The Stoopidest Three Pounds Ever + Vote for My Next Recipe!

GUH. You guys. I got super annoyed on Tuesday when I stepped on the scale at the gym and once again, it read 146 point something. I think it was 146.6, to be exact, but it's been 146 point something for the past month, since returning from my two week vacation and the holidays.

Sigh.

I know, this calls for Regina George again.

The logical part of me (which I'd like to think is most of me... eh...) is telling me to shut the eff up about it. I mean, seriously. Who cares about two or three stupid pounds, except me? It's a number. My clothes fit exactly the same. I look exactly the same. I weighed 35-40 lbs. more than I do now at this time last year. Three pounds is not a big deal. There is no actual reason for me to be upset about it. None.

Yeah, but I'm still a little annoyed about it.


I knowwwwwwwwwwww . . . shutupshutupshutUP.


But if I can, let me briefly state my case.

I don't want to allow myself multiple weeks of letting it all go routinely (like over vacation), pretending I can eat anything I want and not care about tracking or making any attempts to stay within my food routine. I know eventually I'd like to just eat to satisfaction, and know what my body needs, but I can't do that yet. I have too many bad habits that I've accrued over the years. When I have no accountability, it leads me to make bad choices. So - I don't want to let myself do that over and over.

I don't want the weight I've lost to slowly creep back. I mean, this is not something that keeps me up at night, by any means, but it's definitely something that happens to people, and I don't want myself to be one of those people. A told me I was being a little silly about this - I have not gained any weight since coming back since the holidays, after all. However, I don't want to gain a little over Christmas, a little over Spring Break... and so on. I don't need more excuses or to start that slippery slope.

I DO want to maintain within the same weight range of 140-145, and do that over a considerable range of time, to prove to myself that I can maintain. I haven't really done that any other time I've lost weight, and I really think this time, I'm keeping the weight off.


Given those things, I do want to give myself credit for some good things that I did over the winter holidays and have continued to do now.

I've continued to weigh myself. Whenever I've gained weight before, I've stopped weighing myself and pretended like the scale didn't exist - I was always in denial. I've continued to monitor my weight throughout the entire time I've been maintaining my weight to make sure this doesn't happen again, and I'll continue to do so.

I didn't go completely crazy over winter break. Sure, we ate out a lot, ate a lot of desserts and stuff, but it could have been a lot worse and I could have done a lot worse. So I'm giving myself a break.

I also kept up workouts and running throughout that vacation. We went to the gym when I was in Las Vegas, I worked out and ran in Sacramento, and I ran and went to the gym in Oregon. So that was pretty awesome!

So maybe I'm being stupid about two or three pounds, maybe not. As of yesterday, I tried lowering my points on Weight Watchers by a little bit, and I'm going to see if over the next month or so, I can drop those two or three stupid pounds. And if not, if I continue to stay the same weight, then perhaps, as A told me yesterday, "Maybe your body just likes to be 146." And if it does, I'm going to be okay with that.

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Okay, now on to something totally different. I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what to make this weekend for the following week. I've been perusing some favorite websites, and I have a few contenders:

Emily Bites Creamy Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Seeds

Emily Bites Creamy Lemon Tortellini Bake

Skinnytaste Slow Cooker Turkey Italian Meatballs

Emily Bites Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Skinnytaste Linguini with Sauteed Scallops and Peas

Okay, so help a girl out. Poll is here. Vote for what I should cook! Aaaaaaaand, go!

What recipe should I make this weekend?!
	Slow Cooker Beef Stew
	Lemon Tortellini Bake
	Italian Turkey Meatballs
	Pasta with Sausage and Mustard Seeds
	Linguini with Scallops and Peas
pollcode.com free polls

Happy *almost* weekend everyone!

Sick-ventures in Cooking

I haaaaaaaaaaaate being sick.

Yuck.

Most of my friends from college know how whiny and awful I get when I get sick - it was especially bad then as I was doing so much singing, even a little cold would ruin a full week. Recently, when I was working with teeny tinies (3 year-olds and younger) I would consistently lose my voice every time I got a cold, as I'd ooh and aah and sing "Old MacDonald" incessantly with the little guys. Now, if I have a cold, it's not the end of the world, but I still do not like it.

