Thankful Thursday – eating your words

Waterloo Icehouse breakfast – so good!

So, I knew that I would regret posting that spoiled brat kind of rant, but honestly it was kind of a distraction for things that were really bothering, but did not want to publicly rant about. I can say that they are resolved. There are some other matters that need to be taken care of, but I don’t feel so crazy stressed about things, and just have a general sense that everything will work out for me.

Ah, endorphins, in my personal exercise experience, I have come to the conclusion that even if I do cardio/gym stuff at night, that I should get some activity even if it is rather light walking, in before I go to work. The well-being of exercise really carries over into my daily activities and I feel very at peace. One thing that I notice that I am doing less and less of, however, is obsessively tracking my food, but at the same time, I am not really eating much of a breakfast (coffee) or lunch (cashews, almonds  and/or pistachios from the office), and really not eating a huge dinner (too broke to get fast food, hah!) This probably isn’t the best meal plan, as I am freaking starving right now. Not really attempting to starve myself, but  I usually will just forget to pack a meal and just  not that hungry in the morning. So, I need to work on that. Thankfully I had breakfast this morning, bacon instead of fruit, as pictured.
Anywho, the struggle not to become a cardio queen continues, my gym is going to be offering ballet classes, so that might be a cool thing to try and will sneak in some strength training because it feels so hard to to do it on my own gumption.  Oh, so very hungry, only about 90 minutes until I get to rock out with stir-fry yumminess.

A little bit empty-brained, so will sign off for now.

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!

 

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:

Foodie Friday – good and bad

Blue Baker has been sort of a new ritual for me. This past weekend, I did not super-over indulgence and opted for the smoked salmon salad. Normally, I am not a fan of tomatoes (except in salsa or pizza), but the sun-dried tomatoes were a rather nice touch. Capers are generally nasty, imo, but the rest of the salad was superb. Also, I can never pass up a good broccoli/cheddar. It tastes exactly like the one the have at Quizno’s and quite possibly acquired from the same supplier, but my palette is not refined enough to mind it, cheese is GOOD!

However on the opposite end of the spectrum, I splurged with a big ole Texican from Texidelphia, and yes that is ranch, and yes, I did dip my waffle fries into. I regret nothing! Well, actually it was quite calorically expensive, but it tasted fucking fantastic. One of my favorite places in Austin to eat. All of my favorite places to eat are very fattening, yet incredibly delicious. I think you could say that about any place, though.

Well, at least the Gym Pact earned me $1.16 last week. It is a good commitment, but I think I need to up the stakes to 5x a week. I usually just end up going Thursday-Sunday, which is good but the rest of the week needs some good sweaty attention, too! At least the numbers on the scale are dropping. The consistent measuring of food has been paying off, sure I have been eating pasta, but really 3 ounces is only like 30 calories and it is enough of an amount of food so that you are not dying of hunger. Also, the dog walking/running has supplied even more cardio, Lucy has become my personal trainer, hah! Well, my mind is a bit hazy from the Jack in the Box brain fog of lunch, zzzzzz, anyway, stay sweaty, my friends.

Random stuff

Thigh abductor muscles are very sore right now, and the pasta marathon continues, mmm vodka sauce. So far, so good on my makeup resolution. Every damn day I have been waking up before 7 at least to get on my face, but look at this I found a way to automate my choice of color for each day, behold the Thai solar calendar, yep, the four colors  a day was a bit overwhelming, especially since a lot of them were night-time colors.  So once, I get my eyebrows shaped (maybe Saturday?) will start doing selfies of my progress. Right now my pink eyeshadow is punctuated with Amy Whinehouse type batwing eyeliner.

A little bit of frustration today brought by HR failing to have our direct deposit checks for today. Boooooo! So instead of being able to mostly visit with my Lucy, I will be at the bank for lunch today. Lame. It isn’t so bad, though, as the weather has been craptabulous. Really, there wasn’t much walking yesterday. Too. Fucking. Cold! As much as I hate the triple digit temperatures from the end of May to the second week of September, I hate the 30’s even worse. I am a southern belle, y’all.

Cable is getting installed tomorrow, at least I am not paying for it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the promise of a Honey Boo Boo marathon will be a challenge to my fitness endeavors.  This weekend I will have it all to myself, because the bf is going golfing in Florida this weekend. Lucky ducky, I am really jealous that he will get to enjoy tropical weather while I am freezing, but I will have cable and a sweet doggy, and truly what is there in life, right?  At any rate, I have 74 days until The Electric Run and besides just treadmill work, I have actually done some jogging on the pavement (with hills!!). Lucy is probably the best personal trainer I could have gotten. So very grateful to be able to spend time with such a loveable pup.

