My Favorite Time of the Week

The period of time from about 7pm on Friday night to 1pm on Saturday morning is my favorite time of the week. Its clear why I love Fridays, but I say 7pm because by that time, I'm usually home, settled, finished working out and feeling like the world is my oyster with all this free time ahead of me. Its the point of the week where I take a deep breath and go: "Ahh."

Then, I love waking up on Saturday mornings knowing I don't have to go to work. My body clock (or Marvin's snoring) typically wakes me up around 6am anyway.... but then I just curl up in the covers and lazily fall back asleep. When I do get back, I love putting on my sweats and jacket, breathing in the cool crisp air, and heading to Oren's (coffee) and Tony's (breakfast) for my weekend treats. Tony's just updated their menu and I swear they named a sandwich after me. For about 3 years I have been going there every weekend and getting egg whites, turkey, & swiss on a wrap. That exact sandwich is now on the menu and called "The Hungry Lady." HA!

"The Hungry Lady" - Egg whites, turkey, swiss - I usually get a WW wrap, today I chose a WW roll... and you can see that they screwed it up by adding american cheese instead :(

Friday was an especially difficult day for me eating-wise. Every other Friday is my "off" day at work, meaning I just have planning time from 7:15-2:00. Then from 2:00-4:30, we have staff-wide meetings. As much as I love this day, it is really hard for me to just sit there for 9 hours working without snacking. To make matters worse, my school literally stocks tables at the end of each hallway with endless amounts of snacks - mostly healthy, but still. I can't imagine if I just had a desk job an this was my life! So here's the complete list for the day.... I somehow managed to stay under my 1700 calories - but barely.

Breakfast
-Fage 0% w/ honey & 1/2 banana
-2 hard boiled eggs no yolk

Lunch
-Baby spinach salad w/ FF feta
-Perdue Whole grain baked chicken breast
-Carrots & hummus
-Red grapes

Snacks
-Mini bag of sour cream & onion sunchips
-1 Mott's Medley's snack pack
-1 Stretch Island Fruit Co fruit leather
-1 oatmeal cookie

Dinner
-Baby spinach salad w/ FF feta
-Perdue Whole grain Baked chicken breast
-Brussel sprouts (sauteed in a pan w/ olive oil, onions, and garlic)

Snack
-Clementine
-SmartPop Kettle Corn

I'm really loving the perdue baked chicken breast. Their sooo easy because they are pre-made, they are pretty healthy, and they even have the "whole grain" seal to look for (I was told this marks a food that's actually made with whole grain/whole wheat flour as opposed to unbleached flour.) Anyway, I think they go perfect cut up in the salad or just eaten plain with some cooked veggies.

Today (Saturday) will probably be hard because I plan to go to LI. It's always hard going to Marvin's house because his family basically just cooks enormous amounts of food, and spends all night eating and drinking vodka or Caribbean rum cocktails. Don't get me wrong, I love it! But not exactly easy when counting calories.

In Insanity news, I completed my 23rd day last night. I forgot to take pics on Day 21 so I took em last night. Its strange because I don't look that different in the pics but I think I look different in the mirror... and my pants are kind of looser. I also think the way I take the pics are SO unflattering... basically I have to prop up my ipad on the bed and use photobooth - so its like the camera is below me looking up, and we all know that's the least flattering viewpoint. The one thing I think looks really different is my face... weird! But I swear it looks skinnier. Here's day 1 - day 23 comparison... I look pissed in the first picture but that's because I was! The last thing I wanted to do was take half naked pics of myself when I hated the way I looked.


And, in other news, I'm on the hunt for a new workbag. I use a jansport backpack for work and while it is the best fit for what I need, I've been mistaken as a student way too many times. Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Big enough to fit my laptop & charger, ipad, wallet, makeup bag, water bottle, and lunch bag (I don't always have all these things but on the days I do, I want it to fit)
2) Safe to hold a laptop (i.e good padding)
3) Zipper top so I can close it without worrying anything will fall out
4) Straps long/thick enough so that when I have a long walk to my car it will be comfortable
5) Lots of compartments for phone, pens, flash drives, etc
6) Won't get dirty easily
7) Cute and/or professional looking

I've actually found some that fit all or some of these on ebags.com. I did find some others but they were over $250, and I'm not looking to spend that much on a work bag. Oh so that's another criteria:

8) Under $75

The reasons why I'm going so low is because its for work and I work in a school. I'd also like the bag to double for travel (carry-on) and I've gone through sooo many work/travel bags. Pens constantly breaking, leaking, water bottle, leaking, dealing with rain/snow, etc... resting on the dusty school floor or being shoved and locked in my filing cabinet. I just don't want to ruin a good bag. Here's some I found:

Thoughts?

Who am I even talking to? Julie is basically the only one who reads this :P