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A New Week

Happy Monday everyone!  Today got off to a slow start for me.  I had trouble sleeping last night so while I woke up on my own early, I had trouble getting out of bed.  I had PT scheduled for 11:40am so I had to leave for the gym by a certain time if I was going to go to give myself time for my workout and then shower, getting dressed and breakfast.  In the end, I decided I was not going to the…

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Happy Cinco De Mayo!  I know today is usually a day of Mexican food and alcohol but I’m not into those two things so not the route I took.

Today was a beautiful day in New York City.  It was in the low 70’s and not too humid.  I was able to turn off my AC and open my windows again this morning and it felt so nice.  I love spring weather and that is what we had today.  I woke up on the early side, especially on a Saturday.  The gym doesn’t open until 8am so I laid around for a bit, checked out social media, etc.  When I went to the gym, I was cleaning off the machine before I started my workout and an older woman is walking towards me and was like oh there you are.  I was like, “I’m sorry?”.  I had no clue who she was.  I don’t really talk to anyone at the gym.  I go, do my workout, watch the news and kind of keep to myself.  She then keeps talking to me, saying I used to workout at the other end of the ellipticals and she hasn’t seen me for awhile.  She continued to ask me why I moved the machine I used and if I got a better workout over there.  I was kind of answering her but not really sure what to say.  In the end, she complimented me saying my hard work was showing.  She seemed very nice, it just caught me off guard.  But I appreciated the compliment as other than her and what the scale was showing, no one has really said anything to me.

Anyways, I got a good workout in at the gym and then came home, showered and took my time getting ready for the day.  I ended up watching some TV before I had my smoothie and just kind of took it easy for the morning.  I made my normal Happy Monkey Smoothie for breakfast (or my first meal of the day) and then took care of some stuff around the apartment.  Around 1pm I took a walk to the Farmers Market near me.  I wanted to see if any new produce was there.  In the winter the market seems to only have apples.  When I got there, there was much else, except some flowers that haven’t been there before.  I guess I still have a few more weeks before the spring and summer fruits and veggies are available.

After the market, I came home and made myself my second meal (lunch).  I had leftovers from my dinner last night.  The spaghetti squash with the vegan creamy tomato basil sauce.  I think I may have liked it better as leftovers heated in the microwave.  I then went out again and walked around for a bit and then I had a hair appointment.

When I got home from my hair appointment it was about 4:15pm.  I had a handful of almonds and turned on my stove to heat up for what I wanted to make for dinner.  I wanted to make the remainder of the cut up sweet potato fries I had in the fridge, but when I took them out they were slimy.  Luckily I had some russet potatoes so I cut one up into strips and used that instead.  My oven is kind of finicky.  It is a Bertazzoni oven so it’s a nice, high-end oven, but it doesn’t have anything that tells you what temperature it is.  It has a nob to turn to heat the oven up but I have noticed that the labels don’t actually align to what the temperature in the oven gets to.  I have an oven thermometer in the oven but it’s hard to see.  I recently bought a thermometer that has a probe that goes in the oven and then an LCD screen that sits outside the shows the temperature.  It will tell you when it reaches your desired temperature and if it drops out of the optimal range either below or above the desired temperature.  It also has a timer on it which is useful since my oven doesn’t have a timer either.  As I’ve been using this new probe thermometer the last week or two I have noticed my oven reaches my desired temperature, which has been 425 degrees F, shortly after reaching it, the temperature begins to drop.  And slowly continues to drop.  Tonight, even after moving the knob more to try to get it to heat up, my oven seemed to level off at 392 and didn’t seem to move after that no matter how much I turned the knob.  It hasn’t affected me too much as everything I’ve cooked in there has come out fine despite this it is just annoying.  I’m debating if I’m going to call the company for a service call to see if there is a problem that I don’t know about.

So anyways, I heated the oven up and baked the fries.  I sprayed the cut potato with Avocado oil and then put some sea salt on them.  I cooked them for 15 minutes in the oven, flipped them and then cooked for another 15 minutes.  Even though the temperature was off they still came out great.  I also grilled a burger on my George Forman grill and ate that with smashed avocado with some sea salt wrapped in Gotham Greens Butterhead lettuce.  I also had some Primal Kitchen Chipotle lime mayo on the side for dipping the fries.  Below are pictures of the finished product.

