An Hour of Cardio is Totally Worth it

Yesterday, after my glorious work from home day, I went to the gym. I went on the same elliptical machine at the gym as I did the day before. Perhaps because it seems to burn more calories faster than the other ones? Not sure if that means its accurate or not... but oh well, I will just say it means its MORE accurate. Hahha.


Anyway, I did 45 minutes on the elliptical, and then 15 minutes on the bike thing. I have to say, I hate the bike. You burn hardly any calories and it is just SOOO freaking boring. Good thing I was listening to my audio book, because otherwise I would have died not from exhaustion but from boredom. haha.

I wanted to do weights but everyday this week I have done weights, and I know you need to rest a bit. So I did.

By the time I got home I was STARVING. Actually before I even went to the gym I was close to starving (even though I had eaten more calories than usual during the day) so it made sense that I was STARVING by the time I got home. I made a boca chikn sandwich with a slice of pepperjack on a toasted bun. It was heavenly. Absolutely heavenly. And it was only about 300 calories for everything. mmmm.

My friend came over shortly after, and after I fed her the same sandwich, I realized I was still hungry. I didn't have any real discretionary calories left to eat, but I needed food... or rather... chocolate. I ended up eating a whole bag of plain m&ms and felt fantastic afterwards. It was totally worth it. Haha. I dont care.

Also, I haven't been weighing myself for a few days now, because last time I did I wanted to throw the scale off a cliff with sharp jaggedy edges. Anyway, I figured I would brave it today, because after all my time spent on cardio and weights the past dew days I thought I needed to know if it was worth it (more than just the amazing endorphins). Even though it is in the middle of TOM, I was still down over 2 lbs from Sunday! Wooo hooo! Maybe it has to do with water retention or whatever crap, but a loss is a loss is a loss. Yes I repeated that more than necessary. I am aware. Those are still the same lbs I keep losing and gaining and losing and gaining, but really, who cares, it is progress in the right direction for now.

I am going to keep up with this hour of cardio. Not only do I feel amazing when I am done, but I can see the affects already. (note: I have been doing this for 2 weeks now, not just 3 days).

Well I need to head out for the day.

Goals for tonight:
1 hour cardio, lower body weights

Food Planned for Today:
B: NF yogurt with granola. Starbucks Doubleshot espresso.
L: Fake Chikn Sandwich w/ pepperjack and a side of string cheese.
S: Baby carrots, and possibly fruit if I buy some at the store today
D: No idea, prob pasta or a TJ meal.

You Can Choose the High or Lower Road

I hope everyone is doing well today. I am doing great. Today is the day I get to work at home. I have two pups by my side and am ready to take on all my tasks!

Last night I went to the gym after work, even though TOM had just come. I did 30 minutes on this funky elliptical machine that actually kicked a lot more ass than the other ones. It was fun. After that I did 15 minutes of the stair devil, and then upper body weights. I felt soo good afterwards and the high from it has continued until today. Woo hoo!

I am planning on either working out at home later today or doing it at the gym after 330pm.

I want to start taking more classes but none really fit in with my schedule. LAME. I suppose I can change my schedule though, so I might work on that. Do you think it would be worth it? Do you like classes at your gym better than ones by yourself? Do you think you burn more calories in the classes or by yourself?

Alright I have to head out! Bye.

Progress Pictures

So after taking a look at Randi's impressive photo's and how they are a great way to show progress, I decided that I should do it too. It didn't help that I did upper body workouts today either right? hahah. Hopefully posting these, will give me a great perspective on how far I have come in a few months. ;-)

Can I say that is just my muscle bulging out or do I have to admit it is back chub? Hahah.

So there you go. I am not buff yet, but I am getting closer. I am focusing more on getting buff now, or tone whatever, more than weight loss, because it is more fun and faster. haha :-)

PS: I completely kicked ass at the gym today and it was a complete cure all for cramps. Woo hoo!

Workout Videos Make me Laugh

The past few days while sleeping I have either been grinding my teeth or just clenching my jaw really hard. I wake up with my jaw sore and a tension headache from hell. It usually goes away by the time I have my caffiene and eat my breakfast, but not this morning. I have no idea how to control my jaw while I sleep. I wore a night guard for awhile, when I used to do this all the time, but that really just made me do it more. Maybe if stress goes away it will stop. Who knows.

So last night, I got home as fast as I could because my pups had been alone for about 9 hours. EEK. When I got there though, they were happy to see me, as per usual. There were no messes in the kitchen, which was miraculous. I took them on a walk and by the time I was done with that Mike came home from his first day of class.

My Mom had a tradition that you get ice cream your first day of school, and your last day of school. I think my Grandma started this. So we were set to go to Golden Spoon for dessert, a frozen yogurt place. mmm. After making a spectacular meal of Trader Joe's Penne Pepperonata with Trader Joe's Turkey Meatballs we headed over to Golden Spoon. Luckily we live close enough to walk, so we did just that.

Afterwards I said that in one hour I would go to the apartment gym. I got dressed, got the water bottle ready and headed over with Mike. Thankfully, he also wanted to work out! It made it sooo much easier. So we get inside the gym and it STINKS. It smells like mildew hardcore. I couldn't handle staying in there more than 1 minute, let alone breathe it in while doing the elliptical for an hour. I left immediately and decided to just workout at home.

I turned on Exercise TV on Demand and tried to find the longest workout possible so that I could have an easier time getting the hour of cardio in. The first one I watched though was LAME. It was basically walking in place for 40 minutes, while staring at this obnoxious biker dude who was smiling like he was about to get a brand new harley. I had to change it, especially since Mike would NOT stop laughing at it.

So I turned on the Carmen Electra Fit to Strip one, which was only about 22 minutes. This workout was hard. Strippers apparently need to do some hard work to get their bodies! Geesh!!

After that I did another one, which was led by this super cheerleader (not really but it seemed like it), who made you do a bunch of leg work and upper body work for about 25 minutes. I did the ab workout with this same chick and she is so obnoxious it is hilarious when you do it. She always says "Soooo good.... right?!" I can't help laughing at her, but at least her workout kicks my butt, unlike the biker one.

I am thinking about renting a workout video on netflix, yea know to see if I would consider actually paying for it. Does anyone have any good ones they like that do not require a ton of equipment?

Alright, I need to head out.

Planned Food for Today:
B: Starbucks doubleshot espresso, Trader Joe's NF Vanilla Yogurt with Trader Joe's Vanilla Granola.
S: Coconut Slices
L: Tomato Meatball Soup
D: Flank Steak with steamed broccoli

Planned Workout:
1 hour cardio, 15 minutes weights

I Hate You Healthnet

Boo to Healthnet. After my $30 freaking co-pay I end up having to pay another 30 or 40 to cover lab results. Why do I even PAY for insurance? The only reason I do right now is because what if I had to go to the hospital, without insurance it would result in a lot of debt for the rest of my life.

I went to the doctor 2 times last year. TWO TIMES. Both times was for a pap, one a normal one, one a follow up because of an abnormal one including a blood fasting test. I pay over $1200 a year for 2 doctor visits that I could get for free at planned parenthood? LORDY.

I want the health insurance I used to get, when I wasn't a stupid "independent contractor" otherwise known as completely effed when it comes to taxes and health insurance. Can you tell I am angry? I am.

Boooooooo.

One thing that people might find interesting though, is that Healthnet does offer discounts for Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. I won't be doing either, but I doubt most people aren't fully aware of this.

Any one have any advice on good health insurance for an independent contractor? I am fresh out of good ideas.

I am going to prevent further doctor visits by heading to the gym in 15 minutes though, even though I am so bloated that I can barely walk.

And yes, it is almost TOM. Can you tell? hahaha.

New Workout Schedule Starts Today!

Mike starts back to school today, after being off for 6 weeks or something ridiculous like that. So that means we have to have a new plan of action for taking care of the pups. Monday's will now be the day where they stay alone for 8.5 hours, which kills me. This also means my workout schedule changes. It will also change again once daylight continues past 5pm. :-)

So this is the plan:
Monday: Take dogs on walk, workout from home or take lunch walk
Tuesday: Gym, cardio 1 hour, weights 15 mins
Wednesday: Have not decided yet, but probably workout from home during lunch
Thursday: Gym, cardio 1 hour, weights 15 minus
Friday: lunch walk

Also, in the past few weeks since I stopped using Sparkpeople, I have been eating less than before, but still weighing in more. I am not going into the excuses that account for this (like maybe more muscle, or water weight or whatever crap). I am just going to count again so that I can have scientific proof that my body is insane.

All last week I only had veggies, fruits or nuts as snacks. And yes, I even limited the amount of nuts I eat. I finished off an entire bag of baby carrots, and 2 bags of sliced apples. I am planning on continuing on this plan this week. Also, this week TOM is coming over for a visit either tomorrow or Wednesday (yes I love birth control for being able to know this). With this in mind I am refusing to weigh myself. So there scale. No more spitting in my face ;-)

I am still positive about all of this, because I know I am healthier than I have been since high school. Even then, I wasn't as healthy as I am now, food wise.

I went to Whole Foods yesterday and Trader Joes. So now I am stocked. I also made some more Tomato & Meatball soup for leftovers. Mmmm. This time I used Trader Joe's organic creamy tomato soup and it is spectacular. Last time I used cambells, but this is a million times bette. Mmmmm.

Planned Lunch & Dinner meals this week include:
1) Tomato Meatball Soup
2) Penne Pepperonata (TJ's frozen meal)
3) Fake Chik'n Sandwiches
4) Spicy Black Bean Patty Sandwiches
5) Peanut BUtter & Jelly Sandwiches (finally got natural peanut butter!!

