Cold weather and ugly food

Guys, so it is officially winter here FOR SURE.  We got 8-10 inches this weekend and another 4 or so today.  It snowed like crazy the entire day while I was at work and it was beautiful but got some people nervous about bad conditions.  And nervous they should have been!

This morning on the way in to work I saw a woman crossing the road get hit by a skidding car.  When I arrived at work one of my friends slipped on the ice walking in to work and fell.  And then on the way home from work, my normal 20 minute drive took me a bit over 45 minutes because they were so bad.

Aside from the snow, the week has been pretty good.  I ran Monday morning, which was a chilly COLD run and at the end of the 3 miles, my face was so numb, I felt like I had just gotten out of the dentist.  You know when they give you Novocaine and at the end you can't really talk right because you can't feel your lips?  Yeah, I was that way because of the cold.

I've been doing well about maintaining healthy eating during the weeks... except the holiday parties and gatherings can be a bit rough.  Monday night I had a work event I stopped by and between eating a bit too much and getting a bit too much information about things I didn't want to know about, I left in a pretty bum mood.

I tried to make the most of the rest of the evening and baked some cookies to get in the holiday spirit.  For those of you who know me, you know I CANNOT bake.  I have zero skill when it comes to baking and usually end up burning or ruining whatever I try to make.  However, I tried one of my mom's cookies recipes (she is an amazing baker!) and it was so easy and came out really good.  I will be bringing them in to work tomorrow, which I'm excited about.

Oh, speaking of which, I am technically on vacation until the end of the year!  I didn't really take any major vacations this year, and ended the year with quite a few vacation days left.  So, it's a bit unfortunate because I will have to work some through the next few weeks, but I am going to try and make myself sparse in the office over the next few days. And also, luckily for me, I love my job, so I don't mind putting in additional time.  I've got some great projects I'm working on that make me really happy.

But back to the stuff that I come here to write about... food & fitness.  I was able to get a small workout in today, despite all the snow and crazy roads.  I also made some yummy "chopped brussel sprouts" as part of my dinner, which was a recommendation from my lovely college roommate.

I used my mandolin slicer (which I think, might have been a giant waste of money) to chop up some brussel sprouts, sauteed them in a tiny bit of oil and some chicken broth (I try to use broth instead of oil), then added a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.  Turned out delicious and I ate this for dinner with a Lean Cuisine meal that has been in my freezer for well over a year.  I'm on a bit of a mission to clean out my freezer and eat the random foods I have in there.

The sprouts, were not the prettiest dish in the world, but they were delicious.  That dish is a part of a string of foods I have found myself eating lately that, although not pretty, taste pretty good.

I ate chicken sausage and spaghetti squash and spinach over the past week, and that dish pretty much looked like it was something that had been regurgitated from a previous meal.

And I also defrosted and ate a bunch of sweet potato soup, which really isn't all that pretty either.

But it tasted good!  And, it was good for me.  And that's really what matters, right?  So yeah, those people with super beautiful pics of their food all over Instagram and their blogs... although I do share photos of food a lot, I don't think I could ever be one of those bloggers that shares a picture of EVERYTHING.  My food ain't always that pretty, and then there is the whole issue of that I usually am eating my food too fast to take a picture of it.  Woops.

So anyways, working through this week as best I can.  I have two holiday parties tomorrow (one of which I organized, woot woot!), another on Thursday, followed by a happy hour, and all sorts of more temptation that will come up in the future.  Stay tuned to see how things go.  I'm fighting to see a number on the scale that I haven't seen in a few months and I'm getting pretty excited to get there.

Happy Tuesday!