Yay, Friday is over! January 17, 2009

Hi everyone.  Sorry I didn’t post last night…my day was long and I was not in a posting mood when I got home for working out at 11:30 last night :shocked:

Hmmmm…let me rewind a bit to yesterday morning. 

Quaker Oatmeal Squares, half a banana, and lots of almond milk.  I really like the taste and texture of these squares a lot   The banana was a little too ripe for me…

Off to work, a busy morning I didn’t expect, and an uncomfortable caffeine/endorphin buzz.  Bleh.  I ate to take a break and try to wind down so I could feel more relaxed while preparing for my afternoon client meeting and doing other stuff.  I have a tendency to work myself up sometimes, but I’m usually mostly relaxed.

Lunch was a leftover stuffed half pepper and half an apple.  Yummy!  That was my last apple

The afternoon went quickly, and I was happily ready when my 5 o’clock called and asked if we could meet at 4, and then showed up at 3:30.  My meeting was good and quick, and I think it was afterward that I had this snack: the rest of my Pink Lady, and a cup of Dannon Light n Fit vanilla with 1/2 a banana and too much cinnamon.

We worked more and then Chris told me Maria was calling his name.  Eventually we got to Fajitas and couldn’t figure out what to order…a taco? Taco salad? Burrito?  We finally decided to split Carnitas de Pollo, and it was so yummy!  I’d never had it before, but it is Chris’ favorite.  Pedro also made us our two customary Casuelas, but I didn’t have much b/c I wanted to work out. 

After dinner I eventually got to the gym, like at frickin’ 10pm   I busted out a full upper body workout while rockin’ Limp Bizkit and watching two goons make fools of themselves.  Same goons from Tuesday night lifting heavy weights like an inch and making a spectacle of it.  I moved on to abs and then a half an hour of stair mill intervals for some sweaty glory.  I’m so happy I can knock out a half hour on that bad boy.  Andrea, that’s so funny you thought of Erin and I on the mill while doing your intervals the other day!  I thought of you while on the mill last night

I got home at 11:30 like I mentioned, and was in a bit of a funk.  After showering and taking care of the LB I just went to bed to read some for my MR course.  I didn’t end up falling asleep until 1:30 tho!  Bad me!  I read and watched Graham Norton and You Are What You Eat on BBC America.  Have you watched the latter show?  It is kinda gross to see what the people eat but pretty informative health wise.

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Today (Friday) was good, fast, and busy.  I had another bowl of the oatmeal squares for breakfast, but I was out of fruit completely and ate them with almond milk only.  Still yummy

Chris wanted to grab a coffee on the way into work (no coffee service on Fridays and the coffee the staff bought to make sucks–Folgers).  We had a coupon for McDonald’s, so I had a large sugar free vanilla nonfat latte.  Too much vanilla, but not too bad.

Because of my meeting schedule I didn’t end up eating lunch until about 2:30.  Yikes!  My lack of fruit was sad, but everything tasted really good today, especially the wrap for some reason.

The afternoon zipped by, and eventually we headed out around 5:30.  I knew dinner would be grilled chicken and yukon mashers, but I was struggling with the other component.  I didn’t just want the same old boring plate with canned green beans, and when I got home I saw my little friend the butternut squash!  Yay, something to mix it up a bit!

I tried squash fries….excellent and fun!  First I nuked the squash for 5 minutes and kept thinking I may need to duck and cover.  Even tho I stabbed the little guy a few times, he was still hissing and actually rolling around a little in there.  I cut him in half, scooped out the seeds, and then used my mandolin to cut him into fries.

The fries were coated with some fake Pam and jerk seasoning, then baked at 350 (couldn’t remember Erin’s preferred temp) for about 25 minutes, stirred once.  So tasty!  Chris was skeptical at first, but tried some and thought they were just okay.  Whateva, more for me!

Chris and I went to workout, which was just a half hour on the elliptical doing semi-hard intervals.  After I got home I did a little MR reading (actually not in the book pictured), and my tummy rumbled.

I wasn’t sure what to eat, and ended up just eating a tbsp of Barney Butter all alone.  Chris was annoyed watching me eat the thing for 5 minutes, it was funny.  Finally he was like, “just eat it already!”  Hahahaha, you wish.  Gotta savor the flavor, biotch!

Writing my post always takes me like an hour, it is crazy.  How about you? I don’t know where the time goes.  I must go to bed so I can get up early for my MR field trip.  I feel like I’m in school again with the classes, field trips, teaching others, and “homework.”  LOL. 

