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Many, many thanks to Spubba for designing and producing my title banner...so frickin' awesome!!! :D

Monday, December 31, 2012

What's in store for 2013?

Apologies for my hiatus there...this blogging thing got real boring real quick.  Let's see if I can think of something more meaningful to say, shall we?

2012 was a year of change for me; after being in the same job for 7 years I was finally able to change to a new one, still with the same company, thankfully.  With this change I decided to take the opportunity to spruce myself up some, specifically by colouring my hair to hide the grey.  In an instant, people would insinuate once again that I was fresh out of school.  It's amazing what a little hair colour can do, eh?!

My new position also involves quite a bit of travel.  My first outing took me to sunny Houston, TX for two days, which was a nice escape from the start of our Canadian winter.  Next, after a couple of local assignments, I flew to Calgary, Alberta for a week, came home on the Friday evening, and flew to Halifax on the next Sunday afternoon, to spend a week there.  Both cities had such delicious food, it was hard...no, impossible, to eat primally.  So, I enjoyed myself and ate as much seafood as possible.  (If you're ever in downtown Halifax, go to Salty's, to their upper level restaurant.  The lobster bisque, butter-poached halibut and crab risotto were to DIE for.  Also, go to the middle level of The Lower Deck and enjoy their lobster chowder.  OMFG.)

Ahem...anyway, the food in Halifax was amazing.  The sales taxes sucked.

Now we're into the Christmas season (I don't practice any religion and neither does my family, yet we do the Christmas thing...for some reason) and I've been pretty good in my eating, though I've pretty much fallen off the primal wagon for the latter part of this year.  I have a new goal for 2013, which I'll get into in a moment, but it's time to whip this wet noodle back into shape.

In September 2013 hubby and I (along with whoever of my friends and family wish to participate) will be attempting to complete a Tough Mudder course here in the Toronto area.  It's a huge stretch for me/us, I know, but I also didn't think that shy little me would ever be a product trainer for my employer, either.  We're going to do it and have some fun, dammit!

I really didn't do a whole lot, exercise-wise, this past year.  I'm very soft and have gained back just a few pounds of the 20 that I had lost and kept off for almost 2 years.  Food preparation in our house got really tiring and I was bored of eating the same dishes that we'd cook.  Frankly, I got bored of cooking, too.  I'd come home from work, lounge around, force myself to do some school work, and hope that hubby would be in the mood to put something on the table, which I'd be happy to eat as long as I didn't have to make it.  It got really bad.  Even grocery shopping was a chore.

I'm back to having my daily bag of plantain crack, but it's not the insane addiction like it was before.  I usually have them as my breakfast if I'm not in a position to have bacon and eggs.  They are certainly better then having a muffin or bagel (barf!).

Both hubby and I want to bring more veggies into our diet; our problem is figuring out what to do with them in order to not get bored.  We're going through a bit of a lazy phase, so I think it might be reasonable to rely on canned or frozen veggies through the winter, and hopefully by spring we'll be happy to spend the energy on prep/cooking time again.

The Tough Mudder is going to be a huge challenge for us, but I'm determined to do it.  Let's see what progress we can make by next September.

Here's to a year of positive change and facing our fears. *Raises glass*

Sunday, June 3, 2012

You can do it!

As stated in my last post, I had made the decision to "cut the (plantain) crack" cold turkey...and by golly, it worked!!  Sometimes the brain just takes you seriously when you tell it how it's going to be.  Amazing!

I haven't touched a single plantain chip since, and really haven't had the desire to.  I've even walked by them in the grocery store and kept going.  Determination is a wonderful thing. :)

Saturday, May 5, 2012

That's IT. This addict is DONE!

If you are a returning reader you probably know about plantain crack.  That is, these little snack bags of spicy plantain chips under the brand name Fat Cats.  Well, for the past x number of months I've had a bag of these pretty much every day.  They're THAT good.  And addictive!

Occasionally, I'll be naughty and consume TWO bags in one day; it's happened maybe 2-3 times within the past month.  Now, while I could certainly be consuming something far worse, but I really feel a bit like a hopeless crack addict when this happens.  It happened again today, when I wasn't even hungry.  I was in the kitchen and the thought of these delicious chips popped into my head (I was standing near the shelf where I store the grocery bag of them in quantity).  Once that happens, there's no hope.  I'm eating those fuckers and enjoying every bit of it.

I hopelessly watched my hands grab the LAST BAG.  Then I felt myself walk over to the drawer to get the scissors and slice the top seam off.  I was on frigging auto-pilot, man.  It was at that moment that I decided that this was the last bag I'm going to eat and we're not going to buy any more, DAMMIT!!

This last bag was devoured hours ago and I feel afraid.  Afraid of what I'll eat for breakfast at work if I'm not devouring a bag of these chips like usual.  Wow.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Well THAT was fun...not.

Food journals suck.  There.  I'm not doing that anymore because it's like writing a book report -- torture.

Yesterday was a weird day - my appetite kept telling me to feed it, even though I wasn't really hungry, and I blame my tongue for wanting flavours of various kinds on it.  Flavour slut.  We'd had eggs for breakfast.  Then a bit later I tried shutting my tongue up by having a couple small pieces of 75% chocolate with PB on it.  It shut it up for about 5 minutes.

After trying to ignore it for a bit I decided to get some fat into me - that's supposed to satisfy hunger for awhile, right?  Took some lovely chicken broth gelatin from the fridge and warmed that up to drink.  Tasty as all hell, but freaking salty because when we cook our chicken thighs we coat them in EVOO and seasoned salt.  Anyway, tasty goodness.  That didn't last.  My brain and tongue were chanting "PLANTAIN CRACK!  PLANTAIN CRACK!!"

