12.31.08 Another Snack

Snacked on a half ounce of Cocoa Roast Almonds and a few Sugar Free Jolly Ranchers while watching Entrapment:) 

Happy New Year's Eve!

12.31.08 Work Party Snack

It's been a pretty mild night only got a few dozen alerts on server scheduled maintenance. As soon as it completely quiets down I am going to watch Entrapment. My favorite New Year's Eve movie!

The food was laid out (White Castle Sandwiches, Jose Ole Mini Tacos, Potato Chips, Chips and Dip and Trays of Chocolate) and I just stuck with some veggies and filled up my Powerade bottle with water...also had another one of those earlier. 

12.31.08 Quick Breakfast

Got another 8 hours of sleep 6:30am - 2:30pm. Woke up and grabbed a South Beach Diet Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar, got ready for work, did financial stuff and headed to Costco. 

Gas was only $1.49/gal today! Filled up the truck:) Roads were kind of bad today.

We arrived at Costco at 5:08pm to find out they closed at 5pm today! Argh...so we went to Cub Foods instead. 

I bought a veggie tray for tonight's New Year Eve party at work. Also bought some Hormel Natural Oven Roasted Turkey Breast, La Tortilla Low Carb Wraps and a Sobe Lean Green Tea.

12.31.08 Late Shift Snack

Work was pretty quiet the rest of the night. A coworker sent me links to some funny cartoons. I finished my magazine...many more good recipes, exercise and nutrition tips. 

For my snack I had a lowfat nsa fudge bar, another half ounce of cocoa roast almonds and a diet hot cocoa:)

12.31.08 Dinner 1:30am

It's been an average sorta busy night at work. 

Finally got some downtime and started reading my magazine. It's quite interesting so far. They have a long, Makeover Your Body in 21 Days article. I'm on page 27 (Day 6) there are many good recipes, workout and food swap suggestions sending me a rush of optimism for the coming year.

I read about the Jamba Juice Strawberry Nirvana Smoothie and it was music to my ears...had to Google it. 

It's made with a low calorie base (Skim Milk, Whey Protein and Splenda) Fruit, & Ice. 160 calories in 16oz, 0g fat, 5g protein, 20% Calcium & 100% Vitamin C. I'm glad to know that they have something lighter on the menu. They just opened a Jamba Juice nearby -  I'll definitely have to try it!

Well, for dinner I had two of the Joseph's pitas with 7 slices of Hormel Natural Turkey Breast, 2 Weight Watchers Light String Cheese Sticks and 3 cups of Spinach. A yogurt & 16oz water.

12.30.08 Snacks

I had three SF Jolly Ranchers. (Strawberry, Grape and Green Apple)

Also had a half ounce of Cocoa Roast Almonds with 16oz water.

12.30.08 Lunch

Left the house around 4:15pm. It sure is a cold and snowy day in Minnesnowta. People were driving really slow so we didn't arrive at Sam's Club until 5pm. 

Lunch ended up being some meat and cheese samples as I was headed toward the fresh produce section. 

Picked up some Organic Baby Spinach and Turkey Breast. Got some Light English Muffins and Arnold Select Sandwich Thins. Hit the aisles for Tuna, Miracle Whip, and Ketchup. Also got some salt for our 150ft snow and ice covered driveway.

I also picked up the latest issue of Shape Magazine with Gabby Reece on the cover! She is of great inspiration to me being the same height as her and all. She has great exercise and eating tips and I also visit her website at http://www.thehoneyline.com/ for her latest posts.

Dave drove me to work in the truck and I arrived on time. I was really thirsty...drank 32oz of water due to the sodium that must have been in the meat and cheese I ate.

12.30.08 Breakfast

I woke up at 3:30pm. Got 8 hours of sleep:)

Had a South Beach Diet Chocolate Crisp Bar and it was off to Sam's Club we went.

12.29.08 Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

PWell my holiday break is over and I'm back to working the next three nights. Woke up at 3:30pm and needed something quick to eat so I grabbed a South Beach Diet Bar and a Fuze.

For Lunch I made two pitas with 6 slices of Hormel's Natural Turkey Breast, 2 Light String Cheese Sticks shredded up and 3 cups of Spinach. I also had a yogurt and a Powerade Zero.

Later on I had an ounce of almonds and a Hot Cocoa:)

12.24.08 - 12.28.08 Holiday Break, Dinner at Romano's Macaroni Grill

I had a really nice Christmas Break it was wonderful to eat great food and see our family and friends!

We had Christmas Eve at my mom's house. 

We arrived early to help with some of the prep work. Here's Angie plucking grapes.

