Indian and Fighting the Bug

I made it through Monday and Tuesday and now it's time for a quick re-cap. Work has been busy as ever and I am getting used to the longer hours. I got home at 8:00 PM this evening, with all intentions to go to the gym, but it didn't happen. I am going to do a 'commercial workout' while I watch TV and attempt to fall asleep early since I'm fighting something. I thought that my cold had gone away, but I have had a lingering cough and congestion. That meant that my run would not work so well...If I don't do anything tonight, I'll cough it up tomorrow and confess!

Now, here are the eats of today (except for a boring tortilla with pumpkin and better n' pb)


First- a packet of Raspberry Vitamins:



Lunch was a fruit and yogurt parfait- office style. I wanted to add in some citrus fruits for extra Vitamin C and incorporate it into my craving for cereal. This is one orange, one kiwi, 3/4 cup Honey Nut Cheerios (Mari Style), and 6 oz nonfat vanilla yogurt:





This wasn't much protein, so I added some baked marinated tofu (about 1.5 servings):





Since I was staying at work until 6:30, I had about 1 serving of trailmix from the office stash and an unpictured orange:





Dinner came at 8:00. I had about a cup of homemade vegetable barley soup. I also wanted some salsa with some rice crackers. I had about 8 crackers and 3 tbsp of salsa (heaping, heaping spoons of salsa!)





I had a couple of mini chocolate meringues and one cranberry dipper left over from my party. These things have been in my pantry for 2 weeks now and I can't waste food right? I was hoping to get through more, but I'm just not feeling dessert tonight- a sure sign that I'm not myself.


Now on to Indian Food!

Indian food is my fiance's favorite food. I like it just enough to settle on going to dinner there since we had a coupon. There are several things I like about Indian food- the variety, the spice, the vegetarian option. However, I don't like it because it tends to be greasy and while it may be a leftover of the 90's 'fat fear', I just don't feel like it's that healthy. We went to our favorite place right next to our house. It doesn't look like too much from the outside, but the service is excellent and the food is pretty good too!




We ordered 2 dishes that came with rice to split and whole wheat Naan.

Here is the Chicken Tikka Kebab (my order):




My fiance ordered another chicken dish...I totally forgot the name (can you spot me mid-fork action?):





The restaurant also provides yummy spices- the bright green one is minty and awesome (future hubby mid-bite...we don't mess around here)!




I ate about 1/3 of the kebabs, a few of the veggies since they were drenched in oil, a little rice, and a bite of naan (also visibly oily). I also stole about 1/4 of Mike's entree. The boy did a much better job than I did and ate about half of everything he ordered as well as mine. He took the rest home for lunch so the meal was well worth it!

Alright kids, I'm off to do some crunches, lunges, pushups, stair dips, and whatever else I can fit in without hurting myself in the living room!

ETA- I got my bootay in gear and did the following quick and dirty workout between coughs:
-Jumping jacks and running up and down the stairs to get warm
- 3 sets of alternating lunges with 10 pound weights
-3 sets of 10 shoulder presses with 10 pound weights
-3 sets of 12 'bench press' on the ball
-3 sets of pushups on the ball
-2 wall sits (1 minute each)
- 2 sets of 15 crunches on the ball
-3 sets of kickbacks (down on all floors, raising legs up at 90 degree angle)

Sunday Night Blues

Hello! I'm wrapping up my chores, doing (ahem) homework, and squeezing in a blog post. I had a glorious, wonderful, fantastic weekend. The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to relax away from work. I enjoy a good challenge, but last week was a little tough on me.


Let's rewind to last night...
We got invited to go out to some local bars with my fiance's friends. It was just the four of us (me and 3 boys) but it was one of the best nights out in a long, long time. I got treated to not one, not two, but three drinks. Something you may not know about me is I don't drink much. It doesn't really agree with me (hate feeling sick after) and I could live without the sugar and empty calories. That said, I was just feeling it last night and the drinks were great.

