Monday (and Sunday) mania! April 20, 2009

Whoosh, the last two days have flown by just like that.   Although they didn’t feel so quick at times…

Sunday

Would you believe me if I told you I got up early on a Sunday to hit the gym??  I knew Chris and I had plans to till and plant the wildflower garden outside, so I had to get in cardio before my 10am yoga class. 

Breakfast before heading out was a bowl of 7 grain cereal with PB, cinnamon, protein powder (?can’t remember!), and topped off with some Soy Vanilla Creamer.

The 45 minutes I had on the stair mill were good and not too tough   I’ve figured out that the time flies by much faster if I can read something while climbing like a mad woman, so today it was The Economist.  Afterward I had a nice yoga class, except for the fact that I forgot my mat.  Oops!  I spent half the class on a too-thick gym mat, and the other half on the bare (dirty) floor.  I didn’t mind the floor too much since I had more stability and less slippin’ around, though. 

When I got home lunch was in order, and given my slim-ish options I went for a scramble with one egg white, 1 1/2 slices peppered turkey, 3 black olives, and a few diced slices of bell pepp.  On the side are 1/2 of a whole wheat burger bun toasted and adorned with Smart Balance Light, and a Braeburn apple.  My scramble was a little too salty, but I guess that helped rebalance my electolytes after my sweaty morning.

I thought we would be heading out into the yard right about now, but not so.  Chris was watching basketball and procrastinating, so I went grocery shopping.

After our trip to Home Depot the hell began:  pulling weeds, sorting out rocks, tilling, spreading dirt, tilling more, levelling the dirt, spreading seeds, and cordoning off the area from the LB. Phew.  I can’t tell you how many times I said “I hate this” or “this fucking sucks” while we were working, and vowed to never do it again.  But, Chris reminded me that we love the pretty result that is a small wildflower “meadow”, so I shut up eventually.  My mom was kind enough to help out, and since Chris did the tilling I suppose it wasn’t that bad. 

The finished result:

Oh, wait, that’s my happy handful of Genisoy Deep Sea Salted Crisps   I had those before the work began.  Mid-way through the project I had some grapes, too.  Here’s the pic of the finshed bed:

No, it’s certainly not perfect (all the grass and weeds still in there…), but it’s close enough for government work

Chris and I fired up the BBQ, I prepped some stuff, and we grilled away.  My plate included sliced carrots and orange bell pepp, fresh guac (mama brought me a huge avocado), grilled jalapeno, and grilled chicken breast.  Oh yeah…and some Chardonnay.

Damn wine… I later created some dessert concoctions that I knew were bad, but still readily consumed under the influence of the vino. 1) microwaved marshmallow with PB and pretzel sticks–my very own fluffernutter of sorts; 2) #1 with some Mexican chocolate candy bar in it. 

 

I also horfed down like 4 marshmallows separately, some PB, and some pretzel sticks.  Oy vey!  Yeah, let’s close the chapter on that day and move on…

Monday

Chris and I wanted to wake up early to talk about our new office/the lease/etc., but that turned into getting up in time enough to go to work at 8:30.  I forgot someone was taking us to lunch until I just finished making Chris’ sandwich, and then he reminded me.  D’oh!  Then I forgot to grab my oatmeal for consumption at work.  Grrr…my steelers!

At work I had a Clif Oatmeal Raisin Walnut bar, so I nuked that and enjoyed it with some coffee.  Nuking bars really adds a whole new dimension to them

Today we finalized details of the lease on our new space, and looks like we just signed away 5 years of our life!  At least we got a great deal, though   Now I gotta kick things into high gear to design my office’s layout/contents, deal with buying and getting furniture put together and get ready to move.  In six weeks :|  I see a trip to Ikea in my near future   I haven’t been to the Portland location since it opened.  Wish me luck getting through the maze in one piece!

Lunch wasn’t photographed since I was in the presence of a new acquaintance.  He’s health minded, but I thought he may view me as a little crazy.  We went to Gustav’s and I had 1/2 a rotisserie turkey sandwich and a cup of lentil soup.  The waitress brought us sourdough rolls, but none of us ate them , so I took ‘em and thought I could perhaps use one later.

I didn’t really get hungry after lunch, so I didn’t eat.  But by the time I got home around 5 I was getting hungry, and by the time I ate at 6 I was getting ravenous.  This is a dangerous feeling to have, as everything looks and sounds good.  I put a small piece of cheese in my mouth, and a tiny bit of bread.

 

My dinner was: a hollowed out sourdough roll filled with guacamole, grilled jalapeno, chicken, and romaine; the rest of my 1/2 chicken breast; some grilled bell pepp and carrot, and the rest of my guac.  Yippee!  Yummy!

Chris was kind and brought out two marshmallows for me to roast after dinner. 

