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MICHCLEARY's Recent Blog Entries
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Friday, July 29, 2011
 Okay, code orange stress alert for me today. Frankly I am surprised that I got through this day without some kind of serious emotional eating.
Breakfast - pumpkin whole wheat pancakes. Bonus points for using left over pumpkin from my baked pumpkin maple oatmeal the other day. I did buy organic chicken sausages yesterday to have with breakfast this morning, and none of us would eat them. The dog had a nice breakfast!
Mid morning snack - my fav chocolate protein shake with frozen banana, PB2 powder and coffee.
Lunch - more bonus points for leftover use of pasta sauce, steak and peppers. I used half a slice of Lavash (whole wheat) toasted it in the oven then topped it with sauce, chopped steak and peppers, fat free mozz, tuscan seasoning and reheated. 1 kiwi, raspberries, small salad with my new tangerine vinagrette (no oil). Nice lunch for about 325 calories!
After lunch is when things started going to the stress zone. Our insurance adjuster was out here. Long story short....bill comes in at $5 less than our $3,000 deductible. Funny how that works out! Apparently one of the air conditioners connects underneath the upstairs bathroom to drain. Some insulation came through the pipe, clogged the pipe that drains that and the bathroom sink...lead to some water draining down through the cabinet and wall to ultimately causing part of our garage ceiling to collapse.
All that happened while my husband was terribly sick with the stomach flu and ended up in the ER severely dehydrated.
 so I find myself with a small reese peanut butter cup in my mouth this afternoon sucking the chocolate off the top. I managed to stop myself and throw it and several small candy bars away. I did eat one serving of whole grain chips, and some crackers though.
I finally managed to get a hold of myself and make a healthy snack. I only ate half the pear but downed the cantelope and mini whole wheat bagel with almond butter and dark chocolate chips.
For dinner I made a sandwich with a bagel thin, avocado, lettuce, and ham.
I let my youngest get in her driving time but taking me to Target. We're going to a 2 year old's birthday party tomorrow. Isn't this too cute??? We got tights and headbands to go with it. I love celebrating this little girls birthday. She was born so premature that she only weighed 1.5 lbs and it was touch and go for a long time. The fact that we can go to her 2yr party tomorrow is a great joy!
I had a nectarine and a pumpkin flax fiber bar for an evening snack and just now had a small banana. I haven't logged my food, but think I am in under my max calories.
 In between the contractor, adjuster, 3 teenagers, 1 dog, 2 cats, and my consulting job that I do from home - I took the time to do a 10 minute pilates stretching video, and sit for a couple minutes and deep breath. This helped me get my mind back to a calmer place and get back on track.
 My runner's world magazine came in the mail today. I'm going to chill and read that for a few minutes. Tomorrow it's  and possibly a trip to the hospital to see my friend. I may eat cake...I'm just saying!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
I'm on a quest....first to live in a way that brings out the healthiest version of me possible, and second to show that you can eat healthy and enjoy it. Clean eating can be colorful, vibrant, taste good, and well... here's how my day went in my attempt to fulfill my quest:
Breakfast - no picture. My waffle sandwich - 2 whole wheat low fat waffles with one egg, and one low fat colby jack sliced cheese served with black coffee.
 I need an emoticon here that looks like a chicken running around because my day seemed to get rushed and stay ahead of me for awhile.
Racing to get to Physical Therapy - I stopped for my typical tall, nonfat latte and I grabbed a bag of Nut and Fruit (290 calories total for both) This was my mid-morning snack.
 I cried at the end of PT today. I admit it. 11 weeks out from surgery I'm still in pain every day. This is typical for the surgical procedure I had so there is nothing wrong. It's irritating, frustrating, annoying and some days gets the better of me. I did however manage to make my therapist laugh. I find that gets me through some days. I was doing one exercise where I was groaning and making faces. She looked at me all concerned and asked how I was. I said "does this exercise make my butt look fat?". At first she didn't know what to say, then she burst out laughing.
Lunch:
I met my BFF for lunch at Greenz today and had their grilled peach salad. It was great - grilled chicken, peaches and onions mixed with spinach and blue cheese. I had the dressing on the side and didn't use much of that at all.
 After lunch I stopped by one of my favorite stores - Whole Foods. I don't usually go there but it was on my way back today. I think that when fruits and veggies die and go to heaven, they end up at Whole Foods.
Here they are gently misted with water, kept cool by ceiling fans, and listen to soft music. Staff fuss over them and make sure they are nestled snuggly in with all their colorful friends!
