Sunday, July 14, 2013
Halfway through my whole30 challenge!
Last night's dinner - my friend Amy's chili plus a bunch of beet chips that I made. I'll have to find the recipe for the chili. The beet chips were really easy. Slice a bunch of beets really thin (I used a mandoline), brush coconut oil on them, bake for 20 min. Rotate tray and chips and bake for anther 20mi or until they get crispy. Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on a cookie rack. Voila! Beet chips. YUUMMM.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Practical Paleo Guide to Food Quality and other guides
http://balancedbites.com/useful-guides
This is pretty interesting/helpful in trying to make sense of how to make "healthy" choices at the grocery store! Check them out!!
Fiesta Stuffed Peppers
I've been posting my meals on Instagram (search for #mohanseat) and Facebook for the month of July because of the Whole 30 challenge I'm doing with my gym, FitWit!
We had a potluck for the ppl doing this challenge last night and this was my contribution. Very easy to make! Brown grass-red beef with onions, garlic, mushroom, jalapeño and the "leftover" bell peppers (when you're creating the bell pepper "cups", dice the tops of the peppers and add to the beef mixture). Spoon the mixture into the bell peppers and the bake at 350 for about 25 min. (I added salsa to the peppers before baking because it looked a little dry.) Bon appetite!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
PLU codes in the Produce Aisle
An ad on Buzzfeed led me to this about PLU codes. Here's the ad:
So I looked it up and found my way to Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/produce.asp
Unfortunately, suppliers are not required to use the "8" for GM produce if they do not plan to price them differently from the conventionally grown stuff, and no one is required to actually issue a PLU code for everything so a lot of things go un-PLU'd. In a nutshell (from the article):
"At this point PLU codes are more of a concept than a consistently and universally applied standard (as far as we know, no supplier or vendor has ever used the '8' digit that identifies GM produce), and they were not created for the benefit of consumers, so shoppers concerned about the nature of the produce they buy should rely upon other sources of information. If you only want organic produce, look for items that are specifically labeled as "Organic"; if you want to ensure you avoid any GM produce, buy only items that are USDA certified as "organic" or "made with organic ingredients" (which cannot by law be produced from GMO's). In the latter case consumers might also look for "non-GMO" or "GMO-free" indicators, but that option is still somewhat problematic as the U.S. government does not yet directly regulate the use of those terms..."
So I looked it up and found my way to Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/produce.asp
Unfortunately, suppliers are not required to use the "8" for GM produce if they do not plan to price them differently from the conventionally grown stuff, and no one is required to actually issue a PLU code for everything so a lot of things go un-PLU'd. In a nutshell (from the article):
"At this point PLU codes are more of a concept than a consistently and universally applied standard (as far as we know, no supplier or vendor has ever used the '8' digit that identifies GM produce), and they were not created for the benefit of consumers, so shoppers concerned about the nature of the produce they buy should rely upon other sources of information. If you only want organic produce, look for items that are specifically labeled as "Organic"; if you want to ensure you avoid any GM produce, buy only items that are USDA certified as "organic" or "made with organic ingredients" (which cannot by law be produced from GMO's). In the latter case consumers might also look for "non-GMO" or "GMO-free" indicators, but that option is still somewhat problematic as the U.S. government does not yet directly regulate the use of those terms..."
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Up in the air
Guys. I am on the internet. While flying in a plane. 10,000 feet in the air.
TECHNOLOGY IS AWESOME.
Chaya - see you sooooooon!
Maya - wish you were going to be there toooooo!
TECHNOLOGY IS AWESOME.
Chaya - see you sooooooon!
Maya - wish you were going to be there toooooo!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Guess what I am having for dinner!
Oh no, mon friers, this is no glass o' chocolate milk. It is a power smoothie! Spinach, bananas, blackberries, coconut milk yogurt, and almond butter. And, totally paleo! Woo!
It's so thick I need a spoon to drink this.
I also had my crazy fitwit workout today. It was brutal - but more so because of the weather - sticky, hot, HUMID. I could barely breathe. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm going to try allergy meds and see if that helps.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
so many workouts to update you on!
i have been slacking on my fitwit updates!
- Last Friday's workout was the TIMED fucking mile. Seriously? I haven't done that since middle school. I'm pretty sure I was "sick" for all the times I needed to do it in high school. That said, I did it in 11:38! I was stoked, not gonna lie. I was pretty sure it would take me 15 minutes to run it haha. My next goal is to run it without stopping. My 1/2 mile time was 5:20 or something like that so I think if I train regularly/properly, I will be able to run a 10 minute mile someday which would be cool. The person who had the fastest time a) was a girl (woo!), b) looks like a fucking gazelle, and c) finished in 6 minutes and change. Whoa. I was really impressed. She won the CoW award. (Camper of the Week). I find it hilarious that it's called COW and it's a "fitness" award.
- Saturday: Running workshop where I learned proper running technique: keep a 180 bpm cadence, lean forward (only slightly - about 2 in from upright position), short strides, land on midfoot (not heels). I bought new sneakers which are amazing - see my instagram for a picture of them. I was also going to go to the kettlebell workshop, but breakfast with some of my new fitwitter friends won out over kettlebells.
- Sunday: tried making baby booties. hella difficult. they're so fucking big, they look like they're for bigfoot's baby. ugh. No workout. Sat on the couch..all...day...long.
- Monday: this workout was called the WALL WALKING DEAD. and as the name suggests, i was definitely walking funny the day after. I don't even know how to describe this other than a circuit of insane exercise combinations, which of course was timed. The minimum goal was to do three complete circuits. This shit was so hard that I could only get through 2.5 circuits. Only one person reached the "goal" (5 circuits).
- Tuesday: this was a short workout b/c FitWit built in some "team building" time (for the morning campers, they paid for coffee for the group @ a nearby coffee shop, for us evening campers, we just had a short workout and went out to dinner). However, let me be clear that a short workout does not make an easy one. We had to do burpees and wallballs. BRU-fucking-TAL. Wall balls are when you throw a medicine ball high against a wall, catch it, squat and repeat. Those things are AWFUL after you have just done a number of burpees (drop to the ground, throw your feet back, bring your feet back in, jump up). We had to do a "ladder" of these meaning that starting with the first minute, we had to do 4 burpees and 5 wallballs. Every minute, we did the same number of burpees, but increased the # of wallballs by 1 each minute... we did this for sixteen minutes. I was pretty sure I was going to puke. Thankfully, I didn't.
- Wednesday: off day from fitwit, but i did free yoga @ Atlantic station (sponsored by exhale spa). It was a harder class than i expected - I really just wanted to stretch out on the grass - but it was really nice to do yoga outdoors.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Ugh
Having the worst 2.5 weeks of my life probably. Between my neck and my car, I am feeling pretty low. The car leaked out all its coolant at some point on the way home while we were still not far from Vegas, in the Mohave desert. The temperature gauge went to HOT. We pulled over and got towed to the nearest town. We left the car with the mechanic and got a rental to go home. Were fucked up the ass on prices for everything. Thought it would be a $1,000 radiator replacement. Just found out today that the head gasket looks like it's blown too? Getting a price quote on that. Might just leave it in the desert. But, without a car, out thousands of dollars, and feeling pretty damn sorry for myself. Now I have to go do what I meant to start 2 weeks ago, which is plan the itinerary for next week. Sorry Jaya, I don't have anything but some vague ideas on that so far. To be honest, not looking forward to having D here at this time, I fear we will spend all week arguing about purchasing a brand new car for me, which I most certainly cannot afford.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
it's 6am and i've been up for an hour and a half...
because i have 30-something reflection papers to grade. to all my teachers and professors i've ever had: i really, really appreciate how difficult grading is.
i need some coffee.
weekend was fun - dinner on friday night at la calaca feliz (mexican restaurant that we tried to go to when you were here, maya, but it had the 2 hour wait? i was smart this time and made a reservation haha) - so that was chorizo tacos and guacamole and a beer. saturday dinner was at dasiwa (saturday night sushi instead of friday!) with kira's parents and her aunts janice and penni - both of whom are very excited to meet our whole family in scotland, by the way haha.
AHHH I CAN'T WRITE THIS RIGHT NOW. all i've been doing is procrastinating. must get back to grading. the reason i am writing this: what's the deal on your bday, maya? still thinking about CA? if you are, would you be willing to go in sept, instead of july??? because i'm seeing all these fares for around $300 r/t for fall travel to LA.... and that seems a lot more feasible than airfare would be for july. :-/ at least for me, anyway. let me know!
i need some coffee.
weekend was fun - dinner on friday night at la calaca feliz (mexican restaurant that we tried to go to when you were here, maya, but it had the 2 hour wait? i was smart this time and made a reservation haha) - so that was chorizo tacos and guacamole and a beer. saturday dinner was at dasiwa (saturday night sushi instead of friday!) with kira's parents and her aunts janice and penni - both of whom are very excited to meet our whole family in scotland, by the way haha.
AHHH I CAN'T WRITE THIS RIGHT NOW. all i've been doing is procrastinating. must get back to grading. the reason i am writing this: what's the deal on your bday, maya? still thinking about CA? if you are, would you be willing to go in sept, instead of july??? because i'm seeing all these fares for around $300 r/t for fall travel to LA.... and that seems a lot more feasible than airfare would be for july. :-/ at least for me, anyway. let me know!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Day 3, Week 2 Bootcamp
i don't know how i'm doing this math. i think it's day 3. it's definitely only week 2. HOWEVER, i just made the decision to go ALL IN and commit to a 12 MONTH membership to this madness.
there. proof that mental illness runs in our family.
oh well,maybe the physical activity will cure the madness? i can only hope.
so, i'm getting bored with my paleo breakfast options. i can only figure so many variations on eggs and bacon. what else is there to eat in the AM that is paleo-friendly?
i think i'm going to make my amazing turkey taco lettuce wraps for dinner tonight. or maybe i'll just do that tomorrow, i am getting pretty tired and don't really feel like cooking... but i should eat dinner. OH! i'll make myself a green smoothie. i haven't had one of those in ages. will post a pic later.
today's workout was a paired up workout where one person had to get through the board of exercises (pushups, star or tuck jumps, shoulder presses, burpees, etc.) while the other person went through the agility course as fast as they could (bear crawling around a bunch of obstacles and then going under some hurdles and then over some hurdles). it killed me after about 4 minutes. it is HARD to crawl around like a bear. those things are beasts!
Today my ____ is: (1 is the worst or least, 10 is the best or most) ...i'm not sure my scale is working for stress and anxiety indicators.
- stress: 4/10 - not too stressed, had a good day at work with my minions (though a couple of them are driving me nuts), but i didn't feel really stressed out.
- anxiety: 4/10 - don't feel very anxious!
- energy: 7/10 - i have more energy! i just feel like i can do more - like when i came home after work/before leaving for bootcamp (i had about a 35 minute window) - i finished up some laundry and cleaned up the kitchen! Normally, I'd just sit on the couch and "relax".
- mental focus: 5/10 - not as foggy as last week, but still feel some "residual" fogginess
- fitness: 2/10
- quality of sleep: 5/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I only woke up once (at 4am) but i snoozed until almost 8am :-(
- happiness: 6/10 - i feel ok today, had a relatively good day at work, had a fun workout today. I had a fun car ride home from the gym - windows down, radio blasting. that was fun.
- financial discipline: New indicators: (1) ahead of schedule/ (2) on track/(3) behind schedule/ (4) holy shit what did I just do. Today, I'll give myself a 3. This should be a 2 or even a 1, but I went grocery shopping after bootcamp and spent $75 on groceries! WTF!!! I bought veggies, fruits, meat, coconut milk yogurt, dark chocolate almond milk. that's it! no wine, no junk. ugh. i also tried to buy the fruits and veggies that were on sale too :-( Oh well....
