Here’s what yesterday looked like.

At about 7am, I completed my daily run.  50 minutes of running, 10 minutes of warm up / cool down and 20 minutes of stretching.  Speed was around 4.6 mph (I know I am slow) and total distance was about 4.10 miles.

Around noon, I ate breakfast.  Breakfast was a green monster smoothie with almond milk, vanilla kefir, rawmazing wheat grass powder, brown rice protein powder, a frozen half-banana and a half tablespoon of almond butter.  While I was making the smoothie, my hubby offered a bite of his gluten free toast, so I snuck one or two bites in. And then I took lots of vitamins. I know it was a late breakfast, but that is how I roll.

At about 3pm, I ate lunch.  I had brown rice and a tasty bite meal (aloo palak – potatoes, spinach and spices).  I finished the meal with a slice of Lydia’s sunflower bread (more like a cracker – its dehydrated) slathered with hummus.

At around 7 pm, I ate dinner.  I had White Bean Soup and another slice of Lydia’s bread + hummus. I had not eaten any snacks so I decided to have some gorilla munch + yogurt for “dessert” (sorry, no pic).

After all was said and done, it was an impressive day. 1633 calories. That is the first day I have done that in a loooong time! Except Sunday, which was 1559 calories.  I know my food looked very drab in green and brown, but I swear it was all very tasty. 

I was very motivated all day, so it made it easy to stick to the plan. But I did miss snacking. When I’m at home I tend to take a little bit of this, one or two of that, etc. Its practically automatic. When I’m at work its usually candy and chocolate. But the fact that I made it without snacking (which I honestly think may be hardest to avoid at home) makes me know I can do it again!

For the last several months I have been spoiled.  For well over a year, I have been maintaining my 60+ pound weight loss without much effort.  I could eat as much as 2200+ calories a day, which, for me, meant lots of chocolate and candy sneaked in between healthy meals.  I think the main reason this did not result in weight gain was because I’ve been running 20+ miles per week.

So earlier this month I went overboard on eating while on a trip in NY (so many gluten free options!), and I finally gained a few pounds too many.  Its not the end of the world, but it is enough to wake me up and get me back on track.

So this week, I’m going to shake things up.  Here is the plan.

Starting tomorrow, each day I will:

• eat 1650 calories (or less) each day of healthy food, minimizing use of processed and packaged.
• track calories in fitday
• keep up exercise routine (running 20 miles per week)

I will also try to remember to take pics, and then during the week (or at the latest by the end of the week) I will post the results here on my blog.

I am superstitious and afraid of failing publicly, so I am not usually one to declare my commitments to the world.  This is quite a big step for me!

Other than this, what else is going on with me?  Pretty big news in fact.  I will finish my MBA in July – finally!  I am currently in the last full quarter of the program, and will finish this class in June.  I will do the commencement before I’m done in May.  Then, I’m going to China in June!!  This is a 2 week trip for the last class in my MBA program.  I don’t know how I will eat gluten free while I’m in a country that uses soy sauce the way Americans use salt, but we’ll see.  If anyone has ideas please let me know!

It will be so fantastic to finish.  Such a huge achievement.  I’ve been in the program taking one class at a time for FOUR (4!) years!!!!  As much as I will be glad to be done, I am sad to lose what has become such an important part of my life.  I’ve met some great people and I’m sad I won’t see them anymore.

Yes, I am catching up on 2011 still.

I enjoyed my Thanksgiving menu SO much that I decided to do it a second time at Thanksgiving, but I would do 2 very important things differently.  First, I would simplify the menu.  Second, I would plan ahead better for leftovers so as to not waste so much food.

I cooked 2 turkey breasts, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, and gluten free stuffing.  My sister and her family came over for dinner and they brought some fabulous desserts.  We had a fabulous time and there were lots of leftovers!!!

First, I tried to make a stock. It didn’t turn out very stocky. I used it in a soup (see below) but ended up needing to add chicken stock for some additional flavor.

