All the time & always...

Wednesday Recap:

First, alittle bit about the most important meal of the day:  CoffeeJ

I still drink one cup a day (a cup a day keeps the headaches away, I sayJ) and usually use 2 tablespoons of creamer (been keeping measure since starting the Bikini Series and I'd say it was about 1/3 of what I normally used...YIKES!).  But yesterday, since we were plum out of creamer, I decided to try out the creamer direct from the series....made of almond milk, almond extract, coconut oil...and DATES!  DATES, peepsJ  

I'll be honest, it was no Pumpkin SpiceJ, but it was pretty tasty for something COMPLETELY natural.  I certainly used more than 2 tablespoons, but all the ingredients are so low cal that I didn't even worry about it.  Bonus was that I've kept the leftovers in one of my Ninja containers and blend it up every morning, making it super frothy/sorta kinda cappuccino-esq.  And even though I STILL can't say I loved it more than the *really bad for you* stuff, it WAS a step up in the taste department from the almond milk/stevia concoction from their Slimdown Series.  I'll take it!

Breakfast:  2 Sweet Potato Cookies

Workout:  Bob Harper Weight Loss Yoga (yoga + arm sections)

Unfortunately, I didn't make it out to the gym yesterday morning, missing my VERYFAVORITECLASS, but this quick video was a great back-up.  I haven't done it in AGES and it was a fun reminder of how I fell in LURV with yogaJ

Snack:  1/2 whole wheat pita with hummus + spinach

Oh, should this be the part where I mentioned that this was the SECOND sandwich I made since the FIRST was left out in the open while I went to change Katie and I came back into the living room to find a floor of spinach and a guilty looking Penny???  That dog was LUCKY I wasn't STARVINGJ  ...although this incident made for Katie's VERYFAVORTIESTORYOFALLTIME.  We've had to repeat it 19 times a day because she thinks its HILARIOUS that "Penny ate Mommy's sandwich!  Dogs don't eat hummus!" J  Worth it, I supposeJ

Lunch:  Strawberry shortcake smoothie with unsweetened coconut 

Snack:  Roasted chickpeas 

I had these lemon/olive oil/black pepper coated chickpeas in the fridge, in the plans of having them over salads as our afternoon snack.  But when the call of the Larabars were too great of late, I just somehow knew we weren't gonna get back around to that salad idea.  So I just popped these guys into a 350 degree oven to let em roast & toast until crispy and they made for a snack I think we enjoyed QUITE a bit more.  Felt more 'snacky', ya know?

Dinner:  Moroccan Meatballs over lemon couscous

So I've been having some sort of 'afternoon fatigue' issues of late and have yet to track down if it's just normal pregnancy fun, iron deficiency OR, after I thought about it, the lack of carbs in our dinners since I remember having similar fatigue symptoms when we did the Slimdown series.  I kinda deduced the later when I felt quite a bit better yesterday, following even that tiny bit of corn tortillas that I added to dinner the night before.
So with that thought in mind, I decided to make one of our normal/none-TIU dinner's last night, involving whole wheat couscous...esp since I wanted to start incorporating them slowly back into our week anyways.

I made curry & onion meatballs (1/2 pound of ground turkey total) over lemon couscous and topped with a quick onion & spinach pan sauce.  As I told Scott:  "This is exactly who I want to be tonight."J  

And this time, thanks to the lessons from the series, paying closer attention to food balance/cooking fat-usage/sodium and PORTIONS.  This recipe was HALF of what I would usually make and we were SHOCKED that it was WAY more than enough.  I think making sure our days are filled with healthy, 4-time a day meals, it makes it MUCH easier to have smaller portions for dinner and feel satisfied. (although NONE have been as paltry as we expected)  And while most 'healthy experts' will tell you 'no carbs after 3' is smart for health, I'm OK with incorporating healthy varieties back into our diet, esp at THIS momentJ  Seeing how the fatigue fares will be my #1 deciding factor on keeping up with this oneJ

Dessert:  DQ Peanut & Hot Fudge sundae 

And, seriously, did I REALLY just give an entire CARBS dissertation when THIS was my very NEXT post???J  Hahahahahhaha...Yes, I understand the ironyJ  But this was EXACTLY what I was craving for Wednesday night treat night and I 'kept it together' by having half and promptly storing the rest in the freezer.  1/2 clocked in at just over 350 calories which, while still FAR from light, was better than the 710 calories I would have consumed had I not stopped at half.  I'll take any way to have the EXACT splurge you want with LESS guilt.

Alrighty, this blog post seems a little all over the place...but such is my lifeJ  Hope you don't mind my tangents!  It's just the way my brain is working at the moment.  And by "moment," I mean 'all the time & always'J

Have a great Thursday!J