Athena Awards — Success in Sisterhood

Tonight I attended the Athena Awards dinner in Cleveland, which honored local women helping women.  Those who know me know I’m all about female empowerment.  There’s just something amazing about getting the opportunity to surround myself with strong successful women in leadership roles, and tonight’s dinner was one of those events where I left feeling like I can tackle anything that comes my way!

This was the first business function I have whipped out my camera to take pictures of the grub…  I got a few funny looks, but I simply told people I was working on an article for the company newsletter 😉

None of these pictures are very good, as I was more concerned with snapping quick pics than getting clear images (due to all the staring).

Pretty vase on table:

Salad with goat cheese:

Pecan crusted chicken (tasty,  but too sweet so I scraped it all off) with potato wedges and green beans:

Also had a few bites of dessert, which tasted like a big fancy fudge round 🙂

Some thoughts from the dinner to leave you with tonight:

“It’s important to have an enthusiasm for life.”

 

“Simply be the best that you can be.  It’s usually enough to get you where you want to go.”

 

“I hope that when we ask the next generation of women what challenges they face in their workplaces, that they will look at us with quizzical eyes and say ‘Challenges?  What Challenges?’ “

 

My personal favorite:

“Wellness and balance are just as important as growing huge brains.”

 

Goodnight friends!  🙂

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Getcho run on!

What is it about running first thing in the morning that makes me feel like I can tackle anything the day brings me?  This morning I completed Day #3, Week #2 of my interval training plan.  Woo hoo!  That means Friday I’ll be up to 2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running… and still no knee pain in sight 🙂

  

Breakfast #1

In honor of the fabulous PB2 GIVEAWAY, I decided to make a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap using Chocolate PB2

I took 2 tbsp of powdered chocolate PB2:

Then added 1 tbsp water:

Then smeared it on a  Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla and topped with 1/4 cup each of strawberries and blueberries

I wrapped everything up, and put it on the george foreman for 5 minutes.  Then wrapped in foil and stuck in my purse:

And enjoyed at my desk at work:

Mmmmmmm…. love love love the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps!!!

Stats on the wrap:  145 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

 

Make sure you post a comment on the PB2 giveaway by midnight Sunday July 4th!

 

Breakfast #2

Bowl of overnight oats consisting of:

  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze almond milk
  • 1 packet Truvia (stevia)
  • Cinnamon
  • Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries (added this morning)

I <3 overnight oats.

 Stats on the oats:  203 calories, 39g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

 

Lunch

Last night when I was packing my lunch I was really craving a sandwich.  (The carb tooth strikes again!) 

Sunday night I grilled up a big batch of chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning.  So I packed one of the breasts (about a 2.5 ouncer), 1 cup spinach, tomato, onion, a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy hummus.

Can you say YUM?  Yum. 😀

Stats on the sammy:  230 calories, 29g carbs, 5g fat, 22g protein, 9g fiber

 

Women Power

Tonight I’m headed up to Cleveland for the Athena Women’s award dinner.  This opportunity came up through my involvement with the Knowledgeable Network of Women through the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

And I’m taking my camera.  First time for me to let my inner food blogger out at a business function… should be interesting 🙂

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Power of the Purse

Today I had the pleasure of attending the Power of the Purse Luncheon sponsored by the United Way of Summit County.  This luncheon celebrates the impact women have on giving in our area.  We had a terrific speaker named Jessica Clements.  Jessica was hit by a roadside bomb while serving for the US Army in Iraq.  She was given a 2% chance to live due to the massive brain trama she suffered.  Despite these terrible odds, Jessica was miraculously able to recover.   She spoke on the importance of persevering, challenging yourself, and giving back.  What an amazing and inspiring speaker! 

Breakfast #1

Last night, I cooked up two of my lil eggins with the 1/2 of a link of Jennie-O’s hot turkey sausage I had leftover from the Jambalaya! (I apparently can’t type that word without using an “!” after it 🙂 )

The eggins consisted of 3 egg whites, S&P, Franks Red Hot, Red Pepper Flakes.  I baked them up in a 350 degree oven for 27 minutes.  I also had the other half of the english muffin that was leftover from yesterday’s egg love.

Despite looking slightly creepy, the sausage/egg combo was so yummy!  🙂

Stats on eggins & 1/2 english muffin:  193 calories, 18g carbs, 6g fat, 23g protein, 4g fiber

  

Breakfast #2

Chobani Blueberry greek yogurt with 1/2 a serving of Bear Naked Maple Granola

As much as I L-O-V-E greek yogurt, I am seriously looking forward to making up some overnight oats tonight.  There are just so deliciously cold and creamy!  And addicting!

Stats on yogurt + granola:  205 calories, 31g carbs, 2g fat, 16g protein, 2g fiber

  

Lunch

Good news / bad news on lunch. 

Bad news = I didn’t make anything fun for lunch because of the luncheon, nor did i get any pics of what I ate! Bummer!

Good news = I jotted down a few inspirational quotes from the speaker at the luncheon:

Don’t give up the first time you do something and it turns out terrible.

Every day strive to be the best “me” you can be

I especially liked:  Live for today.  Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow may never come.

I’m trying a couple new recipes tonight!  Pumped! (as always 😉 )

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Taco salad does the trick

This morning started off on the right foot:  Trader Joe’s coffee for the road as I headed to a breakfast meeting for Akron’s Knowledgeable Network of Women. 

Check this guy out, he thinks he lives at my house:

I also have a stray cat who calls my side porch home.  I’ll take these guys over the possum who had a brief stint in my backyard :-/   Ugh, possums are so creepy!

On my way to the breakfast meeting, I started to recall the days where I loved breakfast/lunch work meetings.  The more the better!  Bring on the free food!  Pass the rolls!  Dessert?  I’ll take one of each, thank you!  Nowadays I dread them.  It’s so hard to make healthy choices when you have no idea what the restaurant is actually putting in the food.  Unless I’m at a chain restaurant that posts the nutritional data online, I have thee hardest time picking out the healthy choices on the menu.  It can be downright frustrating!

Today’s meeting was at a small locally owned restaurant, so I was left to fight the battle on my own.  I went with a plain english muffin (no butter, thanks) with blackberry preserves and a bowl of fruit.  What I REALLY WANTED was the strawberry stuffed french toast… Maybe I’ll attempt a healthified version this weekend 🙂

Check out the KNOW by clicking here.  I always encourage people to get involved and do something that is outside their comfort zone.  That’s exactly why I joined the KNOW a few years back.  I HATED networking events and always felt uncomfortable entering a room full of unknowns.  I’ve made drastic improvements since then.

For breakfast #2 I decided to go with my newly declared indulgence:  Dannon Vanilla Greek Yogurt, blackberries, and 1/2 a serving of Bear Naked Maple Pecan granola.

Stats of B#2:  190 calories, 31g carbs, 2g fat, 15g protein, 3g fiber

 

  

Lunch

I really didn’t have a plan of attack for lunches this week.  While scrounging around in the freezer looking for hidden treasures, I found some frozen lean ground beef I had cooked up with taco seasoning a while back.  So I decided to make a taco salad using romaine lettuce, tomato, onion, banana peppers, and black beans (STILL trying to use these up from the stuffed peppers I made last week!).  Topped it all off with some hot sauce and some fat free breakstones sour cream.

The best part of eating salads for lunch is you can consume an enormous amount of food and still feel good 😀

Stats for the taco salad:  326 calories, 32g carbs, 10g fat, 29g protein, 9g fiber

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