Saucin’ it up in the snow December 22, 2008

Wow, I didn’t realize the snow would persist into today as much as it did.  We now have over a foot of snow in all places outside, up to 2 in some areas.  Crazy!  It was really pretty this morning to wake up to the additional snow and quiet.  Remember that table from yesterday, it only had like a foot of snow on it, and now it is closer to 2 (see photo below)!

Chris started illin’ during the night, and was not feeling so hot this morning   I took care of the LB, made some coffee, and Chris attempted to go back to bed, but he couldn’t get comfortable so he got up. Flu? Major tooth infection (seriously)? We’re not sure.  He’s been feeling pain in his mouth for a few days and I fear he has an abscessed tooth.  I told him to call the dentist, but of course he didn’t.  Men. 

I nuked my oats, and decided to add applesauce for shits and giggles.  It was good!  I liked the additional flavor it added, especially with the cinnamon.  The total package consisted of: steel cut oats, unsweetened almond milk, water, raisins, slivered almonds, unsweetened applesauce, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

 

Somehow I didn’t end up eating until 10 I think…not sure how that happened.  Time flew this morning.  I made Chris lunch around 11, farted around on the computer, cleaned out the fridge, and slowly went stir crazy.  Around 1 I decided I was hungry enough to eat lunch.  I wasn’t sure what to eat, but as I looked around I saw my leftovers from last night.  I decided to sauce them up by adding some cottage cheese and chili flakes.  Ohhhhhh yeahhhhh.  The cottage cheese was a nice protein addition that blended in well. 

Chris passed out and I decided to walk to the store, which is 4/5 of a mile away.  With the snow still coming down heavily, and mixed forecasts not much above freezing the next several days, I figured I might as well get some more food for us since I won’t be driving anywhere soon.  Lily is almost out of her food, too!

I bundled up, grabbed my backpack, and set out hoping for a pretty walk.  Honestly, the area I live in is somewhat ugly, so the snow is a welcomed presence that beautifies the trailer parks up the street, the semi-run down houses, and the sparse industrial look of the rest of it.  This is what I encountered along my way to and fro:

 Icicles abound on my gutters!

 Wow, lots of snow covering those cars.

 Pretty trees over the sidewalk.

Fred Meyer was very busy, and the bread and meat departments were majorly lacking.  And, they stocked sliced raw almonds in the bin for blanched slivered almonds!!!!!  What is a girl to do?  I got the sliced almonds On my way back it was a more difficult walk, as the plow had gone by and totally buried the sidewalk in even more snow.  I was haulin’ a bigger quantity of shit than anticipated in my backpack and shopper bag, and I got nice and sweaty.  Hey, at least I got a workout out of the whole thing, right?

A snack was in order, so I sliced up a Fuji and mixed some lf and ff cottage cheese.  Why mix, you ask?  The 2% seems decadent, and the 0% a little lacking, but together they’re perfect   I also had the Diet Pepsi that I grabbed on an impulse while in line at the store.  Mmmm…I’ve been wanting DC or DP lately.

I had only 1/2 the apple and 1/2 the DP, saving the rest for later.  Here’s a pic I got just before the sun went down.

 Check out the table’s snow depth!

Chris was still sleeping, and I putzed around here until about 5:30 when I realized I was really hungry.  I didn’t want to wake Chris as he slept on the couch in the family room, but I could not resist the urge to microwave a riblet  

Dinner was nice: Flatout with the riblet and some spinach; spinach salad with a wedge of sliced Fuji, sliced almonds, balsamic, olive oil, S&P.  Tas-tay.

Chris finally woke up around 6:30, and thankfully didn’t feel any worse.  Still tired, but hungry enough to eat some soup.  Gotta take care of my baby, ya know?

We watched some Law & Order, and then Animal House.  Haven’t seen that in ages, and it was great.  I had a little snack-a-roo near the end:  the rest of my Fuji, a wedge of LCL, and a few TJ’s cinnamon flatbread pieces.

Now it’s nearly 11 and I’m really cold!  I think I’ll take the LB out one more time and then hit the hay.

Thanks to those of you who commented on yesterday’s post.  I feel better reading about your experiences, and receiving your encouraging words.  I wish Erin was here to help me kick ass during workouts like 4 years ago!  Love ya, girl!

