Not as Planned

I’ve definitely come down off of the mental high I was on yesterday. My morning started really early. I decided last night that I would go back to work tonight since I’ve felt so great the last couple of days. God knows I could use the money!

So I called the doctors office as soon as they opened this morning to talk to them about it. Last week after my surgery they told me to call whenever I felt up to going back to work and they would release me. Well … that didn’t happen. My doctor is out of town and so apparently his nurse isn’t working this week either. The office staff told me that the absolute earliest they will write for me to go back is Thursday, but that would be with a “light duty” restriction. The problem is at my job we aren’t allowed to work on light duty and I won’t be allowed to return until I can come back unrestricted. The office staff told me that would be SIX WEEKS!!!

I, in no way was prepared to be off of work for six weeks. I’m hoping next week at my appointment I can change some minds, but who knows?! I’ve been down in the dumps all day, and tired to boot since I got up extra early anticipating an afternoon nap that hasn’t happened.

I decided I might as well do something to get out of the house to take my mind off of things. I took Lincoln to the playground for a couple of hours.

After the playground, I made a simple but yummy lunch.

A tomato sandwich with mixed greens plus corn on the cob on the side. All together now …

Sick of seeing corn on the cob pics? Well, they are going to be a staple around here for a while since I got such a cheap deal on them last week. ($.15 each) I bought twenty! I’m planning on blanching some to freeze for later.

The only thing that is going to lighten my mood is a good workout. I’m headed to the gym in 8 minutes for an intense elliptical workout. I’m giving Lincoln the next 8 minutes to fall asleep on his own so he can stay home with dad (who is working) or I’m taking him to grandma’s house. This mama needs a break!

Will Work for Veggies

I’m headed back to work tonight for the next 3 nights. It will be my first night at work since Pledge to Be Veg. I would say wish me luck, but I don’t need it 🙂

This is what I have packed…

Mexican Minestrone (E-Mealz recipe) with pinto beans, diced tomatoes, green beans, corn, vegetable stock and potatoes and a large green salad.

See you guys in a couple of days! Have a great weekend.

Nightshift Christmas Party

Last week we had our Labor and Delivery Christmas Party, and this week we had our nightshift Christmas Party. No wonder its so hard to lose weight during the holidays! There is food absolutely everywhere you turn!

A bunch of us got together at my friend Nicole’s house for our nightshift Christmas party on Saturday.

Jamie, Me, Susan, Nicole, Niki, Bonnie and Kara

The spread:

We had: Sweet and Sour Meatballs, 7 layer bean dip, Ooey Gooey bars, Reese’s cup cookies, Fiesta Ranch dip, Crispy Edamame, Sausage Dip, Cream Cheese Pickles, BBQ Lil Smokies, Bacon Wrapped Smokies, Pinwheels and Powdered Doughnuts.

It was all sooo yummy!

After we ate our fill we played Mad Gab and Guitar Hero World Tour.

I’m so blessed to work with such a wonderful group of girls that get along so well and work well together.

Today is Tim and my 8th wedding anniversary. I surprised him this morning with a Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks when I came home from work. I’m off to sleep now for a few hours and then we are going to go out to a nice dinner tonight. I haven’t decided between La Jolla or Number Sixteen (where we went for my birthday), but I know either one is going to be awesome! I’m excited 🙂

 

A Change of Plans

I was having a bit of a food hangover this morning when I woke up, so I had a simple and refreshing breakfast of Oikos Vanilla Greek Yogurt and Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal.

Before breakfast though, I started the day by making Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells. I thought I was going back to work tonight, and I like to have food prepared for Tim and Lincoln to eat when I’m at work whenever possible. I wish I could say the only reason I do that is out of the kindness of my heart because I’m just that good of a wife and mother, but there is also a more selfish reason. I know that I’m more likely to come home to a clean house in the morning if Tim doesn’t cook. He can use every dish in the cabinet making PB&J. I kid you not! (Love you baby!)

I stuffed the shells with a mixture of Ricotta cheese, spinach, carmalized red onion, green onion and italian spices. Everytime I prepare this kind of dish in the morning it weirds me out for some reason. It just seems wrong to make pasta at 8:00 am. Of course that’s coming from the girl who regularly eats burritos for breakfast after working all night.

I switched my running schedule around a little bit these week to utilize my time a little better. I know that Wednesday and Thursday are going to be long days for me and I won’t have time to do my scheduled 5 and 6 mile runs, so I moved some of my shorter runs to those days. I did my 6 mile run today. I chose to do it on the treamill because I wasn’t interested in running in the rain. I’m not that hardcore yet!

I did 6 miles in 50:51 for a average pace of 8:32. Not bad for a treadmill run!

