My Food Routine for Work

Hey guys!

It's finally Friday! I still have to work tomorrow, but only for three hours in the morning. Since it's the end of the week, I allowed myself a little taste of Starbucks. I ordered something I had never tried before: a skinny, sugar-free hazelnut latte! It was really delicious but a bit to sweet for my palate! I miss the skinny peppermint mocha... I don't know how I'm going to hold out to November 1st for that one!

Today, I want to share my food routine at work. Since I get here a little after 8am and leave at 5pm, it's important that I bring enough food to get me through the hours. Sitting at a desk all day can sometimes make me munch of food laying around my work (candy, trail mix, coffee). By bringing my own food, I have made temptation almost nonexistent.

Every day, I start off with a Greek yogurt. I can usually last until about 9am or 10am before I start eating it and it lasts me about 30-60 minutes. I used to only buy Chobani, but decided to venture out and try Fage. My gosh, this was the best decision I could have made! Fage is creamier, thicker, and overall more natural. I like the Total 0% with either the fruit cup or honey. Also, if I happen to have fruit in my fridge, I'll generally take that to work to munch on. Last night Target had raspberries 2/$5 so I had to grab a few and today, that's my fruit of choice. Since I went to Starbucks this morning, I am drinking espresso, something that I have kind of traded in for tea. I love all kinds of tea and they generally don't need cream or sugar like coffee does.

For lunch today I brought a massive salad. Last night grocery shopping I decided to pick up some Tupperware to store salad in. I bought 4 pack of red and green Artisan heads of lettuce from Aldi to be the base of the salad.

Aldi is basically a discount grocery store who indirectly owns Trader Joe's through a trust. The only thing I will buy from Aldi is canned vegetables, sauces, and produce (generally have to eat it within a few days). For the salad, I added tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and cucumbers. I am obsessed with tomatoes and love them in my salads for some reason. I picked up the sugar snap peas at Target because they were on sale for $2.99. They added a sweet crunch. I also love cucumbers in salads. There's something about them that is just so refreshing and crisp.

But what I'm most excited about is the dressing! I had been meaning to try this Amish health food store in Chicago and finally had the time yesterday. Each week, they drive 2 and a half hours each way to an Amish community in Indiana to stock their store... that's dedication! I ended up picking up a lot of healthy snack dips (two 16oz cans of apple butter and one 16oz can of sweet pepper relish), some pears, dressing, and this great chap stick made of cheyenne pepper and lemon. All for $30, which might seem pricey, but acceptable just by their quality standards. I love supporting local shops and don't mind dropping a few extra dollars for quality and some damn good customer service. Back to my dressing! I picked up a Sweet Vidalia Onion Summer Tomato dressing. When I opened it last night, I was shocked at how thick it was. The serving size is 2 tablespoons and has about 70 calories! There is no fat or cholesterol and is made from onions, tomatoes, and seasonings. That's it! I'm a dressing fanatic and love extra dressing on my salad (so bad, right?) so I took the two tablespoons and added 1 tablespoon of water to make it go further. The new concoction looked like your average dressing thickness.

I generally take my lunch late around 1pm or 2pm. Today I have a meeting directly after work and need something that will sustain me through about 7pm. The salad is extra big and really nutritious so it should keep me hunger free!