This morning I had my first honeycrisp apple.  I have to admit, I was kind of disappointed.

I really love apples, and I liked this one too.  But after ready about these and how great they are on the blogosphere, and looking at the price that I paid for them, I was expecting an incredible apple.  And it was just…. fine.  So will I eat the rest of them?  Absolutely.  But will I buy them again?  Not unless they are the same price as the apples that I usually get, which is whatever kind is on sale.

That being said… I managed to eat two of them for breakfast.

The morning was uneventful.  I’m realizing that it is kind of sad I seem to say that a lot.  But I guess work is work, right?

Mid-morning, I had a cucumber sprinkled with olive oil and garlic salt.  Delicious and simple.  I’m not the biggest cucumber fan, but with the olive oil it had a great flavor and made a quick, healthy snack.

For lunch I had a turkey salad. My oldie but goodie.

In the afternoon, S called me a little bit worked up.  He found out that they were going to be having layoffs at his company sometime between today and Wednesday, so is really on edge.  My company recently went through a huge round of layoffs, so I understand his concern.  However, there is absolutely nothing he can do about it so I spent the afternoon and evening just trying to calm him down and convince him that no matter what happens, he is (and we are) going to be fine.  I don’t really think it helped at all, though.

Before the gym, I had a slice of angel food cake and some pistachios as a mid-afternoon snack.

Yesterday, I found the pistachios when I was rearranging stuff in my kitchen cabinets and I was so happy!  It was a great surprise.  I love pistachios!

I took a mid-afternoon break and went to the gym, where I did 30 minutes on the stair stepper.  I really don’t know what has been going on with me, but I have been feeling so tired lately.  I think that it must be a combination of still not being totally recovered from the marathon, still not catching up from the jet lag, and simply not getting enough sleep both on the trip and since I’ve been home.  But my workouts have felt really tough, even though they are actually less than what I used to do.  It’s really frustrating.  This weekend I am going to the Berkeley Marina to help my friend Jana run some of her 22 mile training run she has scheduled.  She is doing CIM on December 6th and is really going to rock.  But I haven’t run since the marathon and am feeling really nervous since I have had such a tough time with my workouts lately.  The good thing is that I can run as much or as little as I want (and I promise you, it will be nowhere near 22 miles) and I will get to see my friends.  I think I am going to try to take a short run for my workout tomorrow to see how I feel and hopefully settle my mind for this weekend.

After my gym trip, I came home and had my snacky of cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with freeze-dried tropical fruit.

I was still hungry, so I had a clif bar too.

I actually don’t think I was still hungry.  I think it was an emotional-eating snack…  but oh well.  Better a semi-healthy emotional eating snack in the middle of the day than a crazy emotional eating binge at night.

When S came home from work, there was more drama and concern about the layoffs.  I tried to be as supportive as possible, but it’s hard to sit and listen to someone fret about something that they have absolutely no control over.  Plus, it scared me probably almost as much as it scared him.

The good news is that the Steelers were on MNF.  I waited patiently all day before breaking out the jersey, and we watched the game before and during dinner.

Since we have gotten back from Switzerland, I have been working on expanding my menus and going out of my comfort zone when it comes to eating.  I have gotten so used to eating the same, “safe” foods for so long.  And now I want to get rid of those fear foods.  I want to eat the same thing that everybody else is eating when I go out, and not be scared about it.  So we decided that I will work on making one meal for the both of us – and we will eat the same thing.  Before, I made us each a different meal.

So for dinner tonight, I made… breakfast!  That is a huge comfort meal for me.  When I was younger, we used to have breakfast for dinner when my dad made dinner and it was always a special treat.  To this day, breakfast foods are my favorite (besides dessert…) so I love having breakfast for dinner.  I made breakfast sandwiches:

made of a whole wheat english muffin, a slice of american cheese, a scrambled egg and two slices of turkey bacon!

and potato pancakes:

It was a feast fit for a king.  Not low calorie, but it was worth it.  Plus, I mentally felt great because I made one dinner for both of us!

After my dinner digested for a little while, I had my basketball game.  I missed the last four games because of my trip, so was happy to get back!  My team kicked butt while I was on vacation, winning 3 out of 4 games, so we are definitely going to be in the playoffs this year.  And as a new team in the league, too!  Woo hoo!!!

I celebrated when I got home with the rest of my pumpkin ice cream.  Yes, out of the container.

RIP, pumpkin ice cream.  I don’t think I can, in good conscience, buy you anymore because you leave too quickly.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.

I finished off my night watching the end of the football game.  I had to go to my basketball game at the beginning of the fourth quarter, so DVR’d it for my viewing pleasure when I got home.  Steelers won, 28-10.  Yay!  6 and 2, baby.  Now I’m off to drag my exhausted butt to bed.

Before you sign off, check out these happenings in the blogosphere:

• Katie’s Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness.  Katie, you are an inspiration!
• A Nutty Giveaway!  Get in it to win it…
• Plus a Chocolate Covered giveaway!

G’night, ya’ll.