Check out the mess in my kitchen. This is a rare occurrence lately, so I thought it needed to be documented.

When I got home I made the contents of my refrigerator explode all over my counters. The lighting in my kitchen is dreadful and I was hoping to get some good, nicely-lit shots of a meal I wanted to put together.

Thanks to Foodbuzz Tastemakers program and Fresh Express I was sent some coupons for Fresh Express salad mix to create a delicious salad.

My salad started with a 7 oz can of salmon.

After draining the salmon I mixed it with 1 whole egg, 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs, a sprinkle of garlic gold and salt and pepper.

All mixed up.

Form into patties and place on a hot skillet. Brown on each side.

I love to make salmon patties to eat on sandwiches, on salad, or on their own. You can keep them simple or you can spruce them up with the addition of different herbs. Plus, they are so easy to make!

I forgot to take a picture of the finished patties, but you will see them on the salad.

While the salmon patties were cooking I got to work on the salad toppings by browning 5 or 6 pieces of bacon (I used real bacon but you could use turkey bacon or leave it off), grated 2 apples, 2 carrots, and diced some red onion (not pictured). I forgot about the apples turning brown. Oopsie. They didn’t look at all appetizing but they tasted great.

Assembly time! For this salad I let B pic which Fresh Express salad mix he wanted and he came home with the Spring Mix.

Spinach (way on the bottom where you can’t see it), Fresh Express spring mix, shredded apples, shredded carrots, diced red onions, bacon crumbles, salmon patty, and bleu cheese crumbles.

Top with your favorite dressing.

You could make you own, but I love Newman’s Own balsamic vinaigrette so that is what I used.

Blue cheese and apples is one of my favorite combinations. I don’t normally eat fruit on my salads (no dried cranberries, strawberries, or mandarin oranges for me, thank you) but I loved the little bit of sweetness and crunch on this salad. Apples + cheese + bacon = sweet & salty salad.

No time for more commentary, its time to mix and enjoy!

How is it after 8 PM already? I feel like I just got home!

I am trying to squeeze in a yoga workout before bed so I better get to it!

My afternoon snack was a bit unconventional. I was still a bit hungry after lunch and was considering eating an apple with PB. Then Sal came back from lunch and brought a bag full of sweet treats. I grabbed my fave, a KitKat. I really,really wanted the KitKat, but the apple and PB sounded good too. What to do?

Put them together!!! My snack ended up being a sliced apple with PB topped with KitKat. I only intended to eat 1/2 the KitKat but that didn’t happy. Can I blame it on hormones?

I was excited for 5 so I could enjoy the gorgeous weather for a little while. As soon as I got home my Mom and I took Piper for a walk. It was so nice.

Venison burgers were on the menu for tonight, along with sweet potato and regular oven fries. Unfortunately I got distracted and the fries got overcooked and only a few were salvageable. Oops. I really gotta start using the oven timer.

My Mom and I decided we wanted to try to replicate my Big Daddy Burger Bar burger so we made up a little homemade pimento cheese.

FAIL. Our burgers were nothing like it. The burger was only meh and the bread was all wrong. Great Harvest dakota bread is just not meant for burgers.

Dessert was a repeat from lunch with one little modification, I added 1/2 strawberry to each. Yum! Now I know why I froze these guys in the 1st place. I just can’t leave them alone!

Before I run off to do yoga I wanted to share one more thing with you. I was feeling a little down on myself for choosing sleep over exercise every morning. Also, today was just one of those days that I just wanted to be moving. Maybe its the weather? So I decided to do a couple exercises every hour on the half hour to make sure I got my butt out of my seat every now and again. This is what my day looked like.

I am really lucky that I have a fairly private work area so I don’t get any funny looks! Each set only takes a few minutes and I can often read an email or something while I am doing it. Do you take any measures to get moving when you are stuck in the office?

I am off to do some yoga with my Mom. Night!

*** Don’t forget to enter my Amazing Grass sample pack giveaway! ***

I know I have no good reason, but I am really proud of myself. I am proud of myself because I managed to motivate myself to get off my duff and work out this evening despite the leg pain I have been experiencing this week. I am hoping to gain some kind of momentum and motivation to make it a habit.

