Random things for Friday

Hey guys, hope you had a great week.  I needed a little break from being here every day, I've been in sort of a down mood, but I'm sure that will lift!  At least, I'm hoping :)  Since, I've got a bunch of random things to catch you up on, I figured I'd just do my normal end-of-week list of bullets.  In no random order, here it goes...

1.)   I just got back today from a one night trip to New York City for work.  Today started a bit gloomy but it ended up being a beautiful day.  It's always nice to be in the city and feel small for a little bit.  It is so close, yet so vastly different from my little home of Albany.

For lunch today I had a delicious salad that included "pineapple poached pears" and walnut crusted chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese, sauteed onions, and a strawberry vinaigrette that I got on the side.  I was actually pretty proud of myself because the salad was supposed to come with crispy fried onion on top but I swapped them for sauteed.

2.)  I also have been making some other strong choices this week that have made me pretty happy.  I avoided free cookies and cupcakes today at the conference I was at.  Yesterday at work we were celebrating "Global Wind Day" and I avoided the Choco Tacos and Chocolate Chip Cookie Iced Cream Sandwiches.  Who doesn't love a Choco Taco?!  And when was the last time you even saw a Choco Taco?!  But I said no.  Instead, I participated in a wind turbine building contest with some friends (we lost) and took a few fun photos to hang at my desk :)

3.)  One of the reasons that I have been working extra hard this week to be "good" is that I'm actually participating in Raven's 10-Day Advocare Cleanse.  A big group of bloggers are doing it together and I've actually really enjoyed having the group's support and finding new, fun, interesting blogs to follow.  I decided to do this cleanse because it isn't a juice or liquid cleanse -- it involves eating-- but eating incredibly clean and also taking some additional supplements and vitamins to cleanse the body.  When I first read about it and decided to join I saw that the guidelines said to mainly eat fruits, veggies, and lean protein.  No alcohol, no dairy, no sugar, no wheat, limited fats and obviously nothing processed.

I didn't do a heck of a lot of research and was just planning to follow these guidelines and it wasn't until a day in that I realized some people doing the cleanse were following extremely strict guidelines.  Now, had I seen this set of rules earlier... I wouldn't have signed up for this.  I learned back in January that when diets make me feel like "cheating" when I eat carrots or grapes, it's not going to work for me.  So I just vowed to spend this 10 days following the "fruits, veggies, lean protein" guideline as much as possible and trying extra hard to avoid sugar, dairy, alcohol, fats, and wheat whenever possible.  My snacks this week have included lots of berries, apples, green beans, carrots, egg whites and almonds.  Meals have included some of the following:

Chicken sausage, roasted onion, sweet potato, and brussel sprouts

Corn on the cob (with lime juice and salt), chicken sausage and sauteed mushrooms

Trader Joe's mixed grains with cucumber, tomato and red onion

4.)  I made a really yummy sauce to put on top of brussel sprouts and other roasted veggies.  It consisted of simmering together a 1/2 cup red wine, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and a tablespoon or so of honey.  It thickened to a syrup and was delicious!

5.)  A couple weeks ago I bought a small basil plant from Trader Joe's.  I put it in a ceramic pot and put it in my backyard.  I sort of forgot about it but we used some basil in our eggs when my friends were here.  This week I grabbed the pot and brought it inside to take some basil to use in my couscous/veggie salad and I realized there were all grubs all over the plant!  They were so gross!!!  I tried to pick them off but they were nasty and it freaked me out.  Not gonna lie, I put it back outside because I didn't really want to deal with it.  Does anyone know what I do in this situation??  Can the basil be saved?  Is it still okay to eat?  The bugs freaked me out.

6.)  This funky, sort of down mood has stuck with me all week.  I know that I'm just being overly emotional because I've had the strangest desires to listen to Delilah on the radio  in the evenings.  I listened to Delilah for hours on Monday night while I did my cooking for the week.  "Dellliiiiilaahhhhh.... Love someooooone tonight!"

7.)  I got a few good workouts in this week.  Monday I did my own interval circuit workout at the gym with a mix of kettle bell squats, push ups, kettle bell swings, and sit ups.  I also went for a 3 mile run with Dani on Wednesday.  And on Thursday I tried the boot camp at the work gym for the first time.  And get this people, it is an outdoors class and I actually went and completed it (along with others) IN THE RAIN.  It is a lunchtime class at work and it downpoured the whole time.  This is how I know I am not the same person I used to be.  I went out, at lunch time, at work, in the rain, and did a boot camp class.  At first I tried to avoid getting wet and wore my rain coat out, but then it was just a mess and I took it off and embraced working out in the soaking rain.

You know when it rains and all the worms come up from the ground?  Ugh.  It was totally gross doing the moves where we were on the ground because I could see worms around and wanted to avoid them. But it felt good to get soaking wet, muddy, and grassy with 20 other people at lunchtime at work.  It made the day go by fast and was such a funny, random thing for my Thursday!

8.)  Last week I had the first game in the summer soccer league I am playing in.  I am terrible and barely know what I'm doing but it's fun.  And at our game last week, for the first time I met someone in real life who had read my blog before actually meeting me!  Remember how I told you about the random message I got from a co-worker Mark who saw my blog on All Over Albany about Taco Tuesday?  Well, turns out Mark is on my soccer team!  It was so cool to meet someone in real life who I'd originally connected with over this blog.  Not sure if you're still a reader... but if you are... hi Mark!

9.)  It's been rainy and cool for the majority of this week which has been PERFECT sleeping weather and made it so hard to get out of bed in the mornings.  I hope this weekend is nice because I have some pool days planned!

10.)  When Teenie came to visit a couple weeks ago she gave me her Netflix password.  This has been the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me.  I cannot stop watching Netflix.  I caught up on Mad Men and have now been rewatching Parks and Recreation from the beginning.  I'm on an Aziz Ansari kick after seeing him in live!  But tonight, all I wanted to do was watch a couple episodes and relax on the couch.  But, alas, Netflix is down.  AUGHHHHH!!!!!!

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a great weekend and give an extra big hug to your dads!