Posts from — December 2009

Christmas was a great day spent with family and filled with lots of food.  Tons!

We spent the morning opening gifts with the daughters, then got to last minute prepping for all our family members that were coming.  I did take time out to make a french toast breakfast for the husband and daughters and a bagel and egg sandwich for myself.  I paired it with a bowl of strawberries and banana.  I’m starting to crave fruits and veggies again instead of sugar!

When all the family arrived, I broke out the appetizers.

Hummus plate…

Pineapple pecan dip, carrots, crackers…

and passed some hot hors d’oeurves (I tried to catch some pics after they got devoured!)…

Scallops wrapped in bacon…

mini crabcakes…

Fried green beans with wasabi dipping sauce…

Lobster tartlets…

Mingling…

After noshing and mingling, we got started on the “big” meal…

Lasagna and manicotti in a bechamel sauce…

Roast pork ..

Meatballs…

Gram’s green beans …

HOT  peppers , horseradish and cheese for pork sandwiches…

Pineapple stuffing , rolls , salad and roasted potatoes…

So many delicious things to choose from!  I finally sat down with a plate of salad, roast pork, potatoes and pineapple stuffing.  I’m a carb-girl all the way…

Dessert is always a big showcase!  Our motto seems to be “you can never have too much dessert”

Cookies galore…

and cakes!

There was also my Mom’s awesome cheesecake, homemade truffles and my MIL’s pumpkin pie that I didn’t get a picture of.

Then, we sang off some of the calories during our traditional 12 days of Christmas songfest!  Everyone left around 11:00 p.m. and the husband and I cleaned up for another hour before happily hitting the sack!  Whew!

It was a fantastic and fun day spent with everyone we love.  And there was much too much food, as always.  My healthy eating goals the past couple of days have been an epic fail.  I munched my way through tons of cookies and sampled loads of chocolate.  I want to say that I don’t feel bad about it, but I do.  I want to say that I enjoyed eating it all, but I didn’t.  I ate in response to the feeling instead of out of enjoyment.  Shoveling food, just to get it in, just in case I might miss eating it, is not enjoying.  It’s not savoring.  It’s just shoveling and mindless eating.  So, it’s not so much the amount of food that I ate or what type of food I ate that bothers me, it’s more about the way I ate it.  I know that behavior of mindless eating is something that could get me into a lot of trouble.  It’s a hard behavior to break away from and the moment you think it’s gotten easier, here comes another stressful holiday or event to prove you wrong!  My number one goal for this coming year is to address this challenge and change this behavior.  I’m going to believe that I can do it and I’m looking forward to where this road will take me…

(photo credit:  tmoa.com)

Have a great day, everyone!

I woke up this morning and got straight to cleaning up and prepping for Christmas.  Christmas is at my house this year;  my family and the husband’s family will all be here!  I got busy with the vacuum and decided to steam clean the carpets (why, oh why do I think of these stupid things to do before a party?!), then made a pit stop for breakfast.  A whole wheat bagel with egg and cheese was the ticket…

I rushed to finish a few more things, then got ready for our family’s Annual Christmas Eve Lunch.  The past few years, we have eaten at a wonderful Italian restaurant called Trattoria Guiseppe…

We started with some excellent appetizers for the table…

fresh bread…

Antipasto platters with spring mix, proscuitto, salami, artichokes, olives and assorted cheeses…

Pizza from the wood-burning oven…

Fried calamari with marinara sauce…

My plate (x 2 – everything was so delicious!)…

and vino (x 2 – weeeeeee!!!!)

The menu was filled with so many delicious options, it was hard to choose!  I finally decided on the Tagliatelle Guiseppe which was a perfectly al dente tagliatelle pasta with zucchini, tomatoes, shrimp, scallops and mozzarella…

Fantastic!

It was a great time with family…

Me and the hubs…

My in-laws…

My parents…

Gram…

Me and my super-studly nephew…

We all would like to wish you a Merry Christmas!

Hope your day is MERRY and BRIGHT !!

Enjoy!!

I was not going to start this day any other way than with a run!  So far, even with all the shopping and cookie craziness, I have managed to stick to my exercise goals.  The workouts may not be as intense, but I’m making sure to get something in!

I headed to the basement for a quick treadmill run.  I only had 30 minutes, so I tried to step up my pace a little.  I felt so cookie-less when I was done

I showered, dressed and braced myself for another day of shopping with Gram!  I made sure to have a hearty breakfast – egg white scramble with Veggie Shreds and some light whole wheat toast…

I made some coffee to go, picked up Gram and headed to my Mom’s for a cookie swap.  My Mom made quite a few batches of cookies during her Cookie Day for One, so we mixed and matched.

Then, we went on our shopping excursion.  I only lost Gram twice, so it wasn’t as much of a workout as before

After dropping Gram off, I had a very late lunch.  Sticking with the basics, I had turkey, cheese and spinach on whole wheat pane with some tangy clementines (ick) that I didn’t finish…

After the daughters got home from school and settled, I dragged myself out for a few more errands.  People at Wal-Mart and Target are starting to know me by name.  Not good.

Dinner was quick and easy chicken fajitas.  I had mine sans tortillas, but with lots of cheese and a bit of guacamole.  Yum!

After dinner, I got my cookie trays ready to give out to my neighbors…

I am so glad they are OUTTA HERE…..!

ONE GOOD THING:  I only ate about 3 cookies today, instead of the gobs that I have been the past 2 days.  I recognized 2 things:

1. Once I start digging into all the cookies and get all that sugar going in my body, I don’t feel like eating anything that is good for me.  All I crave is junk and it’s a struggle to want to eat something healthy.  Kinda like this…

2.  I definitely notice that the cookie eating was triggered by emotions.  I think I could have been satisfied with a cookie or two, but the stress and anxiety of this time of year and getting everything done, definitely contributed to all the mindless shoveling.  This is something I am really going to concentrate on working out in the new year.  It’s goal number 1!

I’m off to freak out about all that I have to finish before Christmas :0

Have a great day, everyone!!!