Second-longest day of the year

Happy Second Longest day of the year! The optimist in me loves and cherishes this time of year. The pessimist in me realizes that the days are only going to get shorter from here. Bah!

I have had a pretty good day...for a Monday. I am still getting over my cold but just have a nasty cough. I feel just fine. And I've been able to eat some tasty things today, too. We have a great selection of fruit right now.

For breakfast, I had some Kashi Probiotic cereal with some plain non-fat yogurt and some blueberries and strawberries on top. I would usually have a spoonful of nut butter with this, but I have been really OD-ing on the nut butter lately. I am almost - almost - sick of it!

For a snack, I had some tasty cherries...

And the rest of this bag of pecans. I bought this bag of organic pecans from the health food store at least three weeks ago and I feel like I really got my $2.20 worth. You know what they say: A little pecan goes a long way.

For lunch, I had leftover Cumin Rice with Eggplant and Peas. It was ok. It needed some sprucing up!

I had my usual coffee but then I really rebelled and had a 3:30 peach instead of apple. I am so excited that peaches are starting to appear in stores, even though they are far from local. I should try to hold out until August when they are in their prime here, but I am a sucker for a peach.

Hubs was cutting the grass when I got home from work, so I tried to tide myself over for dinner by having some crackers and an apple with roasted almond butter. I must confess: roasted almond butter is much tastier than raw. I am not going to fight this realization.

For dinner, I had even more Cumin Rice but I DID spruce it up with half of an avocado. This made a world of difference!

For dessert, I had some dark chocolate, the same sized hunk as yesterday. I ate it while watching the news about the garbage strike that has recently afflicted Toronto. Pray that it is over soon or I will have a garden shed full of rotting avocado peels!

Here is a new product I picked up yesterday. You have to love Celestial Seasonings! If you've seen the movie Catch and Release and you love tea, you probably got a kick out of one of the side story lines. I wanted to try this flavour because I love chai tea but want to stay away from caffeine in the evening. This tea seemed perfect because it is herbal and doesn't require any added milk or sugar.

You can see my own bengal tiger in the background there!

This tea has an amazing sweetness. I feel like there must be some hidden sugar in there somewhere, but I've scanned the ingredient list to no avail!

Thus concludes another day of eats. I think I will be doing less of these Food Journal posts and more about overall health and well-being along with any neat or unusual products or recipes I try out. Alas, taking pictures of food isn't as much fun as I first believed! And it takes a while for them to upload. I don't know. I have definitely benefitted from keeping this blog, but sometimes I can be a bit obsessed!

Well it is time for my daily fix of TMZ. I am not going to watch Jon and Kate and learn what the big announcement is...or at least that is my plan. It is hard to stay away from other people's drama!

Back on track

I was SO glad to get back to work today! I did not realize how much I actually enjoyed my job until now. It's not so much the job, as it is the people, the scenery, the not hacking up a lung. Although I still do have a nasty cough. Oh well, if nothing else it elicits looks of sympathy and pity from coworkers. That almost makes it worth it.

I started the day off with a new combination of foods. Yesterday, in the midst of sickness and boredom, I sliced my first fresh pineapple! I even watched a video on YouTube about how to do it. (The Internet: Not Just For Food Blogs Anymore). I don't mind canned pineapple for baking, but if I'm going to eat it straight up, it MUST be fresh. Fresh pineapple is one of my favourite foods, especially when mixed with coconut.

I did not have any coconut. I did have cottage cheese, though, my second favourite choice for mixing it with. I had some pineapple, cottage cheese, and a bit of this Probiotic cereal from Kashi.

It was a great combination.

It was also great to have a Larabar for a snack. I only have these when I'm not at home. Since I've been at home so much this week, the Larabars had to wait. This was a new flavour. Excellent, as Larabars always are.

For lunch, I had a whole wheat wrap with spinach, hummus, tomato, cucumber, 1/2 avocado and salsa.

It was excellent, but I ate it so fast! Salads make me pace myself. On my daily lunchbreak walk, I came across some "50% off" danishes (My daily lunchbreak walk happened to make a detour through the bakery section of the market; I have no idea how that happened!). I must have looked ridiculous, because I literally picked up the package of danishes, inspected them closely, put them back on the shelf, hesitated, and then picked them back up again. After much thought and deliberation, I gently placed them back on the shelf. This is the turmoil that is my life! I was very close to buying them, but some how, some way, did not. Miracles do happen. Yes, I am overly dramatic.

I ended up having a large coffee and a 3:30 pm apple. They were ok. They were no danish.

For dinner, I mixed some of my spinach pasta and whole wheat pasta and made a tomato sauce with zucchini, mushroom, onions, garlic and veggie ground round. Topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese, this was a satisfying meal.

For dessert, I had more fresh pineapple, a sliced kiwi, and some strawberries. I tried to make tea but there was an incident involving curdled milk. Hate that!

Tomorrow is FRIIIDAAAAYYY. I am meeting some friends for some mid-day dessert and coffee, so that should be an exercise in self-restraint! Hubs and I are planning a pizza and movie night, too. There will be some good eating. Glad I said no to those danishes when I did, 50% off or not!

Snack time

Ah, the snack attack strikes again!

I just spent the evening putting my entire wardrobe into garbage bags because we are moving in two - yes, TWO - days. This must have expended some extra calories (yes...that's it) because afterwards I got THE MUNCHIES. It was the kind where you look in the fridge, and then in the cupboard, and then back in the fridge without any focus or direction.

Danger, Will Robinson!

I ended up having a handful of Kashi crackers and a spoonful of peanut butter. It could have been better, it could have been worse.

I watched the program X-Weighted (have you seen this?) and did some calisthenics. I would love to write about each move with their proper, technical terminology, but I don't know them! I do about 20 minutes' worth of movements focusing on my upper body, core, and legs. I've been doing variations of this routine since I was 16 years old. I've not always been the best with cardio, but I've always been a fan of strength training. Any sort of exercise that allows me to do it in my pjs while watching cable television has my support.

Well it is time for me to go to bed. There is a breakfast cookie in the fridge waiting for me tomorrow morning!