Gettin' Crabby

Before I tell you about today, I have to reiterate how icky I felt after downing an entire meal of Pad Thai.  Holy moly.  I won't be doing that again for a long time!  Last night and again this morning, I could not get enough water.  Clearly I got triple my daily sodium allotment in one meal...  

But today was a good day.  

It started off, as usual, with a Green Monster (can they still be called "Green" monsters if they're more, um, black-ish?):

Check out the weird shadows on that glass - I don't know what was going on!  In the mix today: spinach, blackberries, a banana, protein, almond butter, UVAB, a drizzle of agave nectar, and cinnamon/nutmeg.  Delish as usual.

First, I walked outside this morning to a glittering ground of snow - and if it wasn't so darn cold out right now and if I didn't live up a flight of stairs, I'd go take a picture to show you.  Generally I hate snow.  I'm pretty sure I'm certifiably SAD when it comes to winter in Iowa, but today's early morning dusting of snow was so pretty, and as we haven't had much snowfall yet, I really enjoyed it. Come February (or tomorrow morning if we don't have a snow day), I'll be singing a different tune!

School was good today as well.  I finished two more of my students' reading tests and only have one more to go.  This might not seem like a big deal, but these tests (BRIs) take FOREVER.  I have 15 students in my reading intervention course, and it has taken me approximately two months to finish these tests.  I have to administer them individually after figuring out (based on standardized test scores) at approximately what grade-level to start students.  If I guess-timate correctly, they only take about 15 minutes per kid, but if I guess-timate incorrectly, it can take up to 45 minutes per student.  Essentially, a kid gets a reading passage, reads it to himself, reads it aloud to me (as I mark any miscues), and answers nine comprehension questions and one vocabulary question (as I mark any incorrect responses).  FOR.EV.ER.

My general English classes turned in the rest of their essays, and nearly every single one of my students completed them.  I had probably eight kids not turn in an essay, which is a remarkable feat for my kids.  I was very proud of them - and totally got on the cases of kids who didn't do their work.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have 100% completion.  :)

For lunch I slurped down two-thirds of the Trader Joe's soup I bought yesterday: lentil and vegetable.  Unfortunately, I ate it before I remembered to take a photo.  Sorry.  It was good, but I wish there were more vegetables and lentils than broth.  Regardless, I was surprised it filled me up as much as it did!

Because we played final exam review games again today, I had to sample some of the prizes.  Instead of chocolate, I grabbed three mini Laffy Taffy candies throughout the afternoon.  This totaled 96 calories, and while it wasn't a necessary part of my diet (duh), didn't harm it too badly.

After staying at school way too late in the middle of a blizzard (helping students, of course), I came home and ate two hard-boiled eggs while I graded a few essays.  Then...it was time to prepare for the fun part of the day: dinner with a friend/former cheerleader!  

For those of you unaware, I was my school's cheerleading coach for three years.  How I got that gig (with absolutely zero cheer experience) I will never know!  It was a fun yet stressful/extremely busy three years, but I am very happy that I now have a life again.  :)

Anyway, we had kept in touch the last few years, stayed in contact via text and Facebook, ran into each other at different events, and talked about our mutual dedication to health and fitness.  After following my blog (hi, K!), she expressed interest in cooking together.  Because I always love company and figured it would be a great way to reconnect, I totally agreed!

It was a great night.  And look what she brought me:

OMG.  Jillian's protein powder!  She read my blog yesterday and knew that I wanted this so badly but hated Walmart and therefore wouldn't buy it myself.  How thoughtful was she?!  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am for my morning shake tomorrow!!!

Anyway: for dinner tonight we attempted (for the first time for both of us) crab cakes ala Cooking Light. We made a couple modifications, but the recipe turned out AMAZING.  If crab weren't so expensive, I'd cook this probably once a week!

We pan-fried the crab cakes and topped them with a sauce (white wine, butter, chicken broth, and shallots), and roasted asparagus (topped with mixed herbs) and red potatoes (topped with parsley and Kosher salt).  If we hadn't each had a glass of wine, it would have been under 500 calories - and look how decadent!

I didn't work out today because the roads were too bad to go to the gym and because I had too much to do this evening.  That should be the first clue to myself that I need to start waking up and just getting it over with at 5 a.m.  Ugh.

Oh well.  Hopefully I can get to the Y tomorrow.  But for now, I'm off to grade the 120 essays I need to have done by um, tomorrow.  Cross your fingers for a snow day.  :)

Today's grand total:

Calories: 1459

Fat: 48 grams

Carbs: 157 grams

Protein: 79 grams

Exercise: 0 calories burned

Water: 32 ounces (how horrible am I?!)