We had Ham with Mustard, Rolls, Goulash, Three Bean Hotdish, a Veggie Tray, Potato Salad, Deviled Eggs, Cantaloupe and Grapes.

We had cupcakes for dessert. I only had one:)

My mom made some punch with Orange Juice, Diet 7UP and some Orange Sorbet. 

It was a really nice Christmas meal. After that we opened presents while my sister played Christmas songs on the piano.

After that we took a drive downtown Saint Paul to see the Christmas lights.

                                    Rice Park

                                    Mears Park

We celebrated Christmas Day at our new house we'll be moving to. 

We made a pasta bake with Dreamfield's Penne Pasta, lean ground beef, celery, onion, no sugar added tomoto sauce and reduced fat cheese. 

For dessert we had NSA pumpkin pie and NSA vanilla ice cream. 

We watched the season finale of Biggest Loser since we hadn't had time to. We were so happy that Michelle won - she really deserved it!

Later on we snacked on some of the delicious Pumpkin Bars my mom made!

My stepdaughter Angie and I went shopping the next day for after Christmas Sale deals. 

We ate at Romano's Macaroni Grill because we had a coupon for a free appetizer. We ordered the stuffed mushrooms for the appetizer and Angie got the Portobello Chicken and I got the Skinny Chicken with tomatoes, broccoli & asparagus.

Saturday morning at my laptop I had an Apple Pie Larabar.

For lunch we went back to work on our new place and had the leftover pasta bake and NSA pumpkin pie and NSA ice cream.

For dinner we overindulged and went to Old Country Buffet. I started with a small taco salad, then I had a plate fish and green beans, then a plate of steak with horseradish sauce and roasted red peppers and for dessert I had a fat free, sugar free ice cream bowl with apples mixed in.

Sunday morning I was at my laptop again and had a Cherry Pie Larabar.

For lunch I went over to my mom's to help her setup her new HP printer. She fixed me a large salad with ham, mozzerella cheese, green peppers, cucumbers, and Mrs. Dash. I also had some leftover Three Bean Hotdish, a Diet Dr. Pepper, and another one of those Christmas Cupcakes pictured above.

Later on we had Angie's cousin Alyssia over and went to our favorite Chinese Buffet, China Chef. I ate way too much there. I tried to eat more of their lighter fare like Ginger Chicken Broccoli, Steak and Mushroom and Shrimp Stir Fry but I ended up having quite a few eggrolls, cream cheese wontons, and a little Sesame Chicken. For dessert I had pineapple, peaches and a few Almond Cookies with vanilla pudding.

12.24.08 Snacks

A lady at work brought in homemade fudge...I splurged and had a piece and I also ate an ounce of Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds.

A few hours late I had a low fat fudge bar and a cup of cocoa. Sure got my chocolate fix tonight!

12.24.08 Dinner

Well it was busy for quite some time at work tonight. Things finally let up and I surfed YouTube for some cooking videos. There were some recently uploaded Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver. 

I watched the Gordon Ramsay Cooks Christmas and the Jamie At Home - Christmas Special. Gave me some good ideas to try out! Well I hadn't eaten since lunch at 9:30pm so it was time for dinner at 1:30am.

I made two pitas using Joseph's Pita bread and split 3oz of Kirkland Grilled Chicken Breast, 3 cups of spinach, one shredded Light Cheese Stick and about 2 Tbsps of Guacamole between them. I also had a yogurt and a Lite Harvest Zesty Frosted Lemon Cookie. Drank two glasses of water too.

12.23.08 Lunch

We had a 30th work anniversary party for one of our team members and his boss provided Davanni's Pizza. 

A retired colleague of his I never met came over and was quite the character. He had a lot of old work stories about back in the day when they were allowed to do things we can't anymore.

There is Christmas music playing at work...currently Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan. 

It has been pretty quiet tonight until network issues developed in China. 

So for lunch I had the toppings off two slices of Works Pizza and two slices of Hawaiian Pizza. (crust was really thick and oily - about an inch high of empty refined carbs)

It peeled right off the breading in one very thin piece making the pizza look like it was 90% bread. 

The toppings came out to 1.5 cups and I was able to calculate this in FitDay to amount to about 550 calories. I balanced it out some by having a Thomas English Muffin with 2 Tbsp of Apricot Jam. I also drank about 6 cups of water with this meal due to all the sodium.

12.23.08 Quick Breakfast

I only got 6 hours of sleep 9:30am - 3:30pm. 

My family and I headed out to do the last of our Christmas Shopping. 

Went to Home Depot for a few gift cards and to Cub Foods for a Veggie Tray for the Christmas Eve party at my mom's and also bought some pickles and a bag of sugar free candy for my mom. 

