My Weaknesses: After Eight Chocolates

Ohhh boy. *Someone* cute and fuzzy got me a box of these for xmas. Someone very naughty! Now I'm trying not to think about them and he now has to hide them on me. LOL

Evil temptation. EVIL!!

Christmas 2010

Aside from being sick with a cold, this xmas went pretty well, albeit at light speed. All of a sudden it's over, and we have a huge mess to clean up. I've done pretty well with my food intake, merely sampling goodies here and there. I had a small homemade shortbread cookie for dessert (skipping the black forest cake!) at Dad's, and a small slice of pumpkin pie at my sister's. Oh, and I inhaled (not literally lol) the milk chocolate penis pop that was also found in my stocking. ;)

Other than that, when I've been hungry I've eaten good (better) food. Not quite primal, as the leftovers from Dad's included mashed potatoes mixed with mashed turnip with gravy on top, but better than junk food. Ohhhhh the curry goat my step mom made is to die for...

I got a couple sexy santa's helper outfits (HO HO HO, lol) and some nice tops from my sister which accentuate every bump there is to see, so I really need to start working on this belly fat. Starting tomorrow (cause I have a headache today).

All year long...

...I've been moaning about how my co-workers are always taking sick days and I never get a day off work. Well, my time has come to get sick (just a gross cold), but now that the holidays are here we get to work from home anyway, so I'm still not taking a sick day!

BOOOOOO!

Well I guess it's actually a good thing...but dammit, I'm gonna take some sick days next year even if I'm not sick! So there!!

Four!

Four batches of almond cookies! Ah ah ah!

These are being handed out for xmas to various peeps, and I still need to make more. Somehow, before Saturday, I need to pump out two batches of my cereal, too.

And finish wrapping the gifts. Ugggghhhhhh.

Today's Eats

Today was an experimental day of sorts; I cooked breakfast this morning, which consisted of bacon and an omelet of sorts which started with some of the remaining bacon fat, a bit of garlic and lots of mushrooms, to which I added a bowl of 7 scrambled eggs. We both loved it. The bacon was...well, crispy, juicy NOM-NOM-NOM bacon as usual. :)

Another experiment was using the self-clean cycle of the oven to also get some rust off our cast iron skillet so that we could start seasoning it. We both got some reading time in while it was doing its thing (me: The Primal Blueprint; him: The Feeling Good Handbook).

It took a few hours for that to finish, then I had to wipe everything down, and then I warmed the pan up again to open the pores before rubbing it down with flaxseed oil. Then, back into the oven it went at 500F for an hour. It's too late to do the second round so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

The third experiment today was what I just cooked up as a light dinner/late snack. We had some collard greens in the fridge from our last Wanigan delivery (which I've cancelled for at least the winter), and they were close to going bad so I had to do something with them. I sliced them into strips and followed the same recipe that I make my delicious swiss chard, and I also added the rest of the cremini mushrooms that we had. It came out okay, but collards certainly aren't chard. We ate the shit out of it anyway. :D

Tomorrow after work we'll do the second coating on the pan and I have to start wrapping gifts! I finished my shopping nice and early, but procrastinated on the wrapping...DOH!!

Today's Eats

Breakfast: Roughly 1/2 cup strawberry yogourt

Lunch: 1/2 left over steak (*DROOL*)

Dinner: Will be roasted pork shoulder, onions, bell peppers, and bacon-wrapped asparagus. YUM!

Weighed myself this morning (no BM, unfortunately) and I'm 149.3! Now that all the evil shortbread cookies are out of the house (and into my belly :(), I can get my carbs down to a better level again. Damn those cookies all to hell!!! (YUM lol)

What really grinds my gears...

...is when *whoever*, when they know I no longer eat things like bread and sugar, etc., goes on and on about how the bleached flour is no good for me, but whole grains certainly are, and how white sugar is no good for me but go ahead and enjoy the brown/turbinado sugar...yadda yadda.

Listen. Just because I don't eat it anymore doesn't mean it's up for discussion or I need a "talking to"! I'm not telling THEM not to eat it, so why do they feel it's okay to tell ME to eat it! I know what works for me, and I've been just fine without that crap, thank you very much, so BUZZ OFF.

If they want to eat it, FINE. Leave me the hell alone. I don't want the pressure and the wasted time arguing about it.

*sigh*

Why do shortbread cookies need to taste so good?? WHY??? *facepalm*

What to do with boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Rinse and salt them with sea salt. Coat them in a mixture of yogurt, lemon (or orange juice), garlic, and parsley. Then coat them in ground/finely chopped almonds and put them in a buttered baking pan. Slap a pat of butter on top of each one before baking, covered in foil, at 350F for an hour. Remove the foil at about the 45-minute point. (You may need to put the broiler on to brown them nicely.)

In another pan (or two), put sliced sweet peppers and wedged onions coated with EVOO, low-sodium soya sauce and sprinkle with steak spice. Bake everything at the same time (best if you have a convection oven) for the hour at 350F.

For a second side, I made swiss chard on the stove, using my favourite recipe here, except I used bacon fat instead of EVOO.

So good, it didn't last long enough to get pics. :)

Mmm, Salmon

These delicious morsels were cooked up in butter, then seasoning and coconut milk was added to make the sauce. YUM!

*drool*

These lil' darlin's will soon be marinaded in evoo, low-sodium soya sauce and steak spice, then BBQ'd. YUM!!

Tomorrow's Dessert

BAS and Fried Bananas!

Today was one of those days where we didn't really have any leftovers in the fridge and hadn't taken anything out of the freezer to defrost. Soooo, since we had some lettuce to use up from last Friday's Wanigan delivery, we made a salad. A BAS (in case you don't know; a big-ass salad) with tuna!
His:

Hers:

For dessert I decided to fry up some banana slices in some virgin coconut oil and dusted them with coconut flour:

Unfortunately they turned out a bit smushy because I had too much oil in the pan at first, so hopefully next time they'll be firmer and crispier. They were awesome, anyway!

Oooooops.

After working from home Thursday and Friday I needed to let loose and have some fun. Hubby was working late and then later attending a send-off dinner for one of his co-workers, so I decided to enjoy some Bajan rum with Coke and crank some tunes as I surfed the net.

