I feel like I’ve made a lot more progress over the last 4 weeks than I have in the last couple months.

Within the last week I dropped 2 lbs. This is probably the most weight loss I’ve seen in a short period of time. I think I can attribute this to my workout routine which I’ve now altered to be 25-30 minutes of cardio to 30 minutes of weight lifting.

One thing I will admit to though: I still haven’t created my pages for May yet. LOL I know, I know. But I’ve stuck to my working out 3 times a week (except for last week–I couldn’t get another workout in before the week was technically over.)

Also, I noticed last week that I’ve had a lack of appetite. Some days, I don’t even finish my meals. It’s like my brain has been able to recognize when I’m full and I feel like I can stop without really being hungry. I couldn’t understand why. And then I realized I’ve been eating these things once a day for the last few weeks: Garden Greens Lychee-mango Super Fruit Chew 30 Chews.

I don’t believe in weight loss pills or appetite suppressants. In fact, these were an impulse purchase at GNC. The sales clerk was pushing the sample, so I tried and liked it. I figured well whatever. They taste like chewy Starbursts so if anything, they’ll be a nice treat. Could they be helping me control my appetite? Possibly. It’s the only thing new I’ve been taking. It definitely didn’t work overnight for sure. I don’t think I noticed any difference until last week, which was maybe 2 weeks into eating one a day.

The only problem is they’re pretty expensive, about $15 at GNC for a package of 30. You can actually find them cheaper on Amazon, but after shipping, they ultimately end up costing about the same amount as if you bought them from the store.

I think I’m progressing much better lately than I had been before. Really the only thing I really need to work on is getting my May pages done. Maybe I’ll work on those this weekend.

With a ginormous bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

Yes, that’s right, I binged on a bag of Cheetos on Monday. The urge was instigated earlier that day at work. I was spending the afternoon working on Facebook graphics for a particular client that makes a popular crunchy, corn chip snack so of course I was sitting there staring at product photos most of the afternoon. The more I stared, the more I craved. What made it even worse is I didn’t bring my usual afternoon snack so I had to quell my salty thirst with some mini packages of saltines from my desk drawer.

That did not help.

I stopped by Target on my way home, picking up some grocery staples as well as a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. “Just a few,” I thought to myself.

Man I wish I had gotten that in writing because as soon as I got home and opened that bag, Dr. Jekyll came out.

When I came to, my fingertips were tinted with red powder and I had a red powdery ring around my lips. The bag was almost empty.

I didn’t want to pretend like this incident never happened, because the whole point of this exercise is to change my ways, right? So of course I logged what I thought I’d consumed in Cheetos.

Yup, see that red bar at the top. That, my friends, is the result of a Cheetos Blackout. We’ve all had it at one point. Sometimes it’s a Potato Chip Blackout. Other times its a Movie Popcorn Blackout. The name may change, but the game is still the same.

I did feel some guilt, but at the same time I felt relieved. I got it out of my system. I could successfully go on the rest of the week with the strength and conviction to just say no to Cheetos. I would go to sleep that night and wake up to a new day to make better choices.

Last Week on LoseIt

I’ve been thinking perhaps I should do a weekly progress report on LoseIt. Last week was a great week I gotta say.  I burned more calories working out last week than I ever have in past weeks. Ever since I started incorporating a total body strength training routine, I’ve been burning more calories. Here’s a screenshot of what last week looked like:

I haven’t seen the number on the scale go down just yet, although this morning I weighed in and lost a couple pounds since last week. But like Cathy says, those numbers are just numbers. They don’t define us.

But I mean look at the number of calories I burned exercising! That’s great isn’t it?! I can already feel a difference. My body feels… tighter in certain areas. Walking up and down the stairs isn’t as tiring as it used to be.

