Catching Up

I've just been too busy to sit down and write any posts lately. I'm finally getting around to it, so here is a re-cap of the last week or so. I've been pretty good on the eating lately. I had my one month check in after starting DDP Yoga over the weekend. I'm pretty excited to report a 2" loss in most areas, my hips however are holding on to that pear shape. Only one inch lost there for now. So far, so good. Trying to keep it rolling. 



One of my favorite things to cook in the crock pot is a whole chicken. I just drop it in with a bit of water in the bottom of the pot, season with salt, pepper and paprika and let it cook for 6 hours on low. Take the chicken out, pour what's in the bottom of the pot into a sauce pan, add a couple tablespoons of better batter and stir away until you have a nice gravy. Roast some asparagus in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. Boil some butternut squash, mash with Earth Balance, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Such a delicious and EASY dinner! I made this last Wednesday. The leftovers are also nice, make another meal out of it, or chicken salad, yum!

I've been all over the place in the past week, my little brother (not really little anymore...) got married on Friday! It was a lot of fun. We had the rehearsal dinner Thursday night, then I spent Friday at a hotel getting ready with the bride and the rest of the bridal party. My new sister-in-law gave us these beautiful bracelets. That's her reflection in the heart. I love mine.



I had stocked up on snacks to have throughout the day including these Glutino bagel chips which I had never tried before. I LOVED them. So good. They don't taste gluten free at all.



Saturday night we had friends over to our place. We love to entertain and we went a little overboard with food this time. One thing about entertaining is that our friends always bring their own alcohol and anything that they don't drink, they leave with us. Neither of us drinks beer, and all of our friends DO, so it doesn't take long for our fridge to fill up with leftover beers. We need to have a "clean out our fridge" party.



I didn't get any pictures of the food we served, but it was all good stuff. I made spinach dip from scratch, it was not great, I'd try again but add more seasoning. I served it with some of those bagel chips and tortilla chips. We also had buffalo chicken dip and toasted ciabatta bread topped with tomato and mozarella (none of this was gf, nor did I eat any of it). For dessert we served a random sampling of treats from Dessert Works bakery which does offer GF options. We didn't get anything GF that day because I had bought some gf brownies that I had seen at the grocery store and hadn't tried yet. They were gross. Dry and crumbly and tasteless. How disappointing!

The rest of the weekend we relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful weather. This week I've been in training for work so I've been away from my desk. I'm still on my quest to clean up my diet so this week I'm trying to add in fresh vegetable/fruit juice. B bought a juicer a while ago after we watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. He used it for one week and it has been collecting dust ever since. We made smoothies in the blender for a while but I couldn't quite get into those. I didn't find a combo I liked that much. I was thinking that juicing might be an easier start, plus I've seen a lot of recipes that sounded good to me lately. This morning I tried my first one - Celery, Spinach, Kale, Granny Smith Apples, Carrots and Grapes. I only got a half of the water bottle filled with juice after all of those vegetables went into the juicer, but that's ok. It was pretty delicious and I felt so good drinking it. I added a side of eggs over easy to get my protein in, otherwise I would've been starving by lunch time.



I made it until mid-day before I started to feel really hungry and then I waited too long to eat so by the time I got around to it, I was starving. I had to run to the bank so I decided to stop by b.good for a burger on a GF bun and I also went for the fries. It hit the spot. I resisted having a treat after. I've gotten into the habit of having some kind of chocolate or something sweet after lunch and I really need to break that.



You might be thinking how does a burger and fries fit into a healthy diet? Moderation folks. You'll never find me cutting hamburgers out of my diet, especially in the summer! Speaking of which, I need to start working on my pasta salad recipe...

