Thanksgiving was a ton of fun except for the fact that I was totally sick from a really bad cold the entire time. This may have helped me in the over eating area though since my appetite was down. The bf and I drove down to his parent’s house on Thanksgiving morning and went to the Thanksgiving celebration. His mom rented out an old train station it was so cute. They had tons of food the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, amazing sweet potato casserole, corn bread, mac and cheese and tons of pies. The party was train themed and they had an amazing train cake that was delish. I believe the cake was pistachio flavored! mmm. Then we went out with the bfs friends that night and took it easy on Friday. Went to the VA Tech vs UVA game on Sat where VA Tech won! Such a good game. But it was freezing! It started sleeting after the game too.  Such a fun weekend!

I weighed myself this morning and I’m only up 1lb not bad! But I’m still down 5lbs total. So I’m going to be good the next few weeks to try to get to 5 more lbs off! No gym for me today though I’m still feeling pretty icky!

For breakfast I had a cup of coffee

which included one of these guys

and an NS Apple Scone

For a mid morning snack I had a strawberry Chobani

and a banana

I unfortunately consumed my lunch sitting in front of the comp at my desk. Not that exciting huh? I had a hard time remembering what I had on my plate at work after having a few days off so I was trying to get caught up.

I had an NS Chicken Noodle Soup

with the usual side salad with a Morning Star Garden Veggie Burger and Annie’s Light Rasberry Vinagarette

I also munched on a lot of handfuls of popcorn! I was in my boss’ office and we were walking and talking on our way to go meet someone and we stopped by our main front office where they had some fresh popcorn. We have a popcron cart in our office and they used to make it 3 times a week but the last few months they’ve cut back drastically and rarely ever make it anymore.

Around 3ish I had a honey crisp apple on its last leg. It wasn’t fantastic.

I’ve also been consuming a lot of Sugar Free Halls cough drops so I don’t annoy everyone around me at work with my coughing! Boo colds!

My plan is to go grocery shopping and then plop on the couch for some gossip girl tonight as well as proof read my paper for my Nutrition class thats due on Thursday!

Our office closes at 3 today I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ready for a few days off.  Last night I did about 30 min on the elyptical while still reading Twilight. I’ve been reading it every spare second I have! So addicting! Then I veggied on the couch while I ate some steamed green beans and my NS Ravioli and watching the Real Housewives of Atlanta Reunion Special. Holy Drama it was so entertaining. I’m a sucker for these shows! I of course also watched the season premiere of the new season of Real Housewives of Orange County too. FYI if you are a fan of the show I heard from my bff who lives in Vegas they are doing a Vegas Housewives too. They are filming right now.

Ok on to bfast. I made myself a little yogurt parfait with a Chobani Vanilla, NS granola, and a banana. With a cup of coffee of course.

Here the are pre mixing it together

After

For lunch today I’m meeting up with the bf. They are cleaning out the office refridgerators so we couldn’t use them today which made packing my lunch a problem. So instead we are going to Chipotle. I know not the healthiest but I do get the burrito bowl with chicken, black beans, rice, lettuce, and fresh tomato salsa. No cheese, sour cream, or guac.  I’m a huge fan of those items but if you are watching your cal intake its better to skip them. And honestly its just as good without them. I would assume what I get prob runs about 500 cals if you eat the entire thing.

Love the Scale today!

I also may go for a run when I get home from work today. Or at least a nice power walk since I have a hard time running in the cold. Gets to my throat. I was also happily pleased this morning I weighed myself when I got out of the shower and I was down to 142. I think its because I’ve been weighing myself with clothes on lately since my scale is in our half bath not in our main shared bathroom in our house. So I think I weigh a little less than I have been thinking. Whoohoo!

Turkey Day Plans!

