3.15.13 - 3.16.13

Hello there. I didn't have a chance to update yesterday, so here's a rundown on the last two days. I've been a bit off because of the conference, but things haven't been catastophic.

3.15 -
For breakfast there was a big spread of pastries and fruit. I filled up a plate with fruit and had a mini croissant.

Lunch was salad, a bit of tortellini salad, and half a turkey and cheese wrap. I also had a sierra mist "natural" and later had a tiny bag of chips.

 

The conference was not as great as I was hoping it would be, but at least there were nice views!!

For dinner a friend reserved a table at Harpoon's new beer hall and got K.O Pies to cater.

I ended up having a beef and cheese pie, some potato wedges, and 3 beers over the night.

3.16 -

Breakfast was exactly the same this morning, except more watermelon!

Lunch was a surprise and was way more fancy. I couldn't resist trying everything:

What we have is salad, yellow rice, chicken stuffed with spinach, and vegetarian lasagna. For dessert I had that little adorable chocolate teacup!

Because I had the Harpoon dinner yesterday I decided to change my workout to tonight. Before going to the gym I had a tortilla with melted cheese and some string beans:

At the gym I ended up covering about 3 miles in 45 minutes. Not bad.

By the way, I only take these pictures to hold myself accountable. It would be too easy to lie about going to the gym and running. It's a little pathetic but it does keep me somewhat on track.

After the gym I got ready for date night with Tom! We went to The Butcher Shop, a place we've both been dying to go to because we <3 Barbara Lynch.

The restaurant is really small, and I was surprised we only had a 20 minute wait for a table on Friday night. While waiting they brought us to the "butcher block" to peruse the menu and sip on some drinks.  We both ordered the Saison Dupont:

Once seated we started with the foie gras terrine and the petite charcuterie board:

For our entrees, I ordered the tagliatelle bolognese:

And Tom ordered the duck special:

Everything was incredible. The foie gras was the most buttery thing I've ever eaten! I loved the charcuterie board, obviously, and could have easily ordered 5 more for just myself. My tagliatelle was perfectly cooked and the meat was tender and delicious, but Tom's duck was the star! I didn't think I loved duck but this was just amazing.

We also had a special surprise during the night -- Kristin Kish from Top Chef ran right by our table! Kristin typically works at Stir (which is right next door) but occasionally works at Barbara's other restaurants as well. Unfortunately we didn't realize it was her until she was outside and her back was turned. For the rest of the night we both jumped anytime someone walked by the window. Groupies.

Wonderful wonderful dinner :) Happy weekend!

I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell

I love that quote. Especially because it's from Walt Whitman who 1. has the same birthday as me..almost exactly - he's 5/31/1887 and I'm 5/31/1988!! and 2. he's from Long Island. A few years ago I hiked to the highest point on Long Island (Jayne's Hill) which is actually not that high -- it's only about 400 ft above sea level. At the top was a plaque commemorating Leaves of Grass which I read in high school and loved. So yea, I like WW!

Speaking of May 31st, I came across this crazy line in my book today:

Creepy.

Anyway, I was running pretty late for a meeting this morning and just grabbed a banana and a string cheese for the road. At the meeting I had some rooibos tea. I really dislike "meeting people for coffee" -- I hate coffee and don't like tea but always feel pressure to be normal and order something!

Because I was rushing around I didn't have time (or motivation) to make lunch this morning. I decided to treat myself a bit and got a veggie burrito bowl from Chipotle. In my bowl: brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, salsa, guacamole and a bit of cheese. Look at all the guacamole...yum.

I've been trying to add a little bit more walking into my day however I can. Today I decided to walk home from my meeting instead of taking a cab and covered about 1.5 miles.

I had a power walk with my friend Hayley on the calendar tonight so we left as soon as I got home from work. We ended up walking for a little over an hour and I imagine covered about 3 miles. It was a great walk but a bit chilly outside. Spring needs to get here ASAP!!!

When I got home I made a quick dinner: a 2-egg omelette with cheese, 2 pieces of toast with peanut butter, and had some raw veggies with hummus on the side.

Now I'm getting ready for bed and hoping for an early night. I have a conference for the next two full days and have no idea what breakfast and lunch is going to be like. I'm going to bring something for breakfast but lunch is definitely a toss up. We'll see!

Tuesday 3/12/13

Hello hello, happy March 12!

I'm starting to write this at work and the day is draaagging. I keep getting a lot done and expecting the time to be way later than it is. Boo.

I met my coworkers for more office space visits this morning so I ate breakfast on the T. So classy. I had a piece of bread with peanut butter and a banana. We are down to 2 really good options for my new office and I'm so excited! It's going to be SUPER annoying to move (I'm going to be in charge of organizing it all, ugh) but I just can't wait to be in Boston! The one I like the best has a big modern lobby that feels like a hotel!

Looking at offices also made me get a little exercise in during the morning. We ended up covering a bit over 2 miles walking around town.

For lunch I had the last of my pasta salad, 2 turkey roll ups with string cheese inside (yum!), and an orange.

A little while later I had two more chocolates. I realized yesterday that they looked pretty large, so here they are next to a penny for scale :)

I didn't bring my clothes/yoga mat to work because it would have been super awkward during the office visits, so I got home, got changed and hopped on over to the gym before 6:30.

The yoga class was okay. It wasn't too challenging, but still kinda sucked because I haven't stretched in months. In the end I felt good and relaxed...I'm planning to give it at least another week.

When I got home I grabbed a string cheese cause I was really hungry. I also had a bite of this premade Israeli cous cous I got from the supermarket. For dinner, I made sweet potato chips in the oven and a turkey burger with some mozzarella cheese melted on it. I ate each bite with a pickle and some ketchup. Deeelish!

