Friday, June 26, 2009

WIAE

So I haven't updated my progress in the last few days. I can't really remember what I ate on Wednesday, but I remember that I did pretty well! And I went salsa dancing.

Thursday was a big test because I stayed home, which usually means eating and watching TV, but not this time! I had scrambled eggs and cheese in a tortilla, then a salad with chicken and diet Pepsi and a nectarine. Then I was working a Mexican class at Sur La Table, and other than snacking a bit too much on salsa and chips, I did not pig out!

Friday
cereal w/milk, coffee
potatoes, salad, chicken
nectarine
cookie and diet Pepsi (I also have a mini brownie sitting on my desk, but might just take it home w/me instead of eating it right now)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

WIAE & Progress

You know, I think the fact that I'm writing down everything that I eat is really helping! I already lost ten pounds.
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Ok, that was a joke. I don't think I actually lost any weight, but last night when I came home from a rather sh*tty night of dancing, instead of eating the entire contents of my refrigerator (something I would have absolutely done in the past), I simply went to bed. Let's hope this more sane behavior continues.

cereal with milk
roasted pepper & cauliflower soup; broccoli souffle
diet Pepsi
10 almonds
cantaloupe
tomato/basil/mozzarella salad for a snack
Dinner w/Jenn, Mas and Joenn (Peruvian chicken and dessert)
Exercise: swing dancing!

Monday, June 22, 2009

WIAE & I was FORCED to buy new shoes

Today is going pretty well so far...well, relatively well :)


cereal with milk
roasted pepper & cauliflower soup, broccoli souffle
diet Pepsi with 2 small chocolates
iced coffee with a slice of Daring Bakers challenge (the rest of the "challenge" I brought to work and shared with my coworkers! that means I would not be eating it at home tonight! Score!)
for dinner I had a beet/grapefruit/blue cheese/endive salad and some melon later on


And now to the story of the shoes. Last Friday I walked across the street on my way to the Metro and one of my Express flip flops broke. I was too lazy to walk home and take another pair of shoes and simply tied the flip flop: it was operational. Then when I walked to Gallery Place for lunch to meet Ashley, my second flip flop broke! UGH! Ashley decided that was good enough of an excuse to buy new flip flops.


Luckily Payless was right around the corner. All the cheap flip flops were...well, cheap! And they did not have too many in my size, so I ended up buying these. The flower on them reminds me of the red pumps Anna and I had when we were in Russia...oh the memories!

Surprisingly, they are quite comfortable! I just hope they last longer than the ones from Express!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

A Way to Cheer Up: Asters

You know what cheers me up? Flowers! And this week I definitely needed some cheering up. So I bought 2 bouquets of asters and put them together:

WIAE Saturday & Sunday

Saturday
Bread with eggs, tomatoes and Diet Pepsi
peach
2 salads: canned salmon/mayo/Parmesan and roasted peppers/basil/mozzarella and bread
wine
Indian with Jenn and Radha
1 doughnut
exercise: 26 laps in the pool

Sunday
peach/chocolate chip pancakes; water
salad with Parmesan and roasted peppers; Diet Pepsi
a bit of apricot jam
Daring Bakers Challenge (it's a secret!!!) with milk
Robyn's broccoli souffle

Friday, June 19, 2009

WIAE Day 1

So this past week I've been doing quite a bit of emotional eating. I know that I'm doing it, and yet I'm still doing it. Ridiculous.

Yesterday I went to the pool and did 22 laps...pretty good, right? Each "lap" is 20 meters. Before doing my laps, I got on a scale and I so did not like the number that I saw!

So I decided to start publicly writing down everything that I eat each day. Hopefully that will force me to be more mindful of the food I put in my mouth and give you, my readers, an opportunity to spot things that I'm missing from my food intake.

So today is the brand new start!!! WIAE: What I Am Eating.

Morning: I drank 24 oz of water as soon as I got to work. Then I had some cereal with 1% milk. By 10:30 I was sort of hungry again, but just had more water.

Lunch: Capitol BBQ w/Ashley: pulled bbq sandwich with corn/tomato salad, potato salad (mustard base) and Diet Coke (I had some of the food left over, took it to work and had it later for a snack).

Falling asleep/bored: diet Pepsi seems like a good solution.

Snack: leftover cold lemony dill shrimp. Mostly I ate it because if I did not, I'd have to throw it away.

Dinner: Qdoba with Wendy: chicken taco salad w/guacamole.

Late snack: individual sized watermelon: ugh, it was overripe and not too sweet, but the good thing is I resisted eating it with white bread (my favorite way!).

Overall this was a pretty good day! And I managed to walk a total of 1.5 hours!

Hope y'all not finding this too boring. I promise to post other things and not just my food intake :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Say What???

