What I need to do and stop doing

To do

*Keep tracking my food intake on the daily

I used to use Livestrong to track my food and exercise. It’s free to join and it tells you the amount of calories, carbs, fats, cholesterol. etc that you take in on the daily.  You can enter in your current age, weight and height and then control your settings like if you want to lose a pound or two a weight, gain weight or even maintain your weight. They have just about every food to enter in for the day and you can manually enter in your exercise or search their database. I used it for so long but then stopped because I felt like I was becoming obsessive over it with tracking every single morsel that went in my mouth.

Well apparently, being obsessive is how I roll.

Many of you know about my former job situation and the effect it took on my health-mental and physical. I was in a deep depression and gained 25 (yes, 25) pounds. With a seven month period—it’s never good to gain that much weight, especially in that short of a time frame (and on a short girl) Now that I’ve quit my job, I’m dealing with the repercussions of gaining that weight. And tracking is what works for me. I can’t do the guesstimation at this time of what I eat every day, I need to enter in everything to hold me accountable for what’s going in my body. I lost two pounds last week which is a small win on the road to a larger victory.

*Plan my meals

This is only going to get more difficult in the next few months since I will be living as a gypsy. I have planned out my meals for this week by using what I got along with some produce that’s on sale this week.

*Find gyms while out of town

Finding and going to the YMCA while in Florida and Indiana was such a success, I can’t wait to find other locations wherever my next stops will be.

*Cutting down on the hooch

I’m a drinker, there’s no question about that.  And it’s fine in moderation but my problem is that I heart beer. In the summertime there is nothing as a refreshing as a cold, beer (those who say lemonade is the ultimate summertime refreshment are lame and in denial) But those empty calories are not my friends and I’ve been drinking more and more lately. Two summers ago, I barely drank. I would go out once or twice a month with friends for a night and drink and that was it. Unfortunately, it’s the main thing to do when I get together with friends so I need to find a way to cut down or limit it to just once a week for the time being.

*Mix up my playlist

I’m horrible about changing my playlist. It only happens a few times a year and I don’t know why I don’t change it more often. I think it has something to do with laziness. I can proudly say I have quite a variety on my playlist though:

Stop Doing

*Freaking out over the numbers on my heart rate monitor

I thought I forgot my heart rate monitor band in Indianapolis. I went a week with working out without it and it was nice. I felt naked at first since I couldn’t see how many calories I had burned or what my heart rate was. But instead, I was listening to my body and concentrating more on the movements instead of the numbers in front of me. Sometimes my heart rate monitor will read my heart rate as 0 while working out (I guess I have died a few times?) and other times, I wonder if it is an accurate read of how many calories I’m burning. I tend to focus solely on the number and that’s and will get disappointed if I don’t have a good burn. So I am going to continue to use my heart rate monitor since I think it’s a good gage but at the same time, I’m going to listen more to my body.

*Letting other people distract me

Airports are one of my favorite places to go to for the people watching alone. And the gym is similar to the airport, well except for the planes and travel aspects of it. The people watching at the gym is spectacular especially since the location I go to is on the outskirts of Uptown Charlotte. You got yuppies, gays, urbanites, college kids, elderly folk-the whole shebang. And sometimes I just can’t help staring at people and wondering what their situation is or why they are freak. If I could have one semi-superhero power, it would be the power to know what people are listening to on their ipod. I’m always intrigued by this for some reason like “Oh, she looks like she’s listening to Gloria Gaynor” or “Yep, he’s Def Leppard all the way” But other times, I let the people around me distract me. Such as the guy working out next to me who sang Rod Stewart the entire duration of my workout (um, I don’t like Rod Stewart so kindly shut up) or the mini’s AKA the yuppie moms of four children whose sole purpose in life is to compete in marathons, go to bookclub and Starbucks. I start to get into comparisons and feel like I should be doing more.

*Going in with a plan

You read that right. While most people swear on a workout plan before they go into the gym, I don’t. I don’t like committing to something (#29 why I’m not in a relationship) and if my plan doesn’t follow through, I tend to just leave saying I’ll come back tomorrow to do it. So, I keep it broad just saying “Today I’m going to do x minutes of cardio and strength training concentrating on my lower or upper body” if I keep it vague like this, I am more likely to succeed. I think it’s about knowing what works for you as opposed to what works for the general public.

*Being emo

I get down on myself about my weight and get all emo. It sucks and it needs to stop. I’ve come a long way and while I’ve gained some weight back, I’m not at my original weight. I need to keep thinking positively and move in the right direction.

