Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Day 60, Sinus Shut down
So I've been fighting off this sinus infection for two days now. Haven't gone to work, just laying around being sick. Workouts have been crazy rough to do, but I didn't want to stop. I feel if I stop for any reason all my progress and built up momentum will disappear. Well, my body shut me down for good today. Fever kept me bundled up and shaky. For the first time since the program started, I feel frail. I won't be doing my workout today, hopefully the antibiotics will allow me to get back on track soon. One more month. What am I going to do after that?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Day 59, Nathaly: Confessions
We're pretty sure Ramiro's got a sinus infection -- horrible headaches and stuffed nose for about 2 days. And yet it's 11:09p.m. and he's in the other room doing triceps dips and I'm skipping for the day.
There you have it. Fucking Tuesdays.
Good updates on the climate organizing front, though: website actually pretty up-to-date! check out 350burlington.org for more info. :) This is an initiative of yours truly, 4 other volunteer organizers & and slew of fellow organizations hosts. Amazing what you can put together in a couple months & a lot of emails. We've got one senator & one congressional rep lined up to talk at the evening rally and have been selected as one of the top 10 primary "Global Work Party" actions for the US.
Oh, that reminds me -- another confession: I had half a crepe with scallion cream cheese in it for breakfast.
So, i'm f*cking up much more than I'd like, but I've also lost 15 lbs in 2 months, so I think the problem is two-fold:
a) I'm feeling a little too good with where I'm at. I know it's pretty anti-PCP to say this, but to be perfectly honest, I never intended to reach any kind of "peak" -- i'm feeling like where i'm at is maybe good enough for my lazy ass, frankly. Now that I recognize how hard it is to look like Patrick, I've decided I guess I don't care that much.. well, the truth is that I knew that all along, though -- I signed up for this to lose weight and develop some healthy eating & exercising habits. Haven't I done enough?! Now, don't worry folks -- I'm not quitting on ya, but I'm certainly making a clear statement of where my normal set of rationalizations have taken me today. Wow -- hope no newbies are reading.. lol
b) I'm really missing my favorite foods. I can deal with the exercises OK as long as I've started them before dinner. Exercising after dinner and/or after a long day (like my Tuesdays always seem to be) is practically unbearable. I think today is the 4th day I've skipped the workout on the PCP. Well, except for the jumps -- I think I've only missed two days of that.. I don't really get much out of pumping iron (or rubber with handles, for that matter) in my kitchen with the hubster. It's fun sometimes, but I'd much rather be playing volleyball or taking a dance class or learning capoiera. Why am I not doing THAT? I know why -- I never made the time. And I usually made too much time for eating junk.
UGH -- so, is it possible to separate these two pieces? Learning how to put Naty's health & mental wellness has been the theme of 2010, it seems. I'm fucking 28 years old! Shouldn't I have learned these habits earlier?!? No one in my family exercises regularly and we eat rice & beans like it's our job -- friggin portions that are completely out-of-control, but perfectly "normal" by Dominican standards.
 |
| La Bandera Dominicana, (a phrase which literally means the Dominican flag, but is commonly used to describe our most typical meal). As described in popular merengue lyrics: "arroz, habichuelas y carne -- tambien espaguetti y concón". "Rice, beans & meat -- also spaghetti & concón"(that hard almost-burnt rice that gets stuck to the bottom of the pan..) We love this shit! Oh, and PS: this is a typical serving for lunch for the average woman. Dudes would def have 2nds. |
OK -- so i'm fighting an uphill battle here on most accounts:
- family history of obesity & diabetes -- as well as no exercising and little veggie consumption
- bad habits all my life, which really reared it's ugly head during college, when I started to choose all the wrong foods at the dorms & got into my late-night pizza habits
- I tend to under-emphasize the importance of self-care -- I really throw myself at the organizing stuff and place its importance over valuable me-stuff like (like the PCP) & even family time (poor Ramiro often bears the brunt of that..)
So, there it is.. What goes through my head every day & why I'm sticking it through with the PCP at least until I figure it all out..
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Day 57, Fantastic carrot knows no fear...Pain on the other hand...
Day 57 -- My, how time flies. Today's workout was a both a tremendous success and failure. Before I started this program my eating schedule was really up in the air, like everything else. I ate when I was very hungry, and eating was a far second priority to being entertained. I've mentioned my A.D.Dness in past posts; my mind pretty much needs constant input in order for me to maintain sanity. Boredom is painful. I'm at my worst when i'm bored for any length of time. Anyway, this causes my meal time schedule to fluctuate. As the program has progressed my managing of food has improved, but today my mind got the better of me.
I woke up around 11 and had breakfast around 12 something. Naty came home and wanted to eat out so lunch was down the gullet at 2:30pm (way too soon after breakfast and morning snack). As soon as I snarfed down the p.c.p compliant salmon sandwich I knew it was going to sit there all day. Dinner came sometime later, but the damage had already been done.
When exercise came around I had to summon the intestinal fortitude of my forefathers to mentally dictate "I will do lunges and frog jumps now" (frog jumps is what I call them, I always make believe I'm handcuffed). Lunges were a bear -- nothing new there.We had to do frog jumps in the backyard as to not disturb our downstairs neighbors. Mind you, it's 10:15 at night and we're in our backyard in sweat pants under a flood light. It's come to this. In the last post attention was brought to the rest periods in between the sets -- with that fresh in our minds, we endeavored to complete the frog jumps with the correct break times in the charts. I had one of those awesome moments when that little voice in your head is telling you in a semi-panicked, but sincere voice "pretty sure you can't do this chief, we sent the order to the quadriceps and they agree. We will hit you with the pain if you don't cease and desist immediately." That was on set 3, by set 4 my body was trembling pretty hard core. I had to reach in deep and play every grunting exercise movie montage I could muster (ALL the Rockys...and G.I.Jane... just being honest).
Set 5 was an out of body experience. It was kinda like my carrot plank vision. I knew I was jumping, I knew I was counting the jumps, but I don't know how my body was following through with the order. It just was.
The limits we set on ourselves can be re-set. That's what I learned today. I finished all the sets with the right rep count in record time. Going back up the stairs to our apartment was arduous. We limped and swayed like two drunkards. The feeling of personal accomplishment was great and was a bit of a perspective-changer. It's funny how some of the biggest wars we wage are all quietly fought in our heads. Naty was four feet away and could not have had a clue I was going through such an intense experience. I'm actually surprised I'm voicing my thoughts to this extent. Hope it helps any.
After the high of finishing the leg exercises faded some, my stomach was again center stage. I got through a bit more than half the shoulder exercises before I had to stop or risk immediate expulsion of dinner. There's the failure bit -- if I had woken earlier and spaced out my meals correctly, today would have been an all-around smashing success. Not the case. Workout Day 57 incomplete. That sucks, man. I'll get it right.
ROCKY MONTAGE!!
I woke up around 11 and had breakfast around 12 something. Naty came home and wanted to eat out so lunch was down the gullet at 2:30pm (way too soon after breakfast and morning snack). As soon as I snarfed down the p.c.p compliant salmon sandwich I knew it was going to sit there all day. Dinner came sometime later, but the damage had already been done.
