After lunch yesterday, I ended up on the couch for a bit and I ate some more of this (ok, I finished it off):

After a sufficient amount of laying around, I ran a couple of errands and then went on a 2 mile walk with a friend. It was the first sunny day we’d had in awhile so it was nice to enjoy. When I got home, I was HUNGRY again and dinner wasn’t for a few hours. So I had some apple slices with almond butter.

Hahahahaha. I just realized that the almond butter blob looks ridiculously huge, but I assure you, it wasn’t.  I also snacked on some unpictured string cheese and a small handful of chocolate chips.

Dinner was in Manhattan with friends at Trailer Park, one of my favorite bars. All the decor is super kitschy and the food is basically burgers, fries, chili, and cheese covered goodness.  I was with friends, so I didn’t take any food pics but I managed to get some pics of the decor.

Hell. Yes.

I ordered the delicious vegetarian chili with corn chips and tots. I also had way too many beers. But, when in Rome…..

We went to a friend’s party and played Rock Band and I didn’t get home until 2am. I snacked on some small whole grain fig bars and some of these:

Those crackers are like crack. Seriously. Whole grain and delicious? Sign me up!

This morning I woke up late and ate a couple of fig bars and a couple of the above pictured crackers while I waited for the delivery guy to come with my delicious lunch (yes, I am a lazy New Yorker. So sue me). I ordered a salad from a place down the block.

This is mixed greens, corn, carrots, chick peas, tomatoes, and fresh guac on top for dressing. The plan had been to eat it with the hummus, but the hummus tasted a bit off so I tossed it in a little balsamic and called it a day.

Afternoon snack consisted of more organic frozen yogurt. Yes, I bought more. It’s just too good.

Dinner was at Quantum Leap in the East Village with a friend. It’s an intimate place with good healthy food and I used to eat there constantly when I lived nearby. No pics, but I had the macro plate and split the roasted dumplings with my friend.

Now I am just getting ready to hit the hay. I have a morning run planned with the girls and tomorrow is the first day of the cleanse! I am really excited to plot out ten days of healthy clean eating and really figure out what foods are bothering me.

Anyone else doing the cleanse?

I woke up at 6:30 am and met my running group down at the shop. If you are ever in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, you have to check out this shop! They have everything you could ever need for running and it’s small so you get a lot of individualized attention.

We set out running down 80th street down to Narrows and then onto the waterfront path. I love running along the path. It has a magnificent view of the Verrazano bridge on the way out and on the way back, you get a great view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. One day I will take my camera out with me and show you just how awesome it looks.

The plan had been to do six, and then some people wanted to do seven. We ran 6.6 last week so I wanted to up the ante a little bit. I suggested eight and my coach, being a masochist, made us run 8. Everyone wanted to kill me, but it felt great when it was done.

I was STARVING when I came home. I don’t usually eat before I run because I’m not hungry and I don’t want to upset my stomach. Today, however, I should have eaten. Next time I will have to plan that I will be running more than I think I am.

Here are some pictures of the fabulous ladies I run with:

And here are a few pictures from the shop. It’s awesome!

And some more of the shop:

Hee hee. I love this jersey.

When I got home, I had some almonds and raisins to snack on.

For breakfast, I had the other Trader Joe’s tamale and, for some extra protein, 1 egg with one egg white. Incredibly delicious, albeit a little unconventional.

Now I am just hanging out and watching last week’s Big Love on DVR and waiting to see what the day brings me. I just snacked on baby carrots and a little low fat dressing, and I finally feel satisfied, at least for a little bit.

What are you up to today?

Yesterday started with a 30 minute stair run before breakfast. My coach wants us to build up strength to help us with our running. It was a great workout and one I never would have done on my own. Thanks coach Mike!

Breakfast was a chobani, 3/4 c Kashi GoLean, a spoonful of pumpkin butter, and a spoonful of almond butter.

I snacked on an apple and some almonds before lunch because I was STARVING!!

Lunch was another salad. Since it was yesterday, I don’t remember what I put in it, but it was delicious!

This is where the day goes straight to hell.I stayed at work until almost seven and it was a BAD day at work. I snacked on another apple and some baby carrots to see me through. I was so demoralized after work that ended up going to happy hour with some friends and drowning  my sorrows in 3 glasses of wine and blue cheese fries split three-ways and delicious onion bread. I feel strange taking pictures of my food with my friends. I haven’t told anyone about the blog yet, so until i do, then there probably won’t be a lot of restaurant pics.

I was a little hungover this morning, but it was worth it to have some quality time blowing off steam with my co-workers (and friends!).

I committed a mortal food blogger sin: I left the house without eating breakfast. Yeah, I know. Send out the dogs, but my stomach wasn’t right this morning. When I got to work, I had some tea and then got really busy.

