It’s the pits May 11, 2009

As in, the bottomless pit that was my stomach today. 

I woke up super tired, with allergies to blame I think.  I should have known I was in for it in the hunger department because of that…

Chris, our other co-tenants, and I did a walkthrough on the new office suite for electrical, lighting, paint, and some other important details, and it took an hour and a half!  Holy shit!  I was hungry before we even left the house, and should’ve just eaten my oats on the drive in to work. 

Finally I got some satisfaction around 10am.  This is the standard mixxxx of steel cut oats, a little 7 grain (almost done!), raisins, cinnamon, almond milk, water, soy protein powder, and a new addition of honey millet granola from Whole Foods. 

When Chris wanted to eat around noon I didn’t object, in fact I was feeling a twinge of hunger already.  I had leftover pizza from last night, and a big carrot.  The pizza was whole wheat crust, steamed broccoli and corn, red bell pepp, tomato, olives, tomato sauce, a sprinkling of nutritional yeast, Italian herbs, and a little bit of each Drunken Goat cheese and smoked gouda.  I ate it cold and it was tasty!  Chris ate my strawbs, so just forget those are in the pic :(

The apples came in handy like an hour later when my stomach grumbled.  “Sheesh, what is going on in there?” I kept thinking.  I forgot about the allergies.  Do any of you get that same, nagging symptom?

Then again around 3pm I felt that nagging feeling again and ate this yummy snack:

That hit the spot, and I wasn’t hungry again for like 3 hours.  Guess I just needed a bit of fat, fiber, and protein together for satiety.

(Fizzity fiz-uck I’m getting hungry again now. All this damn foodie thought and the pics are making me hungry!)

Surprise, surprise, dinner was a Mexi venture to Si Senor.  It seems that I will have to stick with burritos, and maybe salads, to avoid meat or a cheesy mess.  I had half a veggie burrito filled with black beans (OMG, did she say bean?!?! She doesn’t eat beans!), rice, carrot, celery, onion, and maybe something else.  It was topped with lettuce and a yummy red sauce; I stole Chris’ avocados, too :)  I also ate a ton of chips and salsa, and drank a huge Diet Coke.  I wasn’t even that full when I left, but I was satisfied, caffeinated, and ready for my workout with Andrea!

Around 8 we started busting out some chest, back, and biceps, then ended with a foam rolling session and some abs.  I didn’t do much for abs, but rather learned the art of moaning while rolling on a foam tube.  Felt damn painful at times, but like a good pain.  (Think strong, deep massage.) 

After groaning on the roller for 10 minutes, it was cardio time.  The gym was fiz-ull up, so our plan to do cardio together was fouled up by the lack of free machines in working order   The Drizz opted out, and I went for a stair mill.  But first, she gave me this!

Homemade seitan!  It looked like a roll of sausage, and smelled like yummy onion and other savory goodness.  I hope to try it tomorrow for lunch or a snack

Once home I was in the mood for some crack, and strawberries, so I had a small bowl of honey millet granola with strawbs and almond milk.  MMMMMM!  The granola is really crunchy (like, teeth beware!), and coupled with the strawbs it was great.  The millet adds a sesame-like flavor, and lots of crunch.

But that wasn’t enough, you see, and I went back to the kitchen for the glorious fatty protein that is peanut butter, real peanut butter.  Lily wanted in on the action…she was jealous watching me lick the knife

With that I move on to bed, safely separating the pit from the kitchen.  You may be saying, “if she’s hungry why doesn’t she just eat?” but this ain’t really justified hunger, it’s fueled by some crazy reaction my body has to allergens.  The last week has sucked allergy-wise, so perhaps this is the year to pursue more aggressive, targeted action (read: prescription drugs).  Do any of you take Rx allergy meds?  If so, what symptoms/allergens/meds combo are you lucky enough to have?

The Seinfeld “shrinkage” episode was just on, and now the John Voight Le Baron episode is on.  Funny stuff!  Gotta love the many sayings and -isms that came from that show!

