The ups and downs of life are a funny thing.

Thank you so much for your encouraging comments on yesterday's post! They really mean so much to me, I could not even tell you! I am so glad to be a part of the blog world!

Today went much better! I think my bf and I realized that we had both let things slip in terms of making sure the other one felt appreciated and loved in this relationship. The discussion we had yesterday was very good, even if it was hard, and I think we both feel closer to each other today! I honestly feel like I'm a better person around him, and I love his companionship and constant support of me. I am blessed to be dating him and I can't imagine us breaking up. Therefore, I am going to be more intentional about making sure he knows how much I care about him and how valuable he is to me. This doesn't mean that we don't still have some differences to work through, but I think that we're coming at it from a much better angle to resolve those things.

And on a related note, I'm really proud of myself for not even once--at all--having thoughts of restricting through all of this! In the (recent) past, I've had those thoughts but I haven't acted on them--despite the strong temptation. And in the farther past, this is exactly the thing that would feed disordered thoughts. I'm very pleased about that--like I said, I haven't actually struggled with that for a while, but this is the first time that those thoughts haven't even showed up! :)

So here's the yummy food I've been eating.

Yesterday's breakfast was a great bowl of oatmeal with PB, raisins, flax, pumpkin and cottage cheese:

And a whole plum (I had already eaten most of it--sorry!)


Then, while I was baby-sitting I had one chocolate chip muffin that the mom said I was welcome to--it was delicious!!

I slept in a bit more today but still got less than 7 hours of sleep. Surprisingly though I felt OK and I went on a 5.5 mile "run". (Remember my running is short segments with a lot of walking in between.) It was great though, and I felt awesome afterwards! I have that 5K at the zoo on Sunday, so I think I'm going to do one more "long" run tomorrow and then rest on Saturday (which is a VERY busy day for me anyway, so it works well.)

Yesterday night I made a delicious dinner/snack of sauteed zucchini and EVOO topped with Sabra spinach and artichoke hummus! I think it's a new flavor and I love it!


Speaking of hummus, check out this awesome giveaway to win some free tubs of it!

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Yesterday I got my first ever package from FoodBuzz!! I got ridiculously excited upon opening them! Woohoo!

(I apologize for the blurry pictures!)

So far I have only tried the Whole Wheat loaf and it is excellent! I have been enjoying it--many pieces of it!--topped with cheddar cheese and avocado like this:

And then with spinach too like this:

It also makes excellent sandwiches, such as this one with veggie "bologna", cheese, avocado and spinach:

For a non-traditional breakfast this morning I had the same thing (finished the avocado--so sad!) and had mushrooms and carrots with hummus also.


And with coffee. (By the way, yes my plates are always perched precariously on the edge of my computer desk, where I'm eating while either reading blogs or doing e-mail!)


The bread is so delicious and I am very much looking forward to trying the other loaf soon! Thanks FoodBuzz!!

My bf and I went on a real date to get dinner at Chik-Fil-A (my first time ever!! I got the char grilled sandwich and fries and I loved it! It seems A LOT better than most fast food places!) and to see "The Hangover" which looked good and was still showing in theatres. It was hilarious (minus a few raunchy scenes!) and I actually really enjoyed it!

We sneaked these in and I had quite a few. (Like definitely more than one serving...so good!) This has been kind of a major choclate week for me!

Finally, I've been snacking on many Shapers whole grain chips (black bean and salsa flavor!) because I fund big bags at Big Lots for $1.80! They're very comparable to Sun Chips in their nutritional facts and I've been enjoying them frequently!

(Thank you Google Images!)

Here's one more great giveaway:

AnAppleADay is giving away Tropical Traditions coconut oil to cook with! I've wanted to try this for so long because I've read about it frequently in the blog world.

Good night everyone!

Happy Saturday!

Good morning!