- anxiety: 4/10 - don't feel very anxious!
- energy: 7/10 - i have more energy! i just feel like i can do more - like when i came home after work/before leaving for bootcamp (i had about a 35 minute window) - i finished up some laundry and cleaned up the kitchen! Normally, I'd just sit on the couch and "relax".
- mental focus: 5/10 - not as foggy as last week, but still feel some "residual" fogginess
- fitness: 2/10
- quality of sleep: 5/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I only woke up once (at 4am) but i snoozed until almost 8am :-(
- happiness: 6/10 - i feel ok today, had a relatively good day at work, had a fun workout today. I had a fun car ride home from the gym - windows down, radio blasting. that was fun.
- financial discipline: New indicators: (1) ahead of schedule/ (2) on track/(3) behind schedule/ (4) holy shit what did I just do. Today, I'll give myself a 3. This should be a 2 or even a 1, but I went grocery shopping after bootcamp and spent $75 on groceries! WTF!!! I bought veggies, fruits, meat, coconut milk yogurt, dark chocolate almond milk. that's it! no wine, no junk. ugh. i also tried to buy the fruits and veggies that were on sale too :-( Oh well....
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Recent meals and Week 2 of Bootcamp
Quick update on yesterday's meals and workout:
I had left over paleo pancakes (elana's pantry silver dollar pancakes) for breakfast - these were delicious and quick and easy to make. I highly recommend them if you're looking for a new pancake recipe. Next time I think I'll add coconut flakes or even blueberries to the batter. The honey was sweet enough that I didn't even use maple syrup or anything on them. Delish.
Lunch/dinner was shrimp cocktail - but without the cocktail sauce. I just thawed jumbo shrimp and mixed in some tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon juice. (I also had a salad on the side). Dinner was more jumbo shrimp, this time on top of (rather than next to) a salad :-) ...I can't help it, I find a food I like (just like with music) and I eat it until I can eat it no more (or listen to it on repeat, as in the case of music).
Yesterday's workout was some absurd set of kettlebell and medicine ball circuits. The goal was to see how long it would take you to do 50/40/30 of 5 different exercises, twice over. Obvs, I chose the 30 rep sets and it took me 31:12. We'll be re-assessed again and hopefully, I'll get through this quicker next time.
Today's food: eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast; grilled chicken salad for lunch; a cup or so of blueberries; and a coconut milk yogurt. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do for dinner. I'll update this later when I figure that out. Maybe sweet potato hash again? That was SO good - you guys HAVE to try it.
Today's workout: RUNNING. FUCKING RUNNING. I HATE THE FUCKING RUNNING. like, as in 100 yard (or meter? i don't know) sprints. FUCK FUCK FUCK. I was about as slow as the 14 month pregnant chick that was working out with us. We had to run 100 yards (or meters? it was the length of a parking lot) and then power walk back.... as many times as possible for 15 MINUTES. Apparently this is how you get fast. We'll see about that. All I know is that I have never felt so in touch with my fucking hamstrings as I have these past two weeks. OH and my fucking boobs kept flying all over the place. OH, wait, before we did the running, there was JUMPING. FUCKING JUMPING. I don't know what I dislike more. We had to do a broad jump that was measured (best of 3 was taken)..I got 4'5". Yeah, i think that pregnant lady went farter than I did. To end this joyous workout, we did some ridiculous core workout where we had to do an exercise for the length of time it took one person to run a short distance (like a 1/4 of the parking lot). When that person came back, the next person would get up to run that distance while we moved onto a new core exercise. And this went on for about....10 people/10 core exercises. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't know, I was pretty dead by this time. This better get easier...because all I feel right now is how hard it is and how challenging it is for me.
Today my ____ is: (1 is the worst, 10 is the best)
- stress: 4/10 - not too stressed, had a good day at work with my minions/bad day w/ one of my clients and have to do some work tonight, but I'm feeling ok about it.
- anxiety: 5/10 - i don't feel totally relaxed, but i also don't really feel anxious...
- energy: 5/10 - thank goodness, i have some energy back.
- mental focus: 4/10 - not as foggy as last week, but still feel some "residual" fogginess
- fitness: 1/10 - when a 45 month pregnant woman laps you during sprints, you feel pretty out of shape :-(
- quality of sleep: 5/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I only woke up once (at 4am) and then woke up for real at 6:30 - so that was better than usual.
- happiness: 6/10 - i feel ok today, had a relatively good day at work (minus my idiot clients), left in time to come home, watch an episode of HIMYM, went to workout/torture myself, and now am looking forward to dinner.
- financial discipline: New indicators: (1) ahead of schedule/ (2) on track/(3) behind schedule/ (4) holy shit what did I just do. Today, I'll give myself a 2. I spent more than I wanted to this weekend, but less than I expected too, so I think overall I ended up saving $ on what could've been a really expensive weekend (with the 2 day festival).
Oh, and here's a picture of my ugly rainbooties. Thoughts? I went to 3 stores on Sunday and these were the only ones I could find :-(
I had left over paleo pancakes (elana's pantry silver dollar pancakes) for breakfast - these were delicious and quick and easy to make. I highly recommend them if you're looking for a new pancake recipe. Next time I think I'll add coconut flakes or even blueberries to the batter. The honey was sweet enough that I didn't even use maple syrup or anything on them. Delish.
Lunch/dinner was shrimp cocktail - but without the cocktail sauce. I just thawed jumbo shrimp and mixed in some tomatoes, olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon juice. (I also had a salad on the side). Dinner was more jumbo shrimp, this time on top of (rather than next to) a salad :-) ...I can't help it, I find a food I like (just like with music) and I eat it until I can eat it no more (or listen to it on repeat, as in the case of music).
Yesterday's workout was some absurd set of kettlebell and medicine ball circuits. The goal was to see how long it would take you to do 50/40/30 of 5 different exercises, twice over. Obvs, I chose the 30 rep sets and it took me 31:12. We'll be re-assessed again and hopefully, I'll get through this quicker next time.
Today's food: eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast; grilled chicken salad for lunch; a cup or so of blueberries; and a coconut milk yogurt. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do for dinner. I'll update this later when I figure that out. Maybe sweet potato hash again? That was SO good - you guys HAVE to try it.
Today's workout: RUNNING. FUCKING RUNNING. I HATE THE FUCKING RUNNING. like, as in 100 yard (or meter? i don't know) sprints. FUCK FUCK FUCK. I was about as slow as the 14 month pregnant chick that was working out with us. We had to run 100 yards (or meters? it was the length of a parking lot) and then power walk back.... as many times as possible for 15 MINUTES. Apparently this is how you get fast. We'll see about that. All I know is that I have never felt so in touch with my fucking hamstrings as I have these past two weeks. OH and my fucking boobs kept flying all over the place. OH, wait, before we did the running, there was JUMPING. FUCKING JUMPING. I don't know what I dislike more. We had to do a broad jump that was measured (best of 3 was taken)..I got 4'5". Yeah, i think that pregnant lady went farter than I did. To end this joyous workout, we did some ridiculous core workout where we had to do an exercise for the length of time it took one person to run a short distance (like a 1/4 of the parking lot). When that person came back, the next person would get up to run that distance while we moved onto a new core exercise. And this went on for about....10 people/10 core exercises. Maybe more, maybe less. I don't know, I was pretty dead by this time. This better get easier...because all I feel right now is how hard it is and how challenging it is for me.
Today my ____ is: (1 is the worst, 10 is the best)
- stress: 4/10 - not too stressed, had a good day at work with my minions/bad day w/ one of my clients and have to do some work tonight, but I'm feeling ok about it.
- anxiety: 5/10 - i don't feel totally relaxed, but i also don't really feel anxious...
- energy: 5/10 - thank goodness, i have some energy back.
- mental focus: 4/10 - not as foggy as last week, but still feel some "residual" fogginess
- fitness: 1/10 - when a 45 month pregnant woman laps you during sprints, you feel pretty out of shape :-(
- quality of sleep: 5/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I only woke up once (at 4am) and then woke up for real at 6:30 - so that was better than usual.
- happiness: 6/10 - i feel ok today, had a relatively good day at work (minus my idiot clients), left in time to come home, watch an episode of HIMYM, went to workout/torture myself, and now am looking forward to dinner.
- financial discipline: New indicators: (1) ahead of schedule/ (2) on track/(3) behind schedule/ (4) holy shit what did I just do. Today, I'll give myself a 2. I spent more than I wanted to this weekend, but less than I expected too, so I think overall I ended up saving $ on what could've been a really expensive weekend (with the 2 day festival).
Oh, and here's a picture of my ugly rainbooties. Thoughts? I went to 3 stores on Sunday and these were the only ones I could find :-(
hullo
hi sisters
last week was pretty busy... and it started (sort of) off with sara bareilles!!!
i bought kira tickets to a sara bareilles concert (last tuesday - 4/30) as an early birthday present, and man oh man was it awesome. it was a solo show - no openers, and just her on stage. she had all these instruments out and would just play one instrument per song... so for one song, she was on piano; another, she played acoustic guitar; another, she played electric guitar; she even played the harmonium!
she has an amazing voice and stage presence and she curses like a sailor and basically i just want to be her friend. have you guys seen her in concert? if not, i highly suggest it...
speaking of concerts, how was the shaky knees festival, maya??? glad you were able to get excited about it on sunday - not much is worse than wet feet, but i think the anticipation of wet feet could possibly be worse. i hope the lumineers were amazing! all i think about now when i hear the song "ho hey" is the girls on nashville...
other stuff happened last week that i can't really remember - game of thrones quizzo, which was interesting but also kind of weird - good to go to, though, because i hadn't seen some of the people in my book club in months (we haven't had a meeting since 2012... yikes). had to work late a couple of nights last week, but thankfully i don't have to do that this week (except for tonight haha). oh, speaking of work, i contacted someone in our writing center at drexel to see if they are looking for more faculty/staff readers to work with students on their writing... i decided to do that because i just started grading reflection papers in my civic engagement class (the class i'm teaching for freshmen which really isn't going all that well, mostly because none of the students want to be there, and i don't know how to combat that) - and realized that a) students don't know how to write and b) i would like to help them with that and c) i used to really love working at the writing center in college, so i might as well get involved with that here, right?
anyway... i feel like i haven't been good about keeping in touch with anybody recently or being responsible for myself in any way, shape, or form, so i'm trying to be better about that. you know, actually picking up the phone and calling people - or responding to people's emails - or writing in the (b)log (even if none of this is about any dinners i've had recently). also, making plans! like... maya, what do you want to do for your birthday? have you thought more about when a trip to CA might happen? i'll be honest, i'm not sure if i can afford it, but i'll try my best. and chaya - what's on tap for the trip out to CA this month?? kevin was telling me about some museum (site??) in LA that has to do with mammoths...??? i just googled it - it's the la brea tar pits and the george c. page museum - think that might be cool to check out?
and here's a picture of boo, looking out the window... (which i didn't close today, and it's supposed to rain for half the day... great.)
last week was pretty busy... and it started (sort of) off with sara bareilles!!!
i bought kira tickets to a sara bareilles concert (last tuesday - 4/30) as an early birthday present, and man oh man was it awesome. it was a solo show - no openers, and just her on stage. she had all these instruments out and would just play one instrument per song... so for one song, she was on piano; another, she played acoustic guitar; another, she played electric guitar; she even played the harmonium!
she has an amazing voice and stage presence and she curses like a sailor and basically i just want to be her friend. have you guys seen her in concert? if not, i highly suggest it...
speaking of concerts, how was the shaky knees festival, maya??? glad you were able to get excited about it on sunday - not much is worse than wet feet, but i think the anticipation of wet feet could possibly be worse. i hope the lumineers were amazing! all i think about now when i hear the song "ho hey" is the girls on nashville...
other stuff happened last week that i can't really remember - game of thrones quizzo, which was interesting but also kind of weird - good to go to, though, because i hadn't seen some of the people in my book club in months (we haven't had a meeting since 2012... yikes). had to work late a couple of nights last week, but thankfully i don't have to do that this week (except for tonight haha). oh, speaking of work, i contacted someone in our writing center at drexel to see if they are looking for more faculty/staff readers to work with students on their writing... i decided to do that because i just started grading reflection papers in my civic engagement class (the class i'm teaching for freshmen which really isn't going all that well, mostly because none of the students want to be there, and i don't know how to combat that) - and realized that a) students don't know how to write and b) i would like to help them with that and c) i used to really love working at the writing center in college, so i might as well get involved with that here, right?
anyway... i feel like i haven't been good about keeping in touch with anybody recently or being responsible for myself in any way, shape, or form, so i'm trying to be better about that. you know, actually picking up the phone and calling people - or responding to people's emails - or writing in the (b)log (even if none of this is about any dinners i've had recently). also, making plans! like... maya, what do you want to do for your birthday? have you thought more about when a trip to CA might happen? i'll be honest, i'm not sure if i can afford it, but i'll try my best. and chaya - what's on tap for the trip out to CA this month?? kevin was telling me about some museum (site??) in LA that has to do with mammoths...??? i just googled it - it's the la brea tar pits and the george c. page museum - think that might be cool to check out?
and here's a picture of boo, looking out the window... (which i didn't close today, and it's supposed to rain for half the day... great.)
