28!

We're finally starting to feel the holiday spirit this week! I'm a week away from wrapping up fall semester and then I get to chill until the holidays.
Lots to catch up on...
I started Thursday morning with low fat vanilla yogurt, almond coconut granola and some dried apples:
Over the lunch hour, I did a 40 minute elliptical workout.
Afterward I had a bowl of beef stew and snacked on 2 pears later in the afternoon:
I did my weekly weigh-in Thurs. morning and the scale at home said I was down 0.5 pounds for an overall total of only 1 pound since I started this. I have to admit, I was feeling a little bummed out. After talking to Nikki about it, she suggested I try a scale at school. The scale at school (a medical scale) said I was 5 pounds lighter than the scale at home. So, I'm going to weigh myself at school from now on to see if I notice any differences. I'm also going to do some measurements for comparison sake.
For dinner I was missing my hubby a bit so I stopped in for dinner at the Cafe. Here he is in action:
I neglected to take any food photos but I had 1 glass of wine and the Rustic Salad which consisted of spinach, beets, shaved fennel, goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette.
By 9:00 I was curled up in bed with my Glamour magazine and asleep by 9:45!
I woke up Friday feeling refreshed! I had more yogurt, granola & apples for breakfast:
Mallory, the student that works in my office brought me a birthday treat:
I only had 2 items and shared the rest. I'm hoping that by sharing I'll be able to keep the extra holiday pounds at bay.

My mom & Hannah did an official campus visit at UMD on Friday. So I met them for lunch in the UMD food court. Again... no camera! I've been a little lazy/forgetful lately. I had a veggie sandwich and cup of chicken wild rice soup.
At 2:00 I did my favorite Friday workout of 30 minutes on the treadmill (4.3mph @ 7% incline today) and then a 30 minute weight lifting interval. I am getting stronger. I increased all the weights today and shredded my muscles. It felt so good!
Then at 4:00 my mom and I went to a reading of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Story" in the Weber Music Hall.
We picked Hannah and her friend Bailey up at 6pm for dinner at Zeitgeist Arts Cafe.
I had one glass of Cabernet. It came in a humongous glass- the largest one ever:

Hannah & Bailey:
Mom & me:
I got the Sesame Mushroom sandwich:
It was a marinated portabella mushroom cap with carmelized onions, red cabbage, endive, bean sprouts and goat cheese. I LOVE goat cheese. Have you noticed? In lieu of chips or fries, I had fruit and a cup of parsnip-apple soup:
(Still haven't figured out how to get the 2 pics above to import correctly. For now, consider it artsy:)
Look who we ran it to:
It was Henry's 32nd birthday and so he was out for dinner with Nikki and their friend Kris.
Next we were off to Bentleyville in Bayfront Park:
It was frigid, can you tell?



I especially enjoyed the hot-cold effect while standing at the s'more fire pits!
We finished off the night back at home all curled up in our PJ's and blankets to defrost. I had some tea and headed to bed around 10:30. Mikey worked late.

On Saturday my mom and Hannah headed out early.
'Round Noon we rolled out of bed and had beef stew and a pear:
Mikey headed to work at 2 and I spent the afternoon catching up on some house stuff. For dinner, I put together a veggie & hummus sandwich and a pickle:
with a side of chips & salsa:
I then spent 4 hours working on my accounting homework. Ugh!
I had an evening snack of some pumpkin bread my mom made and some tea:
Notice no wine!
That brings us to today, my 28th birthday! We slept in til 11 and then headed to Uncle Loui's for brunch. We split the Gyro Scrambler and a side of deluxe hashbrowns. The meal also came with one of their famous pancakes. All of this plus 2 bottomless cups of coffee for $14.26! Can't beat it. It's the best brunch in town for sure!
Here's my portion but I only ate half the pancake:
Mikey and I used to each get an entree but we're trying to make some lifestyle changes and sharing meals is one of the things we're trying (dinners at gourmet restaurants excluded:)
I had a good day of relaxation. This afternoon we watched the Vikings game and got some groceries for tonight's dinner. I'll post an update later on how dinner turned out. After dinner we're heading out to look at some Christmas lights. It's become a little tradition we do on my birthday.
Things I'm looking forward to in year #28:
-finishing grad school in May!
-upward movement in my career
-spending more time with family & friends
-fitting in some travel
-continuation of a healthier lifestyle

Cheers!

give me granola

Monday morning started out like many other with the exception of some awesome granola that I made. I was so excited to eat it that I neglected to snap a pic until after the fact:

I made some coconut almond granola from Kath's blog. It's 100 cals per 1/4 cup and probably the tastiest granola I've ever had. I made it on Sunday night so that I could send Henry home with some for his birthday.
For lunch on Monday, I had an open faced veggie sandwich (the Sir Melt) at Sir Bens. My boss took me out for lunch for my annual performance review. All is well.
Mid-afternoon I did a 45 minute workout mix of jogging and walking on the treadmill:
I had another banana before class. So, you can imagine by the time class was done, I was ravenous! However, I had to meet Mikey at Sears so that we could drop off the Trib in order to get new tires on Tues.
Enter: stomach growling.
Finally around 9:30pm we were on our way home. I stopped and got 2 hard shell tacos from Taco Johns:
It was a night of no wine for me. I hydrated with some tea and then headed to bed!
On Tuesday I remembered to get a pic of my breakfast heaven:
For lunch on Tuesday, I had a bowl of leftover Gumbo from Sunday. Mikey and I also picked up the Trib. It's driving like a charm! Once back to work, I headed to Med Ball class:
Tuesday night was a night of cooking and baking. I made Hazelnut Shortbread cookies for a work party on Wed. The recipe was from Cooks Illustrated and they turned out fantastic!


While I baked (and drank wine... 2 glasses), Mikey made vegetable beef soup. It took 4 hours to make and so we finally had dinner at 11pm. I think we both spoiled our appetites by eating too much shortbread dough before dinner. Sometimes we just can't help ourselves.

The breakfast pattern continued today. Why mess with a good thing?:
Over the noon hour I tuned into HGTV and did a 40 minute interval workout on the elliptical machine. I'm finding this to be the best time of day for me to workout.
Post-workout, my lunch was the last bit of Sunday Gumbo and an apple. I snacked on a couple cookies at the Rec Sports holiday party.
Then this evening we had our monthly safety training and annual Facilities Management holiday party. I had 2 pieces of pizza. Gah! It was a day of celebrations! I thought about bringing my own dinner in lieu of the holiday fare but didn't. This is something I'd really like to do in the future so that I can keep moving towards my goals. For now, I'll take it in stride and keep up on my workouts.
I got home at 8pm and am enjoying some mint tea while I unwind:
It's been a busy week so far but things are going good. I'm looking forward to my mom and sister coming up on Friday for Hannah's campus visit and then a night of hanging out with them.