Then, I made a tex-mex soup with my stock and some of the turkey leftovers.  It was so yummy!

I wish I had a better photo of the final result.

This next leftover meal was much more fun. It is a spin on chicken and waffles, inspired by Rachel Ray!

First, you gather all of your ingredients. In my case, I had gluten free stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.

The stuffing should be moist. It will become your waffle batter.

I reheated the brussels sprouts. Yes, its brusselS sprouts, not brussel sprouts. Look it up on wikipedia.

Reheated the turkey. BTW, we discovered that pan frying is a horrible way to reheat turkey (dries it out). We tried the steamer basket in our rice cooker and that was MUCH better.

Drop stuffing onto waffle iron as if it was batter. Lay it in there nice and thick.

Here’s how it looks when it comes out of the iron. It does not come out like a perfect waffle. I suppose you could add some egg or something to get it to bind together better, but I didn’t mind.

So then you take everything and layer it up. Waffle, turkey, mashed potatoes. Then drizzle the cranberry sauce on top like you would syrup. OMG – YUM. One of my all time top favorite leftover meals.

The week after Christmas, I did a lot of other cooking. I was off work and having the extra time to make dinner was awesome. Unfortunately my husband was working a lot that week with his business partner on vacation for 2 weeks. Most nights he wobbled in late (too late even for drive through food), hungry and exhausted. Even though he did not get to enjoy the food when it was fresh, he was grateful to find lots of leftovers options in the fridge.

A favorite of both of ours was Roast Chicken with Polenta and Balsamic-Poached Figs

Start with the recipe, torn out from my Whole Living magazine. Next, roast some chicken. Then start on the sauce & polenta.

Horrible finale picture….

Doesn’t look that good in this pic. I think I will have to make it again just so I can take a decent picture! This will become a staple to my cooking repertoire.

Throughout the week I also made some other recipes.

15 bean soup

Don’t use the seasoning packet!!

Rinse the beans

Soak the beans

Soak with Kombu (sea plant) to cut down on starches in the beans

Once the beans are soaked (or in my case quick-soaked), cook according to instructions. Then add other ingredients to make soup.

AND, for the grand finale, there is no picture once again. Boo.

While that is cooking, make marinated vegetables with leftover veggies before they spoil!

Start with recipe….

Then for the vinegar…

Gather leftover veggies….

Some black olives….

Boil the vinegar & oil…

Add the veggies…

Turn heat off..

Let the veggies sit until at room temp.

All done! Eat some and then put the rest in a jar for up to 30 days.

My current routine is this:

6:15 am – wake up, drink coffee, brush teeth, change into workout clothes, check email, watch the news.
7:15 am – run for 45-50 minutes, stretch for 20 minutes, check email again
8:45 am – shower, blow dry / style hair, get dressed, do makeup, check email again
9:45 am – make & eat breakfast

Then I eat lunch at noon. It seems early considering I’ve just eaten 2 hours ago, but I do get hungry.

Thoughts?

P.S. I know I check my email too much in the morning.  I’m working on it.

Sunday Oct 9, I departed from SFO to Frankfurt, Germany for a 4 day business trip.

I flew Lufthansa, which had GREAT accommodations for my gluten free diet.

Twelve hours later, about 9:30 am Germany time, I landed. I felt really excited to be in Europe for the first time!

Look! My own airline!

I got on the train, which I found to be very comfortable. I was so grateful that everyone there speaks English. Getting my ticket was easy breezy.

At the airport I met up with 3 colleagues, and together we made our way to the train station together. Here are some pics I took from the train. Destination: Gottingen. By the way, I don’t think the sun came out for more than 15 minutes my entire trip. The weather was in the 50s, and it was really rainy.

I really loved seeing all of the farms and little villages. Finally we arrived at the hotel. It was about 3:30 pm by then, and we were all exhausted. BUT, it was not the time for rest, as we had dinner plans at 8:00 pm. Yes, that is how the Europeans have dinner – LATE.

