Negativity, happenings and goal checks

So the past few days have been rough, I’ve just feeling blah. Maybe it was from the drunken stupor of Friday night, the 79 degree days we’ve been having or just laziness but I’m finally back to feeling “normal” and like myself again.

I had a major tofu fail last night. I have a couple of slices pressed in the fridge to get the liquid out and was looking forward to cooking up something tasty. I added bbq sauce to the tofu and cooked it on the stovetop while I had sweet potato slices and kale chips in the oven.

The tofu was extra firm but it was crumbling while cooking it so it quickly turned into a bbq tofu mash and it was funkalicious. It didn’t taste right at all so there goes my first experience with tofu gone bad. The rest of the meal was fantastic though.

Afterwards, I met up with a friend at the Y. She went to find a treadmill to run on while I found a Precor AMT to get my cardio on. When I finished working out, I sprayed down the machine and the guy next to me flipped his lid! He started getting all whiny and dramatic “Saying, og my gosh, I can’t breathe, why did you spray it in my face?? blah blah blah” I apologized saying that I didn’t realize it gotten on him (I sprayed it two times on the machine and wiped it) then after I apologized he gave me more attitude saying “Next time you really need to spray on the towel and wipe” and I just smiled and spurt out “Ok”. I walked away and *almost* walked back to go off on him and say something along the lines of “If getting cleaner on you is the biggest issue you have in life, I want your life” but I’m trying not to be so confrontational with strangers plus it’s the Y and I know I would start dropping the F bomb on him so I walked away.

My friend and I did some upper body weight machines after like the row, lateral pull down, shoulder press and chest press.

 It was a great workout and to think, I almost didn’t go because I had a case of the Mondays!

I came home and made a green monster with kale, coconut milk, Spiru-Tein Blueberries N Cream protein powder, flax seed and Yoplait Smoothie fruit mix.

Very tasty! I don’t think I would buy the Yoplait Smoothie mix again because there really isn’t alot of fruit in the bag and I believe it only comes out to two servings in the bag. I would rather buy a generic brand than spend an extra buck on this.

And today was hell. I didn’t have a lot on my plate because I wanted to work on a project but that fell through and there were just issues all day long. I started the day off with Yoplait and a Vita Top

Unfortunately, this didn’t hold me over at all. And there was a little issue with my sanitzer spilling all over the Vita Top–boo!

Just a note, this is the most disgusting scented sanitzer I’ve ever smelled. Plus the fact that anytime I see it, I start singing Strawberry Champagne to the tune of “Raspberry Beret” is getting annoying.

I didn’t make anything in advance so I had something new for lunch-Morningstar Sesame Chik’n

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again-I’m not a huge fan of frozen meals but usually keep a few in my freezer for days I have no lunch. This was surprisingly good though. The “chik’n” tasted like real chicken and the sauce was smooth and didn’t seem like it was laced with a shaker of salt. I’ve had Lean Cuisine frozen meals like this and they pale in comparison compared to Morningstar with it’s abundance of vegetables and flavor. I will definitely be buying this in the future.

When I got home, I was spent. But I came home to a nice, surprise package.

What can it be?

Multigrain Cheerios and Biggest Loser Wii workout I won from Kelly Olexa! If you haven’t ever visited Kelly’s blog, please check it out. She is super inspiring, posts vlogs on the faily and has a Monday post called Monday Manjoyment–who doesn’t love that!? Whenever I am feeling down an uninspired, I head over to her blog and it puts things in perspective for me and motivates me to get off my behind and work it out!

Dinner was something new-chicken satay with brown rice, green beans, onions and baby corn

I’ve never cooked with satay sauce, nor did I know how orange it was!

Please disregard chipped nail polish. Instead of giving myself a manicure, I choose to blog.

