Good fats

My last global economics class was today. I'm at once excited to have my life back for a few weeks and sad that my class has ended. Weird, I think this has been my favorite class so far. I still have the exam to do and a peer review. I'm considering completing the exam tomorrow just to be done. We'll see, because I'm also looking forward to enjoying a weekend day of not doing schoolwork for a change.

Anyhow, I was thinking about writing about fish oil tonight in hopes that it might help me to remember to take mine...then I got to thinking about what I eat a lot of and don't know about. I thought, flaxseeds! I was reading about them a little and thought, no, I write about poop enough. Let's save it for another time. How about magnesium? Well, that's used as a laxative. Calcium? Boring. Melatonin? Snore. And so it comes back around to fish oil. Sorta. Well, Omega 3 fatty acids.

We all need fat in our diet. It should just be the 'right' fat. For example, we should completely avoid trans-fats (anything hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated). Trans fats are man-made fats and raise our bad cholesterol levels, contributing to heart disease. In other words, if you see these on your food product label, set down the food product and step away. Never look back. And with that, I've just eaten my last bag of my favorite microwave popcorn...

So what are good fats? Omega 3s of course!! What do they do and where can you get them?? Omega 3s help to boost the chemicals in our bodies that reduce inflammation, boost our immune systems, dilate our arteries, improve the body's ability to respond to insulin by stimulating the release of leptin, and prevent our blood from clotting, thus reducing the risk of heart disease. They do other stuff, but I thought these were interesting. Remember leptin? Yeah, that's good stuff! The reducing inflammation, that translates into pain reduction and does a lot of work in our joints...again good stuff!

So where do we get Omega 3s? Well, all the egg producers seem to be advertising that eggs have them, but the egg industry is suspect in my eyes...have you seen the way they treat the laying hens? (I'm not going to provide a link because it's too graphic and horrible and this is a food blog, not an animal rights or political blog.)

OK, so where can you find Omega 3s that's not an egg? Well, walnuts, flaxseeds, salmon...wait a minute, I thought I decided not to write about fish oil and flaxseeds....guess I lied. Hmmm, these are the top 3 sources of Omega 3. Guess it's time to start remembering the fish oil nightly! You can also get Omega 3s in olive oil, winter squash and beans (soy, navy and kidney). Sounds like a bunch of stuff that I already eat have Omega 3s! How about you?

Mmmmm, Panera!

OK, this is not the salad I had today...mine did not have mushrooms or spaghetti squash, but did have a hard boiled egg.

I couldn't resist the fro-yo with fresh fruit!

See how well my friend J takes care of me? She grilled up some chicken and potatoes and made a salad for dinner. I brought the veggie kabobs.

Slips and dips

Wow!!! I feel good tonight!!! See, exercise does that to me!

I had a number of challenges today. First, I ate a cookie, a yummy sweet sugary biscuit cookie with a sugary heaven cream center. It was imported from England, so it was OK...you know, for the Royal Wedding. Regardless, gotta deal with the cravings now. Second challenge, my work-out. Boxing class with abs work-out. Me: fat and out of shape. Boxing and abs workout: incredibly difficult painful and all around fun. Third challenge, dinner in a restaurant. Luckily the restaurant was a steakhouse...steakhouses are usually easy to eat healthy in. I did have a little slip with a dip though...

I love my boxing classes! And I made plans to go to a total body conditioning class on Monday night...that one's gonna hurt. Anyway, going to boxing was like going home! I only get to go during semester breaks, so I look forward to it all the time. My friend G was there tonight and we had a little catch-up time. After class, the instructor and another woman and I went out to eat at a steakhouse. Here's the thing, I went off my plan a little, but stayed mostly on. My body is in some pain tonight and it's gonna be worse in a day or two. I love this kind of pain. It feels like a job well done, like hard work, like accomplishment.

For breakfast; oatmeal, eggs with hot sauce and a sausage pattie....I had my morning coffee earlier

The offending cookie paying homage to the happy couple.

Greek salad and black bean soup from Panera. They forgot my bread, but not really a big deal. I acutally ate about 1/2 of the soup because it got cold.

So, this is what's called an 'Onion Loaf'...it comes with a spicy mayonnaise dip. This was a shared appetizer, there were 3 of us sharing it.

The Greek Village Salad...I didn't eat the dressing and I added the carrots from my instructor's salad.

