This morning was one of those S-hits-the-snooze-button-10-times-so-Rachel-loses-an-hour-of-sleep kind of mornings.  Always a great start to the week.  It was quite a productive day at work, though, because I only had two meetings (very rare!) and had time to get done some of the items that have been on my back log for a while.

I got to start off my morning with my coffee and another one of my monster peaches, which made me very happy.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have my tea this morning… but that will be back on the menu tomorrow.  I wish I actually liked tea and didn’t have to force myself to drink it each day… *sigh*

Somewhere in between breakfast and lunch I managed to get a good amount of work done, plus talk to my Dad for a half hour or so on the phone, and then my sister for about a half hour through text messages.  Unfortunately, it was mostly about more family drama centered around my sister’s upcoming nuptials in October.  So another one of those days where I am actually grateful to live almost an entire continent away from the soap opera.

Lunch was a turkey salad:

I was feeling snacky all afternoon and had to literally keep drinking things and keep my mind occupied with work and other distractions in order to stop myself from going into the kitchen all day.  I’m not quite sure why I was feeling like I kept wanting to eat… it definitely was NOT hunger so it must have been some sort of emotional thing.  I think it is centered around all that is going on right now – the drama with my family, business at work, S moving in.  I am also starting to get really scared about my 20-mile run this weekend and the marathon in October.  I know… it’s only Monday and I’m already freaking out about the weekend run.  But my legs don’t feel 100%, and I didn’t run last weekend.  I get so scared for these long runs, it is so frustrating to me.  But I don’t know what to do about it or how to stop my fears running wild in my head.  The weird part is, I don’t even know what I am afraid of…

My first snack was my cereal.  Mixed it up a little with some Total Blueberry Pomegranate Flakes mixed in with my Kashi GoLean and Fiber One:

Then I had two Jello pudding cups.  This is one of the processed, junk foods that I would really like to eliminate from my diet.  I am making a pact with myself not to buy them again once these are gone.

I am still feeling really tired and a bit sore from all the moving last weekend, plus I had my basketball game scheduled for this evening, so I didn’t want to go to the gym.  I did get outside and do a brisk 2-mile walk around the neighborhood, though.  It was nice to take an afternoon break and get out in the sunshine.  But it was HOT!

After my walk, I had a meal of some Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal, some cottage cheese cheesecake pudding, and two fudgsicles:

Then it was time for my basketball game.  We had the 7pm time slot this week, which is nice because then I don’t get home too late or have to play too late (the later it gets in the evening, the more tired I get and the less I want to move.)  S wanted to come again, which I had mixed feelings about.  I kind of just want to go to my games on my own.  It’s not that I don’t love him or want him there, and I definitely appreciate his support.  But S is really competitive and everything to him is about winning and losing too.  I am competitive too – about most things.  But this basketball league is something that I do for fun.  Sure, I try to win and I know it’s a game and the whole point is trying to win.  But the main reason I play is to meet new people and have fun.  So it’s not a big deal to me if we lose a game.  I kind of take a “Oh, we’ll get ‘em next time” attitude, and then start laughing about funny things that happened during the game with my teammates.  But when S comes, we walk out of the gym and he’s telling me areas of improvement.   “You guys are great, but you just hold on to the ball a little too long before you shoot.  If you changed that, you could have many more points and definitely win…” or he is saying “Man, good game, too bad you didn’t win.”  Maybe I’m a little too sensitive to it, but I don’t want to hear him tell me that we lost.  Yeah, I know we lost.  Believe me, I know.  But I don’t want the focus to be on winning or losing – this is my fun thing, one of my stress relievers and my chance to just chill and have a good time.  In a way I sort of feel like he (unintentionally, of course) ruins that for me when he comes along and focuses soley on the competition.

But he came nonetheless.  And I liked having him there because I love him and love for him to watch me and be a part of the things that I do.  It was really a fun game.  And oh… did I mention… we lost?  Only by four points, though, and the bottom line is that I just had a good time!  We are a new team, as I mentioned in a previous post, so just met each other and are still getting used to playing with each other.  The other teams we are playing against have mostly played together for years.  So I’m proud of how we have done in our first two games.  I sort of mentioned something to S on the way home, about how he never focuses on “fun” but rather is always concerned about winning and losing.  But I didn’t want to get in a fight, so I just dropped it.  The thing is, watching me play basketball has made him want to start playing a sport again and he is talking about starting ice hockey.  But I don’t think he will just play it for fun, like I do.  I think it will just be another added stressor in his life because he will be so mad if (or more likely, when) his team loses or he doesn’t play as well as he thinks he should.  Oh well, he’s a big boy – I guess that’s his decision to make.

After the game, I made a big salad for dinner:

It had:

• romaine lettuce
• steamed broccoli
• egg whites
• a can of sardines (yes, I love sardines!!!  Omega-3′s, baby!!)
• swiss cheese
• almonds
• olive oil/balsamic vinegar

Yum, yum, YUMMERS!

Dessert was a Boston Cream Oreo Cookie holey donut:

Unfortunately, I had a meeting for work at 9   But it actually was pretty quick – scheduled for an hour but only lasted 45 minutes.  So no complaints here.

My before-bed snack was:

• frozen cottage cheese cheesecake pudding (this is DELICIOUS!!!)
• A chocolate pudding cup
• Crumbled graham cracker crumbs

I swear, sometimes I just outdo myself.

I just started reading the book “Twinkie Deconstructed” by Steve Ettlinger.  I have been wanting to read this for a while, but it has always been checked out at the library (and since there are SOOOO many books on my list that I want to read, I usually don’t buy books but rather get other ones on my list and wait for them to become available.)  It finally did and I nabbed it last weekend.  I’m really hoping that by reading and understanding where processed foods come from and the unnatural things that they go through before they get to my plate, I will further reinforce my attempts to eat natural, wholesome foods.  I have eliminated a lot of processed food items from my diet the past year or so, but I still have a long way to go and can use all the help I can get

Before I go – Missy is giving away Zevia soda!

G’night, ya’ll….