Two Boos Who are Sick

Hi everyone!

Andy and I had a great time camping in Malibu Friday night. I ended up getting a sub job last minute and barely had enough time to pack up my stuff after work. (I subbed high school special ed for the first time! I want to teach high school eventually and it was so much fun!)

Anyway camping was cold. It got down to 39 degrees at night and we froze in the tent. Andy was already feeling a little sick before the camping trip and now he's feeling even worse. His head is congested and his nose is stuffed up and he can't breathe very well. I loaded him up with mucinex and hopefully he'll feel better by Monday!

As for me, I feel the startings of a cold. So we're taking the weekend off blogging. See you guys Monday!

Yogurt bowls and Kindergarten

That's right! I subbed in a kindergarten class today! Subbing 4th grade was rough for me as you know and I really stressed about working today. (They don't tell me what grade I'm subbing for until I show up.)

So when they told me kindergarten this morning, I beamed! I love working with my "friends. It's funny. I've noticed that elementary school teachers refer to their students as "friends." It cracks me up!

At 7 this morning, I made myself breakfast to fuel for the day.



I was going to just have blueberries but decided I needed something with staying power! (I'm not a big breakfast person. I'm rarely hungry before 10am.)



I hate vanilla greek yogurt usually but Trader Joe's makes the best vanilla greek yogurt. The vanilla flavor is so good, better than ice cream!



My favorite granola.



with a sliced kiwi and 1 tbsp of mini chocolate chips. I love adding some chocolate to my yogurt bowls. The mini chips are great because I get a little chocolate in every bite. It feels like I'm eating a decadent dessert but I'm not.

Honestly, this has been weighing heavily on my mind. I still eat way too much "junk." I go out to eat more often than I'd like and I often make bad choices. Yesterday I ate crackers and peanut butter instead of a "real" dinner because it was the healthiest looking thing in the school cafeteria. I only have 15 minutes for dinner between my 4-6:45 class and my 7pm-10pm class and I have to make it quick!

I need to find something that I can eat between classes that won't make me feel like crap. I'm going to try to work on it next week and plan accordingly. It takes me a while to adjust to a new schedule. Just like a kindergartener, I guess.

Tomorrow is Friday!!! I have my 3rd day of Week Two C-2-5k planned, a movie date and then a camping trip by the beach planned. It's going to be a great weekend!

What are your plans?

Trying times

Oh man. Today was one of "those" days. The kind that makes me question my career choice. It wasn't necessarily a "bad" day just rough. I was happy that the kids had an early day and I could go home afterwards and relax* for a few hours before my class at 7pm tonight.

*By relax, I mean do Week Two, Day Two of Couch to 5k followed by 2 hours of homework and blog reading.



I made myself a huge plate of comfort food when I got home.



Delicious blueberries and kiwi for the fruit component. The antioxidants in the blueberries and the fiber and potassium in the kiwi was much appreciated after a trying day.



Grape tomatoes and broccoli for my veggies.



Hummus for protein and dipping! Also buffalo chicken nuggets from Morningstar. (I love these! Better than buffalo wings with real chicken in my opinion!)

I dipped the buffalo "chicken" nuggets in honey mustard. YUM!



And a half portion of Trader Joe's Multigrain crackers for carbs.

I'm eating this while blogging and blog-reading. It totally cheers me up. I did notice that this meal is decent calorie-wise but next time I'd add more bulk from the veggies. (The Morningstar Chicken Nuggets are 200 calories for 5 pieces. The hummus is 140 calories and the crackers are 70 calories.)



And I'm washing it all down with water in a Snoopy glass. Honestly, I'd prefer tequila or beer but I'm keeping my liquid calories WAY down.

Speaking of liquid calories?



Yesterday, I made myself a decent smoothie to drink on the way to class. (I had six hours of classes last night!)



I added a 30 calorie packet of Amazing Grass Berry Flavored drink powder to "greenify" it a bit.



Still turned out pink.