Productivity is Overrated

No more laziness for me today!  I was up and at 'em at 8:00, ate breakfast and wrote yesterday's blog entry by 9:00, did cardio and yoga by 1:00, and graded a class worth's of essays and quizzes sometime shortly thereafter.  Finally, I ended the night by seeing my BFF; we ordered Thai food because she had just completed her third cross-country trip in less than a year and was in the mood for a quick dinner.  Twist my arm.  :)

For breakfast this morning, I whipped up two scrambled eggs, topped with a teensy bit of Italian-blend cheeses and Rasta sauce, accompanied by a 100-calorie bread topped with almond butter.  It was delish. I also had some coffee with a splash of skim milk (I ran out of UVAB) because I knew it was going to be a busy day!

After my breakfast settled a bit, I hit the gym for 20 minutes of cardio on the crazy elliptical/stair-stepper machine (burning 240 calories) and then an hour-long yoga class.  Prior to the ankle sprain from hell, I had been doing yoga at least once a week.  This is the first time I've done it in 11 weeks - since the injury.  I was really nervous, but once I got into the workout, I immediately remembered how much I love it.  It's so relaxing - and really, really hard!  The only poses that gave me any trouble were Warrior (especially Warrior Three) and Triangle.  Tree, balancing on my right leg (the injured one) was also tricky, but I made it work as well as I could.  I'm going to be sore tomorrow, but it was totally worth it and something I plan on doing every Sunday.

After yoga, I came home and made my favorite meal of the day: the Green Monster.  I had a couple of requests for recipes, so I one-upped that and am providing you with a step-by-step.  Bare with me.  :)

Step One: gather ingredients:

This time the ingredients included spinach, blackberries, UVAB, a banana, agave nectar, and almond butter...

...and vanilla protein powder that was somehow forgotten in the first picture.  As an afterthought, I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, but those did not show up for their photograph either.

Step Two: add ingredients: this is the best part of a Green Monster because you can add whatever your little heart desires!  Here's what mine looked like today:

One cup of UVAB.  You could use skim milk, but the nutritional value of UVAB is much better (i.e. you get a lot more liquid for a lot fewer calories).

One-fourth cup of blackberries.  This is a rough measurement, but I think it equals about seven or eight berries.

One tablespoon almond butter.  My personal favorite is Barney Butter.  I've used Blue Diamond but did not prefer that taste as much.  Other popular blogger favorites (that I have yet to try) are Maranatha and Justin's.

One scoop vanilla protein powder.  Generally, if I add almond butter to my Green Monsters, I only add half a scoop of protein because otherwise there are too many calories and protein grams for one meal.  Today, though, I forgot.  While I've bought the EAS protein the last two times, I'm dying to try the Jillian Michaels kind (but probably won't since they only sell it at Walmart and, well, I hate Walmart).

One to two handfuls of spinach.  At this point, I usually have to blend a little so that I can add more ingredients.  :)

It's a pretty green hue prior to the blackberries being chopped in there!

One drizzle of agave nectar (a natural sweetener with low glycemic impact) and today, a sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Those added a really nice overall flavor!  Sometimes I also add ground flaxseed at this point, but I ran out.  :(

Step Three: drink up!  I'm pretty sure this one was devoured in approximately 60 seconds.  :)

After my Green Monster, I slaved away on school stuff (grading papers and quizzes) for the next several hours.  Granted, I could have gotten it done sooner had I not had Pandora and Facebook and various blogs to distract me, but what can I say?  Adult ADHD, anyone?

Finally, I started getting hungry and dug into a new treat I found at the store today:

Two of these bad boys are 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 20 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of protein.  What a deal!  They aren't too shabby either, which is great since I bought two boxes (on sale) at the store today.  For other "treats" I bought white cheddar rice cakes as well as some graham crackers.  I know neither is nutritionally amazing, but I could do a lot worse for a salty and a sweet snack!

And I did do a lot worse for dinner.  BFF and I ordered Thai Flavors, our favorite take-out place in Des Moines.  As usual, I ordered Pad Thai with Tofu, and as usual, it was delicious.  I'm pretty sure the amount of food was less than usual, or maybe I was just calorie- and carbohydrate-deficient from the last couple of days, because embarrassingly, I ate the entire thing.  I can't believe it.  Afterwards, I was pretty sure I was going to puke because even after only a week of eating very healthfully, that much "unhealthy" was not feeling too good!  I also had two glasses of red wine...

