Archive for August, 2009

Posted on August 27, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

blaaargh

Yesterday’s distaste for food did not end well. Let’s not talk about that. I woke this morning still feeling nauseous and just grabbed my lunch bag out of the fridge with everything that was still packed  yesterday in it. I didn’t want to eat anything. This banana lasted several hours.

I took a nice brisk walk during my lunch half-hour and felt better after. While I was out, I stopped by one of the convenience stores on campus and picked up this chef’s salad and a Diet Caffeine Free Coke.

For the third time, I purchased a drink from this store, held it with my forearm on the way back to work, and ended up with a big red welt on my arm. I’ve bought dozens of drinks from the same place; not sure what’s up with that. But the salad was good. It came with mixed field greens, turkey, ham, provolone, cheddar, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers (which I gave away), and a little container of vinaigrette dressing. And a cute little piece of pita bread.

It wasn’t a huge salad, but I ended up not eating it all. The rest went into the fridge, to reappear later…

Since I didn’t go into work until 7:30AM and I work 9-hour days, I ended up working later than usual. Plus I stayed an extra half-hour. I had a couple of cheese puffs early in the afternoon, and later on ate a pack of Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds.

These are really good. I’ll definitely buy them again.

My walking partner ditched me for the second time this week so that she could go out to lunch with people who are not nearly as awesome as I am. But since she gave me her leftovers from WingZone after I practically drooled on them because they smelled so good, I’ve decided to forgive her. A little while before work ended, I ate the two mozzarella sticks that were in the box.

They look…friendly, somehow. Like little mozzarella stick people.

I wasn’t particularly hungry for dinner, so I made a meal out of leftovers.

I perked the salad back up with some cherry tomatoes from my balcony garden, some baby bella mushrooms, and the last of my bacon crumbles. I scooped some of last night’s strawberries into one of my adorable IKEA dishes and heated up the four leftover chicken wings. Three of them were peglegs! Mmm-mmm, good. I watched the last episode of The 1900s House on DVD from Netflix while I ate. I didn’t like it as much as the other two similar series that I’ve watched, but it was amusing enough.

I didn’t get my run in today–I’m just going to set my alarm for the normal 5:30AM, get to work on time at 6:15, and leave (I hope) close to the time I’m supposed to. Lots of work to do…but maybe I can get my run in after work.

Posted on August 26, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Ah, the old familiar places…

Ever have one of those days were you just don’t feel like eating anything? That’s how I’ve felt most of the day. I rolled out of bed at 5:30AM after a good night’s sleep and the thought of eating  yogurt or a muffin (or anything, really) disgusted me. I threw a strawberry Chobani 0%, a banana, my Smucker’s All Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter, a Babybel cheese, and my packages of colby-jack and Genoa salami into my lunch bag on the off-chance that I’d be interested in eating later, filled up my water bottle, and went to work.

When you leave for work at 6AM in Raleigh, there’s hardly any traffic, so it was a quick 15 minutes to the office. I spent it rocking out to “Superman’s Dead,” “One Man Army,” and “Is Anybody Home?” from the live Our Lady Peace CD.

When I got to work, I still didn’t feel like eating, so I fell back on my old stand-by–a “Tear & Share” size bag of Peanut M&Ms and a Diet Dr. Pepper from the vending machine at work.

Tragic, I know. I was so engrossed with what I was working on that I looked down and there were six M&Ms left in the bag, and I said, “Oh,” and ate them.

This would also be a fine time to point out my strange relationship with cups. I hate almost all cups, and I have a strange complusion wherein I must rinse a cup out before using it. Doesn’t matter if it came from the cabinet or the dishwasher, or if I just washed it by hand with a brand-new sponge…I gotta rinse it out. And the only way I can finish a bottle of soda or water, it seems, is by pouring it bit by bit into one of the cups I’ve designated as okay for drinking from. This is one of those cups. Look well upon it!

By the time I’d taken my lunchtime walk, I was getting hungry but still wasn’t too keen on eating, so I sliced up three pieces of salami, tore apart a piece of cheese, and made little Lunchable-type things using the Cream Cheese & Chive Wheat Thins that live in one of my cabinets at work. They were easy to eat while I worked, so I took my time making them vanish.

I ate at around noon and then hung out at work a little longer than I intended, so at around 3PM I grabbed another Diet Dr. Pepper from the vending machine and a snack-sized bag of Whoppers from a co-worker’s candy dish to hold me over until I left a while later.

At this point, I was feeling pretty bad about my food choices for the day. There’s not a vegetable in the bunch, unless you count the chives in the crackers or the corn syrup in the candy. I usually give myself one day a week where I don’t pay much attention to what I eat, anyway. But I decided there would be vegetables at some point, so I grabbed a box of HeartSmart Bisquick, the leftover vegetables from yesterday’s lunch, the bacon crumbles, and a mozzarella cheese stick from the fridge. Oh, and an egg. And I made this:A mini pizza, crust seasoned with Penzey’s Italian Herb mix, and topped with steamed broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots mixed with marina sauce, with a little bit of bacon and cheese sprinkled on top. I made this on my George Foreman grill in stages–I baked the crust, then put the veggies on top to warm them up, then added the cheese and used the grill’s broiler feature to melt it. I had a bowl of grapes on the side, and the rest of my Diet Dr. Pepper.