I felt a cold coming on this week on Friday morning - my nose was running like crazy on Thursday night, which it frequently does due to allergies, but I woke up in the middle of Thursday night with a little sore spot in my throat. That's the usual sign that I've come to recognize as meaning I'm getting a cold.

Ugh.

So, after making it through work on Friday, I loaded up with some Zicam, Mucinex, Kleenex, and chamomile tea, and decided I'd put this weekend to good use - relaxing and cooking!

After sleeping for 9-10 hours on Friday night, I picked up the staples at the grocery store on Saturday. I decided to make chicken marsala on Saturday night for dinner - a lightened up version made by Emily Bites and which can be found here! (By the way, the beef stew on the Emily Bites home page right now looks amaaazing - I'm not a huge red meat eater, but I definitely will make an exception for this one. Sounds delicious and easy to make!) Jury's still out on how the Chicken Marsala is, as after being sad that I couldn't smell or taste very well last night, I decided to store it in a tupperware and go with frozen leftovers.

The second thing I wanted to accomplish this weekend was to use a second can of pumpkin puree that I had in my cabinet since the holidays. When I went to buy pumpkin to make some pumpkin breads for family for Hanukkah/Christmas, there was a buy-one-get-one-free sale on the puree - I figured I'd use it at some point. I came across one more Emily Bites recipe and one Skinny Ms recipe, both for breakfasts, that included pumpkin and looked excellent. Before I went out to meet A and some friends last night, I threw together this Overnight Slow Cooker Pumpkin Pie Steel Cut Oats. I added some stevia in the raw for sweetener, and used unsweetened vanilla almond milk rather than water. In the morning, I had a delicious-smelling (Yes! I can smell again as of this morning!) oatmeal, which I pre-portioned for the coming week or to freeze as leftovers.

Second, I decided to make this Emily Bites pumpkin french toast! I frequently make french toast out of light wheat bread anyway - a very filling and low-calorie breakfast, using egg beaters and 1 Tbsp of maple syrup, and sometimes a side of turkey bacon or veggie sausage. This pumpkin version of my usual breakfast was amazing!

I made some for breakfast this morning, and it was a fabulous "I can smell again" treat!

Finally, I decided to go to the Farmer's Market after attempting a short run this morning, and got together a great bunch of vegetables: squash, zucchini, carrots, beets, cauliflower, and broccoli. I decided to throw these veggies together and roast them with some balsamic and olive oil, as suggested (again) by Emily Bites. These were so delicious, easy, and colorful!

Mixing together with balsamic and olive oil

Ready to roast!

A to-go package for work tomorrow!


Aaaaand then I decided to have a breadstick and salad at A's house and a bowl of light ice cream for dinner rather than eat the delicious things I made this weekend... oops. Oh well. I'm an adult and I can have ice cream for dinner if I want every once in awhile, right? :) I'll be excited to eat everything this coming week!

Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Getting Back Into It

So, this past week, I went back to work.

Although it was nice having minimal obligations for two weeks, I was a bit relieved to get back into my routine. Wake up --> Work --> Exercise or Home --> Sleep. Repeat. I got back to my gym and yoga routine this past week, and started to track my food again during the week. I'm taking it easy this weekend, not tracking but trying to go off of hunger signals to eat what my body needs. Plus a little fro yo.



Another thing I've gotten back into is half-marathon training. My routine since the half in November has been to do a few 2-5 mile runs on the treadmill or outside if possible during the week, then doing one long run of 6+ miles on the weekends. Then today, I decided to do 10 miles again. I decided on an easy pace as it was the longest distance I've run since November or so - no pressure on time, just take it easy and go for distance.

I think it made it much more enjoyable for me to not have the pressure to go too fast, because I really enjoyed the 10-miler! I went to the Los Gatos Creek Trail, one of my favorite spots to run. And according to my strava.com profile, it was actually my second best 10-mile effort!

So my plan for this month is to continue with 8, 9, and 10-mile long runs on the weekends, then incorporate 11-12 milers starting in February. Maaaaaybe a 13-mile or 14-mile run in March. Same stuff on the weekdays. I'm going to start prepping my body for a little longer distance again. This is because...

I'm signing up for the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in San Francisco on April 6th!

