Clean Plate Club- Are You a Member?

Background: All week I have been thinking about Pumpkin Ice Cream. I knew from blogland that the Edy's Pumpkin was out but I haven't made it to the grocery store to actually buy it. It's to the point where I sit in tutoring plotting how I can make it to the grocery store before the next thing I have to do, but...still all I have done is dream about it.

So tonight after my kettlebell class I headed to my parents to hang out and eat dinner. My mom said she had a surprise for me and I was immediately hoping Pumpkin ice cream. But really, why would it be Pumpkin ice cream. I hadn't told her I wanted pumpkin ice cream...But obviously Mom's have psychic connections because...

Pumpkin Ice Cream!!!!!!!

Definitely made my night. I'd say my week but even I cannot claim ice cream beats out major job security. I am trying to stay focused on the baseball game on TV (Yankees vs. Twins...guess who I am rooting for?) and blogging so I do not go back for my third serving of Pumpkin Ice Cream ha ha.

The other night when I posted about how you eat, I got a lot of responses from women who eat quickly because they grew up in a big family and you want food, you go quick! This got me to thinking about how much our early influences with food shape who we are when we grow up. That's why I find it so scary when my kiddos at work eat some of the school lunches. Once they actually served "Nachos"- which was chips and dip for lunch! Now I love chips as much as the next person, but where are your nutrients? Kids need little protein and fiber in their lunch please, any meat with those chips? beans?

A big habit that is formed during childhood is the "Clean Plate Club." Fess up- who is a member? This is going to sound funny but I am sort of a member of the Anti- Clean Plate Club. I never noticed this about myself until I was in Australia. One day one of my friends pointed out that I always left a tiny bit of food on the plate when I was done in eating. She questioned if I possibly could be SO full that I couldn't eat that TINY piece of whatever was left. After that I started to notice that I do that all the time. Funny enough, I also do it in other areas of my life. I'll finish a paper except for proofreading, or except for the conclusion etc. I'm not sure if the food thing had to do with feeling like, "well at least I didn't FINISH the meal..." I'm really not sure. Now that I cook my own food, I portion control a lot more so I usually do finish every last bite of my meal. When I am out a restaurant and portions are *crazy* I like to play a little game. I leave enough left of my food that the waitress asks if I want to take the rest home. It's me vs. the waitress. If she asks if I want to take the food home, I win. If she doesn't, she wins. I win almost every time. Ah, the joy of competing with unsuspecting individuals...

It's safe to say I would be kicked out of the "Clean Plate Club" if they ever let me join. However, I know so many people who are serious members. I think it's okay (and good for your wallet) to finish your plate at home, assuming your are giving yourself a reasonable portion. However, I encourage you to join in my little game with the waitress when you are out at a restaurant. Some relatively healthy meals at restaurants have over 1,000 calories in them. You don't want to finish that! Besides, you'll be thanking me when you have leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day :)

Are you a member of the "Clean Plate Club?" Why do you think you are, or are not? I think as a parent it must be really hard to try to steer your kids away from the "Clean Plate Club." On one hand, you want to instill good habits of eating until you are full but on the other hand, you probably do portion control the meals so you do want them to finish, and plus- you don't want to make dinner #2 in two hours. Do you have any tips for getting kids to eat all of their meal without leaving them with any long term feelings of "I have to clean my plate, there are starving children in the world!" ?

Restaurant Review: Picco

My weekend has been seriously uneventful due to the fact that I have been fighting one of the 1 million colds the kiddos bring in my classroom, and Eric has been (of course) at football :) I have worked out but I haven't done much else so I thought I'd do a restaurant review I forgot to do last week.

I love to go into Boston for dinner so I was excited to try out Picco in the South End of Boston. It seemed like a reasonably priced restaurant, which can be difficult to find in the South End. We took Eric's mom and headed into Boston. There was a parking garage behind the restaurant that cost about $12 (something to take into consideration when planning to dine downtown).

First, the atmosphere: Picco has the feel of an upscale pizza place with a lot of brick, and open kitchen and a pretty large bar area (considering it's a small restaurant). They also have a beautiful outdoor patio, but it was too cold for us to sit out there. They do take reservations and I would consider making them because we ended up with one of the last tables available even though we were fairly early in the night. It definitely seemed like a kid-friendly place and there were many children around when we arrived. At the same time, it also had the downtown, hip feel.

