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 ;)
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