I ordered a 5oz filet...that didn't look like a 5oz filet, so I only ate 1/2 of it. I scarfed down the broccoli though!

Art and eating

OK, insane fast post, I have to get up early tomorrow...

Tonight I went to the MFA to listen to a lecture by Linda Nochlin. Haven't heard of her? Well, she's one of the THE TOP art historians of our time and at least of the books I had to read in college. Well, her books were all about the periods that I'm not fond of, so I didn't really like them. However, she was funny tonight! She gave a lecture about 19th Century Realists and their depictions of misery. I know, not an easy subject to make jokes about.

Anyway, after the lecture, I took the opportunity to wander the museum, I haven't seen the new wing yet. The place was practically empty and I had it all to myself. What a treat! These are the most beautiful galleries I have ever seen! Paintings were hung salon style and the walls themselves were red and textured or blue or beige or lavendar...Just beautiful. A friend of mine is a guard there. He said that Thursday nights are usually pretty slow...guess where I want to go next Thursday night!

On the downside, I skipped dinner to go to the museum tonight. When I got home, I was starving, my blood sugar was low...I caved. I got a roast beef sandwich with all the toppings from Kelly's Roast Beef. The sandwich alone wouldn't bee so bad, but I topped it with cheese fries with bacon.

Lots of raspberries today!

Normal salad with some chicken for protein

Orange for a snack

Bad gross never want to eat it again loved every bit take-out from Kelly's. Roast beef with cheese, BBQ, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles...

Healthy is the new unhealthy?

I was reading tonight about orthorexia...some call this a new eating disorder others say it's not. OK, maybe it is, maybe it's not, that's not the point of this post. Orthorexia is defined simply as an unhealthy obsession with eating, or as righteous eating. It starts when someone has a general desire to eat healthy, so she cuts out red meat. Eventually, this evolves in to some obsession where she can only eat food that she deems is healthy or 'right'. Notice that I said 'she deems is healthy or right'. This is because practitioners of orthorexia may come up with some eating rules that sound pretty out there to some of the rest of us.

I guess the point is that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing (kind of like with soy!). Anytime that we embark upon a new food plan, it's important to remember that a balanced diet is important and that all or nothing rules are probably not a good thing. This also speaks to the elusive Vitamin X...that whatever that's in food that scientists can't put their finger on. When we restrict our diets too much, we are probably losing out on vitamins and minerals that are essential to our total health.

I'm not a doctor and certainly not a nutrition expert, but anything that's all or nothing doesn't seem normal to me. I know that when I go completely without sugar, going back on it is like snapping the rubber band. I yo-yo between extremes and don't have a middle ground. I'm not a person who would be comfortable cutting out carbs or meat or fat or dairy or anything completely. I am a person who desires a well-rounded diet with a goal of general health. I do subscribe to Michael Pollan's food manifesto of Eat Food, Not too Much, Mostly Plants. That doesn't mean that I'll never go to McDonald's again though. (By the way, I have not eaten McDonalds in almost 5 years...except for one egg mcmuffin when there was no other dining choice.)

Standard regular breakfast...Uncle Sam cereal (10 grams of fiber!), berries, hard-boiled egg and skim milk.

Salad!! Lettuce, tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumbers, celery, carrots, red cabbage and some chicken.



I had an apple for a snack on my way home...

And for dinner, thin sliced chicken breast cooked with olive oil, steamed broccoli and basmati rice with a little bit of butter.


I also ate 3 slices of pepperoni....and popcorn.

The sanity work-out

Today was the first sane-feeling day I've had in a very long time. Amazing. Work was busy, but it felt like something was missing...the drama and insanity of having school on my mind and trying to work at the same time. Nope, today was different. Today, all I had to worry about during the day was work and then going for a run in the evening. Today is the first day of getting back to working out...a minimum of 3 times a week, just like I said!

Today's run was approximately 2 miles, not too long and not too far. I went with J and we pace each other pretty well. She pushes me when I want to walk and I push her to keep going beyond how long she thought she could go. She keeps me from pushing too hard too. It's funny, she told me that she'd like to be in my shape when she's my age...I've got over 10 years and 20 pounds on her. I'd like to be in the shape I was two years ago! That's OK, I can work on that after grad school. My jiggly butt, that's my MBA!!