Eric ordered the pumpkin curried soup for an appetizer. I am not a fan of curry, so I did not particularly enjoy it, but Eric thought it was delicious and was already pleased with the restaurant before he had received his meal.

For meals, Eric and his mom went with pizza and I went for the homemade pasta with tomato sauce. They had some more creative options, but we are pretty simple eaters. I think it says a lot about a restaurant when they can do simple things well, as well as the signature meals. Eric ordered the Alsatian pizza with garlic, shallots, cheese, onions and bacon.

They cook the pizza "well done" so Eric asked for his lightly toasted. Eric's mom ordered the Margherita pizza.

The reports on the pizza were good and I have to say my pasta was soooo good. It was definitely North End style (Italian section of Boston) and it tasted very authentic Italy. There is something special about homemade pasta that just cannot be replicated with the store bought brands.

But...it does not end here. I have to admit that the real reason I got Eric to come all the way into Boston with me even after football practice was with the Adult Ice Cream Soda. There was no question we were going to order dessert with this on the menu. It was made with Belgium Lambic (a raspberry flavored beer) and vanilla ice cream.

That is Eric's look of "do I really have to wait for you to take a picture to dive into this amazing treat?" Obviously, I tried it too so I can vouch for how amazing it was. Plus, it's fun to have a beer float!

I also ordered my own dessert- Toasted Gingerbread with Vanilla Ice Cream. Delish.

Overall I think everyone who lives in, or is visiting Boston should visit this place for the Adult Ice Cream Soda alone. However, you might as well eat your meal there because the food was delicious and very reasonable. It came to about $60 for the 3 of us, and we all ordered a meal and dessert, plus Eric's soup. Not too bad for the South End neighborhood.

I woke up this morning determined to get myself a new, beautiful road bike. I found a great deal online. I did the math and I could make back the money in 3 weeks with one of my tutoring jobs. Once I realized this I mentally prepared to fork over the money and I was ready. So I spend the morning cleaning the house and trying to be productive until the store opened at 12. At 12 on the dot, I stroll in the store ask for the bike and that’s when I received the news. It was slightly less disappointing than finding out my favorite ice cream was discontinued, but horrible all the same. That bike was meant for people who are 4 foot 8! No one would call me tall, but I am about 9 inches taller than that! The guy said they wouldn’t even sell it to me and if I want a road bike I am going to have to pay $400 MORE than I was prepared to spend ☹ So, needless to say I had not mentally prepared for that yet and I left the store.

When I got home, I decided to go for a ride on my crappy alignment, slow mountain bike. I felt like I was going a little faster than normal, but that could’ve just been because there were so many slow little kids on the bike trail today. Obviously, since I am a teacher I generally like children. However, little kids on the bike path can be very difficult. They tend to ride in the middle of the path and randomly swerve back and forth so I don't know how to get around them. Then, their parents, who are inevitably riding behind them, feel like they have to do something about the fact that their child is taking up the entire path. However, they always yell out, "honey!!! get to the right!!! stay to the right!!!" I'm sure it makes them feel better that they have put in the effort however, you can't fool me! I teach kindergarten and most of these swervers are 6 or younger. I KNOW these kids have no idea what their parents mean by "right." They are either going to ignore them completely or just guess which way they mean by right. This means I have to wait until they make that guess because if I go left and they decide right means left, guess who is going to crash? me! I would try to avoid times when a lot of kids will be on the bikepath but unfortunately my job means that I have the same free time as kids. It's okay though- the people that annoy me the most on the bike path are not kids, but walkers. As far as I'm concerned, walkers already have side walks, they don't need bike paths. Secondly, you particularly do not need to have 3 or 4 people walking next to each other on a bike path meaning that me, on a bike has to go OFF the trail just to get around you. Grr, is all I can say.