Let's just say today was my "free" day.  :)  Tomorrow I'm back to the grind!

Today's grand total:

Calories: who knows?!
Fat: probably way too many grams!
Carbs: OMG
Protein: pretty decent, I'm sure

Exercise: 680 calories (approximately)
Water: not enough ounces

Lazy Bum!

I apologize for not posting yesterday.  I was a lazy bum all day!  I woke up fairly early (because I crashed on my couch around 10:30 Friday night!), watched a little TV, and then made breakfast:

A Green Monster!  In the mix: a big handful of spinach, one cup UVAB, one fourth cup blackberries, one banana, a scoop of protein, and a drizzle of agave nectar.  It was yummy, as usual.

Then, I went over to my friend's house and lounged around with him - watched football, watched "The Blind Side," etc. - for hours.  I know: busy day.

In the middle of all of that strenuous activity, we headed to Skip's for lunch.  I had never been there, but since my friend really likes it and I'm always up for a new restaurant, I gave it a shot.  It's really cute: pretty much a dark, classy restaurant in an old house.  I love Des Moines' local eateries!  We started off with an appetizer of calamari.  Generally, I LOVE this dish; however, this particular version was way too greasy and just...bland.  I let the boy eat the majority of it and waited for my entree: the Pecan Chicken Salad.  Here's a pic of the leftovers, which I ate about an hour after Round One:

I really liked this dish: big chunks of Romaine (my favorite lettuce), delicious flavoring on the chicken, and yummy honey mustard dressing.  I'm kind of excited about replicating this at home: I think I can make it much healthier, as I'm sure the restaurant's version had huge amounts of oil and other less-than-healthy ingredients.

After I left my friend's house around 7:00 - I told you, a busy day of doing nothing! - I headed to the mall.  I was in dire need of a new pair of tennis shoes, and I found just what I was looking for at Scheel's:

(Please disregard the curious kitty.)  I got a pair of Asics.  Supposedly they are really great shoes, especially for running, as they are lightweight, have a gel sole that has great cushioning, and come with great arch-support.  My old shoes, Nike Shox, were about three years old at least and not at all supportive.  With my horrible ankle sprain and the aching arch that has resulted from that, I knew it was time for a new pair.  I'm excited to try them out today!

While I was at the mall, I just had to stop by Barnes & Noble.  I mean...it's not like I have enough books already:

So, I added to my bounty with three more:

Alice I have Been was totally an impulse-buy.  I was on my way to check out and stumbled upon the display with "new to paperback" books.  This one caught my attention with the cover, and I was really intrigued after reading the back.  It's a historical fiction work that claims to be "part love story, part literary mystery," documenting the life of Alice, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland.  It sounds really, really interesting.

Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinnygirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting by Bethenny Frankel is a book that I have wanted for months.  I really like Bethenny and appreciate her tips on realistic diet and exercise and thought that now, with my newly-devoted attention to the two, would be a perfect time to finally buy the book.  I'll let you know some good tips when I find 'em.

Finally, as embarrassing as it is, the book I actually went to buy was Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris.  This was the first time in, um, ever that I ventured into the "fantasy" shelves at the bookstore.  Among they stereotypical fantasy lovers, I hid among the shelves, hiding my face, praying I did not run into someone I know; I was that embarrassed.  I really wanted to read this book, though: the basis for HBO's True Blood, a show with which I have recently become obsessed.  It should be a good, mindless read!

However, I am currently reading a book already:

I'm only a few chapters in, but so far it's really, really good!  I have to admit: I was hesitant to buy this book, as I've never really believed actresses/actors can write, and I don't want to read something crappy. However, hearing Ellen talk about it (despite her obvious bias) and then seeing bits and pieces of the Oprah interview while I was at they gym, I was convinced it could be good.  So far, I haven't been disappointed.  It's a raw, real-life look into someone with disordered eating.  I'll keep you posted.

Finally, to conclude last night, I headed to Trader Joe's and came back with quite the amount of groceries for $25:

The purchases: a box of organic, low-sodium butternut squash soup; a huge box of blackberries; a batch of bananas; a package of Babybel Light cheese; a can of vegetable-lentil soup; a crate of cage-free brown eggs; a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck; and a bottle of TJ's Tempranillo.  If I had bought this all at Dahl's or Hy-Vee, it would've cost at least $40, I think.  And while I hardly drink anymore, I can't seem to get out of TJ's without at least one bottle of wine.  :)

I came home for the evening around 9:00 and made a late dinner (lunch's salad kept me full for awhile!):

I heated up two cups of the TJ butternut squash soup,

toasted one 100-calorie bun and sprayed "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" spray on it, and ate about half of the giant salad I had intended for Friday's lunch.  However, it was clearly meant to be eaten on Friday because it did not taste so wonderful on Saturday...