When exercise came around I had to summon the intestinal fortitude of my forefathers to mentally dictate "I will do lunges and frog jumps now" (frog jumps is what I call them, I always make believe I'm handcuffed). Lunges were a bear -- nothing new there.We had to do frog jumps in the backyard as to not disturb our downstairs neighbors. Mind you, it's 10:15 at night and we're in our backyard in sweat pants under a flood light. It's come to this. In the last post attention was brought to the rest periods in between the sets -- with that fresh in our minds, we endeavored to complete the frog jumps with the correct break times in the charts. I had one of those awesome moments when that little voice in your head is telling you in a semi-panicked, but sincere voice "pretty sure you can't do this chief, we sent the order to the quadriceps and they agree. We will hit you with the pain if you don't cease and desist immediately." That was on set 3, by set 4 my body was trembling pretty hard core. I had to reach in deep and play every grunting exercise movie montage I could muster (ALL the Rockys...and G.I.Jane... just being honest).
Set 5 was an out of body experience. It was kinda like my carrot plank vision. I knew I was jumping, I knew I was counting the jumps, but I don't know how my body was following through with the order. It just was.
The limits we set on ourselves can be re-set. That's what I learned today. I finished all the sets with the right rep count in record time. Going back up the stairs to our apartment was arduous. We limped and swayed like two drunkards. The feeling of personal accomplishment was great and was a bit of a perspective-changer. It's funny how some of the biggest wars we wage are all quietly fought in our heads. Naty was four feet away and could not have had a clue I was going through such an intense experience. I'm actually surprised I'm voicing my thoughts to this extent. Hope it helps any.
After the high of finishing the leg exercises faded some, my stomach was again center stage. I got through a bit more than half the shoulder exercises before I had to stop or risk immediate expulsion of dinner. There's the failure bit -- if I had woken earlier and spaced out my meals correctly, today would have been an all-around smashing success. Not the case. Workout Day 57 incomplete. That sucks, man. I'll get it right.
ROCKY MONTAGE!!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Day 56, Nathaly: On 34s, brunch & 4-min sets
Hey all,
Not much new today. Have been able to get through that mid-week slump by leaning on Ramiro quite a bit -- I know I would secretly be skipping workouts & eating out a lot if it weren't for his encouragement and his steadfast determination and pure joy at this whole getting fit thing. It doesn't hurt that he's constantly complimenting me on the weight loss. :)
It's a Saturday so we slept in like usual and after the dog walk (which resulted in a quick visit to a friend's house) and the jumps, I was pretty much starving for breakfast. AND it was once again late enough in the day that I had to do a bit of PCP-finagling and get in both my bfast & lunch portions. That's a LOT of eating for one sitting, let me tell you! Especially when it's of some weird combination of whatever can be prepared most quickly. I hate those thrown-together meals. It turned out alright though: I wrapped some chicken and a scrambled egg in a wheat tortilla and had some zucchini & corn on the side. It would've been sooo much nicer to just walk to a local diner and order my usual homefries with cheese & onions and over-easy eggs, but I fought back the urge (again, mostly a factor of having Ramiro as a PCP partner and watchdog).
Regarding jumping rope in 4-minute sets: for the first time this morning, I felt comfortable setting the alarm clock on my phone instead of using the stopwatch function. I had to sorta sit there waiting for the minute to change, but it was such a better solution than constantly fighting that urge to glance over every 20 secs to see if I can stop yet. After the 1st set of jumps, I sat and figured I'd just break for a minute to start the next set of 4, but that was over in a heartbeat! I rushed to get into my next set, figuring I must've been very distracted my the mommy slurping up maple creemee excess from a toddlers cone (mmmm creemees!) and jumped my way through an almost perfect second set. The next experiment with breaking for only one minute confirmed that sneaking suspicion: time is a fickle beast. 4 minutes jumping can feel never-ending, but 1 minute sitting on the porch is over before you can even catch your breath. I decided to just break until I felt ready to go again between the 3rd & 4th set and learned that my preferred break time is a whopping 3 minutes long. Talk about inefficient!! Jumping for 4 & breaking for 3 -- no wonder work outs take forever! I'm gonna try to get better about breaking for only the allotted times from now on... I almost wish I was working out in the morning solely so that I could have more of an urge to get it all over with already -- when working out at night, the only thing before me is that measly egg white, apple & milk; a shower & the bed. One solution I've found is my Shakira Pandora station. Do what it takes, right?
Not much new today. Have been able to get through that mid-week slump by leaning on Ramiro quite a bit -- I know I would secretly be skipping workouts & eating out a lot if it weren't for his encouragement and his steadfast determination and pure joy at this whole getting fit thing. It doesn't hurt that he's constantly complimenting me on the weight loss. :)
WARNING: Potential TMI alert! (especially if you're a guy..)
Speaking of which -- I'm back down to a 34 bra size! I realized early this week that I was feeling pretty loose-y goose-y in my 36 & decided to go into the local ladies undergarments store for a fitting. The assistant seemed pretty sure I was in the 34 range, which gave me a quick jolt of gratitude for all this effort, but it dissipated a bit when I started doing some fittings and found that even though the tightest setting of the 36 has come to feel too roomy, the loosest I can go on a 34 is still a little snug. I've still got work to do, but man do I love this new bra!It's a Saturday so we slept in like usual and after the dog walk (which resulted in a quick visit to a friend's house) and the jumps, I was pretty much starving for breakfast. AND it was once again late enough in the day that I had to do a bit of PCP-finagling and get in both my bfast & lunch portions. That's a LOT of eating for one sitting, let me tell you! Especially when it's of some weird combination of whatever can be prepared most quickly. I hate those thrown-together meals. It turned out alright though: I wrapped some chicken and a scrambled egg in a wheat tortilla and had some zucchini & corn on the side. It would've been sooo much nicer to just walk to a local diner and order my usual homefries with cheese & onions and over-easy eggs, but I fought back the urge (again, mostly a factor of having Ramiro as a PCP partner and watchdog).
Regarding jumping rope in 4-minute sets: for the first time this morning, I felt comfortable setting the alarm clock on my phone instead of using the stopwatch function. I had to sorta sit there waiting for the minute to change, but it was such a better solution than constantly fighting that urge to glance over every 20 secs to see if I can stop yet. After the 1st set of jumps, I sat and figured I'd just break for a minute to start the next set of 4, but that was over in a heartbeat! I rushed to get into my next set, figuring I must've been very distracted my the mommy slurping up maple creemee excess from a toddlers cone (mmmm creemees!) and jumped my way through an almost perfect second set. The next experiment with breaking for only one minute confirmed that sneaking suspicion: time is a fickle beast. 4 minutes jumping can feel never-ending, but 1 minute sitting on the porch is over before you can even catch your breath. I decided to just break until I felt ready to go again between the 3rd & 4th set and learned that my preferred break time is a whopping 3 minutes long. Talk about inefficient!! Jumping for 4 & breaking for 3 -- no wonder work outs take forever! I'm gonna try to get better about breaking for only the allotted times from now on... I almost wish I was working out in the morning solely so that I could have more of an urge to get it all over with already -- when working out at night, the only thing before me is that measly egg white, apple & milk; a shower & the bed. One solution I've found is my Shakira Pandora station. Do what it takes, right?
