All of the fun -- none of the guilt

I've been neglecting my blog lately -- with the holiday parties, (still) unpacking, and the overall laziness that seems to consume the winter months, it has been hard to steal some time to sit and write. But here I am, between sips of coffee and songs on my new favorite pandora station, writing away...

Last week was full of fun and festive holiday madness. I had my company holiday party on Thursday and my boyfriend's the following night. Both nights were filled with food, laughs, drinks and.. that's it! There was ZERO stress on my end about how many calories or carbs (or sugar or fat) I was consuming because I've learned not to sweat the small stuff like having that extra piece of bread before your entree or eating more than half the chocolate cake you were supposed to split with a friend. In reality, accepting the extra cals as a mini splurge and MOVING ON is way more productive than filling yourself with feelings of regret.

I know because I used to obsess over what I ate in a day and ended up feeling guilty for not being able to resist the mini snickers. Then, more often than not, the guilt would flirt with rebellion and all of the sudden I'd be eating an entire snickers bar because who cares? I already screwed up -- so, why not make this a "bad" day?  Bad day after bad day added up and soon I had an unhealthy relationship with food (I'll blog more on this topic another time....) until I learned to give myself a break. Now, I can hit up two holiday parties in a row and not feel anxiety about what (or how much) I'm going to eat.

It's Sunday -- which means I usually log what I eat to compare to Monday's meals (in an effort to show the difference between crazy weekend eating habits and healthier work day options... balance, my friends, balance) but this week I've decided to recount what I had on Thursday and Friday to show you can splurge a bit without beating yourself up about it; all of the goodness and none of the guilt.

On Thursday we had bagels at the office for breakfast. I ate a Everything bagel with cream cheese and earl gray tea. I was ridiculously busy the rest of the day and only had time to eat a few handfuls of peanuts for lunch (not highly recommended but it could have been worse -- at least peanuts are full of healthy fats and kept my brain functioning for the rest of the day). Dinner was at the delicious Cascal's in Mountain View and I had a little of A LOT; a few pieces of calamari as a appetizer; a glass of sangria; a side salad; the Cuban wrap with pork and cilantro; some paella; a few bites of vanilla ice cream and a Mexican coffee (coffee with a shot of coffee patron - yes please!)

On Friday I woke up thirsty and craving nutrients but not very hungry so I had a simple green smoothie with spinach, romaine, orange juice, a banana, berries and frozen pineapple. For lunch I had left over paella and a few hours later had two tangerines and a small pumpkin cookie. Before we left for Mike's holiday party I had a glass of champagne. There was an array of small, appetizer-like food we ate for dinner. I had a few tortellini with tomato sauce, a pork slider, asparagus, and some bruschetta. I had a vodka soda (or two.. or three..) throughout the rest of the night.

Both nights were worth every calorie. I had fun and ate whatever I felt like without going overboard. There were no restrictions so I didn't  guilty about eating anything and I didn't feel deprived so there was no messy aftermath of over-eating after I had a couple drinks. I ate what I wanted and had nothing to worry about but having a great time ....and a bit of a hangover on Saturday.

Love almost always,
Ashley

PS. It's also worth mentioning that we played laser tag after dinner on Thursday (40 minutes of running around and getting sweaty in the dark) and danced on butts off on Friday; some major (fun and) calorie touching to balance out all the food. And yes, I'm counting both as workouts for the week ;)

Sunday Vs. Monday Round 3

Please note: This is actually the entry from last week that I didn't find the time to post. I didn't record what I ate yesterday or today due to the Holiday weekend and my life suddenly becoming increasingly busy... (I also failed to take pictures last week but will redeem myself with the next post! Promise!)

SUNDAY

We spent the night in our new apartment on Saturday and unpacking is A LOT more fun with a glass (or two..) of wine. On Sunday I woke up hungry and with a headache…

Breakfast - around 8am: My little cousin was performing in an ice-skating show so we woke up early to see it.

A bowl of chocolate granola with almond milk and earl gray white tea

around 10:30am: After the show, we were all hungry - esp. the star of the show - so we went over to Hobees before jumping back into moving.

A glass of OJ and The De Anza Browns at Hobees  (Potatoes with cheese, guac, salsa, and an egg)

Around 2:30pm: The lack of sleep was starting to turn on me…

A tall cafe mesto from Starbucks

Lunch - around 3pm:

½ a tuna sandwich, black bean soup and ½ a bag of potato chips at Panera

Dinner - around 8:30pm:

Quinoa pasta with bell peppers, peas, onions, and cut up sausages with olive oil and parm (I had all most of these ingredients frozen from pervious over-buys at the farmers market so it was nice to get use them while also enjoying a healthy meal with my handsome boyfriend in our new apartment.)

I don’t usually eat dinner so late but yesterdays times were thrown off because of moving. Overall, the day wasn’t full of bad choices even though we ended up eating out 2 out of 3 meals.

MONDAY

This morning I was so tired I wasn’t hungry. I started the day with a small orange and a latte and then waited until my body woke up and realized it needed to eat before having breakfast.

Breakfast - around 10am:

A bowl of oatmeal with apples and cinnamon.

Snack - around 11:45am:

A handful of peanuts

Lunch - around 1pm:

I am determined to use all the food in our fridge before the holiday weekend (we’re going away!) so I threw together garbanzo beans, celery, carrots, tomatoes, and onions for lunch today. I also had a few corn tortilla crackers I had left in the pantry.

Dinner - around 6:15pm:

A burrito from Chipotle with chicken, peppers, rice, guac, salsa and a little bit of cheese