How's everyone doing? I'm doing well and definitely glad the weekend is here. This past week has not been stellar for me on the eating front (too many cupcakes & muffins, last night ended up at a Buffalo Wild Wings...), but moving on from there and feeling good today. Why? Because I woke up this morning and started off the day by going to the farm market and it was totally awesome.
I think all the awesome open air markets in Germany and Italy really makes me want to shop locally if possible. This is the second weekend I've gone and I love it. Today I got a watermelon, juicy peaches, green chile for roasting (this is famous in New Mexico and pretty much a staple of most people's diet), and a huge 1 pound tomato. Last week I bought cucumbers, the most delicious corn, raspberries, and more peaches. Yum-tastic!
This past week I also made blueberry gingerbread muffins -- very low fat, but not extremely low-cal. I thought they came out really well though, but I want to experiment a little more before posting the recipe. Also, I made some very yummy low-fat but full-of-flavor chili in my crockpot this past week. Put in a few too many jalapeños, but still, very yummy! Next time I need to make corn bread to go with it!
Today I'm planning to go on a bike ride around town with my old roommate and maybe B and B (her bf). I forgot to mention it but I signed up for a bike race at the end of September. I've been biking every weekend to "train" without having had a set training schedule and have also been biking in to work. Feelingverygreen lately, I think as a result of reading a lot of books lately relating to the environment and our (humans) impact on it. The current one I'm reading is called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Anyway, back to the bike race -- it's a 25-miler, so not too long (there was also the option of signing up for a 50- or 100-mile one the same day!), hence not having a fixed training agenda. It's more for fun.
you might need to retype in the url's for some of your friends. before, you used to be able to access someone's blog by going to:
http://username.extrapounds.com as well as http://www.extrapounds.com/blog/username.
Now you can only use the latter; the former link is broken.
Therefore... if you had entered the first link (e.g. http://tatumsmom.extrapounds.com) into google reader, you need to change it (e.g. change to http://www.extrapounds.com/blog/tatumsmom).
just in case anyone was wondering why their google reader wasn't updating!
hey everyone. it's nice being back in town and back in my own bed, although sometimes at work I wish I were still on vacation. that's why we work though -- to pay the bills and be able to take some time off and do fun stuff every once in a while. ain't that the truth. anyway, i was looking over my friend list today and I noticed that the greater half of the people on it no longer blog at all and many of you don't post as much. granted, i don't blog myself as often as before, but still, it's always nice to see posts and comments from my friends. maybe i need to go out and find a few more friends! only kidding. much to all my friends -- even those of you on EP sabbatical.
i was looking at my weight graph and noticed that seemingly out of nowhere, i have less than 10 pounds to goal. that is pretty sweet. for those of you who haven't been with me on my whole journey, i started out here almost 2 years ago after a breakup (I don't think I mentioned that part before), when I was feeling pretty low. i had gained a lot of weight from emotional/binge eating and was up to the highest weight of my life. i felt totally out of control [with eating] and felt that i couldn't lose the weight on my own. I joined jenny craig and managed to lose a lot of weight on the program. However, it did not last. I eventually started gaining the weight back and got back up to my previous high.
something in me changed though. i realized after doing jenny that it WAS possible for me to lose/maintain weight if I really wanted it and if I put my mind to it. sometimes i lose my motivation, but i get up again. i am in control this time.
this go round losing the weight has been very different from my first time 'round and it's better for me and my lifestyle. i'm not eating pre-planned meals, not losing a predictable amount each week, and not going to the gym as regularly. instead, i'm cooking lots more, indulging when i want to (but trying not to binge-eat), going up and down (and up and down again) on the scale (but heading down overall), and getting out there with friends -- going on hikes and bikes. it's more my style. what's your style?
it seems that i love food so much that i talk about it all the time. seriously, after returning from my trip to canada (banf national park! and vancouver!), my trip to Houston, and my lovely two week trip to europe, i must say, i just enjoy food. a lot.
in Italy, I was in love with the gelato. the pizza was great too, and the seafood pasta. did you know that in Italy, they mostly eat pizza without cheese? just dough, sauce, and toppings. and the ones that had cheese mostly had no sauce! i temporarily suspended my aversion to beer enough to enjoy it while i was in germany. the pastries in france were divine... yummy pain au chocolat et croissants... much smaller than the ones you get here, but definitely as rich. and the hazelnut butter (nutella and others) was so good too! plus, i love markets (and grocery stores), especially open air markets, so when we got to go to several of them in venice, including a fish market, i was pretty much in heaven (and wishing i had a stove and some pots and pans). the produce was superb as well -- and i did get a lot of fruit from those markets and thoroughly enjoyed all of it.
here's a picture of me at the fish market
however, apparently my non-stop food diatribe caused my travel companions some malaise. at the end of the trip, one of B's friends (who became my friend too after two weeks of living together) told me - in earnest - that if he were blind, he would think i weighed 400 pounds. encroyable!
anyway, i know i've been gone for a bit, but it was so much fun! we did a lot of walking, a lot of sight-seeing, and a lot of partying -- especially at the wedding in germany. it was a really small town of only 420 people! i'll try to post some more pictures of the actual wedding and talk about all the different wedding traditions they have in my next post, but for now here is a pic of us on the night before.
so much fun! i'll try to catch up with all of you soon & thanks for the comments while i was away!
