Now that's a lot of fiber

Happy November everyone. Did you make any goals for the month? Check out mine to see what I'm hoping to do this month.

This morning I woke up quite calm and content - a rare feeling on a Monday morning but I went with it. I whipped up a bowl of hot cereal since it was quite chilly this morning. This bowl of cereal had 1/4c almond milk, 1/4c frozen raspberries, cinnamon, a drizzle of maple syrup, 2 crushed baby pecan halves, and 1/2T of peanut butter.

The morning flew by and I snacked on a baby Fuji apple with peanut butter before I headed to my training appointment.

Over lunch I headed to the gym for my long-awaited training session which did not disappoint. Dave made me do a ton of squats, TRX moves, abs, and balance moves. My legs were feeling like jelly by the time I left!

I was hungry and more than ready for lunch when I got back to the office. I had a salad with mixed greens, beets, bell pepper, and some chickpeas with 2 pieces of veggie sushi and a cup of my broccoli soup from last night.

The afternoon flew by and before I knew it my stomach was ready for a snack and the day was almost over. I had some roasted carrot and kabocha squash plus a cheese stick and a couple of chips. I'm pretty sure that little snack pushed me over my daily intake of fiber and vegetables, hehe.

After work I made a quick stop at Trader Joe's on the way home and had my heart set on sloppy joe's for dinner.

I used this recipe from Meatless Mama which is fool-proof and delicious. I ate a serving of the sloppy joe's with a toasted English muffin. If there was any question about the amount of fiber I consumed today, this definitely put me over!

I'm curled up on the couch watching the Rangers with a small pear and cup of vanilla cinnamon tea. There's supposed to be a frost warning in the morning, WTH?! :)

Do you like cold weather? Fiber: love it or hate it?

Waffles, Rallies, and Halloween Wackiness

Happy Halloween y'all! I hope you've had a great weekend and fun Halloween. It amuses me at how my celebration of Halloween has changed throughout the years - I definitely celebrated more as a kid and then again in college!

Saturday was quite a fantastic day. On top of ideal fall weather I woke up with a craving for waffles. I broke out my waffle iron and my favorite pancake mix, Pamela's Baking & Pancake mix, and got to work. The batch yielded 7 waffles so I froze most of them to enjoy on days I don't feel like making waffles.

 

I had one waffle topped with a mix of syrup and fig jam, heated up, and some almond butter, plus an egg white and half a pear.

The Rally to Restore Sanity was set to begin at 1pm so I headed out around noon to get there. I took my time because I felt pretty indifferent about the event. A few friends convinced me I should go and see it and I'm glad I did. The crowd was pretty normal and I definitely appreciated all the witty signs.

I only stayed down on the Mall for about 15 minutes as I really don't do well in shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and I couldn't see or hear anything. I walked up to Chinatown and the Health and Fitness Expo for the Marine Corps Marathon. I got to check out some of the vendors and tried out The Stick for the first time. My calves felt like new and I can see myself purchasing this item very soon!

From there I began the walk home but got hungry a few minutes in. Enter - pit stop at... Whole Foods! Trip #4 for the week. Lunch was a salad plus black beans and Mexican rice.

I contemplated heading home then but the weather was so nice and there were a few things I wanted to check out at Target so I continued my "little" walk. By the time all was said and done I walked over 8 miles yesterday! My feet were a little achy but no pain in my stress fracture foot which is awesome!

After resting for a few hours I met Lauren for dinner at Mai Thai. We got things started with Apple-tinis, which are a Halloween tradition of sorts for me.

 (from Halloween 2008, Nightmare on M Street Bar Crawl in DC)

We started with some chicken satay

And for my dinner I got the drunken noodles with chicken, easy on the sauce and oil. There is so much flavor in the cooking process and my stomach doesn't love lots of oil so these modifications ensure a tasty dish that won't upset my stomach.

From there we headed to another bar to watch the Rangers win Game 3 of the World Series and the Longhorns lose another game. I think the state of Texas missed the memo that we're supposed to have talent in football!  The night ended with some amazing costume watching of the folks who participated in the DC Halloween bar crawl. I did it 2 years ago and it was a blast - last night I couldn't get over how young all the participants looked!

For all the activity of yesterday, today was quite the opposite. I slept in until 10:30 and immediately rolled out of bed and down the block to the Dupont farmers market. I picked up my usual - eggs, apples, pears, and kale, and came home. Not without snapping a picture of the gorgeous cauliflower though!

I was hungry by the time I got home and had 2 slices of Udi's whole grain toast, one with a little Earth Balance and peanut butter, one with spinach, red pepper spread, and and egg white for breakfast. I also had one of my pears.

Then it was time for a good cleaning of my apartment (I cleaned for the better part of an hour and half). Feeling much better and more organized, I had a light lunch of leftover roasted butternut squash, kidney and black beans, spinach, and 1/4c of wild rice.

I made my 5th trip of the week (seriously - an intervention may be needed!) to Whole Foods for groceries and spend the afternoon prepping food for the week.

Dinner was a bowl of freshly made broccoli soup (x2), a portion of Alexia oven fries, and half a serving of baked beans.

I'm now watching Game 4 and deciding what my sweet treat for Halloween will be. I haven't eaten a lot of candy yet but perhaps I'll find something sweet to celebrate with!

Did you go to the rally yesterday (or watch on TV)? Dress up for Halloween?

