Shout out to Cardio and Dried Fruit

Good Evening (afternoon or morning) Bloginns'

I am in such a better mood thanks to all your comments to cheer me up!!! I am so grateful! I did as I promised and woke super early to do a Cardio Butt Kicking Calorie Burn OnDemand 30 min session and burned a nice 211 calories! My body was feelin' the burn and I LOVED it! I was sweating and huffing, man I love endorphins!!!!
After my work out and a big glass of ice water I showered and made myself a bowl of blueberry oats with 1/2 cup oats, water, 2 shots frozen blueberries, a splash of Almond Milk, a shot of raisins, a shot of Craisins, a shot of sliced raw almonds, 1 tbsp of almond butter, one date and a small sliced banana:

Along with my oats I had a small glass of Skim:

At work I had a funny run in with an old friend's mother! She was so happy to see me and it was crazy that the last time she saw me I was eating her homemade blueberry muffins (best I've ever had) in my pj's watching cartoons with her daughter!

For my mid morning snack I had this bar with another Green Tea Frappe(no pic):

Work was slow today due to a HUGE car wreck on the 10 East bound, 2 fatalities from a car driving the wrong way on the freeway! So sad, and last night I saw a huge car wreck with the white sheet covering the passenger side of one of the 3 cars! This is such a crazy week with the news flashing FEAR all over! I hate it! I also heard a sad story about a family of 7 all found dead due to a murder suicide by the father who killed his wife and 5 kids due to getting fired and not being able to handle life with the economic crisis. I hate the news and normally don't watch but for some reason this morning I flipped it on for one second and this is what I got-my heart and prayers go out to the families of those who are no longer with us!

Sorry for the heavy load but these stories have been weighing on me today.

On to lunch :) I had a leftover lunch to clean the fridge and save some moola. A Shrimp wrap with Muenster and cabbage on a Sun dried Tomato Jalapeno tortilla:

and some red bell pepper spears:

I also packed a little dessert for lunch; Fage 0% with Agave and some Bare Naked Granola! This was so good!!! I have not ventured into sweetening my greek yogurts yet and might I say YUMMMOOO!

When I arrived at home I was a bit peckish (my moms favorite descriptive word) so I had a small bowl of 1/4 cup Twigs Flakes, and Clusters, 1 shot Kashi sunshine, and a spoon of reduced fat PB with Skim:

For dinner I was hungry very early so I settled for more leftovers (Sean was not coming home for a while after my dinner time and when that happens we usually eat totally different things). I heated a Brown Rice tortilla with a slice of muenster and the last of the shrimp in the microwave:

Then topped it with butter lettuce, cabbage, red onion, Fage 0% and fire roasted salsa, with a crank of pepper:

It was my version of a Shrimp Tostada! I later settled in with some Vanilla Tea and some dried fruit:

I had 2 more serving like this of dried fruit, not sure what it is about the Tropical Mix from TJ's but it is addictive!!! All the Mango, Ginger, Hibiscus and Palmelo-mmmmmm! I also had the last of my beloved Dragon Fruit!

When Sean cam home I baked him a Margarita Pizza (easy way out) and I had a nibble of crust as you will see in exhibit A:

I felt more alert and more energized all day! I know it was the exercise this morning so I plan to do another round tomorrow! Ya'll mean soooo much to me and I love the comments from every one of you!!!!

Be safe and count your blessings!

<3>

Ok I need a NEW camera!

I am so deeply disappointed by my Casio Exilim "Crappio" is more like it! It was fine for my quick On Set pics or continuity pics on set, but this whole photographing my food thing has brought my standards to a whole new level! I am open to suggestions! So many of you lovely bloggers have wonderful looking pictures and I am officially jealous! I am not looking for anything too fancy or anything too expensive but just a GOOD camera that will take a clear picture and has a decent flash. I know my best pics are done in natural light with no flash, but I am often taking pictures at night, in my car, early morning or on the go....So I need a better camera to equipped myself with!

Well I guess I will show you what I mean; bfast pick:
Kashi WW Waffle with 1/2 tbsp of Almond butter, 1 small mashed REALLY over ripe banana, 2 shots of TJ's Twigs and Flakes, a spoon of Fage 0%, an orange, and some dried tropical fruit for fun :)

I thought the Waffle/ over ripe banana would be better, it was a bit soggy and too sweet but oh well.
I ate this bar at work around 10am, but took this pic at home before:

These Z bars, even though for kids, are very tasty and satisfying when I need a lil something but not a whole protein bar.

For lunch I packed a Sun Dried Tomato Jalapeno Tortilla with turkey, roast red pepper hummus and muenster (I have not been spelling it with an "e" so my appologise, my strong suit is obviously not my spelling:) This wrap was by FAR my fave so far! The salty cheese and tangy spicy tortilla went so well with the turkey and hummus!!!! Yummm! I need to buy more turkey now!

I also packed some baby carrots and sugar snap peas- I love these!