Saturday, May 4, 2013
sweet potato hash with a fried egg!
super fast, delicious, and paleo!
found the recipe on nomnompaleo: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/19886925277/sweet-potato-hash-with-fried-eggs
I added a bit more spice to it and used coconut oil instead of lard, but otherwise pretty much stuck to the recipe. If you have a food processor, it takes less than 5 min to prep and only 10 or so min to cook the sweet potato + egg. I've been obsessed with eggs lately - especially over easy, so the yolk creates it own "sauce" with whatever i'm eating so this was a fun find. Will definitely add to the rotation.
Though, I *have* been eating a lot of eggs lately... so i'm looking for new/non egg breakfast recipe. Maybe coconut flour pancakes? We'll see...
found the recipe on nomnompaleo: http://nomnompaleo.com/post/19886925277/sweet-potato-hash-with-fried-eggs
I added a bit more spice to it and used coconut oil instead of lard, but otherwise pretty much stuck to the recipe. If you have a food processor, it takes less than 5 min to prep and only 10 or so min to cook the sweet potato + egg. I've been obsessed with eggs lately - especially over easy, so the yolk creates it own "sauce" with whatever i'm eating so this was a fun find. Will definitely add to the rotation.
Though, I *have* been eating a lot of eggs lately... so i'm looking for new/non egg breakfast recipe. Maybe coconut flour pancakes? We'll see...
Friday, May 3, 2013
End of Week 1 Bootcamp
Today was my 4th bootcamp workout! I have survived my first week of bootcamp! Woo!
Today's workout was really fun - we did an AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of the following:
5 touch run (30 meters)
15 pushups (from the knees, hands free - meaning, at the bottom of the pushup, I have to lift my hands off the ground (when my chest is resting on the ground))
15 sit ups (elbows touch the knees)
20 crate squats (butt must touch the crate between reps)
I forget how much time we had to do this - maybe 25 or so minutes? For every full round (1 set of the 4 exercises), you get 50 points. I got 147 points. I was 3 pushups away from 3 full rounds!
I guess this was also part of some "qualifying" event for the FitWit Summer Games. Apparently, this is a thing - a big thing? - and there will be more qualifying events over the course of the summer.
After the AMRAP, we played a "team" game: we split into two teams and each team had a stack of green, red and blue poker chips. There was a board that listed exercises that would get you green, red, and blue chips... See where I'm going with this? Each chip had a different "dollar" value - green was $10, red was $5, and blue was $20 I think. Each of the exercises in those groups were also of a corresponding, increasing difficulty (red= easy, green = medium, blue = hard). I also don't remember how long we had here, but let's say 25 minutes. Individually, for each set (of each exercise) we did, we could take away one of the corresponding chips from our opponents and put it in our "bank"...We ended up losing spectacularly - something like 500 points (us) to like 1000 points (them...but they did have one more person than our team). So, it was still individual in nature, because you had to do whatever you could, and at your own pace, but the team work comes in because you could help the team collect chips for each exercise you did so you felt extra motivated to keep going. It was fun!
Food-wise, I had turkey taco left overs for lunch AND dinner. They are so dang delicious y'all. I wish you could've tried them.
Weekend-wise, I have tickets to go to a music festival, Shaky Knees, both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately for me, it's supposed to monsoon all weekend. The festival is in a bunch of different venues - mostly outdoors - so on a nice/normal Atlanta day, it would be amazing... during a southern rainstorm, it has the potential to be AWFUL. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain too hard/for too long. Or, it only rains during the bad bands (not that I'd know who they are...I recognized two of the bajillion bands in the line up hahaha)
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10 (i have a lot of work to do...lots coming up in the next few weeks and I feel behind already...)
- anxiety: 6/10 (not feeling too anxious today)
- energy: 3/10 (feeling a little more energy, but still pretty tired/foggy)
- mental focus: 2/10 (same, still having trouble focusing)
- fitness: 4/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout - i feel my hamstrings today)
- quality of sleep: 6/10 - I had an okay night's sleep - still woke up and slept into 7:30, which I did not want to do, but i am tired! i guess my body needed it.
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 5/10.... shaky knees is gonna cost me $100! actually, more than that if i count drinks and food. ugh. and with the rain - oh, btw, we're not allowed to bring umbrellas! wtf. - i don't feel like i'm getting the full value of this experience. bah!
Today's workout was really fun - we did an AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) of the following:
5 touch run (30 meters)
15 pushups (from the knees, hands free - meaning, at the bottom of the pushup, I have to lift my hands off the ground (when my chest is resting on the ground))
15 sit ups (elbows touch the knees)
20 crate squats (butt must touch the crate between reps)
I forget how much time we had to do this - maybe 25 or so minutes? For every full round (1 set of the 4 exercises), you get 50 points. I got 147 points. I was 3 pushups away from 3 full rounds!
I guess this was also part of some "qualifying" event for the FitWit Summer Games. Apparently, this is a thing - a big thing? - and there will be more qualifying events over the course of the summer.
After the AMRAP, we played a "team" game: we split into two teams and each team had a stack of green, red and blue poker chips. There was a board that listed exercises that would get you green, red, and blue chips... See where I'm going with this? Each chip had a different "dollar" value - green was $10, red was $5, and blue was $20 I think. Each of the exercises in those groups were also of a corresponding, increasing difficulty (red= easy, green = medium, blue = hard). I also don't remember how long we had here, but let's say 25 minutes. Individually, for each set (of each exercise) we did, we could take away one of the corresponding chips from our opponents and put it in our "bank"...We ended up losing spectacularly - something like 500 points (us) to like 1000 points (them...but they did have one more person than our team). So, it was still individual in nature, because you had to do whatever you could, and at your own pace, but the team work comes in because you could help the team collect chips for each exercise you did so you felt extra motivated to keep going. It was fun!
Food-wise, I had turkey taco left overs for lunch AND dinner. They are so dang delicious y'all. I wish you could've tried them.
Weekend-wise, I have tickets to go to a music festival, Shaky Knees, both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately for me, it's supposed to monsoon all weekend. The festival is in a bunch of different venues - mostly outdoors - so on a nice/normal Atlanta day, it would be amazing... during a southern rainstorm, it has the potential to be AWFUL. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain too hard/for too long. Or, it only rains during the bad bands (not that I'd know who they are...I recognized two of the bajillion bands in the line up hahaha)
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10 (i have a lot of work to do...lots coming up in the next few weeks and I feel behind already...)
- anxiety: 6/10 (not feeling too anxious today)
- energy: 3/10 (feeling a little more energy, but still pretty tired/foggy)
- mental focus: 2/10 (same, still having trouble focusing)
- fitness: 4/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout - i feel my hamstrings today)
- quality of sleep: 6/10 - I had an okay night's sleep - still woke up and slept into 7:30, which I did not want to do, but i am tired! i guess my body needed it.
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 5/10.... shaky knees is gonna cost me $100! actually, more than that if i count drinks and food. ugh. and with the rain - oh, btw, we're not allowed to bring umbrellas! wtf. - i don't feel like i'm getting the full value of this experience. bah!
Thursday, May 2, 2013
My dinner was so delicious
That I had to come back and tell you about it.
I bought organic, vegetarian fed, ground turkey and made turkey taco wraps, using homemade taco seasoning (see previous post for recipe), and garnished with salsa, lime wedges, and avocado slices.
I sautéed a little bit of onion and garlic in 1 tsp of coconut oil. I added the ground turkey (about 1lb), and added 3 Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning while the meat browned. I let it brown over low-medium heat for maybe 10min? It was nice and crispy brown when I took it off the heat.
I assembled by taco wraps using romaine leaves, added the meat, an avocado slice, salsa, and squeezed a little bit of lime over it. I didn't have cilantro or hot sauce; I bet that would've made it even better.
It's so easy and prob sounds pretty boring but I have to say, this was one of the most flavorful tacos I've ever had! (Well, if I do say so myself). I can only attribute that to really good quality ingredients. Que DELICIOSO!!!
I bought organic, vegetarian fed, ground turkey and made turkey taco wraps, using homemade taco seasoning (see previous post for recipe), and garnished with salsa, lime wedges, and avocado slices.
I sautéed a little bit of onion and garlic in 1 tsp of coconut oil. I added the ground turkey (about 1lb), and added 3 Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning while the meat browned. I let it brown over low-medium heat for maybe 10min? It was nice and crispy brown when I took it off the heat.
I assembled by taco wraps using romaine leaves, added the meat, an avocado slice, salsa, and squeezed a little bit of lime over it. I didn't have cilantro or hot sauce; I bet that would've made it even better.
It's so easy and prob sounds pretty boring but I have to say, this was one of the most flavorful tacos I've ever had! (Well, if I do say so myself). I can only attribute that to really good quality ingredients. Que DELICIOSO!!!
Day 4, FitWit Bootcamp
Today was a pretty rough day - hard to focus on work, SORE, stiff neck/radiating pain in my arm. I had red wine last night (alcohol and sugar), a little cheese (few tablespoons) (dairy), and dark chocolate almonds (sugar)...today, I had some more dark chocolate almonds and cheese (parmesan), but overall I am happy with how I've been able to stay away from gluten and dairy for the most part. I definitely feel tired... I'm hoping that this is my body "detoxing" and I'm hoping even more that I get through this quickly.
I really didn't think I'd be able to work out today b/c of the neck pain, but I actually feel MUCH better now than I have all day. Crazy, huh? The trainer was saying that my neck pain was probably due to a combination of an excess of lactic acid accumulating in my traps and poor form when I did my pushups on Tuesday. I'm pretty sure he's right about that - pushups were the last thing I did on Tuesday and I remember them being really hard to do but I pushed through it (heh heh heh).
Today's workout was learning about kettle bells. Those things are fun! Today was our last newbie-only workout, starting tomorrow, we'll be with the vet for the rest of our workouts (whoa). Those make me nervous because it sounds intense...but maybe it will be like Tuesday's, and it'll be about getting through a # of stations. I like those sorts of workouts.