New Recipes and Fall in DC

For dinner on Wednesday night I wanted risotto but I also wanted to take advantage of the precooked rice in my fridge. Enter - Lazy Risotto:

• roasted butternut squash, mushrooms
• 1/4c kidney beans
• 1/2c brown rice
• 1/3c frozen peas
• ~2-3 T vegetable broth
• splashes of soy sauce
• garlic powder and 21 Seasoning Salute

While I still formulated my plan of attack, I got my veggies roasting in the oven. I roasted up butternut squash, baby portobella mushrooms, and brussel sprouts at *425 for about 45 minutes.

When the veggies had about 5 minutes left, I got to work on the risotto. In a small non-stick sprayed pan I added 1/2c brown rice and frozen peas and let heat for a couple of minutes. Then I added a splash of vegetable broth and spices, stirred it all up, and pulled my vegies out of the oven. I added the kidney beans, ~3/4c butternut squash and mushrooms, and more broth and soy sauce and stirred until slightly creamy. The broth did a great job of hydrating the rice and the soy sauce and spices brought everything together.

Topped with a bit of parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes. This was a winner!

A few weeks ago I found this recipe and couldn't get it out of my head.  I used one half to make my own Twice Baked Acorn Squash and it was delicious. I only stuffed mine with frozen spinach, broccoli, and a bit of grated cheddar and it was delicious. I ate the whole thing, skin and all!

As promised, here are the pictures I took on my short little stroll yesterday afternoon. Fall is officially in full swing in DC!

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

There were a few other titles I had in mind for tonight's post:

•  A first time for everything
• Grateful for Exercise
• Say whaaaa?

But I picked the broadest title so I could fit it all in ;)

The past couple of days have been interesting, but I would say the last 20 minutes of tonight have been most enlightening. More on that in a sec...

The Good:

• My new gym. Today as I was cooling down and stretching the Fitness Manager came over to check in and see how I'm liking it so far. He also followed up on a couple of things and remembered small details from our conversation on Tuesday. #win
• I CAN RUN! This has been no secret but I've committed myself to getting back into running shape. Today I did my second running workout plus 2 miles on the elliptical. I'll slowly rediscover my love for endorphins. I know it!
• Having positive motivation. When I was tired or wanted to cut my workout short, I reminded myself how much being on bed rest and in a boot sucked and wasn't I lucky to be able to be exercising at that moment. 
• Lots of good eats.
• Finally meeting Alex who started her grad school program this fall. We had a great coffee date and I am so thankful she was willing to give me some tips on Philly for the weekened.
• I'm heading to Philly over the weekend to help lead a sorority training. Bonus #1 - we are doing it with a partner fraternity. Bonus #2 - It's my dad's fraternity and he and I get to have some time to see the sights in Philly!!
• I won't be taking accounting for the second module of the semester...
• And, I've eaten a large bunch of kale in 3 days. Mmmmm :)

The Bad:

• I got my Accounting final test and final course grade, hehe
• I feel like I wasted my money on that class since I'll have to retake it once I'm admitted in the MBA program
• The thought of that makes me nauseous
• Getting that grade is laughable and liberating... but I don't think it's for a good reason... does that make sense?

The Ugly:

• "Tomatoes with issues." I guess it could be worse!  Or snowing...
• Type-A Sarah kind of feels like a failure for not acing accounting, even though the class is a butt-kicking for 80% of the people who take it... Bye bye endorphins for the night.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm having a huge pity party over here. I'm well aware that this stress and whatnot is optional and really a privilege in a weird way. I have a roof over my head, food in my pantry, and my health. I know many people do not even have the gift of an undergraduate college education or even of finishing high school. Yet after devoting a lot of time and energy into something to fall short feels kinda sucky. On the flip side, classes thus far have been really enlightening on a multitude of levels and I feel like I know more of what I like, what I don't, and what my real passions are.

Enough serious stuff for now, onto the food!

Breakfasts the past 2 days have been lovely bowls of hot cereal. Since I have leftover unsweetened applesauce I've been adding a small spoonful to my bowl in the morning. Yesterday's bowl had blueberries and today's had blueberries plus some diced pear. All topped with nut butter!

Lunch yesterday was one of my favorite sandwiches - a grilled "cheese" sandwich: 2 slices of Udi's whole grain bread, red pepper hummus, red pepper spread, and spinach. This combo never disappoints! I had half a serving of tomato soup plus a little salad on the side.

Today's lunch was a result of the intense meat cravings I've been having since yesterday afternoon. I had a drop of chili, beef stew, a side salad, and kale chips. An odd combo but it was filling and delicious.

Snacks have been apples with some peanut butter spread on.

Last night I had a really intense craving for meat which led me to explore my freezer in hopes of finding something buried under all my frozen veggies :) I found this little bit of leftover spaghetti and meat sauce from Maggiano's from March (because I'm Type-A and labeled it with the date) and a big salad with beets, carrots, romaine, and spinach and kale.

Tonight I had a detour to make after the gym to pick up a few things at the White House farmers market and couldn't decide what I wanted to eat. I finally got inspired: roasted veggie salad and Alexia oven fries. On a bed of spinach and romaine I had a mix of roasted veggies: 2 carrots, half an onion, some broccoli, and okra. Topped with some cheese and Amy's Italian dressing.

Last night's snack was half a pear and a toaster waffle and tonight's will be the other half a pear and maybe some toast. We'll see :)

I'm off to pack, maybe write my last paper for my leadership class, and watch Grey's.



 How do you motivate yourself when exercising? Have you ever disappointed your own expectations? Do you have any tips for getting over the "not the grade I was hoping for" blues?