I think I could still make some improvements though, like reducing the amount of processed carbohydrates I eat (says the girl who ate a cookie, a buttery lobster roll, and french fries today). Food-wise though, it’s been an extremely off week for me. I had dinner plans twice this week, I’ll probably go out to lunch tomorrow, and well Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, so…

This will be the first time I’m actually getting a head start on May, so here are a few things I want to accomplish:

1. I’m going to complete my pages the first weekend of May (so by Sunday May 4). I will accomplish this by scheduling some time this weekend to work on them. I’ll read the May handout and have the print outs ready on Friday. I’m going to work on them Saturday. By Sunday, they should be in their proper sleeves.
2. I’m going to continue my 3x a week workout schedule. I will accomplish this by putting it on my iPhone calendar.
3. I’m going to post a weekly status update on my blog. I will accomplish this by setting aside time on Monday nights to write and publish a blog post.

Sleeping Better

Ever since I started a regular workout schedule, I’ve been sleeping much better and waking up in the mornings less cloudy-headed. It’s surprising what a little bit of physical activity can do for your overall mental health.

After the daylight savings time change, it was SO hard to get out of bed. Almost every morning I was dragging ass. And it was only an hour difference!

But then suddenly once I forced myself to get on a regular workout schedule I was tired enough in the evenings to fall asleep naturally and wake up naturally, all without feeling too tired.

Lifting Weights

One of the challenges Cathy gave us was to try something new this month. I decided to start weight training.

I’ve always shied away from it primarily because I didn’t really understand it. Weights, and reps, and sets, and this and that… it was all a foreign language that I didn’t really understand. And I was afraid of injury. I’ve injured my back several times before and I was not fun. I thought maybe my muscles were so out of shape that getting them into shape would be impossible.

Additionally I thought the only way I thought I could devise a proper strength training routine was to hire a personal trainer. Unfortunately, I still have other priorities in my life that I have to spend my income on and weight training is not one of those things. I had to find other ways of achieving my goals while saving money at the same time.

So I did a lot of research online. And I didn’t just find one resource and stick to it, I checked a lot of places. Here are a few links I thought were extremely valuable in helping me get started in weight training:

• Weight Training 101 on About.com – This was probably the first resource I discovered that really eased a lot of my initial nervousness. It is a great overview and covers all the benefits of weight training.
• Weight Lifting Routine for Beginners - This was another resource that actually provides an outline and a schedule for weight training. I used this one as a guide to determine my own weight training routine using the equipment I had available to me.

I also purchased an app from the iPhone app store called Fitness Buddy. As a beginner, it gave me the visuals I needed to safely perform various exercises, whether it be with free weights, weight machines, or no weights at all. It also helped that it was only 99 cents in the App store!

Eating Healthy Better (Most of the Time)

Haha ok, I’m not going to lie. I haven’t been eating healthier 100% of the time. I would probably say it’s been about 75 to 80% of the time But I’m happy with the way things are. I’m glad that I allow myself the freedom of balancing healthy activity with occasional indulgences. I think that’s what life should be like: balance. I believe we should allow ourselves a little bit of everything we want.

It was such an awesome feeling to wake up this morning, initially thinking it was Sunday, only to realize it was Saturday and I still had one more day left.

Yesterday I spent the entire day with my friend Lauren, her husband Jeff, and her mom tasting cake. Lots of cake.

Jeff and Lauren got married a year ago in a small ceremony and are having an intimate vow renewal reception for friends and family this coming fall. She has to call it a vow renewal since they technically already got married, but essentially it’s a wedding.

This by far has been the best wedding planning session I’ve been a part of. No trying on dresses, no parties to plan. So what’s my part in this whole deal? Eating cake!

Lauren and I share a deep and fervent love for baked goods so a few months ago, she asked if I would take part in the cake tasting. How could I deny such a request?

Still keeping my health goals in mind, I managed to eat only half of the already bite-sized pieces of each flavor we tried from both bakeries. And believe me, there was a lot of cake to try so it was still a significant amount of pastry I consumed. Nevertheless, I’m spending the rest of the weekend nursing my digestive system back to health.

The giveaway winner was YouTube comment #9:

Winning comment:

If the winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours, I’ll be picking another one. Thanks again everyone for participating!

I had to say goodbye to a longtime colleague today. Things are changing at work and well he was nearing retirement so it was a logical decision. I accept it.

But just because I accept it doesn’t mean it won’t hurt as much. Everyone says your coworkers are just that. You work in the same office.