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Day 54: I'm alive and married to superwoman.
Things are looking good. Half way done with the program and I'm no worse for wear. I'm surprised my body has been able to respond to the the added stress so well. Going from zero exercise and Madmen drinking to daily workouts and zero scotch must have been quite the shock to my innards. My asthma has been under control with a new medication I'm taking (which has proven to be essential) Couple wheezing mornings, but much better than I expected.
Natys had a very hard week. She's one of those rare people that keep civilization going by sheer will power. Google her name and you get links like this-http://developmentcommunity.csd-i.org/profile/NathalyAgostoFilion. She habitually over extends herself for the best of reasons yet somehow manages to dot every I, cross every T and land on her feet to the continuous amazement of myself and others.
Thats what my post is about tonight. I want to express how proud I am of Nathalys progress and how grateful I am of having her as a wife and P.C.P partner. Keep doin what your doin babe.
GO TEAM Fantastic Carrot!!! We know no Fear.
Ramiro
Natys had a very hard week. She's one of those rare people that keep civilization going by sheer will power. Google her name and you get links like this-http://developmentcommunity.csd-i.org/profile/NathalyAgostoFilion. She habitually over extends herself for the best of reasons yet somehow manages to dot every I, cross every T and land on her feet to the continuous amazement of myself and others.
Thats what my post is about tonight. I want to express how proud I am of Nathalys progress and how grateful I am of having her as a wife and P.C.P partner. Keep doin what your doin babe.
GO TEAM Fantastic Carrot!!! We know no Fear.
Ramiro
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Day 53, Nathaly: Time mgmt probs (again!)
So, I've been sleeping my ass off the last couple weeks. I thought it was just a thing, but it's totally not. Nat on the PCP sleeps a solid 10 hours. Dang -- I needed those extra two to get shit done. Like my dishes. Ahhh -- that sinister pile of dishes. Ramiro was a dear and did most of them for me today, but I could certainly overhear him grumbling about why we own so many in the first place. lol
OK -- so, I skipped a day. Ramiro was a champ and DIDN'T. Here's the story: I woke up and immediately felt overwhelmed. Yesterday was a pretty bad day at work (felt like I got absolutely nothing done) and the day itself didn't end until 9pm. I had anticipated being unable to work out due to lack of energy from my long-ass Tuesdays so I did it all in the morning. It was a nice slow start to the day and I didn't have to be into the office until noon, so no biggie there. Thing is, I never made time Sunday to do an all-out cooking fiesta and so, although I spent a friggin $50 at the farmer's mkt Saturday morning and then another $150 at Price Chopper Sunday, there's never anything ready to eat in the ol' fridgidaire. Dang.
So when I got up this morning, I cut up some broccoli for Ramiro and then thought about what I would want (not into the raw veggies -- sorry dudes) and then got a little mad. I looked at the dishes pile and then at the laundry pile and realized I had fallen asleep with my bra on (totally just zonked) and thought: fuck it. I am SUCKING at this PCP. I mean I could do all this if I was ONLY doing all this. But I'm not -- I'm doing a heck of a lot. And, to be quite honest, I'm cooking for two. Ramiro's skills in the kitchen are.. well, pretty close to nil. Double dang. So I crawled back into bed til 10am. (stupid flexible schedules making this sort of bad decision-making EASY!!).
I decided I would take a break for the day and try to get my shit back in order so that I wouldn't just KEEP dragging the undone stuff around in the back of my head and would feel a little better about my life-juggling skills. I ate some cereal for bfast & bought a curry chicken pita sandwich for lunch. Come to think of it, that's pretty much all I've eaten today. Virtually no veggies -- what a disgrace! Then I proceeded to have an OK day -- good movement on the climate activism front (able to secure a lift for an aerial 350 photograph -- have I told y'all about that?), but still kinda blah on the work front. Lots of assigned reading before a mtg tomorrow morning, so I could at least feel like I was keeping busy -- but certainly NOT what I would call productive.
Leave work. 350 organizer's mtg. choir. home. Then I made another lackluster decision. "I will not do exercises; I will cook." And I've been doing just that for the last 3 hours. Ramiro tried to help me out of that head space, but it was pretty firmly ingrained; I wanted to take a day off as a bit of a jump-start. Home made spaghetti sauce with spinach & mushrooms, zucchini/corn thing, potato curry, and some leftover corn cobs. Doesn't sound like much, but it'll make life hecka easier when i wake up tomorrow morning and think: what should I eat? (thereby breaking the get-made-and-crawl-back-in-bed-to-ignore-life issue).
Now I'm exhausted and I'm realizing I was in such a cooking frenzy that I skipped my measly apple/egg white/milk dinner. What a mess I am today. I guess I'll have the milk at least. Sorry for such a downer report y'all. Back on the bang wagon in the a.m.
OK -- so, I skipped a day. Ramiro was a champ and DIDN'T. Here's the story: I woke up and immediately felt overwhelmed. Yesterday was a pretty bad day at work (felt like I got absolutely nothing done) and the day itself didn't end until 9pm. I had anticipated being unable to work out due to lack of energy from my long-ass Tuesdays so I did it all in the morning. It was a nice slow start to the day and I didn't have to be into the office until noon, so no biggie there. Thing is, I never made time Sunday to do an all-out cooking fiesta and so, although I spent a friggin $50 at the farmer's mkt Saturday morning and then another $150 at Price Chopper Sunday, there's never anything ready to eat in the ol' fridgidaire. Dang.
So when I got up this morning, I cut up some broccoli for Ramiro and then thought about what I would want (not into the raw veggies -- sorry dudes) and then got a little mad. I looked at the dishes pile and then at the laundry pile and realized I had fallen asleep with my bra on (totally just zonked) and thought: fuck it. I am SUCKING at this PCP. I mean I could do all this if I was ONLY doing all this. But I'm not -- I'm doing a heck of a lot. And, to be quite honest, I'm cooking for two. Ramiro's skills in the kitchen are.. well, pretty close to nil. Double dang. So I crawled back into bed til 10am. (stupid flexible schedules making this sort of bad decision-making EASY!!).
I decided I would take a break for the day and try to get my shit back in order so that I wouldn't just KEEP dragging the undone stuff around in the back of my head and would feel a little better about my life-juggling skills. I ate some cereal for bfast & bought a curry chicken pita sandwich for lunch. Come to think of it, that's pretty much all I've eaten today. Virtually no veggies -- what a disgrace! Then I proceeded to have an OK day -- good movement on the climate activism front (able to secure a lift for an aerial 350 photograph -- have I told y'all about that?), but still kinda blah on the work front. Lots of assigned reading before a mtg tomorrow morning, so I could at least feel like I was keeping busy -- but certainly NOT what I would call productive.