What do you need to do and stop doing in regards to your health?

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?

One down, 11 to go

Well, it’s the end of the month and that means time to check in on how I am doing with my goals for 2011:

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

 Success! I paid off one credit card this past Friday so that’s one under my belt and now just one more with a larger balance I need to take care of. Luckily, it has a 0% interest rate until June so I don’t have to worry about the extra interest I’ll be paying but I am going to start paying down more on that.

*Quit my job. 

Oi. Ok, I am still not loving my job….it’s getting busier, I’m getting more accounts in my portfolio and I had to go in this weekend to play catch up. I want to quit and say eff it but the biggest reason I don’t want to is because I don’t want to dip into my 401K money to live off of. In the six years I’ve been with the bank, I’ve saved up a nice chunk of cash and I would hate to take out some of that. There is a potential 10% early withdrawal penalty and if I were to withdraw, there is a 20% federal income tax withholding. Eek. I’ve worked really hard to save up that money so I won’t have to work so hard when I’m older and would hate to see it go away so I could live off of but at the same, if it means I’m happier, who cares? Who knows if I will be around in 35 years, months, days, hours. I c0uld die tomorrow for all I know. Also along with that, I work for a good company (as much as I bitch about it). Alot of people are trying to get their foot in the door at the company that I work for since they offer amazing benefits, vacation time, compensations, etc. I’ve been there six years and in that I have more than doubled my salary and get hooked up with four weeks of vacation plus eight sick days and two personal days not to mention tuition reimbursement, 5% matching on 401K contributions, etc. I would really hate to leave the company but I think I am going to look at other cities still where my company is located.

I had a one on one with my manager last week and told him how I feel about this job…..but in a diplomatic way. When talking about subjects that I am passionate about (such as my life), I get emotional. I start to talk fast, turn red and usually end up crying. The last thing I needed was for my manager to see that so when he asked me how things were going, I kept my cool. I smiled and told him I was going to be honest and laud it out on the table…..

I told him I wasn’t a good fit for this job

I don’t like it

 I don’t want to be in this position long-term

 I’m looking at other fields and possibly leaving the industry/company

I really don’t sleep that much as night since I’m so stressed and that I have to take Valium just to be able to sleep (ok a little fib about taking Valium to sleep, I’m saving those suckers up for when I really need them but a little dramatic effect never hurt. I wasn’t lying about the sleep though, I have major sleep issues due to stress)

He thanked me letting him know all this and seemed to be a bit overwhelmed with all the information I just laid out to him. He asked if there was anything he could do to change my opinion about the place and I just said no, it’s just not the job that I thought it was. I almost threw in there how I wished I would have stayed in my old position since they did major lay offs the other week but didn’t want to get overly dramatic. I felt really good after I said all of this and have been in talks with people in other departments who are trying to help me out come April, when I can apply for other positions within the bank. So quitting is still a possibility but it just may not be as soon as I originally thought.

As for culinary school, I am still going to look into it a little more but don’t think it’s going to be a real option for me. Mostly due to cost and what my schedule would be like. I worked in restaurants for seven years between high school and college and I somehow seemed to forget that it was night-time hours for the most part. While I hate being stuck in a cube, I want to work when it’s light outside and be able to enjoy weekends and holidays with friends and family. So much to think about!

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

 On the list to do still….this time of year is tough. I usually like cold weather but get a little sick of it by February so I’m trying to figure out if I want to move somewhere that is alot cooler than here or stay somewhere warm. Plus there is always the possibility of moving back to Phoenix. I wish I could find a company that will take my personality, goals, location desires, etc. and just tell me where to go, that would make things so much easier for me!

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

Success! I’ve been paying $20-$30 more each payment, hoping it will add up over time and pay off the car a few months ahead of time.

*Cut down on  Starbucks and eating out.

I’m proud to say I’ve only been going to Starbucks two-three times a week, which is a drastic reduction for me. I used to go five-six times so this is definitely helping me keep some cash in my pocket. I’ve been eating out less as well and trying to use Groupons, Living Social deals and BOGO coupons whenever I do.

*No new clothes until March.

Still on track with this one! I haven’t bought any new articles of clothing but I have been hitting up the thrift stores and found some awesome finds this past Friday. Come back this Friday for a series on Thrifting!