This afternoon I snack on an apple and AB late in the day. I had intentions of working out as soon as I got home and did not want hunger to be an excuse to get out of it. It turns out that I got caught up on the computer as soon as I got home so working out did not happen right away. We actually ended up eating dinner kind of early.

B and I both forgot to pull some chicken out to thaw so ham and cheese sandwiches were on the menu. I think we both wanted pizza, but the ham really needed to be used up.

The sandwich filled my up but didn’t satisfy my taste buds.

But my taste buds did perk up when I ate this clementine for dessert.

My goal is to get in bed an hour earlier tonight so I will get enough rest and get up and workout in the morning. I need to try to keep tomorrow night free so I can make an effort at writing, which mean it is time for a shower. Night!

No, I am not devastated over my meeting. It hasn’t happened yet. I am devastated because I worked really hard to look nice this morning (for my meeting) and I ended up getting yogurt on my pants 2 seconds after I got to work. Gah!

I quickly dove into my stash of wet wipes to correct the situation. I think I am good. But now it has started to rain. Its like I am destined to not look remotely put together today.

Regardless of the pants situation my breakfast was fantastic. The star of the show was the new Oikos Caramel flavored Greek yogurt.

It was a little on the sweet side, but I am looking forward to chowing down on more. And the I get to try the chocolate. Mmmmm.

I topped my yogurt with some Nature’s Path Agave Plus granola. Great combo, and I already have plans for my next. Do you think I could replicate Somoas Girl Scout cookies with some shredded coconut and dark chocolate chips added to this mix? I am gonna try.  What’s in the white bowl you ask?

Strawberries, blueberries, and kiwi. I promise, there really are blueberries in there.

All together now.

After finishing all of this I was stuffed with a capital S-T-U-F-F-E-D. However I did start feeling a little hungry by 10:30. To snack or not to snack that is the question.

I decided to snack because I do not want to me starving by the time I get to my lunch meeting. Inhaling my salad would probably not be a model of professional behavior. Alas, neither will taking pictures of my food. Sorry folks.

I tried to keep my snack light again today.

More mini pickles and an apple. Unfortunately these guys are not holding me over too well. I guess I am going to have to start chugging water to hold me over for the next hour.

No lunch pictures today so I will catch you all for dinner! Please keep your fingers crossed that my meeting goes well.

** Somehow I lost all of my pictures from Thanksgiving 2009 until December 22, 2009. Ack! **
I started my morning bright and early. I wanted be sure to try to make an effort at my morning workouts again.

I decided to take my Blackberry upstairs with me and do some blog reading while on my stationary bike. Boy did the time fly by!

I did 20 minutes on the bike, some normal squats, Plié- like squats, ab exercises, bicep curls and tricep extensions. All in all I was pretty pleased with myself.

I have it set on a timer so it is on when I get up in the morning, when I come home for lunch, and when I come home from work. It’s great! We think we want to put more garland on it.

I also have some adorable stockings, but I forgot to take a picture of them. Maybe later!

For breakfast I decided to do oats. I really wanted something warm and oats was the only thing that came to mind.

I may be an oats convert now. Sorry for the blur, still getting used to the new camera.

Since I wasn’t sure if I would like it, since I usually don’t, I only made 1/4 cup. That was definitely not enough!

I topped with shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, 1/2 nuked apple. It was awesome! I can’t wait for a repeat tomorrow morning.

But it was not enough food and I have been kinda sorta hungry all morning.

A bit ago I ate a clementine.

This one was much better than yesterdays.

I have also been sipping on some sweet tea. This is my Coca Cola caffeine replacement. A little better, right?

Now I am munching on some popcorn. Yum yum.

Back to work!

Only 30 minutes to go until my Thanksgiving holiday begins! I am so ready for the time off.

So last night I did decide to have an apple before bed. I ended up eating my apple wedges with PB, AB, and Nutella. Yummy. It was a great snack before bed.

