Cardboard box diet ...what week is this?

I had to skip last week because I was stuck out of town for work. I could have done it, but a) I refuse to weigh myself on random scales and b) there was a lot of eating, a lot of sitting around and not a lot of exercise. Okay, no exercise. I brought my running shoes and my bathing suit but I just didn't feel like working out around the golden co-eds lounging around my hotel so I passed. Terrible reason. I'm not truly back in the saddle even though I am home, I'm so busy playing catch up that I've gotten nothing done healthwise. In keeping myself accountable, I'm posting this even though i've just been terrible.

Weigh in: somehow I have managed to lose another .2, so I'm down a grand total of 1.2 pounds. In ... Four weeks? Obviously I'm not trying my hardest yet.

exercise completed: this is obviously where my hearts not in it. I want to, I do. But I just can't seem to talk myself into it yet. I mow the lawn and pull weeds every weekend, but that's really my only regular workout.

splurges: again, I'm just not doing well here either. Dr. Pepper on Wednesday, wine several times over the past couple weeks, beer once, heavy dinners, ice cream wednesday afternoon ...

success story: I have continued to stay away from my assistant's candy dish. I think this is my only success story.

recipes I've got nothing. I can say that when I've been home I have been cooking from my pantry and we're doing well there.

photos:I went to Anthony's Runway 84 while I was in Ft. Lauderdale and I had the Zuppe di Pesce which looked similar to this (not my photo, and not from Runway 84, I thought my work associates would think I was strange if I whipped out my camera) and it was amazing. I really should have taken a picture of my own.



This week! I will be better! Need help, come stop me from eating! I guess it could be worse, I could be gaining weight with all this eating-and-not-exercising I've been doing.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Out of Town Whine

You do not want to know how hard I worked for this bottle of wine today. Needless to say I will never again purchase a bottle of wine to take back to my empty hotel room without first deciding if I will be able to get into it once I get back there. Yes, it had a cork. No, I didn't even contemplate this until I was already back at my hotel and had handed the keys of my little toy rental car back to the valet dude, trudged up to my room with my groceries for breakfasts, takeout goat cheese hamburger and my bottle of wine. As my key card went into the lock I had that epiphany. You know, the one you have when you realize your best laid plans ...

Anyhow, because I have some experience with pressurized wine issues, I decided the best course of action was to undress, take my hamburger and my wine into the bathtub (I was hungry!) and dig at the cork with my car key until it fit into the wine. Then I hosed off the bathroom, got in my pjs, and sat on the balcony writing reports and drinking my wine.

Then of course my eight-year old company laptop battery went dead forcing me back inside to finish working. And now I am reporting to you. And I closed the blinds after realizing I picked at a booger while there were all kinds of co-eds enjoying the pool below me that I could see and therefore COULD SEE ME.

I actually like traveling for my job. Without going into any specifics, the occasional overnight trip is a nice change from the norm for me. No parental responsibilities, a little time to myself. All good things. But I haven't had to travel for an extended trip since before Henry was born and to say it's a hardship on my little family ... Well, I guess it's really not but I sure do miss them. I'm out of town all week and a day or two next week. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a friend who actually lives local to me but will be in town for work herself tomorrow. So yay for not drinking alone!

And can I say a few things here? Like, I'm driving a Fiat and it's totally a toy car. I feel so silly in it, but it's fun! And those commercials where they do the 180 and end up parallel parking ... I can totally see not needing a stunt man for that. I couldn't even fit my one medium suitcase in it - they had to fold the back seats down!

And I'm in an absolutely gorgeous hotel. Really, I'll possibly post photos tomorrow if I wake up before needing to get to work. But no free Internet! $25 dollars a day parking! Good lord, man! Seriously, No! Free! Internet! What is the world coming to? Should I start sleeping at Starbucks?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cardboard box diet, week two

Hmm. Let's see if this week I can highlight my successes rather than my failures (of which there have been a few).

weigh-in: down 1.0 for the week (.8 total)

exercise completed: woohoo, successes! I did another buttload of gardening, but not only that, on Friday I wanted to go to Target and instead of driving the 3 mile round trip I got on my bike and rode. (this also helped in cutting down what I bought) I've stuck with taking the stairs at work instead of the elevator. Monday I worked out for 25 minutes of abs and legs. Tuesday and wednesday I didn't exercise unless you count making a run for my car during monsoons and flash flooding.

splurges: birthday week, I didn't do well again with this. There was my free Red Robin burger, Kobe restaurant for the family birthday celebration (worth every calorie), and Sunday I spent the afternoon in the backyard kiddie pool with the kids and most of a bottle of red wine mixed with Fresca in a solo cup. It was glorious.

success story: I got some real exercise under my belt, didn't have a single candy from my assistant's desk, and Monday through Wednesday I went completely without soda and even drank a lot of water too! (Tuesday I was fighting a weather-related migraine and had half sweet/unsweet tea for the caffeine kick)

recipes: my husband requested Taco Casserole for his birthday dinner, which I find revolting. Fritos and refried beans? Blech. So I remade it with rinsed black beans and Mission Strips, and cut my serving small with a side of avocado and it was healthier AND easier to stomach. Score! Also, I made my first eggplant dish by making this and it was delicious.

photos:




Lunch Monday, eggplant gratin, the last of the coconut ice cream, and my usual work breakfast of one slice of toast with peanut butter and honey.




Lunch Wednesday, taco casserole, and dinner Friday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cut

This is my boy's beautiful hair. Mr. Mister has never had much hair, so now he's finally getting some, the hubs wants to cut it. Cut it! Why??

What do you think? I think it's still baby hair. And that one in the background? He hasn't had a decent haircut in years ... Why would I force our youngest into that?