Again, I found myself on auto-pilot to get a bag of said crack and munched away, GUILTILY, while I did some review for my upcoming exam.  I love the taste of the spices on the plantain chips, but wow, are they ever addictive (hunny, don't you DARE take these away...I will hurt you).

I seemed to be okay until dinner after the bag of crack, thankfully.  Dinner was a boneless pork rib roast with bacon-wrapped asparagus as a side.  I couldn't eat all that much of my dinner, but somehow I was full/satisfied the rest of the night.

This morning my tummy was rumbling, so I had my coffee and will wait for the Sunday morning usual breakfast of bacon 'n eggs.  Mmmm.

In other news, my nasty rash has reappeared, but it's different this time in that it's not in the usual spot (underarms); it's mostly on my tummy and waist.  Check it out!


It's so bad at times that just pushing my fingernails into it will give me goosebumps.  Then of course I have to drag them across it a bit, but I've been experimenting with tea tree oil on it.  It will take away the sensitivity for a little while (and reduce the redness) but if I don't reapply within an hour or two it's back to square one.  Guess I'd better keep on top of that.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Taking charge...day 4

You know what?  I've always hated food journals.  Why the hell should I post, for the world to see, what all I've been inserting into my (former) pie hole, anyway??  Nobody cares but me, right?  And these are a bit of a pain in the arse to do, mostly because I can't update from work; we're expressly forbidden from posting on message boards using company computers (but I think everyone does it anyway).  Blah.  Anyway...

Today's eats:

- 3x coffee with almond milk
- Obligatory bag of plantain crack
- Leftovers from last night/Easter dinner; two chicken thighs with plenty of juice, with some mashed potato
- A bunch of blackberries
- A good amount of water

...Pause...
- For dinner, a panzerotto from Pizzaville (the result of lack of planning/defrosting, but oh so delicious!)
...Un-pause...

- Vitamin D3, fish oil, cal-mag
- More water

Shit, I gotta go take something out of the freezer for tomorrow night's dinner!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Taking charge...day 3

Have to post this before I forget!

Today's eats were:

Breakfast/Lunch (at work):

- 3 x coffee with chocolate almond milk (always the unsweetened flavour, so I'm not going to repeat that again)
- Bag of spicy plantain crack (chips)
- Small piece of prime rib (leftover from my dinner the other night)
- About half a cup of mashed potatoes


Dinner:

- 7-8 vitamin D3 drops
- Two tsp fish oil
- One tsp cal/mag
- Two chicken thighs, lightly coated in EVOO and seasoned salt (OMFGYUM)
- Water the rest of the night (after the 3 coffees with almond milk at work I was put off enough to not crave any at home)

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Taking charge...day 2

All in all, yesterday wasn't so bad.  The worst part was after dinner when we were downstairs playing darts and watching everyone else munch away on popcorn.  Pretzels never did much for me, but the popcorn was tempting me something fierce.  I did not touch one kernel.

Hubby's making our usual Sunday breakfast this morning, which will consist of bacon and eggs.  I will not be eating any of the bacon, as that is not allowed on an anti-candida diet.  Boohoo.  I've done it before and will do it again.

He also made my coffee with cream, but it was still made with love so I will drink it and be merry.  He now knows that going forward my coffees will need the chocolate almond milk instead.  Such a sweetie - me so lucky. :)

So, breakfast was eggs, a tsp of calcium/magnesium (which, unfortunately, has fructose in it...nice) and two tsp of high-quality fish oil.  Oh yeah, and about 7000 IU of D3 drops.

Later...

Ok....so after Hubby left for his mountain biking date with his buddy it was time for me to get busy in the kitchen!  I got some beefy bones into the oven to brown before throwing them into the slow cooker to make some bone broth.  While they were in the oven I started peeling potatoes to do my part for Easter dinner at my sister's.

Of course I had to sample the product to make sure it was good enough, but I didn't have much.

At dinner I ate:

- A turkey leg
- My mashed potatoes (made only with butter and 18% cream, with a bit of salt)
- Mashed turnip
- A bit of stuffing
- A whole lot of homemade gravy (you don't pass up my mom's gravy for ANYTHING) ;)
- A glass of water
- A small goblet of lemon pie filling (you know, the Sherriff brand that you make a pie with), which had some pineapple tidbits on top with a green maraschino cherry

I think that's it...and once we got back home we went for a quick walk.  Only water for me until bedtime.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Taking charge...day 1

So!  Today's eats have (so far) been:

- 7 drops of Delicious D (vitamin D in cinnamon flavour)
- A small (85g) bag of spicy plantain chips
- Coffee with only un-sweetened chocolate-flavoured almond milk
- A few left-over scraps of delicious, fatty prime rib from last night
- Sips of water here and there

Later:

- Dinner at friends' house consisted of ham (the pre-cooked, small-ish, football-shaped ones that are honey-baked or whatever), a EVOO'd baked potato/onion/bell pepper concoction dish, and multi-coloured green beans.  It was damn tasty!
- Water with my meal
- A small shot glass of my friend's port wine that she made at some wine-making store.  It's a dessert wine, so it's best in a tiny glass with a big ice cube.
- Did NOT partake in the popcorn or pretzels that were sitting there on the bar while we played darts

Now that we're home I smell the sweet aroma of plantains getting fried up in butter with cinnamon and a touch of vanilla.  Wow.