On a more positive note, I had a fabulous weekend at the Cape. While Eric played a million holes of golf, I got wedding things accomplished and went on a bit of a shopping spree at TJ Max. I got mainly some more work out clothes, which I feel like is a good use of money since I am spending so much of my life in work out clothes these days. Although the weather was not the best, Eric and I did manage to take a walk down to the beach. Eric tested the water...
Not as cold as the last time he was in it (New Years!)
On the way home from the Cape we stopped at a place called "The Ice Cream Sandwich" (in the town of Sandwich). They had cookie dough non-fat frozen yogurt soft serve. Basically my dream come true. Clearly this will be my new favorite ice cream place at the Cape and it's right on the way home, which will make coming home a lot sweeter!
This weekend I also reunited with my old friend from Starbucks. You have to try a Iced Passion Tea. I get mine unsweetened because I think it's sweet on it's own. There is something about iced drinks that just screams summer to me!
We finished off the weekend with Japanese food. I ordered a miso soup, steamed shumai (shrimp dumplings, yum) and some rice with teriyaki sauce. If Eric and I go more than a few weeks without Japanese we start to suffer withdrawl!
I love long weekends. Any chance we could make this a weekly thing? Back to work tomorrow for the final push until June 23- last day of school. Even if I only have a 3 day break before my summer job starts, at least I'll have a change of pace :) I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
Sorry I have not posted the giveaway yet. I am trying to do a Trader Joe's favorites giveaway but I am trying to figure out what to include. Any ideas? Right now I think I have too many ideas and I need to narrow it down or I'll be sending the winner 6 different packages!

Run for Ice Cream

On Friday, my boss sent out an e-mail reminding us to tell our class about the significance of Memorial Day before our Memorial Day assembly. Okay, I thought...
1. the OFFICIAL start of summer
2. cookouts!
3. the start of the Cape season (even though the Cape season for Eric and I is clearly year round).
Maybe not what she had in mind?
My Memorial Day weekend began on Thursday night (even though I clearly had work on Friday) at the Red Sox Game!!! It was my first of the season. Usually at my first game I am wearing 18 layers and freezing, not at this game. You can tell by the pictures I am sweating in the 90 degree weather!!!

And slightly more disgusting in this one...Oh well, maybe not the best photos but an amazing time :)

This morning I was in total wedding planning mode. I met with a great photographer, so now I have multiple that I like. I love the younger fun women, but I also have a slightly ridiculous, but slightly justified paranoia that whoever I choose will get pregnant and not be able to attend my wedding because she will be having the baby (okay, mostly psycho since that would be really bad luck that anyone would happen to be having a baby THAT particular day/week!).

After that I went on my FIRST dress shopping trip, woo! Here are some pictures of me in dresses. I can post them because I am positive I am not going to purchase either one. The first one makes my hips look HUGE (and this is not a problem I usually have because I have a pretty large waist). The second is more flattering but I don't like the lace very much.

Caroline and Tiff also joined the fun so we tried some bridesmaid dresses as well. This one is a contender:
It would be in pink though, not that peachy color. However, I'm not nearly as big of a fan of it in pictures so...probably not. Good first trip though.

And finally, in case you have not had enough pictures for the night. We went to a delicious restaurant in Hyannis Center tonight called Colombo's. Here is my delicious salmon dinner:
It had this delicious soy sauce vinegarette on the side. It was amazing. The only thing that was not amazing was that I waited all winter for the ice cream place next door to this restaurant to open because they have unbelievable soy soft serve that both my taste buds and my stomach LOVES. I was so excited about this that throughout my over 4 mile run today I kept saying to myself, "Run for ice cream! Run for ice cream!" and yet...they don't have the soy anymore :( They said not enough people were lactose intolerant. In fact, this is not true, tons of people are lactose intolerant but stupid lactate has allowed people to eat regular ice cream. BOO! Why is there no lactate for IBS? (just kidding I really don't want people who are lactose intolerant to suffer!). Anyway, I just ended up eating regular soft serve, so I feel kind of icky now but it's not the end of the world since everyone who reads this blog knows I clearly eat regular ice cream all of the time! Usually I feel kind of blah after but no excessive bloating so I figure it's worth it for my favorite food. But let me tell you, I used to feel perfect after that soy soft serve and I am very bummed about it being discontinued.