Last night I was walking home from the grocery store carrying a few bags full with ingredients for testing Robyn's recipes. Once again I was feeling like I was having a sugar low and that if I did not get home in time and put some food in my mouth, I'd be in trouble.

Thus, I wasn't really paying attention when some teenager boy said something to me from his car. "Excuse me?" I asked. "Would you like help with your [grocery] bags?" he asked again.

Seriously!? I wonder what the repercussions of me agreeing to that would have been. Instead, I just said "No, thank you."

Friday, June 12, 2009

No more shopping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few weeks ago I changed things up in my closet: I switched up my winter/fall wardrobe to a spring/summer wardrobe. During this big to-do I also put a bunch of clothing items on top of my "to be donated" pile, which is quite large now.

ARGH: I'm so tired of buying things and then either not wearing them, or growing out of them or not taking good care of them. So I decided not to buy any more clothes/shoes/jewelry for the next two months (so basically June and July). So far, so good. But temptations are everywhere!!!

Perhaps that's why last night when I was working at Sur La Table I bought two martini glasses. Mine are the red ones: I just could not resist: they were on sale from $9.99 to $2.99. I think they'll be really fun to use as props for my food blog. And they also match the red color of my Mikasa martini glasses and are not clothing/shoes/jewelry...yes, I'm really good at justifying my decisions!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Butterflies!

Today during lunch Laura and I took a walk to the Natural History Museum for their Butterfly exhibit. Luckily, we did not have to wait in line because my friend Sarah (who I met during the Avon Breast Cancer walk) volunteers at the exhibit on Tuesdays (the only day when admission is free!).

Butterflies were everywhere! So many colors. So many shapes. I was a bit scared that one will either sit on me or I would step on one...none of which happened.

Hope you like the photos below.


Monday, June 1, 2009

New Jewelry

Remember a gorgeous silver ring I purchased from a local gallery in Washington DC in October 2007?? I absolutely loved it! I wore it quite often, and even came up with a fun idea of wearing it together with other thin rings.

Then this past February I lost the ring on my way to Savannah and was devastated. I even tried to replicate the ring (without any success) from copper wire.

I was so delighted when over the Memorial Day weekend in Chicago I walked into Contemporary Museum of Art and saw that they carried both the ring and the matching bracelet!!! The two purchases were definitely quite a splurge, but the craftsmanship is absolutely beautiful, and it makes me happy to wear this jewelry. I love the fluidity of the pieces and the ability to make the ring wider or narrow by playing with the silver wire.



The artist of this gorgeous jewelry is Pamela Bosco.

Chicago Recap

Saturday: flew in with Wendy. Met up with Anna in the hotel. Amy joined us a bit later and we headed to dinner. I really wanted to go to Tango Sur, but the wait was 2 hours. So we ended up at a Moroccan restaurant: Andalous. Great food! Super friendly staff, and Bring your own wine!

Anna and I were planning on going salsa dancing at night, but alas were too tired.

Sunday: Woke up and went to China town for dim sum. Then spent quite some time on the El trying to find a market festival. Who knew they had two stations with the same name on the same line!? Finally found the market: I really liked it: jewelry, art, crafts, music, food, etc. I bought a pretty pearl necklace and Anna bought me the t-shirt (see Say What??? post below).





Had dinner at Cafe Iberico and then went to Second City. Tapas were pretty good, but the best time was the bill: with a pitcher of sangria and plenty of food, we paid only $20/each! The comedy show was awesome! I haven't laughed that much in quite a bit.




Again, our tentative plans for salsa dancing did not happen.

Monday: had breakfast at Corner Bakery by our hotel (seriously, it seemed like there were Corner Bakeries on every corner!). Went to see Couture clothing exhibit at the Chicago History museum. Beautiful clothing, and a bonus: museum was free on Monday. But I was disappointed by their museum store: nothing tempting at all.

Then met Anna's friend Kate for pizza. Followed by a boat tour: too bad it was pouring, so we had to sit inside the boat.



Photos from the boat tour:


Wendy went to see a baseball game, while Anna, Amy and I went to dinner. The place we originally wanted was closed for Memorial Day, and so we went with the hotel's recommendation. UGH: they were out of 5 entrees, and then also told us they were out of clam chowder. The wine was good, but the food was mediocre. Just because you give me a huge amount of food does not mean it's a good thing.

Tuesday: our last day in Chicago. Had hot dogs for a late breakfast, then walked around the city. Stopped by the Contemporary Museum's store where I bought a ring and a bracelet. Met Anna's other friend for lunch at Frontera Grill, and then it was time to fly back to reality (I will be posting photos of jewelry later and will post food recaps on Mango & Tomato).

Hot dogs:


Frontera Grill:



Overall had a great time. Could have used a few extra days, but there is always the next time!



1. With Anna (click to see my new pearl necklace) 2. With Amy (you can see my new glasses) 3. With Wendy and Anna (my bag totally matched Wendy's coat!)