It Must Be Working

This weekend, I proved to myself that I can eat healthy, or at least low-calorie, over the weekends. Friday night, Ben and I went to a sports bar, where I ordered a swordfish filet with asparagus and rice, and only two beers. That was after a day of salad. I didn't eat much rice, so most of my calories were from the beer.

Saturday, we went to the Great American BBQ & Beer Festival. We skipped breakfast, and I had a pulled-pork sandwich, and a few hours later, so more pulled pork without the bread. Over the course of the day, I had two beers. That evening, we checked out the sushi place down the road from Ben's place. I ordered salmon sashimi, and one roll, which was wrapped in cucumber instead of rice. Very low-calorie, and I didn't even have sake!

Today, we again skipped breakfast - I know, that's not the best thing to do, but when you wake up so late, it kind of just happens. We went to Jamba Juice because Ben had a groupon which was expiring soon. I got a fit-and-fruitful smoothie, which consisted of 390 calories.

And this evening, I conjured up (from my empty cabinets) a tuna salad wrap with raw veggies on the side. *I* think it's delicious.

Tomorrow morning I head to Chicago - it might be difficult to keep up the low-calorie options there, but I will do my best! Unless we go to a steak place, in such case I will order a fat juicy steak with vegetables.

As it is, when I weighed myself yesterday morning, I was down 119.4 pounds.

*fistpump*

It Was Bound To Happen

I made a dinner that wasn't very exciting. It was alright, but not amazing.
It was also vegetarian. I heated up some spicy black bean veggie burgers, tore them in pieces, put them in a tortilla and added red onion, cheese and salsa.

The veggie burger and  tortilla didn't really mix, but it wasn't bad. Just... sustenance.

Tomorrow morning I'll cook my last egg over-medium, eat a slice of that soda bread (there are still several pieces left), and eat another chicken salad for lunch. Speaking of which, I should go prepare that salad.

BUT, I've been cramming ALL night because I have a LOMA exam at 9am. I took a sample test just a bit ago and only made a 65%. I'll be retaking that sample test here in a bit - just taking a break. My brain was exploding like a steampunk machine - cogs and gaskets flying all over the place. Add in a scant 5 hours of sleep last night (and the night before and the night before) and a killer headache, and you've got a fairly irritable and easily frustrated girl on your hands.

I just hope the headache goes away instead of coming back, like it usually does, as a migraine in the morning. Because I *have* to be at work tomorrow. In addition to the exam, we're having a big Marketing meeting, and Fridays just happen to normally be my busiest day of the week.

And I realllllly need a relaxing, resetting weekend because I fly out first thing Monday for Chicago.

So, that's that, I guess.

Another Healthy Lunch

I have no idea what I'm going to come up with for dinner tonight. Maybe some veggie burgers, maybe a chicken wrap... who knows? But I'll probably let you know. This blog is becoming my reason to eat healthy - because if I don't, you're all going to know about it and hold me accountable :)

For lunch today, I prepared another salad, this time with some leftover chicken on the top. Added the broccoli stalk, celery, 1/2 a roma tomato, a scallion, and ranch dressing. And it was delicious.

If only my lunch 1/2-hour hadn't been interrupted by a co-working asking me to log into the phones because she had to leave her desk for bit... that really kind of pissed me off. Especially because as soon as I logged in, my phone rang, and it was an agent with a complicated situation, and I had to spend at least 20 minutes on the phone with him.

At least my food wasn't hot.

mmmmm....

Good morning. It's 5:52 my time, and I've decided to show you what I made for dinner last night. (why is this turning into a food blog?)

Baked chicken breasts with salt, black pepper and garlic powder on the top, and israeli lemon-saffron couscous. I sauteed some pine nuts in olive oil and butter, chopped up a scallion, and put that mix on top of the chicken.

It was fantabulous.

Lunch today is a salad, but with my leftover chicken on top. No, I didn't eat the whole thing last night. And this morning, after 3 days of eating very healthy, low-calorie foods, exercising, and drinking 1/2 gallon of water each day, I'm finally back to 120, which is down 4 pounds.

Sometimes It Gets Lonely

A Lunch Pic

I know that after all those pictures of my dinners and my breakfast, you're wondering what my lunch looks like. Wonder no more.

I used ranch dressing and added some cheese for tomorrow, since I have yoga after work and will need the extra energy. I also packed a small snack of celery with peanut butter for later in the afternoon.

Yum?

Continuing the Cycle

Today I've been fairly good. I had the same breakfast as I had yesterday - one egg (over medium), a slice of soda bread, and a glass of milk. I had the same lunch as yesterday - spring greens with broccoli stalk, celery and 1/2 of a roma tomato. I also had about the same amount of spicy Chex mix that I had yesterday. I did *not* drink as much water as yesterday, but I shall fix that.

Tonight, I decided to make something tasty, healthy and different. In my freezer the remainder of a bag of shrimp, I had some tortillas and cheddar cheese in the fridge, and a jar of salsa in the pantry. I cooked the shrimp with white wine and olive oil, a scallion, red pepper flakes and a dash of cayenne pepper. It's a cold day - a girl needs to warm up somehow. Then I pan-fried a tortilla in the remaining oil until it was bubbly, put a small amount of cheddar cheese across the top, then the rest of the scallion, and some salsa around the edge for some extra panache. 

I am enjoying every bite as I write this. Simply amazing.

Dinner Experiment

I got creative tonight. Inspired by a www.poorgirleatswell.com post, I tried my hand at creating poached tilapia instead of just sauteing it in butter or oil. She recommended poaching in white wine or vegetable broth, but having neither, I used water with salt and dried herbs (thyme, garlic powder & parsley). Once the pan was boiling, I put in the tilapia until it started flaking.