Leave work. 350 organizer's mtg. choir. home. Then I made another lackluster decision. "I will not do exercises; I will cook." And I've been doing just that for the last 3 hours. Ramiro tried to help me out of that head space, but it was pretty firmly ingrained; I wanted to take a day off as a bit of a jump-start. Home made spaghetti sauce with spinach & mushrooms, zucchini/corn thing, potato curry, and some leftover corn cobs. Doesn't sound like much, but it'll make life hecka easier when i wake up tomorrow morning and think: what should I eat? (thereby breaking the get-made-and-crawl-back-in-bed-to-ignore-life issue).
Now I'm exhausted and I'm realizing I was in such a cooking frenzy that I skipped my measly apple/egg white/milk dinner. What a mess I am today. I guess I'll have the milk at least. Sorry for such a downer report y'all. Back on the bang wagon in the a.m.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Day 51, Together: Indulgence!
So, I (Nathaly) had a little hiccup of frustration planning out her indulgence, but the final product came out just fine and was VERY enjoyable! As you can see in Day 49's post, I had definitely been craving deep-fried cheesy goodness. I got most of what i was looking for in the following:
I decided I'd be OK with enjoying a serving of Ramiro's indulgence treat (only after MUCH cajoling -- he didn't wanna share even though he knew he wasn't allowed to down it all, lol):
Surprisingly, this STILL left me under the 700 cal maximum, so I think all in all it was a pretty good day!! I was planning on meeting a friend at a bar yesterday so there was a small chance I would've ordered a Blackberry Wheat just cuz, but he rescheduled and anyways, that would've felt a little too far on the cheating side of the spectrum (to split up my indulgence over two days). YAY for keeping indulgences positive! :)
Lesson learned: I need a full day to think through my "need" to eat cheese fries covered in bacon bits and slathered with ranch dressing. In the end, I usually make the right choice, but since I like to be in control, the thought of those amazingly delicious (but honestly pretty horrible dishes) being "forbidden" can get the best of me. A simple alternative to cut back calories is to make it yourself!! Yay for home cooking!
**********************************************************************************
I (Ramiro), decided to further experiment with my ice cream addiction. For my first indulgence, I had 400 cals of my favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Chocolate Fudge Brownie. I was surprised to find it bitter-tasting and overly chocolate-y. For this indulgence, I tried my absolute top favorite, Vanilla Swiss Almond from Häagen-Dazs -- all 700 calories. It was much creamier than I remembered and almost too sugary. It wasn't bad at all, just incredibly intense, but I could've easily made do with half the portion I served myself (2.5 servings, according to the nutritional information). The result: a bad stomach ache and a slight headache.
Lesson learned: My ice cream addiction is subsiding.
 |
| Bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers! (50 cal each). |
- Cut jalapeño pepper in half, scoop out veins & seeds.
- Fill with 1 tbsp of fat free cream cheese
- Wrap with 1/2 a strip of uncooked bacon.
- Seal shut with a toothpick (I was out, so I ended up having poppers that popped open during cooking)
- Broil on high for 10 minutes (turn once, halfway if your oven is like mine and likes to cook the back half of the tray more than the front).
- Oh! And be sure to lay the little suckers down on a small rack on TOP of the baking tray so the bacon drippings don't get all over the poppers -- that can be a little nasty!
- I made 24 (to finish off the 12-pc package of bacon and not be tempted with it in my freezer) and invited some friends over. :)
I decided I'd be OK with enjoying a serving of Ramiro's indulgence treat (only after MUCH cajoling -- he didn't wanna share even though he knew he wasn't allowed to down it all, lol):
 |
| sickly deliciousness (300 cal per 1/2 cup). |
Lesson learned: I need a full day to think through my "need" to eat cheese fries covered in bacon bits and slathered with ranch dressing. In the end, I usually make the right choice, but since I like to be in control, the thought of those amazingly delicious (but honestly pretty horrible dishes) being "forbidden" can get the best of me. A simple alternative to cut back calories is to make it yourself!! Yay for home cooking!
**********************************************************************************
I (Ramiro), decided to further experiment with my ice cream addiction. For my first indulgence, I had 400 cals of my favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Chocolate Fudge Brownie. I was surprised to find it bitter-tasting and overly chocolate-y. For this indulgence, I tried my absolute top favorite, Vanilla Swiss Almond from Häagen-Dazs -- all 700 calories. It was much creamier than I remembered and almost too sugary. It wasn't bad at all, just incredibly intense, but I could've easily made do with half the portion I served myself (2.5 servings, according to the nutritional information). The result: a bad stomach ache and a slight headache.
Lesson learned: My ice cream addiction is subsiding.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
DAY 49: THE FANTASTIC CARROT KNOWS NO FEAR.
THE FANTASTIC CARROT KNOWS NO FEAR...It came to me like...like something out of a dream...There I was shoulders rigid, abs as hard as cobblestones and buttocks clenched for dear life. The Plank does weird things to the mind. One second my eyes were set in Zen-like gaze at the hardwood kitchen floor, the next... complete state of daydream. Didn't even know I was still in plank mode. All that was going through my lil A.D.D mind was "The fantastic carrot knows no fear". At first it was just a strange background noise type deal, but it firmly took hold in my mind until I burst out laughing and pretty much fell on my face. Thought y'all would enjoy my new found plank mantra.
I apologize for the lack of posts on my part this last week. Its been hard for me to get on this thing and communicate my particular P.C.P probs. I don't have a week long synapses in me like Naty, but I'll try to be more in-depth with my future posts. One thing I can say now is that taking this program one day at a time has become essential for me. Not because I'm running out of steam, but my focus is wandering. This has happened to me time and again when it comes to all kinds of projects and goals. I start thinking of "the next step" and start losing momentum on the tasks at hand. Got to stay Presently minded.
GO Team,
Ramiro
I apologize for the lack of posts on my part this last week. Its been hard for me to get on this thing and communicate my particular P.C.P probs. I don't have a week long synapses in me like Naty, but I'll try to be more in-depth with my future posts. One thing I can say now is that taking this program one day at a time has become essential for me. Not because I'm running out of steam, but my focus is wandering. This has happened to me time and again when it comes to all kinds of projects and goals. I start thinking of "the next step" and start losing momentum on the tasks at hand. Got to stay Presently minded.
GO Team,
Ramiro
Day 49, Nathaly: Saturday musings
I know it's Ramiro's turn to offer some PCP wisdom nuggets, but I think having the newbies join the flock has made me want to share more. SO:
1. I really wanna indulge. In fact, I wanna over-indulge. A LOT. So much so, that every time I look up the calorie count for something I wanna snarf (as a snack or appetizer, mind you!!) I realize it's closer to the 1000-1500 range.. WOW -- scary, huh? So, i'm thinking I'm gonna have to put some work into this and home make the preferred item, but that means I'd have to eliminate both pizza and french fries from the running (i'm no good at making either of these.. Sad!). OK -- so, here's what i've been craving: something cheesey & gooey á la nachos or loaded fried potato skins or jalapeño poppers.
