I have been tempted to try the Green Monsters, but I don’t own a food processor or blender. Well, actually I do have a very small, maybe two cup size, mini food processor that I use for dicing veggies. This led to my morning adventure of Green Oats.

Oh, my! They were green! But, very tasty. I made mine using 1/3 cup of old fashion oats, substantial dash of cinnamon, smaller dash of nutmeg, and a teaspoon of light brown sugar. I then diced a big handful of raw baby spinach in my teeny, tiny food processor and added it to my prepared oats. I will definitely eat this again!

Breakfast:
Green oats – 100 calories

Cardio and strength training for 40 minutes... however, I do not feel like I gave it my “All” today. Sinus drainage is affecting my sleep and I felt tired before I even started. I did work up a good sweat and got my heart thumping, but I had difficulty pushing myself to my fullest. As always, I felt much better after exercising and it was far from a useless workout.

It is a good thing I was able to get some exercise in. I needed it because a birthday party was soon to follow.

Lunch (?):
1/2 doughnut with scoop of fat free vanilla frozen yogurt – 300

1 piece Valentine’s Day candy – 75

I rounded total to 500 just in case that doughnut was worse than I thought. You may have noticed by now that I am constantly surrounded by children who bring concoctions such as snow cream and doughnut parties into my life. This is no excuse, but I have found that sugar stimulates my appetite making it harder to avoid overeating. Recognizing this has helped.

Real lunch:
Whole wheat flat bread with a smear of hummus (about 1 tablespoon) and spinach, spouts, and tomato – 200

Snack:
2 pieces Valentine’s candy – 150

1/4 cup unsalted cashews, almonds, peanuts – 150

Dinner:
Broccoli soup – 160

1/2 baked potato with 1/4 cup of cottage cheese – 200

After dinner snack/dessert:
1/2 cup fat free frozen yogurt with tablespoon natural peanut butter – 200

1/2 cup fat free frozen yogurt with plain peaches and strawberries – 100

Total: 1660

I try to eat around 1700-1800 on days that I do the whole cardio and strength training routine. I purposely allowed myself more fro yo because of this. It is amazing how much you can eat when you are eating healthy! Thank goodness the Valentine’s candy is gone now!