- One butter-fried plantain with a touch of cinnamon on top.  OMFG I could die now. :)

Friday, April 6, 2012

It's time to take charge...AGAIN. (FAIL)

Beginning tomorrow morning, no more fucking around with my food intake.  My legs, stomach, and back are all itching like crazy and I wonder if I'll get any sleep tonight.  It's driving me nuts.

Tonight I made a nice prime rib roast and followed this recipe.  It turned out pretty damned good (thanks to the electronic meat thermometer we have) and the side of brussels sprouts were nice as well (I cooked them in a covered casserole dish in a bath of previously-made beef broth, onions and garlic).  MIL asked if there were also a side of yams and DAMMIT I didn't think of that.  One side was all I made.  Woops. :)

Anyway, for dessert we had half a cake that was bought at the grocery store last night.  A traditional, sugar-laden cake with lots of creamy frosting, chocolate shavings, and even chocolate-covered malt balls on top.  I had a tiny slice with my coffee (yes, with fucking cream in it).

As of tomorrow, no more crap.  And we're going to our friends' house for dinner, so this will get interesting.  I have no alcohol to drink, and that's just as well, because I'll be drinking water.  And I'll get ridiculed for it, because that's just the way they are; how can you be having a good time if you're not blasted on something?  Whatever.  This is the friend that works out for 2 hours a day so she can eat junk food all the time and not get fat.  This is the friend who had the lap band surgery before.  She sure as hell ain't skinny, but I guess she enjoys torturing herself.  Oh well.  That's her problem.

Welp, that's it...I'm fucked.

My sugar addiction has started to kick in again and I've been weak.  I'm back to having 18% cream in my 3 coffees a day and *shock* I just noticed that the bastards added dextrose to the cream.  Bugger.

Last week both of us were off and we decided to go see The Hunger Games.  Fearing I would pig out on movie theatre nachos and cheese (my fave snack when there...no pop!), we went to the grocery store to get "healthy" snack to sneak into the theatre.  These healthy snacks morphed into cookies and brownie squares.  Fack.  We snuck a bottle of water each in, hidden in my purse.

This week my skin feels like it's CRAWLING it's SO itchy.  Last night I had to pee at 2:30am and while I was doing so I was ripping away at my legs and it felt soooo good and yet so gawd-awful at the same time.  When I went back to bed the skin was all red and throbbing with heat.  Ugh.  This insane rash (which always seems to start in an arm pit for some reason) is making its way across my body and my taste buds better fuck off with the constant whining for sweet things!!

My mild rosacea  has returned as well.

I've also noticed that there is a lot more mucous in my nasal passages, to the point where I have to snork it back so I don't sound like I'm sick with a cold.  It's real pleasant to have to do this near co-workers while I'm on the phone with a client!  (Thankfully I have a mute button, which has served me well and prevented my firing on a daily basis.)

So, today I will start the changes to reverse this once again.  Coffee is bad when you have a yeast overgrowth problem, so I will reduce my intake (I hate caffeine withdrawal headaches!!!), will gradually revert back to using almond milk in coffee when I do have one, and will not partake in the very-sweet-looking cake we bought as dessert for tonight's dinner (his mummy's coming over).  I will hear about it from her, but I will ignore it.

Guess I won't be having bacon with our usual Sunday breakfast, either.  Grrr.

Oh wait, I do have something positive to report -- I weighed myself this morning, and after all this sugar-binging, the scale still reads 145.3.  Yay!!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Ah well, so much for that...

Dad did skip his usual bowl of cereal, at least for one day, but when I (gingerly, hopefully) asked him if he had bacon and eggs instead, he chirped, "nope, had a cinnamon english muffin!" *facepalm*

Anyway, Dad's now on vacation in Barbados for 3 weeks and is quite enjoying their rum and Coke (the lucky bastard).  If he brings us back a bottle of ESA Fields rum, you bet I'll be enjoying it with some Coke shortly thereafter!  :)

Here's a few pics of our eats from the past few days (we were home/off work this week)...

One night, hunnybun made dinner while I was working on my school assignment...he simmered some basa fish filets in a coconut milk sauce, made cauliflower mash, and gently cooked up the peppers in EVOO.  It looks kind of boring, but MAN-O-MAN was it tasty!!


The next morning he fried up some plantains in butter and other tasty ingredients (unfortunately, the raisins didn't exactly turn out the way he wanted...they were hard like rocks lol):


Then later I laid thickly-sliced sweet potatoes in the bottom of the roast pan, cut up some onions, put bone-in, skin-on, chicken breasts on top, and roasted it (covered) for about 2 hours before crisping up the skin on broil:


I also made slow-cooker ribs but didn't want to lift the lid to get pics and just plain forgot before we ate them all.  Sorry. :)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Dad: A breakthrough!!!

My dad's been sick with a cold.  Since the end of December.  Okay, maybe it's been two or more colds in succession, but you get the idea.  I hate hearing him sound like shit and he's tired of being sick.  Hell, he's tired of talking about being sick.  It was my chance, so I took it!

I asked if he had a lot of mucous and he said hell yes - when he blows his nose his eye shoots some stuff out.  Okay, that's odd, but anyway, the answer is yes.  I offered a suggestion to try avoiding dairy for a few weeks, to see if it would help with the snot overload.  He thought for a second, then said he didn't really have a lot of dairy...only with his morning cereal (Raisin Bran), but he could go without his cereal for awhile to try it.