Eliminated from the running:
 |
| Chili's Loaded Nachos (w/ chicken, the 8-count version: 1050 cals) |
 |
| Outback Steakhouse Cheese Fries (amazingly, the nutritional menu counts one of these as 6 servings. Each serving 355 calories. I wonder if that's including dunking them in the ranch dressing? Probably not.. |
 |
| Domino's hot wings. 12 piece = 1200 cals. This time i'm sure it doesn't include the dipping sauce. |
 |
| Jalapeño poppers -- My usual allotment: 6. They come in at 150 EACH, so that add up to 900 calories!! |
UGH.
There were other things I wanted to say, but now I'm mad at myself because of my indulgence fantasies.. I"m gonna go remember how much I love maple yogurt.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Day 48, Nathaly: Slacking with the updates DOESN'T mean we're slacking!!
Hey all,
SOOOO sorry to be slackers this week. I actually have had several personal ah-HAH moments and I'm a loser for not sharing it with you all, but I wanna send a shout out to Kim, especially for reaching out to check in on us via email. (Funny to think we don't really use email in Team Mango -- when did we choose that name? lol -- given how much I rely on it for my day to day communication).
OK -- so how to sum up the last 5 days? There's been frustration and there's been moments of real, deeply-entrenched strength. I'll try to go day by day. The veggie post was done on Sunday night, so this is gonna be a long one. APOLOGIES FOLKS -- we both PROMISE to be better!
MONDAY
The new form of jumps has meant re-acceptance of my abilities with the rope (I took to it naturally from the beginning). I love love love getting thumbs up from cars driving by smiling at me jumping my little heart out in front of my house every morning. I think my fave moment so far though, as certainly been from a little girl who was obviously impressed by also really shy and still managed to give me a double thumbs-up. SO cute.
So, what had happened was that I was chugging along from Day 1 (50 jumps in a row) to somewhere around the end of month 1 (up to 200 in a row) and I realized that b/c it was so difficult to maintain, my breaks in btwn sets were going for too long (and therefore, I was taking too long getting jumps done). So I went back down to sets of 100, but when the 2-min sets started, I worried I would tank. Turns out that because I also re-committed to doing jumps in the morning (based on Patrick's email about how that's when they've got the greatest fat-burning effect), they've been totally manageable.
TUESDAY
Definitely fell off the bandwagon this evening. It was a SUPER long day starting with a morning 350 organizers mtg (I'm helping to plan a huge local day of action around climate solutions on 10/10/10 as part of the 350.org campaign's climate movement building -- if you've never heard of 350, def check it out and sign up!) and followed by a full day of work and then running up to campus for a grad school gathering and some work on my grad thesis and culminating with a two hours rehearsal with the Burlington Choral Society for our upcoming concert of the Duruflé Requeim and Britten Te Deum Festival. LONG LONG day. Anyways, I was perfectly PCP-compliant all day with the diet, but by the time I got home at 9:30pm, I just needed to sit (the wrong choice, I knew even as I made it..) We popped in our latest Dexter netflix arrival which was interrupted by a friend stopping by and before I knew it, it was 11pm. I was absolutely exhausted and knew that I was just not going to make it. Ramiro got a little pissed that night (as he had waited for me to do them with him, like I promised) but was a total champ and proceeded to do his workout even at that super late hour.
WEDNESDAY
I knew that Tuesday had been bad and made sure to get up early enough to do my jumps before work. I had my 2nd choir day of the week (I also sing with the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington), but I planned my day around it and did just fine. It helped to have gotten a really good night of sleep in, of course. Victory for the day: a guy stopped by the office with a tray of assorted Lake Champlain Chocolates. he offered each of us one and I grabbed my favorite flavor (dark chocolate mint) as i didn't wanna go into the i'm-on-a-diet spiel. I set it on my things and gave it to one of the interns the following morning without too much mental struggle (felt very much like bilbo baggins asking himself in the 1st LOTR why he shouldn't keep the ring, "it's such a little thing, what harm could it do?" lol. YAY NATHALY.
THURSDAY
A friend came in from California late Wednesday night and I was really worried about waking him up in the morning, so after getting ramiro his breakfast and a cup o' joe (those guys stayed up pretty late catching up and playing video games), I stayed in bed til 9am (NICE) and then took Tiggs out for a nice long walk and did my jumps outside. It was a slow morning and I realized that in order to get everything done (walk, jumps, shower, bfast) and feel comfortable getting to work without feeling rushed, I need a full two hours. DANG. I honestly can't imagine how you all who ALSO do the workout in the mornings handle it. More power to ya!
That evening we decided to call the day our "saturday" (the 7th day of our PCP week which would normally be only jumps) in order to enjoy some time with the folks from out of town and some other friends. The host made a spaghetti dinner and I had some salad and a bite of carby-loveliness and did a great job of resisting the homemade chocolate cake, but the red wine and Long Trail Ales had my mouth watering.. In a small dip in my rock solid sweets resistance record, as I was helping to clean up, I decided to let Tigger have a nibble at a spoonful of cake someone left on their plate and gave my finger a lick. WOW was that yummy. Made seeing that half-eaten tray soo much harder to resist. lol. And, knowing our indulgence was around the corner, gave my mind plenty of fodder for going back and forth with questions and such..
FRIDAY (today)
I've been exhausted lately. We were up late last night and ramiro got crazy allergies from the bunnies at our friends house, so we all slept in. A morning without the alarm makes for a very difficult time waging the hour, however, and I was in bed until 11:34am. Wow. So, I made Tito some coffee and took Tigger out and was only done with jumps at 12:35pm. Which meant breakfast and lunch kinda collided a bit. We went to a local Jewish diner to spend a last couple hours with our friend from out of town and had to be really creative to stay within PCP. To be honest, neither of us ate enough probably, but at least everything was within bounds, except for a couple bites I had of latke (fried potato pancakes) before giving it away. We went to the market to pick up more milk and eggs and when I got home, I did a little reading and felt that exhaustion coming in again DESPITE the frigging 10.5 hrs of sleep! I was also a little cold, so I used that as an excuse to curl up in bed ("I'm not napping -- really!") and proceeded to sleep the afternoon away, only to get woken up by a VERY exciting message from Ramiro -- our PCP indulgence is of 500-700 calories! WOOHOOOOOOOO I was so excited (and thankfully ready to be up again), I flung my arms all around the air and hit the hubster in the face. LOL. So, obviously, not a good day, but INDULGENCE, here we come!!
OK -- last two things, i've been saving to share:
1. At some point last weekend, I think (or maybe Tuesday.. possible why i was so wiped out that night), I made the mistake of skipping BOTH my breakfast carbs and lunch carbs. Never before would I have known how incredibly important they are to functionality. How do those atkins ppl function?!? I mean, honestly, I ended up having to add a slice of toast to my dinner meal that day.
2. How could it have taken this long to learn to do push-ups effectively?? I guess, my arms have been too high this whole time. It was only Wednesday of this week that I actually did push ups correctly and i've been feeling it ever since. I really hope my boobs don't shrink too much!!
