FEBRUARY 27, 2011

I woke up at 8am this morning!  I thought I would’ve slept a little longer, but I guess my internal clock wakes me up!

At 8:30am, I ate a few cocoa almonds and had a cup of coffee.  Danielle slept in a little later than I did so when she got up at 10:30am, I ate breakfast.  I had two egg whites with Low-fat cheddar cheese, and another cup of coffee.

At noon, we ran a 5-mile run on the road. She is coming back to town for the ½ marathon in April, so we did part of the course so she would be familiar with it when she’s running it. It was a nice run down music row, the Vanderbilt area, and west end.  I loved it!

At 2pm, we went to taco Mamacita’s for lunch.  Of course, we had chips and salsa (am I addicted or what?), and then I had turnip greens, black bean & corn salad, and a rotisserie chicken breast.  Lunch was great!!

Tonight, we decided we did not need to eat out again so I just had some sliced turkey, couple pieces of cheese, hummus, and some pita chips. 

Today was kind of a relaxed day! My eating wasn’t great, but I wanted to just chill out with Danielle and do what she wanted to do.  I had an awesome weekend with her here! Sad she is leaving tomorrow. We are getting up at 5am so I’m heading to bed now and it’s before 10pm!! Gnite!

February 26, 2011

Today was a very busy day!  My friend Danielle is in town from Minneapolis and she loves working out as much as me so we packed our morning with workouts!

We woke up today at 7am.  I had a yogurt with blueberries and one cup of coffee.  We met two of my girlfriends on the trails at 8am and ran 4.5 miles. After our run, I ate an apple.  I love gala apples!  This was the first time Danielle has ever run trails and I think she loved it, despite the fact it was so muddy out there!

From 1030-1200, we did a Bikram hot yoga class.  I haven’t done hot yoga in at least a month so this class was challenging for me today.  After class, I was starving but still had a couple errands to run before we could eat lunch.

Finally at 2pm, we went to Calypso Café and I had the lucayan salad and black beans.  The lucayan salad has romaine lettuce, mandarin oranges, almonds, and chicken on it.  I asked for the light vinaigrette dressing on the side. 

After lunch, I was ready for a nap, but never really found a minute to sleep.  

At 5pm, I had a think thin protein bar. 

Tonight, we went out to celebrate Lorie’s birthday at Urban Flats. I’ve been looking forward to Urban Flats since we planned the party a few weeks ago.  Urban Flats has flatbread pizza and I LOVE IT!!  We all met at 8pm for her birthday and I ordered the Californian flatbread pizza.  It had chicken, goat cheese, spice walnuts, and a raspberry sauce on it!  I almost ate the entire pizza!  IT WAS SO AWESOME. Oh yeah, I also had red wine, some of the hummus appetizer, and a piece of Lorie’s strawberry birthday cake!  Becker’s Bakery in Nashville made the cake and it was great too!! 

After dinner, we all went out dancing for a little bit! I haven’t done that in years, but Lorie wanted to, so we did!  I probably got home around 12:30 or 1am.  Danielle and I were hungry again so we had chips and salsa right before we went to bed!! 

Today started off great on my plan!  I ate healthy and exercised and then tonight, I lost my will-power and ate whatever I wanted to eat!  I figured since it was my sister’s birthday I could celebrate too!  It was a fun night!  Gnite y’all!!

Monday February 21, 2011

It’s the start of a new week!  I’m thinking I’m going to start adding up my calories soon to see what I am actually eating a day.  I’m not sure that I will start doing that this week, but I may at least think it.  This is my last week of almonds for a while.  I think after I give those up, it will be easier for me to keep track of my calories.  I don’t always count the almonds I eat; I just normally eat a handful and go about my day.  I think if I diligently note what I’m eating, I will notice a change on the scales.

I was inspired to stop eating almonds when a friend of mine asked me what I was giving up for Lent the other day.  I don’t think I’ve ever done that before in my life.  She said that some people might give up cussing, or watching television, or some sort of food that you overindulge in too often.  So, I thought about it and if she can do it, I think I can too!  I love being challenged sometimes so I decided that beginning next Wednesday, I am going to give up almonds.  Until then, I will eat them as I always do!!  Just like the diet drinks, I need you all to hold me to the no almond promise!! 

This morning I woke up at 5am and for breakfast I had some low-fat cottage cheese with blueberries on top and a few almonds.

From 6-7am, I took TASK class.  And from 7-8am, I took a yoga class.  I loved the yoga today!  It is always a great way to start my day!! 

Around 8:20am, I had coffee and at 9:15am, I ate egg whites with low-fat cheddar cheese on top.