Blah blah blah May 8, 2009

I woke up sooooooooooo tired this morning, and all I wanted was to stay in bed.  But, no, of course this is the real world and I had to get up and go to work. 

I enjoyed some coffee at home, then nuked the oats/7-grain once at work.  I’m almost out of the 7-grain, and excited to get back to just steel cut oats!

When Chris ate lunch around 11:30 I wasn’t hungry, and then all of a sudden at 2:30 I realized I never ate!  I wasn’t hungry still, but was feeling rather slow from staring at the computer all morning and doing some heavy lifting with my brain.  I did end up adjusting my lunch to be meat free.  I removed the turkey from my sando and added in some yellow bell pepp, and kept the usual pickle, romaine, and avocado.  I also ate all of the grapes and half the apple.

For some reason I wasn’t feeling so hot after this, but not really sick.  Allergies?  Annoying. 

I plowed on in my work, and we cut outta there around 4:30.  After swinging by home and grabbing the LB, we headed off to Fajitas for dinner where we sat outside   Lily wanted to roar for you in front of the camera.

Looking at the menu all I kept seeing was meat and cheese, cheese, or meat…until I figured I could get a burrito and just filler up with veggies!  I told Pedro to have the chef throw in any veggie he had, pass on the cheese, and this is what I got:

I shoulda taken a pic of the inside, ’cause it was good!  Bell pepp, onion, mushroom (yes, I ate mushroom, Queen of Fungus Hating that I am), tomato wrapped in a flour tortilla and smothered in enchilada sauce.  There was also rice and some fajita sauce mixed in there, and it was all quite a savory flavor combo.  I was full enough after eating only half, so I saved the other half for lunch tomorrow

The postre was perfect…1/2 of La Casa to satisfy my sweet tooth.  I love these little glasses, too.

All day I figured I’d go to the gym tonight, but when I got home I was toying with the notion of skipping it because my ass was dragging.  So I just got dressed and left to make sure I wouldn’t boge out.  Today was chest, back, biceps, and abs, followed with a 45 minute climb on the mill.

Okay, this seems SO fucked up to me… The Aleve commercial with the badminton lady who says her doctor told her she’s overusing her knees, and that wasn’t what she wanted to hear, so she takes Aleve to get rid of the pain so she can still play.  Um, does she have a death wish for her knees?  (Like I should talk though, cause I’ve stayed on the mill plenty of times when the knees weren’t feelin’ perfect.)  All Aleve commercials seem like this to me–people taking pain meds so they can avoid listening to their bodies and keep doing what they want.  Seems irresponsible to promote such things.

I wasn’t particularly hungry when I got home, but by the time I prepped my oats and coffee for the a.m. the tum was waking up.  I opted to have a 1/4 apple, Better’N'PB, and a few pieces of chocolate.  This didn’t quite hit the spot, but I think that’s cause the allergy hunger/funky tum is messing with me.

So, after I spilled my beans to you about vegetarianism/reduced impact diet, today felt kinda weird.  I still didn’t talk with Chris about it fully, but we had a quick exchange at dinner that was something like this: “You need the menu?” ‘Yeah, I want to try something new, without meat.’ “Are you getting all weird on me?” ‘Yeah, a little I want to reduce my impact on the environment by changing my diet.’ “Okay, just don’t get too crazy!  I’ll just have to make up for you with my meat consumption I guess “  ‘And I’ll counteract with not eating meat.’  “Okay.” 

Not exactly a philosphical discussion or emotional baring, but I guess that’s okay for now.  Chris loves meat and I like it, and I don’t have hopes of weaning him off of it any time soon.  He kept saying “Blech, just vegetables?” in a half serious/half joking manner.  It’ll be an uphill battle fo’ sho’!  I’ll have to be sly about inserting healthful things into his diet to see if he notices

I’m heading to bed so I can get up early and do some cardio, then hit the Oregon City Farmer’s Market.  I hope it is a delight of sights, smells, and colors.  I leave you with a timeless quote I just heard:

“You’re going to love my nuts”–Vince, The Slap Chop/ShamWow dude

Naughty and nice April 30, 2009

Wednesday felt like Thursday, and today sure felt like Friday…but it ain’t…poo.