And then, despite having plans and several people call to see if I wanted to go out, I crashed on my couch watching reruns of House.  I was just tired!  It's funny: even a year ago I would've been out and about every Friday and Saturday night, regardless of whether or not I was in the mood.  Now, though, if I'm not in the mood, I'm just not going to go -  I don't care if it's the weekend or not!  I feel like had I gone out last night, I would've just been sleepy and no fun at all anyway, so why not just chill at home?!

Okay: this post was quite long enough.  I'm going to sign off for now because I have a lot to do today!  Cardio and yoga, grading essays, and dinner with my BFF!  I'll see y'all later tonight!

Saturday's grand total:

Calories:
Fat:
Carbs:
Protein:

Water:
Exercise:

I'm not even going to compute this because I have zero idea about the salad I had for lunch.  I drank a lot of water at lunch, I didn't work out, and breakfast and dinner were very healthy.  So, let's just assume I did a good job.  :)

Fun Food Day!

Before I go any further, I have to tell you that I woke up hungry in the middle of the night and ate two graham crackers, so please add on the following to yesterday's grand total: 130 calories, 3 fat grams, 24 carbs grams, and 2 protein grams.

Okay, now that my confessional is over:

The post title says it all: other than the "fun food," today was relatively uneventful - which is oftentimes, like now, very much needed.  I think the most eventful part of my day was when I lost my nose ring.  However, I'm not sure exactly when that happened because if I did, it wouldn't be lost.  Please tell me: how do you lose something that is screwed into your nose?  Apparently I can find a way.

Nothing big happened at school: a major essay was due, so I was "yelling" at kids all day to get it done, one of my friends doesn't know when to say when and ticked me off - pretty much the usual!  Uneventful.

I talked a little more today with my colleagues about the school shooting.  Interestingly, as I was just wasting time on Facebook, I came across this beautiful video and thought I'd share it with you:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I thought it was an absolutely beautiful video that really showcased what kind of school Millard South is.  Like I said two days ago, it is a good school, it is a strong school.  I was also touched by the photos on my friends' pages of the other Millard schools (North and West) wearing all red today:

The outpouring of support from friends and community has been tremendous.

I promise I will be done talking about it soon.  I promise.  Soon.

Breakfast today was the usual, a protein shake.  I bought some spinach, though, so today's shake was a Green Monster:

I promise it's way more appetizing than it looks!  Today's Green Monster included one banana, one cup UVAB, one scoop of vanilla protein powder, a big handful of spinach, one-fourth cup of blackberries, and a drizzle of agave nectar.

While I made two giant salads last night - one of which I brought to school for lunch today - I had forgotten that I promised three students Jimmy John's.  You see, when I was forced to move my entire classroom in one day, I was a little scattered and, to put it mildly, freaking out.  Three of my rock-star students, though, volunteered to help, and they did a phenomenal job.  While they could've been hanging out with their friends, goofing off, whatever, they carted around bazillions of my textbooks, dusted the disgustingly dirty furniture, organized my millions of classroom treasures, and kept me sane.  One of the students even spent her lunch period working in my room.  Anyway, long story short: I had a sandwich, too.

And because we were playing final review games all day (with the prizes being candy), I allowed myself two mini chocolates: Mr. Goodbar and Krackle.

My workout today was pretty easy: I did both arm and leg weights (I'm going to be sore tomorrow!), ten minutes of warmup cardio on the treadmill, and 20 minutes on the bike.  Most of my treadmill time was a brisk walk, but I did incorporate a couple minutes of running.  Before I sprained my ankle, I was kind of on a running-kick, and I want to get back to that.  But, I know I need to take it slowly - and be smart about it.

After my workout, I ate two hard-boiled eggs, took a shower, and then ate my apple.  While I didn't take a picture today, just reference the last week's worth of photos to get the idea.  :)

Dinner tonight was out on the town!  One of my good friends and I grabbed sushi at my favorite place in Des Moines: Sakari.  As usual, it was delicious.  We both ordered a squid salad to start and then shared the Godzilla, Firecracker, and Alaskan rolls.  I had two giant glasses of water and a vodka-tonic as well - oh, and the two saki bombs the sushi chefs bought for us (perks of sitting at the sushi bar!).