I left the house around 10:30 for my 11am writing session.  The session was awesome today!  In the middle of the session (around 12:30-1) I had ½ of a turkey sandwich on multi-grain bread with hummus and mustard on it.  I also had a few of Stacey’s multigrain pita chips. 

Around 3:30pm, I was still working on new music at the studio and started getting hungry so I had a Luna Bar.  I am so accustomed to eating the Think Thin bars now that the Luna tasted different to me.  It was good, but I need to get back used to eating them.  I bought a few of them the other day.

At 5pm, I left the studio for the gym again.  On the way there, I had some almonds.  From 6-7pm, I took kickboxing class.  It was a little warm in the gym tonight, which made class hard.  I was pretty sweaty on my drive back home tonight.

I probably got back home around 8:15pm tonight and Mama had baked some tilapia from Costco for us!  We also had a side salad!  It was a great dinner!  I’m going to have a couple of cocoa almonds for dessert and then heading to bed soon. It’s about 10:30pm and I’m feeling like I might be catching Mama’s cough from last week so I must get some rest.

It was an awesome day!  Gnite everyone!!

Wednesday February 23, 2011

Woo…it was hard to get up today!! I started coughing last night before I went to bed so I took some Nyquil.  Everyone in my house has been sick with that cold/cough going around.  That Nyquil knocked me out and made me want to stay in the bed this morning!  At 5:10am, I sent my friend a text to see if she was going to class and she said she was hitting snooze too.  I fell back asleep and woke up at 5:25am to a message that she was getting dressed and going to class.  I got dressed so fast and headed out the door.  By 5:35am, I was in my car eating ½ of a protein bar and drinking vitamin water.

From 6-7am, we took Sick Monkey class.  Sick Monkey is the class that’s based on the cross-fit style of training.  I think today was the most difficult sick monkey class I have taken.  One time I even looked up to see that one of the guys in the class had turned kind of a green color.  He eventually stopped the class because he felt so bad.  I actually love the more difficult classes because I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth and I’m not wasting my time. Know what I mean?

Around 7:15am, my friend and I ran a 3-mile road run.  We actually walked up some of the hills today because our legs were tired from class. It was still great to be out there with her!

After the run, I came home and around 9:00am, I made myself an egg white omelet w/veggie sausage, low-fat cheddar cheese, and coffee.

I had an 11am meeting today so I hurried to it and after that appointment, I had to pick up some mixes and mail them off.  On the way to pick up the CDs, I had some almonds and after I left the post office I ate the other half of my think thin bar from this morning! 

I spent a couple hours on the computer and then headed to my friend’s house around 3:30pm. I am dog-sitting for my friend through the weekend so I spent a few hours with them this afternoon before I went to see my friend Don Schlitz play tonight.  When I got to my friend’s house, I had a yogurt with fresh blueberries and almonds on it.  I also had a couple blue corn tortilla chips that she laid out for me!  They were calling my name!!!

I left her house around 6:40pm and headed to a quick dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill and then to the show.  At Carrabba's, I had a salad and the chicken soup without noodles.  Mama ordered the cheese fondue appetizer and I had a little bit of that too! 

At the Bluebird, I just drank a hot tea!  I headed back home around 10:30pm and about to head to bed now!!  It’s 11:30pm so I’m thinking I’m not going to get up early tomorrow.  I may make tomorrow my day off from working out this week! 

Gnite!

Tuesday February 22nd 2011

I woke up this morning at 5:45am instead of 5am!  It was nice to sleep a little bit longer.  Chains is off this week so I decided to run the trails this morning instead.  At 6am, I ate a little bit of my Cabot, reduced fat cheddar cheese with vitamin water and I headed to the trails!

We ran 4.5 miles and then I headed back home to eat some breakfast. I made my usual egg white omelet with Morningstar veggie sausage and more cheese.  I’m realizing as I type these journals that I eat lots of that cheese. It sure is good though!

At 9:15am, another girlfriend of mine asked me to run another 2.5 miles trail.  I had time this morning, so I did it! It was a slower run because my legs were a little tired from this morning.

Around 11:30 am I had a lunch meeting at one of my favorite spots in Nashville.  It’s called “The Chill Spot”.  The Chill Spot is a pretty healthy restaurant with mainly salads and wraps.  I ordered a chicken Philly wrap on wheat without the Swiss cheese and I had a side salad with it.  I didn’t eat most of the actual wheat wrap but it was good!  I must add too, the Chill Spot has good scenery!  A few GOOD LOOKING men came in to eat lunch in there.  One looked so good, I couldn’t focus on my food!  I just kept staring!  So girls, if you come to Nashville, go to the Chill Spot for lunch and you might have the same scenery I did! 

