Where the Heck did Tuesday Go?!

Posted: March 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Cereal, Dinner, Eating Out, Family, Workouts | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Good morning, beauties! Thanks to all of you who giggled at my Break Up post. Clearly, Running and I have a hot-and-cold relationship, but I know it’s impossible to leave forever. I’ll be trotting along and wheezing again in no time 🙂

Tuesday

Yesterday was busy for me – it was 8:30 when I got home, I kept getting sidetracked and blogging didn’t happen! I woke up bright and early for some Legs & Back action with the P90X gang. My work day was rather dull, but my lunch totally made up for it.

Pepper turkey, red pepper, tomato, apple slices, mustard and 1/4 avocado on light rye bread. Grad School Gourmet, ladies and gents 😉

I also made a little pit-stop at Target and picked up a new purse (and tried on a million cute dresses) Seriously, it’s impossible to walk into that store and leave empty handed.

Obviously I will not be wearing this purse across my chest and holding it’s little handles at the same time – I simply wanted to showcase it’s stunning versatility. Just wanted to clear the air on that one 😉

The rest of my day was splendid because I spent it with my parents 🙂 My dad was amazing and came and switched cars with me while I was at work and he went to get my inspection done. That saved me a lot of time! He da best. My mom also found her mother-of-the-bride dress. She looked beautiful!

My parents took me out to dinner at this fabulous restaurant in Old Town called Overwood. My mom and I have concluded that it is impossible to order a bad meal from that place.

I ordered 1/2 a roasted chicken with red skinned mashed potatoes (hiding under the chicken!) and brussel sprouts.

Would you believe that this was the first time in my life that I’d ever eaten brussel sprouts?! I see them all over my favorite blogs and I’ve been itching to try them. I wasn’t disappointed!

I was stuffed by this meal, but I wasn’t feeling too guilty about anything. I was ready to get the check and go. Then the waitress uttered the d-word: dessert. We rarely get dessert when we eat out. My mom does not eat sweets of any kind. Ever. It’s insane. My dad on the other hand said, “Sure! Let’s look at the options.” Damn it, Dad. How am I supposed to say no to this?

Goodness gracious. Every bite was pure bliss. What is it about a hot brownie and cold vanilla ice cream? (I don’t touch chocolate ice cream)

Today

I slept in today because I’m planning on getting a workout in before class tonight.

I made myself a big bowl of cereal and it absolutely hit the spot.

1/2 cup Quaker Oatmeal Squares, 1/2 cup Honey Nut Cheerios and 1/2 a banana + pinches of Kashi Crisp!, oats, and almond slivers. Perfection.

I hope you have  a great day, you beautiful people! 🙂

Let’s chat – Do you love Target? I’m obsessed!

Upside Down Oats

Posted: March 14, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Cereal, Family, Wedding, Workouts | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

How do you screw up something as easy as overnight oats? I don’t know what happened, all I know is that I was so looking forward to some cold oats after my workout this morning.

Thanks to Spring Break, I was able to wake up without an alarm 🙂 I made my way over to the gym and did hill intervals on the treadmill for 25 minutes and ended with 15 minutes of strength and stretching. I really, really wish I liked running. I try so hard. I just do not get any sort of enjoyment out of it. But I do it because I know it’s good for me.

So I got back to the apartment, registered for my summer class, and went to the fridge to pull out my beloved overnight oats. They looked normal, but when I went to stir them up…things weren’t so normal.

Yes, these are my upside down overnight oats. How the hell did this happen? Hmph.

I was borderline hangry, so I fixed up a nice bowl of cereal and enjoyed it almost as much.

Oatmeal squares, Honey Nut Cheerios, a couple Mini Wheaties, half a banana and some mixed nuts. It hit the spot, even if I was a little pouty about it 😉

I’ve got to go get ready for the day! I can’t believe it’s almost 10:00 and I’m not showered (TMI?) I’m meeting up with my mom this afternoon to go shopping for her dress for the wedding. It’s been tough – it seems like all the MOB dresses out there are a little too mom-ish if that makes any sense. All my mom keeps saying is “I’m NOT wearing a bolero jacket!” 🙂

Enjoy your day, friends! I’ll catch ya a little later today!

Let’s chat – What’s the last food fail you had? Do you like running? (give me some tips to trick myself into enjoying it!!) Do you like shopping? I could do it all day, but my mom isn’t so crazy about it.

National Cereal Day!!

Posted: March 7, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Cereal | Tags: , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Yes, friends. It’s true! Today is National Cereal Day 😀 This day is meant to celebrate the invention of Corn Flakes by John and William Kellogg in 1897.

