Lunch Munch

This is today's lunch:


--Baby spinach leaves
--Hot house tomato cut into chunks
--Salad Pizazz Gourmet Salad Topping with Cherry Cranberries and honey toasted pecans
--Balsamic vinaigrette dressing (hadn't put it on when I took this pic)


I have Cardio Funkytown tonight and didn't want to have anything too heavy on my stomach. And one can never have too many greens in their diet. )I am not happy about this extra poundage around my mid-section and hips. Now that I'm not running, I really have to be more cognizant about what I'm eating. And really - increasing veggie intake should be a goal for life, anyway.

Now that I'm not running, I don't expect to be a trim 6, but I don't want to be a puffy 8, either. :lol:

Taking it day by day. Working on my 2nd liter of water for the day. I made it through Monday and Tuesday drinking all three liters of water. I've tried out some new foods. I am determined to use up the veggies in my fridge and make it work.

My weaknesses are bread and sugar. I don't really drink sugar-y drinks, but if you put a cookie, donut or piece of cake in front of me, you can forget it. Gotta do better on that front. I think my biggest dairy weakness is cheese and cheese sauces. I haven't eaten a bowl of cereal in months, so milk is usually not an issue. I'm weaning myself away from ice cream as well.

It's a work in progress, as per usual! :)

Dinner is Served!

--Blackened Mahi Mahi
--Steamed green beans
--Baked sweet potato fries

The Mahi Mahi recipe came from here. The sweet potato spears came from Trader Joes, already cut and skinned and ready to cook.

The verdict? I like it. A few things, though:

Next time I will use WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less Cayenne. Not sure what I was thinking about. Oh wait. I was watching Y & R. 'Nuff said. Also, as you can see by the recipe, they don't mention how much they used of each seasoning. So I just mixed an equal part of each but I did use less Cayenne than the rest of the seasonings. Clearly not a small enough amount for my delicate sensitivities (read: I don't really eat spicy food).

I will also use less cumin. Why didn't somebody tell me about that stuff? Good GRIEF! It tastes good but definitely don't need as much.

Other than that, I think I did a good job for my first time. The 2nd filet is a bit, uh, charbroiled. Like, if you remember at the end of The Five Heartbeats when Choir Boy was making the ribs? Yeah. Got a little sidetracked (darn you, Victor Newman and Katherine Chancellor!).

I have another mahi mahi steak in the fridge and I will try this again on Thursday. Tomorrow is Cardio Funkytown and I won't have time to do all of this before I go.

All in all, two thumbs up!

Grateful

I've got a pretty awesome boyfriend. After all the duds I've been through, I really should be shouting it from the mountain tops. But I'll shout it from the blog, for now.

If you've been reading, you know my dad gave us all a scare with his ruptured ulcer. He was in the hospital for about 4 days. The first 2 were in the ICU. He was discharged home and should be starting back up with the chemo soon for his stomach cancer.

I was talking to him over the weekend, asking how everything was going. We talked about what was going on at the church I grew up in, etc. The same stuff we usually talk about. Then he tried to get me with the okie doke. :lol:

Me: LDR wants to stop by and say hi, and he said he wanted to bring you some food. What kind of diet do they have you on since you left the hospital?

Dad: Well...I can pretty much eat a regular diet, just have to be careful about how much I eat.

Me: OK. Well what kind of food would you like him to bring?

Dad: Some soul food would be good...or maybe some ox tails.

Me: (thinking, bingo! LDR's dad has a Jamaican restaurant, ox tails - no problemo!) Well I'll let LDR know, and he'll probably stop by his dad's restaurant on one of his days off. Make sure you answer the phone when he calls.

Fast forward to yesterday. LDR sends me a text that he called my dad but he didn't answer. I told him to make sure to leave a message, because sometimes my dad won't answer if he doesn't recognize the number.

In the mean time, my oldest brother sends me a text asking me a question about my XM radio in the car. So I ask him if my dad has any appointments this week, because LDR is trying to reach him and he's not answering.

My brother's response: "Yeah, he had to have another transfusion today as his red blood cell count was a little low still. As far as the ox tails go, he still can only eat soft and non-seasoned foods for now... "

As Serenity would say, insert :::record scratching sound::: here!

Um...what? Dad, didn't I ask you what your diet was?!? A mess! I knew I should have called my mom! What in the world? Pulling the freakin' okie doke! All I can do is laugh, and be glad that divine intervention stopped him from getting those dang ox tails.

So, instead, LDR went and got him some of the protein shakes that he SHOULD be drinking, to help get his weight back up. He went by there to day and sat and talked with my Dad a little while.

I don't think he understands how much this really means to me. I can't be there, so it's like another connection for me with my dad. He thinks it's just nothing, and I'm sure it's not out of the way for him because they live relatively close. He's happy to do it. I don't really think he understands how much my whole family appreciates his efforts.

