a healthy balance

(source)

I'm a libra. We libras are all about balance. Without a healthy balance in our lives, we start to fall apart emotionally. It explains why I do so well with daily routines but love sponetanity over the weekend!



On Thursday, I had my first caramel Oikos greek yogurt before working out. I loved this flavor! It's just the right balance of sweet and tangy. Plus it's high in protein for such a small snack!



My camera ate my lunch picture on Thursday, but I can assure you that I ate a balanced meal of a black bean burger, muenster cheese, hummus, broccoli and a kiwi.

Dinner was a bowl of corn chowder and a chicken pesto panini from Corner Bakery. It was delicious despite the fact that they gave us potato chips instead of carrots. (oh sodium, how I love you!)



Andy got tomato basil soup with a poblano chicken sandwich.



Breakfast on Friday was the one thing I was really craving. A piece of toast with my favorite golden roasted flaxseed pb from Trader Joe's.



And for my sweet tooth, some vanilla greek yogurt with a tangy kiwi.



I went out to lunch with friends and ordered a bowl of butternut squash soup. It was terrific! I need to recreate.



Dinner was mashed potatoes, broccoli slaw and burgers. I used 90/10 burgers from Trader Joe's. The burgers have decent stats and manage to curb my craving for red meat. (Something I'm trying to cut out of my diet.)



And while this plate looks huge, I promise you it was on a salad plate.



And since the burger was so low in fat, I added some guacamole on top for my daily dose of MUFAs For balance purposes.



And because I had 200 calories left for my day, I decided to add in a raspberry hard cider. (140 empty but delicious calories.)

Now let's talk about Saturday.

Strike 1- Forgetting my camera
Strike 2- Eating a bacon chili cheese dog at Pinks
Strike 3- Sharing a medium milkshake with Andy at Millions of Milkshakes

Our milkshake had vanilla frozen yogurt, banana, nutella and a chocolate syrup swirl. Neither of us felt super guilty afterwards since we shared, which was nice.

But this morning, my body craved balance! I ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill, stretched and did yoga poses until I burned 583 calories! Week 4 Day 1 of Couch to 5k was HARD!

Now it's time for a HUGE veggie-filled salad at Souplantation and gallons of water.

How do you find your perfect balance?

I caught Andy's cold!

Thanks for your support and sweet comments on my Almost Famous Chef entry. You guys are the best!

Yesterday, I subbed a kindergarten/first grade class and then had 6 hours of class. So I just didn't have the time for a normal blog. I have 150 blog posts to read on my google reader! (CRAZY!) I hate Mondays and Wednesdays when I work and have 2 long classes. If it was up to me, I'd get sub jobs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays only. Working on days with short classes isn't a problem. At this point, I'll take what jobs I can get though.

I started to feel really sick yesterday so I'm pretty sure I caught Andy's cold. My eyes are watery, my nose is stuffed up, I feel light-headed and my head hurts so bad. Blah. I'm going to have to leave the apartment soon to get some cold meds in me. (Andy is still not 100% either.)



Breakfast tuesday morning was half a grapefruit with a teeny bit of sugar. Honestly, I like grapefruit without sugar, it's just a bad habit of mine!



I should probably have grapefruit this morning too. Vitamin C to the rescue!



And I had a pom chobani. This was my 2nd time having it and I really enjoyed it this time. At first I didn't like the texture of the arils on the bottom but this time? Loved it!



While enjoying breakfast, I iced my knee with my new friend.



Peas cold therapy! My dad is a marathon runner and has always used a bag of actual frozen peas to ice after long runs so I thought imitation peas would be good for me!



Later, I had the urge to make cookies. So I brought out the silpat from Andy's mom and tried it out.



Oatmeal chocolate chip goodness! My cookies never turn out actually looking like cookies, I am so impressed! Thanks again Josie!



After the cookies, I decided to make dinner because I am backwards like that. I made dinner at 5 and left for class at 6. So I didn't have much time. I roasted corn.



With 1 tbsp dijonnaise, 1/2 tbsp light olive oil mayo, chili powder, cumin, garlic salt and a dab of butter. Yes, a dab.



Slathered it on the corn, wrapped the corn in foil and baked in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.



Ignore my messy kitchen. I put some asiago cheese on the corn afterwards. It was so delicious and spicy! We had some chicken sausage and peppers n onions with it.



But the corn was the star of the show. I can't wait until corn is actually in season so I can recreate this again.

Right now, I'm icing my knee and preparing to run my last day of Week 3 for Couch to 5k. My knees are definitely not enjoying the runs but the rest of me does. I am hoping to do 3 miles in 30 minutes by the end of March. But if my knee continues to feel this way, it will probably be more like 35-40 minutes. And that is okay. Slow and steady finishes the race!