The drinks were going down very smoothly, I was singing along to the music, chatting with an old girlfriend, making kale chips, and baking some chicken wings (gently coated with olive oil, low-sodium soya sauce, flax seeds, and chopped almonds...mmm!). The kale chips were tasty, but a tad overdone.

Hubby came home and asked me how I was doing. I said I was doing very well, thanks, and after a quick smooch off he went upstairs to hop on his computer. I checked on the little darlings in the oven a couple times, the last time really resisting the urge to just lay on the floor of the kitchen to have a nap. I almost gave in.

I sat back down at the dining room table (where my laptop was) and lay my head down on my arm. Hubby came down at some point and asked if I was alright, if I wanted him to help me relocate to the couch/bed/wherever (such a sweetie he is). I declined, so he asked if I wanted a bucket. LOL. I accepted that offer and he brought out the small garbage can from the washroom. He also checked the wings and took them out of the oven for me.

It felt really, really good to rest my head on the table. Really good. Until I suddenly noticed that my mouth was watering. Uh-oh. I've never been a messy puker, so I got the bucket ready and up came the kale. Just the kale - no rum and coke, oddly enough. It looked like a tiny pile of chewed-up grass. I almost laughed at it.

The sound of barfing got hubby running down again to check on me, and he later commented how funny it is that I'm so quiet all the time (hence the Mouse nickname) except for when I sneeze or barf. LOL

He helped me over to the couch where I laid down sooooo comfy-like. After a short rest I made my way upstairs to brush my teeth and get into bed. Nothing else came up, thankfully, and I tried sipping as much water as I could before falling asleep. In the morning I was woken up at 7:30 by the piece of shit dog down the street, as usual, but I felt just fine.

I know that I drank too much considering I hadn't eaten a whole lot. Breakfast was some yogurt and lunch was 3 sunny-side-up eggs that were a bit runny for my liking, but I was pressed for time so I ate them anyway. Add the couple kale chips to that and that was it. The wings were going to be my dinner. I should've taken them out of the freezer and cooked them earlier. Live and learn. :)

Hamburger Soup

Ahh, one of my faves, especially when there's yam to be added to it. Mmm, sweet goodness.

This contains:
- 2lbs medium ground beef, browned with Worcestershire sauce
- sliced carrots, celery, onion
- diced yam
- Italian seasoning, garlic, Montreal steak spice, and seasoned salt

Slow cooked on high for maybe 4 hours.

Damn.

I really wish Jimi hadn't died.

Tonight's Dinner...

Farm-fresh honey garlic sausages, steamed broccoli and roasted fennel.

On the fennel is a very light coating of olive oil (EVOO) and balsamic vinegar. Roasted uncovered at 400F for approx. 20 mins. Very interesting flavour, and the house smells divine!

My Weaknesses: Tim Horton's English Toffee Cappuccino

WIN! Red (Swiss) Chard Recipe

Made this tonight and we inhaled it! I still have the BEST aftertaste in my mouth. Mmmmmmmm.

Recipe - Simply Recipes

(My substitutes were to use Montreal steak spice instead of crushed red peppers, and thus I didn't need to add any more salt.)

Today's food intake started out good enough, with farm-fresh bacon and eggs, but then I got into the apple crisp and birthday cake from last night. I am powerless when this sort of stuff is in the house! If I see it, I have to eat it! I just love the taste so much. :(

Anyway, that was early today and I'm back on track now. I had some of the chard after finishing off the sardines I had cracked open a few days ago (canned), and then because my tummy was still craving cake and possibly the lasagne in the fridge, I had a cheese stick (mozza and cheddar) and a small apple. If I feel the need to have anything else I might have a square or two of dark chocolate and/or some almonds. Yeah.

*UGH*

I am SOOOOO stuffed. Tonight's dinner, made mostly by my hubby's mum, consisted of meat lasagne, lightly breaded veal cutlets (fried in vegetable oil), and potatoes/carrots/green beans/onions as a side. Then, my step-mum had brought over her best-chocolate-cake-in-the-world for hubby's b-day. I feel like I don't need to eat another bite for at least two days.

Tomorrow, after our bacon and egg breakfast, I think I'll fast for awhile or just make a coconut milk smoothie for dinner. Yeah. Ugh.

Blarg.

Today's meals have been garbage. Today, I ate crap. That's more accurate. McDonald's was involved. Yesterday, I ate crap as well. Some of it was good, but for the most part, CRAP. Yesterday I went for product taste testing (paid) and there were 6 different store-made white cakes to sample and rate. Really. I should have downed two fish oil capsules after that. If I were anorexic I would've thrown that shit back up. But I'm not, so life goes on.

Ugh.

I DON'T want this trip to end. I want to lose a little more weight. I want to feel good again. We just got our second Wanigan delivery today and I intend on eating every last bit of all the fruits and veggies. I don't know exactly what I'll do with the fennel yet, but I'll find a recipe somewhere.

There was also red chard in there. Wow that shit is vibrant. I took pictures of it; I was so inspired. What a neat looking vegetable!

Tomorrow will be another day of eating crap, because someone else will be cooking it. *sigh* I can't wait til Sunday, where we'll enjoy our regular breakfast of bacon and farm-fresh eggs. That reminds me...I need to go to Broadway Farms to buy more bacon.

I got my uptake and scan test results today. They said the two small cysts didn't show up on the scan, but my T4 is in the high-normal range. They want to send me for another uptake and scan in two months to see if there's a difference. They also want me to get another ultrasound done in about 6 months to check on the cysts. So there you go.

I had walked over to the walk-in clinic for my results while my winter tires were being put on my car. *wail!* Winter's gonna suck!!! Oh wait...I can work from home when I want/need and hubby and I each have a pair of snowshoes for exercise. Hopefully it won't be too bad. :)

OH!! I almost forgot. My winter itch is already back. I recently trimmed my fingernails so it's really hard to scratch. How unfulfilling that is. I've started putting grapeseed oil on my legs to try to calm the itch a bit. It works for a little bit but returns the next morning. *screams*

The dreaded time has arrived...

