Helping Haiti

My 5-year old nephew came home from pre-school last night and said this to his mom: “Mommy, you should stop going out to restaurants so we can have more money to donate to Haiti!” How cute is that?

Adam and I already donated to several relief programs. The most delicious donation came through the Bake Sale for Haiti. Last week I received some yummy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I bid on and won. Today I got another package with brownies prepared by Stan (he has no blog but generously donated his time and baking skills for a good cause). Thank you, Stan – the brownies are really fabulous!! I am expecting some granola bars in the mail tomorrow as well. Donations can be so delicious!

So yes, I feel like my small family of 2 has done just a little to help a good cause, but I want to do a bit more. I’ve decided to donate 100% of this month’s blog proceeds to a Haiti relief program (I will do more research over the coming weeks and will mention the exact program the money will be donated to). So now is your turn to help! Click away on my blog, press the refresh button a few times, spread the word about this so others can come here and get a few clicks in. Any page views from February 1 through February 28 will count. The more impressions I get, the more I can donate to a Haiti relief program at the end of the month. It will cost you nothing! Thanks, guys!

Now onto today’s eats…

BREAKFAST

Yesterday’s breakfast pizza really hit the spot. I decided to give it another go with different toppings this time. Today’s breakfast pizza was topped with Barney Butter, nonfat yogurt, pear slices, Zoe’s granola and pecans

It got a little too crispy, but still SO good! We may have a new breakfast favorite around these parts

[393 calories, with coffee]

MID-MORNING SNACK

Barney Butter stuffed banana… not really a looker this time, but definitely a delicious pre-run fuel!

[127 calories]

WORKOUT

On my training schedule today was “4 miles fast.” My ankle felt fine again so I decided to make it happen. I was a bit nervous on my way to the gym. Why do I get nervous before my runs? Such a strange feeling! I guess I don’t want to disappoint myself. I started with a 15 minutes abs class and then got on the treadmill. I wanted to average a 7.0 mph pace. I warmed up at 6.5, then went to 6.8, 7.0, 7.2, then down to 6.8, and up to 6.9, 7.0 and 7.1 (alternating inclines from 0 to 0.5 to 1.0) and then down again to 7.0. 6.9, 6.8, 6.7, 6.5. It was a really hard run!! I wanted to give up so many times. My head was doing most of the psyching out and I just kept on mentally picturing finishing strong and how proud I’d feel after I’m done. I knew I was in a good enough shape to handle 4 miles. And oh yes, I felt proud upon finishing!! I definitely did not average 7.0 but the inclines made the run harder than if I stayed flat at 7.0 the entire time. I love workouts like these!! Tomorrow on the schedule – yoga at lunch, an interval run after work. Should be interesting…

LUNCH

V8 tomato soup + TJ’s Reduced Guilt fillet of sole with butter beans & spinach

Now this was definitely the ugliest lunch of all lunches. I took close-up shots but I’ll spare you. Not pretty. The filet of sole was also SO bland. That’s what majority of Americans (and apparently TJ’s chefs) feel healthy food tastes like. Very disappointing. You and me know that healthy food can be flavorful and craveable!! The soup was pretty yummy; I also had 2 AK MAK crackers with it and this portion of lunch was definitely better than the fish.

As I was finishing the above pictured eats, my brownie package arrived. I couldn’t be happier!! I dug right in and shared a bunch with some co-workers. We were all happy campers. The brownies were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside – lots of choc chips inside as well. So so yummy. It was hard for me not to keep digging into the box. I did ok there for a while.

[all together = 464 calories... I assumed 160/brownie]

MID-AFTERNOON SNACK

3T hummus + baby carrots

[93 calories]

DINNER

Star ingredient of dinner:

It’s a mixture of artichokes, olive oil and garlic. I’m in love! Dinner’s panini had a few spoonfuls of the artichoke antipasto, turkey, laughing cow cheese and dijon mustard on TJ’s ww Tuscan pane

+ a garlic sour pickle for good measure Pickles are vegetables, right?

[345 calories]

And then I opened the box of brownies to show to Adam….. and ended up eating another THREE!!! Not my proudest moment.

[estimate: 480 calories]

I put one in my lunch bag for tomorrow and the rest went in the freezer.

Total calories consumed: ~1930. I wish it was lower, but I’m probably around break-even for the day with my calorie burn at the gym so I’m not beating myself up over it either. The brownies were goooooood

Have you made any charitable donations lately?