I’m going home with my bf for Thanksgiving and I’m totally excited about this since my family has never really celebrated Thanksgiving in a big way. My parents were born in Argentina and Cuba but have lived here for geez like 40 or 50 years. They moved in there teens. But anyways as a result tgiving was never a huge thing in my household. But my bf has a big ol’ southern all american fam that go all out and rent out a place for their huge fam and everyone brings stuff. Hence why I’m totally pumped! Then we’re going to the Virginia Tech vs University of Virginia football game on Sat. Huge rivals since they are the 2 big VA schools. The bf went to VT. My college roomie and her fam will be at the game too so it should be fun to tailgate! We are going to freeze though but thats ok because my mom sent me a suprise present of Burberry ear muffs yesterday! She said she found them at the outlet at home for $50. Nuts! FYI winter clothes in Florida is always ridiculously cheap for the obvious reason. So she always sends me stuff when she finds a good deal.

So I found out some great news yesterday I was accepted for the Academic Common Market. Now I bet you don’t know what that is! So let me tell you. It’s a program that allows you to get in state tuition in certain schools out of your home state that participate in the program. The idea behind the program is to allow students to obtain a degree in a subject that their state schools don’t offer. Well Winthrop U was not a part of the program so I asked them to consider it and I foudn out yesterday they said it qualifies. Meaning If I went there even though I’m a VA resident I could get in state tuition!! One of the reasons I have been interested in Winthrop is that I could work on my Masters and DPD (undergrad classes needed to sit for the RD exam) all at the same time. Va Tech and JMU don’t let you do that so I would have to get a 2nd undergrad and then go back for a Masters. About 50% of RDs have their Masters so I think it’s pretty crucial. So now I have 3 options and am planning on applying to all 3. I even set up a time to meet with the Director of the Dietetics program at Wintrhop while I’m in SC for the holidays!

Now on to the food. I’m feeling a little under the weather this morning I think the BF infected me with his cold/flu boo. Perfect timing before tgiving huh?

I started out with a cup of coffee and a NS PB Granola Bar

Then it was one of those mornings and I went for coffee round 2 and a get this CHOBANI!!!! I was totally excited to find these at the grocery store FINALLY! This morning I had blueberry and yesterday I had peach. Both were very yummy. To me the peach tasted like the fage with the peach compartment though which I like to. The blueberry was really good too I think I like the Chobani better then the Oikos but prob the same as Fage. I think that is the verdict. I also bought a vanilla and a strawberry. I got 1 of every flavor they had haha.

I reached my 1st goal for my weightloss! Yay! I wanted to lose 5lbs by Thanksgiving. I got a little sidetracked with my Philly trip and lost control that week and over indulged but I got back in the game and reached my 1st goal a week early.  Take a look at my weightloss page for more detail. But goal 1=mani and I’m adding a pedi. I’m so pumped!

 Nutrition class also went fabulous last night! I got a 97 on my Diet Analysis project! Another yay! We also did an in class Vitamin Meal Plan where we made a day’s worth of meals incorporating all the water soluble vitamins. So interesting. Vitamins intrigue me.

I got a 30 min eliptical workout before class. I should have stepped it up I burned 30 to 50 less cals than usual because I was reading Twilight, and umm yea only 50 pages in and I’m totally hooked. I could have stayed up all night and read it but I made myself go to sleep by 11. I can understand the hype. I don’t get into books that quickly usually.

I also watched Grey’s last night, umm what is gonig on with that show? Do they have different writers now? I’m not feeling it but feel obligated to watch it as a loyal fan. Monica in Run Eat Repeat mentioned the Denny scenario. I don’t get it. I think that story line should be done with as nice it is to watch the ruggedly handsome Denny.

Anywayssss, food!

As you can prob tell I’m in a good mood today and probably hyped up on caffeine because I had a full caffeinated coffee today and a Black Berry yogurt with a side of NS Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.

These muffing are basically bite size, not bad though.

You know those little packets you find when you buy a new purse. Well umm they come in the muffins. I’m sure they are made of different things but kind of sketchy haha. I wonder what’s in it? Does keep them fresh though! You can see it under the muffin above to the left too. I also like that it says “Do Not Eat”. I know I’m on a diet but I’m not that ravenous where I will be eating the little packet.