I also had more of the same awesome salad from the other night: greens, pear, gorgonzola and walnuts + a couple of blackberries.

Now time for more Top Chef! Please pack your knives and go.

Monday 3/11/13

I really enjoy not coming up with titles for posts these days. That was always the most stressful part of writing in here!





Today was definitely a good day. Not just eating, but because it got dark at nearly 7 pm! We're FINALLY on the up side of things here in New England!!!


I started off my Monday with ezekial cereal and a banana:

This cereal definitely keeps me fuller than having just a string cheese and a banana. I think if I need to eat something quick I will try to add a hard boiled egg or piece of toast and peanut butter.

For lunch I had a sandwich with turkey, avocado and tomato on a whole wheat sandwich thin. Not sure how I feel about those...I'm more of a roll girl. I also had some veggies with artichoke hummus (not crazy about this flavor) and grapes.

Around 4 I had a cheese stick and 2 of theses little candies -- Hershey's simple pleasure dark chocolate with creme pieces. It's nice to have a little treat at work sometimes.

When I got home I had an easy dinner -- leftover pasta salad and an orange:

Then it was off to the gym. Not gonna lie, I was totally dreading this all day -- up until the second I got there. I jumped on a treadmill and it took me a while to get going. I walked for a fairly long time before I cranked up the speed to do some jogging. I ended up staying on for about 42 minutes. After about 10 minutes I was fine and the workout flew by. I'm feeling better after having one night under my belt and even signed up for the yoga class tomorrow (that's not necessary but if I'm not going I should call -- which makes me more likely to actually go). Dare I say I'm even looking forward to it a little?

When I got home I watched some Big Bang Theory and snacked on a banana with peanut butter and a string cheese. Pretty decent post-workout snack!

I'm really liking this peanut butter. We all know I am basically obsessed with Peanut Butter & Co's dark chocolate dreams but I've never tried the regular stuff. It's a winner!

Night ya'll!

Sunday 3/10/13

Today was a fun day. It started out with brunch with some friends at Lincoln. We started with a few oysters and mimosas. Lincoln has a great mimosa deal -- for $24 you get a bottle of champagne plus mixers (orange juice, grapefruit juice and peach puree). We split it between 3 of us and each person had 3 glasses, so each mimosa turned out to be $2.66!

I had a piece of coffee cake, then ordered the awesome meatball pizza.

Later in the evening I went food shopping for the week and picked up some stuff for a salad tonight. I ate the rest of my pizza plus had a salad with greens, pear, gorgonzola, walnuts and a new champagne shallot walnut dressing. I've been pretty anti-salad lately and it's mostly because I just haven't been into dressings. This one was a winner though!

A little bit later I had half of an orange for dessert.

Tomorrow I'll be back at the gym and I'm a little nervous but also excited. Putting these workouts on my calendar was a good very first step because I'm treating them almost like appointments. Hopefully it will be a good day tomorrow!

3/9/13

I love Saturdays!! Yesterday I woke up and had another homemade breakfast, 2 eggs, bacon, some banana and 2 pieces of toast:

And a glass of vanilla almond milk:

Lunch later on was some greek pasta salad and two string cheese for some protein:

And dinner was a whole wheat wrap with turkey and avocado and a side of grapes:

I ended up going out last night and had quite a bit to drink. I think altogether I had 4 shots and 2 vodka sprites.

I spent yesterday afternoon talking to my friend (hi Hayley!) about my exercise woes. We first talked about all of the reasons I'm not working out. The biggest reason was just pure laziness, which is NOT good. We then went through and made a list of all of the types of exercise I have liked doing and what I haven't liked doing in the past.

I don't have the list in front of me, but it was something like this:

Likes:
Zumba
Spinning classes
Most group fitness classes in general
Weights with a personal trainer
Running outside (when it's easy and nice out)
Walking with friends
Yoga (sometimes)
Kayaking
Hiking

Dislikes:
Cardio on elliptical/bike etc.
Weights by myself
Running when it's hard
Pilates

She then helped me make a reasonable schedule for the next month, aiming to work out around 4 times/week. Here's my schedule for this week:

Monday: 30 minute run/walk outside or at the gym
Tuesday: yoga class at 6:30
Wednesday: power walk with Hayley (outside)
Thursday: cardio dance class at 6:30
Friday-Sunday: some sort of active rest (could just be an easy walk somewhere)

I am going to stick to this!! I'm nervous about the classes but I think I'll be okay. I just have to make sure to pack my gym bag and bring it to work with me on Tuesday and Thursday. I hate doing that but ones I get into a routine it's not a big deal.

3/8/13

Today was a strange day of eating. We woke up with a surprise ton of snow in Boston so my boss told us to stay home from work. Wooooo!

I had a big homemade breakfast to celebrate: 2 eggs, a few pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of toast, some banana slices, and some tator tots. Yum.

I didn't get actually hungry the rest of the day, but ended up eating a lot of candy :-/

I also had a couple of banana slices with nutella and a piece of the polish beef jerky!

It was Tom's friend's birthday so we went out to dinner at Granary Tavern. Over the course of the night I had two Sam Alpine Springs, and for my entree I ordered a bowl of the corn chowder and the beet salad (arugula, goat cheese, spiced pumpkin seeds, cider vinaigrette.) They were both okay but nothing too special. The soup was a bit too watery, and the salad had far too many beets and far too few of the other ingredients. Still, I was pretty proud that I went with something healthy instead of the burger I really wanted!

Now it's almost bed time. Good night!