I’m not dead

Hi all-Happy Frickin Friday! So I’m up and running again and so happy. My settings were set to private when I looked yesterday morning (don’t recall changing this though?) and throughout yesterday and today, I would try to change it and nothing. Frustration. Thanks to everyone who checked up on me though, I would never block y’all for my blog 🙂

Speed Street is going on in Uptown Charlotte now-it’s a three day street festival dedicated to Nascar since there is some race during Memorial Wknd. They have vendors, live music, cars ……lots of them and endlessly roaring their engines. Normally, I wouldn’t care. But when all of this is four floors below me, it’s annoying. The bass from the music was so loud my windows were rattling and I thought there was a bomb going off or something. And we had two people out of the office yesterday so I was covering my work plus someone else’s, trying to keep my sanity with that and my blog not working while avoiding a headache, so yeah, unhappy day.

I had a Venti Skim Carmel Macchiato yesterday because hey, I needed it (ok and had a free drink coupon to the Bucks)

OMG, I haven’t had an iced one since I lived in Phoenix four years ago and it was just as good as a I remembered it! Moderation though is key, I do not need this every day and don’t need to be taking in 300 calories from something I can drink.

Breakfast was an AMAZING wrap—eggwhites, feta, roasted zucchini, potatoes and mushrooms topped with ketchup

This was tasty and it kept me full for a loooong time. Which was good since I didn’t have lunch to 2P–thanks work. Lunch was leftover-baked chicken with hummus and feta with roasted zucchini, squash, potato and mushrooms.

I love having plates at work now. I don’t feel like an animal just eating my lunch from a plastic container. And pink is so happy 🙂

I came home, blog still not working, which made me even more frustrated than the day left me. I picked up a box of Trader Joe’s Three Grain Blend the other night because I was out of rice and wanted to make risotto since I’ve never made it before.

I was happy and excited—I started grilled up some mushrooms in the meantime (can you tell I like the shroomies?) and took it out of the box and found this.

I didn’t expect it to be all in one block, I just thought it would be normal rice so I was kinda bummed since I didn’t want to make the whole thing because I am one girl who can only eat so much of one thing (greek yogurt,avocados and Mexican food excluded). Plus I wasn’t sure if risotto would freeze well, anyone know?

Since the shrooms were already grilling and I had black beans in the fridge, I decided to go with my old stand by of tacos.

Delicious! Last night was nothing special, I hung out, took a bubble, tried to comment on blogs but that wasn’t even happening and ended up going to bed early so I could get a good night’s sleep. I wasn’t sure if my teammate would be back in the office so I didn’t know what kind of day to expect.

This morning, I had Yoplait Greek Yogurt, Trader Joe’s Very Cherry Blend and Blueberry Flax for breakfast

Today wasn’t bad at all. My teammate was back in so I didn’t have to cover his work, my desk was slow (due to a bunch of people being out on Friday so not alot of work coming my way) and it was just relaxing for once. Very rarely do I get to say that about work. The hippies were out but not in their normal spot due to Speed Street so I had a Hippie Search going on and picked up some peaches, apples, zucchini, onion, avocado and red peppers.

I got to take my first real lunch break and went with a co-worker to explore Speed Street. The two things iI do like about it is the

 A) Fair food! They have nachos, fries, turkey legs, gyros, philly cheese steaks, crab cakes, hot dogs, etc.

B) Freebies–a bunch of different companies set up booths and give away free stuff. Being the frugal girl I am, it’s my favorite part of the madness

I’ve been talking about the gyros all week-long to everyone at work and how excited I was to have one.

Looks good right?

No. Worst Gyro EVER. It wasn’t lamb meat, it was steak like the kind in a philly cheesesteak with no flavor yet lots of grease. The tzatsiki sauce had no flavor either, it was just sour cream or yogurt and it was so greasy it fell apart. I am pissed about my aspirations for the gyro and the $8 I spent when I could have walked across the street to Showmar’s and get one plus fries for $6.

I did however, get a lot of swag.

There was a sausage stand which I may have stopped at a few times. They were giving out free sausage samples and pork roast samples and it was absolutely delicious. I think it was Smithfield’s? Anyways, I decided if I ever decided to open up a male brothel, it shall be named “The Sausage Stand” . The rest of the afternoon was slow and I got a bunch of stuff done. I was counting down the minutes until I could catch the first bus out of there. I worked 8 hours OT this wk so I had no problem whatsoever with leaving early.

I made a HUGE dinner tonight because I was famished from the half-eaten gyro. I started off with a cucumber and tomato salad with oil and vinegar topped with feta

Ever since I saw Mo’s Pretzel Coated Chicken recipe, I’ve been dreaming of it all week.

I used Ken’s Lite Honey Mustard to coat the chicken since I was feeling something creamy (that’s what she said) and crushed up some Snyder’s pretzels and served with, what else…zucchini, squash, potato and mushrooms!

This was fabulous. It was like comfort food but so easy to make and not too bad for you. I get so bored with chicken breasts that I love any recipe that will mix it up a bit.

I had an awesome strength training session tonight.

Kettlebell

• Upright Deltoid Row (13 reps, 3 sets)
• Shrug (13 reps, 2 sets)
• Side Bends (13 reps, 3 sets)
• Straight Leg Deadlifts (13 reps, 3 sets)
• Bentover Row (13 reps, 2 sets)

Dumbbell -10 lb

• Shoulder Press (13 reps, 3 sets)
• Lateral Raise (13 reps, 2 sets)
• Bench Press (13 reps, 2 sets)
• Concentration Curls (13 reps, 2 sets)

Misc

• 30 pushups
• Three sets of planks
• Jumping side to side in between workouts

Like I said, awesome workout and nice burn!

I felt really energized after and started to think that I used to go to the gym and mindlessly hop on the elliptical and not even burn that much nor feel challenged at all. I am so happy not going to a gym anymore because I feel like I’m not wasting money on it and have found new ways to work out and challenge myself.

I went to Goodwill afterwards in search of a backpack. Weather permitting, I am going on a four-hour hike on Sunday and wanted something to keep all my stuff in and I haven’t had a backpack since high school so it was time to shop for one. No way was I going to spend $30 on one so Goodwill it was! Not only did I get a backpack for $3, I got two fun plates I can bring to work (you will be seeing these in the future!) AND a new oversized red microfiber chair and matching rolling ottoman—-for $70!! I forgot my camera and didn’t have my phone in the store but the chair is gorgeous and super comfy. I didn’t have room to take it home in my car so I called a friend and she is going to help me with it in the morning since she has an SUV. So happy—pics to come!

I stopped at McD’s on the way home since I was dragging on got a Medium Iced Coffee with Cream and Two Splendas. And now I am going to be wired!!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous start to the long wknd 🙂