I felt like I needed some holiday cheer in the blog! I also loaded up my Christmas cd’s in the car and listened to my fav All I want For Christmas Is You. That made a good start to a morning.

Back It Up

After lunch I had 1/2 to 3/4 of a Tall Ginger Bread Latte from Starbucks with Skim Milk. It didn’t hit the spot though. It wasn’t the best one I’ve had. So around 4 I had a honey crisp apple that had seen better days. Around 5:30 I had 1% cottage cheese, that hit the spot. I worked until about 7 last night since I came in late so no gym for me.  Came home and had some green beans, and NS Teriyaki something or other while I read an old People Magazine. I have  subscription and am kind of behind.

This Morning!

This morning I had a glass of milk that I ended up bringing into the office with me I was going to drink it in the car but wasn’t feeling it. It’s about 10oz of Light Vanilla Soy

Then I had a cup of coffee with 1 little thing of Coffee Mate Hazelnut which I found in the bottom of the container at work under the icky Cinamon Hazelnut flavor. For some reason they didnt re-stock the vanilla flavor. If they are seriously trying to save money by not buying coffee creamer I think that is totally ridic. But that is another story! I also had an NS Chocolate Chip granola bar. I put an eraser next to it so you can get an idea of the size. It’s pretty small.

I’m excited our in class activity for Nutrition class is to work on a meal plan based around vitamins! I also have to find a recipe for my Vitamin Project. I was assigned B6. A lot of food like chicken, spinach, potatoes, bananas, all have B6 so it’s an easy one. I think once I finish with my project (this weekend hopefully) I’ll post up a little FYI on B6 for ya’ll. I didn’t know much about the vitamin and it doesn’t get as much notice as lets say Vitamin C so hopefully you’ll find it interesting. I did!

Lets rewind. Yesterday afternoon I had a snack of a pear

and 1% cottage cheese South Beach Diet Brand

How do you like the action shot? haha

After work I headed to the gym for some cardio. I ran for 15 minutes and had to stop. My lungs were burning! I can’t run outside in the cold but I ran on a tredmill last night. Maybe the gym was really cold. I was chilly.  I think I’m coming to the conclusion as Jenna did on her blog Eat Live Run, that I sadly am not a runner. It is just one of those things that I have never been great at and thats ok. Anyways I jumped on the eliptical and did the intervals selection for another 15min.

As previously mentioned it was the bfs birthday and he LOVESSSSPF Changs. He loves Asian food, I always joke that he was Asian in another life. His mom told me once when he was a kid she had to stir fry all the veggies or he wouldnt eat them. haha Anyways so he ordered his favswhich we split, Crispy Honey Chicken, and Beef and Broccoli, and brown rice. I had 4 bites of each, literally I counted them to keep my portions down. As well as some brown rice with soy suace. We also had the best wine. It was a Pinot Noir from Oregon called A to Z, very yummy and fruity warmed me right up and well umm got me tipsey. I was rambling like crazy by the end of the meal. For dessert we of course had cookie cake which was really good! (see yesterday’s post for a pic). Fun times.

Now for today!

I had a dermatologist appointment this morning so I was running around. I made sure to eat something before I left though since my appointment was at 9.

I had NS cereal. Here is the cereal by itself to get an idea of the portion size.

I also threw in a baby banana, my bananas were little this last shop for some reason

Here is the light vanilla soy milk I always refer to which I ate with my cereal. Its just Safeway’s O Organic brand. It’s cheap and good and low on calories and gives me the sweetness I like. Another good brand is 8th Continental Light Vanilla Soy and of course Silk brand but I can’t find their lighter versions very often.  I’m also a fan of Almond Breeze Almond milk but haven’t had it in awhile. The original is actually my fav and is only 60 cals per cup.

The milk next to it is my roomies milk I’m the only soy lover in the household.