Pantry time

This vacation I organized my pantry. I became apparent to me from the six jars of various tomato sauces, four jars of peanut butter and 1,871 boxes of carb-based sides that I need to start meal planning from what is in my house, rather than buying what's on sale and THEN meal planning. Unfortunately a lot of what's in my pantry is not particularly healthy. See the 1,871 boxes of carbs. I've resolved this by having a small portion of the pasta side with a portion of protein and a lot of veggies.




So behold dinner: Half a chicken mignon from the local meat market (I split my meat with the boys), some pasta and lots of asparagus. And one glass of wine. Man, that was good wine. Ps- Henry ate FOUR helpings of that pasta, with some chicken and asparagus mixed in.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

June Books

Untraceable - Laura Griffin I enjoyed this immensely.

The Body in the Gallery - Katherine Hall Page My first Faith Fairchild book, and it a fun quick read.

Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins (reread) wasn't as well written as I remembered it, but I still adored it.

Bitterblue - Kristin Cashore I was worried I wasn't going to love this. I loved every page, even the slow beginning. Want. More.

The Body in the Ivy - Katherine Hall Page I know she was going for an homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Was None, but it came off as a rip off to me.

The Body in the Sleigh - Katherine Hall Page By this time I decided maybe four in a month was too many.

The Body in the Gazebo - Katherine Hall Page Redemption, because this one was much better.

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins (reread) Loved this one more than the first.

212 - Alafair Burke Loved.

The Running Dream - Wendelin Van Draanen I was looking for something to read and went perusing Elizabeth's list from last month. Yep, it was excellent, and just what I needed to kick start my workouts again.

Murder, Mayhem and Mama - Christie Craig Bubblegum but fun.

Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (reread) Harder to read - I didn't enjoy it as much but I still wanted to keep going (yes I've read the series before). I don't like what she did to the series but I still like how it ends. Does that make sense?

The Long Fall - Walter Mosley Meh.

Birdman - Mo Hayder hard to get into, but well written. Now that I've gotten to know the characters I would be interested in reading more about them.

The Vow - Kim Carpenter I was not impressed.

Victoria Gardella - Colleen Gleason I would have liked this short story/novella better if I hadn't already read the whole series, but it was fun.

Battle Royale - Koushun Takami I'm going to be honest here. I dont't know if I'm going to make it through this time trying either.

Friday extra

As I type this, Hubs has gone for a drive at late o'clock to figure out who is twist-tying M80s to bottle rockets. The past two nights we've ended up with firecrackers hitting our back porch and going off next to the window. I'm all for your fireworks, but please blow up your own house. Please and thank you. Also, please stop at midnight.

I had a great birthday. Hubs surprised me with an iPad, which in this household is the equivalent of those Christmas Lexus commercials. I was not expecting it and I'm absolutely thrilled. Spencer liked the camera - it was like taking photos in front of the mirror:

I'm still working out some of the kinks in my day-to-day usage so I have no idea if this post will come out at all. **note, I don't know how to place the photos where I want them in my blog so I had to hop onto the laptop to format.

We went to Red Robin to cash in on my free birthday burger ... Which held us over through dinner so I had a glass of wine and cheese and crackers in bed for dinner: perfect.

I had planned on finishing my mulching this morning but Hubs finished it up for me last night, so I now plan on planting the plants that my MIL got me and relaxing on the front porch with some coffee. I love having time off work with no agenda.

Except laundry. Why can't laundry do itself?

HB to me, and a #cbdiet update

Yeeeeah ... So starting a diet, even one as loose as this one, was probably not the best idea for me. Holiday, birthday ... There has been lots of eating and not so much other stuff. But here goes anyhow!

Weigh-in: I'm up .2, but I think it lies.

Exercise completed: I still didn't do any formal exercise, but I kept to The stairs constantly, even going to the seventh floor a couple times. I also started doing a buttload of gardening, which is obviously burning some calories, and I mowed the lawn again yesterday (which is becoming my job, whether Hubs likes it or not).

Splurges: I splurged so many times this week. I made coconut ice cream (soooooo good) and there was cake for granny's birthday, and we went to The Pub for lunch yesterday ... Let's just say that .2 was a miracle.

Success story: my only success really was that I managed to stay away from the sweets at my assistant's desk for the most part. for the most part.

Recipes: I've got nothing, again

Photos: I'm posting this from my NEW IPAD so I don't have any idea how to input a photo to a blogpost. Will have to try again later!

So that's the scoop; we've got my birthday today and Hubs' next Wednesday, and a birthday dinner with the family in the middle ... Well, let's hope I can keep my weight steady. Toodles!

Monday already?

I spent this weekend gardening, and planting, and mulching.

I forgot the backs of my thighs existed until they screamed in pain.

But it was worth it, because here is the front so far:

My birthday is on Thursday, and I resolve that before it comes I will have finished the planting (I put about 8 more plants in tonight, and I think I'm done) and the mulching and the laundry so I can spend my mini-vacation doing absolutely nada. Or doing the back flower beds, whatever strikes my fancy.

I’m only working two days this week. We have a minor-league baseball game to go to Tuesday night and we’re celebrating mine and the Hubs’ birthday with dinner on Saturday, but otherwise we don’t have anything planned except to send the kiddos to daycare on Thursday and Friday and spend some quality time together. Love those children, but it will be nice to spend some time with my husband and not worry about naps (or not taking them) and Despicable Me and popsicles (well, maybe popsicles but it will be me eating them).

Oh, and also we had dinner and cake yesterday at my MIL’s house for Granny who turned 93 today! Happy birthday, Grandma! (Granny to my kids) PS: That cake was delicious.