Angie ran into JCPenney's because she had a coupon for $10 off a $10 purchase and found the perfect necklace and earring set for one of her friends. 

Then we went to Borders because we had a coupon for 40% off any item. Chose Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food; I already own Gordon Makes It Easy and really enjoyed it. I can't wait for Gordon Ramsay's Healthy Appetite to come out in January. 

The checkout line was really long...looked like a 25 minutes wait so Angie stayed in line for me and Dave drove me to work so I would be on time.

I drank a Tropical Punch Fuze and ate a quick Chocolate Peanut Butter South Beach Bar.

12.23.08 Late Snack after Shopping

I got off work at 6am and picked up Angie and she wanted to go to SuperWalmart to finish up her Christmas Shopping. The roads were really bad but the truck handled really well. 

At Walmart I tried on some new jeans since my current ones are baggy I managed to zip up ones two sizes smaller but one size smaller was comfortable. 

I picked up a few more Christmas cards and bought some yogurt, low fat ice cream and a no sugar added pumpkin pie. 

Angie bought gifts for her three best friends and we were guessing to see how much the total would be and it was exactly $100. 

We got home and I was really hungry so I ate a yogurt and one of the Lite Harvest Zesty Frosted Lemon Cookies and got to sleep around 9:30am.

12.23.08 Snack

Around 5am I decided to have a low fat fudge bar and then I went outside to start warming up my truck at 5:40am and it was so freezing outside I decided to come back in and have a hot cocoa!

12.23.08 Dinner

My shift is coming to a close and I'm having dinner at 3am. It's been a really quiet night so I've gotten a lot done. I've been talking to Dave on IM's about how his day was and what they've accomplished. I just looked outside and there is a thick blanket of snow...boy am I grateful to have the 4WD today!

Here is what I made for dinner...Cinnamon Oatmeal with a half ounce of Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds and a Glass of Water:)

12.22.08 Lunch

My three hours to shop went by so fast. 

I went to Office Depot, Target, Bed, Bath, & Beyond and World Market. 

My closest Office Depot is going out of business. So I bought some high quality colored drawing pencils, a sketchbook and a little notebook for my stepdaughter Angie. 

Target was packed but I managed to pick up one of the last Christmas Cards I needed to and some nice pilot pens for my cousin and a Cookies & Cream EAS bar for my 7pm snack. 

Ran to Bed, Bath & Beyond and bought my aunt some pink massage slippers. 

Next door was World Market with 20 minutes to spare...I bought the last Christmas Card I needed to and all the Holiday candy was 50% off so I got all the kids on my list little bags of novelty candies and they even had some Delaviuda no sugar added truffles and Lite Harvest Sugar Free Enchantments Zesty Frosted Lemon Cookies. (100 calories, 6g fat, 20% DV calcium per cookie) 

Drove over to work and it started snowing outside...looks like it's going to be a quiet night here. I work on a team that monitors 3M systems and they all seem to be humming along effortlessly. I've been surfing my usual sites I go to and getting myself up to speed on this whole blog thing.

My fiance, Dave, brought me our truck since the weather is getting really bad and brought our van back home and managed to make it up our steep 150ft drive before the snow got too bad. 

When I get off my 12 hour shift at 6am I have to pick up my stepdaughter, Angie, from work at 6:30am. She hasn't had a night shift in quite awhile. She used to work nights all the time until Target had to eliminate the night shift at her store.

I also told Dave that I was starting this blog and he says, "You mean flog." LOL

Well...here is what I ate for lunch at 11pm.

Joseph's Flax, Oat Bran and Whole Wheat Pitas. Kirkland's preservative-free Grilled Chicken Breast Strips. Crystal Farms Reduced Fat Cheese Sticks. Baby Organic Spinach. 

I cut open a pita and spread it with a Tbsp of Guacamole, put 1.5 cups of spinach on the bottom, put 1.5oz of Chicken Breast in and one shredded Cheese Stick. Then another 1.5 cups of Spinach and another 1.5oz of Chicken Breast and one more shredded Cheese Stick.

Here's my lunch at my desk with my favorite cup from Harry & David filled with water and a snowflake we decorated for our work contest.

12.22.08 Breakfast

I'm eating breakfast at 3pm since I'm working the night shift this week. I got my eight hours of sleep in from 7am to 3pm. It's a cold day in Minnesnowta and we are expecting 3-5 inches of snow tonight. I have some last minute Christmas shopping to do before I go to work at 6pm.

So here's what I put together for breakfast...a quick Thomas English Muffin with a Tbsp of Roundy's Organic Peanut Butter and a Tbsp of Apricot Jam.