...now that Halloween is over, here comes the blasted xmas music. I can't fucking stand the shit. It makes my ears bleed. Over and over, everywhere you turn or SHOP, it's in your face and brain. UGH.

Anyway, this is the first year I attempted carving a pumpkin using a stencil (from the internet) and it didn't turn out too bad!

Look at that silly tit in the window...his first photo bomb! Awwww....lol

Accidental Halloween Bat (Chicken) Goulash

In using up some produce, I accidentally made what could be a great family dinner for halloween:


Sodium-free chicken broth (or water)
Two sweet potatoes, cubed
Head of purple cabbage, chopped
Carrots, sliced
Chicken (I used 10 thighs, skin on, bone in)
Mushrooms (the darker and ickier the better!)
Onions
Garlic
Seasonings of your choice (I used seasoned salt, sea salt, dry Italian seasoning mixture)

Bring all ingredients to a boil in your cauldron, then turn down to low and simmer for at least an hour.

Awesome Music: Ted Nugent

Speaking of Rock Star the movie (now I'm dying to hear some of the songs from the soundtrack!)...

Awesome Music: Alter Bridge

The singer, Myles Kennedy, was in one of my favourite movies, Rockstar. Unfortunately, they've disabled embedding, so here's the link:

Open Your Eyes Music Video

Wheeeee Fresh Food!

We got our first Wanigan delivery today! Lots of fresh fruit and veggies to consume. We got the small Wanigan box, which was $34 plus we added a bag of Gala apples to last us the two week period (the bag of apples is not in this pic).


A nice-sized pot roast has been relaxing in the crock pot all day and it smells delicious.

Edit:


Regarding my blood tests, the verdict (so far) is just that I'm low on vitamin D, which is no surprise, based on what I've read on the MDA Forum. The results haven't yet come in from the uptake and scan. I learned that there's a 5mm something-or-other cyst on my thyroid, too, which they said was "insignificant". The uptake and scan should tell us more detail about that cyst.

TGIF!!!

Mmm, Acorn Squash

Yesterday at work one of my co-workers came over to comment on how good I looked since I lost some weight this year. We got to talking about how I did it and she was genuinely interested in learning more. I told her about cutting out the sugar and grains, eating REAL FOOD, etc. and she was excited to try it out.

Today she stopped by my desk, again commented on how good I looked in my new outfit (lol) and told me about what she cooked for dinner last night. She was all excited that she made pork and a whack of veggies, plus she made her own apple sauce and DIDN'T add any sugar! I was very proud of her and her excitment. See, she goes to the gym several times a week and is finding that while it is a way to let stress out, it's not helping her lose any weight. Matter of fact, I've noticed her face rounding out a bit.

Later, we ran into each other in the washroom and again she looked me up and down before mentioning how good I looked. LOL Now, she's NOT a lesbian and she just got re-married earlier this year, so I know she's not being lewd. I sent her a message on our internal chat system joking that next thing you know she'll be asking me out on a date! (hahahaha!) She got a kick out of that. :)

For the hubby and I, today was workout day after work. After working out we prepared an acorn squash to go with our dinner of leftovers. Hubby cut the thing open and I did the rest. NO brown sugar touched this squash! I took a knife and scored the meaty insides, smeared butter all over them, and sprinkled cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice on them. I felt something else might be good as a liquid, so I added a tiny bit of (real) vanilla extract as well. Into the 400F oven they went for about an hour and 15 mins. Here's what one looked like:


Mmm, mmm.

I got a call from the walk-in clinic tonight as well. They have my blood test results back and the doctor wants to see me to talk about them. I hope to make it there tomorrow after my massage therapy after work.

And another thing...

I haven't yet mentioned that I've been getting some tests done to see if something is going on with my thyroid. In July my neck (n general) started hurting like as if I had pulled some sort of muscle or vocal cord. The way I describe it is if you were singing along to a song and try to hit a note that is too far out of your natural range - you tend to hurt something in your throat (done that before). It makes it hard to swallow, talk, and turn your head for at least a day.

In August I noticed a sort of lump on the right side of my throat. I went to the local walk-in clinic to get a doctor's opinion. He asked me some typical questions around potential hypothyroidism and I didn't really have any symptoms other than heart palpitations. He sent me for an ultrasound.

The ultrasound results came back and it was a different doctor at the walk-in this time (that's how it goes at a walk-in...you get whoever's there/available). He asked me a few more questions and said he wanted some blood tests and an uptake/scan. I haven't received the blood test results yet and I just went for the uptake/scan appointments this past Thursday and Friday.

Last night we had our best friends over for dinner and drinks, and I was drinking but didn't even catch a buzz (what a waste of rum! lol). I woke up in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat and my heart was palpitating like crazy. It was pretty discerning, but I had a pee and relocated to the other bedroom where I wouldn't keep my hunny awake and the room was much cooler.

I drifter in and out of sleep there, but at least I wasn't sweating anymore. I look forward to getting to the bottom of this issue.

I don't want to put too much onus on weight, but...

...this morning after a BM my scale read 148.7. YES!!!!

Been working on the wall push-ups and squats, so I expect to gain a bit of muscle weight...I should look into how to measure BF% someday.

For now, I'm happy with my progress so far. Since I've been recording my weigh-ins, the trend shows a loss of approx. 10 lbs over a 6-month period, so I hope to have lost 20 lbs by the end of the year. That would be sweet.

I'm drooling just looking at it...

Last night's dinner:

Today's Eats

- Bacon and eggs for breakfast (standard stuff; no pics)

- Yogurt

- Made some more primal cookies:


- Slow-cooked chicken with carrots, onions, mushrooms and kelp for dinner:

Mouse's Favourite Music: Canadian Rock - Turn it up!

I think this might be a great topic! More to come, but for now...

Some old...


Some new(er)...

Oh what a day.

It started off pretty normal for a vacation day; roll outta bed at around 10...get breakfast in me...but today would turn out to be a busy day!

Breakfast was leftover steak chili from Broadway Market. OMGYUM!!

We needed to put another coat of paint on the garage door but before starting that I wanted to make a quick run out to Broadway to grab some of their prepared stock. I grabbed two containers of chicken and one of beef. Can't wait to use them in something!