They bought me a vodka-cranberry-lemonade. Fortunately (or not) it went down like juice...hence my very happy state. We had a great time and danced the night away. This led to some goofy pictures last night (one for your laughs- because I don't remember when 80s hair was in style) and a bit of a headache this morning. I used to party quite a bit in college and I seriously don't know how I did it!





This afternoon I did some meal prep and went to the gym to work off some of the tired feelings I had and do a nice little detox. Here is my workout:

Cardio: 2 mile run in 20 mins (190 cals burned)

Weights: (3 sets each)
-Skullcrushers
-Dips
-2 different kinds of cables for tris
-Pushups (assisted with the ball like in the picture below)
-Planks
-Crunches on bosu ball
-Oblique twist machine
-Stretch





Ok, time to shower, write my paper, and call it a night. Hope to be on tomorrow with the wonder of work madness!

Sushi Saturday

Hello world!

It's been a crazy few days with work and it's great to have a few free minutes. In fact, the whole day has been a wonderful exhibition of free time. I haven't had such a great day in a long time. We woke up, watched TV, walked to get coffee, and walked to visit our new accountant. I know I sound like a nerd, but going over tax documents with a CPA is more intriguing than a day at work (at least last week).


We also had the best meal we had out in a long time- sushi! Sushi is my favorite food, specifically anything spicy tuna-related. We were busy all afternoon and missed lunch, which is always bad news. I walked out of there stuffed with this great foods.

We ordered a spicy tuna salad- a big blob of spicy tuna on a bed of greens (shared):



Next, we ordered 3 rolls- a DUI roll (spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber, salmon, and some raspberry sauce on the side), a Power Roll (unagi and avocado on some tempura), and a double tuna (spicy tuna with fresh tuna on top):






I ate about 4 pieces of each spicy tuna roll and tried one of the fried rolls, but stuck to my true love. We just got back from another short walk and I think we might be going out tonight(!). I'm off to watch some TV and get ready if we are hitting the town.

Have a great night and I'll be back tomorrow!

Weight loss

I was really nervous to put this up because these aren't the most flattering pictures...but I'm positive it will be ok since this is the point of doing a weight loss post!

Here is the history:

I was a normal size kid then started gaining weight when I was about 10. My mom is an amazing cook and I ate what I was served. I was pretty heavy during the wonderfully awkward period of 10-13. I think I was under 5 feet and wore a size 7- quite large on a 6th grader! By 8th grade, I started paying attention to foods and nutrition and started exercising at the local YMCA. I called the Y my 'exercise entry drug' because I loved it so much.

Through high school, I went up and down from 115 to 135 and back down to 120. I still exercised, but my nutrition was horrible. This brings me to what I consider my adult weight problems.

During my last couple of years of college I was enjoying the drinks, working, studying, and working out sporadically. As you can see from these pictures, I was having a great time and definitely enjoying myself. I have to say that I knew my problem areas (booty, legs, and arms) but I was never totally unhappy.

Around November 2004 ~130

January 2004 ~130

August 2005~ 135

September 2005 ~ 130

October 2005 ~130

By October 2005 I was in my last year of college and I was back to exercising on a regular basis. See the black and white picture above? I met my hubby-to-be the day after that. (It was the day after Halloween!) As we started dating, we started exercising together and I lost some weight- I guess I am opposite of the happy relationship gain. I got a little too into exercising and started losing a little too fast for my own good. I was happy with my look, but my diet wasn't the most balanced and I was exercising too much. Here is the loss:


June 2006 ~122



July 2006 ~ 120 (Bellydance performance)



November 2006: ~115



I'm not too sure what happened after that, but I must have hit the 'comfortable stage' and started eating more. I also got an overuse injury in my knees and was really afraid to run again, so I took my exercise down to less intensity. The chocolate treats were adding up and I wasn't doing enough to counteract all the calories. I went up from 115 to about 127 in the next year. I was strong and healthy, but not really happy with how I looked.


Here is our picture right when we got engaged. It was one of the happiest days in my life and what I needed to get moving again. We were in Eastern Europe for 3 weeks and by the end of the trip, I was losing again.


