Bore fest.

The weather has been getting more and more nice out! It's sunny and all of the trees are starting to bloom. I LOVE spring!! Can't wait for the Cherry Blossom Festival :)

I packed my lunch/snacks to take with me to class. The sad thing about my final semester at UMD is that I have really bad professors right now. All of them. Bad. Also, now that I got into grad school and my GPA is secure I don't really care as much about these classes. That's probably not the best attitude to have, but it's true. Soooo, I occupy myself with eating and thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner and crossword puzzles.

Speaking of eating; I packed some edamame (very interesting to eat in class), Kashi 7 grain crackers, an apple, and an Apple Pie Lara Bar (one of my favorites now!).

My yoga class was kind of canceled today so that we could work on our little midterm projects (lame) so I did 30 minutes of Hip Opening Flow #2 on my own. Post yoga eats was a Peach Chobani with a little bit of Ambrosia Blend trail mix on top for texture.

I think that tonight's dinner is going to incorporate portobello mushrooms and tofu... we'll see :)

Fiber overload!

Morning, morning! I feel way more rested than yesterday, so I'm hoping for a much more productive day.

Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal-- wanna try for the fiber overload today.

1/2 c. oats, 1/2 c. vanilla soy milk, 1/2 c. water, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, blueberries, walnuts, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl PB. Yummy. I feel the fullness!!

I also switched over to decaf tea today instead of my usual decaf coffee. It's good and I think I just need something to drink in the morning as a habit. But a fun habit!

This is a pretty short post because I need to do a few things before class! Have a wonderful Tuesday!!

Opening up.

Ahh the first Monday after my return has been conquered! I'm still easing back into the week and my school work, but I need to start working hard soon! And look how much the daffodils have opened up since this afternoon!!!

Dinner needed to be mindless because I am always too hungry to think too hard or prepare too much after I get back from class on Mondays. I decided on Annie's Whole Wheat Shells and White Cheddar and roasted brussels sprouts.

They didn't let me down. For some reason I have been hungry all day. Maybe not enough fiber? I always blame fiber. Tomorrow will have to be an improvement because I feel like I loaded up on stuff that I didn't need today (ie. Chai lattes and ice cream).

My back has also been hurting me, I think because of stress. I decided to do 20 minutes of Lunar Flow and I think it did the trick for the time being. I haven't done yoga for a couple days so I'm thinking that might be the reason for some muscle tension.

I also really wanted something sweet (of course) so I had a serving of Nature's Promise Vanilla Ice Cream. Full fat. Eeeek, I don't ever buy that. I stirred in about 1 T. of coconut flakes and a few butterscotch chips.

Yummm. In blog news:

The Hungry Yogini is giving away Barney Butter! Check it out!

I got an award from Dulcie of Daily Dulcie. Thanks, Dulcie!!

The rules are as follows:

List 7 things that you love, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you love! Be sure to tag them and let them know that they have won. You can copy the picture of the award and paste it on your sidebar letting the whole world know…you are Kreativ!

7 Things that I love:

1. My family; they have always been there for me and they always will be :)
2. The BF; he's the best boyfriend that I could ever have asked for. Ever.
3. My education; I will be the first in my family to graduate from college and get a graduate degree.
4. FOOD; duh, but I do love it: cooking, eating, sampling, learning, EVERYTHING.
5. Helping others; I believe in doing good for others.
6. Cute animals; I like to pretend that the gushiness makes me sick, but I secretly love it.
7. The beach; I've lived there all my life and I don't know what a summer without it would be like.

I tag the following bloggers (I did more than 7):

• Lauren
• Becca
• Kelsey
• Emily
• Julie
• Lara
• Abbie
• Michelle
• Olga

These are some awesome ladies. I've appreciated everyone's comments as I've been starting up this blog. It really IS a community :)

Emily also gave me an award a while ago and I totally forgot to post it:


Thanks girl :)

OK, time for beddy and such. Good night!!

Grocery shopping therapy.

First off, thank you thank you thank you to everyone who commented or just allowed me to vent on my last post. I really appreciate the support :) I figured out a way to cheer myself up, because today was GROCERY DAY!!!

Kara's Grocery Trip
TRADER JOE'S:

• Canned garbonzo beans
• (3) Lara Bars
• Some daffodils (I decided to treat myself and liven up my desk)
• Baby spinach
• (3) bananas

GIANT:

• (2) Portobella mushroom caps
• Lite firm tofu
• (3) Fuji apples
• Scallions
• Tomato
• Brussels sprouts
• Sweet potato
• Avocado
• Vanilla ice cream
• Decaf English breakfast tea*
• Cinnamon Raisin Swirl PB(!!!)
• Kashi U Cereal
• Annie's Whole wheat and white cheddar shells
• Eggs
• (4) Chobani
• Kashi 7 grain rice pilaf*
• Blueberries

*on sale

Not everything is in the photo because one of my roommates was in the kitchen so I started to put some stuff away so I didn't look like a weirdo (my roommates don't know about the blog). I was surprised that I bought so little. Usually I have much bigger shopping trips. I do have a lot of things already that I need to use up, so I guess I was just keeping those things in mind.

And look at these gorgeous daffodils!! They've already started opening up since I got them home.

In between breakfast and lunch I had an apple and a Cashew Cookie Lara Bar, which is my favorite so far. I also got a tall soy Chai because I was exhausted.

I am TRYING to stay away from caffeine as much as possible, but I really wanted some this morning.

Lunch was a salad of baby spinach, baby carrots, cukes, blueberries, feta, and balsamic vinaigrette.

AND a half sandwich of just whole grain bread and CINNAMON RAISIN PEANUT BUTTER.