Quick Training Update: Did a 4.23 mile run today. Everything felt amazing except for my darling knee which hurt and hurts even more now that I am not running. I am going to call for physical therapy this week. I wasn't going to go but I think the pain is getting worse so I might as well see what they can do. I still find it so unbelievable that in March I could barely run for more then 3 minutes at a time and now I can do over 4 miles! I love that Couch to 5k Plan :)

Alright, early to bed for me tonight. I am exhausted!

Chinese Food and Ice Cream = Perfect Friday

I could not be any more happy that it is FRIDAY! This week seemed so long. I celebrated this lovely Friday with a quick drink with my co-workers after work and then a nice visit to our favorite Chinese Food restaurant with Eric. If you live in the Boston area, venture out to Newton, MA (almost Watertown) to go to a place that LOOKS like a hole in the wall, but I promise it has the best Chinese food ever: Chung Shin Yuan. Of course it is cheap too so you basically cannot go wrong. Apparently they do a ridiculous lunch buffet on the weekend but Eric and I have never been because there is always a line out the door. Eric has stated that if he could only eat one food for the rest of his life he would eat the egg rolls from this place.
I like them too but my stomach does not enjoy the beef or the deep fry so I just eat a tiny bit of the end of one when we go. I order the Chicken Lo Mein and it's SO good- not greasy at all just amazing. When I tell people how often Eric and I frequent this place, I have been questioned how we are not the fattest people alive. I swear the food here is not nearly as greasy and yucky as many other Chinese places and no MSG what-so-ever. Here is my meal:
Don't worry, I didn't eat all of that. We have some yummy leftovers that Eric will probably eat for breakfast tomorrow morning :) And to finish it off-
Just kidding :) My fortune was not nearly as fitting as this. However I saw it in someone's blog recently and it reminded me a lot of my life lately, always thinking about what I am going to blog about. Unfortunately I forget which blog I saw it in and when I googled it I found it somewhere else so I can't give the original person credit- but if it was you, thanks! My real dessert was, of course, ice cream!
It was a delicious coffee mug filled with Edy's Slow Churned Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I try to make myself feel better by eating the 1/2 the fat version. Probably would be better if I just didn't eat ice cream so often! But not as fun.
Now that I am done with my masters I am trying to catch up on all the pleasure reading I have not had a chance to do. Of course I should probably be wedding planning, but I'm still temporarily checked out from that so pleasure reading it is. I got 3 books out of the library today. I am going to start The Help first because it is a 2 week loan only. If I don't get into it pretty quickly I'll switch to one of the other books. Hopefully they will be nice, relatively-mindless pleasure reads!
I'm off to bed early tonight. I get to run in the morning (and by "get to" run I mean at least I don't have to bike or swim!) and then I'm going to watch my darling kindergarten kids play soccer. Even though they have driven me nuts all week I am still going to support them, what a nice teacher. Luckily they won't annoy me tomorrow because I will not be in charge of them. Plus, I'll get to see if they really score the 10 goals per game they all claim to!

Good Intentions

I'm not sure if it's the Irish in me, but I love potatoes. I love potato in every possible form, mashed, baked, french fries, potato chips etc. However, my all time favorite is definitely mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are the first thing I learned to cook and they are always what I am in charge of when we make dinner at my parents house. When I started having problems with my stomach, I had a slight dilemma with my mashed potatoes. Potatoes are 100 percent fine for my stomach, but the HUGE amount of butter I liked to add to help mash it all up, was not as good. That's when I began making Kelly's Famous Healthy Mashed Potatoes. Okay fine, they are ridiculously easy to make and I am talking them up, but I am quite proud of myself for finding a creative solution to this problem. I now pour warm chicken broth (just heat it up in the microwave) onto my potatoes before I mash them. This serves the same purpose as the milk and butter and allows the potatoes to whip up nicely. It adds some nice flavor too. I admit it's not QUITE the same as all that yummy butter, but especially if you are eating a meat with some flavor (such as chicken teriyaki) it's definitely okay! I've even got my family eating it this way and my mom claims it's better (I don't know about that, but definitely healthier!). Here is a picture of my wonderful creation.
Some day when you are feeling healthy, try it out. And then, like me you can ruin all your good intentions with some yummy Purple Cow frozen yogurt (black raspberry with chocolate and white chocolate chips) YUMMM! I was going to say I don't normally eat this much ice cream (since I just posted a picture two days ago) but that would probably be a lie :)
I hope everyone had a great weekend. Thanks for the info about the random number generator for my next giveaway, I will definitely do that next time :)