After drinking about 5 cups of water at lunch, I wanted something that wasn't just water for the drive home. I tried this - it tasted like what it said it was - green tea, orange, and sparkling water. zero calories!
After I got home I had a snack - 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt with artificial sweetner, 1/2 banana, 1/3 of a mango, and 1/2 cup raspberries. I also had a 14 grain roll that I got at Whole Foods.
Here's part of what I bought today. Xyla is the new sweetner I'm trying. Jovial is a brand of pasta that I've read alot of good things about. The little bottle in the middle is new for me - tangerine vinagrette dressing with no oil. The sausages are showing up for breakfast. I liked the ingredient list: chicken, apple, cherries, and cinnamon. That's it - no words I can't pronounce!
Before the gym I had one of the small apples and 1/2 a Lara Lemon Zest fiber bar.
At the gym I did Zumba for the first time post surgery. Of course that I didn't use my left arm - much. If my therapist reads this I'm in trouble!!! It was fun to shake the old money maker. I bought a gypsy scarf before surgery and hung it on my bathroom door as a prize for when I could go back to class. I wore that thing with pride tonight. It was me and about 90 of my closest, sweating friends in there and I had fun. I shared the spark with a woman named Elizabeth after class. I hope i see her again next week and that she's joined SP.
Dinner, roasted asparagus, yellow baby carrots (we decided these tasted sweeter than the orange ones), steak with multi-colored bell pepers, and watermelon for dessert. I buy the peppers when they are on sell, slice them up, store them in a freezer bag and pull it out for a quick fix. Rolled the beef up in 1/3 of a sheet of lavash whole grain bread.
This is what I'm reading today. One thing I like about this magazine is that it uses models of all ages and is very instructional and informational. It always has easy to follow routines that you can do at home.
 New on my radar today is:
www.pilatesanytime.com you can register for 30 days free by using the code 3425YJE. It is normally $18 a month and you can opt out before the 30 days is up and not be charged for the next month. I miss pilates and don't feel like I can make it through a lot of the class let alone the whole hour at the gym. When I looked at this site they have videos you can follow at home ranging from 5 mins to an hour and when I checked out mat classes, they had over 300 to choose from.
 Far from perfect, I did snag one bite of my son's boneless buffalo wings, and a couple noodles out of my daughters pasta earlier. ??? on the calories from that but I believe I worked those of in Zumba!
I haven't logged my food today and I think I will skip that and opt for the hot bath instead!
Now a before and after picture:
Aubrey and my daughter when we first got the puppy
They both look like trouble to me! I think Aubrey's grown a bit!
So what was on your plate today? Try anything new? What was your woo hoo moment today?
I inserted the wrong picture earlier...here's what whole foods looks like in the freggie area.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
A long but successful day today. Here's the run down...
Breakfast - a very fast shake. I put it in the blender last night and put it in the fridge. 6 oz almond milk, 1/3 c strong coffee, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, and 2 T PB2 powder. This morning I added 1 frozen banana and had breakfast in around 30 seconds! I love that. I'm trying that again tonight - in the fridge/blender now is 6 oz almond milk, 2 oz water, 1 1/2 spears of pineapple, mandarin oranges, dark cherries, and vanilla protein powder.
Mid morning snack - I really enjoyed my baked oatmeal yesterday so I played around with the recipe and made this version:
1/2 c oatmeal, 3 T cottage cheese, 1 cup water, 1 small container applesauce, 1/4 t almond extract, 1 cup frozen cranberries, 1/2 T sugar subsitute, apple pie spice - bake for 30 mins at 350 and then I added 1 T chopped walnuts. Very filling.
Lunch:
1 cup homemade chili (batch I made and froze last week in single size servings), added 1 cup chopped spinach, cherry tomatoes, 1 scallion and 2 T salsa. 1 cup cherries.
 IN the afternoon I started to lose my cool...DD #1 made a CD of music and inadvertently deleted 48 files I had on a CD for work. #banned from my computer! I had to redo the work.
 What I thought was a success out of this episode of learning was that I could tell I was getting stressed and way too mad. I stopped and remembered what I had read earlier in the day on The Daily Motivator - Let your feelings be your choice! I stopped, took deep breaths and decided whether or not I wanted to choose feelings of anger, or let that go and just move on with the day. I choose move on, took deep breaths, stopped and did a couple of yoga stretches and let it go. That was an amazing feeling.