I left at 1pm to meet my sister for an appointment she had today.  I stayed with her till about 3:30pm and made my way to the studio to do final mix tweaks on my new songs. Around 4pm, I had my think thin protein bar.

Around 5:30pm, I was getting hungry again so I had about 5 almonds! I’m trying to slow down on the almonds but I’m pretty addicted to them!!

Mama called me around 6pm and asked me if I wanted to meet her at the Bonefish Grill for dinner.  We love the Bonefish so I said YES!  When I arrived, Mama was already sitting down and had ordered us some Bang Bang shrimp.  Bang Bang Shrimp is one of the appetizers Bonefish is famous for.  It’s fried shrimp with a kick to it!!  I had about 3-4 of those shrimp and then some of the bread they brought to the table.

I ordered a grilled salmon salad for dinner. The salad had tomato, asparagus, goat cheese, and citrus vinaigrette dressing on the side.  It was great!!  I think we got home around 9pm tonight! My sweet tooth appeared again so I had a few cocoa almonds!!  I’m going to bed soon!  I have Sick Monkey class in the morning!! 

Good Night!!!

Sunday February 20, 2011

Daytona 500 Sunday!  I am so excited that racing season has started up!!  I tried to do everything I needed to do before the race started today so I wouldn’t miss it!!

I woke up around 8am today and ate a breakfast of cottage cheese with fresh blueberries.  I also had some coffee!!

I met my friends at the trails today at 10am and we ran 7 miles.  My legs were pretty shot by the time we finished this morning! I think after yesterday’s run, my legs were just tired.  It was so great to be out there today.  We had a big group so that’s always fun!

After the run, a few of us went to Calypso Café for lunch.  I actually ordered something different today.  I had a pulled bbq chicken plate with greens and sweet potatoes.  I drank unsweetened tea. 

After we ate, I hurried home to watch the race.  During the race, I had more peanut butter pretzels.  I finally told my sister’s boyfriend to take those things away from me!!  I don’t have much will power when it comes to peanut butter pretzels or almonds. 

I had a meeting tonight from 6-8:30pm at Fido.  Fido is a coffee shop in Nashville that I like and where I end up having lots of meetings.  I actually didn’t eat anything there tonight…just drank water.

By the time I got home around 9pm I was pretty hungry.  I ate sliced turkey and Cabot reduced-fat cheddar cheese.  I also ate some cocoa almonds. 

I think it’s around 10:30pm right now and I’m going to bed!  Just got a Victoria’s Secret bathing suit catalog in the mail.  I’ve been looking at it and realized I have a LONG WAY to go before I wear one of those.  I’ve gotta get my act together!  I’m doing great on my workouts and running but I still think I need to be a little more disciplined on my diet.  I should have skipped the peanut butter pretzels and been just fine!  Tomorrow is a new day!  

Saturday February 19, 2011

Hey y’all!  Today was a pretty good Saturday.  I was busy working so I didn’t have much time to cheat on my diet.

I woke up today around 7:30am and ate just a few almonds before my trail run.  We met at 8:30am and ran 4.5 miles.  It was great to be out there today running because it was around 60 degrees!  I finally was able to wear short sleeves without a jacket!!  YAY…I’ve been waiting on spring! 

I got home from the trails around 10am and had some breakfast around 11am!  I ate egg whites, turkey sausage, and Cabot low-fat cheddar cheese.  I drank coffee.

I headed to the studio around 1pm.  I sang for a few hours but around 3:00pm I had my think thin protein bar.  At 4:15pm, I left to pick Mama up for dinner.  We met some of our friends at Rotiers tonight.  I’ve mentioned Rotiers to you all before in my blog.  It’s a famous cheeseburger place in Nashville.  I knew I didn’t want to eat a cheeseburger tonight so I found a teriyaki grilled chicken plate on the menu and ordered that. I had steamed broccoli and squash casserole with it!  I also had one and half fried pickles and half of a cheese-stick.  I think that was pretty good for Rotiers!  I wanted the cheeseburger and onion rings but steered clear!! 

After dinner, Mama and I headed back to our neighborhood.  We stopped at Publix on the way home for some groceries.  When I was walking through the store, I got a sudden craving for peanut butter pretzels.  I should have probably ignored it but I didn’t!  I bought me some peanut butter pretzels and had some before I went to bed!  BAD, BAD, BAD!  I love those peanut butter pretzels!!  I hardly ever eat them, but every once in a while, I will get a craving and I have to buy them!!

