Yum Series: Ham Sandwich

I'm really into sandwiches these days.  And by "into," I mean buying and eating them.  After buying a sandwich for lunch every single day last week (Did I mention I have an obsessive personality?), I decided to give my wallet a break and pack a simple sandwich at home.  I went grocery shopping armed with a list of super ingredients for my deluxe sandwich but ended up not liking the quality of most of the veggies, so I'll have to buy my lettuce, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, avocado, red onion, and a few other things later.  I worked with what I could get, however, and came up with a fairly healthy lunch.  I plugged all the ingredients into My Fitness Pal and discovered it was about 400 calories.  Not bad, but higher than I expected.  To lessen the calories, I'll probably put in half the ham and more greens.  Or eat half of the sandwich and save the other half for dinner.  Or maybe nix the ham altogether and make veggie sandwiches.  Yummm.  The picture looks like it's a really boring, plain ham sandwich but it was really good! 

Happy Independence Day

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th of July!

 Triple Berry Cake - perfect dessert for the 4th!

A Perfect Life

Yellow decor in my bedroom :)

My Google Reader has over 50 subscriptions, and everyday I drool over clothes, shoes, handbags, homes - new & renovated, dream jobs, celebrity news, and DIY projects (and probably 15 other categories of things I can't think of right now).

I have wishlist/favorites/To Do folders and tags in my Reader, Gmail, Firefox, the hard drives of 3 laptops, and on my iPad & iPhone notes.  Plus more saved pictures and links than I will ever have time to go back and organize.

The Internet is so amazing and inspiring, but at the same time it's easy to feel inadequate when you're constantly looking at people's best, spread over various blogs and websites - seeing what other people have accomplished and acquired.  It's OK to want things, and even having an ever-growing wishlist is fun because I usually don't get around to purchasing 1/98th of the things on my list, and 8 months later I look back and wonder why the heck I thought I needed to have that particular purse/necklace/dress.  But at some point recently, I started to feel overwhelmed by all the things I wished for.  And worst of all, I started to feel like I didn't have enough, or do enough, or achieve enough in my life so far. 

Only a handful of people in my reality know, but I really dislike my job.  The industry I'm in is tiring and competitive, not to mention boring imo, and the corporate environment - while the one I work in has several amazing, fun, friendly people - is just not the place for me.  The position I'm in is one that I would have never chosen, and one that I took because I finished grad school at a time when the economy just plain sucked.  I have a creative side, one that loves to write and be artsy, but due to my choice several years ago to go down a non-creative path, I've never had the time, discipline and tools to really focus on the side that I feel I'm meant to pursue.

After my mini epiphany the other day, I'm changing my perspective.  I'm filled with joy to have my DH and my loving family.  And when it comes down to it, that's all I need.  Well, in addition to my health (minus a few pounds).  Everything else is a plus.  And when you look at all those extras, there's really so much to appreciate. 

Will I stop coveting a single-flap (circa 2008/9) Chanel Maxi in Grey Caviar with SHW?  No.  But I'm learning to love my life and every part of it for what it is while I take steps to change it into what I feel it should be.

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Friday Escapades

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I'm not much of a morning person. DH would say that's a gross understatement, but basically I'm one of those folks who wakes up just in time for work. I know I should (and can) change this but I don't think I really want to yet. Anyway, because of my rushed morning schedule I tend to eat breakfast at work. My usual breakfast MO is steel cut oatmeal with granola and honey - a morning meal for champions. But today, I took an extra 30 seconds out of my routine to grab 2 hardboiled eggs (thanks, DH!) and a little apple from the fridge before running out. Once I got to work, I felt a little self-conscious eating TWO hardboiled eggs, so I cut one up in slices to eat neatly with a fork back at my desk and decided to eat the other one while I cut the apple. This was all discreetly going on in my work kitchen when I must have accidentally inhaled a little piece of the egg and basically started coughing up my heart and soul.

The kitchen door was wide open, meaning all 19 co-workers could clearly hear me choking on something I was obviously inhaling in secret (we have the worst acoustics with our set-up). Several colleagues asked if I was OK (um, I wasn't. I couldn't even talk) and another started laughing AT me because I was basically convulsing from all the coughing while others casually asked if I was OK.

15 minutes and about 6 cups of cold, lukewarm, and super hot water later, I was able to muster up a shaky little voice and say "I'm OK, just went down the wrong throat...I mean, tube!" That induced a few more minutes of coughing and now I'm back, safely at my desk, and a teeny bit peeved at hardboiled eggs and myself.

Happy Friday!

 

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Lazy for Leaner Legs

The past few months have been busy busy lazy busy. Though I've been fairly active in the last month I've completely fallen off the workout wagon and have not made any effort to go to the gym. I also noticed that although I've been out and about walking around, my calves look and feel bulkier than usual. To prevent my jeans from fitting like second skin, I'm going to try out this quick video until I can get my daily exercise routine started again. FitSugar says:  "If you can spare 10 minutes, we can help you whip your legs into shape. Press play and let trainer Holly Perkins lead you through a killer workout to tone your entire lower half — from calves to glutes, and everything in between." Let's hope 10 minutes can work miracles.

What's For Lunch?

Hello there. So I've gotten lazy in recent weeks with health, finances, and blogging. On the food front I haven't been eating the well-balanced meals I hoped would continue through the end of the year. It's only March and I haven't lost hope yet, and I'm really great about avoiding most "bad" and fast foods, but a certain chain that is (imho) bad, unhealthy and should be unappetizing has been so darn appealing recently. I just love it. coughdeltacocough.

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Dinner has become somewhat of a "whatever's in the fridge" ordeal or if we're even lazier, whatever leftovers DH may bring home from his work-provided dinner. I've been pretty good about not buying lunch (for health purposes and to save money), but my work has provided lunch fairly consistently in the past weeks so I saved a little money but I'm still eating out. I drew the line yesterday when I had a fridge full of lovely veggies all week long (bought them last Thurs at the Farmer's market. Last Thurs!) but have been too lazy to prepare and cook it, and therefore ended up buying lunch ($6) and 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies ($8). ugh, I can't resist buying those cookies and I don't even really like them that much! Also on the list of offending foods is Trader Joes' mini chocolate chip cookies. *guilty face*

So what's the remedy?

Get Madonna's Arms

Another fantastic 10-Minute Workout (arm circuit) by celebrity trainer Andrea Orbeck.