Happy New Year!

This has been a great year so far. But really, it’s only been 2011 for a day. So we’ll see.

Yesterday, Corey took me to the Ritz Carlton at Reynolds Plantation in Augusta, Georgia.

It was one of the nicest hotels that I’ve ever stayed in.

When we got there, I had an appointment to get a massage at their spa! My loving husband actually set that up for me. Maybe that’s because I keep asking him to rub my shoulders because I’m so tense.

 

the guest lounge of the spa

 

The spa was phenomenal. It was so beautiful and relaxing. The guest lounge was so beautiful.

The massage was extremely relaxing and after it was over, I was ready for some more fun!

After the massage, Corey took me to our room so I could check it out. It really was beautiful.

 

Corey by the lake

 

Then we walked around the hotel grounds a bit. The hotel was right off the lake and it was so nice. The best thing was the weather. It was 60 degrees so the weather was perfect for walking around and taking pictures like crazy. Corey called me a tourist. Ha. I’m just your average blogger. 🙂

 

lying around on the hammock

 

The weather was so nice that we ate outside. The restaurant was Gaby’s by the Lake and we sat outside to enjoy our meal while the sun set over the lake.

The food was amazing! Corey and I started the meal by sharing some flatbread. The flatbread had tomatoes, mozzarella, and fresh basil. Yum.

Believe it or not, Corey actually tried a tomato on the flatbread. Usually, he just picks them off because he is such a picky eater. Even he enjoyed them on the flatbread. 🙂

For dinner, I actually thought the appetizers sounded better than the entrees. So I made a meal out of those!

I had Brunswick stew that came with a jalapeno corn muffin. This dish was phenomenal. Loved the moistness of the muffin. And it had the perfect amount of jalapeno.

Check out the cute little pot that the stew came in. I want one!

I had some fried calamari with cajun tartar sauce.

Can I be honest? The cajun tartar sauce was why I ordered this dish. I just discovered that I liked tartar sauce, so I figured the cajun spices could just add to the yummy deliciousness. It did. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have eaten the tartar sauce with my fingers. 😉 But the calamari was also pretty tasty.

Lastly, I ordered the Roasted Garlic hummus with sundried tomatoes and feta cheese.

This dish was actually a little disappointing. Maybe it was a little garlicky or maybe I don’t like sundried tomatoes (I’ve never really tried them before). I may or may not have dipped some of the pita bread in the cajun tartar sauce. 🙂

Corey ordered a steak and mashed potatoes. I didn’t try the steak, but he said it was pretty darn good. I did try the mashed potatoes though. They were the best potatoes I have tried in a long time.

I skipped out on dessert at the restaurant because something on the room service menu had caught my eye: Vanilla Creme Brulee. Mmm . . . yummy. I had never tried that before, so I had to. And let’s face it, there were still four hours until midnight at that point. So we had to kill some time.

The creme brulee was good, but I don’t think I would order it again. It tasted like vanilla pudding with sugar on top. I did manage to stop myself from eating all of it though.

As if I hadn’t had enough sugar, the hotel was doing a campfire where you could make your own s’mores . . . for free!

I just couldn’t turn that down. I think the last time I had a s’more was when I was a teenager and I was camping. It made me feel a bit nostalgic.

Yes, I do know how ironic it is that I had a goal of cutting back on sugar and yet, I had enough sugar to last me until February tonight.

But at least it was all in moderation. I knew when to stop, so that was a small victory for me.

After eating loads of sugar, Corey and I walked the grounds a bit more and we ordered a movie from the hotel to kill some time until midnight . . . and maybe, to help keep us awake until the new year. I may or may not have had a couple of the chocolates that the nice staff placed on our bed.

I guess I didn’t need to worry about being able to stay up all night. All the sugar I had eaten ensured that I wasn’t going to bed anytime soon. 😉 Every New Year, I feel my age more and more. It gets harder and harder to stay up until midnight.