So I never told you how the rest of the weekend went. On Saturday Mike and I went to Balboa Island after the run. We didn't realize how tiny it was. Hahah. It was basically a block it seemed. It was still a lot of fun. We walked around a bit, checked out some stores, and then decided to head out for a drive along PCH before coming back for dinner at Amelia's. Halfway through the drive we decided to go to this place called The Winery in Tustin (next to Whole Foods) instead. But on the way there, I led us in the wrong direction. I was so wrong that we ended up just going in one big circle and ended up right where we started. Oops. We then decided it was fate and we should just go to Amelia's for dinner.

I am not a big Italian food fan, even though I am more than a quarter Italian. But Mike is obsessed with it and I thought I would go for him, since it was our anniversary. Hah. Half the menu was a lot of sea food, which I am not a fan of. The other half was regular Italian food. The only thing I could decide on was Manicotti. The manicotti was fine, although not worth the price at all. I only ate half the meal, which was not that big to begin with. I knew we would be doing dessert, so I didn't want to eat anymore of the regular food. I KNEW the dessert would be better, and it sure WAS. We got this brownie thing, which turned out to taste like eating a truffle the size as a piece of cake. Hahah. I am sure that wasn't the greatest for me, but it was anniversary celebration so suck it ;-)

On Sunday, Mike really wanted to go to the Whole Foods brunch thing since it was his last Sunday where he knew he could go without worrying about HW. So we went. We were supposed to go to Santa Ana afterwards but I was too tired. we ended up just going home. I walked in the door of our house, took the dogs to the bathroom, took off my shoes and fell in bed. I slept for a good 2 hours.

I am not sure why I was so tired, because I did get plenty of sleep over the weekend. But I was. I needed it too.

Sorry that this whole entry is entirely disorganized. My mind is right now so I can't fix it ;-) On my way to work today I encountered a major accident, and almost hydro planed the entire time. It was awesome. California freeways are not built for a week straight of rain.

Alright, I am heading out, but I think today might be a writing day.

My Lungs Feel Happy

I woke up at 7am this morning, thinking I needed to get things done. This does not happen often. So I laid there until 730am because not even the dogs wanted to wake up. I finished 2 loads of laundry by 9am. But it was necessary. I had NO underwear left to wear. At least ones that were clean AND fit. haha.

We went on our Saturday run this afternoon at 11am. We did 7 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking for each interval. We did a total of 4 intervals, so total of 32 minutes. We also did 15 minutes of a walk warm up and 15 minutes of a walk cool down. It was awesome. I was not as tired as I thought I would be. I never even thought to stop ever during it. I actually never really looked down at the stop watch much today.Actually one mine we ran an extra 30 seconds because I forgot to look down. That is a first. And then in the middle of the run I did pull ups and I did FIVE in a row. Yes you read that correctly, FIVE!! Woo hoo!!

So if you were curious about the anniversary night, I will let you in on the details. We went to this place in Seal Beach called Finbars and it was amazing. It was a little Italian place. I decided to get something I would never get. I normally stay with something safe, but this time I took a risk, and it was amazing. I got the Gnocchi in a cream sauce made of jalepenos, basil and cilantro. Sounds weird, but its amazing. Trust me. haha. We also got dessert and had a glass of wine. High calories, but whatever, it was a celebration.

Today we are going to head to Balboa Island and explore the area. We just ate lunch (left overs) so we will just explore the area until dinner time. Not sure where we are going there though. We saw a few places but they looked really expensive so I am not sure.

Well I need to take a shower now and get on with the day.

Have a great weekend!

I Finally Did it!

I finally did 1 full hour of cardio and as well as weights. Woo hoo!!!! I did 45 minutes on the tread climber and then 15 minutes on the stair devil. And then focused on lower body for weights. Woo hoo!!

I have been reading though, and have been told by a few readers, to do weights first and then cardio. I always just have the habit to go straight for the cardio first. And also if I do weights first the cardio machines are always taken. BOO. So I will try to do the weights before cardio next week, but who knows.

This weekend shall be some trouble though, because today is my 4 year anniversary with Mike :-) To celebrate we wanted to do something low-key but still memorable. We met in San Diego, while in college, and when we lived there were explored the area quite a bit. We have been in Orange County now for about 2 years, and still have not done a lot of exploring. We came up with the idea of just exploring the area. We are planning on going to Seal Beach tonight, Balboa Island tomorrow, and Santa Ana (art district) on Sunday. We will prob eat one meal out (at most) which can be dangerous.

To counter this I am going to still go on my Saturday run, and then also workout on Sunday. And I think our adventures will involve a lot of walking around anyway.

So, I forgot to tell you about this. I think it is Wednesday or something, my work had a BBQ for a co-worker's birthday. They were having burgers and hot dogs. I hate burgers and was not in the mood to eat a fatty hot dog when I could eat my leftover amazing tomato meatball soup. So I ended up eating that instead! Woo hoO!

Oh so yesterday I had a talk with my boss about my working conditions. You know how I told you about the boyfriend's new schedule, which will leave the dogs alone for up to 10 hours twice a week? Well... I am now able to have one of those days as a work at home day! I work sooo much better at home, and get so much more done, so I am very happy about that goal accomplished. Now I just have to figure out a better plan for the other day.

Oh so I had this question in my head the last few days. How exactly do you ladies (or gentlemen for that matter) prefer your pants to fit? I like mine loose enough to pull off without unbuttoning. This is probably a lot different than most people. Is it lame to buy pants a size higher than you are just because you want your pants to fit really loose? Maybe not lame, but silly.

I can fit into a smaller size, but then prefer not to wear them in luei of my looser pants. The large size and small size vary throughout my closest and I wear each kind depending on my mood. (or in a lot of cases, what is clean...).

Anyway, I have always wondered what people actually prefer.

I hope you all have a great weekend. I will try to write, but no promises. I think because it is anniversary weekend I will be pressured to get off the freaking computer for once! haha.

Dressing in the Dark

I am not going to tell you about how even though I have been eating the healthiest I have ever eaten this week, and have been working out yet still haven't lost weight. I am going to tell you about how when I was getting dressed in the dark today I accidentally put on my "skinny jeans" and didn't notice until I started to move around in them. They fit me, although not as comfortably as I want, but I was "this" close to actually wearing them to work. I am not going to wear these jeans out until I feel completely physically comfortable in then. I do not want to ruin the experience.

So far this week I have not had a snack that wasn't a veggie, fruit or nut. I am trying to get over the counting every calorie obsession and just focus on eating healthy food. It HAS to make a difference. HAS TO. It works for so many other people.

I am a lot more comfortable with my body now. Even though I have not significantly lost weight in this process. But f*ck the numbers on the scale because you know what? My body is tone now, my legs do not jiggle anymore. So scale, what do you have to say about that? Hahaha.

Yesterday was technically my rest day, and I WAS planning on going to the gym yesterday anyway, but it didn't work out. It was raining here yesterday, and no one in Southern California knows how to drive in the rain, AT ALL. So.... that means the freeway traffic is ridiculous. It took me 1.5 hours to get home last night when it should take 38 minutes without traffic. By the time I was near the gym, it was after 5pm, which means no machines would be open. Totally not worth it to me when I have Exercise TV on Demand.

SO after a quick dinner or low fat mac n cheese, I watched the Suns (the best ranked team in the Western Conference) get beat by the worst team in the NBA. Awesome. After that I decided that Mike and I were not going to excuse ourselves from working out, which is what it looked like was about to happen. We turned on Exercise TV on Demand, and put on the Abs & Back workout. It is only 10 minutes, but it is 10 minutes of torture. Good torture, because you know it is working, but torture none the less. Hahah. After that we did about 10-15 minutes of upper body weights with free weights. Although it did not amount to too much, it was still nice.

I think today I will take a walk at lunch, granted it is not raining by then. And then I will go to the gym tonight. Normally we have girls night tonight, but my friends are not coming I think. One is sick, and the other one is busy I am pretty sure. I guess that means no shortened time at the gym. Maybe I will find a class to take tonight?

I tried to go to bed at 930, but it didnt work out that way, like usual. At 9 I remembered I was sick of all the music on my ipod and needed to wipe the slate clean and start over. In the process I thought it was a great idea to get some new music. So I did, via suggestions from Pandora.

I ended up going to bed around 10. Oh well. Life goes on, right?

I am going to continue to eat healthy. I might just eat exactly what I ate yesterday. Leftovers are awesome. hahah.

Planned Food:
B:LF yogurt with TJ's Vanilla Almond Crunch, Starbucks doubleshot
L: Tomato Meatball Soup
S: Apples/Carrots
D: Low Fat Mac N Cheese

It's Really Only Wednesday?

So last night on my drive home I decided I was too hungry and just not in the right mood to go to the 24lift class. Instead I decided on going to the gym near my house and doing just cardio for an hour.

When I go to the gym, the only machines available were the elliptical machines, mostly because they take up about 80% of all their cardio machines. I opted for the machine I didn't have to wait for. I put on my headphones, playing my audio book and started going at it. I set the goal to 60 minutes and upped the resistance and cross training mode. I got through 30 minutes of it and decided I needed something else for the next 30 minutes. I worked out a bit to hard on that and needed a break.

I looked around the gym and the only other cardio machines open were the stairclimber machines, often referred to as the devil machines, etc. So I thought I would suck it up and go on one of those for 30 minutes. 5 minutes in I was literally panting. Was it because I had the setting on too high? I turned it down just in case. By 10 minutes I was panting harder and wanted to quit. I told myself 5 more minutes. I have to at least do 15 minutes of this. I finally finished the 15 minutes of it and jumped off (not literally).

