Veggie head

Wow! I took this picture around 7:30 this morning. Look at what a beautiful day it is turning out to be at such an early hour. Spring has sprung!

Today is another day of rest of me. I woke up at 5am, not to my alarm going off, rather Kevin's alarm going off, as he had to be at work for 7am. It felt nice to see that it was 5am and know that I could roll over and go back to sleep for almost another 2 hours. I woke up before my alarm by 10 minutes, but stayed in bed just looking out the window and being relaxed. Wow I can't believe how badly I need this break. The best part is, when I wake up I don't feel bad for missing (spin today) class. I have other forms of exercise planned for this week that don't involve my regular routine.

For breakfast I made a Berry Cherry Green Monster.

1 tbsp dried cherries 2 tsp dried blueberries, 1/8 cup fresh blueberries, 1/4 cup raspberries, 5 strawberries, 1 beet, 2 cups baby spinach and 1 cup almond milk.

*Note to self, dried blueberries are too little to get blended up, and then only cause an annoyance when drinking your GM through a straw blocking the flow*.

Off to work I went, with no am workout.

Overall the office is pretty quiet today. Boss is away at another branch, and the other caseworkers are in and out. Kind of makes me sleepy it being so quiet like this.

For snack I bypassed my fruit I packed for the yogurt.

Peach Mango

Surprise surprise! More cauliflower rice, just like I predicted. lol Sorry that it kind of looks kind of not so tasty, I promise you it is. Avocado & Cauliflower. Swirly whirly beet. Sliced carrot & zucchini. With Tofu fried in Peanut Satay sauce. All rolled together.

Now I made this wrap last night, and yes the veggies did turn the wrap slightly soggy, but nothing that having made it fresh and letting it sit fr 30 mins wouldn't have caused.

For lunch I was really missing some granola of some sort from my morning snack. I look at my morning snack as a second mini breakfast. And Kevin has said 'we are breakfast people'. So thankfully I work beside a grocery store. I went over knowing I wouldn't find real true granola, so I headed for the cereal aisle & the yogurt section. This is what I grabbed. I layered this in a cup with my fruit.

Mango & Strawberry.

Question: Do you feel guilty when you are missing your regular workouts. Do you regularly make time for yourself to rest and recover (i.e. work out free days) or do you keep going until you injur yourself.

~ M ~

Best dinner bagel evah!

So Monday was my first day of rest. It felt good to get to sleep in, take my time with my morning routine, and know that I wasn't going to be running around like a complete mad woman.

My work day was different than the usual Monday. Today I went into my full time job for 8:30, to leave at 10:45am. Where did I have to go? Downtown Toronto. I got to go and do some U.M.A.B training for the group home I work with.

This was quite possibly one of the dullest U.M.A.B. refreshers I've ever had. It was 2.5 hrs of power point discussion. Thankfully, I have Nicole B & Paul to thank for keeping me entertained. With Paul's hilarious doodles (including Humpty Dumpty falling off his wall) and Nicole's off the cuff remarks, the time went faster. Also knowing that it was going to be dull I snagged myself a Tall non-fat, sugar-free vanilla chi tea latte (only 2 flavour shots instead of 3). Yummo!I was anxious to get out of the training. After our supervisor wanted to do an annual review of the policies and procedures. Bah! It was already 2:45! People, I had to get from downtown Toronto to Bowmanville in rush hour traffic (DVP and 401). And before we could start the 20 min annual review, people needed a smoke break. Gah! lol. No matter, I still made it out of the city and home in no more than 1hr15mins (pretty good seeing as I didn't take the DVP and didn't get on the 401 'till Pickering).

Anywho. Though I am resting this week, I felt that I should still be going to Yoga. It's all about relaxation, stretching and what more do I need right now than to relax and a good long stretch. My cousin Courtney came to Hot Yoga with me as her first ever Yoga experience. Though she did try to back out on me, I managed to convince her to come.

(source)

Courtney says that she did like it and would consider going back again for more. Yeah!

For lunch Monday, I needed to make something that was portable, that could be eaten in the car if needed. So I went with a wrap.

I have learned that you can use cauliflower as a rice substitute, and frankly I love doing it. I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot of cauliflower 'rice' this week.

I cut 1 Florette from the bunch and tossed it in my 1.5cup food processor that I picked up at Wally World, for get this, 7.77$ Can't beat that!

Pulse for 5-10 seconds. Voila!

Cauliflower 'rice'. I sprinkled the cauliflower over 1tbsp of hummus on a tortilla wrap.

Topped it with, sliced zucchini,

Avocado, tomato, artichoke heart and green onions.

I had also packed myself my afternoon snack, which had baby carrots celery and 1 more cauliflower Florette.

When I got home I was 'marven! I grabbed one of my new buys from when I went to Whole Foods Sunday. I know I didn't' mention it sooner, but today is the perfect day to talk about it. I was so excited to go to whole foods and see what all I could find that I don't have at my local grocery store or health food stores. Now this was a special trip. If I make it to whole foods twice a year that would be enough. According to mapquest, a drive from home to Whole Foods is 59 mins. And I can tell you that doesn't account for city traffic. So what did I get to snack on?

This is quite possibly the tastiest bar I've ever had! I defiantly recommend you going out and trying one for yourself.

So I munched on my Luna bar while I prepped dinner. Which also included a new item I picked up at Whole Foods.

Whole Foods fat organic asparagus, toasted bagel with cream cheese & la piece de resistance. . . . Smoked salmon (it wasn't frozen in the store, it was fresh!). I sprinkled some dried dill on the salmon. OMG I seriously can't wait to have this again for dinner. I think I might do some rearranging with what I have planned out for this week (remember I've been making a week long meal plan so I don't have to think throughout the week. I just look and see what I have to eat).

Because this week I am not looking to stay below my calories, rather I am looking to repair my body, after getting home from Yoga I thought I should eat something just to replenish what I had just worked off.

I mixed Kashi Go Lean - Honey Almond Flax cereal, some dried cherries and blueberries, 1/3 banana, astro plain yogurt and a drizzle of agave nectar. Also a to note I think this is my new favourite cereal!

I am not going to count my calories burned or taken in this week through my blog. For those of you on MFP you can check out my food diary. I just don't want the calorie counting to be the focus this week. This week is all about self-care. So I will note that I did drink 12, 8oz glasses of water.

YESTERDAY's Goals:

1. Rest & relax.
2. Book an RMT.
3. Stay within calories.
4. Drink lots of Water, not been staying hydrated yesterday and Saturday.

I met all 4 of those goals.

TODAY's Goals:

1. Stay hydrated, drink lots of H2O.
2. Stay below calorie limit.
3. Continue to heal both inside & out.
4. Go to bed early 10pm.

Have a great day!