When I think about it though, I’ve worked with this man for 6 years. We knew the ins and outs of each others lives. We finished each other’s sentences and knew what the other was thinking before they even said it. We were a great team. And when I did the math, those 6 years came out to be 1,500 days, or 12,000 hours.

That’s probably more time spent with him than my own family.

So no. He wasn’t just someone I worked with. If that makes me less of an ideal employee, then I’m ok with that. Because at least I know I have a heart.

Mom said when they were younger, they couldn’t boil noodles at night for pancit because the Japanese would see the light of their cooking fires, so they would shred coconut and use that as their noodles instead.

Dad said he used to chew on the coconut fibers because it was kinda sweet (Mom cringed and said she never did that!)

Coconut water is all the rage these days with celebrity doctors like Dr. Oz praising it for its health benefits. And although it may be healthy, it can also be expensive to buy in the bottled form.

However, if you’ve got a big cleaver and don’t mind a workout, buying young coconut in its original form can be much better for you (no preservatives or additives).

This is what young coconut looks like when you buy it from the grocery or the asian store. It’s usually this weird looking shape, pointed at the top, and wrapped in plastic wrap.

The tip is cut off in the picture (thanks to my dad’s sharp cleaver skills). Once you cut the tip off, then you empty the coconut water into a pitcher.

After dad emptied the coconut of its juice, he then cracked an “equator” around it using the cleaver.

Once he got all around the coconut, it easily split open. And then he handed it to my mom so she could use her magic scraper.

While my dad was working on getting the coconuts opened, my mom was scraping the tender, young meat into a bowl and added it to the pitcher with a little condensed milk to sweeten it. She used this wooden tool with metal scraping loops attached to the end. The loops would shred the coconut meat.

Young coconut meat is not as crunchy as mature coconut. It’s much more tender, almost gelatinous.

The resulting drink was slightly sweet and garnished with shredded coconut meat.

“Oh really? Did Daddy cut it?” I asked. For years my dad cut my mom’s hair. It was a functional haircut, but not always fancy.

“No, I fired him when I retired,” she said. “I pay a professional to cut my hair now.” (I bet you can’t guess where my sense of humor came from)

Say hi to my mom and dad, Shirley and Sonny. Initially this post was going to be my mom and how she taught me how to cook, but my dad was home and didn’t want to be left out so we included him too

Plus he actually did teach me a few things about cooking, like what not to do in the kitchen, such as reheat stuff on the stove on high.

Not to completely discredit dad’s culinary skills because he IS great on the grill and can smoke a mean brisket, but that’s a future blog post

Mom did teach me a lot about cooking growing up. Her food has always been the envy of others and not just the dishes she makes, but her method. Everyone is always surprised at how she can cook a grand family meal in her cramped galley kitchen at a moment’s notice. At her parties, there was always fresh food on the table the entire evening.

For a long time, I’ve been meaning to gather our family recipes for a album and that’s where today’s sponsor, Once Upon a Family, comes in. After writing this blog post, I realized how valuable these few hours I spent with them were, and I encourage you to do the same with your loved ones.

Once Upon a Family creates products that help you maintain family traditions, and create new ones. For a limited time, Once Upon a Family will be offering their recipe organizer for $25 and will also include a recipe box (inset picture above) for FREE (offer ends March 5, 2012). I’ll be giving one set (an album AND a recipe box) to 1 lucky winner. Check the end of this post to find out how you can win one!

Today, we’ll be showing you a recipe called pancit. Pancit is a Filipino noodle dish that my mom always prepared at least once a week when we were kids, sometimes even more frequently. It’s an easy, flavorful dish that feeds a large family on a budget and reheats beautifully in the microwave. And one thing to keep in mind about pancit is that every family has their own recipe, this just happens to be our family’s recipe.

First you’ll need a few ingredients. You’ll need the noodles:

These noodles are sometimes labeled “vermicelli” at the asian store or in the asian aisle. Filipinos call them sotanghon. They’re like glass noodles made from mung bean (just check the ingredient listing if you’re unsure).

You don’t have to use these noodles. In fact, you can use rice vermicelli or canton noodles. However, my mom prefers the mung bean vermicelli because they’re a little more forgiving and don’t overcook.