BLAMMO!!!!!!!  Two birds with one stone!!

Holy shit, this is the first time he's ever been willing to give up his morning dose of sawdust.  The little crumbs get stuck in his throat all the time and make him cough - he's said this to me before, yet he continues eating the shit to get his fiber.  Oi.  The perils of being married to a (wonderful, lovely, funny) nutritionist.

Anyway, he said he'd try it!!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Today was a good day...

...to be working from home, as the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  I was blessed with a quality movement this morning and my weight afterward was 145.0.  Yippee!!!

My work day wasn't as great; a PITA (that's PAIN IN THE ASS, for those who don't know :)) client that I've been dealing with for about a year REALLY got my blood boiling right before lunchtime.

See, I'm an implementation specialist by title, which means, once we've completed implementing the product for you and you "go live", we're supposed to hand your account over to the support team.  Well, this client has been "live" since bloody November and keeps trying to find ways to prevent this hand-over from happening.  It's REALLY getting on my nerves (and they're not pleasant to deal with, either, so that exacerbates MY problem).  In January we put together an "issues log" and told them that we would hang onto them until the listed issues are resolved, and then they're being handed over to support.  They resisted, but my boss absolutely rocks and she told them how it's gonna be!

Today, during a conversation with one of "them", they realized a new "problem" and they wrote an email, cc-ing everybody that's ever been involved in this project, saying that they felt this needed to be added to the motherfucking "issue log".   I.  LOST.  IT.  I asked my manager if she heard my screams all the way at the office, which is about 33 kms away from my house.  This new "problem" is a result of this client NOT LISTENING while I explained things throughout this project, and there were also many times where I would hear them whispering and giggling (on speakerphone) while I was talking.  Now they act like this "problem" is fucking NEWS to them (hence, the LOST IT part).  There's no fucking way they're adding another item to this issue log for ME to work on, and I wrote an email to my manager to say so (in a much nicer way).  After clicking Send I had to take some ME time and get these idiots out of my head. So, I went for a walk.

I did my normal lunchtime route around the block, stopped back at home to drop my sweater off, and went for another lap.  Except this time I incorporated some primal jogging into it - getting my feet/legs used to landing on my toes.  I tell ya, it felt pretty good!  By the time I was almost home I sped things up a bit too, almost running full throttle.  Anyway, this helped me get my brain calmed down and the stupid went away.  Yay!

When I got back to my laptop I read the response from my manager to the client's email.  She supported me by telling the client that, as previously discussed, no further issues would be added to the current issue log, and this new issue will need to be addressed by support.  YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!  I love her to bits. :)

Enough about work...  Mom came by after work to go for a walk with me in the warm sunshine - I put my froggy feet on for this outing - and we did two laps at a pretty slow stride.  Now my feet hurt in different ways than before!  Ah well, I'm sure it'll get better.  No running for me tomorrow...on Thursday my sweetie took the wheels off my Honda 599 and brought them to the shop, along with my new tires, to get the rubber swapped.  Well, today he put the wheels back on the bike and I'm betting the bike and I will get reacquainted nicely tomorrow!

FTW, we're goin' RIDING!!!  Here's my OTHER sweetheart:

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Tonight's very interesting dinner

Due to lack of planning/shopping, we didn't really have anything ready to cook for dinner tonight...soooo, we decided that we'd have an egg dinner.  Yeah!  Mmm, eggs.

However, also due to the above, when it came time to cook these delicious eggs, I realized we only had three of them.  Woops.  Good thing we also had a lunch-sized portion of leftover hunnybun meatbeals and spinach to divvy up between us!  I also wanted to try frying the eggs in the rendered beef fat I made a few days ago (oh yeah, I forgot to load those pics!).

So, I put about a teaspoon of the fat in the pan and cooked the eggs.  EGG-citing story so far, eh???!  Well, seeing as I'd never cooked eggs in beef fat before (usually butter or bacon fat), I wasn't entirely sure how this would go.  Anyway, they turned out slippery (yay - no sticking to the pan like usual!) and were really tasty.  I'm sold!

Eggs (sunny side up) with meatballs and a small pile of previously-frozen spinach.  It was really yummy!  (Apologies for the lack of photo...)

Here's the pile of beef fat in the slow cooker...


After a few hours on low, the golden oil started to accumulate.  I scooped it out in two separate attempts...


And the crispies that resulted (some of which kind of tasted like fat from a steak, but others, not so much!)...


Lesson learned for next time:
- Spread the bits more across the bottom of the crock
- The bits should be cut into smaller bits - some pieces remained puffy and held the oil within
- I need to think ahead and get a glass jar to store this stuff in

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Stupid toes...

The worst problem I've ever had with my feet have been the odd mild in-grown toenail, which was never painful enough to require surgical intervention.  In the past several months I've suddenly had 1) a really bad, deep callous, which made it very painful to walk normally, and 2) yesterday I was startled when I noticed that the toenail on my left big toe is suddenly starting to lift off!  WTF?!  This is freaking me out a little - what happens if it falls off??

A few weeks ago I did notice that the older half of the nail was a bit yellowed, so I applied a drop of grape seed oil a few times (also in hopes of softening the nail to ease the in-grown problem that has resurfaced as well).  Now that it's lifting off I'm applying a drop of tea tree oil in hopes of killing this fungus.

The best part is that my doctor's office never bothered to phone me back when I left a message, asking them to arrange a podiatrist appointment.  A-holes.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Sheeeeeeeewes!!!

