New Blog

So I moved to NYC, and have a job that has me on a plane almost every week. Help me out as I try to stay as healthy as possible while balancing a very busy life in NY and a job that requires me to get very familiar with airport food!

http://www.healthytraveling.wordpress.com

Snow Day Catch Up!

It is a blizzzzzard here in CT. We are supposed to et 6-10 inches of snow!!

Here is a recap of my trip to NYC.

Before I left yesterday, my mom and I got lunch at a local health restaurant that just opened. It is in New Canaan called Le Pain Quotidien. Their speciality is these “Tartines” which are basically open faced sandwiches served on organic wheat bread. I got the Chicken Curry Salad one and my mom ordered the Egg Salad one. We split both and cleared our plates! They were DELICIOUS. I was really hungry after my Power Conditioning class at the gym yesterday morning, which kicked my bootay by the way. Today my butt is so sore!!

I started with their black tea:

This is the Curried Chicken Salad tartine served with a cranberry chutney:

And this is my mom’s Egg Salad one:

Here is a close-up of mine. Sorry they are out of order!

I got on a 5:20 train and snacked on this Asian Pear on the way. I wasn’t too hungry because my lunch was very filling, but I figured I needed a little something. We also eat late when I get there so I knew I should fill up a little bit.

At around 9:30 we finally got to eating dinner. We started with an appetizer of cubed tofu from Whole Foods. I had about 5-6 pieces.

And we decided on random salads for dinner made by throwing a bunch of random ingredients in their fridge together. One ingredient was some chicken that they had leftover. Laura went to season the chicken but accidentally used a dispenser that had Vermouth in it and got it all over the chicken!! haha its ok Laura I still love you

Laughing, embarrassed and desperately trying to get the liquor off….haha

So this is our salad comprised of: lettuce, chicken (she did a good job at removing the Vermouth!), peas, carrots, goat cheese, and about 1/2 cup of brown rice for each of us. I had a little honey mustard dressing on the side. YUM!

Annnddd then we were off! We went to two bars: Fiddlesticks and Brass Monkey. I had two Vodka Soda’s with lime, which is my standard drink and definitely my favorite. It hydrates you, is refreshing, and low in calories!

Me with my second drink which was made ridiculously strong! There was a crack in my cup so about an inch of liquid fell out before we replaced the cup and so I asked the bartender to top it off and he just poured straight vodka in the top. Almost undrinkable. I only had 1/2 and it was painful to get down, but worth it

This morning, Amanda and I got up at about 9:30 and laid in bed till other people woke up. Amanda wanted to head to her office and I was trying to catch a train home before the snow got too heavy, so we said our goodbyes and went to this awesome coffee shop on the way out. They have about 15 varities of coffee beans to chose from and you order the one you want and some beans shoot up a tube and grind right before your eyes! So its totally fresh ground and brewed coffee! I ordered some coffee from Guatemala.

I went to Amanda’s office to see where she works everyday. I am so happy for her- she has a beautiful office and has made her own cubicle a very Amanda-ish home! We snacked on some Cocoa Roasted Almonds from someone’s desk. I had 2 or 3.

Then right before getting on the train I grabbed a Pita with grilled veggies, hummus, and salad in it. LOADS of hummus but I skarfed that beauty down. Sorry the pictures are pretty bad.

Once home, for snack I had a handful of grapes and a little plate with some tofu and half an apple with almond butter. And some yogi tea!

A Productive Day

This morning I woke up around 9:00 (!!!) not really craving oatmeal, but instead wanting eggs. I made two over-easy eggs and put them on two slices of 6-grain toast and sprinkled about an ounce of shredded 2% cheddar cheese on top, along with some S&P. This was one of the best breakfasts I have ever made. It TOTALLY hit the spot for some reason!! I had it with water and a side of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries.

After breakfast, I did decide to have a little bit of coffee because I felt like I was dragging a little bit. I put 1.5 splenda in (which I really don’t like using but I have occasionally) and soy milk creamer. My sis goes to GW by the way!

Because of my later breakfast and the fact that I was getting so much done, I didn’t eat until about 2pm. I had leftover butternut squash with homemade pasta sauce (I tried to just get the sauce and veggies) with parmesan cheese, baked tofu on the side, and some sauteed mushrooms. I just put these guys in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper. Yum.