Hallo everyone! I am writing an update mostly because I feel that if I don't it's going to get to be a really long time before another. I've mostly survived the week and weekends without B. The scale this morning was up a pound, which I am choosing to ignore because I had a great day yesterday.
I started off the day with working on a webpage for the book club that I'm in -- it's looking pretty good so far and I had thought to continue that today maybe a bit later... after that, I met up with a friend of mine whose husband is also out of town and we had lunch at McAllister's -- my first time there and I made a good choice in the corned beef sandwich with side of fruit. I checked out the nutritionals just now and found them to be to my satisfaction. Solid work! Then, I met up with another friend and we went on a bike ride down to the university and then back to my place. I'm not sure the distance this time, but I'd guess somewhere in the 15 mile range. Finally, I made some green beans from Trader Joe's and brought them to a work potluck.
I was exhausted by the time I got home. Oh yeah- I did indulge in a small slice of apple cake, a mini cupcake, and a small piece of brownie at the potluck. Reasonable, methinks. Anyway at that point, my [ex]roommate's bf came over with the U-Haul and together we loaded her big items (mattress, couch, coffee table, etc.) into the truck. He's being really sweet and moving her big items while she's out of town. After that I pretty much crashed.
I've been having a hard week though. Every day it's sorta felt like torture after I got home and knew I still had x number of days until B got back. This is definitely melodramatic, so thank you for indulging me. I know that a lot of you are in actual long-distance relationships and I wouldn't have any sympathy for myself in your positions either. However, it's really been testing me, I think, and I don't really mean on an eating level. Mentally, I've just been feeling like something is wrong, like I'm a little too dependent for my own comfort.
Example: yesterday (Saturday), I felt somewhat like I was waiting all day for B to call (in between all of my activities. More true on Friday than on Saturday). I hate waiting. At the same time, if I call him, he most of the time doesn't answer (bad reception apparently in middle of nowhere MI). He's been working the whole time including weekends, so he doesn't really get much time to call. On Friday night he called around 9:30 his time and basically said he couldn't talk long because he had to get up at 5:30 the next day for a 5K race (yeah, fun way to "work", right?). It's been like that almost everyday as they work until 6:30 and then go out for long group dinners. I always feel that I'm the one keeping him on the phone, which started really bothering me to the point that I didn't even want to talk to him.
Yesterday, he called around 7:30 when I was still at the potluck just to say they were about to go to dinner. Then he called back at 11:30 (again, his time) saying they were done eating and were going out to the bar for drinks. I think he was intending to talk to me then, but it was so loud and noisy in the background and people were talking to him (saying 'bye'?) so it was less than ideal and I asked him if he just wanted to call me back afterward, which he readily agreed to.
I was already pretty exhausted by that point and also just annoyed that I didn't get to talk with him. If I'm being honest, I also blame him for not making more time for me. An hour after that, I shut my ringer off and went to sleep. B finally called me back at 2:20AM his time. His message said they'd only had enough cars/designated drivers such that he had to wait until everyone was ready to leave before he could. I haven't talked to him yet today, surprise, surprise, so I have to keep telling myself it's not his fault he can't talk.
I guess I had more to get off my chest than I had initally thought. If you got this far, thanks for reading. If you have any thoughts, would really like to hear 'em. =)
It's been a while since I've had a whole lot of down time, but this weekend I think I've made up for it. Yesterday, I pretty much did nothing - ALL day. I watched a few movies (Legends of the Fall, Bella, 2 Days in Paris) and went to a party in the evening thrown by one of the senior guys at work. Oh, I did also make Ghiradelli brownies for the party -- not super healthy, but I did substitute apple sauce for 1/2 of the oil. It was a nice day, but by today I felt like I really needed to get out and do something. Plus, doing nothing all day means I eat too much all day too!
My roomie is getting her own place in August so she's started the move out process and is mostly living out of her bf's house at present. That's made it pretty quiet around the house because her dog is gone also. Since it's starting to look a little empty already, I decided to go ahead and clean a bit more, which for me today meant opening the huge stacks of junk mail and other mail that has been piling up forever. I shredded tons of paper today. Why do they send us so much junk!? I also did all of the dishes and put away old dishes that had been sitting out. Doesn't sound like much, but I felt accomplished.