While we probably could've chosen healthier rolls - I'm sure the specialty ones are never the best option - and I probably could've gone without booze, I think everything in moderation is just fine.  I felt the perfect amount of "fullness" after dinner, and an hour or so later, I'm feeling tiny twinges of being hungry again, so I think we did well on not gorging ourselves.  And especially after the lack of calories consumed the last couple of days, I think I was entitled to one good meal.  :)

Today's grand total (without including sushi because that's nearly impossible for me to calculate at this point):

Calories: 1232
Fat: 24 grams
Carbs: 134 grams
Protein: 72.5 grams

Water: 64 ounces (approximate)
Exercise: 350 calories burned

GTL

Jersey Shore!  I have the exact same thought as one of my friends who texted me earlier: "It's actually kind of sad how excited I am about this."  One of my students ran into my room fist-pumping and chanting "GTL" today because he knows just how excited I am.  :)

While I am still very upset by the Millard South tragedy, today was a better day than yesterday.  I just couldn't stop thinking about it last night - and every time I thought about it, another aspect of it upset me.  I think one thing that especially got to me was that when I was lying in bed - crying profusely - I realized that I needed something: a hug.  I really, really needed someone with me.  And while I am generally happy with how my life is going, I was very saddened by the fact that I was alone.  Single people don't get a lot of hugs - especially when they really need 'em.

Today was another bad day with food, though.  Like I said, I am still upset by the incident yesterday, and then I got fairly stressed out later in the day with some school things.  When I am upset and agitated, I am not hungry.  And by "not hungry," I really mean that if I feel like throwing up at the sight/sound of food.  Weird, I know.

Breakfast (6:30): one full banana, one-fourth cup of blackberries, one cup UVAB, half a scoop of protein powder.  It was delish.

And now it gets confusing.  Initially, I had brought an apple and two hard-boiled eggs for my midmorning snack.  However, I was too busy with students so just skipped straight to lunch (11:00): gnocchi again.  Believe me when I say that I am more than ready to be done with that.  It was yummy, but not for four meals.

During Eighth Block today (around 1:30 or so), I dug into my banana.  I took a picture of it with the string cheeses that I was supposed to eat, but those are still in my refrigerator...  I just wasn't hungry for 'em.

During night school (3:30), I had the two hard-boiled eggs that were initially intended for the morning snack.

And then I had the apple around 7:30.  Not good, I know.

I'm trying to work up the energy to dig into the carrots and hummus that were supposed to be part of my lunch.  I'm just not hungry!

I'm going to eat them, though, and I'm going to finish this Nalgene of water before bed.

I took a day off of working out.  I've had three good workouts the last three days, and I needed a break.  Plus, I knew I'd be working late at school, and then I had to do more school stuff as soon as I got home.  I needed a night to relax for at least an hour or so.  Also, I'm pretty sure one of my biceps muscles got a little too much of a workout on Tuesday...somethin' just ain't right!  :)  I'll head back to the gym tomorrow after school for some more weights - arms and legs - and a mellow cardio workout, I think.

Today's grand total:

Calories: 1092

Fat: 33 grams

Carbs: 155.5 grams

Protein: 41.5 grams

Water: 32 ounces (horrible!!!)

Exercise: 0 calories burned

Hard Day

Today was rough.  I'm not really in the mood to blog and have been putting it off for hours, but maybe doing so will help me "talk" it out.

I'm sure most of you have heard by now about the school shooting at Millard South in Omaha, Nebraska - my high school.  A student shot two administrators, fatally wounding one - the current vice principal, my former vice principal.  He then drove about a mile away from the school and shot himself.

I was a sophomore in high school at the time of the Columbine tragedy.  I remember all of us talking about how something like that could never happen at Millard South, despite the schools being nearly identical demographically.  We were a good school, a strong school.  I know that Millard South is still good and still strong; but right now - like my heart - it is in pieces.

As a high school teacher, I cannot even imagine experiencing something like that and pray that I never have to.  Along with Mrs. Kaspar's senseless death, I think what I am most sad about is how the teachers and the students have to respond to this tragedy.  I just can't even describe it.  How do you walk back into that building?  How do you tell students things are going to be okay?  How do you try and explain what happened?

I just don't know.

And I am just so sad.

Briefly, I'll tell you about the rest of my day - what I ate and my exercise.