OOH -- last thing, i promise (SORRY for the long post!!): YUMMERS BFAST SANDWICH IDEA: Smear half and avocado all over your breakfast bread carb portion and layer an egg onto THAT. LOVELY!!
OK -- DONE
SOOOO sorry to be slackers this week. I actually have had several personal ah-HAH moments and I'm a loser for not sharing it with you all, but I wanna send a shout out to Kim, especially for reaching out to check in on us via email. (Funny to think we don't really use email in Team Mango -- when did we choose that name? lol -- given how much I rely on it for my day to day communication).
OK -- so how to sum up the last 5 days? There's been frustration and there's been moments of real, deeply-entrenched strength. I'll try to go day by day. The veggie post was done on Sunday night, so this is gonna be a long one. APOLOGIES FOLKS -- we both PROMISE to be better!
MONDAY
The new form of jumps has meant re-acceptance of my abilities with the rope (I took to it naturally from the beginning). I love love love getting thumbs up from cars driving by smiling at me jumping my little heart out in front of my house every morning. I think my fave moment so far though, as certainly been from a little girl who was obviously impressed by also really shy and still managed to give me a double thumbs-up. SO cute.
So, what had happened was that I was chugging along from Day 1 (50 jumps in a row) to somewhere around the end of month 1 (up to 200 in a row) and I realized that b/c it was so difficult to maintain, my breaks in btwn sets were going for too long (and therefore, I was taking too long getting jumps done). So I went back down to sets of 100, but when the 2-min sets started, I worried I would tank. Turns out that because I also re-committed to doing jumps in the morning (based on Patrick's email about how that's when they've got the greatest fat-burning effect), they've been totally manageable.
TUESDAY
Definitely fell off the bandwagon this evening. It was a SUPER long day starting with a morning 350 organizers mtg (I'm helping to plan a huge local day of action around climate solutions on 10/10/10 as part of the 350.org campaign's climate movement building -- if you've never heard of 350, def check it out and sign up!) and followed by a full day of work and then running up to campus for a grad school gathering and some work on my grad thesis and culminating with a two hours rehearsal with the Burlington Choral Society for our upcoming concert of the Duruflé Requeim and Britten Te Deum Festival. LONG LONG day. Anyways, I was perfectly PCP-compliant all day with the diet, but by the time I got home at 9:30pm, I just needed to sit (the wrong choice, I knew even as I made it..) We popped in our latest Dexter netflix arrival which was interrupted by a friend stopping by and before I knew it, it was 11pm. I was absolutely exhausted and knew that I was just not going to make it. Ramiro got a little pissed that night (as he had waited for me to do them with him, like I promised) but was a total champ and proceeded to do his workout even at that super late hour.
WEDNESDAY
I knew that Tuesday had been bad and made sure to get up early enough to do my jumps before work. I had my 2nd choir day of the week (I also sing with the choir at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington), but I planned my day around it and did just fine. It helped to have gotten a really good night of sleep in, of course. Victory for the day: a guy stopped by the office with a tray of assorted Lake Champlain Chocolates. he offered each of us one and I grabbed my favorite flavor (dark chocolate mint) as i didn't wanna go into the i'm-on-a-diet spiel. I set it on my things and gave it to one of the interns the following morning without too much mental struggle (felt very much like bilbo baggins asking himself in the 1st LOTR why he shouldn't keep the ring, "it's such a little thing, what harm could it do?" lol. YAY NATHALY.
THURSDAY
A friend came in from California late Wednesday night and I was really worried about waking him up in the morning, so after getting ramiro his breakfast and a cup o' joe (those guys stayed up pretty late catching up and playing video games), I stayed in bed til 9am (NICE) and then took Tiggs out for a nice long walk and did my jumps outside. It was a slow morning and I realized that in order to get everything done (walk, jumps, shower, bfast) and feel comfortable getting to work without feeling rushed, I need a full two hours. DANG. I honestly can't imagine how you all who ALSO do the workout in the mornings handle it. More power to ya!
That evening we decided to call the day our "saturday" (the 7th day of our PCP week which would normally be only jumps) in order to enjoy some time with the folks from out of town and some other friends. The host made a spaghetti dinner and I had some salad and a bite of carby-loveliness and did a great job of resisting the homemade chocolate cake, but the red wine and Long Trail Ales had my mouth watering.. In a small dip in my rock solid sweets resistance record, as I was helping to clean up, I decided to let Tigger have a nibble at a spoonful of cake someone left on their plate and gave my finger a lick. WOW was that yummy. Made seeing that half-eaten tray soo much harder to resist. lol. And, knowing our indulgence was around the corner, gave my mind plenty of fodder for going back and forth with questions and such..
FRIDAY (today)
I've been exhausted lately. We were up late last night and ramiro got crazy allergies from the bunnies at our friends house, so we all slept in. A morning without the alarm makes for a very difficult time waging the hour, however, and I was in bed until 11:34am. Wow. So, I made Tito some coffee and took Tigger out and was only done with jumps at 12:35pm. Which meant breakfast and lunch kinda collided a bit. We went to a local Jewish diner to spend a last couple hours with our friend from out of town and had to be really creative to stay within PCP. To be honest, neither of us ate enough probably, but at least everything was within bounds, except for a couple bites I had of latke (fried potato pancakes) before giving it away. We went to the market to pick up more milk and eggs and when I got home, I did a little reading and felt that exhaustion coming in again DESPITE the frigging 10.5 hrs of sleep! I was also a little cold, so I used that as an excuse to curl up in bed ("I'm not napping -- really!") and proceeded to sleep the afternoon away, only to get woken up by a VERY exciting message from Ramiro -- our PCP indulgence is of 500-700 calories! WOOHOOOOOOOO I was so excited (and thankfully ready to be up again), I flung my arms all around the air and hit the hubster in the face. LOL. So, obviously, not a good day, but INDULGENCE, here we come!!
OK -- last two things, i've been saving to share:
1. At some point last weekend, I think (or maybe Tuesday.. possible why i was so wiped out that night), I made the mistake of skipping BOTH my breakfast carbs and lunch carbs. Never before would I have known how incredibly important they are to functionality. How do those atkins ppl function?!? I mean, honestly, I ended up having to add a slice of toast to my dinner meal that day.
2. How could it have taken this long to learn to do push-ups effectively?? I guess, my arms have been too high this whole time. It was only Wednesday of this week that I actually did push ups correctly and i've been feeling it ever since. I really hope my boobs don't shrink too much!!
OOH -- last thing, i promise (SORRY for the long post!!): YUMMERS BFAST SANDWICH IDEA: Smear half and avocado all over your breakfast bread carb portion and layer an egg onto THAT. LOVELY!!
OK -- DONE
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 43, Nathaly: VEGETABLES!
So, Ramiro's been hungry the last couple weeks and our weekly diet message saying he could eat as many veggies as he wants made his eyes light up -- so healthily cute. lol This is a man I used to have to trick into eating fruits and vegetables back in the day!
