A very special surprise!

Because I care (and because I had the afternoon off), here’s my lunch and snack for your viewing pleasure.

Lunch

Deli chicken breast, some reduced fat Colby Jack cheese, a little cream cheese, and some mushrooms, all shoved between two slices of Ezekiel bread and tossed on the grill pan. I also split a nectarine with Matt when he got home from work at 2.

Snack

Delicious Brown Cow Maple yogurt (the only sweetened yogurt I ever buy anymore because it is awesome and worth the overload) with some flax and some sliced almonds. I never take yogurt to work because I can’t be relied upon to eat what I bring with me, so sometimes it goes to waste. Since I was home though, it was perfect.

Except when I knocked it over and some of it got on Matt’s records. I told him it was okay because it was healthy. Good thing we’re still in that “honeymoon” period.

Anyway, the sad part is that this is actually more interesting than my usual daytime fare.

The AC is still broken at the gym, but today I’m smart enough to skip it. I randomly picked out a yoga DVD from the library, so I think I’ll do that. As much as I’d like to take the opportunity to skip exercise altogether, I am feeling the need to stay active before our trip to NC (in a week!) because I have a really cute dress to wear and I keep looking at it on the hanger and wondering if I bought accidentally bought it for mini-me. As opposed to regular me.

The little Jen-gine that could

After being terrorized by a pulmonary tech who kept YELLING at me during all of my lung function tests (BIG breath in…. NOW PUSH IT OUT!!), I managed to a) stop crying and b) go back to work and be helpful to someone who “like, majorly needed some psych articles, like, today.”

Okay, I didn’t really cry. I did, however, help. I am that way.

During my tests, they gave me a five minute albuterol treatment that was like smoking a pipe. Seriously, stuff was coming out of the other side of it. Now I get to wait to find out what’s wrong with me. The albuterol kicked in a few hours later and I actually managed to go to the gym and do some exercise. I just walked on the indoor track, but it felt pretty awesome after a few days of relative inactivity. I kept it slow but managed to walk the equivalent of a 5k. I have to set these kinds of goals for myself, because saying “I’m walking a 5k!” is a little more motivational than “I’m walking around and around in circles like a lab animal and going nowhere!” Right? Right.

I never thought I’d be the kind of person who would miss exercise. It still kind of freaks me out.

Dinner was a nice mix of things: leftover chili, hummus and carrots, salad, mini bagel with almond butter and flaxseed. Then I had this beautiful after-dinner snack of pear, strawberries, cottage cheese, sliced almonds, cinnamon and more flaxseed.

Mmmmmmm. I can feel the omega-3s coursing through my bloodstream. Now I’m waiting for my “increased physical energy” and “unique exuberance.”

Now, I have to go to sleep, since I’m getting up in like 7 hours to do more indoor circle walking.

Where is my unique exuberance?

Long weekend!

I’ve got a doctor’s appointment in Topeka tomorrow, and Matt’s joining me, so we decided to make a day of it and go do some shopping and eating in Lawrence. Exciting!

Afternoon snack

I had a Simple Harvest bar packed for my afternoon snack, but after giving a presentation where literally everything imaginable went wrong and I basically wanted to jump into a black hole, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and get some fresh air by walking to Radina’s for coffee. I had a free drink card, and when I got there I decided to skip my usual cappuccino and try something new. I picked the yerba mate latte based on three things: Sara Snow gushed about yerba mate on her show a few weeks ago; I read on the internet that it “can literally conquer fatigue” (ha!); and I wanted energy but I’m trying to cut down on the caffeine. The description on the board read something like… high-energy caffeine-free herbal something or other. So, basically, it’s hippie coffee. You let the mate (similar to tea) steep for five minutes and then add it to sweetened milk. It was so sweet it actually gave me a headache, so I couldn’t even finish it. Blech. If it was toned down a little, I think I would have liked it, but from now on I’ll stick with tea in the afternoons.

Dinner

We’re going to be in Lawrence overnight, so I wanted to go ahead and finish up our leftover Balsamic Vegetable Tofu Medley from Monday. Since Matt’s still having teeth troubles, I also heated up some soup - my new favorite, Pacific Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato. I added some cooked lentils to bulk it up (thanks to Donna for the idea), and while I was at the grocery store I decided to pick up some brussels sprouts, which I was craving (yeah, I know). So I had a ton of those, cooked with lemon juice and garlic. So a nice veggie hodgepodge:

I ate another serving of brussels sprouts, but only about half of the soup (I gave the rest to Matt).

I finished things off with some delightful pumpkin pie yogurt: 1/2 cup yogurt, 2 tbsp pumpkin, 1 crushed Mi-Del Honey graham and a few chocolate chips.

I’m pretty beat again today (so much for the yerba mate conquering my fatigue), so now I’m off to pack and do some tidying up before our trip. I splurge a lot, food-wise, in Lawrence, because the restaurants there are so much better than anything we have here, so expect some exciting food photography!