While I was looking at the recipes on the back of the Bisquick box, I noticed one for strawberry shortcakes, so I whipped some up for dessert. I cooked them on the George Foreman grill, too.

When they were done cooking, I peeled one off the aluminum foil, since I always forget to spray it, and spread some of my Fage 0% Greek yogurt on the top since I didn’t have any whipped cream and I figured Greek yogurt was more nutritious anyway. Then I spooned some strawberries mixed with a bit of sugar over the top…

…and it was good. The old me would have taken out both shortcakes and the rest of the strawberries in the same sitting, but I put them up for tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I’m going to set my alarm for 4:30AM in yet another attempt to get up in the morning for my Couch to 5K jog…which reminds me, I need to charge my MP3 player…

Posted on August 25, 2009 - by Ashley Jackson

Grilled chicken, mmm mmm good…

After getting very little sleep the night before last and having a nice two hour nap yesterday evening, I got very little sleep again last night.  I was more tired at work today than I was yesterday! I got into work around 7AM and decided to breakfast with my first taste of Chobani 0% Greek Yogurt while I checked my email.

This was surprisingly good! The consistency was more like custard or thick sour cream than your typical yogurt. The yogurt itself was neither too tart nor too sugary, and the peaches on the bottom provided just the right amount of sweetness to make this absolutely delicious. This was a little pricey, but well worth it–I grabbed a couple more containers of Chobani 0% and some of Stonyfield’s Oikos Greek yogurt with fruit on the bottom to try, too. I hope they’re as good!

And it turned out to be well worth the cost, because this kept me full until I ate lunch. I did remember to bring those brownies I bought Sunday to work, though, where they were eaten and enjoyed. But not before I grabbed another one of each…

Even though I wasn’t hungry, I ate the little cream cheese one on the right. These brownies were surprisingly good for having come from Harris Teeter’s bakery–they just need to tell the guy who piped on the icing to tone it down a little next time.

I have been instructed not to forget to mention the cheese puff I ate this morning, purloined from a co-worker’s snack bowl. I haven’t had a cheese puff in forever, and it was goooood…I meant to go back for more, but fortunately I forgot.

At 11AM I took my official lunch break, which for the past few months has consisted of taking a half hour walk down the trail near the office. Since no one wanted to walk with me today (*ahem*) I took my MP3 player and got my brisk walk on. It was a nice day for walking–it wasn’t 90 degrees and  unbearably humid for once.

When I got back, I put together my lunch and popped it into the microwave, and ate it while I worked. (Thanks to college, I have magnificent eating-while-working skills.)

Last night I used my awesome food steamer to steam some broccoli florets, a carrot, and some mushrooms. When they were done, I smothered them in marina sauce, and for lunch I mixed them with some leftover tortellini from Sunday night and had a little bit of wheat French bread on the side. This was strangely delicious, and I have about the same amount as shown here still in the containers I brought for lunch–guess I’ll be eating it tomorrow, too! I have another little container full of tortellini that is going to have to go into the freezer, as I’m really not a big fan of pasta and don’t think I can eat it more than three times this week.

For my afternoon snack, I ate the chocolate frosted brownie, and it was good. But it is also good that the brownies are gone…

I wasn’t very hungry for dinner, but I was craving a grilled chicken thigh and wanted to use up the rest of my salad, so I threw together this:

The rest of the European salad mix, some halved grapes, bacon crumbles, and grilled mushrooms, sprinkled with a bit too much balsamic vinegar. And “on the side,” a beautiful, delicious grilled chicken thigh, heavily seasoned with Penzey’s Ozark seasoning.

I love my George Foreman Grill–it cooks up chicken in no time and give it a nice crispy grilled outside and a juicy center. I didn’t eat all of the salad, but the chicken didn’t last long.

About an hour after dinner, I decided if I didn’t get a Couch to 5K jog in today I was going to completely mess up my schedule again. So I put on my workout clothes and my running shoes, strapped on my MP3 player, zipped my keys into my back pocket, and headed for the fitness center at my apartment.

And while I was walking there, I realized the sun was shining and it was almost cool outside, and something in the air reminded me of summer in Kentucky when I was a little kid playing in my grandparents’ backyard, and I couldn’t bring myself to go inside to run…so instead, I walked to the posh neighborhood next to my apartment complex and did my run outside.

And oh, how I forgot how different running up those little hills and valleys in the sidewalk is compared to running flat on a treadmill. I had decided to go back to Week 3 of the Couch to 5K, which is a five minute walk, then a 90- second run, a 90-second walk, a 3-minute run, a 3-minute walk, then repeat staring at the 90-second run. he runs didn’t seem nearly as long as the last time I was in Week 3, but midway through the final run I had to stop and walk–my calves were killing me from those hills.

I walked for about thirty seconds, and then I scolded myself and started running again, faster than before, and got through that last bit of jogging. It was difficult, but I can tell I’m doing better than I was before. Last time I got into Week 3 and life intervened and threw me off track–so here’s to finishing Week 3 and getting into Week 4!

After my jog and a shower, I put together a little platter of food to snack on before bed.

Four slices of Genoa salami, half a slice of co-jack cheese that looked lonely, a handful of those wonderful grapes, six strawberries, and a little bit of Fage 0% Greek Yogurt instead of sugar for dipping. A strange snack, but satisfying.

And now, I’m going to bed, even though it’s not even 8:30…