I chopped up one and a half chicken breasts and mixed with the sauce

Cooked some onions on the stovetop then added the chicken

Then added the green beans and baby corn

Checked to make sure any chicken didn’t fall because if it did, Lincoln would be right there by my feet but instead he was sitting like a good boy

And voila! A tasty, healthy meal

I like to think of myself as a positive person but this past weekend, I had two guys tell I was a really negative girl and that bothered me. I am lot more positive than I used to be and when I feel like I’m speaking my mind or “telling it like it is” apparently, I come off negative. This came from me speaking about my job, you know, when you go out partying the first thing you want to talk about is work right? So when someone asks me what I do, I tell them then try to steer the conversation in another direction by saying something like “Let’s talk about something more interesting than work” and when they ask me, I really start to speak my mind about my job. As many of you know, I’m very unhappy with my role and have no issues about speaking my thoughts on my position but I guess I am really coming off negative? That being said, I am going to start making more of a conscious effort about how I speak about my job, life, feelings, etc and try to portray them in a more positive way and speak my mind more thoughtfully. I know I shouldn’t be doing this for other people but when I think about would I want to hang out with someone who is consistently complaining about their job, I wouldn’t. It’s just a downer. So I am going to try to express myself better or just learn when to shut up.

Which brings us to…..goal checks!

*Pay off one credit card by 2/15/11.  

 Success! I paid off in January and working on paying my other one down. I’ve paid $500 down on it in the past two months so I’m cutting that balance down. Thank God for 0% balance transfer offers!

*Quit my job. 

On the way to success! My manager and I had a one on one last week and I told him that I am 100% sure I will be out of there by May. He was quite receptive to what I was saying so I appreciate it and the goal date is going to be April 29th. I told him that I will give them a month’s notice since I’ve been with the company for six years and want to leave on a high note with a good recommendation. I can’t believe this is going to happen.

*Check out cities that could potentially be my new home.

Working on it! I am going to Pittsburgh in late March to check out the scene there. I have a good number of friends from college there, it’s an hour away from where I went to college and I would be within driving distance to family six hours away. I hate the fact that I have two nieces but I feel like I don’t know them at all. One is turning 10 this summer and I know nothing about her, I don’t want it to be that way, especially since I don’t want to have kids. Pittsburgh was recently named  the #1 Most Livable City in the US so it seems like a possible moving location. I am going to look into Indianapolis when I am there in May and possibly Chicago around that time as well. It scares me that I have absolutely no clue where I will be in six months yet at the same time, it excites me.

*Pay a little more on my car payment each month so I can pay it off quicker

Success! I’m still paying about $30 extra with each paycheck to cut the balance down on there

*Cut down on  Starbucks and eating out.

Umm, what’s Starbucks? Seriously, I’ve only been going one to two times a week which is major for me. I haven’t been eating out as much as I once did which is also helping me save money and when I do go out to eat, I try to use a Groupon/Living Social deal.

*No new clothes until March.

I did it! I don’t know how but I did and I’m proud to say, I didn’t buy any new clothes in January or February. It is possible!

*Plan a stay-cation instead of jetsetting all around the country.

This is going to be a difficult one still with all the traveling for potential cities to move to but am least when I travel, I will be crashing with friends instead of staying at hotels

*Sell what I don’t need.

Copied from last month because there is no progress on this–I haven’t sold anything yet but I am in the works of putting together everything I want to sell, take pics, put on Craigslist, etc. If anyone in the Charlotte area is looking for a Wine Refrigerator, let me know

*Try out new ethnic recipes.

 I still need to mix it up some but I made some good stuff in February like stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, tuna melts, tofu tacos and roasted chicken along with going out for sushi, Indian food,

*Be more consistent with taking my vitamins.

I give myself an F. Seriously, I don’t know when the last time I took one.

*Cut down on my meat intake.

Success! Doing great with this by incorporating Meatless Mondays along with eating  more beans, tofu and making dishes meatless.

*Use skim milk or almond milk in my coffee instead of half and half.

 Success! I bought coconut milk this weekend after seeing a recommendation from Monique and it’s sooooo much better than almond milk. Go try it if you haven’t!

When cleaning off a machine at the gym, do you spray the machine and wipe or spray the towel and wipe?