Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Gratefulness

Is that a word?

For some reason, the word 'grateful' has come up a lot lately. I'm reading it and hearing about gratefulness all over the place. I always take these things as being some sort of sign, so I figured I should be thinking about and talking about gratefulness. This post is very much inspired by many happy posts I've read of late.

I'm grateful for so many things - let me share:

~ I live with the kindest, more tolerant, gentle, generous man I could ask to share my life with.
~ I have a wonderful family - we love each other more and more every day. Our newest little family member is really changing our lives for the better. We are so lucky to be blessed with her.
~ We are healthy, and happy, and very fortunate.
~ I have more people that I consider friends than I ever have before, no matter how far apart we are from each other physically.
~ My dog. I love that fuzzy little being. He's made me a better person.
~ My job. I may not always jump out of bed eager to go to work, but I have great co-workers and a very good job - certainly nothing I should be complaining much about.


So there you have it. What more can a person ask for?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Monday Menu - I know, another boring food list

I know it's Tuesday, but I want to talk about yesterday's food too. I'm looking for suggestions and critiques. I'm trying to eat "cleaner" and incorporate more whole foods and more protein.

Here's what I ate:

Breakfast: Oats with greek yogurt and raisins, coffee
Snack: none (still full)
Lunch: Salad (spinach, tomatoes, mixed beans, feta stuffed peppers, flax meal, vinaigrette)
Snack: 2 Turkey Bites
Dinner: Turkey Burger (whole wheat bun, cranberry chutney, and grainy mustard), sweet potato fries with herb mayo for dipping
Snack: 3 Clementines

Because I don't trust myself not to overeat, I'm still figuring out my nutritional totals:
1530 cals, 197 grams carbohydrates, 46 grams fat, 95 grams protein

I think the only thing I ate that wouldn't be considered "clean" was the mayo, and maybe the kaiser roll I had my burger on. It was from a local bakery, but it doesn't list ingredients.

Thoughts?

Saturday, November 6, 2010

This Week's Grocery List

I've really been trying harder to focus on whole foods and shopping the perimeter of the store. Here are today's finds:

Light Eggnog
1% Milk
Light Cream (for a specific FFwD recipe)
Coffee Cream (for a specific FFwD recipe)
Fresh Salmon
Lean Ground Beef
Ground Turkey
Orange Juice
Sugar
Fat-Free Greek Yogurt - Plain
Fat-Free Greek Yogurt - Strawberry (!!!)
Low-Fat Olive Oil Mayonnaise
Canned Crushed Tomatoes
Swiss Cheese
Tassimo Lattes
Garlic
Old Dutch All-Dressed Potato Chips (I have no idea how they got in the cart - Steve?)
Clementines
Onions
Honeycrisp Apples
Green Peppers
Baby Spinach
Baby Lettuce
Portabella Mushrooms
Roast Beef
Whole Grain Artisan Bread
Coarse Salt
Smoked Tuna
Multigrain Hamburger Buns
Cranberry Orange Chutney
Chili Oil
Coke Zero
C-Plus Orange

I cannot wait to have turkey burgers for supper this week!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Take Some Time to Think

I went for a run today at lunch, all by my lonesome. It's been quite a while since I'd done that, come to think of it. I'm usually out with the tall geeks from the other side of my floor, one of whom is learning to run. Needless to say, I haven't been challenging myself as much as I should be.

Today I decided I'd go by myself - completely all alone, by myself. No distractions. This also means no music. I also made sure I wasn't wearing any gear that would drive me insane while I was on my solo journey. It was just me and my garmin.

It was great just listening to myself breathing. Nice rhythmic breathing. And I took time to think about my body - where my shoulders were, whether any part of me felt tighter than it should have, and whether my shoes were comfortable.

I also thought about which parts of my body were actually getting tired, and when I really analyzed the whole thing, I found that I could actually keep going longer. Can your legs handle a couple more minutes? Yup. Can your lungs handle a couple more minutes? Yup. Better keep going then.

It was great. I need to do that just a bit more often.