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

I haven’t even had a chance to think about this one really but have trips to Arizona and Colorado in the works. Plus, it would be nice to go to Indiana to see my sister and nieces and to Florida to see my parents. My sister is going to Florida for a week to visit her timeshare so I may try to kill two birds with one stone there and knock out visiting both Indiana and Florida. I don’t think this goal is going to be attainable this year.

*Sell what I don’t need.

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.

Doing alright so far with this although I could vary it up some more. I made falafel for the first time, tried pupusas and am looking forward to more ethnic variety in my life.

*Be more consistent with taking my vitamins.

I suck at this. I give myself a C- since I haven’t been on the ball with this. I remember to take them every now and then at work—they are sitting right next to my phone so I can’t believe I forgot to take them! I also have a bottle at home to take some on the weekends and that hasn’t been happening at all. I like to think since I’ve been eating more veggies, it cancels out the multi vitamin but I still want to get into a consistent routine of taking them daily.

*Cut down on my meat intake.

Huge success! I’ve been toying with tofu, tempeh, even ordering veggie meals when I get Chinese take out and making meatless Monday a regular thing! With replacing meat with everything mentioned above plus various beans, quinoa, etc. it’s been a lot easier than I originally thought it would be.

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

 Success! I am still not a huge fan of it but it’s been a success. When I do go to Starbucks, I will use skim milk plus a tablespoon or two of half and half to fatten it up (i.e. make it more tasty) but I haven’t bought any half and half for my house since the new year. This is big.

Day 5-a time you thought about ending your own life

I haven’t-sorry?! I like to think that life will never be so bad that I would consider suicide as an option. Plus, I have a little fear of death which is ridiculous since it all comes to us at some point or another.

How are you doing with your goals thus far?

What I got

So I am sure everyone and their mom is sick of the trite “these are my goals for the year” but I finally figured out what I’m gonna do this year. Feel free to read on or feel free to click away, it’s up to you!

*Pay off one credit card by 2/15/11.  I will be so happy when that one will be done with. I also need to work on my other high balance credit card that’s currently enjoying a 0% interest rate until July. I get offers all the time for 0% balance transfers so whenever this one runs its course, I’ll just transfer it again. Ideally, I wanted to pay the high balance one off by 11/30/11 but I’m going to……..

*Quit my job. Wow, writing that out as a goal is a bit scary. I’ve thought long and hard about this and it’s what I have to do in attempt to be a happier me. I would love to put in my two weeks notice tomorrow but I need to take care of some doctors appointments first, save up some extra cash, etc. Target date is going to be late March/ early April. This will give me some time to take a road trip (with or without Lincoln–we will see!), figure things out and end my lease.

*Check out cities that could potentially be my new home. This August will be my fifth year in Charlotte and I am just not diggin it. Ideally, it seemed like a nice place to live since it’s a growing city but it’s too conservative, preppy, vanilla and southern for me. I’ve made friends but friends alone can’t keep me in one spot and alot of people look like cookie cutter versions of J Crew catalogues. If you dig that, fine, but I need some diversity and not a city full of the same people. Also, the dating here has kinda sucked. I would like to meet a normal man but all of the guys here seem to be on one each of the spectrum: young John Edwards-esque prepsters who were pastels (um, no), Croakies who can only hold conversations about golfing, the NRA or their MBA or country boys who are looking for a redneck princess. Just not what I’m looking for in a dude.

For those of you who don’t know what Croakies are:

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

*Cut down on Starbucks and eating out. This pains me but I spend way too much money on my coffee each week when I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home to make coffee with. Starbucks used to be an indulgence for me but now it seems to be an every day thing, even if I do just get their drip coffee. I eat about two or three times a week and try to use a coupon every time I do so I will either cut down on that or nix the hooch when I do go out.

*No new clothes until March. I have a lot of clothes, even after donating a bunch to the Salvation Army last week. So to cut down on the crap in my closet that I may wear a few times, no new clothes until March. This means no Ross, Marshalls, JCP, etc. I will still buy cheap threads at the thrift store but want to see if I can go two months without buying new digs.

*Plan a stay-cation instead of jetsetting all around the country. A majority of my disposable money goes to traveling. I love to see my friends and visit different places but if I cut down on this each year, I could save thousands of money. I only have one trip planned this year for my best friends 30th birthday in Phoenix and that’s it. I need to keep it to a minimum for once.

