Meatless Monday

I have a confession, in the past couple months I have become a Huge Oprah fan. Groupie would probably be a more accurate description. Every day I run home and watch episodes of The Oprah Winfrey show  and shows that I have DVR’d on the OWN network.  I have done just about everything except for put posters of her on my wall like a teenage girl!  Which today, I actually considered…. Anyway, last week she had a riveting episode of her show detailing ins and outs of the meat industry.  She took us way too deep into the slaughterhouse.  She encouraged all of her staff to go Vegan for a week or a month I can’t remember which. I knew there was no way in the world that I would attempt to be a vegan. Vegans do not consume any animal products, that means no eggs, no cheese, no meat.  Cheese is perfect with almost every meal for me, so I wasn’t even going to pretend to consider becoming a Vegan.  However, she piqued my interest when she said that you could try a Meatless Monday. I debated it back and forth not mentioning it to you guys until I was sure that was what I wanted to do. Finally, Sunday night I realized I was ready to commit.

Today I had my first Meatless Monday. For breakfast I had a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch cereal and milk. For lunch I made a fantastic pasta that I took to work. I chopped up fresh zucchini and squash and added some red spaghetti sauce. However my big little sister called and threw me for a loop. She’s been experiencing a series of unfortunate events, and asked me to go to lunch with her. How could I say no? I left my veggie lunch at work and went with her to TGI Friday’s restaurant. Everything on the menu had meat in it. I almost gave in and then I asked the waiter for help. He recommended that I get a pasta, add all the veggies, and hold the chicken.  My Big Little Sister on the other hand, ordered the Jack Daniel’s platter with steak and shrimp and french fries.  I wanted one of her shrimps dipped in Jack Daniels sauce so bad!  However, I didn’t want to fail at my very first attempt at a Meatless Monday it’s only one day after all.  The pasta was okay, but not as good as the one I had cooked.

 I didn’t get home from work until almost 7 o’clock and my other sister called and asked “We’re still going to the gym right?” “I’m so excited to workout!” she exclaimed, I’ve been waiting all day for you to get home.  I forced a fake smile and said I’m so excited to go to the gym I can hardly stand it !  I swapped my business clothes for sweat pants and a T-shirt, bundled up against the brutal cold and picked up my little sister, and headed to the gym.  We went to the indoor track and completed 3 miles. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I didn’t want more pasta with veggies. I was too tired to cook as well. So, I made another bowl of cereal and ate some Doritos left over from Super Bowl. It was definitely not the healthiest meatless Monday, but, it was certainly meatless!

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal – My fave

L- Pasta with Veggies at Fridays

S- Slim-Fast

D- Cereal & left over Doritos (totally Random and dead wrong, I know)

Joy to the World!

Joy To The World!  First let me say that my cute little idea  to make my blog post title a Christmas themed song was a little more challenging than I thought….Anyway, just a quick post, because I’m excited that I had a great day.  I woke up this morning and said today, I will not eat any office treats.  Just for today.  When I got to work, there was homemade fudge, cupcakes, pretzels, chocolate covered cakey things, and all kinds of flavored popcorn.  Oh, and Christmas cookies and little pastries. One of my co-workers said you must try the cinnamon popcorn, and I said nope, not today……  This evening, I worked out at home in my living room to Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred with my best friend.  It feels so good not to have to regret eating bad crap or skipping a workout.  Yay me! LOL! 

What Did Carli Eat Today?

 B- Protein Shake (it spilled as I was putting the lid on, and I just made another)

S- No Snack! That’s a first…well I forgot I did have a hot green tea with Splenda so… no calories

L- Half pastrami sandwich and half salad 

D- Turkey tenderloin and Broccoli with Cheese

Risking My Life

I’m still working it at work. After we ate steamed veggies with chicken and side salad, we headed outside and power walked for half an hour. I need to calculate the distance, but I’m sure it was over a mile. I’m so loving these results. I’ve lost about 6.5 pounds since I got back started on the right path a couple weeks ago. I had big plans to get back into the boot camp groove tonight, but my little sister called when she got home from school. She told me that she was “taking me to dinner in forest park, that she was driving and that when we got to the restaurant someone would buy our meal.” I’m so Type-A, and this loose plan of letting a brand new 16 year old driver “take” me to dinner and have it “paid for” by some mystery person was a not really specific enough for me. She told me to trust her. I had to drive over my parent’s house because she only has a learners driver’s permit.  But check this, she already has a CAR! I had to trudge for miles through the snow on Mizzou’s gigantic campus and maintain a 3.5 GPA for a whole year before I got my 1986 Chevy Celebrity, and this chick is a Junior in High School with a car. Okay, so I’m a little jealous, but she does keep a 3.8 GPA, so I ain’t mad at her. LOL!

Anyway, I held my breath as she drove dangerously close to the cars parked on the street and claimed that the kid on the bike across the street was “too close and in her way.” I told her I had better not be risking my life and skipping boot camp, just so she give me some bootleg turkey sandwich in the park parking lot where everyone goes to practice driving. She assured me it was a real sit down restaurant. I was still nervous, because I just don’t do surprises well….