I wanted some crunch AND something sweet so decided to make myself a little snack/dessert plate. I cut up another Asian Pear, drizzled it with some honey, and in the center put 1 square of Trader Joes Dark Chocolate and about 8 of Annie’s Graham Bunnies.

By dinner at 7, I was starving but also had a little bit of a stomach ache for some reason I decided soup would be a good idea so had more lentil soup which has pasta and a little chicken in it. Along with brown rice with chick peas on top, MORE tofu, and a few chips with guac/salsa. Can you tell we have way too much food in our house and are trying to get rid of leftovers?

And my stomach still hurt after eating so I just went for some fruit as dessert. Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries and cantaloupe.

  

My stomach ache is finallllly gone! After today, I feel very accomplished. I got so much done and ate a well rounded healthy set of meals!

Sleeeeeepy

So last night Tommy and I and his family went to see Yes Man, which was actually really laugh-out-loud funny. I’d definitely recommend it as a fun, light-hearted movie to go see. BUT, we didn’t get back until midnight and then Tommy and I hung out till almost 2am. And then my dad woke me up at 5:30 this morning because I could hear him making a fire in the family room right below my bedroom. Sooo, despite my growling stomach, I stuck it out in my room till about 7:00, looking at blogs and what not, and then went downstairs to have nice chat with my Dad in front of the fire. We talked about life… I love these moments at home that I would never get if I had started work right away

I made Pumpkin Banana Cinnamon oatmeal at around 7:30 and it was AWESOME because I had every single ingredient I wanted thanks to my trip to Whole Foods yesterday.

This new purchase was the STAR!:
  

The combo contained:

• 1/2 c oats, over 1 cup water
• 1/2 of a banana, mashed
• 1/2 c of pumpkin (Whole Foods brand, yum)
• dash of salt, pumpkin pie spice
• spoonfuls of both pumpkin butter and Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter!!

And this is my breakfast in front of our fire place… nothing like a great bowl of oats next to a warming, calming fire… mmm…

So now I am obviously tired due to lack of sleep but I am debating… work out now or work out later while watching Oprah on Day Two of her health week… Ok problem solved. I just checked my gym class schedule and there is a Anusara Yoga from 10:45-11:45 which is perfect. I am going to go and walk for about 15 minutes before and maybe also a little bit after. Seee ya after lunch!

I LOVE Whole Foods :)

This morning I woke up at around 7 and made a lovely buncha oats. I used Bob’s Red Mill High Fiber cereal because we only had instant Quaker Oats left. This cereal took longer to cook, about 10 minutes, but the smoother texture was definitely a nice change.

  

In this bowl went:

- 1/3 cup of cereal, about 1 cup of water

- a splash of skim milk added toward the end to make it creamier

- a handful of raisins

- 1/2 a banana

- a handful of puffins

- pumpkin butter and a spoonful of almond butter

I got a lot of things done this morning and then when I started getting hungry around 11 I decided I better go to Whole Foods and grab some lunch before I got too hungry! I had a VERY successful trip at Whole Foods. Gosh I love that place!! I didn’t take pictures of my samples but I had a clementine wedge, a very small piece of gouda cheese, a bite of a Kashi Oatmeal/Chocolate Chunk cookie and a “crunch” of Kashi GoLean Crunch cereal. I was proud of myself for picking and choosing my samples instead of eating all of them or eating too much of them!

Some buys of the day: A few LARABARS finally. You will see those in the near future. And I got these really cute Annie’s Bunny Grahams in THE coolest package. I have wanted to try these for awhile. As soon as I got home I pre-portioned them into baggies because I knew this is one of those things I could easily overeat.

  

For lunch, I brought home a brown rice vegetable roll and had it with my own light in sodium soy sauce with lotsa wisabeee. And a great orange on the side.

I LOVE Ginger!!

The afternoon was busy trying to look for a part-time job to keep me occupied at home but it was a failed attempt because of course nobody is hiring right now. But it was still fun to get out, and I got to spend some time with my Mom while she did some errands. I snacked on this… soo good obviously..

