SUP

There's something so comforting about a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. In the mix, I added pumpkin, 1/2 a chopped red delicious apple, one egg white, vanilla coconut milk, sliced almonds, and maple sugar. Heated and mixed together I felt like it was November and not August.


I needed some sustenance to go to my Stand Up Paddling excursion on Town Lake!
Seriously, this is the best work out possible for your arms and abs. Not to mention gathering your sense of balance. Do you know what SUP is? It's a mix of surfing/rowing rolled all into one.
Here's the instructor teaching us techniques.

And a beautiful picture of Town Lake in Austin.

Now this was my 2nd time, so I thought I was a semi-pro by now, right? Wrong. No problem getting on the board...
No problem standing up on the board, getting my balance, and rowing....
It wasn't until I started rowing back into shore that I ran into that HUGE tree branch jutting out that I fell off the board and made a might fool of myself! I'm glad I could provide some entertainment for my fellow SUP-pers :)

Only in Austin!

I had a little snack of a little thing called a Cashew Cookie Larabar.

Before hitting up the best lunch ever! A whole wheat lavash wrap with Maranatha smooth and creamy almond butter, cinnamon, and diced peaches.

Grilled it up on the quesadilla-maker

and served with some steamed spinach, 2 chopped egg whites, and nutmeg.

And there you have it...my Austinite experience for the week! As for the dairy experiment, no progress thus far but then again it's only been a week.
Reason for the experiment? I'm heading back up to DFW for a wedding. I have to be someone's date which I have no problem with because he is cute :) and I do know the groom (we went to high school together). But I'm not loving the fact that I'm going to need hell-a make-up to cover up the stress/hormones/whatever it is going on up there.
All I know is I've got my dancing shoes ready so bring it on! Oh, and what the heck should I wear to a day-time wedding? It's starting early with a brunch which is a new concept for me. Formal-wear, casual...?

Dairy and Acne

Let's talk food first, shall we?
Brown rice tortilla spread with pesto and baked with black beans and spinach. Simple and delicious! Served with baked zucchini squash slices in sea salt, ground black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

Breakfast bowl of the last of my oats, coconut, walnuts, Wallaby plain yogurt, 1/2 a sliced banana, fresh blueberries, and a sprinkling of maple pecan granola.
Sesame seed bread toasted spread with Maranatha almond butter, Crofter's strawberry jam, and steamed spinach with two egg whites sprinkled with nutmeg. This meal was surprisingly very filling :)
2 split mini pitas spread with Organicville barbecue sauce, cubed tofu, creamy Havarti cheese, and steamed mustard greens.
Which brings me to the question of the day: what's your opinion on dairy causing acne? I admit I love me some cheese! Every meal lately has included some form of dairy and lately I've noticed an increase in acne and zits on my face. I have two wedding comings up the first two weekends of August and I'm not about to display my problem skin. So after today I'm committing to cutting out the dairy in my diet as a trial. So again, what's your opinion?

Hope you have great plans for the weekend!!

Holy Crapper!

Crap monkey! I get off work and of course my toilet has to overflow and flood my bathroom 5 minutes after the leasing office closes. I be a dialing...emergency maintenance! Ugh...gross. Not the way I wanted to spend my evening cleaning the floor.

But at least I had a good dinner before the shit hit the floor :)

2 slices of sesame bread spread with sun-dried tomato pesto, cubed tofu, and creamy Havarti cheese melted on top. Served with some not so stellar and bland kale on the side. I think Havarti cheese is making the top of my list of favorites. Goat cheese is hard to beat though.

A great breakfast of Wallaby yogurt mixed with oatmeal, coconut, walnuts, 2 chopped plums, and 1/2 a chopped pear.
Yum, I'm getting hunger pangs looking at this pizza again. Brown rice tortilla baked with butternut squash puree, black beans, fig goat cheese, spinach, the other half of my chopped pear and asparagus on the side.
I met up with some friends at a coffee shop and here's the view of the dock from the patio close to sunset. Sigh....
New discovery: Pitettes whole wheat pita bread. 2 mini-pitas equals one serving so these are not the new base of my pizza creations.
I split them in half and spread with butternut squash mixed with barbeque sauce and lentils. Baked with Galaxy Nutritional cheddar rice shreds with asparagus tips.

Exciting news...well at least for me. I applied to be a contributing writer for Livestrong.com and they hired me. My first article was published today :) and I've been given a second one to write this week. Check it out: How to Lose Weight with a Shopping List on Livestrong. Remember this is just my first one and I promise to get better. Love you lots!

Meals Galore!

Thanks for all the well wishes and good luck. I did get the job and it's so nice to keep my afternoons busy! It's a part-time job being an office manager at a real estate company. The agents are so friendly and welcoming, I can see us becoming and acting like a family already. That's the most important thing to me because it makes work more bearable, don't ya think?

Where do you work?

But at the same time, I know I can't stay here for long. It would be ideal if I was a married woman, on my husband's insurance, and looking to supplement our income. But the reality is I'm a single lady needing to pay my bills with the need for health insurance and a retirement plan. So I'm still hunting for a full-time position that will utilized my degrees.

Since it's been so long, I have some meals I had stored in my camera in no real order so if it's repetitive....sorry!

Here's a delicious breakfast from Rachel Ray's magazine (when am I finally going to meet her!?)