Then I sent Janetha a photo of my smoothie stache. I am trying so hard not to laugh in this picture. Please send her a smoothie stache photo also!

Smoothie Stache!

What cheers you up after a rough day? (I blogged this and I already feel better!) And I'm sure Couch to 5k will help me out too.

P.S. Any other L.A. food bloggers going to the L.A. Street Food Fest? Let me know! My sister Sarah told me about it and I'd love to meet up with some of you!

Because it's Monday...

I don't have to work today since it's the semester break for the school district I work for. Teachers are there but students are not so there's no need for me. (I work one on one with students.)

Andy has to work though. (He teaches high school) Bummer! And I have class from 4pm-10pm tonight so I highly doubt I'll even see Andy after he gets out of school. Sadface.



My weekend was decent. On Saturday I met up with my friend Cassandra for some coffee talk at Starbucks. I had an iced caramel latte for the first time in forever. I miss Starbucks! After our coffee talk, I went to my parent's house and made them lunch. Pasta salad and ham & cheese sandwiches.

I know, I know. Haute cuisine, huh?



My brother Daniel (he's 8 years old) helped me make the pasta salad. I chopped 2 zucchinis, 2 tomatos, half a red onion and some black olives. Daniel added one cup fat-free feta and 1/2 cup low fat greek vinegarette. Then we added some white and whole wheat noodles. (we had equal amounts of both.)

Weirdly enough, Daniel TRIED my pasta salad. Which is a small miracle in itself. The kid lives off of peanut butter, popcorn, ham sandwiches (ham and bread only), pizza and chicken nuggets. I think he was willing to branch out and try the pasta salad because he helped make it. Whatever the reason, I love him for it!



Saturday night, I made the biggest salad in the world at Souplantation. It had romaine, spinach, zucchini, butternut squash, cheese(!!), croutons, chickpeas galore and tomatoes. I was a happy lady.

I didn't take any food pictures Sunday. I am a bad food blogger sometimes.



Now I'm drinking coffee and wishing we had some fruit in the house. I should go shopping for bananas and blueberries.

I have been distracting myself from writing and working by planning a road trip to Vancouver. It would be so much fun! We could stop in Carmel or Big Sur, then San Francisco, Eureka (to visit Andy's grandparents, Bend, Oregon (to visit my aunts and cousins) Portland, Oregon (to visit my friend Sarah) and then Seattle, Washington and finally Vancouver. We'd do some stops on the way there and some stops on the way back. Teachers have summers off so why not right?

I should start saving money.

I should also do homework. Why did I go back to school again?

P.S. Week Two, Day One of Couch to 5k was awesome. I feel good! :)

Emotional Eating

Ugh. Remember yesterday when I told you I was craving junk food? Well, I succumbed and managed to eat a bunch of "junk" for lunch yesterday. I didn't even think to take any pictures.

I felt like crap immediately after eating it and asked myself why I even ate it in the first place. If you want to read a GREAT post on emotional eating check out Caitlin's post over at Healthy Tipping Point

It's funny that I read Caitlin's post about emotional eating (which has great insight) and then I managed to emotionally eat shortly afterwards.

It's one of those things; I was lonely, feeling stressed about my new classes and schedule, thinking about money, worrying about broken relationships with friends, wanting my body to be different, thinking about my knee and heel pain and I WAS BORED!

Usually when I'm bored like this, I call a friend or write about it in my livejournal. (Do any of you have a livejournal?)

Anyway I can't beat myself up over it because today is a new day. I didn't do any major damage calorie-wise and I know that my body will bounce back. I woke up craving healthy food! Instead of feeling guilty and getting even more emotional, I choose to thank my body for bouncing back.



Last night Andy and I went on a date. We went to one of our favorite indian restaurants for dinner. We started off with samosas.



And shared some saag paneer (spinach and farmer's cheese), some chicken biryani (rice with chicken, golden raisins, cashews and curry) and chicken tikka masala (words can't even describe) and garlic naan.

It was GREAT! Chicken tikka masala is a heavy dish that we try not to eat too often but when we do...oh man! I love it.