*Sell what I don’t need. I used to be the ebay queen and miss the extra cash it brought me! It started in college when my boyfriend broke up with me so being the vindictive, bitter girl I once was, I listed all of his crap he wouldn’t pick up from my place on ebay with low starting prices (like cents not dollars low). To be even extra evil, I sent him a link of all of his stuff online. My motto-break my heart, I sell your stuff.

*Try out new ethnic recipes. I seem to stick to Mexican, Italian and Chinese when cooking at home so I want to step out of my comfort zone and starting making dishes I’ve never attempted before.

*Be more consistent with taking my vitamins. I have a bottle of vitamins at both work and home but rarely seem to take them. I am going to be aware of taking them and try to take one every day after lunch.

*Cut down on my meat intake. If you’ve noticed a theme in the past week, it’s been a lot less meat than I normally eat. I don’t think I will every go full on vegetarian but I can definitely cut down on my chicken, pork and red meat consumption.

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

So, more goals to come I am sure but that’s all I got for right now. I started off this morning anything but perky. That Craigslist Killer movie freaked me out! Plus being the true crime buff I am, I stayed up until midnight watching the behind the mind of the craigslist killer segment with the cops who caught him and an interview with one of the chicks he assaulted. Pair that up with three cups of coffee earlier in the day and sleep was not coming easy to me. I had leftover coffee from yesterday so I wouldn’t have to worry about making coffee this morning and made an older but goodie-iced coffee!

If you haven’t heard, Starbucks is offering $2 Artisan breakfast sandwiches with any drink purchase this week!

I got the turkey bacon, egg white and cheese sandwich.

Mmmmm, hello gooey cheese, I am going to eat you. $3.50 for coffee and a savory sandwich, not too shabby.

Dinner wise, I was planning on leftovers but two enchiladas weren’t going to hold me over so I made a salad out of the veggies in my fridge: red and orange peppers, celery, broccoli and green onions. I threw the veggies in my magic bullet and poured in a little dressing along with them to soften them up.

I did that while heating up my enchiladas. They were looking a bit measly so I poured some extra El Pato sauce on them and sprinkled with more cheese. A vegan, I shall never be.

A perfect, random meal. Love.

So yeah, that’s all I got. Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday!!

A Pom Kind Of Day

The friendly people at POM Wonderful contacted me a couple of weeks ago in regards to trying their pomegranate juice. I was so excited because I love all things pomegranate but have only tried the actual juice a couple of times before (I prefer to get my pomegranate from pom flavored beer thank you very much! 🙂 )

A little about POM Wonderful from their site

contain no added sugars, preservatives or colors

are a good source of potassium

are gluten-free

are flash pasteurized to retain both flavor and nutrients

are certified kosher

Plus they have different flavors of Pom juice that I never knew about-such as mango, kiwi, blueberry, cherry and nectarine with a myriad of different products like tea, bars, iced coffee (say whaaaaa??!!?!), shots, pills and more.

I got their package on Friday and have been brainstorming what I could make with it. Yes, I could make a cocktail or green monster but I wanted to try cooking with it.

With that, I decided to make Feta, Walnut and Parsley stuffed pork chops with a creamy pomegranate sauce and a side salad with pomegranate balsamic dressing

I finally bit the bullet and bought some xanthan gum. I’ve been wanting to get these to use in my green monsters since they turn out soupy a lot of the time and to use in sauced instead of corn starch. Most recipes only call for one to two tablespoons of cornstarch so this bag is going to last me awhile!

For the stuffing, I threw in 1/3 cup walnuts, 3 tbsp of feta and a few tbsp of parsley in the food processor and pulsed on low for about 10 seconds.

I butterflied two pork chips and stuffed with the filling then secured with toothpicks. I rubbed a little extra virgin olive oil and black pepper on them and then cooked at 350 for 25-30 minutes

For the creamy sauce, I threw  1/4 cup half and half with 3/4 of a POM Wonderful bottle on the stovetop with one tbsp xanthan gum and let cook on a low setting for 10 minutes until thick and bubbly. I know it kinda looks like the River of Slime from Ghostbusters 2 but don’t fear, it was tasty!

Side salad with carrots, tomato, extra stuffing mix, quinoa topped with homemade  pomegranate balsamic vinegar. I liked the dressing a lot and never knew how easy it was to make your own dressing!

 This was such a fabulous, filling meal. It was nice to experiment with the POM Wonderful for a different flavor for my meals and I cannot wait to try it with more stuff—thanks POM Wonderful for sending me and giving me the opportunity to try your juice, I am loving it!