While I’m not a Corn Flakes girl, you all know that I can’t function without cereal.

Speaking of cereal, you can make your breakfast go a long way! Cory’s mom let me know about Kellogg’s Share Your Breakfast campaign, and it’s awesome! All you have to do it take a picture of your breakfast and upload it on this site. One breakfast picture = One breakfast given to a school child who might otherwise go without. It’ll take you 2 minutes, really! All us bloggers out there who snap pictures of our daily eats have no excuse NOT to do this 🙂

I hope you “celebrate” National Cereal Day well! (With lots and lots of cereal, of course!) 🙂

Let’s chat: What’s your favorite cereal today? What was your favorite cereal as a kid?

Friday = Baking Day

Posted: March 4, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 30-Day Picture Challenge, Breakfast | Tags: , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Good morning, my fine friends! I hope you’re enjoying your Friday so far 😀

I love Fridays because no alarm is necessary. There’s something so wonderful about just waking up on your own, do you know what I mean? I would much rather wake up on my own at 5:30 than wake up to an alarm at 7:00.

The agenda today is lookin’ great for me 🙂

I didn’t workout this morning because of my legs hurting so badly yesterday. Any seasoned runners out there know possible reasons why my ankles and calves are in so much pain when I run? Cory suggested that I take a day or two off, and I think that might be the best idea.

What I did do this morning was make my favorite cereal power house combo. It’s the best combo in the world if you ask me 😉

I use a 1/2 cup of Oatmeal Squares, 1/2 cup of Honey Nut Cheerios and a pinch of Kashi topped with 1/2 a banana. MMmm, good!

I’m realizing that I like to bake on Fridays. I’m new to the whole baking scene, but I really enjoy it. I didn’t grow up around baking. My mom is good at 99% of things, but she is a chronic Bottom Burner. Meaning, every time she tries to bake something, the bottoms are burned. I say that with the utmost love and respect for Kate 😉

I thought that Bottom Burning was hereditary. I was shocked the first time I made cookies from scratch and nothing was burned and they tasted heavenly. This was PB (pre-blog) but I remember taking pictures with my phone and excitedly texting Cory’s mom (who is the most gifted baker). When my mom came home from work I displayed my cookies upside down. It was proud moment 😉

Come back later today to see how today’s recipes turn out!

It’s Day 9 of the 30 Day Picture Challenge 🙂

A picture of your favorite band or artist.

I have a favorite band: The Beatles

I have a favorite artist: Michael Jackson

Oh, and yes. I am a 45-year-old trapped inside a 23-year-old’s body 😉

Let’s Chat! Who is your favorite band or artist? What is your favorite baked treat to make? Do you mix cereals together?

Busy Day!

Posted: February 23, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Date Night, Workouts | Tags: , , | 5 Comments

Hello, friends! Happy Hump Day 🙂

I had a date with the treadmill bright and early this morning. I completed 20 minutes of speed intervals. I sprinted at 7.2 for 1:30 and recovered for 40 seconds at 6.0 – and repeated that several times 😉 After that I hopped on the elliptical for 12 (random, I know) minutes.

I got back to my apartment, showered, packed my lunchbox (lunch & dinner) and my backpack and ate some cereal for breakfast. I’m still stuck on my combo of Honey Nut Cheerios and Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares topped with almond slivers and half a banana. Maybe next shopping trip I’ll change up the cereals. Maybe 😉

Last night’s dinner at Panera was delish, per the usual. My prediction last night came true! 😉 I ordered a you-pick-two of chicken noodle soup and a Thai chopped salad. This was the first time I’d ever had this salad, and while it was pretty good, I don’t think I’ll be ordering it again. The peanut sauce dressing was slightly overpowering.

A close up of the salad: fresh cilantro, chopped romaine, citrus & pepper chicken (YUM), fire roasted edamame blend, wonton strips (I removed),  low fat Thai chili vinegarette, cashew pieces, peanut sauce.

The show stealer? The baguette, duh 😉

My day is pretty swamped – I’m teaching my RA class this morning, I have meetings this afternoon, a doctor’s appointment, a group meeting for a project and class from 5:30 – 9:30. Is it the weekend yet?!

I better get movin’! 🙂

Let’s chat – What did you have for breakfast? Did you have a morning workout?