I think this is from Tuesday night–I had a few grapes after my last snack listed on the post.  That’s a curious and blurry Lily Bird checkin’ em out.

ThursdayWednesday morning I ate my oats in the car.  After the day of sweet oats with the nanner these weren’t quite as satisfying.  Surprised the hell out of me! 

Lunch was the typical sando combo, carrot, and 1/2 an apple.  There is a pair of ducks wandering through my office building campus looking for a place to nest, and just after we ate they walked on by Chris’ office!  So cute!

Snacky poo of TLC 7 grain crackers (about half of these)…

And then the naughty evening began!  Chris and I headed to Old Market Pub with our friend Brett, and out came the booze and grease fest.  We started with some beer battered fries, and I had a bourbon & Diet Coke.

Next the balls came out!  Falafel sandwich with chips (didn’t eat them b/c I’d already horfed down many fries).  Not pictured is the incredibly tasty and naughtytiny slice of pepperoni and canadian bacon pizza I had (!).  Wow, that was good.  And I was overly full, regretting eating everything but still sitting there thinking about eating more.  Insanity!

After this nosh fest we headed out for a flesh fest at a local gentlemen’s club–The Acropolis.  While sitting at the rack I spied the Mike & Ike’s candy vending machine, and after awhile couldn’t resist any longer.   I had a few handfuls, loving every sugary sweet moment.  I have a feeling partaking in my favorite past time influenced that move.   ;)

And that ain’t all, folks!  After more of my favorite past time I ate a few snacks at home:  A Kashi TLC Chewy Cherry Dark Chocolate Bar, and a spoon of PB.  Yowza!  I ate those at like 1am and went straight to bed.  What a naughty and fun evening!

Friday Thursday

After going to bed late, we woke up late as well.  Since we had a lunch date in the near future I decided to forego the oats.  Boo!  I love starting the day with my hot bowl of yumminess. 

Lunch was at The Stockpot over a business meeting, and consisted of fricasseed chicken breast over a multi-grain rice bed with sauteed shredded carrots and sauteed greenbeans. I also had half of a soft, fluffy roll.  I felt rather guilty eating out again after last night’s food craziness, but I ate all the veggies and stopped before I was full.  I ate too fast, though   I hate that.

My tummy was rumbling again a few hours later, and after toiling over what to eat I settled on a two-faceted attack on the hunger:  ripe nanner and Kashi TLC Crunchy Pumpkin Spice Flax granola bar.  I liked the granola bar, and am glad it wasn’t overly spicy.  Sometimes spicy equates into a noxious amount of nutmeg or clove…

And where could we possibly head for dinner?  None other than Eastside Maria, aka Fajitas.  Chris and I split Carnitas de Pollo, which I highly recommend if you like chicken fajitas but don’t want all that steam and extra cost.  It was really good and I found myself eating a bit too much   Damn, I gotta stop the over-eating!

After digesting a bit I suited up and headed out to the gym.  Where I only did cardio.  Again.  Forty five minutes on the mill while reading People Magazine went pretty quick!  I also stretched and did some abs afterward, so I guess it wasn’t just cardio after all

I had flavor fantasies of eating pumpkin flax granola once home and cleaned up, so in went 1/2 a cup of light peach yogurt, and 1/2 a cup of the crack granola. I think I would have preferred eating the granola with almond milk instead, or just eating the yogurt separately. 

My salty tooth kicked in afterward, and I probably should have just had a bunch of water, but I ate a few Genisoy Crisps.  That hit the spot. 

So, that’s what’s up in my neck of the woods lately.  What’s goin’ down in your town?