So, today was my first workout of the week. I've got plans to go to boxing class on Friday night and I'll bring my gym stuff to work tomorrow. If I don't workout tomorrow, then I've still got Thursday and Sunday. I've said it before, right now, exercise isn't about losing weight. It's not about toning or training or strength or anything like that. Simple fact, I feel better when I exercise. I feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Yes. Spiritually. When I say spiritually, I mean at peace, calm, serene. There's a quiet in my head that isn't there at other times. And perhaps best of all, I don't have as a great a desire to eat crap when I exercise.

Breakfast was a little different today. Oatmeal, fresh fruit, a hard-boiled egg and cafe americano.

A little snack before lunch...this is actually yesterday's yogurt photo.

Salad, as usual, but I don't know what that bready stuff was. I took one bite and threw it out. It was probably the most disgusting starch I had ever attempted to put into my body. I changed up the salad a little too, I put some olive oil and red wine vinegar on it.

Mmmmm, steamed broccoli, the last of the chicken and madras curry, basmati rice and a piece of kalmata olive bread with butter. You know you love to bake when there's plenty of butter in the house, but none of it has salt...


No popcorn tonight, my friends.

It's how you get to Carnegie Hall

Good news!!! My presentation on investing in the auto industry in Eastern Europe is done!!!! I basically have no schoolwork to do this week!!!!! All I have left of the semester is class on Saturday morning and a two hour exam to take before May 13th. My Summer classes begin in the last week of May. You know what that means?? 4 weeks of being able to exercise!!!!!!! I can't wait. I'm going to plan to go to a couple of boxing classes and tomorrow evening (weather permitting), I'm planning on running outside!!

I wish exercise gave me license to eat sugar...whether I'm working out or not, I know how difficult it is to stop eating sugar. If I start, I don't know if I could stop in time for classes to begin for the summer. Best to not start. Best to stick to what I'm doing. It's not perfect, but it's working. Nope, no sugar as a celebration. As a celebration, I'm going skydiving!! Yup. I'm going skydiving on May 21st and I can't wait.

It's funny, I was just remarking to someone that I've been learning a lot about myself lately. Grad school is really presenting a set of challenges that I never thought I'd want to take, let alone live up to. And each time, I learn a little something more that helps me perform better the next time. This semester has really shown me what I'm made of, how to work in a group and how recognize and trust the talents of others. Each time I have to work in a group, it gets easier and more intuitive. Each time I have to present in front of my class, it gets easier and I'm less nervous. It's all about practice, practice, practice. Just like first dates and job interviews are practice practice practice.

It's how we improve and eventually excel. It's how we test out what we may want to do. It's how we take an idea and apply it in the 'real world'. I really hate that expression. The 'real world'. As if I've been living in some made up John Hughes movie in Shermer, Illinois. Anyway, just like I practice presenting in front of my class, I try out new behaviors in group projects, I practice new behaviors at work and with friends. I practice so that I can become the person that I want to be, the person who my cat thinks I am, the friend that some of you think I am, or the daughter or co-worker or classmate or whoever. It's how we become who we will be.

Yup, Uncle Sam cereal (3/4 cup, 10 grams of fiber!), approx. 1 cup skim milk, 1 hard boiled egg and a grande americano.

Yogurt time!!

Big ol' salad and two stuffed grape leaves...yeah, two. I ate one before taking the picture. So, I did a little something different with my salad...green peas!

And for dinner, chicken with madras curry, basmati rice and 1/2 a baked sweet potato. heavy on starch...but yummy.


And popcorn for a snack...

Perfection is as perfection does

What a weekend!! Full of school, school and more school!! Tonight, I took a break to have dinner with a couple of close friends. As part of the discussion, one of my friends commented that I hold myself to extremely high standards. She's right, I do. It's weird though, I'm not competitive with anyone but myself. I don't mind if you're better at something than I am, that just means that you're showing me what I can strive for. I'm easily frustrated though, when I don't perform at a level that I know I'm capable of. In this sense, I'm a perfectionist. I don't have to be perfect in your eyes, just in my own.

That's why, what I'm about to tell you is, well, shocking. Tonight, I'm choosing a good night's sleep over perfection. You see, my group project presentation is tomorrow evening. It's worth something like 20% of my grade for the class. Pretty important. But you know what? I'm tired. No, not tired, exhausted. I don't get enough sleep because I stay up too late, not because I've got too much on my mind, or anxiety or insomnia, or anything like that. Nope, just because I don't go to bed early enough.