I wanted to get 15 more minutes in, but just couldn't do it. I couldn't even do weights. I think I worked out a bit too hard for me to do a workout for an entire hour. 45 minutes is really not too bad though. So I was proud of myself and left.

I proceeded to do some grocery shopping to pick up some water bottles to put in my car for the gym. I also picked up a few other things, but decided this time that I was not going to put anything in my cart that did not resemble something healthy. This deterred me from buying one bad for me thing, which is awesome.

I ended up buying the ingredients to make Mrs. Furious' Tomato Meatball Soup because I had been craving it ALL day. hahaha.

Once I got home I realized the pups needed to go the bathroom so I took them on a walk instead of just waiting for them to go the bathroom in the front area. So on this walk I decided it would be best if we ran. So I ran around the complex with the two of them for almost 15 minutes. It would have been longer but I ran into our neighbor who is awesome so I stopped to talk to him instead. But if you add up all my cardio times together, that shows I did almost hour of cardio. Woo hoo!

While making the Tomato Meatball soup, sans chicken soup and replacing regular meat balls with TJ's turkey meatballs, I accidentally poured the entire box of pasta in the boiling water. It was too late by then to take back that action. Oops. So I decided to just cook it all, and then use the noodles for something else later. After completing the amazing soup, Mike convinced me to just make home made mac n cheese with the leftover pasta.

The way I make mine is put the noodles in a baking pan (I use a pie pan because that is basically all we have for baking pans) and spray the fake butter stuff on it, and add in some milk and 2% shredded cheese. I put it in a pre-heated oven of 350 degrees and wait for the magic.

So while attempting to make one meal of tomato & meatball soup, I ended up making about 4 servings, and then 3 servings of mac n cheese. Hahah. Now I have my pasta intake for the month. JK. But I do have a lot of pre-made meals! Woo hoo!

Today I am eating the leftover Tomato & Meatball soup for dinner, and am already craving it. Note: I have not even attempted to eat my breakfast yet. Hahhaa.

I am also attempting to workout today. I want to do some weights though, so I am not sure 45 minutes of cardio will workout. I will decide later I suppose. All I know is that I WILL workout.

I hope you all have a fantastic day.

Tuesdays Are Not as Fun as Fridays

So I forgot to mention in the last post, that my camera completely died by the time the meal was complete. Mike made it look all fancy and then the battery died. By the time it was charged enough to work the meal had been eaten. heh. The meal was pretty delicious. Only thing is that we cooked the pork on too high of a heat, which resulted in the outside getting cooked much quicker than the inside. Oops.

Today I am going to try that 24lift class again. It will be at a different gym, so hopefully we will not do hip breaking exercises. Only hip breaking for me of course. Or a 90 year old woman. You know, the same thing right? jk.

I went on my lunch walk yesterday. It was fantastic. I think I might start doing it again several times a week. It really cleared my mind. I listened to my audiobook while on the walk, which made it entirely enjoyable. I just need to remember to wear the right shoes on the day I want to go on a walk.

It is raining here on and off right now so today the walk might not work out. But it might. Who knows. We shall see.

Today I packed a pretty good lunch. I keep hearing posts on what people pack for work that is easy and low in fat/calories.

This is what I packed today:
For Breakfast: NF yogurt with Trader Joes Vanilla Almond Crunch granola cereal.
For Snacks: Banana, Apple
For Lunch: Morningstar Spicy Bean Patty with reduced fat swiss cheese and a few jalepenos on country potato bread.

The lunch meal is a new one, I just made it up last night. I hope it works out. Do any of you eat morningstar food? I love it. I have a lot in my freezer and I need to remember to finish it. Their chikn patties are fabulous because (to me) they taste exactly like a chicken sandwich (without the whole allergy effects) but are about 3 times less in fat and calories. Sweet right? Hahah. I am a nerd.

I am happy to report Emily was still doing well this morning when I left. She is a cutie.

Have a great day everyone!

Emily is Back!!

Emily is back! Here is a picture of her after her return. She is completely out of it because they had to knock her out for the surgery.


Here is a picture of one of my new meals this year. It is pork tenderloin sauted in apples, brown sugar and some smart balance light pseudo butter.


We then made a side of sauted apples with actual applesauce. It was beyond amazing. Maybe not the lowest cal, but I made sure to save up some calories earlier in the day.


This is a picture of my stomach after an intense ab workout.


I hope you enjoyed my photos. Thank you everyone for your kind words for Emily. Now we just have to make sure she doesn't scratch at her stitches. Geesh!

Monday....

So this morning as I was saying bye to Emily, telling her to be brave for the vet today I hugged her. In midst of the hug I must have hurt her or something, or shocked her out of a bad dream because she snarled at me and nipped me on the chin. She has never done this before. Well to me. She has growled before if we pick her up wrong, but eek. Do you think she knows what I said when I said she was going to the hospital? Is that why she bit? Geesh. I really don't think its okay that she did that, but I know she would only do that if she felt hurt AND was half asleep. Now I have a bruise/small cut on my chin. Pretty awesome. How do you explain this? Uhh my dog does not bode well when you wake her up with a hug and tell her she has to go to the vet today?

Lordy. I say bye to her, and Ender every morning. This has never happened. Apparently I need to be more careful. Geesh.

She was abused her first 2 years of life (not from us!!). Since we adopted her she has been getting progressively better. She hated all men for awhile, aside from a select few. She would bark, snarl and try to bite when male friends entered our house. She is now much better and just barks when someone knocks on the door. So this behavior today is weird to me. Especially since she has never been mean to ME ever. She is a very sweet dog in general. She wants to be around you ever 2 seconds, attacks you with kisses, and will cuddle next to you all day. So all of this is weird. I am not an expert with dogs, so I don't know.

Anyway, this is not a dog blog. I have one for that already. But this definitely took a toll on my morning. I was already worried about her surgery today and then this happens. Geesh. I guess it is a good thing they are knocking her out for surgery. Heh.

So as I stepped on the scale this morning I did not see anything happy. I am sure it is just water retention or something, but still, no good. I am not going to jump back on the sparkpeople wagon completely, but I am going to hold myself accountable by just listing everything I eat everyday on my blog (located on the list in the right corner). This might help.

It seemed to have rained near my work today. Hopefully it passes through by lunch time so I can go for a walk. This is a great place to go on walks. There is great scenery, away from traffic, and up hills. I need to remember to do this on days I can't workout. I just got out of habit with the colder weather and my obsession with reading books over my lunch break.

I hope you all have a great day. And even though Emily took a nip at me, I am going to forgive her and have good thoughts for her during surgery and if you want to as well that would be nice.

PS; also I wanted to let you know that on Saturday I did FOUR pull ups! Did you read that right? FOUR. Awesome right? hahah.

Good Thoughts for Emily

Perhaps because of Laura's post about her dog Miss Rosie or maybe it was just random, but on Friday night I noticed that Emily (my pup) had a growth growing on her lip that looked like this. It might be an under statement to say I freaked out. At first I thought it was cancer. But I tried to calm myself down by trying to look up some info online. After researching and looking at pictures of growths on dogs lips, I came to believe it was the Canine Papilloma Virus. This calmed me down a bit because this virus is not deadly. We found out that our vet would be open the next day (Saturday) for a few hours so we decided to make a visit.

On Saturday morning we brought Emily in and the vet said that it was in fact the Canine Papilloma virus. He said it is basically just a wart in her mouth that is benign but can cause a lot of trouble if not taken care of. He said it could go away on its own, but it would likely get infected before then which would cause a mess of other problems. We asked if they freeze it off, but he said the best way would be to surgically remove it to get rid of the wart. So that is what we are going to do. It will be around $400 though. Eeek.

What is worse is that it is contagious, and can live in a dogs system for 1 to 2 months before it appears. So now we have to watch Ender closely, and have Mike's parents watch Chloe closely because they all shared the same water bowl all last week. It is almost impossible to get them to not share water bowls too. It is even harder to prevent them from making out with each other, because they do that all the time (really cleaning each others teeth I think). So if the little one gets it, he gets it. It would be almost futile to stop it now.

It is weird though because it usually only gets young dogs with weak immune systems. Emily is almost 4 years old (next month) and has always been healthy aside from a few allergy and weight issues. Ehhh.

My pups are expensive but completely worth it.

As for everything else my weekend went really well, aside from the food...

Aside from the dog stuff on Friday night, Mike and I went to Trader Joes early in the evening on Friday. I picked up all kinds of yummy food. I ended up cooking Trader Joe's Cornbread (which is BEYOND amazing) and eating just that for dinner. It is a little high in calories, which is why I didn't eat anything else. We ended up just watching the Suns kick the Timberwolves butts. And then the dog stuff happened.

Mike and I went on our run on Saturday with the pups, but minus Teddy, after we went to the vets. We did intervals of 6 minutes, 1 minute of rest twice and then 2 7 minute 1 minute rest sets. At the end of the last set my hip started to hurt really bad so I couldn't completely finish it (1 minute off). I had to stop to prevent further injury. I think my form was just off though, because I was trying to control two dogs who kept getting tangled. heh. My hips is fine now which is great.

After the run we went to get lunch at this french cafe in Huntington beach. This place was AMAZING although not as healthy as one would like. But I had had a tiny breakfast and convinced myself I would have a small dinner. After the lunch we went to the movies and watched "There Will be Blood". I cannot recommend that movie. I think it was pretty awful. Too bad. We ended up cooking some steak at night. I cooked flank steak, which if you haven't tried is basically just thinly cut steak. I probably only had about 3 oz of it because that is all I needed. I then had some leftover cornbread. Mmm. During the meal we watched the Rockets win.