Breakfast: shake with one banana, four strawberries, one cup UVAB, one tablespoon almond butter, and a half scoop of protein.

Midmorning snack: two hard-boiled eggs and an apple.  Again.

Lunch (eaten late...had to present professional development): leftover gnocchi.  Again.

Afternoon snack (eaten late because of a faculty meeting and working out): two string cheeses, carrots, and four tablespoons of hummus.  Honestly, I'm still working on this.  After I finally began to process what happened today, I just wasn't hungry.

So...that's that.  I was planning on having either my last serving of gnocchi or a freshly cooked dinner tonight (stay tuned for later this week) as well as a nighttime snack of a Larabar, but clearly neither of those "meals" happened.

I did go to the gym for a spinning class - 55 minutes of hardcore sweating.  I looked at a few different sources that said that was equivalent to over 800 calories.  That seems like a lot to me.  But, for the amount I sweat compared to how much I sweat on the crazy elliptical, it's definitely possible!

When you look at today's grand total, don't be mad at me: I swear I don't have an eating disorder.

Today's grand total:

Calories: 1077

Fat: 35 grams

Carbs: 152.5 grams

Protein: 54.5 grams

Water: 60 ounces (oops)

Exercise: 800 calories burned

It's Trivia Tiiiiiime!

It's Tuesday, and you know what that means: trivia!  (And, I might be getting a little excited for the Jersey Shore premiere on Thursday, channeling Pauly D and t-shirt tiiiime!)  Ironically, my team, "And With a Perfect Score," did not receive any perfect scores and instead ended up in ninth place, a whopping 48 points below first place.  I'm pretty sure this is a record low for us.

Because it's nearly 11:30 and therefore way past my school-night bedtime, I'm going to cut to the chase and give you my daily menu:

Breakfast was yet another shake (and a cup of coffee).  Unfortunately, I ran out of spinach, so instead of a Green Monster, it's just a regular ole shake.

Doesn't it look pretty next to my pink Christmas tree?  (It's not too Christmas-y, so it still gets to stay up...)

In the mix: one full banana, four strawberries, one cup UVAB, and one scoop of vanilla protein powder.  I really like protein shakes because it's almost like eating dessert for breakfast.  Yum.  I also scarfed down a couple of these bad boys:

Can you tell I really like things that look/taste like dessert?  These vitamins are the only multivitamins I've ever been able to take: they're like gummy bears!

Midmorning snack:

Two hard-boiled eggs and a granny smith apple.  You'll be seeing a lot of this combo: it's so easy to grab and eat on the run - or in the middle of the ninth-grade hallway during passing period.  :)  This was an especially delish batch of hard-boiled eggs for some reason, so I'm really enjoying 'em over the next couple of days!

I spent my lunch period working with a couple of students on essays, so I had a quick bite to eat at my desk:

The identical twin to the Giant Salad I had for lunch yesterday.  It totally looks like my salad is topped with ground beef (ew...), but I swear they are chopped dates.  The flavors of this salad are to.die.for.  Again, I topped it with Goddess dressing.  Double yum.

Like yesterday, I brought a diet iced tea to enjoy during lunch, but since I hadn't yet finished my first Nalgene of water, I didn't break into the tea.  Yay, me!

My afternoon snack was also eaten while working with several students (such hard workers!):

Two pieces of string cheese and a banana.  Again, you will be seeing a lot of this combo.  It's a lot trickier than it seems to find food that is just the right amount of carbs and protein for a mid-morning/mid-afternoon snack - hence repeating often.

If you hadn't guessed already, I didn't make it to the gym this morning.  I couldn't fall asleep until around midnight or so, and when my alarm went off at 4:45, I was still in a NyQuil-induced haze and decided to sleep it off until 6:00 and workout after school.  So, I brought all of my workout garb to school and headed straight to the gym.  After a fully-loaded weight session (arms, which supposedly burned around 100 calories), I did another 30 minutes on the crazy-elliptical/stair-climber machine and burned 360 calories.

For dinner I reheated my second portion of gnocchi and cauliflower:

It was delicious as usual - thankfully, because I still have two more meals of it yet.  I like leftovers but can only take so much of 'em...

At trivia tonight I polished off the last of my food for the day:

This bar was really, really good.  I'm going to have to get more of 'em.

And now since it's nearing midnight, I need to sign off!

Today's grand total:

Calories: 1711
Fat: 58 grams
Carbs: 194 grams
Protein: 90 grams

Water: 120 ounces
Exercise: 460 calories burned