Day 4: a perfect rainy day! ^_^

Here in DC area we've been having rainy days for X days! I usually get upset or low when it's all gray and rainy. But yesterday was a perfect rainy day for me. I worked in pajamas all day at home and finished it with a good sweaty workout. Nothing exciting, but I enjoyed it a lot!~ How was yours? Do you like/dislike rainy days? How do you overcome the bad mood?
And following guidelines to the ChallengeS was a piece of cake! ^_^ (I need less than 21 days to get a new habit!)
Super powerful breakfast: a green monster made with celery, cucumber, carrot, apple and spinach. It made 1 huge glass and 1 coffee glass! Main course was oatmeal made with: 1/3 c. oat bran, 1/3 c. coconut milk, 1/3 c. pumpkin, 1/3 c. silken tofu, 1-2 tbsp egg white, and finishing the jar of Dark Chocolate Dream!After this gigantic breakfast, I had to wait an hour to digest it before beginning to work.
AM snack: orange eaten with folk!Super delicious lunch: salad made with greens, mix sprouts, cucumber, mushrooms, baby beets, baked tofu, WW penne, red peppers. Dressing: olive + coconut milk + balsamic. (I couldn't taste the coconut)And a turkey burger!SUPER~~~
Dessert: I opened a new jar of Peanut & Co. Cinnamon Raisin Swirl!It's tasty and smooth, but far away from Smooth Operator and Dark Chocolate Dream. Just quick Q: am I having too much PB?
The overload of food made me take 1.5 hour of lunch break. I had to have a coffee to regain consciousness to get back to work.
Snacking: a new Jelly~~~ Coconut milk jelly!!~~~
Exploring difference flavors of jelly is so fun!!!!
PM snack before going to the gym: toast with BB.mmmmm....... delish~~~
When I was in the gym for a 4 miles run and 15 min Elliptical I planned my dinner. Baked lentils with egg.... The name doesn't sound appealing, but it was AMAZING!!!Together with green beans with mustard and a gigantic corn!Dessert: black rice porridge (white fungus and dates too) with coconut jelly!~~ Can I use the work AMAZING again? sorry for my poor English, I need more vocabulary to describe food!!!

Yesterday I asked you guys where would you go for a getaway, because I was thinking about that after class ends and before my summer internship begins. But change of plan! Apparently I'm getting a new apartment and I'll be moving by then. So, no getaway but a new home!! ^_^ So excited!!! (just little background info: currently I'm sharing a two bedroom apartment with a friend. My parents are coming to visit me so I applied for a one bedroom apartment in the same community so I can still be with my friends. Bottom line: I'm going to live alone!!!) so, today's
Question: When did you begin to live alone? What are the pros and cons that you found? If you've never lived alone, would you like to? Why or why not?

It's freeeeeeezingg here!!!!!

It was so cold in the library that I had to stop studying there. I don't know what happened to me today but I was freezing all day long.
I woke up at 6am and leave home around 7.30am heading to the library to have a good day of work. Before that, breakfast.

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup oatmeal beverage
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tbsp wheat berries
• vanilla
• fresh blueberries (last half cup)

It was so sweet!!! I guess it's the artificial sweetener in the oatmeal beverage. I don't think I'll buy them again, I really want to cut artificial sweeteners. And I'm glad that my taste is even less sweet now.
1 packet of BB for morning snack.Unfortunately the library was closed until 10am. grrrrrr....... I remembered that I had an office in campus as well.... so went to the office. Opssssss....I forgot the key!!! grrrrrrrrrr........... But my eager to study didn't stop me there, I went to Stamp Union (student center). As it was 8am in the morning, it was empty, so I found a study spot there. Morning study was good (even though around 11am my feet was almost frozen).
I had the same sandwich as yesterday, but today I ate alone so I took pic with photo booth. Look, it's HUGE loaded with all kinds of veggies, tofu spread and the most incredible homemade WW onion drill bread.
1st half2st halfsooooooooo good!!!!!!!!!
I've seen you guys having dates and wanted to try it for a while. So, it wasn't hard for me to pick the dessert today. I had 5 of them.
these are real goodies!!!!!!!! Why I waited so long to try them. Well, better late than never. eh?
I worked couple of hours more in the library until I was completely frozen so I left, which means I was done with work today. Back home, did more gradings, had a big afternoon snack. (I thought maybe I was freezing because I didn't have enough food)
pumpkin seeds, dry cranberries and more dates.An apple and homemade bread.
I was done at 6pm and was feeling blah....because I felt I didn't work enough today. Yes, I did work for around 7 hours, but not didn't got much progress, so I don't feel accomplished. I knew if I stayed at home and continued with this negative thoughts, I was going to depress. So, before that happened, I went to the gym for a good sweaty workout! And that made me feel accomplished for my day, because I did a 45 min interval on the treadmill without music!!!! Can you imagining that? And then 20 min on the elliptical machine reading Glamour. My stat
Duration: 1 hour 5 min
Average Heart Rate: 142
Maximum: 170
Calories burned: 404
Back home, warmed finally but starvinggggggg. I heated leftover lentil soup with some broccoli. Also made a quick scrambled egg with tofu, spinach and mushrooms. Seasoned with S+P and nutritional yeast. And 1/4 cup of brown rice.
Very filling and yummy dinner. Maybe it wasn't that yummy, but because I was hungry, I enjoyed a lot.
Dessert was 1/2 cup oatmeal beverage with 1/3 cup Tj's high fiber. (I'm running out of Fage), so the dessert was kind of bland.
Glamourscope this month is Capricorn. Read this:
Why you're impossible: You always seem to be on the clock. Can you relax and just have fun for once? That would involve silly, goofy, good times. Try it!
hahhaa..... It's soooooo for me.... ^_^ (of course, I'm a Capricorn).