Today Mike and I had plans to go to a brunch with my friend Teddy. It was a little high in calories but it counted as breakfast and lunch for me. We ended up just watching Lost the rest of the day and doing some laundry. Oh and we watched the Suns again, play the Nets. My team won again! Woo hoo! Now Mike is off picking up his dad from the airport.

Tomorrow Emily goes in for surgery. I wish I could go with her there with her tomorrow morning. When we took her to the vet on Saturday she freaked out. She literally climbed into my arms and put her two front paws around my neck like a hug and did not want down until we got outside of the office. Poor girl. I will be picking her up though. Which means I skip the gym, but it is worth it to pick her up. I might just go on a walk at lunch to make up for it. Hopefully it doesn't rain like it is supposed to tomorrow...

Anyway, please have good thoughts for Emily tomorrow. :-) It should be a simple surgery, but she will still be under anesthesia. Eek. I am beyond nervous and have been babying her all day.

I will workout on Tuesday though. And I am going to go back on track eating well tomorrow. I even have my lunch planned out.

Also, I am going to continue a habit I started last week to only eat veggies, fruit or nuts when I need a snack. This will cut down on any processed food and keep my body happy. I practiced this this weekend and it worked out. I had no idea how long apples and bananas can keep you full :-)

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Looking Forward to Saturday

So last night I ended up not going to the gym. With Mike on vacation, and having three dogs at the house (normally we only have two) I feel more obligated to do other things. Mike is only on vacation for another week and then Chloe (the third dog) will be heading out on Monday. All things will be back to normal starting that Monday, the 28th I think.

Last night, instead of the gym, I went to dog park with the three pups. We had a lot of fun, especially the pups. I got to see a few puppies too, which is always exciting to me. Hahah. Too bad no corgi's though. Hahah.

After that we went home and watched the Suns vs Lakers game. If you do not know by now, I am a HUGE Suns fan. Everyone at my work are Lakers fans (lame) so when my team beat them last night it was cause for celebration! Hahah. Today I am at work in my Suns shirt, to brag to them about the win. But don't think I am too much of a jerk, because last time the Lakers beat the Suns one of the guys wife baked Lakers Cupcakes to help ease the pain I felt for the Suns loss. My t-shirt is mild compared to that. Haha.

So this has been on my mind for the last 2 weeks or so. I completely gave up regular soda (and now only occasionally drink diet coke to fulfill my carbonation addiction). But basically at the time of me giving up soda I started to like beer. And now I drink it more often than I would like. I am not a drunkard at all, but I will occasionally have a beer or two when watching a game or something. I prefer Sam Adams light over all beers, so I guess that is slightly better, but I am still drinking 100 calories a pop. I am not a fan of drinking calories.

I need to just stop drinking on weekdays. Or maybe just say I am only allowed 2 beers a week or something. That might help. I am sure that is why the weight is not coming off as fast as I would hope. Oh and my body is a muscle building machine (hahaha).

Oh also, after the class on Wednesday, I have gotten progressively sore. Well yesterday I got progressively sore. I think it has died down now. But my back was sore, my biceps were sore, my inner thighs were sore and my abs were sore. Overall, it must have been a decent workout if I was that sore. Sweet!

I never workout on Friday's but I think I have to today because I skipped yesterday. I will do some form of cardio somehow today!

So does anyone have plans for the weekend?

Mine are to watch some basketball, go on my Saturday run and possibly watch "There Will be Blood". I will also be heading to Trader Joes and hopefully Whole Foods. Oh and of course to watch lots of LOST! Hahah.

Food Eaten Yesterday
B: nf yogurt w/ granola and starbucks doubleshot
S: banana
L: trader joes fried rice with veggie egg roll
S: snap peas and mushrooms
D: 2 pieces of toast, 1 w/ peanut butter and honey, the other with honey and smart balance light.

Food Planned for Today:
B: toast with peanut butter and starbucks doubleshot
L: Roast Beef Subway sandwich with Baked Lays
S: Snap Peas and Mushrooms
D: Pork Cutlet and some sorta side

Planned Exercise for Today:
45 minutes of Cardio
Possibly weights but I am SORE so perhaps not.

24 Hour Fitness Class Review: 24Lift

I showed up to the gym early, because I always hear that if you show up with only 15 minutes left before the class there is often not enough room. That was not true.

I went in to what appeared to be the class workout room and only one person was in there that appeared to be attending the class. I had no idea what equipment to get, or what the protocol was. I stretched for a few minutes counting down the minutes for people to show up and show me what to do.

I eventually asked the first woman there what I was supposed to do. She told me to get the step thing, and some weights, a mat and a barbell. I got that going. Nervous when putting my barbell together I only ended up loading it up to only about an addition 2 lbs aside from the weight. LAME. I am stronger than that :-)

The weights I chose (free weights) were only 3lbs and 5lbs. I knew we would be doing this for an hour so I could not pull off anything higher.

Later on I was given two types of resistance band things. One was just a band and one was what some referred to as a tube.

When the class started the instructor told us that she likes to switch up the routine a bit, because 24 hour fitness has not changed their routine in 1.5 years. That was fine with me.

Then we started to do some arm workouts, which were easy at first with my 3lb weight, but ended up killing me after the 30th time. Then we did some leg exercises with the resistance band. These exercises would have been spectacular, except that my hips suck and these workouts hurt them, badly. I had to actually stop doing them, not because the muscles hurt but because my actual hip kept feeling like it was popping out of the socket. Ouch.

After the 8th minute I was already counting down the minutes. I soon thought of a title for my post: Shoot me in the Face.

But after about 30 minutes of it, it was getting better. We did some upper body work, some abs, etc. We then proceeded to do more leg exercises with the resistance band. Can I say hell? She was doing these things where you had to hold the movements for 16 seconds to more.... I thought I would die. I was one of the few who actually did not complete the sets. I seriously did not see anyone else not give up. Although I did see one girl start holding her legs as she directed them in the right direction. I followed suit and it made it much easier. (Go Figure).

After that we did some more ab exercises and a cool down. And then the whole hour was over.

I left feeling like I just survived death somehow. But then... after about 30 seconds I realized I was not even sweating. At all. Was this really a good workout if I didn't even sweat?

I found out today that yes, it was a decent workout. My legs are stiff, especially the inner thighs (very important) and my arms are very sore. I think I will be sore in more places come tomorrow.

Another interesting thing about this class is that there were a lot of older women here. I am talking about 60+ doing this workout. They had the most defined arms I have seen in a long time. Was it because of the class? I have no idea. But they were buff! It really made me think if they can do it, I should more than be able to do it. I am in my 20s (even on the low side right now) I should be able to do what they can do!

So I haven't decided if I will go back again. The only thing holding me back is that a lot of the exercises dehabilitated me when it came to my hip, and then the fact that I was not even sweating when I left.

The instructor said she taught the class differently than others, so maybe if I went to another gym with another teacher they wouldn't try to murder my hips.

I would be willing to give it another try but am not as eager as I would have hoped.

Do you think sweating defines a good workout? I often do...

Food Planned for Today:
B: Yogurt with Granola & Starbucks
L: Trader Joes Fried Rice (with added egg from me), and tofu veggie egg roll
S: Snap Peas, Mushrooms, Banana & Kiwi, perhaps 100 calorie popcorn
D: Pork Cutlet and steamed broccoli

Planned Workout:
30 minutes of Cardio (would be 45 but I don't have time today)
15 Minutes Weights

Good Work Out

So yesterday I decided I would start stepping up the cardio. Well actually I decided the night before that I would, but I actually DID IT yesterday. I went to the gym with the intentions of going to the 24lift class. Apparently I went to the wrong gym though because at the one I went to the class was not until tomorrow. I didn't have time to go to another gym, so I just did my workout there.

I did 30 minutes or so on the treadmill. Normally I will do interval running, but today I decided to just walk really fast up a very steep incline. I would have gone faster but my calf kept cramping up. Oh well. After the treadmill I did 15 minutes on the stair climber. For some reason it was not as hard as I remember. Maybe because last time I went on it I only had been working out for a 1-4 weeks.

After the cardio session I did about 15 minutes of weights. I focused on the lower body because I figured that the 24lift class that I would take the next day would focus more on upper body.

When I got home I was amped to get things done. I consumed a burrito (home made, pretty healthy) within minutes of getting home. I was STARVING. After that I did three loads of laundry and actually put it all away. I also cleaned up a bit around the house and made my room able to walk through. Hahha. I think the 45 minutes of cardio really got me going and motivated. Apparently I should do this everyday.

Today I intend to go to the 24lift class. I am getting excited about it. My friend who went to the gym where my class WAS, saw the last 10 minutes of it or so. She said it looked like fun and a lot more low key than the kick boxing class. So now I am excited about it :-)

I found out last night that when Mike goes back to school, January 28th, his Mondays and Wednesdays schedule will prevent me from having time to go to the gym. This should be okay though because it will just force me to do exercise tv on demand. I am scared about his schedule though because it means the dogs will be alone for 8 hours a day 2 days a week. Normally they have someone home most of the day. And I just feel like I am torturing them. They won't get to pee for 8 hours. Ahhh. I would die.

Have any of you had to deal with this? Am I freaking out about it more than I should? Is it normal for dogs to be alone for 8 hours of the day? Do you have dogs that stay 8 hours or more alone a few days a week?