You’ll also need some meat:

Just about 8 oz. of chicken breast and 8 oz. of boneless pork (country style ribs work well for this dish), both cut into strips. If you want, you can add some steamed shrimp, peeled and sliced in half along the vein.

You’ll need a few vegetables:

Cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and green onions all sliced into strips about the same size.

You’ll want to soak the noodles in the beginning so they’re ready to go when you need them.

In a wok or a large skillet, heat up 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil or canola oil over medium high heat. Add your diced onions until slightly tender and fragrant, then add your garlic (“I learned from Rachael Ray that you should cook your onions before garlic because garlic burns,” she said. See–even masters can learn something new every once in a while.)

Then add your garlic and saute until just fragrant, maybe 1-2 minutes. Then add the pork.

Shortly after adding your pork, pour in a can of low-sodium chicken broth.

Cover and bring up to a simmer.

While your pork is simmering and getting tender in the broth, cut your noodles using kitchen shears. Mom says you have to cut them or else they’ll be way too long for serving. Once you’re done cutting them you may also want to rinse your noodles under running water just to clean them. Set aside.

Check the pork after it’s been simmering for a while. Once it’s tender (don’t be afraid to take a test bite!), add the chicken breast.

Stir and continue to cook the meat mixture. Then add the carrots and celery and cook until tender.

Cabbage is the one vegetable that doesn’t need to cook too long. You’ll want to resist overcooking it since it can get mushy and fall apart, so throw it in near the end after your carrots are already tender. Then just cook the cabbage until it’s just about tender. This is also about the time you want to add the shrimp. You’ll want to avoid overcooking that as well.

Once everything is cooked, remove it all from the broth and set aside in a bowl.

Add your green onion to the broth and stir. At this point my mom said you can squeeze some lemon juice in with the broth. She says it helps preserve the dish and keeps it from spoiling too quickly.

Then add your soy sauce. Notice how my mom doesn’t even use a measuring cup–just pours it into her cooking spoon and adds. She’s hardcore like that.

Then add the noodles and toss until the noodles absorb the broth and become soft.

You’ll notice the noodles gradually take on the color of the broth and become darker like this.

Then add half of your mixture and toss. Reserve the other half  then just top your noodles with the rest of the mixture like this.

And that’s it. Serve pancit with wedges of lemon and a little bottle of soy sauce.

As a kid, I remember actually mixing pancit with rice and soy sauce, but now since I’m counting my calories, I just eat the noodles as is with lemon

How to Enter the Giveaway

How can you win your own keepsake recipe album? TO ENTER: Leave a comment on my YouTube video and let me know what your favorite family recipe is. I’ll choose a winner at random to receive the album and a recipe box of their own. The contest will end Wednesday February 29, 2012 and the winner will be posted March 1. In order to claim the prize, the winner will have to reply to my email within 24 hours or a new winner will be chosen.

If you don’t get chosen, you can still purchase the special deal from Once Upon a Family here.

I’ve been obsessed with wedge salads lately, for no particular reason other than the fact that I’m bored with my usual salads (and it’s so dang easy). It’s rare that I actually get to use natural light to take food photos but this particular day I happened to be at home for lunch so I did an impromptu shoot in front of my office window.

Oh, and the blue cheese dressing? Homemade. And uh-maaa-zing.

I have a confession to make. I hate shoe shopping.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Evidently when I was just a bunch of cells in my mother’s womb, the shoe-loving strand of DNA got lost somewhere in the process, never to be found again. Until now.

So for the last year or so, I’ve been wearing the death out of a pair of Nine West ankle boots. They’re black, low-heeled, and so comfortable–perfect for both business casual and casual wear in my opinion. And the great thing about them is I can stomp around like a boy in them, walk all around campus at work, and not get fatigued.

Recently though my boots have begun to fall apart and wear thin on the inside. It probably started when I went to Austin back in December. In an attempt to pack light, I only brought one pair of shoes and my Nine West boots were it. That one morning when we walked to the coffee shop and taco stand was what began their decline, and although they did fare well in the journey, I could already tell their life was limited.

