spices and this and that.  Lets start with my all time fave, eggs.

Eggs are an inexpensive complete protein source.  They can be cooked a ton of different ways.  I used to only eat the egg whites, but now I throw in a whole egg to that mix, or cook two whole eggs for breakfast.

One of the ways that I like to cook eggs starts with my spraying a bit of olive oil with my Mysto sprayer in a frying pan and sauteing mushrooms.

White Mushrooms

Then I whisk together the eggs and probably a tablespoon of herbs de provence, which you can find in the spice aisle.

and then it is supposed to look something like this:

Fave Eggs!

I also added some low-fat feta. These are fantastic tasting!

Then, there are of course, the 2 whole eggs, sunny side up, on one slice of preservative free whole wheat toast…

Sunshine on my plate, lol

Another favorite of mine recently are Larabars.  They’re kind of high in calories and fat, but they only have 5 ingredients and are good and clean! I like to eat them after the gym, for some reason…and they also have ones with chocolate! Sometimes you can find them on sale 10 for $10…and they also just came out with mini bars, which are obviously less calories and fat.

Another favorite food of mine is the salad.  I’ve been alternating between romaine and spinach…the spinach has 1 more gram of protein, but more sodium then the romaine…it just depends on how I’m feeling that day!  Cover it in some kind of protein (I favor grilled chicken), veggies, and a tablespoon of a clean dressing, and you’ll be full for HOURS.

The salad pictured is actually spinach, feta, homemade salsa, purple onion, mushrooms and dressing. YUM!

I have recently been into drinking cream in my coffee.  I hated to buy it, because most half and half has HFCS in it and some sort of preservative.  After reading every label in the grocery store (does anyone else do that? I feel retarded standing there reading everything! It takes twice the time for me to get my shopping done sometimes, if I’m looking for items I don’t buy on a regular basis!)

At any rate, I found a creamer that is just that: cream. And it’s not skim milk, so it doesn’t turn my coffee gray, lol.

The way coffee is supposed to look

My cream:

CLEAN!!

Here is a pic of the ingredients:

Highly recommended if you’re a coffee drinker like myself.

Since I recently got a Vitamix,

which is essentially a very high powered blender, I have been making smoothies! It can also make natural nut butters, but I haven’t gotten that far yet…and soup that comes out HOT!  It’s a fantastic little machine and really worth the money.

I made my first green smoothie ever, and the only reason it was green was from spinach, not some weird dirt-like protein powder, lol.

Then there was a pink one, which had mango, banana, strawberry and vanilla protein powder:

Pretty in Pink Smoothie

My other favorite thing recently: plain old water.  I’ve been drinking 80-100 ounces a day (or trying my best, my absolute minimum is 60 ounces).  It is so important to get enough water in.  Guess what? For those of us that retain water, drinking water will get rid of that excess bloat from whatever.  I was never a big water drinker, but now I can’t get enough! (Along with red wine, but that’s a story for another day )

My other favorite things are my kids, as many of you know.  Some things that happened during the last 3 months:

Soccer Time!

We found out that Sophia is kind of a natural athlete, and she loves to play soccer!

Aidan and Me

Aidan graduated to 5th grade, Sean graduated to 3rd…and also climbed almost all the way to the top of a rock wall:

Sophia graduated from pre-k and is officially on her way to kindergarten:

and we took a trip to Stone Mountain, GA.

And decided to walk down the mountain which is a mile, and then another mile back to the park!

That was a super-fun trip!

There’s lots going on this summer, so I hope to bring new and exciting foods and trips to the table for you all to see.  I missed you guys while I was gone! And I missed blogging. Thank you for all of your condolences and well wishes.

Jessica

Some of this, some of that…

Hello all.  Sorry I haven’t been blogging so much lately.  I’m home helping my parents, and my Dad is very, very sick.  Sometimes it’s just a lot to think.  With that being said, tonight’s blog is going to mainly be pictures.  I am still eating in the real world, and doing the best job that I can under the circumstances.

Let’s start with yesterday it was sunny again in Rochester! Amazing. I had everything taken care of, and finally got a run going around 3:30pm to enjoy the day outside.  Today it rained all day long, so I’m glad I took advantage of the sun!

I also apologize for every picture being kind of…crappy.  Iphone pictures leave a lot to be desired!

I was a little stop and go on that run.  I didn’t find my groove until the last 15 minutes, but decided to call it a day.