I also found the mythical Chobani Pomegrante Greek Yogurt I’ve been seeing all over the blogs lately. I’ve never seen this flavor in the store before so when I saw it this past week, I practically screamed and started doing my happy dance right in the middle of Harris Teeter!

And I got to use the free Chobani coupons I won over at Nutrition Nut on The Run so free Chobani is always nice. It was terrific! I am a bit skeptical with new flavors ever since trying Chobani’s Pineapple flavor but this did not disappoint. Thus being said, I may just turn into a pomegranate by end of day.

 Fail to plan, plan to fail….yep that’s what I would say about my lunch today

Microwave popcorn-yum! I love the stuff but it is not filling at all. Oh, I didn’t mention I had this at work did I? Yeah. Another so busy week that I went in for five hours today just to catch up on my emails so I could get some peace of mind. I was annoyed by having to go in to do that but I kept repeating to myself “time and a half-pay, time and a half-pay, time and a half-pay” to make it bearable.

Oh and I know how I was singing praises to Jackie Warner and her workout dvd yesterday but today? I curse the day she was born. My everything hurts and each time I step up or sit down today, I whimper a bit. It’s sad. No pain no gain right??

I made a yummy plate of eggs topped with avocado and tabasco for breakfast.

Hey healthy fats!! Just wanted to say that I heart you.

I got a Magic Bullet for my birthday this past December and finally opened the box today to try it out with a green monster with blueberries, almond milk, baby spinach, Spiru-Tein Blueberries & Cream protein powder (half a packet), one Splenda and 1/2 tbsp of xanthan gum

Holy crap-why did I wait so long to use this? I absolutely loved how easy it was to use, quick it was and way more quiet than my blender. And xanthan gum, I just love it. It came out like sludge (which is a good thing!) this was more like an ice cream treat than a smoothie.

Happy August to everyone as well, I completely forgot its first of the month!

Things to work on for this month

*Drink less beer. I was out of control the month of July. Ok, not alcoholic out of control but drinking way more beer than I normally do due to the ridiculously hot weather out.

*Have a more consistent workout schedule each week. With moving and going on vacation twice in July, I didn’t get much workout time in. Again, add the nasty weather and it was a recipe for laziness on my part.

*Cook more at home, eat out less. Now that my kitchen is all squared away and I am somewhat getting used to cooking in a smaller kitchen, I need to get back into the swing of things.

All in all, today was a great day with work, new recipes, etc. Hope everyones August is off to an equally fabulous start!

PS—Check out Eat, Move, Love for a fun giveaway!

PPS-Anyone else have Blogger issues? I keep trying to comment on Blogger blogs and can’t, it’s a tad frustrating!

Relaxing

Happy Memorial Day everyone! Hopefully everyone had a nice relaxing day off like I did and remember why we are all off–can’t say that enough. Thanks to all past and present who have served and protected our country! Can it be a three-day wknd every wknd? I got an outstanding 10 hours of sleep last night, which is remarkable for me. I was in a lot of pain and there was tossing and turning but sleeping in until 10A just felt right. I will work extra hours and go in early, stay late, not take lunch (hold on, I already do that). I’ve been on a major egg white kick lately if you can’t tell so I decided to kick it up a notch for breakfast.

I made rolled oats on the stove top with almond milk then chopped up two Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and dashed some cinnamon and peanut butter in the mix.

This was a great combination but it didn’t sit well with my stomach 😦 I was bored and watched Dr. Phil and The View for a while. There was a ridiculous rainstorm this morning and finally a break hit so I got ready quickly and hopped over to the supermarket. Not literally of course but the way my legs were feeling, it could have happened. It hurts to sit down and let’s not even talk about going down or up stairs.

I got a lot of good deals at Bi-Lo including my Chobani’s! They were on a sale a few wknds ago for $1 each and I went a couple different times and turned out none were left. But today, I cleaned house. And they even had the Pineapple flavor I’ve been hearing so much about and I cannot wait to try it!

I checked out and was super happy-my bill was originally $107 but brought it down to $61 with all of my coupons. Because I? Am awesome with being frugal. As I was checking out, the rain started yet again and it was coming down hard. Of course I didn’t take an umbrella with me because for some reason in my mind, I think “Oh it rained once today, it can’t rain again”. Grrrr. I waited in the lobby for 10 minutes and it let down a little and decided to go as fast as I could (which is not fast at all with the condition I was in) to my car.

