stress city.

When I had a full-time job, I always used to say "stress level 50" (or whatever number popped into my head) to express just how stressed I was feeling.

Yesterday was stress level 2000.

I had tons of homework, two 3 hour classes in the evening, no time for a good workout and some bad news! It was horrible.

Signing up for six classes this semester certainly didn't help matters. Six classes means TONS of homework and lesson planning! Part of me just wanted to throw in the towel yesterday.



Saturday was a heavy eating day for me, so on Sunday we headed straight to Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes everywhere but CA)



I loaded my salad with cheese, butternut squash, carrots, zucchini, chickpeas, pasta noodles, spinach, romaine, baby tomatoes, corn, broccoli and a few croutons. It was so intense and I totally inhaled it.

We went to Souplantation right after running a little over 2 miles. I did Week 4 of the Couch to 5k plan. Let me tell you slowly increasing how long I run and decreasing how long I "recover" by walking briskly is really working for me.



It's Potato month at Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes and they finally had SWEET POTATOES along side the regular potatoes. I grabbed one and ate it with butter. MMM. They actually had some pineapple whip stuff you could put on it but I don't need more sweet.

Dinner Sunday night was leftover burgers which you've seen already, so I spared you. You're welcome! :)



Breakfast on Monday was an egg sandwich on a whole wheat english muffin. It was about 400 calories and kept me full through 5 hours of lesson planning and paper writing. I loaded that thing with one scrambled egg, turkey bacon and a slice of muenster cheese. At first I worried about the calories but like I said, that thing lasted 5 hours! I drank a glass of V8 on the side. (80 cals)



Lunch was eaten on the couch while I finished typing up a paper. I had a chicken sandwich on a wheat bun, carrots, broccoli, hummus and a banana. This meal was closer to 500 calories but held me over through my first class (from 4-6:30)

I ate a caesar salad while walking from class 1 to class 2. Classy.



This morning my coffee freaked me out. Why did the milk do this? SICK.



I am officially grossed out.

Now I'm off to finish a lesson plan that's due tomorrow and run day 2 of couch to 5k. I'll be texting you after Mari (She's my Couch to 5k buddy)

Questions for you:

1. How do you handle stress?
2. Are you good at multi-tasking?

I don't handle stress well. I usually end up crying until I feel better or yelling.

I'm great at multi-tasking! :)

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?