Impromptu blogger meet up + sleep deprivation

I woke up much earlier than expected and even though I wanted to go back to sleep (2:30am-7am is NOT enough!!) my sister was on Facebook chat and we talked for a while. (She's living in India for a year, so I rarely even get to chat on-line much with her due to the 10.5 hour time difference.) So at that point I figured I'd stay up and I made and consumed three cups of coffee! (By the way, last night I slept from 3:30am to 6:30am after driving home from playing a show [more about this coming up.]) I am almost constantly sleep deprived and it makes me appreciate the 9 hour nights I occasionally get! I NEED to be better about prioritizing sleep, but with my fairly busy schedule sometimes it's really hard to do! This is also why I am heavily addicted to caffeine. And I love my life! Even with the nights of 3 or 4 hours of sleep! :)

I had a simple breakfast of a slice of ww bread with PB Loco, cottage cheese and coffee.


Anyway, quick recap: left Thursday afternoon for a Thursday night show. It went well, except that we were playing in a city whose sports team was in the playoffs and there was a home game that night, so almost nobody came to the show, because they were all watching the game! Meh, we still played well. After sleeping in on Friday (yay!) and eating this bar


because I was sickly hungry, we drove to the next city to play. I called Emily, from The Health Nut because I knew she had just finished her thesis defense! (Congratulations, again!) and I was in Columbus, OH. She was available that evening so we got dinner at The Red Door Tavern. I had their Southwest Chicken sandwich and it was great! Grilled chicken with pepperjack cheese and BBQ sauce, plus fries and ketchup.

I also had a Bear Ass Pale Ale while playing:


We played a good show and drove home, getting in around 3am.

On Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am to drive down to my real home and to teach some violin lessons. I ended up doing something I NEVER do: I stopped at McDonald's and ordered more than just black coffee (although I got that too!) I actually purchased and consumed a sausage McMuffin. I can't say I enjoyed it that much (texture + grease = eww), but the few times I've had them they do a very good job of keeping me full, due to the high fat content (22 grams, according to the package). Plus I had coupons to McDonalds, so it was free! I guess it did the job. NO, I don't intend to eat there very much (I kind of loathe McDonalds, actually), but one time is fine and it was the only thing I had time for.


They included a hash brown which I didn't eat but I had swiped a banana from my friend's house and I also ate that.

Once home, I taught another lesson and played an absolutely BEAUTIFUL wedding! :) And the bride "tipped" the musicians in chocolate! I thought this was a BRILLIANT idea and I might very well do something similar in the future. (It was REALLY nice chocolate! I had some Toffee Bark and a pack of 5 all different truffles!) Here's one of them that I ate:


My afternoon included eating a lot of chocolate and other snacks. Probably due to the 3 hours of sleep, but I think hormones also played a part in it! Do you every have those days where you can eat everything in sight and not even feel full, much less sick? And it's definitely not a binge day (I had those in my ED years) but like I just needed to eat a ton of food? I know my hormones are still being weird and strange and REALLY trying hard to regulate themselves and I think that might have contributed! For example, my body never quite managed to have a period in May. Sorry, I know that is TMI, but I'm just trying to figure out the connection between food and hormones and everything. I'm hoping the period will show up at some point in June. Sheesh, you'd think I could have been smart enough to not screw up my body for 6 years even after recovery, but I guess I messed with it pretty seriously. Interestingly, my WONDERFUL, AMAZING boyfriend knows about my ED years (He asked me specifically after seeing something about it on Facebook) and even saw a picture I showed him of me at my lowest weight, and he is understanding and still loves and cares about me. In his words, "Lisa, I want to love all of you, even all the crap that you've been though"! I am speechless to think how blessed I am to be dating him!

Anyway, finishing up really quickly. I snacked on a wonderful pack of cherry flavored raisins from Mi with some FF cottage cheese.


I had a gazillion squares of a hazelnut chocolate bar also from Mi (pictures in a later blog) and a piece of cinnamon coffee cake from Starbucks. I stared off with thin slices and by the day was over I had consumed the whole thing.


At this point I decided that I really needed to eat something nutritious and substantial so I made a Gliding Calm-style Indian meal. I chopped up 3 carrots, some purple onion and a green bell pepper and sauteed them (sans oil--I figured I'd consumed enough fat that day!)

Then I added this Indian meal and heated it up.



I also cooked some red quinoa and put the Indian dish over top of that.


I had a few bites of chicken for a little more protein.

Off to shower, then church, teach, and meet my boyfriend's parents! Have a great Sunday everyone!

Leftovers!

Just a quick recap of today's breakfast and yesterday since I have a lot to do this morning to get ready for two out-of-town shows tonight and tomorrow. I had been pretty tired yesterday because of two nights in a row with 5 hours of sleep. Like I was actually falling asleep as I was teaching! Tonight I got 9 hours though, and I feel so much better!

For breakfast today I had a slice of WW bread with PB Loco Jungle Banana Peanut Butter, some FF cottage cheese, and a banana. (And coffee!)


Yesterday's workout was 22 minutes on the treadmill and just 10 minutes of quick legs conditioning, because I had to be home to teach a lesson. After teaching I made my lunch, which is what inspired the title of this post.


This is one can of tuna with Miracle Whip, the leftover sauteed cabbage and kale and the leftover corn and black bean salad! Quite yummy!

I also had this bar from Mi.

