Road Trip

We’re on our way to Austin! I’m blogging from the road. It was a last minute decision to go but we decided we should take advantage of the three day weekend. We got off to a slow start. And I didn’t want to leave Bailey… See the picture below for where she is staying this weekend.

We bought her 1 on 1 play packages with the staff twice a day while we are gone. They also have what they call the Bone Booth where we can all and talk to Bailey! We have never boarded her before.

After dropping Bailey off we stopped for some Starbucks on the road. I ordered oatmeal with nuts and brown sugar and a caramel light frappucino.

See you in Austin!

Sweet Tooth

My sweet tooth was in full force yesterday – I even broke down and bought some mini M&Ms at work because I wanted some chocolate.  I could tell when I woke up this morning that it was still there.  I also knew that it would be a day full of meetings, and a long/stressful day combined with my chocolate craving could lead to some bad food decisions if the vending machine at work had my only snack options.  So I decided to plan ahead, and incorporated my sweet tooth into the meals I packed for work today.

Oatmeal with strawberries & coconut for breakfast, leftover chicken pot pie for lunch, 100 calorie chocolate pretzels, string cheese, almonds and an apple for snacks.  Not pictured:  diet coke & the chocolate covered sunflower seeds my coworker brought that I snacked on throughout the day.  Unfortunately, the sunflower seeds replaced my apple snack.

I receive Hungry Girl daily emails, and there was a recipe swap on Monday for Starbucks Iced Dark Cherry Mocha.  I have tried these before (LOVE THEM), so I was excited to see a lower-calorie swap.  This is what I woke up craving this morning, but unfortunately, I did not have all the ingredients she required.  I also decided that I wanted a frozen version instead of a hot one.  So based on the HG recipe (and the ingredients I had on hand), I created my own – it had approximately 115 calories, the same as HG’s:

• 1 packet diet hot chocolate
• 1/2 tbsp sugar-free vanilla coffeemate
• 1/4 cup frozen dark pitted cherries
• 1/2 tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 tbsp Torani sugar-free vanilla syrup
• 2 oz skim milk
• 8 oz Almond Joy coffee
• Ice

It was so good – really rich and chocolate-y.  Much better than it looks in the picture!

All in all, it was about 785 (planned) calories before dinner time.  I usually try to save more calories for the evening because I like to spend them on a good dinner and evening snack, but I knew that if I didn’t plan for the day, I could easily go way over my calorie goal.  I’m sure I did with all the chocolate covered sunflower seeds, but it could have been much worse.

It was a late night at work, so Pat had already ordered Chinese delivery by the time I got home.  My favorite Chinese restaurant around here (and the only one I’ve found that I actually like) is Cafe Ginger.  Their delivery is really fast.  They always say it will take 45 minutes, but they’re usually at our house in 15-20 min.  The meat is tender and not rubbery, the crab rangoon are delicious, and it’s a great deal – soup, side, rice and main meal for $10.  I always get the same – wonton soup, crab rangoon, brown rice and mongolian beef.  Pat gets the same, except he gets hot & sour soup.

Dessert was a few more bites of the red velvet cheesecake.  I’m hoping that after giving into my sweet tooth COMPLETELY today, I can get back on track tomorrow.

I was actually looking forward to my run on the treadmill tonight.  I cut another 1:20 off of my 5k run!  I ran/walked it in 37:05.  I’d like to eventually run 5k in under 30 min.  I have a way to go, but I’m making progress.  I just hope my knee holds up.  I can tell I’m really pushing it!