After the movie (which was Knight and Day, by the way), we headed back to the restaurant. They had a beautiful pool that overlooked the lake.

The hotel had a fireworks show set up for midnight. This was an awesome fireworks show. The only complaint was that the fireworks didn’t actually start until several minutes after midnight, but they were well worth the wait.

Corey and I did stay up a while after midnight before we collapsed into a deep sleep. The beds were so incredibly soft and I wanted to stay there forever. Since we didn’t have to take care of Callie, we slept until the very late hour of 9 am. Yes, Callie is like our baby. It’s impossible to sleep past 6:30 or 7:00 with a dog.

We decided to lounge around and eat breakfast in bed. We ordered room service! I ordered an egg white omelet with spinach, peppers, onions, and tomatoes. This omelet came with wheat toast, freshly squeezed orange juice, and coffee (decaf!).

I did have some unpictured salsa on top of the omelet.

The meal also came with a yogurt and granola parfait. This was full of fresh strawberries!

This was the perfect breakfast to have as my last meal at the hotel. It was light and nutritious and also very filling. Corey did let me have a few bites of his buttermilk pancakes that he ordered. They were yummy!

After breakfast, it was time to pack up. Am I the only one who takes the little bottles of condiments and toiletries that the hotel provides?

Corey was very kind and took some other bottles off of our neighbor’s room service tray. Don’t worry, they had already eaten and weren’t going to be using them anyway. 🙂 So I have several little bottles of preserves, maple syrup, etc. I also took a few complimentary packets of decaf coffee and tea.

After that, we packed up and headed home . . . back to reality.

Yesterday was a good day and today was a great one. I hope the year continues like this.

And on that note, I will wish everyone a happy New Year.

What did you do to celebrate New Years’ Eve?

Adventures in Alabama

Well my trip to Alabama was as unhealthy and as greasy as I imagined. Seriously . . . I know what you’re thinking. Choose healthy options. To that I say, what healthy options? On Sunday, when Corey and I woke up in Alabama there were two options for breakfast: Hardee’s and Subway. Unfortunately, Subway opened an hour after we were actually going to be having breakfast, so what was the only option? Hardee’s. And there was nothing to be had at the house.

cheese and egg biscuit . . . lowest calorie option available and still so greasy

Corey and I spent the day playing with Callie outside (yay for lots of space for her to roam in). She was so happy.

a tired dog is a happy dog

And the day was quickly cut short when Callie hurt herself playing. 😦 She scraped her leg on some metal and cut her leg pretty badly. Needless to say, we had to run to the nearest emergency vet (which was 45 minutes away) to get her stitched up. Poor thing. She had to be put to sleep and everything.

passed out after her visit to the vet

Luckily, she is all better now and she doesn’t even notice the bandage on her leg. That visit pretty much carried us over lunch and we didn’t really have time to eat (not good). By the time we were done, it was almost time for dinner so we just wanted to get something small. The smallest thing I could think of was a cheeseburger at McDonald’s. I can’t even remember the last time I had McDonald’s, but oh well.

And that night was the barbecue that Corey’s dad prepared. Seriously . . . I love his family, but I don’t think they know what vegetables are. There were four different types of meat and two side dishes available. And the sides were potato salad and coleslaw. Really . . . those were my options??

rib, chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, and some sauce

I actually didn’t eat all of what was on my plate because I wasn’t hungry enough. So I guess I didn’t do too bad.

Honestly though, I wasn’t really concerned about gaining weight from eating the food on Saturday. I was more concerned with how I felt. By the end of the day, I was not feeling well at all physically. I felt lethargic, grumpy, sick to my stomach, and I had some major heartburn. All in all, I was dying to get back to my regular routine of eating healthy again. Not because of what the scale would say. But because I knew my body desperately needed it.