I finally didn’t wake up hungry this morning!

I had a hectic morning this morning. My Mom called asking me to bring my Bissell Green Machine to my Pawpaw’s house. Apparently last night Piper’s tummy issues were a little more severe than usual. I tried to tell them to make her sleep in the kennel, but they didn’t want to listen to me!

We have decided to change her food to see if that is what is causing the problem. The vet thought it was because of the meds she was on. Now we have no idea! Poor Piper!

Plus I had to get packed for the rest of the week since I am planning on staying at my Pawpaw’s house until Saturday or Sunday. I am not sure what I packed, but I packed a lot.

I wasn’t very hungry for breakfast, but I made something some my stomach would not be growling at work. English muffins with AB and Jelly.

They were good, but since I wasn’t really hungry I just wasn’t that into them. I ate 1 whole half and 1/2 of the other one.

A little later I had a Clementine. I am so glad I got these. They are so yummy and a great snack size.

And a little popcorn for a snack.

Now only 15 more minutes until I get to leave and I have a couple more things to do.

My presence my be a little sporadic, or nonexistent over the next week because of the holiday. My Pawpaw does not have internet at his house so I will have to search for WiFi when I am out and about.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been another steady morning at work. Yay! Plus I did get to catch up on some sleep last night. Plus I did not get all frazzled this morning by running late.

I decided to take the morning off from working out. Yes, only after 4 days of half-hearted workouts I gave myself a day off. I needed the extra sleep. Also, I am having to get up really early tomorrow for the 5K that I am walking in to support St. Jude.

I will try to workout on Sunday, we will see, and then I will definitely start again on Monday.

Breakfast this morning was blah. I was kinda hungry and nothing sounded good.

I ended up eating a leftover oatmeal pancake from yesterday with some PB and milk.

After eating about 3/4 of it I decided I really wasn’t enjoying it and decided to throw it out. It was so much better yesterday when it was fresh and warm and crispy on the outside.

Of course I was hungry in no time once I got to work. So I ate an apple.

I still have so many left from our mountain trip! We decided to incorporate them into a few Thanksgiving dishes to try to use them up. Apple Pie anyone?

The apple did nothing to satisfy my appetite so I moved onto my next snack. Popcorn! I only ate half of what is picture below.

I have been out of popcorn all week and I have missed it so.

Although I have loved my reintroduction to hummus too! I forgot what I was missing.

I am currently sipping on a coke. I only have 2 more left in the pack. I am still kind of hungry and I am hoping the coke can hold me over until lunch. I am trying really hard not to spoil my appetite with more popcorn.

Only 27 minutes to go!

Morning snuck up on me. I wasn’t ready to wake up or get out of bed, but I did. I took a few minutes to wake up by reading a couple blogs and then I got my butt in gear to workout.

I attempted to do the Ultimate Calorie Burner workout by The Firm. I could barely keep up with the warm up let alone the actual workout. I will screen the other 2 workouts sometime over the next few weeks.

After giving up on that video (I probably did 10 minutes worth) I got on my recumbent stationary bike for 5 minutes. Then I got bored and moved to the elliptical machine. I got bored with it after 5 minutes too. To finish out my half hearted workout I got on the floor and did 20 bicycle crunches while Piper licked my face. Very distracting.

This is our workout/video game area.

Despite the lameness of my workout I did break a sweat. I am so out of shape.

Post-workout me. Icky early morning photo. Not sure why I am posting it.

After my workout I got a little over ambitious on what all I wanted to tackle before work. First I threw in a load of laundry and then I decided to turn the remaining Lentil-Tomato sauce from last week into a minestrone wanna-be soup so it would be ready for lunch today. I also had to hop in the shower/get ready and pack snacks and decide on/make breakfast.

While contemplating what to make for breakfast I decided to munch on a banana.

I have never been a banana eater. Ever. I just thought that I would give them another shot this morning. I got down 1/4 of it before I bagged it up in a ziploc and put it in the fridge.

Due to a lack of any better ideas I made an English muffin pizza for breakfast.