Moving Forward

This morning when I went out to take Roddy for a walk, I found these words which were drawn by my nine year old neighbor Emily. The past week has been life changing. I've lived through quite a few tragedies in my life. The earliest one I can clearly remember is the Oklahoma City bombing and then 9/11. I will never forget that day, I was in college and had gone to class that morning. My professor was a few minutes late and when she finally walked in her face was pale with shock. She said planes had flown into the world trade center and that there would be no classes today. I had to walk through the media center to get back to my car and there is a huge tv mounted high up on the wall. I stood in silence with dozens of other students watching the videos play over and over again. My parents were running their business in Boston at the time, directly behind the Massachusetts State House. I frantically called them to see if they were ok and hoped that they would get out of the city as soon as possible. Then there have been the shootings, Virginia Tech and the most devastating of all, Newtown.

But as terrible as all of those other incidents were, I was far enough removed from them that I could watch the news coverage, feel sad for a short time, and move on. I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I hope you understand what I mean. This time it was personal. I worked and played in Boston for all of my twenties. I stood on the sidelines of the Boston Marathon for years. I have walked down the sidewalks of Boylston Street countless times. I've spent many nights in Cambridge. And one of my close friends lives just a few streets away from the spot where the second suspect was hiding.

I'm not the type of person that outwardly shows my feelings when things that don't directly affect me happen. The victims were not my friends or family. None of my friends ran the marathon that day. I haven't even been into the city in months. I don't want to minimize the pain of those directly impacted in any way by feeling my own pain. But from the moment it happened until the moment suspect two was captured, I was glued to the news. I watched the bombs go off over and over again. I looked at the images of severely injured people. I stared at the haunting image of suspect two leaving his back pack on the ground right behind Martin Richard and his mother and sister. I texted my former roommate when I discovered that she was on lock down on Friday morning. Then again later that night when I realized that he was hiding just a few streets away. I saw the image of suspect one's ruined body in the morgue.

On Friday night as we watched the ambulance drive away with suspect two finally captured, we all breathed a sigh of relief. On Saturday we kept busy getting ready for and then attending my former roommate's wedding. It wasn't until Sunday that the weight of the week settled heavily on my chest. We got up and ready for the day and headed out for Bill to run a 5k in our town. It was a beautiful day, I took the dog with me.



As we waited at the starting line, we had a moment of silence, and then sang the national anthem in memory. I knew B would be done in 30 minutes or less, so I walked the grounds of the hospital school where the race was taking place. It was beautiful.







Then headed back to the finish line just in time to see him finish right at 30 minutes.



We grabbed lunch at Chipotle then headed home for the afternoon. While eating lunch, B put on some episodes of the new Hannibal show. I noticed that my misophonia was in full force and that I was reacting very strongly to what I was seeing. Hannibal is all about investigating gruesome murders. I couldn't take it anymore, I had to ask B to shut it off. I realized that this tragedy has impacted me on a much deeper level than I had thought. However, I am so proud to be from a city that is so strong and has pulled together so tightly during this difficult time.

Boston Strong

Boston and surrounding towns are locked down right now while authorities try to find the second suspect in the marathon bombings. The events of this week have been incredibly sad. I've tried to keep my head clear of it since thankfully none of my friends or family have been impacted, but it just starts to weigh on you. It's everywhere, you can't avoid it. It wasn't until I was listening to President Obama speak of the three people that did not survive the bombs that I finally broke down in tears. I could not believe it this morning when I woke up to find that another man had been killed and that so much had happened overnight. I hope they catch the younger brother soon. I can't stand knowing he's running loose in Massachusetts. I'll be avoiding posting anything here until this ordeal is over. I just can't think about food right now. My friend and former roommate lives in Watertown where all of this madness is happening right now. She is getting married tomorrow and I just hope this isn't ruining any of her plans. Of course I'm also worried for her and her fiance's safety but right now they are just sitting at home on lock down. I hope tomorrow can be a little escape from all of this and we can celebrate and eat (she has gf options, yay!!) and drink and dance the night away! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. The support from around the country has been incredible. We are Boston and we are STRONG and we won't rest until this is OVER!!