When I got off work I was in a hurry to run to the prop houses to snap a few pics for the Fashion Island add so I grabbed this Black Cherry Almond Cliff:

I made it home in the WORST traffic, but early enough to muster up the energy to make dinner. I made my BBQ Chicken moourl.com/bbqchick atop a mixed salad with Herb Spring mix, Butter Lettuce, Persian cucumber, red pepper, red cabbage, red onion, a dash of Goddess dressing ( yummm I haven't this stuff for YEARS and I have missed it, I cut it out due to the fat content, but now I figure a tad will not hurt me + the flavor it so jam packed you only need a tinsy bit).

This salad was just what the DR. ordered! I know I have not been posting any exercise lately....that's because I really haven't done any :( I try to squeeze in yoga, but my mind is a million places and my body is so tired! I will not let this stop me, and I plan to pick back up soon! I am on my feet all day at work and am hoping that the amount of calories I am burning will not allow me to GAIN any weight, but I sure know I am not LOSING any. I feel healthy and that is most important, but I would like to exercise because when I do I feel 10 times better! My will power is not keeping up right now and I need a bit of a push! The first step is getting my gym membership! So we will make that priority #1!

Good night everybody! I plan to have a few pieces of dried fruit for my dessert so I might show you the goods tomorrow, but to be honest it is just like the last few days dessert so I will probably spare you the lame pictures.

C

P.S. Monday is over and we are going on to Tuesday so if you guys are counting down the days til this weekend is here~ 4 more days baby!!

It's Friday I'm in Love!

Yes indeed I feel a lot better and my boyfriend had once again proven to be the best ever! He came home last night after a long hard day of working a 15 hour shift! He saw me curled up on the couch with heating pad and ice pack on my wounds and made me tea and tended to my every need! He is the breast!!! So today went much better. I worked at the cafe from 10am to 6:30pm and was standing and serving all day long! I started my day with my blueberry oats topped with a 3 part shot of Craisins, raisins, and almonds. Also atop my oats was a big scoop of Fage 0% and 1/4 a blueberry Z Bar.
I have a sad story about my French Press; I broke it while emptying out the grinds in the trash :( It cracked and so I tossed it along with my morning coffee's. But I had the next best thing; Chai Tea with Splenda and skim!

Before work I had the rest of my Z Bar and this glorious Apple:

At work I made 2 nonfat sugar free vanilla lattes...yummmmm! I was WIRED! I got to come home for lunch so I made some Whole Wheat Pasta with tomato sauce, Tofurkey and Parmesan cheese! It was nice and filling!

I also had 1/2 a cucumber for some crispy greenness:

For my dessert I had Mrs. May's in Cashew:

For dinner I brought home (for free) a bowl of vegetarian Tortilla Soup, which is nonfat, dairy free, and yummy spicy blend of tomato and tortillas!!! I heated up along with it the last WW tortilla with a slice of low fat Munster cheese!

This meal was soooooo good! I love the soup and will definitely get this again. I dipped my quesadilla in it for a fun "throw back to elementary school days" meal.

For dessert I had 2 figs!

Well Ladies and Gents I am off to get ready for my friend Ben's B-day Party! He lives near my old apt in Hancock Park and I love getting to go into that "Old Hollywood" neighborhood! There will most likely be some wine or beer consumed but I am allowing myself to have a night of freedom! I had a rough week! I will let you all in on the sinning tomorrow with a full recap!

Have a wonderful Friday and yea for the weekend!

C

My First Day of Pastry Heaven

Well yes my first day down! I really like working in a coffee shop, I don't know why exactly? Maybe because of "Friends" or the fact that I love tea and coffee?? The atmosphere is very fun and the people that work there and the customers are super friendly! The customers are mostly regulars and I will have to memorize their names and orders but other than that it is pretty darn stress free compared to my days of Set Decorating. I am bitter sweet about leaving the industry (well I shouldn't say leaving cause I have a job this weekend doing a TV Promo for "Rescue Me"). Funny how I put the Set Dec job in parentheses, shows how high it is on my scale I guess. Today overall was a good day of eats, lets start with bfast:
1 cup Kashi Sunshine, 1 cup Kashi Go Lean, 1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk, 1/2 banana, 1/3 Blueberry Z Bar ( these are very good but a bit too artificially blueberry if you know what I mean) and coffee with skim. I will probably not be making coffee at home any longer since I get FREE coffee and tea at work.
Before I showered and got ready for work I found my self finishing the Z Bar.

I knew I would not be having lunch at a normal time because my training started at 11AM, so I did what knew best and ate lunch at 10:45AM-hehe! I had the last of the roasted veggie lasagna and 1/2 cup of baby carrots. I ate it cold and it was really quite nice, kinda reminded me of a pasta salad! Here is my "graphic" picture-the newest swag talk for photographers doing editorial.

At work I had to make a variety of sandwiches (13 to be exact) and learn to make the coffee and tea drinks. I tasted a few, my fave so far: Boba (bubble tea) nonfat Green tea latte_yummmm but I found out that one boba ball is 5 calories-yikesss! Another super tasty drink: Mixed Berry Tea smoothie_this is all natural and simply refreshing! I was sad to find out that the cafe is not all organic :( but still fresh and pretty healthy!