Anywho, here are some stats, y’all! The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

New Year’s Evolution

Of course I have this unattainable ambitious list of items that I had planned on doing back in July. What I hadn’t planned on was my life actually getting in the way of the list and well, you know, it happens. Paleo, shmaleo, I like to eat and I like to eat things I like to eat. As far as I can tell, I do not have a gluten sensitivity or intolerance, so screw it, I am going to eat low carb when I feel like it, and not so restrictive when I don’t. And guess what, with the addition of walking from a new dog, I haven’t felt like it. Go figure. Saturday, mah man and I went to Blue Baker and I ordered the Tejas Blue and it was glorious:

I don’t even want to know how many calories it is, probably lots!

mmmmmm, guac!

Had planned on doing a whole 30 during this month, you know as sort of a reset, and while I do agree with these reasons I just didn’t plan ahead enough. However, I did do a lot of research into my weight loss goal of 110 by this summer. Well, ideally it would be a skinny SXSW (hah, see what I did with the alliteration, yet again?) with a 20 pound loss in 10 weeks. Let’s just say the numbers are really freaking difficult to burn 3600 calories times two. Can someone definitively tell me if it is 3500 or 3600 calories per pound of fat? I have heard both, so erring on the side of caution, it was 7200 per week in my calculations. Anyway, the mathematics for losing 20 pounds in 2 months is ridiculous, so a more attainable but still pretty challenging time-frame would be 10 weeks, and for 2 pounds a week it is still 514 calorie deficit through exercise and 514 through calorie restriction. Using the Harris-Benedict equation and the BMR for each week (assuming a 2-2.5 pound weight loss per week) I would have to start out even at 130 pounds around 1200 calories, and then closer to about 1000 calories per day and zero “cheat” days to attain 110 pounds by the ides of March.

In other words, I have already fucked up! Yeah, skipping what you may call amateur hour downtown for NYE, I brunched at Trudy’s and stuffed my gullet with delicious brunch buffet treats, one overpriced mimosa, and one spicy bloody mary. Not exactly debauchery, but definitely gluttony. Today’s hot chocolate mixed with coffee plus the creamer I used in my coffee at work, by the way, not sure I would be typing so furiously without it, #justsayin (boy I wish I could get rid of the habit to write like a douche sometimes) But really, this tweet sums up what everyone should do:

if your thinking new years resolutions.. do not make them about things you don't like, make them about the things you do!

— iambenga (@iambenga) December 27, 2012

In the spirit of this, I hooped for 30 minutes last night and applied makeup yesterday and today. The fake tan looks a bit Snookiish, but I look better, and not surprisingly I feel better. The working out after work foolproof plan I created, will have to be modified a bit because I adopted a dog, but I did join GymPact at a 4x a week plan, so there will be financial ramifications if I do not go to the gym, yay accountability!

Trancercise!

I could only imagine how fit I would be, if I danced non-stop to something like this, of course my gym bans social media including YouTube (wtf?, no BodyRock?), so whatever. [it even has a 7 minute intro track, great for warming up]

Actually, I have falling off the wagon quite a bit this week. Even with the workout tips last week, there has been a bit of stress and struggle to get things up and running. Not sure where the motivation went, well for one, the apartment has been super messy and it sorta reflects how irresponsible I have been with money planning and also food planning.  Been trying to hone my photography skills, even if I don’t have the best tools available: HTC EVO 3D camera, here are some shots, please do leave feedback. These are mostly unedited, so I am anxious to know if I am getting better:

Vasquez Taco: Nopalitos Plate ~ 750 Calories

Noodles and Company: Small Japanese Pan Noodles – 320 calories

Thai Kitchen (prepared at home) noodles ~ 160 calories

How Do you Roll – 3 alarm roll: 381 calories

The Japanese noodles were very flavorful, however, had to eat the Thai noodles to feel satisfied later. Yes, attendance at the gym has been less than desired, and really it is due to a lack of preparedness on my part, but at least my photos suck less, right? Need to work on lighting for sure,  but without having any knowledge of the art of photography it seems the composition of the photos is better, and they are less blurry, so I am getting there!

Foodie Friday: Rollin’

One of my favorite foods is sushi, but unfortunately it is not the cheapest fare. Thankfully, I live in Awesome, er Austin, TX and we own the franchise How Do You Roll?, and this place is just great because a) the food there is cheap, probably like Subway cheap, and b) the food is low calorie, and healthy, just look at what I constructed from their website:

You can make a sushi roll even with spicy mayo, and add a side of miso soup, and you will only be around 420 calories! If that isn’t bad ass, I don’t know what is. You will spend about $8 with a drink and soup, so yes, very reasonable for sushi. Also, the ingredients for the rolls are pretty healthy, if you want to opt for better carbs (and less calories) you can switch to brown rice in lieu of the white rice, and if you really wanted to get serious with your calorie cutting, you could opt out of the sauce entirely, ps the tempura crunch adds a lot of cals.

The inspiration for this post came from trying to construct a food choice that will have positive effects on stress, as outlined in this article. In the spirit of alliteration, I wanted to create a menu based on the items listed. Breakfast is easy: coffee, oatmeal, and berries. However, when I thought about lunch I remembered my newly created Saturday ritual which is getting HDYR from their Breaker/mopac location. Fortunately, we have two of the 7 items covered. I guess that means walnuts, dark chocolate and sunflower seeds for dindin. Strange, but I think it could work!