Once I got into work it was aroun 10:30 and time for my mid morning snackaroo. I had a Lucerine Key Lime Pie flavor. It was pretty good. Better than yesterday’s thats for sure.

Now you see that cup of coffee next to it. i didn’t get to drink it. I had one sip and then was running around trying to get something for my VP boss lady. I had one sip and it was meh anyways. The decaf coffee in my office tastes funky. I don’t know if decaf just tastes different in general. I haven’t had enough of it to know!

Okwe are almost done with this marathon size post…

Lunch!

For lunch I had my last bit of salad blend withof course a Morning Star Pizza Veggie Burger, also my last one. I need to run to the store tonight and restock. I topped it off with Annie’s Light Raspberry Vinaigrette.

The Rasberry Vinagertte was good. I like the color in the bottle haha it was pretty. It was runnier than I expected but it is a vinagarette. You can def taste the vinagar and a slight sweetness. Overall I like it but I need to try it again to be sure!

The second part of my Lunch was NS Chicken pasta dish that I can’t remember the name of now. It was ok.

Phew and I’m done!

I have pictures! Whoohoo! I found my camera cord. In a purse of course. Ok so last night I had an NS Pasta Primavera with Tofu and one of those steam fresh single serve from BirdsEye frozzen burssel sprouts. I think that NS dinner is my fav. I also had a cup of light vanilla soy milk and some NS Honey Mustard Pretzels while watching Gossip Girl. Anyone who watches that I dont know about you but I am not a fan of Aaron, he bugs me for some reason. Serena should be with Dan.

Anyways I also got a gym workout in after work 30 min on the eliptical doing the “weight loss” option. I also did weights and abs. I get a free memebership to a Personal Training gym in my building at work and its really nice I dont get free personal trainers but they are all there. Its kind of annoying a little bit because I feel like they are always watching me. I had 2 give me some help yesterday. 1 was helpful though I was donig that dead lift thing for your hamstrings which I never knew how to do really and she helped. She said the key was to stick your butt out. Then while I was doing crunches I was summoned by another trainer who was like hey crunches girl. That to begin with was sort of annoying and told me to do them a different way to not strain my neck. But I know how to do crunches its the one thing I can safely say I know not to strain my neck but the way he showed me made me strain my neck and not feel it in my abs. So i’ll stick to my way

Now for today Breakfast was a cup of joe and an NS Cinnamon Swirl Granola bar, another fav. I included a pic to show you how small they are, its only 150 cals. I also packed a yogurt and a small banana (picture to come when I eat it ) for a mid morning snack.

Oh so today is the bf’s 26th bday! I made him a cookie cake! I attempted to write happy bday but it didnt come out so pretty. The border came out suprisingly cute though. I threw on some sprinkles too. He has never had a cookie cake before! I know I know I was shocked too.

I’m not sure how the hell I’m going to get it to his place yet though. hmmm.

So weekend recap involved eating a lot of crap. I have been AWFUL this week ever since I left for Philly the week before. Since next week is Tgiving I am on a serious mission to keep my appetite and eating in check this week so that I’m ready for the holiday festivities. I really want to meet my 5lb goal by tgiving and right now I’ve not only not made progress but I think I’ve gained some back. I’m close though so I think by making a point to go to the gym and not eating out a million times that will help. I really just need to learn how to control my eating. I need to learn not to act on every craving.  Dieting is such a mind battle. 

So on a good note I started off the morning with only half a cup of half caf coffee. Its like a tongue twister, try saying that 3 times fast. I was pretty awake this morning so I didn’t need much.  Then for breakfast I had a vanilla yogurt. I bought the lucerine brand (Safeway brand) because I’m trying to cut down some expenses and they were like 10 for $5 or something like that. I am not entirely happy with the idea since the ingredients aren’t the best but right now saving a few bucks here and there is more important. I added a small banana. It was a tiny one for some reason and NS granola. I love yogurt parfait type breakfasts. They keep me as full as if I had eaten oatmeal. I miss oatmeal I don’t eat it on NS beause their version is crap haha.