Afternoon snack:
1 peach, 1 kiwi, mini whole wheat bagel, 1 T almond butter, 1 T dark chocolate chips (always a mood enhancer!).
Late snack: 1 apple - I felt like my body was churning through my food today and that my stomach would start digesting my intestines soon. What is up with that?
Dinner: whole wheat pasta, shrimp, and newman's own fra diablo sauce. All measured.
After dinner, dishes, prep for tomorrow, I headed off to the gym. It was supposed to be a rest day for me, but I felt pent up and sore. I went and did about 10 mins on the foam roller, 1 slow mile on the treadmill, 10 mins of yoga, and then 15 mins in the sauna. So the goal was to stretch, move a little and sweat it out.
 Today's yoga marks the first time since surgery that I have been able to do any. I was very cautious and didn't hurt anything. If feels like I haven't stretched in years.
I worked on my motivational journal today. One of the quotes I liked that I added was "find joy in body awareness". I think for many of us on this healthy lifestyle journey, we're lacking in finding joy in our bodies. Now that I'm much healthier I am finding joy in figuring out how my body feels, and how it reacts to different exercises. I especially like how in tune I feel after a good session of Yoga. I'm working more on trying to enjoy my body and not judge it for the weaknesses that only I can see sometimes.
After gym snack - Special k with strawberries, 1/3 c blueberries, 1/3 c milk.
I'm under 1,900 calories for the day. I'm thoroughly enjoying food blogging. I am on track better than I have been for a couple of months.
DD#2 played the guitar for me while I was writing this. What makes us smile is that whenever she plays Blackbird our  sings with her. It happens everytime.
My frustration today besides the CD event was that our  found my reading glasses on my night stand and chewed the lenses out! Dog breath!
www.fitnessmagazine.com/videos/body -part-makeovers/the-a-list-ab-workout.htm
I found the link above today and tried these new ab exercises - new for me anyway. I thought they were good, different, and challenging.
What's new with you? Have you tried photo blogging your food, or any new exercise lately?
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Stardate - June 26, 2011 - somewhere in space.....
Breakfast - 310 Calories - mini whole wheat bagel with reduced fat cream cheese, egg beaters with spinach, ham, fat free cheddar cheese, and blackberries. (ham and cheese options all 1/2 of a serving)
Mid - morning I decided to try a new oatmeal dish that I have seen in Muscle & Fitness Hers. I added the recipe to SP and you can find the link on my nutrition tracker if you're interested - Maple Pumpkin Pie Baked Oatmeal.
This is just a setup to mix it all up.
211 Calories as shown in the recipe. I wanted it sweeter so I drizzled some honey over it. It was very filling. I didn't have maple extract and tried maple syrup instead and I think I would want the extract next time. It would be worth it to mess around with the recipe till it was how you liked it and brought back memories of the fall in Massachusetts.
Late lunch due to errands and how filling that oatmeal was.
I wanted to use up last night's leftover eggplant so here it is cubed, with artichoke hearts (I have a bag of frozen ones on hand), 4 kalamata olives chopped, 1 cup whole wheat rotini, 1/2 c sauce, and 1/2 serving fat free mozz. 3 cups veggies to 1 cup pasta is too much for a 1/2 c sauce for me. But - yeah for using leftovers and getting in some veggies. I am not a big pasta fan anymore but do eat it from time to time.
This was my pre-gym snack and post gym I had an apple.
 Today's workout was spinning and it was my first day back on the bikes that I used for Shift & Lift class since before my surgery. That took 10 weeks! My shoulder didn't hurt and I made it through the 40 minutes that would have been the biking segment of my class.
You know there is a section of time from when you (1) have to talk yourself into working out, (2) get through the time when you're working out that hurts until you finally reach that point where your muscles warm up, your brain relaxes, and your glad you came to the gym. I call that period The Hell Zone. My mind was really struggling today and fortunately this song came on when I was really thinking about quitting:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAhpdXMh7NY Just Stand Up - various artists. It got me over the hump until my mind was convinced of this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U4GfdoMlqU Another great song to workout to - Sexy Chick by David Guetta (feat. Akon).
About 1/4 of the way into my ride a young, skinny, blond, beautiful girl came in the room and set up her own music and starting stretching. I am not lying - she did this stretch:
Seriously???? Can anyone reading this blog pull this off? I could tell once she started dancing that she was a ballerina. Now if that doesn't cause you trouble when you're trying to make it through The Hell Zone, then you are a better sparker than me!
