Foodie Friday – Easy Peasey, mac-n-cheezie!

I have a bit of a weakness for the Velveeta (or HEB brand) Mac n Cheese that has the “cheese” that you squeeze out of the package, but how many chemicals are in that stuff, right? Bonus points, if you had hot dogs, jeeze louise, can we make this dish any more unhealthy? Okay, so I really don’t care about that stuff, because really you have to a few vices, right?  Also, that Macoroni and Cheese from Boston Market is amazing, but a little bit pricier than the grocery store variety. Chemicals aside, having the ingredients at home to make your own is a lot more economical than going to pay $23 for the meal for 3 (yes, there are only two of us, but we used it for multiple meals — don’t judge!)

At any rate the BF found a recipe on chow tips to make your own baked macaroni, problem is we didn’t have some of the ingredients, so we just ended up winging it with half and half, and the cheeses that we did have. The chicken he baked was amazing too. The results were great, so much so that I made it a second night, tonight! It was surprisingly easy to execute:

1. For about 10 minutes boil a crapload of macaroni and drain

2. While hot, and a splash of half and half, plus a few handful of cheddar and parmesan mix

3. Stir until there is no liquid on the bottom, and mixture is creamy

4. Add salt and garlic to taste

So the mixture isn’t quite as uniform as the chemical stuff you buy in the packets or at the deli counter, but the taste is equal and I am not going to be a snob about something that doesn’t have the exact consistency as bunch of icky preservatives. Not sure how much the ingredients were total, but it probably was just a touch more expensive but cheaper than Boston Market. Overall, I think it was a win. Tomorrow, we dance!

 

Motivation Monday: The GoGo Life.

Disclaimer, I am about 8 years old than most of these girls on this video, and while I probably will never be able to chase my dreams of being a “professional” gogo, I am okay with hitting up a few more festivals before I hit 35 and maybe put that part of my life in my history, but who knows? There are women in their 70’s who do bodybuilding competitions, why the hell couldn’t I do freaking dancing in my 30’s right? This video, in particular, was inspiring:

Love MsEasy, and her frankness and honesty, and I wish she could coach me!  Now, as I have mentioned already, even if I were in Denver, I probably have missed the boat on becoming a professional performer (maybe not with hooping, but I would need to improve drastically), but even so, it would just be so amazing to get to do an event like Electric Daisy Carnival, but I do not have much in the way of videos from performances and I would need to get an audition video out. The only problem is that, as my body is right now, I feel uncomfortable dancing around scantily clad, as one would expect from a dancer, and thus the clean eating and preparation for that. If I could just lose 20 pounds, that would go along way to making myself feel more confident with performing. I don’t want to give up on a dream, so I want to be even more focused and determined to get to where I need to be with this weight. That is why I need to SWEAT EVERY DAY (see what I did there) and just make sure all my eating habits are super balanced, gosh it is difficult but it really isn’t if you have a goal that is bigger than yourself.

Another great way to get toned is through hoopdancing, another one of my passions. Just doing some youtube surfing, I found these great tips on how to improve, and thought I would share:

I hope having the phsysique that is desired for gogo dancing will be enough to keep me  motivated. It might be a judgemental, there is just no room for flabbiness within that art. Dancing really is brutal, and I really need to evaluate my ability to be visually appealing for this particular type of performance. Any go go tips would be greatly appreciated, too. Stay sweaty!

Work(it)out Wednesday – Spring into Summer!

Vacation, time to get away!

So, with the lack of inspiration, I am going to steal like an artist and piggyback from a post by ChicFitChef  yesterday and talk about the summer time. Around this time the diet and fitness industry is really going into overdrive about bikini season and giving our collective body dysmorphic disorders a shot of adrenaline. Well, I can’t really help being unhappy with your body, as that is a personal journey that even my zen (yeah right) self struggles with almost daily. But, as far as self-improvement, there are a few things that we can all do to look our best for the beach:

1. Ditch the Booze
Spring Break is over, and you probably need a good detox as it were. Sure happy hours that turn into late hours are fun, but really do you need to add those extra calories. Clean eating is not easy but, IMO, teetotaling is. Okay, so you may have to become a hermit, at least that has been my experience in Austin, y’all love to drink! Also, once you give up the sauce, then I feel like it builds the better habit to do more stricter elimination such as sugar/processed carbs. Admittedly, I was going to recommend a Whole 30, but really a sensible diet plan can get you there, just takes more like 60 days versus 30.

