This is going to be a very long, boring post about my day yesterday. I am posting a recipe at the end, so you can skip down to that if you'd like ;)
Well, it's only been a few days of consciously working on changing my eating habits again, but so far, so good. I have no idea if it's working, because I have no scale right now; but I'm eating on my regular schedule, and I'm tracking my calories.
Yesterday, nothing seemed to be going right, and I was very busy, so it was a stressful day. I had therapy from 10-11 yesterday, and the office is about 25 minutes north. Then, I had to go take a class at the Red Cross to renew my CPR/First Aid certification--all the way in Ann Arbor (another 30 minutes past my therapist's office). That part was no big deal, because it didn't start until 1:30.
The kids had a half-day of school. After I dropped them off at school, I headed straight to the rec center and ran my scheduled four miles. (Let me stop here and just say, running four miles on an indoor track (12 laps per mile) is SO BORING. Don't complain about a treadmill until you've tried running tiny laps.) My pace was 10:08, but I forgot my heart rate monitor again!
After my run, I came home, took a shower and ate breakfast. Right as I was walking out the door, my dad called and asked if he could pick up the kids from school. That worked out great, because of their half day. So, I told him that school dismisses at 10:35, and I that I'd call the school so they could let the kids know, and it was all set.
I got in the car, and realized I had no gas and no money, so I had to go to the ATM and gas station. Meanwhile, I had already been late getting out the door because I was on the phone with my dad. I was feeling stressed. While I was in line at the ATM, I was trying to look up the phone number to the middle school, and I couldn't find it. I found numbers for all the other schools in the district, but not the middle school.
I called Jerry on his cell at work, and told him I didn't have time to keep looking for it, and could he please just call the school and let them know my dad was picking up the kids? He called back and said that it was all set, school would be dismissed at 11:20. When the kids were in elementary school, the early dismissal time was 11:20; but middle school has always been 10:35. I reminded him of this, and he said that the school even reminded him that dismissal was at 11:20. I didn't feel good about that, but I said okay, please let my dad know.
Later, I would get a text from Eli telling me that he didn't see my text about the ride home until after he and Noah had gotten on the bus and were on their way home (they have to keep their phones off at school, so there is a delay when I text him). And school had let out at 10:35! I was mad that the school didn't tell them that their grandpa was picking them up; and that they told Jerry the wrong pick-up time.
Then I started thinking about it... and I asked Jerry if maybe he called the elementary school instead of the middle school. He double checked the numbers, and sure enough, that's what he did! The person in the office probably recognized their names and didn't even realize they didn't go to school there anymore. So, the school told Jerry the correct time, but it was the wrong school! ;) Thankfully, my dad got the kids from the bus stop, and all was good.
Meanwhile, I had a pretty tough session of therapy. The first 40 minutes were typical, but then I brought something up that's been going on lately with my depression, and I had a really hard time even talking about it. C (my therapist) actually kept me there over my allotted hour to talk about it. I did feel better when I left there, though (I always do). She gave me some exercises to work on for the next couple of weeks.
From therapy, I headed up to Ann Arbor. Since I had time to kill, I decided to take the back roads because it's more scenic than I-94 (if you drive I-94, you know what I mean). It was great, until I came across a train that was at a dead stop across the road. So, I just rerouted and made my way to I-94 anyway.
When I was making my way toward the Red Cross, I was looking for a place to grab some lunch. Then I noticed a TCBY (frozen yogurt) and I decided to have that. Not an ideal lunch, but we don't have frozen yogurt places near my house, so I very rarely get it. The last time I ate it was probably a year ago! Anyway, I didn't realize TCBY was self-serve, which is dangerous for me (back in the day, when I went to college up there, TCBY was not self-serve and they didn't have all those toppings--so I figured I'd get a small yogurt with strawberries or something).
I decided to try not to be heavy-handed with the toppings, and to get more yogurt than anything else. I used the smallest cup size, and got mostly vanilla yogurt with a little chocolate on top. Then a small sprinkle of cookie dough bites, a couple of chunks of Reese's Cups, about a teaspoon of crushed Kit Kat, and a small squeeze of hot fudge.
Of course, I wanted to totally load it up... but once I started eating it, I realized it was actually a really good ratio. Since I've had a bit of an aversion to sweets lately (it's so weird!) I think having minimal toppings made it taste really good. And here is a shocker--I actually picked off the Reese's Cups chunks after I took a small bite of one, because I didn't like the peanut butter as a sweet! I have no idea what is going on with my taste buds, but over the last few months, I have not liked peanut butter much and I'm just no that into rich dessert. I never thought I'd see the day.
Anyway, I counted it as 600 calories, which is probably an overestimate, but I guessed my best on My Fitness Pal. Even with the high calorie lunch, my calories were only at about 1400 yesterday! I didn't plan that, but the dinner I made ended up being very low in calories.
I've been kind of obsessed with bagged coleslaw mix lately (it's just shredded cabbage and carrots). It started when I tried making "Egg roll in a bowl". That turned out really good, but had way too much soy sauce, so it was very salty; but, I liked the texture, and cabbage is my favorite vegetable. So, I started playing with it and adding it to other things as well. Surprisingly, my whole family loves it, too!
Yesterday, I made the filling for P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps and then instead of eating it in lettuce wraps, I added a whole bag of the coleslaw mix and we ate it out of bowls. Everyone kept exclaiming how good it was, even my kids!
I have no idea what to call this, so I'm just going to call it what it is: Ground Turkey and Cabbage with Spicy Peanut Sauce. (The link will take you to the recipe that I wrote up)
This isn't too spicy--Noah despises anything with spice, so I have to use it lightly, but he actually really enjoyed this. I would suggest adding more Sriracha if you like it spicy :) (It's kind of funny--peanut butter in sweets has been grossing me out, but when eaten with cabbage and ground turkey(!) I actually really liked it).
Now, I've been going through recipes and seeing what I can add a bag of coleslaw mix to. I've always added it to stir-frys, but I never thought to add it to other skillet meals. It's a great (low calorie) way to bulk up meals.
Well, this post was super long, and even more boring than it was long, so I'll end it now. Hopefully, you still have time left to your weekend after reading this thing ;)
