Slacky McSlackerton

I can't help it, I don't want to be behind the computer typing away, I want to be outside doing fun things. Especially since my town currently looks like this:

I heart the fall more than I can possibly say.

Here is a breakdown of what I have been up to the past couple of weeks:

• 4 day Colorado visit to wonderful, amazing and very dear friends
• Celtic Festival and Highland Games
• A nice pick up in business
• getting back into a workout routine
• plugging along with learning correct portion sizes
• playing around with caloric intakes (gonna try to start at around 1800 and decrease from there as the weight loss slows down)
• trying to familiarize myself with Spark.com again
• wondering where this year has gone
• preparing for the holidays and an upcoming move
• watching inspirational shows like Dietribe and Biggest Loser
• falling in love with all of your blogs
• being happy :)

(I am not going to focus on my gut in this picture....I am not going to focus on my gut in this picture.... I am not going...) :)

Busy Bee

Whew! Okay, here goes. Woke up at 8am fixed this lovely digestion inducing beverage:

Hot Lemon Water with a dash of Cayenne Pepper.


More refreshing than you would think.
Then I enjoyed half a banana and went for a brisk 30 minute walk around my beautiful neighborhood. Once that was done I was well and truly hungry. Today I wanted something lighter than usual to keep my spirits light.


1 scoop of this,

one serving of this amazingly delicious low fat organic chocolate yogurt, the other half of the banana I had earlier and a handful of frozen strawberries and voila!

I call it the Chocolate Covered Strawberry!

Yummy!

Off to work I went and had a lovely time if I do say so myself and then had a lunch meeting with my business partner. We tried a new place called the University Cafe. What I thought I was ordering was a BLT with frittes but what I got was a BLT salad with a side of fries.

This was not very good. Not much flavor except for the overpowering taste of red onions.

These, however, were VERY good. Thank goodness they only gave me a small portion or that salad would never have gotten eaten.

Back to work to finish up my day. Headed over to the gym for a most excellent workout then off to World Market to spend my birthday gift card and boy did I ever!

Here are my purchases. Well over the gift card amount but well worth it. Hmmm... lots of sugar there maybe I shouldn't shop hungry. ;)

Once home, time for dinner.

Since I was so dissatisfied with my salad earlier, I decided to make my own.

Greens, tomatoes, green olives and tuna with creamy french. A piece of multi grain bread with butter and a Fuze (watermelon/strawberry). This was so delicious and filling!

Since I haven't been posting every day or every meal I thought I would give you some highlights of the new things I have been trying.

This cereal is TASTY! Oh, and super filling too.... lots of fiber and a little gas later. :) Too much info?

Especially yummy with a banana.

One of the delicious tomato sandwiches I blogged about a while back, with... you guessed it.. A BANANA.

This one had pomegranate and blueberries. A little too sweet for me.

Well that's it for today. Tomorrow's post may not happen. I have to work early, go to a funeral for my brother-in-law's grandmother. Then provided it doesn't rain I will be going to see Tonic and the Gin Blossoms. I KNOW!! Old school right?!

Lawdy, Lawdy!

I swear, as soon as things start to settle down I will begin posting on more than a weekly basis. A little run down of what's been happening since LAST TUESDAY, Friday and Saturday of last week was very busy massage wise (awesome!) but extremely exhausting. Then Saturday afternoon I went to my mom's for my niece's bday party and to celebrate Mother's Day. I left there around 9pm, went home, took a shower and got gussied up for my friend Mark's bday dinner. Talk about being pooped! I didn't make it to bed until 2am.

Sunday allowed some rest time but not much since I had to get everything in order for a working interview I scored with an awesome chiropractic and spinal injury center. I think it went well but I wont find out until possibly the end of the week whether they want me to work with them or not. *fingers crossed*

Here is just a taste of a few things I have been scarfing down lately:


Oatmeal with skim milk, almonds, butter scotch chips and chunky peanut butter.


Thai veggie spring rolls....Ah Mah Zing!


The best green curry with chicken in town.