I would have loved to try some channa masala (Chickpeas!) or some beigun bhartha (eggplant!) but since it was just the two of us we decided not to go too crazy.

And talking during our date made me feel 100% better. Love that!

So tell me, how do you combat emotional eating? Is it a struggle for you?

TGIF

I don't know why...but I am so stoked about today being Friday! I guess it's probably because I don't have any classes today. Going back to school is easier than I thought it would be though, I feel like I never left!

I found out that my Tuesday night class (from 7-8:40pm) is only for eight weeks! I thought it was sixteen weeks like the other classes I am taking. So relieved that it's not. Come March, I will have my tuesday nights free.



I fueled after my run yesterday with a big smoothie. I used my favorite flavor of Amazing Meal.



Some of this loveliness. I forgot how great almond milk is in a smoothie! And it's not as calorie dense as cow's milk. And no tummyaches!!! LOVE!



I added a frozen banana, six frozen strawberries, ground flax seed and a drop of raw honey to the mix.



And had a vitamuffin on the side. Have you tried the Fudgy Peanut Butter Chip vitamuffins yet? They are my favorite! The peanut butter chips get all melty and hot and YUM!



And this smoothie was HUGE without being loaded with calories and sugar which I loved. I do wish I had some protein powder at home. I'm making a grocery list today! You guys gave me some great suggestions yesterday so I'm excited.



Dinner was raw veggies with sabra hummus. You know I'm gonna be sad when it's all gone!



And my first Flat-Out wrap pizza. Topped with pesto, light cheddar cheese, asiago cheese, chicken pesto sausage (from TJ's) and chopped red bell pepper. And a pepper flower on top.



Flat-Out wraps crisp up so nicely for pizzas. I'm glad I ventured out of my comfort zone and used these. They are low in calories, full of fiber and tasty.



This morning, I stuck with an old favorite. Sometimes I just need PB & J. Especially when I'm craving junk food like today.



What do you do when you're craving junk food?

Ramblings and such

Raw veggies and a 140 calorie tub of plain SABRA hummus is the best snack on earth. I'm glad these hummus containers are individual sizes because I would like to eat way more hummus. This keeps the portion size down. Lately I've been eating raw veggies and hummus after working out. I suppose I should eat something with protein though? I'm going to look into protein shakes.



I also love these grapefruit jars for days when I just need a little sweet and sour in my life. But again, is this really the best thing to eat immediately after running?

Onto my big, BURNING question for you all....



So I woke up at 9am today. (I usually get up at 6:30am-7am) I almost skipped breakfast and went straight to the gym to complete my third day of Week One C25k but I remembered Gina's Fueling for Exercise post and decided to eat.

Bananas and dry Crunchy Maple Sunrise. (Nature's Path cereal found in the gluten free aisle of Whole Foods.)



a dab of White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter



And a whole wheat frozen waffle.

I plan on letting this digest and then running at 11ish. My running goal today is 2.5 miles in 30 minutes while listening and participating in the Couch to 5k podcast that I posted about the other day.

So my question to all of you is; how do you fuel before and after exercising?

Keep in mind, I run Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. I strength train (And elliptical) Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I occasionally switch it up but not too often.

The Nuval Scoring System: How does your breakfast score?

Hi guys!

Recently one of my favorite bloggers started working for a company that really interested me. I’m sure most of you are familiar with her blog, Carrots N Cake . Tina works for a pretty cool company called Nuval.


What is Nuval exactly?

From the Nuval Website:
“Fact panels, package labels, nutrition reports. There has to be a better way to make decisions about the foods you eat. Now there is: the NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System.

The NuVal System does the nutritional heavy lifting so you don’t have to. The System helps you see – at a glance – the nutritional value of the food you buy.

How? The NuVal System scores food on a scale of 1-100. The higher the NuVal Score, the better the nutrition. It’s that simple. And it’s coming to every aisle of your favorite grocery stores – right there on the shelf tag. Now you can compare overall nutrition the same way you compare price. You can even compare apples and oranges.