Food-wise, I don't have pictures yet b/c I haven't made dinner yet, but I will be making turkey taco lettuce wraps, with salsa, avocado and lime. Taco seasoning is not paleo, but I found a recipe for home-made taco seasoning:
TACO SEASONING
ingredients:
2 T chili powder
1-1/2 T cumin
1-1/2 T paprika
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
I'll let you know how it is....
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 5/10
- anxiety: 8/10 (I'm really anxious today..not sure why. I booked my trip to Boston and my flight was a little more than I wanted to pay - but still affordable -but I still don't know why I feel anxious.)
- energy: 1/10 (I feel BONE tired today)
- mental focus: 2/10 (i feel super foggy today and had a trouble focusing on work)
- fitness: 4/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout)
- quality of sleep: 4/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I woke up a few times during the night and slept in until about 7:45am - not good :-(
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 6/10... this indicator is hard for me to rate on a day to day basis. I spent $$ on my ticket to Boston today, but I haven't spent $$ on anything else. I also looked into refinancing my mortgage today (long story, probably not going to happen w/ sovereign bank b/c it's not my primary residence - oh,maybe this is why i feel anxious?). what exactly is financial discipline? sticking with my budget? so far, i think i'm doing ok. paid a little more in groceries than i expected to yesterday, but i also haven't spent $$ on anything discretionary this week.
I can't believe this week isn't over yet... I can't wait to sleep in this weekend.
I really didn't think I'd be able to work out today b/c of the neck pain, but I actually feel MUCH better now than I have all day. Crazy, huh? The trainer was saying that my neck pain was probably due to a combination of an excess of lactic acid accumulating in my traps and poor form when I did my pushups on Tuesday. I'm pretty sure he's right about that - pushups were the last thing I did on Tuesday and I remember them being really hard to do but I pushed through it (heh heh heh).
Today's workout was learning about kettle bells. Those things are fun! Today was our last newbie-only workout, starting tomorrow, we'll be with the vet for the rest of our workouts (whoa). Those make me nervous because it sounds intense...but maybe it will be like Tuesday's, and it'll be about getting through a # of stations. I like those sorts of workouts.
Food-wise, I don't have pictures yet b/c I haven't made dinner yet, but I will be making turkey taco lettuce wraps, with salsa, avocado and lime. Taco seasoning is not paleo, but I found a recipe for home-made taco seasoning:
TACO SEASONING
ingredients:
2 T chili powder
1-1/2 T cumin
1-1/2 T paprika
1 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
I'll let you know how it is....
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 5/10
- anxiety: 8/10 (I'm really anxious today..not sure why. I booked my trip to Boston and my flight was a little more than I wanted to pay - but still affordable -but I still don't know why I feel anxious.)
- energy: 1/10 (I feel BONE tired today)
- mental focus: 2/10 (i feel super foggy today and had a trouble focusing on work)
- fitness: 4/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout)
- quality of sleep: 4/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I woke up a few times during the night and slept in until about 7:45am - not good :-(
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 6/10... this indicator is hard for me to rate on a day to day basis. I spent $$ on my ticket to Boston today, but I haven't spent $$ on anything else. I also looked into refinancing my mortgage today (long story, probably not going to happen w/ sovereign bank b/c it's not my primary residence - oh,maybe this is why i feel anxious?). what exactly is financial discipline? sticking with my budget? so far, i think i'm doing ok. paid a little more in groceries than i expected to yesterday, but i also haven't spent $$ on anything discretionary this week.
I can't believe this week isn't over yet... I can't wait to sleep in this weekend.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Day 3
No Bootcamp class today. Which is awesome because I feel like a truck hit me. I can't move. I am sore. It hurts to laugh. I feel all my muscles. Everywhere. The only comfortable position right now is standing up.
I also think I'm starting to feel the effects of my recent dietary choices: I am BONE TIRED today. I was also pretty foggy (focus-wise) today.
I don't have dinner pics to share, but here is a picture of my grocery shopping trip tonight. Cats not included. I bought "clean" food - thinking about how the animals were raised, etc. I'm pretty happy with the selection of groceries I have for this week; I think I have decent variety so that I'm not eating grilled chicken salads all the time. It's a pretty easy lunch, but I'd like to explore a little. Two things I'll try are mashed cauliflower and cauliflower "fried rice" this week.
Any guesses on what this grocery trip cost?
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 4/10
- anxiety: 4/10
- energy: 1/10 (I feel BONE tired today)
- mental focus: 2/10 (i feel super foggy today)
- fitness: 3/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout)
- quality of sleep: 5/10
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 6/10 (i spent more on groceries than I should've...)
I also think I'm starting to feel the effects of my recent dietary choices: I am BONE TIRED today. I was also pretty foggy (focus-wise) today.
I don't have dinner pics to share, but here is a picture of my grocery shopping trip tonight. Cats not included. I bought "clean" food - thinking about how the animals were raised, etc. I'm pretty happy with the selection of groceries I have for this week; I think I have decent variety so that I'm not eating grilled chicken salads all the time. It's a pretty easy lunch, but I'd like to explore a little. Two things I'll try are mashed cauliflower and cauliflower "fried rice" this week.
Any guesses on what this grocery trip cost?
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 4/10
- anxiety: 4/10
- energy: 1/10 (I feel BONE tired today)
- mental focus: 2/10 (i feel super foggy today)
- fitness: 3/10 (i feel sore; the sort of sore that reminds you that you had a good workout)
- quality of sleep: 5/10
- happiness: 5/10
- financial discipline: 6/10 (i spent more on groceries than I should've...)
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Day 2, FitWit Bootcamp
I don't have a picture to share today, but honestly, I ate pretty much exactly the same as yesterday's meals, with a few tweaks:
- I had 2 eggs today instead of 1 (and also had 3 slices of turkey bacon, asparagus, tomatoes, and added some sauteed garlic to the mix)
- I drank some hot water with lemon, with my breakfast. I don't really know why that is being touted as "healthy" but it tasted good. I also had my coffee at work sans sugar! (this does not include the sugar that is in the little mini-coffeemate that I put into my coffee...)
- Work was STUPID busy today so I had coconut milk yogurt as a snack and didn't have lunch until 4:30 (which was the same as yesterdays - basically, a grilled chicken salad).
- I ate an orange after bootcamp
It's almost 10pm and I haven't had dinner yet. I'm not sure what I'll have/if anything - I AM BEAT!
Today's workout was with the "vets" - we were partnered up and had to go through a series of exercises at different stations. This is what we had to do in an hour:
50 pullups (max 10) - Kim and I did not get to this
100 Pushups (max 10) - Kim and I got to 50
150 Squats (max 15) - We did this! (first...which was probably not a very strategic move because we were pretty beat afterwards)
200 Supermans (max 20) - Did this too!
400 Lunges total (max 40) - Hell no
200 Double Unders (max 20) or 1,000 Singles (max 100) - I think we got to about 400 singles or so - we lost count hahaha
20 Touch Drill (100 yards, max 2) - yup, did this too.
Chaya, I thought of you as I was doing the pushups! Those things can really wreck your neck lol.
I am really happy with what we did. I don't know if anyone got through all of those exercises in the hour we had. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think it was even FUN... and I'm looking forward to Thursday's workout!! (tomorrow is an off day - thank goodness, I have to do laundry, buy some new workout clothes, catch up on GH!)
After bootcamp, we had a nutrition talk with one of the trainers. She was pretty bad (bad speaker, I felt bad for her) - but you could tell she was knowledgeable. I bet she'd be better 1:1 so I may try to take advantage of her expertise throughout this bootcamp month. She's pretty jacked and is super curious about nutrition. Key takeways for me, from the nutrition talk, were:
1. Do your own research. Try to figure out what's propaganda versus real science (now, how to do that is an entirely different question).
2. Experiment. Find what types and combinations of works for your body and health.
3. Gluten is bad. (I think I secretly have known this but have been ignoring the physical pains/proof of the "badness").
4. Soy is bad. (Same side note as above.)
5. I am not giving up wine for anybody. I don't care you who are or how fit you are or what you say. So fuck you and give me my glass of wine :-) (Though, I will admit to be drinking a glass of carbonated water as I type this...)
6. Sugar is bad and addictive. This, I for sure know and can personally attest to its addictive qualities.
7. There is a sustainable aspect to food - how animals are raised, how vegetables are tended to (addressing the side effects of pesticides), what sort of enviromental foot print is left when we consider what it takes to get food from the farm to our table, etc. I hear the hippy foodie wackos talk about this all time - especially in my line of work - but luckily, I now live in an area that is abundant with farmers markets and general access to affordable healthy, sustainable food options (some of the "lower end" grocery stores here have fantastic organic sections - it's' amazing).
8. There are different kinds - and flavors - of olive oil. The ones that smell better are worse for cooking with - just use those as flavor enhancers. After hearing that, it made me want to do a olive oil tasting! I just used to buy EVOO - whichever was on sale or sounded most "Italian" hahahaha...never considered that its smell or taste actually meant anything.
9. I love my cats.
10. Hahaha, I put that in to see if anyone would actually read this far down (and to make it to 10 points haha).
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10 (today was a crazy stressful day at work; had a big meeting with CDC where I was, yet again disappointed by the lack of vision of our nation's health agency...)
- anxiety: 7/10
- energy: 5/10
- mental focus: 4/10
- fitness: 3/10 (i did more than I thought i was capable of today but I have a *long* way to go)
- quality of sleep: 4/10
- happiness: 5/10
- financial health: 6.5/10 (I have grand plans in place here, but need to give them time to actually WORK haha) (and thanks to Chaya for this addition! Interestingly, I read an article somewhere about how people who are financially "fit" are also able to lose weight..or something like that. I bet it has to do with being able to stick with small changes/habits until you see the big picture change.) I wonder if we could create some sort of "financial boot camp"....
Ok, so I'm pooped. Looking forward to a good night's sleep. Happy that tomorrow is an off day. Looking forward to Thursday's workout!! WOOOOOOO!!
- I had 2 eggs today instead of 1 (and also had 3 slices of turkey bacon, asparagus, tomatoes, and added some sauteed garlic to the mix)
- I drank some hot water with lemon, with my breakfast. I don't really know why that is being touted as "healthy" but it tasted good. I also had my coffee at work sans sugar! (this does not include the sugar that is in the little mini-coffeemate that I put into my coffee...)
- Work was STUPID busy today so I had coconut milk yogurt as a snack and didn't have lunch until 4:30 (which was the same as yesterdays - basically, a grilled chicken salad).
- I ate an orange after bootcamp
It's almost 10pm and I haven't had dinner yet. I'm not sure what I'll have/if anything - I AM BEAT!
Today's workout was with the "vets" - we were partnered up and had to go through a series of exercises at different stations. This is what we had to do in an hour:
50 pullups (max 10) - Kim and I did not get to this
100 Pushups (max 10) - Kim and I got to 50
150 Squats (max 15) - We did this! (first...which was probably not a very strategic move because we were pretty beat afterwards)
200 Supermans (max 20) - Did this too!
400 Lunges total (max 40) - Hell no
200 Double Unders (max 20) or 1,000 Singles (max 100) - I think we got to about 400 singles or so - we lost count hahaha
20 Touch Drill (100 yards, max 2) - yup, did this too.
Chaya, I thought of you as I was doing the pushups! Those things can really wreck your neck lol.
I am really happy with what we did. I don't know if anyone got through all of those exercises in the hour we had. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I think it was even FUN... and I'm looking forward to Thursday's workout!! (tomorrow is an off day - thank goodness, I have to do laundry, buy some new workout clothes, catch up on GH!)
