I’ve been feeling antsy all day today. I haven’t gone to the gym for over a week now and only went twice the week before. Gah!

This is really weird for me, but I at least had some good reason for it. Two weeks ago, I was on vacation in Hawaii and simply couldn’t find time in my relaxing vacation schedule for the gym. I didn’t totally slack on exercise though. We did a lot of walking and hiking, so it was nice to know I wasn’t doing absolutely nothing.

The past week has been a little tougher though. Honestly, I have no good reason for slacking since I got back from Hawaii last Friday. Simply put, I was jetlagged and tired from the trip earlier in the weeks and decided to catch up with my friends instead of going to the gym.

What’s worse is that now that I finally feel better and actually want to exercise, I can’t. That’s because I got both of my wisdom teeth on the left side of my mouth extracted after work yesterday. I know this is a big deal for most people, but I’m totally fine aside from some minor soreness. I’ve always had a high pain tolerance and also don’t have any swelling.

My dentist didn’t say anything about exercising in the post-care instructions and sadly, I forgot to ask. I did some googling though and it seems like exercising might be a bad idea. Even though the bleeding stopped earlier today, I’ll have a lost a good amount of blood already and any exercise can increase my blood pressure and cause the holes to start bleeding again or even cause dry socket. Yeah, not something I’m really willing to risk.

It’s so weird to not be thinking about my free time in the morning or right after work as gym time. In fact, I really miss the gym. This is something I would have never said a year or two ago, by the way!

Still, I’m dealing with it though. The Olympics have me more than occupied. And I’m also planning on organizing photos from the trip and picking out a few for the blog and my phone tonight.

But to add some color to tonight’s post, I thought I’d share the two soups I had for lunch and dinner today (since I’m restricted to mushy foods because of my extraction)!

For lunch, my boss, two interns, and I went across the street to a Thai restaurant. I had the Cellophane Noodle Soup with tofu. I think it may have actually been an appetizer since it wasn’t so filling and only cost $5 as opposed to all the $10 fried rice and pad thai dishes.

I snacked on applesauce and yogurt in the afternoon, but the time I got home I was starving! So I heated up some Amy’s organic black bean soup with veggie protein crumbles, soy cheese, and some Greek yogurt and ate it with two whole wheat wraps. Not bad and much more filling.

Hawaii photos coming soon!

My dog Cissie turns 5 today! I can’t even believe we’ve had her for so long. I feel like a parent – it seems like just yesterday that she was a puppy!

Happy birthday to my little bear!

Now onto the weekend recap!

On Saturday, Steph and I completed the required pool dive for our scuba diving certification! It was hard for me to figure out how to breathe at first, but a lot of fun once I got the hang of it. Even though we were just in a pool, it was cool to swim around at the bottom and be able to look up at all the people bobbing around above us. I can’t wait to go open water diving in Hawaii in two weeks!

By the time we were done, it was 4 and we were both starving since we hadn’t had a chance to eat lunch. On our way back, we went to Satay Malaysian in Hoboken and had a bite to eat.

Steph ordered the chicken pad thai. She was excited!

I had the coconut milk bubble tea and a brown chicken curry. The bubble tea was delicious and the chicken curry had quite a kick to it! It filled me right up.

Later, my sister was in the mood for a second dinner so I made her one of my egg white and hummus wraps and we shared some sweet potato fries. I love when she comes to visit because I usually don’t get the opportunity to show her that eating healthy can be quick, easy, and delicious.

The next day, we hit the mall before going to my favorite Indian place, Raaz, for lunch! It was all really delicious, as usual. I finished off with two gulab jamun.

For dinner, I threw together the following in a bowl: lemony whole wheat pasta with kale and chicken sausage. Yum!

Lastly, I’ll leave you with these two photos of the birthday girl being sleepy!

Hi friends!

How were your post-July 4th weeks? Mine just felt weird. It felt so sluggish yesterday and today while I was at work but at the same time, it feels like the weekend has come unnaturally fast!

On July 4th, my sister and I had some serious shopping planned. Independence Day sales are no joke – especially at an outlet! We went out hard at Jersey Shore Premium Outlets, but unfortunately, didn’t come home with as much as we wanted. I didn’t find much I liked or in my size and my sister already has so many clothes that she was afraid of incurring the wrath of my mother if she bought more.