After my run, I was pressed for time to get my nap in to prepare for work tonight. I like to sleep atleast 2 hours before I have to start getting ready for work on my first night back. So I quickly showered and made Chicken Broccoli Stir Fry for lunch with a side of Thai Sesame Noodles.

I don’t usually like to watch TV while I eat. Actually I rarely watch TV at all, but I just wanted to veg out for a few minutes while Tim and I ate our lunch together. We watched a few minutes of a Law & Order SVU episode that we had recorded. I literally had to get up and grab my camera while I was eating so I could show you this ridiculous name.

Seriously? …

After my nap about 5:00 this evening I got put on call for work. That basically means I don’t have to go in unless they call me and tell me they need me, but they can call me anytime until 7:00 am tomorrow morning and I have to be there in 30 minutes when they call. I was super excited to be able to stay home with my family and watch the season finale of The Biggest Loser, but it probably wasn’t the best decision for my budget.

For dinner I sliced some yummy mozzarella cheese on top of the Ricotta shells and baked them in the oven for 30 minutes and served it with Honey Glazed Carrots and Green Beans.

I noticed a puddle of water by the refrigerator while I was making dinner. I wiped it up and a couple hours later it was back. Tim opened our freezer to discover that everything inside was defrosted. We put a thermometer inside and its reading 50 degrees. Not good! Fortunately we were able to save most of the food and put it in our deep freezer in the garage, and so far our refrigerator seems to still be ok. This is just not what I need right now!

Do you ever feel like just when you are starting to get serious about something that everything out of your control goes wrong? Thats how I feel right now about our budget. I have seriously commited to paying off our debt and saving money and now in the last month we’ve had the washer go out, our roof leak (which still isn’t fixed) and now this. Its all very frustrating.

Back To Work

I’m going back to work tonight for the next 3 nights. So I will see you guys on Friday for a pre-race post. Chili Trot 5K is coming up this weekend!

Healthy Food is EXPENSIVE!!!

Yes, I’m still alive!

I’m 50/50 on my goals that I set for myself this week. I haven’t weighed myself at all since last Monday morning, so tomorrow morning’s weigh in will be a complete suprise. I feel like I did well this week though. My eating was really good, I stayed within my points for the week, and I exercised 6 days. So no matter what the scale reflects I know that I did good.

I wasn’t able to completely follow through with my 2nd goal for the week though, which was to track all of my food on my Spark People account. I did really well most of the week while I was off work, but I wasn’t able to keep it up with the crazy weekend I had. Working 12 hour shifts really doesn’t leave time for anything else besides sleep, run, work … repeat. I’m not disappointed in myself for not following through on this one, I tracked everything in Weight Watchers atleast so I pretty much know where I stand.

One thing I have been working on lately is a plan to help me save money and pay down my debts. I haven’t quite gotten the plan completely in place, but I’m working on a budget and I’ve been clipping coupons and reading some websites and blogs about money saving tips.

I’m shocked at how much money I spent on groceries last month. I added up all my grocery trips and the total came out to a god-awful ridiculous amount that I’m too embarassed to even repeat because it’s literally that shocking. I’ve definitely got to get that under control! I think once my two week ban on grocery shopping is over, I’m going to start doing my grocery shopping once a week when the new sales ads come out. I’m going to plan all my meals ahead of time for the week based on the items that are on sale at the stores I shop at.

I even made a coupon organizer complete with printed categories labels. Lookie …

Do you shop with coupons? What kind of money saving strategies do you use?

Just a Quick Hello

We had a great night last night in Labor and Delivery. For some reason I didn’t sleep very well today though. I woke up several times during the day and finally decided to get up at 2:45. I usually get up at 4:00. I packed a healthy dinner for work tonight: hummus and sprout sammy, edamame succotash and more cucumber dill salad. I did the Jillian Michaels No More Trouble Zones DVD and now I’m snacking on a pretzel with yellow mustard and honeydew.

I wish I could be home tonight to watch The Biggest Loser. I guess it will have to wait til Thursday night when I’m off work though. That is .. unless someone decides to post the results on Facebook. I hate it when people do that.

Have a great night everyone!

How’s That for a 4 Point Lunch?!

Calico Bacon & Corn Pie, Sauteed Green Beans with diced Shallots and cantalope. Yummy!

Now I’m off to bed. I have to work the next 3 nights and help bring some new lives into the world.

Its Weigh-In Day Again

Down 3.6 lbs this week! I’m at 176, and have lost 84 pounds. I haven’t had much time to write in the last couple of days because I’ve been working. I’m a Labor and Delivery nurse and I work 12 hour night shifts from 7pm to 7am. All I do on the days I have to work is sleep, run on the treadmill and get ready to go right back to work. I’ll write soon though. Off to run on the treadmill now. I’m going to try to knock out 4 miles before work.