Question: What's your horoscope? Do you read magazines horoscope predictions? Do you believe it?

getting better~~~

Thanks everyone for your support and nice words, they really helped me! I'm feeling better, I got some new perspectives about my research, some hope. Nothing is sure yet, but at least I have some hope now. Whenever I make sure what I'm thinking will work I'll let you guys to know.

I woke up 4.30am this morning after six hours of sleep. When I checked the time, I knew that there was no chance I can get into sleep again, because I knew that once I'm awake, my mind begins to work thinking about my research. So, I decided to get up. Fortunately I didn't feel too bad, just a little bit of headache that went away few hours later.
oh.... for the record, last night before I went to sleep I had two slices of banana loaf, not because I was hungry, but because I wanted to load on carbs so I could get a better sleep. well..... it kind of worked, comparing to the night before last night, I woke up at 3.30am.As I expected I wasn't hungry for breakfast, so I made a small bowl of oatmeal

• 1/3 cup oats
• 1/3 cup almond breeze chocolate
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 apple
• 1 tbsp wheat berries
• vanilla + cinnamon

I enjoyed every bite of it.... it's delicious!!! Coffee and no FT (it was 5.30am, the newspaper man didn't come yet)I began to work at 6am. A little break at 10am to have a morning snack. Slice of banana loaf and tea.
Lunch was simple but delicious: milanesa de soja with sauce and mozzarella, broccoli, rice and lentil stew.Dessert was fage with blueberries.I had a seminar this afternoon so I packed an apple and more banana loaf. (I love it!)After the seminar I went to a spin class. My stat today:
Duration: 56 min
Average Heart Rate: 149
Maximum: 170
Calories burned: 373
A sweaty workout! I felt wonderful! I wish I had this load of adrenalin yesterday!
For dinner I made a savory porridge with millet, canned salmon, Chinese duck egg (it's grey-black), canned bamboo shot, S+P and ginger powdered. Some sauteed romaine lettuce and 1/3 milanesa de soja.mmmmmmmm....... The porridge was really tasty!!! I should have this more often ^_^
Dessert was more fage with blueberries and cinnamon.Today I worked hard but I feel good because I had some progress. The worst thing doing research is that you can spend days and days and no progress at all!!!! That's so frustrating. (right, Erin?) I'm so glad that today is not one of those days.

Despite of my stress, I find reading your guys blogs really relaxing. I enjoy so much reading about your thoughts, eats and life. At night, when I'm sitting on my coach, blogging and reading blogs is the most rewarding and relaxing moment of my day! So, let me thank you again!

Question: What is/are your physical symptoms of stress?
Mine is pimple on my forehead and bad sleep.

***edit*** check out Cory from ZestyCook's 100 posts celebration giveaway. A $100 gift card to Amazon!! He's so generous!

hard monday, great eats!

I've been nervous all day long until 3.40pm when I had the meeting. It wasn't as good as I expected, but not too bad either. I think I've learned to dis-stress myself. As I said last time, when you fall down to the bottom, nothing can be worse, you will rebound eventually. My yoga instructor said something like this yesterday when we were doing head stand. She said: "every time that you're up, you will fall down. And every time you fall down, you'll go up". I'm down now, but I know I'll be up soon. (I will meet another professor this Thursday, hopefully that go better)
okay, something more interesting to talk about. Food
breakfast (similar to yesterday's)

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup almond breeze
• 1 big sliced apple
• 1/4 cup egg white
• cinnamon + ginger powder
• 2 tbsp wheat berries
• 2 tbsp ricotta
• 1/2 cup blueberries

Love the overloaded bowl of oatmeal. Maybe I should call it fruits with oatmeal.
Morning snack: 2 pieces of homemade bread with cream cheese and crystal ginger chips.Lunch: Tj's meat + sauteed spinach with mushrooms + riceDessert: ricotta cheese with PBAfternoon snack: 1 pita bread + 1 package of Barney Butter + 1 apple
After the meeting I went to a spin class to dis-stress. My stat
Duration: 51 min
Average Heart Rate: 147
Maximum: 170
Calories burned: 333
Dinner: I made milanesa de soja (soy cake). I used to have it in vegan restaurant in Argentina. I don't think there is in US, so I made it. Here's the recipe (4 cakes)

• 6 oz. cooked soy bean
• 2 oz. oat bran
• 2 oz. tapioca flour
• 2 oz. cornstarch
• 1/3 medium onion
  
• 1 egg
• S+P
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast

Grind soy bean with egg and onions, then add the rest of ingredients. Form cakes and bake for 20 min (flip it once in between). The result
And then I topped it with sauce and mozzarella and bake for 5 min more.
I also made a lentil stew with red lentils, green peas, carrots, onions, diced tomatoes, chicken broth and S+P.
And some roasted broccoli.

It was the perfect dinner for a tough Monday like this. It's really delicious and comforting.
Dessert was another parfait with yogurt, aloe and granola.
I'm going to bed early so I can get some rest. I need energy since I'm planning to do a lot of work tomorrow.
Hope everyone had a good beginning of the week.