For dinner, I made baked tofu using a recipe from Kath’s website. I used salt, pepper, a drizzle of honey and baked them at 450 for about 25 minutes. I also had half of a baked sweet potato, some salad with my mom’s homemade thousand island dressing and roasted brussel sprouts with a little olive oil, S&P.

And that’s all! I was hanging out with my friend Tommy last night right after dinner so didn’t even think about dessert. It’s funny how those things escape your mind when you are occupied and busy!

Thank you, Blog!

So I did in fact go to the gym, thanks to the blog. Just having a blog here, knowing that at some point hopefully soon people will be reading this, really motivated me. I pretty much stuck to the plan and did:

• 10 minutes walking on treadmill, 4.0
• 10 minutes on stairmaster, level 9 (Hard!)
• 20 minutes on Arc Trainer, level 7. I watched Rachael Ray and the time flew by!
• 2 sets of 25 crunches on the ball, plus some stretching

Overall, a great workout. I came home, showered and had lunch with my parents. I made a grilled turkey and 2% cheddar cheese sandwich with mustard on whole grain bread. I cut up 1/2 a cucumber on the side with a little light Thousand Island dressing. And water!

Here is the bread and REALLY good mustard I used…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the beauty… and it was sooo good. I used about 3 pieces of turkey and maybe 3/4 oz of 2% cheddar cheese

And although I hardly ever drink soda, it looked really good today and I had just about 3 sips of my moms Diet Coke…

So that’s it for now! Back to cleaning

Trying to get motivated…

SO this is one reason I am starting this blog. Today I woke up and I just don’t want to go to the gym again! I know it is best for my ultimate goal to GO but I just don’t want to. BUT, I am going to suck it up and go. Writing that out really helps me. 

My plan:

• 10 minutes walk on Treadmill (3.8 mph or maybe 4.0 if I feel up to it)
• 10 minutes stair master, level 9
• 10-20 minutes elliptical, level 7 on weight loss mode, depending on how I feel will determine the time
• 2 sets of 25 crunches, on the ball if I can find one

Ok I think that’s a reasonable plan! We’ll see how it goes. 

For breakfast, I started off the day with a bowl containing:

• One mini container of Breakstones 1% low fat cottage cheese
• Handful of blueberries
• 2 large strawberries, cut up
• 1/4 c Puffins
• 1/4 c Kashi Heart to Heart
• Drizzle of Honey

And a large glass of water and two mugs of Yogi Tea. Here is my inspiration for the day: “The Moment You Love, You are Unlimited”

And “Self Reliance Conquers Any Difficulty” I particularly like this one because I really believe that if you are your own best friend and you can look inward when times get tough, then that is ultimately the best way to be. 

Ok off to the gym, then home for some lunch, some cleaaanniinng (yuk!) and then maybe the movies again later. Adios!

Benjamin Button

My sister and her friend and I went to the movies today to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Despite all of the controversial reviews, I thought it was pretty good! It was a HUGE role for Brad Pitt and it was really cool to see how advanced technology can be used to age people on screen so well!

After the LONG movie, we came home and my mom had made lentil soup using a soup mix. There was a little bit of shell pasta in there, but it was mostly lentils and some veggies, and my mom added some chicken. I was pretty hungry because I didn’t have a snack so I also had a Thomas Light English Muffin on the side with a thin layer of almond butter and pumpkin butter. Along with a cut up Pink Lady apple (my fav) and some crunchy grapes!

The whole meal…

And of course some more chocolate for dessert!

I am still slightly unsatisfied. I don’t know why but I am going to try to ignore the craving to eat something else for a little while and see if it goes away. 

Gooooodnight!

Added later: SO I for some reason just wasn’t satisfied/full. Maybe it was that the soup was just mainly broth and pretty low-cal? Or maybe it was just boredom? I don’t know. Anyway, I made a messy bowl of: 0% Fage, mixed healthy cereals (Heart to Heart, Puffins), berries, little pumpkin butter and almond butter. It was GREAT. Probably a few too many calories today but at least it was all healthy and hey, I am learning! I also had a few crackers with a little whipped butter when my Dad came home from his trip tonight and ate. Probably 4 crackers.