RD to be update: I am a dumbass and some how totally overlooked JMU (James Madison University) as a in state school option.  I think I’m going to try to call the director of the program (she told me I should) and see what I need to do. So right now here are my top pics VT and JMU because hey you can’t beat in state tuition and I want to be near by bf . The thought of not living near him really makes me wonder if going back to school is the right thing to do sometimes.

Last night I had a work dinner don’t remember if I mentioned that at Maggiano’s. They had the usual fatty mcfatty entries. Of course they were yummy and had tiramisu and cheesecake for dessert. It was family style. I actually do better with this type of eating because I just load up my plate with a bite of each and don’t get seconds so I end up eating a lot less than I would have if I would have ordered just 1 entry.  Then I came home made some tea and settled down to do some studying.

This morning I had a super early eye doc appointment. I asked them about lasik and they said I would probably never be able to get it . That is SOOO disappointing I hate contacts. They did get me some new ones to try which I’m wearing as we speak which feel a little better. I hate how expensive eye care is I paid through the nose even after what my insurance covered bah. But it was either eyes or get my hair highlighted. Eyes are a tad more important. I had a NS cereal with light vanilla soy milk this morning it was kind of like Special K with berries. It was good. I left the eye doc and there was an accident on the highway so it took forever to get to work so I was starving upon arrival and dove into a mug of half caf coffee more like 1/4 caf and an Oikos honey. I think honey is my least favorite flavor.

Mid morning snack is some Dole canned pinapple ick I know. I have to go grocery shopping desparately. Im also sipping another half caf coffee.

Tomorrow marks 1 month on NS. I weighed myself this morning to see how Maggiano’s and the weekend treated me. Not bad at all. No loss but no gain. So thats ok. Tomorrow is my official weigh in day of the week though. So I’m going to try stick to it today and get a nice sweaty workout in. So thats the plan stan. See ya’ll later

As I was getting into my car this morning this big (beautiful) deer sprinted past me. I was half asleep and thought I imagined it for a minute. Craziness. You don’t usually see deer where I live since I’m in the city so it was quite odd.

Anyways last night I got a 30 minute cardio workout of 15 min on the eliptical and 15 min on the treadmill with half of it walking on an incline.  Then I went to class where we talked about energy expenditure and the age old question “how many calories do I need?” The easiest way is to go on some website and find out your RMR/BMR. But we talked about some old theories. Once that I’ve heard before can’t think of the name right now but the one where you at 5lbs to 100lbs each inch you are over 5 feet tall for woman. For men its 106 and you add 6lbs. I never liked this one because I’m 5′5 and no where near 125. You are supposed to add and subtract 10% based on your frame size by seeing if you can wrap your fingers around your wrist, if they touch you stay the same, if they don’t touch add 10%, if they overlap subtract 10%. Mine touch so I’m supposed to remain at 125. I think only 2 people in my class met the required rate. Even my teacher and the tiny girl in front of me didn’t meet it so I felt better haha. Not that I think its a good judge just interesting. I asked the bf for a  boys point of view and he met the criteria to the tee. He’s 6′2.  How do you all compare to this calculation? Apparently insurance companies and some doctor’s go by this. I also learned that the body fat tests are not all that accurate for the most part unless you go in one of those crazy machines. So don’t be too discouraged.

I also felt like such an over achiever last night I was the only one who typed out the Diet Analysis project and put it in a binder. I think its my auditing skills coming out that I have to put things neatly in binders with dividers. People were like wow who turned in the binder. As I scrunched down in my seat haha. Whatev.

I came home last night and had a salad with cucumbers and a Morning Star Tomato Mozzarella Pizza or something veggie burger, topped with woodstock dressing. Man was that veggie burger yummmyy!

This morning I had NS Bran Flakes cereal with light vanilla soy milk, and a cup of coffee with a fage strawberry when I got into work and just a few minutes ago had a banana for a mid morning snackaroo.

TGIF t minus 7 hours until the weekend!