I finally decided this week that I had to find a replacement because no amount of paper towels could make the inside of those boots any more comfortable. Luckily my office is a block away from DSW Shoes so I went there last night after work and prepared myself for what I expected would be an exhaustive search for a pair of shoes that were both somewhat attractive, yet comfortable.

See the thing is I forgot my doctor put me on a diuretic to help reduce swelling in my feet and legs. I had no idea this would make such a huge difference in my shoe shopping experience. Once I tried on a pair and discovered my feet actually fit in them, I suddenly wasn’t discouraged from trying other shoes.

Aisle by aisle, I found myself trying on every shoe I thought was cute: Ellen Tracy, Via Spiga (oh man, there was a cute pair of Via Spiga heels I fell in love with!), Tahari (I absolutely adore Tahari shoes and they’re soooo comfy!), BCBG, Betsy Johnson… I began to mentally create a list of all these shoes that I wanted and realized, “Wow, I’m actually enjoying myself.”

But because I was on a limited budget, I ended up buying a pair of black, croc-patterned LifeStride pumps (pictured above) just to hold me over for a while.

As I waked out of the store, shopping bag in one hand and optimism in the other, I realized this is the best I’ve felt about my body in the last few years

And it can only get better.

Wanna know something about January? The entire month was a success. How do I know? I’m still here. I’m still moving a little more (starting to) and eating well. I’m tracking my food every day. I’ve started exercising twice a week (wanting to increase that to 3 times a week this month). I’m still looking forward to tomorrow and starting again.

Basically, I haven’t given up. And that in and of itself is an accomplishment.

Eating…Well?

Ok, so if you’ll indulge me for a few minutes, I’m going to talk about what I’ve been eating. According to LoseIt, my top 3 foods are milk, apples, and cereal (specifical GoLean cereal from Kashi).

Although I’ve certainly started eating more fruits, I’m not eating as many vegetables as I’d planned. Salads are great, but I’ve gotten kinda tired of salads. Plus I want to cook with other vegetables–something I still haven’t figured out yet.

That’s something I need to focus on this month.

Another thing I’m learning about myself: I really don’t like leftovers. I’m not quite sure why, but it’s a necessary evil that I deal with all the time. It’s actually kinda surprising because I often make a little extra for dinner so that I have something to take to work the following day. But oftentimes, leftovers just sit in my refrigerator for several weeks before I discover I’ve run out of plastic containers and need to start digging them out. This equals a lot of waste in both food and money.

So what do I need to do about this? I don’t know… possibly cook less for dinner and figure out ways I can still eat a well prepared lunch without having to resort to leftovers.

I’m also going to make a confession… I need to come clean about THIS:

Yup. That, my friends, is the Bacon Shake from Jack in the Box. I had no idea this existed until my coworker said something to me. And then after much prodding and peer pressure, I finally got him to break. And since he hadn’t had lunch yet (it was about 2:00 pm), I went with him to Jack in the Box to get Bacon Shakes for us and a couple other coworkers.

I’m sure you’re wondering, “What in the world is she THINKING?” Well, it’s bacon first of all. Second, it’s a shake. And third, it’s bacon. Honestly, I think this is WAY more unhealthy than eating actual strips of bacon (800 calories and maybe 40 grams of fat), but now I can say, “Yup, I had one. And now my curiosity has been quelled.” Is it something I’ll do again? Probably not.

And seriously–it tasted like maple bacon, no doubt. The first sip–it was confusion. It was a shake, but I kept tasting bacon. My brain was thinking, “Wait, what is this? I feel like I want scrambled eggs and toast to go with this concoction… but it’s a… shake?”

Weird, but I’m happy I tried it.

And Moving More

Here’s the other part I’ve been trying to figure out: moving more. I started doing aerobic dancing a couple weeks ago and that was fun. Then last night I signed up for this:

I discovered them while browsing channels on my Roku box. Pilates Anytime is a subscription service that gives you access to all their pilates videos. It’s been several years since I’ve done pilates, so my body isn’t exactly as strong and limber as it used to be, but I know I can get back there.