Take care, and keep it saucy

Icy madness, and is wine killing my diet?! December 21, 2008

The freezing rain started yesterday evening, and ended up leaving about a 1/2 in coat on all of our beautiful snow   Boo!  It is hard to walk in, and I fear that Lily will cut her feet on the shards of ice if we let her walk all over in it.  Chris and I cleared off an area for Lily, and you can tell she is sad she doesn’t have the run of the yard today.  She enjoyed trying to tunnel under the ice, though! And she chewed on the end of an ice coated branch for a second.  (She’s barking in her sleep now! So cute )

When I woke up my neck was markedly better–yay!–but still a bit messed up.  After clearing the ice I had a bowl of Peace cereal with almond milk and raisins, and a few cups of coffee with sf Coffeemate Vanilla creamer.

My tum was not a happy camper this morning. I had a bad sinus headache that persisted til mid day; perhaps that was part of the problem.

There were tons of birds today, especially since Chris was kind enough to put out fresh water for them to drink.  There were tons of robins and juncos, some towhees and house sparrows, and a few house finches. Fun!

Mid-day brought hunger later on than expected, and the things that looked good to me created a snacky lunch of a Fuji apple, lf/ff cottage cheese, and Stacy’s Pita Chips.  Nom nom…the multi-textural experience was quite pleasing.

 

Eventually a mid afternoon snack was in order, so I had a Fuji sprinkled with a little cinnamon (why, oh why, have I not thought of this before?!), some yogurt with a few almonds and cinnamon, and a few TJ’s cinnamon flatbread pcs.  ‘Twas a cinnamon experience I greatly enjoyed You must try the apple with cinnamon.

I was totally sad that we couldn’t go walking in the snow, and I ended up watching some TV, blogging, emailing, and reading a bit today instead.  We had a few inches more of fresh snow late this afternoon, but nothing can make all that damn ice go away.  We haven’t lost our power yet, so I wait with baited breath and flashlights for that to happen. 

Dinner was inspired by a read of my favorite cooking magazine, Gourmet:

If I had ground beef I probably would have attempted a meatball!  I opted for an easy marinara sauce:  sauteed onions, one can of Italian tomatoes, extra garlic, herbs, and some chili flakes.  I had this over whole wheat penne, and it was quite good.  I added too much pasta, tho–I had hoped to eat the whole batch of tomato sauce with just a little pasta, but mis judged when adding it in.  Oh well.  I sprinkled some oh-so-fabu canned parmesan on top.  I know, I know, but at least it is real cheese with nothing added but a few natural preservatives.

Afterward Chris and I decided to have wine, specifically a 2002 Gago red (de Espana).  I had some, walked Lily here and there, and finally had a snack a few hours later.  This was a conundrum at first–I was hoping for peanut butter, but that would have killed my wine palate for sure, and same goes for the creamy LCL I had listed as second.  Hm.  So, I went for a few white cheddar rice cakes.  Hit the spot, and low-cal.  Gotta love it.

Here’s where I had a mini lightbulb moment about wine calories and me not losing much weight.  “Could it be? Am I killing my diet by having a few glasses of wine a few times per week?!  No, say it isn’t so!”  I guess each 4 oz. glass has about 100 calories.  Damn.   So we opened our 2nd bottle of wine

The last few days I’ve been rather down at times, and mostly about not seeing much progress on the weight loss front.  I do see more definition in my arms & shoulders, a reduction in cellulite (I think), my legs may be a little smaller, Chris sees a difference, and I know I’m making progress, but it just seems so small.  I need to do more intense weight training, and keep up the cardio, and perhaps then I’ll lose the 1lb/week I’m hoping for.  I really hope to go to Mexico in March and not have an embarassing body again this year.  I’m heavier than I was last year, so at least I’d like to be down 10lbs by then.  I’m trying to eat around 1500 calories per day in the hopes that most days I run a 500 calorie deficit to attempt to lose the 1lb per week.  I know that if I’m building muscle at the same time the weight loss may not be there, but, c’mon, I’ve been busting my ass and eating well for what feels like a decently good amount of time now, and I want to see my cellulite lessened more and my roll-of-shit-in-the-middle be reduced.  Hmmmph.  Okay, I’m done ranting for now.

Off I go to finish my first (and only) glass of this shiraz. 

For those of you that have had a goal of losing weight–de-lurk if you would and tell me what your weight loss experience/timing has been.  Am I eating too much bad stuff?  Am I eating too many calories?  Not enough working out?  What the fuck is up with me?  I appreciate your comments in advance.

Vrooooom, vrooooom…eat my dust red liver lips December 10, 2008

I’m like a kid in a candy store today with the loaner car I got from the BMW dealership while my car is being serviced:  a new 335i sedan with ~4k miles on it.  So that’s what like 300 bhp feel like?  It goes 0-60 in 5 seconds.  Wish I had the dough to buy this car!  Seriously, I like to drive cars with guts and be aggressive with my shifting and cornering   My nearly 9 yr old 323i just doesn’t cut it in those depts. most days.  Anyone else wish they drove at Le Mans in a rockin’ car??  Or the Autobahn!?!

