Heat Wave!

You know it’s been cold when 32* feels like a heat wave. After lunch, my boss asked me to go to the post office. He threw me his keys and told me I could take his car since he parks in the basement and I park in a free lot out in BFE. I threw the keys back and told him I’d rather walk. I was so glad I did. The sun was shining and it felt so good to be outside for longer than the time it takes to hurry from one shelter to another while trying to avoid frostbite. I took the long way back to the office since I was enjoying the change of pace and actually moving rather than sitting at my desk.

After that I was craving water like my life depended on it. Okay, so life does depend on water. I just wanted plain, cold water which is odd considering the fact that our office is fa-reeeezing cold every day and I usually drink hot tea or hot water. Not today. I couldn’t get enough of the cold stuff and downed at least 4 or 5 water bottles in about 2 hours. I think my body is trying to tell me something. DRINK MORE WATER! I also had a yummy string cheese for my afternoon snack. The way I see it, you can really never go wrong with cheese.

After my snack I did my ritual Friday desk cleaning. When I was done with that it was 5 o’clock and I didn’t stick around a minute later. TGIF! The drive home was pretty quick and painless. I forgot my audiobook so I flipped through my favorite radio stations on the XM. I am not single and I have two beautiful rings on the appropriate finger, but for some reason I can’t resist the urge to crank Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies” and sing at the top of my lungs every time it comes on the radio.

I arrived home to find yet ANOTHER package waiting for me on the front porch. That makes two days in a row! I knew what it was as soon as I saw the return address information, but I still ripped into it like it was a surprise. The box contained the materials for my Nutrition & Wellness Consultant certification program from American Fitness Professionals & Associates. I first saw this program mentioned on Eat. Live. Run. and came across the name again a few weeks later on Carrots ‘n’ Cake. My interest was peaked so I did some research and found only positive information about the program. I debated for a couple weeks. I’ve been looking for courses in this area a lot lately just because it’s something I’m interested in. The universities around here don’t offer much and what they do offer doesn’t work out with my full-time work and commute schedule. Obviously, my ultimate decision was to go ahead

I flipped through the materials while I was eating dinner and it made me even more excited to get started. My ultimate goal is to (obviously) get certified and be able to help other people, but after skimming the information I think there’s a lot there to help me help myself. I have until May to complete the test. I’m a perfectionist so the word “test” makes me a little nervous. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Oh, and about dinner. I tried a new product tonight, Gardenburger’s Chik’n Grill. I would provide a link to the product site, but it’s not listed anywhere on the Gardenburger website.

There were a few sites that gave nutrition information for this product, but it was different than what the packaging I have says. Here’s what I have per 1 patty serving:
Calories: 80
Total Fat: 3.5g
Saturated Fat: 0g
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 380mg
Potassium: 230mg
Total Carbohydrate: 9g
Dietary Fiber: 5g
Sugars: 0g
Protein: 9g

I followed the microwave cooking instructions on my first attempt and 2 minutes 30 seconds was waaay too long. The patty shriveled up and was hard as a rock. I threw that one out and tried again, this time doing 45 seconds on one side and 30 seconds on the other. That was plenty.

Overall I thought these were really good. They have a fake grilled flavor which I found a little odd at first, but it grew on me. The texture was similar to a very tender chicken breast. I’ll definitely buy more.

I turned mine into dinner by topping it with a slice of fresh mozzarella and a slice of tomato. Just wasn’t feeling the bread tonight. On the side I had a salad of romaine and green leaf lettuces, a few croutons, the rest of my tomato cut into chunks and a drizzle of Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

Meghann of Inner Workings of a College Graduate is participating in something truly awesome! She’s teamed up with Team in Training and will be running a marathon in May to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I admire her commitment to run 26.2, but even more than that I admire her heart in making her first marathon count toward something bigger than just a personal goal. That’s why I was happy to contribute toward her effort through her donation site. The process is quick and very simple. I’d like to encourage anyone out there to give whatever you can to support the cause. No amount is too small. Also, watch Meghann’s blog for information about a blogger bakesale & her other fundraising efforts. Gooooooo Meghann!

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Box o’ Goodies

It was a pretty ‘meh’ day. Nothing bad happened. Nothing exciting either. Well, that is until I got home from work. More about that later. More oats for breakfast today! I topped them with blueberries & unsweetened coconut just like yesterday, but I actually had my camera today. That calls for two pictures! My tea of the morning was Tazo Awake. Typical.

That was followed by a productive morning of work. I’m halfway through a tedious special project. Won’t be sad when this one is finished. No picture of lunch because it’s identical to yesterday. Still eating the Easy Turkey Taco Quinoa Stew. Still not tired of it. It’s made me super excited to try new recipes from GreenLiteBites.

Around 4 I indulged in one of my new obsessions discovered thanks to you bloggies, Fage. I stirred in some peanut butter almond granola and man was it good! No salmonella worries for me. This granola is homemade at the Amish store using peanut butter they also make in-house. It added just the right amount of crunch and sweet to my yogurt. I think the tea is Tazo China Green Tips though I’m not completely sure. I’d probably had about 6 cups throughout the afternoon (all different) in an attempt to combat the freezing office temperature.
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That held me through the rest of the afternoon and my commute. When I got home there was a box waiting for me on the front porch. I love, love, love getting mail and packages are like the granddaddy of all mail. I brought it inside and tore into it like a kid on Christmas morning.

Back in November I won a contest from one of my favorite sites, BellaSugar. My husband and I were flown to San Francisco and put up in the amazingly glorious W hotel for 3 days & 2 nights. As if that weren’t enough, I was treated to a relaxing trip to Bliss spa, lunch in The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus restaurant with the editors of the site and a hair consultation, cut & color at The Red Chair Salon. The highlight of the day for me was a Bare Escentuals makeover done by one of their National Makeup Artists. I started wearing Bare Escentuals about 3 years ago and have been faithful to the brand since then. It’s the only thing I can use that doesn’t make my face erupt into a minefield. They have so many great products and the quality is phenomenal.

As if the whole trip and day of pampering weren’t enough, Bare Escentuals sent me every product that they used during my makeup and a few extras. Remember by lipgloss mishap? I got two new tubes! They’re not the same color as the one I lost, but these are soon-to-be released colors and equally as fabulous. Guess what I’ll be playing with all weekend? Here’s a picture of the goods:

After all that excitement it was off to the gym with my husband and sister-in-law. She and I decided to try Tina’s 45-minute treadmill workout. I was still a bit tender from lower body work on Wednesday and sister-in-law was feeling the P90X workout she’d done earlier in the day so we decided to try the walking version. Well, 4.5 MPH for this girl is a jog so I did some running in there, too. Sister-in-law is 5’8″ so she was able to stay at a walk the whole time. It was great! We were both working hard and very sweaty by the end. I burned 447 calories.

My husband wasn’t hungry when we got home so I just threw together a quick dinner for myself. It consisted of a chopped-up Gardenburger Portabella veggie burger, freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, a few croutons, and a tomato cut into four wedges. All this was served over a bed of romaine and green leaf lettuce tossed with a little Annie’s Goddess dressing.

It was the perfect post-gym late dinner. I was so tired that I could barely keep my eyes open through the last bite so as soon as I was finished eating it was off to bed.

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