A Typical Day

So I said this post wouldn't be as long as the first one, but I lied. I eat often throughout the day, so that's a lot of food to post pictures of! For the most part, I probably won't post pictures of all 5-6 of my mini meals during the day, but I thought I should at least once to give you an idea of the kinds of food I eat regularly.

I go to boot camp at 5:45 (yep, you read that correctly. 5:45) every morning! We work out with high intensity cardio and strength exercises for 45 minutes to an hour each morning. This usually puts me back at my apartment around 7, which is when I get to eat my very favorite meal of the day! I have become certifiably addicted to my granola cereal!

You'll see that I have a measuring cup to make sure I don't go over the allotted serving size! Portion control is SO SO SO important. If you actually read the nutritional information on the foods you eat, you'd be amazed to see that the serving size is significantly smaller than you've been eating. For example, I picked up a small carton of instant cook rice in Food Lion the other day. It was about the size of a child's microwave friendly Chef Boyardee cup. There were TWO servings in that tiny package! And each serving had 250 calories and 150 from fat! Not only is this deceitful, but it WORKS! People simply don't pay attention to the nutrition labels and they are SO valuable!

More important than the calorie number, though, is the amount of protein, fiber, sugar, sodium, etc. you consume. If you go to mypyramidtracker, you can enter your height and weight and it will tell you how much of each of these you should be eating every day. If you're anything like me, you'll likely find that you have been consuming far more than your allotted amounts of sugar and sodium. I love Naked fruit smoothies, and drink them often, but it has 23 grams of sugar in one serving, so I can't drink them on days when I indulge myself with a Starbucks skinny caramel latte (only 130 calories, how can you go wrong?!).

I'll get off my soapbox about nutrition labels now and get back to my typical day! I usually have class at 11 so I have a snack around 10 or 10:30. Yesterday I had a super yummy and healthy snack- 6 pieces of Deli Fresh Honey Smoked turkey and some sugar free applesauce! Sometimes I'll have a serving of low fat cottage cheese cottage cheese and mixed fruit too! Always have protein! 

Lunch is up in the air most days, sometimes I have sushi, sometimes just a Kashi peanut peanut butter granola bar. Yesterday, though, I went to a Britney Spears concert in Charlotte (YEAH I DID) so I ate for lunch what I usually have for supper- a Lean Cuisine! While Lean Cuisines may not be the most healthy option (cooking for yourself is always healthiest), it's quick and sometimes I just need a 4 1/2 minute lunch! I get the alfredo pasta with chicken and broccoli so that I get some more protein and veggies in for the day! 

For a precooked meal, it's pretty darn delicious! I was super hungry around lunch time yesterday, and after 20 minutes of finishing my lean cuisine, I was still pretty ravenous so I decided to indulge myself with one of my very favorite low calorie desserts- SKINNY COW! If you haven't heard of/tried these, I absolutely insist that you go buy some immediately. They're literally amazing. Only 140 calories and 3 grams of fat in an ice cream sandwich? What could possibly be better?

Before I walked out the door to drive to Charlotte and see Britney I had a green apple and some reduced fat Jif peanut butter! Again, protein at every meal! I forgot to take a picture, but I'm pretty sure you can imagine what an apple and peanut butter might look like ;)

I knew that Ashley and I would have to get supper in Charlotte, but was afraid that all the restaurants around the Time Warner Cable Arena would be fast food or fattening. I was correct. We got out of the car and the first two restaurants I saw were Burger King and a Chinese food place. -.- Not happy about it! We stopped some friendly cops (er, police officers) and asked if there was anywhere not fast food around, and they directed us up to the epicentre. There was a sushi restaurant that I would have loved to try, but there was a 30 minute wait! So I bravely went in to a pizza place and ordered their house salad. NOT an easy task! The pizza looked so good! But I'm going to Vegas in two weeks and that pizza was just not worth it! The house salad ended up being pretty delicious! 

And that was my day food wise! I'm pretty sure I burned off at least half of those calories dancing with Britney and DJ Pauly D last night! What a great day! 

I know this post is probably already longer than the first one, but I absolutely can't forget the most important thing I consumed yesterday and every day- WATER. Water water water water water water water. DRINK WATER. Not only is water good for you and refreshing, but if you work out frequently it helps hydrate you for your next workout and for the rest of your day. Drinking tons of water can also serve to make you less hungry throughout the day, and flushes out bad toxins in your body. I can't stress it enough. Drink water! Right now!!