Here’s my room. Its no Hilton Garden Inn, but apparently this is standard in Europe. Sheesh, minimalists. If you’re going to travel for business you should at least get a decent hotel room!

Ew, someone left behind some candy and housekeeping didn’t catch it!

My first bidet! No, I didn’t use it but I was curious.

Huh?

I didn’t get any pictures of dinner that night but the hotel was really nice about recommending a gluten free meal. I was so tired that after dinner I completely zonked out. Little did I know it would be some of the only sleep I would get on the entire trip!

We got up early the next morning and I worked out at the weird hotel gym. They had the most space age treadmills I’ve ever seen. It made reading really tough.

Later, I went to the buffet breakfast and feasted. Lots of eggs and sausage and cheese. What can I say, I wasn’t sure where my next gluten free meal would come from. We hopped on a bus with a couple dozen colleagues and headed to Hannover. Very cute hotel.

Here is a picture of my hotel room. I liked the modern style. Just because a hotel room needs to be functional and utilitarian doesn’t mean it has to be to be without a bit of class.

Wait – there’s those candies again! Hm, maybe its the German equivalent to the American hotels putting chocolates on your bed…..?

Nice bathroom….

After the first day of meetings, we went on a little trip to an old brewery. I wish I had the name but I don’t. I took a few pics on the LONG busride over.

We arrived cold and hungry. We were ready to eat. But did we get to eat? No. We had activities planned. It would be over 2 hours in the pouring rain before we got to go inside. By then I was soaked to the bone and freezing. The restaurant had crappy wine (yes, I know I have a Napa Valley palette) but the food was good and they accommodated my request for gluten free food. Despite being cold and wet I really enjoyed myself. Drinking the wine helped me warm up a lot!!

I’m not sure what I was taking a picture of here, but it demonstrates how well bricks hold up in a building that is nearly 1000 years old. No joke.

The next day there was another breakfast buffet with cheese and other naughty foods. And of course there were more meetings. I was running on very little sleep and my insides were a wreck from all of the unusual food. By the time the meetings ended I didn’t even want to say goodbye to anyone, I just wanted to get out of there. So my colleagues and I grabbed the train back to Frankfurt to settle in for one last night. I needed some time alone so I got a 1st class ticket. The peace and quiet was awesome.

We checked in to the 3rd and final hotel of the trip. Here we could all just wake up and go home via our respective flights. I have to admit, again I was disappointed. Its a business traveler hotel and it was so drab and blah. And the evening we checked in, we went to dinner and I almost got glutened at their fancy restaurant.

Was that a Kandinsky print on the wall?

This was the only hotel I did not use the gym at because they did not open until 6:30. Who ever heard of that bull shit?! I would be leaving at about 7:45 to catch my flight so I simply did not have time to wait.

Finally it came time to catch my plane home!

I only wish I had gotten a picture upon touching down at SFO. I have to say, the BEST part of any trip, and more so on an international trip, is coming home to good old California!!!

I know I’m behind in my posts, but this is getting ridiculous.  Indulge me while I catch you up on the past year, starting in no particular order with Thanksgiving!

This year I cooked the entire turkey feast, complete with gluten free stuffing and a bunch of sides.  This was the first time I had made most of the dishes and I did it all by myself.  And I didn’t even make anyone sick!

I planned my menu well in advance, and I started cooking early.  All went well until my husband pointed out that the turkey was done.  Like an hour before schedule.  I was so behind on everything else by then that the turkey sat out until it was nearly cold and it had to be reheated before dinner.  In the end dinner was served over an hour behind schedule.  Note to self:  practice timing!

As always, I wish I had more pictures.  (As a side note, are there any tools out there that make posting pictures into a blog easy?  I find that is my single biggest barrier to doing posts – the task of uploading and inserting pictures is very manual for a non-techie like myself.  Suggestions are much appreciated!)