I was about to head out to my Agent of Change class when I saw a small army of ants entering my house by the backdoor!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!  We vacuumed them up, sprayed some outside (I know, not a healthy move), and even 5 hours later there are some lingerers.  Where are they coming from?  Are they in the wall?? :shocked:

In class there were brownies, cookies, and more cookies as snacks, but I didn’t have any since I wasn’t hungry.  The sweetness sounded good and I did walk by to take a closer look, but just couldn’t do it.

Once home I was mildly hungry and wanting dessert, so I had the rest of my Genisoy Sweet Crisps.  So good!  I highly recommend the Genisoy Crisps, and hope you’ll try them!!  Even after a week of being open they still seem fresh and crispy

Chris doesn’t know what the hell I have to write about for so long, so I guess that’s a sign to go, that I’ve written enough  ;)

Andrea asked me to post my workouts, so tomorrow I’ll detail my weights and cardio session for ya even more, along with some other grains of wisdom on my Quest to be Fit. 

Adios!

Three-peat February 22, 2009

The weekend is already over   Sure felt like it flew by and that I didn’t really get to relax much.

I’m going to be quick so I can get to bed:

Woke up early for a Sunday, made coffee, played with the LB, and nuked my oats:  steel cut oats, 1/2 a ripe nana, cinnamon, chocolate almond milk, almond butter.  Tasty!  I detected the chocolate more in this batch and liked it

After this I was off to yoga, and The Driz did join the class today!  She did great, too!  Girl, you played like youz  novice, and you looked like a pro   I hit up an upper body workout afterward, and was ruing not hitting the weights for the last 1 1/2 weeks as I did the other workouts.  They are definitely good for the legs, but seem to be lacking for the back and biceps especially.

Once home lunch was a new, delicious creation:  a scramble!  It was one egg + one white, some sliced green bell pepper, left over roasted potato, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and Nature’s Seasons.  I had it served over a piece of whole wheat toast, with some grapes on the side.  Num-num-nummy!

I did a bunch of housework, and was itching to return to the gym to do cardio.  Chris said yesterday that he wanted to go today, so I held off doing it this morning.  I told him to be ready after I got back from the store, but he was still kickin’ it watching TV!  Ahhh!  I was getting a little hungry so I had a snack of lowfat cottage cheese and a handful of Kashi TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable. 

He finally got in the shower and I cleaned the fruits and veggies.  Do you use a fruit wash?  I finally started using one a month ago and can totally tell the difference on my grapes and apples, but not so much on other things. 

Once at the gym I jumped on the elliptical and told Chris I needed at least 30 minutes of cardio.  He was done around 35 minutes; at least I got a good sweat on. 

Here’s where my blog title comes in… not exactly a surprise that we went out to Fajitas for the third night in a row.  I had a small part of a Casuela, a few chips and salsa, and split Carnitas de Pollo with Chris.  Very tasty; I had two tortillas of it.

The restaurant was really busy this weekend, and tonight Noe was all alone serving us.  He brought us a larger than usual La Casa b/c he felt bad the service wasn’t as fast, I think.  I had about half of it.  To. Die. For.

No more food today…that dinner was a little too much and has held me over quite well.  I’m off to bed, and hope to get some good rest.  I didn’t sleep so well last night, although I was in bed and sleeping off and on for about 8 hours.  I love bed, and sometimes miss the days where I would stay in it all day long reading, watching TV, doing crosswords, whatevs.  Do you ever do that?

Adios!

Best dinner ever! February 16, 2009

Let’s get right to the point, people:  dinner at Typhoon on Valentine’s Day was probably the best dinner I’ve ever had in my life.  I’m struggling to think of anything that continued to amaze me like the 15 items we ate Saturday.  Oh, and the endless supply of great wine.  I’ll give you all the details I can remember in a minute…

Saturday started with my headache being horrible and me feeling quite icky from it.  I got up thinking I may go to pilates, but just didn’t feel well enough by the time 9:30 rolled around.  I made coffee, and ate my traditional oats; this was the last of the Barney Butter. 

I was feelin’ better after breakfast, but still not quite right.  I slept a little on the couch; felt so good

Lunch was two eggs scrambled (accidentally dropped in the 2nd yolk!) in a whole wheat tortilla with a wedge of LCL.  I also had my apple from Friday that I never ate.  Damn pithy Jonagolds got the best of me last week.

The afternoon rolled around and Chris and I mosied to the gym.  The basketball backboard wasn’t quite fixed yet, but they opened up the court and guys were playing half court games.  They got booted at 3pm, tho, for the boot camp class, no pun intended.    That cut my cardio shorter than I’d hoped. 

After getting home I pampered myself a little by painting my toenails.  Sounds rather ordinary, but I haven’t done this in MONTHS.  Last time my little piggies were painted was in September if you can believe it!