After bootcamp, we had a nutrition talk with one of the trainers. She was pretty bad (bad speaker, I felt bad for her) - but you could tell she was knowledgeable. I bet she'd be better 1:1 so I may try to take advantage of her expertise throughout this bootcamp month. She's pretty jacked and is super curious about nutrition. Key takeways for me, from the nutrition talk, were:
1. Do your own research. Try to figure out what's propaganda versus real science (now, how to do that is an entirely different question).
2. Experiment. Find what types and combinations of works for your body and health.
3. Gluten is bad. (I think I secretly have known this but have been ignoring the physical pains/proof of the "badness").
4. Soy is bad. (Same side note as above.)
5. I am not giving up wine for anybody. I don't care you who are or how fit you are or what you say. So fuck you and give me my glass of wine :-) (Though, I will admit to be drinking a glass of carbonated water as I type this...)
6. Sugar is bad and addictive. This, I for sure know and can personally attest to its addictive qualities.
7. There is a sustainable aspect to food - how animals are raised, how vegetables are tended to (addressing the side effects of pesticides), what sort of enviromental foot print is left when we consider what it takes to get food from the farm to our table, etc. I hear the hippy foodie wackos talk about this all time - especially in my line of work - but luckily, I now live in an area that is abundant with farmers markets and general access to affordable healthy, sustainable food options (some of the "lower end" grocery stores here have fantastic organic sections - it's' amazing).
8. There are different kinds - and flavors - of olive oil. The ones that smell better are worse for cooking with - just use those as flavor enhancers. After hearing that, it made me want to do a olive oil tasting! I just used to buy EVOO - whichever was on sale or sounded most "Italian" hahahaha...never considered that its smell or taste actually meant anything.
9. I love my cats.
10. Hahaha, I put that in to see if anyone would actually read this far down (and to make it to 10 points haha).
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10 (today was a crazy stressful day at work; had a big meeting with CDC where I was, yet again disappointed by the lack of vision of our nation's health agency...)
- anxiety: 7/10
- energy: 5/10
- mental focus: 4/10
- fitness: 3/10 (i did more than I thought i was capable of today but I have a *long* way to go)
- quality of sleep: 4/10
- happiness: 5/10
- financial health: 6.5/10 (I have grand plans in place here, but need to give them time to actually WORK haha) (and thanks to Chaya for this addition! Interestingly, I read an article somewhere about how people who are financially "fit" are also able to lose weight..or something like that. I bet it has to do with being able to stick with small changes/habits until you see the big picture change.) I wonder if we could create some sort of "financial boot camp"....
Ok, so I'm pooped. Looking forward to a good night's sleep. Happy that tomorrow is an off day. Looking forward to Thursday's workout!! WOOOOOOO!!
Monday, April 29, 2013
Day 1, FitWit Bootcamp
Today was day 1 of bootcamp. I am also trying out this paleo thing as well (for the majority of my meals, and for at least for the duration of bootcamp...I'll revisit once this month is over!).
For my meals today:
1. 1 egg, over easy with sauteed asparagus and cherry tomatoes and a few slices of turkey bacon. I used cooking spray and turkey bacon which I'm pretty sure aren't really paleo but whatever...
2. Coffee and coconut milk yogurt (blueberry flavor). I did NOT add sugar to my coffee today!! But, I did add two little french vanilla creamers lol... those probably weren't paleo. But, yo, not having sugar in my coffee is most definitely a first! You know, I'm not sure if the yogurt is paleo either (it tasted sweet) but it's dairy free, so it met that parameter of the paleo diet.
3. Grilled chicken with veggies - mixed greens, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots. I did put a little northern italian dressing on it...also probably not paleo :-)
4. An orange and an apple. Both 100% paleo!
5. Dinner is going to be fish and veggies. I ran out of dressing so this is most likely going to be 100% paleo! Except for the 2 sprays of cooking spray I use when I prep the fish and smother it in cajun seasoning :-)
It wasn't that difficult to put these meals together (with the exception of the little things like cooking spray and coffee creamer and turkey bacon haha). The things I've read so far about transitioning to Paleo indicate that this will be a detox period for my body and that I should expect pretty rough symptoms (e.g., fatigue, headaches, irritability) before I "stabilize"... so far I feel pretty good. I'm hungry for dinner, but that's probably because I sweat more in the last hour than I have for like the last 2 years! So, let me tell you about the workout:
There were about 10 or so of us "newbies" (more "vets" were also part of the camp but they did their own thing so I didn't pay much attention to them.) We did a dynamic warmup that pretty much kicked my ass and then a lot of assessments - # of pushups in a minute (3 toe, 12 knee), # of single jumps in 2 minutes (110), plank duration in 3 minutes (54 sec), # of squats in 1 or 2 minutes (24 i think?). In 4 weeks, we'll do this re-assessment again and the goal is to see that I've improved in these areas. Tomorrow, we're going to work out with the "vets", Wed off, Thursday "newbies only", Friday with the "vets"...
I did the best I could -but it was hard. there were people of all shapes and sizes and abilities - but I am very clearly deconditioned. I can only go up from here. I know I shouldn't compare myself to others in the group, but it was really hard for me *not* to do that. I am going to try to stay focused on myself and my progress...I hope others don't judge me for how out of shape I am. Though, if they do, should I care? Probably not. One of my coworkers is in the group (she was the one who told me about it) so it's nice to know someone. I'm not yet sure of the others in the group - people came with friends and sort of kept to their groups. I tried joking around with people, but it fell flat.. I kind of felt like what I imagine Daddy to feel like when no one responds to his idiocy. I should be nicer to him...
Anyway, I digress. So, I left the workout and could barely lift my arms to hold my steering wheel, to drive home. I'm screwed. OH, and what the hell am I going to wear for 4 workouts/week! I can't wear the crap that I have been trying to pass off as workout gear (3 out of the 4 pants I have all have holes in the inner thighs and the shirts are gross lol...time for a trip to marshalls or target, me thinks!).
I also want to see what health/wellness changes this month long experiment yields, so I am going to rate how I feel on a scale of 1-10 (1, best- 10, worst) on the following indictors:
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10
- anxiety: 8/10
- energy: 5/10
-mental focus: 5/10
-fitness: 2/10
- quality of sleep: 4/10
- happiness: 5/10
Are there other indicators I should track? Please leave them in the comments!
For my meals today:
1. 1 egg, over easy with sauteed asparagus and cherry tomatoes and a few slices of turkey bacon. I used cooking spray and turkey bacon which I'm pretty sure aren't really paleo but whatever...
2. Coffee and coconut milk yogurt (blueberry flavor). I did NOT add sugar to my coffee today!! But, I did add two little french vanilla creamers lol... those probably weren't paleo. But, yo, not having sugar in my coffee is most definitely a first! You know, I'm not sure if the yogurt is paleo either (it tasted sweet) but it's dairy free, so it met that parameter of the paleo diet.
3. Grilled chicken with veggies - mixed greens, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots. I did put a little northern italian dressing on it...also probably not paleo :-)
4. An orange and an apple. Both 100% paleo!
5. Dinner is going to be fish and veggies. I ran out of dressing so this is most likely going to be 100% paleo! Except for the 2 sprays of cooking spray I use when I prep the fish and smother it in cajun seasoning :-)
It wasn't that difficult to put these meals together (with the exception of the little things like cooking spray and coffee creamer and turkey bacon haha). The things I've read so far about transitioning to Paleo indicate that this will be a detox period for my body and that I should expect pretty rough symptoms (e.g., fatigue, headaches, irritability) before I "stabilize"... so far I feel pretty good. I'm hungry for dinner, but that's probably because I sweat more in the last hour than I have for like the last 2 years! So, let me tell you about the workout:
There were about 10 or so of us "newbies" (more "vets" were also part of the camp but they did their own thing so I didn't pay much attention to them.) We did a dynamic warmup that pretty much kicked my ass and then a lot of assessments - # of pushups in a minute (3 toe, 12 knee), # of single jumps in 2 minutes (110), plank duration in 3 minutes (54 sec), # of squats in 1 or 2 minutes (24 i think?). In 4 weeks, we'll do this re-assessment again and the goal is to see that I've improved in these areas. Tomorrow, we're going to work out with the "vets", Wed off, Thursday "newbies only", Friday with the "vets"...
I did the best I could -but it was hard. there were people of all shapes and sizes and abilities - but I am very clearly deconditioned. I can only go up from here. I know I shouldn't compare myself to others in the group, but it was really hard for me *not* to do that. I am going to try to stay focused on myself and my progress...I hope others don't judge me for how out of shape I am. Though, if they do, should I care? Probably not. One of my coworkers is in the group (she was the one who told me about it) so it's nice to know someone. I'm not yet sure of the others in the group - people came with friends and sort of kept to their groups. I tried joking around with people, but it fell flat.. I kind of felt like what I imagine Daddy to feel like when no one responds to his idiocy. I should be nicer to him...
Anyway, I digress. So, I left the workout and could barely lift my arms to hold my steering wheel, to drive home. I'm screwed. OH, and what the hell am I going to wear for 4 workouts/week! I can't wear the crap that I have been trying to pass off as workout gear (3 out of the 4 pants I have all have holes in the inner thighs and the shirts are gross lol...time for a trip to marshalls or target, me thinks!).
I also want to see what health/wellness changes this month long experiment yields, so I am going to rate how I feel on a scale of 1-10 (1, best- 10, worst) on the following indictors:
Today my ____ is:
- stress: 7/10
- anxiety: 8/10
- energy: 5/10
-mental focus: 5/10
-fitness: 2/10
- quality of sleep: 4/10
- happiness: 5/10
Are there other indicators I should track? Please leave them in the comments!
hey. i miss you guys.
time to resurrect the dinner (b)log?!? and also sister skype dates?
i guess it would be pretty difficult to come up with what i've been eating for dinner every night since my last blog post, especially since i think that was over a month ago. instead, here are some highlights:
first: last week was philadelphia science festival, which brings together universities, research institutions, companies, and other community organizations in philadelphia to highlight science and how cool it is - and there are some pretty cool events that take place throughout the entire ten days of the festival. i went to a few: first, an event on taxidermy, where i heard a cultural historian speak about sort of the history and cultural meaning of taxidermy and then i watched a taxidermy practitioner taxidermy a chicken in front of us. really. she skinned a chicken and then stuffed it right in front of us. here's a picture:
.JPG)
it was awesome. here's her website if you want to take a look at her stuff - she's a rogue taxidermist (that's a real thing!) because she doesn't generally taxidermy animals into their original form but rather does stuff with it -- like creates wearable taxidermy! after that event, kevin and i went to dinner at alla spina, which was delicious - but kevin actually had the fried chicken there and i'm not sure how he did it after watching the taxidermy demonstration.
a couple other events from philadelphia science festival - we watched an improv comedy show about the history of science, which was mostly really funny, and then on friday, we went to an event titled "beer chemistry" which was all about the chemistry behind beer/food pairing and was held at yards brewery. i think i learned something, but it was also open bar, so i'm not really sure. i'll get back to you on that.
second: DC was a much better work trip than wisconsin was - thank goodness!