Perhaps I Should've Gone For a Half Marathon

I know that sounds a bit dramatic considering how much more difficult that would be than a Sprint Triathlon. However, I am finding that I absolutely suck at both biking and swimming. Running seems to be the only thing that I can manage to do. In the fortunate situation of the triathlon, I will probably even suck at that since I'll be so exhausted from the swimming and biking.
I biked to my parents house last night for dinner and on the way I decided a few things about biking.
1. I am the slowest biker ever.
2. I think I actually hurt my knee biking. I've done some research on why this may be the case and I've concluded that I might have my seat in the wrong spot. I may bring my bike to a bike shop to have them help me. Of course then they might tell me how much my bike sucks.
3. Being the slowest biker is not going to be helped by my mountain bike.
4. If somehow I am not in last place after the swimming portion, I definitely will be after the biking.
It was during this bike ride that I was questioning why I did not just train for a running race only. Yes, a half marathon would be really hard, but at least I would probably not finish last.

Then, this morning I woke up early to go swimming. Last Thursday I did not swim in the morning and then by the time I got out of work and tutoring, there was no more lap swim at the Y. Sunday's swim work out was really tough so I had to get up. I knew I was not going to swim the 35 minutes I was supposed to, so I decided to run on the treadmill first. Good thing I did because I barely made it 20 minutes in the pool. First of all, Lesson #1= do NOT do Level 3 of the shred and then swim the next day. I did about two strokes before I realized what a horrible idea that is. My arms were literally throbbing. I don't even think I made it through the 23 laps I've been trying to do every time. Oh well, hopefully Sunday will be better (and I will not do the shred of any kind on Saturday!). A few things I noticed about swimming:
#1- I am still trying to navigate lane etiquette. I always feel like I should ask people if I can join their lane. But at the same time, it is really not THEIR lane...I don't ask people if I can use the treadmill next to them. Is this the same? Probably not...
#2- Also on lane etiquette, are you supposed to just go on one side of the lane? Or circle swim? Or, is this something you are supposed to work out with the person when you ask them if you can be in their lane? I had actually never seen any other way of sharing besides circle swimming until last week when the woman I was sharing with just stayed on one side. I wondered why I had never seen this before. It makes a lot more sense than circle swimming because really one person does not take up the whole lane and this way you don't really have to wonder about passing people. Although, circle swimming is probably for more than 2 people?
#3- Chlorine. Look, I know the point of it- I do. However, I really do not enjoy the fact that I can still smell it on my hands now 13 hours after swimming, after SHOWERING and of course washing my hands probably at least six or seven times. Also it makes my hair and skin feel nasty. So while I can appreciate the point of it, I still hate it.

In better news, I still love running and I am so looking forward to my outside run on Saturday morning (if somehow it finally decides to not rain). I tried out my new sneakers today (I exchanged the other ones) and I love them. I literally broke a sweat at the store trying them so many times because I did not want to get ones I didn't like again. I was afraid I was bias because they have pink on them. But it turns out they are pink and amazingly comfortable, so perfect.
Also, because my legs were absolutely killing me, and I've done every aspect of the triathlon (biking, swimming and running) in the past 24 hours, I decided to treat myself to some frozen yogurt. There is a place in the center that I have been going to since I was probably 6 so I decided to take Eric there. It's called "Candy Castle" and it was pretty much my favorite place in the world as a child. I haven't been there in at least six or seven years so I decided to give their frozen yogurt a try. It turns out they now have (or maybe they always had...) soft serve frozen yogurt with mix ins so I got a yummy vanilla with Butterfinger mixed it. So basically a healthier version of my favorite at Coldstone Creamery. Speaking of which, Coldstone is also doing a mom gets an ice cream free thingy so if your mom likes Coldstone, check it out :) Here is my beautiful frozen yogurt:
Well it looks a little melted, but trust me it was delicious.
And last but not least I have to tell you guys about this awesome game I play with my darling kindergarten kids today. It's been raining all week in Boston so our outside time has been limited and stir crazy is not quite a strong enough phrase to describe my kids right now. I found this game on one of the Self Magazine blogs and turned it into a kids game. However, it is also used for adults who need some child-like motivation to guide their work outs. Basically, you grab a deck of cards and assign each suit to a different exercise, like this:
For adults you may want to do lunges, push ups, squats etc. Or use the kids ones :) Then I had the kids spread out throughout the classroom and each take a turn turning over a card. The child would say out loud what they got, "10 of hearts!" and the kids would then all do 10 jumping jacks. If they got a King of Spades, they'd all do 11 frog jumps. By the end my kids were exhausted and I was happy :) I could see myself getting bored with my work outs one day and playing this game as an adult. It could be fun! If you have children at home or work with them, I highly recommend this game for rainy days.
That's all for now.
Don't forget only one more day for the giveaway!!! If you want to win a No More Trouble Zones dvd, quick send me an e-mail! And even if you don't want to win, follow my blog anyways just for fun.

