Let It Snow!

As with much of the country, Des Moines is currently under a blanket of snow - with the blustery wind making the snow drifts absolutely huge.  If it were better lit outside at the moment, I'd take some photos.  But alas, you'll have to wait until tomorrow.  For now: trust me.  Wow.

Because of the weather, we had an early-out today!  While I was super pumped to get out of school early, in retrospect it would've been better to go until 2:35 - now one of my classes is behind all the others.  :)  Oh well...I got a lot done!

Let's start with breakfast, though:

It looks like a yummy cappuccino, right?  Wrong.  It's a chocolate and tropical fruit smoothie!  In the mix: one cup UVAB, one cup Dole frozen fruit (mango, papaya, pineapple, banana), one tablespoon chia seeds, one scoop chocolate milk whey protein.  I think this is my favorite combination thus far.

By 10:30, though, I could hardly wait for my snack:

I had a 100-calorie thin bun (only half of it is shown here), topped with two tablespoons of almond butter and one sliced banana.  This is generally more than what I usually have for a mid-morning snack, but I am so glad I brought it today.  For lunch I had yesterday's dinner's leftovers: still disgusting.

I thought maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it last night and that's why it tasted disgusting, but I was wrong.  It's actually just straight-up disgusting.  So I ate about half of it and tossed the rest.

And then when I came home for the day, I was famished again.  I ate five ginger snaps and half of a Special K bar.  I definitely could have had something much more nutritious and full of protein, but those were fast and ready, so I inhaled 'em.

That is something I really need to work on: impulse-eating.  I'm not going to starve to death if I wait five minutes to actually put together a nutritious meal.  Ugh.

After my snack, I had a wonderful, way overdue conversation with one of my best friends from my non-profit agency; I love her to death and miss her like crazy, and we had such a great chat.  We're hoping we'll be able to reconnect sometime within the next couple of months...

I then tried to take a nap - after all, it was an early-out!  Unfortunately, I was unable to sleep and instead watched Jeopardy! and Ellen - two of my favorite shows.  And then I decided that my apartment was too cluttered and needed to be cleaned.  And by cleaned, I actually mean "torn apart and scrubbed from top to bottom."

Except the scrubbing part is actually going to happen tomorrow.  Today was the organizing, dusting, throwing away part of the process.

My mom and my sister always joke about how all of my possessions are either books or treasures.  As much as I hate to admit it, it's true.  I love little trinkets that remind me of different things.  And many of the "treasures" are framed photos.  However, as of late all of this stuff has been making me kind of crazy.  I'm nowhere near "hoarder," but it felt like it.  So, I cleaned everything out!  I kept a few photos out, the most special of the "treasures," and piled everything else in storage - and threw a lot of it out.

About halfway through this process, I decided I should probably eat dinner.  Thankfully, tonight's - unlike last night's - was a winner.  Not-so-shockingly, it was another of Angela's recipes:

It looks absolutely disgusting, but I promise it's AMAZING: warm sweet potato and black bean salad, accompanied by a 100-calorie thin bun topped with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter spray.  This meal was also super easy:

• Peel and chop up two sweet potatoes
• Dice one red onion
• Toss the potatoes and onion with olive oil, salt, and pepper
• Roast for about 37 minutes, tossing halfway through
• Mix with cumin, olive oil, salt, pepper, cilantro (which I didn't have), and lime juice
• Serve warm

YUM.  I have three servings left, but I already know I'll be making this one again!

After dinner I continued my cleaning spree because it was announced that SCHOOL IS CANCELLED tomorrow!  As my living room and bedroom were done, I moved on to my hall closet.  Here's the before picture:

Yeah.  It actually looked worse in real-life.  Essentially, that picture equaled three kitchen-sized trash bags.  Clearly this was in order:

After all, it is a snow day tomorrow!  I can have wine tonight!

An hour-and-a-half and three garbage bags later:

I'm not sure if you can tell a HUGE difference, but I totally can.  I love organization.  And if it still looks like a hot mess to you, keep in mind that I live in a one-bedroom apartment and have this for storage.  :)

As I was cleaning, I found this awesome picture frame, perfect for the card that has been hanging out on my bookshelf, waiting patiently to be displayed in the entrance to my kitchen:

Do you love it?!  "A good cook knows that it's not what is on the table that matters.  It's what is in the chairs."  (Sorry for the poor picture quality - I totally need photography lessons...)

Anyway, I'm off to finish my glass of wine, see if I can catch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion before I head to bed, and then crash - and sleep late!

I'll see you tomorrow!

Today's grand total:

Calories: 1,600
Fat: 50 grams
Carbs: 218 grams
Protein: 87 grams

Exercise: ...oops.  Cleaning counts, right?!
Water: 50 ounces