Subscription is $18 a month, but right now I’m in the middle of the 15 day trial. One of the things they say about pilates is that after 10 sessions, you’ll feel the difference. In 20 sessions, you’ll see the difference. And in 30 sessions, you’ll have a whole new body. While I can’t say I ever had a new body (I did come close), I know I was seeing a difference after a while when I did this the first time around. Now it’s just a matter of working to get there. Again.

My first session was last night. It was a 50 minute beginning mat session so there were a lot of exercises I had to do that were familiar to me. I was stretching and flexing muscles in my body that I forgot I even had. Luckily though since I was already doing aerobics, I wasn’t completely out of shape.

This morning I woke up feeling relatively good. I wasn’t in as much pain as I thought I would be. It wasn’t until I attempted another session this evening that I really felt which muscles were sore, mostly in my butt and upper thighs. Yeah, I only lasted 20 minutes.

But this is a good sign.

BTW, I had to share this photo:

Izzie thinks that when mom brings out the yoga mat and sits on the floor, that it’s playtime and will do things like sit on the mat while I’m in a pose, bring her toys to me, and just generally be a nuisance. So while I was doing my session, I put her on the bed and told her to stay. She was visibly bummed by this and just watched me from the edge of the bed like a sad panda.

While my progress has been small, I do need to make bigger leaps and bounds this month just to show more progress. Plus I want to be in much better shape when I have to see my doctor again in March.

I hate you. I used to like you at first when you made me do bend over rows, bicep curls, even when you made me do the inline skating, I still thought you were ok.

But then came today.

Today you made me do jump lunges and jump squats. I didn’t know there was even such a thing as jump lunges and jump squats. I mean, I can hear it and visualize it in theory. But no average human being in their right mind should actually be able to do these. Unless maybe they were in some kind of concentration camp or something and had to choose between doing 8 jump lunges or being water-boarded.

So I beg of you, please don’t ever make me do anything with the words lunge, squat, and jump in the same phrase. Otherwise, and I swear on all that is good and holy, you won’t have anything to be enthusiastic about.

Note: This post was actually written over a year ago when I had EA Sports Active and used it. I went ahead and published it just because, well, it’s funny to me

Me: I’m concerned for Izzie. Ever since she got in that fight yesterday, she’s been making gang signs at me.
Jabari: Stop playing “Hangin’ Tough” on YouTube.
Me: That’s not me, that’s Izzie!

Yes, my little Izzie girl got into a scuffle with Jasper, my parents Jack Russell, last night while we were over there for dinner. It’s not Jasper’s fault–Izzie shouldn’t have been eating out of another dog’s bowl. I didn’t see how it went down, I just heard it from the other room and came running as soon as I realized what was happening.

Izzie ended up getting a puncture wound on her nose My sister told me to pat corn starch on the wound to help it coagulate and stop bleeding. It continued to bleed but eventually it stopped. Now it’s just a dark scab just above the tip of her nose.

This evening, we were all getting ready to head out for the day when my coworker Bruce turned to me and said, “My wife would be very happy to know we weren’t the only ones who had our Christmas trees still up.”

Pam and Gonzo, two of my other coworkers, turned to me and said in disbelief, “You still have your Christmas tree up?”

By the look on their faces, one would’ve thought I admitted to biting the heads off puppies.

“Yes…” I said reluctantly. “But I took it off the automatic timer last Friday. I just liked coming home to a lit apartment.”

“Yeah, but you could do that with a regular lamp,” Pam said.

Darn Pam and her logical thinking!

And then they said I may as well keep it up and change the Christmas decorations for Valentine’s decorations and make it a Valentine’s Tree. And then change that for green clovers and leprechauns and make it a St. Patrick’s day tree. And then change that later with red white and blue streamers to make a 4th of July tree, LOL

So I finally took it down tonight when I got home. I was fine living with my shame in secret, but as soon as my coworkers started making plans for a year round tree, I didn’t want to have that hanging over my head lol. I’ve been meaning to take it down for the last couple weeks though. It’s interesting how a Christmas tree can transform from this magical decoration into the most resented piece of crap in a time span of only a few weeks. But yes, thankfully it’s gone and here is my proof!