Anyways, so as i've mentioned before, I've been pretty bored with the veggies lately, so I went to the lunch counter at the local co-op the other day and checked out some veggie medley options that could be adapted to be PCP compliant (as simple as removing salt from ingredient list for the most part). Two looked really yummy so I bought some on the spot and enjoyed them thoroughly. Recreating them based solely on my memory of the ingredients list was certainly the hard part..
1. Home versions of City Market creations:
And last, but not least..
OK -- it seems I had a lot to share today. Total bummer I lost dinner bananas, btw.. I was really loving those banana milkshakes. OH -- and HUGE bummer that I didn't lose any weight this week. I knew it was too good to be true: last Sunday's weigh-in shown I had lost 4 lbs in a single week which seems WAY weird. Must've just been a glitch in the matrix. 150 lbs, here I come!!
Anyways, so as i've mentioned before, I've been pretty bored with the veggies lately, so I went to the lunch counter at the local co-op the other day and checked out some veggie medley options that could be adapted to be PCP compliant (as simple as removing salt from ingredient list for the most part). Two looked really yummy so I bought some on the spot and enjoyed them thoroughly. Recreating them based solely on my memory of the ingredients list was certainly the hard part..
 |
| From L to R: zucchini/corn medley; mustardy roasted broccoli & roasted red peppers; asian slaw (PS -- that peanut butter is exclusively for Tigger's daily pill delivery -- fear not! (I get no more that one finger lick per morning) |
- Yummy roasted broccoli thing (shown in the center shot above)! Mmmm MMM M! I'd never even had roasted broccoli before (can you believe it?) and it stood out a little while back after Sarah left this great comment with lots of veggie suggestions. Anyways, this is simply roasted broccoli with roasted red pepper and (here's the ta-da ingredient!) MUSTARD. not your typical hot-dog stuff, the classry stuff with the seeds. SO GOOD. Also a little drizzle of olive oil.
- My version of the Napa cabbage thing (pictured on the right) was not so great (and I made a LOT so i'm gonna be eating this mistake for most of the rest of the week..). I think this one definitely req'd precise measurements as opposed to the free hand thing I was doing -- mine has too much apple cider vinegar and has never really got sweet, despite 3-4 drizzles of agave nectar. Anyways, the original recipe had toasted almonds and soy sauce which I omitted from mine and am definitely missing.
- Zucchini corn medley (pictured on the left above): The original recipe which I shared before (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corn-and-Zucchini-Melody/Detail.aspx#) includes bacon and although is did make for a really lovely dish, it's not bad without that salty-greasy loveliness.. As mentioned before, I add 1/2 of a seedless jalapeño for a little kick. I think it's cuz the corn I got is from a local farm (19 cents each a week ago!) and in season and I cooked it perfectly (not to brag or anything), but I ate a whole ear for lunch today without even blinking cuz it was just SOOOO lovely. Guys -- if it's corn season where you are, do it up! WARNING: avoid licking fingers if you've recently been chopping jalapeños..
- Roasted fall veggies:
- eggplants (below, foreground): I was in the first stages of making some baba ganoush, but by the time I was done with the stuff I've already listed, I really didn't feel like pressing on. Plus, I don't keep tahini on hand, so I'm gonna hold off on that. Hope the eggplants will keep (they were already sorta borderline..
 |
| Roasting fun. |
- beets (center): we had bought these to juice, but never got around to it, so I found them tossing around a fridge drawer and thought, what the heck.. Here's the thing: I don't really like beets. I'm thinking I'll try to sneak them into Ramiro's food somehow.. lol I'm open to other ideas, of course!
- potatos (background): a new fave. ramiro had one for lunch while I went with a nuked sweet potato. not as lovely as the last one I nuked, but still fun times.
 |
| Anyone have any suggestions for what to do with that watercress I bought on sale? I'm thinking of trying this, .http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Avocado-and-Watercress-Salad-242342, but am afraid of experimenting with asian after that sad slaw |
OOh -- and as long as I'm in this fun picture-sharing swing, I've been saving these next couple images to work into a post at some point. Now seems as good as ever:
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| A PCP-compliant refrigerator: fruit & veggies galore, milk, homemade chai & lean meats (not shown here..) |
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| Local Farmer's Market Bounty! YAY for VT in the summer! |
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| My teeny weeny garden red onions. Hold back the giggle, folks! It's a product of my very first gardening attempt. |
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Day 42- Easy peasy, lemon squeezey
For the first time I can report Fridays exercises were a breeze..mostly. Bicycle is the new king of the hill in my book. We switched days off this week so that Friday was our jump rope only day and did Fridays workout on Saturday which might be the reason things went so smoothly. By smoothly I mean naty and I were able to finish the routine and not immediately collapse. I think I actually might be getting close to looking forward to the exercises, which is pretty revolutionary to me. I say that because I definitely felt my body expect a full workout yesterday and not doing it left me feeling antsy. Hard to describe. Our dog tigger on the other hand has not gotten use to us hopping around and being active. He usually gets a bit nervous when we start cleaning or rearranging things in the apt.. As soon as we start, he walks around with a confused look on his face.
Thats all I got, Fight the good fight.
Ramiro
Thats all I got, Fight the good fight.
Ramiro
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Day 39, Nathaly: Finally getting used to the diet
So, I realized today that I've got this diet under my belt. It's kinda boring sometimes and I still miss cheese & butter, but most of the strong cravings are gone and it's really not all that hard to say no to the non-PCP-compliant stuff.
On the other hand, when lunch gets inconvenient (which has happened 3 or 4 times since the start of the program), I don't bat an eye at the thought of grabbing a veggie sandwich or a shrimp salad. It doesn't feel like breaking the rules since it's all the right stuff (no fats, sugar or salt), but it's obviously not perfectly weighed, so it's kinda lame and Ramiro (who's really into playing the perfect gram-age game) is not really a fan. In essence, there's little of that guilty feeling that we all know equals cheating, but it means it's not a perfect PCP day.
The last couple days have been super busy (and super awesome!) and house chores have sort of fallen to the side lines so, as a result, creativity in the kitchen has reduced considerably (especially given the weird assemblage of uncooked veggies mocking me in the fridge). The newest rendition of the diet makes it kinda difficult to make anything that will produce leftovers unless you wanna eat the same lunch everyday, so it's a constant battle to make something I know I will enjoy. Ramiro doesn't mind mixing together weird combinations of carb/veggie/protein, but I like meals that feel like a meal. Please share ideas, folks!
Anyways, enough rambling for now and off to make some late-night meatballs!
PS: went back to jumping rope in the morning and realized it's not that much earlier out of bed and it makes it so much easier to split up the work out. Yay for morning jumping!
On the other hand, when lunch gets inconvenient (which has happened 3 or 4 times since the start of the program), I don't bat an eye at the thought of grabbing a veggie sandwich or a shrimp salad. It doesn't feel like breaking the rules since it's all the right stuff (no fats, sugar or salt), but it's obviously not perfectly weighed, so it's kinda lame and Ramiro (who's really into playing the perfect gram-age game) is not really a fan. In essence, there's little of that guilty feeling that we all know equals cheating, but it means it's not a perfect PCP day.
