My wowza post title is due to the crazy weather we are having!  Yesterday it was almost 60 degrees and today it dropped back down to 30.  In fact when I left work AND the gym, we had a snow/sleet storm   Boooooooo!

I started out the day with a Chobani yogurt topped with flax, pom seeds, grape nuts and almonds. It was so yummy and a great way to start my day!

Well today was literally a food fest in my office! When I got to work at 6:45am, there was already a ton of food out on display! I packaged up a majority of my cookies from the cookie exchange and brought them to work as my contribution to our holiday potluck. Here they are:

Here’s all the extra cookies I made to bring to the pot luck today…

I did my best to wait until mid-morning to snack on some goodies since that is when I would normally eat my mid morning snack. Normally I would dive into the bagels and donuts and danishes, but this time I tried to be smart about it. I knew there would be food present ALL day, so I kept it simple by having a ton of fresh cantaloupe, strawberries, and honeydew instead. It’s not often that I get to enjoy fruit of that variety, so I took advantage of it! I also had a tiny sliver (about 3 or 4 bites worth). My stomach started to grumble around 11 and this soft pretzel was really eyeing me up, plus it didn’t help that I was sitting RIGHT NEXT to the tables w/ all the food So I decided to split a small philly soft pretzel w/ a coworker.

Lunch rolled around and I tried to make the best decisions possible, while maximizing deliciousness! I had a little bit of this asian cole slaw that a coworker made and it was absolutely AMAZING! I need to get the recipe ASAP! Then I had some strawberry - almond spinach salad and a half of a turkey hoagie. I also had 2 pickles, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers for finger food. I felt like I needed caffeine so I did something I usually don’t do and had a half a cup of Diet Pepsi. I never have been a big soda drinker – I attribute that to my parents because all we ever drank growing up was milk or water!

A few hours later it was “dessert” time, so I had a tiny sliver of pumpkin pie, a chocolate covered graham cracker, and two chocolate covered pretzels w/ sprinkles on top.

I think I handled today’s lunch pretty well, I sampled everything that was worth sampling and avoided the normal junk – chips, standard dips, frozen meatballs, etc. I always read in health magazines that for events like holiday get togethers where there is a lot of homemade food you should opt to focus on consuming new and unique foods instead of filling up on the stuff that you could have any time. I never really tried this approach until today and I’m glad I did

Mid afternoon I decided I was finally done w/ all the food that was out, so I pulled out a handy Clif Z bar to snack on before I hit the gym. When I got to the gym, I decided today was an all-cardio day since I did strength training yesterday and was planning on doing kickboxing tomorrow. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill first and then hopped on the elliptical to do 30 minutes there. It was a great sweat session that had me burn 450 calories and I logged over 5 miles. Now I’m starting to accumulate a decent amount of points for the HBBC

When I got home, I was on a mission, so I threw in some chicken & potatoes to bake for Bill and I hopped in the shower – talk about multitasking!  As I was packing up my lunch I realized that I should probably use up the leftover chili that was in the fridge, so I served myself a bowl full of delicious veggie chili alongside some broccoli and a toasted english muffin smeared with Promise Light. Definitely a voluminous dinner, but super healthy. I was all sweeted-out from my eats earlier today so this did the trick!

Now I’m off to work on our super late Christmas cards and then watch the season finale of the Biggest Loser – I really can’t wait to see who wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It BETTER not be Vicki or else I will not be watching next season