Sleep affects hormone levels and hormone levels affect weight gain and loss. Besides, I've been practicing the damn presentation all day. I still don't have it right. Staying up late isn't going to help, but a good night's sleep might. It's actually been shown that sleep deprived people perform worse in memory tasks than non-sleep deprived people. That being said, I'm going to bed.

Look familiar? It should, it's yesterday's breakfast...no worries, I ate the same thing this morning.

Greek salad and baguette from Panera, and low-fat chicken noodle soup from Shaw's (grocery store). The soup wasn't bad!

Yummy summer rolls and peanut sauce!! I didn't eat all of them, just most. That's carrot, cucumber, vermicelli and basil wrapped in rice paper. I'm sure there's sugar in the peanut sauce, but I'm not sure it's enough to worry about it setting off a craving.

Pineapple curry with beef and brown rice---ok, the curry was made with coconut milk (YUM!) and I ate all the vegetables and the pineapple. I left about 1/2 the beef.  I ate a little less than 1/2 of the rice as well.

Berry Freeze!!!! Ok, this is not stock food footage...this is the actual frozen plain yogurt underneath the berries and mango that I bought and ate tonight.


No popcorn tonight!!!

Yup, another quickie!

Hey there! I had a great day today, topped off with computer/printer issues. Grrrr. Anyway, long story short, I did really well sticking to my food plan. The best news though....I have gotten back into the habit of weighing myself AND have consistently weighed in three pounds lighter all week long! Not sure if I'm just lucky, or if cutting sweets is actually having an effect....I'm choosing to believe that cutting sweets is making a difference.

Did you know that it's normal for our weight to fluctuate daily? By time of day, by whether we've eaten or gone to the bathroom or what clothes/shoes/jewelry we are wearing. Our weight can easily fluctuate within a 10 pound range! For me, I weigh myself at roughly the same time daily, after going to the bathroom, before eating anything and wearing the same thing. Because I know my weight will fluctuate, I generally want to see three days in the same week at a lower weight before I'll consider it actual weight loss. But that's just me, I haven't read or been told that this is a good, or even common rule of thumb.

OK, it was my last banana and it was on it's last legs...and it was yummy!

Yup! Panera for breakfast! In case you don't remember, that's 2% milk in the cappuccino (you can tell 'cause there's foam) and fruit salad from the grocery.

Interesting side bit, the young woman who waits on me in the morning has begun seeing a nutritionist to gain weight. Her nutritionist wants her to eat 3000 calories per day...a perfect eating day for me is roughly 1200!

Panera's Greek salad for lunch...I ended up eating about 2/3 of it since I was working on schoolwork at the same time.

I did have a skinny vanilla latte with the salad as well.

Great dinner! A thin-sliced chicken breast, 1/2 baked sweet potato with some of last night's curry as a topping and green peas. Satisfying!


And then, there's the nightly popcorn...

Just a quickie

OK, just a really quick post for tonight, I'm exhausted. Today was a weird eating day. It started with a pancake breakfast for one of my classes where we discussed decision making in coalitions. Then, it was a co-workers birthday and we had a pizza party. Last, I was craving Indian food. Weird.

Sorry about the quality of the photo, I had to use my phone...pancakes with butter and syrup, and strawberries with cream! Soooooo not on the food plan.

I promised my self that I'd eat lots/all veggies for the rest of the day.

OK, first let me say that I did NOT eat three pieces of pizza. I ate one, but forgot to take the picture. My boss and co-workers thought I was nuts taking a picture of the leftover pizza!

See, I did go make a big salad for some veggies...and added a little couscous.

And Madras curry, chicken, basmati rice, broccoli, corn and a slice of kalmata olive bread. The curry is from Seeds of Change...yummy and spicy!!



On my way home, I caved and bought more popcorn...

Drink up!

It's just that time of year...I leave work brain dead each day and still have more to do in the evenings and I need full mental capacity for it. Exactly the kind of day where having a food plan (and sticking to it) comes in handy. I did OK today, not great, but OK. You'll see...

Anyway, Spring is the 'busy' time for me at work. It often requires working overtime and during normal business hours, I spend most of my day in direct communication with students and their families on the phone, in person, and over e-mail. Today, it was talking on the phone and in person. It's amazing how thirsty you get when you talk all day!!

