A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Do you love having a great day as much as I do? For some reason, I really enjoyed Tuesday. Nothing extraordinarily good happened, but I just had a happy day. I woke up and had a delicious (and pretty) breakfast. Nice looking food always makes me cheery.

Papaya, Yogurt, and Oats.

 After my upper body and abs workout, I showered and, Voila! There was a package for me at the door.The wonderful people of Yoplait sent my kit for the Two Week Tune-Up! I am super excited about it. In my package was a pedometer, gym bag, and coupons for Yoplait Light yogurt. I will be hosting a giveaway for those of you who want to try the program for yourselves! More details will be coming soon!

I have a confession to make. At snack time, I did something evil... I'll give you a clue: it was me in the kitchen with a steak knife.

The crime scene was ruled a homicide.
Oh, how I love demolishing winter fruits.

I have been telling myself that I’m going to work on my senior research over Christmas break, but procrastination has been consistently finding a way to creep in daily. I’ve decided to just roll with it. So, I spent the next few hours cleaning, editting some music, and getting ready to go out on the town. I had a lunch of eggs on toast and a pickle. I have established a fairly new philosophy in my life to never deny my taste buds happiness.

Over-Easy eggs and Zesty Dill Pickle.

In keeping with this taste-pleasing trend, I resolved to make myself a post-lunch ginerbread latte. 

Don't these ingredients look like the makings of a fabulous hot beverage?

It seemed like such a great idea… until I made it. It tasted like, I can’t even describe it. It was a ginger-overload on steroids. 

Drink from Spice Hell.

Take my word for it. It was beyond gross, and I don’t use that word lightly. I dumped it and settled for Dunkin’ Donuts Hazelnut Coffee at the salon where my mom works.

Two pairs of pants I got for Christmas were too big (yay), so I had to exchange them. Since the salon where my mom works is located near my drug of choice (Target), I went to visit, socialize and have my afternoon coffee fix. It excites me to catch up on my celebrity gossip with all the magazines and all the shop gossip with the girls.

I was itching to get to Target, so I ran over, made the denim switch, and browsed for a while. Then I met my parents and cousin for dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. I ordered a kid’s portion of sirloin, veggies, and sweet potato. I learned my lesson from the last few times I have eaten out. It took about an hour for us to get out food, and once it was at the table, my steak was incredibly chewy. But the flavor was good, so I didn’t care. I was starved. We ate and talked and laughed, and just had a great time together.

I think today was so wonderful because I was relaxed and enjoying time with family. I am taking full advantage of this holiday season to appreciate them and soak up my worry-free time in this lovely winter weather.

The Holidays Are Here!

On Monday, it hit me that it is the week before Christmas! YEAH! I am so excited. It also occurred to me that I had one more Christmas present to buy. Yikes. I know that the malls and stores are crazy right now, but I also knew that further delaying the shopping would lead to an even more painfully stressful experience.

I woke up with sore calves from this weekend’s jump roping, and decided against cardio. So, I piddled around, spoke to my lovey, and got ready to go out on the town. 

Then, being the wonderful daughter and sister that I am, I took my sister and my mama out for lunch at Panera. Yes, gluten-free people, Panera. When I went gluten-free, I assumed that Panera Bread was totally out-of-the-question. However, when it was suggested as a meal option, I was curious to find out. I read that nothing is "certified" gluten-free (obvs. It’s a bakery). But, there ARE several dishes with all gluten-free ingredients. Check it out

Note: If you are a severe Celiac, you probably shouldn’t try this out due to cross-contamination.

Hurrah! I celebrated this discovery by getting a Classic Café Salad.  

Cafe goodness.

Mons and I happy to be at our long, lost cafe.

Afterward, I made my way to America’s Friendliest Hometown to get my last present. Great success!

When I got home, my mama and I gave each other manicures. Productive activities. It made me realize how much pointless stuff I do every day. Geez.

At least my nails look awesome.

Since my nails were wet, and my mom’s weren’t, she was kind enough to make my dinner.

Low cal pastrami (this is not a joke) and sauerkraut sandwich with sauteed veggies

 Unfortunately, this lovely dinner was followed by this:

Food for baby dogs.