Moving on, I’d have to say I’m in Andrea’s boat today–it’s only Tuesday and it feels like Thursday.  Let’s get it over with already.  Except for the car thing–can I drive it more, please?!  (Yes, I’m obsessed.)

My day started well, and I had half of an apple before leaving the house (no pic); I knew I wouldn’t get to eat for awhile and was already hungry.  I did a bit of extra running around to drop off Chris, Lily, and my car, but I got to the office by 9:30 and had my oats.  Today I added a little brown sugar to the steel cut oats, almond milk, slivered almonds, raisins, cinnamon, and pinch of salt.  The sweetness was nice, but not too strong. 

The morning was soooooo slooooooow.  Around 11:30 I was ready for lunch.  My same old (boring yet?) wrap: low fat tortilla, 1/2 wedge LCL, turkey, spinach, broc slaw.  I ate a little bit of each side:  ff/lf cottage cheese mix, Stacy’s pita chips, and apple pieces.  Mmmmm.

Around 2 I headed to Freddy’s to pick up some allergy stuff for my mom and drop it by her place, as she was feeling icky today and ran out of med.  She had just baked a pie, and I was on my way to the dentist, so I ended up swinging back by her house afterward to eat a piece!  It is called Razzleberry by Marie Calendar, I think. 

I headed back to work with Lily in tow (shh, don’t tell the car place I had her in the car   I did have the seat cover, at least), worked for about an hour, and had the rest of the cottage cheese that I made Chris leave for me

We left around 6 and stopped by my grandma’s house to pick up some Christmas tree ornaments on the way to dinner at Si Senor (aka Westside Maria).  My grandma stopped getting a tree years ago and wanted to get rid of the rest of the ornaments she had.  They are all really pretty, and some are really old.  I feel special that she gave them to me rather than giving them away or chucking them (not beyond her to do that with sentimental items…).  I’ll have to photograph some of them tomorrow if I have time to add them to the tree.

On to dinner–Chris and I split the Si Senor special:  charcoal grilled steak and chicken, grilled mushrooms in a butter sauce (ew, hate fungus; Chris loves this dish, tho), rice, avocado, and a little slaw of some sort.  Our fave waiter, Javier, also hooked us up with some roasted jalapenos.  Ay, muy calor!  Oh, and we had homemade flour tortillas that are the best ever! 

I ate one tortilla, maybe 1/2 of the chicken, some steak, rice, two slices of avocado, and one of the jalapenos.  I also had a Diet Coke since I knew I was going to work out and didn’t want any alcohol.

I drove like a frickin’ banshee on the way home (took the back way for more windy roads and opportunity to rocket away from full stops).  Lily hung in there, and thankfully she does not get car sick or we would have been in some trouble!

After we got home I changed and left for the gym.  I did a good round of legs, and hit up back, biceps, chest, triceps, shoulders, and abs with 1-2 exercises each.  I totally feel like I haven’t been hitting the weights enough, so I figured I should at least moderately work all major muscle groups tonight.  The gym was crowded, but not too bad.  I was able to superset a lot of stuff. 

Only thing that annoyed me was a chick who was totally hung up on herself, and who was pretty bold about it.  She did split stretches on the mats for like 20 minutes (in teeeeeeny shorts, no less–peekaboo!), then proceeded to use free weights, leave them strewn all over the floor, and at the same time had her shit on 2 benches for like 20 minutes while she was elsewhere.  Hm.  She was also treating her friend like her servant: “get me more water” “where’s my towel?” I heard her chatting with some guys (could hear her over my music) and the only words coming out of her mouth were about the large amount of weight she does on various exercises, and that she’s strong for her size.  Grrrreeeat.  Excuse me while I curb my desire hurl on you.  (aren’t I chipper?)

I hauled ass home (LOVE the sport shifter and paddle shifters on the steering wheel!  Never had the paddles before and they are FUN), did some cleaning and lunch prep for tomorrow, and here I am now blogging at midnight!  Yipes!  Where’d the last two hours go?!  I had a snack while doing the lunch prep:  Dannon Light & Fit Vanilla mixed with a big spoon of pumpkin, some cinnamon, and some slivered almonds.  Mmm…nice combo.

I also had a few spoons of ff cottage cheese around 11:45, as hunger bowled me over after I started writing this.

I’m not heading into work early, thankfully, but would like to watch some TV and hit the hay.  What’s the weather like where you are?  It is supposed to get colder and snow here this weekend!  This had better not foil my breakfast plans with the ladies on Saturday, dammit!!  SO looking forward to that