Painting the garage door was next up, and I tell ya, after us working together yesterday to do two coats and one today, I've had just about enough of painting! My thumb went numb from holding the plastic container holding a bit of paint and my back is a tad screwed. The next paint project will likely be the rec room in the basement, but that won't be any time soon!

Once the garage door was (finally) done, we decided to go to Albion Hills for a nice hike since the weather was so gorgeous (and we had hoped to do this sometime this week, anyway). Here are some pics of what we saw:











We really had a great time out there - aside from the odd mountain biker or jogger, it was just us and the trees. Oh, and the turkey (??!). :)

Once we got home we realized we'd forgotten about dinner (and it was kind of late to start cooking), so we whipped together a batch of coconut milk/banana/cocoa powder smoothies. Mmmm, mmmm.



(TMI side note: I just spent 10 mins in the washroom with pretty bad diarrhea. I think I just lost 5 lbs (lol) but I feel kind of funny over all. Hmmm...)

OMG WOW YUM!

Today was an interesting day, as I had decided to FINALLY try making mock mashed potatoes out of cauliflower. The head of cauliflower was purchased a few days ago and was patiently waiting in the fridge for it's name to be called.

We had ribs gently brushed with apple butter in the crock pot and they were just about done. Then, out came the cauliflower! I tried to remember back to the instructional video I had watched via MDA, and while I remembered some of the ingredients, I decided not to get too technical and just wing it.

Both hubby and I were excited to try this recipe, as we're both HUGE fans of traditional mashed potatoes. (My step-mum even grows a small crop of potatoes specifically for me, for Thanksgiving mashed potatoes!) I separated and rinsed the florets and popped them into the microwave for 10 minutes to steam. Then, into the food processor they went (a few at a time -- it's only a 7-cup) and once they were all smashed up, in went the 1/2 cup of 14% MF sour cream, 1/2 cup melted butter, Montreal steak spice and seasoned salt. Whipped that up some more with the machine, and then it was time to taste...

We have a winner!! To hell with mashed potatoes and their empty carbs -- I'll take mashed cauliflower from now on, thanks!! :D

Tue. Oct. 5, 2010

Today was a busy day; got up at 10:30am and had to hurry to get dressed/cleaned up to go out - we were meeting my mom and sister at Mandarin for lunch. I tried to make 'better' choices at the huge buffet and I did alright. Of course I did enjoy a few small desserts, some of which were supposedly "sugar-free", though they were still sweet enough. Not sure what they used to sweeten them, but alas...

After lunch we went to my sister's house to see her new chihuahua puppy. Cute little thing!

Once we got home and relaxed for a bit we went for a walk to grab some cat food and almonds. (I had it in my mind that I'd be baking something later, trying out a primal recipe.) After the walk we went down into the basement to work out, and I completed level 1 of each the Primal Blueprint essential movements under "lift heavy things". In addition, hubby spotted me during a few bench presses. I felt really good after all that and can't wait to do it again in a couple days.

While dinner was warming up in the microwave (leftover chicken and vegetables, which was still delicious), I assembled the ingredients of Best Primal Cookies with my chosen variations. The oven was pre-heating to 350F as we started eating dinner, and after a few minutes the cookies went in. 12 minutes later we had these:



Yum! After eating 3 of them I was stuffed. I probably should've waited a little longer after finishing dinner. Whatever. :)

Tonight's Dinner...

...was OMFG deLICIOUS steak and zucchini on the BBQ. WOW, did my hunny ever do an impeccable job on this meal! YUM!!



Oh so scrumptious...the fat!!! *droooool*

I'm Tired.

I don't know if it's work stress or the weather, but today I just don't have any energy. Come to think of it, it might have been the crap food we ate on the weekend and for the past week. Birthday cakes, pizza, pumpkin squares (oh GOD were they goooood!). Just plain CRAP.

Last night, however, DH BBQ'd some pork ribs that went VERY well with the apple butter we bought from Downey's Farm Market & Winery (a farm a little North from here).





That provided leftovers for lunch today, and dinner tonight was chicken soup that I made with the chicken dinner leftovers, with some chicken stock and extra veggies added. I simmered this on the stove for about an hour and then we devoured it. There's also enough of this for our lunches tomorrow. Wish we had some corn bread. *drool*

Wait...BAD MOUSE! No bread for you!! lol

Tonight's Dinner...

...is in the oven. Yeah, it's gonna be a late one tonight!

This afternoon we visited two of the local farmers' stores; one had just about everything but meat, and the other had meat. From the first one we bought some pumpkin squares (kind of like butter tarts but with pumpkin) for a treat, fresh zucchinis, yams, green onions and some apple butter for tomorrow's ribs dinner. From the second store we bought frozen homemade chicken stock, a free-range chicken stuffed with apple and dried fruit, and bacon (BACON!!!). When we got home we each devoured one pumpkin square (we were famished after exploring the two stores) and hubby started working on our bacon and egg lunch. Goddamn, that bacon was awesome. We'll definitely be going back for more - and the best part is that both stores are less than 10km away!

Next up is the chicken for dinner. I put a few small gobs of bacon fat in the roasting pan, chopped up the zucchinis, some green onion, a yam and a few carrots, and added a bit of water for moisture. Over top of the veggies went some seasoning (Italian seasoning, Montreal steak spice, seasoning salt, and some roasted garlic from a jar). Then the chicken went on top, coated with a bit of EVOO and seasoned with the same spices as the veggies. Here's what it looked like before going into the oven:



A couple hours later....YUM!



Unfortunately, because someone at the farm stuffed the chicken, that meant that it also contained traditional bread stuffing. Oh well, we ate the shit out of it anyway. ;)

Happy Birthday to Me!

So today is my 36th and I just realized that my entire family knows not to call me before noon just in case I'm sleeping in. Hah!

Hubby and I are catching up on our internet fix while slowly sipping our teas; mine Red Rose with milk (lactose-free) and his Chamomile with a bit of brown sugar.

Yesterday morning I weighed myself and was happy to see 149.5 on the scale. I knew it would only be temporary since our friends were coming over to celebrate my b-day a day early, but it was nice to see anyway. It proved that I could get there after all! I can also feel some muscles on my arms after working with the sledgehammer on Friday!