Mike and I got into an argument about how to deal with the situation last night. We ended up clearing it up after the sucker punches we threw at each other (meaning we said mean things that hit "below the belt"). I guess we will just have to see how it goes. If the dogs end up being miserable and acting out I might have to see if I can work from home at least one of those days. Technically I should be allowed to as an independent contractor, but the powers to be wouldn't prefer it, I can tell.

Thinking about all of this last night made me upset in my sleep I can tell, because I Was grinding my teeth so hard last night that my jaw is sore. I used to do this a lot when I worked at my last job because it was so awful, so I am familiar with it. I just hope it doesn't keep up.

I am looking forward to class tonight. I think it will be a good time and will really force me to do work out for a full hour :-)

Planned Food for Today:
B: yogurt with granola, starbucks doubleshot
L: penne pasta with three cheese tomato sauce with turkey sausage
S: snap peas, cherry tomatoes, carrots, small cubes of cheese and possibly 100 calorie popcorn thing
D: Not sure yet.... but I will be on my own so it could be anything.

Planned workout:
1 hour 24lift class

Traffic Ended Up Making My Morning

So today I was later to work than expected. Turns out there was a bad accident in Irvine. The amber alert signs or whatever those are, said that all lanes were blocked. Since I didn't want to be an hour and a half late, like I was once before from a traffic accident that blocked only 3 lanes, I decided to take the exit before the accident and then drive PCH all the way to work. I am glad I did because it was the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. The sun was barely starting to rise over the ocean, and in the dusk light everything looked magical. It definitely started out my day right. I ended up only being 20 minutes late to work, which really isn't that bad considering the circumstances.

I am nervous/excited for the class I am attending today. I just want to be there now to get it over with. Unfortunately, that is not a possibility. Heh.

I finally got paid today so now I feel a bit more ease, although not entirely. I am going to just work on it as hard as I can, and not worry about what I cannot do as of right now. No sense in worrying over things we can't control right?

Anyway, today will probably be a very long day. Not too excited about it, especially since the tummy is already taunting me.

My mom always told me yogurt would settle your stomach, and put in all the right bacteria to make it happy. I beg to differ.

This week I only spent about 40 on groceries. This includes caffeine (which has not been on sale for a month now!), ingredients for a few tasty dinners which will provide great leftovers for lunch, breakfast, veggies, fruits, water and some snacks.

I went to Fresh & Easy this past weekend and it was pretty good. They had a ton of prepared meals for you there, and we tried two of them and one was great and the second was alright. One was shrimp pot stickers (which was great), and the carne asada burrito which mike got (which I only had a bite of) was just alright. I can make better. But this place has a ton of fresh bread, desserts (dangerous) and fresh fruit too. Mmmm.

So, I wanted to also talk about calorie counting. As I have mentioned time and time again, I think it is a pain in the ass. But what is worse is that it is hardly ever accurate when I eat "clean" foods or just home made meals. The only time it is ever accurate is when I eat processed food and I am trying my hardest now to STOP eating processed food. This is only encouraging me to continue eating it, if only for the sake of being able to count my calories accurately. Screw that. I am not stupid enough to succumb to that, and just eat crappy so I can lose weight. This whole thing is about losing weight by eating a healthy diet. A diet of processed food is not very healthy.

For example, yesterday this is what I ate:
B: Cream of Rice w/ milk, sugar and cinnamon
L: Penne pasta with three cheese pasta sauce and trader joes turkey sausage
S: trail mix & pink grapefruit juice
D: Flank steak pieces w/ beans & cheese wrapped in a tortilla

Sparkpeople added this as only 1,081 calories. This was a lot of food. And it most definitely was not only 1,081 calories. When I read the number my first thought was woo hoo i can go eat dessert because I HAVE to have at least 1200 calories a day right? I held back because 1) it HAD to be wrong and 2) I was pretty freaking full.

I am well aware now of how much I can eat a day and what portions are right, etc. And I think I have done alright not counting. I have been losing weight and feeling a lot better in general. I am never starving, except when I skip a snack so I can have a big lunch or dinner or something later. Overall I think I am doing great. I am over counting calories. DONE.

The only thing I like about it is that it measures how much protein I eat a day. I hardly ever eat enough and it makes me focus on getting foods with lots of protein. But that is already engraved in my head, so not worth it anymore.

If I suddenly gain back a ton of weight in the next 2 weeks or whatever of not counting calories, than I will start back on it. But for now, I am just going to test myself and work out a lot more.

Alright the end of this essay.

Monday

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I got a little sick for part of it and will be back to work tomorrow.

Overall though I got some much needed rest, and worked out a lot.

On Friday night Mike and I did some 15 minute crazy ab work out thing, and then 15 minutes of squats. On Saturday we did our run at Mile Square Park. On Sunday we walked on the beach with the dogs. It wasn't as far as I would have hoped because the tide was up, but it was still a decent work out.

Today I have not worked out. I am stressed about money and it is taking a toll on my mood. I know I will be able to figure it out, I just feel like I am just sinking further and further down into the deep gaping hole of poorness. Heh. I have asked around to friends and family what to do. I have talked to two credit card companies (that I have cards with) and they refuse to help me. So either I just have to suck it up, and accept the fact that I have credit card debt and need to wait until I am making a bit more to really tackle it, or go to a credit union and pay them off for a lower interest loan. I think the loan makes the most sense, but credit ratings are so backwards sometimes, I feel like I will probably just get penalized for paying them off. Blah.

Anyway this is not a financial blog. I will stop now with this. Heh. The only reason I mentioned it is because it caused me to feel down today, which resulted in me not working out.

I will make up this loss day of work out by going T,W,TH,S. No Biggie.

I am going to go to a class that is sorta on my way home from work tomorrow. It is 24lift. 24 hour's special lift class I guess. I am not sure I will be going with anyone, but it should be fun nonetheless. It works out time wise, which is great, and is a lot more basic. Plus it makes me stay working out for an hour, which I have been told is key :-)

I know this money thing will blow over, and I shouldn't let paper affect my life, but sometimes it is just too overwhelming. Especially when you only have $100 in your bank account. At least the paycheck comes tomorrow :-)

I am really excited for my class tomorrow!

Oh also, because I have been so broke I have been eating so much better. I made a delicious meal of flank steak (like 3 oz) in a tortilla, with beans and cheese. It was AMAZING. I usually don't crave meat, much less red meat, but since I have been working out I have been really craving it. Maybe I need more iron or something. Has anyone else experienced this?

Alright I should head out. I have to get the gym bag packed and ready to go for tomorrow.

I Love Saturday Runs

I went on my Saturday run today! It was awesome. I still feel the high from it! Hehe.

We upped the interval time from 5-1 to 6-1. I never there would be such a huge difference in one minute. hahha. I also did 3 pull ups in a row again! Woo hoo!!

We went with three dogs this time as well. My two and Mike's parent's pup. It turned out not to be too hard to manage all three, especially since my dogs are the only crazy ones. Hahah.

I ate a sorta bad lunch today but I have eaten small the rest of the day so I am not too worried.

All day today all I have done is go on a run and watch a TON of Lost. We are almost one Season 2 and we just started really watching it a few days ago. Hahah.

Tonight I am planning on going out with my friend Teddy to Irvine to see a show her friend is playing at. I need to get some dinner in me before we head down there because I am as broke as a joke.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Cream of Rice

So one of my favorite meals of all time is Cream of Wheat But I have been aware of my allergy to wheat for the last 6 years, so I have not been eating anything that has wheat in the name, unless I turn crazy and really crave a bowl of shredded wheat. I only did that twice though. Both times a nightmare. You think I would have learned the first time. Heh.

Anyway, so when I was at the grocery store the other day I found that they had Cream of Rice, wheat and gluten free. I almost cried from excitement. Hahahha. It was my favorite meal without the pain! Woo hoo!!

This morning I gave it a try! Oh man, it was absolutely amazing. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! It reminded me of the days where I ate cream of wheat for every meal for a week when I was 6. I am not even exaggerating.

I made some for Mike as well this morning. He is convinced it is the same thing as grits. I disagree. But then again I don't make cream of rice with butter, I make mine with milk, sugar and cinnamon. Yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Either way, I am just writing to let you all know how excited I am about it, because I am a nerd.

In an hour I will be going on our Saturday run with Mike and Teddy. We will be doing intervals of 6 minute run and 1 minute walk. We do this for 30 minutes or so. I can't wait for that either. It is a lot of fun. Plus it will give all the dogs a workout.

Chicken Allergies

Urban Mama Chicken
Originally uploaded by key lime pie (Anna Wiz)

So as most of you know, I am allergic to chicken. And yes, it is weird. Apparently only .5% to .6% of the worlds population has it or something. And no, being allergic to chicken (for me at least) does not mean I am allergic to ALL poultry or even eggs.

Anyway, today as I was perusing through my reader, I saw an article about kids with allergies and how it is increasing, etc. This article made me think about my allergy to chicken. I have never met someone allergic to chicken. I really have never even read up on it once my allergy doctor told me that I was definitely allergy to chicken. So I decided to look it up today to find out more about it. Boy did I learn a LOT.

So I found out that "the most common and prevalent manifestation or symptom of chicken allergy are frequent infections like ear infections and bladder infections; asthma attack; bed-wetting; eczema; skin rashes; acne; unusual fatigue; insomnia; migraine; depression and chronic disturbance in the gastrointestinal system. Some people with chicken allergy even develop sinusitis which is somehow unusual if they don't really have the history. Hives and joint pains are also prevalent to them."-Source

From that list this is what I had/have
*ear infections
*depression (in high school)
*chronic disturbance in the gastrointestinal system *sinusitis.