From: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/san-francisco

The best thing about the Rock 'n Roll SF is that Kate, who is a close family friend that I've known since she was born, will be doing this too - her first half marathon! Yay Kate! I am really excited to share this with a friend. We're registering soon to make it official!



One last thing that I've been doing since getting back has been listening to audiobooks in my car. I hit up the local library in an effort to make my commute home in traffic less dull, and I stumbled upon this one:

The book is about why certain foods have such a pull on us, and why they are nearly impossible for us to stop eating. It goes into the scientific basis of why we like foods so much as well, and what the food industry does to make foods more palatable and marketable, even irresistible to us. Very interesting. I will post more thoughts once I am finished reading (listening!).

Hope everyone has a great week, and GO 49ERS!

Recently...

So, as I said in my previous post, a lot has been going on recently that I meant to write about, and just didn't get around to. And, also as in my previous post, my new year's resolution (one of them) is to consistently write in this blog sooooo... here are a few updates!

First of all, although I am LOVING my two-week long amazing winter break, it has definitely been tough to stick to any semblance of healthy diet over the holidays. Between work parties, vacations, holiday treats everywhere, and being out of a routine, it's definitely been tough. That being said... I ate a lot of delicious things. They were very delicious. Yum. No regrets! I've kept up my workout routine, which has been really important and helped me stay more on track than I would have otherwise. I'm not really worrying about going a bit astray over the holidays, as I've committed to tracking my food for all of January, and getting back into my routine this month once I'm back to work (*groan*).

Also, over my break, I've been engaging my baking chops quite a bit. In particular, I HAVE to share this recipe for cranberry bliss bars from skinnytaste.com - they are like the Starbucks iced cranberry bliss bars, but half the calories. Relatively easy and completely delicious. One batch made tins for my family, the bf and his family, and a couple more.

You can find the recipe for the Skinny Cranberry Bliss Bars here if you're interested!


More awesomeness: I went to Vegas! On Christmas! My mom, Anne, and I went to check out apartments for Anne for next year when she moves there for a job. While there, we got to see some of the sights (and eat/drink many delicious things as well!).

Christmas at the Bellagio!

Sugar Factory, the most faaaaaaabulous candy store in Vegas. Alcohol-infused truffles, nom.

Gettin' fancy and doin' a little sightseein'.


And finally, the most fabulous cookie skillet that mom, Anne, and I shared at Chili's before flying back to California.

MAJOR nom.


Last but not least, I did another race this past month!

The Double Road Race is a creation of Bob Anderson, who also started Runner's World Magazine! The format works this way: 10K, rest, 5k.

I signed up for the Double Road Race in Pleasanton on a whim, after one of the women in my Saturday running group mentioned it the week before. So overall, it's a 15k, but it's broken up into two legs. I figured, I can do a 5K and a 10K, so why not both, right? Kinda.

After running the 10K, which yes! I did do in a Santa hat.

I got to the middle school in Pleasanton where the race started and ended, and spent an hour after packet pickup trying to not freeze my butt off and deciding how many layers to wear during my 10K. The 10K was not my fastest possible effort - I set a PR at 58:57 on Thanksgiving - but I did put forth a solid effort at race pace at 1:00:35. I didn't want to push too very hard, since I also had a 5K coming up.

Between the 5K and 10K, Anne, my dad, and A all arrived to watch, and Anne decided to run that leg with me! That definitely made it more fun - but it was not easy, for sure. After the 10K and some rest and stretching in between, my body was like, nope! No 5K. Rough. It definitely felt good when we finished.

Anne and I, pre-5K.

We finished the 5K in 29:57, right under 30 minutes. Overall, my time was 1:30:32 for the 15K. I'll take it!

So that's about it in terms of recent goings-on. I'm about to leave for a few days for one last hurrah of winter break - a trip to Oregon with A and his family! I'll leave you all with a couple more holiday pics from the past couple weeks - enjoy, and happy 2014!

I made A take cheesy holiday pictures with me A definitely willingly took holiday pics with me in our ugly Christmas sweaters pre-Ugly Sweater Party.

Holiday Gifts!

Busting out my winter clothes from the storage unit in preparation for Oregon - byeeeeee.