I have tried this roll and it is definitely delicious. Will have to report back with pictures.

Leftovers

The good thing about recording almost everything is that you will always have content, may not be the best, but hey, there are only so many ways to pontificate on how bad you want zebra cakes. Making progress on my goals, and trying to get back into the 120-125. 5 pounds increments really seem like appropriate milestones, if that hasn’t already been mentioned.

Friday’s meal was not a reflection of my effort, however. The company I work for hosted a party at Dave and Buster’s which included a $20 game card. Side-note, reminding myself that I should never ever gamble seriously. I can see how people become addicted, my “vice” was the tickets, but at the cost of not having a lot of game time. I did end up getting over 600 tickets, but the hello kitty prize I wanted was like 2400. That is an expensive stuffed animal, sheesh!  Ended up drinking a few brightly colored cocktails, but my meal was pretty good, steak and lobster Alfredo pasta, couldn’t find it on the menu of the website, but the sauce had shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes on it, too. Again, not a food snob, so it appealed to my not eaten anything substantial all day delicacies:

It is amazing I lose any weight with how terribly I eat some days, but there have been a number of tummy grumblings and fatigues to certainly make it up with nearly fasting. Normally, on Sunday night to recalibrate my sleeping, I will feast on a “Drank”, but it appeared that they were out at the store, so instead I chose one of the Neuro drinks called Trim. It is probably not anything that is scientifically backed, but it does contain Resveratrol. I am not going to stock up on a 36 count anytime soon, though, they taste awful!

In more self-esteem destroying news, I watched the dancer audition video for Ultra Music Festival. For those of you who don’t know, it is the Nutcracker of the EDM event performances, and if I wasn’t convinced already to become a skinny minnie, well just see for yourself:

http://vimeo.com/55100335

The thing about getting down to that weight is that I am not even sure that I would be able to maintain it for more than like a week. It feels “right” to be around 120-125 pounds, but my ego and desire want to be around 110 or less! I have never had such a cognitive dissonance about something (oh you fancy, huh?) I feel like if I am gonna go semi-starving to reach my goals, because let’s be real, that is what a diet is, amirite?, I may as well go whole-hog into the world of body modification through rib-removal and corsetry (Have you seen my Pinterest?). Just kidding, I would totally get a boob job before doing that, and those things don’t come cheap! Silliness aside, if I get down to my UGW, ugh I am one of them now, I will try to maintain it without driving myself totally mad. If not, well maybe it is time to chose another hobby.

I heart turmeric!

Someone needs to make a stop at Penzeys because this gal is out of my favorite spice. When there are so many other sexy flavors such as cayenne and the answer really lies in curcumin. Although the studies cited in that page may not translate to humans, it certainly does not hurt to add it to your food, in fact, it probably makes you less hurt from your workouts, due to its anti-inflammatory effects, so that is a definite plus. Also, there is research to suggest that its chemicals have the ability to block subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that no one really likes. My poor little bottle needs to be filled up again!

Took a break from my ritual (well it wasn’t really so much established yet) to try a noodle place in Austin called Chen-Z. I am not too familiar with this hot pot business, so I decided on just getting the “Chen Z original” which contained some noodles and vegetables that I am also not familiar with (sorry, I am not really a foodie, I just pretend to be one on the internet).

The appetizer was decent, had sort of a vinegary flavor. The table next to me almost kept me from enjoying the meal with their needless political chatter, but I was able to shit-talk on twitter, and distract myself with my phone to enjoy the meal.

The noodle broth and meat reminded me a bit of Pho, but I think they were egg based? Regardless really tasty, if not a bit heavy for a Saturday lunch.  The Wal-Mart expedition after lunch prompted me to go cheap, super cheap, on food, because I wanted to get new linens and needed a new vacuum. It is disgusting how inexpensive these items are, and yes I am a bit hypocritical because I feel like such a conscientious consumer for watching all these documentaries, yet I still buy a $40 vacuum cleaner.  The big steals of the day are .67 Thai rice noodles, and pictured below $1.00 for double pack of scalloped potatoes. There is some joke about rapper potatoes that I don’t feel like making, you know fitty cents? –because it is a twin pack, hyuck.

Because I feel like I have done enough self-bashing for one day, I won’t mention how pissed I am for weighing 128 pounds, and that is taking into account the diuretic effect of the cabbage. So, yeah, it is noted, and I am not happy about it. Only way to fix it is to tighten up that diet. Sure the processed food is not doing me any favors. Considering getting back on the Whole 30, like everyone else and their mom come January, and it seems doable. Going on a diet during the holidays sucks ass, and I actually want to have fun at my stepsisters shindig this year, as I had to awkwardly pass up the yummy dairy and carbohydrate delights, and the booze, of course. The drinks are easy to pass up, but the food is not. I am only human, ya know, but do I really want to be this heavy? It certainly is a choice that you have to make.