Hope you had a good week and are looking forward to an even better weekend   Ciao.

MAJOR P.S.: I think I’ve made more progress on the weight loss/muscle build front!  I’ve gotten more comments, clothes are fitting looser yet, and the scales, although inaccurate, are weighing me consistently lower.  Fuck yeah! I think I’ll go through my closet this weekend and see if I can fit back into anything, esp. work clothes.

Right back in the thick of things January 6, 2009

I feel like it has been forever since I had a whole day at work that was productive, didn’t go really slowly, and didn’t involve me wanting to get outta there.  How sad is that?!  Thankfully today was good and 5:30 rolled around before I knew it.

Last night I knew I didn’t prep my oats before I went to bed, but I was too into getting my blog done and then too tired to take the time.  Since I got up a wee bit later anyhow I just decided to have a Luna bar and coffee for breakfast.  The bar was yummy with lots of little crisps in it and pieces of fruit. 

Lunch rolled around and I had a lunch you’re probably all bored of seeing:  Flatout sundried tomato with turkey, spinach, rainbow slaw, sliced apple, cracked pepper; lf/ff cottage cheese; Stacy’s Pita Chips; and a Fuji.  Half of the cc was for Chris, and I left some Fuji and chips for later.  Yawn, I know.

After a little while something sweet sounded good, so I broke out the saltwater taffy   I had one piece each of peppermint, vanilla, butter, and cinnamon.  Check out what I did with my cinnamon piece; it was so soft and malleable I couldn’t help it!

I found myself getting hungry at some point this afternoon, so I had a little banana.  It was so cute!

I like my bananas with a tiny bit of green on them, and no black spots.  They are just too darn mushy and sweet once they start getting black spots.  How do you like your nanas?

As we walked out to the car to leave I ate the last 3 pcs. of my Fuji:

I already had dinner in mind when eating the apples, and the execution ended up turning out perfectly.  We had smothered chicken chicken grilled in my fancy new pan with sauteed onions, bell peppers, and jalapenos on top, plus a tiny bit of cheese) and mashed potatoes (mixed with Nature’s Seasons, a spoon of light sour cream, and bit of Smart Balance Light).  Yummmmmm!

Oh my god, Dame Edna is on The Graham Norton Show!  I love her character…she’s been around forever on BBC and in entertainment and she’s still knockin’ em dead   Go, Dame!  I should get some glasses like she’s wearing–rhinestone wings would suit me, no?

I ate my dinner a bit too quickly, but thankfully it was intentionally smaller and I didn’t end up overly full.  Good thing because I had a workout in mind all day!

On the way to the gym I hit a pothole the size of Australia and dented the rim on my front left wheel!!!  Holy shit, how did that not pop my tire?  All that damn ice and freezing weather caused many potholes to open up really wide, and I should have known better since I drive that stretch to the gym all the time.  Shit.  Thankfully the tire guy at Costco said I don’t need to get it replaced, and it is not unsafe.  My spare tire is a full sized wheel just like that one, so I guess I can swap it out if I want.  This whole incident totally pissed me off and made me want to put a cone in the road where that damn hole is. 

My ire gave me a bit of a spark working out, as did listening to Limp Bizkit Significant Other cranked loudly while doing weights   I hit up the upper bod with some different exercises than I’ve been doing, and with a bit more intensity.  I’m seeing a lot more muscle in my arms, and am sooo glad that the flappin’ triceps aren’t flappin’ so much anymore.  Yay! 

After doing some back, triceps, chest, biceps, shoulders, and abs I headed downstairs for a major cardio sesh: 20 minutes of intervals each on the elliptical, stair mill, and treadmill.  This all added up to one hot, sweaty me and a lot of calories and stress down the tubes.  Double yay!

Yesterday I weighed myself on the gym scale, and I swear the thing knows it is me and refuses to show a weight of less than 153 :shocked:  Boo.  Fuck it!  Thank god I’m seeing progress…hopefully 10 pounds will just fall off soon, and if not, at least I’ll still be toning up, right?  Even with all of this positive thinking I’m still a tad disappointed with not shedding the pounds yet.  I don’t like seeing more than 140 on the scale, and I was the skinniest I’ve been as an adult at 125.  I think 130 would be great.  I was doing more cardio than weights recently, but I read somewhere that doing only cardio can lead to a lower resting metabolic rate, so I have a renewed gusto for the weights now.

