Major clothes shopping success!

Good morning! Finally, a real blog update! I feel like I have so much to share with you after just a few days away. The trip went pretty well. The shows were OK...nothing too special. But I got to try this beer:

(Yes, that does say Imperial Pumpkin Ale-8.0% alcohol! I was definitely tipsy after this!)

And for the only available breakfast I had a boring bowl of PLAIN oatmeal! Toppings, people, c'mon! ;-) (Oh wait, you mean non-food bloggers don't get so excited over adding ridiculous amounts of chopped Larabars, nut butters, granola, fresh fruit, etc?! Oh, why didn't anyone tell me?)

I got home, slept for 6 hours (more like 5 1/2) and woke up to a "real" bowl of cereal, Lisa-style:

But wait! I realized as I was sitting down to eat it that something was missing! One guess....

Peanut butter!! (Much better, by the way!)

I had various unphotographed snacks but somewhere along the way I had this bowl of overly processed vegetable barley soup. (Not that good, but hey, it was cheap!)

And a slice of bread with grated ff cheese on top. (Hence the lack of melting.)


For a random sugar burst, I ate this gummy which was being handed out (along with many other candies!) at work!


Next up was breakfast yesterday...back to oatmeal:

The most exciting part of this bar is that I added 1/3 of a Tropical Larabar! I loved this flavor (first time trying it!) I would DEFINITELY buy it again and instead of some of the other flavors! It tasted so fresh and tropical! (Over the course of the day the rest of the bar found its way into my mouth!)

While out and about yesterday (I was out from 9am-11pm!) I stopped for an Herby Turkey sandwich from Bruggers:

(times 2 for the other half, plus a pickle!)

And I had a lot of food that I didn't take pictures of. Mainly, I PB sandwich that I added one square of dark chocolate to!), a Raspberry Luna Bar, and two huge glasses of milk--mainly for the calories/protein because I was drinking them while teaching since I didn't have time for anything else!)


"So Lisa, what about the shopping success?"

Here it is!

First, a pair of knee high black boots that actually fit my calf perfectly!


And another pair of slightly-higher-than-ankle brown boots:

And my most exciting find...7 For All Mankind Jeans that fit me perfectly...for $39.95!! I couldn't believe it! (I definitely can't afford these usually!)

Onward...a cute Ralph Lauren coat that can be dressed up or down.

And several new tops:

Plus I got a great SUPER warm light blue down jacket (that I'll try to photograph at some point and put on here!) and for EVERYTHING listed I paid $160!! Talk about finding bargains! Woohoo! So exciting for me because I do love to shop! :)

Wow, talk about following that up with something not nearly as exciting...breakfast this morning:

(omelet with sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, cheddar cheese, and bell pepper plus leftover veggies on the side, and sweet potato with PB.)

With coffee, too:

Finally, I had this beautiful, freshly picked, locally grown apple when I was baby-sitting yesterday night.

Since I won Ellie's giveaway of a case of Chobani (so incredibly excited!!) I wanted to make sure to enter all of these, too. (I mean...spread the word for you all to enter! Hah!) So here are some more awesome giveaways.

Taylor is giving away See's Candy! I love this stuff, but it's only available (I think) on the West Coast, so I can't get it near me anymore!

Leslie is giving away some Raw Crunch loving!

I'm off now to get a workout in and then teach all night. See you all later!

Rough day and it's only noon.

Happy Wednesday everyone! In explanation of my title, this day is already off to a rough start. I woke up feeling still tired, this head cold is NOT going away, I have a headache (unknown reason) and sore shoulders (stress, probably?), and my finger infection is DEFINITELY coming back, but on a different finger. I thought the antibiotic was supposed to get rid of that! I'm going to try and still make the best of this day, so I'm going to shower (after blogging), go to the gym to try and get some feel-good endorphins going, then come home and change into a cute outfit to feel as good as possible. I really try to be happy all the time on this blog, and I don't feel THAT miserable. Really, I think it's all a state of mind and I really do think you can STRONGLY affect how you're feeling at any given time, even if circumstances aren't in your favor.

*Smiles and decides to have a good day, anyway!*

I had a long day of teaching yesterday, so I wasn't able to get a post up. But here's what I've been enjoying yesterday and today (so far).

Breakfast today:



I'm sorry that these are blurry. The lighting in my new house really sucks! But it's oat bran with:

-grapes
-pumpkin
-cottage cheese
-two kinds of PB
-carob chips

With coffee and a glass of FRS low calorie energy to drink.

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(That sectional divider idea is 'stolen' from the lovely and amazing Gliding Calm!)

Yesterday's lunch:


Sandwich on this bread:

With this hummus (NOT my favorite; it's kind of dry and unflavorful and I won't buy it again!):


With this turkey breast. It was a little expensive, but after seeing Food Inc, I'd really like to start buying more meat from humane, sustainable sources, both for my health and for the sake of the farmers that are still trying to be ethical and good stewards of the earth.

