Early to Bed! Way Early!

Today I just plain wasn't feeling good.  I think I might be coming down with a cold.  I started the morning with some overnight oats.  Recipes:  1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, splash of milk, 2 generous spoons of pumpkin, 1 TB of currants, spices, Sun Crystals, and unsalted pumpkin seeds sprinkled on top.  Delicious and very filling!   I love to make breakfast ahead of time because I am NOT a morning person!

Lunch is unpictured because seriously I just wasn't with it today and forgot!  Imagine a whole wheat pita stuffed with almond butter.  Not too exciting anyhow, eh?  I was going to the dentist so I didn't want a big lunch in me!

Since the dentist is located so close to my favorite pizza place, Pies and Pints, I knew I had to get a pizza to go.  I wanted to surprise my husband!  After the horrible chicken in the floor incident of last night I didn't even feel up to cooking today! lol!  I got half grape and gorgonzola and half Cuban.  So delicious!  Best idea I've had in weeks!  So after dinner I'm still feeling yucky plus it's cold so I threw on sweatpants and a hoodie and I went to bed.  I read some of my book for bible study.  Turns out there are questions I'm supposed to answer at the end of the chapters.  I guess I should've assumed as much! lol!

I took a big nap!  From 8p.m. to 1 a.m.  Now I'm up when I should be asleep! Oh well.  I'm trying out my new nightguard.  Turns out I did not have to have my filling done today, thank goodness since I'm already feeling bad!  He said where my jaw is cracking and popping it wouldn't be a good idea to have my mouth propped open so long so I'm to wear my nightguard a few weeks and return Nov. 3rd!  This little device pictured above is what my guard looks like.  It's called an N.T.I. Tension Suppression System.  You wear it over your front teeth and it prevents your teeth from touching so you can't clench or grind!  It not only prevents tooth grinding it also relaxes the muscles involved which can clear up TMJ! Would you believe this little hunk of plastic is $195!!!

I almost missed a day of yoga!!!  No fears when I awoke I did some self-guided yoga stretches before I got up to do this blog post!  Very relaxing.  No one else is up.  Just me and the cat! Her purring was quite soothing and well suited to the poses actually!  Yogi master Buttercup? :)

Question for the day: How does everyone else attempt to fight off a cold?

Taco Thursday!

I started the day out with another pumpkin concoction.  This one is no-cook oats featuring non-fat plain yogurt, pumpkin, oats, cinammon, pumpkin pie spice, and truvia.  Quite tasty!  It looks a bit gross though.  I've gone almost the whole week without my Sweet n' Low!  I'm getting used to the Sun Crystals.  One thing that has helped is using just half of the packet per cup of tea.  They are very small but wow are they sweet! 

Lunch was of course leftovers from last night. Also some carrot sticks and grapes.  Very tasty and filling.  I didn't even get hungry for my 4 o'clock snack!  One of the ladies at work insists that I must order lunch with her tomorrow because I've done good all week and "I deserve it".  No one seems to understand that I like packing my lunch!  I really do enjoy what I bring and look forward to it!  Plus if I don't eat the leftovers for lunch then they go to waste and I don't like to waste if I can help it!

Tonight was kickboxing night.  I was not feeling it as my back/hip is still hurting but I drug my behind in there anyhow!  Glad I did, I burned 520 calories!  For my before gym snack I had my favorite Larabar, Key Lime...after class I had to go to the pharmacy so naturally I had to get a tall soy latte from Starbucks!  My dad likes to tell me that just because the sign says drive thru it doesn't mean I have to drive thru! lol!  For dinner I tried something new!  My husband loves tacos but the regular kinds are so bad with tons of sodium and strange chemicals...so I got this Garden of Eatin' from the healthy section of Krogers.

  These were so good!  The shells were delicious.  My husband ate 6 shells...3 without fillings he liked them so well!  The seasoning was a lot lower in sodium plus I only used half the pack and that was plenty!  I made these with ground chicken and topped them with 2% cheddar cheese and reduced fat sour cream.  Corn as our side.  A little carb heavy but I love white corn!  I will definately buy this again!  After dinner I watched The Office, it's one of my favorite shows and then did my relaxation yoga.  Now I'm ready to seriously relax until morning! :)

Dancing outside of my comfort zone!