I woke up very hungry for some reason (frequently happens after strength training) so I made breakfast right away. I had a bowl of oat bran with:

-organic ground flax
-1 chopped fig
-1/2 a peach
-1/3 C (?) cottage cheese
-PB

And with coffee:

Right after blogging this morning, I'm off to teach at one studio in the morning and another studio in the afternoon. Only about 3 1/2 hours of teaching, but there will be a lot of driving, as there are on most of my Saturdays.

Yesterday I made another fabulous lunch of a rice bowl with tons of toppings:

This included:

-brown rice
-last of the sauteed cabbage
-1/2 can of tuna
-1/2 sauteed zucchini with tofu
-cheddar cheese
-avocado
-salsa

I'm out of salsa, so I need to get that, and today I plan to have this meal again with the remainder of the tuna and the zucchini. :) It's REALLY tasty!


My sweet tooth hit HARD yesterday night so at first I had a banana with PB.

Then I was still craving sweets so I had the other half of a cupcake that I bought from a local bakery that had their $1 cupcake day on Wednesday. (I never blogged about the other half, eaten on Wednesday night.) I believe this flavor was vegan too, although I ordered it simply because it was so chocolatey! :)



Oooh! It stands up. (*I'm so proud*-haha!)


And another random snack from yesterday:


Plus, look what came in the mail! A free sample!


It might have to get eaten today.

Well, I'm running late to go shower and teach, so I'll see you all tonight to read and comment! Hope you all have a FABULOUS Saturday! :)

Recital success!

I know I haven't posted for a few days, but they've been a good few days. I've definitely kept busy! The most exciting thing that happened was my first ever studio recital on Sunday! Fourteen of my students performed a solo piece and I also played at the end. We had a very full house, with about 75 parents, relatives and friends in attendance! I had typed up and printed programs on fancy paper, but we quickly ran out of the 35 I had made. We even had to borrow chairs from the Subway sandwich shop next door! And my boyfriend recorded the whole recital on his laptop so I can even send a CD to my own parents, who live 2,400 miles away. Woohoo! I heard only positive feedback from the parents; they all thought it was a lovely event and thanked me for working hard to organize it! It was incredibly exciting! I can't share pictures due to privacy, but I did get several very cute pictures with my students and two of them gave me these beautiful bouquets.



Then on Tuesday I had a concert, for which the dress rehearsal was on Monday night. I was only playing one short piece, but it was still a lot of time of getting to the rehearsal and sitting around. The annoying part of it is that I had to reschedule my normal Tuesday night students, but most of the families are very understanding.

Anyway, here are some of my eats. I've really been trying to cut back on most sugars and I really feel much better. I've found that I'm really not wanting a lot of sugar anyway. I've even lost a couple of pounds, but that's not my primary focus.

Breakfast today:

2 Boca sausage links w. organic ketchup
sweet potatoes with PB
organic broccoli with hummus (you'll probably see this again!)
1/2 slice healthy homemade nanner bread w. PB
{there was coffee too, of course}

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A random snack yesterday (and eaten again today, but would be exactly the same picture) is pepper jack cheese on Kashi crackers. One of the most delicious things! {And I have a HUGE bag of leftover cheese from the recital! I got to take home sooooo much free food!}


And yes--you guessed it. The carrots and dip are also from the recital! :) I've been eating tons of carrots with three different kinds of hummus, in addition to that dip you see. I sill have lots of hummus and I am not complaining.

And how's this for a low-sugar breakfast?

2 Boca links
sweet potatoes
broccoli with PB {yes, I know I'm weird. PB goes on everything. Don't knock it 'til you try it!}

And wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I have so many breakfasts on my camera! Breakfast is always my biggest meal and then I pretty much graze throughout the day. And breakfast is always the easiest to take a picture of. So here's two more for you:


2 eggs, zucchini sauteed in EVOO, 1 slice nanner bread with PB.

As above, except with a peach instead of the banana bread. YUM! Note to self--buy more zucchini! Zucchini ranks up there with my favorite veggies, along with broccoli, snap peas, red bell peppers and carrots! What are your favorite veggies? What are your favorite raw ones versus cooked?


That loaf of banana bread fed me well all week! This was just another random snack...