Dinner was BBQd hamburgers (ground beef and ground pork with onions inside...mmm) and roasted bell peppers and zucchini. YUM! My BFF made me an awesome angel food cake with a pineapple whipped cream icing and OMFG was it good! I think I had 4 squares of it. We were also drinking, of course, so this weekend is pretty much a bust, diet-wise, though how can you not deviate when it's your birthday??! :)

A few reference pics from today...

WOOT!

Weighed myself this morning after (finally) a BM and my weight was....................................149.9!!!!!!!!!!! YEEHAWWW!

I worked from home today, so while on conference calls I put my gloves on and did some swinging of the sledgehammer. I completed two sets, three exercises of eight reps per arm. I can feel it!

For dinner tonight I used the last of the boneless, skinless chicken pieces and made a chicken soup that fuckin' ROCKED. My mom came over and we went for a 45-minute walk while the soup was simmering. When we got back and caught whiff of the soup we had to drop everything and start devouring it. She even said that never in a million years did she think I'd ever cook something that good. Hah! Take that!

The ingredients were as follows:

- 1 can chicken broth (using up the misc. stuff in the cupboard to get rid of it)
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (same as above - getting rid of it)
- several pieces of boneless, skinless chicken, cut up into approx. square inch bits
- 1 can of coconut milk (the magic ingredient!)
- carrot chunks
- vidalia onions (unfortunately, the last of what we had in the freezer), quartered or smaller
- dash of Montreal steak spice
- dash of roasted garlic and peppers spice

Yeehaw!!

- I'm now taking two fish oil soft gels a day; one with lunch and one with dinner. However, they don't seem to help me with BMs at all because prior to this evening's BM I hadn't had one since Monday. :S

- Had a crap day at work today and an even crappier drive home.

- To get myself out of that post-work funk I called up the college that I'm taking a distance learning course through, and finally got my login information to begin the course (it officially started on the 10th but due to waiting for approvals at work I could only register on the 13th). I logged in and started looking around to get situated with the format and such. Ended up spending a few hours on it, also started the first lesson. Woot!

- After I ended up engrossed in the course stuff, Hubby graciously offered to cook dinner, which was delicious baked/steamed salmon with chopped spinach as a side. YUM!!

- Hubby wanted to go browse for a couple things at Home Depot so we walked over together. I wasn't planning on shopping for anything myself, but somehow we ended up in the sledgehammer section and ended up picking out a NICE 6lb one. Now I need to look up that sledgehammer workout video...

Oh, Wow.

Hubby has started dinner (omelet with leftover steak bits) and the sweet, sweet scent of bacon fat just reached my nose upstairs here in our office. WOW.

Insert Post Title Here

I don't know what it is, but sometimes I just can't come up with a suitable title for posts. Realistically, every post could be named 'update' or something just as boring. Enh.

Anyway, yesterday I had worked from home so in between scheduled appointments (phone calls) I had some time to make some almond milk from Nat's recipe. First time ever, and it turned out just fine. I put some in my coffee to see what it tasted like and it was very 'woody'.

Last night's dinner consisted of delicious BBQ'd steak and previously-frozen broccoli. After dinner Rabbit and I went for a nice walk and did some sprints here and there. Boy, did that feel great! I haven't run that fast in YEARS! We also stopped at the playground to see how our pull-ups would go at the monkey bars. Pffft...weaklings! Both of us! Well that will soon change...

Once we got home I started working on Nat's 'pseudo banana bread' recipe (same link above). The recipe HAD said to put the ingredients into a blender to combine them, but the stuff was so thick and dry it wouldn't blend. I damned-near burnt out the motor of the blender (and broke something else by throwing the damned thing) when hubby came down to diffuse the situation. I had added a bit of water to the concoction in hopes of getting it to blend, but it didn't work. I figured by that point that there was probably an error in the instructions (yeah, they meant to say 'food processor' instead of 'blender'), so we transferred everything to the processor and were on our merry way.

Things went a little better in the processor, but since I'd added water the stuff was way wetter than it should have been. Hubby to the rescue again: add more almonds and coconut to it. It helped, but not quite enough. My last attempt at saving it was to grab the bread baking pan and get it into the oven for a bit.

The end result, while edible, wasn't great, but it was alright. The consistency was screwed, of course, but even my co-workers tried it and said it was alright. Next time will be better.

Tonight dinner was pork chops with a tiny bit of honey and cinnamon on them. YUM! The side was previously frozen cauliflower. Unfortunately the apple sauce that was in the fridge had somehow carbonated itself (tasted like champagne lol) so we ditched it instead of slopping it over the pork. Dammit.

After dinner we went for our walk again, with a few sprints. Stopped at the playground again with some gloves to use the monkey bars for (pathetic, failed) pull-ups and stretches.

The recipe to try tonight was batty's blueberry butter balls. These turned out alright (would've been easier if I'd had an ice cream scoop with the little ejection scraper inside it). I guess this snack is something one needs to get accustomed to, since the buttery smooth texture is entirely new to us. One each was enough for now.

Blueberry Butter Balls...mmm.

*Phew*

What a busy day! Slept in a little, after dreaming of spiders and bumble bees wearing crash helmets, for some reason, and started cleaning the house in preparation for Dad and step-mom to come over for dinner. After cleaning a bit we had to go to the grocery store for food and then get started on dinner prepping once we got home.

Tonight's dinner was crispy yogurt chicken with an almond meal coating instead of panko, and veggies (carrots, zucchini, vidalia onions and mushrooms) fried up in some virgin coconut oil. Mmm, mmm, good. It was the first time I used almond meal as a coating so that was an interesting experiment. I made approx. 20 pieces of chicken thighs, mostly bone-in with skin, but also a few skinless/boneless, and there were 5 adults eating. There was 1 piece of chicken left in the end!

For dessert we had a buffet of 5 flavours of Activia yogurt, a bowl of blueberries and a bowl of raspberries. (I won't mention the optional cool-whip or chocolate chips.)

