How did I…. December 1, 2009

Make it through the whole month of November and only post once?!  I suck!!  Chris and I moved on Nov. 7, and life has been a blur since then.  Where has the time gone?  I’m totally reeling that today is December 1st. 

You’ll have to bear with me… I don’t have my camera cord at work, nor can I plug the card into the CPU, so all you get it text, people!  I’ve taken some great pics of food here and there, but for the most part I haven’t eaten well and haven’t exercised in like forever.  I’m having some issues with body image b/c of how the bod is looking these days, and the fact that I now have like 10 large mirrors around the house.  Handy for getting dressed, not handy for freaky critical ladies like me to evaluate the bod!

On a great note, Chris, Lily, and I love the new house   Our move sucked b/c of the torrential rain that day, but the process went just fine (and we managed to avoid killing each other )  We hosted Thanksgiving at our house, and when all was said and done we were quite proud to invite our families into our home and serve them a wonderful holiday meal.  I was in charge of the following dishes:

• turkey
• mushroom dressing (vegan)
• mushroom gravy (vegan)
• mashed potatoes (vegetarian)
• root vegetable gratin (vegetarian)
• green bean casserole (vegetarian)
• pumpkin pie

Leading up to Thanksgiving I was torn over whether or not to eat turkey/non-veg items.  Poultry is my veg weakness it seems, and that bird was talking to me all afternoon while I roasted it.   I had a small piece of white meat, but otherwise my meal was vegetarian.  I should have just made mashed or roasted sweet potatoes, as my gratin just wasn’t quite right.  Okay, but odd–garlic and nutmeg in the same dish?  Okay, Gourmet, I trusted you but am not convinced. 

I was such a proud little domestic goddess in the week leading up to Thanksgiving.  I planned the menu meticulously, created a Turkey Day Timeline for prep and cooking, and then went and got the flu   Gah!  Thankfully I had picked up the turkey the Friday before T-Day, but I was illin’ when I intended to do my fresh food shopping on Tuesday.  By the time I got to the store Wednesday there were no green beans, no Brussels sprouts, hardly any parsnips, no white, cremini, or dried porcini mushrooms, and like 10 sweet potatoes to choose from.  Gah!  I ended up nixing my Brussels sprout dish (boo!!), went with frozen green beans, subbed in mini mushrooms and mixed dried, and all turned out okay. 

After Thanksgiving Chris and I enjoyed a nice relaxing weekend at home.  Our new neighborhood has lots of walking paths, and butts up to two schools.  We take Lily for walks, and play ball with her at the school, and so far she’s loving the new neighborhood, too   I wish it weren’t getting dark so early so we could walk more after work…summer, where did you go!?!

It has been so beautiful here in Portland this fall–lots of sun, and not much rain (but for that week we moved!!).  The tree outside my office has lost its leaves, so now my office gets more light and I have a bigger view.  I love the crisp fall days, the remaining colorful leaves, and the beautiful sunsets.  I’m totally in need of getting my holiday baking on!!!  I almost make cookies this weekend…. I’ve got a leaf-shaped cookie cutter begging to be used

As you may have noticed I’ve all but abandoned the blogosphere   Not intentionally, but because I’ve had so many things distracting me, I’ve not had internet access at home (and probably won’t), and I’ve honestly felt a little guilty.  Because I don’t eat as well, am not working out, etc., I feel bad in a way.  Since I can’t share my triumphs and glories of fitness and food I’m not as jazzed about blogging.  I kind of feel like I’ve let y’all down a little cuz I’m not as inspirational as I was   Nameen?

Oh, dude, I almost forgot…. I hit my one year blogiversary in early November!  I think it was the 7th…  Can’t believe it has been one year, and that I’ve made so much progress in that timeframe.  I know, I know,  was just ranting about letting you (me?) down, but in reality I do feel proud that I shed nearly 30 lbs. and got my ass in better shape by working hard, eating well, and using the blogging community for support, inspiration, and resources. 

Enough of this novel!  Words without pics are boring, no?  Thanks for reading, bloggies!  I’ve missed you and hope to reconnect more soon!  Hope you all had a fabu Thanksgiving and are excited for the holidays!!!!!!!!!!!

And Somehow things Improve August 17, 2009

Tonight I’m trying out Windows Live Writer; saw it on Miss Bender’s blog and thought is sounded nifty.  Loving it so far!  I really like that while I type the layout looks just like my blog, not just typing in some window without any frame of reference.  It also does spell check while you type!  Only thing I can’t figure out is getting the post to be sticky without having to go in manually on WordPress to do it.

I’ve mentioned a few times how I’ve been in a bit of a funk and listless.  Today was not much better—I slept like shit (undoubtedly from the shit I put in my body yesterday), and was just not in to anything this morning.  But, it all turned around when I took my car in for a service and was given this beauty to drive:

Amen!  The demons have been exorcised!  Amazing how driving a fun car with the top down on a sunny day improves your spirits   Yee-haw!  This lil’ beauty is a 2008 BMW 128i, convertible obv.  So fun, so easy, so free spirited.  Just what I needed   I love you Jerry (my Rasmussen Service Advisor)!!!

I didn’t do a whole lotta workin’ today.  Instead, I took my tired, yet enthused, ass home early and went for a quick, super sweaty cardio date with the stairmill.  I didn’t eat breakfast today; Skinny Bitch was in my head, telling me to wait until I was really hungry to eat.  That was at 11:30 or so, and was just strawberries and cherries.  I also had a nectarine before I worked out.