About 11 am, I had a handful of almonds and then went out with friends for lunch at about 1:30pm. I had a HUGE salad with grilled chicken, mixed greens, carrots, beans, cucumbers, olives, and corn. Tossed with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious! Again, no picture because I was out with others. Soon enough, I will get brave!

I didn’t get home from work until 8 and was hungry! I had a couple of dates while waiting for dinner.

Dinner was a frozen Trader Joe’s chicken and cheese tamale with avocado. It was awesome! These have been in my freezer for ages and I have no idea why. I can’t wait to eat the other one tommorrow!

For dessert I busted out this bad boy. I love that my bodega now carries frozen yogurt.

As an after dinner snack, I had a few more dates, raisins, and a few almonds. Now I am successfully fueled up for my run tomorrow.  I am ready for my 6+ miles with the group tomorrow!

How do other bloggers feel about taking food pictures in front of friends?

My New Year’s resolutions were to: 1.) improve my running, 2.) finally get comfortable with my body, and 3.) start strength training with some kind of frequency. So far, I am meeting those goals.

With regards to running, I have signed up to run with a group in my neighborhood and so far it is a total blast. It is all females (except for our couch) and the ultimate goal is the New Jersey State Marathon in May. I won’t lie, the thought of running an entire marathon scares me to death and brings forth all of my crazy insecurities about whether or not I can really and truly do this. Hmmm….perhaps one of my resolutions should have been to believe in myself a little more.

I guess running technically works towards my second resolution of finally getting comfortable with my body, but what I really had in mind was to possibly lose a little weight. I have been carrying around about 10-15 extra pounds for awhile now and while I still think I look fine (sexy, actually ) I don’t feel right in my own body. It feels like something is off. I know in my heart that this isn’t my ideal weight and I would like to find out what that is.  To that end, I am kicking the new year off with the the cleanse from Spark Wellness. You may have seen this advertised over at Choosing Raw and I am super excited to get started on Monday. I think this cleanse will be a catalyst to reaching my eventual goals of reducing almost all of the white sugar and flour from diet. Everything else I seem to have well in check but put me in front of sweet or a box of crackers and I lose all self-control. However, I don’t really blame myself as much as I blame the food themselves and the havoc they wreak on your blood sugar and satiety clues. That being said, I will be documenting as much of my food as possible to keep myself accountable and reach my goals for the year.

As for the strength training, that sort of goes without saying. I have weak girly muscles when I really want to be strong like bull. I plan on following along with Caitlin in her attempt to integrate more ST into her life.

Now for some eats! Breakfast is unfortunately unpictured but included a chobani, kashi golean, some pumpkin butter, and almond butter. So much for pre-toxing off of sugar before my cleanse! That meal was loaded with the stuff! Sugar is so insidious!

For a snack I had an apple and some carrots. Only got a pic of the apple for some strange reason (prettier? )

Lunch was a salad from the cafe/deli near work. It included beets, sprouts, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, grilled chicken, and beans. There was a little low-fat ranch on that puppy too. (Yeah, not doing so hot on the pre-tox)

Yeah, it doesn’t look so pretty. But on the side I had some pretty almonds!

The afternoon was nuts and I had an apple before going to a meeting at 6:15. I got home at 8pm and ate some black bean and sweet potato chili and some brussels on the side. For dessert, dates, dried mango and one too many dips in the PB jar. Love that PB!

That’s all for now, I guess. See you guys tommorrow!!

So, aside from being sick, I also started a trial today. My appetite doesn’t stand a chance against the combination of nerves and sickness. But I tried to eat so I wouldn’t pass out. Breakfast was a berry Odwalla bar.

Lunch was with my dad at a diner. I got the cobb salad with corn, avocado, veggies, and grilled chicken (no bacon or cheese). I could only eat about half of this.  I took an advil after lunch and that definitely helped me get through the afternoon.

I was still at work at 8pm and starving, so I ate a 100 calorie pack of popcorn that I had lying around. I finally left work at 9pm and got home at 9:30.  I ate a sunshine burger with some peach salsa on top and a side of pop chips (not the whole bag!)

I know. It’s pathetic. But I have been too busy to go grocery shopping. I need some veggies and fruit, stat!

For dessert, I had handful of Kashi GoLean and Shredded Wheat topped with Hershey’s kisses.

I promise that once this trial is over, I will be back to healthy eats and recipes, but until then, it’s going to be some late nights at work, unfortunately.

What do you do when you have to work late? Or you just don’t have enough time to go grocery shopping?

Needless to say, yesterdays eats were scanty at best. My appetite is GONE. I woke up and blogged. While blogging I ate some unpictured almonds.