Fancy New Gear

Today was a crazy day at work because I got a new student in my class. She does not speak a word of English, which seems to be the general theme for my kindergarten class this year. I'm beginning to think I should just not talk, because 1/2 my class doesn't understand me and the other half doesn't listen anyways!
This weekend I did some shopping for training/racing gear. First, I had a recommendation for a triathlon book so I set out in search of this book. Lucky for me, the only place that had the book in the area was a bookstore in the center of the town I work. I knew this meant I would see someone I know, so I dragged Eric with me and headed to the bookstore. Fortunately I only ran into one kid that I know and he hid behind his mom while we talked to her haha. This is probably one of the least shy kids I know, but something about seeing a teacher in the wrong environment confuses even the most comfortable of kids. I wanted to get some frozen yogurt, but I saw some more families I knew outside of the store so I decided that was my cue that I didn't need any dessert. Here is the book I got:
I haven't read every word of it yet, but I have skimmed through and it is already answered a lot of my questions about what to wear, how to go from one sport to another, and what to do on the day before/day of the race itself. I am sure I am going to be referring back to this book a lot as the race gets closer.
Also, with all of the training that I am doing I decided I should really get myself a serious pair of running shoes. My sister recommended a place called Marathon Sports where they actually look at your foot shape, how you walk/run etc and then recommend a couple of different shoes. I decided to try it out since I clearly have no idea what I am doing when it comes to running shoes. I headed over to the Cambridge location on Sunday. I love Cambridge because there are all sorts of great restaurants and stores there, but there is absolutely no where to park. It took me forever to find a space. The store was crowded but I still got a good amount of attention from one of the guys who worked there. He told me that I do not overpronate (yay) and that I do not need a ton of extra support in a shoe (does this mean I can buy cheaper pairs guilt free?). I brought up my recent problems with my knee and past history of shin splints, so he recommended I try a shoe with a little more cushioning. He also said that I should go up a 1/2 size because my feet will swell when I run. I had never heard this before but I figured he probably knows what he is talking about. I ended up with these:

They are actually Asics, which is completely different for me because I am very faithful to the Saucony brand. However, the Saucony shoes the guy gave me were not as comfortable (possibly because they were a 1/2 a size bigger than I am used to!) so I decided to try something completely different. I'm planning to run on the treadmill (aka completely torture myself because it's going to be raining and I'm sure its better for my knee to have the cushion) tomorrow morning so I'll let you know how they go. I also had a small impulse buy at Marathon Sports (if you are wondering how I am affording all this new gear- it's my new tutoring job and my travel point earning credit card of course!).
This is going to hold my ipod on my arm so that I don't have to hold it in my hand anymore. For as long as I can remember I have had serious side aches while running and I have had all sorts of theories about why I get them. However, my latest (supported by both my mom and sister) is that I need to have my arms more relaxed while I am running and holding something doesn't really support that. So...here is the solution: The Nike Sport Armband!
I really love work out gear...probably more than I love working out. But it is certainly a good motivator :)

Finally, for all the ice cream lovers out there- I just found out that TCBY will be giving out free frozen yogurt to Moms on Sunday. So if you are a Mom, or have a Mom, or have some kids that you can borrow to pretend you are a mom (hmm, do you think any of my kindergartners would pose as my kids for the day? they call me mom all the time so it wouldn't so hard)- go to TCBY on Sunday!