Zombie Day

So I set my alarm for 4:30 am, thinking I would bike to work. Wrong! It was cold and dark, and kinda rainy from yesterday, also I was dead tired and hit the snooze button. So when I did get up I made myself a spinach, apple, raspberry, banana, and blueberry smoothie. I used half a banana and used the rest in my banana old-fashioned oatmeal, which also had cinnamon and bit of honey. I drove to work thank goodness!

When my sleep pattern gets messed up, so apparently does everything else. I rarely eat bread/toast, and I did 4 pieces in total while I was at work! Horrible! My intentions were originally good I had 1 piece of toast half with jam half with honey and my own granola bar with tea, as my snack. Then before my break was over I had another piece of toast, and a quarter of an apple with PB. This is where I become ashamed! Then a bunch of freshly baked muffins accidentally broke as we were putting them out for display, so of course I nibbled on those throughout the day. Probably about 2 in total..

Then somehow I figured, I still needed more food. I had our homemade hearty lentil and vegetable bean stew, which is very healthy, but I wasn't even hungry and of course, I had my 3rd and 4th pieces of bread! Dear lord this day was a failure. Then I felt crappy and bloated until 2pm when I got off work. At 2 before I left I made myself a simple banana, apple, and ice smoothie, to sort of refresh me.
PS: sorry for the bad pictures, I was in a rush taking them at work, because my co-workers think I am weird/anal for taking pictures of my food! haha

When I got home, I was so dead tired I could barely get out of the car. I went and read and dwelled over this day of overeating and wayyy too much carbs! But, it really is only one day, and I have to cut myself some slack, especially when I am overtired and not even thinking/functioning normally. So I am not eating anything for the rest of the day because I am still so full, and I really have probably eaten double my normal calorie intake. Tomorrow is a new day, and I don't want to let myself worry about today because I know then I will think "whatever, I already messed up."

Anyways, enough about food. I am so sore from yesterdays mini-muscle workout, my calves and pectorals hurt so much form the calve raises and push-ups. Even though I stretched and ate protein... Also my hamstrings really hurt from biking. Tomorrow morning I plan to have a smoothie for brekky and that's it and do some stretches and maybe do some shopping and packing, even though I don't move out until the 25th. Until then, Tata for now.
Tomorrow will be a much more respectable post, trust me.

First Day of Food Journal!

So I am so excited, I couldn't even wait until the end of the day to post.

For brekky I had a mug of my breakfast looseleaf tea. It has peppermint and green tea, my favourites.
Then I made myself a spinach, apple, banana, and blueberry smoothie. It worked out perfectly, not to sweet, but I still couldn't taste the spinach. I used about a handful and a bit of spinach, 1/3 of an apple(peeled), half a banana, and about 1 cup of blueberries. The consistency and amount it produced was really good two, especially considering this is only the 2nd green smoothie I have ever made. I had this with a small bowl of puffed quinoa cereal and plain unsweetened almond milk, with a few fresh blueberries from a local farmers market. I usually load my cereal with blueberries, but I already had plenty in the smoothie.
After this, I decided I wanted a little bit more so I took out a small granola bar from the freezer(part of the batch I made a few days ago) and had a half glass of plain unsweetened almond milk. The granola bars are just okay. The have old fashioned rolled oats, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, currants, dates, and cinnamon for spice. I used water to bind these and didn't add anything for sweetness besides the dried fruit.
Overall, I'd say this was a pretty good breakfast for day 1. Now I am off to do some calve raises, hamstring and glute exercises, as well as abdominal and oblique work. Plus push-ups. Unfortunately there is supposed to be a thunderstorm and rain later today, so I probably won't bike to work. I love rain and storms, but I wanted to get in some cardio. Oh well!

Before I biked to Cyclepath to get some fenders put on I had a snack of Mary's Organic Crackers and a nori sheet. These crackers are so good. They are wheat and gluten free, with no added oils or fats!

Getting fenders put on at Cyclepath took forever! I got home at about 1:45 and had to be at work at 3. I originally planned to have edamame beans, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. But due to the rush factor I made quinoa instead of rice. It was still really good, except for the fact that I had to scarf it down. Then at about 5:30 at work I had an organic mixed greens salad with currants and a rasberry vinagrette. The rasberry vinagrette I get from our local farmer's market(it's a local company).I felt pretty silly taking a picture of my salad at work! I don't know how this will work in the future. Otherwise day 1 went really well, I worked until 10 pm, however I accepted a 6am-2pm shift for tomorrow! That means I have to get up at 4:45am! I guess we'll see how that turns out.

Maple Granola

I made this granola with raisins, cut up dates, almonds, and sunflower seeds.

A good ol' healthy snack for the trail, or in the morning as cereal with milk or yogurt. You can add many things to this granola, like cranberries, cashews, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, coconut flakes, chocolate chips, different dried fruits, basically whatever you think will go well. You can also switch the maple syrup to honey and add nutmeg or other spices.

3 cups Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats (Large Flake)
1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
1/3 cup Raw Sunflower Seeds
2 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Oil (vegetable, sunflower, canola, or other variety)
1/2 cup Pure Maple Syrup
1 cup Dried Fruit (dates, raisins, figs, currants, apricots, cranberries, and/or blueberries)

Preheat your oven to 325 F and grease or line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Make sure the rack is in the center of oven.

In large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, oats, nuts, seeds, and spices. In another bowl combine oil and syrup. Pour the wet mixture over the dry and toss until completely coated. Spread onto the baking sheet and bake for about 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure even browning. Be sure to check and stir often closer to the end, as the granola will brown and burn quickly. The browner the granola, the crunchier it will be. Take out of the oven and cool. Once the granola has cooled completely, mix in the dried fruit(s). Store in an airtight container in the fridge for several weeks.

Makes about 4 cups.