How the Scoring Works

NuVal Scores summarize comprehensive nutritional information in one simple number between 1 and 100. Each NuVal Score takes into account more than just the nutrition fact panel. It considers 30-plus nutrients and nutrition factors – the good (protein, calcium, and vitamins) and the not-so-good (sugar, sodium, cholesterol). And then it boils it down into a simple, easy-to-use number; a number you can trust to make better decisions about nutrition in just a few seconds.”

Obviously, the NuVal Scores are designed to help the everyday consumer make healthier choices while out grocery shopping.

As an example, I’ll compare two different breakfasts using NuVal scores to show you how I made a better breakfast choice. First up, the easiest go-to breakfast in the world; cereal. I love making myself a bowl of dry cereal with a piece of fruit and some yogurt.

Cereal of choice?
General Mills Whole Grain Cheerios Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal.



Seems harmless enough right? But unfortunately my beloved Cheerios only score a 34 with the NuVal Scoring System.

A good alternative?

Post Healthy Classics Shredded Wheat 'N Bran Regular which scores a 91 with the NuVal Scoring System. And here’s a link to Post’s website It makes perfect sense why the shredded wheat and bran scores higher than a bowl of cheerios. The Post cereal has a whopping 57 grams of whole wheat per serving while Cheerios packs in “at least 16 grams per serving.”
Plus the shredded wheat N bran has 8 grams of fiber compared to Cheerios’ 2.5 grams per serving.
(Even more surprising to me was how low the NuVal score on Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal. I would have thought at least 50 but guess what? It clocks in at 11!)

For fruits, I usually choose bananas which score high at 91 but blueberries score even higher at 100!!





I always knew blueberries were a superfruit!

As far as yogurts go, a plain non-fat Chobani greek yogurt scores a 91 while a yoplait non-fat strawberry yogurt scores at 60!

Unfortunately for me, NuVal scores aren’t found in my grocery stores yet. But they are expanding and I can’t wait to see them in stores. Until then, I will check out the NuVal site and Tina’s new blog, Trading up Downtown

Check out the Nuval site. You will definitely be surprised with the scores!

Couch to 5k is back!

The other day my friend Ashley who has an awesome blog over at Knots by Ashley posted about something that interested me. Not only does she create amazing hats, gloves, scarves and way more but she is also working on running like me. I saw that she posted about a Couch to 5k podcast on her facebook and I had to ask her where she found it.

The podcast is titled "Podcasts for Running by Robert Ullrey" which you can find and download here: At Robert Ullrey's Website.

For someone like me, this podcast was a godsend. Not only does Ullrey explain the program but he also tells you when to run and when to walk. It's way easier than looking at your watch to make sure you are following the program correctly.

Today was my second day of Week One and I plan on doing it again on Thursday. My heart rate monitor says I burned 422 calories doing this which is pretty good considering how much walking is involved. I did 2.12 miles in 30 minutes if you're wondering about distance.

(Yes, I started back at Week One because obviously my knee needs some strengthening. I think it's better for me to get back down to basics at this point.)

Anyway, I had to share! Please check out Ashley's blog and Robert's podcasts. They are both great!

After my Couch to 5k workout, I did a few circuits from Jillian Michael's Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism DVD. The core circuit KILLED me. I cannot do a plank to save my life. OUCH!

Please share some workout secrets with me! I definitely need all the help I can get!

I'll be back later to tell you how my day at work went (I played hopscotch at work!) and how my first day as a postgrad went!

"I have a bit of a sweet tooth"

"Oh so you're ordering it for your tooth?"

If you have not heard of Jim Gaffigan, please check his website out. He is one of my favorite comedians!



My sweet tooth kicked in this morning. So I fed it half a grapefruit with 1 tsp of sugar and a chocolate chip waffle with a dap of white chocolate wonderful.

Delish! I love grapefruits this time of the year!



Lunch was at Panera Bread. It's been raining here a lot and rain puts me in the mood for three things; creamy soups, coffee and movies.

