Festival Friday and a Tough Bike Ride

It has been a busy couple of days, so today covers Friday and today.

Friday

My husband packed my breakfast and lunch for me on Thursday night for Friday because I didn't get home until super late.

For breakfast I had 1/2 cup oatmeal, banana, strawberries, and pb granola.

I went to the gym at lunch for a Pilates class. I was the only student that showed up so I had a one on one. It was okay (not as good as my Pilates class Monday and Wednesday's nights). Although I was a little upset that the teacher only went for 35 minutes when the class should have been 45 minutes.

After Pilates I had lunch back at the office. My husband had packed me a nice salad and some left over Tofu Vegetable Fried Rice. I put the warmed rice on top of the lettuce.

I used a spray dressing Ken's Asian Vinaigrette that added a nice flavor and helped moisten the rice that was a little dry even though I had added water to it before warming it in the microwave.

Later in the afternoon I had some watermelon (thanks to my husband for cutting it up).

Around 3pm I had a meeting at Starbucks. I had a Mocha Frappuccino Light.

I worked until a little after 6pm and decided to have something quick for dinner on the way home, because my husband and I were working a game booth at our church's festival. We chose Qdoba Mexican Grill. I decided to have three tacos with black beans, rice, salsa, guacamole and lettuce. The nutritional calculator on Qdoba's website calculated three of these to be 470 calories. I also had a few chips.

After we got home from working at the festival at around 11:15pm, I carbo-loaded and didn't take a picture but had a little dry cereal, pretzels, baked tostitos...this was because I had planned a 60+ mile bike ride in the early morning and wanted to get some extra carbs. My problem is eating so close to bedtime really messes with my stomach.

Saturday

I woke up around 7am and was not hungry at all because of my before bed carbs. But we had to leave right away to get to the meeting point for the bike ride. I ate a Cookies and Cream Luna bar (sorry no picture). If it hadn't been for all my before bed carbs, this would not be a good breakfast before an intense ride. I also packed into my jersey the following snacks for me and my husband:

In the end I only ate one pack of the Luna moons (which I enjoy, but only eat them when biking or running). They are a replacement for any type of gel pack. They are super sweet because it is a lot of sugar to help you get through an endurance event. After the ride I had the cherry larabar.

It turned out my husband and I only rode 28 miles instead of 60 miles because we went to meet a group of cyclist for a ride I found on These men all knew each other and are part of a bike club, so they bike together all of the time. While my husband could have kept up, I was holding the group back, so we had to drop out. My heart rate monitor measured that I burned 1100 calories for the 28 miles. I felt so disappointed that I couldn't keep up with these men!

For lunch we made a stop at Whole Foods for their salad and hot food bar. I couldn't get my picture off my phone. After placing lettuce in the bottom I added a spoonful of a large variety of the vegetarian foods! It was so wonderful, and just what I needed after a rough ride. Here is what the food bar looks like:

When I got home I had a half of a whole foods vegan cookie.

For dinner we went out to a french restaurant. It was called Ma Provence. It was a small restaurant owned and managed by a Frenchman. I had a drink before dinner. It was a kir royal. I love champagne cocktails.

While there wasn't anything vegetarian on the menu, the chef made me a special dish because my husband had called ahead to make reservations and told them I was a vegetarian. They made this stack of grilled vegetables. It was very flavorful. I think the mushrooms were shitake, although he had said they were portobello, they were smaller and thinner than portobello. He also included green beans, squash, and eggplant.

On the side I had some saffron rice which was a little bland. I ate all of the vegetables but not all of the rice.

I had two small pieces of the olive bread with an olive spread.

After dinner and walking around, we went to get gelato. I love gelato and there are only a couple places in Pittsburgh I have found that serve it. We went to Mulberry Street Creamery. I had the peanut butter smootie flavor and some monkey business (banana with peanut butter cup and fudge swirl). I love Gelato not only because of its smooth flavor, but also its smaller portions and small spoon.

Well it's getting late. Be back tomorrow night!!