I gave up cereal.

OH THE HORRRRORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My grumbling belly wants to know why the heck I’ve decided to torture myself in such a way, given my well-known love and infatuation for cereal. Why would I willingly rip such a dependable source of joy from my life?  And what the heck did cereal do to deserve this unjust exile?

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Lately, I’ve turned into a major snack monster.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all about snacking and eating small meals throughout the day.  I’m also all about incorporating lots of delicious yet nutritious treats into my day.  And apparently I’m also all about grabbing fistfuls of cereal and shoving them into my mouth every time I step foot into my kitchen.  A handful of puffins after breakfast to cleanse the palet… a handful for my pre-dinner snack… you know, just to hold me over…  and while we are at it, why not throw in a late night bowl o’ cereal to settle my tummy before bed?

Cereal and I, we have a LONG history.

This was, at one point, my favorite Friday night ritual after all:

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My infatuation runs so deep that it’s not abnormal for my pantry to have five+ open boxes of cereal on any given day.

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A while back I caught on to my cereal addiction.  I think it was sometime around the day I decided, after scouring every aisle of the grocery store in search of a fabulous dinner feast, that of ALL THE THINGS the grocery store offered me, I’d most like to have THIS for dinner:  /

(You may have noticed I’ve now pictured wine twice in this post.  Yes, I like to drink wine with my cereal.  No, I’m sure as hell not giving up wine.)

It was around that time that I started using a small coffee mug to dole out my cereal portions rather than a bowl, which enabled me to still get my cereal fix without going overboard.  But it’s a slippery slope, my friends.  Eventually one mug of cereal turned into two…  then two turned into three…  and as a CPA I am confident that 3 mug-fulls of cereal is equivalent to a crapload.  And god knows how many bowls four fistfuls of cereal is equal to.  I mean, I do have freakishly large hands after all.

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So in an effort to nip this snack monster issue in the butt, I’ve decided to give up cereal for the rest of busy season (AKA through September 15th for you non-tax folk).  And on that day when busy season once again comes to a screeching hault, I will be wiser, stronger, and fully prepared to have a sweet sweet reunion with the my beloved cereal.

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Whew Wednesday.

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

AND HAPPY WEIGH-IN WEDNESDAY!

ANNNND HAPPY WHAT-I-ATE-WEDNESDAY!

Today was such a particularly packed Wednesday, I think I’ll rename it Whew Wednesday Smile

The day started off with a handful of Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins:

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I affectionately call this the Cereal of the Gods.  It really is THAT good.  I also hear Barbara’s now makes chocolate peanut butter puffins.  Don’t worry.  I’ve added finding the new cereal to the weekend to-do list.

After I popped the puffins, I headed out for my interval run (which consisted of a short 2-interval series of 1 minute walking and 9 minutes running).

Post run, it was time for eggs and bacon … sprouted 7 grain bread.  Mmmmmmm Smile

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These are the eggs I make pretty much every day.  I call them my fake out dippy eggs because it’s actually a 3 egg white scramble topped off with 1 dippy egg.

When you poke the yolk it oozes down over the egg whites and tastes just as darn good as a plate full of dippy eggs. Thumbs up

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After the eggs, I headed to work (insert 2 hours of number crunching here) and around 10am it was time for Breakfast #2!

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Overnight oats, my friends. Overnight.Oats.  Yes, I STILL love and adore them.  Yes, I STILL eat them every day.

(insert two additional hours of number crunching here)

2+2 = Lunch time.

Today’s lunch consisted of some leftover ground turkey taco meat that I threw onto a bed of lettuce along with some tomato, onion, black beans and corn:

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If you are looking for a tasty side dish for Mexican food, try out this recipe for Corn and Black Bean Salad.  I made it over the weekend, and it was super tasty and SUPER simple.

Afternoon snack consisted of an un-pictured apple and some cocoa roast almonds….

