Back from recording our CD and an International Conference!

First of all, thanks SOOO much to Aimee at the Healthy Lawyer and Shannon at Daily Goods for my first two comments! It's so exciting for me to read them, and I hope that you'll keep reading and commenting. :)

I apologize for lack of update but I had a crazy and fun week! I was at the Millenium Music Conference in Harrisbug, PA for a small-ish music conference. There were hundreds of bands but it was just poorly organized and suprisingly unprofessional. Regardless, I had a great time playing, and we were able to silence and entire restaurant on Valentine's Day as they listened to us, which was an awesome feeling! More excitingly though, we went from there directly to Nashville where we finished recording our upcoming CD. I play with an acoustic folk trio, with an emphasis on songwriting. Our guitarist writes his own original music and the bass and violin/fiddle (myself) build our own parts around it! I'm so excited for this CD to be out in early April! :)

THEN, to add to the crazy week, on Friday morning we drove from Nashville to Memphis for the 2009 International Folk Alliance Conference. It is one of the 5 largest music conferences in the the country! To say it was "exciting" somehow seems like an understatement! It was 2 great days of tons of different bands, fantastic music (I got about 15 FREE CDs which I am starting to listen to while I'm posting this blog), workshops, panel sessions, FABULOUS networking (which I love doing!) and a bunch of free chocolate. :) Seriously, every room concert (we overtook most of a Marriott hotel and there were concerts in almost every room on the 17th, 18th and 19th floors) included a bunch of free chocolate to snack on. Therefore, I had a pretty amazingly UNHEALTHY week, which at first I felt bad about (even still ED thoughts creep in once in a while, but not often!! Yay!) but then I realized that I was away from home and there was seriously NO healthy food available at the hotel (that wasn't WAY out of my price range) so I just didn't worry about it. I do think I gained a pound or so (over a 9 day period of time while eating sooo much chocolate) but I'll just eat lots of veggies this week and workout and I'll be fine. I think the fact that I am able to realize that and accept that yes, it was a CRAPPY eating week, and know that I don't want to do that on a regular basis mostly because I felt like crap by the end of it. Yesterday at home I was trying to eat as much fiber as I could to help with...digestion. Sorry to be gross, but I got constipated after a week of pizza and chocolate and restaurant meals; no matter how good it tasted, I didn't feel great.

So with a brand new start, here's breakfast:

-Very generous 1/2 C oats/oat bran mix (I think I like this the best, rather than all oats or all oat bran)
-1/2 C pumpkin (fiber!! yay! Haha!)
-3/4 banana (I just didn't feel like finishing it)
-New Apple Acai granola from the WF bulk bins sprinkled on top
-Cinnamon for flavor



Then I added some 0% Voskos Greek Yogurt for some protein (since I didn't add my usual Protein Powder) and I also sprinkled that with granola.


Then I realized I had almost NO fat in my breakfast so I got a spoon of Sunflower Seed butter:

OK, I'm off to run some errands including dropping off a job application (details later, if I get it!) and a quick grocery shop for:

-laundry detergent
-contact solution!
-some sort of whole grain bread
-FF cottage cheese

That should be all, since I went to WF yesterday and bought some much YUMMY, HEALTHY and FRESH foods, mostly veggies. Here's what I remember I bought (sorry for no picture!):

-1 red onion
-1 organic purple cabbage
-1 lb bag of organic carrots
-1 bunch of organic kale
-1 grapefuit (on sale for $1!)
-bunch of organic bananas
-4 golden delicious apples ($.99/lb, which is actually very good in Pittsburgh!)
-3 nectarines (also on sale, I think for $1.99/lb)
-1 bag frozen organic broccoli
-1/2 gallon of FF milk (I like fat free the best)
-1 bag of Tofu Shirataki noodles
-two small bags of their new granolas (Apple Acai and Pomegranate something--I just wanted to try them, since they were also on sale.)
-1 bag of puffed Kamut cereal to add bulk to the granolas
-2 eight ounce containers of 0% Voskos greek yogurt (on sale, 2 for $3)
-1 bag of chocolate chips to throw in banana bread that I want to make this morning

That's all, I think! I might be forgetting something? Well, the total was around $37 which isn't too bad, considering that I had tried to eat down my fridge before my trip. So I had to restock, and I'm pleased with the deliciousness that is now in my house. :)

Alright, I'm out. Enjoy the monstrous post! :) I promise to keep updating this consistenly!