Monday, January 7, 2013

Curry in a Hurry

Yesterday, Parker and I had a healthy cooking day and whipped up a few things to start stocking out freezers with healthy quick foods. We pinned recipes all week, then picked out three to make. We settled on three hearty vegetable crammed recipes: turkey chili, sweet potato and turnip curry stew, and cabbage and chicken sausage stew. Once we decided what we wanted we made a list and headed to the Farmer's Market for supplies, then hit Aldi for the remaining items. We spent a total of $30 and ended up making about 36 cups worth of lunch stew and chili plus a nice vinegar slaw to use for a side dish. Nice! Less than $1/serving for preservative and chemical free delicious noms. We ended up adding brown rice to both stews and some cream cheese to the curry to thicken it and ease the heat (I may have been overly generous with the curry paste, oops!). Our little cooking adventure was really motivating and I'm excited to have some fast food that's good for me and my wallet! I'm also eating curry for lunch today and I might actually be breaking a sweat...that's good for my metabolism, right?

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Hey, It's Thursday!

Honestly, there's nothing special about Thursday in particular, I'm just glad after 10 days of vacation to have a short work week. If today is Thursday, that means tomorrow is Friday and I'm closer to another two days off work. WAHOO! I get excited about being the mistress of my time. If only I could find a way to get paid to pursue my hobbies. Le sigh.

The past couple days have been pretty good. Last night, a couple hours after dinner, I was getting sort of hungry for nothing in particular (read: bored) so I went and burrowed under my covers with a circus of animals and went to bed. It was kind of nice actually, especially since I'm always freezing (thank you crappy thyroid) and I suppose it's no surprise that I'm pretty well-rested today. I'm not sure sleeping is a good long-term plan for dealing with boredom hunger, but it got me over the hump. Besides, those kitties needed some attention!
This kitty needed a scritch right under the cheek. See!
Today has been good so far. I had blueberry Greek yogurt, cashews, and coffee for breakfast. String cheese for a snack. Lunch was a burrito bowl (seasoned chicken, pinto beans, grilled veg, sriacha sauce, tomatoes, etc.) , an apple, and then some dried apples because they tasted so good. My big challenge for the week is to drink a bottle (25 ounces) every 2 hours. I read somewhere that you should drink about half your weight in ounces (if you weigh 100 lbs, then 50 oz). I never drink enough water. It's going fine, but I'm not loving having to pee all the time. Oh well, small price to pay for good health. 

Tonight I'll have something quick and easy (I still have 800+ calories left) and then I'm off to do some homeless outreach. It's going to be 18 degrees by morning. BRRR! 

Have a lovely day!




Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody!

I am planning for the New Year to be one of success and achieving goals. My thinking got a little screwy for a while and I was able to mostly maintain without any big gains, but it's time to unkink my kinks and get back on the wagon for good. There's no time like the present and I'm going to focus on moving forward instead of punishing myself for every time I swore off unhealthy eating and fell short of my goals. It's a process and I feel ready again.

I've got a buddy system set up with my pal, Parker who is going to lose 50 with me. I'm excited to have someone to support me and someone to support in this crazy process. Yesterday we took "before" pics so that we have something to compare to. Accountability is so, so, good. I think that's what was lacking before and how I got off track. Part of the reason, anyway.

My current short-term goal is to lose 5 by Feb and focus on crowding out the "bad" with "good". First step, eliminate the white stuff. Heavily processed sugary treats, potatoes, and bread. I've been letting those creep, then flood my diet and I can feel the icky bloat that is the result. I'm going to focus on making better, lower-carb and lower-sugar choices because it feels good to be good.

Return the Fraggle Rock's Red crazy cheering in my head for each teeny victory. Didn't eat the crap in the break room - Yayayayayayya! Dancing Fraggle explosion! Ate fruit instead of cookies - YAYAYY!!!


Over my vacation I watched Hungry for Change. In that film they talked about the importance of visualization. I need to dig up a photo of me from when I felt confident and happy with my body to post in my room as a reminder that I was there before and I can be again.

I'm excited to have a partner on the journey to being fit. It really boosts my motivation to know I'm not alone. I've also got a couple friends who are running Facebook groups for fitness and diet that are a nice addition to the support network.

On a totally unrelated topic... I've gotten involved in a group here locally that does homeless outreach in the winter (days where the temp is expected to dip below 20 degress) and it's been such a gratifying process to get to know these folks who are on the streets and being able to be a part of something that provides a little assistance and a little comfort to the suffering. It's made me really grateful to have a home to go to at the end of the day and especially grateful for the support of friends and family. It's a wonderful, humbling, experience to do outreach. If you are looking for volunteer opportunities, I can't recommend something like this enough. It's good for the soul!

In more unrelated news, I've decided to adopt my foster kitten, Fiona. This little stinker was in bad shape when I got her at four weeks old, nearly died, and spent a couple days in the hospital. She's 100% better and has totally stolen my heart. So cute and so much fun.
What's new in your neck of the woods?