Chillin' with Mr. Bill

Here we are at Monday again already!  And I’m up exceptionally early this morning.  As I begin this post it’s 4:32 a.m. so I’ll apologize now for any potential goofiness or typos!  (Or at least any goofiness BEYOND my normal level!)

My Sunday was so fun because it was nice and simple.  MSP and I wanted to just have a really nice ‘quality time’ kind of day together since I will be away from home for the next two weekends.  It was our planned ‘rest day’ for the week and a planned day to have a treat or two.  We visited a new outdoor mall area, admired a lot of architecture and landscaping, and soaked up some sunshine while strolling along.

First off, I had to use my Eudaemonic Starbucks mug because not only was I happy about our upcoming day together, but the scale gave me excellent feedback on this morning!  I have been aiming to maintain my weight, not necessarily lose.  But by making just a few subtle changes to my eating style, my body has really responded without any effort.  I can see the visual change in my body composition & in the way the clothes are fitting, so I decided to hop on the scale.   It was definitely an eudaemonic moment!     I’ll make a future FitFeature about my philosphy on weighing oneself.

So naturally I had to thank my bod by giving it more of what it loves!  An ENORMOUS green smoothie.  This one started with the usual 8 oz of water, to which I added 1/2 a cantaloupe, 1/2 pear, 1/4 cucumber, big fist o’ spinach, the last of my sprouts, and a celery stalk.)  No protein powder in this one.  MMMMMMmmmmmm the cantaloupe was a nice touch…  

When I was ready for something a bit more substantial, I made some oatmeal (about 1/3 cup dry) topped with some almond milk, raisins, a drizzle of raw honey and a few crumbles from a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar.  I can’t even tell you how GOOD that Larabar makes the oatmeal – you need to try it!  I break off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bar.  This is seriously like dessert. 

MSP and I went to a few home goods stores in search of something decorative to put on top of the living room project that is underway so at lunchtime we decided to hit up the brand new Whole Foods over in another part of town.  I had a ‘build your own Asian stirfry’ with shrimp, shitake mushrooms, snow peas, asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, rice noodles, thai peppers, edamame, water chestnust and Thai Lime sauce.  It was fabulous and SO HUGE that I will probably be eating from this all week. 

We then wandered through every aisle of this Whole Foods.  It is SO MUCH BIGGER than the one by our house!  I’m so jealous!  I was “oooing and ahhing” all over that store.  I picked up some Sunshine falafel ‘burgers’ while I was there because our store doesn’t carry that flavor.  I’ll definitely go out of my way to shop at this one more often. 

The bakery at this particular Whole Foods was amazing as well.  So we couldn’t resist picking out some treats to take home for a mid-afternoon snack/dessert.  This little guy reminded me of Mr. Bill!  He’s almost too cute to eat!

See the resemblance? 

 OHHHHH NOOOOOOO! 

I also had this green mini-cutie.  I really think they should put some more frosting on their cupcakes. 

The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent in a sugar-induced fog.  My tummy was a bit unhappy with me for the blast of sugar, so all I really wanted was something light to snack on.  I had some Baked Scoops while I watched some football and later polished off my manchego sheep’s cheese.  
 

It was a great way to finish out the weekend! 

Today’s questions:  If you are one who is normally a healthy eater, do you eat occasional treats?  Or do you find it easier to just exclude them altogether?  Personally I like to treat myself to something sugary that I consider ‘fun’ every once in a while – in part because I usually feel not so great after and it reinforces why I choose to eat nutritious food the rest of the time.  Drop me a comment! 

Hope your week is off to a great start!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)