Obviously, we all want to stay hydrated, so how much water should we drink each day?? I used to think it was 8 glasses (64oz). I read recently that you should just listen to your body and drink when you're thirsty. OK, that seems reasonable. The same article, however, stated that it was acceptable to get your water from caffeinated beverages and food. I can see getting water from food, if you eat  enough vegetables (they're mostly water). What I don't subscribe to is getting water from caffeinated beverages. Maybe some of you can, but I know how much caffeinated beverages dry me right out.

So what is the right amount? Well, like so many answers that I give to my students and their families, 'that depends.' You see, your body's requirement for water may be different than mine. Our bodies lose water when we sweat, when we breathe, when pee, when we poop...you get the idea. We lose water whenever we do anything. So how much water you need depends on how much water you lose each day.

Our bodies are roughly 60% water...it's amazing we don't just float away! We need to maintain that level of water so that we don't become dehydrated. Even mild dehydration can drain our energy. Besides, our bodies need water to function. It does so much for us! Water regulates our body temperature, dissolves minerals so that our body can use them, prevents constipation, flushes out waste products and so much more!

But just like soy, there is such a thing as too much. Water intoxication is when you drink soooooo much water, that you dilute all your electrolytes to the point that they can't do their jobs. What are their jobs? Electrolytes are salt ions that our cells use to move fluid and nerve messages into and out of cells. In case you didn't know, our nerve messages are those little things that our brain sends out to tell the rest of our body what to do. You know, like breathe and stuff like that. So, if our electrolytes can't do their jobs, stuff like our lungs don't know to do theirs.

Unless you're being hazed, water intoxication is pretty rare, so don't worry. You do, however, need to stay hydrated so that your body can function properly. The 8 glasses a day rule of thumb is a good one. If you are someone who loses a lot of water, drink more, but replace your electrolytes too!

Today was not one of my best...I brought my fruit, bought milk and forgot my cereal at home.

LUNCH!! I missed my snack, was cranky, overtired and just generally out of sorts. I couldn't resist the mac and cheese, so I got just a small portion.

Admittedly, this was not today's salad (which I had for dinner), but it looks really similar. I ended up eating about 1/2 and was pretty hungry by the time I got home. I was craving something carb-y and fatty and yummy.

My crave-snack when I got home...I couldn't stand the cravings any longer.

Groundhog Day??

Wow! Today was one giant repeat of yesterday. Waited too long to eat, was cranky and craved junk food...this time it was pizza or a roast beef sandwich from Kelly's, or mac and cheese or a burrito....the list goes on.

Once again, though, I triumphed! I stuck to my food plan. I even managed to NOT have popcorn tonight...although I did have about 1/2 a cup of mixed nuts (mostly cashews).

 Standard, regular breakfast. No surprises.

My banana looks much more beat up than it actually was.











Insert lunch picture here....Sorry, I forgot to take a photo. I was my usual big salad. I thought of taking a photo of the empty container, but that would've been silly.

And lastly, healthy dinner!

SUCCESS!!!








In other news, I finally bought that tape measure that my nutritionist wanted me to use to measure my waist. I'm not going to report my findings, but they were NOT good. Unfortunately, a goal of losing weight is not overly realistic for me right now. However, after my race this past weekend, I've decided to commit myself to a minimum of 3 workouts per week once I get past my group project presentation for class. Unfortunately, I can only make this commitment during my class break between semesters. The presentation is on Monday night, the 25th, so less than a week away. My hope is to run 3 times a week, a minimum of 3 miles each night. I start summer classes at the end of May, so I really only have a few weeks until I'm overwhelmed with classes again...wish me luck. I'll report my work-out goal progress as well as my food progress here. I'll rely on all of you for encouragement and to help keep me on track. Thanks in advance!

There's never enough time

Do you ever feel like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it?? Welcome to my day. I had hoped to get so much done. I should know by now, that someone or something 'out there' has different plans for me. No, I'm not religious, but I know that I don't control everything. Afterall, I've tried to stop a wave in the ocean. What more proof do I need that I can't control everything? You catch my drift. Anyway, my day didn't go as planned. Here's the crappy part about this, I'm a planner. Yup! I'm a planner and a control freak. Don't all freak out on me at once, I know it's a shocker.