The last couple days have been super busy (and super awesome!) and house chores have sort of fallen to the side lines so, as a result, creativity in the kitchen has reduced considerably (especially given the weird assemblage of uncooked veggies mocking me in the fridge). The newest rendition of the diet makes it kinda difficult to make anything that will produce leftovers unless you wanna eat the same lunch everyday, so it's a constant battle to make something I know I will enjoy. Ramiro doesn't mind mixing together weird combinations of carb/veggie/protein, but I like meals that feel like a meal. Please share ideas, folks!
Anyways, enough rambling for now and off to make some late-night meatballs!
PS: went back to jumping rope in the morning and realized it's not that much earlier out of bed and it makes it so much easier to split up the work out. Yay for morning jumping!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Day 36, Together: Some Favorite Recipes
Potato Curry: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Potato-Curry/Detail.aspx
Zucchini Corn Medley: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corn-and-Zucchini-Melody/Detail.aspx
Balsamic Marinated Eggplant & Zucchini:
Pasta Primavera:
New Favorite Pasta Sauce:
Shrimp & Veggie Lo Mein:
Other easy fave's:
- switch from ghee to olive oil
- i've never used mustard seed and haven't missed it
- great with whole wheat tortillas!
Zucchini Corn Medley: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corn-and-Zucchini-Melody/Detail.aspx
- obviously, you gotta forgo the bacon & cheese
- i like to add peas
- you can also add 1/2 of a small jalapeño for zing
Balsamic Marinated Eggplant & Zucchini:
- cut into 1/2 inch rounds (i like to leave the skin on)
- dip in balsamic vinegar
- pan sear on med-high heat for about 1 min on each side
- serve with your choice of protein (i like lean steak)
Pasta Primavera:
- toss appropriately weighed angel hair pasta with:
- cherry tomatoes
- sugar snap peas
- broccoli spears
- a sprinkle of Parmesan
- a drizzle of olive oil
- serve with your choice of protein (i like salmon)
New Favorite Pasta Sauce:
- sautee at low-med heat:
- 1/2 yellow onion
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 2-3 medium garlic cloves, crushed or diced
- add 1 large can low-sodium, organic diced tomatoes
- stir in 2-3 tablespoons of homemade pesto sauce
- sprinkle in fresh basil to taste
- serve over turkey meatballs & pasta
- OR make a turkey meatball sub on a whole wheat sandwich roll (i like to sprinkle on some Parmesan)
Shrimp & Veggie Lo Mein:
- weigh out & stir-fry together:
- frozen lo mein noodles
- frozen shrimp
- frozen veggie mix
Banana milkshake:
- 2 medium bananas
- 250 ml milk
- handful of low-sugar breakfast cereal
- 1 tsp on maple syrup
Other easy fave's:
- nuked potato with plain yogurt
- nuked sweet potato with drizzle of maple syrup
- steamed broccoli with garlic
- frozen blueberries
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Day 33, Nathaly: Scheduling
OK -- so there are some perks to being a graduate student. For starters, I am among the lucky few who get paid to go to school (via a USDA fellowship). How AWESOME is that? I'm still not over how blessed I've been. Secondly, you get to learn from and study alongside a lot of really fantastic people. And last, but certainly not least, you set your own schedule!
So, as I transition from graduate student to "Master of Science" (hah!) and from the flexibility of summer to the schedule of the fall, i'm faced with the need to figure out how I plan to do everything I want to do. I've struggled with over-committing myself to causes for years. Now that i'm trying to take care of me, I need to find that balance between my work (at the moment, my full-time job is getting a job), my activism, my singing, my health and my relationships. Usually, work, Ramiro and activism are at the center of my life and everything else just kinda hovers, but I'd like to move forward giving all the other aspects of well-rounded-happy-me some time, as well.
Things I need to remember as I move forward with that:
Lesson 1: I can't do jumps/workouts after dinner. My tummy just doesn't handle it well.
Lesson 2: I need to get up earlier.
Lesson 3: I need to plan my days, almost like I budget our income, if I actually want to do it all (and not forget the basic stuff like dishes & laundry).
Lesson 4: I need to call home and far-away friends more often. I forget it's actually fun times.
There's other stuff, but that's what I can come up with for now. So, this fall I'll be starting a 30-hr/wk internship, singing with two choirs, attempting to get my project writing into a publishable state and working with a small group of organizers to put together an amazing 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party for Burlington, VT (if you haven't heard of 350.org, check out the website).
Anyways, being healthy through all that is a challenge I'm actually looking forward to! If I can get through this, I'll have learned skills to actually move me through my normal life AND even stay fit -- wow. It's a lot to ask of myself, but this is a great time for me to learn! And, as always -- thank goodness Ramiro's around to help me figure it out. :)
PS: we're having a bit of a heat wave up in VT. Jumps have been sucking BIG time. Hope y'all are keeping cool!
So, as I transition from graduate student to "Master of Science" (hah!) and from the flexibility of summer to the schedule of the fall, i'm faced with the need to figure out how I plan to do everything I want to do. I've struggled with over-committing myself to causes for years. Now that i'm trying to take care of me, I need to find that balance between my work (at the moment, my full-time job is getting a job), my activism, my singing, my health and my relationships. Usually, work, Ramiro and activism are at the center of my life and everything else just kinda hovers, but I'd like to move forward giving all the other aspects of well-rounded-happy-me some time, as well.
Things I need to remember as I move forward with that:
Lesson 1: I can't do jumps/workouts after dinner. My tummy just doesn't handle it well.
Lesson 2: I need to get up earlier.
Lesson 3: I need to plan my days, almost like I budget our income, if I actually want to do it all (and not forget the basic stuff like dishes & laundry).
Lesson 4: I need to call home and far-away friends more often. I forget it's actually fun times.
There's other stuff, but that's what I can come up with for now. So, this fall I'll be starting a 30-hr/wk internship, singing with two choirs, attempting to get my project writing into a publishable state and working with a small group of organizers to put together an amazing 350.org 10/10/10 Global Work Party for Burlington, VT (if you haven't heard of 350.org, check out the website).
Anyways, being healthy through all that is a challenge I'm actually looking forward to! If I can get through this, I'll have learned skills to actually move me through my normal life AND even stay fit -- wow. It's a lot to ask of myself, but this is a great time for me to learn! And, as always -- thank goodness Ramiro's around to help me figure it out. :)
PS: we're having a bit of a heat wave up in VT. Jumps have been sucking BIG time. Hope y'all are keeping cool!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Day 32, Ramiro: Today Was Hard
Today was hard. We bought new resistance bands and a new jump rope and both items seem to be a lot more intense than the previous ones we've had. I broke the cheap Wal-mart resistance band at the hardest level which is what led to its replacement. It used to be I could get through most of the exercises without a problem, but today's sets stopped me cold. I'm anticipating a harder time on this project than expected. I'm glad I'm doing it with Nathaly.
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