Wednesday

Love Target.

I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS PURCHASE!!!

The hubs and I were strolling through Target looking for deals and steals when he spotted our fav coffee on sale WITH NEW FLAVORS!!! I love love love Dunkin Donut coffee and I love pumpkin lattes, so I figure this is just going to blow my mind.

The only bad news is, I prefer to drink lattes at home in the evening, so we usually stock up on some vanilla decaf for that purpose so I'm not up dusting a bookshelf at 12 am.

Tuesday

Kate and me

Walking with my buddy at the park! It's one of the best ways for us to catch up because we are both health-concious and like work out, so walking through the park after work is awesome. Tonight we walked for about an hour before it was getting dark so we headed home.

Kate ran the Chicago marathon a few weeks ago and I'm so proud of her for setting a goal and achieving it! She says she can cross it off her bucket list now - even though she didn't just cross it off, she finished just under 3h30min. That's pretty darn fast for a first-time marathoner!

(it would probably make for a better picture of me if I weren't almost a foot taller than Kate and leaning so much...)

Monday

Roasting rocks!

Last night we had my parents over for dinner (and I suckered them into a little yard work too) and intrduced them to the awesomeness that is roasted broccoli. The best part is that my grocery store had broccoli cutlets on sale, so I bought three tree tops for $1.34. That same store (Dierbergs) also had red raspberries on sale for 3/$4, which is a pretty good price for the off season so I stocked up. That trip to the store rocked my world because a lot of times the healthy food is more expensive. I think that just proves that you can have a healthy meal for not that much money. Add some grilled chicken to the broccoli and you've got dinner + dessert!!

Sunday

Me too buddy.

I worked outside on the landscaping in front of our house all afternoon today. I feel about the same as the dog.

Wednesday

Spin and broccoli

Yesterday I took my first spinning class in two+ years. I was a sweaty sweaty mess at the end, but it was absolutely awesome. I like spinning because you can control the tension and make it your workout. I'm planning on going again Friday, but not sure about after that. The thing is, we don't have a gym membership, but this week I can take classes for free at work, so I'll take advantage of that! I think I can pay per class in the future, so we'll see if I can work it into the budget. It might just be worth it if I can prevent getting any more of what I call "the secretary thigh." I'm not really gaining any weight, but I can tell my thighs are wider than they used to be in college. I think that adds up from part work-all-day-in-a-chair job, and part getting-older.

Tonight I tried "roasting" broccoli in the oven with a little bit of EVOO and garlic salt and it was delish!! I'm pretty proud of myself for not burning them and really liking them!!

Sunday

Fresh Kicks!

I love Saucony shoes. I've been running/walking/working out in my ProGrid Guide 2's since last January, but they are starting to feel pretty worn out. I just ordered some new kicks - I wanted the Guide 3, but they were not on sale and these were. These are the ProGrid Glide 2. I have not run in them yet, but I wore them shopping all day yesterday to break them in a bit. So far, so good. I plan to keep these as "running only" shoes and wear the old ones for everyday use.

Thursday

Half a cow!

Today, the hubs went to fetch our half of a cow that we split with my FIL. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this purchase. Our "Bessie" weighed 1375 last week and was grass-fed without any steroids or hormones. And it tastes so much better than the stuff wrapped in plastic for months at the grocery store. Last year for our anniversary we cooked filets from the last cow my FIL had. They were SO good.

Wednesday

Man v Food

There's something about the show Man v. Food that just grosses me out. I'm not sure if it's the sheer amount of food or that he is just shoveling it into his mouth, but I find it appalling. The hubs just LOVES the show, and has been recording every episode. I do not see the appeal.

It seems to me that we are watching some dude gorge himself on various types of meals. And now that he's a semi-celebrity, you know 19-year-old boys think they can eat like that too. This cannot be healthy. It's like we are encouraging them to eat MORE massive meals to "train" for their food challenges. I saw one documentary of a hotdog contest eater - not sure if it's the guy that backed out in July or not - who eat a head of lettuce and some chicken for a meal to eat a lot of food, but not really a lot of calories. I don't really have a problem with that, but I'm curious if Adam is doing the same thing to prepare for his food duels.

Sunday

Run in the country

This weekend we went to the hubs' home town for a wedding. Since the boys were watching football all afternoon I decided to go for a run out in the country. It was peaceful and I had great weather, so I ran about 2 miles. I know that's not a lot but I didn't really want to get lost out there either. I did pause to take this photo of the train tracks (with my cell). No, the train was not moving. Safety first.

Friday

Greasy but good

My first taste of 5 guys burgers and fries.
I ate the burger. This is the greasy leftovers.

Tuesday

Dinner ideas?

It's almost 7 p.m. here and I just got in from a quick run (1mile) before my ears starting hurting from the cold so I quit. Now it's time to make some dinner, but instead I'm foolin' around on facebook, blogging for you people and giving the dog the silent treatment for snapping at me on our walk. The stupid animal looooves to eat grass covered turds from other dogs and when I try to prevent this, he gets protective of those turds. Little jerk.

Anyway, I'm looking for some new dinner ideas that are fast and healthy. Last night I made this recipe for Creamy Mushroom Chicken sans green onions. I am a really slow cook so it took me about an hour to make this, but it turned out really good! I took this about halfway through cooking everything together. That big white clump on the left is the laughing cow. It made it perfectly creamy.

Monday

I have a complex

Since I can remember, I've thrown up a total of four times. In chronological order:
  1. It was in morning before school. I threw up in the kitchen sick. I don't remember what I ate or why I threw up. I was probably 10 or 11.
  2. I had food poisoning from Taco Bell. This is the one and only time I attempted to drink the pink stuff because I immediately threw it up and continued to puke for the next 12 hours. I was 17 or 18.
  3. I had food poisoning from Chipotle. I ate at the Chipotle in Columbia, Mo while visiting a friend at Mizzou. Again, I threw up for 12 hours straight and missed the only senior seminar class of the year that was required. The professor passed me anyway. I was 22.
  4. When we got back from Key West in March, I dry-heaved for several hours before throwing up one time. I was 29.
As you can see, I'm not one of those people who can just get it out and feel better. I've only been sick for hours at a time. Not only do I have a serious aversion to anyone about to throw up, but if you even mention that you might feel a little sick, my stomach literally drops. I don't really feel like I'm going to be sick too, more like a nervous/anxious feeling. If we are in a closed space, such as a car, when someone says they don't feel well, I literally start shaking because it bothers me that I cannot get away from that person. It's very strange and I'm beginning to think I'm the only one with this issue.

Saturday

Biggest Loser at work. Again

Yesterday at work, we ended the second session of the Biggest Loser that I organized in cube-land. Not very many people actually tried during this session (myself included) and the results, so far, are pretty obvious to that end. I don't know the official results yet, but from what I heard yesterday, I'm in the lead with 5 lbs lost or 3 percent. I'm a little pissed because it would have been 7 lbs had we weighed in on Monday, but by the end of the week I was retaining water due to my cycle. Either way, I didn't lose very much weight and that reflects the amount of effort I put into trying.

The other news is that the organization I work for started a company-wide BL competition, so several people in the office entered that competition and no longer cared about the babyBL in cube-land. I can't say I blame them. The stakes are much higher and is probably a real competition. I chose not to enter that competition because I know I don't have THAT much weight to lose compared to some of the folks who entered. I need to focus on burning off the fat that's left and toning my muscles. If only I could get myself to really enjoy running more than 2 miles. After that, I'm bored and done.