When things don't go according to plan, I feel stressed. Right now, I have a couple of deadlines on the horizon that are cranking that stress up to 11. And no, I've never seen the movie. I have some work deadlines and some school deadlines. See, I'm just one of those people who get worked up easily. I don't know why, I just am. You know how some people just seem to be able to go with the flow, no matter what happens they don't break a sweat? Yeah, that's just not me. Never has been.

Today was kinda strange, but not unprecedented. I was busy busy busy working away at the grindstone that is my cushy desk job. The weather outside my two gi-normous office windows was crappy. There were no birds flitting around in the trees and singing. As someone else wrote today, it was craptastic. Ok, so working away, fingers to the bone kinda thing and I forget to eat. I'm insanely aware of how hungry I am, but the phone doesn't stop ringing, the e-mails keep coming and there's this HUGE stack of neon pink files on my desk! No, really, neon pink files. Ok, so I don't feel like I can stop and I'm getting hungrier and hungrier. All of a sudden, I'm dying for a slice of pizza and a moist slice of chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting. Hmmmm....

What do you think I did?? I fell back on my plan and pulled out the salad that I had made for lunch. I planned to get some chicken for protein from the cafeteria and also decided on a little bit of italian dressing or olive oil. Imagine my dismay when there was no chicken today. Did I ever mention that a normal response for me at this point is crying and that I had already gone there before heading down to the cafeteria? Anyway, I surveyed the options...and went with some white beans, shredded mozzarella and about a tablespoon of creamy italian dressing. Not bad choices when under stress. Luckily the pizza looked particularly bad today!

Amazingly, after taking a little time to eat this afternoon, I felt better! See, I don't know about you, but when my blood sugar drops like it did today, I get cranky. That's just the best way to  describe it. Cranky. So, after eating, my day got better! Have you ever noticed how food makes everything better??

I was soooooo excited when I saw fresh raspberries in the cafeteria this morning!!!

I did manage to have a snack around noon...

Wonderful healthy salad!!!! See the beans and cheese??

Shhhh, don't tell anyone that I ate leftovers...

...or popcorn. Good news, I have no more popcorn in the house. Now, to just not buy more, right?

What I learned today...

Today was the Boston Marathon, my favorite sporting event!! Unfortunately, I missed it this year because of a hair appointment. My hair appointments last about 4 1/2 hours. Yes, really. You see, I'm not really a blonde and it takes a LONG time to become one. Anyway, I had lunch with my hairdresser today. He was eating a bowl of Grape Nuts when our local mailman came in. The mailman, Jim, was teasing my hairdresser, Frank, about how that cereal will go right through him because there's 7 grams of fiber per serving. I, of course, had to impress him with the fact that my cereal has 10 grams of fiber per serving...almost half of my recommended daily intake. Well, then we launched into a short discussion of how our food 'stays' with us for at least 20 hours...

Anyway...I was reading today that agave syrup is just as bad as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Now, this kinda makes sense to me. I mean, really, did we honestly think that the same plant that gives us tequila could also be the source of something good for us?? I mean, sure, tequila has been helping ugly people get laid for generations, but it's really not good for much else.

HFCS is about 55% fructose (the pure stuff) and the rest is your basic sugar (OK, maybe not that simple, but you get the point). Well, it turns out that agave syrup (sometimes called agave nectar), is 56% - 92% fructose after it's processed. Hmm. And did you know that fructose is processed by our bodies in our livers?? I don't know about yours, but my liver worked overtime for far too long. He's tired and he needs a rest. What's worse? Did you know that because it's processed in the liver, fructose becomes stored body fat really fast? When I say really fast, I actually mean immediately. However, if anyone every tries to sell you on fructose having a low glycemic index, this is why. It never becomes blood sugar because it immediately becomes fat. YUCK! Guess I'll be avoiding that yummy coconut milk 'ice cream'. Bummer.

Mmmm, banana! And yes, coffee made at home

Pretty standard salad while waiting for my hair to miraculously turn blonde

Mmmmm, fresh pineapple for a dessert!

Oops! I did it again....

Yet again, I'm using a 'stock' photo...I had a large greek salad and onion soup from Panera with a piece of french baguette. However, I did not have an iced tea, nor did I have the bagel chips and cheese on my soup.

Yeah, and 2 bags of popcorn tonight. Do you think there's a 12 step program to get off the popcorn??