I ate some breakfasts:

3 egg whites, baby bella mushrooms, herbs de provence.  That other thing on my plate? A cinnamon roll. I just wanted something sweet.  I suspect you will be seeing some uncharacteristically sweet items the next few days until I go home, because when I stress, I eat sweets.  And not much else.  I am making an honest effort to eat healthy, but I’m not depriving myself of some sweets.  I can clean it up when I get home!

Thus eating in the real world.

Some more breakfast:

Clean pancake (meaning no preservatives or oil), Oikos plain Greek yogurt, blueberries and cinnamon. The next picture is all smushed down so I could eat it, and I sprinkled it with Truvia, because the yogurt was just so sour!

There was some snack/lunches:

It was actually the Apple Pie flavor. YUMMY!

and:

5 of these huge glasses of water.  I figured it out, and it was just over a gallon. Per day.  Water is definitely good for you! I’m glad I took my own advice and started drinking so much!

There was some more of this:

with some Mary’s Gone Crackers.

Sorry, I guess lunches weren’t much the last couple of days!

Dinners were a bit better!

Leftover Greek Salad from pasta night, roasted frozen brussel sprouts, and rotisserie chicken.  Very good! Completely filling, and good for me.

Today I had to go to the grocery store so I purchased one of their “$6 meals” for dinner:

Parmesan garlic encrusted tilapia, seasoned green beans, and squash with Craisins, spinach and onions.  It rocked, it was so good! I do have that food sensitivity to green beans, of all things, (found out through a food sensitivity test that I had done several months ago) and I hadn’t eaten them in a long time.  Wow, they did a number on my stomach tonight.  Green beans, of all things.  Ugh.  They will definitely be eaten in moderation (uh, or not at all) from now on.

Yesterday there was a very small piece of chocolate cheesecake with real whipped cream:

It looks bigger then it was!   It was truly the most decadent slice of cheesecake I have ever had, and very, very rich.

It looks like I’m all caught up, so I’m going to sign off.  Happy running, happy Tuesday, and don’t ever forget to tell your family that you love them.

Peace Out,

Jessica xoxo

What a beautiful day!

It was a great day in Western New York today! The sun was shining, it was warm and a little windy…perfect for a run:

I rocked the run!  It felt fantastic to get out there and run again, I’d been neglecting the runs lately, since I decided not to run the race.  I missed it, though!  I may not be the fastest runner, but I love it because I can get into a groove where it just feels good. I’ve read that this happens to runners, thus the reason why I consider myself one!

I also did a short ab workout which consisted of crunches, reverse crunches, v-ups and pulse-ups.

I was going to run earlier in the morning, but ended up running mid-afternoon because of a trip to Wegmans (the local grocery store).  So breakfast I had a protein and a carb, because I knew I’d be running today:

4 egg whites, 1 slice of mozzarella cheese, and herbs de provence.   The carb was a blueberry pancake sprinkled with cinnamon (no syrup).

After I returned from the store (breakfast was actually at lunch time, LOL) I needed something to get me through the run, so I had one of these:

I’m becoming very fond of these.  And this one does taste like PB&J!  I think it had 5 ingredients, tops. All pronounceable, and no preservatives.

When I returned after the run, I was hungry again, but it was so late in the day that I decided a snack would suffice:

Hummus with:

Mary’s Gone Crackers.  My fave snack! I got some great things at the store today!

My parents have some wonderful friends who cooked dinner for us, brought it over and visited while it heated in the oven.  I love any food I don’t have to cook, and it just so happens that this food tasted awesome.

They brought over the following:

stuffed shells.

and:

greek salad, garlic bread, pita.

The Greek Salad was wonderful!  There was feta, onion, big dark green lettuce leaves, olives, pepperocini’s, and calamari with a dill dressing.

This is what my plate looked like…veggified, LMAO:

Veggified!

Broccoli and cauliflower, stuffed shell, garlic bread, lots of Greek Salad, and a corner of a pita.  Awesome, awesome!  I stuffed my face full of some really rockin’ food.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another food rockin’ day in the real world!

Jessica xoxo

Breakfast for Dinner

Hello friendlies!  I am in a fantastic mood tonight (you will see this post in the morning ) I finally got a good workout in this week! Whoo-hoo!  I didn’t go on Monday, Tuesday was interrupted during class for my kids early dismissal from school for the snowstorm (yes, I live in GA!), so I only got 3/4 of a class in and chest (weights).  I was actually sore this morning from the weights, because I decided to increase my weights and decrease my reps.