I started it in the car on the way home from the gym and I finished it after lunch. It was SOOO good! It had a dense texture and was pretty sweet, but also had quite a bit of protein (like more than Larabars, which is good!) and was very large for just 200 calories. I really enjoyed it!

Then I taught 3 lessons at a nearby church and came home to teach one more lesson! It was a long day yesterday! Between them I had one more of the bars Mi sent me! I can't get enough of them and I love trying new things!

And as a random snack yesterday evening I had a handful of almonds with carob chips.

OK, I'm not going to have time to comment on your blogs until Monday morning because my weekend looks like this:

• Pack/shower/lunch/leave by 2pm today
• Show tonight, stay overnight somewhere, not sure where
• Show tomorrow night, drive home (3 hours!) VERY LATE for my schedule
• Teach Saturday morning
• Play a wedding on Saturday at 4pm (be there by 2:30pm)
• *Hopefully* look at apartments on Saturday night!! It's the only time I have this weekend!
• Church on Sunday morning
• Teach a private lesson from 1-2pm (plus driving time)
• Drive two hours out of town to meet my boyfriend's parents. We'll be home later (10pm-ish) on Sunday night.

So yeah, that's it. I'm excited to meet his parents. Not nervous at all. They seem like really cool people and he assures me that they'll love me! So it'll be great! :) My parents are much harder to meet up with since they're on the other side of the country!

This will be my last post until Monday morning.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day and upcoming weekend!

Giveaway winner + bar swap!

I used random.org to generate integer 16 as the winner! Congratulations, Michelle!

Michelle said...

My favorite ways to get fiber are fruits and veggies and cereal! And Fiber One bars don't hurt either. :) I linked back to your post on my blog, and you're already on my blogroll! Have a great night!

I'll send you an e-mail to find out where I should send the deliciousness to! :)

My exciting news of the day is that the lovely and talented Mi from Whole Foods For Whole Me and I are doing a bar swap since she lives in England and I'm in America and there are some bars that are only available on one side of the Atlantic Ocean. So we're buying for each other and swapping! (I absolutely adore trying foods from other countries! I lived overseas for most of my life--MORE ABOUT THIS IN AN UPCOMING BLOG--and it instilled in me a huge sense of appreciation and love for other cultures. If I happen to have any other readers from other interesting parts of the world, I would love to do a similar type of exchange with you!) Anyway, I received her package today!! She is so generous and wonderful! (Don't worry; yours is on its way!) She sent me the following:


Plus an adorable and perfect card!


Obviously she spoiled me, and I hope she loves the things I'm sending her as much as I love hers! Thanks so much, Mi!!

I baby-sat this morning for two hours and then went straight to the gym. I did 20 minutes of running/walking on the treadmill and then 30 minutes of upper body lifting. Needless to say, my arms are sore now. ("What? You mean I have to lift the violin up?! Crap!") I had a Tide Me Over South Beach Drink on the way home from the gym (can you say "ravenous"?!) and at home I made myself an amazing lunch:


The burger is a smoke grilled chicken breast on a wheat bun (not whole wheat, and not my first choice, but I had them at home). With lettuce, tomato, and Sierra Nevada mustard. It's about time we worked beer into mustard, right?! ;-)


The side dish is this corn and black bean salad from Rachel Ray. (I don't ever watch any TV, and definitely not the food channel [I did enough of that with my ED--I'd rather be more fully engaged in life!] but I googled for a recipe and this one looked good.) It turned out great and it's super easy and super healthy! I highly recommend it!

I packed quite a lot of food to teach on, since I thought I might be hungry after the workout.

I had to try one of Mi's bars right away. On the drive to teach, I savored this guy:


I also packed:

A cheese sandwich. Half is full fat cheddar, half is FF slice. I only ended up eating less than half of this and throwing the other part away because it had been sitting in a fairly warm car.


(Didn't eat any of the above picture's contents).



I drank about half this bottle all night while teaching. It's pretty delicious! (Also, teaching all night made it so that I culdn't watch any of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game! But they won their 4th game against the Carolina Hurricanes, so now we're just waiting for the Western Conference finals to end and then the two teams will comete for the Stanley Cup! Yippee! GO PENS!)

I ate all of these veggies after teaching.

And some random pictures on my camera.


My roommate made these cookies and I cannot stop eating them. They are small and reasonably healthy so I grab one almost every time I'm in the kitchen. But seriously, they have some pretty awesome ingredients. Ww flour, coconut, applesauce, etc.


(Picture that time 15 in the past two days--like I said, they're small and it was also the majority of my food intake on Monday! Haha, whoops!)

Today was ridiculously busy for me! The summer wedding season has started and I'm talking to so many people about playing at their weddings! I sriously talked to like 4 different people tonight, plus got texts and voice mails from a few friends. Do you ever have those times when your phone just doesn't stop ringing? Being an extrovert, I really enjoy it! I feel blessed and honored that people would trust their wedding music to me! And I definitely don't want to let them down so I make sure I take all the calls and do the very best I can for every single one!

Do you have a favorite wedding song? If so, what? If you're married, what was "your" song, or the song of your first dance?

I'm exhausted and heading off to bed. Today was a really good day though! I had a great time teaching and it felt especially rewarding today! I am also getting ready to go out of town again for two days, this coming Thursday and Friday to play more shows, so sadly, there will be a few days without blogging coming up. But I'll be back late on Saturday and I'll try to blog tomorrow also! Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend for breakfast at a local Crepe shop (so excited!) and I'm teaching from 1pm-8pm! So it's a fairly long day as well. I'll "see" you all soon though!