Unfortunately, there are no pics. :(

Sept. 10-11, 2010

Had my 8-year old nephew over last night and that meant a lot of running around with him (tag, etc.). For dinner I cooked up some lamb shoulder chops in bacon fat (yum) along with some onions and mushrooms. It was tasty but I over-cooked the chops a bit. I found that I don't care much for the smell of lamb...oh well, we ate it anyway.

After my nephew went home today I hunkered down to do my burpees. I completed 12 of them in 1:30 (!!) but had to stop because...well...

Warning: not for the squeamish!

DAMMIT! That effin' hurt! Not to mention messy! Immediately ran some peroxide over it and picked the carpet/cat fluff out of it, then showered and had to wait for it to dry up some before I could clip the shredded skin off. Owie. :( Once it was dry I slapped some "new skin" on it and a band-aid. We were getting ready to go to a birthday party so this was crappy timing. The good news is that once I had my shoes on I forgot about it. :)

A dozen more burpees

Last night I completed 12 more burpees in proper form, but did not time myself. I believe I managed to do them in less than two minutes this time, though, because I really only took a small breather somewhere around the 10th one.

Busted.

The poop-fest the other night was not caused by the fish oil supplements. I have been taking one soft gel per day (usually with lunch) and have not had a bowel movement in two days. Crap! (lol)

Didn't Do So Well Today

Not only is it back-to-school time for the kiddies (I have none...which is just fine with both of us), it was time to turn the *gulp* HEAT on for a couple of nights. Ugh. Guess what that also means...yep, dry, itchy skin. My legs are already scratched up. Coconut oil, here I come. *sigh*

On another note, there's junk food in the house, and when there's junk food in the house I want to eat it just to get it out of my sight...and I usually do. BAD MOUSE!!

Aside from the couple of treats I had today, I ate somewhat well. Dinner was best out of everything: leftover roast beef, spinach, the last of the roasted veggies from Saturday night. Ok, there were a few green beans and two small new potatoes, but the spinach serving was much larger.

I also took one fish oil soft gel during my lunch and thankfully didn't experience the same thing as yesterday.

No rum was consumed today, and no Coke Zero. Together they are my favourite drink and I usually enjoy one after work, but I'm all out of rum at the moment. Maybe I won't bother buying more, but then again, I probably will. I like a little buzz once in a while and there's no harm in that. :)

Fish Oil Supplements

Today is the day we began taking 1000mg soft gels of "salmon and fish oils" 3x per day.


Update: Not sure if it was the dose of fish oil that I took during linner (late lunch/early dinner), but something triggered a poop-fest within a couple of hours after that! Holy moly!

Burpees - Minding My Form

Yesterday ended up being a write-off for both exercise and healthy eating, so today is make-up day. I've never been one to bother writing down what I eat because I just don't need to keep track. I know what I've eaten and whether it's keeping me on track or not.

So, I'll write about what exercises I've done. The other day I mentioned doing 22 burpees in 2 minutes, and my form was admittedly bad. I promised myself today that when I do my burpees they will be in proper form. My DH set the 2-minute timer on his cell and I began. I managed to complete 10 in proper form before needing to stop and catch my breath. He encouraged me to complete one more, which I did, but then he mentioned 11 is an uneven number and surely I could do just one more to round it off. Hah! I managed to finish the 12th burpee just before the timer went off. *pant*

Now I'm hungry so off I go to the kitchen to heat up some delicious BBQ'd ribs. Mmmm.

Bah.

Had an instant coffee earlier tonight (with white death -sugar- in it, even!) and now I can't sleep. I don't remember when I last drank a coffee, never mind one with white sugar in it. Booooooo.

After 8 Full Months...

...my weight is still hovering between 150 and 152 (has been since early July) and this must be because I've been lazy (lack of exercise) and it's birthday season and I just can't resist a piece of homemade birthday cake made from scratch by my step-mom. There are more birthdays to come (mine as well), so we'll have to see what happens.

This week I decided to join the Mark's Daily Apple forum since there is so much support on there from other people who are on the same journey to health as I. Reading everyone's success stories and especially seeing their progress photos really gets me motivated. So much so that I attempted a burpee blitz the other night. Silly me, I thought I'd see how long it took me to complete 50 burpees. L.O.L. I managed 22 of them before having to stop. This was at the 2-minute mark.

Shame on me, my form wasn't perfect, either, but I did what I could without throwing my back out. There was minimal pain the next day and I could feel the presence of some muscles I'd never felt before. which felt really good. On the second day, however, my stomach and back muscles reminded me that I'd worked them a little too hard. They'll get over it. ;)

I meant to try a few more burpees today before my MIL came over for dinner, but the timing just wasn't right. I don't think my muscles were ready for another go at it, either, so I'll do it tomorrow.

I'm really not one to post pictures of myself on the net, but here are the first photos showing my progress so far (click the pic for a higher-resolution version):



I tried to recreate the scene/pose as close as possible because I couldn't find a better pic where a) my chunkiness was visible and b) I could find the same clothing to wear. Next time there will be progress pics of me wearing my for-private-home-use-only bikini. Now aren't you excited about that! HAHAHAHA!

Another improvement I noticed, which is likely from being soap-free, is that I no longer get a nasty rash after shaving my bikini area. It was a guaranteed annoyance prior to this summer, and now it just doesn't happen. Nice. :)

Oh-So-Close! 150.5!!!

Last night we entertained an old high school friend for dinner (the delicious fare included bbq'd steaks, pork kebabs, and zucchini strips along with butter-steamed potatoes and onions I cooked in the oven). I had a few rum and cokes (Coke Zero) and was happy to see 150.5 on the scale this morning! And this is before any bowel movement (TMI, but relevant lol)!

I really need to get some new clothes now because the shorts and pants I bought before our trip in March are now falling off me. I have a belt that I can wear with them but I really hate belts and I get a nasty rash on my stomach from any metal bits that touch.

The Sister and the Long Hair

As you've read, I attended my nephew's 8th birthday party this past Sunday, and that was the first time in a few months that my sister and I saw each other. (She had really pissed me off by treating our mentally-ill mother badly.)