 I say unfortunately because munching a little bit of Puppy Chow equals munching on lots of calories. Oh well. ‘Tis the season for enjoyment, fa-la-la-la-la…la-la-la-la.

To work off some of those glorious calories, I did an upper body and ab workout.

It struck me that I will be battling minor weight gain this week. But I am completely ok with it. As long as I workout, do my thing, and don’t go overboard, then why should I worry?

 I know those extra pounds we rack up during the holidays make us feel a little bleh, and everyone wants to stay in tip-top shape. Some of us have weddings to attend, parties to go to, or just want to feel a little lighter. Well, there is a solution that the makers of Yoplait have come up with! It’s called the Two-Week Tune Up! It’s a custom diet plan designed especially for you by Yoplait!

For more information, visit Yoplait’s Two Week Tune Up.

I have been given the opportunity to try out this new plan after the holiday season has ended, thanks to Yoplait! I will track my progress here for you guys to see! I will share more information about it when the time gets closer!

Until then, I will just be enjoying myself in moderation, keeping up my workout routine, and having happy holidays. I hope you will too!

What are your holiday plans this year? How do you plan to stay fit and healthy over the next two weeks? Leave a comment!

It's the Holiday Season!

As sat down to write this post, the holiday feeling overwhelmed me. My family is not “conventional” in any sense of the word, so the connotation of the words autumn, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, is probably different for me than most. Caribbean music playing in the background; football blaring in the living room; Cuban food cooking on the stove; me sitting in my pjs, a sweater, and my slippers working on my 3^rd cup of coffee; 65 degree weather; and a pumpkin candle burning in my bedroom.  Aaah, the holiday season at its finest. It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy. And super excited for this overly commercialized time of year to start.

The weekend began with Biff and I attending an art exhibition, in which one of our friends was a participant.

Abbey, Egg Art, Biff, and Me

When then took a stroll downtown to a  benefit concert downtown for Invisible Children. Spending time with great friends is priceless. Such a good time. Unfortunately, not many food pics exist from Friday, since I didn’t feel like lugging my giant camera all over the place. I need to get over that, because pics are essential to this blog… 

When I returned home Saturday morning, my family had the bright idea of going to the Barrel of Crackers otherwise known as Hillbilly Central (more commonly known as “Cracker Barrel”). Why would we go to a place crawling with gluten?? Ugh. I sucked it up and got some oatmeal and had a little bit of grits.

 

I did NOT eat both of these bowls of grits.

This was preceded and proceeded by about a million enzymes, naturally. I survived, thankfully. My family, however, ate some ridiculous food.

 

Bacon just disgusts me. I used to love it, but now, not so much. Blegh.

To make up for my carb loaded breakfast, I went for a run later. The weather was amazing. Chilliness makes me feel so festive. Lately, I have been having knee pain again, my fiancé has been concerned. He always tells me to run on the grass, but I hate it. Road running is so much smoother and you don’t have to constantly beware the holes. But, after some convincing, I decided it would be in my best interest long term to start running on grass. Hopefully my neighbors didn’t mind me traipsing all over their yards.

Following my exhausting run (grass-running is way more work), I was famished. Dinner was much more nutrient-dense than breakfast. Later that evening, I found out that Bethenny Frankel had an almost identical meal. I am awesome.

 

Lettuce, spinach, carrots, tomato, cucumber, scallions, garbanzo beans, and quinoa. Sprinkle with a little chili powder, cumin and balsamic vinegar. So incredibly good. And Indian inspired!

I woke up Sunday morning to sore muscles in my ankles and feet (the good kind of sore), which means they are getting strong, and no knee pain. Hallelujah! I guess my pro-athlete fiancé does know what he’s talking about…

While celebrating my lack of pain, I had a filling breakfast.

 

2 over easy eggs on oat bread toast. My mom ended up stealing this banana. I was angry.

For lunch was Arroz con Pollo and Sofrito.

 

This never gets old. And I don’t say that very often.

Dinner was less spectacular, but still tasty.

 

Butternut squash, cottage cheese with garbanzos sprinkled with chili powder and cumin, and broccoli with hummus.

I had a really hard time not letting this wonderful, pain-free, holiday-spirited day get ruined by senior research, but I managed. It’s the holiday season, and I am happy.