Now comes the exciting part…after getting all gussied up Chris and I arrived at Typhoon around 7 for our special group dinner, and so the ecstasy began!  Wine abounded–no corkage fee and lots of people in the wine industry equals tons of great wine!  We brought Kim Crawford 2007 Sauvingnon Blanc, and we also consumed Willakenzie 2007 Pinot Gris, Vidon 2007 Pinot Noir (excellent for such a young wine!!), and some Mumm Napa sparkling white. 

First dish was some sort of mini roll served in a wine glass with a sweet sauce.  No idea what was in here, but it was yummy and hot!

Next came spinach wraps, and vegetable spring rolls.  Mmmmmm!  The wraps had freeze dried shrimp, sliced hot peppers, jicama, peanuts, fried rice noodles (?), and sweet chili sauce to put inside as we pleased.  The rolls were perfectly yummy.

Here we paused for a little gift bag and drawing from our lovely hosts, Eric and Bennie.  We got a bag of Hershey kisses, and some of us got a number for drawing prizes.  Chris and I got to choose between wine, a gift card to Red Robin, and a gift card back to Typhoon…Chris chose Typhoon!  Perfect for me any day!

Next was where the mind was blown!!  Bo Kline’s clam chowder with lemongrass.  Holy. Moley. I know it sounds odd, but if you ever get a chance to visit a Typhoon you MUST try this soup.  Even if you don’t like chowder or lemongrass, somehow I think you will like love this.  I really had to resist eating more than a cup of it.

Up next was a cascading delivery of incredibly yumminess in the form of like 8 dinner entrees and sides. Forgive me I do not know the names of them all! Flaming fish, pineapple curry, green beans, beef with heavenly sauce and peanuts, drunken noodles, fried rice, crab pad thai, and another I can’t remember at this point!  Everything was soooooooooo gooooooood.  This really was heaven on a plate.  I had a little more of the curry since that’s my 2nd love…

I ate plenty, and was full, but thankfully not gut-bustingly-uncomfortably full.  Dessert was really unexciting if you ask me, probably a good thing since dinner was so fabulous.  It was sticky rice and a custard; I had a few bites, but no need to post the pic since it wasn’t so pretty.

After dinner we went to a little bar called Friends in Beaverton, and proceeded to listen to and do some karaoke and drinking.  I didn’t do either, but had fun.  We left around 1am, and I didn’t end up getting in bed until about 1:45.  :sleepy:

Sunday

I was dead tired in the morning, but still got up for yoga   My breakfast was a cereal mess…inspired by all you fabu bloggers out there who display these frequently.  Barbara’s Shredded Oats, Fred Meyer Shredded Wheat, and chai spice cereal I can’t remember the name of now.  It was tasty!

Yoga was great today, and since I knew I was heading back to the gym later with Chris I didn’t do anything else after class.  In between gym sessions I did a little cleaning and ate lunch.  A rather boring experience… one scrambled egg on a toast butt with 1/2 a wedge LCL, and 1/2 cup lowfat cottage cheese.  Sorely lacking in fresh fruit or veg, right?

Sometime afterward we went to the gym around 3, and I started off with cardio so I could get in my full 45 minutes to an hour.  I did 35 minutes of fast intervals on the stair mill, and then about 10 minutes on the elliptical.  Chris got booted from the basketball court again, but for volleyball this time.  He was kind enough to let me do an ab workout before leaving, though.  This time I did the fitnessmagazine.com Your Flat-Abs Handbook, and it was great!  Lots of stuff for the obliques, and it seemed to be quite effective.

Once home I had a choc. protein shake, and we did some yard work.  I raked around the barkdust to prevent Lily’s footsies from being so messy when she plays catch.  She has done a number on the lawn, too, so I staked & twined off an area in the hopes that it will recover a bit.

You won’t believe it, but we went to Mexican for dinner again. That is like 6 nights in a row we ate out   Bad bad bad bad bad!  I tried to control myself and didn’t have a Casuela, and only had one chicken taco and chips & salsa.  I watched Chris eat a cheeseburger with a fried egg jalapenos, and fries on the side; I almost asked him for a taste at one point it looked so good.

After dinner came shopping at PetSmart and Fred Meyer.  Nothing too exciting here.  Lily had fun sniffing around at PetSmart, and nearly pulled me over she’s so strong!

Once home I unpacked everything and dove into the work recyling.  It took me over an hour to sort out, wash, and put away all the stuff!  That was two weeks’ worth of recycling, and really wasn’t too bad to deal with.

Afterward I rewarded myself with some tasty fruit:  a beautiful Fuji, eaten European style with a knife.  Mmmmmm….. I’m so glad to have crisp, yummy apples again

Chris later attacked my Maranatha with some Ritz, and I couldn’t forego that a.b. action, so I had one cracker with probably 1/2 a tbsp of a.b.  Very good indeed!

I was going to post this last night (Sunday), but Chris and I kind of got into a tiff and I had to hold off.  Thanks for checking back and reading, though!  I’ll be posting about today (Monday) shortly…. stay tuned.