Very tasty dinner.  The burger with smashed avocado in butterhead lettuce has become a go-to for me because it is so easy.  The burger only cooks on the grill for 3 minutes, figure it takes about 5 minutes for the grill to reach temperature and dinner is ready in about two minutes total.  Cleaning the grill after is the hardest part.  When I make fries with the burger I have to plan more since they take longer and the oven needs to heat up.  But again, when I have the time and can plan ahead, it is well worth it.

For those of you celebrating Cinco de Mayo I hope you enjoyed your food and drinks.  While it’s not my thing, there is nothing wrong with it and everyone deserves to do what they enjoy without others judging.  And for those watching the Kentucky Derby, hope you have your Derby hat on and your horse wins!

Have a great Saturday night everyone and enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Cinco de Mayo Happy Cinco De Mayo!  I know today is usually a day of Mexican food and alcohol but I'm not into those two things so not the route I took.

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Another Day

So today was another warm, muggy day in Brooklyn.  It got so hot and humid last night I had to turn on my AC.  I’m trying to not turn the AC on too high to try to control costs so my apartment is not cold but it is more comfortable than it is outside.  Tomorrow is supposed to be less humid so I’m hoping I can open my windows back up.  I’m 18 floors up so I usually get a nice breeze.  When I moved…

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So it’s Tuesday.  Today I woke up really early and since I was wide awake and didn’t want to just lay in bed I got up and got a workout in.  I did the first workout in Insanity Max:30.  It was hard.  I followed the person who modifies for the entire workout and it was still hard.  It was a good start today.  I definitely had more energy and got moving much quicker.  We will see if I can keep it up.

For food I started with my smoothie this morning.  I had my casserole that I prepped on Sunday for lunch and then for dinner it was skirt steak, cauliflower rice, sautéed spinach and sweet potato fries.

It was a lot of food but I needed it after the hard workout this morning.  I’m hoping eating all of this for dinner means I won’t snack tonight.  That is one of my big struggles.  When I have trouble sleeping I eat thinking if I eat something it will help me fall asleep.  And sometimes it does, or at least I feel like it does but it’s probably not the food that helps me fall asleep.

So I have exciting news.  Last week I bid on an apartment that I really liked and my offer was accepted.  I’m super excited but also terrified.  It is a huge commitment and a lot of money.  I really like the apartment except the kitchen needs to be gutted and redesigned.  Right now it has no counter space and also no dishwasher which isn’t going to work for me.  I cook too much so I need counter space, storage and definitely need a dishwasher.  I have some thoughts on how to design the kitchen but I’m going to work with a designer to make sure it is done perfectly.  I also want to redo the bathroom to make a spa like bathroom that will feel relaxing when I go in it.

So it is an exciting and stressful time for me.  I’m going to make sure I stay on track and continue to take care of myself because I know I won’t be able to get through the stress if I don’t take care of myself.  To help with meal prepping and finding recipes I joined Real plans this week.  I know I said I was going to wait to see how the week went but I got inpatient and was already struggling with finding recipes to cook and know how to meal prep and I have not been prepping enough food on Sundays so I think this will really help.  I’ve already found a ton of recipes I want to try and have a plan for next week.

So that’s where am at as of today.  Have a good rest of the week!

Week 5: Day 3 So it's Tuesday.  Today I woke up really early and since I was wide awake and didn't want to just lay in bed I got up and got a workout in.  

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Week 5: Day 1

Week 5: Day 1

So I know I’ve been MIA.  It was a busy week last week.  I managed to stay on plan despite being busy, stressed and sick for a good portion of the week.  I maybe didn’t do the best I could but I managed to stay paleo and not cheat (even though there were times all I’ve wanted is a slice of pizza). Things are starting to get harder. I’m starting to want quick fixes and not wanting to cook every…

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Week 4: Day 2

Week 4: Day 2

It’s Monday.  A new week has begun.  The end of last week was busy so I apologize for not posting.  Friday was just a rough day and then Saturday I was out all day and Sunday was just busy with prep.  Even with everything going on I was able to stay on track.  I ate out with my family on Saturday.  We went to Westville in Dumbo and I have a really good burger with grilled onions and avocado with…