I finally went to Latin Moves tonight.  More on that later...I'll start at the very beginning.  Breakfast! Last night I mixed 1/2 cup Oikos plain greek yogurt, 1/2 cup Trader Joe's blueberry museli, and 1 spoonful of pumpkin butter in a bowl and put in the fridge overnight.  I ate it this morning with a small banana.  So good.  This is one of the best breakfasts I've had in awhile.  I'd love more tomorrow but I'm out of greek yogurt! :(

Lunch was leftover soup with homemade bread and dab of peanut butter.  I like Krema Natural peanut butter because it has exactly one ingredient.  Peanuts!  It's very creamy, spreads well, isn't too oily, and it doesn't need refridgerated or so it says on the jar.  Anyhow I keep it on the counter and it's not made me sick yet. 

For dinner I was really craving a fried egg sandwich but my family wasn't.  So we decided to use a Quiznos coupon I got via email.  I choose a small black angus steak (aka roast beef) sub with cheese and mushrooms.  I skipped the bourbon sauce and grill stuff and added pickles.  If I have pickles I don't need mayo or other sauces.  One thing I will not give up to save calories is cheese. You pretty much will never see me having a cheese-less sandwich.  I love cheese! Anyhow this sub was good.  Suprisingly I was full enough without eating chips or anything on the side.  Just the sandwich.

Now for Latin Moves.  I think this is supposed to be a Zumba class because at first that's what they called it but now it's called Latin Moves. I don't like dancing or choreography of any sort but seeing as I'm aiming to improve myself I felt I should give it a try.  To start we did some stretching.  That was okay.  I could keep up.  Then we started the dancing.  Ummm...not so good here.  I felt like a chubby, no rhythm having dumbass.  I really wanted to leave but I stayed.  Then we moved on to the "weight" segment.  I got quite excited for this part.  Well I shouldn't have.  She suggest 2 lb. weights.  You read that right.  2.  So what we were going to be doing exactly?...the answer: dancing while swinging the weights around.  Sounds safe and effective.  Ummm. Yeah.  I could tell I got on my friend's nerves by being all "know it all" but seriously why waste your time doing 400 reps with Barbie weights?  I was a good sport and got big scary 5lb. weights and partcipated.  At least it burned calories since we were jumping around like crazy.  It just seemed like you were increasing injury risk without any benefit to your body at all.  I'm 100% in favor of the New Rules of Lifting for Women philosphy.  Heavy weights, low reps.  The class was an hour and 15 minutes and my heart rate monitor said I burned 600 calories.  Honestly this seems high since my heart rate was much lower than in kickboxing but whatever. When  I got home I made an interesting shake.  We were almost out of milk and I didn't want to use the last of it so I mixed ice, cranberry juice, and chocolate whey powder in the blender.  Surprisingly delicious!            

A bowl of ulgy for breakfast!

What is this big bowl of grossness you may ask.  It's my breakfast.  Despite appearances it is quite delicious!  It's an easy make ahead breakfast for people too lazy to cook oats.  Basically you take 1/2 cup of greek yogurt, mix with 1 TB lemon curd (by the way greek yogurt and lemon curd is the best combo on the planet!!), a handfull of blueberries, 1/3 cup of raw oats, and a splash of milk so it's not too pasty.  Set in the fridge overnight and viola! Breakfast. (Note: reused Kroger cottage cheese container is optional!  I'm being green. ;P)            

Lunch today is one of my quick options.  Amy's Cheddar burrito...I'm addicted for sure!  They are so good.  Served with cut carrots and a banana.  I woke up in the middle of the night with one of those awful leg cramps that propel you straight out of bed so I decided to put a banana on today's menu.  Also more water because I've been drinking way too much tea and not near enough water.  In fact as I'm typing this my water is hanging out in the corner of my desk and I have a cup of Earl Grey in front of me...oh well. 

Tonight is kickboxing night.  I've had a TERRIBLE sinus headache all day.  Woke up with it in fact so hopefully it will ease up in time for my workout!  Also I have a pot roast in the crockpot to look forward to after the gym.  I love, love, love my crockpot.  It makes late gym nights so much easier for me.  Of course everytime I use it I have the secret fear that my house has caught on fire while I've been gone.  This would be because I'm always thinking of crazy things that might happen, not because crockpots have a habit of igniting homes.