.JPG)
it was actually really cool to be able to meet with some representatives/staffers, particularly Rep. Chaka Fattah, who is the congressional rep for the 2nd congressional district of PA (e.g., half of philly - i voted for him!). here's a picture of him accepting an award from my student, veronika:
.JPG)
he was much more interesting to meet with than the staffer from senator toomey's office (super conservative republican senator from PA - they had fox news playing in his office waiting area while we were waiting for our meeting) -- that guy didn't have any idea why we were there or what the posters on the hill event was or what the council on undergraduate research was - which is fine, because of course they can't know everything, but also kind of was a downer after having met with Rep Fattah, who is so involved in and supportive of undergraduate research.
this weekend, i helped kevin paint his living room/kitchen on saturday (it took us like 6 hours... uggghhhh... but it looks really nice now haha) and then yesterday, i just cleaned up around the house (did laundry which i hadn't done since before leaving for wisconsin), baked (banana bread nutella whoopie pies), and then dena came over so i could help her with some wedding crafts. here's the nutella buttercream frosting, which goes in the center of the whoopie pies (no idea why i didn't take a pic of the whoopie pies themselves):
.JPG)
and of dena and the mess of glitter that happened while we were crafting:
our couch is REALLY sparkly now.
i guess it would be pretty difficult to come up with what i've been eating for dinner every night since my last blog post, especially since i think that was over a month ago. instead, here are some highlights:
first: last week was philadelphia science festival, which brings together universities, research institutions, companies, and other community organizations in philadelphia to highlight science and how cool it is - and there are some pretty cool events that take place throughout the entire ten days of the festival. i went to a few: first, an event on taxidermy, where i heard a cultural historian speak about sort of the history and cultural meaning of taxidermy and then i watched a taxidermy practitioner taxidermy a chicken in front of us. really. she skinned a chicken and then stuffed it right in front of us. here's a picture:
.JPG)
it was awesome. here's her website if you want to take a look at her stuff - she's a rogue taxidermist (that's a real thing!) because she doesn't generally taxidermy animals into their original form but rather does stuff with it -- like creates wearable taxidermy! after that event, kevin and i went to dinner at alla spina, which was delicious - but kevin actually had the fried chicken there and i'm not sure how he did it after watching the taxidermy demonstration.
a couple other events from philadelphia science festival - we watched an improv comedy show about the history of science, which was mostly really funny, and then on friday, we went to an event titled "beer chemistry" which was all about the chemistry behind beer/food pairing and was held at yards brewery. i think i learned something, but it was also open bar, so i'm not really sure. i'll get back to you on that.
second: DC was a much better work trip than wisconsin was - thank goodness!
.JPG)
it was actually really cool to be able to meet with some representatives/staffers, particularly Rep. Chaka Fattah, who is the congressional rep for the 2nd congressional district of PA (e.g., half of philly - i voted for him!). here's a picture of him accepting an award from my student, veronika:
.JPG)
he was much more interesting to meet with than the staffer from senator toomey's office (super conservative republican senator from PA - they had fox news playing in his office waiting area while we were waiting for our meeting) -- that guy didn't have any idea why we were there or what the posters on the hill event was or what the council on undergraduate research was - which is fine, because of course they can't know everything, but also kind of was a downer after having met with Rep Fattah, who is so involved in and supportive of undergraduate research.
this weekend, i helped kevin paint his living room/kitchen on saturday (it took us like 6 hours... uggghhhh... but it looks really nice now haha) and then yesterday, i just cleaned up around the house (did laundry which i hadn't done since before leaving for wisconsin), baked (banana bread nutella whoopie pies), and then dena came over so i could help her with some wedding crafts. here's the nutella buttercream frosting, which goes in the center of the whoopie pies (no idea why i didn't take a pic of the whoopie pies themselves):
.JPG)
and of dena and the mess of glitter that happened while we were crafting:
our couch is REALLY sparkly now.
Friday, April 5, 2013
A Post
I have no cool picture collage to help me narrate recent going-ons, so I can't really think of anything to say. Hm. I'm going to see Jurassic Park tonight!!!!!!!!
Here's a picture of a asparagus & mushroom (!!) risotto Russ made this week, with hot Italian sausage on the side. He cut up the mushrooms reeeaaallly small so I didn't even notice they were there! Yum!
Here's a picture of a asparagus & mushroom (!!) risotto Russ made this week, with hot Italian sausage on the side. He cut up the mushrooms reeeaaallly small so I didn't even notice they were there! Yum!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Recent Happenings
top row, right to left: 1) the Meows being super cute. And helpful, as Mariposa Guards. 2) Chicken stuffed with proscuitto and cheese, from target (before). 3) the "after" of said stuffed chicken. 4) I LEARNED HOW TO PARK MY CAR IN REVERSE!!!! This is something that *everyone* does here in Atlanta and I never tried doing it, but when one of my minions was in town, she made me do it. And, now every night when I get home from work, this is how I park my car! (Well, the picture is of me parking this way at another minion's place, but it was the first time I had done it so I had to take a picture of it. Der.)
Row 2, right to left: 1) the baby blanket I'm knitting for my friend. i am really digging this pattern! For whatever reason, I had been calling her kid "lizzie lemon" and she just found out the gender yesterday.... IT'S A GIRL! and the blanket I'm knitting just *happens* to be a LEMON yellow!!!! 2) the picture on the UNSWEETENED ICED TEA thing at the burrito place that I got picture #3 from. How funny is this! 3) chicken and broccoli burrito, chips, and guac. I highly recommend broccoli in burritos. AMAZING. 4) scoop of (dairy free) coconut ice cream and mint chocolate chip (full of dairy). The dairy free was made w/ coconut milk and almond milk... also delish!
Row 3, right to left: 1) lizzie lemon's baby blanket, 2) MY MEOW MEOW LOVE, 3) lotus salad with yummy papadum like things and 4) shaken beef over watercress, both of these were lunch from a local vietnamese place that i went to with coworkers. MY BELLY WAS SO HAPPY after this meal. My coworkers and I decided halfway through the meal that we would go there monthly lol...
Row 4, right to left: 1) mine and Suzanne's sandwiches from a local spot called Victory. One her sandwiches was this veggie sandwich made with beets that were prepared like pastrami. My sandwiches were pimento and ham, and a cuban - both ridiculously delicious. 2) I found (award winning!) ravioli at my local market (Savi Urban Market) that is shaped like FISHIES and tastes like mac and cheese. Paired with my favorite summer wine, Casal Garcia Vino Verdhe, and I am one happy chick. 3 and 4) My *other* MEOW MEOW LOVE, hiding in a bag.
Row 2, right to left: 1) the baby blanket I'm knitting for my friend. i am really digging this pattern! For whatever reason, I had been calling her kid "lizzie lemon" and she just found out the gender yesterday.... IT'S A GIRL! and the blanket I'm knitting just *happens* to be a LEMON yellow!!!! 2) the picture on the UNSWEETENED ICED TEA thing at the burrito place that I got picture #3 from. How funny is this! 3) chicken and broccoli burrito, chips, and guac. I highly recommend broccoli in burritos. AMAZING. 4) scoop of (dairy free) coconut ice cream and mint chocolate chip (full of dairy). The dairy free was made w/ coconut milk and almond milk... also delish!
Row 3, right to left: 1) lizzie lemon's baby blanket, 2) MY MEOW MEOW LOVE, 3) lotus salad with yummy papadum like things and 4) shaken beef over watercress, both of these were lunch from a local vietnamese place that i went to with coworkers. MY BELLY WAS SO HAPPY after this meal. My coworkers and I decided halfway through the meal that we would go there monthly lol...
Row 4, right to left: 1) mine and Suzanne's sandwiches from a local spot called Victory. One her sandwiches was this veggie sandwich made with beets that were prepared like pastrami. My sandwiches were pimento and ham, and a cuban - both ridiculously delicious. 2) I found (award winning!) ravioli at my local market (Savi Urban Market) that is shaped like FISHIES and tastes like mac and cheese. Paired with my favorite summer wine, Casal Garcia Vino Verdhe, and I am one happy chick. 3 and 4) My *other* MEOW MEOW LOVE, hiding in a bag.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
sorry for the crickets!
hi guyssss
sorry for the crickets, chay. i was trying to figure out if there's a consistent time that i'm home after work, but really it changes every week (mainly based on if i have to stay late at work and/or when i'm going to the gym) - want to try scheduling skype dates week to week? or, like you said, we could be pre-millenial and just call each other haha. also, glad that your phone battery is on its way back to you! does that mean that you're not going to a month-to-month plan?
and maya - again, sorry that i didn't tell you not to watch the whole third season of downton abbey this weekend. i know, it's terrible. ...even worse is that i just looked up when season 4 is supposed to air in the US... not till jan 2014. :-/ release date in the UK is this fall. UGH.
anyhoodles... updates from my life: this here is a vegetarian meal, complete with vegan general tso's chicken! it was delicious and totally tasted like chicken. i guess this was my dinner from last wed, because i had the leftovers for lunch on thurs during skyping with maya, and she and i were trying to ascertain what vegan chicken is made of. i still don't know, but WHO CARES IT'S DELICIOUS.
i also made it to 50% of my walking goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on sunday, i spent a lot of time with nat - we did some girly stuff, like attended a pop-up showroom for rent the runway (renttherunway.com - you can rent designer dresses for a fraction of the cost for events - sophie does this for all the weddings she goes to, and it's actually not a bad deal). we were able to try on dresses at the showroom, and i found this dress, which i'm going to rent for nat's sister's wedding in september -- and would you believe it, this dress (which i can rent for $65 for a weekend) retails at $400! insane.
after that, i went with nat to a trunk show for a bridal designer so that she and her sister's other bridesmaids could try on and order their bridesmaid dresses, and then we went back to my house to do our nails and hang out... and i started watching the walking dead. i watched 5 hours of it on sunday (right up until i went to bed, which was a terrible idea) - and then i watched another 5 hours of it yesterday while i was working from home haha.
and here is a picture of boo, opening one of the drawers under my bed all by herself and digging around in my sweaters:
sorry for the crickets, chay. i was trying to figure out if there's a consistent time that i'm home after work, but really it changes every week (mainly based on if i have to stay late at work and/or when i'm going to the gym) - want to try scheduling skype dates week to week? or, like you said, we could be pre-millenial and just call each other haha. also, glad that your phone battery is on its way back to you! does that mean that you're not going to a month-to-month plan?
and maya - again, sorry that i didn't tell you not to watch the whole third season of downton abbey this weekend. i know, it's terrible. ...even worse is that i just looked up when season 4 is supposed to air in the US... not till jan 2014. :-/ release date in the UK is this fall. UGH.
anyhoodles... updates from my life: this here is a vegetarian meal, complete with vegan general tso's chicken! it was delicious and totally tasted like chicken. i guess this was my dinner from last wed, because i had the leftovers for lunch on thurs during skyping with maya, and she and i were trying to ascertain what vegan chicken is made of. i still don't know, but WHO CARES IT'S DELICIOUS.
on friday, i actually had dinner with uma aunty and anjali! they were in philly, because anjali was accepted to upenn for law school (she hasn't decided where she's going yet - still waiting to hear back from northwestern, but she said she really liked penn) and they were having an open house weekend for accepted students. we went to a mediterranean restaurant called aya's cafe, which was really good (my dinner was lobster ravioli in a creamy mushroom sauce... mmmm so good)... and it was actually really fun to see them. i think they are mostly worried about anjali having to find an apartment on her own, but i told her that if she decides to go to penn, i'll help her find a place this summer.
other than that, i was super, super productive this weekend! at least, i was on saturday... cleaned basically the whole house, did like four loads of laundry, did my taxes (but not filed - i don't owe anything, but i'm not getting a refund back either... boo), did my nails, went for a 3.5 mile walk, and then had dinner with kevin and his dad (his dad was in town because they had tickets for some of the NCAA tournament, since part of the tournament is being played in philly). we went to hickory lane bistro for dinner, where i had a burger (ugh no pictures of this either) -- and it was awesome, as i was expecting since that burger is listed on a top 25 list of burgers in the country! (see here)
this weekend, i also finished my infinity scarf that i started while i was in denver... i wore it out on sunday, and i'm pretty sure i made it way too big haha. but it's comfy-cozy?? haha.
i also made it to 50% of my walking goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on sunday, i spent a lot of time with nat - we did some girly stuff, like attended a pop-up showroom for rent the runway (renttherunway.com - you can rent designer dresses for a fraction of the cost for events - sophie does this for all the weddings she goes to, and it's actually not a bad deal). we were able to try on dresses at the showroom, and i found this dress, which i'm going to rent for nat's sister's wedding in september -- and would you believe it, this dress (which i can rent for $65 for a weekend) retails at $400! insane.
after that, i went with nat to a trunk show for a bridal designer so that she and her sister's other bridesmaids could try on and order their bridesmaid dresses, and then we went back to my house to do our nails and hang out... and i started watching the walking dead. i watched 5 hours of it on sunday (right up until i went to bed, which was a terrible idea) - and then i watched another 5 hours of it yesterday while i was working from home haha.
and here is a picture of boo, opening one of the drawers under my bed all by herself and digging around in my sweaters:
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Boring Shmoring
I have no idea what I've been eating lately for dinner; nothing worth taking pictures of anyway. I have been working like a crazy person so it's been hard to find the energy to cook for myself. This is not good because it means that I rely on things like frozen pizza, cheese and crackers, and breakfast sandwiches for sustenance. Whaaaa?