At the end of my shift my boss announced that the left over pastries were "up for grabs" hello!!!???!!! My heart skipped a beat-probably not healthy to get to excited over deserts but oh well- I took one of EVERYTHING for Sean to try and me too of course! I thought it better to try the sweets in my own home where I can control the portion and fully savor my indulgences. Here are the pastries and muffins I brought home: banana nut muffin, blueberry muffin, strudel muffin, Cinnamon sugar muffin

Lemon bar (my fave), candied orange zest and almond hot bun, almond torte (fave #2), raspberry scone thing, banana nut bread, and a peach danish!!!!!! yes can I hear a HECK YES!

Since I ate lunch at 10:30 AM I was to no surprise STARVING when I got home at 6:30PM. I brought a Lara bar with me to work but never ate it. So the second I walked in the door I grabbed the spanakopita out of the fridge and ate the last 4 cold-new way to eat them and very good!

I also pulled out the leftover sweet potato and added some Eggplant Hummus- I love this stuff it is lighter than regular hummus and has a Babaganush taste to it! Very Greek and went so well with the potato.

For dinner I made a salad with red leaf, vine ripened tomato, carrot, red onion, black beans and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Dressed with S&P and O&V (new abbreviation for Balsamic and olive oil)

I then made a lunch for tomorrow. A wrap with Tofurky (new product), Eggplant hummus, and light Munster cheese with carrots and more hummus on the side.
Finally settling down to enjoy my sampler plate of pastries!!! This picture is a desert plate and yes I ate it all!

Well I am super ty ty and ready for bed so Good night everyone and I will report tomorrow with more good treats from work and hopefully a work out!

C

Happy New Years!!!!!

Hello 2009! Yesterday I started my day off with this pre run snack: Small Gala with 1/2 tbs of Almond Butter

Sean gets nervous when I run alone so sometimes he joins me on his bike to follow, it's nice and it changes it up a bit from my ipod. But it took a little longest to get out the door and I woke super hungry so I had this also: banana with 1/4 tbs almond butter

I ran for 30 min to TJ's and it wasn't open yet so we waited for 10 min and I tried to keep my heart rate up by jogging in place and doing knee ups -people were starting to stare but I didn't mind:) We walked back because we had grocery's to carry and my total time was 50 min and I burned 333 cal, not bad. We got back and had just 2 hours before we had to leave to check into the Hotel and help my sis with the baby, soooo I had cold cereal again: 1 cup Go Lean, 1 cup Quaker Squares, 1.5 cup skim milk, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 shot almonds, sprinkle of raisins and a cup of coffee.

I packed for the night and got things together in the house so we could leave Ella, poor Ella she has been alone so much lately she seems a bit POed. I was still hungry so had a Fage 0%

I made this WW wrap with leftover pork and lettuce with a side of raw baby carrots to bring to the hotel for a cheaper and healthier lunch.

I also packed these emergency snacks, and a first breakfast for the first day in 2009!

I had this at the hotel

Here is our old timey hotel room and my handsome BF!!! I just love getting dressed up!

Me and my sister and my niece

The favors at the table!! I ended up eating mine shortly after dinner oops!

The first course- some kind of Sweet Potato bread with mushrooms and cheese inside and pickled veggies on the side, odd sounding but very tasty. I had 1 glass of champagne at cocktail hour and one with my dinner not pictured.

My table #10 and the beautiful flowers and my glass of Merlot to go with my dinner.

The salad with feta( I picked it out) and caramelized pears and pecans. I opted for no dressing.

My steak!!! It came with mashed potatoes, carrots and asparagus, I hate about 1/2 the steak and the veggies but left the potatoes and rest of my steak for Sean who polished it off.

Here we are at our table, my goodness the venue was just gorgeous!

The cake!!!

My slice- it was Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting! I had 2 bites, and another glass of champagne!!

Getting ready to bring in the New Year

Our noise makers and table of booze!

It was a wonderful night over all and we had a lovely kiss and then went up to bed to sleep off our hangover in our lovely king size bed!

Moving on to New Years day! I woke to my sister's phone call informing me that she and her husband were in the mood for some greasy Chinese at our favorite spot Yang Chow and since we were all in downtown it was perfect. We begrudgingly got out of bed and checked out. I had a banana that I packed and the rest of my emergency snacks as a makeshift breakfast since I ate my cereal I packed yesterday. We ordered Hot and Sour soup- my fave! A plate of Slippery Shrimp-a Yang Chow must! Shrimp fried rice, Baby Bock Choy with mushrooms, and a small brown rice for me!This is my plate, I had seconds of the brown rice and bock choy and we sipped Green Tea.

My fortune:

Now at home with Ella and Sean, the plan for today is to RELAX! We have declared today PJ day so I am super excited for that. Hope everyone had a joyous and safe New Years!!!! I can't wait to catch up and see how ya'll spent yours!

C