So the shoes I proxy-ordered through my ex, who happens now to live in OK, have finally arrived!  He had mistakenly taken a box of my stuff with him when he moved, so as part of the return shipment of that box, he stuffed these in there too.  It's really nice when you can remain friends with your ex-things, yanno?? :)

I *lof* my new black suedey 'roo Vibrams.  The ex refers to them as "froggy feet". lol

Friday, March 9, 2012

Well I'll be damned...

I forgot to mention what ELSE I purchased yesterday!  I popped over to Medium Rare at lunchtime to see if I could snag some of their pork lard and yep, they had some.  I bought one container for now, but I later wondered "isn't this pretty much the same pork fat that I have in a mug in the fridge from cooking bacon??"

Anyway, it was $8 so I didn't mind trying it out.  I asked (again) if they had any beef fat available AND THEY DID!!  They had a few scraps to throw in a bag for me, NO CHARGE.  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!  Happy me drove back to work and put the stuff in the fridge.

On another note, I've been somewhat upset lately that our grocery store had run out of my plantain chip-crack fix (spicy flavour) and SURPRISE, hunnybun sneakily grabbed three bags that he happened to notice while there yesterday.  The only three bags they had of the spicy.  One bag was already demolished this morning.  He's so sweet.  :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Thu-mpday

My friend and I usually get together one night a week after work, and we usually go to the local mall to walk around, grab something to eat, and shoot the breeze.  Tonight we did just that.

She always arrives at the mall earlier than I, and today she was starving so while she was waiting for me she went downstairs to the dollar store to buy a chocolate bar.  *face palm*  See, this is my friend that grew up as an overweight girl, who later had lap band surgery and lost a whack of weight.  She has kept most of it off over the years, partly because she can't eat a lot of things that make it through the screening at the entrance to her stomach (!!), and thus most things come back up/out.  She was starving today because her lunch didn't stay down.  She also goes to the gym almost every morning before work, to work out for 2 HOURS.  Crazy shit.

Anyway, so she ate a "turtle" (you know, "Mmmm, I love Turtles!") and we made our way to the food court.  I hit up Bourbon St. Grill and got mixed veggies (99.6% broccoli) and something they called "coconut shrimp", and my buddy got a small sub from Mr. Sub.  After eating, we walked around the mall, chit-chatting about various crap and browsing in some stores.  At one point she wasn't sure if her dinner was going to stay down (the reek of the Crocs store nauseated both of us, actually), but it stayed put, thankfully.  After some more walking and shopping we headed for Dairy Queen and each got a blizzard (mini for me, and small for her).  Not a wise food day for either of us!

Earlier today I was having a hard time at work and my buddy, Gary, handed me half of his Coffee Crisp chocolate bar to cheer me up.  I told him straight out that it was like crack and he was being a pusher (not taking no for an answer), but I took it anyway.  I tried to ignore it for awhile, but eventually gave in.  Crack, indeed.

So, I renamed Thursday to Thu-mpday because of today's antics.

My bowel movements have been absent for much of this week, and I think it's because of last Saturday's antics; steak with Diane's sugary BBQ sauce, sweet mixed drinks (holy moly were they strong!), and desserts to top it off.  I had my regular bowel movement the next day but since then everything ground to a halt.  Until today, where it was not the usual easy-going event.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  I miss my daily deposit!

So there you go.  Until next time...

Friday, March 2, 2012

Stupid neck!!!

It's been an interesting week...the back of my neck is absolutely killing me on a daily basis, and I wonder if it's because of the new height-adjustable desk I have at home.  Perhaps I'm not using it at the right height, or, maybe I need to go to the chiropractor for an interim adjustment since I'm now doing a LOT more standing at work and home.  Not sure, but this is really annoying me.  It hurts like fuck.

Nothing much interesting is going on in the foodiness of my being...I haven't had the desire to cook very much, what with being occupied with Sons of Anarchy (DROOOOOL) and schoolwork.  I don't feel the urge to be creative in the kitchen and thus we've been eating pretty much the same meals each week, cooked exactly the same way.  A little boring, yes, but at least the stuff tastes good!

I've laid off the alcohol and sweet cheats since my last update and didn't even order a slice of to-die-for coconut cream pie as part of our Swiss Chalet delivery last night.  I came close, but I didn't.

My latest rash is starting to clear up, thankfully. Damn that sugar crack.  DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

It's amazing...

...how clean the kitchen gets when the MIL is over for a visit.  The chocolate martinis flow very well, also. :)

Here's what we had for side dishes!  (Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of the pork roast before it was scarfed down.)

Crispy bacon-wrapped asparagus:


Roasted bell peppers:

Saturday, February 18, 2012

That's alright...I'm okay...

I guess I'll be lost again for one more day...

Not really - it's just lyrics to a song that's in my head right now:


Love Big Wreck...anyhow, just thought I'd check in with a few random tidbits for those who want to know.

- My weight today is 145.2.  I'm happy about that, and a bit surprised since I have been inhaling a whole bag of these every day this week!  (Can you say WEAKNESSSSSSS?)


- Last night I cooked up a couple of strip loin steaks using the method that previously set off the smoke alarm and threw me into a migraine headache.  This time I was better prepared and also had the assistance of hubby.  The steaks were a little over-cooked but were still quite good.  I love how flavourful the fat turns out using this method.  Next time I'll just take them out of the oven sooner and we should be good.