Here is my menu….

Munchies and appetizers (especially good for dinners that run 1+ hours behind schedule!)

Mean Chef’s Apple Brine Recipe (brined for about 30 hours prior to cooking)

Bacon and Herb Roasted Turkey Breast

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing (adapted to be gluten free)

Caramelized Onion with Bacon and Rosemary Stuffing (not gluten free)

Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Sweet Potato Casserole (my sister’s recipe, see below)

Pumpkin Pie (adapted to be gluten free)

Happy Thanksgiving from Kona (hiding under the table)!!!

No, I am not missing.  I’ve just been in a whirlwind of activity this summer.

Here is the short version:  I started the summer with a conference in Las Vegas in June, followed by a trip to Hotlanta (Atlanta) a week later for a wedding.  Starting in July, I had a gruelling quarter at school, coupled with a very busy schedule at work. When the quarter ended last month, I went to Maui for a week to celebrate my 10 year wedding anniversary.  School started up again last night and my workload is not letting up.  I’m heading to Germany for work on Sunday.

I’ve maintained my weight (no major gains or losses) and I have started running, which I really like because its a huge challenge. My focus lately has been to get most of my food from veggies and avoid making starches like corn the main event.  Somehow corn products have become a major staple in my gluten free diet and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Eating gluten free in Germany should be interesting. I am going to bring a little card that translates my request for gluten free food, but I have no idea how well they embrace all that over there.  Even in Maui I got glutened twice!!!  Pissed me off…..

So there it is!  I will try to post something more entertaining soon.

May has been a bit of a blur.  Its been rainy and cold.  Yes, thats right, in the SF bay area.  No, I did not say Canada or Ireland.

It feels like winter.  YES, I know 60 degrees and rainy hardly qualifies as winter, but it feels that way to me.

Last weekend I hosted a “retro housewife” themed bridal shower for my best friend.  It was a lot of fun. I meant to take pics of my food but in all the craziness of the day I completely FORGOT.  The food was delicious if I might say so myself.  We had strawberry salad, bbq chicken and beef sandwiches, green beans, and sweet potato casserole.  Then of course there were lots of munchies and alcoholic beverages.  It was a lot of fun, but it was exhausting and it took me all week plus this weekend to get rested and to get everything cleaned up.

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Here were a few of my my favorites this month:

Ingredients for an amazing special taco salad

“Cheese” topping for my taco salad – YUM!! I like this better than real cheese!

Taco Salad Version 1

Taco Salad Version 2

New favorite wine – Wente Riva Ranch Chardonnay (I seriously need to pick up a case of this!)

Gluten Free Pizza (with Udi’s crust) + Wine

*This is one of numerous meals this month that had real cheese in it. I was trying to re-introduce dairy back into my diet.  I have a future post planned that will cover the results of how that turned out!

Whole Foods brand Dark Chocolate with coconut flakes. This might be one of my all time favorite foods to walk the planet.

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I’ve been so bad about blogging lately.  So in the spirit of getting back in the saddle, today I decided to take a picture of every single food item that I ate. It really is tougher than I remember it. In some cases I plum forgot and had to re-create the circumstances (e.g., I staged the chocolate photo below AFTER I ate an equivalent amount of chocolate). So here is my best attempt for today.

Breakfast: this is a new thing for me, a 50-50 mix of plain kefir with fruity flavored kefir (both lactose free) plus a scoop of wheat grass powder. Then I pair it with some other little breakfast-y thing, like, in this case, gluten free pecan raisin toast with earth balance.

My vitamin routine (forgot the enzymes and probiotics)

Mid-day snacks (didn’t eat lunch, just munched all day)

(the tortilla above was a new personal favorite in my gluten free repertoire)

To me, memorial day symbolizes the official start of the summer season, so tonight I had to barbeque some thing.  We kept it simple – we cooked up some hot dogs, corn and beans.  It helped the day feel a bit more like summer (even though it was cloudy and only about 62 degrees).