I ordered a bowl of baked potato soup and half a turkey artichoke panini. This meal was good but I could have saved tons of calories by ordering my favorite french onion soup and half a veggie sandwich. But you know what? I was craving potato soup!



Andy was smart and ordered french onion soup in a bread bowl.



After lunch Andy and I took my little brother Daniel to see Disney's The Princess & The Frog. I LOVED this movie. I got teary-eyed several times throughout this movie. It was soooo good!!!!

Daniel was treated to a child's size sprite which made his day. I managed to refrain from my usual diet coke. Go me!



Dinner was raw veggies, red pepper hummus and chili cheese sweet potato fries. YUM!!!!!!



I topped my chili cheese fries with a little low-fat sour cream and some shredded cheese.



Because of my sweet tooth, I opened up these chocolate alphabet cookies that Newman's Own Organics sent me. *No I was not paid to review these cookies.



I had a serving which was ten mini cookies. They are about 130 calories and 2 grams of fat per serving. And considering the chocolate punch that they have, I find that pretty awesome. These cookies are addicting! They remind me of chocolate teddy grahams.

I really hope my sweet tooth goes away but I think I handled it pretty well today.

PS. I only had one and a half beers at the football party yesterday! Each beer is 140 calories so I don't feel too guilty. BUT I AM HAVING A MARGARITA this week no matter what it takes!

PPS. I start school tomorrow YIKES!

PPPS. Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Three Day Weekend! WHOOOOOOOOO

This is my last weekend of freedom. On Tuesday, I will start taking six classes at night on top of subbing. I am nervous and stressed about it. I have tried reminding myself that I took four classes the semester I graduated college on top of working 35-40 hours a week and did fine but surprisingly that does nothing to console me.

For the record, I have classes Monday-Thursday.

Monday: I have 2 classes from 4pm-10pm
Tuesday: Only one class from 7pm-8:40pm
Wednesday: 4:15pm-9:50pm (weird?)
Thursday- 4pm-5:50pm.

I don't necessarily NEED to take six classes so I have decided to possibly drop a class if I don't like it. At the same time, it'd be nice to have more classes out of the way before student teaching.



Brandi was nice enough to send me some maple almond butter (and other goodies!) for guessing a blogger that influenced her meal correctly. I decided the maple flavor in the almond butter would be perfect on top of some chocolate chip waffles.



It was perfect! Especially with a veggie egg scramble.



Pancakes are always something I manage to screw up but waffles? Always turn out decent! And I love to make big batches that I can easily freeze and pop in the toaster later.



The egg scramble was just two eggs scrambled with one orange bell pepper and one zucchini. I split it with Andy. (Gotta sneak my protein and veggies in somehow!)



Lunch was a surprise. We have a gift card for Applebee's so we tried to find an Applebee's. Well none exist around here! So we went to Whole Foods. (Which is 5 million times better!) I got a turkey avocado sandwich with caramelized onions, sun-dried tomato aioli and spinach.



on a whole wheat panini.



And a Tazoberry black tea.



Andy got roast beef with lettuce, tomato, sun-dried tomato aioli and caramelized onions.



And a mango iced tea.



And I tried a few bites of this pesto pasta salad. It was delicious but too creamy and heavy for lunch.



Dinner was out again. We met up with some friends at a local mexican place. I ordered a cranberry margarita.



With an extra shot. Of course. (Hey it's the weekend!)



And a big pile of chicken and veggies. I ate 4-5 bites and boxed the rest up. That margarita filled me up!

I have been trying to limit myself to one alcoholic beverage a week. But I had half a dos equis and margarita this week. Plus today is a big football game thing (Can you tell that I don't understand sports?) and we are planning on going to a friend's house to watch the game. I bought myself some raspberry hard cider just for the occasion.

So that means no alcohol Monday-Saturday for me!

Hope you are having a good weekend, I plan on having another arms and abs day today. I ran a little too hard yesterday and really irritated my knee and heel. Lovely!