Low fat organic vanilla yogurt with almonds and cereal.

Campbell's select tomato basil soup with fat free sour cream, grilled cheese. Comfort all the way baby!

Oh, and I did wind up buying the Core Balance Diet book. I'll let you know my thoughts once I read it. Right now I am concentrating of finding my life's purpose. ;)

Oh, and to those foodies out there I have a super fun dvd recommendation, Spain...On the Road Again with Mario Batali, Mark Bittman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols. So much fun!

Hope your week is fab!

As Time Goes By.....

HELLO!!!
Good lord where did the week go?! Business has picked up thank goodness and so has my social life. I went to an amazing wedding on Sunday and had all sorts of get togethers 3 days prior. My eating has been going so so but with this weekends celebration I did partake of waaaay too much vino. But my oh my was it delicious! I love going to weddings. It is always a joyous and fun occasion, at least the ones I have been to. :)

Last Thursday I went to a supplement seminar at the Vitamin Shoppe hosted by Dave Formen The Herbal Pharmacist. It was fascinating! He talked about his four pillars of health: diet, exercise, spirituality and supplementation. He definitely subscribes to some of the same beliefs that I hold on whole foods and spirituality. On and off for the past several weeks I have been waking up between 3 and 4am, usually hot and uncomfortable. Well guess what? According to Chinese Medical Theory that is your liver. It is where your body stores the energy of stress and it means that I need to do a liver detox. In fact I have decided to do a fall detox anyway. Something gentle that lasts about 4 weeks and that I can still eat and exercise on. I will just have to stick more to a vegetarian diet to make sure I am getting plenty of fiber.

I started training for the Turkey Trot yesterday. I had a fantastic workout! I plan on walking again tonight and then taking a Strive class at the gym. This fits in perfectly with Lyn's week two challenge! Which is to move more, well ladies I am definitely moving more! :)

Well, I am off to clean and organize and meet up with my homegirl Adrienne for some sushi. YUM!

Hope you are all having a magnificent week!

A Good Day

Today I had a good day. I started off with some EFT Tapping ,had a healthy breakfast which I may have to change around because it only lasted through 1 and a half massages, had an equally healthy lunch and dinner, a full days work and I went back to the gym tonight. I tried the Zumba class for the first time with my step sister. We had a blast and I think we may even make it a regular thing. :) I made it a point to stay positive and focused throughout the day. Being that busy really helped me stay on track with the eating. However I realized today that I definitely need 3 meals and 2 snacks when I have a full work load and errands to run. On less busy days I could probably get away with only 3 meals but today I got really hungry and headachey towards lunch and the end of my day.

The one really positive thing about having a bad day is that you are usually blessed with an equally good one the next day. And I was. :)

Here's to a prosperous, harmonious and healthy week! CHEERS!

First Two Days Of The Food Challenge

Here are the first two days broken down by meal. I have to say that I am eating really well throughout the day and then something happens to me at night. This ice cream beast has taken over my body the last couple of days. I can't seem to stop thinking about it and ice cream isn't even my favorite dessert. I usually go for any sort of sweet bread product. So I am hoping to break the vicious cycle tonight. I have plenty of fruits to eat should the sugar beast arise and I am praying that my will is strong enough to override the craving.

My plan is to go to the gym tonight after I do a bunch of work at the office. So maybe I can workout through the craving. I didn't go to the gym the other day like I was supposed to so when I go tonight the scale and I will have a little chat. Maybe the number that appears will get my but in gear. Nothing like positive reinforcement. ;)

How was your weekend?

8/22/08
Breakfast: whole wheat tortilla, chunky all natural peanut butter, sliced banana, honey, hot green tea and water.