Sweat vs. The Snooze Button

Posted: February 17, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Lunch, Workouts | Tags: , , , , , | 6 Comments

What’s cookin’ good lookin’s?! 😉

So, I’m going to confess something else to you (as if those random seven things weren’t enough Colleen Overload for ya) I reset my alarm this morning instead of getting up and working out. I know, slap me on the wrist. Shake your head. But seriously – when my alarm went off at 5:00 my entire body was screaming “Oh HELL no!” So I didn’t think twice about giving myself an extra hour of shut-eye 😉

That’s the problem with taking night classes. I get back around 10, and I’m still wound up from the day – whereas if I lived in a perfect world, I’d be winding down from the day and getting in bed at 10 PM. When I get back, my mind is still racing about counseling skills and strategies, I want to get my stuff organized for the morning, and I don’t actually get into bed until 11:30 – which makes it very difficult for me to wake up at 5 AM and want to break a sweat. I think from now on I’m just going to designate Thursdays as an “off” day.

Let’s get on to the food, shall we?

Breakfast was PB&J oats, half a banana, a pinch of almond slivers and some Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares. It never disappoints, ladies & gents 😉

Lunch was a delicious veggie & brown rice bowl with a camera-shy apple 🙂

I’ve got to get back to writing papers work! Enjoy your day, friends! 😀

Question for you – Do you ever choose sleep over working out? If so, do you beat yourself up about it?

 

 

Happy Anniversary!

Posted: February 16, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Fun Things, Workouts | Tags: , , , | 13 Comments

To who? To US! The Lunchbox Diaries has been up and running for one whole month today 😀 Let’s call off work and go eat cupcakes!

No? Okay, maybe later 😉

It may sound silly, but creating and keeping up with this blog has brought me so much happiness. I’ve never felt like I’ve had a thing – if that makes any sense. My brother’s things have been baseball and music (he taught himself to play the guitar and the piano!)

Cory’s thing is being business savvy. I don’t have a picture for that 😉

My mom’s thing is being the huge sports nut. (At a National’s game with 3 – of her 7 – brothers, my cousin and his wife)

My dad’s thing is being a huge music and history buff.

My thing has always been writing – but it was private and only for myself, so I felt like I had nothing to show for it. I felt that I was thing-less.

Don’t get me wrong! That is not meant to be a woe-is-me statement. Writing (and more recently, healthy living/fitness) has always brought me happiness even if it was only for myself. I just never felt like I had an appropriate outlet to showcase it or experiment with it.

Well, it may have taken 23 years, but I finally have a thing that I can call my own 😀 Blogging has made me more excited about the everyday aspect of life. Everything I do and experience serves as inspiration for what I’m going to write about next. I’m more aware and I look forward to every moment – I’m more present – because who knows? It could just so happen to be my next blog post. And that makes me excited.

If you’ve read from day 1, I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far! If you’ve just stumbled across my little corner of the blog world – stick around! I promise you won’t be disappointed 🙂

Now, let’s get back to the basics 🙂

My workout came and went before the sun even rose – yikes. I did the full  P90X Shoulder & Arms workout, because I only did 15 minutes of it last week and I really like it. Plus, I’m still working towards my Jennifer Garner arms.

Not there yet. But I’m workin’ on it, guys! 🙂

My breakfast was delish! Yet another cereal combo. While I was creating this concoction this morning, I thought about how fantastic it would be if there was a restaurant that had, instead of a salad bar – a cereal bar! I’d be there all day, everyday 😉 I don’t just eat a plain bowl of cereal, my friends. I add all different kinds of cereal together, I add nuts and fruit. And I love it. Every time 😀

This morning’s mash up was Quaker Oats Oatmeal Squares, Honey Nut Cheerios and Kashi Go Lean Crisp! with almond slivers and half a banana. It was essentially a party in my mouth.

If loving cereal is wrong, I sure as heck don’t want to be right.

I’m off to work, my friends! I’ll catch ya later this afternoon. Again, happy anniversary! 🙂

Question for the morning – What do you enjoy about reading this blog and healthy living blogs in general?

Valentine’s Day Dilemma

Posted: February 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Workouts | Tags: , , , | 7 Comments

Hey, friends! I hope you enjoyed your Valentine’s Day – wether it was with a significant other, a friend, or yourself! Spreading a little extra love to any of those perviously mentioned people is always a good thing 😉

This brings me to a thought, which I feel could turn into a tangent, so I’m going to choose my words carefully. I was talking to someone-who-shall remain-nameless yesterday about girls in his life treating him badly. He had a Valentine’s Day dilemma yesterday. Let’s set up the scene: He’s the kind of guy who’s nice to everyone, even if you spit on his shoes.He’s a catch, really. The short story is that he and this girl have been on a few dates. He had also bought this chick tickets to a pretty awesome event for last night, only to find out that she had spent the weekend holed up with her ex-boyfriend. My question to you is, should he have revoked the ticket and taken a friend instead (and gotten money for said ticket) – even though it was the day of the awesome event? I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

This morning’s workout was a quick one because I have the longer commute to my other job today. I started out with the plan to do hill intervals (which I really think helped me in this past 5k), but once I started running, my legs were begging me to stop! My calves and knees were so sore – the kind of sore that you should listen to, not just “work out.” I’m not a certified trainer by any stretch of the imagination, but I know that listening to your body is the one of most important things when exercising. If it hurts (ow vs. so good), don’t do it! That said, I ended up doing intervals on the elliptical, which made a world of difference, for 25 minutes.

Breakfast this morning was quick and easy – why break routine, friends? 😉

Well, my lovely readers – I’ve gotta jet! I’ll catch ya later this afternoon! Enjoy your morning 😀

Question for the morning – See above 😉

A Few Updates!

Posted: February 8, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Workouts | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Goood morning! I know you were all terribly worried, but just to let you know – I did in fact get enough sleep last night 😉

Although I got enough sleep, it doesn’t negate the fact that my alarm went off pretty darn early this morning. I thought about just resetting my alarm for 45 minutes later – but I knew I’d just lay there beating myself up about missing a workout. Hence, it was Cardio X this morning! Yep, Tony and I are back in action 🙂 This is one of the simpler workouts, but I really enjoyed trying the yoga as the warm up. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be!

This is totally random – but do you know what movie I’ve been dying to watch for the one millionth time? A girl just posted about it on Facebook and I fell in love with Leo all over again.

If this does not display Leo at his prime, I don’t know what does. What a little hottie. Do you agree? 😉

Okay, breakfast. A sorority sister commented on one of yesterday’s posts about how I put PB&J in lots of things. She’s right. That said, I thought I’d take a break from the good ol’ peanut butter and go with cereal this morning. I know, my breakfast options are so vast 😉 Oatmeal or oatmeal squares cereal? Oh, the choices!

I also wanted to point out that I’ve added a new page, 101 in 1001 – just look up to the right 🙂 I’ve seen this idea on several blogs and I decided I wanted to do it, too. It’s a list of 101 things that I want to accomplish in 1001 days (which is roughly 2.75 years). Check it out! There might even be a little incentive for my lovely readers 😉 I updated my About Me page as well. Yesterday’s talk of motivation got me thinkin’, so feel free to check that out as well!

Also, I love hearing from you guys! 😀 I’ve gotten several emails and messages about what you like about the blog, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that! I’d love to connect with more of you, so go ahead and leave comments about what’cha like, what’cha don’t, whatever! 😉 If you have any questions whatsoever – please feel free to email me at thelunchboxdiaries@gmail.com

Ta-ta for now!

Question for the day – What’s your favorite movie?

Are You There, Summer? It’s Me, Colleen.

Posted: January 25, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Breakfast, Workouts | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

Who didn’t love a good Judy Bloom book back in the day? 😉 But seriously, this weather has got to go. It’s depressing when a “nice” day has a high of 48. Personally, it’s the wind that kills me. Plain cold is bad, but manageable (most of the time), but when you throw nasty winds into the mix – all bets are off. I just want to stay inside and not leave until late April.

I just want to be on a beach. Tan. And hot. With a mixed drink.

Needless to say, I felt pretty darn sluggish in the gym this morning. Hmm, I wonder why? 😉 I was also sluggish for reasons out of my control: The treadmills were out of order (?!), so I wonder over to the elliptical, which is down as well (?!?) so I was left with the sole treadmill that I usually see older people on – the one that doesn’t go above 5.5ish. I “cranked” it up to 5.7. but the sounds it was making made me nervous. I cut my loses and viewed it as a simple 10 minute warm up 😉

Weights it was! I know it was a good workout,  because it was difficult to wash my hair and put on make up. I’ll take it 😉

So today is my last day before classes start. I actually think I’m to the point where I’m more excited than nervous, and I’m ready for everything to start back up again. (Note: I’ll probably regret this statement next week)

Breakfast is on the run this morning – dry Quaker Oat Squares and a banana. Not too exciting.

As a random aside, I know I’ve professed my love for Glee already, but does anyone know when the new season starts?! I’m becoming restless.

Question for the day – What’s your guilty pleasure TV show(s)?