- I'm finding that I really don't like the taste of coffee lately, especially with the chocolate-flavoured almond milk in it.  When I use cream (preferably 18%) it's at least a little bit more drinkable, but if it weren't a caffeine addiction I wouldn't bother with the stuff.  I do like having something warm to drink, though, which helps my stupid mouse voice become audible.

- My new desk at work is working out great - I love it to bits!  I found that I actually had it a bit too high when standing and it was causing some tingling/numbness/cold feeling in my right elbow.  Things are better now, but I really have to do something about my home computer desk, sooo...

- I ordered a GeekDesk electric height-adjustable desk base for home and it's on it's way!!  It should arrive this week (YAY!), so I really need to get my butt to Ikea to grab a table top to complete it.  My current computer chair creaks with almost every movement so that will likely be my next purchase.

- We've recently gotten into watching Sons of Anarchy (a friend gave it to us on DVD) and I can't believe how addicted I am to this show.  It's absolutely fantastic and the acting is top-notch.  We've come very close to tears on a couple of occasions already and last night I was caught off-guard with a stunner of an ending.  Christ, I hate it when major characters you like a lot are suddenly killed off.  I was traumatized!!  Ugh...  Anyway, this is just testament to how good the whole series is so far.  Next up is the second episode of the third season.  Thank GROK Monday is a holiday!!  :)

- My dad is recovering from a really bad cold and is still eating crap food.  Can't say anything about diet because my step-mom is a nutritionist.  *sigh*

Saturday, February 11, 2012

It's Saturday...here's what the scale says!

145.8 is the reading today after a small bowel movement, wearing only my socks (damn scale is glass and it's winter, so...).  I'm happy with that.

I've cut down to using cream in only one of my coffees per day, with almond milk in the others.  I kind of feel like a recovering alcoholic, wherein even the sight of a picture of cakes or cookies makes me very afraid.  Afraid I'll cave and be back to my old ways.  Sugarholic.  That's what I am.

There has been some discussion regarding exactly this; how evil sugar really is, though the general public still refuses to accept it.  Whatever - they can have it.  It amazes me how people plug their ears and go "LALALALALALALA" when they hear how bad their daily indulgences are.  Then they complain that they're fat and sick and want stomach surgery so they can't eat so much.  Ridiculous!!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

It's about time.

The headaches have finally subsided and life is back to normal.  I haven't been much in the mood for prepping or cooking anything, so thankfully my sweet hunnybun is stepping in whenever he can.  The last dinner I cooked consisted of sausages in a crushed tomato sauce with crunchy celery and fresh asparagus pieces.  It was pretty refreshing and tasty, if I do say so myself.  :)

In other news, I'm in the process of snagging a second pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes, since Backwoods.com has a sale on right now (and I have a contact in OK to order them for me).  Here's what I'm getting!!


I'm hoping that I might be able to sneak them by people at work since they're black, but only on Fridays.

Since finishing the Yeast Buster program I have indulged in a treat or two here and there (NOT everyday) and have resumed using cream for my coffees.  I've noticed that my weight has inched upward so I'm going to have to cut back on that stuff.  Today I'm back to using almond milk (unsweetened) in my coffee.  Of course the coffee doesn't taste as good, but that will also mean that I may not want 3 a day!

We'll see what the scale says on Saturday...

Friday, February 3, 2012

Okay, enough already. Let's move on...

Every. Single. Day. For the past week I've had either a full-blown migraine or the feeling of one threatening to blossom.  I'd like to move on now, thank you.

Last Friday I at least had an excuse, what with the effing smoke alarm blaring in my ear (and btw, my ears rang for several days after that), but since then, there isn't an obvious trigger that I can think of.  Let's see...it could be the weather...it's February, I'm in Toronto, and there's NO SNOW on the ground.  Bizarro!

Otherwise, I thought maybe I'd upset some neck muscles while attempting my various bodyweight lifting exercises on the bar...or else it could be stress from my idiot clients...not sure.

This weekend we're taking my mom out to shop for a small kitchen table for two (for her new bachelor apartment) and we're also moving her into said apartment on Sunday.  Truck rental, the whole she-bang. Who's betting whether the headaches continue for those days?  Oi.

On to other news...this week I found myself at the Shoe Company shoe store (weakness! lol) and snagged myself a couple pairs of water shoes, which I am now using as slippers at home (blue pair) and at work (black pair):



They are incredibly comfy, light, and flexible, but I wish they came with steel toes built in!!  On both of my big toes my nails are slightly ingrown (ugh!) and today I managed to keep the toe-stubbing to one time only.  Is there a pain worse than this??!?  I'm sure there is, but man oh man, I could have screamed, it hurt so bad.

A couple days ago I stubbed my toe (and this means a gentle contact with a table leg, when you have an ingrown nail) TWICE.  Mama help me and my stupid feet.

I left a message with my doctor's office for a podiatrist referral but haven't heard back yet.  I also have a deep callus on the pad of my foot just south of my baby toe on the left side.  It's getting difficult to walk with all this going on.  :S

Friday, January 27, 2012

An evening from hell

Yesterday started great; hunnybun and I were able to sleep in a bit together (I was working from home and he had the day off to attend some appointments).  We schnuzzled until about 7:50am and it was great.

My working day wasn't too bad, either; at lunch time I went out to grab myself a new wireless keyboard and mouse combo with the gift certificate hunnybun had given me for xmas.  (I chose the Logitech MK550 and yeehawwww I love this keyboard!!)

The day was fine...until a late afternoon call with my client from hell.  The one that should have been turned over to support about a month ago.  The one that kept quiet about their laundry list of issues until the moment I tried turning them over.  Them.  A-holes. Anyway, this is when the headache began.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Where do we go from here?