Oats soaked overnight in coconut milk with dried cherries, walnuts, and honey. In the morning, I added fresh berries and more honey. Fab-o!
Meal: Flax bread spread with baba ghanoush, basil, and flaxseed tempeh served with baked zucchini squash and spinach with more baba on the side for dippage.
Meal: Roasted sweet potatoes, egglplant, and cubed tofu with cayenne pepper, sea salt, ground black pepper, and olive oil.
Meal: Brown rice tortilla spread with avocado slices, cooked lentils, goat cheese, and basil topped it off after it baked in the oven for awhile until crispy.
Another good breakfast: Oats, coconut milk, shredded coconut, 1/2 a sliced banana, 2 chopped fresh apricots, chocolate chips, honey, and fat free cascade fresh yogurt stirred in at the end.
This one I'm most proud of! As most of you know, I've been battling an eating disorder for several years. I cannot remember the last time I've eaten pasta (it's been several years for sure). Pasta was a big FEAR food on my no-no list. So for some reason I decided to conquer this one! I made myself a big bowl of pasta that I tossed with some steamed kale and homemade sun-dried tomato pesto I picked up from the farmer's market. Topped it with a little extra shredded cheddar cheese and I ate the whole thing!! I was so happy with myself and resisted the urge to jump on a treadmill to burn it off...

And finally....another version of the 1st meal I showed you. Flax bread spread with baba ghanoush, tuna, spinach and served with roasted eggplant with more baba on the side.

With that re-cap, I'm getting all sorts of hungry and I have to eat something before heading to work. Gotta work hard for the money!! Have a fabulous Thursday! I can't wait for the weekend...big plans to share with you laters.

A Little Nervous

I'm a little nervous today. I have an interview for a part-time job that I really need/want to keep me busy this summer and bring in some moolah. I get so nervous...do you have any good tips for me?

A quick recap of my eats from yesterday...

Breakfast of champions: oatmeal, coconut flakes, carob chips, 1/2 a sliced banana, fresh strawberries, vanilla coconut milk, and spirulina.

Lunch: Gluten-free flaxseed bread by Glutino spread with pumpkin, Organicville barbeque sauce, cayenne pepper, aduki beans, and cheddar rice shreds broiled and served with baked zucchini slices sprinkled with sea salt and pepper.
Snack: Medjool dates with walnut halves
Dinner was a totally random pizza: brown rice tortilla spread with half a mashed avocado, spinach, fresh basil, flaxseed cubed tempeh, and a diced peach. Sweet and savory...a real treat!
And finally a picture of my new pet Bambi, the deer that keeps returning to my backyard to drink from my little creek. Adorable :)
I'll be back soon!

Chick Lit

Hello blogland! Another weekend down the drain but I made the most of it for sure. Friday night I attended a happy hour party at a local Mexican restaurant for a birthday! My disordered eating brain was telling me DON'T GO!! That bastard voice has been sneaking up on me more and more lately. I think it's been the extra stress I've been under. But I squashed the inner voice (that makes me sound crazy, doesn't it?) and I forced myself to go out anyways. I managed and ordered fish tacos with black beans. Sure, I felt guilty but I knew I did the right thing by going out.

My morning started pretty simple since I had not done my grocery shopping for the week just yet. Just a chopped peach and sliced banana with Udi's gluten free vanilla granola and vanilla coconut milk. Coconut milk is so refreshing and light! I highly recommend it :)


For lunch I spread a brown rice tortilla with spicy cilantro hummus, cubed tofu, asiago cheese, black kalamata olives, and steamed dandelion greens. This flavor of hummus paired perfectly with the asiago cheese.
And some stellar asparagus tips baked with garlic, salt, and a little bit of EVOO. Who else is loving asparagus being in season right now? Too bad it makes your pee smell....TMI!
This afternoon I met with this great group of ladies for our Chick Lit Book Club meeting at a used bookstore. The book of the month was Confessions of a Beauty Addict by Nadine Haobsh. The novel takes you into the behind-the-scenes of working at a beauty magazine. The book is so well-written, funny, and you really find yourself relating to the main character Bella. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone that loves fluffy chick lit like I do. And it was great meeting with the girls :)
Dinner featured my fave: a Japanese sweet potato. If you can find these at a grocery store buy one. Your taste buds will thank you and me. I baked these as fries with zucchini slices, tofu, salt, pepper, and a bit too much cayenne pepper. Somebody bring me some water please...my mouth is on FIRE!
I'm ready to settle down for the evening and watch The Hills series re-runs I recorded. Season finale on Tuesday!! Anybody else watch this show as a guilty pleasure too? There you have it, my two biggest guilty pleasures in one post. Reality TV and Chick Lit. Hey, it could be worse, right?

Don't Forget About Me

Please don't forget about me! With moving and job hunting I've been a super busy girl but missing you like crazy!! But I'm slowly settling in and should be resuming a normal blogging schedule soon.

Austin is fabulous....especially with signs like this one and deer crossing signs. Seriously, I have deer that come in my backyard and front porch.

But I have a couple of pictures to share and I promise to take more scenic ones once the rain stops. The environment and scenery is breathtaking and I can' t wait to share more with you.

Here's the front of the new digs....
The name of the apartment complex...
My messy living room that's still missing a couch....
A faraway picture of my apartments...
Oh, la, la.....
The creek behind my sundeck where the deer come to drink water...
The view from my bedroom...which is the Greenbelt where they have hiking and biking trails, cliff diving, rock climbing, etc. I'm at most 3-5 minutes away from entering this gem.
Have you ever moved to a city where you just automatically felt like you belonged? Like you were home? That's how I feel in this great city of mine. I can't wait to share my adventures in this new chapter of my life. And like I said don't forget about me...I'm still here y'all!