I also went on a 17 miler bike ride with one of my friends whose significant other is out of town as well. We took a nice 2 hour ride up a trail in one of my favorite parts of town. By the time we got back, I was pretty hungry, so I had some cantaloupe and a lazy, easy lean cuisine entree.
B left town on Friday morning so all last week we tried to spend as much time with each other as we could. It's a little strange to me because the last relationship I was in was long distance, so at the beginning, when B & I started dating, I thought I was spoiled to get to spend so much time with him, but now I'm used to it and I don't much like his being gone. It's somewhat bad timing, because he is out of town for 11 days, then back 2 days together, then I leave town for the next 10 days on vacay with my parents, then I'm back for 2 days, then I leave for the next 4 days on work travel. Luckily after that we get to go on an awesome trip together. However, I am not looking forward to the whole next week. I miss you B!
My goals are to not eat because I'm bored or just feeling lonely. Think I can do it?
hey, everyone! things over here are going well other than me really feeling like not being at work and legs being extremely sore from this past weekend's camping trip. 9 of us climbed Wheeler Peak, the highest point in NM. the hardest part of the trip was carrying up the 35-lb packs up the hill, but in the end it was worth it. saw a few lakes and there was even some snow still up top. no pictures yet, but I'll post some later.
however.... the big news of this post is from the weekend before this past, when jenny*in*london and i had a rendez-vous in Santa Fe! she happened to be in town for a wedding, so we decided (or I did at least) that we just had to meet up. ...and it was a blast! my first ever meet-up with an EPer in real life! i was a little nervous and mucho excited because you never know how things like this will turn out. ...but it ended up being just super awesome and not at all awkward & I was really amazed at how much jenny & I had in common (besides the EP thread, of course). first I drove up to santa fe, we met up in the plaza, grabbed a bite at a local cafe, walked around, and just gabbed a bunch. later that evening, we met up on my turf, in Abq, to eat some new mexico famous green-chile & pepperoni pizza.
here's a pic that D took of us (btw, he was just as cute and nice and fun as jenny descibed =) ):
Hi from a stranger. Sorry I've been gone so long. You know how sometimes you have not communicated in so long that you wouldn't even know where to begin? If I said everything, I'd end up writing a mini novella. That's kinda what's happened on my end, although I do still lurk and get a lot of your feeds on my reader...and I'm happy to know that those of you who are more regular in posting are doing well.
Things here in the southwest are going fairly well. I've had a burst of travel recently - did fairly well on the eating front. I do still struggle with night eating, but I'm still working on it and I definitely haven't given up. I find that if I'm busier, I do less of it...hmm...a boredom factor perhaps? Last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion and I did go back for it. It was really nice to see my old classmates, and I really mean that. Unlike most people, I was not really an angst-filled teenager and I loved my h.s. It was actually really sad for me that we are not all more co-located - but at the same time exciting to hear about everyone's adventures since we graduated.
Things with B are still going well. I think we're just still getting more comfortable with one another. My roommate's mom is in town this weekend and it's her (roomie's) bday next week. Last night I pulled out my ice cream maker and made home made cake batter ice cream for a girls night get together. It was incredibly yummy! Very easy. Of course I made some substitutions to healthify it... here they are in case any of you want to try it:
Instead of 3/4c sugar, 1/4c sugar & 1/2c sugar subst. In the future I would reduce the sugar to 1/2c total (maybe less?) because I thought it was a bit too sweet. The cake batter also has sugar so that might have been why. I'd adjust it to your tastes.
For the cake batter itself, I used Pillsbury Funfetti mix and I used almost a fully cup (instead of 2/3). I sifted it in order to avoid clumping.
Been keeping up with the hiking pretty much every weekend, biking to work (huge gas savings there, people!), and still trying to get back into the swing of going to the gym more consistently. That's the scoop from me!
Hi everyone. I know it's been a really long time and for that reason I'm posting this from work even though I have tons to do. Thank you very much to everyone who commented and checked in on me =) So much has been going on lately that this is likely not to be very weight-related. The only thing I'll say about that is that I've been up and down lately (scale-wise) and I have been weighing myself weekly (other than today, which I skipped) and updating the chart regularly. Like TatumsMum, I think maybe it's best just to not focus on the scale and let it do what it will.
I've been very active and had a bit of travel lately too. The week after the Houston trip I spent 6 days in Baltimore for work. The eating was delicious, but definitely not always healthy or in the proper portions. I got in one run with some co-workers that gave me a huge endorphin rush but also left my sinuses in a state of alarm. I felt really out-of-shape because I was running at sea level and still dying. Despite biking to work everyday (which I'm still doing)!