I also steamed some broccoli in the microwave by cutting off the florets (saving the stalk for another salad), putting some water in the container, setting a lid partway on top and microwaved for two minutes. Perfect! I can't remember the last time I had steamed broccoli.

To top it off, I opened a can of pineapple (canned with real juice, not syrup). I used 1/2 the juice to dilute with water; that's my beverage, and dumped 1/3 of the can on my plate.

Eating it now, the tilapia is surprisingly delicious, and broccoli is awesome, and the pineapple... well, it's pineapple. Always good.

Staying True

Today has gone by pretty well so far. I stuck with my healthy food all day, except for a small snack of about a handful of spicy chex mix, which I'd already bought and was sitting in my desk drawer at work. Since the salad was very low-calorie and I had to go to meeting at school after work, I decided that a few extra calories wouldn't hurt anything. Since the chex was spicy, it was satisfying and I didn't eat a lot.

I had my meeting at school, where my professor reviewed some of my recent writing in my novel. She also assigned me some more writing - at least ten pages - for our next meeting on April 9th. Ten pages! As you probably read, last night I was wondering about the reason for my continuing to write; today on the way back from the mailbox, I realized that I've simply put too much effort into learning how to write, and stressing about writing, and actually writing to just stop.

So... ten pages. I can do this. I also have a LOMA test next week, and I'll be in Chicago for 2 days prior without a laptop. I'll have to print off the text and study it that way during the flights.

Been trying to drink more water - I found a new way to make sure I drink it, at home at least. I have two empty water bottles. I filled them up with water, squirted a few drops of lemon juice in them, and put them in the fridge. When I come home from work, they're nice and cold and should last throughout the night. And they taste good!

Tonight I guess I'll try to study some LOMA, maybe watch a little something, and do my nails. Last night I cleaned. I swept and scrubbed the floors, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, washed the mirrors, and did the laundry. I wanted to get it all done in order to set the week off right.

Is it working? So far.

Doing Better

Once again, I've decided to take better care of myself.

I found a website, www.poorgirleatswell.com, which has recipes for healthy, cheap food, and tips on how to shop efficiently and healthily. I've been more and more intrigued by vegetarian foods as well, not because I want to forgo meat (I don't), but because they are good, and they seem to be cheaper as well.

Because of some tips I saw on the blog, last night I prepared today's lunch in advance. I made a salad, with the spring greens I already had (from now on, I'll buy the actual lettuce heads, not the packaged stuff), 1/2 a roma tomato, and 2 celery stalks. I also (here's the tip) cut the stalks off of the broccoli I'd bought, and chopped it small. It tastes pretty good! And should make a nice salad filler. And I won't be wasting it :)

This morning I also prepared a breakfast, instead of taking a yogurt cup or oatmeal bag into work. I cooked an egg over-medium, a slice of soda bread, and a glass of milk. I'm lucky with the soda bread and milk - the soda bread was leftover from our St. Patty's day dinner (Ben bought it but sent the rest home with me), and the milk was BOGO this weekend.

I plan to cook some orange roughy tonight for dinner.

Beth Time

This afternoon I'm getting some 'beth time', but I don't know what to do. I know of plenty of things that I can and should do, like write, read, do my nails, study LOMA...

But I just have this big, constant ball of sadness rolling around inside. I don't feel like doing any of those things - I just want to lie down and sleep. It doesn't help that I have a headache and that I'm letting myself have a 'woman-week' and am cramping because of that.

My laptop is dying. I left it at Ben's house for him to look at. He says it needs a new hard drive, and apparently hard drive prices have gone up 500% in the past month because Thailand, where the majority of hard drives are manufactures, was catastrophically flooded about a month ago.

Why can't things ever just go smoothly? Why can't everything just be OK for once?

Yesterday, I took Parker over to Ben's to introduce her to Kagan, Ben's cat. It did not go well. Parker is as chill as fuck, but Kagan is the polar opposite - very territorial and high-strung. I guess we just keep trying it every now and then until they get used to each other.

We went running down the canal this morning. It felt so good to get out in the fresh air and exercise, it made me wonder why I don't do it more often. And the answer, if I'm being honest with myself, is because I don't like to exercise alone.

Sometimes I think I should give up trying to write. It takes up too much time, and all the time that I'm not working or writing, I'm thinking  about writing, and I feel guilty  that I'm not writing, then I feel bad for feeling guilty, because I shouldn't be work-work-working all the time, but then I think "but when's the last time you wrote? How long are you going to let this book take?" 

Damn book, just get out of my head. I'm so tired of being tired and stressing.

Lame Post. Not Llama, Lame.

Good evening.

I assume it's time for an update. One that I don't really feel like writing. I don't even know where my last post left off. So....

Lately, I just want to curl up and go to sleep for hours and hours and wake up and shower and go back to sleep. No work, no writing, no school, no dr. appointments. Just Parker. And Sleep. And I guess Ben can show up every now and then too. Oh, and water. Lots and lots of water. It's good.

It would be nice if my paycheck continued to be deposited to my account while all that sleep is happening.

Even though I've been having strange dreams lately. I know, what else is new? I had a very scary dream last weekend, where I was being stalked by an assassin, all the way from NC to OK to TN to AZ. I ended up being cornered in a glass room with a wooden door, with the guy kicking it in. I woke up frightened and sweaty, and convinced that someone was downstairs (I was at Ben's).

Oh, and I had a birthday. 27 seems about right. I feel 27. Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. But almost everyone I know is older than me, so I guess it's OK.

We went to Vegas for 311 weekend. It was fun, but I wish I had had $$ to spend. Not so much fun to walk around awesome shops and not be able to buy anything.

I'm so tired of talking/typing/communicating. Going to bed.

Sorry for the lame post. Hey, at least there's a picture in it, even if it is a lame picture too.