Then, I left my apartment to meet my dad and went to the computer store where I got my new computer!  I am so excited! This thing rocks and it takes only seconds to do things. Old computer took 20 minutes to boot up if you turned it off. I’m not kidding. It was an exercise in serious frustration.

My dad and then stopped for a very late lunch at another one of my favorite Brooklyn Heights eateries, Heights Cafe.  I was starting to feel really bad at that point so even though I had not eaten and actual meal yet, I still was not very hungry.

I had some of this cinnamon raisin bread

As an entree, I had an appetizer which was a hummus platter with a tomato salad, tabouleh, and pita bread.

I also snuck 2 of my dad’s amazing onion rings! The batter was delicious.

We came back to my apartment so that my dad could help me transfer my files from my old computer to my new one. During that time, I took a turn for the worst and just started feeling cold and sick. My dad bought some donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts next door and I had a piece of a chocolate cake donut.

Note: Just in case you’re wondering why my dad is on a crazy eating tour of Brooklyn, it’s because he has been living in Argentina for the last ten years. The food there is really terrible and he misses a lot of the things he can get here (i.e. donuts). So no, my dad is not an unhealthy eater, per se, he is just suffering from food nostalgia.

After my dad left to go back to his hotel, I ate a string cheese and some baby carrots. A little while later, I had about half a cup of dry Kashi Golean and a fourth of a cup of dry unfrosted shredded wheat. I couldn’t really stomach anything that had much flavor.

So, now I am getting ready for work and my stomach feels awful. I am just going to eat something when I get hungry at work instead of trying to force anything now.

What do you do when you’re sick?

The eats, however, were good! After blogging, I talked to my dad and he really wanted a good tex-mex meal. I remembered this place in Park Slope I had gone to, and I remembered that there was a serious Texas vibe and that the food was good.

Now, I should give some background about myself. I live in New York now, but I grew up in Houston, Texas and I went to the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate.  I love Texas (especially Austin) and I wouldn’t mind moving back there some day.

Anyway, I met my dad at Lobo in Park Slope. The second we walked in, we saw a bunch of folks sporting burnt orange Longhorns gear. I had inadvertantly directed us to an awesome Texas bar and the Baylor-UT game was about to start! I could not have been happier, especially when they brought these bad boys out:

I can resist most desserts you put in front of me, but good tortilla chips with salsa are my weakness and I definitely ate a few of these (they are delicious and taste homemade!)

Because I wanted to eat tortilla chips, I decided to forgo the menu’s greasier options and I got two poached eggs with unbuttered whole wheat toast and fruit instead of home fries.

When I want to eat lightly, I like to get poached eggs because you can guarantee that they weren’t cooked in any fat and I have runny yolk obsession (read here).  I tried to balance what I really wanted (which were not-so-good-for-you tortilla chips) with what I needed, which was a filling meal. I think it worked out well. Especially because this was what my dad had

Yeah, enchiladas don’t really do it for me.

As we were leaving, (UT dominated this game, BTW) I snapped some shots of the awesome Texas-inspired interior.

This place is awesome and I am definitely coming back to watch more games!

After lunch, my dad went back to the hotel to nap, and I had to go to work for a few hours.  When I came back, we went searching for a new laptop!!! I am so excited! My dad offered to get me a new laptop for my birthday and I heartily accepted. I have been using the same laptop I started law school with back in August of 2004. It still works but it’s really slow and it’s incredibly heavy making it more of a desktop than a laptop.  This is the one we’re going to get (I looked at a bunch of reports online and I heard good things about it). Though we are getting a much better deal than Amazon is offering.

After looking at computers, we went to Patsy’s Pizzeria. Patsy’s is a New York institution as far as pizza goes and my dad wanted some good Italian food. We started out with this warm crusty roll and olive oil.

I got the argula salad with honey mustard vinagrette, sundried tomatoes, and shaved parmesan to start.

Now, I like my parmesan like I like my men: sharp. And this parmesan did not disappoint! Paired with the sweet tangy dressing, it was heaven.

For dinner, I wanted pasta, but nothing too heavy. I don’t do cream sauces, not for health reasons, but because the texture grosses me out. So, I got the linguine fra diavolo with scallops, calamari and shrimp.

The red sauce was advertised as being spicy, and the waitress re-iterated the warning, but I didn’t notice the spice and instead noted hints of sweetness. I thought the seafood was cooked well. I ate a little over half.

For dessert, I told my dad he had to try Junior’s cheesecake (best cheesecake in Brooklyn!) and that his hotel carried it. So, we went back to my dad’s hotel, turned on a movie and ordered room service! I haven’t been in a hotel and gotten room service in years! I felt very swankity swank.