Lunch: tuna salad on organic whole wheat bread, olives, terra veggie chips, strawberries and grapes salad, water

Dinner: wild sockeye salmon, brown rice, roasted asparagus. water

Dessert: two scoops butter crunch ice cream with caramel sauce, whip cream and a cherry

8/23/08
Breakfast: whole wheat tortilla, chunky all natural peanut butter, sliced banana, honey and water

Snack: tall iced coffee with a shot of vanilla and cream

Lunch: piece of bacon, cheddar, asparagus quiche, strawberry and grape salad, water

Snack: Colby jack cheese cubes

Dinner: wild sockeye salmon, brown rice, sauteed zucchini, water

Dessert: waffle cone with a scoop of cookies n cream and rocky road ice cream

Validation

Hello Bloggy McBloggersons! I trust that everyone is doing well out there in bloggerland. Hmmm... let's see. How many more cheesy references can I make about blogging? I wouldn't know because I am going to stop here. :)

I just wanted to share with you what happened today at work. It was a really good work day. Not too many clients and not too few. It was a very Goldilocks kind of day. Everyone at the shop was in a good mood and I was really feeling my massage mojo. I had a client come in today whom I haven't seen in a few months. She is actually one of my favorite clients....she is just so damned cute! Well anyway, after my kick ass massage she came out to the front to pay and just as she was about to leave she turned and said, "Girl, you have lost weight! A lot of weight." Needless to say I was shocked and super pleased. I said that I have been trying and she said that she could tell because my face and upper body are much slimmer. And of course I started doing the whole, "No, I haven't really lost that much....." blah blah blah. Olivia just take the damn compliment and say thank you!! So I stopped myself and said, "Thank you. I have been working really hard." YES!!! God it felt good to hear an unexpected validation for my efforts. I have been flying high all day.

That's all. :)

Time Flies.....When Your Super Busy

Sorry.
I honestly don't know where the week went. I had to work everyday last week except Sunday which was spent at my Dad's house for Father's Day and my step sisters bday. I think I was over there for over 8 hours and by 10pm last night I was so tired that I couldn't see straight.

So I took today off to catch up. I shopped, got an oil change, spent quality time with my best friend and made the most wonderful fruit salad. I have started to notice that my energy level has dramatically increased since I upped my workouts. I went to the gym 4 times last week even though my workload had tripled. I believe that my workouts were the main reason that I had the energy to get through last week. That and the fact that I have been upping my vitamin intake with Mona Vie. I am still working on my diet. Some days are better than others and overall I think last week was the best so far. I am going to try to top it with this week. I started off on the right foot today by having a very good food day.

My goal is to workout at least four days this week too. I may even get crazy and try for five. :) The temperature is supposed to be really nice the next few days so I may even have the opportunity to walk the track at my local park. I have a few social engagements later this week and this weekend so it will be a true test of my abilities to make good decisions in a setting that I can't control.

Today, while hanging out with Elisa, we went on line to look at all of the excursions we can do on the cruise. There are at least 3 that I really want to do that have weight restrictions of 250. I tried not to be discouraged because that means that I will need to lose over 75 pounds by December 13. Right now that seems impossible. Especially since I am only losing about 1-2 pounds a week. So I am gonna try.....that's all I really can do.

Well, the weekly weigh in is tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Adios!

Weekend In Review

Saturday was the day from hell. I started the day off with a nasty message from one of my bosses on my voicemail. Sweet. Then I get to work and the last therapist hadn't cleaned up the hot stones from the day before and I needed them for my first session. That put me way behind which, I am sad to say, set a nasty tone for my day. I got into a fight with my best friend over something silly during my lunch break. Because I was so upset from that and the fact that my client took their sweet time leaving I wasn't able to eat anything. I had only had 3 sausage cheese balls for breakfast.

So I finished up my work day and headed home to scrounge up a snack before a much needed shower. I was to meet some friends at Chipotle for dinner before seeing Sex and the City and I didn't want to run late but I also wanted to get rid of my low blood sugar headache. Isn't it amazing how a shower can make everything seem better? Needless to say the night drastically improved, the movie was awesome and it was great hanging out with my girls.

Sunday Aunt Flow came for a visit which prevented my sleeping in. Grrr.......
I did however have lunch with my friend David, who I hadn't spent time with in over 2 years. It was really awesome to catch up. He is getting married in the fall to a fantastic girl who keeps him in line. ;) We had Vietnamese food which I love but the restaurant wasn't very good. Oh well.