She actually drove pretty good, until she simultaneously stopped, bowed her head, closed her eyes and sneezed. “What are you doing???!!” I shrieked. “I had to sneeze” she genuinely replied, “I made sure no one was behind me I before I stopped” …. “Child, please don’t stop the car in the middle of the street to sneeze.” Geez… Anyway, we pulled up to a restaurant in Forest park near the golf course that I never even knew existed. It was a dead giveaway then, the mystery money man had to be my Dad. He is a complete golf fanatic. Dad joined us a few minutes later and treated his daughters to dinner. I’m sure if my Big Little Sister reads this she’s gonna be mad we left her out. Well it wasn’t my plan sis, I just rode along,  get mad at the teenager. LOL! We had a great time, and I made it home safe and sound. Whew!
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Free donut in the kitchen at work, which of course not filling so I ate the banana bread I brought too.
L- Steamed veggies with chicken and a Side Salad
D-Philly cheese steak (took off half of the bread) with a side salad, and shared order of sweet potato fries. Dessert – A little bite of my sisters Apple streusel cheesecake.

Weekend Review

Saturday morning was gorgeous; it was a crisp & breezy 71 degrees outside.   Perfect weather for outside activity.  Me and Mr. Man decided to go for a walk in Forest Park.  My ankles were hurting pretty bad as soon as we got started.  I think it’s because I’ve continued to work out every day at work during lunch, and my body is really starting to feel the effects of all the extra activity.  There were tons of joggers everywhere taking advantage of the day made for running.  I was so jealous, because my heart wanted to run, but my body said otherwise.   I probably should have taken a day off from activity, but I like the positive effects of eating less, journaling my food and daily activity.  You know the positive effects like losing weight and feeling better mentally and physically.  We were only able to finish about a mile and half, because my ankles just wouldn’t let me do more.

Today, I got up and went to church.  After church me and my little sister went to Brunch at an upscale little bistro in the Central West End called Scape.  The food was delicious.  She’s a “vegetarian” ….well she describes herself as “not eating meat” because she’s not sure how long she can go without it.  I think it’s just a teenage phase, but we’ll see.  Anyway, she had an apple & brie omelet.  I tasted it and it was surprisingly good.  I would have never thought in a million years to put fruit in an omelet.  I had the spinach & feta cheese omelet with chicken sausage.  I ate half and got full, and brought the rest home.  After doing a little laundry, I turned on Joel Osteen and got on my elliptical machine.  Today, was cold (54 degrees) and rainy, I didn’t feel like leaving the house again.  The elliptical had gathered a little dust from the lack of use, but I assume with the weather starting to turning cold, I will use it more.  Anyway, I multitasked, and instead of sitting and watching Joel for half an hour, I pedaled for half an hour.  I worked up a good sweat. Then, I sat down and wrote this post, and now almost it’s time for Dexter on Showtime.  OMG, Dexter is one of my absolute favorite shows.  It’s so creepy good.  I can’t wait for the season premiere. 

What Did Carli Eat Today?

B- Chocolate Protein Shake

L- ½ Spinach Omelet, half breakfast potatoes and cinnamon raisin toast. 

D- Left over Omelet and breakfast potatoes

Working it At Work

So my girlfriend at work it still helping me stay on plan. We take turns cooking lunch and bring enough to share. And then we workout for the second half of our lunch break. We’ve done it for about 5 days now. It’s so nice to have somebody at work helping me stay focused and encouraged. At get this, I was able to button those pants today!!!! I was so excited. My home scale even shows I’m down a couple of pounds, in just these few short days of eating better and writing down my food. Today, she made ground turkey, spinach and stewed tomatoes over rice. It was raining outside, so we hit the stairs. I brought my extra deodorant, so I was good to go. We walked down 9 flights. Caught the elevator up the 12th floor, walked back down to the 1st floor, and then climbed all the way back up to the 9th floor. We had a great workout. We were sweating for real. I had to go to the bathroom and get a cool towel to wipe my sweat. I felt such a sense of accomplishment.
I went to the grocery store after work since tomorrow is my day to bring lunch. I decided to make whole wheat pasta mixed with green beans and stewed tomatoes. You put the tomatoes, green beans and a cup of chicken broth in a pot to simmer, while the noodles are cooking. I added garlic, pepper and seasoned salt for a little flavor, oh and Italian seasoning. People laugh because I put Italian seasoning on everything…. Then you add a cup of fat-free ricotta cheese to the tomato mixture and warm it together. Then you stir in the tomato ricotta mixture with the noodles. This was my first time making this dish. It’s a recipe I got from this site, that has tons of recipes with the weight watcher points included. The recipe actually called for spinach, which I forgot to get at the grocery store, so I just used the green beans I had at home.  Mr. Man said it tasted good, and gave it a thumbs up. But, I almost forgot, to tell y’all when I got home from the grocery store, I still went on my Wednesday walk in the park with my best friend. Then came home and cooked. All and all I can say, good job Carli and pat myself on the back.
What Did Carli Eat Today?
B- Turkey sausage on eng muffin & an orange
L- My co-worker’s Turkey, spinach, tomato and rice stuff (It was really good too, and filing)
S- She also made “dessert” …Graham crackers filled with cool whip like an ice cream sandwich and put in the freezer. They were also very tasty.
D- Chicken and green beans, oh yeah, a biscut managed to somehow sneak in too.