Lunch was another story.  I was hungry, but I ate too fast, and had a little heartburn as a result.  It was worth it, tho   1/2 a whole wheat pita stuffed with Romaine, avocado, shredded carrot, sliced grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, Nature’s Seasons, and Sabra hummus.  (I would insert a pic, but I’m too lazy to get the camera cord out.  I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera and the pic is on the internal memory.)  Yum!

I followed that up with the other half of the pita, and the rest of the Sabra.  Since the hummus is going fast, I opted to make a batch of it for the week ahead.  Westbrae garbanzos, Nature’s Seasons, cumin seed, toasted sesame seeds, olive oil, ‘zo juice, dash of vinegar, salt, garlic powder and pine nuts.  Mmmmmmy.

Let’s try out this Windows Live album thing, shall we?

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Um, yeah, that’s a DQ Blizzard at  the end.  I was driving all over town to have fun in the car, and somehow ended up at DQ.  This time I got a Doggy Cone for Lily, and a Tagalong Blizzard for myself.  Oh. my. god.  That was one helluva treat!  So tasty, so naughty, and so completely unnecessary  

I put that on top of dinner tonight, which was a burrito at Fajitas.  I kind of got sick of burritos awhile back, and now I’m rather sick of everything else, so a burrito sounded good again.  Vegetables, rice, whole beans, verde sauce, olives, jalapenos.

Hm, what else do I have to share with you?  Yes, that is a trailer full of shitters there in the middle.  Too much to pass up taking a pic!

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Off I go to be a library geek and check the status of my books on hold.  Skinny Bitch only held me over for two days!  What’s a girl to do?

Variety hour April 21, 2009

In this wonderful post, you will find such varied fun topics as: workouts, calves, thong underwear, gum spitting, and random men directing traffic.  Now doesn’t that sound like a fun-filled read??!!  It was quite a random day, and hopefully I’ll amuse you with some of my Deep Thoughts rather than bore you to death with the usual eats.

The morning started with a wind blown drive into the office while soaking up the sun   Yee-haw!  Next up, a really normal breakfast of steel cut oats with raisins, PB, cinnamon, almond milk, and water. 

Walking into work I was thinking about my calves, and the fact that I’m actually getting some definition.  No, nothing ripped or “muscular” exactly, but way better than the soft mush they once were.  I caught my reflection in a glass door last night and commented to myself that they are shaped differently than before.  All that time on the stair mill must be paying off!

During one of my mid-morning trips to the loo, I saw a nice looking young lady but noticed she had panty lines!  Oh, poor thing…  Thong underwear are a miracle, and they’ve come a long way since the 80’s high waisted, hip-cutting nightmares of our childhood lore.  I’ll go out on a limb here and say that I quite prefer a thong to bikinis, and I especially love a brand called Steve that I buy at the Nordstrom Rack.  They are soft, comfy, don’t ride up, don’t dig in, and easy to care for.  And, hey, they cost less than bikinis or briefs!  Less material=lower price=less consumption.  Hell yes, I’ll whip out the “green” argument here  

Check out the Wikipedia article on thongs.  I had no idea that something called a C-string existed!  It’s basically strapless underwear!!!

I hope like hell this picture turns out–quite a great result of Googling “80’s thong underwear picture.”  Hehe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this epiphany and kidding myself about working for awhile Chris and I ate lunch.  Today’s sandwich was nearly the same as like the last two weeks, but for one ingredient swap out.  Whole wheat bread butt, peppered turkey, romaine, orange bell pepp, avocado, Nature’s Seasons.  With a carrot on the side.

I chowed down on these after lunch in an effort to eat something sweeter, but I had heartburn all afternoon.  WTF??  I never get heartburn, and in my case I’m not sure if it is from a lack of acid, or too much of it. 

Work just sucked today.  I was not motivated to get much done, and I kept getting distracted and just wanting to go home.  It is too easy to put energy into my new office layout/furniture/etc, but I best keep working so I actually have some business to do in that damn office!

Later I finally ate the Kashi TLC multigrain crackers I’d packed like 3 weeks ago.  I’ve noticed that if I don’t have a mid-afternoon snack I seem prone to getting really hungry and snacky right before dinner, and overeating at dinner potentially. 

Somewhere along the way this afternoon I had a few ounces of a Rockstar because my ass was dragging so badly.  I promise that’s not pee in the bottom of my cup!

On the drive home Chris was bitching about how hungry he was (but not me!) when we encountered a mess of traffic in Sellwood.  Eventually we got to a point where some random, drunk dude was directing traffic and holding shit up.  Turns out he wasn’t the cause of the traffic, but he certainly wasn’t helping it.  Gotta love the randomness!

For dinner we went to Fajitas and sat outside with Lily.  I had the small tortilla soup, chips, salsa, and lots of water.  I certainly did not want to drink much and repeat my Friday weight-dropping experience, so I just had a few sips.

After dinner I headed to the gym for Workout #1 and 45 minutes of cardio, which was good!  I’m feeling stronger already on some exercises, but I still feel like a pussy on preacher curls. Check out the link above for details of my workouts and eats.  Let me know what else I can tell you about ‘em!

On my way out of the gym I noticed there’s quite a collection of gum developing on the parking garage stairs.  Ew!  Why does everyone have to spit out there gum right there when there’s a trash can on the 2nd floor, like 10 feet away?  I admit I used to get a kick out of a great gum-spit now and again, but it usually involved opening the car window all the way and pa-toooeying the gum out the window onto the road with all my might. 

Now it’s around 11:15, and I’m feeling a twinge of hunger.  Last night I never did eat since I was heading to bed, and tonight I think it will be the same.  Oh, gotta prep the oats!

Ciao!