While I cooked, I munched on some cherries and strawberries.

I meant for that to distract me from the last of the wine I had from the weekend but no such luck….  Yes, I measure my wine.

I soaked the corn to get it ready for the grill…

I put some baked beans and chili (for hubby) on the stovetop…..

I got the bacon cooking in the oven…

When it was done I couldn’t help but munch on it. By the time I took this picture I had eaten 2 pieces, hence the hand gesture so that I didn’t lose track of what I was eating.

Hubby cooked up the corn and hot dogs on the grill…

Final product… It doesn’t look too appetizing but, trust me, it was delicious. I sprinkled the bacon onto the baked beans, and then added some earth balance and salt to the corn. YUM.

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Lately I’m really trying to keep my mind open to ways I can continue to improve my health and diet.  Something I have learned about myself: making decisions takes a lot out of me.  It doesn’t seem immediately connected to my health and diet, but – - I assure you – - it is.

Making decisions is exhausting!!  Do you ever burn out from making decisions? I do all the time. Pretty much whenever I am at home I avoid making major decisions about anything because I make so many heavy-duty decisions at work.

I know its not just me. People make hundreds of decisions each day. I don’t have a source for that statistic, that is just my best guess.

Think about it. There are simple things like deciding what outfit to wear or whether to wash the in the drive thru versus by hand.  Then there are more critical things (usually at work) like deciding to incur out of budget expenses for a project or deciding whether or not to fire someone.  Being in HR means I have to make critical decisions every day, sometimes multiple times each day.

So here is where I make a connection to health and diet.  The biggest drawback to all of this decision making is that I come home from work mentally taxed. I don’t want to make decisions like, whats for dinner? Or should I go to the gym?  So that means I push the easy button, microwave something from a can and eat it in front of the TV when I should be making a fresh, healthy dinner and eating it with music playing next to my husband.

I’m going to work on that.

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Last but not least I wanted to share this picture with my little tomato plant.  My dad fashioned a hydroponic device to grow this little bugger into a flourishing tomato factory.  So far its been beaten pretty badly by the weather (wind, rain).  We’ll see how it turns out!

First up was Super Duper Burger in San Francisco. All I can say is YUM! I had a burger with lettuce as my alternative to a bun (plus jalapenos), french fries and a brown sugar lemonade.

After the house hunting we went to the Ferry Building so I could pick up some gluten free goods at Mariposa. We also stopped for gelato (I had sorbet) at Ciao Bella. They make the BEST sorbets ever. Most sorbets are too sweet and a bit boring, but Ciao Bella’s flavors are amazing.

Here are some pictures of my shopping spree at Mariposa….

These bagels are already gone. Mariposa’s bagels are the best.

I bought 3 of these amazing coconut lemon squares but by the time I got them home I had eaten one. There’s one left (for tonight)!!

I bought 2 of these cupcakes (kind of like twinkies, but gluten free and vegan). The first one I ate was stale but the second one was delicious.

I always keep a supply of gluten free focaccia in the house. My only complaint about Mariposa is that they don’t have labels with calories on all of their products (they do have it on some). BUT, its probably a good thing that I don’t know the calories in this bread or I might not eat it as often.

A muffin (poppyseed?)….

Loaf of bread

Crostini

After we were done walking around the Ferry Building area, we went to dinner at The Little Chihuahua. It was pretty darn good! I got pics of everything, except hubby’s (he says “no pictures” because of his food’s celebrity status, hehe….).

I had a shrimp tostada.

My brother had the flu so he got some kind of soup / stew that he LOVED. It looked amazing.

My sister-in-law had a burrito.

My brother also gave me a cute gift. There are five kids in my family, and I am smack dab in the middle. Clearly he gets me.

I’m excited for them to buy a house. I don’t think I could handle living in San Francisco, but I love having excuses to visit. I can’t wait until the weather warms up a bit and we can go back!