Love Of Oats

A blog dedicated to balancing a healthy and fun life… with oats!

Refreshed

Ya know how I said I was focusing on breathing today?  Well, breakfast was where it began.  I was grumpy getting up for work this morning because Bill had off and was sound asleep this morning while I got ready for work :/  I decided to cheer myself up and light a peach candle while I enjoyed my breakfast.  It definitely did the trick, although taking the day off would have too ;)

Ohhhhh oatbran, where have you been all my life?  How come I didn’t try you sooner?  Seriously, this may take over my oatmeal spot for a while, I’m really hooked.  I love the creamy texture and today I decreased the amount of liquid I used to create even more thicker, creaminess! 

My breakfast bowl included 1/3 c oatbran, cinnamon, Heather’s blueberry flaxseed, sliced almonds, and chopped fresh strawberries

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The flaxseed was really good!  The blueberry flavor was slightly there, not too strong, but not invisible either and meshed well with my strawberries!  Thanks Heather, I can’t wait to use this whole bag up!

 My mid morning snack was a crisp organic Gala apple that I cut up and dipped in PB2 a la Erin.  Yum, totally enjoyed every bite and it’s crap-free :)   Honestly, I think this snack beats any bar, well maybe except for Clif White Chocolate Macadamia Nut ;)

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Around 11:15, though, I started to feel hungry, perhaps from the sugar in the apple, so I made a cup of Candy Cane Lane tea to warm me up and hold me over :)

For some reason my hunger kind of dissappeared and I didn’t eat lunch until 1pm, which is late for me… I was looking forward to my veggie-packed lunch and was curious how it would fill me  up since it contained lots of healthy foods.  I had two slices of Arnold’s ww bread topped with my homemade hummus & spring mix lettuce.  I almost topped it with a pickle until I read the jar and they contained HFCS – ewwww!  On the side, I had sliced veggies and one of these Emerald 100 calorie packs of walnuts & almonds.  I found these packs on sale at Target, I’m not concerned with the 100 calorie idea, but I love that they are already packaged which makes my lunch packing easy!  Plus, they are crap-free because the only ingredients are almonds and walnuts, not even salt, whew!  I also had 1/2 c of cottage cheese & cinnamon, but took a separate picture of it because it wouldn’t fit into the “scene”.

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Well, let me tell you, those veggies sure do fill me up.  It took me a full 40 minutes to eat my lunch (I eat while I work so I kind of graze), which is unusual b/c I normally inhale lunch.  I can’t wait to see if all of my veggie packed lunches hold me like this one did!  I actually like this crap-free idea, I feel more awake and refreshed too, just knowing I’m giving my body good vitamins & minerals!

I wasn’t hungry in the slightest at 3:30, but knew I needed to eat something before I did my cardio so I enjoyed one of my homemade banana nut bread Larabars.  SO good!  The texture is right-on, the only difference is I made smaller bars so they are thin and not thick, but I don’t mind :)   I really want to try and recreate the pecan pie flavor next!

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Ok well now it’s off to the gym, I’m planning on doing about 40 minutes on the elliptical doing a mix of random resistances.  On the drive home, I’m planning on half a cucumber.  Since Bill had off from work today, I knew we’d be eating an early dinner so I wanted something to crunch on, but not fill me up since we’d be eating within a half hour of me getting home.  A big thanks to OhSheGlows because I got this idea from her!

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This Isn’t Kansas

Before I forget, while watching LOST last night, I suddenly was starving despite my filling dinner so I made a bowl of cottage cheese, Zoe’s granola, and cinnamon.  I don’t want to spoil LOST for anyone who records it to watch over the weekend, but wasn’t it good?!!!!  I was jumping out of my seat!

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Fiberific is the best way to describe my breakfast today.  I would name it the title of this post but I’m pretty sure that I’ve used it before so I had to become more creative today :)

Breakfast was a bowl of Fiber One, sliced banana, ground flax, and almond breeze.  Mmmm!

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Mid-morning I snacked on an apple and some Quaker Weight Control oatmeal.  It held me like a charm because I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat lunch until 1pm today, so I doubled up on my snack :)

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I guess I wasn’t as burnt out on pb&j as I thought I was the other day because when I packed my lunch last night, what did I find myself packing?  A pb&j.  Go figure :)   The usual suspects were also included:  whole grain goldfish and a really great tangerine.  I say it was really great because it was SO juicy that it basically was all over my desk when I was done eating it – but it was worth it!

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And then just a little while ago I snacked on this Kashi Pumpkin Pie bar… luckily these were not recalled… whew!

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I don’t know what’s up with me both yesterday and today but I’ve been constantly hungry.  I know when this happens it’s important to listen to your body so I’ve been doing that, but it seems like nothing’s been satisfying me haha… I also feel kind of blah and worn out from the work week already so I worked an extra hour (to alleviate some of the craziness I’ll face tomorrow)  and decided to skip the gym tonight and relax instead :)   Bill is also skipping the gym so we’ll get to have some relaxing time and catch up on Heroes’ from Monday and the Office tonight!  I’m debating between getting another snack but I know we’ll be eating dinner in under 2 hours… What is goin’ on with me today :)   I’m going to blame it on the 50 mph winds we are experiencing here in Philly… it’s really insane… I heard it all throughout the night and it really hasn’t stopped throughout the day… At work, I honestly felt like the roof was going to fall off of our building because you could hear the wind howling against it.  Crazy – so yes, that’s my blog title was inspired by the weather… creative, eh?  That’s sarcasm of course :)

Back with din din in a bit!