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Week 3: Day 5

Week 3: Day 5

It’s Thursday.  One more day left in the work week.  This weekend is going to be fun.  I’m going to a basketball game, seeing my family and then going to look at another apartment along with the normal chores and meal prep. Yesterday I repeated my meals from the previous days.  I did a chopped salad from Sunac for lunch and I did a repeat of the skirt steak with cauliflower rice and the artichoke…

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Week 3: Day 3

Week 3: Day 3

Today was another day in the books.  It was a busy day and I stayed on track.  No food failure today. For lunch I had the crockpot dish I made on Sunday: pulled chicken with sweet potato in salsa topped with avocado.  It was good and very filling. For dinner, I had a little skirt steak left over from meal prep on Sunday so I got out the George Forman and grilled up the skirt steak, cooked up some…

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Week 3: Day 2

Week 3: Day 2

Happy Monday!  It’s the beginning of a new busy work week.  Today brought me back to some structure to my day which is always helpful for staying on track.  As usual I started with my smoothie.  I’m sure at some point I will get sick of it but it hasn’t happened yet.  I am going to start looking for some other smoothie options soon just so I can be ready for variety when I need it. For lunch I…

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Week 3: Day 1

Week 3: Day 1

Sunday = meal prep day and chores day.  As soon as I woke up I got my crock pot dish going because it needed to cook for 8 hours and I wanted it done before 6pm.  Chicken with sweet potato in salsa (picture to come later this week).  It made my apartment smell so good as it cooked. Once I got the crock pot going I took my time getting ready for the day.  I finally made my breakfast and around…

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Week 2: Day 7

Week 2: Day 7

Happy Saturday!  Hope everyone had a great start to their weekend.  Today was a little less structured than my days during the week since I didn’t have to get up and moving and didn’t have scheduled times during the day for meals. I woke up early but laid in bed for awhile, enjoying a lazy Saturday morning.  I finally got up around 8:30-9:00am and got ready for the day.  I then made my morning…

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Week 2: Day 6

Week 2: Day 6

It’s Friday night and the weekend has begun!  My weekend is packed full of stuff but I’m excited for a break. Today was another successful day.  I started my day with my smoothie (as usual) and then for lunch I went to Sunac (natural foods store in NYC) and got a chopped salad.  My salad consisted of: Mix of spinach and romain beets red onion tomato cucumber avocado Chicken For dinner I made…

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Week 2: Day 5

Week 2: Day 5

Hi all. Well it’s almost Friday, which means it’s almost the weekend!  I’m really looking forward to a break from work and some time to try some new recipes for meal prep for next week. Today I started with my normal smoothie and for lunch finished the remainder of the casserole I made on Sunday.  I think for next week, I need to meal prep more than one or two dishes so I can switch up what I eat…

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Week 2: Day4

Happy hump day everyone! So I’ve made it through half of week 2. YEAH!  This week has been harder as I’ve been in the office and for some reason I tend to get more hungry when I’m there.  I’ve been bringing my lunch: the leftover creamed spinach, chicken, artichoke and cauliflower rice casserole.  For snacks I’ve been bringing individual bags of cashews and a coconut cream Larabar. Last night we…

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Week 2: Day 2

Week 2: Day 2

Hope everyone had a good Monday.  It’s the beginning of another work week as my company doesn’t have Martin Luther King day off.  This week I expect to be pretty busy as a new project is officially kicking off.  I’m glad I did some meal prepping this weekend so I have food when I get hungry and don’t turn to bad foods.  I already feel more in control. Today was overall a good day.  I started with…

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@againstallgrains-blog creamed spinach with chicken, artichokes and cauliflower rice to make a casserole. Another successful meal.

[omgsuchapaleolife-blog]

Week 2: Day 1

Week 2: Day 1

So today begins week 2 on paleo.  For breakfast I started with my normal smoothie. I decided at the end of last week that I was going to do some meal prep this weekend so I can have food for the week.  I did the crock pot meal yesterday and today I got a hot plate to try something new. I started following Danielle Walker (Against all Grain) on Instagram when I joined a few weeks ago.  I saw a…