Lunchtime was soon approaching and I made pork tacos. Are you shocked? I promise, I will start making something different soon. I had a bit of Frank’s Red Hot wings left in my fridge and hate when I have a bottle taking up space with just a little left in it. I cut up a pork chop with covered with Frank’s and let cook on the stove top

The tacos look plain but were really tasty with the Frank’s and avocado

 I spent the afternoon with Kim and Jennifer

I love Shape magazine and LOVE Kim K but wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend my money on it since the whole-she-endorses-diet-pills thing. But Janetha mentioned it was actually a good issue and I trust her judgement so I Kardashianed that bad boy up!

Along with that, I also caught up on some shows and a movie.

Umm, why have I never watched It’s Sunny in Philadelphia? I’ve had a lot of people tell me I would like it but never took their word. I added it to my Netflix queue and absolutely love it. With a little guy resting in my lap. I don’t blame him though, sometimes he does have a rough day of playing with his toys, going on walks, getting treats and such, he just has to relax.

I polished off the last of my Trader Joe’s Three Layer Hummus

And my battle wound from the rock yesterday is getting bigger and more colors. Yeah, it’s across my entire right thigh. Dear Grandfather Mountain-can I please have my skin back? Thanks, Tiffany.

 I made the mistake of watching the Tyra Banks show. I never had beef with Tyra, I actually used to like and respect her a lot. Kinda like a mini Oprah (pun kinda intended) in the making. But the more I watch her show, the more she drives me crazy.

I had my leftover Magical Mystery Tour Pie for dinner.

May Goal Evaluation

*Keep on running  -did not happen. I tried in the beginning of the month and my knee pain was growing worse so I decided to lay off of the running for now and just walk in the mean time.

*Think outside the running box in regards to workouts and mix it up with other things (kettlebell, yoga, etc.) -with my lack of running this has been going alright. I’ve been trying to work out with my kettle bell more and even put together a full body for out for myself with the kettlebell and different weight dumbbells I have.

*Be more aware of my sugar intake and try to keep it less than the recommended intake of 40g-I’ve been doing great with thise for someone with a sweet tooth. When looking over my food diary throughout the mnth of May, I was above 40g however those were mostly from fruits so I don’t consider that a bad thing. I think, it could be worse by having something processed as opposed to an apple or banana. I will continue to keep an eye on this though.

*Track my food and exercise on a daily basis–22 out of 31 days. Not too shabby in my book

June Goals to come tomorrow!

Has anyone else seen the new Huggies Jeans Commercial? Seriously creeping me out.

Ribs and Goals

I finally figured out what my goals are for April and the second quarter. Here we go

• Track my food every day online along with tracking my activity for the day
• Work out at least 4 times a week (I will schedule what my workouts will be in advance so I can’t cancel out because I don’t want to)
• When I get a craving at night or on the weekend, I will give at least 20 minutes to think about the craving and if it’s something I really want.
• Sign up for another 5K !
• Keep a positive attitude at work

That’s all I have for now but I will be adding as needed but these are the goals!

This afternoon was relaxing. Lincoln and I went for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed the weather. Then we came back and I watched some more Arrested Development. I was hungry again and fixed myself a roast beef sandwich on a Thomas Whole Week Bagel Thin with one slice of Muenster cheese, tomato and dijon mustard with a side of fresh strawberries. A perfect light second lunch.

 And then three o’clock hit. I despise Sunday afternoons because I never slept well on Sunday nights but always have the urge to nap. It’s a day of relaxation after all right? I napped for two hours and felt so much better afterwards. I went to check on my ribs in the crockpot and they were ready-score! I cut and steamed asparagus while I was brushing some bbq sauce on the ribs and then sprayed with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter

Now I am doing laundry and finally getting around to watching Supersize Me

Good flick all in all. Nothing too shocking but it is interesting seeing an actual person do this instead of just seeing the statistics. I grew up in a household where my mom didn’t cook that much and we always went out to east. We would have Pizza Hut, McDonalds, etc. at least twice a week and that’s what I was raised on. Unfortunately, it took me gaining a massive amount of weight to change my ways and learn how to eat healthy on my own and cook on my own (including veggies).

I had a yellow apple after my shower and doing laundry

And staying true to my goals, wrote down my workouts for the next week and a half.

If you look at Thursday the 8th, I’m doing water zumba!! I am stoked for this and will be going with my friend to her gym in DC for the class.

Hoping for a great and quick wk (yay three day work wk), hope everyone is having a good one!