Creature of Habit

I have a morning routine. It isn’t quite timed down to the minute, but…it’s close.
My alarm goes off at 5:39 am. At this point I have two choices, a) get up, or b) snooze my alarm for 5 minutes. I usually just get up right away. I change my clothes, let the dog out of his crate, bundle up and try to be out the door for our walk no later than 5:50.
Our walks usually end between 6:18 and 6:20 am, depending on how late we get out the door. Between 6:20 and 6:30 I feed the dog, and turn on the TV to watch the news/weather report while I stretch. At 6:30am, I throw the dog in the back yard, and get in the shower. I am done with showering, lotioning, blow drying and putting on my makeup at 7:00am. I need to be eating my breakfast by 7:10. I eat and watch the Today show until 7:20. Then I brush my teeth, warm up the car, scrape the windows (if needed) kiss my husband goodbye, and back out of the drive way at 7:30am.

I am not this type A about anything else in my life. Ever. I don’t plan out my schedule to the minute too cook dinner, or make my lunch for the next day. But, I like to have a plan, a schedule for the morning.
And when it gets thrown off..I know it’s going to be one of those days.

Today, I woke up at 6:07am. My alarm was flashing, but not making any noise. I think it was probably set to “wake up to ipod” (it’s an ipod docking station alarm clock, Thanks Husband!), and my ipod wasn’t docked. So…..that is almost 30 minutes later than I normally wake up! Gah. It shortned my walk and made the whole shebang just feel off.

On our walk, which was exceptionally cold at 24 degrees!, I saw the most incredible shooting star! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a shooting star “in town.” I’m pretty sure all of the shooting stars I’ve ever seen have been out in the woods, far far away from city lights. Anyway, I was still feeling frustrated about my alarm going off late, and seeing this star kind of put it in perspective for me. A little cheesy…I know.

Ok, on to something relevant…
I posted about the grocery challenge that I am doing this month, in my last post. This week I bought $55.00 worth of groceries. It was only 50, until my husband invited his parents over for dinner tonight, and I needed some supplemental food. Anyway, that brings me to a total of $91 dollars for the month, so far.

I normally buy a bunch of bananas to have for breakfast each week. This week at the grocery store, every single bunch of bananas was bright green. Ick, not oatmeal ready!
So, I found two of the yellowiest bananas, and bought a huge can of pumpkin to have in oats this week.

I’ve decided that I prefer to microwave my oats each morning (it fits better in the aforementioned routine), but if I am going to have pumpkin in my oats, I think I prefer stove top!

Here is today’s bowl of oats. I’m calling it pumpkin pie oatmeal with maple infused whipped cream, topped with nuts.

Here is what is in it
½ cup oats.
Dash of salt
Water, I don’t measure, I just put in enough ot cover the oats.
Microwaved for 1 minute.
Take out, and add in 3 big spoonfuls of pumpkin (see not type A about cooking!)
A few dashes of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla
Stir and microwave for another 1.5 minutes.

Top with plain non fat yogurt, mixed with maple syrup and topped with walnuts.

This was actually really good! The only thing I would have done differently would have been to mix the maple syrup and yogurt in a separate container, and then spread evenly on the oat meal. It really made the flavor combo.

I love vegetables that taste like dessert!

banana bread oatmeal.

I seriously had the best bowl of oatmeal this morning.

I was simple.
Oats
banana
honey
peanutbutter
vanilla
cinnamon.

It was like banana bread.

I've been coooking bananas into my oatmeal since the first time I read Kath's blog. But, I've always put the ingredients in the bowl in this order: oats, water, bananas.

today I did: oats, banana and then water. And I finally got that gooey banana goodness mixed in.
It was aamzing. And I didn't take a picture. damn.