She really noticed how long my hair had gotten and tonight on the phone she asked me how my hair got so long so fast; was I taking any supplements?? I then proceeded to tell her that it's probably related to our diet improvements and the fact that I haven't used shampoo or conditioner (save for a couple of times) since January 1 of this year.

Her reaction was common: "What?? What do you wash your hair with? No conditioner? I couldn't do that. My hair gets too tangled."

I explained the baking soda and ACV regimen and I'm sure she'd heard of it before (at least my mom had, when I told her awhile back), but she actually sounded interested. When she mentioned her tangle-prone hair again I mentioned that it's because of what she's been using. The shampoo strips way too much of the natural oils away, making you depend on using conditioner, which in turn makes your hair feel really dirty soon after, making you depend on more shampoo! "They've got you by the balls," I said. She agreed.

I forgot to mention the coconut oil as a treatment. Oh well, next time.

151.2!!!

This morning when I weighed myself the scale read 151.2. *happy dance*

Then I had breakfast and headed over to my sister's place to attend my nephew's 8th birthday party. I had a few potato chips and some cake, but that's to be expected. It's not an every day thing.

*happy dance*

An Evening Snack

Although the blueberry Activia yogurt would have been awesome on it's own, I decided to dress it up a little, as I often do. I added some raw almonds, dried (unsweetened) cranberries, flax seeds and (for my sweet tooth) a few chocolate chips.

Yum.

(Click the pic for a higher-resolution version.)

"Orthorexia Nervosa"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/16/orthorexia-mental-health-eating-disorder

I definitely don't have it. I'm sitting here eating a bowl of ice cream (two flavours, thank you; chocolate velvet and vanilla) topped with homemade raspberry/rhubarb sauce (thanks to step-mom) and organic blueberries (because they're plumper and less rotten than the others at the store). Mmmm, delicious. No obsessing over healthy foods going on over here.

Odour-Free Pits! It works!

Instead of using deodorant after a shower, I've been trying a smidgen of coconut oil followed by a very light dusting of baking soda. After a full day at work with wet pits, NO SMELL. Yeehaw! :D

13 Pounds and Counting

After all the "diet cheating" I'd been doing over the past few weeks (a small piece of cake here, some homemade bread there), I was pleasantly surprised yesterday morning when I stepped on the scale. 152.8! Holy crap, I'm almost into the 140s again! I don't remember the last time I was in the 140s, it was so long ago! Yeehaw!

Just over a week ago I started doing small amounts of crunches and lady push-ups during my evening stretch session on the bedroom floor. I did 5 of each for a couple days, then raised it to 10, and then 20 each. I can now do all 20 of each straight without needing any rest time.

Today is Canada Day so I have the day off and I slept til 10am. The stupid cat woke me up at that point - how annoying. I hope she isn't one of those ones that will live til 28 years old...she's already at 19 and I love her but I need a break from cats for awhile.

On another note, an update on the poo-free life! The skin on my face has never been smoother and I haven't had a huge monthly zit in a couple of months (I think I've had one since returning from our vacation). My scalp was a bit smelly (at least to me) last weekend so I did a good cleaning with diluted baking soda with the ACV rinse. Aaaaaah, much better.

Otherwise, it's going pretty well. Mark Sisson at Mark's Daily Apple posted about this "way of life" and his post has a ka-jillion comments on it (it's a fascinating topic for the masses!). Someone mentioned making a deodorant from coconut oil and baking soda so I'm trying that sporadically for now. Once my deodorant stick is finished I'll re-fill it with this new mixture.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. I haven't felt much like blogging but I'll try to post more often now that I'm getting some positive results!

Been Thinking Too Much Lately

Lots of things have been going through my head lately, some very cynical things as well. I lay in bed at night at wonder how to fix this world or this or that...tonight we ate dinner on the back deck and as I looked up at the white fluffy clouds I wondered how to prolong that feeling of happiness.

I need to change something in my life and I think (ok, I'm 90% sure) it's my job. The only problem is the fear of interviews and getting into something that either I won't like, or something that doesn't quite pay enough.

Hmmm.

Itchy Update

I didn't bother to update this past Saturday because my weight was exactly the same as the previous Saturday. Boohoo.

To update on the soap/poo-free "lifestyle", I must say the condition of my skin (all over) is not one bit different -- still fucking itchy as all hell! The heat rash from our trip is still visible and is itchy again for some reason. For the past two days I've been scratching my forearms too much and now have some bigger bumps and such. I'd just trimmed my fingernails, too, so I have to scratch harder to get relief.

Dammit.

I haven't been rubbing coconut oil on myself, other than on my face, which has gone back to acne breakouts in the usual areas. Is it my pillow?? Is it because I don't sweat through my pores on a daily basis that the zits just keep re-occurring in the same damned spots?? UGH!!!

My hair, on the other hand, feels very nice and it's getting long. I haven't used shampoo since our trip (had to a couple times, to get the sea smell out) and have been brushing thoroughly with the boar bristle brush every other night or so. I barely need any aloe vera as gel, and I'm not rinsing it every day anymore, either.

It's going okay. I'd wished for better by this point. Oh well.

Back from the mini hiatus...

It's been awhile since I last posted, and although we were away for a two-week vacation, I was also considering throwing in the towel on this blog. Nobody except my beau reads it, anyway (hi, honey lol).

Before leaving for our holiday I was a bit "backed up" and knew I had gained a pound or two. We had stopped cooking a couple of days before leaving so we wouldn't have a huge mess in the kitchen, so that means that we ate out (restaurants use so much sodium and unknown ingredients and I actually don't like eating out anymore). I quickly weighed myself the morning of our flight and wasn't surprised to see that I was "up". I didn't bother recording the reading, of course.

Two weeks in sunny Barbados was a fantastic treat for us. It was my first real vacation and we had a great time. The food was amazing and so was the rum...ok, and the pina coladas. I had a few of those within the first few days and then cut them out, however, I indulged in rum and cokes the rest of the time.

We returned home on April 9th, a Friday night (Saturday morning, really, since our flight was delayed), so after my bowel movement the next morning I weighed in. Ugh...six pounds up from the pre-vacation weigh-in, so 162. Oi. Well, I guess that wasn't too bad overall, considering the food and drink I'd consumed, but hey, I was on holiday, dammit!