1/2 english muffin, 1 tbsp TJ’s pizza sauce, 1 turkey bacon strip cooked and crumbled, a bit of diced yellow bell pepper and some colby jack cheese.

I just threw it under the broiler to warm and melt cheese. It was really good. I scarfed it down once I got to work.

Around 9 I felt the fog descending on my brain. My tummy had been rumbling a bit so I decided to munch on an apple to see if it would help. It totally did. I felt so much better after I ate it.

Magic apple?

Wednesday morning are my conference call morning. The can go from 10:30 til noon sometimes. I decided to have another snack before my calls. I was genuinely feeling hungry when I decided to eat something. Since I was craving something salty I grabbed my peanut and cashew mix.

I also popped open a  Coke before I went into my meeting. I have 3 or 4 more in the pack to finish and then I am going to work harder on kicking the habit. I just can’t stand to waste the money.

Now I am hungry again and it is time for lunch.

Argh.

I am exhausted this morning. I feel like a total zombie. Brian must have been anxious last night because he obviously couldn’t sleep. He got out of bed at 3:30 AM, and the light sleeper that I am woke up when he left. Then he must have decided he was bored and wanted to go ahead and get ready for work because he came back into our room to get to the bathroom to take a shower and such around 5. A little late he had to come into the room to rummage through his drawers. And he was out the door around 5:30.

All of this early morning activity waking me up have left me exhausted and seriously lacking focus. I mean I haven’t been my usually focused self over the past few week, but that means I don’t have any to spare. And work has felt particularly tedious this morning.

Ick. I hate feeling this way.

However, I am proud to say that I did not use my early morning wake ups as an excuse not to exercise. I did get up and do the Upper Body and Ab workout from the same DVD as yesterday. I did not push myself as hard as I could have though.

After getting ready it was time for breakfast. I had 1/2 English muffin with 1/2 wedge Laughing Cow, 1 tbsp hummus, and 2 slices of turkey.

I gave up on trying to take a good pic after the 5th try so I would actually have time to eat. As you can see, I also had some Mott’s Healthy Harvest No Sugar Added Summer Strawberry Applesauce.

After forcing myself to finish my bottle of water I cracked open a caffeine fix.

Right now I am wishing a have a 2 Liter and a giant straw. Or I wish I thought the taste of coffee was tolerable, then I could get my caffeine kick without all of the sugar. Plus, honestly, I like the bubbles.

My stomach started grumbling and no time and I ate a Fuji apple.

And my stomach is still grumbling, further distracting me from my work.

What do you do to get your focus back?

Last Night I told you I was going to make an effort to get up early to work out. And I did it! I am so proud of myself.

Normally I have my alarm set to go off so that I can snooze twice before I have to get up. I did the same last night but set the time about 45 minutes earlier. I did snooze twice, as usual, and spent a few minutes in my warm cozy bed arguing with myself about whether or not to get up.

I did some prep work last night. I thought I was going to be really ambitious and do part of of a The Firm workout video that I have had collecting dust for several years. I was definitely intimidated just watching it, and I wasn’t sure I would have the coordination to do the workout first thing after I got out of bed. I opted for an easier video to ease me into my morning workouts.

I used the pre-set lower body workout on Denise Austin’s Hit the Spot – Five 10 Minute Target Toners video. It was a nice, not to intense way to try to start getting into a morning workout routine. I am so out of shape that it did offer a challenge and I do have plenty of other at-home workout options that I can grow into once I get used to getting up earlier and working out on a regular basis.

I am hoping I have the discipline and motivation to keep it up.

After working out I was starving. I toasted a whole English muffin and had it 2 ways.

First I had half with 1/2 wedge of laughing cow, hummus, and bell pepper strips and half with PB&J. As you can see I was a little messy with the grape jelly.

This was so yummy, but I wish I had added more protein because it didn’t take too long for me to get hungry again.

So I had an apple.

I am still starving though so I need to get something else to hold me over til lunch. Looks like my options are Kashi Honey Sesame crackers, Peanuts and Cashews, or popcorn. Hmm….