All in a day's work for Mr. LDR. I think, if I had asked people I dated in the past, if they could stop by or take something over to my Dad, I'm sure they would have. But I've never asked him to do anything. He always volunteers to do things without prompting. I honestly think, if one my brothers was unable to take my Dad to chemo on a Thursday, that LDR would just take him. Never mind that he'd be just getting off work and wouldn't have had any sleep. Never mind that the infusion takes quite a few hours. He'd take him, stay there the whole time, and bring him home safely. And it would be no big deal.

How the heck did I get so lucky?? :)

Challenge!

During this hiatus, I've been challenging myself to do different things. For the last two weeks it has been to work out at least 6 of 7 days per week. Since I found the Cardio Funkytown class, that has been a breeze.

This week, I'm working on getting my water intake back up. I would like to get at least 3 liters per day. I'm just about finished with my 2nd liter for the day. I will refill the bottle and start on the 3rd liter during lunch.

I also want to increase my vegetable intake. As I'm reading further into "The pH Miracle," I don't know if I'm ready for the restrictive nature of this eating plan. But it is sort of common sense to cut sugar intake and increase veggie intake, if you want to feel better, etc. I don't know if I'll ever be able to truly alkalize. I'm still working on trying to be a healthier me.

How much water do you normally drink per day? If you don't drink a lot of water, what are the road blocks to increasing your intake?

8 Days Down, 23 to Go

Man, 23 days sounds like a LONG TIME! This Twitter/FB hiatus countdown is almost as bad as when I'm counting down the days until LDR and I see each other again. Which is 42 days as of today. :(

I miss my Tweeps! I didn't realize how much we really "talk" to each other, until about 2 days into this hiatus. I miss my fitness motivation. I miss the "Shoe Porn" pics of all the fabulous shoes. I miss hearing about what's going on with folks' spouses, kids, jobs...everything! I *slightly* miss certain folks talking smack about their football teams and trying to clown mine. Slightly. They know who they are. :lol:

I miss our group tv show time: comments on Glee, DWTS, Teen Mom, and all the NFL games. It seem crazy, but it feels weird to watch these shows and not trade comments with the tweeps. Kind of boring.

I do miss FB, but not as much. Being gone from FB just makes me feel like I'm "out of the loop." Like, two people from my hometown passed in the last week or so; I found out the old fashioned way, via my telephone convos with LDR.

But, I am getting my reading done, and my bedtime is more consistent. I start yawning around 9:30 and most times I am in the bed by 10:00. If not for the hiatus, I'd be up late trading comments, recipes, photos and everything else.

For those who were wondering, Dad is back home. He had some swelling in his leg the other day, so he had to keep it elevated. I think the culprit is him not taking his Prilosec. With his limited budget, he wants to spend his money on other things. I can sort of understand. I'm sure he feels like his life is hanging on a thread, and he wants to go out doing the things he loves to do. But I need him to take those meds. I think I'll send my mom some money so she can go to the store and stock up on a few boxes.

So, what have y'all been up to? Is everyone still exercising? Eating healthy? Rebuking foolery? I know y'all miss the FBP posts. I'll be sure to bombard you get you caught up with his foolery when I return. Stop by the blog and say hi! I think I've posted a blog every day since 10/1. :)

Really?

I always notice weird stuff. And now that I just got this Altima, I check it out periodically and notice different things. It probably stems from my days at the insurance-company-that-shall-remain-nameless, when I used to work in the field inspecting vehicles.

This morning, when I was getting out of the car, I checked my VIN tag. I had been wondering when the car was actually manufactured...again, like I said - just weird stuff that only I would care about. :lol:

Next to the VIN tag, I saw this:



It's kind of blurry, but it tells you a few things:

1. The vehicle seating capacity is 5 persons - 2 in front and 3 in the back.
2. The combined weight of the occupants in the vehicle should never exceed 899 lbs.

There's also some info about the tire size and tire pressure, but not relevant to this blog so we're moving on. :lol:

So I started thinking: who neeeds to be told that only 2 people can sit in the front? Isn't that sort of obvious with the 2 bucket seats? And then, if you weighed 180 lbs, and 4 of your friends weighed 180 lbs, and y'all decided to carpool, I guess you'd be 1 lb over the limit. Does the car just fall apart? Do the tires flatten? LOL!

I just can't imagine someone sitting around thinking about the weight of their vehicle occupants. I wonder how long they've had that tag on their vehicles? I bet someone filed a lawsuit about something relating to this. That's how most of the "common sense instructions for dummies" tags end up on products nowadays. Things that you scratch your head and get confused about why there even has to be a warning, no doubt somebody has filed suit.

And those were the random thoughts in my head this morning. :)

Sage Advice

One should probably NOT get up before dawn, do 35 minutes on the elliptical, work all day, and then go to Cardio Funkytown class from 7pm - 8pm. Especially if one has plantar fasciitis.

That is all. :lol: