Calorie Sch-malorie

Someone tell me I'm not the only one who obsesses about beverages that have calories? I'm a water drinking fool. I pretty much always drink water because it has no calories! Next up would be hot and iced teas. I often drink these without sweetener, but sometimes I use a little honey to help with my allergies. After all, there are only 20 calories in a teaspoon of honey. I also have been drinking a good amount of kombucha. It has calories, but not as many as soda, and it has health benefits so I look at it as okay. Then comes the dreaded diet soda. I try not to drink these, but there's usually one a week that slips in. On my jam packed busy weeks with super early mornings, there are probably a few more. I also drink lattes on occasion. These are usually first thing in the am on my jam packed busy weeks with super early mornings following up with diet soda to keep the caffeine buzz. Yes, lattes have [skim] milk in them, but milk is good for the body so I'm okay with those calories.

But now beverages that contain calories freak me out. It is very very very very rare I will ever drink a real soda and here's why - the whole time I'm drinking it the only thing I can think about is this is 160 calories and 60 grams of sugar! I drink sports drinks before/after a big run, like my half marathon when I know I'm gonna burn 1,300 calories and need the electrolytes, but I not just on a daily basis. Now do I think about calories when I'm drinking my large glass of wine? Nah, that's a "health" beverage. ;-) But sodas, juices, flavored waters, sports drinks all give me I'm drinking calories anxiety. Anyone else out there? I know I can't be the only one!

I am a real person though and as I've said before I'm not always healthy. I may straight up be drinking a diet coke while eating gummy bears at the same time. I'm scared to drink my calories, but not afraid to eat them. Or as I discussed in Monday's post about being a Weekend Warrior - alcohol has no calories, right? I guess what I'm saying is I shouldn't fear the beverage calories and remember to eat/drink everything in moderation. If someone hands me a latte made with whole milk I should enjoy it as a special treat and know that it's not something I have on regular basis. So here's to calories in moderation! Cheers!

Looking for some Free Stuff? Check out these blogs for some giveaways.

Lara at Thinspired is giving away Attune granola
Travel Eat Love is giving away an entire case of Honest Tea
The Emily of Emily Eats Clean is giving away 6 boxes of Truvia sweetener.

Now for yesterdays EATS!

Because I was so stressed yesterday I didn't really eat much. My yogurt sat on my desk all morning and I never touched it. I still wasn't hungry when I went home for lunch but I made this for lunch anyway. Veggie burger on whole wheat English muffin, with Dijon aioli, spinach, and half a Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie pack.

Back in the office I had some kombucha

After work I headed home and knew I was in need of some comfort food. I pulled a pot roast out of the freezer and put it back into the crock-pot, after I thawed it under cold water of course. I then headed off to the gym where I did 25 minutes on the elliptical and then an hour long vinyasa yoga class. I felt sooooo good after that class. I came home and the house was full of warm pot roast. Mmmmmm! I had some of my amazing grass-wanna-be while I made some Cauli-mashers to go with my pot roast.

Cauli-Mashers
2 large russet potatoes, peeled, diced
1/2 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup of grated cheese

Bring potatoes and cauliflower to a boil, cook until tender. Strain out water and then put cauliflower and potatoes in a mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.

That's all for now friends. My schedule is going to be really crazy this month with lots of travel and a stay-cation with my best-ies! Then I'll be traveling to San Fran and then on to Denver for work. I'll try my best to keep up with my eats, but I have a feeling now it's going to be a crazy month! So bare with me. :-)

It's Friday, yay!

Yay for Fridays, only catch... I gotta work tomorrow! I have a 6:45am flight to St. Louis. Since I'm working over the weekend, I could've taken today off, but in the sake of overtime paychecks, I went in for a half day. I split from the office at noon and came home to make this yummy veggie sandwich!

7 grain bread, Laughing Cow wedge, Wholly Guacamole 100 calorie pack, banana peppers, red onion, cucumber, roasted red pepper and spinach. I've been trying to clean out my fridge all week since I leaving town tomorrow which is why so many of my meals have been the same this week. I love it either way tho!

With the afternoon off, I took advantage of the beautiful weather to plant this gal. I'm naming her Hope! As in I Hope you grow this summer into something yummy. She's in the shade at the moment but in another month or so when the sun is higher in the sky she will have sun all day long. More Vegas sun then she might ever want.

Productive, yet again!

I was amazed and excited by everything I was able to complete today! Finally after lots of travel and work I'm beginning to feel caught up on life for the first time in 2 months! And just in time to go back out of town early Saturday morning... Fun while it lasted!

Lunch today was a turkey sandwich. I started with 2 slices of 7 grain bread, 1 laughing cow wedge, a 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole, banana pepper and balsamic vinegar soaked red onions.

Then I added 3oz of turkey and some baby spinach. End result was... YUMMMM!

I also had some tortilla chips and salsa to go with the extra guac! Lunch was delish, but afterwards my breath was kickin! Good thing I was at home! :-)

I fit in an hour of yoga this evening and plus 30 minutes on the elliptical. I am having a wine tasting party tomorrow, so I spent most of the evening prepping for my guest tomorrow.

I preped these sausage and spinach stuffed mushrooms. I cooked Jimmy Dean sausage for the first time ever. I was a little weirded out at first, but then realized it was a lot like ground beef, just a lot fattier.

Then I mixed about half the sausage with 10oz of spinach and 1/2 c of parmesan and stuffed them into a these little mushroom caps.

I'm excited to see how these turn out tomorrow! I also prepped the dough for mini pizzas. Oh I also found these Dark Chocolate Covered Chili Hazelnuts at Trader Joe's today, probably had a 1/2 dozen of those along with a glass of wine while I was cooking. Excited tomorrow is Friday and I'm only working a half day!

Enjoying my week!

This week has been great so far. I'm loving the weather we've been having here in Las Vegas!

My day in the office has been a breeze as well! I haven't really had any work to do, so I've been surfing the internet and catching up on blogs, and discovering new ones.

For lunch I went home and made this salad to enjoy in the sun on the patio!

In the mix we have spinach, sauteed balsamic soaked red onions, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole and blue cheese crumbles. I drizzled it with balsamic vinegar but the flavors were all so powerful, it really didn't need anything added.

I enjoyed my salad in the sun listening to the calming sound of my fountain. It was a nice, peaceful lunch and it felt great to sit in the sun and get some Vitamin D!