And the sandwich had spinach and sauteed veggies. With cherry tomatoes on the side.

I had stopped for a few groceries on my way home before lunch:

Yesterday night, I bought some snacks to have before I started teaching for 5 hours over a dinner hour (3:30-8:30).

I crave red and orange bell peppers all the time. I REALLY wish they weren't so expensive. For example, at $3.99/lb, this ONE was over $2! But they are SOOOOO delicious!

Ditto. Why can't my favorite foods be cheaper?!

These are (in my humble opinion) THE BEST crackers out there. I love these to a ridiculous amount! I can eat way too many servings at one time, and I had quite a few crackers both at 3pm and after teaching on my way home at 9pm!

I drank this while teaching.


And ate this quickly during a short break around 6pm. It was pretty gross. Definitely had a pretein-y taste and just wasn't very appealing. Meh--not so great.

But breakfast yesterday was fantastic!


Oat bran with a peach, a fig, cottage cheese, pumpkin and 2 kinds of nut butters. :)

And lastly, two random snacks:


Which are both self-explanatory.

AnAppleADay is giving away Nutridel Cookies! These look so yummy and healthy!

Have a great hump day!

100th post!

Good evening everyone! I'm posting this at 2:30am--I am a night owl, but unfortunately I have to be up to run a 5K with my boyfriend at 6:30 (race at 9am). Oops, I was just out with friends for a couple of drinks (1 glass of red wine and 1 diet coke and vodka) and a big order of French Fries (no picture).

I just wanted to get a few pictures of my food from today up. I haven't been nearly as hungry as I normally am lately, really for an entire week or so now. I wonder what's up?

For breakfast I had a bowl of WF high fiber cereal, blueberry granola, FF milk and a bit of PB. Plus coffee with milk, of course.


Then I took another nap in the morning (trying to get over this cold) and ate aquick easy lunch of more tofu + veggies + PB. Topping it with Peanut butter really is the key. It's so delicious!

For a snack I had a bowl of grapes:


And I've been drinking a lot of a low calorie beverages lately, unintentionally, or rather intuitively I've been craving cold liquids, while still definitely consuming enough water as well.

This was an FRS low calorie packet mixed with water for after the gym today (workout = 35 minutes on the elliptical, 45 minutes of walking).


I'm so sorry for the fuzzy picture. I thought it was good enough, but I guess I was wrong. But you get the idea, and this was another lovely cold beverage for a hot day.

For dinner I had a slice of ww bread with hummus and full fat cheddar cheese, plus another slice of bread with PB and a whole red bell pepper on the side (my favorite!)

And earlier in the day I had a yogurt with cereal, and tonight after I got home I had another yogurt and about half of a large Starbucks pastry. Oops, but I had been well under my calories for today, so it's not really a problem at all.

Well, I'm off to get some laundry and then go to sleep! I'll see you all in the morning. It's always *SOOO* much fun to run a 5K on under 4 hours of sleep! Hah!

Relaxing day

Yay for being back to consistent blogging!

My boyfriend and I were planning on going to an amusement park today, but neither of us thought to check and make sure it was open today. Hah! We checked on-line for their hours before we left, and found out that the entire park was closed today. So much for that. FAIL. :)

It's OK though, because I'm getting over a cold and I still don't have a lot of energy today. Instead we played Scrabble and went to Red Robin for lunch. I got their BBQ whiskey chicken wrap. Forgive the Google images picture.


It was only OK. I should have asked for it without Ranch dressing, because I'm not a huge fan of it, but overall it was pretty tasty. I only had 1 half, plus a few bites of the other, some fries and the melon. I actually felt good, not stuffed, afterwards, and I was pleased.

Then I napped in the afternoon because I'm still trying to fight the cold. And for dinner I made myself a delicious pan of sauteed veggies (organic cabbage, red bell pepper, organic white onion, zucchini) and tofu, which I topped with PB. This isn't weird, right?


Delicious! And some low calorie organic Pomegranate Lemonade from WF, with a bite of a Starbucks M and M cookie for dessert. Truthfully, I had another chunk of the cookie, about as large, and several glasses of juice, but it only has 30 calories in 6 ounces, so I'm fine.


In blog news, check out these giveaways:

AnAppleADay has MetroMint water. I've wanted to try this for a long time!

Missy Maintains is giving away Dave's Killer Bread! The loaves look fantastic, with excellent nutritional stats.

One Frugal Foodie is giving away a gift package with a bunch of Pamela's Products.

I'm off to bed. It's 11:35pm, and I need to be up early (for me) to teach. And I'm really trying to take it easy to get over my cold.