I hope y'all enjoyed getting a little taste (hehehehe) of what I eat every day! I'm going out to dinner tonight (a date, can you believe it?!) and I don't know where I'm going yet! I hope this nice guy won't be weirded out by me taking pictures of my food for y'all! Hahaha! Happy Friday y'all, enjoy your day!

XO- Abigail

Adventures as of Late

As some of you may know, I've made some drastic changes in my life lately. A month and a half ago I began working with a program called Operation Boot Camp to improve my health and fitness. Let's just say improvement is an understatement. I have completely revamped my eating habits and am hoping to use this blog to help hold myself accountable for what I eat when boot camp ends in two weeks! :( Part of the process with OBC is to write down every single thing you eat and at what time, etc. We have a check list to see if we've gotten enough protein, fruits, veggies, etc. 

Writing down every single thing I consume has helped me SO much to not eat junk! Who really wants to write down "big mac- 7 pm"... "Then I fell asleep and felt disgusting for 2 days," right?! 


You will notice I talk a lot about big macs... The truth is, I love them. I feel like if I tell myself constantly how awful they are for me and how gross they make me feel, it will make me want them less. It's not working. 


I'm hoping this blog will work for me as a pseudo- food journal! Not to mention, I love photography and constantly take pictures of my food. I think food is BEAUTIFUL. I think everything is beautiful. If you don't find beauty in the simple things in life, it's just not worth living. I want to share my love for food and life with you! 


I'm also an aspiring journalist and love to write. Chances are, I will frequently add some "Abby advice" (as I like to call it) to my blog posts! I am learning more about myself with every passing day, and I'm loving it! It is so rewarding to fall in love with yourself after 21 years of consistently trying to impress and please others. Boot camp was the first thing I have done truly for myself in quite some time, and the results mentally are far more impressive than my physical results. If I can make anyone smile with my posts or advice, my job here is done. 


That being said, let's get to the FOOD! You should know that for the last month and a half I have been eating pretty simple, basic (and often bland) foods. Granola, cottage cheese, fruit, grilled chicken, peas. I'm gonna try to spice it up for y'all! In lieu of spicing it up, I splurged a little bit last night (translation: I ate like crap last night). I went to Zoes last night for dinner and had steak rollups and rice pilaf!

Dee-lish! The steak rollups tasted somewhat like a philly cheesesteak, and had the first cheese (aside from parmesan and feta) that I've eaten in a month and a half in it! It was awesome, but I'll admit I felt a little crappy afterwards! My friend got a chicken salad sandwich and fruit, but dug into it before she'd let me take a picture. I guess that means it was good!

Today I had class on campus from 9-5:15 (INSANE!), so I had to eat lunch on campus. I was slightly wary of this, because Russell House boasts restaurants like Chick Fil A, Sbarro, etc. It is so hard for me to go to Chick Fil A and not get those delicious waffle fries! So I decided to go to the Colloquium Cafe right next to my class building. I was pleasantly surprised by the plethora of healthy options they had! They had soups, salads, healthy sandwiches, healthy EVERYTHING! Plus they have Starbucks, so I was basically in heaven. I decided on a half chicken ceasar salad (no dressing!) and a side of fruit. 

Y'ALL. It was so good! I'm a big fan of the Instagram app on my iphone, and use it to edit pictures often, but this yumminess needed no enhancements! It was just that beautiful. I was so happy that there's healthy options on campus! The freshman fifteen IS avoidable, little ones! 

I have noticed as of late that there are far more healthy options than people either notice or would care to admit. I'm not sure if it's ignorance or if they're content with being unhealthy, but so many people consume unnecessary calories, sugar, sodium, etc. There is a healthy version of EVERYTHING. I'm not saying that people should give up their monthly Five Guys burger- everyone needs to indulge and reward themselves sometimes. But food gives you energy for the day! And food that is bad for you just kind of makes you feel icky. So tomorrow, instead of getting that Chick Fil A sandwich and french fries, just get a grilled chicken sandwich on a whole wheat bun, and get water instead of soda! Cutting back on little things like this will make big changes eventually!

Sorry for the length of this post, I'll try and keep it shorter next time! Hope you enjoyed, friends! I'm so excited about this new venture!

XO- Abigail