Now, I just need to get my hands on some Barney Butter!

ruby red

Well, today was my last day skipping the gym, fingers crossed! I'm feeling 90% better, but still a little stuffy. I packed my gym bag last night and my husband just looked at me and said "seriously?" Ugh, he was right, better to stay home and get completely healthy. But I miss the gym, and I'll be honest, the longer I say away from the gym ,the easier it is for me to stop going..and I'm terrified of falling into the "not going" rut. Healthy life style..always taking work!


I decided not to eat breakfast at work. When I go to the gym, I always eat at my desk, but I get there about 20 minutes before my co-workers. When miss the gym, I get stuck in commuter traffic, and get here right around 8am. I don't mind eating infront of my co-workers, but in a shared office, it's not always polite!
I didn't have any fruit with my actual oatmeal (it had cinnamon and walnuts, made with 1/2 water and 1/2 skim milk) but I wanted grapefruit..so I cut one up like an orange and through it in a baggie. I sprinkled with a little sugar and had it around 10:15.

I usually have fruit with my breakfast, and fruit for snack. We'll see what happens today, I might still have an apple before lunch, depending on my hunger level. I need to get some nuts to bring to work to round out my snacks!

wiggity whack!

It's started snowing yesterday at 10:00am...and it didn't quit until 5pm. When I drove into my drive way at 5:30...we had EIGHT inches of snow! Dang. My husband was already home and had started thawing the ground turkey for turkey burgers.
I didn't take pictures..But we made turkey burgers, tator tots (picture of health I know) and I had some mixed veggies.

Hmm..turkey burgers..another recipe..I'm def. going to look into how I create a recipes page.

I didn't go to the gym this morning, I wasn't sure how the roads were going to be, and I wanted to play it safe. Instead I spent about 15-20 minutes stretching. It felt good to get my muscles moving..but I missed my workout! If the roads aren't bad at lunch, I'm def. going to head out for some window-shopping-walking. Just to get moving!

Breakfast at my desk. Sorry for the crappy picture...I had oatmeal this morning, with cinnamon, blue berries and a few cashews. Yumm, and it was nice to have had two days respite from the oatmeal.

weights and measures.....

Happy Martin Luther King day! (or here in Idaho it's Idah Human Rights Day) Either way, it's a day of off work for me, gotta love that government job!

Here is my breakfast, 1 oatmeal pancake, with 3/4 of a banana mashed on top, a small handful of almond slivers, and 1/4 cup of milk. It was delicous.

I'm heading to work out now, and then I'll have a snack...and then i'm off to get my hair cut. I loooove getting my hair cut! After that, since i'll be downtown..i'm going to check out the Co-op. I'm hoping to find some great lunch there...

After that I'm heading to the mall. If I don't find decent lunch at the co-op, i'm going to look for something healthy in the mall (ha ha right? I look at is a challenge).

Then i'll be coming home to do some grocery shopping, and dinner preparing..and of course..catching up on blogs!

So, now that you know ALL about my day....I have exciting news to share...!

today was the day for me to take my measurements...and since August 10th 2007..I have lost 19.8 inches! Wowza. I'm trying to decide if I should set an "inches lost" goal...but I'm feeling as if that might be too obsessive.

My current stats are : 23 pounds and 19.8 inches.

Ok, well i'm off to the gym, I've never been at this time in the morning before..so we'll see how it is!

Can't wait to show you pictures of what I find at the co-op!

CRAZY morning!

Today has been CRAZY so far! It started out with our staff meeting being moved up half an hour, and it's just been busy since then. I haven't even gotten through everything I usually "check/ read" before I get started on work.

According to UPS, my new camera is supposed to be here Wednesday! Woohoo! I am so excited about that. I can't wait to start making these posts pretty with pictures!

I tried something different for my breakfast this morning. Instead of having frozen fruit in my oatmeal, I mixed in a banana. YUM. Talk about a great natural sweetness. I got hungry around 10:20, so I had a cashew cookie Larabar. ALSO DELICIOUS! It's almost lunch time, and I'm having raw veggies with left over mexican food! Yum.

I think tonight for dinner I might try a recipe from Jenna at www.eatliverun.com
We'll see how it goes!