I did do my abs and stretching before I left the gym, but I did not get my leg up behind my head!
Dinner 281 calories - homemade stirfry: chicken, broccoli, snap peas, scallions, baby bok choy, garlic, ginger, low sodium soy sauce, and PB2. I love the green giant veggies that you can get in the fresh produce section and just microwave! Butternut squash with cinnamon sauce.
So even if I had 100 calories for maple syrup and peppermints, I'm still 200 calories below my range. I feel like all I did was eat all day long.
Tomorrow - not much cooking going on here. My shake is already in the blender in the fridge for in the morning. All I have to do is add my frozen banana. I baked the extra chicken while I cooked the stir fry so we have it for tomorrow. It will also be a rest day for me from working out.
If you're new and haven't used the Spark summary calendar - check that out. On the start page in my Goals & Progress you'll see the button for that. If you're tracking your fitness and nutrition, it gives you a great overview. I'll be printing mine off at the end of the month and emailing it to my trainer. I see him again on August 3rd.
Do you have a favorite oatmeal recipe you can share? What was your workout today?
PS - probably one reason I was in the kitchen cooking (which calms me down) was that my youngest daughter was in driver's ed this morning learning how to drive on the freeways! :(
Monday, July 25, 2011
Okay.... another day for the food photo blogging and we tried something new for dinner. Here goes the day....
Breakfast, 320 calories - whole wheat reduced fat waffles, 1 large egg, 1 slice reduced fat colby jack cheeese, side of fresh fruit.
Mid Morning snack - 152 calories - shake with 1 scoop lite chocolate protein powder, 2 T PB2 powder, water, ice.
Physical therapy this morning. It was hard and I got a lot of new exercises today. I told my therapist she could tell it was hurting when I started breathing like I was in Labor & Delivery! I did manage to make all the therapists laugh out loud at the same time. If you ever saw the preview for the movie 40 year old virgin, you'd know that when he was getting his chest waxed for the first time and they yanked the piece of cloth he shouted out Kelly Clarkson!!!! I was doing an exercise today that was killing me. I wanted to cuss and instead when it was real quiet, I shouted out kelly clarkson! All the therapists got the joke and busted out loud laughing. It took the pain away for a moment.
Lunch 398 calories - whole wheat bagel thin, turkey, spinach, avocado. 1 Nectarine with Blackberries that looked like they were on steroids. Small salad of cherry tomatoes, snap peas and balsalmic vinagrette.
Afternoon snack - Nature Valley Dark chocolate and oats bar. 190 calories.
Dinner, homemade healthy version of chicken and eggplant parmesan. Steamed green beans. I used egg beaters, panko bread crumbs, and olive oil spray, 1/2 serving Newman's Own Marina Sauce and reduced fat mozzarella cheese. Tuscan spices. 392 calories.
  I met my old friend treadmill at the gym. 63 minutes on a varying hill program ranging from level 5 down to 1 and repeating that cycle throughout. I walked on 5, and 4, and then jogged/ran most of the 3, 2, 1 levels. I got in 3.75 miles ranging in speed from 18 min miles down to 10 min miles. Calories burned - it said over 400. I also did stretches with the stability ball afterwards.
Before I left for the gym I whipped up my version of chocolate cake batter pudding. This was a new attempt at trying to get in protein powder without making a shake. 4 oz plain greek yogurt, 1 scoop cake batter lite protein powder, 2 T chef meg's chocolate fondue, 1 packet stevia, less than 1/4 c almond milk. I left it in the fridge to set a while and added blueberries when I got home.
My daughter gave it the  thumbs down but then she doesn't like the taste of protein powder. I liked it just fine.
All that food and I just barely hit my calorie range. I did have 50 calories of baked tostitos as a random snack. I've had 12 cups of water. I'm tired, sweaty, full, and ready for a shower and bed.
I think Thursday when I go to PT, I'm going to wait for a hard exercise and then look at her with a serious face and say "does this exercise make my butt look big?". She never knows what to expect from me, but then again we get along because she is Team Edward also!
Peace out homies! Eat healthy, drink water, exercise, rest...repeat a bazillion times for good measure.
Late night snack: 1 cup dry Special K cereal with Red Berries. PS. One reason it looks like a lot of food is that I use breakfast plates and rarely use any dinner sized plates.
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Member Comments About This Blog Post:
GREAT, GREAT blog!! Fruit and veggies go to heaven at Central Market? Love it! Makes sense to me! 
