A Few Days Chilling (Literally) in New Jersey

After a long and bumpy flight from home to Teterboro, it was time to borrow a crew car to grab a bite to eat. Since the hotel was on the way, we stopped there, too, to drop off our bags.

As you can see, the crew car isn’t exactly a Beemer. But who can complain when a free car is available?!

I wish I would have thought to get a picture of the flag. It was sticking straight out from the wind. Yuck!

I’ve stayed at this nice Holiday Inn before with this job, when we were here last September, but I’ve stayed here countless times with my old job, too.

This is the lobby area. After getting my room, as high up as I could, I headed to the elevator to drop my bags in the room.

It’s a recently-renovated Holiday Inn and is certainly a nice place to call home for the next five nights. A comfy bed, a great work desk, and even a reading nook.

They’ve done a great job making guests feel at home. I love when a room has everything that I need and then some!

The view was fun. If I looked way to the left, I could even see a little of the Manhattan skyline.

But I couldn’t figure out this “pool.” It was next to a high school, but it wasn’t being chlorinated. In fact, the local ducks and geese had claimed it as their own! It didn’t really look human-friendly any more, if it ever was.

I wonder if the birds use the slide to get into the pool. I totally would.

While waiting for the elevator to take me back downstairs, I grabbed a shot out of the east side window. You can see the city in the distance, and Teterboro Airport hangars in the not-so-far distance.

I can’t wait to get over there to visit NYC! I love that place!

After getting rid of my luggage, it was time to meet El Capitan downstairs to run for a quick dinner. I hadn’t eaten since early that morning before our flight, so I was ready for some healthy grub!

I was dropped off here, much to my delight. I love Panera Bread. It is a lot like Paradise Bakery, but for some reason, we don’t have any in Phoenix. So It’s always a nice treat to eat here when visiting the east coast.

No one was behind me at first, so I took my time reading the menu. I loved that the calories were listed next to each item. It helped me to make a good decision for dinner tonight!

I got a sandwich and even splurged on potato chips, since I was way under my calories for the day.

Not eating all day really helped that, I’m sure.

After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to settle in for almost a week in this room.

Don’t be alarmed, but I brought a stash of food options! My trainer, Lindsey, has helped to me be prepared so that I always make good decisions with food. If I’m starving, I might not be very wise!

So I brought some food and snacks to enjoy while staying in Teterboro. What of it?

I had another reason for bringing some food, too. I couldn’t walk to a church near the hotel, but I also tried not to break the Sabbath any more than I had to! So I ate this food instead of going out to eat.

May I just recommend the Velveeta Shells and Cheese microwavable cups? Yummy! And only 180 calories?!

On Sunday, this was one of my meals. I had never tried these microwave meals from Healthy Choice, but I love their freezer options.

It was delicious, and I felt very lucky having a microwave in my room. I had requested one, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so relieved when my room actually had one.

This was nice and filling.

I was thinking that I would get to spend Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the city. But after checking the weather forecast, I knew that all three days wasn’t going to happen.

Monday was forecasted to be rainy, windy, snowy, and only in the mid-30s for temperatures.

If you do the Micah Math, that’s way too cold to spend outside all day wandering a city!

Isn’t the city pretty, though? I wish that I had more time over there, but I don’t want to freeze to death to make that happen. I’ll wait until Tuesday!

Monday morning meant a healthy breakfast from the microwave, once again. One of my food selections before coming had been things to eat for breakfast, since I knew that the hotel charged for breakfast and had no continental options.

I hate paying for breakfast!

Steel Cut Oatmeal is one of my favorite meals right now! So I was excited about this dish! It was good, but I’ve never been a fan of fruit in my oatmeal. It was very warming and filling, however, and I needed that for my walk to the gym!

That’s right…a gym. I lucked out by having a 24 Hour Fitness just half a mile from my hotel! I knew that their equipment would be much nicer than the hotel’s, so I headed outside to brave the windy cold.

I’m glad that I did. It felt great to spend some time on the elliptical, even far from home!

Since I was on-foot, I was at the mercy of local eateries for my meals. McDonald’s, though not a first (or even thirtieth) pick of mine, was right next to the hotel. And, luckily for me yet again, they had an entire healthy menu from which to choose.

For lunch, I had the grilled chicken sandwich with a side salad. The sandwich was delicious…

…especially after I scraped off the excess mayonnaise! I’m kind of a mayo snob like that. And it wasn’t worth the calories to keep it on!

The side salad was good, too, even though I didn’t put any dressing on it. It just tasted nice to have some fresh veggies!

It feels really great to make healthy decisions. It’s fun to see some results from it, too.

This particular McDonald’s was nice and had been renovated to reflect a young, hip atmosphere.

Which only meant that I no longer fit in here! I’m neither young or hip!

Later that night for dinner, I headed back to McDonald’s again for a healthy bite. After computing my calories for the day, I figured that I could get the Southwest Chicken Salad. It had roasted corn, chilies, tortilla strips, and black beans with grilled chicken on top of romaine lettuce.

After adding some Paul Newman and a squeeze of lime…I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner.

Apparently.

But tomorrow will be what I’m really waiting for! A whole day in New York City! I can’t wait!