I have been holding myself back from buying any more nut butter until I use some up (I now have 4 open jars...) but I can only resist for so long. And it was so worth it. I didn't get any raisins in this one, but it was delicious and had great texture. Also has less calories than regular peanut butter. Hmmmm.

Blog news:
Be sure to check out julie golean's giveaway of some of her favorite things! I love her blog and I think this giveaway is awesome!

I need to get some things together for my evening class at 4pm. It's my least favorite class, but I'll probably bring my computer with me and occupy myself. Shhhh :) Have a good rest of your day!

Up and down.

The past 24 hours have felt like a roller coaster. Besides the fact that I left home and the BF's yesterday and was pretty bummed about it, I got my letter of acceptance from the other grad school (the one that I'm leaning towards going to) when I got back to CP. So of course I'm really excited about getting in, but I'm also pretty stressed out about the life decisions that I'm going to have to make soon. It's pretty scary that I'll be pretty much out on my own after this summer. I spent the whole night looking through the 2 different schools' websites and thinking about all of my options. I hate being stressed like this, especially when it keeps me from getting quality sleep. I'm so happy, but I'm also so nervous.

Anyways, eats have been pretty good and today should be getting back on track in the health department. I surprisingly didn't gain any weight while I was home, so I must have been doing better than I thought. I was totally feeling what Lara @ Thinspired said about either being "on or off" with healthy eating. I just need to be on again.

Breakfast yesterday was made by the BF. I had 2 scrambled eggs with a slice of toast with spread.

And a thin slice of Mom's banana bread :)

Yesterday was the BF's mom's birthday so we went over to his sister's house for a little celebration. I didn't take pics because they all don't know about the blog yet and I didn't want to start that conversation yet. But I had 2 slices of pizza and a smallish slice of caramel cheesecake.

I hit the road at about 7pm last night. It takes me 2 hours to get to CP from his house, so I always like to have some snacks available. I had an apple and a bag of Honey Cashews from the new Royal Farms that just opened. They kind of tasted like Cracker Jacks.

At home was a late dinner consisting of an Amy's burrito.

I have been wanting to try these for a long time and finally bought one on sale. It was a little bit of a let down. It was good, but I was expecting more of a contrast in flavors. I would probably still buy them again.

This morning was a little bit of a change up. I had a mini cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and an Oikos with ambrosia blend trail mix.

I feel like I'm not going to stay full for very long, though. I need to go grocery shopping today and hopefully I can fit everything in our fridge since my roommates have it pretty full right now. I'm going to try to de-stress, but that can be hard for me sometimes. I just hope that I can get through this week without too many bumps.

Slow and steady.

I'm a little eager to get back into the swing of a routine. The last couple of shifts that I've had at work have felt like a taste of summer and I just want to finish out this year and get into something new :) I miss the beach so much!

I can't believe that I only have 1 day to write about! Go me! I had work again this morning and I was pretty happy with the steadiness of customers that we had. Everyone else felt like it was slow, but I was just happy to be making money.

Before work I had some oatmeal (Oats, milk, water, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, vanilla, granola, raisins, almond butter).

I wish that I had known more about fiber in the previous summers that I worked there. I used to always get hungry as soon as I got to work, but I was fine until about 2pm.

Lunch was half good and half splurge. I had a veggie sub (lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, hot peppers, sweet peppers, provolone and oil+vinegar) with some onion rings.

I thought that I wouldn't be able to finish it all, but I guess I was hungrier than I thought I was. Before the end of my shift I had a Hawaiian Delight malt (vanilla ice cream with pineapples, bananas, and cherries). It'll be quite awhile until I get this ice cream again, so it was well worth it. Monday goes back to "normal" eating for me!

I had dinner with my parents tonight and my mom made awesome eggplant parmesan with pasta and a french baguette.

She also made banana bread from some bananas I snagged from work, so I had to get a piece of that before I leave tonight. I love my mom's cooking :)

I still need to do some packing and then I'm heading up to the BF's house. Hope your Saturday night is great!

Finding your pattern.

It's so much harder to stay in a flow when I'm not at school. I really hope that after I graduate I can keep up with my regular updates. It's all about finding a pattern, I guess.

I've gotten in some awesome food in the past couple of days! I love being home. Everything in College Park is a chain.

Yesterday for dinner we had Pepper's Tavern. They advertise as a "5 star dive" and that's a pretty spot-on description. It's really seedy inside and a lot of locals hang out there. The food is awesome. I almost always get the fish tacos with rice and beans, which is what I got last night (sorry about the fuzzy pic; I forgot my camera).

We were in a rush because we went to a play at my old high school, but it was still good. They have the hottest wings on earth. Seriously. I've had a lot of wings, and these are ridiculous.

Dessert was 2 Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chip Cookies with milk. Gotta have the milk.

Today, similar to every other day this week, started with oatmeal (oats, skim, water, banana, cinnamon, splenda, vanilla, granola, blueberries, almond butter) and 20 minutes of yoga.

Lunch was from another one of my favorites: Mione's. I got a slice of the white pizza, which has ricotta, broccoli, tomatoes, and basil.

So awesome. I also had a couple of bites of The BF's Margarita pizza, which was equally good. His slice of pepperoni was mediocre.

Then I had work at Dumser's, which meant that I didn't have a lot of healthy food options. Which meant that I decided to give into the fryers and got some chicken tenders and fries.

I ate about 3/4 of that. A few hours later I had a small scoop of coconut chocolate chip ice cream with hot fudge. Yumm. But I definitely felt the effects of the fatty foods later on in the shift. I felt tired and draggy and slow. Blech.

Need to go to bed because I have work tomorrow, too. Have a great weekend!!