So I still get ear infections frequently, and have sinusitis (chronic sinus infections, etc). I have read that once you get a sinus infection you are more prone to get more. Isn't it great that my doctor kept telling me that stress was the cause of all these things and refused to recommended an allergy doctor (forgot the name) for years until I pretty much forced him to.

Oh also, which is even lovelier, is that: "Chicken meat contains allergens or allergy-producing substances that are called purines. These substances are mainly cited for the onset of several other diseases like gout. Gouts are characterized by the formation or onset of kidney stones.Purines in chicken meat may lead to excessive uric acid accumulation in the body that can possibly lead to what is called kidney stones.
-Source

I was hospitalized TWICE for kidney stones, when I was 14 and 15. The doctors all thought it was VERY odd because mostly only older men get these, not 14 and 15 year old girls. But they were again lame and refused to research this really weird abnormality.

I just found this kidney stone thing out and sinus infection and ear infection thing, just a few hours ago, so right now I am very perplexed. Good thing I gave up the chicken because otherwise I might be having kidney stones every year or more again! eek.

I tell everyone now to question what they ate when they keep getting reoccurring symptoms, and this is why. My symptoms were weird and occurred quite often and so I decided it meant I needed help not just to deal with being sick all the time by taking pills like my doctor recommended. It is much easier to ditch the chicken then be stuck in a bathroom all day with a bucket of pepto.

The Minutes Will Drip By

It is Friday. How much I wish it was Saturday. Or rather, how I wish I was sleeping right now.

Last night was pretty good. I went on a walk with the dogs, Mike and his Dad. At the park, where we went on the walk, I did a total of 5 pull ups (and on one of the pull up stations I did 3 in a row, which is a record!!!!!!!). I also did the monkey bars once. My hands are killing me now. Hahha.

After the walk, we went home and made home made pizza. Mike and his Dad picked up the ingredients from the new Fresh & Easy from across the street. You know the store I keep talking about how I am so excited to open? Well its open, but I can't afford to go in until Tuesday. BOOO.

Anyway, we made delicious pizza with their stuff. They bought some Fresh & Easy crust, which was amazing, topped it off with mozzarella (part-skim, not sure if it was light or whatever) and some turkey. The turkey they bought for it was some special type that actually tasted like ham, but without the extra fat, etc. Mmmm. Delish. This pizza I felt was actually better than take-out pizza. And it HAD to be a whole lot less fat! And then we made some garlic bread. I stopped eating when I was full, which was a major achievement for me! Woo hoo! Although I did have one beer that I probably should not have had. Oh well.

We watched Lost all night and then went to bed. We are on Season 1 right now, and it is amazing so far. So amazing that the last 2 nights I have been having dreams about it, ie: what is going to happen, what would happen if it was actually me there, etc.

Tonight I think Mike and I are going to just chill out. Mike's Dad is off to Brazil today and we want to be home with Chloe (their dog) until she gets used to him leaving. I think I might do some laundry, eat some left over home made pizza and watch Lost. haha. Oh we also have ab workouts planned, as well as squat exercises.

On Saturday I am focusing on solving my credit problems (or at least actually taking action), going on a run and going to a show with my friend Teddy.

On Sunday the plan is to relax. Oh and workout at one point because I skipped Thursday. Maybe I will even take a class!

The minutes will drip by today. It will be the longest day of the week like usual. Oh well.

Oh yeah, so even though I have been mostly sticking to staying within my goal calorie range (1200-1400 ish), and working out several times this week, my weight is creeping up. I am blaming it on sodium. I am not letting it bring me down at all, but eh. Maybe it is also the fact that I am lifting weights again and my body is gaining muscle back. heh.

Who cares though, because my abs are looking nice and I am looking overall much better. Thats all that matters right? Oh and I feel healthier :-)

Planned Food For Today:
B: Toast with Peanut butter & Starbucks Doubleshot
L: Turkey/Swiss/Apple sandwich
D: Home Made Pizza

Planned Exercise:
Ab workout, squat workout.

ps: the tummy is feeling better although not entirely better.

My Stomach is in a Bad Mood

So last night I didn't eat the best, but bare with me me, my stomach was being weird... and unfortunately still is. Perhaps its because the Phoenix Suns all have the stomach flu and it is getting through me through osmosis (hahah). Of course I don't believe that, but it is funny that my favorite team has the stomach flu at the same time my stomach is acting up.

Mike's Dad was home when I got home. Everyone wanted to get Mexican food, including me. So I went. But before I left I had to take a pepto. My tummy hasn't done anything where it truly indicates a stomach flu, but it is making warnings that at any time it may torture me if I do anything too terrible to it.

The place we went to is my favorite Mexican food place in Orange County. They are also known for their margaritas being the best in the OC. So of course we all had to order one. Ouch to the calorie count. And can you believe that on Sparkpeople they do not have a real margarita in their source of calorie information? I don't get it. If you count calories are you never allowed to have alcohol? If so, that is entirely unrealistic.

Anyway I ended up ordering a cheese enchilada and beef taquito combo that comes with beans and cheese. I ate the enchilada and some beans and some rice. I left more than half of it though. I am going to serve myself a small serving of it for lunch today. BTW I can still taste it when I think about it, and do not want to eat anything but it today. And really, after adding my estimated calories up until lunch I cannot eat anything else but it. Hahha. Well I can eat breakfast, but absolutely no snacks unless I want no dinner. Lame.

I am hoping my tummy gets its act together and stops threatening me. Maybe if I stopped eating greasy Mexican food? hahaha. My stomach gets along with Mexican food though, its all the healthy stuff it hates, ie wheat, chicken, tuna, etc. Plus this all started before dinner anyway. It really started before breakfast yesterday actually. Hmmm....

As much as I would like to lose 10 lbs, I would never want to do it by way of the stomach flu. I would MUCH rather workout hard for 6 months than have to live through a stomach flu. Yuck.

Tonight I am choosing to hang out with Mike's dad instead of going to the gym. I will workout instead on Sunday to make up for it. No biggie.

Now it is time to eat some yummy yogurt filled with acidophilus to help soothe the tummy.

I hope you all have a great day.

Food Planned for Today:
B: Yogurt with Granola, with Starbucks Doubleshot
L: Beef taquito, beans, rice
D: Homemade pizza

Planned Exercise:
None, but will be exchanged for working out on Sunday. :-)

A Twist to the Plans

So I found out last night that Mike's Dad is coming into town tonight. I knew he was coming in, but Mike and I both thought he was coming in on Friday. I thought I had more time to clean the place up. I was wrong. Oops. He will be staying Wednesday night until Friday morning (leaving around 3am or something on Friday morning to head to LAX and go to Brazil). Mike and I will be watching their pup, Chloe. It should be a good time. All the pups get along. Chloe might be annoyed with mine because she is so much calmer than my dogs are. hahah. Poor girl.

I didn't get home last night until after 7pm. And then I had to eat dinner, help my step dad with something online and then clean up the house. I ended up going to bed around 10, which actually was a lot earlier than I thought I would be. This might be because I only pseudo cleaned the place. Hahha. Stuffed things in hidden places, etc. I swear I will get to it this weekend! hahaa. Btw, I have not done laundry since December 16th. How am I surviving? Well... I am running out of good underwear, and am wearing clothes that I would not normally wear. Hahaha. Oh well. I did find jeans that fit me though, and have not continued with the tortorous experience with my target jeans I talked about before. hahah.

I will have to skip the gym Thursday but I will make it up either on Friday or Sunday. No big deal. I am not going to the gym tonight because it is my usual night off and Mike's dad will be here. I think when we get home we are going to go to the park and walk the pups and then go to our favorite Mexican food restaurant. I am pretty sure I will go over my calories today, but I will try to portion control everything. I promise!

Also, Fresh & Easy is FINALLY opening today! I have been counting down the days. But now I am not sure if I can go today. But I REALLY want to. I hope I can manage my time somehow to go! If not, I can go on Thursday or Friday. Boo.

Planned Food for Today:
B: Yogurt with Granola & Starbucks Doubleshot
L: Ham/Swiss Sandwich
D: Chips & Salsa and something small at Don Ramon's

Planned Exercise:
Just a walk aruond the park with the pups

My First Kick Boxing Class

picture from flickr, not me

So I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I just needed to write about my experience with kick boxing class down before the raw images become more blurred.

This is how it all started. I came to the gym, with a few minutes left until class started. Thankfully I was with my two good friends, Teddy and Andrea. I saw the class before kick boxing finish up, and it looked very slow yet effective. I thought maybe the class would be like this, not like the kick boxing videos I did on tv. Boy was I wrong!

picture from flickr

Once the class started everyone started going into positions I had never heard of. It was like they were all dancing at once, and everyone but me and Teddy knew what was going on. I felt like I was in Jr. High again, trying to learn the cheers that coaches taught us so that we could try out for cheer leading. I had no chances of making it. I have no idea what I was thinking. I was waaay too uncoordinated to do anything like that. I think I made about 5 mistakes when I officially tried out. I did not even make it to the second round. hahah.

I looked more like this than a cardio kick boxer:


In the class everyone kept doing these cheer leading version kick boxing moves. They all moved to the beat and knew what the hell a turbo twist was. Andrea had all these moves down pact. My friend Andrea has been doing kick boxing (cardio style) for the last 2 or so years. She has all the moves down and kicks ass at it. She is also coordinated. She actually played soccer for her college, so she obviously is awesome in the athletic department. Then you have me, the person who is closer to a caveman when it comes to boxing like a cardio kick boxer. hahaha. Luckily I was able to laugh at myself through Teddy who was almost as lost as I was. She was even funnier though, because she kept yelling out things like "What the hell is a turbo twist?", and "What the f*ck is a two step jab?". It was classic.

