Exhale

Thanks for the comments on today’s earlier post everyone.  It feels good to let it all out (actually I wrote a much lengthier, angrier post but I saved you all from it…it was just good to get it down on “paper”).  Nothing has been resolved, but at least there was a message from someone on the machine when I got home from yoga.  Hopefully that person answers their phone tomorrow!

I did indeed eat my turkey sandwich during my staff meeting.  Once I got wrapped up in working again I was hungry!

I also snacked on some Late July PB sammiches later in the afternoon…

And half of this bosc pear before running out the door to yoga…

Katie agreed to join me for this week’s Long Slow Deep class at Breathing Space.  It was tough, but awesome.  Warm, sweaty and bendy.  Just what I needed to let go of the day.

We even got to do a bit of a pair exercise that totally helped stretch my low back (which apparently was carrying all of my stress from today!!) and gave us a bit of a giggle when standing up.  :)  I like when the class takes a bit of a light hearted approach…so much easier to really relax.

When I got home I needed a quick and simple dinner.  I opted for an egg white scramble…with veggies and lean turkey sausage…

Light yet protein packed.  Nom!

After dinner and a long, hot, glorious shower I decided that after the day I’ve had it was a fine time to dig out another box of   Girl Scout cookies from the freezer.  :)

Caramel Delights…previously known as Samoas I believe.

Whatever you call them…OH EM GEE!!  Deeeeeelish.  These will not last long.  Janna…next year I’ll be ordering five boxes of these!  haha.

A few giggles from Cougartown have just been had so I think now is a fine time to cuddle in to bed for the night before I lose this relaxing momentum.

How do you decompress when the world is getting you down?

A Woman’s Fury

Dear FirstLine Mortgage,

You suck.  You are messing with my life and don’t give a damn.  I’m telling everyone not to use your services.  EVER. 

Idiots.

<insert feet stomping and tirading around the room here>

So there you have it, yet another hitch in this thing I call life.  I honestly thought that after yesterday’s news things couldn’t possibly get much worse.  But ya, our rep took the week off and didn’t bother to tell us.  The paperwork we’ve been waiting for is probably sitting in his inbox collecting effing dust while we sit at home wondering what the hell is going on.

I’m furious.

Good thing I ate first…because I seriously can’t even contemplate putting food in my angry tummy right now.

Coffee…

Last 1/2 of bagel with natural PB and Supercrack…

Tasty, tasty, juicy pink grapefruit half…

My morning started off so well!

I nearly choked on my lunchtime smoothie while realizing what was going on with the house shiz…

In the KA today:  fresh strawberries, ice, 1/2 frozen banana, 1/2 packet Vega Smoothie Infusion, squirt of honey, UVAB. 

And I did put together this half sammich for during my afternoon call, but I dunno if I feel like eating it right now.  We shall see.

Sourdough, dijon, deli turkey, cucumbers…with a side of pickles.

And now I have my weekly conference call for work…maybe that will distract me from wanting to kill someone at FirstLine.  I hope.

At least tonight is yoga night.  ohmmmmmmm.

*gulp*

Well, today didn’t quite go the way I thought.

Arron came home from work with his mission papers.  The mission date we’ve been struggling against for the last month because he was supposed to leave at the end of May and we were worried we wouldn’t have all of this house shit taken care of by then.

Um, ya, well now he’s leaving APRIL EFFING 20th!!!  For those of you not good at math…that’s like THREE FREAKING WEEKS.

On a personal level this is bittersweet…

It’s a major milestone and glorious moment for him to finally (after two years) have an itinerary in his hand that guarantees he is indeed going.

It means he has to drop absolutely everything and get on a plane this weekend to go visit his son before he leaves the country for six months.  That eats up pretty much all of the time between now and the deployment date.

Which means that between now and FOREVER I will only see him for maybe FOUR more days TOTAL.  I mean, we knew that once he left, then I moved, we might not see each other again…but I thought I had two more months to come to terms with that.  :(

This also means our mortgage company needs to get off their ass and get our paperwork freaking processed so we can ensure everything is going the way we need it to.  Like yesterday!!

Bloody hell.  

Oddly enough I actually got hungry once this news settled.  I put together a quick salad and topped it with a Sweet Potato & Black Bean pattie…

Spinach, carrots, tomatoes, a drizzle of Ranch, a scoop of TJ’s habanero lime salsa…and added light cheddar…

Yum!

Then my tax paper sorting evening was cancelled in lieu of a much needed Starbucks visit with my friend Sarah.

Grande non-fat half-sweet vanilla rooibos tea latte…

And yes, an amazingly deeeeelish super-glazed apple fritter.  If this isn’t an emotional food band-aid I don’t know what is, but it was totally worth every single bite.

Thanks for sticking with me through the drama y’all.  I swear I had no idea my life could be this interesting.  I’d give my left arm for it to go right back to boring any time now.  *sigh*

Milk & Cookies

This morning I was thinking about writing a little deeper or at least more informative post for today…but as of right now I’ve got nothin’!  So I guess you’ll just have to make do with my eats so far.  :)

At midnight last night I was down in the kitchen prepping today’s breakfast.  Breakfast cooooookie!!