Monday was better. On the trip home, we had Subway for breakfast (which I have never tried before).

yummy egg white sandwich

And for lunch, we stopped at Jason’s Deli where I got 1/2 a chicken wrap . . .

along with some Southwestern Chicken Chili

yay for veggies and protein!

And dinner was a yummy turkey sausage meatloaf. I must share this recipe with you guys soon. It’s super easy and I love the flavor that the turkey sausage gives. Kind of a nice spicy kick if you use the hot kind!

This morning, I started off the day right with a very nice smoothie of frozen strawberries, two whole peaches, ice, and a couple teaspoons of honey. Yummy! So after yesterday and today, my body is thanking me profusely for the nutrients and I feel like I am starting to recover from my weekend of debauchery. 😉

lots of nutrients!

And seriously, it took no less than 20 minutes for my blender to produce this . . . .

frothy goodness

Don’t get me wrong. It tasted awesome. But my blender is crap. Does anyone have any tips on a good blender?? I think I will need to invest in one soon.

Trip Anxiety

This weekend I am going out of town yet again. This time, I am travelling with Corey to see his family in Alabama. I have to say that I am feeling more than a little trepidation about this trip. Corey comes from a very small town in Alabama where everything is deep fried and fruits and vegetables are fried. There are only three restaurants in the entire town (I believe). Luckily, one of them is Subway, so I can usually count on at least one meal that is healthy. Of course, I am more worried about the MSG and other foods that may or may not cause a migraine. And Corey’s dad is having a barbecue type lunch on Sunday. Chances are that any vegetables there will have meat in them, be fried, have lots of butter, etc. Oy. I feel my waistline expanding already. Every other weekend I am there, I try my best to do the whole moderation thing. Hopefully, this will be no different. And I am excited that even though I have not exercised in over a week, I lost three pounds. Woo-hoo! And my knee seems to have recovered, so I will start my running again this weekend . . . at Corey’s parent’s house to burn off some of those calories that I will surely be eating. Everyone have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!

Back to the Grind

So I have been back from my trip since Monday . . . and I am still trying to adjust to the day to day. I had a great time over the weekend, very relaxing. But my eating habits were a little crazy. I had too much fried and heavy foods, didn’t eat as regularly as I should, and drank too little water. Of course, I was proud of myself for the fact that I still managed to stop eating when I was hungry. No major binges. And I actually managed to lose 1/2 a pound over the weekend. How did that even happen?

Now that I’m back, however, it is so hard to get back into the healthy eating/exercise mindset. I have done pretty well, but not as well as I should have. And for some reason, I am finding myself with little to no appetite for breakfast in the mornings. I am not getting hungry until close to 10:00 am. I know that I need to eat before that, but it’s hard if I’m not hungry. Does anyone have any tips for that? This morning, I did make myself a smoothie of frozen strawberries, a peach, some ice, and a little honey. So even though I wasn’t hungry, I still got some calories and a serving of fruits in my system.

I just find it hard to gather any appetite for healthy foods. Hopefully, it will get better. This is why you should really only eat heavy meals every once in a while, instead of days at a time. They are addictive and once you get started, it’s so hard to stop.

Sometimes I feel like a . . .

Guess what I had for dinner . . .

beautifully cooked burger

fried crisp and cooked to perfection

And you know what?? I didn’t even feel that guilty. 🙂

It was delicious and the first burger I’ve had in months. Mmm . . .

My husband and I needed something fast and easy because we were going to the grocery store. Usually, Friday is grocery store night but tomorrow I will be on a plane. I am leaving for Rochester, New York for the weekend. Yay! I actually went to college in Rochester and my friend, Luke still lives there. So I will be visiting him for the weekend and I am super excited. I don’t know that I will have time to blog, but I will be taking lots of pictures and I will update as soon as I return Monday evening. As for now, I have to go pack!

And now, I will leave you with a random picture of Callie. She is obviously trying to wrestle her favorite toy away from me. So cute!

wrestling Mommy for my favorite toy!