In a Smoothie Rut

Good Morning!
One day down, four more to go till the weekend:-p Actually, in my case... three more days till my weekend begins. Yes, I will soon be in a flight to PARIS!!!! I can't wait! This will be my first time in Paris and I'm so excited. Be sure to expect lots of food pictures.

Yesterday, was a big smoothie day for me. I started my day off with a smoothie consisting of frozen raspberries, unsweetened vanilla almond milk and almond butter. I don't know why but I was craving a smoothie for the morning. So, I whipped this concoction up and it kept me full till lunch time.

Lunch was a delicious. My coworkers and I went out for sushi to celebrate my managers birthday. I ordered the chicken negimaki box. Delicious and filling. Six pieces of negimaki, 3 avocado rolls, 2 shumai, miso soup and salad. Sadly, there is no picture because I ate it all too quickly.

Between lunch and dinner I managed to get a quick workout in. I did 20 minutes on an elliptical looking machine, followed by 15 minutes of abs and weights. I also attempted a pull up. Unfortunately, I did not stay up :-p

By the time I made it home I had only one thing on my mind. I wanted to have a smoothie. I didn't care if there was a cold, wintry mix going on. I just wanted to down a large, creamy smoothie. So, before I even showered I whipped out my magic bullet and made a raspberry almond smoothie. I added a big more almond butter since this was practically replacing my dinner. Ah, once again a craving was satisfied :-)

How was your day yesterday?

Friday Breakfast...

Morning Peeps,

Happy Friday! I started my day off with a balance breakfast:

1 slice of sprouted grain toast
1 egg
1c sautéed spinach
Almond slivers and raspberries on the side

I topped this off with some hot sauce Here's a pic if you don't believe me :-p
















Healthy. Balanced. Delicious.

I plan on getting a cardio session in during lunch :-)

How is your Friday morning going?

Cinchtastic Breakfast

To get back into the healthy eating game, I've decided to do The Cinch! Fast forward plan this week. If you recall, I did this back in January and is sort of a detox, with real foods. ALL the weight I had lost while on the fast forward, I was able to keep it off! The fast forward is comprised of five foods:
Spinach
Eggs
Raspberries
Almonds
Yogurt

Last time, I did not find it difficult to do this and I expect this time to be same.

So, here's the deal for breakfast. I had one poached egg over saute'd spinach. On the side I had a cup of frozen berries with almonds! This was actually pretty refreshing for hot day!

What did you have for breakfast?

Breakfast: Raspberry Cheesecake Cream....

Well, after my totally INSANE workout this morning, I had a delicious protein filled breakfast. With a little prep work the night before, I had a quick, rich and creamy breakfast!  In yesterday's post I mentioned I used vanilla protein powder in my smoothie. Even though I used just half a scoop, I could taste all the artificial ingredients.  Luckily, I'm not use to eating more natural foods, so anything with artificial ingredients really wheys (ha, get it...whey protein :-p) me down. I decided to start using non fat ricotta cheese in my smoothies to replace the protein powder. I like this for many reasons.  First of all, the ricotta cheese will take on the flavor of anything you put in it.  Secondly, there are no artificial ingredients...it's pure protein.  Third, the same amount of calories/fat/protein I get from a protein powder, I can get from the ricotta cheese.  In just 1/4c of non fat ricotta cheese, there is 30 calories, 0g fat, 6g of protein.  I used half a cup of ricotta today for only 60 calories and 12 grams of protein!  Lastly, ricotta cheese, when whipped or blended has an unbelievably smooth, creamy texture...think cheesecake peoples!

Now, going back to my prep work from last night.  In my little blender I put half a cup of non fat ricotta cheese, 1 cup of frozen raspberries, 2TB of almond butter.  This morning I was going to add some water to make it a more smoothie like consistency, but changed my mind when I saw the defrosted raspberries let out some juice.  I whipped this all up in my blender and  had an unbelievably, decadent berry breakfast.  This tasted like I was eating raspberry cheese cake!  So smooth and creamy!  I think this will be my new go to breakfast for mornings!  So yum and delish!  Best of all, no weird metallic after taste from protein powders, but all the protein needed!

How was your breakfast?

Good morning...

Good Morning Everyone,

Monday is over with!!! Yay...I always find Monday's to be the hardest day of the week. Last night I made it back to my apartment at 8:45pm. Much later than expected. I whipped up my Cinch! Smoothie with yogurt,berries and almond butter. I also added a sprinkling of cinnamon :-)

By 9:15 I was exhausted and had showered and was comfortably watching Antenna TV (All In The Family is so much better now than what I remembered), when I looked at my room and thought about rearranging. Now, I told myself that I'm pretty tired and I will rearrange when I come home at a decent hour. The problem is, I was already thinking about how I would rearrange my room and once I go thinking about it, I know I will do it. Yup...so as exhausted as I was, at 11pm, I started rearranging! Ok- so it wasn't that bad. I only moved my bed and TV. For some reason they were bothering me the most. I still have a couple of other things to move, but they are some light things which I will finish up today. Needless to say, I got a pretty good nights sleep.

Ok- now that you know all about my night, let's talk breakfast. This morning I had my Cinch! breakfast a little differently than yesterday. I chopped up my spinach, sliced my egg, added slivered almonds, dusted with some onion powder and balsamic vinegar. On the side I had a bowl of berries. This time I got a mix of black and red berries. So far so good, this is day 2 and I've been doing well!

Will post more later....

Question of the day: What is your favorite tea to sip on?