Two-for-One

Thursday: I apologize.  It was quite possibly the world's longest day, and I just had zero energy left to post anything worth reading.

So, let me recap the day.  :)

It started bright and early (per usual) when I woke up for our lower-body resistance training.  This is the day that I was most dreading.  Because I have done Farrell's before, I knew just how many squats and lunges (the bane of my existence) to expect.

Interestingly, though, it was not all that bad.  In fact, later in the day, I told The Boy that I was bummed that I was not more sore.  I want to feel the pain!

When I got home, I whipped up breakfast: two eggs with a chopped green pepper, a piece of toast with a slice of provolone, and a big ol' glass of Metamucil.  The Breakfast of Champions.

I had a meeting yesterday morning, so I grabbed my goods and headed to the East Side to schmooze with administrators and teacher-leaders from across the district.  It probably sounds super boring, but I really love these meetings because they're super well run, they're incredibly informative, and it's nice to know what's happening higher-up.

During the meeting, this is what my table looked like:

Yep, three beverages: coffee, water, and a protein shake.  I also had a Nalgene with water in my bag, but unfortunately the lid wasn't on correctly (I blame it on waking up at 4:20 a.m.), and it spilled all over the entire thing.  And drenched my documents.  And soaked through to leave a nice puddle on the floor.

THANK GOODNESS my iPad was on the table.  That would've been disastrous.

After the meeting I ate lunch: turkey, bread, grapes, and cucumber.  Boring but tasty.

I had yet another meeting after school, and I (very loudly, I'm sure - my apologies) crunched an apple, ate a few wheat thins, and finished it off with a string cheese.  I did a great job of resisting the Dove dark chocolate (despite being oh-so tempted) and the tootsie rolls.

The meeting lasted until 4:30, and I had to go to an event from 5:30-8:30.  Those of you who like my Facebook page know that I had quite the dilemma: wait until after the event to eat dinner? eat at the event (my favorite restaurant)? or eat something fast beforehand?

I made the good choice of eating beforehand.  I chopped up a tomato, two ounces of mozzarella, and some wheat thins, and I drank TONS of water before and during the event so that I wouldn't be tempted to chug margaritas or indulge in chips, guacamole, and quesadillas.

SUCCESS!

When I finally got home around 8:30, I sipped a protein shake and "cheated" by having about three small bites of The Boy's light microwave popcorn.

And then I promptly passed out because I was ridiculously exhausted.  I feel so bad for The Boy -- good thing he's so supportive of me being a crazy woman with this working out super early and eating super healthy.  He's a keeper, that's for sure.

This morning, we had what I consider the best workout thus far.  I'm actually feeling it a bit today!  But, I can't put my finger on what made this one more effective than the others.  Oh well.  It was a good workout, and that's what matters.

Breakfast:

A fourth cup of oatmeal, a fourth cup of berries, an eight cup of granola, and a tablespoon of almond butter.  I was also going to have a hard-boiled egg, but I just wasn't feeling it this morning and took a bite and then tossed it.

My morning snack was a tablespoon of almond butter on top of a chopped banana with a piece of string cheese.  It was good.  Mags taught be a neat trick to make almond butter taste better: tip it upside down in the refrigerator so that you don't have to deal with the oil.  Genius.  It made such a difference.

Lunch consisted of the usual: tuna mixed with lots o' mustard, some celery, a sprinkling of lemon juice, Louisiana hot sauce, and cottage cheese; a piece of toast; and some grapes.  I wish there were a way to get the tuna deliciousness to school without stinking up my lunch box.  Suggestions?

My afternoon snack was my new favorite meal: tomatoes, mozzarella, and wheat thins.  Seriously.  This is like heaven in my mouth.

But dinner, you guys.  Dinner was incredible.

First, here are the ingredients:

Second, here's what you do:

• Marinate half a pound of shrimp in the following: the juice from one lime, a bit of soy sauce (a tablespoon or two?), some ginger (a squirt from the tube), some garlic (a generous scoop from the jar), and a chopped jalapeno.
• Let it sit at room temperature while you cook the pound of chopped asparagus and red pepper in a skillet.  (I used Pam Olive Oil Spray with just a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, and it worked perfectly.)
• In the meantime heat up the rice according to package directions.
• When the veggies are tender, put them in a bowl to the side, and dump the shrimp with the marinade in the skillet.  Heat for just a couple of minutes until the shrimpies are pink.
• Dump the veggies and rice with the shrimp, mix together, and eat up!

This dish has more carbs and protein than I am supposed to have at each meal (49 grams of carbs and 31 grams of protein).  In retrospect, I should've probably cut the serving size in half.  But considering it is chock-full of veggies, I'm not super concerned.  I'll just know for next time to fix the serving size.

I'm going to have another protein shake (another of my favorite meals) tonight before I head to bed, which will round out my two days of healthy eating.

Tomorrow is my "free" day, but here's my plan: I'm going to eat how I normally do (according to Farrell's nutritional plan) for breakfast, lunch, and the two snacks in between, and then I'm going to "cheat" by going out for dinner and drinks with BFF.  I'm not going to overdo it at the restaurant, though.  Once I figure out where we're going, I'll check out the menu, decide on a couple of decently healthy options, and go that route.  I am planning on having one or two cocktails with LOTS of water.

On Sunday, I am going to do the exact same: eat according to Farrell's guide for the whole day, but in the evening, we're heading to BFF's for dinner.  I'm not about to "pack my own dinner," so I'm going to have another cheat meal.  I figure that if I'm good throughout the two weekend days with the exception of both dinners, I should be okay.  And, I'm planning on this "double-dose of cheating" only occurring this weekend -- not every weekend.

I am going to hopefully mess around a lot with the blog this weekend -- and write some fun, informative posts that I'll publish throughout the next few weeks.  Hopefully I can muster up some tech savvy to do what I want to so that I don't have to pay someone to make this thing look nicer.  Cross your fingers -- and get excited.  :)