After work, I headed to Dandelion Market for happy hour with some coworkers:

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The Dandelion Market is a tapas restaurant that serves up a variety of intriguing small plates.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was rustic, yet chic.  Dimly lit and extremely cozy.

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I’d of felt equally comfortable sipping a cup of coffee in a chair in the corner as I did sipping a glass of cabernet at a table near the window.

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Tonight I had the pleasure of sampling two of the tapas.  First was the pepperoni flatbread.  Isn’t it beautiful?

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Don’t be fooled.  This was not your typical peperoni pizza.  This flatbread had cured peperoni, ricotta salada, a rustic tomato sauce, and BASIL.  It was light and delicious, and honestly I think I could have ate three of them.  The basil was the perfect finishing touch.

I also sampled the grilled steak skewers:

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The steak was cooked PERFECTLY medium rare and was incredibly juicy.  But what REALLY made the dish was the sweet and spicy honey soy marinade that came along side:

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Coming from a lady who puts A-1 Steak Sauce on EVERY steak that goes in her mouth, you KNOW it must have been amazing if I devoured the entire plate without even pausing.

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After dinner, I headed to TCBY for some froyo with the Charlotte Food Bloggers!  Now, truth be told I am an ice cream snob.  I worked at the world’s most fantastic locally owned and operated creamery throughout all of high school and college (biased much?), and during these years I had the opportunity to taste, sample, and create some of the most outrageously delicious ice cream concoctions.

So, frozen yogurt?  Meh.  Doesn’t really do it for me.  Which is odd, given that this town is littered with Fro Yo joints.  What DOES do it for me though is the crazy assortment of toppings all these frozen yogurt places have.

Here’s my combo of the evening:

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PB and Cake batter froyo…. with a little cookie dough, some heath bar, a little brownie, mochis, Peanut Butter drizzly drizz, and some blueberries for good measure.

Let’s focus on what’s really important here:

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Who’s with me?

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TGI Freakin F!

Today I feel like a chicken with no head.  Let me recap the last 24 hours in 13 key points:

1.) Went shopping for new pants after work yesterday, ended up buying three shirts.  (I still consider this a success)

2.) Ate a Luna Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar for energy before my interval training.

This was pretty tasty.  It had more of a candy-bar like feel to it than the normal Luna Bars, but I think the taste of the regular bars are better than these protein bars.  Worth a shot, definitely better than the Larabar Flop earlier in the week, but I’ll stick with the regular Luna Bars from now on!

3.) Got locked out.  Super.

4.) Dinner consisted of a cold leftover turkey burger (luckily I had brought this with me to work and subsequently took it with me shopping).  Yes, I took the burger into the mall… Haha 🙂

5.) Phone died (again).  Super!

6.) Completed Day 3 of interval training.  Whoop!

7.) Set alarm clock (since phone is broke). 

8.) Turns out alarm was never changed for daylight savings.  Woke up 1.5 hours late.  Super.

9.) While making coffee, realized I never unplugged the george foreman after making my breakfast wrap yesterday.  Wow, Mary.  Wow.

10.) Ate a Blueberry Bliss luna bar on my way into work.  And it really was blissful!  Things started to perk up after that.

11.) Got to work 1 hour late. Craaaapppppp…

12.) Strawberry Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries and Bear Naked Maple Pecan Granola 🙂 Yummmm….

13.) Takeout lunch from Jimmy Johns.  It’s starting to feel like Friday now 😀

Giant beach club unwich, no mayo, add onion and giant pickle:

Me after finishing my grub:

 Blurry, but at least I’m smiling!

*deep breath*

In through the nose, out through the mouth….

😀

Plans for the weekend:

  • Get my frickin phone fixed
  • Yard Work (obviously)
  • New digital camera!!!! YAY!!! Super excited about this one.
  • Fun with friends Saturday night
  • Try new recipes?  I sure hope so.
  • R&R?  Mandatory.

 

QUESTION OF THE DAY:  How do you turn your day around when you start off on the wrong foot?

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