July 7, 2008~ 127


End of July 2008~ 122



Here I am now- in the last few months. I am at about 115-120 pounds, depending on the week. I now know that this is a good weight for me and I don't need to lose more, but I would like to tone up my arms and legs. I think the difference between now and the past is that I am happy and realistic about what my body looks like and what it can do. Here are a few pictures from the last year and thank you for reading my story!

Energizer Bunny

I'm trying to keep my energy up because my day is not over yet and it's 9:30! I know, I know, no complaining, but I'm a little sleepy.

It was pouring this morning and I got soaked walking to my train from the parking lot- the rain was pouring sideways and what seemed like UNDER my umbrella and right on me! I was pretty cold and I hope I'm not catching a cold again since I'm sitting here and have the sniffles again.


I ate breakfast all day long- started with oatmeal, had cereal with yogurt for lunch, and for dinner I had this beautiful veggie omelet:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mixed veggies
• s&p, spicy mustard and some ketchup

Before I had this feast I had an appetizer of some low sodium miso soup. I know this sounds pretty random, but it was quick! (P.S. I have no idea why this picture is tilted...but I'm tired and can't figure it out now)




I am sitting at the dining room table about to start on my PowerPoint presentation for my speech tomorrow- the topic is Whole Foods, so I will have to contain my love story...but I also need to get crackin on this assignment or I'll look like a fool up there! I was also greeted by a delivery from the cookie fairy- my future mother-in-law. She went to Costco today and brought us these cookies. I have my cookie on top of the box and I'm calling it a night with these guys, but if I don't make it to work tomorrow, then I have probably OD'd on cookies- so please send a rescue party.




Have a good one!

Best Meal of the Day

Today was one of those whirlwind days at work. I got into the office at 8:30, not feeling hungry for breakfast so I decided to wait it out...well, work got so crazy busy that I didn't get to eat until 2 except for some whole wheat saltines that I was able to find. I didn't take a picture of any of my meals, but they included a bowl of cereal with yogurt and a banana and then another one 3 hours apart- sometimes a girl just has to eat and quick!


My best meal of the night is dinner! Here is a whole wheat wrap baked up in the oven with:

• Pumpkin puree
• Goat cheese
• salt & pepper
• Sweet chili sauce

I also enjoyed the remainder of a sauvignon blanc we opened on my birthday party. I'm honestly feeling it and about to go to bed to watch some TV and cuddle. I have managed to make it through this snack plate:

-2 TJ's dark chocolate-covered mini grahams, chocolate meringues, and an almond dipper. We have a LOT of dessert left from my party- can't let it go bad, right?





My fiance is a huge chocolate chip cookie monster and he bought some break and bake cookies tonight from the store and made puppy eyes at me until I made them. I wanted to share these gigantic things with you- they look massive! He will be enjoying these for breakfast tomorrow- ah the joys of being a young male!





Have a great day! One day down, 4 more to go!

Birthday Weekend Wrap-up

I am finally winding down from my birthday weekend. Around here we celebrate for an entire weekend, and since my birthday was on Saturday, the festivities began on Friday night. My fiance picked me up and had a beautiful bouquet of roses for me. I spent the evening cleaning up and setting up for our party and made some cupcakes and my cake. I used the box recipes and omitted the oils, but there was no culinary masterpiece here- just some good ole fashioned cupcakes.

I also put together a cheese tray with crescent cheese-filled rolls, spinach flatbreads, grapes, and lots of crackers. We also had chips, guacamole, salsa, and hummus- all courtesy of Trader Joe's. We had a bowl filled with Trader Joe's Oatmeal Cranberry dippers, meringues, and chocolate covered grahams. People definitely grubbed on these snacks once the drunk munchies set in. Now, without further ado- a photo recap of the party:


Food:



Food Platter:




Alcohol:




Alcohol in my Ariel cup and a lei courtesy of our florist friend:






25-year-old Birthday Girl!




The best fiance in the world:




I am so thankful to my friends and family for making my birthday weekend and making me feel so special and loved. I always whine about birthdays and all the work but this weekend was all worth it.