**Disclaimer: Please be aware that this post contains content that some readers may find triggering. This is not intended to be dietary advice. Anything written here is not necessarily appropriate for the Enara program you are on or consistent with your particular goals.
We’re spending the Christmas/New Year holidays with my husband’s family in Chicago. My father-in-law and sister-in-law are both excellent cooks, so I’ve had the pleasure of staying out of the kitchen entirely. As it is for many other people, my holiday week is quite a bit more decadent than my life back in the Bay Area. Exercise mostly involves just chasing my toddler around and other activities that involve a good amount of walking.
Wednesday 12/25/2019: To start Christmas morning, my sister-in-law made gluten-free Belgian waffles, topped with berries, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for breakfast. My husband made some nice pour-over coffee with beans they brought back from a trip to Taiwan in November. For lunch, I had a smoked salmon and avocado sandwich and a cutie. For dinner, we had honey-baked ham, green beans, mushrooms and bamboo shoots, and sweet potato casserole. For dessert, I had a slice of no-bake key lime pie.
Thursday 12/26/2019: For breakfast, my father-in-law made us pancakes topped with fruit and shaved almonds. I had a latte made with almond milk and topped with a bit of vanilla powder. Lunch was my husband’s favorite pizza: deep dish from Lou Malnati’s. I had one slice with a side of roasted broccolini my FIL made at home. For dinner, we went out for hot pot in Naperville. I had mostly meat, tofu, and a good variety of vegetables.
Friday 12/27/2019: Breakfast this morning was yogurt, blueberries and a fried egg with black coffee. It’s been so nice this vacation to have good coffee every morning. Lunch was dim sum out with some family friends. For dinner, we had steak, king crab, shiitake mushrooms, and green beans. For dessert, I had a homemade lemon macaron made by a very talented friend back in the Bay Area that I carefully brought with me on the flight to Chicago.
Saturday 12/28/2019: Breakfast was simple: steel cut oats with milk and shaved almonds, along with black coffee. I had to work for a couple of hours in the morning while my husband and SIL took my daughter to a children’s museum nearby. I drank a lot of herbal tea while working. Lunch at home was potato leek soup my SIL made. I took a nap with my daughter when they got back, which was glorious. Dinner was roasted duck, salmon, zucchini, and quinoa my FIL made. My SIL baked chocolate chip cookies that we had for dessert.
Sunday 12/29/2019: I had barley with a tsp of honey, 1 egg, and some blueberries for breakfast, then we went to downtown Chicago. We walked around the city, then had lunch at Beatrix, where I had a quinoa mushroom burger and a latte. I’m not a big fan of veggie burgers, but the quinoa mushroom burger was excellent and was highly recommended by my SIL. For dinner, we ordered sushi. I had two pieces of rainbow roll, half an asparagus hand roll, edamame, and a side of Chinese broccoli.
Monday 12/30/2019: Breakfast was the same as yesterday. I had barley with a tsp of honey, 1 egg, blueberries and black coffee. My in-laws live right next to a Chik-Fil-A, so for lunch I had a Deluxe Chicken Sandwich with one cutie. Before dinner, we went to Morton Arboretum’s light show Illumination and walked around for 1.5 hours. I was probably holding my 26-pound toddler for half of it, so I consider that a combination of cardio and strength training. Dinner at home was delicious beef short rib cooked with carrots, celery, onions, a side of barley and a side of Shanghai bok choy. With it, I had a glass of cabernet sauvignon.
Tuesday 12/31/2019: For breakfast, I had barley with a tsp of honey again, 1 cutie, 10 macadamia nuts and an almond latte. For lunch, I had smoked salmon, barley and broccolini. We ran around and played in the snow for maybe an hour total and that was my exercise. For dinner we had another deep dish pizza, this time from Giordano’s (toppings: sausage, pepperoni, green pepper and mushrooms), and a side of asparagus. I had a homemade raspberry chocolate macaron for dessert. We opened a bottle of champagne around 9 PM, and I had one glass.
Happy new year!