Again, I didn't bother recording the numbers because I knew I'd work hard to get back into the swing of things.

Fast forward to one week later and ...!

Date	Weight	BF Weight	BF %	Body Water %	Bone Mass %
04/17/2010	155.8	46.8	30.1	51.0	6.4

Almost a pound and a half BETTER than my last recorded pre-vacation weight! WOOO!! I was a good little girl that week! I even enjoyed a couple of rum and cokes, but with Coke Zero (I know - that's not Paleo, either, but it sure tastes good!!).

I've just gotten back into sleeping well at night again but I'm feeling a bit lazy this week. We've fallen into a bit of a rut when it comes to cooking and need to get creative/motivated again. We're cooking up some king fish steaks tomorrow and I'm wondering what we'll have with them. I wish I was a natural at this cooking thing.

This Stinks!

After the diet changes we've made, I was hoping that our underarm scents would kind of, you know, GO AWAY. Well, that didn't happen, so after trying coconut oil as a deodorant, we've gone back to using our previous favourites (mine is "Sweet Bliss" by Soft & Dri Pulse).

Maybe I'll try again later once I've been off the sugar for awhile (not counting maple syrup here). We'll see.

Uhhh...damn.

From healthzone.ca:

Canada has escalated its recall of processed food containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein that may be contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

More than two dozen items are on the latest Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) warning list of food that could be contaminated. The move follows a recall by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which currently lists 101 products.

All contain hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) produced by Basic Food Flavors Inc. in Las Vegas. The recalls started in the U.S. last week after FDA inspectors found salmonella bacteria contaminating Basic Food’s equipment.

....

HVP is a flavour-enhancing, soy-based additive used in processed foods. Some of the HVP affected by the recall has spent “several months” in the food production chain, Gravelle said.

The FDA said last week the recall had the potential to be “very large.”

The Canadian list, which began on Sunday with two types of pretzels, now includes the whole range of Hawaiian Kettle Style Potato Chips in sweet Maui onion flavour, soup mixes, vegetable dips and tomato and basil Quaker mini rice cakes.

The U.S. recall covers boullion, mixes for dips, dressing, gravy, salads, soup and stuffings and snacks.

Burn, Baby, Burn!

After eating a delectable dinner of broiled salmon and veggies, Hubby and I went for a nice walk. I was feeling pretty energetic (I've noticed I have more energy lately and no longer get sleepy at work), so after a few minutes of warming up I asked if he was into jogging to the second lamp post ahead. He said sure, so off we went at a gentle clip.

*huff, puff, we're finally there*

I am severely out of shape. Never mind the fact that we don't have proper running shoes (those Vibram Five Fingers sound intriguing, but I'm not sure if they'd be warm enough in the winter, even if the sidewalks are bare and dry) or proper posture. Regardless, we alternated the walking and jogging until we were home and it did get easier as we went.

Can't wait to do it again. :)

Today I also tried my tea with only cream in it; no sugar. It was actually drinkable, so that's it! No more sugar in my tea! Yay!

On My Merry Way...

...to 140 lbs! Woot!! I could have done better, but I'm happy with this week's weigh-in. Hubby just made chocolate chip cookies so I have to avoid those (had to taste-test them already, of course). We ran out of apples a few days ago and I'm missing them. I really love gala apples.

Date	Weight	BF Weight	BF %	Body Water %	Bone Mass %
02/13/2010 02/20/2010 02/27/2010 03/06/2010	162.5 161.9 158.7 157.2	50.9 51.1 48.6 47.6	31.4 31.6 30.7 30.3	50.0 49.9 50.5 50.8	6.5 6.5 6.4 6.4

Last Sunday I finally tried a homemade granola cereal recipe that turned out really well. The yield was huge so it's lasted us through the week, having some each day as breakfast and occasionally on top of some yogurt. Hubby and I will have to share the kitchen tonight as he makes bread and I make more cereal. I'm so happy we have the ability to make our own stuff rather than buying boxes of granola bars from the store. They're so full of garbage it's not funny.

To update on the no poo side of things, I cheated and used a touch of shampoo this past Thursday, but only because I had a job interview. I really didn't want to risk having an off scent. It was only a touch, but I really feared that I'd blown this whole thing by doing so. I'm not sure if it stripped all of the natural oils I'd painstakingly brushed through the ends of my hair, or if I just thought it did. Either way, I'm off the poo again and back on track. Still no soap on anything but my hands, which are dry and itchy as usual. The coconut oil isn't helping so much, it turns out. My legs are itchy again as well.

Just less than 3 weeks til BARBADOS!!!!!!!!

Hint of Wet Dog

I'm really getting tired of my hair/scalp/whatever smelling like wet friggin' dog. I mean, I give it a really good rinse with hot water in the shower (followed by a cool rinse) and brush it every night (you should see the wax build-up on the brush!), but it smells like this allllll the damned time! If I run my hand through my hair to smooth it down, my hand smells. When I shake my hair back and forth to give it some lift, I smell a hint of wet dog.

When I walk by people at work they must wonder WTF that scent is. Really. WTF??!

Think I might have to use the cider vinegar again. *sigh*

YESSSSSS!!

It's been an interesting week; the most exciting part was when I attended a Crematorium Operator Certification program, especially since I'm not currently employed in the death care industry. Now I have 12 months to complete 50 cases and achieve certification. This should be interesting...

Anyway, let's get on to the goods!

Date	Weight	BF Weight	BF %	Body Water %	Bone Mass %
02/06/2010 02/13/2010 02/20/2010 02/27/2010	160.3 162.5 161.9 158.7	49.6 50.9 51.1 48.6	31.0 31.4 31.6 30.7	50.3 50.0 49.9 50.5	6.5 6.5 6.5 6.4

Happy dance! I was a pretty good girl this week, eating MOSTLY unprocessed, REAL food with some peanuts and corn thrown in (very little). We enjoyed some new treats this week; our variation of Mark's cocoa and coconut snacks, and I also made a veggie-loaded hamburger soup. We stuffed ourselves silly on that soup (accompanied by a buttered slice of homemade bread) and something must be working because I've been more regular this week than ever.

YESSSS!!