...so was this! (The ever self-explanatory carrots and PB, my go-to snack!)


And a quick WF stop. (OK, there might have been a couple of these! GAH--I need to stop doing this! But I usually keep it to about $7 and that's really no more than I'd spend at Quizno's and less than for Chinese takeout. I'd prefer this healthy AMAZING stuff, any day! And sometimes, you're just hungry while you're out and about!) Anyway, this was garlicky greens, sweet potatoes, and a couple different kinds of tofu! Delicious!


Here's my last of those chocolate covered cherries my BF got me. Yes, they're pretty much just the best thing I've ever tasted!

Last, but certainly not least, I've been enjoying this delicious snack mix that I bought while I was at Target anyway. It's honestly not THAT unhealthy, and I've been preferring that it's higher in fat, lower in sugar and still very chocolatey! Of course, it's still more of a moderation food, but I've been pretty good about sticking to one serving at a time. {Because fat fills me up and keeps me full --and not wanting food-- for a long time!}


Well, I'm off to read in bed. I'll definitely comment in the morning. I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on!

I need an earlier bedtime.

I have a bad habit of staying up way too late, partially due to my lifestyle (as a musician, all of my work is done in the afternoons and evenings) and partially due to my body clock (I've been going to bed late since I was a kid and all through college and everything). And by "way too late" I'm talking like going to bed around 3am! Yeah, I know. I then sleep in till 9 or 10 every day, but still end up feeling tired due to only getting 6 or 7 hours of sleep. I really need at least 8 most nights. I NEED to be more disciplined about crawling into bed by midnight or so!

But at least I woke up to a lovely breakfast today:

-Oat bran (~1/3C?)
-pumpkin
-a few carob chips
-frozen strawberries
-cottage cheese
-PB (with a little extra stirred in that you can't see)

With coffee and FRS low calorie energy drink. So good.

Yesterday's breakfast:


Yesterday was a "weird" food day. By that I mean that I started off with that amazing bowl of oat bran and then I was driving a lot/doing work and didn't get hungry until I was ravenous (does that ever happen to you?) but I had no time to get food, so I just ate a lot of cashews that were in my car. (Probably 600 calories worth--but that was my entire lunch). The good thing about this is that I felt great all afternoon and never even got very hungry for dinner. Eventually though I figured I needed to eat something, so I roasted a butternut squash and an eggplant (both drizzled in olive oil) and had probably twice as much as on this plate:


I'm having fun experimenting with my body's preference for fat over carbs. (Sorry, I know I've mentioned this before. I don't mean to beat a warhorse to death, but I find it very interesting. Bear with me, or just skip ahead. Haha.)

The point is that I really appreciate not feeling hungry all the time, even though I was still eating a fair amount of fat before, I feel better on slightly more. (I haven't counted calories or fat grams, so I have no idea what I'm consuming normally, which I'm happy about.) I haven't changed anything else in my diet, except being pretty intentional to consume less sugar during meals from all sources, including fruit, and adding more healthy fats, yet I've been feeling thinner recently and much more importantly, my mood has really improved! (And when I hopped on the scale it was the lowest number I've seen for a while, but I DON'T care about that any more. I was just curious.)

I'm sorry; I'm just rambling now. And I'm sure that what seems to be good for me won't necessarily be good for any one else. *shrugs* I'm done. On to a more interesting topic: books. I just finished this one by Jen Lancaster.


She is such a hilarious author! I HIGHLY recommend these books when you're looking for very light and humorous reading. :)

And I just started this one. It's also very good. I'm going through a light reading stage, but I'm OK with that. Maybe I should read War and Peace next, to counteract these. ;-)



It's a very cute, feel-good story. It's fiction but could definitely have been a memoir as well.

I'm off to practice (I have to play also at my kids' recital on Sunday!) and design programs for it. Then my afternoon looks like this:

-teach
-drive
-meeting
-drive
-teach
-drive home
-teach one more lesson at home

Done at 8pm tonight. Hope you're all having a great 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!