My mom stopped by last evening for a visit, and of course the usual subject of how good I look in my jeans/top came up...she asked what my goal weight is.  I said 140 lbs.  She knows I'm currently in the 144 range, so she then asked me what my next goal will be once I reach 140.

I didn't know what to say, because I hadn't considered that, but after a moment I said that I guess I won't really need a new goal, because my body will continue to lose the fat until it's done.  It's not like I'm starving myself, so I won't whither away completely; my body will just become optimized, I suppose.

I like that idea.

This afternoon at work I was a bit peckish (my lunch was two sausages and the leftover veggies from dinner) so I went to see if there was anything decent enough to buy from the vending machine.  Silly tit!!  Of course there wasn't anything good in there...but my eyes locked on my old nemesis Coffee Crisp for a fleeting moment.  I thought for sure I'd give in (always did before) but I didn't.  And it didn't bother me one bit.

I went back to my desk and promptly forgot about eating until I got home.  Success!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Today's post is brought to you by the number...

144.3!  Back down again from last week's reading, which I'm obviously happy about.  I've been a good girl this weekend.  I've also been using the pull-up bar to stretch against and attempt more chins/pulls a few times each day.

I'm not anxious to go back to work tomorrow (somebody please, make the stupid go away!), but I am VERY anxious to get back to my wonderful new height-adjustable desk!!  I can't wait!!


Saturday, January 21, 2012

Follow-up to the revelation post

In my last post I spoke about buying a treat as a bit of a test, and while I didn't gorge myself on the cake, it did taunt me every time I opened the fridge so I had to hide it behind another item.  That worked really well, actually, because I forgot about it so well that I was surprised when I saw it yesterday (I had to get a pork chop out of the container that was hiding the cake).  That's a point for me, in my books.

Yesterday we forgot to defrost the package of chicken thighs so we ordered in.  Swiss Chalet is our favourite chicken restaurant, which also offers a great-tasting fish dinner (with a side of veggies instead of chips/fries).  So we ordered one each, a ceasar salad each, and...a dessert each.  Crap.

Mine was their beyond-fucking-scrumptious coconut cream pie (weakness!!) and his was their carrot cake.  I didn't eat my pie until later at night because of being full from dinner, but as soon as I ate it I felt guilty for even ordering it in the first place.

No more.  I want to fit into my size 7 pants, DAMMIT!!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A revelation, indeed!

Last night we went grocery shopping for a few items and I practically forced myself to pick out something from the bakery section that would be that first official "oh-so-worth-it" indulgence after competing the YB program.  We brought home a Laura Secord chocolate mousse cake.  (I picked something small so that it wouldn't linger within my sight and reach for too long.)

Last night my taste buds wanted to taste it but my brain told them it was too late at night, the fast has begun, and to just shut up because they weren't getting any until tomorrow.  It actually worked!

This morning I walked (note: didn't RUN) to the fridge to have a small piece with my morning coffee.  I enjoyed eating it and did not feel the urge to have a second piece.  Holy.  Shit.

This evening, again, my taste buds are asking for something for a snack (reminding me about the cake in the fridge) but my brain has already told them to can it for the night.  Wow.  I'd say this experiment was an astounding success.  :)

Our dinner tonight was something I had intended to make for breakfast (since I worked from home today); bacon, onions, garlic and shredded sweet potato in a pan.  It was actually good!  Next time I'll cook the bacon til it's crispier, the onions until they're a little more caramelized, and the sweet potato separately so that it's more like hash browns.  Anyway, will eat again.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Boring Sunday post...

I decided last week to wean myself off the YeastBuster program because I felt I was ready and I was really sick and tired of having that damn drink first thing every morning.

I'm happy to be off it, but I left all the bottles in the same spot on the counter as a bit of a reminder; if you fall off the wagon you'll be back on this wagon!!  Yucky.

So far, so good.  I've not gorged myself on cakes yet, which is a good sign of me actually kicking this yeast problem/sugar addiction.  There are sweets in the cupboard (such as semi-sweet chocolate chips and my dad's homemade rum-soaked fruitcake) that are not interesting to me at all.  What a revelation!

Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner.  They didn't know what to make us for dinner so they made tacos.  Well, sounds good to me - I haven't had tacos in eons!  I looooooooove eating a hard-shell taco loaded with ground beef, tomatoes, lettuce and shredded cheese.  Yum!  I had two hard-shell and one soft-shell and I was pretty full.  Oh yeah, I drank two rum 'n Cokes.  Only two.

I brought a container of blueberries and strawberries plus a small container of coconut milk because I knew they would have crap for dessert (and I was right).  My friend busted out the chocolate cream pie from the fridge shortly after we went downstairs to play darts.  She also had a really gross-looking bag of no-name cheese crunch things.  Blech.  I had a sliver of the pie.  Normally I would have told everyone to get their own damn pie while I ate mine...okay, I'm exaggerating.  A little.  After my sliver of pie I got myself a nice bowl of fruit in coconut milk.  My friends commented on how good it looked so of course I offered them some.  After all, I brought enough for everyone;  I'm a good friend. :)

Today I had bacon with my eggs for the first time in, like, two months (because of being on the YB program - delicious bacon is NOT allowed on the program).  It's a boring day and I'm supposed to be reading for my latest course (Fire Protection) in the Occupational Safety and Health program I'm working through, but I'm finding that my mind keeps wandering to the kitchen for some munchies.  A couple of plantain chips and a few spoonfuls of vanilla-flavoured, 9% MF yogurt did the trick.  For now.  I'll continue reading after posting this entry.