This is pretty much what the class looked like, but with 30 or so more people:


The instructor did not even give ANY instruction on any of the moves. I was aimlessly punching the air, with no real form at all. And I am not even making up how bad I was. Some girl that I did not know walked up to me and was like no you need to do it like this and then instructed me on some basic kick boxing move. Some girl I didn't even know felt the urge to ease my complete humiliation by showing me what I was doing wrong. It must have been really bothering how out of sync I was with the whole class. I was like a set and a half behind every minute of the class. hahah.

It got to the point where I just gave up. I still pretended to go with the class, but really, I just was doing everything half ass.I was working hard at whatever I was doing, but I was in no way trying to perfect the cardio kick boxing moves. The class was moving their arms AND feet (who the hell in their right mind knows how to do that? haha) so I just started to focus on one thing at a time, my legs. I started realizing that if I just focused on the intention of these moves then I could start getting the form down. This ended up actually working. I started getting some of the moves down better. Although really, I was still worse than any new person in that room.

I also realized later on that not EVERYONE knew the moves, the people behind me (God help them for having to look at my awkward ass) didn't know how to do it either. But they sure caught on much quicker. Hahha.

When I got home I explained the experience to Mike. He laughed at me, imagining me doing these moves, more so, imagining me not really doing these moves but pretending to. Hahaha. But then I went to my traineo account to log my workout, and then I found out that an hour of kick boxing burns about 671 calories. Holy crap, right? RIGHT!

So even though I had a lot of fun, this still reminded me of my Jr. High days. Haha. I want to take another class, but perhaps not of kick boxing next time. I want to do Camp 24 or something like that (basically some sort of 24 hour boot camp class). Do any of you have an experience like this at a class you took at a gym? Did any of it get better? Any recommendations?

Thinking about Kicking some Boxes Tonight

Wheewwwwww.... So last night I made it to the gym. I actually was able to get on a treadmill too. I say actually able to because often times they are the first thing filled. I did interval running for 35 minutes (well the last 5 minutes was the cool down or whatever). I could not go as fast as I did in November, but I kept it up. Whenever I sweat like crazy, I feel like it is a good run. Hahha. After the run I did weights. I had to actually wait for the weights though. Boo. But I still kicked ass and it was fun. I am glad to be back into this routine!

Tonight I am supposed to meet my friend at some other gym for a kick boxing class. I am fully prepared to embarrass myself, but I don't really care today. Hahahah.

Hey if any of you have a trader joes near you, and like meatballs, buy the turkey meatballs right away! They are amazing. AMAZING I tell you. And its only 90 calories for TWO of them and a ton of protein. I added it to the pasta I made last night. AMAZING!! They take only about 3 minutes to cook in the microwave and they are juicy and flavorful and really make a pasta stand out. Mmmm mmmm mmmmm.

The weight is still in the 123's as of this morning, which makes me happy. Now if only I can get below the 123's. I think I got into the 122's once in the last year.

I think the last time I was below the 122's was when my pup, Ender got parvo last year. We had him for only 3 days when he started showing signs. With parvo, not many survive, so we were VERY happy that he did. After a week in the hospital, and me losing 10 lbs from being so upset, he came home. Aside from several hospital visits later (worms, swallowing a whole tube of hydrocortisone, etc), he has been great! I would never want to lose 10lbs again like that. The weight never even stayed off because it was from being starved basically.

Alright, I am heading out for the day!

Planned Food for Today:
B:Yogurt with Granola, Starbucks Espresso drink
L: Potato Corn Empanadas, refried beans with a tiny bit of 2% cheese and pico de gallo. YUM!
S: Celery, Cherry Tomatoes, Carrots, Small bites of cheese (in this package I bought at the grocery store)
D: Ham/Swiss/Pear sandwich or potato corn cakes.

Planned Exercise:
Kick boxing with Andrea!

Weekend Update

So the weekend went pretty well. I got some things done, and I also had some much needed relaxation. Also... somehow in one week I lost ALL my vacation weight. How do you lose 4lbs in one week? Especially when it took MONTHS just to lose 1lb before. Hmm. I am not going to question what happened, really, but I am still curious. I imagine because I shocked my body into eating crap for 2 weeks and then went right back to being healthy.

I decided this weekend that I would not count calories on weekends anymore. I will just end up quitting and rebelling against all of it (like I did on vacation) if I keep to such a strict schedule. I really don't mind doing it during the work week, but I hate it on the weekends.

All weekend I ate pretty reasonable. I didn't deprive myself, but I didn't over indulge at all. Being broke really helps you save on calories. I only went out once this weekend, and that was just to whole foods, where I had part of a delicious quiche slice, some strawberries, some pineapple, and some potatoes. Mmmm. Oh also some 25 cent mimosas. Hahah.

On Friday night Mike and I ended up not watching Juno, we did however watch the Suns game, where they unfortunately lost. Boo. We also decided to go on a program while he is on vacation to work on our abs, or core whatever. Before watching the game we did some ab exercise thing on Exercise TV on Demand. Then we did a bunch of squats and lunges. The rest of the weekend are legs were dead.Hahah.

On Saturday, we went on our run around Mile Square Park. We went a lot slower than last time, but this was after almost a month off of Saturday runs. I felt really good during the run though, and could have ran more if I really wanted to. Did I mention ever that I can now do 2 pull ups in a row without stopping? I can do this on a regular basis now. I did in SF a few times, and I do it every time we go on our Saturday run. I am proud of this one. I can't wait until I can get 3 in a row.

After the run we went and saw Juno. That movie was awesome! I seriously wanted to watch it again right after it. I felt like a little kid who wants to watch the Lion King 8,000 times in one day. Hahha. I loved it.

Later that night we just watched basketball at home and made my bean and cheese burritos. (I call them "my bean and cheese burritos" because I came up with a secret to make them taste like a restaurant. I am proud of them. Yum.

On Sunday, Mike and I woke up early and went with Teddy and Crystal to Whole Foods. After that we went home, got a few errands done, and watched a lot of Lost. I wanted to do laundry but it was raining outside. If you live in an apartment complex and have to do laundry in their stupid machines, you know why I refused to laundry in the rain.

This week I have some tasty food from Whole Foods and will be eating that, along with other meals. I am finally going to try this Bean meal thing I got from Trader Joes. I hope its good because it is all I have for lunch today.

I have to head back to the regular grocery store today because I forgot to pick up cheese and fat free refried beans. Mmmmmm.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine turned out better than expected!

Planned Food:
B: Yogurt w/ granola w/ Trader Joes Mocha Espresso
S: ?
L: Trader Joes bean thing.
D: Potato Corn cakes with rice

Planned Exercise
30 minutes of cardio, 15 minutes of weights

It's Friday Today? Really?

I completely forgot today was Friday until about an hour into work. What a nice feeling. I should forget more often. Hahah.

So I have lost 2 of the 4 lbs I gained during the holidays. Before those 2lbs took 3 or 4 months to come off. So... I am really not that upset about the gain, if I can lose it that quickly. I am sticking to my calorie limits though on Sparkpeople. I have been under 1400 since New Years. And I worked out yesterday!

When I got to the gym yesterday I was feeling sorta sick so I told myself to just take it easy. But when I got on the elliptical I just started rocking. I had good music on (The Format) and it just made me happy and motivated to kick ass. So I did. About 6 minutes in I was already feeling better. The endorphins were already released which pushed me to go further. I want to be back there again. Who knew working out could feel so great ;-)

I then did about 10-15 minutes of weights. My whole upper body is sore today. I was the one who was stuck getting the sparklets bottle on its stand today too. Lifting the bottle really let me know how sore I really am. Hahah.

My plans tonight consist of watching Juno. I have been wanting to watch this since the second I saw the trailer. Looks soo good. I think Mike and I will eat in too because I am broke.

I owe the government money (I pay quarterly taxes because technically I am independent contractor or whatever it is called) and I do not have enough money for it. I will have to pay a month or so late. I even had to put my tax money in my regular account this morning because if not my rent check would bounce. EEK! Good thing the government only charges about 2% interest on being late on your taxes or something. No big deal. I have no idea how I am going to be able to wait until the 15th to get paid. Have you heard of food? I need it.

Eating out for every meal for 9 days can really Oh and me thinking I could take more out of my paycheck than usual to put into savings for taxes... eek. Normally I can live off my paycheck, no credit cards, but I still live paycheck to paycheck. College loans and Credit Card bills are high. I need a financial advisor.

My goal this weekend: Call credit card company and bargain a lower interest rate. My parents have had great luck with this. Have any of you?

I also plan on going for a run on Saturday, if the rain isn't pouring like crazy, like it is supposed to. If I can't go on a run outside I will just go on the elliptical at the apartment gym. Not as much fun at all, but oh well.

Also I plan on going to whole foods. I just want to pick up a few necessary things, like pico de gallo. mmmm.

I am even skipping going out for lunch today, which I normally do on Fridays.

Have a good weekend everyone. Tell me about any exciting plans you may have!

Today's Food PLan
B: Oatmeal & TJs Espresso Mocha
S: Trail Mix
L: BBQ Pork Tenderloin Sandwich & low fat string cheese
S: Apples and Carrots
D: Ham/Swiss/Pear sandwich

Today's Excerise:
Not much

Yesterday Food:
B: Oatmeal and Tj's Espresso Mocha
S: Trail mix
L: Trader Joes Salad
S: Kashi Bar, Apples
D: Pear/Swiss/Ham Sandwich (amazing!) & 1/2 cup of dreyers slow churned take the cake ice cream

Exercise:
30 minutes elliptical, 10-15 minutes of upper body weights

Water Water Water

This hasn't happened since about 6 months ago, but it is something I used to do all the time: I forget to drink water, almost all day, and then to make up for it, to reach my goal, I just chug a liter of water.

