A caffeine saga

I worked Monday and Tuesday.  This means that I’m now playing catch up in life and on the blog. 

Being out of town this weekend meant that my pre-work food prep was minimal.  However, Kyle and I stopped on the way home from San Clemente for a huge grocery shopping trip, so it wasn’t a complete scavenger hunt. 

For breakfast I mixed up my normal oat routine by adding in wheat bran.  Also in the mix was a chopped up baby yellow delicious apple, cinnamon, stevia, and raisins.  The wheat bran didn’t change much in terms of texture, but it did add a bran flavor which I really enjoyed. 

Another purchase from our weekend grocery trip included bulk bin apple cinnamon granola.

I combined this with raw walnuts, almonds, cereal and dried fruit to eat on the way to work and add in to the oat/wheat bran mix.

I also had BOA leftovers (brown sugar roasted carrots, butternut squash, and steamed farmer’s market veggies) which I bulked up with quinoa and (unpictured) Artisana cashini butter.  Veggies, quinoa and nut butter are such a simple yet dynamic trio. 

Even more fantastic was the fact that Kyle met up with me for my lunch break (since he had Monday off).  Such a nice surprise in the middle of the day.  He says I look my happiest when I’m gorging my face.  I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not?  It’s probably true though.  😉

More non-documented eats included two apples, a banana, pistachios, candied ginger, and fresh fruit with plain greek yogurt.

 

Tuesday had some of the same, some a little different.

Home-made trail mix = same

Oat/wheat bran mix = same

Addition of coconut & cinnamon = different

Packing in apples & raisins = same

I had extra apples, so some went into my greek yogurt/fruit parfait.

And some went on top of my smorgasbord salad…

This baby was like a WF hot bar creation, filled with randomness.  It had spinach, raw veggies, bell peppers, carrots, steamed yams, leftover quinoa and seitan, peas, and dried cranberries.  Like I said, smorgasbord. 

Alvarado Street has a new kind of bread called Diabetic Lifestyles, but after examining the nutritional stats for a while, I was still unable to find any difference between it and the other sprouted breads. 

I gave it a shot and I loved it just as much as the other Alvarado Street flavors.  It has the same hearty, sprouted texture.  I guess the marketing team just wanted to make the general public aware of the benefits of sprouted whole grains in regulating blood sugar, thus dubbing it a good choice for diabetic lifestyles.  I’m not diabetic, but I do like stable blood sugar.  I suppose that’s what you’d call a win win.

I didn’t end up eating it with this because it was hard as a rock after being stored in the fridge, and no kneading or squeezing could make it edible.  I’ll let you know how it is whenever I do give it a try.

For those of you who have been asking, this is what I use to pack my eats.  It keeps things cool and/or warm for a loooong time (but I still use the fridge at work).  Sometimes I can’t pack everything into it, though, so the granola and or apples go in my big bag (with all the other sh!t I schlep around – newspaper, book, wallet, and whatnot).

I also have a ziplock of tea bags because I’m a tea whore (and continuously trying to wean myself from the java).

I never mentioned any new year’s resolutions because frankly I didn’t have any.  I certainly have things I’m working on, but these aren’t new, nor are they related to the date being January 1st.  And so I never felt the need to blog about them. 

I’m perpetually trying to improve myself and live the happiest and healthiest life possible.  And there’s nothing that 2011 coming or 2010 going has to do with it…

That said, I have been trying to reduce the amount of coffee I consume for quite a while now (as in years).  It’s not going so well.  Some days I get by with one cup.  Success!  Other days (ahem, work days), I require multiple times that amount.  I’ve been replacing a few cups here and there with tea, but otherwise, it’s been a rocky ride.  Yesterday was proof that I should give up all together…or was it?

Here’s a fun little story (for you, not me).

Before heading back to the hospital from my lunch break, I headed to Le Bucks (as I am known to do) to get my middle-of-the-day fix.  I ordered my usual [free] refill in my travel mug [Gold card member perk, what whaaat] and since I had a few minutes to spare I figured I would sit down for a second and take a load off (aka start a crossword).  Stupid me left the top of the travel mug off so it would reach a drinkable temp, but then as I was standing up to go, I somehow dumped the entire thing all over myself. 

16 oz straight to the crotch.  Sweet. 

My pants were completely 100% drenched, sticking to my legs (and non-mentionable areas).  Talk about uncomfortable.  I had creamy soy coffee seeped down to where the sun don’t shine and I was damn near ready to call work and say I wasn’t coming back!  Ick.

The lovely baristas offered me a free refill, but what I really needed was a wardrobe change.  My first thought was to head straight to Victoria’s Secret.  My second was to head to the nursing administration building.  I went with door number two.

So off I went, newly refilled coffee mug in tow (priorities people), to do some begging with administration.  I can’t tell you how horrible it was waddling six blocks with visibly stained pants.  The color and location of the spill obviously looked suspicious and I could just see the inquisitive gears turning in people’s minds as I made my way to the uniform center.  Puzzled looks aplenty.  I finally arrived and what do you know, the entire office was away on lunch break.  GAH!  I wanted to scream.  I called my unit’s secretary to explain why I would be a tad late returning from my lunch break.  I’m sure everyone listening to that phone conversation was entertained. 

Finally the uniform center opened and guess what?  They refused (REFUSED!) to give me new scrub pants without exchanging them for my old pair.  I offered them the ones I was wearing but they said they couldn’t take soiled ones.  Their office was for pre-ordered ones only.  I was about to break down and cry.  I offered to pay.  I offered to get naked in the hallway. I said point-blank I was NOT returning to work with half my body covered in sticky sweet liquids.  And so they caved.  I have to go return the loaner pants tomorrow, but at least I didn’t have to finish the second part of my shift with java-ified scrubs. 

While changing in the bathroom, I tried to give myself a quick wash, but it was messy and I still smelled like coffee for the rest of the day; and felt incredibly sticky. 

I’m pretty sure that was karma for giving in to my caffeine cravings. 

Although coffee to the crotch may have been more effective in waking me up than simply drinking it!

The most ridiculous part of all is that I ended up drinking only a few sips of the coffee!  That blasted coffee.