2. C U later
So after some research, because I am truthful I decided to ditch my hypothesis about Vitamin C,  cortisol and weight loss because of this. I am not going to dismiss Vitamin C for weight loss however, because of this. Not to mention its many other health benefits, Vitamin C assists in collagen synthesis, and I think you know where I am going with this. Oh no, the c-word, dun dun dun.. CELLULITE. I don’t have any articles to back me up here, but it stands to reason, if collagen is the result of the breakdown of collagen, and you are taking something that restores it? (not sure if that is accurate, biologists help me out here) that Vitamin C would at least mitigate future attacks of this dreaded orange peel accessory. Anyway, I am trying it, and will let you know if that works out for me, do keep in my my confounding variables of other nutrition and exercise, for you more skeptical readers!

3. Sleepytime!
Feel like a big ole hypocrite for advising on this one because I had like 3 hours of sleep last night, but study after study after study has linked sleep with weight loss, and I feel like it needs to be repeated in this insomniac society we live that getting some shut-eye can greatly improve our health. Also, it just makes you feel better, and when you feel better, you look better, totally anecdotal, but probably true.

A case of the blah’s

It has been too long since I have posted, and furthermore, there has been nothing great to report on either. The eating habits have been not great, the working out has been better with the combination of dancing, walking, and a sprinkle of yoga. Not so much to talk about except, it is with a heavy heart that I am reporting that I will not be doing the Electric Run despite having paid for it already. It’s not that I don’t want to, but I don’t want to be walking through it. It ain’t called the “Electric Walk”. So yeah, kinda depressed about. This is the second time I have signed up for something and pussed out on it. It might be a fear of failure, but I have also lapsed on training, and I am sick right now, so I couldn’t make up the days, booo!

I really wish there were better news to report, but I am basically posting to not get kicked out of AFBA Had this great idea to do a “Meatless March” I am back on the flesh, but here are some Veggie friendly places that I scoped, you can just forget about me ever doing vegan. Love my cheese, love my eggs, sorry cows and chickens, I like your babies and their food:

http://instagram.com/p/WaQ-VMhZZN/

http://instagram.com/p/Wpq3u3hZYU/

For the remainder of this month, I am going to pretend to be happy. Even if I feel like crap inside, I am going to slap on a shit-eating grin and fake like studying for the CAPM isn’t the most boring fucking thing ever.

Gym-Pact is up to 5 days now. I failed last week because I was sick from the southby revelry (no, it WASN’T a hangover) but today is always a new day, right? This is the mustardy water from the writing I wish I could squeeze on my sandwich.

Social Media Siesta Sorta

Forgive me if I seem a bit delirious, because I aaaaam. Decided about a week ago to quit using Facebook and twitter for a few weeks, well just because it was making me feel bad. It’s not that I don’t enjoy finding out about every mundane thing or even sharing my own crap, but it was beginning to be a bit much and with a bit of determination (deleting the sites’ histories and applications also helped), managed to stay off the sites, but the pinning, oh that Pinterest has its pins in me, hyuck hyuck.

Why so delirious? I am pretty sure that I have been at a severe deficit calorie-wise. Yesterday was under 1200, Sunday was 1299, Saturday big numbers with 1668, but mucho cardio (see below)

Here are the running results for the weekend (the sizing is a bit off)

Super excited about actually doing road work instead of just the treadmill. Done about 5 running miles pn the machine, but really actually going on real terrain feels so much more rewarding, not to mention doing some serious favors for my derrière. (Yeah I said it!) ooooweeee, I am back, barely, at 125 pounds, but not gonna lie it is a bit painful right now. I have a fear that tomorrow I am going to dive face first Garfield cat-style in a pan of lasagna, and you know those stouffers frozen deals are incredible, om nom nom…

Okay, freaking tired y’all, oh btw, give me some comment love, plz!