Photo op while in Tommy Hilfiger:

Later on, my parents wanted to go to Applebee’s, so we popped over for an early dinner. To start, my dad had the Sam Adams summer ale, I ordered the berry sangria, my sister had the mango lemonade, and my mom wanted to join in on the photo with her glass of water.

For apps, we went with the spinach artichoke dip (Steph’s very favorite) and the classic buffalo wings. Both were good!

I ordered the seasonal berry and spinach salad, which is similar to my summer salad with strawberries, but with grilled chickens and without the avocado. It was exactly what I wanted after having heavier chicken tenders for lunch and hit the spot!

My mom had the 7 oz house sirloin, which she enjoyed. I thought it was cooked perfectly! The waitress asked her to cut into it before she left to make sure, hence the butchered-looking steak and the knife on the plate.

My sister ordered the bourbon street chicken and shrimp, which came on a sizzling plate. I tried a bit of the chicken and it had way too much seasoning on top in my opinion – super salty! Then again, I season very lightly and consider a lot of things oversalted.

I don’t remember exactly what my dad had but I think it was the grilled shrimp and island rice. I love roasted vegetables so I was stealing that zucchini off his plate! No shame here.

As for the past two days, I’ve had two of what I’ve now decided officially qualify on my favorite foods list. I can’t decide what I like better!

Vegan chocolate mousse which claims to be only 42 calories but tastes like heaven?

Or authentic tzatzki filled pitas from Mamoun’s Falafel in Hoboken? Hmmm. Quite the food toss up!

My half eaten falafel hummus pita. Yum!

My sister’s visiting this weekend and tomorrow (or rather later today!) we’ll be doing the pool dive portion of the PADI open water diver certification! I convinced (okay, bullied, just a little) her into doing this with me and we both just passed the test online about an hour ago. She’s excited after getting our gear at the scuba shop today. I can’t wait to get certified so we can go diving together in Hawaii at the end of the month. Yay!

Have a lovely weekend!

I’ve had an awesome two days! I’m skipping WIAW today to share some photos.

Tuesday Happy Hour

Last night after work, a few work friends and I hit up Black Bear for their Kick the Bucket Tuesday night specials! It’s just $14.99 for a pitcher of Yuengling and a bucket of 30 wings.

I get in the mood for wings once in a while, but generally I’m not a big fan. My friends are though! We ordered hot buffalo, honey barbecue, and teriyaki wings.

Hot buffalo and honey BBQ wings

Teriyaki wings

I tried one of each and thought they were all pretty good. I really had my fair share of beer though! It was a fun night with good company.

As soon as I got home, I registered for Healthy Living Summit!

I’m so psyched and can’t wait to meet some of my favorite bloggers. The agenda looks awesome too. Can’t wait!

When I got home, Chrysanthe and I had a planned Skype schedule to discuss HLS and Color Me Rad Boston. She’s in Boston for an internship now, and I’ll be staying with her for both of these events. I’m so excited to visit her! I really can’t believe it’s already been a month since I saw her.

We registered for Color Me Rad as Team Twins (Not Sisters) this morning! It’s an inside joke: our favorite line from the hilariously bad-looking Zack and Cody movie.

Sandy Hook

As I’ve mentioned before, my company allows us two volunteer days a year. Today the company sponsored a beach clean-up volunteer event on Sandy Hook with the non-profit Clean Ocean Action. They’ve held this event twice before and I attended the second one back in September. It was so much fun and a great cause! I was really excited to go back.

Most of the stuff we cleaned up off the beach last time was washed up from the sewer after it overflows when it rains. Gross, right? The first time we found some really crazy stuff out there, including syringes, a Hello Kitty piggy bank, and a random empty tofu container. There didn’t seem to be as much out there this time though!

Among the rope, many tampon applicators, dime bags, and bits of plastic, glass, and paper we did find, we also encountered the following:

A group of dead mussels

This fish skeleton along with a few other dead fish

A bunch of tiny molted horseshoe crab shells

A horseshoe crab stranded on its back that we rescued and pointed back to the water!

And saddest of all, a dead baby sea turtle

The last one made me very sad. I also unluckily got bitten by a ton of mosquitoes and now have no less than 10 bites. Apparently, bugs and mosquitoes can bite you through jeggings! Not cool.

Have a nice night!