I’ve had enough, I really want to get toned before we leave for the family vacay in June! Remember, however, that being fit is 80% nutrition.  I think I’ve been cheating too much as of late, so have tightened up my eats, which you will hopefully see over the next few days.

With that being said, I just couldn’t decide what to eat for breakfast!  I decided on my staple as of late:

1 whole egg, 2 egg whites, mushrooms and herbs de provence.  One rock hard half of a blueberry bagel.  I could have broken a window with that thing!  I ate it anyway, just because it was really stale didn’t mean that it tasted bad, LOL!

I went to pick up Biscuit, it was a wonderful, sun-shiny day today and 41 degrees!  Biscuit is doing really well, although the vet put a pain patch on her which is making her tired.  Happy to have her home, though!

After the 2 hour drive, I got home finally and it was already lunch time!  I decided on leftovers:

Leftover clean baked chicken with Frank’s Red Hot (completely clean!!) and half a sweet potato.  Spicy but not too hot, what they make Buffalo Chicken Wings from! (Remember, I lived in Buffalo for many years, so I know.)  It was sooo good, and I totally recommend it if you like some spice in your lunch.

I knew I was going to need a snack this afternoon before going to the gym tonight for BodyCombat…so I chose a Luna Bar:

Blueberry Bliss.  LOVE it!

Those bars are decadent.  Again, the sugar is high (I think 12 grams).  FYI.

I dragged myself to the car after having a large cup of coffee and ROCKED it in Combat!  Whoo-hoo!  I love when I take class and it all falls into place!   Where you feel like you really got a good workout in, that burned lots of calories, and made you more fit all at the same time.  Unfortunately, my Polar heart rate monitor is on the fritz, so I had to hand it back in…so no actual numbers for the calorie burn.  I can only use my Garmin one outside when I run because it needs a satellite signal.

During my workout I’ve been drinking tea, just to have something different with water.  I am not a fan of sports drinks or flavored what-not, because generally they are not clean and have a lot of calories in them and/or chemicals.

This is what I’ve been drinking:

I’ve been drinking this as well:

I love Yogi teas.  They are very mild, all natural ingredients…they make me feel like I’m putting good things into my body!

I came home starving.  Another sign of a kick-butt workout! Except I didn’t feel like chicken…or turkey.  I used my last 3 eggs and made this:

Looks like breakfast!  1 whole egg, 2 egg whites with herbs de Provence, caramelized onions, mushrooms, roasted broccoli and toast (x2).

Well, I have to sign off.  All of the driving, working out and eating has left me exhausted!  Hope y’all have a fantastic Thursday…the weekend is almost here! YAY!!!

Jessica xoxo

Super Survivor Thursday!

Yes, it’s Thursday. YES, Survivor was on.  I love my Survivor.  I won’t post anything about the show, because there may be some west-coasters out there and I don’t want to ruin it for them!   Go Boston Rob!!! I am so glad it is Thursday!  Whoo-hoo!

I decided a big breaky was in order since I was going to BodyStep this morning.  It was soooo good! One meal I don’t normally mess up is breakfast!

Eggs. Bagel. Yumminess!!!

What we have here is one whole egg, 2 egg whites, mushrooms and herbs de provence.  My carb was a blueberry bagel with blueberry jam.  Approximately 310 calories.

Then I had my workout session, and I kicked it hard. In BodyStep I burned 488 calories at 22% fat.  After BodyStep I decided I wanted to run a few miles instead of weights.  I just don’t see the point in lifting until the 1/2 marathon is done.  I believe that it’s tremendously hard to gain muscle when doing so much cardio.  Just as a side note, I do get some body-weight resistance training (about 15 minutes worth, plus abs) in my classes so I will not lose my muscle tone.

With that being said, I ran 2.75 miles after class and burned 335 calories at 21% fat.  This is a grand total of: 823 calories. Whoo-hoo!   This would also explain why I was soooo hungry today and craving carbs (along with the usual cheese and chocolate cravings of late).

Let’s talk lunch.  Lunch consisted of one of these @ 100 calories (and clean, which is why I wanted to try them):

It was good.  Definitely had a different texture than a burger, but I wasn’t expecting a burger, either.  I smothered it in cheese and added some sides:

Gardenburger, 1/4 cup low-fat cottage cheese, yellow bell pepper.  All of this = happy, happy, me! Oh, and 1 slice mozzarella cheese.  Approximately 240 calories.

By the way, I am calorie-ing out my foods today because I was curious.  It does not include the chocolate I ate, LOL!