Weighed myself yesterday and the scale read 145.4 lbs, but since we've started working with weights and the pull-up bar I can't worry too much about weight anymore.  I wore my size 7 pants last night!  W00t!!

Chicken thighs for dinner.  Can't wait!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Grass-fed bavette of beef...



Yummers!!

New progress pics...*goes to hide under a rock*



If I look at these too long my brain starts to remind me that I'm not in the same light and am a little further away from the mirror, but I know for a fact that there are significant changes.  It's just that they're all-around instead of concentrated in one area.  I know my belly doesn't stick out as far (and my newt tattoo looks better, too!), and I can see a difference in thickness (front to back) in my pelvic/bum area in the side shots (check the curve of the bikini bottom side).

Can't wait to see more results soon!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Mmmm, chicken. And motorcycles. Ooh! And a weight update!

That humungous free-run bird you saw in yesterday's post is now resting comfortably in the slow cooker on a bed of onion, carrot, garlic and celery, bathed in sea salt, freshly-cracked pepper, Italian seasonings, "roasted garlic and pepper" seasoning, and seasoned salt (guilty pleasure of ours).  Actually, I'm starting the cooker on high for a bit, so perhaps the poor dear isn't so comfy...good thing it's not feeling anything at all!  :)

Yesterday after work we headed over to the motorcycle show, which happens (almost always) on the first weekend of the year.  We had previously arranged to pick up a set of tires for my bike (Honda 599 - aka Hornet) and we also grabbed a pair of boots each (my toes were constantly scraping the front of my old ones), a set of custom-made ear plugs (I wish we could try them out on the bikes, but it's only 6C here and we don't have any heated gear!), a couple of bike covers (to keep the sawdust off them while in the garage), and I also bought myself a new helmet.

Since we were at the show for over 4 hours were a bit hungry so we ate....ugh...a pizza slice each.  Gross!!!  Actually, it tasted pretty good, but it sure felt icky.  I have a headache this morning, too...wonder if I'm that stressed about eating it or if I just over-slept this morning.

My weight this morning was 144.6!  Yahoo!!

Come onnnnnnn, SPRING!!!  Mama's got some ridin' to do...

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Mom...perhaps she's starting to listen??!

This past year my mom has been told by our family doctor that 1) her iron levels are pretty high, and 2) she has a fatty liver.  This freaked her out a bit, though initially she didn't do much about it.  She continued drinking her diet sodas and munching on junk food like cookies and such.

Now that she's seen my weight edging downward again (I hit a plateau for the last few months, which I wasn't trying too hard to get past), she's become interested in hearing about what I'm eating and where I bought the jeans that look so good on me.  LOL

I told Mom about Big Fat Fiasco and she said she'd like to see it (!).  She has started re-reading her Atkins book and has learned more about what foods to eat and what fats are healthier.  Last week we watched BFF together.  She wanted to come back yesterday so we could do more research on the computer about the fatty liver and iron, and I printed off a bunch of pages for her to read.

One piece of advice was to get some of the iron-rich blood out of the system by donating a few units of blood on a regular basis.  Mom isn't keen on donating blood, though I'm still working on that.  (She was willing to do it when I offered to go with her, but she ended up getting rejected at the clinic because of her age; they needed her doctor's blessing before she could donate.  She had psyched herself up to do it so she was pissed!)

Advice with regard to the fatty liver was to lose weight. See, Mom's had problems with her weight for a bunch of years, but mostly she's had problems with her BRAIN.  She is bi-polar and has been on (the wrong doses of) meds for a looooong time.  She used to complain that these meds made her overeat and that's why she got fat.  Roughly two years ago she decided that the meds were poison and promptly stopped taking them.  Fast forward past a couple years of hell (for her AND for those around her) and the doctors FINALLY got her dosage right.  When she was ill anything you said would go in one ear and out the other.  It's taken a long time, but I've finally got my mom back (YES!!) and she's willing to LEARN new things.  Shit, I never thought I'd see the day.

Mom's been on the Atkins diet before and lost about 85 lbs.  TWICE.  She wants to lose more and has been asking what kinds of meats are good (grass-fed, organic, hormone-free, etc.), where to buy them, and what oils are okay to use for cooking.  She even wanted to come to our house for NYE because "you put out HEALTHY food that's not going make my weigh scale go up."

I think we're getting somewhere here...

Monday, January 2, 2012

One! One pull-up! Ah ah ah!


Hunnybun installed the doorway chin-up bar this morning, and after testing it out with a couple of half-assed (I mean, leg-assisted!) chin-up attempts earlier, I finally did one chin-up tonight!  Ok, it wasn't pure form, but hell, I managed to pull my ass up off the floor! :D

2012 has to be the year that I incorporate more movement and lifting of heavy things into my lifestyle, which will compliment the diet changes I've already made (and continue to make).  Progress needs to continue!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Instructions for starting the Primal lifestyle

1. Take "before" pictures. Lots of them.
2. Eliminate sugar and grains from your diet immediately.
3. Start reading and learning: Primal Blueprint 101 | Mark's Daily Apple
4. Adopt other aspects of the PB as you learn/are ready for.
5. Take pictures during your transition.
6. Start saving money to buy new, smaller, clothing.
7. Take more pictures.
8. Enjoy your new life.
9. Post your before and after pics in this thread.