Weekend was great

Oct. 3 and 4

Well, I made it through the weekend and feel pretty dang good.

Saturdays, as most of you all know, are for date nights. Yep, after being together for 17 years, we still love our date nights. Saturday for me, like probably most people, is my favorite day of the week.

This Saturday was no exception. I slept in a bit, had my coffee and banana and then eventually got on the treadmill. I did a 5-mile run on the treadmill, trying something new. I ran my normal pace, then ran a way faster pace, then walked. I did this throughout the whole five miles. My pace ended up being slower than the day before, but I was totally fine with that. It felt good.

I had some errands to run as soon as I was done, so I took my shower later on. Typically Al and I will do our shopping together, but I still have a hard time in grocery stores – I want to be buy ALL the things that are not healthy. So, Al will be shopping on his own on Saturdays for a little while until I can get my mind right again.

After he got back from the store, he prepped a bit for our date night meal – spiced cabernet boneless short ribs with chocolate. The recipe came from one of his favorite sites, Food 52.

Once he was done, the dish went in the oven where it cooked for about three hours. We opted to head to our local winery, Carlos Creek Winery, for something different. We usually head to a brewery, but we both want to get back to drinking wine again. For those who don’t know, we were actually married in a hot air balloon overlooking the vineyards of Napa Valley. So yep, we love wine. Not that we are giving up beer by any means, but we might be sipping on wine more often. We ended up buying two bottles – Solmani Rosé and Marquette – at the winery and had them with our meal.

Our supper turned out amazing! And I was very proud of myself as I actually measured out my rice and only took a reasonable portion of meat. Best part, I didn’t actually eat it all, even though I really, really wanted to. I listened to my body and when I felt full, I stopped. I felt happy with that decision. We did also have an appetizer of toasted baguettes with balsamic and vinegar along with grapes. I may have had too much but I still felt good. Not stuffed. And there was ZERO guilt again with my eating choices and decisions.

When it comes to our meals, mainly those we have on Saturdays, I am all about the presentation. Both Al and I are, really. And I love food photos, if you didn’t already know that. I not only LOVED how our meal tasted, but I loved how the presentation turned out. Seriously, isn’t food beautiful?!?!

We didn’t have dessert, which was 100% OK. I am a dessert person, but I didn’t crave it, which is a little unusual, but I’m good with it.

I took our leftover food and portioned it out into four meals for me for the week. And now I can’t wait to eat them!

All in all, it was a great day and I really did feel pretty good. I am happy that I didn’t pig out and that I ate reasonable amounts.

Sunday. Sunday’s are hard. I tend to eat A LOT on Sundays and it usually is not the healthy stuff. My morning went great, although I didn’t eat much for my breakfast, just my banana. I  had an assignment for work and was offered a piece of cake. It was a small one so I had it. It was fantastic and again, I didn’t feel any guilt eating it. Maybe because I knew what my plans were hopefully going to be later than afternoon.

My plan was to hike out at Kensington Rune Stone Park. And luckily my plan came to fruition. I made it out to the park around 2:30 and ended up hiking about 5.5 miles. It was GORGEOUS OUT.

My hubby was making turkey chili, but I knew it wasn’t going to be ready before I went on my hike, so instead of just grabbing something quick, which probably wasn’t healthy, I heated up one of my leftovers from Saturday night. And damn, it was good. After I was done, I headed to the park for my hike. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

I forgot to start my watch right away, so this was at least 2 miles, if not a little more.

After I got home, I had a bowl of that chili that my husband made and MAN, WAS IT GOOD! I didn’t measure it out, which I probably should have because I probably ate too much. But my stomach didn’t hurt, I didn’t feel overfull or bloated, but it was probably still too much. We have some leftover so that means more meals for the week.

I didn’t end up doing any meal prepping because of the leftovers and the chili. I should be set for this week.

All in all, it was great weekend – food wise, exercise wise and just overall well-being wise. Let’s hope it continues.