My dad got a huge hunk of cheesecake with strawberries (gone before I could even take a picture!) and I got my two favorite desserts: ice cream and warm bread pudding.

I have a bread pudding obsession. I can resist cakes and cookies, but bread pudding is just too delicious. I ate less than half of this. It was enormous!!

My dad and I watched District 9 and then I came home and went to bed.

Today is all about computers and perhaps going to see a movie. See you tonight blog world!

The best thing about having your dad stay in the hotel right next door to your office is that you can sneak out and get coffee and lunch! The coffee (no picture! boo!) was just coffee and skim milk. I wasn’t feelin’ fancy.

For lunch, we went to Morton’s the Steakhouse purely out of convenience. It is right next to my office and the wind was so bad it was knocking people down.

I had never eaten here before but we always have our happy hours there because they have great drink specials from 5-6:30 pm.

When we sat down, we were immediately served this warm, delicious onion bread. It was so big you had to cut it with a knife and take small pieces off at a time!

For lunch, I decided on the grilled salmon over salad. It had mixed greens, blue cheese, walnuts, apple slices. Of course, being new to this whole blogging thing, I totally forgot to take a picture until I was done eating.

It was ok. I was expecting more from a nice place like this, but the fish was too salty and I didn’t enjoy the flavor very much.

My dad’s lunch special came with chocolate mousse but after one bite we both agreed it wasn’t that good and left it. I don’t think I would eat here again, but I’m not one to turn down a cheap glass of wine at happy hour.

Yes, that handsome devil is my dad. Sorry ladies, he’s taken.

I came back to the office and worked crazily for the rest of the afternoon. I had an unpictured tiny milky way (fun size? It that what they’re called?) that had been in my desk drawer for awhile.

I left work a little after six, and met my dad for dinner. We walked to one of my favorite places to eat in Brooklyn Heights, Henry’s End. This is a total hole-in-the-wall, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sort of establisment.  I was silly and didn’t take any pictures of the interior, but it is nicely lit and with small tables dotting the dining room. It’s small and cozy and imparts a warm vibe to immediately start your meal off on the right foot.

My dad ordered a bottle of wine and the waiter brought this delicious bread. My favorite was this bread that had dried fruit (I think apricot) in it and some sort of spice I couldn’t identify.

As an appetizer, I immediately knew that I would disintegrate into a mllion pieces if I didn’t have the special, spicy sweet potato soup with lime. I asked the waitress if it was cream based (cream in soups is not really my thing) and she said it was vegetables. Hooray!

I have to figure out how to make this. It was delicious.  I could eat this for the rest of the night and die a happy woman.

For my entree, I got the dinner size portion of the pan roasted vegetables with polenta, goat cheese, and a balsamic glaze.

This was just delicious. All of the vegetables were fall off the fork tender and the polenta was whipped with the goat cheese making it light as air. I need to figure out how to make a balsamic reduction, because it really added a nice tang to the dish without being over powering.Vegetables represented include onions, sweet potato, broccoli, beets, and corn.

We considered dessert, but given the wine and the bread, we decided against it. Though I have had their desserts before and they are amazing!

If you are ever in Brooklyn and you want a nice meal from an unpretentious place, then definitely come to Henry’s End.

After I left my dad at the hotel, it was time for the first annual Funny Hat Party! A few of us in my office came up with this idea and it was a total success! Here are some snaphots:

Wearing the monkey hat

Rockin' the pope hat

Hard to take you seriously with that head dress on, bro.

Yeah, the hats got passed around a lot.

At my friend’s house beforehand, I had another small glass of wine. At the bar I switched to beer and had 3 Amstel Lights (bottle, not pint) over the course of the long evening. Still more drinking than I like, but not as bad as it could have been (this was also partly a birthday party for me because my birthday is on Thanksgiving this year).

When I came home, some pop chips were consumed and so were these:

Now I am awake (a tiny bit hungover) and going to shower and meet my dad for some food.

Breakfast this morning was a repeat of yesterday. I am in court all morning and which means I am going to be busy, busy, busy.

I’m planning to get lunch with my dad and I’m pretty sure he wants pizza. While I understand (I mean, hey, it’s New York, pizza is what we do!), I am going to try to steer him to something a little healthier for lunch.  On workdays, I can’t do a heavy lunch or I feel like I’m going to fall asleep at my desk for the rest of the afternoon.  And I have way too much to do to get drowsy!

Tonight I am going to a funny hat party. I have not yet purchased said funny hat, but one of my friend’s is wearing a full on head dress. Pictures will ensue, I assure you.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I snacked on some more pop chips before bed lat night. So good!