Some items of note:
- My tenants are not renewing their lease; I need to find new tenants for June 1. Wish me luck!! I think my building is going to go (officially) smoke-free though, which is really cool. But, Chay, this means that I will have to do an inspection of my place in May (in between tenants) so I can't make it to CA when everyone else is there. When does your lease end again? I want to get out there before you guys move.
- I had my performance review yesterday and it went really well! I even got a small bonus and a small (2.3%) raise! woo.
- I signed up for a 30 day FitWit boot camp class. This class is 4 days/week of craziness! I am scared but looking forward to it. They also promote the Paleo plan which I am reading about now. If I die, the meow-meows stay together. If they don't, I will know and will haunt you both for the rest of your days.
- I haven't been very good about updating my blog but Jaya, since you asked about it, here's the link to it: myjourneyto35.blogspot.com.
- Allergies here in the south are insane. I am so congested the neti-pot doesn't even work (think drip...drip....drip). The water can't get through my sinuses! Grrr....
Okay, bye-bye.
Some items of note:
- My tenants are not renewing their lease; I need to find new tenants for June 1. Wish me luck!! I think my building is going to go (officially) smoke-free though, which is really cool. But, Chay, this means that I will have to do an inspection of my place in May (in between tenants) so I can't make it to CA when everyone else is there. When does your lease end again? I want to get out there before you guys move.
- I had my performance review yesterday and it went really well! I even got a small bonus and a small (2.3%) raise! woo.
- I signed up for a 30 day FitWit boot camp class. This class is 4 days/week of craziness! I am scared but looking forward to it. They also promote the Paleo plan which I am reading about now. If I die, the meow-meows stay together. If they don't, I will know and will haunt you both for the rest of your days.
- I haven't been very good about updating my blog but Jaya, since you asked about it, here's the link to it: myjourneyto35.blogspot.com.
- Allergies here in the south are insane. I am so congested the neti-pot doesn't even work (think drip...drip....drip). The water can't get through my sinuses! Grrr....
Okay, bye-bye.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
eats and eats!
had a good weekend and start to the week so far... friday night sushi on friday (no pictures), and then saturday, kevin and i went to brunch at london grill (where we went for lunch with mille and john before my bday party, maya) and i had fried chicken and a biscuit (omg so so so good). kevin and i basically holed up that whole day because the weather was so crappy here (snowing/raining and in the 30s :() -- played mario kart and napped and did some work (including working on the infinity scarf i'm crocheting). it was really nice! sunday, had a productive day of cleaning and working out a little and doing my nails, and for dinner we had baked potato soup, corned beef, and brussel sprouts in honor of st patty's day (no pictures of that either! boo).
on sunday night, i was woken up in the middle of the night by a huge crash-bang and thought that boo had maybe run into my room and into the window and then run out again?? (i felt her leap up from the bed and run away.) i fell right back asleep, but when i woke up, i found out that the source of the crash-bang had been that my world map fell off the wall! still no idea how that happened.
yesterday, i wore a new dress that i got in denver - i tried texting it to you both before realizing that chay you prob still don't have a functioning phone haha. anyway, i thought you (chaya) specifically might like it, so i'm posting it here! got lots of compliments on it, too, so it's a keeper (i was going back and forth on it all morning yesterday).
after a day of meetings (like 6 total - ugh) and then going to the gym, i came home and decided to make a salad out of stuff i could find in the fridge... so that ended up being: spinach, carrots, red peppers, hard boiled eggs, bacon crumbles, and cheddar cheese with a lite parmesan and peppercorn dressing. MAN it was delicious. (i really love bacon, egg, and cheese haha.)
going to my second spin class tonight. hope it doesn't kill me.
on sunday night, i was woken up in the middle of the night by a huge crash-bang and thought that boo had maybe run into my room and into the window and then run out again?? (i felt her leap up from the bed and run away.) i fell right back asleep, but when i woke up, i found out that the source of the crash-bang had been that my world map fell off the wall! still no idea how that happened.
yesterday, i wore a new dress that i got in denver - i tried texting it to you both before realizing that chay you prob still don't have a functioning phone haha. anyway, i thought you (chaya) specifically might like it, so i'm posting it here! got lots of compliments on it, too, so it's a keeper (i was going back and forth on it all morning yesterday).
after a day of meetings (like 6 total - ugh) and then going to the gym, i came home and decided to make a salad out of stuff i could find in the fridge... so that ended up being: spinach, carrots, red peppers, hard boiled eggs, bacon crumbles, and cheddar cheese with a lite parmesan and peppercorn dressing. MAN it was delicious. (i really love bacon, egg, and cheese haha.)
going to my second spin class tonight. hope it doesn't kill me.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Noshes from last week
Clockwise:
Top left: Panna cotta with a balsamic vinegar drizzle from Fritti - AMAZING!!!
Top right: Tiramisu, also from Fritti. I only had a bite of this since I ordered the Panna cotta. A delicious bite. (My actual dinner was an amazing pizza with San Marzano tomatoes and italian snausage but I forgot to take a picture of it!)
Bottom right: Last night's dinner of salmon atop a sticky rice cake with a delicious sweet and sour sauce (from Murphy's).
Bottom left: my breakfast on Sat morning: omlette with mushrooms, tomato, Swiss cheese with a side of turkey bacon and English muffin with jalapeño jelly (AMAZING!!!!!)
Top left: Panna cotta with a balsamic vinegar drizzle from Fritti - AMAZING!!!
Top right: Tiramisu, also from Fritti. I only had a bite of this since I ordered the Panna cotta. A delicious bite. (My actual dinner was an amazing pizza with San Marzano tomatoes and italian snausage but I forgot to take a picture of it!)
Bottom right: Last night's dinner of salmon atop a sticky rice cake with a delicious sweet and sour sauce (from Murphy's).
Bottom left: my breakfast on Sat morning: omlette with mushrooms, tomato, Swiss cheese with a side of turkey bacon and English muffin with jalapeño jelly (AMAZING!!!!!)
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Reflections on the past few weeks' eats
I haven't cooked in awhile! Well, let me back track. I did cross off one of my many new year's "resolutions", and I made a lasagna for the first time. It was a couple of Sundays ago and it turned out great! I used a recipe that I found on that Pioneer Woman site and I added some elements from Emeril. The meat was ground turkey and hot turkey sausage, and I was going to add spinach but I didn't have any fresh and I ditched the frozen stuff because it looked too weird. I, and Russ, haven't really cooked anything special in awhile outside the usual taco/veggies & meat, sort of fare. As far as eating out goes, a highlight was a night at John's, my favorite NYC pizzeria. Unfortunately I only had one piece before everything was gone except for the ricotta and black olives pie (weird combo, no?). But it was the most delightful, delectable, pepperoni-licious slice of pizza I have ever had! Also of note, I enjoyed a falafel and a mocha from the Mud truck before that dinner. Last week Russ grilled up a t-bone steak which was very tasty. Also satisfying about that meal was that I bought the steak on sale for $6, where it was originally $18! (Saving money at the grocery store has become one of my favorite games lately.) Last night, we had some meat and cheese and wine at chez Alex and Anne-Sophie, the frenchies who describe themselves as brother and sister, though they are not actually related. They're the ones opening a wine bar in San Clemente. We drank a little too much wine, and Alex and Anne-Sophie drank more than a little too much I think, and we went to Ole's, the local dive bar. Horrible place, but they do have a foosball table. Alex and Anne-Sophie may not be brother and sister by blood but they certainly play the older brother/younger sister roles to a T. Think Jessica and Stephen from Sweet Valley High. (Boom! Like the reference?)
As for the news portion of this post, I am switching up my PT job. What happened was this: Thursday night Russ and I got into an argument and as a skewed result I became sensitive about how I'm not an independent woman, as Mommy would say. So I decided I would get a second job. I went on Craigslist in a demented huff and there was the perfect part time job for me. "Part time web developer for family owned jewelry business in San Clemente." So I applied, got interviewed the next day, and got offered the job, haha. I think web developer is a stretch for describing the job responsibilities. Eventually yes they need work on their site, but for now they're using third party shopping cart software that I just need to update on the admin side (meaning, no real coding), and I also need to help the owner with getting products onto other e-commerce websites like Overstock. She also wants me to direct their social media stuff - FB, pinterest, etc - get them started, be the one to update that stuff.. not my favorite thing to do, but maybe I'll outsource that part to Maya! Haha! Anyway, it's a far better commute than my other job, seems like less stress, and it pays a little more (like $1 an hour more - pay is still total crap though). So I'm going to quit the other job and start this new one. I could do both jobs but that would increase the number of days I would have to drive up to Orange and at the pay, the commute is not worth it.
And that's the news here.
As for the news portion of this post, I am switching up my PT job. What happened was this: Thursday night Russ and I got into an argument and as a skewed result I became sensitive about how I'm not an independent woman, as Mommy would say. So I decided I would get a second job. I went on Craigslist in a demented huff and there was the perfect part time job for me. "Part time web developer for family owned jewelry business in San Clemente." So I applied, got interviewed the next day, and got offered the job, haha. I think web developer is a stretch for describing the job responsibilities. Eventually yes they need work on their site, but for now they're using third party shopping cart software that I just need to update on the admin side (meaning, no real coding), and I also need to help the owner with getting products onto other e-commerce websites like Overstock. She also wants me to direct their social media stuff - FB, pinterest, etc - get them started, be the one to update that stuff.. not my favorite thing to do, but maybe I'll outsource that part to Maya! Haha! Anyway, it's a far better commute than my other job, seems like less stress, and it pays a little more (like $1 an hour more - pay is still total crap though). So I'm going to quit the other job and start this new one. I could do both jobs but that would increase the number of days I would have to drive up to Orange and at the pay, the commute is not worth it.
And that's the news here.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Time for ketchup! I mean - catch up.
Lots going on recently - and most of my good meals have been due to travels (Denver) or birthdays (Dan) or frozen okra. And then there are pictures of flowers.
1. Denver was super fun, as I mentioned. Ate some vegan meals (though mostly I ordered whatever I wanted and watched Melissa eat vegan haha). Some notable meals: Dushanbe Tea Room, where they had the weirdest assortment of food - I had a sort of chicken korma and Melissa had some pad Thai typed dish (except it came out with blue cheese crumbles on it??). Also of note was our meal at Linger, which is a restaurant that specializes in street food - so I got masala dosa!