Then I had a cheese stick with Sophia, approximately 90 calories.  And this is where I give up with the calorie counting.  It’s just so tedious. I try to listen to my body, and I was super hungry today. So be it!!

Dinner was leftovers tonight.  While the kids had spaghetti and meatballs, and Jeremy had chili with toasted rolls (I partook in 1/2 a buttered hamburger roll), and a couple of spoonfuls of his chili (homemade, yum!)  I had leftover Delmonico Steak (approx. 3 ounces) 1/2 of a huge sweet potato with a garlic yogurt sauce, and my squash with cranberries and basil.  I dipped the steak in the hot pepper salsa I’ve been all about.  Scrumptious and filling (after I ate all of mine and some of Jeremy’s dinner…glad he likes to share )

Dinner of Champions!

Oh, and a pic of the largest sweet potato I’ve ever seen:

Here are some more pics of the potato, LOL:

Sweet Potato with yogurt garlic sauce. HEAVEN!

Also, a pic of the squash:

Cranberry Basil Butternut Squash

Then there was another cheese stick, chocolate…I think that was it for dessert.  I was starving during Survivor again, so I decided I needed more cheese (this time havarti) and half of a honey wheat bagel that I toasted and had melty, cheesy goodness:

WOW! I think I ate a lot of food today…but with the calorie burn, it was completely justified.  Tomorrow is the day I run the 7 miler.  I swear!  I know I’ve been putting it off.  I think I should have put my long runs on the weekend, instead of Wednesdays, because I’m dreading how sore I’m going to be.  An ice bath may be the order of the day tomorrow when I get home   Sad thing is, I could’ve done it today, I got into a zone while reading my new Oxygen magazine on the treadmill, but had the kids with me at the gym and didn’t want to starve them to death as it was almost lunchtime!

Hope you all have good clean eats and a fantastic night.  See you after the run tomorrow!

Jessica xoxo

And then it snowed…

Good evening! Rochester is getting hit with a HUGE snow storm.  The schools here are all canceled tomorrow, so you know that it’s bad.  Of course I was out in it when it began, I had to go to the grocery store (the one that gives me anxiety attacks because it is so busy, LOL) and get a few things for the family.  Tomorrow I have more running around, and I may invest in some trail shoes for running outside in the snow. I don’t think my sneakers are going to cut it.  We shall see!

Today Mom was at the doctor for the majority of the day so it was more of a snacky-snacky kind of day.  Breakfast is my new favorite thanks to my Dad:

Mushroom omelet with herbs de Provence. They really add such fantastic flavor!  That is one whole egg, and one egg white, plus half of a blueberry bagel. (Not the pre-packaged kind, so clean).

And of course, my staple morning beverage:

Cooffeeeee! In an Atlanta coffee mug, where it’s been 63 degrees today, not 16. I’m just sayin’.

I was at the doctor with Mom, and we compeltely missed the lunch that they serve.  I came prepared, just in case, though!  It’s all about being prepared.  I had another Luna Lemon Zest bar:

I really like these bars. I really don’t like the amount of sugar (13 grams).  I have some others I am going to try that I can’t get at home, so if I love them, I’m shipping them home!

I also ate some of the clean beef jerky that Jeremy made me with Braggs Aminos:

That’s all that was left!

This is what it was to begin with..I ate one slice.  Braggs is lower in sodium then traditional soy sauce, so I don’t feel bad about eating it.

I guess that was “lunch”.  I needed to go to the store, and then all of the sudden, it hit me and I was starving so I grabbed some organic chocolate covered almonds, (and almost ate the whole thing!)

I kind of “tore into it”, LOL!

I finally got home in the snowstorm and had dinner with the parents…Italian style goulash with carrots and mushrooms as my veggie, because I didn’t have time to make anything else:

The right side is the veggies, the left is the goulash.  No I did not mix them together! Hit. The. Spot.

I was hungry again soon after, probably because my caloric intake was so low.  I took out some of these:

COCO POPS!!

Oh my goodness, these are fantastic.  They make them right in front of you, no preservatives, and 16 calories.  Lighter than a rice cake.  However, you need to put something on it…(tastes a little like pop corn).

Coco Pops nutrition

I started with SunButter:

I ate an entire one covered in SunButter, which I am normally not a fan of, but paired perfectly with the Coco Pop.

I was still hungry, so I grabbed my cinnamon vanilla pecan nut “butter” (remember it didn’t blend out smooth?) and covered another Coco Pop:

That concludes my eats today in snow covered Rochester, NY.  Hope all of your eats are happy, too!

Jessica, xoxo