More leftovers

Somewhere between having Lucy’s surgery, trying to save money (yay a whole $67 in 7 weeks) and being too sane for the “Insanity” program I lost my way with posting regularly on this blog and I feel like shit about it. Still doing the GymPact, and only been penalized twice for missing workouts. Just so exhausted lately, probably need to get rid of those late nights, at my age even being a “Weekend Warrior” has consequences not only on my bank account, but just in my general well being.  Here is some of my artistry captured about 2 weeks ago:

You can find healthy options at Outback Steakhouse, apparently. Still trying to count calories, while enjoying my life, so I had the chicken on the barbie, and have to say it wasn’t bad calorie-wise, think about 450?

That isn’t my beer, but I do need to cool it on the beer drinking. Fuck smoking, I am not really what I would call addicted (okay every day isn’t addicted?) but I want to quit permanently,  it is like peanut butter and jelly with drinking and cigarettes. You can have a PBJ sandwich, but you certainly want the jelly (cigs).

I have been going through a lot of pain lately, and some of it is my fault, but I really want things to improve in my life, more hopeful positive posts to come, I promise, but I just wanted to let everyone know I am alive.

Cardio eyes bigger than cardio mouth

If I seem more sporadic and distracted (than usual) this week, it is because I have been super stressed about Miss Lucy. She has been a wonderful blessing, but unfortunately she has had some health difficulties. She went in to get a lump removed yesterday and has been recovering since then. Thankfully, with familial support, I haven’t had to bear all of the financial burden, even though I would be more than happy to, if necessary. Poor Lucy, I just want to get back doing our run/walks. Last night she was very ornary in sleeping in the bed, she would lean against me and take the whole side of the bed which was cute, but I woke up several times trying to not be too physical with her and the stitches, but also reclaiming my part of the bed. Today I am exhausted, which is fine because Sunday I hit it pretty hard. I did the Plyometric Circuit Cardio workout from Insanity, walked Lucy for about 2 miles and then went to Gentle Yoga (would have collapsed had I did anything else)

I wanted to restart the Insanity plan on Monday, but it felt like all of my major muscle groups were ripped to pieces. That is a good thing, right? Well yeah, but not so much for motivation. My plan which I wasn’t going to share, was to start in February. However, I still have the 5k to train, so I needed to factor that in. Well, let me digress and explain the tile. In the 80’s and early 90’s, my mom would take me to the grocery store to the salad bar and it basically was all you can eat, but based on the weight of the food. I would always get way more than I could eat because it all looked so tasty, especially the croutons! She would reply, “looks like your eyes were bigger than your mouth”. Well, when I look at the below pictured plan, I feel the way about my ability to work out even on rest days. Yes, let me repeat that, rest days, so really this is the major flaw. I will be honest with myself enough to realize that I won’t want to and shouldn’t work out every single day. Maybe some people can, but it does not seem sustainable. I am not sure when I will do the running days, but definitely need to reschedule them, my guess was MWF but if I make an insanity workout but not c25k, or if I make a c25k and not an insanity workout, I won’t sweat it, besides I actually have an additional month besides this one to get prepared for it. It taught me a good lesson, though, don’t let your eyes (ego) be better than your mouth (ability/desire)

Workout WINsday – night moves!

With the one beer I drank last night (the horror!), I ended up with a 30 calorie surplus than I should have had, however, there was a lot of activity as you can see in the chart below:

Some of that was C25K, and if I haven’t mentioned I am training for The Electric Run at the end of March and some of that was plain ole fashioned dancing, burpees and jumping jacks. This morning was incredibly difficult to get out of bed even! Have also made some money from Gym Pact:

Slowly but steadily seeing results, and ended up only spending about $45 on groceries (for two people!!) last night. Well, mostly because it was not my money I was spending, and unfortunately,  I did buy a lot of processed stuff like instant mashed potatoes, pasta, macaroni and cheese, and “helper” foods. However I was sure to make sure that at least half of the items were vegetables and fruits, so that was a win.   So since we are on the subject of stats, check out this mess:

BOOM!

Yep, I set a record 382 views yesterday, now it is nowhere near my goal of 1,000 visitors but it is a HUGE spike in traffic. Thanks to a nod from Go Kaleo so happy with that.  I thought I had a bit more to say, but I suppose I don’t so here is a picture of Early Cuyler:

More random images that I find on my compy…. I have been told that I look like Rachael McAdams (that picture was supposed to be about wanting to always lose 3lbs), not sure if I see the resemblance, but I will take the complement nonetheless!

Well, this post is going nowhere fast, so I bid Adieu!