In an attempt to make it more “cookie-like” I opted for the cinnamon-raisin approach.

Smushed together we have:  1/3 cup oats, 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1 tsp natural PB, 2 tsp flax meal, splash of UVAB, 1/2 frozen banana, cinnamon and a small handful of sultana raisins.

Another winner!  The key is definitely to not make it toooo wet…especially when adding a partially thawed banana…only really need a sploosh of UVAB.

This combo goes particularly well with morning coffee…

I actually only ate about half of this because as I was munching away I got an invite to lunch with Scott from YourInnerSkinny.  He works near my neighbourhood so we met up for a quick Subway sammich.

That there is a 6” turkey on the herby cheesy bread (whatever they call it…LOL) with lettuce, double tomato, cukes, pickles and mustard.  With it I ordered a chocolate milk, but I barely drank half because it’s sitting like lead with all that bread in my tummy. 

Thanks for the catch-up Scott! 

I just updated my Facebook status to state that I plan to sort tax papers tonight.  So it is written, so it shall be done.  Here’s hoping that project doesn’t completely trump my workout plans.

Simplicity

Last night I wrote some simple goals for the week…

Then wrote one more for first thing this morning…

Thankfully I also remembered to set the coffee maker last night so I was caffeinated enough to tackle the cleaning of my desk before starting my work day…

This week’s fruit bowl is filled with a few different things.  Yesterday was the Ya pear…today a pink grapefruit…

I ate half and it was AMAZING!!  Especially when consumed alongside a dish of equally tangy Lemon Liberte topped with some yummy granola…

 

And a slice of sourdough toast with Dark Chocolate Dreams and Superfruit Spread…

It was like a breakfast party platter! :)

In keeping with the theme of lower grocery bills and using things on hand, I rifled through the cupboards for today’s protein source…tuna.

Mixed simply with light mayo, grainy dijon and green relish.  Served on Light Rye Wasa Crackers…with pickles…and a side of particularly tasty baby carrots…

Come dinner time I wanted to keep it light because Katie and I were heading to the gym for cardio and yoga tonight.  Sooooo… back to the tuna dish!

This time on half a toasted sesame bagel with light herby cream cheese…

 

With a small dish of leftover steamed sweet potatoes…which I melted a 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil on.  O.M.G.  Deeeelish.  I’m loving the diversity of the coconut oil!

At the gym I went for a 20 minute run on the treadmill. Seems to be my go-to when I’m only doing cardio.  I feel like I need to burn the most calories possible if I’m only working out for 20 minutes…LOL…my brain needs to wrap around the fact that the hour long yoga class counts as a workout too!

Different instructor this week with a different style, but we still liked her.  Good stretch, good stretch, good heart pumping. :)

My after gym snack was a bowl of cereal and milk.  I wanted sugar, carbs and protein so I grabbed the Kashi Cinnamon Bites and checked out the milk containers to see which one had the biggest protein bang…

Skim milk is clearly the winner with 9 grams of protein per cup…

 

vs Vanilla Soy (So Nice brand) at only 6 grams…

and UVAB weighing in at only 1 measly gram.  Clearly I only use this because it’s considerably lower in calories and has a creamier consistency for making oats and smoothies.  (and apparently they think 1 cup is only 240mL???) 

Now it’s time for the Castle continuation.  “Did Beckett go BOOM?” I’m guessing not, but I still need to see for myself.  :)

A few mini peanut butter cups might help!

Sunday Dinner

So the problem with a wordless nature photo post is that I have to try to squeeze in a recap post on Mondays.  Maybe I should try not to eat anything noteworthy on Sundays…LOL. 

I attempted my little garage sale yesterday but honestly I was ill-prepared and it was freaking freezing outside. I’ll have to actually advertise and try it again when it’s a few degrees warmer.

Food was pretty simple throughout the day…

 

After the sale, a freezing cold walk in the park, and running a couple of errands, it was time for dinner.  A dinner that required no grocery shopping!

Allison at Eat Clean Live Green posted a recipe for Sweet Potato and Black Bean Veggie Burgers earlier in the week.  I was happy to see this recipe because I had almost all ingredients on hand.

The only substitutions I made were carrots for the celery, and chopped almond pieces for the sunflower seeds.  Otherwise I followed her recipe.

I don’t own a proper food processor, so I got to finally use the chopper attachment that goes with my Cuisinart Hand Blender.  OMG, this little thing is AWESOME!  I will now be retiring my Little Oscar as this was so much easier to use and clean.

Because the chopper attachment is smaller than a proper food processor I worked in two batches.  I pureed the sweet potato on it’s own, then pureed the black beans…then mixed together afterwards.  No biggie.

These were easy, tasty and oh so filling.  I served my patty with a bit of melted cheddar on top of toasted sourdough with mustard, spinach and kumato tomatoes…

On the side I served up some roasted asparagus, which I just cooked right alongside the burgers…

Deeeelish.  I saved one patty out for a leftover meal and had four more for the freezer.  Thanks Allison!  Those of you participating in Lynn’s “go veggie” challenge should totally give this a whirl.