After that I came back to my apartment to meet up with my BFF so we could discuss what happened on Saturday. It was such a wonderful talk, emotional, but wonderful. I really love that girl to bits! :) After our heart to heart I was really hungry but unfortunately a huge thunderstorm blew in and cut off power for a while which was super annoying. All I really wanted was a Papa Johns sausage cheese pizza and a coke (emotional eater much?) but of course every pizza joint in town had lost their power as well. After an hour of trying to find some place that was open I finally ordered a Hawaiian pizza and Dr. Peppers for me and the roomie. I had decided to pick it up since it would take less time and I was uber hungry. Did you know that I still had to wait a half hour when I went to pick the dang thing up? Sigh.

I finally made it home, ate and began to relax. I cleaned up my room, got organized for Monday and then read a book. Today was much better than the previous days before. I was able to release some of the anger and emotions I had been storing the day before and now I feel pretty good. In all of my reflecting this weekend I came to the realization that I need two days off a week. I was really starting to get burned out and now I have more time for me and more time to focus on my health and my game plan.

I am intending that the next few posts will be happier ones. Who wants to read about a grumpy Gus all the time?

Oh yeah and there is that date I have with a scale tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Can I just win Lotto already?!

Today was a very discouraging eating day. I have had quite a few no shows and cancellations this week and it is definitely starting to affect my wallet. Which, in turn, affects what I can afford to buy food wise.

I desperately need to go to the grocery store but am waiting till next week to find out how much money I can spend on food after rent and bills are paid. This sucks! I really want to eat fresh, healthy locally grown foods but being cash poor at the moment is making it incredibly hard. It didn't help either that I ate very little throughout the day so that after a full days work my body was ravenous. Again, not the best time to make food decisions. Couple that will the fact that I need to make my money stretch further and we are right back to square one. Buying high calorie, low nutrition food for under $7. THAT IS HOW I GOT THIS BIG IN THE FIRST FRIGGIN' PLACE! I WANT OUT OF THIS CYCLE! NOW!!

I get so frustrated sometimes with my lack of imagination when it comes to healthy cheap foods. I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. In this country that's not a good thing because everything fresh and nutritious costs the most. So what do I do? Does anyone out there have any suggestions?

I know that this post seems angry, cause it is, but I don't want that to be the tone of my blog. So I am going to suck it up, drink some water and try to get a good nights sleep so that I may start fresh and new tomorrow.

See ya then!

Oy!

What a day. It began with my usual morning routine: get up, fix breakfast, check emails and stuff, return phone calls and mentally prepare myself for the day. Well, while reading emails one of the places that I work (there are two) called to say that they weren't sure that I knew but I had an 11am session booked. I didn't know, no one called me and it was now 10:06am. CRAP!

So I rushed to the shower, cursing the whole time.....I hate being rushed in the morning. I usually get over heated and sweaty and I can't seem to cool down the rest of the day. It sucks. I get to work and begin my very long day of taking care of others and I can feel a tension headache coming on. As a massage therapist I should make it a point of getting a regular massage myself but it has been well over 3 months since I last had one. The pain and tension just kept building and building until finally, today, I couldn't take it anymore.

The reason I am giving you this much info is that since I felt so awful, I opted to get a 90 minute deep tissue massage instead of going to the gym. I wish that I had time to do both but the massage won out in the end.

My eating today was really good....until the evening. I had lunch around 1:30 and wasn't able to have dinner until 9pm. My massage did get out until 8:30pm so by that time I was ravenous and I think that we all know that when you are crazy hungry you don't make the best decisions. So I had Chinese food, which I really don't like but it was one of the only things open that late that wasn't drive thru.

So I am not going to beat myself up, I already paid someone to do that earlier. Instead I am going to get a great nights sleep, hit the gym tomorrow morning and then begin my day. Actually I will be beginning my day with a lovely facial. Jealous? ;)