The more you know!

Yesterday, the blogger Go Kaleo posted this image:

It really got me thinking, as I see a lot of misinformation about this condition, but the sad part is. It isn’t even recognized as a real condition, adrenal insufficiency is an actual thing and you can be prescribed hormones to treat this. However, the “fatigue” diagnosis often is followed by useless supplementation and a “well duh” prescription of healthy eating and exercise. Don’t, I repeat, DO NOT GOOGLE THIS, research this on Wikipedia or WebMD instead, well maybe not WebMD, if you are a hypochondriac like myself.  As well all know:

There are, however, tons of hucksters wanting to take advantage of people’s desire to have a healthy mind and body, and I figure this is worth sharing as well (NSFW for the language and boobies at the end!!),

An interesting thing I found this weekend upon some random facebook milling about was an image describing cancer risks. One of the parts of the image suggested that eating overly charred meat increases one’s risk of cancer. Well, I have heard this claim before, and as it turns out, it isn’t bullshit! Over the years, I have dabbled in fitness and health, and come to realize what I should have years ago, the more sources that an article has, the more veracious it is likely to be.

But what about, Big Pharma and the toxic drugs. Listen, I am all about conspiracies like the next person, but at some point even the counter argument can just be as dogmatic as the accepted truth. Take home message, don’t be duped into buying a supplement. You don’t need to go on a juice detox because you already two great organs for that, your kidneys and your liver, and if you are having problems with those, then a juice fast might actually do more harm than good. This is something that I have to remind myself, even. Humans always want a magic pill it seems, but the real magic happens when you actually put in the time and effort. I have drank a bit of the paleo kool-aid, but guess what, it was a diet that contained mostly whole foods such as fruit and vegetables, and I also incorporated 10k steps a day, of course I lost weight. Now, I am still trying to eat vegetables, but I also allow myself pasta, still walk 10k (if not more) steps a day, and guess what, I am still losing weight, because I am still tracking calories! Amazing how the law of thermodynamics have not magically changed because I decided to not give a shit about carbs!

Here are some good sites that I like to use when thinking critically about health and wellness:

http://www.skepdic.com/

http://www.quackwatch.com/

http://www.skeptic.com/

Here is also a great video from Micheal Shermer about skepticism:

Monday Motivation – makeup!

Day 19 or 20 (unsure of when I started) of my commitment to cosmetics. Today getting out of bed at even 8am was really tough. Drinking matcha tea has been a component to my beauty ritual, plus I hear that stuff is good for wrinkles. Win win! Here is your loveliness with her makeup done up:

trying my best to be a morning person.

Having that boost of confidence of doing your hair and looking nicer than usual has really helped me be motivated for other things such as daily walking and/or going to the gym, even has inspired me to keep a cleaner house! It is amazing how keeping one small habit going for the magical 21 days can cascade into other behaviors that are positive and healthy. It makes sense though, why other less than desirable habits (smoking, drinking, eating fast food) can create a trap of yuckiness. Not to get into a kooky “The Secret” rambling, but it does seem that good behaviors and intentions attract good feelings, and most likely good outcomes. Well, maybe like retail, in life “you get what you pay for”. Sounds hoakey, but I think it is true.

Speaking of bad behaviors, my activity levels for Saturday were about 13k steps and yesterday was 14k! However I was feeling a bit stressed out regarding some news I got last week, and also just generally hungry (probably running a severe deficit from all those steps) so there is the binging extravaganza: one ginormous honey bun (600 calories, OMG), oreo cakesters, penguino, and oreo brownsers. Wonder, if the clerk at the gas station thought I was stoned, hah! At least I am back down to 127, which is still a one pound loss from when I originally started MFP in 2010, just wish I was back down to 119 like I was this past summer, hopefully I will be “bikini ready” again this year, but who really cares about bikinis besides college girls on spring break? Correction, no matter if you are 16 or 61, you still care about bikins. If I make it to be 61, I hope I still look good in a bikini. Not sure how that rambling came about, but yay bikinis.

Hopefully I will have some good news tomorrow, just been a crazy week, and I would like there to be a good resolution, don’t want to divulge too much, just because I don’t want to cause any alarm in anyone who may read this who knows me IRL (if that even exists). I can’t do anything but hope for the best, right?