Once home I showered, did some recycling, loaded the dishwasher, did the handwash, played with Lily, did some laundry, and here I am watching BBCA.  It is late already! Like 12:30!  Holy shit!  About an hour ago my tummy grumbled and I had another cute little nana:

Woops, that pic turned out bigger than expected.  I still am not a master of inserting pics after two months.  Whateva.

Chris is having a fire and sitting on the couch that Lily gets on when we’re gone.  After his beach experience cuddling with Lily on the couch he said he may do it here at home on that couch, and low and behold he is there with her right now!!!!!  SO. CUTE.   Check it out:

She is so happy to be snuggling with her daddy right now   Since Chris doesn’t let her up on the furniture while we’re home she doesn’t get to snuggle with him much (he gets on the floor with her every once in awhile).  I just added another few logs on the fire and she is even cuter.  I’m a little jealous, actually!

My legs are so sore from yesterday already, I’m hobbling around–it’s great!  I miss that super soreness, but have been a little too lazy or easy going on the weights for the last few months.  I really prefer free weights and barbell machines over stack machines for like 90% of my exercises; how about you?

Goodnight and an early happy Tuesday to you!

Busy bee! December 28, 2008

Wow, the last Sunday of nearly two weeks off of work.  Like Andrea, I’m not sure how it is going to feel to be at work tomorrow!  I just spoke with Erin and she, Andrea, and I are going to dinner tomorrow night.  Yippeeeee!  I’m so excited!

Today was a very busy day; I felt like I was going non-stop from 9 to 9, but in a good way.  My oatmeal this morning was nummy; it consisted of:  1/4 cup steel cut oats, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1 tbsp raisins, big dash of cinnamon, and a few tsp of Barney Butter.  Tasty goodness!

I headed to the gym for yoga, and was dismayed at how dirty and ugly everything looks outside now that all the snow is gone.  It made me want to live in a snowier area several times today.

Yoga was great, I sweated a lot, and I’m glad I went.  I felt so good, in fact, that I headed to Target afterward to get crew socks and check out the grocery section.  The grocery area is pretty expansive now, and the prices seem really good on some items.  It could be dangerous, though, if I go there more often and end up shopping in other areas! I love Target. 

Once home I made a quick lunch that was very tasty indeed:  sundried tomato flatout with one egg white, 4 slices of warmed turkey, a little parmesan cheese, spinach, a few small slices of Fuji, a dash of red wine vinegar, and ground pepper.  Mmmm!  I also had the rest of the Fuji and about 1/2 cup of lf/ff cottage cheese.  A perfect lunch

Love the detail of the parmesan rind!

I think I got online for a few minutes, watched TV for a few, and then started my cleaning fest:  unloaded, loaded, and ran the dishwasher; put away snow clothes; cleaned kitchen counters; swept floors; washed wine glasses; put away Christmas wrap and decor (tree is still up, tho!); reorganized recycling in garage; put wine glasses to donate in boxes; did Lily’s laundry; played with Lily; organized Lily’s food and the birdseed….  Eventually I made the grocery list and went to the store.  I even returned bottles/cans and took back a boatload of plastic bags (I hardly ever do those two things, hence the pile that had grown in the garage).

Dinner was easy to make, and turned out yummy.  We had roasted chicken breasts with carrots and onions, and mashed potatoes.  Amidst the storm craziness the only chicken I could get at the store the other day was split chicken breasts with skin and bones on, but they were great for roasting.

After dinner the cleaning fest continued:  loaded stuff into d/w; did handwash; did my laundry; prepped oatmeal; prepped lunch items; made to-do list for work and personal items for Monday; put Lily’s biscuits away (I transfer them from the box into a reusable tub to stay fresh); organized receipts…

I’m so glad I got all that stuff done today, you don’t even know!  I hate coming home to a dirty house during the work week.  Nothing like dirty dishes (or a clean d/w that I need to unload), dirty floors, and shit stacked up to ruin my mood.  How ’bout you?

I had a new snack tonight that I’ve seen all around blog world:  a banana with nut butter (specifically BB).  This was really tasty, and I think will be even better when the nana is a litte more ripe. 

Well, the day is winding down and I think I’ll head to bed.  I know it will be tough to get up, no matter how much sleep I get. 

I hope you all had a great weekend   Toodle-oo!