Roll with it.

Today is just one of those days. I was exhausted this morning and slept through my yoga time. Because I hit the snooze button so many times, I was groggy when I finally did get out of bed. It took me forever to get ready, I forgot to put blush on (I'm pasty!) and I didn't even bother blow drying my hair. Of course the last thing I wanted to do was make myself breakfast, so I went to work and let them do it for me.



The shredded potatoes were cold and tasted awful, the eggs were fine, the bacon was ok. The food I make at home is better. Oh well.

By 11am I was starving. I only fought with myself for a short time before hitting up the vending machine.


ahoy..

At lunch I went home to get the crock pot set up for dinner but I knew there wasn't much in the house for lunch, so I stopped at the grocery store. It was a beautiful day outside and I was in the mood for summer food. Hot dogs and potato salad sounded like just the ticket.





And a half a handful of mini chips.



I worked my way through the rest of the afternoon while also keeping up on the latest news of the marathon bombings. I can't wait until they have the scum bag that did this in custody. They are getting close and there was even a point today where it was reported that the suspect was in custody but that turned out not to be true. Then a bomb threat was called into the Federal Court building which put a bit of a kink in the day.

After work I headed over to the gym. Wednesday night is ZUMBA night! As soon as Jyl turns on that music and I feel that beat I am so happy. But for some reason I was still just not filled with energy so I kind of fumbled my way through the workout. I even considered just giving up a few times, but I stuck it out and finished the hour. I'm definitely glad I did.

When I got home the aroma of taco chicken greeted me at the door (along with Roddy). I can't tell you how much I LOVE my crock pot. Coming home to dinner already made is the best thing ever. We dove right in.



I wish I had bought some avocados for guacamole. Next time.

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my Great Grandmother's passing. My GiGi. I actually dreamed about her last night. Maybe that's what's weighing on me today. She was so awesome. She had a good life and was almost 93 (94?) when she passed, and had lived life to the fullest. I just wanted to recognize her today. She's one of the most inspirational people in my life.

Full Disclosure

Whenever I'm thinking of eating something I shouldn't, the thought "would you post that on the blog?" always pops into my head. Usually I just push that thought right out of the way and go on with my indulgence. Since I'm still struggling to get back on track, I thought why not use that as a tool to push me to STOP eating things I'm not supposed to eat! So with that, I decided to go with a Full Disclosure policy on the blog. Everything I eat is going up. I'm shaming myself into eating properly. Now when I find myself thinking of eating something that's bad for my health, I will ask myself "Is it really worth it?" and no matter what, it'll be posted here.

This morning started off with a lame attempt at DDP Yoga - Energy workout. I was tired, and my knees hurt, and I just wasn't into it. Plus I had takeout and frozen yogurt last night which I'm sure contributed to my exhaustion. After yoga I made breakfast. The usual for this week - two eggs over easy, chicken and apple sausage, sauteed with baby spinach.



I forgot to grab a snack for mid-morning and by 11am I was starving. I wanted so badly to go to the vending machine and get a package of mini chips ahoy cookies. SO BADLY!! I resisted. By 1pm I was losing my mind but thankfully it was finally time for lunch. I had chicken salad on a Rudi's wrap with baby spinach and a side of leftover mashed potatoes.



While I was in the kitchen getting my lunch out of the fridge, I saw a tupperware container with a note on top...



I would have been LIVID if someone ate half of my lunch and put it back in the fridge. I wonder who's lunch this is though, it would be nice to have a GF buddy on my floor.

I made it through the afternoon without getting hungry again which is good because I had to go grocery shopping on my way home. And after that I grabbed some sushi for us. Spicy tuna and a specialty roll for me. So delicious.



And for dessert:



I would say that's not a terrible day, right? The only thing I ate that had gluten is the soy sauce that came with the sushi. I didn't have any gf soy sauce left in the house. Oh well. It's a step in the right direction! On to tomorrow!