Two weekends ago B and I did a 25 mile bike ride (by his bike computer's calculations) on the west side of the city. It was really fun! This past weekend I did the Run for the Zoo which is Albuquerque's largest 5K -- also a lot of fun (and this time I didn't feel out of shape). I also recently purchased clipless pedals and shoes for my bike which has made a huge difference to me in my cycling efficiency. (REI is currently having their annual sale and the clipless pedals were 25% off as well as the bike shoes.) I also tried on some cute cycling tops but ultimately didn't get any because they just weren't fitting properly and I felt my gut was sticking out too far.
Cooking: have been doing a lot of this too. I made chicken parmesan (healthy - part skim cheese, etc.) last week with great results and a not-so-great broiled cod with hoisin sauce and broiled asparagus and mushrooms. I'll have to retry the cod again... I think it wasn't fully thawed when I put it in the oven which yielded bad results.
But now, the exciting part. This past weekend, B's parents and grandparents came to town for an extended weekend vacay and I got to meet them. It was close, but I ended up meeting them on Thursday night for dinner at a famous local New Mexican joint (been eating way too much Mexican lately because that's all they want to eat!)...and they are super nice and super awesome and I actually like B so much better now after meeting his parents (strange, but true). I think they bring out in him or accentuate his good characteristics and I can see where he comes from.
Midway through the dinner his mom turned to me and said, "So, will you be joining us for the game (baseball) tomorrow?" which he hadn't *exactly* invited me to. They just made me feel so welcome and they have really tried to get to know me. On Fri night we did end up going to the Isotopes (Albuquerque's minor league) baseball game and I ended up hanging out with B's parents for some time alone while he was down on the field taking pictures. It wasn't awkward at all. He got us comped tickets because his company was sponsoring the event and he had to be there to be the official photographer on the field which was cool because he got a "backstage pass" to do that and we could see him taking pictures from where we were sitting.
It tuns out that I've had dinner with B and his parents and grandparents everyday since Thursday! We also went on a spectacular hike yesterday to Tent Rocks National Monument and his dad cooked a yummy Lemon Chicken for us yesterday evening. His dad is pretty much a professional chef! And we've been playing Sequence (grandma, mom, and me versus B, his dad, and gramps) and other card games and chatting ... and I just feel like life is good. On Saturday night we all went out to dinner at the Flying Star Cafe, where B and I met for the first time. It was very sweet. B is also good for my self-confidence because he thinks I'm great the way I am.
I've just returned from a very short business trip to Houston. The weather was actually quite awesome. I've only got time for a quickie at the moment (trying to get to sleep), but I'll try to update this post later if I get some time tomorrow. Last week and weekend was pretty good, but very busy on the work front. I did make it to the gym one day (because it rained, didn't bike) and biked in 3 other days last week. Eating was not as stellar as I'd have liked...
On Friday night I went to a game party where I ate WAY too many snackies. I think the temptation was just too high for some of the items there (2 blueberry muffins probably unnecessary), but some of the things I should have stopped eating when I realized they weren't worth it (costco chocolate chip cookie). Oh well - you live, you learn.
Saturday I went for a hike with 7 (yeah! big group...) people and for some reason even though it was a relatively easy hike compared to last weekend's, I was really exhausted afterward. Incredibly exhausted. Took a nap for over an hour, then went to a friend's house to watch An Inconvenient Truth (Al Gore's movie), and fell asleep at her place mid-movie! Overate at lunch, but then not hungry for dinner and ended up just sleeping through it. Not the healthiest plan, but glad the binge from the night before didn't continue into the next evening.
Sunday I woke up nice and early and forced myself to go to the 90 minute spinning class at the gym. Why? I knew that I was going to be on a plane later that day and likely not exercising after getting into Houston and eating dinner at a steakhouse on the company. Good plan since I didn't exercise yesterday nor did I today. However, I *did* make really good choices considering I was eating out every meal and I did not deprive myself either. I'm proud of myself for this!
At the steakhouse, I ordered the grilled shrimp and 1/2 rack of bbq baby back ribs (I don't like steak (or other large chunks of meat) as much as the average person...) with sides of steamed broccoli and a baked sweet potato. I saved half of the potato (it was so yummy but rather large) for dinner tonight and only had one rib because I was stuffed after the shrimp and other items. Yumm! Oh, and I did have a slice of bread from the basket. Won't bore you with my eating choices from today, but I ordered what I wanted, didn't finish the huge plate, and fit in plenty of fruit, a cup of yogurt, and a lighter dinner to offset a heavier lunch and breakfast. And I brought healthy plane snacks.
Yay for me! Still not sure I'm looking forward to the scale tomorrow though (I'm late by a day because of travel). [update 4/15: not extremely friendly... bounced back up to 131.4 no worries though... it'll be down again soon enough] Next week's will be early probably though because I'm headed out of town again next Sunday.
Hope you all had a happy Moooonday and looking forward to the week ahead! So much for a short post...
only kidding. much 
to all my friends -- even those of you on EP sabbatical.