2. Dan's birthday was on March 7th, so a bunch of us went to an Italian restaurant in south Philly that has SUCH good food. It's a fixed price menu - when you sit down, they have house wine and a veggie antipasto plate on the table. They then bring out all these different courses: soup, salad, pasta trio (three pastas in three different sauces), entree which we could choose (I went with some type of stuffed pork), and then dessert and dessert liqueur - they just left bottles of limoncello and amaretto on the table and we poured as much as we wanted. Yikes.
3. Philly Flower Show was in town during the first two weeks in March, and my boss gave me two free tickets, so Kira, Will, and I went. The theme was Britain - and it was so amazing. They had some really beautiful exhibits - like one of a cricket player and house or another of the Hogwarts Herbology classroom [!]. They even did an exhibit called "Simply Fascinating" where they recreated hats worn by royal ladies completely out of flowers! It was a really nice way to spend a morning, walking through the flower show.
4. Last night, I made Indian food! (Barely.) on the menu: tandoori chicken, fried rice, okra, and raita. Everything turned out well, except the okra was way spicier than when mommy makes it... So maybe I'll get it right the next time. Haha.
The end.
1. Denver was super fun, as I mentioned. Ate some vegan meals (though mostly I ordered whatever I wanted and watched Melissa eat vegan haha). Some notable meals: Dushanbe Tea Room, where they had the weirdest assortment of food - I had a sort of chicken korma and Melissa had some pad Thai typed dish (except it came out with blue cheese crumbles on it??). Also of note was our meal at Linger, which is a restaurant that specializes in street food - so I got masala dosa!
2. Dan's birthday was on March 7th, so a bunch of us went to an Italian restaurant in south Philly that has SUCH good food. It's a fixed price menu - when you sit down, they have house wine and a veggie antipasto plate on the table. They then bring out all these different courses: soup, salad, pasta trio (three pastas in three different sauces), entree which we could choose (I went with some type of stuffed pork), and then dessert and dessert liqueur - they just left bottles of limoncello and amaretto on the table and we poured as much as we wanted. Yikes.
3. Philly Flower Show was in town during the first two weeks in March, and my boss gave me two free tickets, so Kira, Will, and I went. The theme was Britain - and it was so amazing. They had some really beautiful exhibits - like one of a cricket player and house or another of the Hogwarts Herbology classroom [!]. They even did an exhibit called "Simply Fascinating" where they recreated hats worn by royal ladies completely out of flowers! It was a really nice way to spend a morning, walking through the flower show.
4. Last night, I made Indian food! (Barely.) on the menu: tandoori chicken, fried rice, okra, and raita. Everything turned out well, except the okra was way spicier than when mommy makes it... So maybe I'll get it right the next time. Haha.
The end.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A Guide to Organizing your Wardrobe: an infographic!
OOweeeee! Check this out - i love this infographic!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Warning! Warning!
Do not grocery shop on an empty stomach else this is what you will have for dinner!
You've been warned.
You've been warned.
Monday, March 11, 2013
I need to go grocery shopping.
Recent discovery that I've been eating on/with everything: refried black beans. DEEEEELISH!
These meals are not at all notable (but they were yummy): variations on fish + veggies, Breakfast sandwiches for dinner, and bean and cheese quesadilla.
Actually those were pretty much exactly the meals I have eaten recently. No variations.
Snore.
These meals are not at all notable (but they were yummy): variations on fish + veggies, Breakfast sandwiches for dinner, and bean and cheese quesadilla.
Actually those were pretty much exactly the meals I have eaten recently. No variations.
Snore.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
same old, same old
I haven't had many new or different meals lately. tonight was fish, black beans, and pickled veggies (delish, pic attached). Last night, i had chili and cornbread at suzanne's. I did so something fun on friday night - i went to the Pink concert w/ some coworkers. She puts on a good show! It was like a 3 hour karaoke sing along. Dinner that night was pizza lol...
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
DWTS Cast announced!
Maya - did you see???
I can't wait to see Jax all spray-tanned and in sequins. :)
i'm aliveeeeeee
i know you probably weren't sure. but here i am.
i'll be honest - i haven't been eating very interesting dinners recently. that, and after my (super fun) birthday party, i was a little birthdayed out, so 28 days of 28 has kind of fallen by the wayside. (though i will resurrect it for the last day - more on that in a minute.)
i think the most interesting dinner we had when maya was visiting for the birthday party was when we went to figs, the morrocan restaurant in my 'hood - so delicious! though i wasn't totally thrilled with the flatbread i ordered. i will say - the high school food at the birthday party was also a highlight that weekend - we had elios! and pizza bagels and cheezeballs and fritos and cocktail weenies (among other things).
since then, i was in DC for a conference - as you all know, since i couldn't sister skype on thursday. we (my coworker cindy and i) ended up being so late to the conference that we didn't have time to check into the hotel before heading to the conference, so i had to attend the opening session in my jeans - yayyy being professional haha. it was a really good conference though - re-energized me about my job and made me really look forward to the day we can hire a third person so that i can really devote my time to some interesting new initiatives (though i can start working on that stuff now, even without a third person).
i think the most interesting dinner we had when maya was visiting for the birthday party was when we went to figs, the morrocan restaurant in my 'hood - so delicious! though i wasn't totally thrilled with the flatbread i ordered. i will say - the high school food at the birthday party was also a highlight that weekend - we had elios! and pizza bagels and cheezeballs and fritos and cocktail weenies (among other things).
since then, i was in DC for a conference - as you all know, since i couldn't sister skype on thursday. we (my coworker cindy and i) ended up being so late to the conference that we didn't have time to check into the hotel before heading to the conference, so i had to attend the opening session in my jeans - yayyy being professional haha. it was a really good conference though - re-energized me about my job and made me really look forward to the day we can hire a third person so that i can really devote my time to some interesting new initiatives (though i can start working on that stuff now, even without a third person).
kevin met me in DC on friday night (my conference went until saturday morning) - so friday night, we went out with a combination of his friends and my friends who live in DC, which was fun (but not interesting foodwise - i was going to get a cuban sandwich but the bar we were at were out of the ingredients [???] so i ended up getting a veggie pocket - pita with hummus and grilled veggies). the next day, though... oh the next day. after the conference was over, we went to the renwick gallery, which was super cool - it's part of the smithsonian, with a focus on american craft - so lots of pieces done in wood or glass or fiber. my favorite there was the "bureau of bureaucracy" - it's a bureau with all these different levels of drawers and compartments, some of which are solid or hidden or have drawers inside drawers. really awesome allegory for bureaucracy haha.
after that, we went to this restaurant called "founding farmers" for a late lunch and i basically ate enough that i wasn't hungry again until breakfast the next day... we had founding farmers chips and crisps (basically homemade potato chips with three different kinds of dips - including pimento cheese) and then i ordered the chicken and waffles (SO good), which came with two sides - mac 'n cheese and a sweet potato. it was one of those meals where i knew i should stop, but i also knew i'd be so sad to let any of it go to waste... so i ate it all. i make no apologies; i have no regrets.
other than that... this week has been interesting. work was super busy yesterday (and kind of irritating - my boss has been getting on my nerves a lot recently), and then i went to my first spin class ever. imagine my surprise when i realized (in the middle of the class) that you don't spend the entire class sitting on the spin bike but that you sometimes STAND UP. i really started to hate third position by the end of the hour - but it was fun, and i'll def do it again! tonight, i'm going to dan and melanie's for dinner (dan's making chicken marsala) and then no plans on wednesday... and then hop sing laundromat (which is like a super secret speakeasy with delicious drinks and a dress code - i've never been but will provide a review afterward) on thursday to conclude 28 days of 28! and then, to start off march - denver on friday!
i am going to be so excited when i'm back from denver and don't have to go anywhere for at least 5 weekends in a row haha.
after that, we went to this restaurant called "founding farmers" for a late lunch and i basically ate enough that i wasn't hungry again until breakfast the next day... we had founding farmers chips and crisps (basically homemade potato chips with three different kinds of dips - including pimento cheese) and then i ordered the chicken and waffles (SO good), which came with two sides - mac 'n cheese and a sweet potato. it was one of those meals where i knew i should stop, but i also knew i'd be so sad to let any of it go to waste... so i ate it all. i make no apologies; i have no regrets.
other than that... this week has been interesting. work was super busy yesterday (and kind of irritating - my boss has been getting on my nerves a lot recently), and then i went to my first spin class ever. imagine my surprise when i realized (in the middle of the class) that you don't spend the entire class sitting on the spin bike but that you sometimes STAND UP. i really started to hate third position by the end of the hour - but it was fun, and i'll def do it again! tonight, i'm going to dan and melanie's for dinner (dan's making chicken marsala) and then no plans on wednesday... and then hop sing laundromat (which is like a super secret speakeasy with delicious drinks and a dress code - i've never been but will provide a review afterward) on thursday to conclude 28 days of 28! and then, to start off march - denver on friday!
i am going to be so excited when i'm back from denver and don't have to go anywhere for at least 5 weekends in a row haha.
Monday, February 25, 2013
meatless mondays
again, not intentional. and not very exciting: lender's bagel with weight watchers whipped cream cheese. 8 points+ total :-)
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Freezer Saturday
Hi, hi. Last night - Saturday - I heated up some frozen veggie burgers and served it with leftover chicken jumbalaya I had in the freezer. Tonight, I had a late lunch and sort of skipped dinner I guess. Watched the Oscars. It was really fun! I loved that they did a Sound of Music joke! And all the musical homages! And Barbara Streisand! Amazing!!
I'm getting hungry, maybe I'll have something for dinner after all.
I'm getting hungry, maybe I'll have something for dinner after all.
Saturday night fish tacos
Delicioso! My friend Kari had me over for dinner and made me AMAZING fish tacos. She taught me how to pickle onions which was a life changing experience. Slice a red onion, put it in a bowl, cover with red wine vinegar and let sit for a little while (20 or so minutes?). It's so easy and DELICIOUS!! I will add pickled onions to everything from now on. The best part of the dinner, though, was that my friend Kari told me that she's (finally) pregnant! She and her husband have been trying for 2 years and her sisters have both had miscarriages and she just lost her dad a month ago so she's been through a lot so this was very happy news.
Saturday, February 23, 2013
10 Days Since Last I Posted
I wish I had 10 dinners to report, and 10 pictures to post, but I only have 10 empty spaces in my memory... let's see... there was that chicken jumbalaya i made and brought to mammoth to have for dinner one night... and carol and jeff were here so we had some burgers at rider's (my fav) and dinner at happa j's one night (my other fav).. and we have been trying to cut down on going out to dinner when it's just me and russ because that is a source of money leakage, so i guess that means we've been cooking more? oh russ grilled up a steak a few days ago with some greens and garlic mashed pots.. yummy!... and we haven't broken out raji's kitchen in awhile... so i guess it's been a lot of veggies on rice with eggs. and tacos.
Friday, February 22, 2013
A veritable buffet
of foodstuffs and people! Some notable meals include a meatball and ricotta pizza from Avellino's in Decatur, homemade meatballs and pasta at Suz's (that Suz and Kristin in the picture), and bacon egg cups made by Jaya. She used a delicious hormel bacon (real bacon) that is only 1 points+ per serving!
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Mon...tues...wed...
Monday I had an awesome Mexican meal at South of Nick's with Russ, Catherine, and Mike. (Not pictured.)
Tuesday, I made turkey chili on pasta for poker night. (Not pictured.)
Wednesday, I made a rice and veggie and egg bowl and threw some Nick's leftovers on it. And we had the first taste of Russ' homemade beer!! Not to mention, check out our awesome puzzle on the table! (Pictured.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)