I really don't think this is a good way to do it, because then I have to pee every 5 minutes. Otherwise it would be like every few hours or what not.

Do you think its bad to just drink it all at once instead of sipping it throughout the day? I am a terrible sipper. I chug everything I drink. Unless I am in a social situation. If I don't finish it within a few tries I give up and refuse to finish it subconsciously. So weird.

Anyway, this happened yesterday too. I need to get back into the habit of drinking water. Especially since I am sick(ish) and am going to work out today.

Wish me luck in being able to grab a machine today. If not, I could always just workout at home at the crappy apartment gym. Hmmm...

Also, wish me luck in not having to pee the entire drive home through traffic because I just chugged an entire liter of water 45 minutes before leaving work...

Sizes vary a LOT in jeans.... moods vary with size accordingly

So I still have not done laundry from the vacation. I have a decent amount of clothes, but all I could imagine wearing today included jeans. and the only jeans that were clean were ones I wore over a year ago. maybe even 2 from target. They are a brand I never wore before. I bought them in a big size, hoping they would be baggy on me, because that is how I prefer to wear jeans. I didn't try them on, because I assumed that they would fit because I bought them so large.

When I got home I tried on the new target jeans. They were 2 sizes up from all my other jeans, and they were actually TIGHT. WTF? Didn't really help the fact that I was already having a fat day. Since then I wonder how much bigger the Gap and Old navy sizes are compared to normal jeans? Although... I do have a pair of Ann Taylor Loft jeans (note all jeans are short jeans that I wear because I am short) and they are the same size as my gap jeans and are actually loose.

Maybe target jeans just have not caught up to the standards that Old Navy, Gap and Ann Taylor loft are at, yea know... not calling jeans a size 7 if a person who weighs 125 can fit in them. Geesh! Who are these jeans made for?

Anyway, I have them on today. They were the only ones not wrinkled that were clean today. Well aside from my super skinny jeans.... the ones that are a size 2 in Gap and are their petite version of that. I tried those on today and they went on (tightly) and buttoned, but I would have been uncomfortable all day. I need to drop at least 10 before wearing those comfortably. The jeans I have on today are also slightly tight, although much looser than they were last time I wore them. But they are still not comfortable.

I am sorta glad I am wearing them today because now I have to go to the gym. I am having friends over tonight (for girl's night) and I don't want them to see me in these horrible jeans. If I want to get home already changed, I need to go to the gym and show up at my house for our meet up in my workout clothes. Unfortunately compared to my jeans, they will look much better on me. hahaha Perfect motivator right? hahah.

Aside from jeans being lame, my night last night went well. I went to trader joes and stocked up on some tasty food. I have my new meal ready. I will either make it tonight or for lunch tomorrow.

This is what I bought:
TJ's Prepared salad with walnuts, bell peppers and goat cheese
TJ's Vegetarian Fried Rice
TJ's Penne Pepperonata
TJ's Turkey Meatballs
Trader Giotto's (Joe's) Gnocchi al Gorgonzola
Trail Mix
Pears
Turkey Ham (for sandwiches)
Light Swiss Cheese
Mocha Espressos

I think when I go to whole foods I will either buy sliced almonds to go with some yogurt, or just buy granola and yogurt again. We shall see....

As for today here are my plans:

Planned Food:
B: Berries n Creme Oatmeal with Trader Joes Mocha Espresso
S: Trail Mix
L: Prepared salad with walnuts, bell peppers and goat cheese (no dressing)
D: Either a TJ's meal or my Pear/Ham/Swiss Sandwich (my new meal this week)

Planned workout:
30 minutes of cardio, 15 mins of weights. I will go easy though because I am still sorta sick, coughing up my lungs and sorting out the sinus pressure in my head.

The Work Week Has Begun... BOO

Yesterday I officially tracked my calories again. It made me feel more in control, and less likely to grab a few of the xmas m&ms leftover. Hahaha.

I have been unable to go to the grocery store for more than beer since I got back from vacation. And the beer was for new years alright? hahah.

We have a decent amount of food I suppose, but we are missing a lot of ingredients to actually make decent meal. I am looking forward to Trader Joes tonight :-)

Mike has no school for a month, which I hope will be a good thing for the weight. We will probably go on more walks with the pups, and we will not skip Saturday runs. Woo hoo! Now I just need to get better in time for Saturday. My cold or whatever it is I have is still continuing. Also I have cramps which is also pretty awesome. Eh.

Work today will probably be slow because I have to wait for the sales guys to catch up before I actively market our products. I have a lot to do, so I will do it, but the day will definitely not be as busy as most who come back from vacation.

I have pretty much caught up on everyone's blogs so far. I cannot wait to continue this though. It really makes my normal schedule become easier to bear :-)

I am so glad to be home though, at least in the sense that I am not living off my baggage anymore, etc. I loved vacation, more than anything, but I still missed home.

Planned Food for the Day:
B: Instant Oatmeal, peaches n creme & trader joes espresso mocha
L: Morningstar chikn patty & hamburger bun
D: Trader Joes Penne something with turkey meatball.

Also I will need to add some sort of snack in here somewhere because if not I will go to trader joes at night only eating 471 calories. Bad idea. I hope I left some here because I certainly did not have anything to bring today.

Planned Workout:
Walk the dogs at night, take it easy so that I will not get sicker.

I Already Miss Vacation

I had a great time on vacation. Although I ate a ton, and yes, I admit not the healthiest food, I still I had a great time. I gained back some weight, but I already lost a lb since I have been back so I am not too worried. What I AM worried about is getting a free machine this month at the gym. Everyone vows to work out once the new year comes, and I am sure all those people will be there at the gym. I wonder how fast they will start to dwindle out. Hmm. Anyone want to make some bets? Hahha. Jk. I shouldn't joke about that.

Anyway, let me update on my vacation.

On Dec 22-24 I spent my time in San Fran. I had a great time there with Mike, his parents and brother and girlfriend. We explored the city, went on a bunch of walks, traveled on the BART (my first time), and went to China Town. We also had a spectacular Christmas Eve dinner. Mmmm. It was delish.

On Dec 25 I spent Christmas with my family. I got there a little later than I expected but we still had a great time. I had another big dinner that night. But it was well worth every calorie. Heh. My mom is a GREAT cook.

On Dec 26- Dec 30th I spent my time in Austin and Houston. Mike and I had a great time in Austin. Although I admit there was quite a bit more drinking than I planned for, it was still a spectacular time. I wanted to check out Austin because I think I could definitely live there. Now that it is over, I am SURE i could live there and looking forward to every minute leading up to it :-) We visited Whole Foods while we were there, which is the corporate headquarters. We also went to 6th street, and experienced 6th street at night! We also explored the city a lot and went to Alamo Drafthouse where we were served a spectacular dinner while watching Sweeney Todd. In Houston we went to Mike's friends wedding. That wedding was a lot of fun, and so was the reception.

On Dec 30th (at night) to Dec 31 we spent our time at my mom's in Lake Arrowhead. We got to pick up our pups, in which we missed a LOT. We also got to hang with the fam. Eating less started that day and I definitely think I succeeded. We didn't get back to Huntington Beach until last night around 6pm.

I did not end up doing a lot of drinking last night though, or rather anything at all because after all this travel and changes in elevation I am sick again. Oh how awesome it is to have a challenged immune system due to allergies. Woo hoo! I did end up staying up past midnight though, although I am pretty sure I fell asleep by 1215pm. haha.

Today I planned on spending a lot of time on the internet, watching movies and cleaning the house. I ended up spending 3 or 4 hours dealing with getting our internet to work. Lordy. It was a very frustrating process though, and I am glad it is over. I did end up cleaning the bathroom though, although I still need to complete the shower process (I usually do this while taking a shower because it is much easier that way). I plan on going to Trader Joes tomorrow after work, and going on a walk with the pups at night. I am not going to super work out tomorrow because I am not that hardcore while enduring my forever lasting sinus infection that likes to rear its head every few weeks or so.

My new years resolution, if you were wondering, is to cook at least one new meal every 2 weeks. I got a lot of low fat cook books from my mom and I really want to try out new things. I am going to Trader Joes tomorrow as I mentioned to get a few things for a new meal, and also some classics. :-) I also need to hit up Whole Foods, but am not sure I can do both tomorrow. I might just wait for the weekend to do that.

Oh crap, I need to make my lunch for tomorrow. I really do NOT want to eat out for awhile, after eating out so much over vacation. Also, even though I did end up eating big meals over vacation, I never ate snacks and often skipped meals. Not very healthy. But you can't always control the choices you have to put into your mouth while on the road. At least not when you are new at it, and when you want to try good ole Tex Mex and other goodies likes Kolachies and Sonic. Hahah.

I wish I was looking forward to work tomorrow, but I know when I wake up at 5am tomorrow with a stuffy nose, dry mouth (from not being able to breathe through my nose), and sore throat I will not be happy. Oh well. Life goes on right?

Food Eaten Today:
B: Breakfast Burrito (1 egg, bell peppers, onions, salsa, 2% cheese, tortilla)
L: grilled cheese (2% cheese) and tomato soup
D: trader joes tamale with salsa
S: Mimosa (had to have champagne on New Years! haha)

Exercise:
Cleaning the bathroom... very well....