It’s early right now…about 9:30pm and I’m going to bed!  I’m doing some more work tomorrow so I want to be rested.  Some kind of cold/flu is going around and I want to rest up and take care of myself so I don’t catch it.  Gnite!!!!

Thursday February 17, 2011

Today I slept in a little bit.  I actually woke up at 5am and decided that I was going to sleep another hour or so and take chains class tonight.

So, I got up around 7am and ate breakfast.  I had an egg white omelet with turkey sausage, and low-fat cheddar cheese in it for breakfast.

I was in meetings today from about 9am-2pm so I packed a protein bar in my bag and some almonds just in case I got hungry throughout the day. 

Around noon, my meeting moved to the Bread & Company and we had lunch.  I created my own salad there. My salad was built from romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, tomato, cucumber, sliced almonds, sun-dried tomato, artichoke hearts, and fat free vinaigrette salad dressing. I had unsweetened ice tea with it.  The salad was pretty good!!!  I ate almost the whole thing!! 

We finished lunch and talking around 2pm and I headed back home to do some computer work and get ready for chains class.  I had hoped to get in a 3 mile run before class but I ran out of time. 

Around 4pm, I ate my think thin protein bar and drank water. 

At 5:30pm, I headed to the gym for chains class.  I arrived a little early so I just sat in the car and listened to music.  I probably should’ve gone in the gym and done some extra time on the treadmill, but I opted for staying and listening to some new songs!

Class started at 6:30pm. It normally ends around 7:30pm but we probably walked out around 7:50pm tonight.  This was the last chains class for this 6-week session so it was the most difficult one we’ve had. We had 7 different circuit wall stations and within each station we had 3 different exercises.  We did the three exercises within each station, 3 times each, for a total of 9 exercises.  One round was one minute each, the next round was 45 seconds each, and the last was 30 seconds each.  We did all 9 exercises in each station before we rotated to the next station.  We did that entire process 7 times.  I am actually glad I didn’t run before this class now because we had plenty of cardio stations in this workout.  Some of the cardio bursts were squat jumps, punching a kickboxing bag, burpees, etc!  Our strength training focused on total body and a few exercises were pull-ups, chin-ups, hamstring dead lifts, push-ups, front right/left leg lunges, triceps dips, kettle bell swings, etc.  It was a tough class!  I was pretty much soaked when I left.

I got home between 8:30 - 9pm and ate a black bean, white meat chicken salad from Calypso Café.  I didn’t eat it all because I wasn’t that hungry after that workout.  Then I had a couple cocoa almonds because I wanted something sweet! 

It’s 10:30pm now and I HAVE got to sleep!  5am is going to be here soon!!  


Today ended up being a pretty good day.  I was disappointed in myself for sleeping in, but I made up for that in class tonight!!

Wednesday February 16, 2011

I woke up today and finally felt rested!  Going to bed early last night helped SO much!  I was ready to get to the gym this morning.

The alarm went off at 5am and I was driving to the gym at 5:30am.  Before I left this morning I actually ate something different.  I had a small container of Breakstone’s fat free cottage cheese and a few almonds. 

This morning I did 'Sick Monkey' class from 6-7am.  It was so hard!  I was going to stay for yoga but felt like I just couldn’t do it today!  In 'Sick Monkey' we did lots of plyometric exercises and those type of exercises wear me out!!

I had a breakfast meeting this morning at 8:30am at Le Peep in Nashville.  I ordered an egg white omelet, multigrain toast, and a side of fruit.  I ate the omelet and the fruit and had coffee.  I wanted the toast but didn’t touch it.  YAY!

I started at the studio at 11am and ate a few almonds on the way there.  After I left the studio, I ate lunch at Blue Coast Burrito on the way to my writing session around 1pm.  At Blue Coast, I ordered a grilled chicken wheat burrito.  I also added black beans, lettuce, tomato, mild salsa, peppers & mushrooms to the burrito.  We got chips and salsa to eat with our burritos (I had a few) and I drank unsweetened tea.

Around 4:30pm, I had a protein bar (think thin peanut butter).

I got home tonight around 8pm and my sister Lorie had cooked a pork loin and green bean casserole.  I know casseroles aren’t the best for me, but she made it using all low calorie ingredients.  I drank more tea!! 

I’m going to bed at a decent time again.  It’s already after 10pm but that’s way better than midnight!  I still feel like I did pretty good today.  I’m beginning to feel better in my clothes…some days!  Some days I feel like I’m doing good and other days I’m like “what am I doing wrong here because my jeans are still tight!” I guess I’ll just keep doing the best that I can!!